Tuesday, 12:50 pm

Dave and his co-workers seem to have disappeared, so I'll keep writing.

After our meeting this morning, but before I left to explore the shopping downstairs, we were introduced to a few of the people in the Hong Kong office. Everyone was very friendly and gathered around us to talk. A man originally from Montreal shared a few interesting insights.

He's been in China for quite a while. He was in Shanghai for 5 years, and has been in Hong Kong for maybe another 6. He is married with two kids. The eldest is 6. He said he enjoyed Shanghai, but can't imagine raising kids there. The pollution is way too much. He also expressed that Hong Kong is an easy place to live if you speak English. In my small experience this morning, that is certainly true. But went on to say that Shanghai is not. Not many people speak English there, and simply tasks can be very difficult. He said we would definitely hire a maid, as did the Office Manager earlier.

His words are a bit disappointing, upon hearing that we will more likely be in Shanghai. But with such short time here, its probably best that we don't feel the pressure to explore our future home in the rest of our time. We did hear back from one real estate agent, who was going to charge us $800 USD to show us around tomorrow - can you imagine? An agent is giving us a tour of Shanghai on Friday for no fee at all. We'll probably explore the residential communities near the office on foot this afternoon, as well as looking at grocery stores, drug stores and public transportation. But I think that tomorrow we should be able to do some sight seeing. And better tomorrow, ecause today is miserably dreary. It feels like the northwest, where its always raining but never quite enough to make your umbrella worthwhile. Like that, except dirty. I mean like NYC dirty. Maybe worse.

Alright, I'm now the only person in the office. I'm going to trust that Dave hasn't forgotten about me. I should have brought a book!