I missed my 20 year high school reunion in August. We moved to China just a week or so before that event happened in Berkeley, California. I was disappointed to miss this opportunity to see some really fun people, but then as luck would have it, the reunion came to Shanghai last week. My long lost friend Amelia (aka Indigo Blue) came to town to perform with a troupe called The Atomic Bombshells. They performed at the Glamour Bar in Shanghai which is one of the nicest bars in the city. Super classy, gorgeous views, and part of the M on [View Full Entry]

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The Year of the Ox is fast approaching and it's just like Christmas with all the celebratory Chinese red items filling the aisles at stores, decorating windows and hanging from street lamps. Red lanterns galore along with many cute stuffed little oxen. I'm sure we'll acquire a few of those before the holiday's end. We have a week off from school in just another 2 weeks which is only 1 of the 2 weeks the country celebrates the new year. It's supposed to be a lot of fun, and it looks like we will spend at least part of the kids' [View Full Entry]

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I went to the gym a couple days ago and got a new schedule for classes. I have not taken any classes yet because the idea of having a Chinese speaking instructor intimidated me when I first joined. It's still pretty intimidating but I figured I'm more ready to try than I was before. The class started at 10am so I had the ayi come to watch the kids at 9. I didn't get out of here until about 9:45am due to various needs and wants of the kids. I made it across the street with only one car honking at [View Full Entry]

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Wed. am 1/7/09 We have been back in Shanghai since Monday evening. After a long flight, with minimal drama, we made it to our apartment with 7 out of 9 of the checked bags. Apparently, when a bunch of expat families fly on the same flight, things get pretty heavy in terms of the luggage. If we had 9 bags, and we met 2 other families with even more bags, filled to max capacity...it makes sense that we as a flight were over the weight limits. I had some re-entry issues when we arrived and were in a long line with [View Full Entry]

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I knew I'd be emotional and not quite ready to go back for more adventure, and sure enough that's just how I feel. But we're going back for more. We had such fun being home and seeing as many of our friends and family members as we could (though sadly we weren't able to see everyone we wanted to see). We ended our Asian free food strike and had Sushi in Santa Barbara and Thai tonight. While home we had a lot of really good home cooked meals--and by home cooked I mean cooked in other people's homes and eaten by [View Full Entry]

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It's been a whirlwind so far...very busy, lots of fun, but somewhat surreal as we are visiting home and will soon return to the "real world" of life in China. 2009 has so much potential for all of us, but I'm apprehensive to say the least. I got used to our life in China, but now I'm back home and this life is mighty nice. I missed everyone. I missed our house. I missed a lot of the ease of life. Since being back home, though, I have also missed things in China (not just the full time housekeeper and the [View Full Entry]

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The kids and I went to bed at midnight and after a good solid 5 hours of sleep we were all pretty much up and about. The kids went to bed in their rooms and we all ooohed and ahhhed over the softness of our beds. Really, it was amazing. We have firm mattresses but they felt like heaven. So soft in comparison to the Chinese beds. By the morning, however, there were 4 of us in our not so large queen bed. Sleepy time was quickly over and discussions turned to the first meal. I have to go get a [View Full Entry]

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We are heading home on Tuesday for a visit. We are all very excited but I have to admit I am a little nervous. Going home for a visit and then returning here will be strange I think. Not going home would be more difficult so we of course are going to get through any transition issues but it's going to be strange to be sure. I've been reading old blog entries and reminiscing a lot about how things were when we first got here. I remember all the things I worried about before coming here: how the kids would adapt, [View Full Entry]

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You know how when people live somewhere with a huge tourist attraction they tend not to go do that touristy stuff? Well, so it goes with many of the tourist attractions in Shanghai. We hit a few landmarks when we first moved here, but since then have been living here and behaving less like tourists. I'm not sure why, since no matter what you do here, it's quite difficult to avoid the crowds. Sunday we intended to try another somewhat spontaneous train trip. This time to Suzhou--a water town I've been eager to visit. We packed the backpacks, went to brunch, [View Full Entry]

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We decided to do something a little more exciting than our recent many Sundays in Shanghai. We had a rough plan to go to Hangzhou on Sunday morning, but did not buy tickets in advance. After a late night out on Saturday for Mark and me, followed by a return home to a wide awake girl child who had a bad case of dry skin and missing her mommy, we were less than perky getting up Sunday morning. However, the weather was supposed to be nice, Hangzhou is a very doable day trip, and so we got ourselves up and out [View Full Entry]

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