Our FIRST real Chinese meal

Well...we took the plunge!  We knew we would have to be brave and eat the food sooner or later so we decided to give it a try!  Eric ordered many things off of the menu, I guess that is what you do here.  One person will order many different things to eat off of the menu, for everyone to share.  Then they just keep bringing the food.  It isn't the same size portions that you get back in the states, much smaller, which is good.  So, we just keep trying each thing they bring.  Actually, it was all very good!  We tried to order more chicken type things or items that sounded like we would like them, but it was all very good.  Reese even liked most of it!  We found that she really likes chopsticks and will eat most things if we use the chopsticks!  Good for us! Check out the size straws that they gave us to drink our pop! We could barely fit it in the cans! I tried to compare it to the chopsticks which is about the normal size of a straw that we use.

One day this week Reese, Cambry and I decided to go for a walk around the hotel area and do a little shopping!  Mostly we were looking for fresh fruits and vegetables that we could use to make up Cambry's food. We see these types of bikes and wagons a lot.  This one stopped to show his granddaughter Reese's hair! (Imagine that!)  Isn't this little girl cute!  This other bike and wagon is loaded down with cardboard and whatnot.  I asked Eric's boss one day what they do with all of the cardboard, or plastics, or wood, or iron, or whatever else they seem to find.  Every time we drive down the road or go for a walk we see these men taking apart boxes or picking up paper and then once they have a full (very full) load, off they go.  He told me that this is how they make their living.  They collect these things like cardboard, to recycle them.  They get paid for recycling these materials.  If you were to look around the streets of Shanghai you would see many people doing this.

This is a picture of their brooms!  Reese thought these were neat!  We have seen many people sweeping with them and I think they actually work better than ours at home. At least on the outdoor type sweeping they do!

These are just some more shots of the Carrefour (grocery store) that I said that I would get!

We, well for sure Eric, have been just blown away by the types of cars that people drive around here!  He is a major car guy and loves to look them up online to see how fast they go, types of engines, and whatever else guys like about cars.  These next pictures were literally taken from our taxi in one 20 minute drive.  Really these are the types of cars that people drive in Shanghai!  They must be making some major coin!  Once again we asked Eric's boss if the people driving them could really afford them, because back home it seems like many people take out loans to pay for really expensive cars!  He said that all of these people can afford them!  He said that there are many, many rich people in Shanghai!  So for you people who are not car people and don't know what types of cars these are here is the list of them:
Mercedes (tons of them in all different types of styles) this is a two-door hard top convertible.

BMW's

PORSCHES (two-door and the new four-door)  and both time women were driving the four-doors :)  I'm sure they were the ones that paid for it ;), Cayenne style too!

Audi's (I think you see at least three Audi's everytime you look out your window.  If I'm not mistaken it is their number one selling car here.  You see all types, A-4, A-6, A-8, A-8L Q5, Q7  wow, so many more.

Maserati's- two-door and four-door

Lamborghini's

and many more!  I wouldn't know some of these from the other but I have learned a lot during the last few weeks as Eric will point them out!

We did manage to make Cambry some baby food from the fruits and veggies they have here.  So far we have made green beans, sweet potatoes, bananas, regular potatoes, and carrots. We did end up purchasing a food processor and a steamer.  Who knew you could make baby food from a hotel room!  Very easy! She is a very happy baby!

Wednesday is the big MOVING day!  We finally have a moving day and we can't be more excited! Eric said that he felt like he could actually feel the prayers because so many things have been just falling into place lately.The furniture is all being delivered on Tuesday and they gave us the go ahead to move in on Wednesday morning!  It might take a few trips but to have a place that we can call "home" will be nice!   We ended up with one of the most generous landlords. We were in previous negotiations with landlords and had difficulty getting $15,000rmb furnishing allowances and with this landlord we were originally given $30,000rmb and he ended up spending $50,000rmb without batting an eye.  Now mind you, he keeps all of the furniture but he was extremely generous and really wanted us to be happy!  He even took us out for a five-star restaurant!!  It might have been one of our nicest meals ever, it may have been because it was a steak restaurant to boot!  They reserved a private room and all!  I must admit, it was a little awkward trying to eat at this fancy restaurant with two small children. I think that after counting, there were seven courses.  It took a very long time (almost two hours) to eat. The young lady in the photo is his secretary who speaks good English and she said that she gives us a lot of credit for taking our kids with us shopping for furniture and out to eat!  I told her that we really don't have a choice because we do not have family around to watch them!  She said that most people do not take their children out and that they stay home!  I AGREE it would me MUCH EASIER!  But what can you do right!  Believe me, they are getting used to being dragged around!  Soon enough we can just play, play, play! (Mom, we had some ice cream with our dessert that made me feel just like home, it tasted like our "homemade ice cream"!  So good!)

Next week we sign Reese up for Pre-school and she will start on April 11.  Her school is located next to a zoo and the school works closely with the zoo so hopefully she will get to see many animals!

Just an FYI for those who wanted to know, Shanghai is located almost directly in the middle of both of the recent earthquakes here in Asia.  We need to continue to keep them in our prayers as many are without their loved ones, homes, water, food, and some are even fearing radiation.

Thanks again for all of your prayers, God continues to watch over us and protect us!
Eric, Marcy, Reese, and Cambry