Questions...

As the departure date for Shanghai draws nearer, a thousand questions are racing through my mind. What's life going to be like? Is it safe? What kind of service apartment shall I get? Shall I take private Mandarin lessons or go to a class? Shall I live in Pudong or Puxi? When shall I visit Beijing, Taiwan and Hongkong for work?

Yes, I've lived abroad before. But Singapore, England and Australia were relatively easier to settle into because I can speak the language and had researched these countries extensively. China is different. It's probably the first real "foreign" country I'll live in. On a scale of expatriate hardship postings, it probably rates a 2.5 (with 3 being hardest) For a "banana" like me, anyway.

Nevertheless, it's an exciting opportunity and I'll take it one day at a time - with much prayer.

Path of Juicing

There is one thing that I really miss when I'm travelling - fresh juices.

For over a year now, I have been juicing for breakfast. All manner of carrots, apples, celery, cucumbers, ginger, cabbage, grapes, peppers and spinach have beaten a path to my juicer. My favourites include carrot & ginger and carrot, apple & celery.

I tried something a little different today - a totally green juice. Rummaging through my supplies, I assembled some Granny Smith apples, mini cucumbers, green peppers and brocolli. After washing and some slicing, I carefully arranged them for this artistic shot.

All of raw fruit & vegetables went into my super Phillips juicer and this beautiful glass of fresh juice emerged.

It tasted very...errr...green. Refreshing no doubt, but a bit heavy on the chlorophyll. I'll probably halve the amount of broccolli the next time round.

This juicing regime has been a great de-tox tool for me, and I really feel much better in the mornings.

I'm being "Shanghai"ed!

"Joanna, since China is experiencing a lot of growth at the moment, we'd like you to go on a short-term assignment to build up the L&D team".

With those simple words, I find myself preparing to live in Shanghai for the next 6 months.

Despite being a child of the Chinese diaspora, I've had an Anglophile upbringing. My links to Chinese traditions only surfaced several times a year when I collected angpows for CNY or ate mooncakes, chang or tong yuen. Anything else I learnt came from books written from a Western perspective: adventures of Marco Polo, evangelistic missions of Hudson Taylor and Gladys Aylward or the fiction of Pearl S. Buck. In recent years, there's been more literature written by Chinese authors in exile e.g. Nien Ching and Adeline Mah which is full of traumatic stories of war, suffering and the Cultural Revolution. I must admit the books felt a little whiny and depressing.

Then came the rise of China as an economic powerhouse. I began to pay attention to the data and reports in the late 1990s, but was still ambivalent about experiencing China for myself. The fascination was sparked by my parents' first visit to China in 2006. Listening to my mother (who's chiefly responsible for my Anglicization) wax lyrical about the Great Wall in Beijing, the Nanking memorial, and the boatwomen of Suzhou, I realised that the time had come to re-discover my roots. I found it quite liberating (and scary!) to admit that to myself.

And so when my boss said "Go to China", my reply was "How soon?".

In fact, I've begun to set some goals including:

• learning to speak enough Mandarin to conduct a workshop
• learning 1000 Chinese characters
• calling on the Forbidden City and Summer Palace in Beijing
• seeing the terracotta army of Xian
• climbing the Great Wall of China
• experiencing another Olympics (this time in Beijing!)
• touring the war memorials of Nanjing
• visiting the Longjing tea plantations of Hangchow

And most importantly, I hope to come to terms with my Chinese ancestry - whatever that turns out to be.

Supper in San Francisco

My sister Julie moved to the US two years ago, and it's been hard for the both of us. Despite being as different as night and day, we miss each other's company and chat almost every day on the phone. And so when I was asked to run a course in San Francisco two weeks ago, nobody twisted my arm. I was happy to snatch a few days with Julie and thoroughly enjoyed the shopping, sightseeing and suppers!

The freezing Yeoh sisters at Fort Point, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge

In Malaysia, our favourite supper is roti canai and teh tarik. But no chance of enjoying that in SF so we had to make do with an Italian supper instead. A seven-course Italian meal at Caesar's dining room in the heart of North Beach. The salad and antipasti servings were a sight to behold! I enjoyed the chickpea salad, marinated calamari and tuna mash, especially on buttered bread. The spaghetti and meatballs is another dish that's been romanticised by countless hours of watching American TV. It was far from disappointing and I'd gladly have another serving, with lashings of fresh parmesan!

A table laden with antipasti, salad and spaghetti & meatballs...yummmy!

I really enjoyed Julie's company and can't wait to see her again in October. Ciao bella!

A slice of Americana

Mel's Drive-In is the sort of place that peddles Americana to camera-totting tourists. Julie and I decided to give it a try when we spotted one just round the corner from my hotel on Fourth Street in San Francisco.

Mel's prides itself as the setting for the cult movie "American Graffiti". The feel and decor was reasonably authentic, although it didn't have the wholesame "apple pie" atmosphere of Happy Days (which is my own interpretation of a diner). This being SFO, the wait staff were reasonably eclectic ranging from Mexicans to Chinese to Arabs. The service was a little patchy and could do with a large dose of "mom and pop" friendliness.

Mel's Drive In @ Fourth & Mission, San Francisco

The meatloaf special

After years of watching middle class American families sit down to dinner on '70s TV, I've been curious to find out what meatloaf tastes like. So when we spotted it on the menu at Mel's, we ordered it just to find out. Julie said that many of her friends from middle America were not very fond of it, having eaten a gummy version of it through their high school years.

When it arrived, I found it to be pleasantly wholesome and tasty, albeit a tad salty. The mashed potatoes and zuchinni added a lovely counterbalance to the slices of baked minced meat. Which is all that meatloaf is. Sigh..the romanticism of television strikes again!

Aunty Jo-Jo enjoying her vanilla milk shake!

Still all is not lost as I thoroughly enjoyed my vanilla milk shake. This was definitely a glass of Americana that I was happy to indulge in.