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Published: August 24th 2008
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Emily reads Vogue
the breakfast place had stacks and stacks of old mags to browse through--2007 People and Vogues, as an example! Saturday 8/23.
This morning, there were extremely heavy rain showers. We had plans to meet "the friends" at 10, so we took our time this morning and eventually left the building. I had the only umbrella, so I walked to the main gate and asked one of the guards to help us get a taxi. He did, and sent it over to the front of our building. The taxi along with our map I had printed out got us to very near the restaurant, and Mark's keen sense of direction got us to the restaurant itself. Our friends were not so fortunate, and it took them 2 taxis and a couple calls to the restaurant to find the place. It was a bit off the beaten path. Jo found the restaurant in her living in Shanghai book/bible. I tried to have Mark find the book when he was back home, but the store didn't have it in stock. The place, called the Coffee Tree, has great western breakfasts with good coffee and tea. We were there for hours and our kids had several breakfasts.
After breakfast/brunch/lunch the 2 families said goodbye and we headed off by foot toward a kid
place Mark read about during breakfast called Kid Town. It was in a low-rise building that as full of a lot of fun kid-centric places. Kid Town was a little too young for Nathan but it was a cute place with dress up and pretend play areas. Across the hall was an art studio that does painting and sculpting classes. Upstairs, we found the coolest thing ever. It was a place that taught Lego robotics and technology classes for kids. Nathan's eyes got even bigger and he actually said "I didn't think it could get better than a Lego store...but now I know it's possible." We have the schedule and will be taking a trial class in September. Emily was more interested in the art classes.
As we knew before we moved to our neighborhood, there are not a huge number of expats in our building/area. They are here, but not in the huge numbers we have seen in the areas we visited today. We saw and heard a lot of English speaking people. We also saw a lot of Ayis (nanny/housekeepers) shopping for their expat families....and the expats' drivers waiting in the mini-vans outside the stores. We don't
love the signs here
no spitting was not enough..needed a visual see this stuff in our 'hood and I'm glad. I can't say I wouldn't enjoy a driver, but the experience is much richer when we manage to get from place to place on our own.
We went to another international grocery store next door to the kid mall called Super City. They have great produce and meat. We bought some fruits and veggies and then headed down the street to the movie store...time to stock up! Got a few flicks and then went back to the apartment for a rest.
Tonight, we ended up back on Hongmei Lu (Lu means road in Chinese). The place we had dinner was not too far from where we had breakfast earlier and is called the Blue Frog (yes, Dad, they have t-shirts!). Again, very expat-ish and western..but good food. Mark had a burger, Nathan spaghetti and oddly, Emily ordered a salad and a fruit cup. She didn't eat much of either. We think she saw Hannah Montana order salad on tv because this was not a typical choice for her. I had a veggie burger. It was a nice break from meat for me. The kids have school on Monday, so
tomorrow will be a quieter day and we will have dinner at home. The bus comes at 7:20 and I think it gets them there at about 7:45. This gives them time to get to class, and be ready for school to start at 8:00. We think we know where the bus will pick up the kids. I'll charge the camera and document the event. I expect I'll just be watching the clock on Monday waiting for them to come back home for the debriefing.
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Linda
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"I didn't know it could get better than that"
Flawlessly getting to a new place on your own, meeting friends for breakfast and talking through lunch, a store with great produce, a veggie burger for dinner, and the prospect of art classes for Emily and Lego robotics for Nathan...can it get better than that?