Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Living in Shanghai is like living in any big city - we have Starbucks & McDonalds, Walmart & IKEA, reliable public transportation & lots of English-friendly restaurants & bars around town. It's so easy to live here in fact that sometimes I forget that I live in China. (China! Wow!) But every once in a while I'm reminded of just how different the Shanghai way of life really is.

The other day in class, we were talking about our life experiences as we practiced the present perfect verb tense: Have you ever bungee jumped? Have you ever swum with dolphins? Have you ever seen a rainbow? The answers were no, no, & no.

I can understand the first two, but have they really never seen a rainbow? Shanghai is certainly the definition of "urban jungle". I guess you can't see any rainbows through all this smog.

*The scene in the photo above is one of my most treasured memories, from when Michelle & I drove from Phoenix, Arizona to Anchorage, Alaska together. We were just outside Seligman, Arizona when we saw this beautiful rainbow. What better way to start a road trip?