Christmas in the Midwest

We’re now on our way back from the Midwest, delayed in Indianapolis due to Chicago snowfall. The holiday break was much needed and very relaxing. We flew into Indianapolis then drove 2 hours to Cincinnati for ~4 days with Karl’s mom and brother. On Christmas morning we drove back to Indiana for ~4 days with Lila’s family (sans Nabeel and Asha who are on their honeymoon in New Zealand).

While in Ohio we went to see “A Christmas Carol,” tried 2 awesome new restaurants, had an open house for Paul’s recently renovated pad, and met Paul’s new girlfriend, Amy. We celebrated Christmas Liebat style – big dinner Christmas Eve, followed by gift exchange. This year was a special gift exchange year – our moms received jewelry from our Asian honeymoon adventures, while Paul received a used camera (doh – need to work on that) that will soon be converted to a speciality infrared version. Paul gave Lila and Karl cooking lessons (a hint???) and mom gave us a beautiful Charlie Harper print and an intertwined heart necklace. Karl gave Lila a stunning sapphire and diamond bracelet to match her engagement ring. Lila needs work on her wife skills as she has yet to do Christmas shopping, despite it being her favorite holiday.

The nicest part of Christmas eve was spending it with the Liebat family together, while still making it to Indiana in time for the Ibrahim-style Christmas celebration. We arrived in Lafayette (a 3hr drive from Cincinnati) in time to finish filling the stockings. For the past decade or so, the Ibrahims have gotten small stocking stuffers as gifts while saving money for big family adventures. Because of the schedules, we did have one change to this year’s celebration – mom cooked. Typically the Ibrahim kids make Christmas dinner complete with handmade menus, but this year mom made an assortment of Arabic food for Christmas dinner and the days that followed.

Other holiday highlights included finishing our wedding thank you cards, much to the relief of our parents who were near disowning us. We also met up with Karl’s cousins in Ohio, and Lila’s childhood friend in Indiana. This was our first Christmas together married, and marked 2 years since we met each other’s families. May there be many more!

November Shanghai Pictures

Some highlights from our Shanghai Preview trip are now posted: http://www.liebat.com/gallery2/v/lila/ .

Wrapping up our first week in Shanghai

Our final few hours were spent exploring the neighborhood around Shanghai Mart (Intel’s sales & marketing office) before the driver picked us up for the hour journey to the airport. Apparently the world’s fastest train (magnetic levitating) also connects Pudong to the airport –but we haven’t figured out where the station is yet. After a week in Shanghai, United took pity on us and gave us a free upgrade to business class! The flight home was a mere 9.5 hours compared to the 13.5 hours going from the US to China. We arrived at 8:30am, 4 hours before we left. We’ve done well so far adjusting to the time difference – even took a walk to the farmers market and made it to the gym. Overall – Shanghai looks like it will be a great city to live in for a few years.
Some final thoughts:

• Biggest surprises: very “foreigner-friendly” (can find everything and survive without Chinese language skills), more spread out than expected for a city of 20M people, you can have a blue sky in China
• Thing we’ll miss most about the US: driving around in Karl’s Porsche with fresh/clean air
• Thing we’re most looking forward to: the drivers, house cleaners, and experiencing China

While we’ve not settled on an exact move date, we’re thinking about March/April.

Lane Houses and a real Thanksgiving

Based on Thursday’s adventure, we asked to see more houses and apartments in the French Concession neighborhood. We really like the tree-lined streets and character of the area. We began with 2 traditional Shanghai-style 1930s/1940s Lane Houses that had been restored. They are basically lanes of 4 to 5-floor townhouses off of main roads. In the end we decided it was too much stair climbing for a daily basis, especially if family comes to visit. One interesting housing possibility is a converted mansion subdivided into 2 or 3 bedroom apartments on a third of an acre lot in the middle of the action. The mansion option is amazing – except for the Chinese owners’ decorations which were inspired by an Italian designer who clearly loved Easter egg colors. We spent the afternoon on the Pudong (East side of river) checking out that neighborhood. We were in awe by a 4BR/3BA (plus maid quarters) apartment on the 43rd floor, which overlooked the river and the construction of the world’s tallest building (at least for a few months before the Dubai building finishes!). The apartment was as spectacular as the views. Unfortunately, Pudong is not convenient for work or downtown night life.
We finished the evening at Tom’s (Lila’s new boss) for dinner. He and his wife had over 3 other expat couples for a turkey dinner with all the fixings. Apparently turkeys are ordered from hotels since the local ovens are too small to cook turkeys. Also, we learned that cans of green beans cost $5/ea – so they had packed some from the last business trip! We had a great time and picked up quite a few tips on how to successfully transition to Shanghai.

House Hunting & Hairy Crab Thanksgiving

While America celebrated Thanksgiving, we spent our first Thanksgiving as a married couple exploring Shanghai’s neighborhoods as part of our official “look see” preview trip. We met Juliana from the relocation company, who took us by surprise with her ability to flawlessly communicate in English, German, and Chinese.
The day started with apartments in the French Concession. This was the neighborhood everyone kept telling us we should live in as a young couple without kids. First stop: a brand new high-rise apartment with heated floors, Olympic size (mosaic) pool, daily breakfast, and beautiful views. While it sounds like a hotel, it certainly didn’t feel like it. The only issue was the location – a bit far from the main nightlife. We’ve decided we need to be in the middle of activity to motivate us to explore.
The other spectrum was an apartment in XinTianDi – a restored shopping district. GREAT location, tiny apartment with overly modern décor (read: red plastic with fake white fur!). Our favorite of the day was a newly restored 1930s French art deco building. It was a great location, the right size (3BR/2.5BA – big enough for guests!), good view, and nice furniture. Unlike Lila’s expats in Tokyo & Hong Kong, every Shanghai apartment comes furnished. This makes it difficult to find a place – you have to like the location, the apartment, and your Chinese landlord’s “decorating” skills.
While the 1930s French apartment was our favorite, we saw a handful of other locations where we could imagine living. We closed the day with a drive by tour of HongQiao neighborhood where many young families live in compounds. For example, our relo lady lives in a neighborhood of Canadian houses with all buildings and furnishings imported from Canada. The compounds vary in style (Japanese, American, etc.), but all have houses on small plots in a gated community which allows kids to have playmates and play in the compound streets.
After our “compound overview,” we stopped by Carrefour – a French-owned mega store that’s reminiscent of ‘Wal-Mart meets Costco.’ It appears we can find many US things here – with the exception of good California wine (hint if you ever come visit us!). We returned to the hotel for happy hour, where Lila discovered the secret to purifying ones throat after a day of pollution: a gargle of Johnny Walker sanitizes the body. While enjoying this discovery, we weighed our Thanksgiving dinner options carefully: turkey at Hooters, or Chinese Hairy Crab – both in season for a very limited time.
We opted for hair crab at a Chinese banquet restaurant. We entered the non-English speaking restaurant and were given a number while being escorted upstairs. After sitting for 5 minutes, we found our way to the room of fish tanks and raw vegetable stalls. With a bit of pointing, we were able to get our dinner ordered. However, we have to learn how to order preparation methodology outside of “stir fry with garlic.” We agree with local consensus: hair crab tastes great, but is far too much work to enjoy. Like every other evening, we closed the night with a very long walk to further explore our “home to be.”
ps. happy birthday Nabeel!

Jetlag kicks in hard core.

Wednesday we woke up around 3am and couldn’t get back to sleep. By the time the 4:45 wakeup call arrived, both of us were showered and dressed for the day. Karl had a management review meeting that he needed to run with the folks back in the US at 5am local time. Lila headed into the office for another 8am start (and 9 straight hours of meetings). Two teams are being combined for her new group. One is predominantly engineering and product development. The other one is more focused on marketing, ethnographic research, and product definition. The majority of the team is split between the US and Shanghai, with some others in Brazil, India, and Egypt. While in Shanghai, Lila finished meeting everyone on her direct staff, a few peers, and also had some 1:1s with other very experienced people in her team. Although the job doesn’t officially start until December 6, she has a lot of responsibilities as the new general manager of the team. Karl spent the day around the hotel area to work out of the Shanghai Mart sales and marketing office. He had lunch with a friend’s co-worker, and the local site manager of the sales and marketing office. Everyone is extremely willing to help answer questions and start introductions that should allow Karl to find a new role for himself.
Wednesday evening, Karl arranged to have dinner with two other Intel expats. We headed back to the French Concession for a great Dim Sum dinner and another round of ‘ask for moving tips’ from the current expats. It’s amazing how different everyone thinks you should arrange the ideal transition. Caroline was in the minimalist mode – sell everything and move over with a suitcase. Our new friends on Wednesday said, “Move everything you own since you don’t know what you will need until you get here.” We will have to decide what strategy will work best when we head home on Saturday and start to digest everything we’ve learned. We’re looking forward to Thursday & Friday’s preview trip with the relocation company to settle on which neighborhood we want to live in. According to Karl’s friends, the most critical things to bring from the US are 2 high-end air filters for our new house and 1 for the car. According to them, the air quality is so bad that the government refuses to publish indicator reports. Even with all of the pollution and 2nd hand smoke, it’s supposed to still be better than Hong Kong. We wonder if oxygen tanks are also in our future!?!(ps. Excuse typos, still fighting jetlag --- writing this between frequent 5 minute naps)

Tuesday

An early morning…. we had a 6:45am hotel departure to get to the office in time for 8am. The commute is only about 45minutes – but a bit unpredictable given traffic. Why aren’t we closer to the Intel site? There are 3 Intel sites in Shanghai: 1) there really is NOTHING out by the Zizhu Science & Tech Park (Lila’s office). (2) Visiting employees tend to stay in the Renaissance Hotel near ShanghaiMart (sales & marketing office), which is closer to the center of town , and (3) neither of us will work at the Pudong assembly site. Did you know Intel has over 7000 employees in China?
Lila’s work day was intense with back to back to back meetings. Karl had an exciting day though. At lunch, he moved from the beginner buffet line (Monday’s lunch adventure) to the advanced made-to-order noodle bowl line. Thankfully there was a few locals to help in translating everything. Karl and 2 other employees splurged for a combined total of < $2, while Lila skipped lunch because it was too expensive (and meetings prevailed). We were able to leave around 4pm and have enough time for a nap before Lila met someone who will be joining her team in December. By the end of the day, Lila had had about 24 meetings in a 2-day period, not unheard of - but definitely a lot to take in with a new job. By the way, the new job officially starts on 12/6.
Tuesday evening was dinner with a friend & peer of Lila’s, Caroline Pan, who moved to Shanghai about two years ago. We had a great Thai dinner in the French Concession neighborhood. That’s our favorite neighborhood so far because of the tree lined streets. After grilling Caroline for about three hours on everything to expect as an expat in China, we had a short visit to her house just minutes away. Thankfully we found her house to be a beautiful three bedroom, 2 bath condo, beautifully decorated – and within our expat housing budget range. Seeing Caroline’s house definitely reduced the stress of having to find an acceptable house in Shanghai. (Later we saw her complex is on our preview list for Friday.) For the shoppers out there, we have learned that there is a mall on every corner. It’s easy to understand why this city of 20M people is considered the most cosmopolitan of China’s mainland cities.

First Day at the Office

Michael picked us up with his driver in the morning so we wouldn't get lost on our way to Intel's Zizhu office. Lila and Michael spent the 45minutes in a work conversation, while Karl sat in the back and counted 7 near miss traffic accidents. The Zizhu area has a technology park with very little going on around it aside from 2 universities and other tech companies. Lila spent the day meeting most of her new staff, while Karl used the time for online training and email.
We wrote yesterday's update on our 45minute commute back to the hotel. We found the commute back to the hotel to be good bonding time, and a nice start to our “date night.” Thanks to one of the admins’ arrangements, we had dinner at the “M on the Bund” restaurant which happens to be Josie & Mel's favorite restaurant. Apparently this Shanghai-favorite transformed the restaurant industry in ’99. Dinner was excellent – high-end western/French influenced cuisine – but overpriced. Lila’s favorite was the date pudding dessert, while Karl’s was the salt-encrusted lamb. We have realized we need to ration multi-course meals or invest in larger clothing. The view from the restaurant overlooked the river beautifully lit up at night. The lights weren’t just pretty – they were advertisements! This is China’s capitalism at its best. Karl was particularly fascinated by the mobile, high-resolution advertising screen sitting atop a floating barge. Lila’s favorite was the 50+ story high res that doubled as a 50-story LED billboard. As if the lights weren’t enough, we wandered down Nanjing walking street under the romantic glow of neon shopping signs. Karl practiced his “bu yao” (don’t want) every 10 seconds or so while hawkers offered watches, purses, and DVDs.

Discovering Shanghai

Sunday was our “Shanghai Orientation” day. To get us started, we made a stop by the hotel giftshop to purchase the Lonely Planet Shanghai book. We have to say this is the best Lonely Planet book we’ve ever seen, and definitely more useful than the Shanghai Frommers book that was forgotten at home. Tom (my new boss) arranged for Stone, his driver, to take us around today. He is THE BEST driver in all of China. Qualifications: perfect English, great tour guide, excellent food orderer, Mandarin teacher, and a big gossip. The day started at the Bund, the financial district along the Yangtze river. The river divides Pudong (east) and Puxi (west) side of Shanghai. The highlights were the Pearl TV tower (a gigantic pink tripod with a pearl on the top), construction of the world’s tallest building, and a mix of collonial-style buildings which reflect the port city’s foreign influence over the centuries. Parking for ~2 hours in the prime location: $1.25. Gotta love Shanghai parking costs! Next stop: Old Town in the city center. This area reminded us of an old Japanese style country village – large wooden buildings with ornate rooftops. The surrounding market was crowded with shoppers. We learned an important phrase in the market here: bu yao (“not interested in your cheaper, cheaper rolex watches”). There was a long line outside the best dumpling place in town for take-out. We didn’t have patience to wait, but peeked in the window to see the dozens of workers hand making dumplings. It looked like people had been feeding the koi in the pond outside – they were perhaps the fattest we’ve ever seen. The area also boasts a Ming-style garden from the 1500s. It was gorgeous – and surprisingly large and complex. Yes, we got lost! On to the People’s Square for a short stop. Need to come back in the future, as it appears to be the equivalent of San Diego’s Balboa Park with museums, green lawns, and lots of flowers. We continued on to the French Concession part of town. There were a lot of “concessions” by the Chinese in their history – but no one seems to remember why (hint: anything for opium). We really liked the tree-lined streets, 1930s style buildings, and the fact that Shanghai Tang (our favorite store) was next to Ye Shanghai (yummy restaurant). We stopped by “Richgate” – a beautiful apartment building which looks as pretenious as its name. A mere $10-12k/mth for a 300 square meter flat. Not sure that’s in our budget. We departed French Concession for our first Shanghai meal in the People’s Square area. Our driver/guide/menu expert ordered an assortment of fabulous Shanghai food including pepper pickled veggies, crab and tofu, sweet & sour whole fish, another tofu mushroom dish, peppered pork, and a few other samplings. Total cost: $25. Final stop was an English bookstore. We both picked up flash cards and books. By the end of the evening, Karl had already learned to read 15 Chinese characters and say 7 Chinese words. We returned to the hotel for a 90minute tuina traditional chinese massage – much needed after our long adventure the day before. For dinner, we met up with Michael and Lilly, who studied and worked in the US before returning to Shanghai ~3 years ago. Michael runs the engineering and product development team that I’m inheriting. We went for spicy sichuan food, but soon realized no one has a spicier taste for food than Karl. By 10pm, we were back home at the Renaissance Yangtze, room 2611. I passed out due to jetlag approximately 26 seconds later. All in all, a good first day.

Arriving in Shanghai

We made it to Shanghai! In fact, the adventure started this morning at 9am, Friday – but it wasn’t until 9pm, Saturday, that we arrived here. The “excitement” really started at 12, about the time we were supposed to depart. One of the engines was out and they tried to fix it – no luck. We’re just happy they found it at SFO! We finally departed at 3:30pm...by then our bottom’s already hurt from sitting so long! We were about 8 hours into the 13 hour flight when Karl turned to me and said, “If we were going to Siberia, we'd be there by now.” The great thing was the airport was new, extremely efficient (as measured by “time to get baggage”) and foreigner-friendly (even the immigration lady smiled when she talked to us!). The Renaissance Yangtze (as in river) has well appointed, tho very small rooms. This is where my group typically stays and it’s near the sales and marketing office. We’ll likely change hotels once I finish my 3 work days. Despite an Economy Plus window and middle seat, it took us time to de-pretzel ourselves upon arrival. So we decided to wander after unpacking. Unfortunately there isn’t much around here since it’s a business area. However, we still manage to find “Hello, Hello DVDs” and “cheaper, cheaper Rolex” being sold out of wagons on the side of the road. We even found a Hooters that serves Thanksgiving dinner if we can’t find a better option?! Tom (my new boss) is lending his driver to us tomorrow to tour the city. We’ll be having dinner with Michael (I’m inheriting his engineering team) and his wife. They are originally from Shanghai but lived in Oregon for a long time. More after we venture out tomorrow.

The life of our blog...

Lila recently took a position within Intel which will take us to Shanghai. Karl is in the process of looking for a career move within Intel China, having given up his dream of being a stay-at-home Mahjong King hanging out with rich housewives. :)
You're probably wondering what the heck we're doing? Afterall, Karl did just sell his San Diego home in April. We bought a new house in May, and got married in June. Three weeks this summer we spent on our honeymoon in Asia - definitely not expecting to move there (at least not this soon!).
We have often talked about starting a blog, but have always ended up just sending emails to friends during our travels. We hope to do a better job of the updates by getting this site set up. Here's to the adventures that lie ahead!