Update 1: Arrival and Settling In

After a great two weeks with my mother and stepfather in Bellingham, WA, it was finally time to step on the flight that I was equal parts excited and terrified for. The pre-flight checks and "stuff" I had to do were a bit more than I've ever been through,

The flight was quite nice. We flew from Seattle to Shanghai via Seoul (the plane lands and switches pilots - so they don't have to layover in China - about a 45 minute break spent in the place).

While there were a lot of people on the flight (there aren't a lot of flights to China, they sell out quick!) Delta blocked the middle seats. I sat in the center section of three seats - thankfully, no one took the other seat in my row. This give me a full three seats to try to lay down on and get some rest. I wouldn't call it totally comfortable - but it was better than trying to sleep while sitting upright.

Upon arrival to Shanghai, I had to go through a very long process of temperature/customs/and COVID tests. The lady that gave me the COVID test was quite vigorous with the stick my nose - it hurt!

Thankfully, I was on the first flight of the day so it didn't take too long (around 3 hours). After this, the government bussed us to our quarantine hotel. I was forced to stay in the hotel room for 14 days.

Everyone at the airport took COVID very very seriously. Everyone I interacted with until I left the hotel was dressed like this - full PPE from head to toe. It might seem like overkill, but China seems to have things pretty much under control. Life is basically back to normal here. The only time you have to wear a mask is when taking public transport or in a hospital or something.

Meals in my hotel room were provided three times a day. We didn't get a choice or anything. I had many people from my school offer to order me stuff and have it delivered, but the food was mostly fine (except for the odd fish/seafood which I can't stand). This was a typical meals...a pint of rice with lunch and dinner, four different things on the tray and some drink (usually tea but I LOVED the pear juice I got sometimes).

I was quite glad that I already knew how to use chopsticks well...no forks available!

I brought some snacks and additional food (raman saved me from particularly gross meals).

This hotel room was my world for two weeks. I had it pretty good - I was staying at a pretty good hotel. I've heard horror stories from others.

This was my view of the rest of the world! It's tough to see in this picture but my school is slightly to the left of center. It was only 3km away - taunting me as I continued to teach my students over the internet.

I can tell this was an early picture because over the two weeks, construction crews dug up pretty much everything in the park across the street. I have no idea what they were doing (they aren't building another building...they made sure to keep the paths safe) but the dirt piles got higher and higher every day.

This was a typical breakfast. Breakfast was always the same thing...rice pudding thing (needed seasoning badly), two buns filled with different stuff, ham or sausage, a bread product, and a hard boiled egg. It was a pretty good breakfast all in all!

This is what things looked like for two weeks. I had to try relatively neat because there was no room service (or any real way to clean stuff).

Finally, the day came to be released! The school provided a driver to take me to my apartment. It's a nice two bedroom apartment on the 13th floor of a building! It was nice to have freedom to go and do stuff again!

Reverse view from the previous photo. My kitchen has a sliding door - helpful with my cooking skills! The back enclosed balcony contains my washer/drier.

Kitchen. It's a nice size and has lots of storage.

Master bedroom with TV!

Guest bedroom (come visit!)

Bathroom featuring nice shower and robotoilet!

After moving in and walking a bit to get some stuff from the store that I needed - I was pretty spent. I felt like a burger or something after two weeks of Chinese food in the hotel. There was a Burger King nearby but I would not allow my first Chinese meal to be at Burger King. The fried rice was quite tasty!

Very nice dusk view from my balcony. The buildings you see here aren't the big buildings of Shanghai. This is sort of the suburbs - a few miles from the city center.

Having never travelled to China, I half expected everything to be concrete and "city-like". The area I'm in is quite green in places.

My living room with the balcony in the background. (I took pictures immediately upon arriving as things are bound to only get messier!)

Sunrise from my apartment.

The next day after moving in, I had a medical check (no exciting photos...blood draw, X-Ray, ultrasound, etc...).

After the medical check, the school provided a driver with a van to take me to Ikea to buy stuff for the apartment (pots/pans/bedding/etc...)

I didn't get half of what I needed...but as one person dealing with two carts, this was a decent days work. I'll be back soon once I see the aftermath of what I bought.

Photo from my apartment compound. My apartment is in one of those buildings.

Took the subway for the first time to see the iconic skyline of Shanghai from the other side of the river. The tall building on the right is actually the 2nd tallest building in the world. It was a great autumn day.

Nanjing Road - a very major shopping road. They've got all the stores you'd expect. Turns out the Apple Store in Shanghai is just as crazy as they are everywhere else in the world.

Little craft fair thingie.

It's weird to walk down the road and see Chinese flags hanging as Americans would hang the stars and stripes. Nothing wrong with it of course, it just serves as another reminder that I'm far from my homeland!