Ni Hao Ma!

I'm in Shanghai. So much to tell after only one day!

I was waiting for my half past noon flight to Shanghai and it's only 10am. So I do what I love best, parked myself on a seat, jammed my earphones on and lost myself in a book. I wanted to relax because I knew I was going to be stressed out when I arrived. As soon as I land, I had to change into Corporate clothes and heels and go straight to the Chinese New Year dinner.

Fifteen minutes after the airline meal, the woman beside me got up to go to the rest room and promptly spilled her ice water on me. Grrrrr! The right side of my clothes was drenched and she didn't even bother to go get some tissues for me to wipe with! Horrible woman! She must have felt the bad vibes from me because she didn't come back to her seat for the remainder of the flight.

The plane landed and I got off to find a thick fog, a whole lot of grayness, and a freezing wind. Great. This after being told it was not that cold (15 - 20 degrees) and not to bother with thermals. I was one of the first to get off the plane so I breezed through immigration, got my suitcase and trundled off to the rest room to change.

Thirty minutes later, I was looking for my name on the placards being displayed by the drivers. It was only 4:30 and the driver was supposed to meet me before five so I was congratulating myself on being early when I spied the driver and saw one of the members of the Executive Committee (an expat) behind him. He and his son were on the same flight and I realized I made them wait for half an hour. Whoops.

Off to the car we went. After one instance of almost landing on my butt because of my four inch heels and twenty minutes of waiting at the curb in the freezing wind, we learned we had to walk to the parking area as the road was blocked and the driver couldn't get through to pick us up. So I lugged my suitcase, laptop case, big purse and a plastic shopping bag of dried mangoes down two flights of stairs (the guy I was with had four pieces of big suitcases!) and we were (finally!) on our way.

It was a fancy dinner party (and I was glad I changed out of my sneakers) and I got to sit at the VIP table with the owners (who were sooooo nice!). We were introduced one by one to everybody in the ballroom and you had to stand and wave a little when they called your name. Whee! Just like a famous or important person. :D

We were all given individual gifts and it was while my head was down stuffing the gift in my bag that my seat mate called my attention. When I looked up, everybody was holding their wine glasses up for a toast and waiting for me. Whoops. Again.

Is the day never going to end???

The 14 course dinner mercifully ended, the table rounds toasting everybody finished (you have to avoid clinking your glass against another if you don't want to do a bottoms up every single time). I finally staggered into my room at 10.

I think I want to go home now.