China

DAY 3---It is almost 6AM on Sunday 1.17.10. in Shanghai, China. The weather is not as bad as I thought it would be. At least there is some sun regardless of the cold weather. It isn't as cold compared to New York so I am glad that I can tolerate winter here. When I first came to Shanghai in September, I barely saw the sky despite of the humidity and heat. It's not as polluted either. I was amazed how beautiful the sunset was considering that I barely saw anything but the polluted layer in September. Day 1--- was interesting. I decided to walk to the local market to buy some grocery to cook for dinner. I wanted to buy fresh siopao they had inside but of course there wasn't any pictures on what the fillings were. The cook said something to me in Chinese assuming he was asking for my order. I then pointed to the Siopai then started flocking my arms saying, "Pok pok pok pok!" He smiled at me and pronounced Chicken in Mandarin twice and I immediately knodded my head. That 's how it works out here. Oh my goodness. That Siopao was so good. I had two for lunch and I bought these pili nuts I thought were only sold in Tagaytay, Philippines. I wasn't sure how it'd taste but as soon as I opened the package, I wasn't able to put it down. I found my favorite snack! That night I cooked an American meal for Mundo and had it all prepared as soon as he got home from work. It was nice to have a home cooked meal at home without any interruptions. That was the first in a long time since last year. I knocked out immediately after dinner due to the jet-lagg. DAY 2---was nice. We stayed in bed all morning catching up. We cooked the leftover steak for breakfast w/ some fried rice then went to bed. :) Lunch time we ate at a Chinese food chain restaurant down the street then went back home. I realized I have not worked out in so long so we took out the boxing gloves and jump rope. I thought of Steph and started doing these lunges all over the living room. The space is big enough to actually get a good work out. Then I started doing the jump rope so did Mundo then push ups then more lunges until I was out of breath. It felt good. It didn't help that we ordered in delivery from KFC for dinner though. Oh well. At least we got somewhat of a workout. Mundo is still asleep. I think we'll most likely venture out today considering how lazy we were yesterday. The pace has been good. I look forward to the days ahead alone with him to learn more, grow and have fun together. I love the food here and I am scared that I will gain weight so there will be a lot of walking and a lot of working out. We took the stairs to the third floor instead of taking the elevator to remind us how active we need to be. I highly doubt that it'll be a problem for us to get a lot of walking done because there is so much to see and so much to do in this Country that I'm starting to fall in love with. I need to start practicing Mandarin with the Rosetta Stone CD that Sandra lent to me. The next time I order some Siopai I hope I wont have to do the chicken dance and say pok pok pok and get laughed at. :)