Day 10 -- Shanghai, China on the way to Beijing, China

I was awake today by 9:00am. Mom left for crafting at a friend’s apartment shortly after I got up. I spent the morning working on laundry and catching up on my blog. I had to type one day twice because mom kept calling the house for various things so I got booted (if the phone call is too long, it knocks the computer off the internet). Finally finished, then packed for the trip and did dishes. The counters in the kitchen are made for someone about 6 to 8 inches shorter than myself (and I’m only 5’5”), so my back and shoulders were dead by the time I was done. After washing the dishes, I loaded them into the sterilizer. It has two wire racks and heats the dishes. The cabinets look very similar to the sterilizer and dishwashers (wire racks in drawers and behind doors). One of the other expat’s (Mariska) heard from her Chinese friend that her ayi said she was ‘very dirty’ because she thought they were putting their dirty dishes into the cabinets. Apparently she was not familiar with a dishwasher. Lunch was spaghetti sandwiches today (okay, not a normal food to eat, but one of my favorites, just add some butter to the bread and it’s great!). Just after finishing lunch, my cell phone rang; it was Brink’s Home Security telling us that an alarm was sounding at my parent’s house, the police were being dispatched, and that I was the only one they had been able to reach on the emergency list. Turns out it was basically a false alarm (the friend that is staying there right now didn’t get the door shut all the way), but I had to make several phone calls to get in touch with him, my brother, and Brinks to let them know that the friend and my brother were coming over so that they could notify the police. Wasn’t the easiest process, but it is good to know that the house is protected. We left the apartment 6:45pm to go to the Suzhou train station. We sat for about 30 minutes before boarding. We were next to two Americans at the train station, but didn’t ever talk to them. Got on the train, found our soft sleeper cabin and got situated for the evening. The train left promptly at 8:00pm, just as scheduled. I did some more sudoku and started getting tired. Decided to open my book and do some reading—this is a sure way for me to fall asleep. About three pages later, my Mom took off my glasses and I was out.

Day 9 -- Suzhou, China

I woke up at 8:00am this morning. Another lazy day was in order as our pace will pick up soon when we head to Beijing. We spent much of the morning watching DVDs. I also learned how to use the washer/ dryer unit. It was really more learning the sequence of buttons to push (the blue one, then the red one twice and so on). And it is really not so much a dryer as a ‘spinning clothes wrinkler.’ My dad says it does a great job drying a pair of socks, but any load much larger than that will never get dry. Instead, we have to hang everything on a line in an enclosed balcony. The windows can be opened in warmer weather to speed the drying and in the winter you must crank up a heater. Clothes will mostly dry after two to three and virtually everything has to be ironed afterwards. I ironed clothes for about an hour until my back could take no more, then I handed it off to my mom. We finished laundry, the ayi came and went, and then we went to Auchan for grocery shopping. On the way in, we saw a mom digging her little toddler’s wee-wee out of his split pants so he could pee in the garage. She at least aimed him towards a grated drain on the ground outside the entrance, but that didn’t keep the sidewalk free of urine. We continued inside and fought the crowds to try to find the ingredients for making tacos. We fought the crowds but couldn’t find ground beef, taco sauce, or some of the other ingredients. We gave up on the tacos and picked up some snack food and drinks to take on the train on Tuesday. We stopped at Starbucks for coffee and cocoa, then we headed home. Adrie (pronounced Audrey), his wife Mariska and daughter Jamie (all from the Netherlands) came over for the evening. We ordered in pizza and watched Pulp Fiction. Apparently Adrie has been wanting to watch it for quite some time now. I was bad company as I fell asleep before the movie was over and barely woke up to say good night.

Day 8 -- Suzhou, China

The Year of the Dog began with a bang. The fireworks had been going on much of the evening and continued well into the wee hours of the morning, but nothing could quite prepare me for the sights and sounds at 12:00am. Daniel and I spent several minutes taking pictures and video on the balcony and then called his family. Ralph (Daniel's dad) answered the phone and thought I was on a train or just had a really bad connection. I could barely hear him as it was so loud. We stepped inside off the balcony and talked to him for a few minutes. Kathy and Brianna (Daniel's mom and sis) were still asleep as it was 8:00am. I'm sure Ralph did his best to convey the loudness of the fireworks he heard. My mom also called my brother to wish him a Happy New Year and Happy Birthday (his birthday is the 29th). I got to talk to him for a few minutes. He didn't seem too pleased that we woke him up early on the 28th on his day off...oh well. The fireworks finally died down and we left for home at about 3:30am. We managed to find a cab immediately--not bad for only seeing 3 cars total on the road. I'm convinced that my dad is good luck; this is about the 5th or 6th time that we have caught a cab (some of them the nice roomy gold cabs) with him when they were scarce. Finally in bed by 4:00am. Slept in until 10:00am today and just lazed around the house. The laziness was so bad that we all ended up taking naps in the late afternoon. Spent the evening watching about 8 episodes of 'Scrubs' on DVD and doing Sudoku puzzles (Daniel got me some Sudoku books for Christmas and I am an addict). Mom cooked spaghetti for dinner (we actually ate in!) and I called it a night by 9:30pm.

Day 7 -- Suzhou, China

I woke up at 7:30am today. Today is Dad's first day off work since I have been here. He gets some 'on-call' time during the Spring Festival/ Chinese New Year holiday and is taking some vacation after that time, so essentially he is off until the 20th of Feb. Decided today would be another day of taking it easy as we will be up pretty late for the New Year's celebration. When we finally got up and moving around, we headed over to Bar Street again for lunch (it's not that they don't cook here, but we don't have a lot of meal food in the fridge since we will be out of town for a few weeks). The plan was to go to Jack's, but they were closed, so we meandered down the street until something else jumped out at us. We finally stopped at "Pizza - Tmt" (I think Tmt is for tomatoes...?). We ordered some personal pan pizzas that were excellent. Best pizza I've had in a long time (I haven't been to Juliano's Pizzeria for quite some time now--I'm not sure anything can beat that). On the way home we bought some sleeping pads (like Therm-o-rests that you use for camping) as the train beds (we leave for Beijing by overnight train on Tuesday) are pretty hard for sleeping on. Also bought some more DVDs (Narnia!) and then headed home to prepare for the Chinese New Year party this evening. Made a quick stop at the little food store here in the apartment complex and stocked up on soda and beer to take the party tonight. Mom spent a while preparing Banafi pie(probably butchered the spelling there); you boil canned milk for three hours in the can so it carmelizes, then pour it in a pie crust (in our case, one store bought graham cracker crust and one chocolate one we made of crushed oreos sans cream), put sliced bananas on top, then fill the rest of the way with whipped cream--very yummy! I managed to overheat our mixer while whipping the cream (oops!) and had to call some friends to go over and borrow theirs. We also put together a small production station and had Dad and Daniel make sandwiches, pass them to me, then I cut them in quarters and stacked them in a dish to go. We also took a jar of dill pickles and a brick of Tilllamook cheese to the party. Both of these went over very well as they are difficult to find here. Mom & Dad's friend Heidi (a German woman working for FedEx here) showed up around 7:30pm and we all headed over to Bruce and Sari's (from Wisconsin--also geocachers with more than 1100 under their belt) to celbrate the New Year. On the way there, you could hear and see fireworks all around. The streets were mostly empty (a rare sight to see). We stopped at the guard station on the way in to the apartments to check in and let them know where we were going. He said we could go ahead and also asked us if he could take a picture with us. This is a first for me, but apparently a common occurence here for Westerners. There were about 25 people at the party from various companies and various parts of the world. The apartment itself was pretty amazing. It is on the 26th floor of the Bai Ling apartments (great view for the fireworks), has 2 stories, 5 bedrooms, and was designed and furnished for the Mayor of Suzhou to live in during the SARS outbreak a few years back. We ate lots and did a white elephant gift exchange. Among the gifts, of course, were some good ones (including a jar of pickles, a bag of mini Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, and Pimsleur Mandarin CDs) and some bad ones (a 110v hairdryer, a 'Cup-o-Noodles', and some DVDs in French). Heidi had also picked up some fireworks, so several of us went down to the street to set them off. They weren't neccessarily spectatcular to see, but the booms were loud enough to rattle you and set off car alarms. I particularly liked the long strand of red fire works (much like the 'Black Cats' strands that we have at home) which would bang and flash bright lights. These ones, however, lasted for nearly 5 minutes after lighting the strand. Finally headed back up to the apartment and out onto the big balcony to wait for the real show to start.

Day 6 -- Suzhou, China

Another basically uneventful day today. I woke up once at about 3:00am because someone was calling my cell phone. I was too tired to talk, so I pushed ignore and went back to sleep. I woke up again at 5:45am and just hung out in the apartment for the morning. After eating breakfast, I helped my mom finish making a 'no-sew' blanket for her ayi (maid, pronounced "I-E") as a Chinese New Year gift. The ayi, Fong, showed up while Mom was downstairs, so Daniel and I let her in to do her work. I've never had a maid, so it was a little weird for me to just go about my business and let her go about hers. (*just a note: the ayi makes 300RMB a month from my parents and comes in three times a week for a few hours a day to clean. That's US$37 per month or about US$2.85 for each day that she is here. My mom also refers her to other expats so she can get more work.) She does dishes, cleans the surfaces, empties the garbage and recycling, sweeps the hardwood floors, cleans the bathrooms, and irons clothes. She doesn't necessarily the 'deep-cleaning' very well, but it is worth having her around to do the ironing and it gives her money to live on too. While the ayi was here, the realtor and the air conditioner/heater repairmen showed up. Everyone just kind of went about their business, basically ignoring each other: Daniel watching TV, me on the computer, my mom (who came back from the other apartment) getting ready to go out, the ayi cleaning, one repairman working and the other watching, and the realtor sitting on the couch chatting on the phone. That was a lot of people (and chaos) to have in this apartment. The repairman decided to take the non-functioning heating unit out of my parents' room to take away and repair instead of crawling out on an 8 inch ledge 21 floors up to get to the exterior unit on a balcony outside (with no door or window access) with no safety lines. They have done it for this unit at least 3 times in the last few months and my mom gets uncomfortable and can hardly bear to watch them go out on that ledge. Guess you can't be afraid of heights if you are going to be an air conditioner repairman. When they did finally remove the unit, the let freon leak into the bedroom. I walked by and could smell the freon and feel it in my lungs and eyes. The realtor, who was here to supervise, let me know that she had them open a window to get rid of the smell. There seemed to be no concern for the toxicity of what the two men were standing there breathing as they worked. The realtor and repairmen finally left and the ayi finished up and left as well. Before she left, I was actually able to remember some of my Chinese and asked her to write down her phone number for us to give to another expat and wish her a Happy New Year (Xin Nian Kuaile pronounced "shin knee-an kwhy luh"). Daniel's sister called as we were heading out the door, so he got to talk to her for a few minutes before we walked down the road to the police station. We were told that we could go there to extend our visas (we have two entries for 30 days at a time, but our tickets are for 31 days and we may not make it to Hong Kong to use the second entry; the fine could be about US$600 if we stay beyond our visas). The guy seemed to understand what we wanted and went about entering information in the computer and scanning our photos. When he finished, however, I was pretty sure that all he did was register us as foreigners at my parents' address. We called the office assistant, Rain, at my Dad's office who only seemed to vaguely understand what we were saying. After much frustration and several explanations to Rain (there is a reason we sometimes refer to her as 'Fog') we finally got her to ask the right questions and figured out that we had to go elsewhere to do this. So, after a quick stop at the bank and the convenience store in the basement of the bank, we went to the other side of town (New District) to the Suzhou Administrative Center to try again. This time we got someone who spoke very good English and explained that we wouldn't be able to do anything until the 20th of February, just a couple days before the 30 days is up. This guy was very helpful in letting us know our options, but we spent a lot of time accomplishing nothing. Left there and decided to head to Auchan to grab some groceries and goodies for the New Year’s party we were going to in the evening. It was pure chaos in the store, partially because that is what is normal for the shopping experience and partially because everyone was shopping to prepare for New Year’s. The Chinese shop like they drive, but about 5 times worse. No one has any regard for anyone else’s space. Everyone just pushes their cart until someone moves. We got caught in the middle of a traffic jam in the store as 7 carts, about 20 people, and a shelf-stocker pulling a pallet of goods decided to use the same 5-foot wide aisle to pass through at the same time. There was plenty of yelling and no one budging. It was quite humorous to watch and if I could have gotten my arm down to the camera on my belt, I would have snapped a photo. Another funny/ bizarre photo op I missed was a mother holding her toddler up so he could urinate in a garbage can inside the store. I guess when you gotta go, you gotta go. After about an hour and 20 minutes trying to gather everything we needed, we hopped in line that ran down the fresh fish/ turtle/ squid/ shrimp aisle (the slime on the floor was just lovely and the smell was even better). At least they have some concept of how a line is supposed to work. It only took 40 minutes to get to the front of the line. This allowed the locals plenty of opportunities to stare at us and check out what was in our basket. They are all very curious about what exactly we foreigners eat/ buy and have no qualms whatsoever about blatantly staring. I’ve heard from some other expats that they have actually had people come up and move things around in their basket so they can see everything. Anyway, it is both a strange and laughable experience to be so intriguing to complete strangers. We finally escaped Auchan and arrived home by 5:30pm. By this time I was incredibly hungry as all we managed to grab in the process of trying to get our visas extended and shopping was a can of Pringles. Dad was home from work when we arrived, so we decided once again to go out for dinner. We went over to Bar Street again, this time to ‘The Indian Kitchen.’ The food was authentic and to die for. More over-indulgence…not sure that I’m going to lose the few pounds I was hoping for while over here, at least not at the rate I have been going at. We got home about 7:45pm, took some time to update my blog, then watched DVDs until I fell asleep on the couch. A side note: Dad’s driver, Mr. Ni, got in a minor accident today. As he was driving, woman pushed her bicycle right into the side of his van and it got stuck up under the bumper. The police arrived and fined him 5RMB (about 62 cents), gave it to the woman, then let everyone go about their business. Cheapest accident I’ve ever heard of.

Day 5 -- Suzhou and Shanghai, China

A mostly uneventful day today. I woke up at 7:15am and had to help Mom clean out an apartment of one of the GE guys as he is done with the job. Not sure if it is a cultural thing (he is Chinese) or just a personal thing, but I was less than impressed with the condition in which he left the apartment. There was still food in the cabinets, stains on the stove, dishes on the shelves, and about an inch of grease on the stove as well--and that's just the kitchen! Came back upstairs to my parents' apartment and decided to relax for a while. Got to experience Chinese government censoring firsthand; while watching CNN, the picture and sound would blank out as soon as Taiwan or Tibet were mentioned. Also, one of the bigger stories on CNN for the day, Google's (Google.cn) compliance with Chinese censoring through firewalls, was also blocked every time it was mentioned. The newscasters would barely get out "Google" (or whatever the topic was that was to be censored) before everything cut out. And the only reason that I am even able to get to my blog (blogs are blocked in China) is because I am using AOL with our broadband connection to access it. Several expats don't have AOL and just use their standard broadband or LAN and are unable to access sites or even do simple searches for words like 'freedom.' Definitely different than the freedoms we are so accustomed to in the States. Mom, Daniel and I left the apartment at about 1:00pm to meet Jerry and Sally (who are moving home to Colorado) and a driver to go into Shanghai. (By the way, going into Shanghai from Suzhou isn't a regular thing, maybe only once a month, because the commute can really suck if you go at the wrong times of the day. It just so happened that we had to do it 2 days in a row.) Had the driver stop at KFC (or 'Kentucky' as the Chinese call it) and grabbed a quick lunch. I pointed to a picture and actually managed to get a vegetarian sandwich. It was a little different from the veggie patties that we have back home, but good nonetheless. We continued on and arrived at the office of a moving company in Shanghai a few hours later. Jerry and Sally had to pick up their passports from here as the company had to have them for shipping all of their belongings back home. Up until this morning, they weren't entirely sure that they would be able to leave as scheduled, because if there was a holdup with customs, then they wouldn't be able to get their passports back until after the holiday and therefore would have been stuck in China a bit longer. Kind of uncomfortable to be stuck in a country without access to your passport in case you do need to get out. Our driver spoke to the woman at the moving office and told her that he thought it would take too long for us to see our friends off at the airport so we should not go into the airport with him. After a few minutes of back-and-forths and rewording things, he finally understood that we were just going in to get my bag from customs and not staying several hours to see them off. Went from the moving company to Pudong airport on the other side of Shanghai, about an hour or so commute. On the way there, we passed a waterway with cranes (as in equipment, not the bird) in virtually every direction. As I recall from my last visit, there are more cranes in China than any other city in the world. Easy to believe from this vantage point. Wish I could have snapped a picture. Anyway, we arrived at the airport about 5:00pm, helped our friends to the line with their luggage, said our goodbyes, then headed downstairs to call customs. It took about 10 minutes to get through on the phone, then I got to wait 10 more minutes for someone to come retrieve me to get to the other side of customs. After I finally got in, the process was relatively simple: identify my bag from the pile of about 50 bags, follow the employee to the customs check point, let them scan my bag, answer one question about where I came from, then I was on my way. I had to weave my way through hundreds of people, both arriving and those just waiting to meet someone (and believe me, no one is willing to stand aside, move, or even acknowledge your effort to get by aside from the frequent, blatant stares), to get back to Mom and Daniel to be on our way. I did a quick check on the contents of my bag and found that everything was in order and the cheese was still cold. In all it only took a half hour, quite surprising since they said on the phone that they needed to inspect my bag. I think they made me come get it just so they wouldn't have to deliver it all the way out in Suzhou...who knows though. Finally got back on the road and our driver quickly drove us home, weaving in and out of traffic as is customary in China. Dad was home when we arrived, so we all hopped in a cab and headed to meet Sara and Paul (both from Australia) at Yang Yang on Shi Quan Jie (Bar Street). We actually had more traditional Chinese food here. The dumplings were excellent. I could have eaten nothing but dumplings and been plenty happy. We also had some delicious green beans and broccoli and carmelized yams. The yams were awesome, but if you ever try them, eat fast because as they cool, they become rock hard and well stuck to the plate. For the 6 of us, our cost was 180RMB (about US$3.70 per person) and we all over-indulged...again. We took a cab and arrived home at about 9:15pm and went to bed shortly after. In all, a rather uneventful day aside from finally receiving my bag and everything I packed in it (yay!). I am definitely up for some uneventful days here there though as I'm sure it will be go-go-go on the Beijing-Changsha-where ever trip that we have coming up next week.

Day 4 -- Suzhou and Shanghai, China

I woke up today at 5:30. Stayed in bed for another 45 minutes before giving up on falling asleep again. Spent the time catching up on emails and whatnot before getting ready to go to Shanghai for the day. My friend Steve sent me a friendly reminder that I should still be job hunting while I am away (I will!!). Had breakfast with Dad before he headed off to work. Also found out that my bag had arrived in Shanghai late the previous night and that we needed to come get it out of customs, despite them previously saying they would deliver it…I just hope the ice packs held and my clothes aren’t all cheesy smelling. Sari (pronounced Shar-ee), an expat wife, met us at the apartment and we met up with some other expats to go shopping and sightseeing in Shanghai. We had some minor confusion as the driver that we hired apparently switched jobs with another driver and failed to give him our itenerary for the day. He spoke no English and the butchered Chinese that several of us were speaking was also doing no good. I debated calling my friend John (Taiwanese – American) for his translating services (Thanks in advance John, because I’m sure it will happen yet!), but Mom finally got through to a friend here locally. After several times of handing the phone back and forth between one of the expats and the driver, we finally got on our way shortly after 8:00am. Our first stop was at the Shanghai Market aka the Fake Market. On the way in we made a quick stop at Starbucks, then braved the vendors. “CD-DVD? Watch? Bag? Prada? Gucci?” They shout. They follow you. They block your way. Far from the ‘no pressure’ shopping that I prefer. Bought a scarf, a sweater, and a North Face parka. I had bought a jacket last time I was here, but I was trying to limit my packing to one bag for the trip over and figured I would leave that one at home to save some room. Bargaining on the price is definitely not my forte. I think I got a good deal on all of my purchases, but not without some help from some more experienced shoppers. Sometimes I just don’t want the hassle—I just want to walk in, see the price, and make my decision. I don’t need someone guilt tripping me, telling me “that is too cheaper!” and that they need the money. I also don’t need someone telling me how great the sweater or coat will look on me. And the fact that they all say “cheaper for you” because I am their ‘first customer’ or their ‘friend’—sometimes its just to much for me. I guess I end up buying less because I don’t want to deal with it, so maybe it’s a good thing for me. Also watched a fight break out in one of the little booths. No one around tried to step in and help, but instantly about 60 people were there as spectators. We decided to avoid the mob and went around the other way to get where we were going. After 2 hours of meandering the market, we were then taken to Old Town for more shopping. We made our way to the pearl market in one of the nearby shopping centers first. This experience can be a bit overwhelming. Imagine a building the size of half a city block or more with each floor dedicated to a different type of item. One floor has gold jewelry, another perhaps crystals, another pearls…it’s just a bit much to take in. So, like I said, an entire floor of pearls as far as the eye can see. And it’s not just one big store, it is probably 30 plus different vendors, all with virtually the same product. How do you even choose which vendor to stop at? I was stating my musings out loud and my mom said “This one just felt right.” I don’t even know the first thing about picking pearls (Same color? Size? Shape? Am I even on the right track here?), so I tended to stay away from those. Instead, I opted for some little glitzy bracelets (much easier to pick—blue goes with this outfit, pink with that one…) and the nifty magnetic bracelets (for those of you that have been here before, the magnetic bracelets have gotten fancier—prettier beading, silver magnets, etc.). I finished my shopping there quickly and browsed the area a bit. I did see a turtle (about 5 inches across) sitting on a table in a bowl not much bigger than him (about 7 inches across) with just a splash of water in it. So sad for the turtle, but a fairly regular thing to see here. After my head stopped spinning from the sea of pearls, we moseyed down the street where my mom found some gorgeous oil paintings from a local artist. His sister was running the booth and, after my mom made an executive decision to redecorate their bedroom at home in Washington and bought five of the paintings, she called him and had him come over to also sign a book of his artwork and pose for a picture. My mom was uber excited about the experience and the great deal she got on the paintings. Running out of time, we then ran into McDonald’s to grab a quick lunch. Fairly normal McD’s experience except that you have to guess what is in the picture you want to order, there are about 20 times more people in there, and an employee that spoke English sought us out in line, took our order on a Palm Pilot, and transmitted it to the cashier…okay, so the only normal thing was the fries. We were finally headed back to meet our driver when Christina (a girl from Florida who just got her degree in International Business and is over here teaching English) decided that she should go back and buy something that she had seen…at the pearl market. We trudged back to the pearl plethora and my mom helped her pick the best quality and bargain the price down before meeting the rest of the group to move on. From there, we went to the Bund on the Huangpu River, known for its varied architecture, from skyscrapers to Gothic, Baroque, and Romanesque buildings. There is more shopping nearby (Nanjing Lu), but we decided to forgo that as were pretty beat from all the shopping at the previous two stops. Instead, Daniel, Mom, Sari, and myself chose to do them semi-touristy thing and take the tram under the river (with a poor excuse for a light show in the tunnel) and visit a few small museums underground in the tunnels. One was a ‘Deep-Sea Creature Exhibition.’ Though mildly interesting, it was a pretty sorry excuse for any kind of exhibition. There were some aquariums with different fish and crabs, but very few. There were also some stuffed/ painted creatures of the water hanging or sitting in mounds of blue tulle to look like water. It took all of ten minutes to thoroughly explore the exhibit. Here I saw yet another turtle in a tank that was too small, but at least this one was about half again as wide as he was. The other museum we visited was the ‘History of Chinese Sex’ where we saw many artifacts, small and large, human and animal. The final piece of the package trip was supposed to be some sort of music and light experience. As we were waiting to enter, however, another westerner (British?) was exiting and strongly suggested we skip the 5 minutes of screeching sounds (on headphones) and flashing lights. We took his advice and emerged from the underground exhibits to find that we were nearly at the foot of the Oriental Pearl Tower (TV Tower). We decided a short walk to see if we could go up the tower would be a good idea. With the cold weather and the mid-week visit, there was no wait at all, so we rode an elevator up 263 meters (862 ft) to a sightseeing deck, then another elevator to sightseeing deck at 350 meters (1148 ft). It was cool to be able to see the city from that vantage point, but visibility was quite limited as the pollution is so thick in the city. Night began to fall while we were on the top deck, so we took the elevator down, had our ears pop about ten times, caught the tram back under the river, and met our group again. Somewhere during this time I discovered that I had somehow ripped a fair-sized hole in the crotch of my pants. Not a huge deal today as I had on long johns, but this was the only pair of jeans I had to wear since my luggage didn’t make it. Also one of just a few pairs I brought with me at all…argh. We did have intentions of seeing the ‘Jade Buddha,’ but there just wasn’t enough time to do it all. We had also talked about driving to the airport to get my bag, but at the last minute we were told it was too far and the traffic would be too bad to go tonight. After a bit of frustration and a phone call, my mom had arranged for a driver to take us into Shanghai the next day to pick up my bag. Guess I get to wear borrowed clothes for one more day. Finally got on the road again and arrived home two hours later at about 8:15pm. We were all too beat to go out for dinner, so we ordered some Papa John’s pizza and stayed in for the rest of the night. Not intentionally, but it seems thus far I have basically avoided traditional Chinese food. I guess it doesn’t help that my mom is allergic to soy and therefore cannot eat tofu (a staple in Chinese food). There are also so many options around here, that we can have a different food every night. I imagine we will be eating plenty of traditional food in Beijing and Changsha in the weeks to come. Anyway, I crashed by 10:30. Think I’ve beat the jetlag this time around.

Day 3 -- Shanghai, China to Suzhou, China

We left the airport at about 12:30am and started the trek to Mom & Dad's in Suzhou. The driver avoided the highways (not comfortable? tolls? not really sure why.), so the drive home took longer than it normally would have. On the way home I got a text from my good friend Tim who just moved back to Boston. He told me that Boston gave him a welcome home present--a snow storm and knocked out the power. I told him that Tokyo gave me a present too and I was now traveling with just the clothes on my back. Arrived at the 21st (top) floor apartment about 3:00am and had a mini-Christmas with my parents. They got us mostly fun/Chinese gifts and we got them practical gifts that would be easy to pack when they come home or move on to the next job. Enjoyed a peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwich, then finally wound down about 4:30am and went to bed. Woke up at 10:00am and called the airport about my bag. My Chinese language skills haven't escaped me totally as I was able to ask (in Chinese) if the girl spoke English (hey, it's not much, but it's a start). They still didn't know where it was and said they would call later. I took a long overdue shower, borrowed some clothes from Daniel and my mom (fortunately she had just bought some CK knock off thongs that fit me), and we headed out for a taitai (wife) lunch. At "The Italian Restaurant" we met several of the wives (their husbands work for various companies here) and some of their kids too. There were some from Colorado, Wisconsin, New York, Holland, and Denmark. We had quite the array of accents. Even though it is "The Italian Restaurant," you can order just about any type of food--Italian, American, Mexican, Indian, and some others that I'm sure I missed. After lunch we hopped in a taxi over to Bar Street and did some last minute shopping with Sally, one of the GE wives who will be headed home (end of the job) on Thursday. We hit the DVD shop and I couldn't resist buying seasons 1-4 of "Scrubs." Everything DVD is 7RMB (Yuan) per disc (exchange is 8.1RMB to US$1). Sometimes the packaging on the discs are impossible to read (either in Chinese or such garbled English that it just doesn't make sense--occassionally you also get the description for another movie on the wrong cover), but more often than not, the DVDs are decent. "Brokeback Mountain" and "Jarhead" are also out, so Mom bought one and we bought the other. Left Bar Street and took another taxi to go talk to Mi, a travel agent that has also become a friend of Mom's. Mi worked with us to figure out the best plan for an upcoming trip to Beijing, Changsha, and possibly Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Sanya. Stopped by Starbuck's before taking a taxi and arriving home just before 6:00pm. Dad was home from work when we arrived and had me call about my bag again. This time they said it was supposed to arrive tonight and they would call when it got in to arrange for delivery. We decided to walk to "The Banana Leaf" with Jerry and Sally for dinner. We were greeted with a "Sa-wat-dee Kaa" and had excellent Thai and Malaysian food (curry, satay, etc.) served to us family style in a private room. Some entertainers also stopped in to play guitar and sing "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers. We ordered too much food for 6 people to finish (I had already way over-indulged), paid our 375RMB bill (total--yes, that's a VERY nice, fancy, EXPENSIVE meal for less than $8 per person) and headed home. I lasted about a half hour on the couch before falling asleep by 9:00pm.

Day 2 -- Tokyo, Japan to Shanghai, China

At some point it became today. You kind of lose track of that when you are traveling across numereous time zones and the international dateline. The time difference between Portland, OR and China is 16 hours (during daylight savings time, 15 hours otherwise). I end up fighting my body trying to think about what time my body thinks it is and what time I want it to feel it is. I've never been good with jetlag. One friend has said that Red Bull Vodka is the way to kick the jetlag--go out and drink a ton of those to stay up, get hammered, and when you wake up the next day, it is no longer jetlag but a mild hangover to recover from. Thus far I have only taken his word on it. We arrived about 2 hours late in Tokyo at 6:16pm local time and were told on the flight that the plane to Shanghai wasn't holding. It was supposed to leave at 5:50pm (plenty of layover if our flight had been on time), but it left at 6:15pm. We waited about 30 minutes at the connection counter, half expecting to stay the night in Tokyo, but found that Northwest Airlines was putting us on a China Air flight departing at 8:55pm, but it was in another terminal and we had to check in there. We decided to take care of the ticket before attempting to reach my parents, which would require buying a phone card with our non-existent Japanese Yen (my cell works most places, but Japan is on a completely different system). After some hassle, we made our way from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 via bus (and it was way too cold outside by the bus for just the sweatshirt and jeans I was wearing). We figured out where the gate was (at the end of terminal of course) and went to check in at the desk there. Finally found someone who spoke english and would actually help us and learned that we had to go back to a Japan Airlines desk near where we got off of the bus to get our boarding pass. Made our way back there and waited for 45 minutes to get our boarding passes. We were the very last people to get boarding passes for our flight, just 5 minutes before departure time (leave it to us to pick the slowest lines). No one seemed to know if our flight was leaving on time, so we ran for about 5 minutes up the stairs and down the terminal then down the stairs to the gate only to find that they were just beginning to board. Exhausted and stinky (from running and traveling in general), we boarded the plane. I fell asleep within 10 minutes of takeoff, wondering if my parents had any clue where we were or when we would be coming in. On the three and a half hour flight, I was woken up for a choice of "Western" or "Japanese" dinner. Trying to avoid seafood, I went for the Western dinner. I picked around the beef and ate the rice noodles it was served on before promptly passing out again. About 10 minutes before landing, Daniel woke me up again to fill out our customs and entry cards as he was having difficulty staying awake to do it. We landed at 11:20pm. I turned on my cell and texted my Dad, figuring that he was resourceful enough to know where were at. Immediately after sending it, I got a voicemail from him saying he knew what flight we were on and that they would be at the airport to pick us up. We were shuffled quickly through customs to go pick up our bags. Daniel's showed up within the first 5 minutes. Mine, on the other hand, never did. There was a Chinese-American man in the same situation, but with an infant, so I figure my situation isn't really that bad. Called Dad to explain the delay and blamed the bag hold up on the 16 pounds of Tillamook Cheese that they had me pack in it (I don't really think that's what it was, but we are worried about it making it easily through customs). Had to fill out some paperwork and a claim forms before I was allowed to leave. We met my parents (I was more than easy to spot with my "radically ruby red" hair--didn't turn out quite the color I intended--hopefully it will fade soon) and called the driver to take us to Suzhou.

Day 1 -- Portland, Oregon to Tokyo, Japan

So, I'll start at the beginning of the day--12 midnight. Margaret and I decided to go out for my last night in town and had a great time downtown. I got home around 3:30am and finished...er...began packing. I had been trying to get stuff ready for a while and had a pile of stuff that I needed to remember, but I hadn't even gotten my suitcase out yet. Finally got to bed about 7:30am and was up again at 10:00am to head to the airport for our 12:30pm flight. On the way to the airport, I remember saying something about the fact that I never pack extra clothes in my carry-on because, the way I figure, I'm wearing clothes and can get new stuff if I need it (* this info is unimportant now, but relevant later). My carry-on is reserved for the essentials: medicine, toothbrush, water, snack food, book, ipod, camera, etc Upon arriving at the airport at 11:00ish, we found out that our flight had been delayed until 1:45pm due to an ice storm in Tokyo causing the incoming plane to leave late and the need to check some equipment when it landed. Daniel and I took the time to grab some food, do some airport browsing, do some people watching (local news guy Paul Lindman was there) and just chill out. When 1:45 rolled around and we weren't on the plane yet, I decided to send Mom & Dad an email from my phone letting them know we might miss our connection in Tokyo/ Narita (way too early in China to just call). The only updates we had were several "we'll be boarding in about 10 minutes" and the score from the Broncos-Steelers game (Broncos lost--doh!). We finally boarded the plane about 2:00pm and left about a half hour later. The two and a half hours of sleep I got (and the four hours the night before from Daniel's wild birthday bash) finally caught up to me and I dozed off. I slept intermittently about as well as could be expected for being on a plane with 4 toddlers/ babies under the age of 2 within 2 rows in front or behind us. We were served snacks (I miss the plain old peanuts that everyone used to serve!) and dinner on the plane. I didn't request vegetarian this time--decided to just risk it and see what they brought (I'm not a vegetarian, but I avoid beef and pork and am allergic to shellfish, so sometimes the veggie meals are just easier). It was chicken with a side of shrimp, a poor excuse for a salad, and a rock hard dinner roll. Needless to say, my dinner was small and I looked forward to the fruit breakfast we would have closer to the end of our ten and a half hour flight.

China Blogging

Okay....I know it has been ages since I've done any REAL blogging, but I've decided to do it for my China trip (for pleasure this time--last time I was there was for school and I was way too busy to keep up with it then). I plan on having an entry for every day, but it may take a bit to get it all updated since I may not always have access to a computer/ internet. Read at your own risk...I tend to be long-winded and put in both interesting and un-interesting details. Enjoy and check back frequently for updates or subscribe using the link on the right.

Daniel's Birthday

We went out on the 20th for Daniel's Brithday with some of the guys from work and softball. This was at the end of a night of bowling and much alcohol.