We're here

We arrived in Shanghai Sat evening and we were greeted by our driver, Zho, at the airport. Nice guy who seemed anxious to please. He brought us to our new home away from home and unloaded all 5 of our suitcases. We checked into the apartment and were shown all the tricks for working the appliances, signed papers etc. We were so tired at this point that we just went to bed and decided to figure out the food issue on Sunday. Woke up nice and early Sunday morning and nothing was open. So we headed to the Park and got to experience the good ole Chinese culture in action. Lots of activity in this park. People doing Tai Chi, lots of different people in groups. Just put out your tape recorded music and people just start. I don't know if this is more organized then it appears or not. Also groups dancing, singing, people bringing their birds in cages to get fresh air and sing with other birds, playing cards, painting symbols with water, lots of walkers and an occasional jogger. Mostly older people in the parks, I didn't notice many young ones. They are probably sleeping in and will go to the malls later. We were getting really hungry so we just went to a street vendor and had some kind of grilled bread thing for breakfast. It was okay not much for taste. We headed to the mall at 10:00 to hit the grocery store. When we got there it had obviously opened earlier then posted because people were checking out already. We started with the paper and soap products and some Tupperware like stuff. Made a trip back home after that to unload. This mall is right across the street from our apartment so no driver needed.  We headed back for the food. After over an hour trying to figure out what to buy and what we might be buying I was not excited at all about what was in our cart. I told Mark I just want "normal food" and made him follow me to find the bread, butter, peanut butter, some cheese and familiar fruits and veggies. I don't care if I have to eat peanut butter sandwiches and grilled cheese for two years I just wanted something I knew I would like and could experiment with all the other food Mark put into the cart later. So went back home crabby and we both took a 3 hour nap. Now when we woke up we were really hungry and yes had grilled cheese for supper and pretty much went back to bed for the night.

Today was Mark's first day at his new job. Driver was on time and off to work he went. I went to the park at 07:30 and believe even more people were at the park today then yesterday. Seemed like the same routine for people doing their thing. Went back home and checked out the gym for awhile. The rest of the day I didn't adventure out again and just did some stuff back at the apartment. Had dinner and ate with our chop sticks. (Thought I should practice this in the privacy of our own home.) Mark had a good and busy day at the office and tomorrow he is off to check out one of his plants. Will explain more of his new job later.

Just wanted to let you know we made it and have settled in the best we can for now.