the best thing yet...

So...last night I experienced the best part of being in Shanghai. I had the best massage ever tonight. The one hour massage for $48 RMB (conversion...approximately $7US for ONE hour!!!) was amazing. Needless to say, it was worth every penny. My sister and I took our aunt, who has never had a massage before because she lives in Shanghai and people here really don't have that kind of money to spend, to the massage parlor near my sister's house. It is packed inside with mostly foreigners who also wanted to take advantage of this amazing (and cheap) deal. I practically passed out on the table while being massaged. It was a very hot day yesterday (again) so it was quite refreshing to get a massage before bedtime. Slept like a baby...
Today, the weather is quite warm again...nothing new. We went out for dim sum in the morning and then I had to come back home to watch Wimbledon. It was just too disgusting outside to wander around and pray that I don't faint. I came home to find out that stupid Wimbledon was rained out so just sat in and read. I have been reading a lot more than what I normally am able to do. It is so nice to be on "vacation" right now.
So my housing is secured. That's something to be proud of. It is in the district of Xuhui and next to a bunch of shops and food. Also, it is within walking distance to all the fun bars! So now, this should entice you people to come and visit me :) I get to move in in about a week from now. So excited to have a HOME! It is a three bedroom two full bath condo on the 23rd floor. It even has a balcony! I am quite excited about that considering that I have never lived with any outdoor space. I overlook nothing, but nothing is better than having a building right smack in your window! It is completely fully furnished and in pretty great condition. Comes with a washer and dryer as well. Can you tell how excited I am? I will have to post some photos once I actually move in. I'll also be sure to pass on my contact info (so puhleeeze call me!)
I'm getting ready to go on my vacation now to Scandanavia. Is that the correct term to use? I hope so...I just read over the itinerary and I'm quite excited to get some relief from this hot weather here in Shanghai. The temp is around mid 70's which is awesome. The only thing I dread is the darn 10 hour flight that I have to take to get there. Augh... more flying.
Signing off for now. Off to sing some karaoke with friends :) I know you all are dying of laughter right now...Until then...

One week and 358 days to go...

Well, one week has gone by! Can't believe it. How weird to think that Shanghai is my new home, but I'm slowly getting that through my head. For the past week, I have been outside walking around, attempting to learn Chinese characters, and eating as much food as I possibly can get my hands on! The food here is just amazing and sooooo cheap! Every morning I have fresh soy milk, some fresh buns, and sometimes, even fresh made wontons. I told myself that I can eat whatever I want in the morning, but after that meal, it's all about veggies and brown rice. Don't want to be a porker anymore so gotta watch what I'm taking in. However, it is so tempting...The only problem I have is when I have to go to the market to buy these things. It's a bit crowded for my liking. Too many people wandering the streets and the worst part about it is the attempt to walk on a sidewalk where there are scooters, motorcycles and bicycles attempting to kill you. I think I have gotten in one fight a day with a motorist! And I can't curse in Chinese so I'm yelling at these people in English and they just stare blankly at me. That's alright. As long as I can vent my anger and they can see that I'm not happy with having to dodge them on a pedestrian sidewalk!
I've been busy looking for housing since I arrived. My poor sister had to take a few days off of work and I dragged her around the city to look at places. Let me tell you...housing here is sooooo competitive. You'd think that there would be nice places but the problem is that my work is located right in the heart of the city and I'd like to find a place where I can walk to work. That's going to be hard...everyone wants to avoid the subways or public transportation but it is going to cost a lot. So far I have attempted to put my name down at two places and I've lost out to other bidders for the unit. Too many darn expats these days! :) We're all fighting for the best housing, but don't want to spend that much money to have it. So it's a painful process and I have to go again starting tomorrow to see if I can find something suitable. I feel like I'm back in DC and NYC again because that was the biggest issue with living in those cities...finding affordable housing. I'll have to post some pictures soon to show you what I have found. Keep your fingers crossed that I find something soon. I need to move in by mid July.
Otherwise, still struggling with the crazy heat here. It's so warm and humid! I walk outside for five minutes and I'm SOAKED. I get some strange looks from people because I am dripping with sweat (yes, very sexy, I know) on the subway but no one else is sweating like me! People tell me that this is going to last until August! So not looking forward to that! I'm looking forward to getting away soon though. Taking a vacation to Scandanavia countries so that should cool me off a bit. Should be a good (and expensive) time.
I've had the opportunity to chat with my girls from Columbia on Skype and it's awesome to have freeee phone conversations. For those of you who are STILL not on skype, get it! That way, I can chat with you guys instead of having you read these stupid blogs :) Just go to skype.com and download. It's free! The bad thing is that I'm 12 hours ahead from US folks, about 2 hours behind Australia folks, about 6 hours difference from Europe folks, so it's going to be tough. Hopefully I will still be able to chat with some of you on weekends. Or better yet, come visit! Until then...

Departure from the real world (aka NYC)

What to say? I can't believe that I have left my crazy life in New York City and arrived in an even crazier life in Shanghai. I have loved living in the good ol' NYC for the past four years now and have enjoyed every moment of it. My friend Brian moved in to my place in NYC and let's just say "I ain't too happy about giving up my place to no one!" However I do love Brian and I know for a fact that he will take good care of my place (and I hope he's reading this cuz he will get a big smack down if he doesn't). Anyhow, arrived in Shanghai and it is now 3:15am and I'm suffering from jet lag of course. This sucks big time. I can barely keep my eyes open during the day to have even a conversation with my own sister, but now as I sit here in her apartment looking out the balcony at just two guards downstairs, I decided to give this blogging thing a try. I don't even know how to share this with my friends (and I have no idea how long I will be able to keep up with this blogging thing....) but I'm sure my tech savvy friends will figure it out.
The flight from DC (went home first to see the rents) was uneventful of course. I sat on the plane for 14 hours to Tokyo straight and didn't sleep a wink. I had a two hour layover in Tokyo and the minute I put my head down on a vacant chair, I passed out. I was woken up by the gate agent asking me if I wanted to board my plane! Boy that would have been a disaster if I had missed the flight, no? HA! I arrived in Shanghai to find some amazing weather. I spoke too soon. The next day, it was sooo damn humid that the real temp was only 92 but with the humidity, it was 105!!! I wanted to cry. However my skin looked damn good cuz of the humidity (you all know that I have lizzard skin so my skin loves this wet moisture... sucks that I don't like it for breathing purposes!) In any event, I still went out to explore my new city for the next year. That pretty much means going to find some local joints to have an awesome (and cheap) meal.
Next I started looking for some apartments. Went to see a couple and I think I found one that I am going to take! It is a three bedroom with two full baths. Now, for those of you that I know from DC and NYC, we ALL know how amazing this sounds, doesn't it? IT FREAKING IS AMAZING! It is HUGE compared to pretty much ALL of the apartments that I have ever lived in! EVER! It is directly across the street from my future office so I can roll out of bed (literally) and walk to work. Plus, it is in such a nice neighborhood so I can't pass it up. But my snobby self said "I don't like the way the outside of the building looks." After five minutes I realized how stupid that was and it's the interior that matters, duh! HA. So I think I'm going to take it! It even has a washer AND dryer in the unit. Amazing huh? So I'm waiting for you all to come and visit!!!
Ok... signing off now... will write again soon, but I want to say how much I miss everyone and hope that you can post some comments here and say how I'm going to survive living here and that I'm doing the right thing... and how this is going to be an amazing experience, etc. etc. Until then...