In Shanghai

The flight to Shanghai was nearly 14 hours long, but it was a rather pleasant flight, despite of all the previous hassles. A very nice Chinese family (mom, dad, 2 young boys) sat directly in front of us and a nice couple and a single Chinese lady were behind us. E. of course, made friends fast! A lot of people were taking her picture! Sunday, August 5, at noon, we finally landed at the Pudong airport. They're were 4 other people from our group on this flight and the CCC rep was there to pick us up.

We arrived at Shanghai University a bit tired (by then it was nearly 3 o'clock - AM for us, PM local time) and checked into the University hotel. It's a very nice modern building, clean, simple rooms, with a refrigerator and a thermos of hot water for tea. Our first night/day was bit rough. C. was sick with tummy trouble and E. was over-tired and whiney. All of us maybe "slept" for a total of two hours. We got ready to prepare for Monday's (or is it Tuesday??) activities. G. and I have Mandarin/TESOL classes in the AM, and in the PM there are "survival" outings the first week. For weeks 2 and 3 there will be an afternoon teaching practicum. The CCC arranged daycare for the 8 kids who are here with the program, so that's where C. and E. will spend their M-F days. Day one went fine for them.

So far, so good! Shanghai is quite an ugly, grey, polluted city, but the surburban area we are in is very nice. The food is delicious! We're able to eat a very good size meal for about the equivalent of $1.25 per person - and Shanghai is supposed to be an expensive city. So, maybe it's really possible (as we've beeen told) that one can get a decent meal in Kunming for $0.25!

That's our adventure so far. I'll try to post more often. Now that we are settled in the hotel and finally hooked up, I'll post again and hopefully include a few photos.