Sunday, November 2, 2008
November 1, 2008
- I missed Halloween!
- Plane landed in Shanghai at 4:10 PM after a 12 hour and 20 minute flight. Unfortunately I ended up with a middle seat in the middle aisle, so my ability to get up and walk around was very limited.
- I ended up getting a total of 2-3 hours of sleep, saw a lot of movies: Man on a Wire, Harry Steele, Rebel w/out a cause, My Brother is an Only Child.
- Two meals and a final bowl of noodles which was only served with chop sticks about an hour before landing. Nothing was very good, but you ate it because it helped pass the time.
- Couldn’t see much as we landed since it was raining. Could have been landing in Iowa.
- Going through the airport went very smoothly, minimal waiting time for baggage, long queue for immigation but that went quickly.
- Dave was waiting for me when I got into the public area.
- We boarded the very high speed magnetic train at 5 PM, which limited its top speed to 330 KPH, and took it into PuDong and then a taxi to their apartment complex.
- Arrived at the Cole’s apartment complex around 6 pm. It was a beautiful gated community, very well landscaped and could have passed for any well to do US city complex.
- The Coles apartment is gorgeous; it has three bedrooms, two balconies, a very large open kitchen, dining room, living room space. They brought some furniture over from the US and purchased the rest in Shanghai.
- They have a nanny five days a week who cleans, shops, takes care of the kids when they get home from school. They refer to the nanny as an “IE” , they love her and consider her a part of the family. A fellow teacher sets up interviews for “IE’s” for all the new staff.
- I delivered the mail, candy corn, maple syrup, and Lakeway pencils to the girls. Their Halloween costumes were still visible, as well as their trick or treat bags from the previous night.
- Abigail, had come down with a feature, so Kara stayed home with the girls and David and I went out for a massage and then dinner.
- The massage was heavenly…my first and the perfect way to recover from a 24 trip. I certainly could have used one of these on a daily basis in France. We spent an hour at the message place, getting neck and foot massages, for about $10 each.
- Along the way we ran into the elementary principal at Dave and Kara’s school. A very nice man who was being forced to leave China due to a new law that doesn’t allow foreigners to work after age 65.
- For dinner we went to a Thai restaurant…better than Stir Crazy! The neighborhood where the Cole’s live is very Western, so we were served with forks and spoons, just like home, instead of chopsticks.
- We also went to a grocery store , again very Western, most of the same products we have in the US.
- Dave and I returned to their apartment, inspecting some DVD vendors still on the streets eventhough it was almost 10 PM. Video sell for about $.70/disk. These are all knock offs. Dave says its so cheap that no one uses Netflix, they just buy the knock offs. We visited with Kara, she attend Tamarack Tennis camp as a kid!, shared slides of NH and France before going to bed around 11:30 PM. I was thoroughly exhausted at that point.
Labels: I missed Halloween
¶ 10:13 PM
