Shanghai, The Last Hurrah: THE MORNING SHUFFLE

How does that expression go? Time flies when you’re having fun? OR time flies when you are preparing to immigrate to another country, you're writing (ludicrously difficult) exams to speak that country's language and then you find out that you might not be able to even enter that country because of all sorts of (unnecessary) red tape. And all this was just last week.

As most of you know, I was on holiday in West China. Cruising on camels by the Pakistan border, eating too many kebabs, trying to force down yak milk and experiencing a hardcore sand exfoliation. This trip flipped itself completely on its own head and we didn’t do most of the things we wanted to do, and instead, we did a lot of other stuff we ended up enjoying even more. But that is a story for another time.

I might be quiet in the coming days with moving and surviving my last few weeks in China, but I would like to, instead of talking, give you glimpses of my home before I leave and find another one.

This post will share our, rather ambitious, venture to capture the sun rising over Shanghai's waterfront: The Bund and the Lujiazui skyline.

It was always this spot, and this spot alone, that made me realize "Wow, I'm actually living in this city". It's large, has old buildings mixed with futuristic ones and is just plain fantastic at night-time. Now, being dragged out of the house by your heels at 5am on a Saturday morning is not my idea of fun, however, once I stumbled upon a bunch of grannies doing synchronizing Tai Chi as the sun rose...well that made up for all of the yawning and cursing.

It was amazing to be up that early and take in the skyline, but just like everything else in Shanghai – you can never experience a thing alone - we weren't the only admirers present. By the break of dawn, there were already joggers, kite flyers, drunkards stumbling home from the clubs, photographers and even tourists (at 5am!).

So without further ado, I’d like to introduce to you my latest project: Shanghai: the Last Hurrah (applause to my husband for the clever title). These will hold a few glimpses of a pulsating city that has been my home in the East. The next few weeks, I’ll run around and take snapshots of my favorite places and share them with you here.

The first installment will be The Morning Shuffle.

Welcome to my home, please have a seat and stay as long as you like.