Guts

We are official...we have our own set of wheels. And it takes guts, lots of them, to ride around here. But it is fun and has given us our freedom back. Eric thinks it is pretty cool. Pia...well, as you can see she is laid back, with her mind on her money and her money on her mind. ;O)

Sand and Sun

Rock and Roll Baby!

Zai Jian Barbie!

A few weeks ago, little girls all over Shanghai went into mourning. The Barbie store closed its doors. No going out of business sale, just there one day, gone the next. Brown paper over the windows, little girls peering through the cracks, hoping for a final glimpse of those hard to find pretty ladies before they boarded the boat back to Mattel. Lucky for them, this beauty already has established her presence here and shows her face in every clothing store in Shanghai. No doubt, it will only be a matter of time before she starts showing up doll-size in the markets right next to Dora.

And don't forget Ken!

It's not always what it seems

China. It is a place where nothing makes sense and everything makes sense all at the same time. Yesterday, sitting inside a Starbucks, still recovering from 2 days of food poisoning (the Chinese version of Weight Watchers), I stared at my Mandarin book and wondered how we were ever going to make it here. The language is essential if you want to have more than a two second conversation with anyone and let me tell you, it is hard. Procrastinating, I stared out the window and felt overwhelmed with the differences here. The garbage workers picking up trash with super-sized tweezers, the absence of traffic rules, the Chinese characters, the guy roasting sweet potatoes and sweet corn on an old rusted barrel, the street vendors littering the sidewalks with everything from underwear to DVDs. It was all a bit overwhelming so I turned up American Girl on my iPod, ordered another Carmel Macchiato, and tried to focus on studying for my first test.

This morning, I went for a run. Admittedly, my first run since we moved here. And something changed. I am not sure if it was the adrenaline from actually exercising or if it was the pollution on this particularly “foggy” morning, but China looked different. Woman exercising together, bent over laughing most likely from something their husbands did the night before. People commuting to work, looking like they had the same kind of hectic morning we did. Store owners opening their shops, putting their best products on display. People walking their dogs through the parks. China did indeed look different this morning. In fact, it looked familiar. It felt familiar. And once again, I was reminded of this…. On the surface, everything here is different. So different, that it smacks you in the face every time you walk out the door. But at the core, it is the same. They hold their kid’s hand when they cross the street, they work hard at whatever job they have found themselves in, they have their favorite resturant that they frequent on their way home from work when they are just too tired to cook, they buy celebrity trashy magazines at the newsstand to see what Lindsay Lohan is up to these days. People are just people, clothed with their heritage and culture.

So, we have two choices. We could choose to let those differences scare us into expat hiding inside our compound counting the days until we get to go "home" or we could find our new home here and set out to understand them and perhaps even embrace some of them. We have chosen the later. And let me tell you, it will no doubt be an interesting and fun ride.

This is China

Anyone that has ever been to Shanghai knows that you can find almost anything here if you are willing to pay for it. But what I have also found is that it isn't always easy to find. You have to be patient and willing to search. (And when I say search, I mean sometimes even digging through boxes in back alleys!) And in my quests for whatever it was that took me out that day, I have seen some very interesting things. But they are really only interesting for foreign eyes because truly it is really just China.

In an attempt to capture all of these interesting snapshots of life here in China, I have decided to start a section on our blog called "This is China". My hopes is that it will help us remember everything we have learned here and to also share our experiences with everyone back home.
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It is hard to believe that Sophia is turning 2 in a few weeks. She is really into two things right now, babies and Dora. They really don't have alot of toy stores here, so I headed to the wholesale markets downtown in search of some "fallen off the truck" merchandise.

After 6 floors of wall to wall vendors, I finally stumbled across a toy store. After literally digging through boxes looking for party plates and cups for her party at school, I spotted this. Dora's Outdoor Picnic Set. Perfect! Pia loves to pretend that little people are doing things and what better than creating a little Dora land. I ask the guy, how much. He says 85RMB (~$14USD). Not bad I thought, but still a bit high considering where I am.

As I am considering this he mumbles..."But there is no Dora inside." What?? But it says 1 Figure Set included (see the top right corner of the box). So, I spot at least 10 other boxes of the same toy. I ask, what about those. Nope...no Dora. Apparently, Dora is a hot commodity and she has been removed from the boxes and most likely sold on her own for another 85RMB. Looking disappointed and knowing he was going to loose the sale, he points me to box of random figurines. Sorting through them all, I find a used Boots and Diego, but no Dora. I negotiate the price down to 60RMB and call it a day. I walk away with my Dora picnic set sans Dora and a lesson learned. Sister Dora is where it's at!

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DVDs. They are everywhere. In stores, on the streets, in the markets. One thing is the same with them all. They are fake. That is the only way they can sell them for as little as $1 USD a movie. Since TV watching here is a bit "limited", we have turned to movies and more recently different TV series. Our latest show is The Good Wife. This particular one has been graciously brought to us by a local ABC station out of Dallas-Forth Worth. And we chuckle every time we see the local station identifier on the bottom right corner. But the other night, Doug and I started laughing out loud when this came on the screen:

Hopefully we never run into an episode during a presidential election!

Sanya

We took advantage of Tomb Sweeping Day to leave Shanghai and head out of the city for a much needed vacation. Sanya is the southernmost city in China on the Chinese island of Hainan, near Vietnam. We went with another family whose kids are in school with ours. We had a blast and the enjoyed the sunshine, the clean air, and a little R&R.

Click on the picture above to see more pictures from our trip.