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Published: August 15th 2008
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Mark made it to Chicago safely. I got a text from him while we were out today. We survived our first day without Mark quite well. We had plans to meet our British pals at the Insect Kingdom. Yes, it's true, a museum devoted to bugs of all sorts, a large variety of fish and reptiles, plus the random section with guinea pigs, rabbits, and goats. Yes, goats! We tried to imagine how these goats came to the Insect Kingdom. Did they carry special bugs in their fur, and then became part of the permanent collection? Did the Kingdom owner (or King?) get a buy 3 butterflies, get 2 goats free deal in one of the open markets here in Shanghai? The possibilities are endless, and it's likely we'll never know the true story. Our versions were entertaining as we marched along the streets of Pudong in some of the hottest heat we've had here to date. I keep thinking it can't get any hotter...and then it does. The humidity is the real killer. It's a wet heat (unlike that dry Arizona heat).
We went to lunch in a large mall called Super Brand Mall. We found an interesting looking,
very crowded Japanese noodle-ish place and decided that was a good one. I used Mark's rule for choosing--picture menus and a good crowd. Seemed to work this time. Jo and I ordered a feast with the point and grunt method we've been perfecting. We were successful in ordering everything but that elusive bottled water. Many restaurants have pictures of water on the menu but don't seem to actually sell it. We went for a walk after lunch trying to find the ferry to take us across from Pudong (where we were) to The Bund (an historic area of older buildings -- see:
The Bund for more info). Oh, later on in the day I ordered 3 bottles of water in Chinese. I was patting myself on the back and when the woman behind the counter said "nine" as in 9 in English...had no clue! Ian had to translate for me because I was trying to figure out what nine meant in Chinese. Argh!
The kids and I came back after our outing and spent some time at the apartment. I did crack open the first bottle of wine. It's drinkable. Nothing to write home about (ha! I am writing home
the goat and Nathan
the goat tried to eat Nathan's Cubs hat! about it, aren't I?) But it does appear to have the appropriate level of alcohol. It will do. Dinner was at home tonight and we whipped up some good old fashioned comfort food. Emily and I invented a quick recipe for mac-n-cheese. We made some rice vermicelli noodles and melted cheese on top. Nathan had his first PB&J sandwich here. He held out a long time!
We decided to go out for a walk before the next storm hit this evening. We had a nice stroll around the neighborhood and wandered up some streets we had not yet explored. It's a little less nice than our usual path, but it is safe and interesting to see some more local sites. There are lots of street vendors selling yummy looking food (but I'm not planning to brave street food after our peach incident). We'll stick with restaurants. We did take a gamble and bought some movies being sold off a cart by our place. We bought 2 for 10RMB. The movie store we like charges 8 for most movies, so this was a low cost gamble. $1.50 and so far, we've had success with 1 of the 2 movies. It's
pretty cheap entertainment to walk outside and grab a flick for $.75! I have a feeling I know what we'll be doing Saturday night.
Tomorrow we are going back to the coffee for Expats. It's so convenient and the kids are up for going. Not sure what we'll do the rest of the weekend since the weather is not supposed to be too great. I have an appointment to go to the school on Tuesday morning. That will be great for the kids. We also have an open house at the end of next week. School starts on the 25th and I can't wait to meet more families and the teachers.
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