The Migrating Metrognome: Guest Post... A Table with a View!!

Last Friday I woke up early and called my parents on Thanksgiving to wish them a good day. They were just about to sit down to a delicious dinner with my whole family so I was lucky enough to get to see all of them and say hi to them all! It reminded Jessi and I how much we miss all of you and how much we missed Thanksgiving this year. To make matters worse we had to be on the bus at 7 to drive across town for some professional development! UGH!!! The day started with some large group meetings followed by two short workshops presented by SCIS Honqiao teachers (we are SCIS Pudong). I won't bore you with the details. Next came lunch, a half hazard attempt to create a thanksgiving meal by serving turkey and canned mashed potatoes. I appreciated the effort but the lack of Sue's squarsh, yes squaRsh, made us miss home even more. After lunch I had a meeting with all of the music faculty from the SCIS system to brainstorm plans for a festival. Little did they know that my partner, Tracey, and I already have a festival on the calendar this spring and three American college professors booked to be our guests! I love showing off sometimes! Finally, at two o'clock came an awesome reminder of why our school is a great place to work. Our administrators threw a party on the soccer pitch with beer, wine, and hours devours. They even provided several sets of bocce balls for our entertainment. Maybe professional development isn't so bad after all!

Since Jessi and I were already in Puxi (the west side of the river), and since it was our 7th anniversary (of our first date) we decided to head downtown for a fancy dinner. At first we had two friends that were going to join us but they ended up going back home to Kangqiao (our neighborhood). It was just going to be the two of us for a date! That never happens! While in the cab I made a reservation for Mercato, an italian restaurant on the bund. It was a recommendation from a friend and boy are we glad we took it. It was on the 6th floor of and old building and every seat in the restaurant had a great view across the river to the Pudong skyline. After such a long day out and about we both settled into our comfy chairs in the dark lit room and prepared to relax and celebrate. Jessi ordered an Old Fashioned and I got a Margarita with chiles and basil on the rim. It sounds weird but they really helped cut the sweetness of the drink. The waiter brought us some bread and oil, standard for an italian place, but there was a mysterious second container of oil. It was olive oil infused with the small, red chile peppers that we see all over Shanghai. It was incredibly spicy and delicious! To start, we ordered a salad made with arugula, apples, walnuts, peccorino. It was simple but amazing. Next, I ordered rigatoni with meatballs (second only to Grandma's) and Jessi got spaghetti with pesto. The noodles were homemade in house and the sauces were perfect. To finish it up we split a slice of cheesecake with passion fruit gelato. With all of the Thanksgiving neglect we had endured so far this meal really hit the spot!