Saigon Chronicle Month 4: The Saigon vs. Shanghai Battle
November 1, 2019
I’ve just returned from 10 days of visiting Shanghai. This was my first trip back to the city since we bid farewell in June 2018. Since arriving in Saigon four months ago, despite my best effort to be objective, I couldn’t help but compare this new home to Shanghai, a city that I knew so intimately well. I suppose our…
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Getting Russian & Mongolia Visa in China
November 27, 2018
Preface Xavier (French) and I (Taiwanese-American) were living in Shanghai at the time of this trip prep. I was staying in China on my Taiwanese ID, but will be traveling on my US Passport, so I needed to obtain Russian visa in Hong Kong. US citizens do not need a Mongolia visa at this time. French needs both a Russian…
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Shanghai Farewell
June 21, 2018
Today, a friend asked me to sum up my 6 years in Shanghai in a word. I haven’t had much time to reflect since time has been occupied by the massive task of minimizing all of our belongings down to two suitcases and two backpacks. I gave it a quick thought, and the word diverse came to mind. Diverse Friendship…
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2017 Year-In-Review
December 31, 2017
Another year filled with travels, laughters, and this year in particular, many momentous occasions. The year flew by in a blur, and I struggled to remember what all had happened each month until I flipped through thousands of photos. I spent the year feeling very discouraged, as if my life is circling in place, not advancing forward. Yet, upon reflection...
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Shanghai Photo Journal: 2012-2017
October 28, 2017
Today, I celebrate five years in Shanghai. It’s rather unsettling even as I write these words. Five years. Really? That fateful bus ride from New York to DC doesn’t seem that long ago. Yet, five years. My cousin’s kid was born just before I moved to China. She’s almost in first grade now. I simultaneously feel that I’ve accomplished so…
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2016 Year-in-Review
December 30, 2016
Travel. Need for Change. Relationships. Those are the themes that have ran through this year. It was also a year filled with fitness firsts: first half marathon & first trail run. Here’s another year of life experiences under my belt, and on the road to becoming a better version of myself. January: Xav and I rang in the new year…
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2014 Year-in-Review
December 28, 2014
The word for 2014 is balance. I struggled to find it. Last year, I didn’t write my year-in-review until nearing the end of January. To start off 2015 right, I am writing it with 4 more days to spare! January: I ended the year with a trip to the East Coast to reunite with my friends. It was wonderful to catch…
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Vanishing Shanghai
November 2, 2014
Shanghai has been unseasonably warm this fall. Yesterday was the first of November, yet I was still strolling around the city in a t-shirt and a scarf. Days of rain had subsided, and I went for a stroll with a friend. It was still somewhat overcast, combined with pollution made for a rather interesting mood. We walked to the Jing’an…
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Ordinary Life
October 9, 2014
It was a rather ordinary day here in Shanghai. I struggled out of bed at 6am and went to work. It was the 2nd week in a row of beautiful weather, so I took note of the clear Shanghai skyline from my 25th floor office, with floor to ceiling windows. It was an ordinary day. I did my work, but…
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Posh Corps Shanghai
October 7, 2014
Today is the last day of October break; what a whirlwind of a week it has been! I put my girls in a taxi to the airport this morning, and am now sitting at a café reflecting, and taking in this blissful week. On their last evening, we experienced a classic night of Shanghai outing, completed with bar hopping, street food,…
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