Be My Guest

I've had a few requests for a photographic apartment tour.  I thought I'd wait until we settled in more, hung things on the wall, cleaned up a bit, etc.  But I quickly realized if I waited until then, it would never happen.  It's a lovely apartment and we're very comfortable.  We're just not sure why there needs to be 71 light switches. 

So here is our bare, yet charming home...

The half bath.  We call this sink "Mr. Splashy".  You can use it to wash your hands or the floor.

Kitchen.  The sink is just my height!  Not so much for Matthew.

Office with great view of the park and skyline.  Eli's working hard on his blog...

Master bedroom.  For those in the know, you'll see Great Grandma DeGroot's jean quilt made the trip :).

Bunkbeds for the boys.

You can't see it from this picture, but there's a great view from the shower.

Naomi's room.  To be converted into a guest room at a moment's notice.  hint. hint.

A room with a view.

I guess it's supposed to be decorative, but we find it rather agressive.  If you come around the corner too fast, it pokes you in the eye.

Lord Dill-Dominius

I've been trying to get Naomi and Townes to write something every day.  Either an entry in their journal about what we've done and seen, or something more creative.  I found a great book of writing activities and prompts for grade school kids.  One of the ideas was to have your students write about their pet -- maybe a letter to them, or a play about them, or a poem inspired by them.  I knew Naomi would like this one.  She misses our cat Dill.  We all do.  We've also been reading about ancient societies and the first codified laws and coming up with our own.  She combined the two writing exercises here.  I love it.  And if you've ever met Dill, you know how fitting it is.

Lord Dill-Dominius and the Land of the Felines

It was the year 3000 and 2 when Lord Dill-Dominius came to the throne of the Land of the Felines. Joyous years were those when he reigned, for he was a kind but determined and faithful king.

He exiled most rodents and condemned some to the pit of snakes. Everyone rejoiced,“Cupboard peskies, or food nibblers of thy houses will be no more!” he shouted, as he threw kibble to his cheering subjects.

The “fortunate” few rodents that weren’t condemned or exiled, were sauteed or grilled or fried or even put in sushi! Only to be thrown to the welcoming maw of the King and his court.

Though probably the most wonderful thing out of all the wonders King Dill ever created was the Code of Dill-Dominius

It was a code of laws that implied, justice, friendship, and peace throughout the words.

Here are some of them:

You will not hurt or damage any of another Felines property

You must help if help is needed from your neighbor (only if it’s a good cause)

Be kind not violent

Enjoy beauty and do not wreck it for your own prosperity

Be kind to your human(s)

Respect, that you have what you have

Chicken is the holy meal, do not waste it

      Thank you for listening to my recollection of the reign of Dill-Dominius

- Scholar Kastay Kit

Pudong, Puxi and In Between

Eli starts preschool in two weeks.  That means for now he's home with us all day.  Thus Allison's Academy for Troubled Youth currently has a rather scattered schedule.  It's hard to get a lot of schooling done with El Diablo (as Grandpa Charlie likes to call Eli) on the loose.  So we did the best we could for a few hours this morning.  Then it was time for a field trip.  After an aborted scooter outing (we lost a nut from the Pleasant Goat scooter), we decided on a bigger adventure.

We went here:

The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel -- Lonley Planet lists it as #623 of  626 things to do in Shanghai...

We don't care what Lonely Planet thought of it, we thought it rocked!

It's basically a quick, but extremely odd, way to travel between the two main parts of Shanghai -- Pudong (where we live) and Puxi (i.e. the Manhattan of Shanghai).  There are awesome views on both sides of the tunnel.

At the base of the Pearl Tower on the Pudong side.

View of Pudong from the Bund in Puxi

Say "smile" to Eli, and he does this every time.  It never gets old.

Is that a barge full of coal?

Then we came home and had Dominoes pizza delivered to our door.  Haven't done that since the 1990s.  It was delicious.

Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf



It is Eli's pleasure to introduce you to his new Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf brand scooter. 

We schleped Naomi and Townes' scooters across the ocean, but we did not have one for Eli.  This caused much angst and agony for him.  We found an awesome scooter at the fancy mall across the way.  $150.  We passed on that one.  Finally today, we found the perfect $25 scooter at the local Carrefour.  It has a basket.  It has streamers.  It has three wheels.  It makes us all happy.

Eli collecting leaves for his daddy.

Scooter heaven.

We spent a beautiful day at Century Park yesterday.  Along with 200,000 of our closest Shanghai friends.  We hadn't found a scooter yet for Eli, so he got a helicopter balloon instead (yes, I'm a pushover).

You can't tell from here, but Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf are on the balloon too.

Lichen playing...

That's our building, 2nd from the right.

Outside the main entrance to the park.  Breadfruit?  Not sure.

Our Days in Photos

Photographic evidence that I made the trip too.

Moss sculptures in Century Park

The Himalayas Center.  Inside is a fancy hotel and new mall.  The coolest thing is it is also home to the Children's Technology Workshop where Naomi, Townes, and Eli took engineering classes this morning. 

Inside the Himalaya Center.  We thought it was like something from Lord of the Rings.

Eli's class had about four other kids his age.  The teacher ran the class in Mandarin and English.  He was a rock star and made this car.  Naomi and Townes made windmills with motors. 

We tried out a neighborhood restaurant.  Everyone tried everything!

Eli loved it.

Naomi celebrated our friend Bo's successful effort to raise $75K for his film project.  Go Eat More Kale!

Riding the Metro on our quest to find Matthew a new power cord for his laptop.

Screwing Matthew's head back on.

Apparently the U.S. does not have a monopoly on creepy mascots.

Candy.  Maybe?

Eight Precious Ingredients Gruel

I am tempted to let that title stand on its own.  It's like a little koan, you could mine it for poetic meaning for days on end. 

It was at the hotel breakfast this morning.  Didn't try it.  Took their word for it. 

Left Allison and the kids up in Shanghai alone for the first time for a quick trip down to our Guangzhou office.  I hope they are still functioning when I return.  Sounds like all is well.  Naomi and Townes will go to their first engineering class at the local community center on Saturday.  They've made some new friends in our apartment complex -- Italian/Malaysian couple and 2 girls, 9 and 5.  Eli is in love. 

And we are in the process of securing an Ayi, which is a cleaning person, basically.  Our transformation to elite foreign snobs is almost complete.  Not that we had that far to go.

Brevity being the soul of wit...   

Notes from the Homefront

We've finally been sleeping at night and walking upright during the day.  A huge accomplishment.  This means it must be time to ease into school and start some exploring.  We checked out a preschool for Eli.  It's in the same building where Matthew works.  We're still weighing our options for him but agree that he could use some structure and schedule and other kids his age. 

As for Naomi and Townes, I'm homeschooling them...something I never thought I'd do, but for lots of various reasons, it seems like a good fit. 

School -- or as we lovingly call it, Allison's Academy for Troubled Youth. 

Enough of that.  Time to take a walk around the neighborhood.

Creepy.

That was exhausting, so it was back to the books.

Wait, Dora isn't in the curriculum!

Time for a field trip.  We're off to the Shanghai Museum of Science and Technology. 

We're kind of excited.

Like the hoodie leash?



After a lunch of milkshakes (or really slightly flavored milk slightly shaken) and goldfish crackers, it was time to head home. We took the metro for the first time. Only one stop, but we were very proud of ourselves for figuring it out on our own (i.e. we'll do just fine when Matthew travels!!).

Finally, we made it home and despite the lack of a real cookie sheet, made these:

Stone Cold

So I got to thinking this afternoon, how underwhelmed I was by the whole experience of living in Shanghai so far.  I mean, sure, it's hectic right, like living in New York City is hectic.  There's the bustle, and the getting to and fro, and the lugging of things, and the lights and noise and press of people. 

But that's not especially exotic or weird.  I've lived in New York.  I basically knew to expect that part of it. 

I suppose I was just nonplussed by how Western Shanghai really is.  Let me punctuate that by pointing out that within easy walking distance of our apartment there are not one, but two, Cold Stone Creamery outlets.  Cold Stone is a boutique, made to order ice cream store that is so expensive that I can't afford to go there in the United States.  They are not common there, at least not to my knowledge, but I do know about them. 

So this expensive, gratification-focused, frozen cream franchise emporium has two outposts within easy striking distance of my apartment in Shanghai -- in China, a country that until recently, had little experience with ice cream of any kind and not much appreciate for it.  That illustrates, in a nutshell, that living here just isn't that different from living in the U.S., right?  Anything I can get there, I can get here.  Food, electronics, television shows, nature (in the park), cars, speedy transport, instant communications, everything.  In other words, whatevs.  Yawnsville.  Big city, big deal.   

Then Allison reminded me that I'm just used to China.  The scales fell away, and I saw the light.  I remembered to see things not through my own eyes, but through hers and the kids'.
 

Photos at last

For our friends not on Facebook (yes there are a few of you!), here are some photos of our adventures to date.  They ended up in reverse order, oops.

More shopping adventures

Toto and Toto

Eli took a break on our walk, to call us on the phone.

Matthew's colleague Spring and her husband and son took us out to dinner.  It was delicious.

Our first real Chinese meal.  Eli approves.

Beginning our walk to find sheets, pots/pans, towels, and toasters.

Outside our apartment building

Yum, chicken heads.

Handles for rocks!!  This could revolutionize farming in Vermont.

Eli and a replica of China's newest/first aircraft carrier.

The view from our new apartment.

Townes is in there somewhere...