Man Down! I repeat Man Down!

...actually it should read "One Shoe Down! I repeat One Shoe Down!"

This morning I started off with a cup of Nescafe Although I am not a fan of instant coffee it provided the needed pick me up after another fitful night of sleep. Shortly after finishing my coffee I headed out the door to explore the city. My goal was to repeat much of the route that I had been driven around yesterday on foot.

I should explain what I did yesterday. I was picked up at 9:30am by Mr Qi one of the company's drivers. He was to bring me to get the keys for my apartment. Unfortunately there was a mix-up on this so I have to wait to get these until next week.

After dealing with this Mr Qi did take me on a quick tour of part of the Changning District. His tours included stops at Bobcat's office building, Shanghai City Center (where our office used to be), Carefour (a supermarket), and the local pearl market. Mr Qi was also kind enough to help me find a street map of Shanghai with Ping Ying (aka english). Another great gift was the bag full of bottled water he left me -- 8 bottles in all.

So, like I said this morning I headed out on foot with a map, a bottle of water and some yuen in hand. I made it to my (future) apartment building and then over to Shanghai City Center. I definitely didn't take the most direct route to the city center -- but that's the fun of exploring. The most difficult part of the walk was navigating the intersections.

The guide books I've read on China/Shanghai suggest making sure a local steps out onto the crosswalk before you. Unfortunately, due to the early hour there were not many folks up and about. All in all I think I did okay as I only got honked at by one car. The thing to remember is that pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way despite traffic signals that indicate they due.

As I reached the City Center I realized that the store I had hoped to visit didn't open until 10am. So I started to wander around the complex in search of the Starbucks I had seen the day before. Right as I spied the Starbucks I realized that my shoe felt funny. This immediately concerned me as I was wearing flip flops and not much on them can feel funny.

I opted to laugh out loud when I realized what happened - - - if I hadn't I think I might have cried. My new Kenneth Cole Reaction black leather sandals had fallen apart. Well one of the two had. The piece of fabric that runs between your big toe and the next had broken. So I hobbled to the Starbucks and got an ice tea. I needed time to come up with a course of action and to cool off.

Did I mention that even at 9:30 in the morning the heat and humidity is unbearable. I'm not one who perspires easily but it was literally dripping down my face.

I had intended my day to be full of "on foot" adventures. That changed as the broken shoe required me to get in a taxi. Thankfully I was able to find a piece of paper with my hotels address on it.

Once I got back to my hotel I consoled myself with a picnic lunch -- consisting of a few items I had picked up at the grocery store. Yep I did make it to the store. I'll admit I got a few strange looks as I picked out my purchases. I figure most were brought on by the weird way I was walking due to the broken flip-flop.

All of this happened before 1:00pm.