Thursday, July 21, 2011
FYI - for those of you who have asked!
Ok so just to get a reference as to how big Shanghai is, the municipality of Shanghai consists of 24-25 million people. The geographical size of Shanghai is the same as Kent and Ottawa counties combined. According to Wikipedia, the 2010 census states that there is just under one million people in Kent and Ottawa county combined! The small town of Zeeland, where we reside, has a total population of 5,800 people. In Yanlord Riverside Garden, the complex we live in, there are the same amount of people in 30 buildings! It doesn't feel crowded (or maybe we are just getting used to it, no really it doesn't) but we have the same amount of people living in Zeeland inside one square block! INSANE right! Just some info for those who wanted to know!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Another DIAMOND in the rough!
Today, one of my friends who is actually from Michigan who has six children, took me to a store called Metro! Hallelujah, it is like a Sam's Club! Oh my goodness, where have I been? Why is this the first that I am hearing about this place! Honestly, it is awesome! Most things are cheaper and in bigger quantities! I can honestly say that I can get almost everything there! I said ALMOST, PLUS the other major bonuses are a) doesn't STINK b) not NEAR as busy, in fact really quiet c) many, many foreign products d) like I said, prices are reasonable e) and you don't even have to buy a membership card, well at least if you are a foreigner you don't. We suspect this is because no foreigners would want to pay for a membership because they are always coming and going and not sure how long they are going to be here! Wow, so happy she took me there! We spent 2 hours there! I did take both girls, would not recommend doing that again because they don't have carts where babies can sit in the front, so both girls rode in the cart amongst all of the groceries or I carried Cambry. Also, this place is a little ways away and you either need your own driver, a taxi (which can be hard to flag down with four huge bags of groceries that you have to carry because you can't take carts out), or have my lovely husband take me. I still need to work out the logistics but, very happy to find this great store! There, my positive thing about China for the day! Check!
"Return of the Mac"
As we were driving home from dinner tonight, something that we have not done in like three weeks, drive in our car that is, an American song came over the radio! "Return of the Mac!" Eric about wet his pants! "Marcy, Marcy, ohhh, ohhh, listen to this! Just pretend, pretend that we are in a boat in the middle of Lake Michigan! Ahhh...isn't it nice!" Funny what songs can do to you and how they can make you feel like you are back at home instead of in a foreign country where it is 94 degrees at 8pm with 100% humidity! Funny thing is he said that he doesn't even really like the song but just the familiarity of the song reminded him of home. (Someone obviously misses home!) Then as we were driving into our complex he all of the sudden just stops and parks the car. I asked him what we were doing! His reply, "Finishing the song! If we drive under into the parking ground below the apartments we will lose the song!" Like I was totally crazy to not want to finish listening to the whole song! So...we sat there jamming and belting out, "Return of the Mac!" If you don't recall the song, google it and listen, it will quickly come back to you! We can't wait to return to even a small thing like American music, funny I know!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Oh the summer daze!!!!
What have we been up to lately? Well when it is in the mid 90's every day with high humidity, there isn't much you can do besides sit in your apartment in the a/c or go to the pool! Guess which one we do more of? Yup, the pool! We love going there with friends and just sitting in the pool, no you can not lay out or even get out because it is too hot, so everyone just sits in the pool! Beautiful pool though!
Reese swims all over the pool. She loves diving for rings, leaves, loose tiles, anything!
Daily collection of tiles that she finds in the shrubs around the pool or in the pool. She loves to find them and collect them. Anyone thinking of tiling their bathroom soon, we will have a good start for you by the end of summer! ;)
Like the swim cap? Yes, it is mandatory for EVERYONE with long hair, or anything longer than 2 inches to have a swim cap on! Fun...really nice...(sarcasm here) just another dumb rule that they like to have over us!
Like the swim cap? Yes, it is mandatory for EVERYONE with long hair, or anything longer than 2 inches to have a swim cap on! Fun...really nice...(sarcasm here) just another dumb rule that they like to have over us!
Reese with Haddie and Phoebe in the background
Lily and Reese
Getting ready!
The other night Reese was "horsing" around and says, "mom, we need to practice riding horse for when I get back to grandma's house." "You can be Lady Bug!" Sweet, why wouldn't I want to be a horse! So off we rode around the apartment, her leading me with my bit in my mouth and everything!
She practices her turning, backing up, kicking, and saying giddy up! As we headed back to the living room she assured me that I could be done. "Don't worry Lady Bug (aka me) you can have a rest, I have another horse, Shiloh (aka dad), he will take me for another ride!" Seriously, how does this happen that we are being led around the house on ALL FOURS by our FOUR year old! We must really love her right? So grandma, don't worry, she is getting her practice over here even if we have to be the horses!
Cambry was getting her own practice in too by practicing floating in her ring! She loves just to climb in and out of them, carry them around the house to another spot and get in and out! She is ready for the beach! We can't wait! Only 16 more days! Yeeeeehaaaaawww!
I just noticed mom that she is wearing her apron too, what a character!
She practices her turning, backing up, kicking, and saying giddy up! As we headed back to the living room she assured me that I could be done. "Don't worry Lady Bug (aka me) you can have a rest, I have another horse, Shiloh (aka dad), he will take me for another ride!" Seriously, how does this happen that we are being led around the house on ALL FOURS by our FOUR year old! We must really love her right? So grandma, don't worry, she is getting her practice over here even if we have to be the horses!
Cambry was getting her own practice in too by practicing floating in her ring! She loves just to climb in and out of them, carry them around the house to another spot and get in and out! She is ready for the beach! We can't wait! Only 16 more days! Yeeeeehaaaaawww!
AUNTY Mary and AUNTY Jane visit us!!!!
Sorry for not getting this blog up earlier, but I have been waiting to write this email because I did not take as many pictures as I had wanted to when the ladies were hear. Jane took a ton for us! So, I will update with more pictures later. (Note to self, take more pictures when visitors come!)
I can hardly describe the feeling that we had as we were heading to Aunt Mary's hotel to see her! We received a call a few days before they arrived in Shanghai, saying when they were going to be staying with us and what we might be doing! A few times I would get that lump you get in your throat when you are trying to hold back tears, well that is what I had on the way to see them too! I think it was because I was sooooo excited to see familiar faces and because it had been raining for nearly a month here! They brought the sun! For the majority of the time that they were here, we saw blue sky almost every day, which is very rare for here! You know, lots of smog!
So at noon on Monday Reese, Cambry, and I hopped into a taxi and went to meet the group at the hotel that most of them were staying at! Immediately Aunt Mary and I hugged and began crying! Then she had to go and say that the next hug was from my mom, way to go mom, make me feel even worse! No, I know you were just trying to be sweet! We chatted about many things that they had already seen and done in Beijing! Sounded like they had already had an AMAZING time! After a little group planning session on what their friends and Aunt Mary and Jane wanted to do, we decided to head for Yuyuan Gardens. This is a very touristy type place to go. Must admit, I had not been there yet myself so it was very nice that they let us tag along! In the mean time, Reese has not let go of Aunt Mary's hand. She is sitting on her lap, hugging her, and just loving on her. She can't stop talking to her about this and that! Poor Aunt Mary, she didn't know what she was in for! We went to a famous dumpling restaurant! One of Jane's friends ordered for everyone, which meant that we would more than likely be safe eating what they prepared for us! Some of it was good, some of it was not our favorites! The place looked very Chinese, for example the buildings looked like the ones that you would see in movies, curves on the roof and such. It was PACKED! Why am I still surprised by the amount of people in this country?!? After we ate Mary, Reese, Cambry, and I went to look around. We got to see tons of fish by the zigzag bridges, Coi of course. They also had tons and tons of little shops selling mostly, um...junk, and souvenirs. It was funny, Mary and I saw what looked like an entrance to something but weren't really sure what it was and weren't going to stand in one place too long due to the crowds. So we just walked around until we were going to meet up with the rest of our group. Little did we know, that was the actual entrance to the Yuyuan Gardens! Jane and her friends actually got to see the beautiful gardens! Thinking back now, why didn't the two people who can't speak or read a lick of chinese STAY with the ones that clearly can? Not sure, but we still had a good time just looking around! (And, we got ice cream and they didn't! C'mon, what is more important anyways!) Afterwards we headed towards the Bund, which is along the Yuang Pu River and you can see both sides of the river with both the Puxi buildings and Pudong buildings! The main spot to sight see in Shanghai! We were then going to meet Eric for dinner on the Pudong side so we took a ride under the river to get to the other side. It has a little light show as you go (nothing too spectacular) but Reese thought it was quite interesting! After a very nice chinese dinner we decided to walk around on the Pudong side and see the city lights! Like I have said in previous posts, the city is so beautiful at night! They thought this as well! All the while, Reese is now holding on to Aunt Mary and Aunt Janes hands just telling them the biggest stories ever! She is just living it up! We did hear her slip a few "grandmas" in there every now and then, but they said they didn't mind one bit! I tell you, they may not be old enough to be grandmas, but take it as a compliment! You must be special if she calls you grandma because she sure does love her GRANDMAS!!!
Mary stayed with us that night, so we got her settled in. Reese tried her best saying that she needed to stay with Mary in her room but I decided that Aunt Mary needed a little "break". Whether it be from Reese or just to have a good nights sleep! Either way, Reese slept in Cambry's room! I think we may have put on...I don't know how many miles from walking that day so everyone needed to sleep well that night.
On Tuesday I took Mary to the fake markets underneath the Science and Technology Museum. You get right off the subway and you can enter the Market. Yeah, we had a little too much fun there! It was nice! We got there at 10am and didn't return back home until around 3pm! There are so many shops that I feel like we didn't see near all of them but we were able to find plenty! Mary had quite fun buying purses! She couldn't believe how much bartering you could do and how fun it was! It is fun once you are used to doing it, but it took me awhile to get used to it. The girls did a great job of just shopping along so that was very helpful! At night Eric and I took Mary out to eat on the Hongmei Lu Pedestrian Street. We ate a very American Restaurant and she seemed very happy to have some familiar food! Talking to her, Eric and I were very impressed with all of the different types of foods that she has tried and eaten! You'll have to ask her for a list of all of the crazy things that she has tried! (I think she has eaten more Chinese food than I have since my time being here. Too bad for her having to travel with people who actually like Chinese food, just kidding! Some of it is very good!) After dinner, Jane met us back at our place for dessert! We had a great time talking to both of them and wished we could have stayed up even later chatting about all the different cultural things in China. I know Eric really appreciated talking to Jane about what she knew about China and her experiences seeing is he is the one that works so closely with the Chinese each day and is trying to learn more and more about their culture and its differences from us!
The next day Mary, the girls, and I decided to take a double-decker bus ride around the city! It is great! You can ride on these buses that take you around to all of the hot spots to show you around. They have head phones for each seat and you have about 10 different languages to choose from. It was very hot! Extremely hot! Reese thought me and her should sit in the very front top and pretend that we were driving! She was the driver, I was the horn beeper! ( She has figured out by now that no car in the city drives 20 feet without beeping, so that was my job!) At this point Mary decided to sit in the nice air condition with Cambry who was sleeping, but she said the she could hear Reese squealing with laughter!) She was laughing, and waving at people, and beeping, having a high o' time! She can't wait to do it again, We rode around for awhile and then met the rest of the group at the Shanghai Aquarium! They all LOVED it! They were all as amazed as we were! Reese loved seeing it again and showing Mary all her favorite parts! Later in the day we all met up at the metro station for them to ride to the airport and we rode to the stop near our apartment. It was very, very, sad saying goodbye but we know we will be heading home for a visit in a few weeks! Just glad that we got to spend some time with family since being away for a few months in a very culturally different country!
I laugh because in the background is a McDonald's. Never are you too far away from one of those in Shanghai!
Well, we thought that they were on their flight and headed back to Beijing, until we got a call around 9:30pm that night saying that their plane got cancelled and that they weren't going to be flying out until the next morning! So excited! (me, not them) So all seven of them bunked at our place for the night! A good old fashioned slumber party! Our girls slept in our room, Jane and Mary took the two twin beds in Reese's room, another Jane and her son took the queen bed in Cambry's room, and the other three person family took the couch and a queen air mattress! Everyone was comfy and happy! I LOVED having them stay with us! Reese thought that Aunt Mary was just going to stay with us and not go back, sorry Reese, no such luck! So the next morning they were up early and we walked them to the metro and they were off at 8:30am. We prayed for their sakes that the plane would be able to take off this time and get them back to Beijing! Later they called us to let us know that they had arrived so that was great news!
If anyone feels like they would like to come and check out China, please feel free to stay with us! We love having visitors! I may have to check your references ;) and also ask my husband(maybe I should do that first before opening my big mouth), no but really, feel free to come on over!
Thanks so much Aunt Mary and Jane for taking time out of your trip to come and see us and where we live! We loved spending time with you and seeing your beautiful faces! Hope you had a good time and we can't wait to see you again! Thanks also for putting up with Reese, she just loves you two!
I can hardly describe the feeling that we had as we were heading to Aunt Mary's hotel to see her! We received a call a few days before they arrived in Shanghai, saying when they were going to be staying with us and what we might be doing! A few times I would get that lump you get in your throat when you are trying to hold back tears, well that is what I had on the way to see them too! I think it was because I was sooooo excited to see familiar faces and because it had been raining for nearly a month here! They brought the sun! For the majority of the time that they were here, we saw blue sky almost every day, which is very rare for here! You know, lots of smog!
So at noon on Monday Reese, Cambry, and I hopped into a taxi and went to meet the group at the hotel that most of them were staying at! Immediately Aunt Mary and I hugged and began crying! Then she had to go and say that the next hug was from my mom, way to go mom, make me feel even worse! No, I know you were just trying to be sweet! We chatted about many things that they had already seen and done in Beijing! Sounded like they had already had an AMAZING time! After a little group planning session on what their friends and Aunt Mary and Jane wanted to do, we decided to head for Yuyuan Gardens. This is a very touristy type place to go. Must admit, I had not been there yet myself so it was very nice that they let us tag along! In the mean time, Reese has not let go of Aunt Mary's hand. She is sitting on her lap, hugging her, and just loving on her. She can't stop talking to her about this and that! Poor Aunt Mary, she didn't know what she was in for! We went to a famous dumpling restaurant! One of Jane's friends ordered for everyone, which meant that we would more than likely be safe eating what they prepared for us! Some of it was good, some of it was not our favorites! The place looked very Chinese, for example the buildings looked like the ones that you would see in movies, curves on the roof and such. It was PACKED! Why am I still surprised by the amount of people in this country?!? After we ate Mary, Reese, Cambry, and I went to look around. We got to see tons of fish by the zigzag bridges, Coi of course. They also had tons and tons of little shops selling mostly, um...junk, and souvenirs. It was funny, Mary and I saw what looked like an entrance to something but weren't really sure what it was and weren't going to stand in one place too long due to the crowds. So we just walked around until we were going to meet up with the rest of our group. Little did we know, that was the actual entrance to the Yuyuan Gardens! Jane and her friends actually got to see the beautiful gardens! Thinking back now, why didn't the two people who can't speak or read a lick of chinese STAY with the ones that clearly can? Not sure, but we still had a good time just looking around! (And, we got ice cream and they didn't! C'mon, what is more important anyways!) Afterwards we headed towards the Bund, which is along the Yuang Pu River and you can see both sides of the river with both the Puxi buildings and Pudong buildings! The main spot to sight see in Shanghai! We were then going to meet Eric for dinner on the Pudong side so we took a ride under the river to get to the other side. It has a little light show as you go (nothing too spectacular) but Reese thought it was quite interesting! After a very nice chinese dinner we decided to walk around on the Pudong side and see the city lights! Like I have said in previous posts, the city is so beautiful at night! They thought this as well! All the while, Reese is now holding on to Aunt Mary and Aunt Janes hands just telling them the biggest stories ever! She is just living it up! We did hear her slip a few "grandmas" in there every now and then, but they said they didn't mind one bit! I tell you, they may not be old enough to be grandmas, but take it as a compliment! You must be special if she calls you grandma because she sure does love her GRANDMAS!!!
Mary stayed with us that night, so we got her settled in. Reese tried her best saying that she needed to stay with Mary in her room but I decided that Aunt Mary needed a little "break". Whether it be from Reese or just to have a good nights sleep! Either way, Reese slept in Cambry's room! I think we may have put on...I don't know how many miles from walking that day so everyone needed to sleep well that night.
On Tuesday I took Mary to the fake markets underneath the Science and Technology Museum. You get right off the subway and you can enter the Market. Yeah, we had a little too much fun there! It was nice! We got there at 10am and didn't return back home until around 3pm! There are so many shops that I feel like we didn't see near all of them but we were able to find plenty! Mary had quite fun buying purses! She couldn't believe how much bartering you could do and how fun it was! It is fun once you are used to doing it, but it took me awhile to get used to it. The girls did a great job of just shopping along so that was very helpful! At night Eric and I took Mary out to eat on the Hongmei Lu Pedestrian Street. We ate a very American Restaurant and she seemed very happy to have some familiar food! Talking to her, Eric and I were very impressed with all of the different types of foods that she has tried and eaten! You'll have to ask her for a list of all of the crazy things that she has tried! (I think she has eaten more Chinese food than I have since my time being here. Too bad for her having to travel with people who actually like Chinese food, just kidding! Some of it is very good!) After dinner, Jane met us back at our place for dessert! We had a great time talking to both of them and wished we could have stayed up even later chatting about all the different cultural things in China. I know Eric really appreciated talking to Jane about what she knew about China and her experiences seeing is he is the one that works so closely with the Chinese each day and is trying to learn more and more about their culture and its differences from us!
The next day Mary, the girls, and I decided to take a double-decker bus ride around the city! It is great! You can ride on these buses that take you around to all of the hot spots to show you around. They have head phones for each seat and you have about 10 different languages to choose from. It was very hot! Extremely hot! Reese thought me and her should sit in the very front top and pretend that we were driving! She was the driver, I was the horn beeper! ( She has figured out by now that no car in the city drives 20 feet without beeping, so that was my job!) At this point Mary decided to sit in the nice air condition with Cambry who was sleeping, but she said the she could hear Reese squealing with laughter!) She was laughing, and waving at people, and beeping, having a high o' time! She can't wait to do it again, We rode around for awhile and then met the rest of the group at the Shanghai Aquarium! They all LOVED it! They were all as amazed as we were! Reese loved seeing it again and showing Mary all her favorite parts! Later in the day we all met up at the metro station for them to ride to the airport and we rode to the stop near our apartment. It was very, very, sad saying goodbye but we know we will be heading home for a visit in a few weeks! Just glad that we got to spend some time with family since being away for a few months in a very culturally different country!
Nanpu Bridge that we crossed
Reese "driving" the bus!
It had to literally be around 100 degrees at the front because it was all glass windows with none open and the sun was beating through it, but we HAD to drive the bus you know! Just look at her face!
Well, we thought that they were on their flight and headed back to Beijing, until we got a call around 9:30pm that night saying that their plane got cancelled and that they weren't going to be flying out until the next morning! So excited! (me, not them) So all seven of them bunked at our place for the night! A good old fashioned slumber party! Our girls slept in our room, Jane and Mary took the two twin beds in Reese's room, another Jane and her son took the queen bed in Cambry's room, and the other three person family took the couch and a queen air mattress! Everyone was comfy and happy! I LOVED having them stay with us! Reese thought that Aunt Mary was just going to stay with us and not go back, sorry Reese, no such luck! So the next morning they were up early and we walked them to the metro and they were off at 8:30am. We prayed for their sakes that the plane would be able to take off this time and get them back to Beijing! Later they called us to let us know that they had arrived so that was great news!
If anyone feels like they would like to come and check out China, please feel free to stay with us! We love having visitors! I may have to check your references ;) and also ask my husband(maybe I should do that first before opening my big mouth), no but really, feel free to come on over!
Thanks so much Aunt Mary and Jane for taking time out of your trip to come and see us and where we live! We loved spending time with you and seeing your beautiful faces! Hope you had a good time and we can't wait to see you again! Thanks also for putting up with Reese, she just loves you two!
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