Sharmans to Shanghai: School, routine, THE medical and the house.

Our current school routine consists of getting up between 6.30 and 6.45 a.m., getting everyone ready and down for breakfast and then Wang Jia comes to the hotel for 8 a.m.

We have a short drive to school and currently I am taking the children to their classrooms, but that will change when they take the bus (when we move in to the house - more follows on that subject). When I collected the children on Monday afternoon I learnt that we weren’t using the right drop off/pick up place for private drivers, we needed to use the Early Years (EY) entrance on the opposite side of the school, so we went to check the route and other entrance straight away after school so we were ready for the following morning.

On Tuesday morning James was up and dressed ready for school by 6.30 a.m. :) I took that to mean he had enjoyed his first day and was eager to go back!

Adrian and I were keen to line our stomachs well too since we were only allowed water from 8a.m. prior to our medicals at 1p.m. We went to school to the correct drop off point, but much debate ensued at the barrier we needed to go through as access was through a compound and Wang Jia had to persist to get us through. The same lively debate occurred on our exit!

The Medical was on the other side of the city in Puxi at 1pm, we left the hotel at 11.30a.m. as we were worried about traffic, but we were there just after 12. Sadly we couldn't make use of the extra time by going to get lunch due to the required fast. We waited in Reception and did the initial check in. They weren't happy with Adrian's paper printed photos (he had left his passport photos in the UK ready to do visas next week) so he had to go to a building opposite to get some. They charged him 25RMB (£2.50) and gave him a piece of paper, but no further instruction! He came back to Reception to be pointed across the foyer to another room. Inside was a mini photo studio and they immediately printed 6 photos for him - bargain!

A short while after 1p.m. we went through to the Waiting Area; from there we were called to Registration; part one involved scanning your passport/checking details on screen, part 2 they removed the supporting documents from the application, presumably for filing. We were then sent to the cashier to be relieved of 640RMB (£64) and given a receipt. Each of these processes were housed in a separate room and we were moved along them by one of the staff giving us a room number to go to next. Anything you see from now on in 'italics', imagine it barked in a Chinese accent ;)

The next stop, 'put on shoes' involved putting on blue plastic shoe covers, I then walked into a locker/changing room. First I was put on the scales and weighed and had my height measured. Then I was given a robe and a key, 'take off shirt and bra' and pointed towards some changing cubicles. The gown was a comedy unisex fit, the instructions showed the person tying the inside tapes of their gown around their waist, on me the tapes were in my armpit! Fortunately it did do up enough to be modest though. I locked my bag in my locker, pocketed my locker key and headed out of the door. We were sent to different rooms according to gender and I was pointed straight away to the room opposite where a very serious lady was checking blood pressure. I would have loved to have taken pictures, but the atmosphere was VERY serious and even chatting to other 'victims' was done in a discreet way and a low voice as I felt certain they would tell us off if we didn't show we were taking it seriously. The BP lady welcomed me with 'sit down' and scribbled on my notes and tapped at her keyboard vigorously and then strapped an electronic BP cuff to my left arm. To my right another person lay on a bed behind a curtain. She left the machine inflating on my arm with the orders: 'look straight ahead' and 'relax'. I could hear her instructions to the other person as she completed her checks and they were sent on their way. She came back to me, scribbled and tapped some more and declared loudly 'Normal!' (Yeah, right, just shows how little she knows). Then, 'get on bed', 'lie down'. She then started the cuff off on the next person and came back to me. 'Open gown', 'deep breath' (cue comedy heavy breathing from her in case I hadn't understood) and she listened to my chest, 'bend knees' and she tapped my abdomen (not sure what that was for). 'Sit up' yanks gown off my shoulders and listens to my chest from the back. 'Normal!' tap, tap scribble and I was on my way dragging my gown back on before I came out from behind the curtain.
Next I was sent in for an ECG, calliper things attached to my ankles and one wrist and then cups on my chest, the printout was attached to my other notes. Then I was sent to X-Ray, but it was busy so I was re-routed to the eye test, I was a bit confused by the fact they were W, M, 3 and E shapes. Afterwards Adrian told me you were supposed to say up, down, left, right as they are just three-pronged shapes. Oh well...! They didn't seem bothered! We had to cover each eye with a metal spatula thing rather than your hand which I didn't understand immediately either. Sent to X-ray again, still busy, re-routed to an ultrasound of the lungs, rather uncomfortable as she jabbed the scanner under the ribs on each side. This ended with her dumping paper towels on my chest and 'finished!' Sent to (chest) X-Ray, finally got in! Classic instruction given to Adrian here: 'hold tightly' 'relax'...ummm?!
Final stop was the phlebotomist. Cue rubber band round upper arm, excessive comedy slapping of forearm and two tubes filled promptly with blood. Plaster on, 'hold 3 minutes' and then back to the locker/changing room. Not easy to apply pressure for 3 mins and get dressed simultaneously so I stood and held it for about 30 secs and then got dressed...'shoes off' (the covers) and we were all finished. Not a totally awful experience but haven't felt so stripped of dignity since Laura's birth!

We went out to meet the driver who leant over to open the front door for Adrian and didn't notice he had knocked car into Drive and nearly drove into the front gates/security guard!!! Eeeek!

On the way back we just mentioned to Wang Jia we were hungry (practising our Mandarin) and when we stopped at some lights he jumped out and fetched some snacks from the boot of the car. Bless him! A fried cake thingy called Sa Qi Ma (very tasty actually) and two cartons of warm UHT milk (bleeeugh!) but both of us politely drank them :)

We had arranged for James and Laura to go back on the bus to Noha's house in case the medical ran late but luckily we were back in good time to meet all the children from the bus... only we had the wrong time and nearly missed them! Apparently they can arrive any time from 3.30pm and both Noha and I had 3.45pm in our heads. Luckily we caught up with the bus as it was leaving the compound!

Laura told us she had had next to no lunch and 'went out to play with an empty tummy' :( So difficult as I cannot easily provide a packed lunch while we are in the hotel and Laura is in the Early Years canteen where they have less meal choice. She is a much less fussy eater than James but has very little choice of meal whereas James who eats less well has much more to pick from - ironic. For now there is not much we can do apart from ask staff to encourage her as much as possible and let us know if she has eaten next to nothing.

The following morning (Wednesday) we had a heated debate at the compound gate when trying to get to the BISS EY entrance, we were told we should be taking a different route, longer and down a very busy road. Wang Jia (WJ hereafter!) said 5 min journey would become 30 min...*sigh*

After this I went to the mall next to the hotel with a goal of picking up two reasonably priced rucksacks for the children as book bags not the norm here but rucksacks are. While we have some with us, they are not large enough...

I fairly quickly identified the promotion rack and after some deliberation grabbed a couple of rucksacks with characters from a program the children have been watching here for 89 RMB each so just under £9 which I was pleased about. I also picked a random pot luck selection of snacks for later that afternoon as we were hosting Yara and Tinos in case Noha and Suad's medical ran late.

At 10a.m., WJ came to take Adrian and I to Ikea to scope out our requirements. Naturally this included lunch (meatballs for me again!) While there I mentioned the backpacks and got the receipt out to give him and spotted to my irritation that while one backpack had scanned at 89RMB, the other was 218RMB (approx. £22). For a children's rucksack!!! Flippin' heck! Adrian then said I should go back and get it changed...today's challenge! As we arrived back at the hotel my mobile rang and it was the Head of Junior School, 'Hello, this is Stephen King etc etc nothing to worry about...' Lol, how many times have I made similar calls from Minety Primary?! He was ringing as James had shed a few tears at lunch and he had happened to be there so he was giving me the lowdown, he followed this with a glowing report regarding James' 'exceptional' reading level and declared him to be 'obviously a bright boy' (I was chuffed to bits!) and then asked if we had any feedback, he would usually ring new parents the following week, but since we were on the phone... I replied that we were impressed so far as the one area I feared we would experience a lower standard compared to Minety was pastoral care, but all indications so far were very positive, the communication and feedback in respect of the transition/settling in of children new to the settling at this point in time had been excellent.

Following this I went back to RT Mart and after a considerable wild goose chase involving much mime and gesticulation on my part I found the right counter for refunds and exchanges. There followed more gesticulation, pointing at the receipt and shortly after the staff member disappeared with both rucksacks and my receipt. Would I ever see any of them again??! About 10 minutes later she reappeared with one rucksack, which she confirmed as the 89RMB one and I was refunded my money and interestingly (unlike the UK) provided with a new receipt with a re-print of my entire transaction minus the 218RMB rucksack. I went back upstairs and bought another identical rucksack for 89RMB. Inevitably I had the slight confusion at the till since I was already carrying one bag so she scanned the new one twice. At this point I brandished the other receipt and pointed at the first bag and said 'eebay' pointing at the new one as Adrian had told me this meant 'one of' and she luckily understood and cancelled one off. I returned smug and triumphant to the hotel to recount the experience to Adrian who sniggered at me and said 'eebay' means a glass/cup of when ordering beer/coffee etc...oh well, I was understood and had fixed the problem and now had a surprise pressie for the children (beware smartypants, pride comes before a fall...!)

Went to pick up the children with WJ and went the correct route without incident. Noha and Suad had made great time and were already back, so normal home routine was reinstated. Came back to the hotel having let the children guess about the surprise new bags and was gutted when James took one look and said they were 'girlie'. To my dismay his eyes filled with tears and he started to cry. Laura agreed with him, said she didn't like them much but it was ok. Aaaaaagh I was going to have to take both bags back again now!!! As soon as they had had a snack and everyone was calm we went off to RT Mart to sort the bags out (hopefully for the last time!) The same lady was still on the desk so I pointed to the bags and the children, pulled a comedy sad face and said 'no like' and used James' little Chinese vocab book to point at the characters for cry 'ku qi' (pronounced 'cwtchy' for any Welsh readers!) James wasn't happy that I had told a stranger he had cried, but I shushed him and muttered 'whatever it takes to get out money back!' The patient lady was great and gave us a full refund so we went back upstairs again and found two matching bags that met with their approval for the same price (I had told them no more than 89RMB)...phew...happy to find that refunds/exchanges seem to be relatively straight forward and certainly a damn sight easier than many places in Europe (where I actually speak the language!)

Thursday

Dropped James and Laura off, Adrian went to work andI went to the bank (yin hang) to check exchange rates. Cue more gesticulating and 'change money' 'yingyu' (English) and I then spent the day in the Exec Lounge starting this blog entry, getting fed up with Vodafone on live chat again (a long and torturous saga about trying to move from pay monthly to pay as you go) and sending thank you emails to all the many people who had brought gifts prior to our departure.

I picked up the children and dropped them off with Noha (Adrian met me at their house shortly after) as we had another inspection on the house to see what progress has been made…precious little L Broken lightbulbs replaced and a defunct dishwasher clogging up the utility removed and a new mattress in the master bedroom (not the one we had the problem with!) but not much else. Adrian told them he *wasn’t happy* with his serious face on, so we will see what happens next…

Collected James and Laura and came back to the hotel for dinner. We are all starting to pine for home cooked food now and Laura’s appetite is noticeably down.

Friday

Slightly concerned that WJ wasn't outside the hotel as usual at 8am so rang him. He was stuck in traffic and would be there in 2 minutes, thankfully this was the case, but the traffic was very heavy as we set off and several roads gridlocked. We got within a few hundred yards of the school and it was obvious we weren't going anywhere fast so James, Laura and I jumped out and walked 5-10 mins to the Main Entrance. When we arrived, only 2 school buses had made it in due to the traffic. I mentioned the situation to James' teacher assuming there had been some incident. She said, 'Oh yes, this is normal traffic, we don't have a formal lesson plan for the first lesson of the day as we never know what time the children will arrive. Today is probably an Orientation Day for the local Chinese schools, they go back on Monday and it will be much worse then...' Oh good! We have obviously been lulled into a very false sense of security over the previous week!!! Met up with WJ at the EY entrance and decided to leave any other travel until later and went back to the hotel. Noha and I wanted to go to Metro (like Costco) so when the traffic had cleared I texted WJ and we headed to the bank for me to change some money. The system is similar to Argos, you tell them what you have come for (gesticulate, wave money and passport!) you are given an alphanumeric code on a slip of paper according to the business you have to transact and then in due course a screen calls your code to a specific kiosk number. We then went to pick Noha up and go to Metro. We arrived just before 12, I suggested WJ go and have his lunch and he said he'd come back at 2 or I could text if I needed him earlier. I was quite surprised he thought we'd be in there that long, but obviously he has experience in these matters! Queued up for our Member cards, a painless process, they took a phone number and looked at ID and we each had a card. After some considerable toing and froing we headed for the checkouts and I thought I'd better text WJ. He was already in the car park and I realised it was already 2.25pm. We were a good 30 mins from the school (not allowing for traffic), Laura was due out around 3.10pm and I still had to get through the checkout. Sod's Law dictated I had picked the slowest queue EVER and I started to fidget as not only did I need to be back, but we also had to make sure Noha was back to meet her children from the bus...happily we got all of our shopping and made perfect timing for each of the pick ups for the children, it made me nervous though and I will endeavour not to repeat the experience.
Adrian came back from work with happy news that he is now in possession of his Expert Invitation which allows him to apply for a 'Z' Visa - the residential one, and then we can all do ours....hooray! He has to go back to the UK to do the Z Visa as it is done by the Chinese Embassy in the UK, we can do ours locally here.

Saturday (today)

Laura came in at 4am, I was aware of being woken at 5, so we were a bit bleary this morning even though we had been back to sleep. I handwashed the children’s uniform in the shower and the bathroom now looks like a laundry! I know hotels have a laundry service, but our bodies are under assault from so many different things; different water, food, air quality, mosquitoes to name a few, I didn’t want to add different laundry powder/cleaning solvent into the mix and have us all itchy from that too. Next week we should be moved in and I will have a washing machine again so not long to go…

Bathroom = laundry

We had a leisurely breakfast and then went round to RT Mart to have a look for bedlinen. I had found some great bargains at Metro but unfortunately not the right sizes for the beds in our house :( We know Ikea stock the right size, but as most of you know I am always after a bargain! We had another successful snack haul including pork and beef noodles (5 packs for 80p) and then had lunch close to the hotel. Adrian then went off to meet our Real Estate contact at the house to check on progress again. Laura and I had a nap while James watched TV and then the three of us went up for a swim. As we were up there later and today has been a stunning day with beautiful blue skies we were able to see the night skyline and the various lights coming on at sundown. Adrian came back 4 hours later with a positive report that much had been fixed and that we should be in a position to do a final inspection and paperwork on Monday morning. Very pleased as we need to start living our lives rather than getting by in a hotel.

A couple of random observations/notes for you.

Having lived in France and Italy and spent a fair bit of time in Malta, Cyprus and Greece too I am very pleased to report that not many Chinese women wear make up so I feel a lot less shabby here! Adrian believes it to be because it is considered too ostentatious, suits me just fine :)

I am finding communication with WJ very entertaining (and sometimes challenging!) and amuse myself by sending him text messages in pinyin, he has always understood me so far touch wood and obviously I am learning all the time. Today's message was 'Ni hao. Wo bu yao shi fu jin tian. Ye xu ming tian. Xie xie.' I checked it with a member of staff at the hotel and she sounded like she understood! The reply I had was 'ok' hahaha :)

Sorry to have rambled on so long AGAIN, so much is new and so much is happening in these early days. It will all be very humdrum soon I am sure and I will be able to do relatively short weekly updates :) I really hope that very soon I will be able to post pictures of our house here....