We ate well today. Seriously, I'm still full from dinner and I may be for several days. We had a nice Sunday. We slept late (8am) and eventually left to meet our friends (those same friends!) for brunch. The weather has cooled quite a bit the last few days. Even with sporadic rain showers, it's much more pleasant weather for exploring and being outside. We ate outside for brunch and it was so great to be both outdoors and not sweating. The place we went is owned by an Australian guy. The manager is also Australian and we met him after breakfast. Mark and I have been here before. The area is called Taikong Rd and it's full of small streetlike walkways with art galleries, stores and restaurants. It's my favorite shopping street so far. The ... read more

I went to the school new family orientation today. It was good. They had vendors from the area with pamphlets and cards and the goody bag had a huge book of business cards--this really pretty silk book with plastic sleeves filled with cards from stores, restaurants, hospitals,etc. The parent group put them together...must have taken a lot of time. I think (no surprise to those who know me) I am going to get involved in the parent group. They have a meeting on Tuesday next week, so I'll go to that and learn even more. I met a bunch of other moms today. Can't remember most names, but I am sure that will come with time. The funniest thing was when they introduced the co-president of the parent group and she stood up to wave. She ... read more

As a follow up to yesterday's post, I read that yesterday's rainstorm was the heaviest one-hour rainstorm in 130 years in Shanghai. Isn't that a fine bit of trivia for the record books? No rain today! Today was a great second day of school (really first day since actual first day was canceled). Emily gave it a 10 out of 10 and Nathan gave it a 7 out of 10 on the how good was your day scale. After the kids went to school, I went for a walk in the park. The weather was much better than yesterday. It was so nice at 7:30 when the kids left, but by 9am it was warming up a lot. I had my iPod and David Gray sang while I walked past people doing ballroom dancing and Tai ... read more

Sunday, 8/24. Today we had a nice breakfast at home (I made banana pancakes with our imported pancake mix and local bananas). Yum. Then we lazed about and did a couple loads of laundry. No Sunday paper, though we can get the news online. We finally motivated at about 12 and decided to head out to explore the French Concession. It was not too hot today, and it was pretty decent walking around weather. The plan was to do a walking tour we found in a guide book, but we didn't make it through the whole tour. These things are probably not written for families with young kids. We gave it a shot. Saw some nice sights and had a good lunch at a German cafe. The French Concession has pretty gardens and tree lined streets. ... read more

Friday 8/22/08 Our morning started with an 8am ride on the subway. I have many years of Chicago el and suburban Metra riding experience, but I have never before been on such a crowded train. Mark had warned us, and we had taken a train in the evening rush, but this was absurd. They have monitors who help pack in the people and make sure people stay in lines and let people off before boarding. This is a rush hour thing, because normally it's every man/woman/child for him or herself when trying to board the trains. The kids were squished up against us and had the height disadvantage--they were staring at butts and bellies and had no source of fresh air. I picked Emily up for part of the ride but she was just too heavy ... read more