Shanghai Update

It's been a long hot week in Shanghai. It was 40 degrees Celsius today (102 F) and will heat up slightly to 104 tomorrow. I'd like to tell you how much I'm enjoying this recent warm up but that would be a lie. If there is a positive, it is that the skies are relatively clear so the pollution is lower than when I got here. (no real solace) In deference to the hot weather, I only walked 10 miles today.

I have been looking for a new place to live for the next 5 months as I feel like the very nice place where I am is just too far from the downtown. It does sit atop the Metro station so getting around is fairly easy. Thursday and today were spent apartment shopping. No different than anywhere else in the world, lots of junky places, some nice ones and some that just won't work. I have a budget for housing that I will stay within because if all else fails, where I am will be acceptable. I liked two of the 12 I have seen. One might be too far from the Metro but worry more about the other one as it might be too small to promote marital harmony, if you get my drift.

On the work front, we have had some breakthroughs on my assignment and the way to fix things is pretty clear. Actually getting it done may be difficult because it involves improving some of the computer information we use and none of that ever happens quickly. There is a good team here and we are certainly pushing ourselves to make the changes necessary to improve the business for Staples in China.

Since I've been taking the subway a lot, I noticed something interesting on one of my trips. I was standing against the doors on the side of the train where they don't open, and all of the women sitting on the opposite side of the car were staring at me. I was thinking, "Either there's something wrong with my attire or I must look pretty good today, these women can't take their eyes off of me." As I moved to get off the subway, the stares didn't move with me, so I thought that's strange and turned to see that the whole time they were staring at the TV monitor that was right next to me! So much for that ego trip!

Finally, on the home front. Jon is about to start his career as he begins training with EMC on Monday for seven weeks to prepare him for the first phase of his job in Tech support. Jeffrey heads to Arizona on Tuesday to begin his college career. Marissa has been told she will be getting a job offer from Ernst and Young so she enters her senior year of college knowing she has a job after graduation. Our house is on the market and we have had two very interested lookers. Hopefully, we will be getting a good offer on our house, soon. The nest will truly be empty.

Did I say it was hot here?

Steve