For the friends who are having the babies, maybe there’s a chance that I can attend their baby showers because girlfriend number 1 is just in Italy (around 6 hours train ride from here) and girlfriend number 2 will move to Austria soon because she wants to have to baby here.

This got me thinking, who will come to my future baby shower when all myfriends are so far away?

I personally don’t have anything against online dating and meeting people online because based on my personal experience, I’ve met quite a lot of real nice people through the World Wide Web who share the same interests like mine. These people later became my friends.

One of our friends (who is a bachelor) once said that it’s getting more and more awkward to approach a girl in a bar or in restaurant simply because the people in these places doesn’t seem to be “looking for something” or that most of the girls in there are aiming for something else other than a possible relationship. I believe he has a point there. Why not just go somewhere where you can be sure that the people you’ll be meeting have the same interests like yours. In the net where chatting is offered, you’ll immediate know where to go because there are different “Chat Rooms” for different people. If you are a single parent and would like to meet and talk to other single parents, you can go to “Single Parent Chat”. It’s as easy as that.

You might have heard already that I made some enemies but that’s okay because I still have my real friends and another exciting thing is that they are coming to visit me here in Shanghai soon. I can’t wait to see my girlfriends!

It still amazes me sometimes how I meet interesting people online just like that. First there’s Ruthi, then Sterndal, and now her. It’s just so cool. I think this person and I will get along well.

I am glad that I am going out more often now and that I am developing friendship with people other than the colleagues and friends of my husband. In short, I now have my own circle. I don’t have anything against the colleagues and friends of my husband because most of them are really nice persons too and I am glad that we could spend time with them sometimes but having my own circle of girlfriends with pretty much the same interest as mine is different. I really miss my girlfriends back in Changchun and in the Philippines but I am glad that after 5 months of staying in Shanghai, I am starting to really feel at home here.

So anyway, after having a dinner at the nearby Jin Mao Tower last Monday evening, we impulsively decided to go and see the new skyscraper. It’s just too bad that none of us brought a camera. I suggested that we do it on another time but Marcus and two of his colleagues insisted to see it because the weather was clear and there was no queue anymore (at 9:00pm). The view from the building’s view decks is really spectacular. If you look up at the SFTC building and the nearby Jin Mao Tower  from the street, they look like they have the same height but when you’re on top, you’ll see that there is a huge difference between the two buildings’ heights. It’s really too bad that we didn’t have real cameras so I didn’t have a choice but to use my phone’s not so good camera.

So anyway, Emily called me and asked if we could have a coffee together sometime because according to her, she really enjoyed my company the last times. That was so nice of her to say but that’s something I didn’t expect. Emily has a managerial position in human resource of some British-Indian company and she is like 54 years old and she often talks about very intellectual things so you can just imagine my surprise when such person display interest in spending time with me.

I am no intellectual. I am just a simple woman who is living a simple life but being married to Marcus also means that sometime, I’ll be going to parties, dinners, and gatherings where I’d be spending time with people who have much wider knowledge and way more eloquent than I am. I always try to talk to these people and not just smile and be pretty (in short, look stupid) but sometimes I can’t help but feel tiny.

Tina is like a bird. She can’t stop to tweet and she got this really high pitched voice that can be irritating to hear but I like listening to her because she has a really good sense of humor. So anyway, while we were having our break from shopping, I asked why Emily said something like “I work in UK and I live in Dublin”. Isn’t Dublin a part of UK? Isn’t Ireland a part of UK?

And then Tina, said …. “Oh no,no, no. Vienna, if you have to learn one thing, learn this. Ireland is its own country. Forget everything else but that.” And she said that in a really funny way with all the face and eye expressions. And she kept on and on about how the Brits took a big portion of their land, copied their culture and their language, killed a lot of their leaders, etc.

It was an interesting day with them. I had fun and I learned some things. I do hope I can spend more time with them but they are flying back to Ireland in a few days. They did invite us to visit them in Ireland and I think it would be cool if we can go there someday because Ireland is definitely an interesting place to see.