Shanghai Larisons: Survived First week

We have now lived in Shanghai for one full week. It was a week of up and downs and lots of learning experiences. Mark's first week of work went well. Busy meeting with people and learning the ropes of a new job in China. We were still experiencing some effects of jet lag. Waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep and very tired during the day. Hopefully this next week will be better. We had to deal with the government again to get Mark's work visa and my extended Visa. We are always very thankful to have interpreters with us during these experiences. The grocery store continues to bring us many challenges. Just trying to figure out what is in those packages, how to make them and if we actually like the food inside. I decided to go to the store one day and make a good old chicken dinner. Our tiny little oven has a rotisserie inside so I thought I would buy a whole chicken and have that ready. Well the chicken looked liked how we would buy a whole chicken in a store so I brought it home. When I unwrapped the chicken I found out they had tucked the neck, head and everything underneath so I couldn't see it until it was completely out. Well that freaked me out having those eyes looking at me. I couldn't make the chicken as I wasn't about to cut into the chicken and just wanted that dumb bird out of the house. Needless to say Mark had to deal with that chicken later when I was out of the kitchen and we had something else to eat that night.
The next night Mark decided to take me out to dinner so I wouldn't have to look at dead animals in my sink.We ate at an Italian restaurant which was very good.
Our driver has been good. You kinda feel like a rock star when you come off the elevator and the door man opens the door for you to go out and then your driver is waiting for you right outside and opens and shuts the car door for you. It is pretty easy to get easy to this treatment. It is a little uncomfortable at this point being in their with your driver and not talking to him. Also when you go somewhere he just waits for you until you need your ride back again. He always asks me when he picks me up again if I want to go back home...I always say yes but the home he is asking me about and the home I want to go back to are not the same one.
We now have wireless Internet and an upgraded cable package in the apartment. The wireless is nice but with the updated cable we can still only find 4 English speaking channels so the 100+ channels are wasted on us.
Being in a service apartment is very nice. Our place gets cleaned on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday. Kinda feel like I'm in a hotel except they come and clean even when you are still in the room. Or in the shower like on the first day. I was a little shocked to come out of the bathroom and find out she was in the bedroom changing the sheets...I had a towel on but lesson learned to be more prepared for "company" at all times.
We continue to go for lots of walks to explore the neighborhood and try to find things. I think we will try to find a more expat grocery store to help out with my food issues.
We went out on Saturday night with 3 other 3M couples. One couple from Asia, one from Belgium and the other from MN. It was fun and they were helpful with tips. I plan to meet the women again and explore the area. We are all here for varied lenght of stays with one couple heading to St. Paul in December. Mark and I also took the subway on Sat during the day and went to The Bund area and did some sight seeing. We went up the Pearl tower and got a pretty good view of the city. With the smog issues you just can't see that far very well. One level had a glass bottom floor so that was a little freaky looking down. The subway was very user friendly but very crowded. We have to limited how much we use the driver and be aware of overtime etc. He gets overtime pay after 5pm and on weekends and triple pay on holidays. Not that he probably makes a huge hourly wage but we need to be mindful to give him a full day off per week etc.
So that is basically week one...and ready to start our 2nd week.

Mark in front of the Oriental Pearl Tower

Our apartment living area

Living room with nice tv that only has 4 English channels

Our small little kitchen. Also has the washer/dryer in it. Takes about 2 hours for clothes to dry. No wonder most Chinese hang their clothes out of their windows. Maybe would hold 2 pairs of jeans in it at the same time. Very small.