Setting Up House

Since DH had been in Shanghai two months prior to our arrival he scouted out apartments and found us a 3 bedroom, 2 bath abode. It’s a nice, clean, quiet place but the best part about it is the indoor playroom and gym facilities complete with an Olympic sized pool. While DH procured the living quarters there is still a lot to do to get the household set up and running smoothly.

Within our first few days, I arranged for the apartment management to come over and review all the appliances with me as all the knobs and instructions are in Chinese. I took careful notes and diagrams and so far I’m able to wash/dry clothes and run the dishwasher. DH said that he just started hitting/turning buttons until something happened, not sure if what I’m doing is anything different.

On Tuesday night we went to IKEA to buy some household goods. I can honestly say that if you have been to one IKEA you’ve been to them all. The set up was pretty much the same as others I have been to in the states and the restaurant offered the same meal – Swedish meatballs with mash potatoes and some berry thing. We planned the visit around dinner so that we could eat there as well. We loaded up on dishes, pictures, bedding, organizers, etc. Thank goodness I had my helpers with me to push the cart and help load/unload the car!

Meal planning and finding the local grocery store has been a bit of a challenge. DH had found the three closest grocery stores and helped point me in the right direction. There are many food items available in our local store that I would find at Stop and Shop (grocery store in CT and MA) like Cheerios, Goldfish, and an interesting selection of Lays potato chips (like fish flavored among others). Also there are some cleaning supplies that are American brands but all the instructions or information is in Chinese. Then there are a few stores around town that specialize in products for expats, but the goods are a bit more expensive and a taxi ride away so we haven’t visited them too much (but I did splurge and buy peanut butter and wheat bread the other day).

As many of you know, I’ve never been much of a grocery shopper and enjoyed delivery by Peapod – good news is many stores deliver here. Bad news is figuring out how to communicate what I want and when is a good time to deliver. I think my biggest accomplishment this week was ordering organic milk and eggs via text message. The Chinese do a lot of business and communication via text message – so what, if it only took me an HOUR to place my order, the key thing here is that the person on the other end knew what I wanted, where we live and gave me a delivery time!

I’m figuring out the day-to-day living stuff and never have to worry about going hungry as if all else fails there is a delivery service, “Sherpas,” that have English speaking operators and will deliver food from all kinds of restaurants - Chinese, Italian, Thai, and many well known American chains like California Pizza Kitchen, Pizza Hut, Burger King, and Tony Roma’s.