What's Great About Being in Shanghai

1. the food is fantastic and inexpensive 2. I'm considered average height 3. domestic help is inexpensive 4. spas are fantastic and inexpensive 5. since I don't drive here, I can always have a glass of wine with meals 6. I'm considered big breasted (based on the way shirts fit me here, and not on an official survey)

Meet the Nanny

This is our ayi, Yu, and overall, she's great.

She has been a nanny for Westerners before so she comes with alot of understanding and experience with what I would be expecting. She needs to be trained about the things that are particular to Sydney, but she already knows the general things that nannies should know about. She is never late and often early getting here because she knows that I need to go to work. The first thing she does is say good morning to Sydney in both English and Chinese and then washes her hands. She keeps track on a piece paper the time Syd goes down for a nap and when she wakes up. When I ask her to take Sydney out to the playground, she knows to pack a sippy cup with water, grab a snack for Sydney and some tissues before they walk out the door. She does all of this without me telling her. She has good common sense, which you can't teach. She also cleans the apartment when Syd is asleep and does a good job cleaning.

My problem with Yu is that she feels really free to give her opinion or offer advice. I've been told here that it is a cultural thing, but it is still surprising (and off putting, to be honest with you) to have someone working for you on the first day telling you what your daughter likes or what she should eat. And continues to do so everyday. I already have Asian parents, I don't need this.

But my philosophy is that if it doesn't harm Sydney and doesn't undermine how I want to raise Sydney, then I can live with it. There some things that I insist on, like Syd's naps, wearing sunscreen and what food she can eat (I make Syd's lunch every day but I put all of the snacks that Syd can have in a box for Yu to choose from), otherwise I let Yu decides so that she feels free to rely on her instincts (which are good) and makes her feel more engaged in Syd's welfare. Yu insists on feeding Sydney bananas with a spoon even though when I'm here I tell her to let Sydney hold it. She doesn't like Sydney sucking her thumb and pulls it out of Sydney's mouth even though I've told her that its ok for Syd to do that. But I don't make a big deal about it and I don't worry about it.

However, my concern though is that if she's disregarding my preferences for her preferences about these things what else is she disregarding? I also worry that if she feels this bold after working for me just a couple of days, where will we be in a couple of months?

As it turns out, my concerns are valid because we've had 2 issues now that are important to me that she disregards. One of which is that she caters to Syd --- gives Syd everything Syd wants, picks Syd up at the first sign of a whine, she brings Syd food when she cries. She doesn't think that babies should cry. The challenge here is how to train Yu to recognize when Syd trying to test her boundaries or being manipulative and when Syd really needs comfort. I've tried to explain the difference to Yu but it is hard when we don't speak each other's language fluently. I did cringe though when I saw that Syd was upset that I wouldn't let her drink my diet coke, and she walks over to the kitchen where Yu is to throw her tantrum. And here comes Yu with food for Syd, which I make her take back into the kitchen. You can imagine what goes on in the house when I'm not here. It's not difficult for her to understand that she should not give Syd food to stop the crying so I know that she is just blatantly ignoring me.

The other issue is that when she puts Syd in her crib, Syd would cry and Yu would pick her up. Syd usually does not cry when I put her in the crib and the one time that she did cry, I just pat her on her bottom and within minutes, she's asleep. Yu and I have had conversations about Syd's sleeping habit and Yu knows, without a doubt, that I prefer Syd to sleep in her crib. But because Syd cries in her crib, Yu picks her up, rocks her and puts her on the floor to sleep. I've told Yu every day this week not to do that and she said she wouldn't. But I came home on Wed and Syd was sleeping on the floor. She once again explained to me that Syd cries when she is in the crib, and I once again explained what she needs to do about it. The consequence of Yu's sleeping arrangement for Syd is that it is taking Syd longer to fall asleep in the crib and she is crying more often because she's not used to the confined space. So I tell Yu again yesterday before I went to work that Syd needs to nap in her crib. I even asked Yu whether she slept on a bed at night or on the floor. She said her bed. When I asked her why, she said that the floor was too hard. I explained that it was the reason why I don't like Syd sleeping on the floor. I also told her about Syd having a hard time sleeping in her crib at night. Yu says she understands and will put Syd in her crib. But when I came home yesterday, Syd was just waking up from her nap and crying and I saw Yu quickly run into Syd's room. It was just the way that she did it made me follow her, and sure enough, she was picking Syd up from the floor.

It really pissed me off. I debated about calling her employment agency because, despite my complaints here, she is doing a good job of taking care of Syd and the apartment. I was worried about Yu being mad and taking it out on Syd by way of not being as loving with her. Plus, I'd have to fire her and get another nanny if she doesn't improve. This was her last chance. I don't want anyone working for me that doesn't think that they have to follow my instructions, especially when they are reasonable. I don't think that I could get another nanny as good as Yu (this problem notwithstanding). But I also feel like I need to establish myself as the employer in an emphatic way so that this problem doesn't get out of control.

I worried for nothing because Yu wasn't in a bad mood at all. She did ask me again how I put Syd to sleep and said that she will do the same. Syd was awake when I came home so I don't know whether she slept in her crib or on the floor. I know that there is no sure fire way to know whether the nanny is following everyone of your instructions (unless you have a nanny cam) but once you have evidence that she doesn't follow some of your instructions, it makes it hard to trust her.

But Syd really likes her. It only took 3 days before they started to bond. Syd still wants to be with me every second that I'm here, but she does reach for Yu to give her a hug and then reaches back for me to hold her. Syd used to cry so badly when I left that now Yu takes her outside to play on the playground as soon as she gets here. It's been raining the last 2 days so they couldn't go outside in the morning but Syd only whined a little as I leave for work. I've watched them on the playground from my balcony and Yu is very good with her. MUCH better than some of the other ayis that I've seen on the playground.

I know this post is already too long but I need to tell you about my imaginary husband. (You should have been at the wedding --- it was a small ceremony on the white beach of Bora Bora. He was dapper in his tux, and I was a vision in white). Yu assumed that I was married and I didn't dispel her of that notion for safety reasons. But also because it too complicated to explain it to someone who doesn't speak English and I don't know whether single mothers in China wear scarlet letters. I was worried that she wouldn't respect me as well if she knew I wasn't married. She did make a statement that I was lucky that my husband let me work. I hoped there was something lost in the translation but then again, this is China. Anyway, my dear, sweet husband is a very hard worker -- he leaves for work early in the morning and gets home late at night so that's why she hasn't seen him. If I need to, I'll have my friend Sam come over for roll playing. Sam's Chinese but we all look alike.

So when I called the employment agency to complain about Yu, I said that my very particular (but outrageously handsome) husband was very upset that Yu did not follow our instructions. He even threatened to find another ayi if Yu doesn't abide by our rules. What is a devoted wife to do but support her husband? Sydney isn't the only manipulative Nguyen in this apartment:))

My Other Office

It has been rainy and miserable here (I know I'm not getting any sympathy from the Dallas crowd). Not just because it is bad weather. It also means that taxis are impossible to come by. I went to lunch yesterday afternoon and when I finished eating and was trying to wave down a taxi, in an instant, it started pouring down rain so hard that I could barely see in front of me. The sky was black and there are very few street lamps on this street. Very creepy. I went inside a store for a while but the taxis weren't able to see me from there so I stood outside. In the rain. Without an umbrella. It took about 25 minutes to hail an empty taxi. What could be worse? Oh yeah, I was wearing a white blouse. The taxi driver turned to talk to me and let's just say that he wouldn't be able to describe my face if his life depended on it. But I digress.... It's been kind of a challenging week so I didn't have it in me to deal with being lost again to my Zizhu office so I went to our downtown office, which is basically made up of a couple of offices and a large conference room. It was great --- quiet and the printer is outside my office. AND it is attached to a mall - a 6 story mall. The kids section takes up an entire floor -- clothes, shoes, toys, photography booth, art classes. (Tyra, our favorite kids' clothes store is here). AND there is a large grocery store in the basement of the building. It is not as large as Carrefour but they have everything that I would need, minus the scary meat and fish departments. There is a wine section (I ran out of wine a couple of days ago so I haven't been doing laundry) and an organic section (although it's not the organic foods that I would buy). AND it is only 15 minutes from my apartment! I think this is the happiest I've been this week.

I MISS CHIPOTLE

Specifically, the burrito bowl with rice, peppers, beef, pico, cheese and guacamole. I bet they post a loss this quarter with me gone.

Tips for Traveling in Shanghai

1. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way. Even if you have the "walk" sign in your favor, you have to yield to cars making a right hand turn. I don't believe that the cars are gunning for pedestrians or anything, but since there is no liability if the driver runs over a pedestrian, the risk is on the pedestrian.

2. The street lights here are red for stop, yellow for get ready to go and green to go. But most taxi drivers are starting to move on yellow.

3. All traffic rules are suggestions.

4. Do not drink the tap water, use ice or eat any fruit or vegetable that is not cooked or have to be peeled.

5. Taxis are pretty honest here. There is a receipt machine that automatically prints when the taxi drops you off. Even if you don't need the receipt, it is recommended that you take it anyway in case you left something in the taxi and to keep the taxi driver honest. I don't always ask for a receipt but I've never had a problem with any taxi driver trying to rip me off (like pretending to not have enough change in hopes that you will give him the change as a tip). The taxi's company name and number is on the receipt and so is the taxi's employee number. If you ask for the receipt, they will be concerned that you will complain about them. I'm continually impressed that every taxi driver that I have used has known exactly how to get to my destination (except to my office in Zizhu Business Park). They must have all of the streets memorized. I've been frequenting places that are not in the guide books so they are not "hot" tourist spots.

6. There's 2 written forms of Mandarin --- Chinese symbols or pinyin (which is alphabetized form of the language). Pinyin was introduced in the 60s (if I remember correctly). None of the taxi drivers know how to read pinyin, and most places listed in my guide books are in pinyin. Frommers does have a couple of pages listing the Chinese symbols for popular tourist places and hotels. Otherwise, you have to find someone to translate pinyin into Chinese symbols.

7. All of the street signs in Shanghai are in both Chinese symbols and pinyin. The taxi drivers cannot read the pinyin address if you write it down for them or show them in a book or card, but they can understand it if you tell it to them. Unfortunately, my Mandarin is non-existent right now. It is curious to me why they don't have a cheat sheet that allows them to cross refrence the pinyin street names with their equivalent Chinese symbols.

I have 2 solutions for this last problem. The first is that I have started taking pictures of street names and places that I know I will frequent. And then I show it to the taxi driver on my digital camera.

this is the name of my apartment street

this is the name of my apartment complex

Before I left for Shanghai, I had my apartment address printed out in pinyin and Chinese symbols and had it laminated. I just show the taxi driver the card and I get home just fine. But I keep these pictures in my camera in case I forget my address card.

this is the name of the street leading to my office

My office is actually on another street that intersects this street. This street is a major street that everyone seems to know. The problem is that I don't know whether you go North or South on it to get my my office street. My second solution is to call the places to which I am headed as soon as I get into the taxi and give the phone to the taxi driver to find out directions. This works great. Now, you are all prepared to come to Shanghai.......

On the Bright Side Regarding Work

Commuting to work in the morning is still a beating, and the trek to the printer still wears on me. But the one good thing about the office is Lawson's. It is a convenient store chain in the building next to mine. It is the only store anywhere in sight at the Business Park. It only sells drinks, snacks, etc. I bought a 20 oz diet Coke, a 20 oz bottle of water, Lay's Pringles and Oreo chocolate chip cookies for a whopping US$2.20. L-O-V-I-N-G it. Plus it has entertainment value. There is an entire shelf of Lay's Pringles with flavors such as: Spicy Seafood flavor, Black Pepper Steak Rib Eye flavor, Crispy Prawn flavor, Regular flavor, Refreshing Lime flavor. I can't recall the rest, but you get the gist. I got the Refreshing Lime flavored one, and it's ok --- it's more limey than refreshing. I didn't have time to go through every aisle but I'm sure there will be things worth posting about.

Yahoo Censored

Yahoo got censored yesterday. I couldn't access it but I could use the internet for other sites. So I turned to my trusty expat chat room and everyone else seems to have the same problem. Man, were people mad. You can make them live with air pollution, without deoderant, and even risk eating "meat surprise". But denying them emails goes too far! There were 2 posts on the thread on how to get around the censorship and the one I used worked great. I don't want to post the site in case it might get it censored too. (However, I will sing like a bird if threatened with torture. I'm no Jack Bauer). Apparently, this happens every now and then.

Working in the Office

I started going to the office this week for 1/2 days. I'm still not totally comfortable with leaving Sydney alone with the ayi. Although I have to admit that this is really my problem more than it is Sydney's. I'll write about the ayi situation in a separate post since I don't have time right now. (Someone expects a new post when she gets to the office in the morning and it is already 8:03am, Dallas time:).

We have 2 offices, one in HongQiao (which is about 15 minutes or so from my apartment) and one in Zizhu Business Park (which is about 1 hour from my apartment). The HongQiao office is basically all conference rooms for meetings with customers so that they won't have to pack provisions to drive out to the main office. I plan to work from this office in a couple of months, once I get acquainted with everyone in the main office. However, there has been discussions that we are going to give up this office since it is too expensive.

The Zizhu office is part of a 5 building business park in the middle of nowhere. Every single taxi driver I have used so far did not know how to get there, and everyone of them has gotten lost. I have the business cards of several people in the Zizhu office to call for help, but I can never get anyone before 9:15am. Our office hours are 9-6 but apparently, like everything else in Shanghai, it is only a suggestion. My company has shuttles picking people up at various points in Shanghai but I am not on the route and there is only one pick up per location. It is more convenient for me to take a taxi there and back.

My ayi starts work at 8:30am, and I go outside of my complex to hail a taxi. No easy task, my friend. Since everyone else is looking for a taxi for work, there is a bit of a wait -- about 15-20 minutes. Stop the eye rolling, please, because it is worse than it reads. It wouldn't be too bad if it wasn't 95 degrees here, and humid, and the air is polluted. I'm not going to lie to you. Between waiting in the heat and humidity, and the stale cigarette smell in the taxi, I don't smell great when I get to the office. But it's not a problem, as you will see why below. The taxi ride costs me anywhere between 80-90RMB (US$10-11), and it usually take me about 1.25 hour - 1.50 hours to get there because we always get lost.

My company is currently building our own office building in Zizhu and we are temporarily residing in the developer's office building. We expect to be in the new building in November. In the interim, we are stuck with a very limited space. All of the offices and cubicles are occupied so the company found a space between 2 offices and had put a desk there. And voila, my office.

I would have taken more pictures of the office, but when you work for a technology company, walking around with a camera taking pictures is just asking for trouble.

I am as far away from the front door as you can get. There is a community printer and copy machine for each floor. Unfortunately, the printer to which I am connected is close to the front door. When I visited the office in April to get set up, I voiced my concerns to HR about being in the middle of a hallway since I spend a lot of time on the phone and much of what I am discussing is confidential. (Plus, I tend to get loud when I don't get my way. I'll just have to go into a conference room for calls). My bigger concern is that what I print is also confidential. HR's answer to my concern about the printer was "Maybe you print and go fast to get paper." Ok. Fine. This may be an opportunity to get some exercise and lose some weigh, especially since IT can't seem to connect me to the printer so that I print and go fast to get paper only to find no paper on printer. Then I go fast back to my desk to call IT. I bet that I've already lost 3 lbs this week. I don't know for sure because the scale that I bought last week is broken.

There is a cafeteria in our building. I've eaten there once last year when I visited and remember that the food was ok. But a lot of expats do not eat there and my friend and colleague Sam thinks that they cook everything in lard. The expats (even the senior management) goes next door to a convenient store, Lawson, to buy sandwiches for lunch. The office is too far from anywhere that you can get a decent meal. Sam brings a big bag of fruit every day and he grazes on them throughout the day so that he doesn't have to eat lunch at the office. I've checked out the sandwiches at Lawson and it doesn't look too appetizing. I've been working until 1 or 2 this week and then head out to lunch in town. When I'll be working there full time, I may have to bring my lunch.

The bigger, and more entertaining, problem with this office is that you have to fill out a form for everything. Sam needed a pen and he had to fill out a form. I had my assistant send me a package of office supplies from Dallas so I didn't have to mess with forms. However, she forgot to pack pads of paper for me so I had to fill out a form. Ok. Fine. But then I learned that they have to order the pads so that I would have to wait 2+ weeks for them. Not Ok. Not fine. I went to the grocery store after work today and bought myself a couple of notebooks. Other employees actually wait the 2+ weeks for their office supplies.

Irony

Now I know that most of you have read my last post about laundry and thought to yourself, "Why doesn't Jackie just go to a laundry mat? She's in China for crying out loud!" You would think that laundry service would be ubiquitous here, or at least as prevalent as in the US. [insert your favorite Chinese laundry mat joke here]

I have looked everywhere for a laundry mat. I have even called Western hotels to see if they would do my laundry and they will only do laundry for their guests. [insert your favorite cuss word here] I even expressly stated that I would pay for the service in case they thought that I was asking for free favor. I can't believe that they have such a large amount of laundry to do for their guests that they couldn't fit in our laundry from time to time. But there I go again, thinking like a Westerner.....

Laundry

Doing laundry here is such a nightmare that it deserves its own post. I have an all-in-one washing machine/dryer on my balcony. It looks like this:

Don't let the sticker of the happy, fun kids fool you. There is nothing joyful or fun about doing laundry in this machine. First of all, you can only fit about 6 items of clothes in it, or 1 bed sheet and 1 bath towel and 1 hand towel, or 2 bath towels and 2 of Sydney's shirts.... you get the idea. The only laundry detergent that I found at the store that I recognized was All and it doesn't remove stains at All. I had to throw away 4 of Sydney's shirts last week, and now she sleeps in her stained one. Otherwise, she will run out of clothes in a couple of months.

It takes an hour for the washer to run. Then I pour myself a glass of wine and take a deep breath before tackling the dryer. It is about as effective as if I used a blow dryer to dry the clothes myself. It runs for an hour at a time and after THREE hours, the clothes/sheets/towels are still damp. What a waste of time and energy. Most people here hang their clothes on the balcony to dry. With the pollution in the air and ubiquitous smell of cigarette smoke, why bother washing them to begin with? So now I hang clothes all over the house to dry.

Oh, but it doesn't end there. All of the laundry comes out in a wringled mess and everything has to be ironed. Even Sydney's clothes because they look like this:

My ayi does do ironing for me but if I left it all for her to do, she'll have to spend the entire day ironing instead of taking care of Sydney.

Apartment Living

While the apartment is nothing to write about, the complex itself is amazing. Everything you need is within the gates of the complex --- indoor and outdoor playgrounds, tennis court, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, cafe, airline ticket office, gym, dry cleaner, hair salon, massage services, security, concierge. We've only been swimming in the outdoor pool, we've eaten in the cafe (their ham and cheese sandwiches are pretty good) and played on the outdoor playground, which Sydney LOVES. Here are some pictures of the grounds, most of which were taken from our balcony on the 6th floor. It has been overcast here so some of the pictures are hazy.

this is one of 3 outdoor playgrounds

one of the 2 club house buildings -- there is a roof top barbecue grill

There is a team of employees working throughout the day to make sure the the grounds are immaculate.

In order to enter the building, you need a security badge. You also need the badge in order to use the elevator. There is usually an employee with a walkie talkie standing outside the building to help you with carrying things into the building or call you a taxi. The only draw back is that they don't speak any English. I feel very safe here.

I noticed last Friday that there was a grocery truck in our complex selling basic groceries - eggs, bread, fruit, and Kraft's Mac 'n Cheese. It will be convenient if we ran out of groceries.

I have lived in a house for so long I had forgotten how loud it can be in an apartment. I can hear my neighbors upstairs walking around at night. I also hear people getting off the elevator and entering their apartment. There are only 3 units on my floor. The people across from me are an old Chinese couple. I was very shy about making eye contact when I first saw them because at the time, Sydney was having very loud tantrums. But I saw the lady the other day and she smiled at me so I smiled back. It's a start.

People here do not use large trash cans like we do in the US. They use what is the equivalent in size of a bathroom trash can and when it is full, they take them to the dumpster every day, which in my complex is located on the staircase across from my apartment. Actually, dumpster is an exaggeration. It is more like a typical large trash can that we use in the US. The grounds people must remove trash from there several times a day because I've never seen any trash in there when I take mine out. I looked for a US size trash can at the store and can't find one so I'm not sure that this is unique to my apartment complex.

Even though my complex is supposed to have water filters so that the water is safe to drink, I'm still not taking any chances. I boil a kettle of water every morning for tea and what I don't use, I keep in a pitcher in my bathroom to use to brush my teeth. Every apartment also has a water cooler that you can order water bottles to be brought up to you by the apartment management. You even have a choice between sparkling or distilled water. When I went to order the water, the asst manager explained that I need to buy "cups" for the water bottles. She said that I can buy as many as I want to. Since it will be another month before my stuff from the US will reach me, I decided to buy 5 cups. As it turns out, she meant "coupons" to show that you have paid in advance. You buy coupons and when you want water brought up, you call the management team and when they arrive you give them a coupon.

Despite the frustration I experienced upon moving in, I am glad that I choose this apartment complex. I always feel very relaxed when I arrive home from a hectic day. Shanghai is crowded (21 million people, I'm recently told), and as a result, it is loud and at times, stressful. It is nice to have a little oasis when I come home.

Pictures of Shanghai

She's Almost Like Mary Poppins

I found an ayi for Syd that I think (hope/pray) will work out. She's Chinese, in her 40s, married with no kids. She speaks enough English for us to obviate frustrating games of charades, although we do have to write some things down. I talk too fast for her and her accent is too thick for me to understand sometimes. She reads/writes better than she speaks. The first time she came to stay with Syd, I had to work so Tyra stayed at the apartment to keep an eye on on the ayi. Tyra said Syd freaked out when she saw the ayi and started bawling. So it was a rather traumatic introduction for Syd. The second time she came by, Syd was sleeping so I took Tyra to the airport. When I returned home, the ayi was holding Syd and she seemed to be doing ok. Atleast she didn't look like she had been crying all afternoon. The ayi mentioned that she noticed that Syd sweats a lot when she sleeps, so when she arrived on Sat, she brought Syd some cute hair scrunchies and wouldn't let me pay her back for them. She kept shaking her head and saying, "It's ok. I like baby." She said that Syd cried a bit when I left to go to the grocery store but then played just fine. I had bought Syd a Winnie the Pooh bicycle, which she just loves. It has a convenient basket in the back of the bike. She pushes it around the apartment everyday.

The ayi said that at one point on Saturday, Syd pushed the bike to the door and then grabbed the ayi's finger and led her to the door. So they went outside to play on the playground. She usually brings her shoes to me to let me know that wants to go outside.

The ayi is working for me on a part time basis right now because she is working for another family too until July 15th. I'm paying her 15 RMB an hour, which is the equivalent of US$2 an hour, for right now, and when she works for me full time, I'll pay her 2,600 RMB or US$325 per month. When Syd sleeps or is playing independently, the ayi does the dishes, the laundry, irons and cleans the house. That's Monday - Friday.

It has been great having someone clean the house every day (I mean G-R-E-A-T). But it also feels very indulgent too. But I can tell that I am going to be able to get over it very, very soon.

Back on Schedule

I made dinner for the first time in our new home on Friday --- angel hair pasta with garlic, tomato, mushroom and ham, which was a big hit with Syd. Then I gave her a bath and she went down for the night in her crib at 7:20. Just like at home. The crib was delivered on Thursday by IKEA but it wasn't assembled until Friday. I was expecting Syd to put up a fight, but she was just mildly annoyed at first and then laid down and slept. She must have really liked dinner because she rewarded me with 7 hours of sleep that night. I guess if I had given her dessert, she may have given me 9 hours. I was out of fruit and Syd has been eating a lot of sugar this week to have anymore. I broke all my rules the first 3 days here --- I let Syd sleep with me (because her crib broke), I let her have sugar (cookies, ice cream), I let her watch tv (but she wouldn't have anything to do with it), I gave her food whenever she cried, and she didn't eat any vegetable all week (but neither did I). All that was left was allowing her to run with scrissors and play with matches. Luckily, we didn't have to resort to that.

Getting Settled In

We are starting to get settled in and everything that has been broken has been fixed. I bought Sydney a new crib on Wednesday from IKEA and it will be assembled later today. I'm looking forward to reclaiming my bed, although Sydney will have a very vocal reaction to having to sleep in her own bed after spending 5 nights with me.

Sydney's first breakfast in her new home

Sydney has had many crying fits this week, and as a result I'm hesitant to meet my neighbors right now. I heard them outside my door yesterday as we were ready to leave and we waited in the apartment until they entered their apartment. No need to get yelled at right now. There's plenty of time for that after I've caught up on my sleep.

I think Sydney is starting to feel a bit more settled now because she is sleeping better at night. Our trip to Toys R Us yesterday really helped. Here's Sydney with her favorite toy.

Despite my rantings in yesterday's post, there have been some high points this week. We've been able to do some sight seeing and trying out a couple of restaurants. Tyra has been in charge of picking the restaurants, and she has great instincts. We haven't had a bad meal yet. You will definitely never go hungry in this town. We've had Thai food, Italian food, Shanghainese food, continental food. To the Nguyen family, we've had the BEST roasted duck the other night.

We have visited the Old Town, Yu Garden, People's Square, Shanghai Museum, the Bund, and the Pearl Oriental Tower. Old Town is actually an outdoor pedestrian shopping center with hundreds of stores. This is where our bargaining skills were put to good use.

We made a pit stop at Starbucks in Old Town Image from Old Town

Walkway between Old Town and Yu Garden

Inside Yu Garden

Sydney giving the Shanghai Museum a thumbs up

Sydney pointing to the pigeons in People's Park

We are in front of the Pearl Oriental Tower

Sydney gets A LOT of attention when we are out. People would stop and stare at her. I asked Tyra to push Sydney in the stroller in hopes that people would be too shy to touch Sydney. Someone even took a picture of her on their cell phone when we were at People's Park. I know it's because she's very cute, but it makes me nervous for her to get so much attention. I mean, it is over the top. For example, I hired a driver and a car to take us out a couple of days this week. And our driver, Lily, told me today that she asked her 21 year old daughter to come with her to pick me up so that she can see how cute Sydney is.

I've only been getting between 2-6 hours of sleep a night this week. As a result, I have napped every time I'm in the car in the last 2 days. The traffic is horrible in Shanghai so it takes at least about 20 minutes to get anywhere. So I make the best use of that time by sleeping. Again, thank goodness that Tyra was with me so that she can make sure that we get to where we need to be. She is super organized and has great common sense. She should be a super hero and a member of the League of Justice (ok, I'm dating myself here). If you are planning a trip anywhere, I highly recommend that you befriend Tyra and persuade her to go with you. She likes cash and Starbuck's lattes.

Sydney and I miss you all.

We Made It

My good friend Tyra (and Sydney's godmother) flew with us to Shanghai to help me get settled in. She is leaving behind a resourceful Dad with 2 kids for a week to make this trip. And I appreciate them all.

Adventurous Tyra on our flight to Chicago

Sydney is all set for the long flight

So my strategy to keep Sydney happy and quiet on the plane is to give Sydney whatever she wants and do whatever she wants. Sydney has had more sugar on this flight than she has had in her entire life. But the strategy paid off. Sydney did great on the plane. She spent about half of the time sleeping and the other half being restless. But Tyra was prepared --- snacks, tape, stickers, crayons, turtles, frogs --- there were plenty to keep Sydney occupied.

Tyra and Sydney playing on the plane

"What do you mean I slept through meal service??"

Sydney playing in her make shift play area/bed

We arrived in Shanghai at 2pm on Sunday, June 17th, after a 13.75 hour flight from Chicago to Shanghai and a 2 hour flight from DFW to Chicago. The weather in Shanghai was overcast and 77 degrees.

We are waiting in the apartment lobby for my relocator agent to bring us the keys to the apartment

We made it to the apartment without accident or incident, but that's when our luck ran out. It has been a frustrating couple of days. The crib that was waiting for Sydney was not the crib that I was promised, which is fine. It looks a bit worn and cheap, which is fine. It literally fell apart during a demonstration by the asst. manager, which is not fine. So Sydney has been sleeping with me, which means one of us hasn't been sleeping at all. I'll let you guess who that has been.

The Internet connection did not work until last night (hence the late postings). Unfortunately, it took me turning into an ugly American to get it done. The apartment manager kept sending people to the apartment to fix it that do not speak English, which is bad enough since they know that I can't speak Mandarin. But all of the error messages on my computer is in English so they couldn't begin to know what was wrong. And they keep talking to me in Mandarin like some how I became fluent in Mandarin in the few minutes that had passed since the last time they unloaded a stream of Mandarin on me. They actually pause with anticipation for my response, which is the same response that I've been giving them for 2 days --- shrug with a tilt of the head. I finally got on the phone with my relocation company (who was supposed to send someone over who was fluent in English but sent someone who knew about 5 English words) and demanded that they send someone over immediately that could act as a go between. 20 minutes later, it was fixed.

The ayi (Chinese word for all domestic help -- cook, nanny, housekeeper, etc) that I was to interview on Monday to be Sydney's nanny was supposed to speak basic English and have very good experience. She knew about 10 English words and kept changing her story during the interview. It may just mean that she really needs a job and not that she is a bad person. I'm supposed to interview someone else today so please keep your fingers crossed for me. I'm really stressed about this. I did have the ayi that I interviewed come over and iron all of my work clothes for me and she did a really good job. It cost me just shy of US$3 for 2 hours. You gotta love it.

Then my water heater broke. It's on the balcony and there was a big pool of water forming around the water heater. The landlord sent someone over to fix it. I had to get my visa and work permit so poor Tyra was at the apartment to let him in. She said that he said some things in Mandarin, pointed to somethings on the water heater, said some more things and then left. Throughout the day 2 different people came and looked at it and it finally got fixed yesterday.

The bed mattresses in our rooms are as hard as the hardwood floor and very uncomfortable. We've been shopping for supplies and I haven't been able to find a foam mattress to put on it. Where is a Bed, Bath and Beyond when you need one?? And poor Tyra has to sleep in the dungeon. It's a small room that is only big enough for a twin bed and a night stand. And it has a window. No closet. No decorations. No charm. On the bright side, if Tyra ever goes to prison, she will definitely be able to handle it. (Don't be alarmed would-be visitors. I'm shipping over queen and twin size air matresses. The living area is big enough to accommodate them).

I don't know how to turn down the air conditioner in the apartment. Seriously, we could keep penguins as pets here. I even turned off the units, or so I thought, and it is still very cold. I haven't talked to the landlord about it yet because we've had bigger issues to get resolved.

Sydney is having a hard time adjusting to the new environment. She's very needy and clingy to me and cries a lot, which has made it very hard to get unpacked and organized. We've been here 3 days now and I just unpacked the last suitcase. I know that some of you are shocked to hear that. I was going to send you a picture of my apartment in disarray to dispel my reputation for being an anal retentive neat freak, but I was too much of an anal retentive neat freak to show anyone the state of the apartment. I'll send pictures once everything is put away.

Things are now slowly coming together. We have made trips to IKEA and the grocery store, which is like a Sam's Club but has 2 stories (one for food and the other for everything you can imagine, including mopeds). There were interesting things being cut up in the meat and fish department. We didn't venture into the meat department at all and we quickly walked through the fish department.

I know this has already been one long rant but I have to include one last note, Tyra has been a life saver on this trip. Without her, I would have been in a fetal position on the floor for the last 3 days with Sydney sitting next to me with a puzzled look wondering why she hasn't been fed or bathed in 3 days.

Shanghai, Here We Come

Now that our stuff has been stored and our house empty, there is nothing left to do but go to Shanghai. I have to admit that I was sentimental about leaving the house, it being my first. It was sad to see it so empty.

The move was a nightmare. What should have been a 3 hour move ended up being 6 hours. Then the battery to my car went out while parked at Public Storage. Luckily, my mover was kind enough to lend me his battery so that I could go to Auto Zone to buy a new one . So this is how I spent my last day in Dallas.

While I am excited about my new adventure in Shanghai, I will greatly miss my family and friends. And Chipotle.

Almost Ready...

After a year of thinking about it, 8 months of talking about it, 3 months of complaining about it, I am about to move to Shanghai. As in 3 days. I'd like to say that it has been a fun and/or easy process, but all I can say is Shanghai better be worth it.

This has been the state of my house for the last month.

As someone who likes to see things in its proper place, it has been driving me crazy. However, it has been a good opportunity to downsize and get rid of things that I thought at one point that I couldn't live without but ended up never using. Funny how that happens.

Sydney is starting to sense something is up --- she wakes up everyday looking for toys that she played with the night before but are no longer there. More and more boxes appear in the house everyday. And Mom is often busy and distracted. As a result, she has been emotional and clingy the last couple of weeks. I look forward to getting to Shanghai and getting us settled in.