IKEA

[Caroline]

Today we woke up, took much needed showers, and called Bob to come pick us up. We drove to IKEA. For those of you who have never been to an IKEA, I am sorry. For those of you who have, well, this should be interesting. We pulled in and parked in the underground parking garage. Bob maneuvered into a tight spot very expertly, and we took the escalator upstairs.

Upstairs, in the lobby, there were benches that Everett, Dad and I sat upon while Mom tried to activate some sort of card to get us discounts. When Mom was finished trying (unsuccesful!), we all took the escalator upstairs. We started with lunch so we would not have to interrupt our shopping by having to eat. (Someone was HANGRY, and her name starts with an M and ends with an aryAnn.)  

There were many more food options than in the IKEA's back home. You had the world famous meatballs from Sweden, but then you had the noodles, chicken legs, fried pork chop, and the egg drop soup. There were also pastries, and these little sausages wrapped in bacon. We each got one of the little bacon sausages, thinking it looked and sounded amazing. I am not sure what everyone else thought, but by the time I had taken the second bite, all I thought was, " Congratulations Shanghai IKEA, you've ruined bacon!". (And I did not get that from the movie inside out. I thought of it first, so ha-ha.)

Then we started to shop. We walked and walked (and walked and walked) until we got to the single section that had everything we needed.

I bought an alarm clock, a fake plant for my dresser, and some organizers for my home school stuff, all for about 70 yuan. (I'll write more about this in a future diary entry, but the yuan is a type of currency in China. The ratio for U.S. dollars to Chinese yuan is 1 dollar=6.92 yuan.) So I got all those things for about 10 dollars.

I also got a huge yummy ice cream cone for 2 yuan. (29 cents). We fit all of our stuff into the van, and drove home. (It's hard to say "home" because it really isn't. So I'll just say "the apartment") Everett fell asleep on the ride back, per usual. We got back to the apartment, and unpacked and found places for our new household items. That's all for now. More soon!