my new ride

I've never been into cars. Point at any car on the road and ask me to describe it, and the only thing I'll likely be able to tell you is its color.

On the other hand, I do like driving. There's nothing like the feeling of control and independence you get from a solo long-distance drive.

For obvious reasons, I didn't drive in Shanghai. Instead, I got my fix with every business trip back to the States, where, depending on the rental company my company used, I got to drive everything from a PT Cruiser to a Chevy Aveo (which handily broke down on me just a couple of miles from the airport.)

Now back in the States, I've spent the past month or so becoming intimately familiar with the excruciating process of buying a new car. What to buy, where to buy, how much to pay, how much to borrow. For somebody who dislikes shopping, hates bargaining, and is fairly conservative with her expenses, spending tens of thousands of dollars on a new car and having to negotiate with salespeople who could smell my ignorance was a nightmare.

Yet, with a little grit and a lot of help from some knowledgeable friends, I came away with some pretty sweet wheels:

25/36 and best resale value sedan for 2008. Considering my top criteria were mileage and resale value (again with the cheap, er, conservative spending), I think I got a pretty good deal. Not to mention, it sure is perty.

this time for good

For those who don't already know, I am home. Have been for just over a month now.

A friend asked today whether I am happy to be back, and I have to say - yes, yes I am. I know I am happy not because of any uncharacteristic emotional outburst, but because I looked out my window this morning and thought, Wow, it's a beautiful day.

I am happy because it was sunny and just shy of 70 today and we're in the middle of winter.

I am happy because almost every day I am moved to take pictures of the sky on my drive home from work.

I am happy because of this:

and this:

and this:

and because they are all only a few minutes away.

Yes, I am happy to be back. Life isn't perfect, but right now I have no reason to complain.

big things happen in big cities

Despite all the reasons I dislike living in a city like Shanghai, I must concede one fact: big things happen in big cities. Sure, Austin has its place on the national music scene, but internationally, it's not really a center of anything (except perhaps research in certain obscure academic fields).

Shanghai, on the other hand, is a global golden child. Everybody wants a piece of this place, and I'm not even talking about cheap labor. I'm talking about the captive audience of more than 20 million fashion-, status-, and body-conscious people in an area approximately the same size as Austin.

Shanghai is an easy place for advertisers to reel in their own 20 million, and international sporting events are a high visibility means to that end. In the past year or so, Shanghai has hosted the Tennis Masters Cup, the HSBC Champions Golf Tournament, and the Sinopec F1 Chinese Grand Prix, among others. In October, Shanghai will be hosting the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games. And just next week, who will be hosting the opening match of the 5th FIFA Women's World Cup but yes, you guessed it, Shanghai.

If I think about the closest I could come in Austin to an international sporting event... well, the answer is probably a joke better left untold.

So anyway, over the past few months I have actually developed an obsession of sorts with the last of the above listed events.

Wait a minute - me, a soccer fan?

Okay, okay, so I'm a bit of an imposter. As a player (if I could even say I played), soccer is probably my worst sport. As a spectator, I don't even know what all of the referee hand signals are, and I do sometimes think that watching people run back and forth for 90 minutes with perhaps only one goal (if any) scored throughout it all can be a wee bit monotonous.

But anybody who, soccer fan or not, saw the 1999 WWC final on TV can't blame me for wanting to see what could be Kristine Lilly's final World Cup in person. Not to mention the fact that the US Women's National Team has consistently been one of the best in the world, and that the host team (among several others in the tournament) can give the US a run for their money, possibly even setting up a rematch of that incredible penalty kick shootout from eight years ago. Also, regardless of the sport, I always enjoy watching a well-played game, so an international championship fits that bill. Oh, and did I mention that I got second-tier tickets to both the final and 3rd/4th place games for only 300 RMB TOTAL? Yes, that's a lot of money, $38 to be exact, but who pays less than $40 for halfway decent tickets to even a World Cup 3rd/4th place game alone!?

To be perfectly honest, I think the biggest source of my enthusiasm for these games is that by attending, I will actually, even if for just a couple of hours, get to be a red-, white-, and blue-blooded American again, one who can cheer, shout, jump up and down, and want absolutely nothing more but for her team to win. Sometimes it's nice to claim the successes of others as your own when the only thing you have in common with them is the country of your birth.

So yes, I'm excited, despite, as of a month ago, having known only three of the players on the 21-player US WNT roster.

I guess there is something to be said, after all, for living in a city like Shanghai.