I knew that we just had to get there. We weren't looking forward to the flight but it was necessary since "beaming" is yet to be invented. Jimmy gave Ali a blessing Tuesday morning before we left and it was amazing to watch the priesthood in action. It was a miracle to see how calm and relaxed Ali was the whole trip.... well, the whole trip meaning after she scremed the whole way to the airport. But really, I've NEVER seen her so calm! She just sat in her little seat eating snacks, playing with games or watching a show. She had her two naps, right on schedule, and when it was bed time she went right to bed and woke up shortly before we landed. It was bettter than I could have imagined and I couldn't keep from giggling to myself at how perfectly things were going.
We arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday evening and after receiving all our bags (YAY!) and a stop in at the restroom (yes, I had to go, but I was also so curious because of the horror stories I had heard about the bathrooms in Shanghai- for the record it was one of the nicest bathrooms I've ever been in.), we walked through customs and met up with out driver. After loading our bads into the van we began our almost 1 hour drive to our apartment. Ali fell asleep quickly and Jimmy and I tried to catch glimpses of the city through the VERY tinted windows. I was surprised at how many "normal" looking houses there were. There were mixed in with a lot of tall, grey-ish apartment buildings. I've never been to a city like this! We weren't even on one edge of the city and after driving an hour to our apartment, which wasn't on the edge of the city either, we never saw a break in the buildings! This city is intense!
As we pulled up to our building I noticed many of the pictures from the slideshow- Family Mart, Bakery, etc. As we were checking in a member of student services met us downstairs and then showed us to our room. She said she had already been in it to make sure everything was ok- nice or weird? Not sure. But she's a nice girl.
After we put our bags in our room we decided that we should probably find some food. Unlike most people, I usually really enjoy airplane food but I just couldn't bring myself to eat the food on our flight- it was weird and it smelt gross. I'm not sure how much of it was baby boy's doing or just werid travel stomach- point being, I was very hungry and so were Jimmy and Ali. We started making the rounds to the places that were nearby since it was getting late and was already pretty dark. The strange things is that it gets light really early here, around 5 or 5:30 am but then gets dark really early, around 6 or 6:30 pm.
The first thing I noticed as we stepped out of our building is how many cars there were on the streets! It was 7 pm and there was nothing but cars! We live on a major road, close to two major intersections, and there is an offramp-type-thing right outside our door so I'm sure these all contribute to the nonstop trafic and honking! Oh boy, they LOVE to honk! I haven't even figured out what they are trying to communitcate with the honking. It's something like, "I have a horn and I am just testing it to see if it works since the last time I tested it 60 seconds ago." Cars are not the only thing, there are a lot of bikes and scooters! And the funny/scary thing is, is that if the person on the bike or scooter decides that there is not enough room on the street they will just go right up onto the sidewalk! Really! And then they start honking at the pedestrians! I've decided I'm going to get a horn on my stroller.
So we stop in at the first "Family Mart" which is actually the equivallent of a small gas station store- only drinks and candy. The second little store consists of two very narrow aisles filled with werid, old-looking, dusty food. This was our last close "store" so I just grabbed some cheesy, crunch things and a package of strawberry wafers. Strange choices for food, especially when one of the people needing to eat is a baby, but they seemed like the safest options. At this point I was pretty turned off to food but we decided to try our last chance for some sort of substance, the bakery around the corner. The selection was very small and very expensive but we ended up each getting some sort of bread to much on. Ali got a mini croissant, I got a baguette and Jimmy braved some roll with meat in it. His "garbage disposal" way of eating has really come in handy for him here. =)
As we got back home, I became very grateful for every snack morsel that I brought for the plane that we hadn’t consumed yet. Ali ate one of the two baby foods that I had brought. We finished up our snacks and went to bed exhausted and still pretty hungry. I was excited to wake up the next day and find a grocery store and maybe eat something cool and from the street vendors.
We arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday evening and after receiving all our bags (YAY!) and a stop in at the restroom (yes, I had to go, but I was also so curious because of the horror stories I had heard about the bathrooms in Shanghai- for the record it was one of the nicest bathrooms I've ever been in.), we walked through customs and met up with out driver. After loading our bads into the van we began our almost 1 hour drive to our apartment. Ali fell asleep quickly and Jimmy and I tried to catch glimpses of the city through the VERY tinted windows. I was surprised at how many "normal" looking houses there were. There were mixed in with a lot of tall, grey-ish apartment buildings. I've never been to a city like this! We weren't even on one edge of the city and after driving an hour to our apartment, which wasn't on the edge of the city either, we never saw a break in the buildings! This city is intense!
As we pulled up to our building I noticed many of the pictures from the slideshow- Family Mart, Bakery, etc. As we were checking in a member of student services met us downstairs and then showed us to our room. She said she had already been in it to make sure everything was ok- nice or weird? Not sure. But she's a nice girl.
After we put our bags in our room we decided that we should probably find some food. Unlike most people, I usually really enjoy airplane food but I just couldn't bring myself to eat the food on our flight- it was weird and it smelt gross. I'm not sure how much of it was baby boy's doing or just werid travel stomach- point being, I was very hungry and so were Jimmy and Ali. We started making the rounds to the places that were nearby since it was getting late and was already pretty dark. The strange things is that it gets light really early here, around 5 or 5:30 am but then gets dark really early, around 6 or 6:30 pm.
The first thing I noticed as we stepped out of our building is how many cars there were on the streets! It was 7 pm and there was nothing but cars! We live on a major road, close to two major intersections, and there is an offramp-type-thing right outside our door so I'm sure these all contribute to the nonstop trafic and honking! Oh boy, they LOVE to honk! I haven't even figured out what they are trying to communitcate with the honking. It's something like, "I have a horn and I am just testing it to see if it works since the last time I tested it 60 seconds ago." Cars are not the only thing, there are a lot of bikes and scooters! And the funny/scary thing is, is that if the person on the bike or scooter decides that there is not enough room on the street they will just go right up onto the sidewalk! Really! And then they start honking at the pedestrians! I've decided I'm going to get a horn on my stroller.
So we stop in at the first "Family Mart" which is actually the equivallent of a small gas station store- only drinks and candy. The second little store consists of two very narrow aisles filled with werid, old-looking, dusty food. This was our last close "store" so I just grabbed some cheesy, crunch things and a package of strawberry wafers. Strange choices for food, especially when one of the people needing to eat is a baby, but they seemed like the safest options. At this point I was pretty turned off to food but we decided to try our last chance for some sort of substance, the bakery around the corner. The selection was very small and very expensive but we ended up each getting some sort of bread to much on. Ali got a mini croissant, I got a baguette and Jimmy braved some roll with meat in it. His "garbage disposal" way of eating has really come in handy for him here. =)
As we got back home, I became very grateful for every snack morsel that I brought for the plane that we hadn’t consumed yet. Ali ate one of the two baby foods that I had brought. We finished up our snacks and went to bed exhausted and still pretty hungry. I was excited to wake up the next day and find a grocery store and maybe eat something cool and from the street vendors.
