Hi! We are back in the USA! I will try to summarize our week for you.
It took us about 24 hours from the time we left our house to when we arrived at our hotel in Shanghai. We were exhausted. It was Sunday night when we got to Shanghai so we didn't see much until Monday morning. Looked out the window and the big city was there in all of it's glory. We went apartment hunting on Monday and Tuesday. Found some nice places and some not so nice places. The apartment we ended up picking is called Park View because, you guessed it...it has a nice view of a park. Zhongshan Park. It gets very exciting to see any sort of green in the big city. The apartments rent runs about $5,000.00 a month, or so I'm told. It is a 2 bedroom and has a study with a pull out couch. So lots of room for visitors! It is a service apartment which basically means someones comes in 3 times per week to clean. Also twice a week to change out the towels and once a week to change the sheets. Since I'm not working who has time to clean:) The kitchens are tiny and has the washer/dryer in there too. I can hire someone to do the laundry and dishes but somehow I think we will manage. The apartments have a gym included. It's a gated community and has a door man. The front desk people speak English too! It has good views so I'll add pictures soon.
On Wednesday we had a tour of the city. Saw the main highlights and had a tour of a grocery store. I will add pictures of that and explain more later.
Thursday was our medical exam. That is a long story in itself and will add detail for all of the medical folks out there that would appreciate the description.
Friday was the tour of Mark's office area and we went to a bank to open a checking account and got a credit card. That was interesting and a little intimidating. We did have an interpreter with us so that made things a little easier. After lunch we tried to adventure off by ourselves to the Bund area. Were the river splits the city in two. We took a taxi which was pretty inexpensive. Will have pictures of that also.
Our first thoughts when driving around the city this week is that they are crazy. We had thought about bringing our bikes along but after this week we have clearly decided against it. I will try to explain but seeing it in person really would make you appreciate the story so much more. Everything while driving seems to be a suggestion. Lanes, stopping on red, one ways...it all doesn't matter. They do not give the right away to a pedestrian even if that person is crossing with a green light. Lots of honking and lots of near misses. We found it very stressful. Mostly cars and taxis on the roads but also quite a few of bikers and motorized bikes too. Again no one follows the rules. It really is chaos. We found crossing the streets very stressful. We will have our own driver who is responsible for our car. He should be available 24/7 but they do suggest giving him one day off per week. We are hoping he speaks some English but again not being very hopeful. The best way I guess to communicate with your driver is to give him a business card of where you want to go with English on one side for you and Mandarin on the other side for him. Should be interesting.
The food is another whole story. Mark tends to like all food and is willing to try just about anything. Me, well I admit it...I'm picky and tend to stick with the foods I like. So eating was an experience. Mark liked most of it and well I have to admit I didn't. I tried it and also tried to eat with chop sticks and lets just say both will take some time getting used to.
So we are home now for less then 2 weeks. I will try to add some details to our experience later and add some pictures. Lets say for now I'm enjoying being back.
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