It's official. Im a resident of Shanghai

Okay. So here it is. I, Sara Silverstein, am officially doing something I never thought I would do. I am starting a blog. These are my reasons:
It’s easier to write things once, then to have to write them over and over again to different people.
I am in a country so vastly different than my own I have never traveled to before.
I find myself seeing/hearing/eating/and doing things that someone out there besides myself will find interesting (I hope).
I am not making any promises about this Blog. I will not guarantee a high quality standard of writing (although I hope it comes naturally). I will not guarantee the amount of blog posts I will have per week. I will not guarantee that everyone will find my content interesting; to each his own. What I will guarantee is that not all blog posts will be this long.
I am writing from my desk in my one bedroom apartment (complete with a dryer and an oven!). It is situated in front of a window that overlooks a not too shabby skyline of the Jing’an Temple area of Shanghai. Along with the lights of high-rises, the honking of bikes, scooters, and cars echoing on the streets below me ensure that I, along with everyone else living in Shanghai, will never be in complete silence. City life, its good to see you again. After seeing roughly 10 different apartments, some of them multiple times with different agents all offering me varying asking prices, I can finally call an apartment my own. This is no small feat in Shanghai if you are on a budget. Between adjusting to working life, which is a lot easier when you are a given a 10 day holiday only two weeks after arriving, looking for apartments, getting over jet lag, and simply being a westerner in an eastern land, a lot has been going on.
A quick breakdown on my job. I am an English teacher for 2-12 year olds at Disney English, a branch of Disney Publishing. This means I teach kids after they get out of school. I sing and I dance with Mickey, Daisy and Donald Duck. I paint with Lilo and Stitch and play games with Lady and the Tramp. The first Disney English center opened a year ago. They are planning to open 200 total in China and expand to 9 other countries including Mexico and Brazil. I will get my own classroom after my centers expansion is completed in a few weeks. Its looking like I might get an Arabian Nights or an Under the Sea themed classroom! Oh yeah, things are looking up J

Some things I’ve discovered:
1) The western nod doesn’t exist. Other westerners who reside here so obviously try not to look at you, another westerner, that they instead prefer to look at the baby peeing on the corner behind them.
2) Couples of Western men with Asian women far outnumber the amount of couples of Western women with Asian Men. In fact, I have yet to see it. Also, the amount of couples consisting of two Westerners who are living here and not just touring the city, are few and far between. I have seen about 3.
3) All cab drivers shift into 4th gear at 25mph. If you drive standard you might be able to appreciate this.
4) There is construction everywhere preparing for the World Expo.
5) The Subways and streets are surprisingly clean.
6) There are restaurants and dumpling stands on every corner. The only problem is I don’t know what anything is, and the better the restaurant is the less likely they are to have a menu translated in English. This is my main reason for enrolling in Mandarin classes. There are other reasons such as being able to hold a conversation, not having to show a cab driver a text message with the address in Chinese, and being able to haggle when shopping. I want to be able to appreciate everything the Shanghainese cuisine has to offer me. I want to be able to go to off the beaten path restaurants and explore all the different ingrediants, cooking methods, and traditions of the Chinese Cuisine. I want to not have to rely on microwavable ramen noodles, although they’re good and cheap and amazingly not hard to get bored of. I want to venture off from the Kung pao chicken that we get delivered every day at work. I want to find the BEST soup dumpling in Shanghai. I want to be able to go into a Hot Pot restaurant and and order the ingredients I want to cook in a boiling pot of broth, knowing what they are and not just guessing what they are from a picture.
So there it is! My first few experiences of living in Shanghai. For many of you this may be the only entry you read, and I don't blame you. For those of you that feel you have to follow it because you are in my family, a close friend, of my boyfriend, I will not be offended if you don't and will not quiz you.
So...I'll keep you posted!