Week Two in Shanghai

Our first morning… June Cleaver I am not… but I was going to get up to make some breakfast for Michael.  On my first trip to the grocery, I had bought oatmeal, cereal and bread.  I thought I would make some oatmeal and toast… after all I have an oven!  But much to my dismay, the oven is not functioning.  I am not sure what the issue is… maybe the breaker is off or not hooked up… but definitely no heat!  I should have known something was a rye when upon opening the door… it looked too brand new!  I am wondering if it was ever working.  Soooo we had bread and jam with oatmeal.  I am improvising everything since we do not have our stuff… it would be easier to eat out all the time… but breakfast works better at home.

So we are getting settled in and starting to discover the idiosyncrasies of the apartment and china living.  The internet and the satellite are connected … if one goes the other goes too.  And the internet was out for a day… I am lost without the internet!  It is my only communication vehicle to the states!  And of course… it goes out on the day my son-in-law is having major surgery and I have no way to find out how he is doing.  Fortunately.. we were able to get it back by Tuesday…so I spoke to Marcy the very next morning to get an update… Kenneth is doing fine now and recovering quickly, however when you ask him… he is not so positive about that!

We still have no satellite.. so no TV, but we did bring an HDMI cable and lots of movies… so the computer is hooked up to the TV and we watch movies…over and over… or listen to music.  Note to visitors… bring new movies. Hopefully today will bring the satellite repair man.

We got the dryer installed on Saturday and Monday I started to wash the mountain of dirty clothes.  The interesting twist here is that you cannot use the washer and dryer at the same time… they share the one plug that is available on the porch.  And the dryer only gets warm….cool/warm… so it takes forrrrever to dry clothes.  And we are not talking about full size loads!!!  The washer holds 3 pairs of pants… or 3-4 towels… or 3-4 pairs of sweat pants… you get the idea… tiny!!!!  It is now Wednesday and I have at least 6 more loads to go.  Yee Haw!!  And we are generating more every day.  I wash everyday just to have towels... I packed a couple in the luggage and now realize I should have packed a few more... but space was an issue. 

Finally we are getting into a normal sleep pattern, but getting used to the noises here at the apartment.  After living in the sticks where the only light and noise is what you or the coyotes make... well it is a bit different here. 

Every day we are here I get a little braver…. Tuesday was no exception.  I actually went to the grocery today all by myself.... I hailed a cab and used my cheat notes to tell the driver where I wanted to go.  I took my time and browsed.  The language barrier is proving to be a challenge.  I managed to get almost everything on my list ... I either stumbled over it or managed to play charades with the sales lady until we figured it out.  However ... just an outing like that is exhausting for this rather out of shape older lady.  Note to self… never buy too much when out by yourself.  Carrying over loaded bags and trying to hail a cab is waaaaaay to much!!!!

The landlady came Wednesday also… she had an internet person with her.  It seems our router has an intermittent issue… so we have a new router… the oven works now too… it is amazing what a little electricity can do for an appliance.  We have TV again too.  All is right with the universe again!

We went for our residence visa interview at immigration today also.  I could not fathom what kinds of questions we might be asked.  Well…’ interview’ is not a word I would use to describe what this little event actually was all about.  We signed our applications, sat down in front of a representative of the police … she looked over our papers and us… one by one… we got yet another picture taken… then she waved us off.  Done… lasted about 5 minutes…..never said one word to us.  Next Wednesday we will have our residence visa in hand and our passports back in our possession.  The best part of this process…. next Wednesday afternoon… we can have our household shipment delivered to the apartment…providing customs clears it and do not have heartburn about anything in the shipment. 

Michael and I set out on foot to the Century Mart.  This is yet another supermarket, only this one is really close to our place.  We are trying to check out as many as we can to determine which is the best and has to most products we would like.  I have concluded that most of these places are all a bit like a Wal-Mart… this one has three floors.  Two of which are kitchen, clothes, bedding, electronic, the hard wares.  The main floor is all food.   There is a small section of imported fares… you can tell it is expensive as it is sectioned off by hardwood floors.  There are some things about this one that is better than the CarreFour or Lotus and other aspects that are not so great.  I can certainly see this store as the place I can walk to for short lists.  It is only a few blocks from the apartment.

Bread is bought in the bakeries here.  We have several really good bakeries within walking distance of our apartment.  These fresh baked goods here are really yummy… however there are a number of baked goods that are quite different…stuffed with sweetened shredded meats and such.  But I have found some loaves of multigrain breads that are delish!! 

We also found a drug store.  Without going into detail of what we were looking for… here is a tip you might want to do before heading out… assuming you speak very little to no Chinese.  First remember that what we commonly call things in the US are not words that are translated in Chinese easily or at all.  Tip of the day… go to the computer and look up what you need…. Translate to Chinese… take it with you.  We had 3 very nice Chinese ladies trying to help, one of which I think was a pharmacist.  There are just some things that charades just cannot help you with.  They even called a man to try to help translate.   We persevered… and walked out with an herb that would help with the issue.  And yes we looked up the herb when we got home to make sure we did not buy something that would harm us.