FEBRUARY 4TH, 2007

Shanghai continues to prove to be quite the adventure. So many things to see and experience that we sometimes don't know where to start, and only exhaustion at the end of the day seems to stop us. We have spent time recently with the relocation service who has done a terrific job of getting us around this huge city and showing us things of interest. Randy took the day off on my first day out with Selina (a local Chinese gal with a good grasp of English language ... thank God!!), and we visited a couple of Western style markets where you can purchase name brand food items from the States, Australia, and Europe, you would say that they cater to expats. We also visted several traditional Chinese markets to see what is available. We have tried various Chinese local brands of certain items with pretty good success, especially fresh fruit and produce.

Lunchtime on our tour was at Lapis Lazuli where we met with Cecile (a French gal who also speaks excellent English and Chinese) to commence a walking tour of the French Concession and Theater district. The French Concession is lovely and full of European charm (Cecile tells us that the Chinese in Shanghai say that the French are once again invading). I'm glad that I didn't see the French Concession first because I would have insisted upon living there, but it would have been a hellacious commute for Randy, so probably not a wise choice.

My visit to the health clinic was similar to Randy's .... quite the efficient operation they have going there. I received a complete physical (including blood draw, EKG, chest X-ray, sonogram) in under one hour (along with around 30 other folks).

Randy and I utilize all spare time to walk around our district simply discovering what is out there. It's amazing ... we travel many of the same streets over and over again, but we always see something different. Our apartment complex is new and modern (about 30 buildings each around 30 stories high) built around a series of lovely gardens, fountains, boardwalks, stands of bamboo and other trees, shrubs, and flowers, huge olympic sized pool WITH a beach area built along side, barbeque areas near lovely picnic facilities within the walls of our development (although I still cannot get used to the fact that EVERYONE hangs their laundry on huge poles outside the apartment windows even in our lovely complex), just outside those walls is a very traditional cross section of local Shanghai life. Numerous street vendors selling food, clothes, furniture, electronics, pirated DVD movies, watches, shoes/boots bags just to name a few of the available items. And bargaining is welcome and expected which can be great fun or somewhat confusing depending upon the level of the communication barrier. We become a bit more brave every day, and are usually successful making ourselves understood. Charades is the game of the day, and those of you who know Randy well will be suprised to hear that he's getting quite good at it. Of course, we utilize what Chinese we know with varying degrees of success too. But as soon as you use a few words, they come at you fast and furious in Mandarin assuming you have a much stronger command of the language than is reasonable.

There are thousands of the aforementioned street vendors selling meat-on-a-stick, dumplings, various pizza-crust type breads, corn on the cob, sweet potatoes, noodles, and other local favorites. As mentioned previously, we have been warned away from the street vendors unless one wants to crash diet in a rather unpleasant way, but it is difficult ... the smells are incredible, and I suspect that we will eventually try something. Also, there are live animals for sale (to use for meat), and it is not uncommon to see a person walking down the street with a chicken (feathers, head, feet, and all) going home to be put in the cooking pot. Aquariums are common with fish, turtles, shellfish, etc. which can be purchased straight from the tank. If you'd prefer just the fish or chicken heads, or the fish skins, that is also displayed for purchase. We've had fish heads a couple of times. There is a little meat on a fish head, but the fish heads are used more for flavoring the stew than as a main meat dish item.

Other than a slight digestive ailment suffered by me late week (not as a result of fish heads), we have been very lucky and suffered no adverse affects as yet from our culinary adventures here. So far, we have tried Italian, Thai (one of MY favorites), Indian, traditional Chinese, German, and American restaurants, and there are many, many more to try. All have been very good. Also eating out is quite reasonably priced so it's more an option here than it would be in the states. At times, it seems that gathering the items for a meal is more expensive than eating in a restaurant.

I have to mention the pizza we got at our favorite Italian restaurant, Pasta Al Frecsa. The pasta is wonderful there, but we were hungry for pizza one evening and had noticed how wonderful the pizza ordered by other patrons looked, so we ordered a pizza with black olives, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, and ham. It arrived looking simply delicious but was assembled in a rather odd way. Two slices with olives, two slices with mushrooms, two slices with ham, etc. We laughed. Randy said next time we'll ask them to spead out the ingredients a bit. It was very delicious though!!

Our driver, Shao, is doing a little better than he had initially. Calling the drivers in Shanghai crazy is a huge understatement, but Shao is the only driver I've seen here who is, at times, rather tentative, especially if he is not sure where he is going (and it's easy to see why you might not know how to get where you need to be ... Shanghai is HUGE ... you could drive in any direction for hours and not run out of the city!!). Shao drives us around in a Buick minivan (Buick is quite popular in China), and gets honked at a LOT, but I do not mind that when driving in the city. On the other hand, the expressway travel seems a bit dangerous at times when he is not keeping up with the travel. In fact, Randy's co-worker Lifeng was rear ended last week when forced to stop suddenly to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of him, and he was driving himself. But that would NEVER happen with Shao ... he seems to be the only careful driver in Shanghai. Randy says that he's too tentative sometimes, but I'm impressed with U-turns in the midst of horrendous traffic, and the ability to weave in and out of the mass of vehicles, bikes, scooters, and pedestrians which fill the streets (and sometimes the sidewalk). Also, Shao has taken it upon himself to learn English. In his time spent not driving, he listens to tapes, and is definitely picking up some useful phrases. So between his lousy English and our lousy Chinese, we are making some good conversation here and there.

The weather here is getting up around 10 and 12 C (50's F) so little by little, it's turning into spring here. There is still a chill in the wind though, and it's best to keep the gloves and scarf handy. I can tell that the locals here are used to very warm temps though as they really bundle up, even for what we would call "early spring" weather.

So it's Sunday today, and we're off for more adventures. Still needing a few items for the apartment, and Randy found an Indian brunch buffet that we are going to try.