As a tall, redheaded white guy in Shanghai, Woodrow Wilson High School’s 1999 valedictorian Elias Glenn really stands out from the crowd. But since Shanghai is his new home, he doesn’t let it bother him. Glenn has been living there since August 2003 when he sold his car and bought a one-way ticket. That wasn’t Glenn’s first trip there, however. As a college junior, Glenn spent a semester in the country. “There were a lot of things that brought me back to — everyone knows about the economic growth … I also wanted to work on fluency in the language, and, most importantly, I met a girl.” That girl happened to be the niece of his host family, and the two stayed in touch when he returned to the states to finish college. Finally, in October 2006, they married. Though he has lived and worked in for almost four years, Glenn says that it still takes getting used to. “The homes are not insulated, so you have to get used to wearing lots of clothes in the house in the winter, and you put a bamboo mat on your mattress to stay cool in the summer.” The adjustment must not be that difficult, however, because Glenn isn’t planning to return to the anytime soon — though he does say he misses a “nice, big glass of fresh iced-tea, with ice!”

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