Feels Like Home

My boss asked me last week whether it was starting to feel like home yet. Without hesitation, I said yes, which surprised me, having been in Shanghai for only 1 1/2 weeks. But I thought about it a bit this weekend, and the answer is still yes. The apartment is pretty much set up (Tyra - it looks exactly like it did when you were here, except I got a printer for the office, there's more food in the fridge and there are fresh flowers in every room but Syd's --- you can guess why). I already have a favorite Thai and Indian restaurant, both of which deliver which is an added bonus. I have a favorite kids clothing store. I know where I need to go get groceries/supplies. I know where to buy wine that has been properly stored. I know how to get around Shanghai even though I don't speak the language (yet). It feels like home in the sense that I have adjusted my expectations with respect to some things, and create new expectations about other things. I expect to have a hard time hailing a taxi in the morning. I expect that my taxi driver will get lost on the way to the office. I expect to be the only person in the elevator wearing deoderant. I expect to wait 30+ minutes for a taxi when it is raining. I expect Sydney to manipulate her ayi, and her ayi to overindulge her. I expect that service at restaurants to be slow, and the food to be great. I expect Sydney to pull every single article of clothing out of all 3 of my drawers during the time it takes me to draw her a bath. I expect Jack Bauer to save the US from total annihilation but only at the very last minute in the last episode. I expect to have a store employee yapping in my ear every single second that I am in a department store, trying to sell me something. I expect for people to mistaken me for Chinese. I expect Sydney to bounce up and down, squealing and laughing when I walk through the door at the end of the day. I expect the chocolates here to not be sweet, and the diet cokes to be too sweet. And I expect everyday to be unpredictable.