Today was a day of great entertainment and mild frustration. We started our day at a the Super Brand Mall. In the basement of many of the malls in Shanghai are grocery markets. We had a short list of items that we wanted to purchase and we planned to go to two different markets so we could price shop and compare the "environment" of each store. On our list was diet Pepsi, a curling iron, hair straitener, blow dryer, (our small electric appliances do not work here because of the power differences) and a few snack items and school supplies.

The other items on our agenda were to take Abi to see her school and to have lunch at a little restaurant in the neighborhood where her school is located. Our driver picked us up at 10:00 and we were off. The first market was very fun to explore and Abi and I were entertained by the food items that we saw. So entertained in fact that we found it necessary to take pictures. We already stand out a little bit in the crowd and taking pictures in the grocery store just added to our "oddness" which of course made us laugh. The store was so crowded that we could hardly get a cart through the isles. Tim was very patiecent while we looked for all the girl stuff we needed. The market must have had 25 different styles of hair dryers but only one curling iron and one straightener. And...no diet Pepsi. Can you imagine? The store was very large and it took us much longer to explore than we thought so by the time we left we were starving.

Our lunch was very good, Tim ordered shrimp wonton soup, I had pan fried dumplings, and Abi had noodles with beef. The restaurant is in a large expat area and we saw many Caucasians for the first time in days. It was sort of weird....

Then to Abi's school..... by this time we were directing our driver because we got the feeling that he did not really know where he was going. Our driver speaks a little bit of English and that has been helpful. We directed him to the other market and again spent longer than we thought we would. The store was very very crowded and it was a zoo. And...they did not have a single straightener or curling iron. AAAHHHH.....I thought this would be so easy. Tim was happy though because we found diet Pepsi.

We decided to stop at one more market on the way back to our hotel. We had passed it on the way to the restaurant and we assumed that our driver would go back the way we came and we would have no problem finding it. The distance from Abi's school to our hotel is 15 - 20 minutes. About 90 minutes later we were no where near the market and we had to direct the driver again so he could find our hotel. By this time we are wondering if having a driver that speaks English is better than having a driver that knows how to get places..... The jury is still out on this one.

In the end we went back to the store we first visited and purchased the straightner and curling iron. We were all very ready to be out of the car and away from the crowds.