New Kid on the Block

For months now, we have been watching the slow and steady construction of a shopping center across the street from our apartment complex. I think that it has been in development pretty much since the day I arrived.

It's funny because at home, I (like many people who live similar lifestyles to me) am not a fan of mall culture. And probably, in some ways had a bit of disdain for it, to be honest. I've always been a bit of a "city kid" for lack of a better term. I mean really, I don't drive, I can't swim and I'd never seen a salamander until I was 24 years old. So how ironic that I was a bit mislead when moving to Suzhou. I thought I'd be living in a more urban part of town. When I got here, it took some time to get acclimated and find out where things were, which I thought was a natural part of moving to a new place. As I got more well versed with my immediate surroundings, the truth came out: I moved myself to the 'burbs. Sometimes the truth stinks.

One of my major city vs. suburbs frustrations here is the inconvenience factor. Things are not really far apart, but far enough. It sounds petty, but I just don't like to plan which route to walk home in order to get everything I need before I go home and/or all the shops close for the night. Now I understand why suburbs get very excited about Wal-Mart.

So it was painful to be teased by the eventual opening of this shopping center. We read about it on expat organization sites - about what it would host and when it would open. The opening seemed to be delayed further and further as time passed. All of a sudden, last week, signs starting cropping up that there would be a grand opening on April 24 (last Friday)

Upon a brief visit on grand opening day, we have a discovered a real live supermarket, a department store, a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, some bakeries, and a juice/smoothie shop. Here is a view from my balcony.



Needless to say, many people are quite happy. Now if we could just figure out how to get some more culture in this 'hood...