Pearl TV Tower / Shanghai Old Street

I finally arrived at the Pearl after 40 minutes of walking. Next time, I'm taking the subway. It was quite a sight, even on a cloudy day. After visiting the Pearl, I decided to take the Bund Tunnel over to Puxi. It was kind of cheesy. I would describe it as a huge optic lights show. Occasionally, there would be those "whacky inflatable arm guys", exactly like the ones mentioned on the Family Guy.

I reached the Bund on the other side and the view was great. I was able to see the Pearl TV tower from across the Huangpu River. The part that I loved the most is that right by the TV tower, there was the golden arches again. I've noticed that there are 4 big hitters here in regards to fast food: McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC and Haagen Daz. You'll find one everywhere you go. Pizza Hut, KFC and Haagen Daz are all sit down establishments, kind of like a Fridays in the States.

At the end of the Bund, I walked over to Old Shanghai Street. It was really interesting to see the old architecture in the middle of the city skyscrapers. The place was packed with small store fronts and mobbed with massive amounts of people.

The sights and smells were amazing, except for the occasional wiff of stinky tofu. Ah yes, fermented tofu fried and served on a stick. Somehow, I don't think this delicacy will ever make it to the Minnesota State Fair's food on a stick specialties.

Today I also saw dumplings, a common food favorite. Most dumplings are pork, veggie or shrimp. This lovely eatery served crad dumplings. I think they meant crab. If you read the last line here it says, "dumpling stuffed with the ovary and digestive glands of a crad". Yummy - my mouth is watering. Actually, I can have a few of these dumplings and wash it down with Starbucks, right next door.

After Old Shanghai, I walked up to Nanjing East Road. By now, I'm exhausted but I carry on. I walk this pedestrian only road until I reach People's Square. At this point, I had to call it a day and head down to the metro.

In the past 5 hours, I've learned:

*not to take flyers

*one stop on the metro is pretty far to walk

*crad dumplings are a big hit here

*when in doubt, walk 1 block for the nearest KFC

Don't take the flyers

It's Saturday today and I decided to do some sightseeing. First stop, Pearl TV tower. The front desk told me that it's one stop on the metro, about 20 minutes walking. Why not walk I thought, it's a misty day, not too hot. I walked and walked and walked. All of a sudden, 20 minutes seem like forever. Eventually, I got there and it was 40 minutes later. That's probably a combination of checking out the sights and getting a little lost because I went off the main road. When I arrived at the Pearl, there were a lot of people handing out flyers and cards, advertising their business. There were 3 girls in front of me and one guy insisted on giving this girl a card. Not only did she didn't take it, she took a swing at him. Then, his other card handing friends chuckled and said, "Did you get to touch her (I'll call them ta-ta's)?"

Wow - I get it now. A lot of these guys try to brush up against your ta-ta's when they are giving you these flyers. You're probably saying, "are you serious?" Yes, I am serious and I had no idea until I heard them talking about it! This is when I had an a-ha moment. Earlier, I talked about people looking at me funny, well, I'm beginning to notice that sometimes, it's not just eye contact. Gross!!

Public Transportation

Today, I experienced my first ride on the subway. Actually, it was pouring rain outside and I originally called the lobby for a taxi. After 30 minutes, they told me that with the rain, there are no empty taxi's and I'm better off taking the metro.

The metro's about 2 blocks down the street. I headed into the World Plaza and just followed the crowd down the escalator. Floor B1 was surrounded by restaurants, must be B2. I went down one more flight and the 'massage center' looked very sketchy. Back on B1, there was only one way between two restaurants. Why was it not apparent to me that the subway / metro is between two restaurants? Duh!

I went to the metro card machine to purchase a T-card. Well, everything was in Chinese. Luckily, there was a person there in a red apron, just walking around. Turns out he is there just to help people like me. I asked him if there was an English option. He was very nice, walked over and said, "let's see, well, we can try pressing this..." there was a button that said "English" Wow - not only can't I read Chinese, I also can't read English!

Once I found the place - taking the metro was super easy - everything is color coded, in English and Chinese. Even the announcements are in both languages. And unlike the NYC subway announcers, you can actually understand them! Since I decided to take the metro during rush hour, it was packed. There are metro workers that stand by the doors, when it opens, people start piling in. Then, it'll look like it's too crowded and that's when the just physically push everyone in.

I also found out that on rainy days, people stand at the doorways of buildings and hand out plastic slip covers for your umbrella. This helps the floors stay dry, since everything here is a slippery marble-esk material. The problem is, when people need to use there umbrella again, the slip covers just seem to land on the ground - which is even more slippery than the marble.

Beautiful Mold

After a long delay on the tarmac, I arrived into Shanghai around 9pm. Again, everything was in English and clearing customs was very fast and friendly. The hotel provides a shuttle from the airport which I didn't know about - awesome! The customer service rep was very nice. She told me that I've arrived in the beautiful season. I was very excited and asked her why it was beautiful. She explained that it's rainy and if your clothes get wet, make sure it's dries completely or else it'll mold. Ahh yes, it's mold - not beautiful. The word beautiful and mold both sound like "may" with tonal differences. Moldy season - not beautiful season.

Day 2: Housing and Medical Exam
My housing consultant met me at the hotel lobby and we began our apartment search. First, we headed to the office and they provided a 40 minute overview of Shanghai, along with a comprehensive map of the city. Then we went to see two apartments in Puxi. Puxi and Pudong is separated by the Huangpu River. Puxi is like the "NYC" and Pudong is the "New Jersey" side. Obviously, my choice was to live in Puxi. However, the traffic is really bad and it would take 1.5 hours to get to work (in Pudong). With that information in hand, "New Jersey" started to sound more attractive. We saw two apartments in Puxi, both were nice but didn't have an onsite fitness center and it seemed very small, which would make sense b/c you're paying for the location.

Midway through the day, we made a pit stop for my medical exam - government required in order to work in Shanghai. This was quite the experience. Fill out form, wait in line, go to another line, take picture, wait in line, then pay. Afterwards, I got the go ahead to change into a medical gown. The entire facility was set up in a rectangular shape, you go all around the rectangle and end up at the dressing room - very efficient. First room - radiology, then blood work, EKG, Ultrasound and then General Exam. During the general exam, the physician said, 'yes, you are super fat' a literal translation. Not overweight, not obese, she said it - super fat. Love it. I tried not to laugh out loud because she didn't find it very funny. Once the exam is complete, I need to wait a week, get the results, apply for a work permit, wait for approval and then apply for temporary residency. This will take approximately 3 weeks. Since I was made aware of this, I made sure I packed enough for 3 weeks (no shipments allowed until residency completed).

The whole process went very quickly, however, you're sharing this entire experience with about 20 other people. At one point, there were 5 people waiting in the blood work area.


The late afternoon consisted of 3 Pudong showings. One was close to the Huangpu, which meant close to Puxi. As they got further out, the apartments got bigger. I decided on the one closest to Puxi - Shimao Rivera. Now, they will negotiate the contract. Jenny, my relo consultant indicated that this is an older complex - about 5 years old. The complex has everything - 2 fitness centers, beach (man-made), indoor pool, restaurant, green maze and many amenities. As part of a furnished, serviced apartment, all appliances and furniture are included. There is no dishwasher and everything is 'Shanghai-sized'. The oven would fit a small tray of cookies and the washer and dryer is a combo. Everyone says the dryer is worthless, which I believe. What was really funny to me is the size of the washer. It is tiny! I think it'll fit one pair of jeans. This is why they will change our sheets once a week and replace towels twice a week. Housekeeping will also stop by 2-3 times a week. All of the locations are largely expat and everything has an English version.


Here's what some of the places look like:
Xiangmei




Shimao




Day 2: Dinner


I got back to the hotel around 6pm and decided to find a place to eat. This adventure took about 2 hours. I refused to eat at the McDonalds, Pizza Hut, or KFC around the corner. Well, I found a place that had lots of pictures on their menu. As I walked around the stores, a few people gave me the funny look - it's like they were saying with their eyes, "you're not from here, are you?"

I laid down to watch TV at 10:30 and passed out at 10:35

Konbanwah: Narita Airport

Well, well, well, after about 12 hours, I arrived in Japan. The flight consisted of two full meals, a snack and countless hours of movies - I watched all of them. There was Mad Money, The Bucket List and Horton Hears a Who. Arriving into Narita was a great welcome. Everything was in English, even the menus - one food place had "Draft Beer" on their menu. I decided to use the restroom before getting on the plane again. Ahh yes, I forgot the high-tech restrooms.

I'm not sure if you can read this lovely arm rest for the toilet, options are:

Orange dot - stop

Blue "w" - spray

Purple person - bidet

Musical notes - flushing sound (not an actual flush)

There's also options for water pressure and volume. I can't wait to get these in the US.

Moving Day

Today is moving day. The movers showed up bright and early. They came in with a variety of cardboard boxes in all shapes and sizes. In the past fews days, I've been organizing my 'piles of stuff' so I'll be able to find everything once I get there.

(picture of the final load)

When the move rep. came a month ago, we were over capacity by about 50%. After the packers finished, we were 50% under capacity! Right away, I thought to myself, 'sweet, I can buy a LOT when I'm gone' :)


I watched as they meticulously wrapped each pair of my shoes in wrapping paper and jotted down the serial numbers to all our electronics. This is why they are the professionals. If it was up to me, I would've just tossed the shoes in the box and called it a day.


As you can tell, this picture represents priorities of Anne and Bill's packing. On the left - the box indicates "shoes", Anne of course. On the right - the box indicates "X Box" hmmm, would that be Bill?