Today I went to the American Women's Club Vendor Fair with Byrce's (Daniel's friend) mom, Veronica. It was at the Four Seasons Hotel in Puxi. It was packed with hundreds of expat women! This Vendor Fair was similar to the one at the school a couple of weeks ago, except they had more shopping vendors at this one. I picked up more travel brochures. The one that got my interest the most was the trip to Tibet and Mt Everest. I might look at doing that in the spring. Need to look at the weather there - not really a fan of cold and I am sure it gets very cold there! Might have to wait until next October to do that trip. The travel brochures are very different. Instead of the Caribbean, we get Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Australia, New Zealand, etc. They look absolutely beautiful and I can't decide on where to go first!
I also picked up information for Dish satellite. Currently, we do not have any American channels. We need to get a satellite dish. I was told that, here, you buy the dish outright and then there are no further costs. No monthly bills. They are illegal, so that is why we get fliers in our mailbox daily!! I do not think that Dish TV is like that, but will call to ask. Iris said that if the police decide to check (not likely) it is like a 100RMB ($15) fine, that's it. As Americans we are allowed them though. One of the satellites is 1600RMB ($253). Not bad when you consider there is no monthly bills with it. It offers HBO, Cinemax, Disney, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Fox, ABC, Hallmark, ESPN, NBA, and a lot more. To me the most important is the channels for Daniel. If I want to watch something I'll just go buy the season at the street vendor for less than $1.
Many people I talk to have Slingbox. It attaches to the TV at home in the US, and you can watch shows here off that somehow. But from what I understand, if we change the channel here it also changes the channel there. That might frustrate the Tetraults and the Racines still in the house!! Checking into this as well.
Last night was Open House at the school. It was a typical Open House. Only the 4th and 5th grade parents went from 7-8 (younger grades met earlier). We met in the library so the principal and superidentdant could speak to us. They introduced all the special teachers (ie PE, Art, Music, Chinese, etc), housekeeping items, etc. Then we went to the fourth grade area and the teachers gave a group presenation on things like: what is expected in the class, curriculum, the blog, field trips, and basic things like that. The big event coming up for the school is Founder's Day on Sept. 16. This school, as I mentioned before, is 100 years old. It is one of the oldest International schools in the world. Next Friday everything in school will be done like 100 years ago - no computers or technology that day. Everyone will dress like 100 years ago.
I had to hire a babysitter for Daniel so I could go to the meeting. Tuesday night I called Tracy (she took me shopping the first week) and asked her if she knew anyone in this area. She gave me a name of a girl, Catherine (from California). Catherine brought over a friend who arrived the day before we did. He is from Michigan. Daniel had a lot of fun with them.
The latest on our shipment - yesterday Randy called the shipping company and they sent a courier over to pick up his passport with the work visa and his residents permit. Later the company called to ask where my paperwork was, because all the moving paperwork is in my name. Why - I don't know! Anyway, Randy explained that I haven't even started mine, because I needed to wait until Randy's was complete. Now they are trying to see if the shipping company in the US can change the paperwork to be in Randy's name. If they can't we may not get our shipment until sometime in October. The first week in October is a National holiday, so everything closes down. Can you say frustrating!!!
Cultural Difference/Frustrations 101: Richard (our driver) told me that Pudong (the side of Shanghai that we live on) was all farm land about 15 years ago. His parents used to be farmers, but the government took the land and gave them jobs. I found that interesting that the government just gave them jobs. There is no farm land left in Pudong. That was just 15 years! Amazing.
No comments:
Post a Comment