Mishmash

So, kind of a random jumble of thoughts today written over several days.  Amazing how hard it becomes to move, work, be jet lagged, manage 3 kids, and still find time to write and then get around the Great Firewall to post…  that last one especially, I only just figured out.    Will get more coherent in the next few entries.

It’s also amazing how much easier the move is, than the getting ready to move.

Our transfer to Shanghai was almost too easy, due in no small part to the efforts of my colleagues on both sides of the ocean to get visas in place, prepare apartments, etc.  And to the Mindels, who volunteered to drive us to the airport at 3:30 a.m.

We made it to Newark, where Eli ran back and forth on the moving walkways roughly 60,000 times in two hours.  Boarded, and the kids were happy for hours watching movies and TV shows they normally get no exposure to.  All our bags made it like clockwork, we were in the van and to the airport in no time, and both the new apartment and landlord are lovely.  A couple of pizzas later, and everyone was asleep.

Of course we all got up at midnight together, but it was fun looking out at the twinkling lights of nighttime Shanghai from our apartment window and exploring our new satellite TV access.  We watched a few minutes of “Cake Boss” before we remembered why we don’t have television at home, and then switched over to Animal Planet which was at least tolerable for a while.  Allison, Naomi and Townes are now (3:30 a.m.) back to sleep, whereas Eli and I have made a pact never to sleep again. 

Now flash forward a couple of days.  We are still sleeping irregularly.  Everything is a bit skewed in that sense.  But we are enjoying nonetheless.  Naomi will be skyping with her class back in Worcester at 9:00 p.m. tonight (9:00 a.m. their time) so she’s napping now, at 6:00. 

Things we have accomplished already so far:

·         Registered at the local police station

·         Bought groceries and a few kitchen items

·         Almost completely unpacked

·         Explored the crazy mall not far from our apartment.  I don’t know how to describe it exactly.  There are 5 upscale children’s clothing/toy stores, about 50 restaurants including Thai, Vietnamese, Punjab Indian, California Kitchen, New York Pizza, Fancy Beer Place Who Cares About The Name, Bakeries, Starbucks and 5 Other Coffee Shops – it is the fancy. 

·         Got into Century Park today, across the street from our building.  It’s the largest park in Shanghai and lovely.  Birds a-chirping, smells of flowers, bodies of water.  It will be riotous when Spring comes on in full. 

·         Conducted our immigration medical checks, a necessary prerequisite to finalizing our residency permits.

More on this last part, since it was amusing.

After a night of half-sleep, we had to be on the other side of Shanghai by 8:30 a.m.  And Allison and I, who were undergoing the medical checks, had to fast to boot.  So it was a groggy and slightly cranky family piling into a taxi for an hour ride to the special medical center. 

It was bureaucracy perfected – refined and honed to that rarified degree that makes you feel like you are in a Monty Python skit, with just the right touch of absurdity. 

Go to wrong building, wait in line, get redirected.  Go to right building, go in wrong door with confusing signage, get redirected to right door.  Get in line, get to front of line, get redirected to correct line.  Papers are checked, stapled, pictures cut to size and added, stamps affixed, then back to original line, where paperwork and passports are checked again and new pictures taken.

Go to room 112, a series of attendants sit behind little desks, hand over paperwork, get it stamped and a series of 12 separate bar-coded stickers affixed, get sent back to lobby to pay cashier, realize they only accept cash and you barely have enough on you, stamped again, over to room 116.

Remove upper clothing, put on robe, place clothing in locker, get blood drawn, go to room 104.  Eye, nose and throat check, complete with metal wand for covering eyes.  Room 106, blood pressure, pulse, pelvic exam (which clearly go together).  Room 105, clamps put on feet and wrists, suction cups affixed to various parts of torso, EKG taken, strange Rorschach hickeys now cover body.  Room 108, ultrasound of liver, stomach, bowels, please take half-sheet of paper towel to clean off the goo. 

Also, keep in mind that all of this is being done with three kids in tow.  Townes and Naomi are fascinated, Eli is determined to break every machine, window, piece of furniture, and bone in his body. 

Several of the doctors/nurses speak no English whatsoever. 

Milling around are a Turkish guy, a sad U.S. woman whose HR department did not give her the correct paperwork, 2 young American men, a confused and impatient middle-aged business man with young exasperated female Chinese translator trailing him, an old Chinese couple missing most of their teeth, and a dozen other sundry Chinese people of varying ages and dispositions. 

Clothes back on, return to cashier, pay more of dwindling cash for postage for medical report, done.

Insufficient cash for cab fare home, take cab home, make cab wait while ATM is visited for triumphal first withdrawl from new bank account, it’s now 11:00 a.m. and Allison has had no coffee and even if she goes home to make some, has no mug to put it in.

I go to the office to work.  Allison takes the kids for ice cream, buys coffee mug, and the world is restored to order. 

Later, Eli fell asleep at 3:45 p.m.  We tried – hard – to wake him up at 5:30 or so, but no matter what we did, that kid would not get up.  So one of us (me) had to go to sleep with him, so that when he woke up at midnight or whatever, which he did, one of us would be able to get with him. 

The glamorous life of the expat in Shanghai…