Cashmere and Cupcakes Event @ Divalife!

Emily's Cupcakes coming soon....

I haven't posted in awhile, many apologies!

Currently, I'm in the final stages of opening a small business here in Shanghai - "Emily's Cupcakes" will be open soon and I'll let you know as soon as our website goes live and you can order online or over the phone!

Ever since I moved here a little over a year ago, I've been thinking about starting my own cupcake business. With my culinary background in catering and as a personal chef as well as my background in Marketing and Advertising it seemed like a great idea! Plus, I love cupcakes - they're adorable and bring back so many childhood memories. We aim to be open for business in 2 weeks, so keep your eyes open for some new delicious treats on the Shanghai scene!

A new neighbor

Just saw this article in a local newspaper online. Looks like this new "monster substation" will be less than 2km from me. Great.

Downtown to be powered by monster substation by -- THE world's biggest underground substation is expected to be put into operation in Shanghai next year, local power authorities said yesterday.

The substation will satisfy power requirements for the downtown area...

Kanye West

I went to the Kanye West Concert here in Shanghai a few weeks ago (sorry for the slow posting!) and I've been meaning to blog about it. So, here we go - finally!

Musically it was great - he sounded fantastic, his band was awesome and his backup singers were really freaking cool. Everyone was clad in these all black outfits, some with these funky helmets and glasses. It all went with his "Glow in the dark tour" theme.

A note on concerts in China:

1. They are short. Typically no more than 1 hour. I think Kanye was actually on stage for 1hour 15 min.

2. Stage theatrics are at a minimum. I had heard that the Kanye show was supposed to be amazing - lots of theatrics, lights, etc. What I saw was just kind of average. He had lights and some smoke but nothing really amazing.

3. Nothing controversial allowed. A song like Jesus walks wouldn't be performed. From what I understand all performers have to show their set list and lyrics to some sort of government official who checks it all and then gives approval.

So, based on those "stipulations" all in all the Kanye Show was entertaining and a good time! I was lucky to have great seats way down in front and I got some decent video of the show. Unfortauntely due to the slow internet connection I'm not able to upload any of the video.

Constant Construction

Some photos of the constant construction going on in Shanghai. This is in central/downtown Shanghai - it struck me that there wasn't a single fence or anything set up for procautionary measures. I was just another pedestrian on the street.

Shanghai - The Best 5 Places to Live Overseas in 2008

Shanghai is officially the "Best Hot New City" to live in for foreigners!

Check out the article below:

http://thetravelersnotebook.com/destination-guides/the-5-best-places-to-live-overseas-in-2008/

Skin care in Shanghai?

Ever since I moved here I've been wondering, is it possible to have nice skin and live in Shanghai? As a woman about to enter to 30's I'm really conscious of my skin and taking good care of it from the outside to the inside. Living in California, this is easy - I have a great skin care specialist I go to for facials, etc. But since we moved to Shanghai I've been really wary of going to anyplace for a facial. I mean, if they can put crap in baby food who knows what kind of stuff they're putting in face creams, right?

But I've been having so many issues with my skin that I finally caved and followed a friends suggestion to check out her favorite place. It's called Beauty Arsenal and it's Singapore based. They've been open in Shanghai for about 1 year now and just moved into a beautiful space in the Kohler Building on Nanjing Lu. It's not cheap, but they do a great job, are well trained and are very clean. I believe all the products are imported from US and Europe.

If you're looking for a good facial, go check them out.

Donations in Shaghai

I'm moving this weekend and am in the process of cleaning out my closets, etc. If I were doing this in California I wouldn't think twice about what to do with my unwanted things. There are many great non-profit organizations to donate to in the Bay Area. But, living in Shanghai this was another one of those times when something that's a no-brainer in the US becomes a head scratcher in China. What to do with unwanted, slightly used clothes....

It takes some digging around, I usually start by asking friends and then move on to websites like Shanghai Expat where I can post my questions on message boards.

Turns out there is a great non-profit organization in Shanghai called River of Hearts that takes donations of clothing, bedding and shoes and ships it out to people in need all over China.

If you're looking for a place to take your slightly used unwanted clothing, you can drop your things off at one of their many drop off points all over Shanghai (Puxi & Pudong).

Check them out: River of Hearts or riverofhearts.org

Raining babies in Shanghai...

It is about to rain babies here in Shanghai!

I personally know at least 4 woman who are very pregnant and due to deliver in the next 1-2 months, in fact I helped to host a baby shower a few weekends ago for two of them. It was fantastic fun for all of us - especially for the non-Americans who don't usually have Baby Showers.

I think it's so impressive first of all to make the decision to have your baby in a foreign country, especially when that foreign country is China! (I'm learning that Shanghai especially has a couple of great hospital systems and a few specific doctors that many of the expat women use).

Back to the topic - I and two other women (1 American, 1 Norwegian) hosted this baby shower for our two friends. I love situations like this one, us crazy Americans are the only ones who do Baby Showers with games, etc and we had to "educate" our bewildered friend from Norway with what we were planning. It was hilarious.

We played typical American Baby Shower games like; Guess the baby food, Guess the size of the pregnant stomach, and the ever popular What's in the diaper? game. They all had everyone busting up laughing, especially to our non-American mom's to be.

Wine in a Can

I noticed these cans of wine at the Japanese Grocery Store (Jiu Guong) in Jing'An near my house the other day while I was out shopping. Today I saw an article about them on one of the Shanghai websites I frequent for local information: www.cityweekend.com.cn/shanghai

Not sure if these are available in the USA or not. They're made by Kirin, which makes me think they're probably also selling in Japan. Next time I'm back at the store I'll buy a few and post my reviews of the taste. :-) I'll try not to be too biased.

Spring in China

Now that spring is on it's way in - we've started seeing fruit vendors on the streets. Today we spotted a couple selling more exotic fruits out of the back of their truck, so we picked up a pineapple for 80 cents and they even clean it for you! If you can see in the picture, the pineapples are smaller than we ones we find in the US, we were told that these came from Hainan, a small island off the south coast of China.

Harry Connick Jr. Concert in Shanghai

Last night I went to a concert - this marks my second cultural (well music related) outing in Shanghai. We were lucky to get to free tickets to the Harry Connick Jr. concert!

He's always been a favorite of mine, I think he has a fantastic voice, and he's an amazing jazz/blues pianist. If you like jazz mixed in with a little pop, Harry Connick is your guy (not to mention he's not bad to look at either) ;-).

The concert was held at a pretty large venue, the Shanghai Gymnastics Center. When we arrived I wondered if Harry could bring in a full house. Well he didn't, the venue was probably about 1/2 filled and mainly with expats, although there were a good number of Chinese in the audience as well. Harry opened with an instrumental piece and moved on to do some more memorable numbers like, Only you and Here come the big parade. He's very charismatic and even pulled a Chinese man up on stage for a quick Q&A about Chinese food. It was very entertaining!

I had a great time! It's great to see Shanghai pulling in musicians other than just popular pop groups like Maroon 5 or Celine Dion. :-)

David Beckham in Shanghai!

And I missed him!! How did that happen?

Check it out.

Chinese Classes

I've recently returned to Shanghai from California and started "official" Chinese language classes at a University here in Shanghai. To be honest I was a bit apprehensive about the classes, language classes at a university can be a little intimidating for someone who hasn't been in college for a few years!

But, I'm happy to say the classes are going well so far! There's an interesting mix of international students from all over - Spain, Norway, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France, Argentina and Columbia. There are far fewer "westerners" than there are Europeans or Latin Americans....

I have a full load of classes everyday - Monday through Friday, that include Listening, Reading and Speaking. So far the homework load isn't huge, but I have a feeling things are going to get much harder as the weeks progress....let's hope my Chinese progresses too!

T-minus 5 weeks

Most people want to know where we'll be living - we're lucky that we'll be able to stay in the company corporate apartment for the first few months. The apt. is in an area of Shanghai called "Jing'An". Jing'An refers to the name of a famous temple in the area. The Jing-An Temple is really beautiful, I visited it last year when I was in Shanghai for the first time. The whole area is actually growing really quickly and is one of the more popular areas for expats. There everything you could imagine including a huge, high end shopping center, gym and amazing Japanese grocery store. Lucky for me, those are three of my favorite things. :-)