First we flew to Chicago. It was delayed by 20 minutes which isn't too bad. We had an hour in between flights scheduled but the delay cut into my last chance to buy pizza before we left for China. I literally ran to Uno's take out stand while they were starting to board and I made it back just in time for my seat to be called. The pizza wasn't very good though. Bummer.
The flight from Chicago to Shanghai pretty much sucks. It is really, really long. We each were supposed to get the personal entertainment center but the tv's in the back half of the plane weren't working. They gave us some sort of coupon as compensation though but we still haven't figured out how to use it... we should look into that.
When Danny checked in online we were in a two person row and I had a window seat. Then they switched planes and I got stuck in the middle. The girl we got sat with was really sweet though. She had just finished college and was spending a year in Shanghai as a nanny while she figured out what to do with herself. I have a feeling a lot of the Americans I meet here will sort of be in that finding themselves phase of life. I spent some time chatting with her, a long while practicing my Mandarin and took a few brief naps. Eventually we got there...
One of the people from my work had arranged to pick me up at the airport and they make arrangements for a hotel room for up to two nights if I need it. I felt really anxious about having to meet someone from work after 20 hours of traveling. Danny pointed out that she just works in the central office and I most likely wouldn't see her much after this which made me feel a little better.
After the flight we picked up our maximum allotted luggage from baggage claim - two 50 pound bags a person (one for Danny and three for me) and threw them on a cart. We found a driver holding up a sign with my name on it. Liz, the business assistant from my work seemed shocked by the amount of stuff we had brought. I sort of figured most people brought a lot, I mean we are staying for two years and I need my stuff. Our stuff barely fit into the little car. Only two of our bags fit into the trunk so we stacked the rest up next to us in the backseat.
Liz spoke fairly decent English but as soon as she realized Danny speaks Mandarin they switched over leaving me sort of lost. I've learned enough Mandarin at this point to understand about one or two words a sentence. Danny's work provides us with housing but we weren't sure we would be able to get in on a Sunday afternoon. He had the phone number of a PhD student at the observatory named Ronxing who was supposed to let us in. Liz let us call him from her cell phone and he answered right away so we drove straight to our new apartment rather than a hotel.
I was nervous about seeing what the housing would look like. Originally we were supposed to get a one bedroom apartment but they had overbooked them. We were expecting a studio with no kitchen so we were debating about looking for a place to rent instead until a one bedroom opened up.
When we arrived we had a pleasant surprise. A furnished one bedroom became available. It is a decent space with a living room, bedroom and eat in kitchen. It even has a washing machine. No dryer though, in China dryers aren't very common and most people hang their clothes to dry. There isn't an oven either. Chinese cuisine doesn't use ovens often. I was expecting this from what Danny had told me. Only really pricey buildings where expats live have those luxuries. Our place does have air conditioning though. Pretty important in a hot city in the middle of summer.
Ronxing offered to show us the market and where we could get dinner after we got settled. We both really wanted to shower but it turned out we didn't bring any soap or shampoo with us. We washed up and put some of our things away and began a giant list of things we needed for the apartment. Then we walked across the parking lot to Danny's office to meet Ronxing and use the internet connection for a few minutes.
Ronxing showed us around the office. He was very relieved that Danny spoke Chinese because his English wasn't very good. I once again was sort of lost when they spoke in Chinese. While we were there we ran into the professor Danny will be working for. She spoke perfect English and was very friendly.
Ronxing walked us out and showed us where we could eat dinner. I thought he'd come with us but he went back to work. There were several giant fancy shopping malls a few blocks away. We picked one to go to and Ronxing left us at the door after pointing out a fruit stand and a market on the way.
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