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.