Shanghai

Jinxiangsan Cun

Fun veggie/fruit market inside the village walls!

Inside the village neighborhood

This is us at the intersection where you can see the name of the street XinYu lu.

This is the grassy area where we believe Ian was placed.

We flew first class (a first for me) from our city to Shanghai. Our travel time was only 4 hours and that included an hour lay over in another city. We arrived at noon so we got lunch in the airport and then went to our hotel. After checking in we went to where Ian was placed. We spent some time going through the apartment complex that is mentioned in our paperwork. He was found on the north side of XinYu road, east of the Xinjiangsan Village apartment in the grass. The apartment complex is really a village. Inside is a police station, post office, preschool, vegetable/fruit market and several shops. This is very different from where we live. We took lots of videos and pictures of the surrounding areas. Around the corner from his spot is a fun street that has a little bit of the old and new cultural in the architecture. From what we can gather the area looks like a pretty average area of town. Even though this is Shanghai it doesn't have the overcrowded busy feel to it.

When we finished at the neighborhood Ian was place we then moved onto finding the hotel/convention center where the other families are staying and where we will be doing some of our paperwork on Tuesday. Our hotel is on the same street just about 4 blocks away. We found the convention center while looking for places to eat and buy a few things. Since we had a really early morning and because we had been doing a lot of walking we went back to our hotel to take a short break. For dinner we went a few blocks down and found a street that had McDonalds, KFC, Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut and Papa John's. We both love Papa Johns so we went there for dinner. We were really excited about seeing the fast food options since we don't have that in our city.

It almost feels weird that we didn't need a guide today. Most families have someone meet them at the airport and get them around town. I guess it hasn't sunk in yet that tomorrow is our big day. We kind of feel like we are just figuring out our way around the city like we do in ours.

As we walked home from dinner it dawned on me that tonight is Ian's last night to sleep in the SCWI. I can't believe this day is finally here. I don't know if I am going to be able to sleep tonight. Todd and I talked about what we think we will feel tomorrow. I don't know how I will react and I don't think Todd does either.

When we came back to our hotel tonight I set up the pack n play and got out his clothes and toys and made sure the diaper bag has the items in it for tomorrow. We will go to the Civil Affairs office at 9:30am and fill out more paperwork. But this time our reward is actually meeting and keeping Ian!