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Published: June 27th 2010
I say last blog from Shanghai for now because we will be back. I know it.
Yesterday, went to brunch with our first friends in Shanghai and had margaritas and Mexican to help drown our sorrows at having to say goodbye (for now). We followed our brunch up with a trip to the coffee shop where our friendships all began 2 summers ago on a hot and steamy August day.
Joanna and I ran a couple errands while the men watched the kids play back at our place. We said a quick goodbye and sent our pals off with the rest of our housewares, our booze, and a half bag of Nestle choc chips. Later that night, Mark and I had a final date night--massages and a yummy dinner. Good times.
We had a wild and crazy last day that started off with Mark heading out to collect Emily from a last sleepover and me heading to collect my last haul of clothes from the fabric market. It was pouring rain which was a little sucky for a last day.
I have been reminiscing a lot lately. Looking through the thousands of pictures we have from our 2
years here and reading old blog entries that still make me laugh even after repeated rereads. I was particularly reminded today, during the huge rain, of the trip I made to the kids' school on the first day of school when after about 5 minutes after they arrived, I was called to come get them. I didn't know how to get there, I didn't know how to speak any Chinese. I had a scrap of paper with the address and somehow I got it done. That story is one I have returned to whenever I have felt frustrated, overwhelmed or just need a reminder of how far I (and my entire family) have come.
As for the rest of the day, Emily and Nathan spent a few hours with our Ayi. She took them out to ice cream, to a park, to lunch and then apparently for more ice cream! Her 14 year old daughter went too which was fantastic. We'd been hearing about her but had not met her until today. We did a photo shoot when they returned from their adventure and both kids were happy to have gone and said they had lots of fun.
While the kids were out, Mark and I made our last trip across the street to Bi Feng Tang for Sunday dim sum. We had all the favorites. Shrimp dumplings, Singapore noodles, turnip cakes (oh yes we did). Then, Mark surprised me by announcing he'd brought along the bag of all of our coins. Our last day in Shanghai and he wants to go to the bank to exchange our coins for paper money. Sigh. We went, we waited for about 30 minutes and then we were told (which I must share I predicted would happen) that they could not do the counting today but we could come back tomorrow. They don't have a machine and they didn't have enough people to count the money due to the other customers in line. I knew this would happen.
However, it all ended up fine because the woman suggested we go to the Family Mart--a small market nearby and they were glad to take the change. The 3 store clerks and Mark and I all counted and stacked the coins. It ended up being RMB 283...so about $40. I told Mark that because I ended up getting a fun story out of
it and a photo, I would no longer be annoyed that he made me do that.
We returned home to meet the kids and do a photo shoot with the ayi. Then after a little packing, we were off again. Emily had another playdate! This was a spontaneous meetup with her pal Olivia from last year. They were great friends and we haven't seen Olivia since she left for Korea last summer. What a treat to be able to visit with her friend on the eve of our departure. Couldn't say no.
Nathan, Mark and I zipped over to the Pearl Market for some last shopping--I think I said last shopping before but this was really meant to be it. We got some movies, a couple of items that we had wanted but never got, and then we went to pick up Nathan's Kung Fu certificate and badge--he's a black eagle now.
Then, it was back to the apartment for a very long, boring but eventually successful apartment walk-through with our real estate agent. Lots of communication issues--even though he brought a friend who spoke some English but we got it done and all was fine.
More packing, and finally dinner. Mark and I decided to let Nathan choose and he did us proud. He opted for my previous suggestion that we go to our favorite--Dunkin' Dumplings (the beloved first dive dumpling spot we visited on our first night in Shanghai). That is of course our nick name for the place. It's in a food court in the basement of a mall. We got there literally minutes before they were closing and ordered the remaining 13 dumplings still hot in the pan. Mark and I had a large beer, Nathan a Sprite and the entire meal was RMB 25 (less than $4 USD). The perfect last meal for us. We missed Emily but figured she was happy to be on her last solo adventure. She ended up back at the Expo. Go Emily.
Oh, I forgot--I was feeling bad that I never ate chicken feet while here. The kids did, Mark did and I was...well, frankly a big chicken. So tonight, our last night, Mark reminded me of my failings in the adventure eating category. I said "fine, if you can find it, I'll taste it". The restaurants were all shutting down around us but
he managed to find me a vacuum sealed foot. It was in a plastic bagged and it was large--it had toe nails. It was cold, and had a congealed gelatinous coating that makes me gag a little in recalling it. Nathan tried to video my taste but he started getting gaggish and couldn't keep it up. I was being watched by many others in the area and I had no choice. I broke off and discarded the toe nail that was absolutely freaking me out and took a Julie bite (so named because my sis Julie is famous for her mini tastes of questionable foods). It was really ick. Mark assures me that I didn't have a proper chicken foot experience because it was not hot and slathered with tasty sauce. Oh well. I have checked that off my list and it won't be making it to the top anytime soon.
It's now 10:30pm, Mark is off picking up Emily (again)...abd we are mostly packed. Nathan is in bed watching Indiana Jones and I am blogging my last blog from Shanghai.
We have all been feeling various forms of emotion about leaving. Nathan put it best today when
he said "I'm afraid I'm going to wake up in Chicago and find out this was just a dream." I understand what he's saying because in many ways it feels like a long break from reality. But this has become our reality and it was so good for us. I think we will continue to feel the benefits as we go back to our former home and say goodbye to this one.
We have a car picking up the 4 of us, along with our 9 bulging bags plus 8 carry-ons tomorrow at 9am.
Looking forward to the next chapter.
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Laura
non-member comment
A great adventure
I am so proud of you and your family for embarking on and sharing such a wonderful adventure. I am sure that this experience will inspire many other new and exciting future opportunities and I can't wait to hear about those!!