China Days

This past weekend and extending to today, I've been having what I refer to as "China Days". Days when I get so utterly frustrated living in China and having to deal with everything that entails. And I've only been here a month!

Shanghai has a population of about 20 million people. I think all 20 million of those people decided to follow and congregate around me all weekend. Xu Jia Hui, the part of Shanghai where we live, is one of the city's biggest shopping districts. The malls here are packed on weekends. Usually I can take this in stride, but this past weekend, it was driving me absolutely nuts. People pushing and shoving and elbowing their way in front of you for the cashier, the elevator, the escalator, the metro, taxis. People casually lighting up cigarettes anywhere and everywhere. People hawking up phlegm. Shopping for a 12RMB (1.50 USD) item and having to walk halfway across the mall floor to find a cashier (why can't each shop have their own cashier?). Fighting for space on the sidewalks with mopeds, bicycles, and cars. Dodging cars, buses, mopeds, trucks, bicycles and everything else with wheels when trying to cross the street. It's all been driving me crazy.

Today, I was going to meet with a bunch of other American women to tour a silk factory. The map made it look really straightforward. You take metro line 4, get off, walk along the street for a bit, then make a right turn, walk a bit, and make another right turn and you should be there. Not so easy. I got to the part where you get off the metro and walk along the street, but this metro station, unlike the others I had been to, has no English on its maps. You kind of have to guess what is where. After walking up and down that street for about an hour and a half, I gave up on finding the street I needed and simply got back on the metro. Even looking at the map, I still am not clear how I missed the street.

This evening, Eric is off on a business trip. I don't know when he'll be back and neither does he. He is scheduled to go to Taiwan. Today he just found out that he may also need to go to Dubai. We don't know yet. Two couriers stopped by, one about 3 hours before his flight left with his ticket to Taiwan, the other about an hour later with his passport. I don't think I need to say that we are both starting to lose our minds.

As if things couldn't get crazier, our household shipments are not coming this week as we had thought. The shipping company had not made the government deadline with the proper documents. Which isn't surprising since we keep getting different information about what documents are needed and then when we think we have submitted everything, they ask for something else. This has been going on for the past week and a half. Just today, we were asked for a letter confirming that we had an employment offer here. Then 3 hours later, we got the message that it was too late and we needed to try again later when Eric (and his passport) are back. I wonder if the officials here are just making stuff up as they go along. I better find my 4th grade school report on the planet Neptune in case they want that, too.

So, I don't think I need to say that I'm tired. Although it's only 6p, I'm feeling ready for bed. A better plan would be to go to the gym and then go to bed. I think I'll try for that one.