Making Plans

For those of you that are following along with the story of our lives, here are the latest plans...

Scott is scheduled to begin work in Shanghai in January 12th. Between now and then we have decided to put our house on the market (sorry Candi & Ashley). So if anyone is looking for or knows people that are looking for a really cute starter home in Lombard, please let us know. We are praying that we get a quick sale, but the average time on the market is around 200 days!!! eeek!!! Anyway, we are excited and overwhelmed at our decision to make this move, but it will be an adventure and we love those!

Consider this your personal invitation to come and visit us in China, we would love to have you and show you all the fun and ridiculous things that we love and will come to love about Shanghai.

Coming Home

We're leaving tomorrow for home. Scott and I were talking yesterday about how we miss everyone and the comforts of home, but we've started to get used to living here already. These are some pictures of the neighborhood down the street from us. Its called Spring City. I think you can buy anything there. Its amazing how quickly we've been able to adapt and grow to enjoy and tolerate the odditites of this city. I am excited though for cooler weather (the temperature today is 84 degrees with 80% humidity!).

Scott misses football - he watched about 8 of last Sunday's games through Chinese sports highlights. We don't have cable or satalite TV yet, so we've been watching the one English station and the Chinese kids TV for the last two weeks. Last night Timmy and I watched Dora the Explorer in Chinese while they teach you basic English words (instead of the English version where they teach you basic Spanish). Its pretty interesting.

I think Timmy misses his grandmas and Sarah and all his toys. I can tell he is sick of being with just mama all day. He has definately made a new friend with Scott's co-worker Chun Lei. He squeals with delight when she is around. His favorite new treat is anything through a straw - see picture.

If you haven't seen our pictures from week three of this adventure, click here (it is a public link, you do not have to have a facebook account to view them): http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7632&l=dfcb5&id=1145683473

The Sterilizer Strikes Again and Other Adventures

Timmy has discovered the oven/sterilizer. He loves to open and close the door. Since everything in China is made for people that are shorter than the average American, the handle is just his height. He decided that Cow was dirty and needed to get sterilized. Shortly thereafter he smashed his finger in the door of the dang thing. I hate sterilizers!

The owner of Scott's company is in town this week. After dinner last night he wanted to get a hair cut. Scott took Timmy home and I went with. They said if you don't need a cut, why not at least have them wash & dry your hair. So I said sure. After about 15 minutes of washing/scalp massaging, they rinsed my hair. Then I got a 30 minute back rub from the hair wash guy. Then three new guys came and blow dried my hair. I wish I had a picture. There were three guys, maybe in their early twenties working together to dry and style my hair. They did a great job. And it only cost about $4. Crazy.

Brazilian Barbeque...the Chinese version

So many of you have been to Brazilian steak houses in the US. They are full of delicious cuts of rump roast, filet, leg of lamb and roasted chicken all served on swords. Yesterday for lunch we went to a similar place. Meat on swords, sounds good right. So soon after sitting down and ordering drinks, the meat men come around and offer chicken hearts, eel, mystery fish, and pizza on swords. Okay, so the pizza was on a platter, but it was still strange. Eventually we got some chicken wings and beef, but it was a pretty weird experience.

Its raining here again. It seems to rain or at least look like its going to rain every afternoon. Oh well. We've developed a way to shield Timmy while he's in his stroller. The other picture is to show that we are in a tropical-like place, palm trees and all.

Bow-staff skills, etc.

Timmy's favorite toy in Shanghai is a broom. He has now learned how to hit Scott with it. We call it his bow-staff.
This picture is of our apartment building's "dumpster". Keep in mind that we live in an 11 story building, with at least two apartments per floor. So that makes at least 22 people sharing this garbage can. On the bright side, I think they empty the darn thing at least ten times a day.
The last picture is of Timmy's latest skill - hailing a cab. Every time we go outside near any road he sticks his hand up to get a taxi. Its so awesome.

Old Town and Ovens

We made it to church on Sunday. The place was packed with people from every country you can think of. It was a pretty traditional service, but powerful none the less. It was a cool experience to worship with people from around the world. It seems like there are quite a few small groups in our area, which means quite a few families that we can be friends with!

So on Monday we went to the super ritzy area of the city for dinner. They told us to pick what we wanted to eat, so I picked Lawry's Prime Rib. I felt bad at first because two of the girls that were with us looked disgusted at the meat. Then I realized that is probably what I look like when they serve me gross Chinese food. So then I didn't feel so bad. The dinner was amazing!

Monday was a holiday for the Moon Festival, so Scott had the day off. We went to Qibao, which is like "old China". Other than the rain, it was a beautiful area. The pictures above are all from Qibao (pronounced kind of like chi-bao).

So a quick follow-up to the potato fiasco...I bought a real oven yesterday! I was walking down the street in our neighborhood and a woman came up to me and asked if I spoke English. Turns out she is Mexican and is leaving Shanghai. She had a practically brand new oven that she was trying to sell before she left. Apparently I looked like the kind of girl that needed an oven. So I bought it from her! What a blessing. I was able to cook a chicken breast for dinner today without having to fry it! We ate our first home cooked dinner the other night here in our new apartment after finding some Barilla bow tie pasta. It wasn't the best dinner because at the time we had no spices or seasoning or even salt in the house, but it definately felt good to cook instead of eat out.

Our pictures from Week 2 are here: http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=122395&l=c0f31&id=1145683473 By the way, you can view these even if you don't have a facebook account, its a public link. Enjoy.

Moon Day, Chinese Death Cake & A New Home

What a crazy weekend this has been. Today (Sunday) is a holiday with many names: The Mid-Autumn Festival, Moon Festival and as we like to call it: Moon Day. We think all it means is everyone decides to buy little cakes and ride the subway all at once. See pictures of Moon Cakes.

This one is for you Mom: We were wandering through a new grocery store this morning and in the bakery I spot what I think is the Chinese version of Death Cake. Now, I didn't try it, but just look at it, it looks like Death Cake!

And finally, we officially have a home in China. We found an apartment that is super sweet. Its in a beautiful neighborhood, right next to where we've been staying. Its quite a bit bigger than our home in Lombard, but without the benefits of a yard. It has two balconies, but we like to pretend were some place exotic, so we call them lanais (like in Hawaii). We've spent the weekend attempting to get the basics to make it a home. We slept there last night for the first time. China is starting to feel less foreign to both of us, but we miss you all!