September 5, 2010

Today is Saturday, Sept. 4. We have been in China for a full week now, very busy setting up our apartment and getting situated for school. Chuck has just downloaded a VPN, which allows us to by pass the Chinese filters on the inter net. So hopefully we c.an begin posting to our Blog. If anyone reads this, please let us know. Post some notes so we will know it works.

Our friends told us it may go off and you have to reset another VPN.

Virtual Private Networks are legal. They protect you from identity theft. They also protect you from anyone looking at your internet usage. But – nothing on the internet is completely safe so we use it to post and hope it hides our addresses from identity thieves.

August 29, 2010

Last night we walked to BestBuy to purchase a DVD. They told us Phillips brand would work on Chinese and US DVD. They had one on sale. They even set it up for English, very helpful and nice.

We got home and the TV remote was in Chinese. It Took me 3 days with the help of our hall monitor to figure out where the enter button on the remote was. You have to push a button 2 times. We have DVD. We can watch US movies bought off the street for $1.20 and they are real new. Prince of Pershia, Salt, A-Team, Expendables are a few offered. When I get back to the US I may have to re read the copywrite laws that I have worked with for 20 years as a Librarian.

We have eaten more rice and noodles for breakfast actually 24 hours a ay. They hive other food if you want to look for it. The noodles – a big bowl is $0.60 and Ronda can hardly eat all of it – I am full when I get finished. It is so hot I cannot carry it to the table with out burning my hand. Actually it is very tasty. We have eaten there often.

We have eaten in the restaurant of our hotel for $4.50 and it was a big full meal. We only do that on special occasions. $0.60 is much better. Actually it depends on where we are and if we want to go to a nice place. Hotel restaurant is like Sharis. The $.60 is like McDonalds. Yes we have one 2 block away. It is just like home. Cost is $3.00 for a complete chicken meal.

August 28, 2010 – Saturday

This was our first day in China. We flew in at 10:30 on Friday night.

We got up and had a nice breakfast provided by the hotel. We had rice and eggs, dumplings, pot stickers, and several types of buns. We had milk, juice, and hot tea was provided if you wanted it.

After breakfast we walked around the Jiao Tong - Xihui campus. It is very quiet.

We walked down the block and bought some French bread and sandwiches and rolls for lunch.

After lunch we took a nap to help with the jet lag.

In the afternoon we went to WalMart. That was a real trip. 30 miutes by subway. Cost $4 round trip.

When we got there it was amazing to see. But it was very much like a WalMart at home. Except – this is the real Walmart in the real China.

There are more big big big shopping malls then I thought were in the world. We have about 5 with in 2 blocks of where we live. We tried to look in all of them but ended up saving a couple for another day.

We found a big Best Buy just 2 blocks from where we live in case we need some computer stuff.

We ended the day by eating in an Italian restaurant for supper.

It was a long day but very successful.

Now we can ride the subway all over Shanghai.