The Comfy Life

I have essentially just spent the last two days in transit, starting with boarding a plane on Thursday afternoon. Fifteen hours, two catnaps and half a dozen romantic comedies later, I skipped through customs and into the arms of my chauffeur who greeted me with a bottle of champagne before whisking me away into the swirling, romantic Shanghai night.

Not actually. But the Yale Club of Shanghai did set up a private driver. And he did greet me with a bottle of water. But it was raining and I was sleepy, so I clumsily plopped down into the back of the car and all of the sudden I was at my hostel, where I crashed.

As usual, my jetlag woke me up at 4:30 am, and at 5:30 I jumped out of bed, grabbed my bags, and searched for my apartment.

My apartment has entered the land of excess. Not only is it beautiful, but it has three bedrooms (for two people), four beds, and three balconies. I soaked it in for a few minutes, then hopped into the street for my first run in Shanghai, followed by a look at the (not bad) gym in the apartment complex.

Friends I made today:
1. Jamie, a Singapore woman in her twenties who went to Berkeley and works for the company that owns my apartment. She's been here for over four months, and knows her way around. We went to Carrefour together! And I stocked up on all the cooking basics.
2. Yi and her collegues from Munich that run the German Expo pavilion. We met while getting cell phones (I had to buy a cheap one to use here, so the pink machine is on lay-away), and went out for brunch. Now I have V.I.P. access to the German pavillion, and invitations to go out and have them "show me a good time" in Shanghai. I'm excited for friends.

So far, the Shanghai experience is far less taxing than last summer in Taiwan. Instead of beating my way through the foreign forest, Shanghai has been more-or-less cut out. Although a wise Lady once said, "if it's not rough it isn't fun", I'll take what I can get. Will just got and the Yale contingent minus Lisa and Madison are going out to eat. Good things to come.