Death in the Family

Shortly after arriving in Shanghai, my grandmother had a stroke. She has been dealing with one health issue or another for many years but she has always pulled through. This woman has beat cancer, survived the pain of knee replacement, and many others so I thought she would beat this stroke too.

I was told that the stroke left her partially paralyzed which is common for stroke victims but she was going through physical therapy to help. I was trying to get updates regularly on her condition through my mother and my sister. Everything was going well from what I was told and that she was recovering.

When the news came that she had taken a turn for the worse, I was stocked. I was told she was back in the hospital and not doing well at all. My family went to visit her including my sister and my mother, her former daughter-in-law. My sister and my grandmother had some tension between them for years and it was good that my sister went to see her. Lisa, my sister, told me in an email that she made peace with grandma and treated her visit as a last goodbye.

Things were not looking good for my grandmother. The doctors had given her a 30 percent survival rate. I wanted to come home to see her but if I left the country before I completed my residency permit and received my full one year work visa, I would have to restart the process back in the US. My temporary visa was only for thirty days with a once only entry.

I talked it over with my mother and we both agreed that it would be best for me to stay in China. I had seen my grandmother before I left and spent some time with her. She was healthy then and we had a great day together just talking about my new adventure and past stories. Of course being my grandmother and the religious woman she was, I did get the you should be going to church speech.

Well it was the day I was getting my passport back with my full visa and the day when I needed to make the final choice of whether or not I was going home. That same day my grandmother passed away at the age of 81 only days after her birthday. That was a tough night for me. I decided to not go home for the funeral and that my family would understand I couldn't be there.

HOT! HOT! HOT!

For some reason, before I moved to Shanghai, I thought it was going to be cooler and drier than back home in Tennessee. Well....I have never been more wrong about anything in my life!

The temperature since I got here has in the 90s (F) [upper 30s (C)] with a humidity of about 80%. YUCK! If you know me, you know that I am not a hot weather person. If there is snow on the ground or if you can see your breath, then I am happy. Even at night it is hot which still makes no sense to me. Back home, if it was hot during the day, it would still be cool at night. I never thought I would say this, but I long for Tennessee weather. Crazy, I know! The only relief from the heat is right after it rains. The temperature does cool off the day or two after a good rain which is nice.

I do hear that it can get pretty cold in the winter here. Let's hope that is correct! Once winter comes, I will let you know.

Business Trip??

My first day at work was interesting for sure. I arrived to the office for my first work day at an architecture firm in China to be told that I was going on a business trip to ZaoZhuang for an uncertain amount of time. This would have been an exciting event had it not been my first day at work and had I been giving the opportunity to go home to get a change of clothes but sadly that was not the case.

The city is located north of Shanghai in the ShanDong province. It is a city that is pretty much completely under construction (ALL of the projects in the office are located in ZaoZhuang). There is no English to be found unlike Shanghai. I believe I was the only western person in that city until my boss's friend from Australia showed up which was a much needed relief.

We, a few colleagues and I, were there to meet with clients, government officials, as well as do some site visits. I still don't know why I was there which was a total of 2 full days and 2 nights. All the meetings over the 2 days there were in Chinese with no one to translate for me and I had no knowledge of the projects that were being discussed. I was told by others that I was there to be the "white face" of the company to impress the clients and officials. Whether this is true or not, I did feel useless there.

The only good thing about being there was attending the big banquet lunch and dinners. Every lunch and dinner was a chance to discuss more business for my boss, however; I was there for the new foods. I had some really amazing food (don't ask me what I ate because I didn't ask, I just tired it all...lol). I did try something that I knew exactly what it was but I tried it anyway, that was a large INSECT with 6 legs and a crunchie outer shell (trust me it was crunchie). There was an entire plate of them sauteed for the table. I knew I had to try one to keep face and not be laughed at by everyone at the lunch. To my surprise, it wasn't that bad. I did just have only one though..lol.

Welcome to China!

Here I am on the other side of the world living, working, and starting a new chapter in my life.

A few months ago, I came across an advertisment for a placement company that brought architects to China. With this economy and the effect it has had on the job market for architects, I didn't see any harm in sending my information to this somewhat suspicous company. I never really considered working in China. Up to this point, I had sent out over 400 CVs since graduating from with my bachelor two years ago. It was a huge surprise when I received an email from the company notifying me that there was an architecture firm in Shanghai, China, that wanted to interview me.

Well, as you probably know by now, I received the job and made the frighten, life changing move. I have now been in Shanghai for a little over a month. There have been a lot of ups and downs when it comes to working here, living here, and just trying to mantain a life here. In future posts, I will recount my experiences both good and bad. Please keep in mind that any observations made whether positive or negative are purely based on my opinion and/or stating the opinions of others.