Hello from Jennifer!

Hey! This is Jennifer - yes I do really exist! I've been letting Sean get the blog up and running while I take the time to figure out what to write about (I'm a pharmacist, not a writer) but I have finally put my first post together - and here it is!

Shanghai has been much different than I ever thought it would be. Even though we read everything about the city, you just can’t imagine what it is like until you are here. The amount of people, mopeds, taxi’s, bicycles and buses is amazing. When walking through the city, which we have walked almost everywhere, you must be on alert at all times. It doesn’t matter if you are on the sidewalk, if you have the green “walk” sign or crossing the smallest of streets. There is always someone on a bike or moped going the wrong way down a street or up on the sidewalk with the audacity to honk at us to move from their path. To cross the biggest intersections, we find it best to go when everyone else crosses because the street signals mean nothing here. It is pretty bad when you find yourself comforted by walking in the middle of the crowd counting on the “buffer” of people to protect you from being hit. Sean and I have a $100 bet as to who gets hit by the first vehicle. I guess that gives you an insight into our strange sense of humor. And if you are not dodging bikes, mopeds or people… you are avoiding the “spitters”. I knew that the Chinese spit but I had no idea how often and not just in the street… its everywhere, even on the floors of the railway station. Sean says that I shouldn’t look but it’s so hard when you hear someone hocking up something from the depths of their throats.

There is nothing shiny in Shanghai except for the lights. Everything looks like it has at least a months’ worth of dirt on it. The vehicles all look as if they are about to die at any moment. Nothing is new and nothing goes to waste here. The items for sale on the sidewalk look as if they have been used at least once. I could not imagine living the life that most of these people live. There are people that ride bicycles with loads on them that you can’t even imagine how they could keep balanced especially in this crazy traffic. I wonder what they are carrying, how far they have to carry it and how much money they could possibly make for carrying it. And how do the street vendors making and selling food in the freezing cold make a living? Or how does the waitress that I am not supposed to tip make a living when I am only paying 50-100 yuan for a lunch which is only $7-14? I could go on and on about the people and what I see them doing to make a living. I just take it all in and realize that we have it so lucky in the states.

As we walk through Shanghai we can see laundry hanging from most window sills or from lines stretched across two trees. Various birds, skinned and gutted, are displayed with pride from windows or from the chain link fence near the small apartments that these strong people call home. Again, these people do not waste anything and they are used to making “do” with what they have. I have never seen so much ingenuity as I have seen here. And if they didn’t seem so happy, I would feel sorry for them. But they are happy, very happy. And if I ever feel uncomfortable around them it is because of my own issues and not from anything they do. Yes, they stare… I am different. Yes, they push and shove their way through the streets but that is the way it is here. They are not rude, they are not aggressive. They are just living life the way they do it here in Shanghai.

That's it for now...I will write more and keep taking pictures, stay tuned for more.

See ya!