If you know me personally, you've probably heard too many times about how I want to leave Pudong for Puxi as soon as possible. But you may also have heard that living in the SMIC apartments is not as bad as I thought it would be. First off, the SMIC has a sense of community that none of the apartment complexes we've lived in before have had. For example, a week ago a bilingual announcement appeared on the lobby bulletin board saying that there would be a flea market today. Sure enough, by the time we grabbed some left-over sticker booklets that Jodi had lying around, the market was buzzing with buyers and sellers:

Another good thing about our apartment complex is that it has the best playground we've ever seen outside of a school in Shanghai. And this is right at the time when Charlotte is just starting to enjoy those things:

So overall, as we scrimp and save towards our own apartment in Hongkou or Putuo, in some ways we're pretty happy where we are.