Very soon I’ll be moving to Shanghai. While I am really very excited at the opportunity to live in one of the most vibrant cities in Asia, I’m also sad about what I’m leaving behind. Since I arrived here a few years ago, I’ve established a great life here – with a beautiful home, great friends, fun activities and of course a wonderful husband.

I’ve been trying to rationalise some of my conflicted feelings. Here’s where I’ve got to so far on the list:

Things I’ll miss

• Friends old and new – I didn’t know anyone when I got here and now am proud to call a great group of people here friends. I’m going to miss you guys!
• Our house – It’s almost exactly how we want it. Typical that we just finish a renovation then leave
• Being able to read roadsigns
• Driving, particularly the Lotus ;-( but also the bikes. I am not looking forward to not being able to drive when and where I want
• Being able to get clothes in approximately my size. There is no part of me that fits a Chinese XXS
• The structure of a normal full time job
• Being able to read cooking instructions on food
• Having a garden
• Aerials classes – hopefully I’ll be able to find somewhere in China – although I have a sneaking suspicion that anyone over the age of 6 is past it….
• Skymall. It’s just awesome.

Things I will NOT miss

• All those awful stone animals people have prowling around their Pennsylvania gardens – everything from geese to lions (yes lions)
• The horrible bread. Come to think of it –I won’t miss the food generally which is mostly not great in PA outside Philly
• The insane licensing laws in PA. State shops for booze? What century are you guys in?
• Pennsylvania wine. Seriously – it’s grim. Somehow the folk just a couple of miles away in New Jersey manage to produce some quite nice stuff. What’s with the vineyards in PA?
• The ridiculously complex health system.
• The completely insane amounts of junk mail that we receive on a daily basis
• The quite frankly appalling US TV spread across a bazillion channels
• US politics – it’s completely ridiculous, and that’s before you start on the Wiener issues and pretty much anything that Sarah Palin does. They are all so far right it is scary.
• The fact that everyone is so litigious and the fall out from that.
• The horrible loos with the gap all round the door. URgh.

I’ve never been that fond of Chinese takeaways so I have until now not held in my hands that most American of American institution – the Chinese takeaway box.

These little lovelies have been featured in so many American films and sitcoms but somehow never made it across the pond. I love them, they are so nicely proportioned and clever. It’s almost worth buying a takeaway just to have some around.

Almost every day I drive down the street where I live, past the house before conducting a three point turn in one of two irritating places before parking outside my house. Why is that? Because there’s a really stupid law here that means that you have to park in the direction of the traffic. Always.

In the land of the free, where exercising personal freedoms is considered an individual’s right there is legislation relating to the direction you park your car. And nobody minds one jot.

And even more irritatingly they really enforce it. The police don’t tend to mind you parking on corners but parking pointing in the opposite direction is treated in the same way as parking in front of a fire hydrant. Madness.

I think it’s a lot to do with the fact that I’m used to European churches that I think most of the American ones are really unimpressive.

I’ve strolled around Westminster Abbey, visited Notre Dame and the cathedrals of Florence and Siena.

Granted those are are a hard act to follow but even small local British churches have a great deal of charm. Many of the local US ones aren’t in the same league – in fact they don’t even seem to try. Many of them look as if they were originally designed for a different purpose and then transformed into churches as an afterthought – slapping a dodgy steeple on the roof and adding a porch apparently makes a warehouse a church.

I know it isn’t so much about the building and it’s more about what happens inside, but there’s something about the atmosphere that seems like a good start for religious activities. I’ll admit that I haven’t actually attended a US ceremony but if I wanted to, I’d rather it was in a church not a warehouse. That said, there are many many people who don’t seem to mind in the slightest about the location. Good for them.

Last year I was made redundant. As part of the severance package I was sent to a ‘talent and career management’ organisation. Some of the sessions were fairly useful, for example the ones that taught me how to write a US CV (for a start I learned that they call them resumes here). Some sessions were irritating – for example the one where some ‘expert’ told me that the reason European CVs tend to have more personal info about interests etc is because “it’s a different pace of life in Europe, they have more time.” Yeah right.

Some bits were more shocking. For example I learned that it is ABSOLUTELY NORMAL to be subjected to a drug test prior to being accepted for a job. OMG! I was completely in a state of shock (and still am for that matter). It took 5 mins for me to pick my jaw back off the table.

What an absolutely enormous infringement on personal privacy! I don’t even smoke cigarettes let alone anything else but if I wanted to spend my weekends stoned out of my skull I think that would be my business and not anyone else’s. I mean if it doesn’t affect someone’s work – why should they know?

Also, to get longer term readings, they could use hair, but instead, a possible new job has to start with your wee changing hands. Eeeeeuw.