global thinking, global crafting and flower children

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Latest Weekend Updates from Shanghai

Two weekends ago, Emily and I participated in a big Girl Scout even in Shanghai. It was called World Thinking Day and involved all the Shanghai Girl Scout troops. I saw friends from other schools there and that was fun. The girls went around to various stations that were set up to address several global themed issues. The themes were hunger, water, literacy (which involved all girls bringing gently used books to donate to a migrant school in China), and infectious disease (Malaria specifically and how to prevent it and protect ourselves from mosquitoes that may carry it). My favorite station was the one related to world hunger. The girls were in teams and they each were assigned a country and a role in a family (mother, father, child, grandmother, etc.) and were given a set amount of fake money to shop with. Each item in the store (real food, rice, pictures of chicken and fish, toilet paper, toothpaste, toys) were labeled with their individual prices. The girls had to shop for the items and negotiate as a team for things they felt were crucial for the family’s weekly shopping. Seeing them struggle with the desire to buy a toy for the baby in the family when they didn’t have enough food was powerful. Seeing them realize that the food they had was not very much and would not easily last them a whole week was also powerful. Our group happened to do this shopping activity with grumbling tummies as we were the last group to stop at the snack room.

The next day, on Sunday, we went clothes shopping with our friends Jiyi and Melody. They asked the kids to be in their upcoming wedding and so we went to buy a dress and a suit. Emily was thrilled, Nathan was reluctantly accommodating. Mark is also in the wedding and will be giving a speech in Chinese. Oh I am excited. I had this list of things and attend Chinese wedding in China was near the top. I was thinking we’d have to crash one, but now we are not only invited but privy to all the wedding day and wedding party happenings. The wedding will be in western attire (white dress, suits), but there will still be plenty of Chinese influences in terms of the day’s events and the reception. We went to a wedding shopping area attached to the Peoples Square subway station. The miniature mall was just rows of small shops with wedding attire.

After the clothes were ordered (Nathan is wearing tails) we went to lunch. Our friends suggested a baozi place. Baozi are these small round dumplings with broth in them and they are scrumptious. We had to wait in line for a bit at a nondescript and rather small restaurant. The signs and menus were all in Chinese and we deferred to our friends to order. Thankfully, they asked if the kids were okay with duck blood soup and we were able to order three bloodless soups (I just can’t) and three “regulars”. We had baozi with pork, chicken, crab and pork and egg. All were great. We were hen bao (very full) on baozi. I can’t wait to go back and have more.

Sunday night (which was the end of Lantern Festival holiday) we went over to our friends' house for dinner and fireworks. Driving out to their house in a taxi was a little crazy since fireworks were going off all around us. We had a nice dinner and then went outside to watch the fireworks our friends had bought. The fireworks were fun, but Nathan burned himself on a sparkler and that was not fun. He's fine. Just another reminder that we were quite literally playing with fire.

I had two huge ego boosting experiences back to back this week. First, I received a lovely note from a blog reader in Canada who wanted to give me a shout out and all sorts of kind support for my efforts as a wife, mom and person doing this living in China thing I’ve been doing. It was perfect timing because I had been in a bit of a post-vacation rut. The weather was sucky (still is) and I was having all sorts of anxious worry about what I’m going to do when I go home this summer (job-wise), and then this email made me feel so much better. Validation.

Then, as if that weren’t enough for one week, I was recognized (as in “hey I know you!”) by another parent at our school. We were eating in the cafeteria, on a break from cultural crafting at the Cultural Craft Fair. Emily had worked her way through Asia and much of Europe and we were getting a little fuel before heading back into the remaining countries. As we sat down across from some other families, a woman told me I was “very popular” and that she recognized me from my blog. She explained that she’d read some of my earliest blogs when she too was getting settled into life in Shanghai as an expat. I was really pleased to hear her tell me it was helpful to her and also just pleased in general to hear from another reader I didn’t know I had.

The craft fair was fantastic. Emily and I went early, and the boys showed up a bit later. Nathan had his kung fu class—this time he’s learning with swords! He’s very into it and the classes are at the kung fu studio on Saturday mornings. Mark had some work to do so he also came to meet up with us later. There were 12 rooms, some with multiple countries represented. In each room, there were usually about 3 activities to choose from. Emily was in arts and crafts heaven, flitting from one room to the next. She met up with a friend along the way and they stuck together until her friend had to leave. Nathan only had about an hour at the fair when he arrived at the school with his pal Thomas, but he did a couple projects.

The weather, as I said, has been rainy and just way too cold. I have begun dressing like a Chinese toddler. I figure if millions of kids are dressing in these big huge puffy layers of clothing, then maybe I shouldn’t mock it and rather I should try it. So on Sunday, I put on a long-sleeved shirt, two fleece jackets and my raincoat. I added a fleece scarf and mittens to the mix and we went out for a walk. While my arms were a bit stiff and seemed unable to come all the way down to my sides, I was toasty warm the entire walk. I did not layer my bottom half in order to avoid the puffy kid walk that is a trademark of the overdressed Chinese toddler. I really wanted to get a picture of me all puffed out next to a puffed out kid but I didn’t approach any parents with this request.

We were walking by a large, loud gathering of people. We saw a circle of stools with people sitting and waiting. There were older people who had been wheeled over to join the waiting crowd and we did see what appeared to be performers in costume. One woman was wearing a white silk dress and a very full face of makeup. She had feathers in her hair and seemed more drag queen than ancient queen. Next to her, a man (I think it was a man) was dressed in similar garb and female costume. They were waiting and there was no indication the show was about to start. We stood around and waited but the loud music they were amplifying was just too much for us to bear and so we marched on. I am curious about what the show would have been like.

We walked on and spent some time sitting on a bench. Per usual, many people approached us and poked at the kids a bit. Since Nathan’s hair is so long, we are all used to saying “he’s a boy” and “no, he’s the brother.” It’s really long. Chinese boys do not wear their hair long. Men, sometimes. Boys, not so much. We had fun playing a game we made up where (since we knew people would invariably walk by and stare at us) we would point up at the trees and one of us would say “look!” and wait to see how many people would stop and look too. It was funny and fun and then seemed a little obnoxious so we stopped.
Sunday night we had a big family dinner and everyone pitched in. I was passed out in a Sunday state of snooze when I awoke to the smell of garlic and onions sautéing on the stove . Nathan was making meat sauce with Mark, Emily was chopping veggies for a salad and the water was starting to boil for pasta. I made garlic bread and we had our Italian themed feast.

The kids are still enjoying their music lessons and I have been thrilled with their motivation to practice each day. They are much better about it than I ever was. Emily even played guitar for her class last week when she was the class “Star of the Week”. Each day she shared info and stories about her family and her life. On Favorites Day she showed her class her favorite treasures from her world travels and jammed for them on her guitar. Nathan wrote a compelling Powerpoint on why PJ Wearing should not be a crime in Shanghai. He is also hard at work on a top secret invention for the Grade 5 Invention Convention happening next month.

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Photos

Swedish sock animals
This is Isabelle and Nathan -- they look related!

Comments

[Geeze]

global thinking, global crafting and flower children
Hmmm you got your cookie order (shipped to Shanghai) before I got mine here in the states??

[Angie]

Thinking day
NO WAY!!! Lauren is a brownie and we were at a Thinking Day here, too! I miss you.