Learning the ropes

Saturday:  Took the crew to the Shanghai Community Center in JinQiao (our eventual neighborhood) for a gathering of new ex-patriate families.  The meeting was sponsored by an organization called Community Connections whose purpose is to welcome new families and help them get acquainted with life in Shanghai.  there were about 25 couples who attended and it was a great way to network and learn about things like culture shock and how to handle it, medical care and where to receive it, and the best was a talk by a couple who had been here over 3 years.  They gave great advice on business, culture, drivers, ayis (domestic help) and a multitude of other topics.  After lunch we headed back to the market to shop - imagine that - Mason and the boys have very quickly become VERY GOOD negotiators.  For less than $30 Mason bought earbuds, language DVDs for French, DS games, and a nice pearl neckalce.  My mission was to find Vikings gear which I sucessfully negotiated and even got one jersey for $7 since the factory made an error and the jersey is blue instead of purple.  We got back to the hotel around 2:30 and decided to take a journey on the metro to the other side of town and visit the largest Carrefour in Shanghai.  (Large dept store ala Wal-Mart but nicer)  The subway required us to change trains once and took about 30 minutes.  Not nearly as crowded at this time of the day on a weekend so it was quite nice.  We shopped for a couple hours and bought some fresh vegetables and other essentials.  Cynthia had quite the experience buying a hair dryer.  She had 4 women helping her none of which spoke any English with the exception of telling us how good the Phillips brand was and that it had "ions" - apparently "ions" are good for your hair and 4 are better than 2.  Needless to say we bought the most high end "ion" rich hair dryer ($40) over my protest that the $10 one would be just as good.  The sales ladies about ran me out of the store when I mentioned that we didn't really need the "ions".  How could I be so fooolish - of course you need "ions".  I learned my lesson.  On the way home Cynthia wanted to be the "leader" so she could feel more confident with getting around on the metro.  She did a great job and we all arrived home together.  Enjoyed our last meal in the "fancy" restaurant and enjoyed a buffet that included Japanese, Indian , Chinese and Western fare.  Now that we are stocked with groceries the cooking is our responsibility as the restaurant in the hotel is expensive. 

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