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Published: September 16th 2012
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Orientation was a whirlwind. We went over medical and apartment hunting. Signed our final contract, purchased Chinese cell phones and received our bank cards. The day kind of blurred by. I got my first glance of an actual Disney English!!! It was very exciting. We went inside and it lived up to my expectations. And HUGE bonus…I finally have medical insurance!!!
After orientation I was heading back to the hotel and noticed a massage parlor across the street. I quickly walked over and decided to get a 2 hour message!!! It was pure torture. My back and neck were in pain due to stress and the day of traveling and carrying boxes up and down to the attic the last few weeks. The masseuse used these suction cup things on my back. They are said to pull all of the toxins out of your body. I’m not sure if they did that or not but it was a very painful process. The hot rock part of my massage was very nice. This is the first time I was counting down the time until it was over. Usually I want the massage to last longer.
CoCo's Tea
My first Coco's Tea Drink. I had a Green Tea with cucumber jelly! It was delicious! Feeling tired and achy I made my way to my room and after skyping with my family I cried myself to sleep.
Saturday I woke up feeling better. My body was still aching but it was a good ache. The knots were gone. I made my way downstairs and ate my free breakfast buffet! Why does food taste so much better when it’s free?) I joined a few of my new co-workers. They invited me to go with them to activate our bank cards. I decided to join them. We had fun. I ended up spending the day walking around Shanghai with my new friends. There are about 20 of us and through the day we would find each other and people would split off so we kind of had a rotating group. But it was fun! We went to a gigantic shopping center called Cloud Nine. It is a high rise building and I counted at least 9 escalators going up plus there were some going down below ground level. It was quite an experience. Our group is blessed because we have one girl that
Jing'an Temple
In front of the temple! speaks Mandarin! She is wonderful and helped us all communicate when we needed to. After a long day of shopping I headed back to the room and took a leisurely nap. I went to dinner with 2 of my new friends. One sweet friend has actually worked in Shanghai before. She went back to the states for a year and decided to return so she knows s her way around. She suggested a place called HongMei Lu or the walking street. It was just what I needed. It is a narrow street, no cars allowed, lined with restraints from every nationality and pubs. The restaurants and pubs were opened up and there was outside seating. There were strings of lights everywhere and live bands playing music I understood. The crowd was a nice mix. There were all different nationalities and ages, single people, families, couples, old and young. We settled on a great Mexican Place called Mexicolindo. And to our surprise and pleasure the restraint was celebrating Mexican Independence day so I had one margarita and they brought me a second one for free. We sat and talked for several hours and it was so nice to get to know
these lovely ladies I am now working with. Back at the hotel I skyped with family and then peacefully fell asleep.
This morning several DE (Disney English) people met up again in the dining room. We decided to go and see the Jing ‘an Temple. The temple is beautiful. So much detail and work went into it. A bonus we were able to see the temple for free because it was Sunday. We also were able to observe the local people worship. We were definitely involved in Chinese Culture today!
After the temple we hopped back on the subway and headed to the Yu Gardens and Bazaar. I loved this area. The buildings in this area looked like I pictured China to look in my head! It was so pretty! We wandered through the bazaar looking with people trying to sell us stuff every few feet. Once there our party split up. I went with a small group of three ladies, one lady was a lady I had dinner with the night before. I wanted to go in to the gardens, there was an entry fee
and the other ladies had already been and didn’t want to pay again so I ventured in by myself. It was beautiful. I enjoyed the buildings, rock formations, art, koi ponds, plants and everything in the garden. I stumbled up on a restroom and came across my first non western toilet. I took a pic for you! I will not go into detail but I can be proud to say I did not make a mess….hehe. Back to the gardens. I found a little shop that had tea tasting. It was great! I had a fancy show of brewing hot tea and it was delicious. Along the way I ran into two young girls who spoke English. We took turns taking pictures of each other. . I found an area where I was able to play dress up and my new friends wanted to be part of it! I finished touring the gardens and met up with my DE friends and we finished shopping and headed to the Shanghai Community Fellowship.
It made me so very happy to know that there was Christian Community that was worshiping in Shanghai. My friend from Dinner
had previously attended this congregation and shared it with me. It was so refreshing to praise and worship and hear a good word from the Bible!
After worship we went back to the hotel and later decided to meet up and go to Dinner. We went to a wonderful noodle shop and I tried the Shredded Chicken with noodles and sesame paste. It was delicious. Now I am in my room preparing for sleep. It has been a full and wonderful weekend!
Tomorrow it’s off to more orientation!
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Stephanie
non-member comment
Oh my goodness!
Now I want to go play in China too! What fun! But that toilet, oh my goodness, I don't think I could do it! I think I would pee all over my feet. LOL And then I would probably fall in! I hope you're having fun! Miss you buches.