Getting back on track

I think we are finally over jet lag (which means there is something else to blame for our sleepless nights) and have finally put all of the new toys and outfits away. Ang made out like a bandit for Christmas (thanks everyone) and it was quite the process getting it all back to Shanghai. I think we only managed to leave a few things behind at my parents house.

We now have a new camera and a Flip video recorder so hopefully I will get around to posting more Ang stuff for you all to see. The latest news - she is getting better at her inch-worm crawl and has finally said Mama (after Ba ba and Da da).

We have had some unfortunate luck with our apartment since returning to Shanghai. In the past, we always make a joke, saying "well, its China" because it seems a lot more random stuff just happens here. It has always been a small thing here or a small thing there (i.e. sink won't drain, hot water turns off, etc). Then we discovered that a leaking water pipe had caused mold to grow in the ayi room. They repaired the leak and cleaned up the mold. A few days ago Bonnie came in and told me there was dirty water leaking from the ceiling in Ayi room. We immediately called the maintenance crew up and they determined that it was oil. An army of workers was sent to investigate and we were told something like "its residual oil from an earlier fix and just needs to finish dripping, we will clean after done". Um, ok, that makes no sense. Oil continued to leak and I called multiple times each day for them to come check it again and clean it. On the third day, the oil had spread and was dripping down the wall. The army of men returned, turned off the heat, cut a hole in the ceiling and determined that we would have no heat until this was fixed. This was Friday evening and the manager told us they would arrange for us to sleep in the model apartment since it would be at least a day or two before it was fixed. They finally managed to fix the heat late Saturday afternoon but within 20 minutes of being finished the unit was randomly shutting off (and flashing all sorts of strange messages). We spent the night without heat (it was warm outside so this wasn't a problem) and the workers returned Sunday to fix the unit. As of today, everything seems to be working. The oil has stopped dripping. We still have a giant hole in the ceiling of the ayi room but they should be returning to fix that later this week.

Yesterday we went to a 1st birthday party for Jasmine, one of Ang's very best friends in Shanghai. It struck me that Jasmine is only two months older than Ang, and that we will very soon be planning our own 1st birthday party. It's amazing how quick she is growing up!

the damage to our ceiling - fortunately its not in the main living areas

so many new toys

dressed up for a disco party

Jade Buddha Temple

Last week I played tour guide to a friend of a friend that was in Shanghai for a few days. I was excited about this because there are quite a few things that I just haven't gotten around to seeing here. The first stop was the Jade Buddha Temple. I did a little bit of research before we went and was looking forward to the "peaceful and transcendent atmosphere" that one website promised. I did find it a bit strange that the opening hours were different on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, but didn't really think much about this. If I had thought about what this really meant, I would have figured out that the 15th day of the 1st lunar month is January 15th - the day that we were visiting the temple.

When we arrived outside the temple, it was mass chaos. I would have taken some photo's but was a little too overwhelmed and was more focused on how to get tickets to get into the temple. As it turns out, we arrived for our visit on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month. And guess what, all of the locals were there too. Apparently, this is a special day for the Buddhists and on this day they show up to the temple to pray and offer gifts to the statues. There were stands set up everywhere selling incense - and everybody that purchased a box of incense immediately opened it and started letting it smoke.

We managed to make our way into the various rooms but unfortunately couldn't do much reading or truly appreciate the meaning and history behind each of the statues. In front of each statue, people formed lines and waited patiently for their chance to pray. There were various areas where people could offer gifts to the statues - mostly in the form of fruit and flowers although I did see one bottle of sprite given as an offering.

I managed to take a few photos but felt like I was intruding on a prayer service and didn't want to disrespect the locals. We were able to snake our way through the various buildings and capture a glimpse of the famous statues. All the people and chaos ended up being more than I could handle so I suggested we make our way to the exit and we continued the tour of Shanghai in a less crowded market. Hopefully the next time I visit the temple it will be calmer and I will be able to appreciate the history a little more.

One of the statues

Outside one of the temples - you can see the people waiting in line to go in

another statue

Offering table - almost all fruit with on random bottle of sprite

A temple visit

Wen Miao Temple is is an ancient temple which was built to pay homage to Confucius. It is the only temple located in downtown Shanghai and offered the perfect backdrop for our holiday family photo. I met a woman through a local Shanghai Mom's group that was offering to do family photo's at the temple and thought it was a great idea. While we were there we did wander around a bit and I managed to get a few photo's of the grounds.

wedding bells

This past November, Rich and I attended a wedding for one of the local assistants in his office. It was an interesting experience and I'm sorry I didn't blog about it sooner.

The invitation arrived via e-mail and requested a pretty quick response. It turns out this was the preliminary invite and that the response to this would generate a proper invitation. You are basically requesting an invitation by responding yes to this preliminary invite (which also means that you will be giving a gift). The proper invite arrived with only Rich's name on the outside so we were left to ask locals if this meant that I was invited too. We learned that not only was I invited but they encouraged us to bring the baby (we decided to leave her at home with Bonnie). I found it quite entertaining that the invitation included a photograph of the bride and groom - dressed in wedding attire! What about it being bad luck to see the bride in her dress?

Of course, once we figured out that I was invited, I had to figure out what one wears to a Chinese wedding. My research of weddings in Shanghai yielded little help (Google failed me), but Bonnie said to just wear whatever I wanted because there would be people in jeans and people in dresses. I decided on a simple black dress - since you really can't go wrong there! Rich wore a gray suit. Bonnie was right, there was a wide range of outfits - some wore jeans while others wore suits.

The invitation said that the wedding started at 5:30pm so we arrived at the hotel about 5:00pm. We were very early, considering things didn't actually start until 6:30. Apparently these things never start at the time indicated. We were brought to a table that was nicely decorated and included beverages (soft drinks, wine and beer) as well as cigarettes. There was a menu on the table that indicated a traditional Chinese meal would be served (13 dishes and wedding cake).

The ceremony and dinner both started at the same time. Some dishes were served while the bride and groom were performing wedding traditions. Everything was done in Chinese and there was no translation so I'm not really sure what was going on at all times but there were some obvious similarities to weddings as we celebrate them in America. The one that I found most interesting was the bouquet toss - since they invited all single girls AND BOYS to join in for this. A man caught the bouquet and was teased about taking his girlfriend to the alter.

The bride changed three times she had one very formal wedding dress and then two other dresses that she wore for part of the ceremony. There were games for the attendees to play (and prizes for the winners). One of them required the participants to search the room for a size 10 Nike sneaker, a Nokia phone and a tube of lip gloss. One person actually found everything in about 20 seconds!

Once dinner was complete, the wedding was over (about 8:30). The guests all made their way out of the room and everybody told the bride they would see her at work on Monday - no honeymoon for them, right back to work!

The table - wine, beer, soda & cigarettes!

some of the food

exchanging rings - dress #1

candle lighting - dress # 2

dress #3 - they sang a song together

Thanksgiving wishes from afar

As our evening winds down here many of you are just getting up to start preparing for your Thanksgiving day. Turkeys are going into the oven, the NYC parade is kicking off, and everybody is gathering to celebrate. I know you are all curious about how we celebrated Thanksgiving here in China. The answer is short, because we didn't. It is not a holiday here, so most people are working (and unfortunately, Rich isn't even in Shanghai).

While out getting a few groceries last night I did see that our local supermarket had three frozen turkeys for sale. I hesitated for a minute, thinking that I could buy one to make this weekend when Rich is back from Beijing. I'm not sure how large it was (pound-wise), but it was big, and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't even fit in our oven. It was 780RMB - although I have to admit that I have never bought a turkey so I have no idea if this is a good price or not. As with everything else in this country, if we wanted a turkey the price would be fine. Given that I don't even really like turkey, I decided that the hesitation was more about being homesick and missing out on this family holiday than a desire to cook a turkey (and all the trimmings to go with it).

I can say that despite not having a proper Thanksgiving celebration, we did have a great day. We slept later than usual (thanks Ang), had two friends over for a play date, and then attended a tree lighting party at our building - I guess when you have a tree that big it warrants its own party. There are a few lingering homesick feelings tonight, but I did realize today that we have a really great network of new friends here and that helps this feel a little more like 'home'. Rich will be home from Beijing tomorrow evening and the three of us will have a wonderful weekend together.

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Only 22 more days until we're back home!!

And because no post is complete without a picture or two of Ang...

A play date with the girls (Jasmine & Mami - both 2 months older than Ang)

The new place to hang out - since she can roll there all on her own

rolling rolling rolling....

We have quite the accomplished roller on our hands. I've uploaded a video to Picasa - it is so cute to watch her go.

CLICK FOR VIDEO

Adventures in China

Rumor has it many of you are enjoying the blog...sorry I have been so slow with the updates. We have been keeping very busy with play groups, music class and Christmas shopping.

I was talking with somebody the other day about how some of the most mundane tasks can end up being adventures when you live in China. For example, buying diapers. The large supermarket near our house is closed for renovations and the smaller market nearby does not sell Pampers (our brand of choice). To get diapers (and other basic household items) we have to get a taxi to go out to a larger shopping area where there is Carrefour (similar to Walmart). Once you finally get through the check-out line (the place is always packed) you then have to get a taxi and try to explain how to get back to our house. We usually end up bringing address cards (similar to business cards) with us everywhere, but taxis don't usually know our building/address. At times I get very annoyed that I can't just hop in my car and drive to Target to pick up diapers.

Some other recent adventures include bowling and shopping (surprise surprise)...
Our friends, the Lisi's, called one Sunday morning and asked if we were interested in joining them for a little adventure. They were going bowling. Only in China would I declare going bowling an adventure. We took the subway to the bowling alley which was relatively easy to find once we were on the right street (the place was well marked with giant bowling pins on the sign). As usual, the babies got lots of attention from the staff. After bowling we went for lunch at 'New York Deli' and enjoyed some pretty good American food. On our way back to the subway we stopped by a Dunkin' Donuts and guess what...the glazed donuts taste just like those at home and they sell coffee by the bag!!! They even have the flavors!




It had been a while since we last visited the fake markets (located in a subway station under the Science & Technology Museum) so we picked a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon to go do some shopping. I was slow to get into the shopping, it is a little overwhelming because all of the shops want you to look at their stuff and offer "best price, best price". Then when they show you the price you have to name your price and/or walk away to get a lower price. We bought quite a few things, including a pair of Uggs, Seven jeans & and Paul Smith polo all for about $50USD (modeled in the attached photo).




I'm having a hard time getting photo's to upload tonight so I'm going to be lazy and just link to my Picasa album online (see below). There you can find a lot of our recent photo's as well as some pretty cute video of Ang.
Picasa - November 2009