Later, we walked down to the ferry station and took the ferry boat over to Puxi to find a birthday present for Andy’s mom. We are really getting into this public transportation thing and the ferry and walking was an especially enjoyable way to get around. Besides Eileen’s gift, I purchased some new utensils for our home (chopsticks) as well as a great new purse.
Description of a Taiwanese massage in Shanghai and our ayi cooking dinner for us.
Meanwhile, on the other table, my big melon of a head is getting worked like a blob of Play Doh. Just when you thought the hot towels were enough, they like to surprise you with one over your mouth while they hold your head to the table with it. I thought, “Oh crap… this is where their boyfriends come in and steal my money and clothes.” Turns out, it is only the first step in the Taiwan massage.
On Friday, at work, I was talking with Cathy and she was telling me that another HP-Boise person will be coming over here to live next year. She was telling me a bit about his wife and said she worked at the YMCA, so I thought I might know her. I asked her what she looked like and she said, “oh, you know, like a foreigner.” I guess we all look alike.
Unfortunately, this hospital did not have those nice automatic double doors that you see all the time back home.. Seems like every time we hit them, the nurse would have to stop and un-bolt the left door from the floor and open it manually. When we finally arrived at the elevator my feet almost got shut in the door. It seems that they don’t get many 6’2” patients in this hospital. Eye witnesses said I had about .5 inches to spare.
She speaks about as much English as I speak Chinese, so it was a struggle to communicate all day long, but we made do. I definitely need to purchase a better Chinese/English dictionary. She was telling me a lot of things that I really have no clue what she was saying. If I understood correctly, our spatulas suck, we need a new vacuum and she will buy the appropriate ingredients she needs for cooking.
Today, I hired an ayi. “Ayi” is the Chinese word for maid. She seems like she will be great and for roughly $2 per hour, I just feel like we might as well. She will work three days per week, five hours per day. Not only does she clean, do laundry and iron, but she will also COOK us traditional Chinese food on the days when she is here.
Wednesday morning we received our air shipment. The moving company delivered all of the boxes and even offered to unpack them for us. Our apartment feels more like a home rather than a hotel, with all of our stuff in it and some pictures on the wall. It is nice. We REALLY like living here [...]
