Page 12 of JoTB Travel Blog Posts
August 16th 2008
Oh my goodness, we seem to have fitted so much in today! We went to the Expat coffee morning at the Coffee Bean again and met our friends, Suzanne, Emily and Nathan. We met sonme of the people we met last week again, which was nice. They have so many top tips to help us...we need to sort out getting Chinese characters on my mobile. There is a text message service which you send a message asking where a place is and it sends you the address, then you reply with 'c' and it sends you the address in Chinese. Clearly this is essential when you are trying to tell a taxi driver where you want to go! We left a bit early today so we could go and buy a soccer ball each for the ... read more
August 15th 2008
I was thinking about all sorts of things that you "back home" might find interesting, and I realised that there are all sorts of things about apartments here that are so different, so here goes! Well, the kitchen is always small, there is no oven, only a 2 ring (if you are lucky 3 rings) hob thing, and always an extractor hood. There are rarely any drawers (not sure where we are supposed to put cutlery, I mean chopsticks! There are good sized fridges (for thos non-americans among us!) and then a mad thing called a 'Steriliser'. No, not for baby equipment, but for drying your dishes. At first, you think it's a dishwasher, but then realise it's because the dishes don't dry in the humidity, and keeps the germs away! In place of an oven, ... read more
August 15th 2008
So we ventured out into the sweltering Shanghai morning to go and see some bugs!! We made it to Insect Kingdom after a long and traffic jam filled journey in a taxi to meet our friends Suzanne, Nathan and Emily. Mark, Suzanne's husband, has had to go back to the US for a week so we are doing some stuff together. Insect Kingdom was good, there were lots of fish(I know, not insects I hear you cry!), reptiles, snakes, some monkeys (again, insects?!!),a load of tortoises and terrapins, along with some proper horrible bugs which I couldn't bear to mention! It kept the kids busy for a while, then they spied the gift shop and we had the usual stroppiness as they tried to choose something to buy which didn't cost the earth! After we left, ... read more
August 14th 2008
I know what Suzanne means when she spends so much time thinking about the titles for these....not very impressive tonight, unlike the storm we are still having tho! It started as we were trying to get back from the real estate agent's office at about 6.30pm, which means, yes, we do have a place to live - yippee!!!!!! We found two today actually, but went with the second one as we prefer the agent (she speaks english which always helps) and also we met the lovely landlord who also speaks good english. She has agreed to pay for us to have good broadband and also satellite tv for the year, for only 6900 Rmb/mth, and the place has 3 good bedrooms, hurray! Also, which will please most of you, it is only on the 2nd floor. ... read more
August 13th 2008
Well, we are well and truly exhausted today! We saw some more flats this morning, the first one was on the 33rd floor and was great. William insisted he wanted to live on the roof, even though the flat was on the top floor anyway! It has 3 bedrooms and was really well presented, with amazing views. It was a bit scary though but had a huge indoor swimming pool, gym and aerobics room. We then dropped Sophie and William off for their playdate with Emily and Nathan, which was so helpful. We had to go for our medical examination for our residency permit, which would have been a nightmare with them. It was quite amusing in hindsight, although it feels a bit like you are on an assembly line. Thanks to Suzanne giving us a ... read more
August 12th 2008
After a late night last night, we struggled to get up this morning, but were picked up at 10am and take to view some more apartments. This estated agent was loads better than the one yesterday....thanks Suzanne and Mark for the tip. June from Vian Real Estate had a pack ready for us with a map and all the places marked on it and a piece all about each place in English. These places were so much better too, all clean and we met the landlords in each place which was much better. We went to a fabulous complex called Oasis, which is next to YanLord Riverside, a complex I had been told was fantastic but pricey. Oasis is by Weining Rd metro station and about 10 mins ride in a taxi from here. We viewed ... read more
August 11th 2008
So we had an early night last night (or normal one at least) but once again we have only just got William to bed and Sophie and Ian are just writing their journals together while I write this. We slept in a bit this morning, then sorted a load of admin out this morning, arranging appointments to view flats. We had a walk at lunchtime and tried some dumplings as demanded by sophie as "Po eats them in Kung Fu Panda", but funnily enough she didn't like them anyway! Katherine our contact from school came and collected us with a real estate agent this afternoon to go and look at flats. It is a bit difficult as she is not from Shanghai and lives at school, so is not very familiar with the area. As we ... read more
August 10th 2008
Here are some more photos of today which I have now uploaded...will get the hang of this thing soon!! xx... read more
August 10th 2008
Well, we are here! I have decided to try this blog malarkey as Facebook has let me down and I have been unable to add photos. It is our 4th day here already and we might just be starting to adjust. We arrived very early Thursday morning and we were just totally exhausted. Nothing can prepare you for that kind of exhaustion! Sophie just wouldn't sleep on the plane, until the last 2 hours of course! We were on the plane with the Swiss Olympic team, but no Roger Federer sadly! The airline were great, can def recommend them, brilliant for the children especially. We were met by a girl from our school who was very kind and brought us to our hotel which is great, clean and comfortable but there is no English here. One ... read more
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