coming back home after some weeks in a whirlwind of constant excitement and perpetual sugar rushes. it’s all so quiet…

it took us a while to settle down in this city – it’s all too big, too foreign, too bureaucratic, and frankly, more than a little intimidating with its omnipresent obsession with cool. but we’re getting the hang of it.

our new home is a sunny ground-floor apartment with wooden floors and windows on every room. it’s on a quiet little street, so little in fact that it has the word kleine on its name. :)

the house came completely empty, a clean sheet that we are slowly filling with ikea goods, ebay treasures and other things we’ve found on nearby second hand shops. every day it feels a little bit more ours, a little bit more home.

ah, portugal. i’m missing your blue skies and cozy food already, but it’s good to be back to our shanghai headquarters, with two spoiled cats under our blankets.

the flights were long but thankfully uneventful, and i think i might have stumbled on the trick to flying reassurance – get the seats in front of the air hostess. they always smile to you and their air of someone who has done this a million times will do wonders for takeoff/landing stress. coincidently, they’re usually the best seats on the plane, so it’s a lovely two-in-one.

between our trip to portugal and the one back, ba changed their flight entertainment system to include many more programs that you can start/pause anytime you want. they now include tv series like dexter, the big bang theory, flight of the conchords, etc. which make a 11 hour flight much more pleasant.

also on way home, i’ve shot my first video with the neat little camera i got for xmas! it’s a tiny sony that makes me feel like the intrepid reporter i always dreamed to be :)
anyway, the video is from the maglev ride here in shanghai: a 30km stretch between the shanghai pudong airport and longyang metro station, in 7:30 at a top speed of 430km/h. it’s the fastest i ever traveled on earth, so i thought it might be fun to share!

ps – at 2:45, another maglev train crosses the one i am riding, so watch out for that. also, my editing skills are non-existent, since it’s the first time i actually “make” a video, so bear with me :)

has it been a week already? really?

we finally found our little corner away from the home inn. it’s located in jiangning road, somewhere near the shanghai railway station. a little apartment on the 19th floor, with a view to the nearest intersection.
we’ve been exploring the neighbourhood, and little by little, adventuring into other zones of the city, stumbling upon surprises in every corner. for instance, chinese people love “egg tarts”, that look exactly like our “natas” – they’re sold in almost every restaurant or subway station (oh yes, we wouldn’t believe it either…).
and today we discovered that we live just beside the famous jade buddha temple…

(image by 2 dogs).