Sunday Funday!

The Sunday Funday idea is not lost on expats in China. Today we had a great afternoon hanging out with the Burgermeisters, Greg & Lindsey, for an afternoon brunch.

But first, our morning started with the men coming to fix one of our heating units. This is not normally something I would comment on as it sounds fairly mundane, but I just had to share how different it is here… I’m expecting a guy, maybe 2, to come in with a hammer & screwdriver and just make some turns and everything is A. OK. (Perhaps even a replacement part.) Not so much. What really happens is these 2 young men, quite kind & funny (I think, it was all in Mandarin, but they were very jovial.) Come into our apartment, go into our bathroom (the broken heater is in the bedroom, not the bathroom), wash out their tank in the tub. Then the larger one ties a rope around his waist, then skinnier one ties the other end of said rope around his waist and then heads out the bathroom window to poor in more Freon. WHAT?!?! We are SIX stories up. I assure this is not safe is the slightest. However, our heater is now fixed and our home is now warm.

Then it’s off to meet up with the Burgermeisters! Greg & I were put in touch through a couple mutual friends at J&J and Greg heads up the J&J sales force for all of China Consumer. He and his wife have been here a little over a year and were incredibly helpful via email about what to expect and what to do to prepare before we arrived. They’ve also already gone out a couple times with Matt before my arrival (during which I asked Matt to try not to scare them away).

They suggested we head to the Westin for the unlimited brunch & champagne buffet… but it was so much more…  We walked into the Westin lobby to be taken towards the most amazing brunch buffet sponsored by none other than my favorite, Veuve Clicquot! The brunch was filled with stations of ever type of food imaginable: American, Indian, Greek, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Shangainese. The most popular of all was the Seafood extravaganza complete with King Crab claws, Lobster tails, caviar, the works! I dabbled in pretty much everything and they kept the Vueve constantly flowing. We were there for about 2.5 hours and the Burgermeisters had so many funny stories to share as well as helpful tips about survival in Shanghai. On top of all that was quite an array of entertainment! See below for dancers, opera singers, acrobats, etc.

Finishing up the afternoon we went to the Burgermeister’s apartment (GORGEOUS!!!) and then took my first Subway ride to get my cell phone setup. The Subway is incredibly clean and easy to navigate with everything being clearly labeled in English and all of the machines being automated in English, etc. I think this will be easy to manage on my own but I’ve heard that it’s insanely crowded during rush hours so try to avoid those times.

Anyways, now we are back home and thanks to the Burgermeisters found some food delivery service (Sherpa.com ; think Seamless web) and are about to setup our first Skype date with mom & dad.

Tomorrow, I’m flying solo!

Safety First!

Out the window!

WESTIN Brunch!

 

        Bloody Mary Bar!