Arrive in Shanghai

My internet works! I'm in China now! :) I am thankful that I got here with no problems.

I checked in online the day before my flight, and United didn't assign me a seat. So I called the travel agent and the airline and both said I needed to get my seat at the airport. I get to SFO and the International check-in line for was so so so long. Luckily since I already checked in online, I could stand the shorter line to just check bags. When I got to the counter, the lady told me that I couldn't get a seat assigment until I got to the gate. I checked my two suitcases which together weighed 96.4 lbs! I only 3.6 lbs to spare. Phew for me! Anyway, I got to the gate and the lady said I couldn't get a boarding pass and seat until all the other passengers have checked in! I explained to her that I checked in the day before, I purchased the ticket months ago, I'm not a standby passenger, etc. She said that they will call my last name according to status (i.e. fare rate, mileage plus accounts, etc). After she said that I was thinking to myself, "I'll have to prepare myself for some public yelling if I don't get onto that plane." I was getting pretty anxious and impatient. I was literally one of the last ten passengers to board. Luckily, I got an aisle seat in front of the movie screen which spared me an extra 5 inches of leg room. :) That said, the rest of the flight was OK. I couldn't sit still nor sleep. I was too excited. To my right was an 11 year old girl, to my right across the aisle was a middle aged dad with teenage daughters. The only words I spoke in nearly 13 hours were: "Thank you", "beef", "water", "please" and "excuse me". I tried talking to the 11 year old and she was not really humoring my conversation. My silence somewhat made me feel more anxious. I think my urge to talk is now being translated into my blogging.

I got my 96 lbs of luggage and brought it to the taxi queue. I hopped into a taxi and I told the driver the street I wanted to go to. Then in Mandarin he said "Which bridge should I take?" Then I replied (in Mandarin), "Which ever is fastest". He proceed to ask for the cross streets and I told him I was unclear. That totally gave away that I was not from Shanghai and I had no idea where I was going. Oh well. He then realized my Chinese was awful when he asked if there was "kong tiao" in the airplane. I was like, "what's that?" His eyes grew wide and he said, "You don't understand that word?!" He pointed to the vent in the car. Then I said, "oh, you mean 'leng xi' ("air conditioning" when used in context of in a house)!" Obviously he hasn't been on a plane in awhile. In my 35 minute cab ride, he proceeded to ask me if ABCs are picked on by white people, then asked me if ABCs dye their hair blonde (b/c many Shanghainese girls do). Then he asked me if white people naturally have light colored hair, or is it because they dye it. I was pretty amused at that one. :)

I'm staying in Xu Hui at a chain of hotels called "Home Inn". It's pretty decent and cheap. It took me awhile to figure out how to turn on the air conditioning though. Now I'm not sweating. Breakfast is only $1.50 USD and it includes coffee! :)

Need to: 1) Get cell phone 2) Meet with real estate agent 3) Pick up ticket to HK, BJ.

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