Saturday, October 31, 2009
Happy Halloween!
We weren't sure what to expect for our first Halloween in Shanghai. It was a little surprising to see the shops stock up on costumes and decorations in the weeks leading up to October 31 (and now some of them even have Christmas stuff out). Our friends were hosting a party at their house in Jin Qiao so we decided it would be fun to dress up and join them. Jin Qiao (pronounced Gin Chow) is an area on the outskirts of Shanghai where there are great International schools and villa communities. Many ex-pat families live in these villa communities which offer kids a nice place to run around and play. It is a great neighborhood for trick-or-treating since the houses are so close together and the traffic is limited to residents that are coming or going (so no crazy taxi drivers or mopeds).
I decided that it would be fun to make our costumes and headed to the fabric market last weekend to pick out all of the material I would need. Considering I put them together in less than a week with no pattern, I think they look pretty good! Rich even got a Yabba Dabba Do shout out while out trick or treating!
Oops! No pictures of Wilma on my camera. I know somebody took a family photo of us so I will have to try to track it down and will post it later.
Monday, October 26, 2009
A new ride to Puxi
The weather in Shanghai has been beautiful lately and we took advantage of it this weekend by spending lots of time outside. We had to get back over to Puxi (across the river) so that I could go to the fabric market to see the dress that I ordered last weekend. Typically whenever we need to get to Puxi we either take a car or the subway. However, there are a number of ferries that cross the river and this is by the far the quickest and cheapest way to cross. Riding the ferries is a bit of an adventure though because the ferry terminals do not have any information in English. We had taken a ferry across once before but felt comfortable because Rich had taken that one with coworkers previously.
I researched the ferry locations on both the Pudong and Puxi sides and realized that there is a ferry that runs from a terminal very close to our house that would put us about two blocks away from the fabric market. The tricky part was that there are two ferries that leave from the same terminal on the Pudong side so we just needed to figure out which one would take us to where we wanted to be on the Puxi side. Of course, we took the wrong one and ended up at the Bund. Oops! At that point we decided that Ang wasn't really up for any more adventure so Rich got back on the ferry with her and headed home while I set off on foot to do some exploring. I made it back to the fabric market and found all sorts of interesting little shops in the area outside of Yu Yuan Garden (which is a big tourist spot). I managed to get back on the correct ferry going home and found that it only took about 15 minutes from the time I boarded the ferry to the time I was standing in the lobby of our building. And for only 0.5RMB ($0.07 USD). Not bad!!
We decided that crossing the river by ferry could be compared to a game of frogger. The river is used by very large boats to transport all sorts of materials around. The ferry must navigate through all of this traffic and oftentimes it seems that they are weaving in and out of the other boats. It isn't so bad on the weekend when river activity is minimal, but I can imagine it would be a bit nerve-wracking during the week when things are busier!the 'nice' ferry that goes to the bund
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Adventures at the fabric market
Ang is back on China time and is now sleeping all night (most of the time) and napping well during the day. She finally has a tooth cutting through on top that I can see - I feel like this one has been a very long time coming. Of course, this messes with the whole sleeping thing but at least we had a few nice nights! We are feeding her solids twice a day now and she loves eating them.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Craftiness
Well, two days later, we have a hat! It resembles a hat. It has a ruffled edge. Only one problem. I forgot to take the infamous 'Bozzuto head' into account and there is no way this is going to fit Ang. I guess we will save it for use on a doll someday.
Sorry I don't have a picture of the hat on Ang to show truly how small it is - she is asleep and I'm not waking her up to model.
After a little bit of searching in Shanghai yesterday, I now have a pair of size 10 circular needles and am going to attempt a second hat using these. This time I'll take her head size into consideration so hopefully it will fit!
It looks like I have a new hobby? And you all thought you were getting cheap Chinese trinkets for Christmas. Ha!!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
jet lag
Rumor has it that some people back home are missing a certain little girl so I thought some pictures might help.