Morgan's travels....

Tim the shopper. Have I said before how sweet my husband is, he really is a sweetheart! He is the energizer bunny that goes and goes with me. It is not the shopping that really bothers him, it is usually my way of getting there. For example, last night we went to a place called Hola, which is like a Bed Bath and Beyond. We needed a few things we couldn't find elsewhere and so someone had mentioned to try there. They gave us the address which was all in English and Pinyin (the written form of the Chinese characters, very useful to foreigners, but may make no sense to a taxi driver) and we set off. We took the shuttle bus from our apartment to the subway. It was then I realized that I had grabbed the Pudong map instead of the Puxi map (which is west side of the river and where we were headed). I figured no big deal, we have the address, we can just wing it. We took the subway across town found a stop we thought was close enough to where we were headed. We found the street that we wanted and thought we would soon be there....hah! We walked a few blocks on the street and decided we were way too far and it was getting late. So we waved for a taxi, gave him the address, and off we were. He dropped us off at a big mall and we thought for sure we were close. Nope. We had the right street and I would like someone to tell me on the numbers work on it. We were looking for 88 xian xie lu. We were originally in the 900 block, so thats when we took a cab to the 100 block. We ended up taking a cab back to the 1200 block or so and we finally arrived at the mall. Literally two hours and two grumpy kids later. It was 8:30 at the time, their normal bedtime, but we found it and so I was going to shop for a few things. We found lots that we needed and it was quite worth it, but we didn't get home until 10:30 and 2 extremely grumpy kids later. Because we don't have a car here and rely only on taxi's that don't neccessarily pick up at the front door, we usually have our arms full with stuff that are already tired arms from carrying the girls, and then we need to make our way out to the street to load up. Tim remained so helpful and happy, though I know he was completely frustrated and would have returned immediately after I realized we didn't have the right map. So if you ever make it to Shanghai and stay in our guest room, tell Tim what a nice, cozy bed he helped pick out!

This was after our Saturday excursion. Pretty much the same thing. And before that, I think their was the Ikea excursion. I decide just to take off (usually later in the evening and we have a limited about of time before we get grumpy kids) and once we get somewhat close, I figure we can just ask someone. We have done this three times and it hasn't worked yet, Tim hopes I have learned my lesson. There are many people willing to help, there is just a small communication barrier. We are continuing to learn, Tim has learned, but I am still learning. This is one of the many reasons he is the best husband. I love him!