I can't explain the kind of longing and nostalgia I feel towards the life I left back in Shanghai.
Kevin and a couple of others have mentioned that it was the people that made Shanghai so great to live in. I agree partially. To me, Shanghai was amazing simply because it was Shanghai. It was my home.
Shanghai was a place that had practically anything and everything I needed. When I wanted to, I could hang out at Helen's, smoke some shisha, drink some hot cocoa and just chill. In Shanghai I had the experience of owning an apartment... the very first apartment I had ever owned in my life and boy, did I love it. I still fantasize about my room, the dark wood furniture, my bed adjacent to that glorious window seat of mine. The cats, their warm furry bodies rubbing up against me. I miss riding my bike to the wet market after class, picking up some amazing mushrooms and broccoli (getting cheated by the mushroom lady :D) perhaps being tempted into purchasing a cup of lemon yoghurt from Coco's on the way down wudong lu. Back home I could go back to my own kitchen, cook something up on the stove and eat it on the dining table or in the living room with the spectacular L shaped blue woven couch.
At night if I was hungry, the awesome street food vendors would be just a walk down the street. Those warm people that I grew to recognise and that I never got to say goodbye to. Kimchi fried rice was always just a phone call away, and they will come, even at 2 in the morning. I miss Korean street where I always got my hair cut by a slightly patronising, korean, transparent apron wearing hottie. Dahao massage... the place where aches go to die. Best of all food places was Lawson's, right outside my apartment complex. There I could get fan tuans and an endless supply of drinks and cup noodles.
On the weekends if I fancied it, I could go clubbing in some of the best clubs, complete without a cover charge. I could chill at the balcony of bar rogue and just gaze at the twinkling lights of the bund. Maybe I could go bowling at hongkou stadium or sing some KTV till 6am at wanda. On sunday, I will wake up just in time for church. Take 537 down to renming guangchang and change to line 1. It was always amazing, walking to church... past those black iron wrought gates. Church was so beautiful, the stained glass windows with spectacular shadows created by the branches of the wutong tree behind it. The warm orange walls, dark brown pews and rusted green windows. Church had a smell of peace.
That was my life in Shanghai. My life that I shared with friends and my bike. Shanghai was a place I first learnt to be alone, to be okay with being alone. I grew up there, grew into a young adult, I made mistakes, fell in love, fell out of love and just lived. It breaks my heart to think that I can never go back to that. I can never relive my life in Shanghai. What I had there, I'll never have again.
