Getting Settled

8/14/06 – we're here, it's hot, we may have a tenant next month, finally, and Julia celebrated her 12th birthday by throwing up. We crave fruit drinks and air conditioning. Our apartment leaves a few things to be desired but it will do. It's very urban, and the drain in Julia's bathroom smells like a sewer. The tile on the kitchen floor is white and textured to catch dirt. We're wishing we'd gotten something with a pool, but maybe we'll meet people who will invite us to theirs. Tomorrow is open house at Julia's school and I'm trying to figure out how to tell the people downstairs that I need a taxi. Maybe we'll just go out on the street and try to flag one down. We spent about $100 on our first household shopping, but we do need more stuff. We have 3 towels, 2 wash cloths, 2 sets of sheets, one very small electric blanket (courtesy of the landlords), 1/2 inch of dish soap, and an intermittently-functioning water heater, which the landlord, a young guy who went to Dominican College in San Rafael as an undergrad, promises to get fixed. His parents actually own the place, but they must live in some other part of the world.

8/16/06 – First day of school. Julia’s feeling fine, but I’m having an attack of Mao’s revenge. We decided that we would all go in a taxi instead of sending Julia off on her own in the bus, and we thought we had notified the transportation people, but at some ungodly hour the doorbell rang and it was the bus. We ignored it, not having a clue how to respond. Our first cab ride to school, for open house yesterday, was successful and took 25 minutes, although the cab driver stopped in mid-lane and let us out next to a hedge with no way onto the sidewalk but to walk along the street to the end of the shrubbery. This time the driver headed out for Hongqiao Airport about 2 miles past the school, and in Shanghai traffic this is not an insignificant distance. However, after he turned around and made it back to the vicinity of the school, we persuaded him to let us off (on the wrong side of a busy street) and we walked her across the street and into the building in time. We caught a cab coming out of school and took it over to Bill’s office in Pudong, on the other side of the river. The return trip cost about $5 and took maybe 50 minutes. There is a subway station about a 15 minute walk from school if you walk fast, which is hard to do when it’s 36o C, and I envision making the 50 minute trip by metro (one change of train and a walk at either end), to pick Julia up at school on band rehearsal days or when she has other after school activities. That costs about 50 cents. It’s nice that they have bus transportation both ways at regular school hours, but pickup for band, choir, soccer, you name it, is up to Mom.

8/18/06 – Not as hot today, and the breeze is cooler than ambient temperature – what a treat! The narrow streets where the wind doesn’t reach are still hot, though. Now that it seems that Julia’s bus pickup time is 7:20 rather than 7:30, mornings are somewhat rushed, with everyone on a different schedule. Julia’s watch is missing in action, no doubt deposited under something somewhere, so she can’t use its alarm to wake herself up. This is a big apartment, and we have too much stuff, so it’s easy enough to lose things. I lose things in my purse or backpack all the time anyway. In any case, we went downstairs at 7:15 and the bus driver and bus monitor (“ayi”) were already waiting. We’re the first stop, but not the farthest from school. Julia assures me that her friend Caitlin, who lives at the Shanghai Raquet Club, has an hour bus ride. On the other hand, Julia’s bus carries only 5 or 6 kids, leaves our apartment building at 7:20 and school starts at 8:15, so she’s one of the farther-away students in an area where few of the other students live.

Julia has made some friends at school, including one girl, Annie, whom we met at open house, who has a twin brother, Roger. They moved here from Connecticut just a few days ago, and we figure that the father, a chemist, probably works for Procter and Gamble. Julia reports that his daughter says he brought home samples of hair dye and soap. The father is Chinese. Along with Caitlin at the Raquet Club, is another Julia, whose mother emailed us in the spring. She and our Julia have all the same classes. Julia is pretty happy with her classes so far and with the private school scene, although she says music is boring because she already knows everything. She’s been designated the expert on Broadway musicals, although, as she pointed out, she’s only seen two and they weren’t even on Broadway. She finds Mandarin class confusing, but once the different levels of proficiency are separated out and she starts learning, I think she’ll be glad that we signed her up for Mandarin instead of French. She’s also enjoying wearing a uniform to school – who’d have thought? – but we only received one set of uniform pieces and can’t buy more until some time in the near future, maybe next week. Which brings up the subject of laundry, about which more later.