We were looking in a furniture store on a little street, and the owner motioned us to go outside with her. She locked up the shop and headed down the alley next door and around back. She took us through tiny dark halls, past a kitchen (spic and span) and into a room that had more furniture. It was her home. Her mother was rummaging around in another room. It was all very dark and very hot. No air-conditioning here. She had some beautiful pieces, but the best part was walking through her house. This is the lane we went down. Her door is on the left at the end.


Being the movie fans that we are, we wanted to try and see a movie, any movie. We made our way via metro to this larger than life shopping mall. This was just one of many escalator's servicing 8 floors of shopping.

Way back through a long winding hallway of restaurants (their food court, I guess) we came out onto this theatre.
Of course no one spoke English, nor had they heard of the movie we were trying to see. It had been posted in our English newspaper, Shanghai Daily, as being there, but clearly it wasn't. We'll have to try another strategy for figuring out the movie scene. We headed home to our own dinner and DVD.

We just got back from open house at the girls' school. There is a lot of China even at the International school. Lines, lines, lines! They both have wonderful teachers. They catch the school bus at 7:15 Monday morning. Wow. Here we go.
M

The dry wash.


The massage.
As Ridley was just describing his trim, here of photos of the girls getting their hair washed and dried at the same salon yesterday. We asked for wash, dry and massage. For some reason, each time we get hair done, Storey does not get her ears cleaned or a massage. Too young? Haven't figured it out yet. When you ask for a dry, that is all they do. No styling on this go 'round. That probably costs more. It cost us a grand total of 15 yuan each for our services: $2.20.

M

The trim

I decided it was time to get my hair cut. I had a meeting with Dr. Sun Jian at Fudan, and I wanted to look presentable. So Paige and I ventured out around the corner to place that looked clean and decent. The sign in the window showed a list of prices. They were high for Shanghai: nearly 20 dollars; but since I pay over twice that in St. Louis, and I wanted to look my best...

So we went inside. I sat down, Paige at my side, and I asked how much, because I didn't want to get any confusion up front. The woman brought the calculator -- the vendors gasp when I pull out my OWN calculator, which I do, but I want them to know I came to bargain! -- and she typed in 15. Paige and I huddled; clearly she had dropped a zero off the end, but this was good news, the price in the window and price inside were different. I was looking at more like 17 dollars, not twenty. I sat down. I received a LONG, double wash, with lots of pleasant head massage (though no back massage as Marcelle had reported; and no Q-tip therapy to the ears); then a LONG warm rinse, and finally I was delivered to my male cutter. He took his time, and he seemed to know what he was doing. I have curly hair and it's not the easiest to cut so I came prepared to be very forgiving; but he was doing a good job.

Twenty minutes later, the cut was a CUT. We were done.
I went to the counter. They presented me with the bill: 7.5 RMB for the wash; 7.5 RMB for the cut. Total: 15 RMB, exactly as the pleasant woman had first dialed into her calculator forty-five minutes earlier. Paige was by my side, elbowing me. I paid up.

15 RMB is roughly $2.00 US dollars. I had a wash and a cut for 2 dollars. Total. And it looks just about the same as any cut I get in the states, to be honest. Did I mention I have curly hair and it's not the easiest to cut? Two dollars. I said to Paige, "At these rates, I'm getting a hair cut every week." And I just might.

My haircut:




* * *
My meeting Dr. Sun at Fudan went very well. I start teaching in two weeks, and will teach each week all year. We get January off for holiday. I'll have 33 students, and then a different 30 after the January break. It's the first time creative writing has been taught in English at Fudan University and my sponsors are quite excited by the idea; as am I. I'm working up my lessons as I write this. It's going to be an interesting year.
Exactly why we came here.

I think...


(Ridley)

My commute

Here's an over the head, blurry, on the run shot of mid-way through my commute to Fudan University where I'll be teaching. As you can see: I'm not alone.

This is the Shanghai Railway station, actually an underground tunnel that connects two parts of the station. This is exactly 30 minutes into my 1 hour commute.
(Ridley)

Stadium Rain

I know Marcelle covered this, but I wanted to show a before and after of what the rain at the Olympics in Shanghai really FELT like!

(Ridley)

Interior of our house

It has been a few days. It takes a long time to download these images.
This is our front door. We all have slippers that we put on when we walk in the door. Coats hanging to the right with shopping bags. It costs extra if you get a plastic bag at the store, so we always try to bring our own bags. This is our living room. Everything looks quite spare. We have nothing on the walls or floors. I am going to have the couch and chairs recovered so it doesn't look quite so English. I prefer a more Asian look while we are here. The windows look out onto our patio.
Looking into the dining room from the living room (Paige and Storey getting ahead on a little math), french doors on the left going out to the patio.
The patio where we hang our laundry whenever possible. The perimeter is all bamboo. Too hot to eat outside, yet.
The kitchen, looking in from the dining room. This is Shuayi, who helps us out a bit. She is wonderful.
The front door is to the left of the staircase, straight ahead through the arched doorway.
The downstairs bathroom which also holds the washer and dryer.
Heading up to the second floor.
The three bedrooms and a bath are on the 2nd floor. Rugs and artwork to come, hopefully.
Stairs up to the 3rd floor and Ridley's office.
The work room, basically a landing.
Doors going out to the roof from Ridley's office.
View from the first roof.
Going up to the second roof top deck.
Looking east toward the Bund. Lots of building missing from this picture! I'll try another shot on a clearer day.
Lots more to report later.
M

US vs Canada photos

One of our regular restaurants, BifengTang has Paige enjoying an orange float. Storey's drink of choice is a mango slushy with huge chunks of mango on top.The sight when we exit the subway on our way to the stadium. You can see the thickness of the air in most of these shots. It is so humid it feels as though we are living in the wet cloud as it builds to release.
One of the images on the sidewalk. Ridley makes fun of my love of these!
A view of the stadium. There are green, manicured parks everywhere. These Olympic sports symbols light up at night along the fence.
As we head up to the main stadium plaza where the "yummy" food concessions are. (We only got drinks this time!)
It started raining, thundering and lightning 10 minutes into the game. Hard to tell from the photo how hard it was raining. They played another 10 minutes, in the midst of unbelievable lightning and rain before the game was suspended. The IOC in Beijing was making all the rulings for the game, so 1/2 an hour later when all was clear, they still weren't playing. The game started at 6 but did not restart until 8pm.
On the plaza, one of the Olympic characters out and about. The line for photographs with this cutie was filled with adults, not children. So China!
These statues are around the whole plaza. They are beautiful.

Rain, rain, rain.
She is barely visible in this shot, but Paige took a picture of Hope Solo, the goalie who is her idol. She is standing right in front of the goalie circle, but is in light blue, disguising her against the grass. The game was tied at the end and went into two 15 minute overtimes. The US got a goal in the first 15 minutes, and were able to defend a heavily attacked goal in the second 15 minutes to win 2 - 1. Very exciting. Ridley and Storey left at half - time because Storey was hungry. We had not eaten dinner since it was an early game. The 90 minute game that took 4 hours! Paige and I made our way back to the subway, walking forever as many of the subway exits were already closed since it was past 10 pm. When we finally go to our lane at about 10:30, we found that our lane was all locked up. We had never been out that late. We now know we need a code to get into the gate. Our little gatekeepers house had a red light on, meaning he was in bed for the night. I found a doorbell, and after a few moments he emerged, pj bottoms, no shirt, umbrella and very sleepy. By that time there were 6 of us needing to get in. Always an adventure here!
M