markets

A now common sight to us: motorcycles, scooters, bikes, everywhere. This is in front of an "electronics market" which is set up like our pearl market and soft fabric market. A large building with numbered stalls throughout. Everyone gives their card for their particular stall, which is how you can find them again, because after 3 floors of varying stalls, it is very confusing. (Cards are very big here. We need to have a "house" card made up which gives all our information on one side and a map of where we are located on the other. People give these out constantly.) The electronics market sells everything from transformers, to hair dryers, boots, bikes, tv's, office supplies, ipods, cameras, digital phones, speakers, any weird, electronic ancient device you can think of. Ridley bought a toy transformer that produces the correct voltage so he can charge Storey's nintendo DS and his electric toothbrush! Wild places.

The fabric market was amazing, which I have already described. We go back Monday to pick up our goods. The service here is always mind blowing.

Olympics

We made it to an Olympic event the other night. Women's soccer between Japan and Norway. It was something we didn't think we would actually make. We had bought our tickets, for a pretty penny, while we were in the States, with complete assurances that our tickets would arrive to us in Shanghai. From the moment we arrived here, we have been trying to get the tickets. They were in Beijing, and all of a sudden we were told that we could only pick them up in Beijing. (A 12 hour train ride away.) As we kept pursuing the tickets, we found out that a courier had been used previously to get other tickets to Shanghai, and they had all been stolen. Our house agent, who has been remarkable in everything, was called, and she unbelievably pulled off getting a friend to pick them up for us, and somehow get them down. We still don't know how, exactly, but they arrived the day of the game! That was our first bit of excitement.

We decided to take a taxi to the event as Ridley wasn't feeling well and we didn't know how much walking would be involved. We got in the taxi, he took us to the subway station and told us to get out! We weren't too pleased, but the stadium was only about 4 stops away and when we arrived outside the subway, to the greeting of about 30 military personnel, we saw why the taxi driver had dropped us off. All the streets surrounding the stadium were shut down, huge boulevards just blocked from all traffic. There were several checkpoints to make it through as we made our way toward the stadium. The sidewalks had the various sports logos for the Olympics molded into the concrete, the symbols were also on the fence running alongside and they lit up, the planters also had the figures on them. No detail was lost. The stadium is huge. The sound system spectacular (not like our fuzzy sounding stadium systems), and the stadium food, yet another adventure! We had asked several times if there was food in the stadium as we were in need of dinner. Of course we are used to great food in the sports stadiums in the US, so when we were told yes, we had high expectations. All the vendors offered the same thing: "sausages" which were individually wrapped 1/4" thick, 7" long hotdogs, the closest thing I can associate it with - soft, chewy meat (of course I tried it!); "puffing food", which ended up being anything in a bag like our chips or cheetohs, only they were all kinds of odd "puffed" food that is edible and indescribable.

The game itself was really fun. Japan dominated in every way and won 5 - 1. We were surrounded by Americans who were over for the Olympics. We have been surprised how many people have come over just for the Olympics. Two sisters from the New York area were in front of us, full of spunk and fun. There was a family from the Bay Area in CA next to us, and right in front of them two more families with daughters from China. As it turns out, all the children were huge Peter and the Starcatchers fans and were asking for autographs from Ridley! Pretty surreal to be in Shanghai at an Olympic event and have kids all over Ridley! One of the girls in front of us is a fourth grade teacher, and is excited to introduce her kids to the books.

As our experience keeps proving, everything was well organized and our efforts in getting to the event were easy, and we felt very safe with guards, police, military everywhere. There are also more event volunteers than can be numbered, but this we find everywhere. The restaurants all have multiple workers for every customer: two people at the door ushering you in, about 4 - 5 hostesses to seat you and countless people hovering taking orders, bringing food and taking away used dishes. This is true in department stores, also. If you want to buy something, there are a multitude of workers to write up a ticket for what you want and you take the ticket over to one of many cashiers and pay for the item before you can go pick it up. This has to be done individually for each department. No crossovers here. But I regress, this was the Olympics blog!

We bought tickets for another women's soccer game when we got here, not knowing who would be playing. We are going tonight and we just found out it is the US vs. Canada!!!! We are thrilled. Paige is a huge Hope Solo fan (will be wearing her jersey), so we are really excited. We will try to post pictures of the venue when the girls download their photos. These are our corny hats for tonights game.

The wires on our house. So easy to reach and find if anything goes wrong!



Our corner where we go and buy buns almost every day. There are more umbrellas that come out with the sun rather than the rain.
The crowd is lining up at the bun shop.
A watermelon vendor cycling down our lane. We chose a watermelon and she is weighing it for us. $1.25 for a beautiful, perfectly ripe and juicy melon.

Today, Sunday, was full of thunderstorms and we had a lazy day watching Olympics. We get 4 different feeds, so we can move around between gymnastics, boxing, swimming. We have Chinese feeds and English speaking feeds from the Phillipine satellite.
The girls and I may go by their school tomorrow so they can see it and pick up their uniforms. School doesn't start until the 25th - after the Olympics, of course.

Marcelle

A posting of photos - finally! I have mixed this up a bit, not having them in order. I am taking you down our lane to our house. This first photo is on our street, Changle Lu. The last photo in this posting is where you first walk in to the lane off of Changle, and then each picture after that (on the way back up the blog) is each lane we turn onto to get to our house. Ridley is at the door in the final shot to the house, and Paige and Ridley are in the lane right outside our house, heading the other way, back to the street. Sorry about making you go backwards.
Marcelle




Lane #3 going back towards the street. The neighborhood "police" building is on the right with all the boards giving daily information.
Our house. The door open at the very end is where our neighborhood "aiyee" lives who clears away our recycling and does babysitting for neighborhood kids. We see her giving them baths in a little round red plastic tub right in front of her door.
On lane #3
Lane #3
Lane #2

Start here for the orderly progression from the street!

Arrived

Ah, the glamor!

We have arrived. Here's my office, still in need of great attention (you think?), but I'm up and working. (Note tea cup, bags of electronics on shelves behind. Essentials to living and working in China.

The girls are sleeping late. It no longer can be attributed to jet lag; it is, instead, I believe, recovery, on a daily basis from sensory overload. A simple walk down the street involves dodging workers sleeping on cots, stacks of recycled cardboard eleven feet high, motor scooters, bicycles, taxis and cars. You see more in a five minute stroll than in a week back home. Storey (and mom) got caught crossing the street yesterday, trapped between two seas of movement of every kind of vehicle. They were never in danger; this is China. But Storey is the one sleeping late today, and I think she's purging that experience. Or savoring it.

I don't want to say that things are getting to normal. That isn't going to happen here. Not ever. That is the beauty of the place: its abnormality. We wouldn't be here if we could get to normal. But we're finding a routine, and that will solidify once the girls are in school.

There are SO MANY stories to tell, and I'll work on checking in here each day, because I've already been lax on reporting so many. Buying the steamed buns from the corner -- our family of four eats for $2; the visit to the US Consulate (incredible!); the meal with the professors at Fudan University where I will lecture (a feast and wonderful conversation; I am SO looking forward to my time there). There's the leaking roof story: rain coursing down the wall of the girls' room, and how four workers showed up the next morning and tore the roof apart and rebuilt it in ONE day! The fact that the postman will arrive this morning, a Saturday, to be paid for our subscription to the local English newspaper -- the Chinese are so efficient; everyone does three to five jobs, or at least as three to five responsibilities within their job; this is NOT a Communist country in the sense of people on the take from the government, it is hard, often backbreaking work, 14-18 hours a day by everyone. Inspirational, actually. It may be quite different when you wear a tie, but on our lane, all workers, it is place of industry and endless energies. By example: to pay our bills, we actually pay our household helper. She then goes to the corner market and pays them there. All the neighborhoods have little shops that sell a million things and also accept payment for all your bills. There are no checques used here; it's all cash, so a system has been created to walk your cash a half block and pay everyone you owe. It's fascinating.

I'm up early and working most days. I now hear the family awakening below (I'm working from a staircase landing on the third floor of our lane house. I look out at a tile roof--the one they tore apart and replaced in a single day.) I'll sign off for now. Clear skies (5th day of PERFECT summer weather) a faint breeze. The sound of someone laying tile or banging on stone, the clank of metal, and behind me, my 80 year old neighbor doing her morning exercises, like an aging ballerina.
This is China.
(Ridley)

I wrote too much last time. I see it got cut off. Sorry.

We went to Fudan University last night to dine with the professors and deans who invited Ridley to lecture. It was an hour long journey using the subway and then a taxi. In Chinese tradition, the meal was an absolute feast. Course after course arrived with the most beautiful presentations . There was nothing out of our comfort level of eating. The interior of bamboo in a vegetable dish, beef that melted in our mouths, smoked fish that was sweet and crispy, pickled vegetables that were spicy and utterly delicious. The cold dishes came out first and sat there while we had a cup of tea. A big lazy susan in the middle of the table kept everything rotating. When it got too full, the waiter transferred what was left onto a smaller dish to make room for more. We all had watermelon juice which was pure watermelon blended. Incredibly refreshing. A whole fish was brought to the table, and then our hosts had the waiter divide it up for us. Sweet and delicious. The girls loved trying everything as well. There was a spicy pork mixture that accompanied buns to make our own pork buns - sar chao bao (sp?). Soup with glutinous rice balls, sweet. Several vegetable dishes. There are several dishes I am missing. We ended with cold watermelon slices. The men were incredibly gracious and Ridley will soon make his teaching schedule for the year. They are very flexible and accomodating to Ridley's travel and work schedule.

Friends from the US Consulate gave us a tour of one of the eight consulate locations where they work. It was formerly an estate that has beautiful gardens, kwai (sp?) pond, cats roaming and orchards of fruit trees - the clementines are suppposed to be the best around. The US government will be consolidating all these locations in a couple of years over to Pudong, the east side of Huangpu River. Great to see this extraordinary location before they move. They then took us to a delicious western lunch where we had french fries, an unexpected treat for the girls, salad, an unexpected treat for the adults since we thought we had to stay away from lettuce, and soup and sandwiches on baguettes.

Yesterday we went to a cyber market and bought a printer so we can print google maps of the city - among many other work related things to be printed. It is hard to find a good map with the English street names. The girls and I went to have our hair done for the dinner: an hour and a half of washing, massaging and drying for $3 a piece. Storey was so happy to have "flat" hair for once.

Paige remarked that everyone has more than one job here. Our lane guard also sweeps the lane, makes brooms from branches and patrols the neighborhood. Our neighbor babysits, cleans, picks up recycling around the neighborhood.

The girls and I will start adventuring out to see some things before school starts. It just takes a little more determination when it is this hot and humid out. Everyone is really looking forward to the start of the Olympics tomorrow night. It sounds like many people will stop life for a few weeks and watch. So many businesses have been closed by the government, including all the subway shops here in Shanghai for security reasons. It is curious how people can survive when their livelihood gets shut down. I guess they will have the time to cheer on their country!

We have arrived!

It has been 5 days, and we have managed to get a lot accomplished. So many new and wonderful things. I will try and begin at the start.

The plane ride went very well. We left our house in St. Louis at 5:45 on Tuesday morning, and actually had to go back twice for forgotten items - a computer and glasses! Too early to remember it all. We had spent two days packing and repacking, trying to fit everything for a year into one roller and one duffel each. We finally got an extra duffel which helped carry the sunscreen, bugspray, books, germex, deodorant, toothpaste . . . . . . . for a year. We made it and they didn't even weigh our bags at the airport after all our careful weighing, repacking and redistributing. The day flight was easy. We spent 14.5 hours from Chicago to Shanghai watching movies, reading, the girls played DS games, and eating. No one slept for more than 2 hours, and we were there: 1pm Wednesday afternoon. No glitch in customs, finding all our bags or finding our driver of a minivan. Jojo and our landlord's representative were awaiting us at the house to begin filling us in on how it all works. We needed to register with the local police within 24 hours, and Jojo did that for us. Arriving in 90% humidity and about 90 degrees, we quickly figured out how to get the room air-conditioners running. Each room has its own remote control for a unit that sits high up on the wall. We have a refrigerator and stove/oven in our one person kitchen which is not very common. There is even a freezer so we can make ice! We have a water cooler and we are delivered two bottles of water every week by a man on a bicycle who carries more than just our two bottles! Amazing what can be put onto a bike: a family of five, huge bundles of recycling, boxes larger than the bike and driver together. (I will learn soon how to post pictures of some of these wonderful sights.)

There are expats from many countries here, and the majority of them live either in high rise buildings that provide a gym and all kinds of amenities, or there are compounds further out west that have houses, parks, grass - western living. When we were looking for a house in January we decided against these areas for the sake of living among the Chinese, in the city. We have what is called a Lane House. In a city block there are various "alley's" that are gated which are called lanes. There is someone always in a little room right at the gate who watches who comes and goes, opens the gate when needed. The larger gate which would allow a car in is closed at night. For our house, we enter the lane, go two lanes and turn right, which is now only wide enough for pedestrians, bicycles and scooters (we had to carry all our luggage from this point), go one lane and turn left, two lanes and turn right and we are on the left. We have the complete luxury of a large patio off the dining room and living room that is surrounded by potted bamboo. We also have two rooftop terraces that overlook the tiled rooftops of the surrounding lane houses. Part of the negotiations for the house gave us outdoor furniture for upstairs and the patio, 2 flat screen tv's, cable with HBO, ESPN, cartoon network, Nickolodeon, Stars and more. More American influence than we were expecting or wanting! We have happily watched some movies while trying to stay up and get on this time. We seemed to have made the transition completely now. We love our street. Our corner has a market, a steamed bun shop with every kind of conceivable steamed bun, a street vendor selling thick pancakes stuffed with greens and onions, a hardware store that is so small and packed with everything imaginable, dusty and dirty. We asked for a hammer and after a bit of rummaging we received a brand new hammer for $0.80. We have found the most amazing restaurants with just blocks of us, a dumpling store two blocks away (we have to walk past a Starbuck's to get there!), an English book store on our block that provides wonderful ice cream as well as books, a nail salon on each end of the street (the girls have already used their services!), clothing stores everywhere, one of which both girls have found must have dresses. They are learning to bargain and the woman has already cut the price in half. We are not done, yet. There are fruit and flower shops everywhere and at night the street sellers come out with loads of DVD's and jewelry for sale. The hotel where we stayed in January is only two blocks away, and we have a young man there who helps us with almost anything we could want: i.e. train tickets, Olympic soccer tickets (we just got tickets to a soccer match that cost as much as one ticket we had purchased over the internet while still in the States.).

It takes time to create relationships, and once someone has a relationship, they begin to offer more or do business. Jojo has been wonderful to us, telling us where to go, what to do, translating for the work needed around the house. When we needed the telephone company here to hook us up, he was here within an hour of calling him. The cable guys were here within two hours and hooked up the new satelllite dish. We had torrential rains last night and it started leaking in the girls room. We emailed Jojo, and at 8 this morning the landlord was here with a worker looking at it. They will be back tomorrow to fix it. It is so incredibly efficient here.

We have had some wonderful adventures. We needed to outfit our house with kitchenware, linens, etc., and we were told over and over that IKEA was the place to go. It was