Starting over?

Well, we are now through our second night at the new apartment. This really is a second start as we had just settled into a routine at the Marriot hotel. On the day we took possession of the apartment we spent about two hours with the service team reviewing all of the furniture we ordered, making sure all the appliances worked and documenting any damage or other pre-existing condition. The apartment has a master bedroom with a balcony, three bedrooms (one for each of the boys), 2-1/2 bathrooms, a family room, kitchen and living room with a balcony. It is about 2500 sq ft in total. When it came time to hand over the keys I was a bit dumbfounded by the process. In total they gave us 37 (not a typo) THIRTY-SEVEN keys. Now, I had trouble keeping track of my house keys in the US and they were only two in number - not sure how I will cope with 37!! We had to sign off on each "set" of three keys and the entire process took about 15 minutes. The key situation is as follows: 5 for the front entry, 3 for the master bedroom, 3 for each of the boys bedrooms (12 in total) 3 for the kitchen balcony, 3 for the back door, 3 for the living room balcony, 3 for the MB balcony, 2 for the mailbox, and three for the family room. I am going to look like the high school janitor with the key ring I will need. I might even have to start wearing suspenders to hold up my pants due to the weight of the keys. As we started unpacking our air shipment which arrived on Friday evening we realized that we had failed to pack any bath towels, utensils, dishes, and other very basic necessities. Our first few showers were interesting as we had to use t-shirts to dry off or simply walk around in our birthday suits for the drip dry method. So it was off to IKEA for a shopping spree. We found some nice pillows, comforters and other niceties.  We also made a trip to Carrefour for other essentials like an iron, ironing board, cleaning supplies, trash cans and other miscellaneous items.  We heard from the shipping company that our sea shipment will arrive into port on Monday Sept. 5th but that we should expect it to be unloaded and cleared through customs until sometime around the 15th. (again, right in the middle of a business trip so Cynthia and the boys will have to unpack)  Mason is off to Fudan University this morning (Sunday) for the Opening Ceremony for the semester. The Chinese seem to be big on Opening Ceremonies - Expo 2010, The Beijing Olympics etc. but I don't think there will be 1000's of choreographed dancers and 3 hours of fireworks but I could be wrong.  Will keep you posted.  Classes begin for him on Monday and should be an good substitute for the boredom he has been experiencing over the last week or so.  Well, I am off to B&Q (think Chinese Home Depot) to buy a screwdriver and wrench so I can assemble our IKEA bar stools.  Wishing everyone a great weekend and don't forget to save those pennies for your trip to Shanghai!