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Today the sky is bright, though overcast. Yesterday afternoon was in an odd sort of permanent twilight, probably a combination of smog and clouds. The temperatures are rising and we don't need heavy winter wear much. This past weekend, we did go to one of the many 'copy markets' here in Shanghai and buy some warmer coats, partly because of the spring sales and also because we are going to Beijing for the weekend. Beijing is supposed to be cold. Keep in mind we are now thin-skinned southerners who have gotten accustomed to the mild Atlanta, Georgia winters so that 'cold' takes on a different meaning than our childhoods in Minnesota and upstate New York. 50 degrees is cold. 60 degrees is chilly. Lower 70's also might require a light sweater.
A dollar can go a long ways here in China. At the copy market, we bought 4 coats (2 winter, 2 light jackets), 3 men's dress shirts, and 5 ties all for around 120 US dollars. Not bad. We returned to the market we had seen the other day when we out for lunch with our Chinese teacher's friend. The alley next to the metro station was full of vendors as was the street next to it. People were selling the usual purses, watches, and DVDs. Places like this are excellent for just people watching. If you are intent on buying things other than DVDs and CDs, you're probably better off at a place like the copy market we had been to earlier. We got back on the metro and went to People's Square. We ended up in a park near the People's Square park with the Shanghai Museum. This park had a mini amusement park with a carousel and a few other rides, including bumper cars. For 5 RMB (about 60 cents, US) a person, we had to do it. I took a short video of the bumper cars. It appeared that the people in the cars were carefully trying not to hit each other. That changed once we got into the ring.
That was a lot of fun; the best 5 RMB we've spent.
Yesterday we met with a friend of our Chinese teacher, Charlene. Kelly is about our age and lives in Hong Kong. She grew up in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. when she was 15. Her family is good friends with Charlene. We met at her hotel, which is in a part of Shanghai we hadn't seen yet. The people at her hotel recommended a Shanghainese restaurant nearby. We had to struggle through a packed street market in order to get to the place. I think Eric and I will definitely have to go back. There are people selling all kinds of goods and the street food looks so good. We saw a man carrying a monkey and another carrying an air conditioner. I love stumbling across those places. The weather yesterday and today is beautifully sunny. Rain is predicted for Saturday, but in the meantime, it should be clear.
I am hoping to find a good place where I can find dried beans. The only ones I have found so far look like black turtle beans, but are green on the inside and taste like lima beans. There's a couple of 'expat' stores that I'm going to check out. Here's to hoping.
I'm having difficulty lately accessing my blog front page. I can still get to the Dashboard and edit / create posts, but I can't see the blog itself. If you're in the U.S. and also can't get to it, let me know via email.
One thing I've learned in the brief time I've lived here in China is that people rarely line up neatly. Rather, everyone pushes their way to the front of the line and if you want to make it through, you need to learn to shove. Here is where all the skills I learned playing rugby come in handy. Push, shove, elbow, straight arm, push, elbow, shove, straight arm, elbow.
Yesterday Eric and I stuffed ourselves into a metro car with what seemed to be a quarter of the city's population. We were packed so tightly, you could not slip a single sheet of paper between the people. There was no real need to hold onto anything as the car lurched forward since you literally could not possibly move anywhere. Thank goodness that all I had in my backpack was a soft coat and not anything fragile, like a priceless Ming vase; it surely would have been crushed into oblivion. We only had to ride for 2 stops and then had to struggle out the door since we were the only ones getting out at that stop. You could almost hear an audible 'POP!' as we freed ourselves.
On Saturday afternoon, we met with a friend from Eric's office to go up the Pearl Tower. There is an observation deck up there that affords a wonderful bird's eye view of the city. In the base of the tower is the Shanghai Municipal History Museum. The museum shows traditional life in the city and the history of the foreign concessions in Shanghai. I recommend that anyone visiting Shanghai should do this. It is really quite fascinating.
The entrance to the tower was decorated with red lanterns. A uniformed band was playing 'Auld Lang Syne.' The crowd was fairly light. Penny told us that on holidays, you can wait in line for an hour in order to take an elevator up.
It was really cool to see the city of Shanghai from this perspective. In the foreground is the Bund. From this height, cars and people were tiny. You could see sparks from new construction as workers welded.
Digital cameras are ideal for a person like me. I tend to take tons of pictures, often of the same thing. If you look at the picture files on the computer here, you'll see hundreds of the pictures of the cat, a dozen or so pictures of some eggs, scores of pictures of grass and so on. I don't profile all the pictures I take here, but most of them end up on my Flickr page. Check them out. The link is at the right: S Flickr page. I need to really sit down and organize my Flickr. I should probably start by taking a break from uploading more pictures.
On Sunday, we visited the Yu Garden Bazaar. Yu Garden is a garden (duh) with teahouse set in it. It is known for the zigzag bridge leading to the teahouse. Around Yu Garden is a bazaar. The bazaar is 4 floors of stalls selling anything you can imagine: socks, cell phones, calculators, underwear, jewelry, kitchen sponges. Shanghai people think of it as a tourist trap and it is. But it still fun to walk around there.
Later this week, we'll likely go clothes shopping. We don't have enough warm clothing. Though the air shipment delivery has been estimated at 15-20 days and the ocean at 6-8 weeks, we had not really considered when the countdown would begin. In our defense, no one really told us. Right now, we are waiting on our residency paperwork. Once that goes through, then the shipments will get sent and then, finally, we can start the countdown. I believe that both shipments are currently being held in Atlanta waiting for the go-ahead from the Chinese government. One other thing we need to consider is the length of our visa permits. I have a 60-day visa and Eric has a 30-day visa. If our paperwork gets delayed past the beginning of April, Eric will need to leave the country for a few days and come back in order to reset the clock on his visa. Fortunately, he has a multi-entry visa, which means he can exit and re-enter the country however many times until the visa expires. Here's to hoping the paperwork goes through quickly.
Another rainy day. I spent this morning working on my resume and surfing the internet looking for jobs at American companies in Shanghai. One of Eric's coworkers knows a local headhunter and is willing to pass my resume on to her. That done, I went down to the apartment business center to print out a sign that says "Don't let the cat out" in Chinese for the maids.
小心,别让猫出去.
See the third character from the right? That is the character for 'cat'. I think it looks like a cat with ears on top and a tail to the left.
The computer in the business center is a challenge since the screen is mostly in Chinese (I know, what did I expect being in China). After waiting for 20 frustrating minutes, I gave up on the printer producing anything but noise.
I went back to the apartment and did laundry again. Our wardrobes are quite limited since much of it is still in transit. I attempted to iron some shirts with our odd little ironing board. I set the iron on it and the thing immediately collapsed. I picked the sad thing up and found 2 screws on the floor. Even a its highest setting, the board is so low that I need to stoop to use it. Mind you that I am about 5 feet tall, about the height of the average Chinese, so I have no idea who this ironing board was built for.
Going to the kitchen to make a sandwich, I discovered that the bread had turned into a science experiment. I suppose I could keep it around and hang moldy slices to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. On a positive note, that provided a good excuse to go to the bakery and get more bread and sweet buns.
In other news, my sister just had her baby on March 8. Little Juvon Choi Mitchell weighed in at 7 lb 6 oz. His big brother, Jamar, gets to hold him (with help). Jamar likes to give his baby brother kisses, but when he's finished, he's finished. Jamar pushes the baby away and goes onto more interesting things. Not unexpected behavior for an 18 month old. So, that's one baby here and one to go. Eric's brother's wife is due any day now. We got pictures of the nursery via email. The room is a beautiful shade of yellow. The color reminds me of the color I had in my kitchen in Indianapolis -- lemon parfait.
Our apartment in Shanghai came equipped with a combo washer dryer. For those of you unfamiliar with this type of appliance, it is simply a machine designed to both wash and dry your clothes. Simple enough.
Washing clothes is easy enough, though the first time I washed a load, I had water everywhere. Someone had neglected to tighten the water supply line in the cupboard.
Drying clothes is a new challenge. First, you need to remember to turn the water supply off, otherwise, you end up washing your clothes again. I forgot to do that once and ended up with a hot wet mess. Even if done correctly, the clothes take forever to properly dry. There is no vent like with a dryer (I suppose that's impractical since it needs to hold water in order to wash), so clouds of steam come out the front. I find it easier to use a Chinese-style dryer, which is just a large drying rack you set out on the balcony. Thankfully, the apartment also came equipped with one. Hanging clothes out to dry is a very Chinese thing. Everywhere you go, you will see clothes hanging out of windows drying, either on lines or poles. I'll have to take a picture sometime.
These past two days have been cold and rainy. I did some wash yesterday and had to set up the drying rack in the bathroom in order to hang up clothes to dry. Today is the kind of grey, dreary day that compels you back to bed with a cup of hot tea and pastry. In fact, I just had a cup of hot tea and a pastry. Mugsy is curled in my lap. I gave him a bit of my pastry, which he ate with his usual relish.
I have a sweet tooth and cakes and sweet breads are a weakness. Unfortunately, there are good bakeries in abundance and the goods are fairly cheap (about 50-60 cents for a raisin bun or a pain au chocolat). Unfortunate in that this is easy temptation. Yesterday, I set out from the apartment to visit Bread Talk for some raisin buns. (I don't know why it's called 'Bread Talk'. I saw another place called 'Juice Talk'.) Bread Talk is located in a mall which is easily identified by a large glass globe.
Our apartment is near an intersection where 5 streets converge. Zhao Jia Bang Road is a main thoroughfare with several lanes of traffic. There is a overpass pedestrian walkway (where this picture was taken), which we use to get to the building with the big glass globe (we are situated kitty-corner from the globe). Of course I didn't take the simple way of getting to Bread Talk. I crossed the street from another direction and decided to cross again at another point and take the scenic route to this mall and to Bread Talk. Nearly an hour and what seemed to be several kilometers later, I was seriously lost. Thankfully taxis are plentiful and cheap. When I got tired of wandering in the drizzle and was ready for the comfort of Bread Talk, I hailed one and got a ride back home.
Once you get off the main streets and onto the smaller, quieter side streets, you can easily lose your way. I had a hard time pinpointing any landmarks. It's hard to memorize street and business names when they're in Chinese. (Did that character have a hat or a tail? Both?) I found a small market and bought some fruit. They spoke very little English and I speak very little Chinese. Along the streets are tiny shops, hardly bigger than a closet, each filled with merchandise for sale. Cell phone stall next to a shoe stall, next to one filled with socks next to one selling underwear. Almost anything you can imagine can be found. If it's not there, it's likely that the proprietors know where or who to go to. Lots of restaurants serving noodles and set dinners. Next time, when I have my dictionary, I plan to visit one of those places and have a meal.
I doubt I could find that little market again. I don't have their address and I couldn't find a street name nor did I remember to take my mini dictionary so I could ask for their address. Though I suppose that it isn't that big a deal that I won't likely be able to find that place again. Fruit stalls are plentiful.
For my next walk, I am going to try to find the church that I see from my balcony.
Mugsy got out of quarantine Monday. A courier dropped him off at around 11A. I signed for the delivery of 'one lovely cat' (really, that was on the form). After an hour of tiptoeing around our new place, he settled right in. His fur felt dusty and he seemed like he lost weight, but no worse for the wear.
We had a bugger of a time finding a proper litter pan for Mugsy. I bought a small shallow one at Carrefour, which was all I could find. Then we were at Parkson and happened across some decent-sized ones with covers. Perfect. Mugsy is a smart cat so I had no problem introducing a covered litter pan to him.
He has been quite happy and much more affectionate than usual. I assume it's because we are finally resuming a normal routine after a really topsy-turvy past month. Right now he is curled up in my lap, hoping for a nibble on my bun and a sip of my coffee.
On another note, I finally found the language settings for this blog. Since we get our internet through China Telecom, the default setting changed to Chinese. Because it was in Chinese, I accidentally deleted a section of the blog. Needless to say, I was extremely frustrated. My new mobile phone is a Chinese one and a kind woman at Eric's office configured it for me so that it reads in English. Heaven help me if the thing crashes because it'll reboot in Chinese.
This past weekend we spent riding the Metro. We took it to Shanghai Stadium and IKEA. We went to a metro stop near Eric's workplace, trying to figure out which line closest (not line 4, which was the one we were on). We then rode to People's Square and walked down Nanjing Road to the Bund. And then, from Nanjing Road back home.
There's always something going on here. On the street corner of North Cao Xi Road and West Zhong Shan Road near Shanghai Stadium, we saw this man selling rabbits and hamsters to passersby. Look closely at the picture. There's a hamster in a wheel on top of the stack. Here's a man buying a white rabbit for his girlfriend.
Further on down the street were people selling corn on the cob and hot baked sweet potatoes, cakes, watches and jewelry, umbrellas. All sorts of things. That sort of thing I expected. I was surprised to see people vending pets on the street corner.
The metro is easy to use and cheap. It does get crowded and you really need to push your way onto and off the cars. There was one station where my purse got caught on someone exiting and I simply could not move through the crush of people. Eric needed to grab me and pull me through before the doors closed. At another stop, we exited with about 85% of the other people on the metro. I was again wedged, this time by 2 women with several large shopping bags and again needed Eric to pull me through. I saw one man clinging to a pole in the car, trying desperately not to get swept away by the tide of people exiting the car.
We also went to People's Square again. We walked down Nanjing Road to the Bund. The weather is starting to improve. The sun was out and the day was quite nice. I'd like it to be a bit warmer, but I suppose in a few months I'll be whining for cooler weather.
We just got Mugsy out of quarantine. More on that later.
Yesterday, Eric and I went to the Immigration Health office to get our physicals for our residency visas. We were instructed not to eat after 8:30A the day of the examination. A very lovely woman from Eric's office, Penny, came with us to help translate. When there, we had to complete a form and then present 3 passport-sized photos, our passports, and high-quality copies of our passports. We then sat in a waiting room with a large round table in the center with an aquarium set in the middle.
When our numbers were called, our information was entered into a computer. We were then ushered into the examination area where we were instructed to remove our 'top underwear' and put on these examination robes. Don't I look lovely. At least the robe covered everything. We were also given shoes covers.
We were shuttled from room to room. First we got weighed, had blood drawn, then a chest x-ray, eye test, EKG, blood pressure, an ultrasound. We did not need to provide a urine sample. It was very efficient.
Here is part of my health form (no one needs to know my weight :) ) and my EKG.
The nurses check your papers and guide you from room to room. The doctors speak little English and tersely say 'lie on table' or simply pat it. If you've ever had an ultrasound, then I don't need to tell you about the gel. The woman had a squeeze bottle of conducive gel, which she squirted liberally over your abdomen. When she finished, she handed me a single paper towel to wipe myself off. I just used my examination robe. Eric met me as I was going into the EKG room and laughed as he told me that this would be fun. I've never had an EKG before, but I thought that you'd have a bunch of little round sticky probes stuck onto you. Maybe I watch too much television. The woman put a clamp on one ankle and one wrist and then put several probes on your chest. The chest probes had little bulbs so they suctioned onto you. It looked ancient, like it came from a Soviet yard sale. All in all, it was the fastest medical examination I've ever had.
We'll get something in the mail in about a week. We got there at about 12:45/1P. We left at around 3P and finally had some lunch.
It's Tuesday morning and I finally see the sun. Our last visit over the first of the year was cold as it is now. Lately, the cold has been combined with rain and wind. I'm having a quiet morning eating carrot bread (white bread with shredded carrot in it) spread thickly with butter (difficult to achieve much finesse with a spoon) with a bowl of tea (no mugs -- only big bowls and small bowls). The kitchen is furnished with a basic set of dishes. 4 dinner plates, 4 salad plates, 1 wok, 1 pot, 1 Dutch oven, 1 rice cooker, 1 toaster, 1 coffee maker, 1 microwave, 1 knife, 1 pancake turner. Instead of tea cups or mugs, I have 4 small tea bowls without handles. There are no butter knives or western-style metal spoons. Rather, there are 4 Chinese ceramic spoons and 4 sets of chopsticks.
Among the odds and ends tucked into our suitcases was a large spoon Eric had left in the dishwasher and 1 glass drinking beaker. I had rolled my eyes at tucking the single sad spoon into my suitcase but now, I am grateful for it. Right now I am using it as a multi-tool of sorts. Butter knife, whisk, fork, spoon.
I brought an odd assortment of items from my pantry back in Atlanta. Maple syrup, a bottle of my favorite salad dressing, baking powder, a nearly full bottle of vanilla extract, some miscellaneous spices. I don't really know why I brought the box of kosher salt. I also tucked in a couple of pans I had bought at a discount place in Atlanta. I hadn't thought about food preparation when the movers came to pack up everything, so I neglected to hold any pans or utensils back and had them all put in the ocean shipment. We've been to a nearby grocery here and also to Carrefour (so-called French Wal-Mart). There are many other things I wish I knew to tuck into my bag before I got here. I haven't yet found a baking aisle with supplies like flour and baking soda. I suppose that I'll figure out where all this stuff is in time. In the meantime, excellent bakeries are plentiful and cheap here.
Also found in our luggage, leg supports for our bed frame. Which is in storage along with the bed. On an unrelated note, Eric got back some odd change when we were shopping.
Look closely at the first picture. These coins, despite being about the same size, are not the same. On the right is a 1 cent Chinese coin. Oddly enough, the other coin is Jamaican. Makes you wonder how a Jamaican coin managed to make it over here in China. Speaking of money, I got a 1 cent bill the other day. You heard me. Paper pennies.
[Oops. Correction: this is a 10 cent bill, not a 1 cent bill.]
Thursday was our last day in the U.S. Our flight was scheduled to depart early Friday morning. We planned to close up the house that afternoon and spend the night in a hotel near the airport.
Thursday day was, not surprisingly, busy. I had spent the better part of Wednesday night tucking in odd things into all the bags and then carefully weighing them on the bathroom scale. The next day I lugged all the suitcases downstairs and lined them up in the kitchen so I could systematically go through the upstairs rooms and make sure they were all clear.
Mugsy was scheduled to be picked up by the pet service people at around noon. The woman with the pet service was about an hour late because she got lost. Our house is located on West Court. 'West' is the name of the street. Oftentimes, people think 'Court' is the name of the street and that the address is W. Court Street. Which is what happened with the pet lady. She arrived about an hour late. I had just bundled Mugsy into his carrier and got him out the door when I got a call from Eric telling me that someone was coming to see the house. Eric had the van that day and was hoping to get home in time to pick me up so that the people could view the house without me there. It was pouring rain outside so a nice walk around the block was out of the question (the umbrella was carefully packed in one of the suitcases -- springtime is rainy in Shanghai). I spent a frantic 20 minutes picking up around the house and tossing out the cat litter box before the visiting realtor and client were at the door. We were not expecting them so quickly. I politely excused myself and spent the next 40 minutes in the garage. About 5 minutes after they were finished looking at the house and on their way out, Eric arrived home.
With that out of the way, we walked through the house to make sure we got everything. We met with our realtor later that afternoon to give her our keys and garage door openers. After that, we loaded up the van and headed down to the hotel to spend our last night in the U.S.
Our flight was scheduled to leave at about 7A. The first leg would take us to Chicago and then from Chicago to Shanghai. Mugsy would fly ATL to Amsterdam and then Amsterdam to China.
We checked into our flight bright and early on Friday. Our heaviest bags were at 69 lb (just under the 70 lb max) and the lightest was 50 lb. Atlanta had some rainstorms on Thursday and the midwest had been pounded with snowstorms. Not surprisingly, our flight to Chicago was delayed, which meant that we'd miss our connecting flight to Shanghai and would likely have to wait another night for the next flight out. Fortunately, the woman at the United desk was able to get us onto a flight to San Francisco where we could catch another flight to Shanghai. When we landed in San Francisco, all the people who had to catch a connecting international flight, and there were a lot on that flight, were instructed to go to a particular podium. There, our passports and boarding passes were checked and then we packed onto a shuttle to drive us a few hundred feet to the international terminal. We hurried to our plane and finally were able to take a deep breath and relax. Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, we crossed the International Date Line and the 2nd became the 3rd and Friday melted into Saturday. Night never came on that flight as we were flying continually west . I slept in fits and starts. Eric was able to pass out for much of the flight.
The Pudong airport was much calmer than when we had arrived back in December and the line to move through customs was short (relatively) and moved quickly. We waited a long time at the baggage carousel. We worried that since we had a last minute flight change, that our bags were somewhere in luggage limbo. This past December, Eric had flown to Hong Kong and had encountered the same situation. His flight to Chicago had been delayed and he had been transferred to another carrier (Continental) to Hong Kong. His luggage had been held at the Atlanta airport by the previous carrier (United) instead of being handed over to Continental. I had to drive to the airport, pick up the suitcase at the United office and wheel it 20 feet over to the Continental office in order for the suitcase to be sent to Eric in Hong Kong. I had nightmares of something similar happening to our bags, though we had stayed with the same carrier. My worries were unnecessary as all 5 of our checked bags finally showed up.
Eric's new boss was kind enough to send a driver with a minivan to haul us to our new place. Finally, we were home. Needless to say, we slept soundly that night.
A dollar can go a long ways here in China. At the copy market, we bought 4 coats (2 winter, 2 light jackets), 3 men's dress shirts, and 5 ties all for around 120 US dollars. Not bad. We returned to the market we had seen the other day when we out for lunch with our Chinese teacher's friend. The alley next to the metro station was full of vendors as was the street next to it. People were selling the usual purses, watches, and DVDs. Places like this are excellent for just people watching. If you are intent on buying things other than DVDs and CDs, you're probably better off at a place like the copy market we had been to earlier. We got back on the metro and went to People's Square. We ended up in a park near the People's Square park with the Shanghai Museum. This park had a mini amusement park with a carousel and a few other rides, including bumper cars. For 5 RMB (about 60 cents, US) a person, we had to do it. I took a short video of the bumper cars. It appeared that the people in the cars were carefully trying not to hit each other. That changed once we got into the ring.
