Old School

Ever see those old ads from the 1920s, where some housewife whiles away her life doing menial tasks, with an apron on her hips and a smile on her face? That's exactly what I thought of when I saw this iron in the backroom of the tailor shop across from my grandmother's house.

Except instead of a cheerful housewife, I found a middle-aged Chinese woman in a room only slighter bigger than my closet, bossing around a handful of seamstresses and tailors who all were darning and mending and making clothes perfect...for less than three bucks a pop.

21st century living, eh?

"Have you been with pig recently?"

[I kid you not, that was a question on the entry form to get past Chinese customs.]

Ah, swine flu paranoia. Even though thousands around the world die from things like measles, malaria, and poor water sanitation, the Chinese government decided that swine flu was Enemy No. 1. As a result, every passenger flying into the country from overseas had to undergo these radar-y temperature checks by silly men in outlandish costumes. Yeah, it was annoying, but the suits are funny as hell.

Also, fun fact, that's my dad sitting next to me.

If the photo looks familiar, that's because Shanghaiist used it here and here.

Notice something different?

I'm baaaack!

As most who follow my Twitter know, I've actually been back in the land of the cheese and home of the Braves for about a week and a half now. While I have a post in the works about my summer in Shanghai, I thought I'd first highlight some changes I've made to this blog.

Before:

After: (Well, what you're reading is obviously the after. But for visual comparison's sake:)

So obviously there's been a title change, tagline change, photo and profile change. The real overhaul here is going to be in content.

Posted photos will come from both the year in Dalian and the three+ months in Shanghai. But more importantly, I'm going to start posting about my daily life now as well. China-bubble-related material that is, like insane bouts of reverse culture shock; plus the occasional senior year freakouts musings. I mean, it's inevitable- it is senior year.