Inside China: Experience the Daily Routine of a Foreigner in Shanghai (work life and brunch dates)

[@mitchelllee3503]

That doughnut looks really tasty.

[@ExpatNatt]

I keep thinking about it. It was soooo good. I’ll have to go back into the city soon to get another one 😍

[@henryshen6988]

Seems like very safe to walk in the early morning 😊

[@ExpatNatt]

@@henryshen6988 it definitely is! ☺️

[@pauladonaldson9867]

Thanks Natt, great video of your 'mundane life'!!!! Food looks amazing x

[@ExpatNatt]

Thanks for watching! ❤️❤️

[@dodid0]

Enjoyed this more than I thought I would! Can relate to the dragginess of the routine, but sprinkling some friends and brunches in between the days certainly helps ;) Kudos for the 5am commute 🙄

[@ExpatNatt]

Thanks for watching! I try to balance work and social life as much as I can otherwise I think I might go crazy 😂

[@ИринаКарась-ю7ш]

I don't know about others, but I enjoy watching everyday life videos a lot💘

[@ExpatNatt]

Thanks for watching! ❤️

[@linus631]

All the food looj so delicious! Thank you for sharing!

[@ExpatNatt]

Thank you for watching! ❤️❤️

[@Anonymous------]

Nice video of close-up shots of food.

[@ExpatNatt]

Thank you!❤️🥰

[@edwin-qb3lm]

You are an early bird in your place of residence! The place was like a ghost town! I like how you explore different cities and taste different cuisine, your life could never be bring! I feel through yout videos, that it is I who is travelling and tasting the food! You are like my medium! 👍💟💓

[@ExpatNatt]

Thank you for watching! I always try to choose music and film shots to make you feel like you guys are here with me (although I’m very much still an amateur videographer/editor). ❤️❤️

[@liamporter1137]

Thanks for sharing and surfacing the truth. 👏👍

[@ExpatNatt]

Thanks for watching!🥰❤️

[@JohnnysCafe_]

It's wonderful when you love your job especially when you are in such an amazing city, very enjoyable video Natt 😀

[@ExpatNatt]

Thank you for watching!❤️❤️

[@cogniktive1147]

You managed to make a megalopolis of 25M people look and sound kinda bucolic lol good editing 👌🏽

[@ExpatNatt]

Hahah thank you 😅❤️

[@shijiemiao723]

even your everyday life is fun

[@ExpatNatt]

I have to agree! There's always something to do in Shanghai!

[@alessiii58]

天哪，怎么早起来😂，video 录制的真好，bgm也好听应景，下了很大功夫

[@ExpatNatt]

哈哈哈 因为要去市区上班 呜呜呜

[@leelexus5515]

Beautiful young girl ( just follow your heart while you still young) a like from Singapore 🎉

[@ExpatNatt]

Thank you for watching! ❤️❤️

[@user-zj8cf3fq8e]

Wow, that donut looks really good.

[@ExpatNatt]

It tasted even better than it looked 😍

[@asl6304]

All the food you ordered for brunch looked amazing! I could happily cycle between Mongolian food, pizza/hot dogs, and Korean food throughout a week! I wonder how much the donut cost, or in general, bakery/pastry shop items-- just today, I paid $9.37 (in USD, factoring in tax) for a sfogliatelle in Los Angeles, California lol

[@ExpatNatt]

Oh my goodness, that's a lot! I can't remember exactly, I think it was around 18RMB which is around $2.60 USD. It was bigger than you'd get from Krispie Kreme or Dunkin' (not that we can get either of those in Shanghai anymore 🥲). Bread is more expensive, maybe $5-8 for a loaf of freshly baked sourdough bread from a bakery.

[@Hoo88846]

Noodles, dumplings, rice, rice wine, rice noodles, tea, tea ceremony, hotpot, bean curd, miso, soy sauce, chopsticks, are all Chinese inventions, without which you can’t enjoy “Korean cuisine” or “Mongolian cuisine” or “Japanese cuisine”. I much prefer the inventor brand Chinese food. I live in Los Angeles, too, and it’s filled with the true authentic Chinese cuisine. Chinese Ming Dynasty culture becomes “Korean culture”. Chinese Tang Dynasty culture becomes “Japanese culture”. China is the authentic and full version. Ramen comes from the Chinese word lamian meaning “pulled noodles” and it’s Chinese, not “Japanese”. Jjajangmyon comes from the Chinese word zhajiangmian or fried sauce noodles and it’s Chinese, not “Korean”. Japan and Korea are trying hard to erase Chinese culture and history and doing cultural genocide of China by misbranding everything Chinese invented as “Japanese” or “Korean”. Chinese supermarkets and restaurants sell the authentic cuisine. China has Eight Major Regional Culinary styles. Japan and Korea just keep copying from China and pretend everything is “Japanese” or “Korean”. I shop and eat at Chinese restaurants in Los Angeles, not as much in the copycat Japanese and Korean restaurants. Those ingredients they use in their cuisines originated from China, so why spend more money eating copycat brands when I am surrounded by authentic Chinese brands that I can order from Sam Woo, 168 Supermarket, Fortune Supermarket. Chinese brands are authentic and cheaper. Japanese and Korean copycat brands of soy sauce, tea, miso, dumplings, bean curd, etc are just overly advertised and they aren’t “Japanese” or “Korean”, but Chinese. ❤❤

[@nickh9108]

I think I just gained about 20 lbs watching this vlog. Thanks for sharing.. loved it.

[@ExpatNatt]

Thanks for watching! We actually only eat unhealthy things once a week so most of the vlogs are a compilation of our naughty days (otherwise we would gain 20lbs every week!) 😅

[@AF-wr9hx]

That restraint is next door to where my daughter lives!

[@ExpatNatt]

Oh wow! It’s a great area to live in! 🥰

[@humgarchaun]

good job Natt ^^ love your videos

[@ExpatNatt]

Thanks for watching!❤️❤️

[@tullicui928]

Hello Nat, love your content, you two are such a nice couple☺. I wanted to ask if your job is paid well, I assume rent in SH must be pretty high. I may consider also moving to CHN but havent properly informed myself of job prospects there. Cheers!🌼

[@ExpatNatt]

Thanks for watching! My salary is higher than I’d get for the same position in the UK and allows for us to live comfortably. We also live outside of the city (hence why I need to be up at 5am each day) which keeps renting costs down! If you live in the city centre you might find that the salary doesn’t stretch as far as you might like hahah ❤️

[@tullicui928]

Thank you for your reply! I was wondering about salary comparisons between Europe and CHN. Personally, I have many friends in Germany who are teachers and love teaching but our current educational system is kinda messed up with not enough teachers and lacking funding severely (which reflects in teacher's salary and teaching materials made available). Your reply gave me clarity about that . Some friends and I were pondering moving out from europe (for a while) due to the various problems we have and will have with the declining economy and stuff. Maybe a second or third tier city will be more forgiving regarding rent, but then nobody speaks english there and the choice of international exposure is limited, time will tell. All the best 💫

[@ExpatNatt]

Sadly the salary really depends on your passport. If you don’t have a passport from the UK, US, AUS, NZ, SA, Canada then you cannot legally teach English and other teaching areas don’t pay as well. For jobs outside of teaching the salary isn’t much higher than that in the west ❤️

[@LanyLouren]

Hi! I lived in Songjiang for 2 years, near Wanda Plaza. I wanted to make friends but sometimes is not easy. Pity we never met ☺

[@ExpatNatt]

We live not too far from Wanda Plaza too, it seems so many people live here now! ❤️

[@alyciawang2892]

, thank you

[@Catalonia]

Favorite pizza is in songjiang?

[@jucee777]

Great video, thanks for sharing. What about the rent prices?

[@ExpatNatt]

Thanks for watching! It completely depends on where you live in the city. When we lived here h the former French concession area we paid 7500rmb/month for a one bed tiny apartment with broken plumbing and no elevator. Now we have a large two bed apartment outside of the city in Songjiang and pay around 2500/month with deductions. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend living here but twice the city for expats though unless you are living owning your own settle in China. It can be pretty antisocial and there’s not really access to western foods or events. If you share with multiple roommates the rental price will be lower too!

[@wotwstDivineTurtle]

🙂

[@JakobMax-m6m]

Man i wish i know China is amazing instead of scare to try something new, i luv chinese cities n village

[@exeit8649]

Do you prefer living on the outskirts in Songjiang or downtown Shanghai? What are the biggest differences for you?

[@ExpatNatt]

Both have their benefits. I enjoy living in Songjiang because it’s quiet and peaceful (and sooo much cheaper like 1/3 of the price), but I also miss the convenience of the city where I could get anywhere quickly and be more social and also not have to get up at 5 to go to work. Out here we rely on the car a lot whereas in the city centre you really don’t need a car

[@exeit8649]

@@ExpatNattIf you are staying for just 1 year in China do you think it is better to be living downtown in Shanghai or outskirts in Songjiang? Can you really say lived in Shanghai if you lived in Songjiang? ( daily living?)

[@ExpatNatt]

@@exeit8649 if only one year definitely choose the city centre. Even if you’re only planning 2 maybe 3 years in Shanghai I’d still recommend the city centre. For us we are planning to build our life and raise a family here so Songjiang is a good place to settle but for expats definitely stay in the city. The food options are much more limited out here!

[@sayaandyangsaya2756]

Another wonderful day.

[@ExpatNatt]

Thank you for watching! ❤️❤️

[@OguejiDavid-ey4cw]

Cute and beautiful natt, ❤❤❤

[@ExpatNatt]

❤️❤️

[@charleneji6759]

Always enjoy your video. 😀 Poor air quality this winter in Shanghai. You probably want to have an air purifier at home. :-)

[@ExpatNatt]

Thank you for watching! I don’t actually spend much time at home but I always have the air purifier on at work. ❤️

[@jerryyee5209]

Songjiang!

[@ExpatNatt]

Yes! We live in Songjiang 👌 Represent more than just the city centre 😂

[@pauladonaldson9867]

Did Miu get any doughnut????

[@ExpatNatt]

He didn’t even want a bite of mine! He doesn’t have a sweet tooth like me 😅

[@nyamnyamjup]

Hi I’m from the UK. Do you ever miss London? Because I would not 😂

[@ExpatNatt]

Hi! Honestly even when I was living in the UK I never felt like London was a suitable place for me personally. I have been many times but never really felt safe and comfortable things aren’t as convenient or open for long hours compared to Shanghai so I really have never even considered missing London 😅😅

[@beekay4906]

Nice video :) Can I ask, what is the starting salary for an English teacher these days? I taught English in Shanghai in 2014 and was on 14k a month. What's it like now?

[@ExpatNatt]

@@beekay4906 it completely depends on what type of school you work in and your experience as a teacher and the type of passport you hold. If you hold a passport from UK, US, Canada, SA, NZ, AUS, Ireland you can expect anywhere between 11k-38k rmb per month really.

[@beekay4906]

@ExpatNatt I have UK passport. To be honest, when I taught English before, my work to life balance was terrible because (a) I was working full time hours and (b) there are so few holidays in China so I never had enough time off to travel like I wanted to. At that time (2014), working part time wasn't really a thing, you couldn't get a visa for part time work - only full time. Do you know if that's changed? If I could work part time I would move back to Shanghai TOMORROW! (thanks for answering my question, by the way, really appreciate it)

[@ExpatNatt]

@@beekay4906 I am only aware of full time work. I leave the house at 5:20 in the morning and get home around 19:00 to give an idea of how long the days are 😭 but I do get Christmas and summer vacation so there’s enough holiday time to travel for sure. I forgot to mention that salary will also depend on what type of teaching qualification/degree you have got and also if you have a masters degree your salary will be on the higher end of the spectrum.

[@beekay4906]

@ExpatNatt up at 5 and back at 7, a 14 hour day, sounds precisely like my idea of hell. That's a shame, Shanghai is literally my favourite place in the world, I went to Uni there for a year and then taught there for a year after that. It's my dream to live there again one day but I need a better work / life balance. I'll need to think of something else other than teaching. Tbh I was shit at it anyway 🤷 I think you're just cut from a different cloth. I'm in my 30s now, but even in my 20s I would have never been able to do the 14 hour days you do.

[@ExpatNatt]

@@beekay4906 I don’t live in the city centre so I have quite a long commute into work and then back home which makes it longer. It is pretty exhausting but it’s worth it for the salary. You need to have at least 2 years of recent teaching experience to get a job in a school here but you could work in a training centre to get that experience. I worked in a training centre when I first moved to China and on paper it looks like less hours but really I used every spare day lesson planning, there weren’t really any holidays, and the pay was around 11k a month. Definitely not worth it and didn’t include health insurance which is super important to have. Working in a school the hours are very regular and I get to know my kids much better so despite the long days it less exhausting that working in a training centre like EF 😂

[@Zhen-Lin-CHN]

2:25 Your new friend slipped away behind you

[@ExpatNatt]

Hahah yes I noticed this too 😅😅

[@Abhishekkumar-up8zw]

what job do you do ? English Teacher ??

[@ExpatNatt]

Yes, I am an English teacher at an international kindergarten

[@Abhishekkumar-up8zw]

​@@ExpatNatt oh I guess right 😂 ,, teaching dozens of cute kids is the best thing to do ❤❤.

[@ExpatNatt]

They are adorable. I love my job 🥰

[@alex100yi]

在上海起来这么早？我们都要睡到8点多才起来呢，年轻人太疯狂了

[@ExpatNatt]

哈哈哈 因为要去市区上班 呜呜呜

[@alex100yi]

@@ExpatNatt 辛苦，悠着点...

[@Deamon-g4m]

English teacher 一看就高薪。国际学校一个月至少3-4w rmb

[@ExpatNatt]

哈哈哈😆 差不多

[@ll-io4bd]

It looks like a BBC filtered video😅

[@SamMcNeill-q6w]

You little video has that Amélie vibe and you are Amélie of course 😅

[@partyhu]

祝你多赚点，这样就可以在市区租房子，不用起那么早了。