Holy Cow Batman, We Are Not in Kansas Anymore!

The boys and I have been in Suzhou for almost one full week. It has been very interesting thus far and we have been recuperating from the jet lag. I think we have finally gotten over the flight. When Scott told me that it would take about a week to fully get to "normal" I thought he was kidding. All kidding aside, he was dead serious! The flight is 16 hours long, and yes there is time to sleep it is very difficult. With people all around you that may or may not be practicing good air travel etiquette. Your body gets messed up with food and times ~ so when Delta serves you a full meal at noon local time, your stomach is telling you "why are you eating, you should be sleeping". I think my body has finally gotten to the point where I'm not waking up at 5am absolutely starving for some meat and potatoes!

THE FIRST WEEK
We arrived on Friday afternoon about 130pm local time. The departure off the plane was interesting because of the H1N1 virus. The Chinese officials take this very seriously. The health officials come onboard and take everyones temperature and if you "fail" there is a definite possibility that you will be quarantined in Shanghai. We made it off the plane, however, the fine people who bought business class were not so lucky. I am not sure when they finally got off, but I was not sticking around to find out.

Our driver picked us up and we proceeded to drive thru the thick of rush hour traffic in Shanghai. Atlanta traffic is nothing compared to this. There are approximately 21 million people living in Shanghai and I think all of them got off work at the same time we were leaving the airport. Jacob fell asleep in the back seat of the taxi van ~ those of you who know him know that he does not sleep when there is action going on. He did not sleep at all on the plane, too many movies to watch! We finally arrived in Suzhou at our apartment at almost 6pm, boy was it good to have a bed to sleep on ~ wait, there is no sleepy sleepy until later... your body has to "push itself" to adjust to the time difference. My dear husband is not very nice!
For dinner we went to Mario's, an eatery in the LiGongDi (I hope that is right) area that is within walking distance ~ yes, we did walk, I do not like my husband!! I know he was "helping" but it did not feel like it! We had been promising Mario's on the first night since we made our arrangements so the boys knew what they were in for. They had pizza and we had a pasta dish. The food was awesome just as we had thought and anticipated. We have since been back to see Mario and we will visit his restaurant atleast once a week!

On Saturday we decided it would be good to get out and look at the nearby area. We walked up to SingaPlaza to check out the western market and the bakery. We had not even made it past the first set of lights when the sweat was pouring off us ~ weather.com said it was 95F with the heat index of 111F for the day. Walking to SingaPlaza was interesting because it meant that we got to play Frogger through several different intersections. And when I say frogger, that is what it felt like. You have to watch the lights, the buses, cars, scooters, and bikes because they don't look out for you. It's rather entertaining if you step back and observe the picture. The first couple of times playing frogger you are scared out of your mind, then it becomes old hat. Oh look that taxi is on the wrong side or look there is a car in the scooter lane no big deal. We also went to the dvd store up at SP for the first time. Here we picked up Mall Cop, The Sopranos season 1-6, and Horton hears a Who. We saw Land of the Lost, Night at the Museum, and Up but we couldn't tell if it was in English or not so we decided not to buy. We picked up a taxi for the short ride back to the apartment because it was so incredibly hot outside. For dinner we went to Casa Zoes and had Mexican, yes, that's right Mexican. It was good, another place to put on the list.

On Sunday we went to New Times Square via taxi. This mall is supposed to be one of the largest in China. We ate at Burger King and it tasted like BK "back in the states". Pretty crazy, it almost tasted "fresher" and the fries didn't have that coating on them. I had the stick salad (cucumbers, carrots, melon, and cherry tomatoes). The mall was very expensive, reminded me of what I would expect to see in NYC in Manhatten or on Rodeo Drive in LA. I'm a Tar-get girl so I felt very out of place. I think there were more people working then actual customers and even then no one was shopping. After the mall we took a taxi to Carrefour (the market) to check things out. Very interesting market, we picked up a few things and on the way out Scott looked at me and I said "that was so much fun" while he was looking for a paper bag to help him breathe! For dinner on Sunday night we ordered from Sherpa's. Sherpa's is a local delivery service that delivers about 50 different restaurants. You call their number and they order from whatever restaurant you tell them to. It's a great service and they only charge a nominal fee. We ordered from YangYang, and had dumplings, sweet and sour chicken, kung pau chicken, and bok choi. It was really good, I can only think how good it must be at the actual place. I forgot to mention that both Marios and YangYang are LonelyPlanet recognized eateries. I can see why!

On Monday we had an appointment to go visit the boy's new school. Holy Cow! this place is huge and very impressive. We met with the admissions woman then the Middle School principal, Mr. A. We then proceeded to take a tour of the place. Three floors, two cafeterias, two gyms, outdoor soccer field, basketball courts, tennis court, indoor olympic size pool with a "smaller" pool that has a hydrolic lift on the floor of the pool to raise and lower for those who can't swim. When Cheryl (the admissions person) told us that, we just looked at each other with our jaws on the ground. Now mind you, the entire tour we looked like this, but this piece of info was the straw that broke the proverbial camels back. The school is completely amazing and we (and the boys) cannot wait to be fully enrolled. After our tour, the taxi took Scott to work and us back to the Chateau Regency where we just hung out and vegged for the rest of the day.

On Tuesday, the boys and I ventured out to Carrefour by ourselves. So we fetched a taxi and off we went. We bought two more dvd players (for 219RMB/player = 30US) then came back to the CR to rest. Went to LaRosa for dinner, not bad next time I'm going to order the pork cordon bleu. Doesn't sound too good, but I had a bite of Scott's and it was quite yummy!

Wednesday was moving day for us (again). Our first apartment was ok, but in the master bedroom the ac unit sounded like the toilet when the handle needed to be jiggled. I could not sleep so we decided that moving was our best option and the best way for me to keep my sanity (for whatever is left!). After the move, Cecelia, the kids and I went to the bakery then over to Starbucks (mmm, Starbucks!). For dinner we went to Sharon and Steve's for spaghetti and meatballs. After dinner we watched the practice version of the light show at the lake. We are going back on Saturday night for the real show. I will be sure to have our flip video to take video of the show.

This morning (Thursday) I had my appointment for my physical. The physical was part of the application for my resident permit to be allowed to stay in PRC (Peoples Republic of China). Interesting... Eva, the woman at Scott's office (I'm sure that he has mentioned her in his previous posts) took me and the boys across town via the company driver, Jin. Here she filled in the necessary paperwork and I signed where she told me to. I know Scott has mentioned how you just have trust people, well now I totally know what he is talking about! After she filled out the paperwork and paid the fee we were off down the hallway and around the corner where the 6 small rooms held the series of "health" checkups. A woman drew some blood, another took my blood pressure, another did an xray of my chest (?), another did an ekg (?), another did an ultra-sound of my lower abdomen (??), and then another counted my teeth (???). Like I said it was an interesting morning! Upon completion they gave me a "kit" with meds in it. One of the meds... nitroglycerin tablets ~ don't ask me!

It's been an interesting week! Like the title of the blog says we are so not in Kansas anymore! I'll try to blog much more often so it's not a book when I do post. I hope you made it thru with out sleeping!