Do you realize that it's only ten weeks until baby Lily is due? We have a lot of things (clothes, etc.), but we have yet to get a crib, stroller, and other large necessities. I guess it's about time to get on that! Another thing we're lacking is our large apartment. It doesn't seem that anyone is in any hurry to move out, therefore we are still stuck here in our little one bedroom. I'm working on bartering cooking for someone to give up their apartment!
As far as Miss Lily goes, she seems to be doing very well. Occasionally, however, it seems as though she is trying to escape by kicking her way out. She is a very feisty little lady!
So...what is new since the last time I wrote? First, it seems my blog has more of a following than I'd expected, so I'm sorry to anyone who has been waiting for a post! Other than that, I would say that the most exciting thing that has happened recently was our trip to Shanghai!
The excitement began just over a week before our trip when we went to book our tickets. All was well until we realized that our visas were about to expire and nobody had done anything to remedy that. Luckily, we got a ten day extension two days before we were due to depart, making our trip (that we'd already paid deposits on) still a possibility. We though we were out of hot water until Daniel got the "Sticky Note of Doom!". You see, we had given the lady in "General Affairs" the money to book out train tickets. In order to avoid confrontation, as the Chinese like to do, Miss General Affairs sent a post-it note with one of the secretaries, 36 hours before we were set to leave, saying that she had not purchased our train tickets, and could not do so. Sigh...
So, Daniel went to see her, as did I, and it turned out that there were no train tickets left to anywhere in China! Daniel, being the problem solver he is, suggested that perhaps we could fly. As if she would never have thought of that herself, Miss General Affairs agreed to check on flights for us. After much running around for planning and gathering money, our tickets were booked by the next day.
The trip to Shanghai itself went very smoothly. Being told ahead of time that many taxi drivers like to try to rip off foreigners, and having experienced this phenomenon ourselves in Dalian, I was sure to spend every taxi trip in the front seat, directing the driver in Chinese, and holding a map in my lap while following along our route with my finger. Apparently, it's pretty hard to rip off a smiley pregnant lady with a map who seems to speak Chinese!
We visited a variety of tourist attractions during our short visit to Shanghai. Some of the highlights were:
The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel
The Bund is a rather large river which cuts through Shanghai. In downtown Shanghai, along this river, there are many tourist attractions. To get from one side to the other, you can go through the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel - the rail-car ride from outer space, hell, or somewhere in between - which passes under the river. The ride itself was very pleasant, and the show surrounding us as we went through can only be described with "trippy". It consisted of many lights, lasers, and images and would certainly not be appropriate for anyone with epileptic tendencies. My best comparison for this ride is the scene in the old Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie where they travel by boat through a very strange and eerie tunnel. Just like that...
As far as Miss Lily goes, she seems to be doing very well. Occasionally, however, it seems as though she is trying to escape by kicking her way out. She is a very feisty little lady!
So...what is new since the last time I wrote? First, it seems my blog has more of a following than I'd expected, so I'm sorry to anyone who has been waiting for a post! Other than that, I would say that the most exciting thing that has happened recently was our trip to Shanghai!
The excitement began just over a week before our trip when we went to book our tickets. All was well until we realized that our visas were about to expire and nobody had done anything to remedy that. Luckily, we got a ten day extension two days before we were due to depart, making our trip (that we'd already paid deposits on) still a possibility. We though we were out of hot water until Daniel got the "Sticky Note of Doom!". You see, we had given the lady in "General Affairs" the money to book out train tickets. In order to avoid confrontation, as the Chinese like to do, Miss General Affairs sent a post-it note with one of the secretaries, 36 hours before we were set to leave, saying that she had not purchased our train tickets, and could not do so. Sigh...
So, Daniel went to see her, as did I, and it turned out that there were no train tickets left to anywhere in China! Daniel, being the problem solver he is, suggested that perhaps we could fly. As if she would never have thought of that herself, Miss General Affairs agreed to check on flights for us. After much running around for planning and gathering money, our tickets were booked by the next day.
The trip to Shanghai itself went very smoothly. Being told ahead of time that many taxi drivers like to try to rip off foreigners, and having experienced this phenomenon ourselves in Dalian, I was sure to spend every taxi trip in the front seat, directing the driver in Chinese, and holding a map in my lap while following along our route with my finger. Apparently, it's pretty hard to rip off a smiley pregnant lady with a map who seems to speak Chinese!
We visited a variety of tourist attractions during our short visit to Shanghai. Some of the highlights were:
The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel
The Bund is a rather large river which cuts through Shanghai. In downtown Shanghai, along this river, there are many tourist attractions. To get from one side to the other, you can go through the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel - the rail-car ride from outer space, hell, or somewhere in between - which passes under the river. The ride itself was very pleasant, and the show surrounding us as we went through can only be described with "trippy". It consisted of many lights, lasers, and images and would certainly not be appropriate for anyone with epileptic tendencies. My best comparison for this ride is the scene in the old Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie where they travel by boat through a very strange and eerie tunnel. Just like that...
Shanghai Ocean Aquarium
A very large, beautiful, and well maintained aquarium. This was our first indication that things were done to a much higher standard in Shanghai that in many parts of China. This aquarium housed hundreds of species of fish and other aquatic creatures, and had some very interesting features, such as the escalator that passed through an aquarium and moving walkway that took you through a long tunnel surrounded by sharks, tortoises, and many other watery critters. For me, the most amusing thing here was the fact that people assumed I spoke no Chinese and would say in Chinese, while standing right next to me, "Look! She's Pregnant!" To which I would turn around and say, in Chinese, "Yes, I'm pregnant!" That's one way to stop them in their tracks!
Sex Museum
Yes, I am totally serious. A small museum filled with sexual artifacts. Really, if you want to know more, look it up - I'm not inclined to talk about it! Definitely not something I expected to find in China. No photography was allowed so I had to use the journalism technique of no flash, silent mode, shoot from the hip. So, I've got a lot of slightly tilted pictures of some very strange memorabilia.
Nan Jing Lu
One of the largest shopping areas in Shanghai, Nan Jing Lu is tourist central. A large portion is set up as a pedestrian mall and is, therefore, one of the very few places in China where you don't have to worry about getting run over. It is, however, quite westernized. We saw McDonalds, Starbucks, KFC, HagenDas, and Subway all in the same area. And then, of course, there are the vendors who think that every single white person visiting China wants a watch and a bag. Luckily we were able to tell them ,"No thank you," to which they would often say, "You speak Chinese!" and we could say, "Yes, we live in Dalian!"
We did, however, have our small slices of China while wandering this street. One of our travel companions was terribly curious about the "back alley" shops and thus followed one of the ladies offering "bag? watch?". We followed her to a storefront with a backroom in which we were immediately locked upon entering. Unfortunately, due to a lack of common communication skills, Daniel and I found ourselves witness to a mistaken bargaining war between our travel buddies and the vendors. Eventually we escaped after Daniel pacified them by buying a much to expensive tie printed with very cute pandas.
We also happened to come across a music store while on Nan Jing Lu. Here, I spent time looking at the various Erhus available and getting the shopkeeper to play so I could hear the sound. I ended up leaving with an Erhu (also know as the Chinese violin), some rosin, a learning DVD, and a very nice Erhu case. Thank you Mom and Dad for the belated birthday present!
Shanghai Acrobats
While wandering Shanghai I had wondered, due to the fact that we were in a very touristy city, where all of the white people were. When we arrived at New Shanghai Circus World my question was answered. They were there. All of them, it seemed. Practically the entire theatre was filled with tour groups full of white people. It was the very first time since leaving Canada that the white girl with the very large belly and the even larger camera had any chance of blending in!
The Acrobats, rumored to be the best in China, we absolutely spectacular. One thing to note was that, in order to be an acrobat in China, it seems you must have a very full bag of tricks! We saw a show of dancing, plate spinning, rope acrobatics, contortionists, and much, much more. Many of the performers were involved in several acts and pulled all off without a hitch.
Science and Technology Museum
We could not have seen this entire museum in one day, no matter how hard we tried. With five floors and many, many exhibits we barely even made a dent. There were also several theatres, each with it's own special presentation. In order to see everything this museum has to offer, I believe you would have to stay there for days. Subjects ranged from animal life to robotics, human health to space exploration. The Science and Technology Museum was definitely one of the most well put together museums I have ever seen.
Yuyuan Bizarre and Garden
Another tourist hot-spot, the Yuyuan Bizarre is the place to go if you wish to get ripped of my Chinese vendors. Let me give you an example...Daniel was looking at a small teacup. He was told it was ..."300rmb- very good price!" As soon as we told them we live in China (and therefore know that is much to high of a price) it immediately dropped by 90% (which, by the way, was still too high!).
We did get lucky here, however. We ran into a man who claimed he liked to come to the market to practice his English with Westerners. His language skills were, indeed, superb, after spending ten years in school for English and working for an American Company for 25 years. We all suspected, at first, that he was trying to herd us somewhere to spend money. As it turns out, he actually was just a nice guy looking for people to speak English with. He spent a few hours showing us around to places we never would have seen - the silk museum, which was tucked away in the corner of a basement, the underground market, and a small art gallery. It was, as Daniel put it, like going down the rabbit hole.
We spend the afternoon wandering Yuyuan garden, taking pictures (I swear I'll get pictures up soon. Right now, Daniel has them all!), and taking in the scenery. Unfortunately, none of the flowers were in bloom, but the buildings, landscaping, and waterways were still very beautiful.
Those were the highlights, as I see it. The only other particularly exciting parts of our trip were both on our first day and last day...
On day one, we decided to search around the hotel for food. We chose a street that looked like it should be populated with restaurants, but all we could find were vendors selling street food. The majority of the group wanted to find a sit down restaurant, so we continued to look. We finally found a place with tables, but went in to discover that they spoke no English whatsoever, and had only Chinese menus. We continued in our hunt, only to realize that we had left the only sit down restaurant in the area. We went back and attempted to order. As it turns out, we knew how to say Chicken, so that we did get. However, we did not know how to say any particular vegetable, just "vegetables", in general. So we pointed to some random Chinese characters and hoped for the best. We ended up with taro root, seaweed, and radish. It may not sound so appealing, but it was actually quite delicious!
The last day was not such a fun and exciting adventure. We got up very early to check out of our hotel only to find that the deposit we had paid online had not been credited to our account. The boys stood there trying to get the point across to the non-English-speaking clerk for quite sometime to no avail. Eventually, I realized, and informed them, that if we stayed any longer we would miss our flight just to save about $4 a night. As it turned out, it was lucky that I did that. We arrived at the airport with only a fifteen minute widow left to check in and just made it to the gate for boarding!
Aside from our whirlwind trip to Shanghai, no other new and exciting happenings have taken place. I'm hoping to get our baby stuff next week, I'm counting on securing and oven and freezer this week or next, and Daniel and I are back to practicing our Chinese again. I have also managed to complete more of my China Goals!
7) Visit Shanghai - COMPLETE!
Even though we have no done this, we would like to go back because there is so much more to see!
11) Learn to Play Erhu - COMPLETE!
Hey, I didn't say, "Learn How to Play Erhu Well"! I can, however, play a very nice Chinese love song. It's just a liiiitle bit squeaky, so far.
105) See a Chinese Acrobatic Troupe Perform - COMPLETE!
Totally worth it and so good, in fact, that I might still go see the troupe in Dalian as well!
I am also in the midst of starting a school band, if there is enough interest from students...we'll see.I won't put it on the done list until we have our first rehearsal!
So, thus far, we are still having a great time in China. Still quite disappointed with the poison milk, still waiting for someone to move out, but also still very happy with our life, our home, and our little family!
