Our City: Part I (By Josh)

I’ve been reading a book about a movement called New Urbanism. This movement is basically about the problems inherent in modern-day American suburbia and about why we should stop building suburbs and return to our cities and traditional neighborhoods. Reading this book has made me do a lot of thinking about both my hometown and about the city that I now call home. In discussing these things, Danielle and I have gained a new appreciation for our life here. I might write a few blogs and tell you what we appreciate about the city. I think it will give you more of an impression of our day-to-day life.

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We live in a city that (according to Wikipedia) has an urban population of just over three million and our apartment is within what is considered the city center. The street that we live on is in the university district and there are a lot of Western restaurants and bars and trendy stores, which makes our area very attractive to the emerging middle class – especially those in their twenties and thirties. Every day and night of the week our street is busy with activity and pedestrians and shoppers and bar-goers.

Our market is in our neighborhood, about a five minute walk from our house. Danielle always buys her vegetables from a lady named Yu and I’ve gotten to know her a little bit too. Whenever I go to the market for Danielle I’ll always have a little chat with Yu. She asks me where Danielle is, or if we’re going back to America for the summer, or if I ever cook dinner. Sometimes she’ll say, “Tell Danielle I’ll see her tomorrow.”

We buy fresh milk every couple of days from the man who owns a little milk store right outside our apartment gate. He knows which kind of milk we like and gets it out of the cooler for us. When we come home we say hey to the lady who is the “guard” of our apartment complex. Sometimes I’ll stop and talk to her pregnant daughter-in-law and ask her if she’s staying healthy. If the guard lady’s husband is back from work he’ll say, “Oh, you’re back!” or “Did you go shopping?” or “Have you eaten yet?” They love to play cards and I like to look over their shoulder and act like I understand the game they’re playing and I’ll say something like, “Oh, you’re struggling against the landlord, huh?” (“Struggle against the Landlord” is a favorite Chinese card game – see your history book for more info on this terminology.) Then it’s up five flights of stairs with Danielle’s requested vegetables for tonight’s dinner.

I’m realizing how significant all these short little human interactions are. Interacting with strangers is good for the soul. It helps me remember that I’m not the only one on the planet and helps me to care about people who aren’t directly involved in my life. I think that it makes me more human.

We like the city.

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(addition by Danielle)
Josh forgot to mention the diet coke lady. She knows us too; she's a little farther down the street than the milk man but she is the faithful one who always has a cold diet coke for me on those afternoons when I need a little bit of pick me up. I'm trying my hardest not to get addicted to caffeine so I only drink coffee on the 3 mornings when I don't run... however, on the 4 days of the week that I do run, it's sometimes okay to have an afternoon diet coke when the day is growing long and there's still a lot to do. For instance, today is Friday; usually by Friday afternoon I've worked several 10 hour days already so I take it easy (and thus don't drink diet coke), except for weeks like this when there is no "take it easy" so I had two diet cokes today and worked til 6. And the faithful diet coke lady was there to provide the needed stimulant. She's also one of the first people we pass when we're returning home so if the power's out she's there to let you know.... when it went out and that she has no idea when it will come back on... but for some reason I always ask.