The colder weather that has been setting in on most of us in the U.S. has also set in over Shanghai. The cold seems to cause the smog to settle low over the city.
Tyler has been working hard. He has a long commute to and from work every day. Between work and the commute, most of his daylight hours are eaten up.
While our Shanghai apartment is furnished, it did not include most kitchen items or some other basic things. Tyler was finally able to find time to take his first trip to the Ikea in Xujiahui a few weeks back.
He had to be able to carry everything he bought, so he got only the bare necessities: a set of pots and pans, bowls (the apartment came with some plates and silverware), a colander, cooking utensils, containers for leftovers, and hangers.
Recently, he made a second trip, I’m excited to see what else he picked up.
We are lucky to be provided with a shipment of some of our belongings to China, but we opted to use that shipment for when I move to Shanghai next fall. We brought as much over in luggage as we could, but things like pots and pans didn’t make the cut in favor of clothes. We’re buying duplicate basic kitchen items for Shanghai and will store the items we received for our wedding and items we bought to complete our kitchen until we return to the U.S. Generally, we are keeping our kitchen a little bare in Shanghai to avoid spending unnecessary amounts of money and accumulating more kitchen stuff than we need.
In the meantime, I’ve been packing up more things for Tyler to take back to Shanghai when he visits at Christmas, such as knives, office supplies, and some more advanced kitchen utensils (peeler, wine opener, can opener, etc.).
Since the kitchen is bare, Tyler relies on the cafeteria at work for lunches and has a good excuse to order takeout on occassion.
Recently, he ordered from an Indian restaurant near our Shanghai apartment, Masala Art, using the delivery service Sherpa.
That’s Butter Chicken Patiala.
Tyler said it was spicy and a bit greasy, with large pieces of chicken and onion.
We’ve both been keeping busy with work, school, and planning for the months until I move to Shanghai. The time change has left us very few hours where we are both awake and available to take, but we find time for phone calls and lots of emailing back and forth about anything and everything.
The Christmas holiday will be a welcome reunion.
