Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Day 2: Shanghai

Day 2 was pretty chill. Of course, I was trying to lay low given the potential for jetlag. Thankfully, I had a wonderful sanctuary and hosts in my friends Kathryn and Bill.
I met Kathryn in the airport in L.A. in 1996 on the way to teach English in Japan. Little did we know that we were both going to Japan to teach for the same company at the same school. A couple of years later, I joined her in Taiwan (where she had gone after Japan while I had returned to Columbus). She set me up with a job in Taiwan and a place to stay (a rooftop apartment above her flat). Kathryn and Bill met in Taiwan while they were both studying Mandarin.
This picture is taken from their back patio where I was drinking my morning coffee. Kathryn and Bill have a very cool house in the French Concession area of Shanghai. Their house was built in the 20's while the high-rise in the background is quite new. During the Cultural Revolution, multiple families were crammed into their single family home: a sobering thought.

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