The first real day

Up at 6:30am to make sure we were all out of the apartment by 7:30. Dorothy made her way across to Puxi for her first day in the office while the three boys headed off to Yew Chung International School to deliver Matthew to his new academic home. There was just enough of a wobble in his lips when we left him for me to worry about him all day, but he’s made of sterner stuff than that and quite obviously settled very quickly and had a really good first day. He has two teachers, one English speaking and one Mandarin speaking, and a brand new uniform to wear from tomorrow (a photo opportunity no doubt).

The Occidental Tourist(s)

This was our last day before it gets serious. Early start tomorrow for Dorothy’s first day at work and Matthew’s first day at school. Arthur and I have more apartments to view and need to entertain each other on a day which promises to bring heavy rain.

After a couple of days of fairly homely grey weather, today was a bit of scorcher – certainly too hot for the clothes we ventured out in. We braved the metro to travel to downtown Puxi. Today was a public holiday in China (Qingming festival) but the Nanjing Road, Shanghai’s famous shopping street, was heaving. Lunch was a rather disappointing affair in a fairly nasty eatery – one to put down as a learning experience. We browsed some shops for children’s clothes but found only very expensive branded stuff. It’s perhaps unsurprising there’s a big market for it when you realise that each child will generally have the undivided attention of the purses of two parents and four grandparents with nobody to compete against.

We found a shaded spot in People’s Square to rest, but the boys were soon to discover that two fair-haired young brothers playing on the grass is a magnet for cameras. Some of the paparazzi did at least ask permission, but others were more opportunist. Young Shanghai girls would inch themselves towards Matthew and Arthur until they were close enough for their friend to snap a photo of them with the boys in the background. Quite comical, but a bit disconcerting for the boys.

(The picture is of Pitaya, or Dragon Fruit, which we had for breakfast. Tastes like a cross between water melon and kiwi fruit.)

We’re actually here. In Shanghai.

We got very lucky with our flight. When the man at the Virgin check-in desk disappeared for several minutes, Dorothy suspected that there might have been a problem with our booking caused by the fact that we’d had to change flights when our Visas were delayed. But thankfully he came back with a big smile on his face and whispered to us that he’d managed to upgrade us all to Upper Class. The boys will be in for a real shock when we fly back in steerage where we belong. Arthur took the classic “Are we nearly there yet?” question to new heights by asking if we were nearly in China as we flew over the Thames estuary.

Pudong International is a very impressive airport, both in its architecture and its efficiency. Even though we were straight off the plane and were queue-jumped through passport and immigration thanks to travelling with children, our luggage was already on the carousel when we got to baggage reclaim. Unlike the rather intimidating experience of entering the United States, when you clear immigration at Pudong you get to press a voting button to rate your level of satisfaction with the official who dealt with you. We pressed the smiley face button – I suspect that’s wise.

Our waiting driver had not a word of English but took us straight to the serviced apartment which will be our temporary home for the first few weeks. We have a very smart and well-equipped flat in Pudong (the recently developed Eastern side of Shanghai) on the 15^th floor looking over Century Park, Shanghai’s largest green area. The complex is in a predominantly expatriate area and feels rather artificial as a result. The area on the other side of the park near the boys’ school and where we’re hoping to find our permanent home has a more Chinese feel, although not as much so as Puxi, the older, and much more crowded, Western side of the city.

We’ve cooked our first meal, hampered only slightly be buying a bottle of something which turned out to be almost, but not quite, entirely unlike soy sauce, and we’re drinking a quite acceptable bottle of Chinese red wine. But having spoken to my sister, Frances, on Skype and watching a BBC Newsnight report, the World suddenly seems really rather small.

Leaving Grandpont

After weeks of sorting, packing, preparing and general panicking, Friday 26th March was our last day in Oxford. Our wonderful Grandpont friends (also known as “Robin’s Mums”) threw a leaving party for us at Lake Street Playgroup after school. So many children there to say goodbye to Matthew and Arthur and a fantastic leaving present of a scrapbook full of pictures of all our friends and the familiar sights of Grandpont – an amazing way to remind us of home, I just hope it doesn’t make us too homesick when we have difficult lows in Shanghai.