The Price of Tea

Episode 7: Ride, Sally, Ride

Every morning, once the kids were on the school bus and Rob was on his shuttle bus to work, I hopped on Sally and explored the streets of Pudong. I was finally free to roam, mix and mingle in and around the city on my own terms.

Episode 6:

Sally, Meet Jennifer. Jennifer, Meet Shanghai.

Monday morning came and life started again. The kids were off to school, Rob was off to work, and I was left in our sterile apartment. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t figure out a way to be happy…

Episode 6: Not So Happy Ending

Since neither Kristin nor I knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into, “happy ending” rumors and all, we agreed to ease into the spa experience and start with a low budget, expat-run spa. Though I’m not a member of the primped, plucked and frocked, the little bit of…

Episode 4 — Ugly Americans

Getting my hair done is pretty much my worst nightmare. First, I have unruly hair that is difficult and expensive to tame. Second, it’s the small talk. I hate it. Don’t get me wrong, I can gossip with the best of ’em. Hell, gossip has practically surpassed baseball as America’s…

Episode 2

***

The next day, Driver Jerry arrived promptly at 9AM and took us to METRO — the Chinese version of Sam’s Club. It felt a bit uncomfortable to have this little man escorting us all around, opening doors, carrying our bags — like he was our slave. It wasn’t even his job to help us. He…

Episode 1: Culture Shock

I traveled to China for the first time on Easter Sunday in 1980 — in my imagination. We’d just come home from church. My mom was yelling about this and that. As a single mother of three equally ungrateful and unruly children, she had the tendency to yell a bit and then kick me and my…