Glamma hits Shanghai

My mom has been in town for the past 2 weeks, which is why I have been slack on writing. We've had a great time and this weekend, we decided to stay in downtown Shanghai. We chose Pudong, which is a totally new area on the West side of the Huang Pu river ("pu dong" means "west of river", we live in pu xi "east of river"). This area was literally dirt 15 years ago and now it is a totally futuristic metropolis. Amazing.


So, we have a new driver, Mr Dong, who is lovely but kind of green. We told him we were staying at the Hyatt, not realizing there are two Hyatts, each in giant enormous towers in Pudong. Mr Dong drove us up to the first one, Shanghai World Financial Center, which is the tallest building in Asia at the moment. I guess World Financial Centers are always a target because eight Chinese security guards surrounded our minivan and searched it (while Natalie flirted with them, as usual). Mr Dong pulled into the driveway but we didn't realize he was literally pulling into the hotel lobby - we almost crashed through the door of the hotel!! Sheepishly, we got out and headed up to the 87th floor of the Park Hyatt, which looked like a set for Minority Report Part 5 and realized we were at the wrong hotel. Luckily, a bellman helped us a across a giant street with screeching traffic with all our luggage, two kids and a partridge in a pear tree. We finally settled into the Grand Hyatt in the Jin Mao tower across the street. It was an adenture!

But, the room on the 72nd floor was great. The girls loved riding the elevators, the buffet, swimming pool, etc. We visited the Shanghai Science and Technology museum (again, out of the set of Minority Report), the brand new flagship Barbie store (a story for another day) and did lots of shopping at the SuperBrand Mall.

Jed and I hit the Kee Club, a new member's only club in the fashionable French Concession, Saturday night. Not like we have suddenly gotten really cool, my friend from Tufts Will Plummer and his lovely fiancee Elisabeth were having an engagement party. Lots of cool, interesting people from Asia, Europe, America, etc and tasty drinks all around.

Glamma is leaving tomorrow, and we will all miss her, especially the guys at the hair salon, where she has gotten a $10 wash and dry every few days for the last two weeks. I was thinking she was going to offer one a visa to come to Chicago with her :)