Pit Stop Down Under to Shanghai

Sometimes the adventure you find is not the adventure you sought, but the adventure you needed. When I planned on heading to Australia I was planning on getting serious hands-on experience in vineyards, travelling the country like a hard working Robert Parker and getting to know the lay of the land. I have been passionate about wine since I started working in restaurants right out of college. When I worked at Sussex Wines near Grand Central I was fortunate enough to taste almost 3,000 wines in 18 months. When my lady Katy and I moved to Oregon, just a few miles north of the Willamette Valley, I immediately applied for a job to work the harvest. My first wine harvest the Dundee Hills AVA was epic, adventurous and exhausting; I am already looking forward to the next one.

When I got to Australia I didn't quite have the drive I left America with and wine seemed inappropriate for the hot weather. I found myself staying by St. Kilda beach in Melbourne, in a hostel filled with travelers about my age, who were keen on discussing anything and everything. I made sure to steer the conversations clear of whom I voted for and what was going on in America. I repeatedly said: "if it's American news I don't want to know about it, unless they closed the border to Australia and I'm stuck here - in which case the next round is on me." After about a week or so of getting sun-burnt, drinking bad beer and speaking socialism, I was ready to move on. I did manage to visit Melbourne Botanical Gardens, attend a massive beach-side drum circle and see the world's smallest penguins, but the vineyards weren’t calling, my beautiful wife was.

I abandoned my original plans a few days ago and flew to Shanghai. Katy picked me up from the airport. We sped toward the city on the world's only maglev train - which banked surprisingly steeply for travelling at 300 kilometers per hour - then hopped a taxi to the apartment Nike is supplying Katy for the next six months. After dropping off my bag we were out on the street, looking for a bite to eat and upon sitting down I realized I wasn't in English-speaking AussieLand anymore. There was English on the menu but asking questions and understanding the answers was difficult. I haven’t traveled outside English-friendly territory before and this was a new challenge for me.

When I was a film student in college, Lost in Translation was one of my favorite films. It's based Tokyo and not Shanghai, but the idea of being somewhere incredibly modern, wealthy and fun, but having no one to speak to, has always stuck with me. While not being able to converse easily is isolating and difficult, I was surprised by how well many people speak English and how many things felt familiar. In some ways it seems that growing up in New York is good preparation for moving to Shanghai: another large, affluent city. I feel somewhat more at home than I did when we moved to Beaverton, Oregon in August. Obviously I don’t know anyone, don’t speak the language and am only here to be with my wife, but people’s lives are similar to those of New Yorkers. You know, the same, but different.

While I was nervous about not having a concrete plan when I went to Australia, I am incredibly thankful now that I did not have a plan. Had I had a plan I probably wouldn't be here right now with Katy; I might have made promises to employers, paid for housing/transportation up front, or limited myself to what I had told myself I was going to do. I knew I was up for an adventure and so instead of planning what I was going to do, I just let it happen – and now I’m here in Shanghai.

Katy will start work in about a week and then for however long I stay I will find myself with largely unstructured weeks. While in Shanghai I do hope to eat new and interesting foods, visit tea houses, learn Tai Chi, but mostly explore the city as much as possible in an adventurous way. I am halfway through reading Lonely Planet's Guide to Shanghai and hope to get to know the tourist spots and local gems as thoroughly as one might in a city of over 20 million people in only a few short months. I expect I will have plenty to keep me busy, but if you know anyone who lives (or has lived) in Shanghai please introduce us.

I know we’ll be back in Oregon by September and I expect to work the wine harvest in the Dundee Hills again, but until then stay tuned because even I don’t know where my adventures will lead me next and that’s pretty exciting.