It's now Thursday of my 2nd week and I'm feeling much more settled.  I've managed to suss out the metro system and it's been four days since I last got lost!  I discovered very early that there are many, many streets missing from my map, and not just small, narrow side streets.  I was walking down a four lane road on Saturday that apparently didn't exist in 2008 when the map was made.  This is something quite common in Shanghai, especially with the Expo 2010 being held here, new buildings and streets spring up at an amazing rate.  I've been taking photos of the skyline now to compare with photos at the end of my stay. 

I haven't made it to the Expo yet but I will.  Although if I ask any Chinese person about it, they all say exactly the same thing, "very busy" and "too many people".  It gets over 500,000 visitors a day!  I'll just have to be sure to pack a hat, plenty of water and suntan lotion for when I'm waiting in the queues.

I met up with two people (Cammi and Bruce) from work on Saturday and we headed to the Shanghai Museum in People's Park.  Unfortunately it was extremely busy, so we decided to forgo waiting in the queue and headed into the nearest shopping mall for an ice cream (and some air conditioning).  The weather has now turned, as we near the end of the rainy season, and the temperature is in the 30s everyday.  After the ice cream, Cammi took Bruce and I to an older part of the city, Taikang (in Puxin, the West side of the Huanpu River where I stay), with more traditional architecture.  Then it was back to Pudong (east side of river) for a traditional chinese meal in a restaurant that had been recommended by Bruce's landlady.  It was fantastic, although I discovered the hard way that you have to pierce the dumplings first to allow the hot oil to escape!  I ended up burning my tongue and couldn't taste much of anything else.

On Sunday a group of us from work (Cammi, Bruce, Daisy, LuLu, Jessica, Prio, Ian and I) had arranged a day trip to Shaojia Lou, a rennovated, historic, water town just outside of the city.  It was like a Chinese Venice and extremely beautiful.  Unfortunately I was half an hour late in meeting everyone as I'd underestimated the time it'd take to get to our meeting point.  After becoming used to the metro train stopping every 2 or 3 minutes at a stop, I wasn't prepared for the journey to take over an hour!  Fortunately I wasn't the last to arrive as Bruce had also thought it would only take about half hour.  Which meant that he had to do the forefeit as the last to arrive!  It was decided that'd he'd provide the singing when we took out boat ride through the town.  We stopped for lunch first before exploring and I had my first taste of 'red tofu' soup (a clear soup with a few veg and chunks of blood floating in it).  I have to admit that it isn't my favourite (tastes like liver) but I did manage to finish my portion! We also had cold chicken, a speciality from the area, and yam rolls for dessert.  Having filled up we spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the town and garden, stopping in at the shrine to the River God.  Then we headed to a teahouse to take tea.  This was much more than I expected, with many dishes of snacks (seeds, fruit and nutty cake bites) to accommpany the green and flower teas.  It's common to play games whilst everyone is sitting together so we played number games with forfeits for the losers.  I lost once and had to drink two glasses of tea at the same time (not so difficult if you know the trick).  I also discovered that the Chinese love taking photos but that you have to pose for them, in fact we even had a director creating a story for us to act out in the photos.  Some of them are hilarious and much more fun than my standard point and shoot method!     When we returned to the city it was decided that we would head to an archery range to try out our aims.  I have actually tried archery several times before and in fact have gone to the range with my Dad and brother, and luckily I found that I could remember quite a bit about the proper stance and how to hold the bow.  Although that still didn't stop me from ending up with a huge bruise on the inside of my arm from the bow string, and that was through the arm guard!

I have now settled into the work routine quite well, leaving the apartment at 7.30am to be at the shuttle bus stop for 8am and in the office by 9am.  Most people sleep on the bus into work and I found that on Monday morning after a hectic weekend, I was joining them.  I've now completed the task I was set last week and am awaiting one of my colleagues (Hank) to receive a data file before he can show me the next project.  So in the meantime I've been enrolled in all the online training programs for IBM new starts, ranging from how to use the IT systems, to proper procedure for the safety and security of the office and all data.  I've also been taking the opportunity to get to know my colleagues a little better and to find out what I can about their roles and what they do.  All of which will is sure to be a great help with my studies when I get back to university.

Well that's all from me for the moment. 

Bye for now,
Lindsay x