My email has not been working correctly since we arrived in Shanghai. Apparently many messages that I sent were not received and messages that were sent to me were not received. So.....if you sent me a message and I did not respond....it was because I did not get the message. I was on the phone this afternoon (this is the second time I had to call them) with my "server" and I believe they have fixed the problem. It was something about my messages being forwarded through another address and some messages could get through and others could not. After they fixed this problem I received several messages that had not downloaded before. I set up a temporary address at debbiespofford@gmail.com but I believe that my old address deb@deborahspofford.com is working now. I will check both so you can send messages to either one.

The past two days I spent shopping for basic household items. I was hoping to find a store like Target or Fred Meyer for the basic things but these do not exist in Shanghai. The supermarkets have a small variety of basic items but I describe them as sub-Super Wal-Mart style. Several expats suggested IKEA. At least I am familiar with this store and the general layout. I had to get help finding the dishes but fortunately a nice young man in the kitchen cabinet area spoke perfect English. I am finding that the young people want to practice their English and are excited to be able to help. (Side note: A nice gentleman asked me how to pronounce three words today. He wanted to know how to pronounce the name of the hotel in the Jinmao Tower and the definition of the word deluxe. I was so happy to speak English and have someone need my help instead of the other way around!!!!) Back to shopping.....after one trip to IKEA and several trips to Carrafour and Lotus I think we can live in our new apartment for a few days.

Observation: Sheet sets are sold with two pillow cases that look like shams, one flat sheet, and one duvet cover. I think this is a European thing.

Good news for today!!!! Our household goods arrived in China and will be delivered to our apartment tomorrow morning. This is several days earlier than we expected. We hope to be completely be moved in by Friday or Saturday. It will be nice to be in one place and get settled.

Our drivers English has improved 10 fold since we arrived. (I wish I could say the same thing about my Mandarin) He helped translate today for me at China Mobil. For some reason my new cell phone had a very interesting and funny sound. Instead of ringing or playing music for the caller, it had someone talking in Chinese and then a pig oinking sound. I think it might have been saying "Happy New Year" because this is the Year of the Pig. But for all I know it could have been saying "you have just called a pig, please wait until she answers" . It was really very funny but I decided that I did not want this greeting long term. So....I tried to explain to the nice cell phone people that I wanted to change the pig noise. Can you imagine why they did not understand this? Thankfully, I went and got our driver and he explained what I wanted. After much laughter....the man took my cell phone number, punched it into a computer and changed the pig noise to a very boring buzzing sound. Hmmmm maybe I should have kept the pig.