Turtles, snakes and giant frogs

The oldest (Anastasia, or "Kiska," who's 9) has been enrolled in, and is going to, school. A local Chinese school -- five minute walk from our housing complex, and even on the same block! It looks a little dingy, a little Soviet, but you can't beat the commute and she'll definitely be learning a lot of Chinese.

We'll be back in the states in 3-4 years, so we're not worrying about them losing their English skills. However, if we were to stay longer, we'd probably enroll them in one of the area international schools.

Richard's working hard -- he's a copy editor at the Shanghai Daily and is learning Chinese. We also think that there's a bureau chief job waiting for him with the Asia Times as soon as they get their paperwork done and accredit him.

Meanwhile, I'm all set up. We've got the high-speed internet, the phones all set, and I'm all done with my jet lag. Now all I need is for my accreditation to come through and I can start working.

Shanghai is huge. We've decided not to get cars, so we're taking taxis everywhere - just like in NYC. Richard rides a bike to work (15 minutes). It's a ten-speed, and he wears a helmet, so he really stands out on these streets, where everyone rides Communist-era one-speeds with no helmets. The subway's pretty good, but crowded during rush hour, Rich says. I haven't been on it yet.

This weekend, I went to a department store where they had live turtles, snakes and giant frogs in the grocery department, alongside the seafood. The frogs were in open containers, and I was surprised they didn't hop out. They looked kind of fat -- maybe they were TOO fat.

We live in a complex of five 40-story buildings surrounding a gated courtyard with a garden, two playgrounds, a pond with goldfish, and a tennis court (and a morning tai chi exercise area). There's one other American family with kids here -- all the rest are Chinese. I spend my afternoons watching my youngest (Basil, 6) play on the playground and listening to language tapes. Then I go try out my Chinese on unsuspecting neighbors. It's coming along
well. I can pretty much make myself understood and hold basic conversations. Soon we'll put the youngest in preschool (as soon as we learn how to say it) -- school starts later here than in the States, and they don't have kindergarten here. So they start first grade at age 7 -- and he's only six.

Almost a foreign correspondent

The paperwork is reportedly moving along to make me an official foreign correspondent in China, and the business cards are on their way.

It's time to get started, laying the groundwork for my new career. Unfortunately, I've been too busy these last two weeks setting up my computers, moving my files, getting the Internet access, and finishing up projects from back home that I haven't had time to go out and get to know the people and institutions I'll be writing about in a very short time.

Meanwhile, my editor has agreed to spring for some travel expenses, and I hope to be visiting some neighboring countries in the next few weeks (while I'm waiting for that accreditation I keep talking about). I'm thinking of visiting Mongolia, which has a stock market, and Vladivostok in the Russian far east. I'm interested in those places because they aren't usually written about, and because I speak Russian (which is common not ony in Vladivostok, of course, but in Mongolia as well).

Meanwhile, on the home front -- spring has ended. We had one week of 60-degree weather (Farenheit) and now we're into the summer temperatures and are down to our T-shirts. Strangely, the locals are still wearing windbreakers. We're worried about how hot it's going to get, but the kids, at least, are going to spend their summers back in the states, and the apartment and Richard's workplace are both air conditioned.