What an Amazing Day!!!!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Happy Birthday to my Kendall girl!!!!  She is 11 today. 

Today was the best … I got up this morning and started my day on Skype with the kids.  Then set about mapping out my day. 

I called the Dragon Fly Spa and made an appointment to have a foot massage.  The first thing I heard on the other in was English.  I knew it would only get better.  I had been concerned about calling not sure if I would have someone on the other end that could understand English or my terrible Chinese.  I made my appointment calculating what it would take to get ready …ride the metro… and walk to their shop.  I figured a foot massage would be a cheap and safe way to check this place out.  It came highly recommended so I thought … what can go wrong with a foot massage?  So all I needed to do was show up there at 1pm.

I decided to start my book of places.  Up until now I just found it on the internet and copied stuff down.  But we have a printer now, so I started a document of addresses for places I will go regularly.  You never know when you might be running late and need to catch a cab.  I cut and paste the place and address so that I can print it off to show the driver so that if he does not understand my Chinese… I can just show him.

Dragonfly @ Hongfeng Retreat

386 Hongfeng Road, Pudong Shanghai

上海市浦东新区红枫路386号

Turns out today would be the first test of my new system.  And as luck would have it, here it is 12:30pm and there is no way I will make it to Jin Qiao on the metro and then making the walk.  So it is a cab time and I get to test out my new flash cards.  Fortunately there is a taxi at the gate and better yet it is one of the company’s I really like… yea me!  My flash cards paid off.  They worked like a champ… yea me..again!!!!!  And thinking ahead, I had put together one for everywhere I was going today just in case I needed it.

We are off and to my delight… he is eager to speak English with me and help me with my Chinese… it just keeps getting better!!!  We chat, loosely speaking, the whole trip… me with my Chinese Phrasebook and him correcting my pronunciation.  But it was great!!!  When we got to the spa… he gave me his card and told me to call him if I needed another taxi… I get another ‘yea me’ today!!! This is, without doubt, the nicest and friendliest cab driver I have had since arriving in Shanghai.  I feel like I am really starting to fit in.

Welcome to the DragonFly Spa!  I could tell when I walked in… this is going to be wonderful… the smell and the dribbling water and soft mood music.  AND… the receptionist spoke English… ahhhhhh… what a relief.  It was going to be 60 minutes of told bliss called the Oriental Foot Massage.  The description reads… ‘Relieves headache and migraine, enhances the immune system, improves blood circulation, normalizes organ and gland function.’  I don’t know if all that happened as a result of this massage, but I can tell you with the utmost honestly….IT WAS WONDERFUL!!!!!  I loved every minutes of it.  I was relaxed and pampered in the most comfortable chair that laid all the way back.  There was this pillow, reminded me of a buckwheat pillow my Mom used to have… but way smaller and more of a long rectangle… and heated.  The guy laid it across my stomach and put my hands on it…. HUMMMMMMMM!!! I know I must have been purring it was so nice.  By the time it was over… I was so relaxed… almost comatose!!! 

With all the walking we have been doing … my feet have been pretty sore.  So this was just the ticket to sooth my aching dogs!!  Well.. when offered the opportunity to buy a prepaid membership that entitled you to a 30% discount every time you have a treatment… that had my name all over it!!!  I signed up for the card and my 150 yuan foot massage reduced to 105 yuan… and when you translate that into USD…. My 60 minute slice of heaven only cost me about $18.50.  Now I ask you… is that not the best $18.50 a girl could spend?  I thought so too!!  So now I am plotting my next visit.  And Michael has decided he might would like a massage too….since I gushed all about it when I got home.

Anyway…still basking… on with my day.  My next stop is the Shanghai Community Center.  Victor, our cultural trainer, had recommended I go there and get acquainted with what is offered there to help expats and their significant others get acclimated.  We were told it was also a good place for expats to meet other expats.  They offer tours and language training.. and all kinds of social opportunities.  They also have a variety of volunteer opportunities if one has an interest. 

I decide since I blew it this morning with a cab, I could make up for it by walking it from the spa.  I had mapped it out, but did not fully realize how far it was.  As it turns out my little walk ended up being about 5 miles or so, but that’s ok… my feet were up to the challenge.  I was renewed!!

It is located in a really nice villa complex, in a clubhouse.  This was a really nice clubhouse too.  There was a convenience store and a coffee bar.  A sign and arrow pointed the way up the stairs to the ‘community center’.  Not really knowing what to expect, I slowly opened the door and poked my head in.  I was immediately greeted with a smile by a young Chinese woman asking to help me.  I introduced myself and announced I was new to Shanghai.  A bubbly young American woman came around the corner and introduced herself as Lauren and that was the beginning. 

She is from Virginia and has been here for 2 years.  We moved our conversation to a sitting area in the lobby and continued to chat there for the next 30-45 minutes.  She was just delightful.  I asked her what brought her to china and she said without hesitation…’Jesus’.  I knew this was all meant to be.  She shared information about Bible Studies and a Christian Church for Internationals.  It was just perfect.  Perhaps the plan for me is beginning to unfold and reveal itself.  I am looking forward to connecting with the Bible group and starting a fellowship at this church.  I had passed the church when I was walking from the spa.  It turned out to be on the same street.  What a blessing it was to meet Lauren.  The first thing that popped into my head was Jeremiah 29:11.  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  This was surely the beginning of something wonderful in my journey through this faraway place.

She also gave me some tips on food and restaurants.  We talked milk and meat… I was so relieved to meet someone that is as skeptical as I about the food.  She directed me to the Pines Market, which is very close to the Carrefour in Jin Qiao.  Not the Carrefour I usually go to, but being I was so close (maybe only a mile or 2) I would walk back to just to explore what the Pines Market had to offer.  I was truly a fortunate day for me to have met her and am so looking forward to connecting with her again.

I headed out to the Carrefour and the Pines Market.  This would be my first time inside this Carrefour… oh my … the first thing I see is a Bread Talk… yea!  I can get my favorite bread again… and I bought 2 loaves…just for the record.  Then I turn around and there is a Dunkin Donuts… what more could a girl ask for?  Michael will be so surprised when I bring him home a few donuts for breakfast tomorrow.  And... buy 2 get one free… a bargain to boot!  I’m having the mother lode of ’yea me’ today!!!

So bread and donuts safely tucked into my pull cart… I head into the Carrefour.  It is huge and way better than the one I usually go to in Thumb Plaza.  I wish I had more time to just walk around, but it is after 5 and I need to really step up the pace.  I wander through as quickly as I can although I have to browse a little.  The produce looks really good … I just cannot pass up a chance to get nice produce, since that is our main food consumption these days.  But I manage to buy everything on my list and get checked out.  Then over to the side to sack and load up my handy dandy pull cart with my purchases.  Everything fits but the bread and donuts...no problem, they are in a bag with a handle.  We are good to go. 

Now over to the Pines.  It is kinda funny really.  Michael and I had been right here on Sunday at the bookstore.  We did not venture in the Carrefour and the building that houses the Pines Market… we thought was some kind of sports arena… a skating rink.  It just had pictures on the outside that led us to believe that is what it was.  We could not have been more wrong.  I walked into the building and it is a restaurant row.  There was a Starbuck’s just as you come in… then one after the other of restaurants… The Blue Frog is even in here… that is a place that serves American food and it is supposed to be really good.  It was on my list of places to eat!

I find the Pines Market and it is really pretty big.  It is clearly not the size of the Carrefour, but a nice size.  The first thing I notice is 80% of the folks wandering around are American and European.  But I am so happy to see lots of American products.  Again, like the City Shop, it is more expensive, but sometimes you just gotta have that ‘something’ that tastes like home.  Fortunately we are building up our list of Import stores to choose from.  So whatever that craving is, we should be able to find it at one of the places.

I make my way through the store noting various products.  I found the milk that Lauren had recommended.  She had also advised me to look at the meat.  I ended up selecting a couple of chicken breasts, pork and ground beef.  As I was completing my tour of the store, I spotted a fairly nice selection of cheeses, and added that to my basket.  Knowing that nothing else was going to fit in my pull cart, it was time to wrap it up and check out.  With my one additional bag, I was out the door.

I had passed a gelato shop on my way to the Pines and wanted to treat myself to some ice cream.  I had skipped lunch and was getting way past hungry and working on famished.  I thought this would tide me over until I could get home.  There were only about a dozen flavors to choose from.  I selected something I thought was rather predictable…chocolate.  I took my first lick… man that has a spicy hot kick to it…. surely not the ice cream.  So I took another lick… yes, it is the ice cream.  What on earth have I gotten?  The young lady behind the counter could tell I was confused… but she did not speak any English.  We had done the ole ‘point and nod’ to select it in the first place.  As I looked closely as the card below it, it presented with a British Flag, and under the flag were the words, ‘British Spicy Chocolate’.  Oops!!!  I was committed at that point.  I had already parted with the money.  So I smiled at the ice cream lady and off I went, trying to decide if I liked this taste or not, but very disappointed it was not regular chocolate which I had expected.

I am getting good at hailing taxis… and this evening was no exception.   Loaded up and off to home sweet home with a smile of satisfaction on my face from an amazingly good day in Shanghai.