Things I miss and things I don't...

Top 5 things I miss about Shanghai:

1.   Cheap transportation. Yes, for the most part you were taking your life into your own hands and had no guarantee that your driver wasn't going to fall asleep and crash you into the central reservation, but it was just so cheap!! And the subway – 30p a journey! As long as you could deal with feeling a sardine surrounded by irritating fellow sardines playing on their phones, it was fine.
2. Lunch breaks. Actually taking an hour away from your desk and sitting and having a nice lunch with your colleagues.
3. Sherpas. Restaurant food delivered to your house, along with booze! What’s not to love!?
4. The lifestyle. Drinks after work, long weekend brunches, art, history, travel, having a cleaner, doormen, no responsibilities and everything is just easy and chilled out. I really miss that.
5.  Every bar having table service and no dress code. Flip flops, ripped jeans and someone taking your order without any bar loitering. Perfect!

 Top 5 things I do not miss about Shanghai:

1. Taxi drivers. Annoying, rude, crazy people who felt the need to drive like a formula 1 driver and couldn’t stay in one lane for more than 2.5 seconds. And more often than not they would fall asleep on you on the way to the airport. Or try to scam you out of money. Or just point blank refuse to take you somewhere. Or all 3.
2. No central heating. The bloody winter was freezing!
3. Not being able to see the sky. When I first said I was going to Shanghai, a lot of people said to me ‘won’t the air bother you?’ and I hadn’t really thought about it. What I found was the bad air didn’t bother me as such, yes there were days where it gave you a headache and I couldn’t wear my lenses but generally it was fine. What bugged me more was not being able to see the sky and just living under this grey smog cloud for weeks on end. I think there was one point there early in the year that I didn’t see ‘sky’ for over 6 weeks. That’s depressing.
4. Bureaucracy. Want to get some money out of the bank? Take your passport, work permit, residence permit, blood type, urine sample, second cousin’s next door neighbours date of birth, and your first born, and you might have a chance. Or maybe not.
5.  Internet!!!!!! I honestly didn’t realise how much I relied on the internet until I moved to China. No google, no gmail, no maps, no Facebook, no twitter, no YouTube, no Instgram, no BBC (depending on what they were reporting on this week), no Netflix! And everything being so heavily censored. And the feeling that if you stepped out of line, you’d be in serious trouble. I have tried to be as honest as possible about everything that happened to me in China, but there’s certain thoughts and opinions that I wouldn’t post up whilst I was still on that side of the firewall. I’m sure they’ll make their way onto this blog at some point – or maybe not if I actually want to go back someday…
6. And one bonus one - the music scene. If you didn't like EDM or hardcore dance (I don't), you're kind of limited!

Repatriating

I have officially been home for seven weeks now, which is weird. On the one hand, I don’t feel like I ever went away, and Shanghai feels like a dream that happened to someone else. On the other hand, those last seven weeks have completely flown by.

I've been keeping myself busy. Spending time with my niece (who now knows who I am – yay!), catching up with friends, setting up my own company, and actually working! I was really lucky to pick up a contracting role as quickly as I did, and now I've just managed to land another one for 6 months, which is a relief and gives me a bit more stability which is good.

I've loved being back home but it’s not been easy. Part of you expects that people’s lives are going to have been on hold whilst you’re away and things are just going to fall back into the same patterns now you’re back. And of course that’s not the case, nor should it be. Of course you want your friends and family to be progressing and living their lives, but when you feel like you've missed out on so much, and you’re missing your friends and your life in Shanghai, it’s difficult. And not having a real base, and all my stuff being spread between somewhere in the North Sea on a boat from China, with me, or at my parents, it’s really easy to feel a bit lost and discombobulated (as my best friend put it, who has been my lifeline!).

I definitely feel like I've come home a different person. Aside from the odd readjusting meltdown (!), I’m calmer, more confident in who I am, less stressed and a lot less scared. I guess after you've moved to China on your own, nothing else feels that scary!