The other expats

I have meet some fascinating people in Shanghai, and most of them have come to Shanghai because they are married to someone who is now working here. Most of these are women following their husbands, but in the case of the other 2 Americans I have meet in the compound, they are husbands following their wives' careers. In Chinese, a wife is called a tai tai (pronounced tie tie) and our neighbor jokingly calls her non-employed husband a guy tai.  I have meet lots of people coming to Shanghai to work in engineering or management, which I surmise is fairly typical. Some of the familiar companies that employ our neighbors are Siemens, Disney, Ikea and Unilever. 

The spouses that trail are often quite accomplished in their own right who for one reason or another are not working in Shanghai. I  have met an ivy league graduate, a medical doctor, 2 college professors, 2 nurses, and an MBA who married right out of college and is now eager to get some good work experience.These are the people I spend my days with, shopping for groceries, having coffee, exploring Shanghai. It's nice to spend time with such educated people learning about their cultures as well as the Chinese culture all around us. Maybe we'll start a book club. 

Before we moved here, I worried that we would be older than everyone else, as so many people I had talked to told me they lived abroad before their kids started school. But I have found expat families of every age. Some are new here like me, and others have been abroad for a long time. Some have moved around all of their lives. Many of the families are multinational, with spouses from different countries, and speaking several languages in the home. Yesterday I helped my French friend with child care so she could attend to a dental emergency. She and her husband are from France. Her children, ages 3 and 7 speak French and Chinese, as they have lived in China for the past 5 years. We had fun playing with matchbox cars and pokemon figures despite our language barrier. I have met people from Germany, Thailand, China, Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand, France, Sweden, Australia, Korea, Japan, Spain, Great Britain and Brazil. Most of them speak English very well, and I am grateful for that.