We had an "only in china" day today. Abi and I went looking for a dress for the Winter dance. Again we are very last minute....the dance is tomorrow night. With Abi being sick last week we did not have a chance to go to the fabric market. So.....we went after school to look for a dress. I remembered seeing a new dress shop near the fabric market and we thought there was a small chance we could find a dress in that shop. When we got to the shop we discovered that several other dress shops had opened in the past week. All these shops specialize in wedding dress, prom dresses, and Qipaos (Traditional Chinese dress). The first shop we went to had a couple of viable options...both needed some adjustment and none of the shop workers spoke English. The next shop we went to was a family owned business. By "family" I mean three generations including the grandfather.....7 members in all. Abi had so much service we were not sure what to do with all of it. She found a couple of dresses in this shop but again both needed some adjustments and the adjustments were too complicated to fix.....and no one spoke English. So.....on to the next shop. This one had only one worker and it took some strong convincing to allow Abi to try on the dresses.....Abi tried three dresses and settled on a red and black silk knee length dress. The only problem....the clerk would not negotiate the price and it has some small spots and a little snag. Being the desperate shopper we were......we could over look a couple of minor flaws but our conscience would not allow us to pay full price for the dress. So...we asked if she could get another dress just like the sample. This did not translate and I had to call one of my friends to translate over the phone for us. Thank goodness for friends that speak the language!!! The answer came back as.....my boss will be here in a few minutes please wait. This is code for it could be a few minutes or it could be one hour. But.....we were desperate so we waited......and waited....and waited....finally the shop owner arrived and she spoke very good English. She also brought her tailor with her. So...they fitted the dress to Abi with metal pinch clips that we use to hold papers together. They took her measurements and then said they could have a new dress made by tomorrow at 1:00. Wow!!! We just asked for a new dress... size M. We agreed to pay full price for this custom made dress....it will be about $65. This could only happen in Shanghai.

Stay tuned for the end of this saga....I will pick up the dress while Abi is in school tomorrow so she will not have an opportunity to try it on before the dance. We are keeping our fingers crossed that (A) the dress gets made in time, (B) it fits when Abi puts it on.

I think we are all healthy again. Abi went to school today and then watched her team play basketball. The doctor said no PE or Basketball for this week. I don't think she minded missing PE but it was hard to sit on the bench during the game tonight. She says she is going to play on Friday.

Tim had a dinner meeting this evening and just walked in the door. He changed his clothes and is now on a conference call.....it is 9:10pm...his second shift is just starting. Poor guy!

I had a Chinese lesson today after missing three in a row because Abi was sick. I was not heart broken to miss my lessons but I think I forgot everything I have learned in that short time. I could have saved a lot of time and energy if we had moved to Ireland or some other place that speaks English. After my Chinese lesson I went to the migrant school to help the kids learn English. The fourth grade class had a substitute teacher today. She spoke very good English and asked one of the girls if she had an English name. She said "No....but I would like one." So....I listened to her Chinese name and gave her the name Hanna. She looked like a Hanna and her Chinese name sounded similar. This started a run on English names and I was mobbed by all those who wanted a name. It was very cute and crazy! Kids yelling out their Chinese names, jumping up and down to get my attention and giggling at each other. Thank goodness....the bell rang and we all had to go to class.

Abi has final exams next week starting on Friday....that is good because we are getting closer to coming home!!!

Sights from Tim's trip to the Mountains
Tim's work group
Veggies drying

Peppers drying

Water town

Dried Pumpkin

Beautiful mountains in the background

Work group waiting for the gondola...the sign above says...you have a

two hour wait from this point.

Abi has been sick off and on for the past two weeks. I took her to the doctor yesterday and he said she had a bacterial infection and gave her some antibiotics. She slept all day and is feeling better tonight. I think she is going to go back to school tomorrow.

Tim is away this weekend with his work group. It sounds like things are going much better this time for him. They took an over night train to a mountain area about 12 hours from Shanghai. He called me yesterday and said he was standing in the spot that they filmed Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It is a bamboo forest with a record number of different species of bamboo. He said the weather was beautiful.

I spent yesterday exploring a long list of fabric shops looking for supplies for the quilt class I will be teaching in January. I only made it through half of my list. Today I am going to visit a quilt store (there are only two in Shanghai) in the Shanghai Mart. I am hoping to find some acrylic rulers with inches instead of cm.

Abi got home late yesterday....first school....then basketball practice....then dinner and bible study. Tonight she is going to a dance sponsored by the youth group at the Community Center. It is a black tie event and she decided on Thursday evening that she would go and of course she needs a dress.......Yikes!!! Luckily for us one of my friends is a dress maker and is going to cut off the bottom of Abi's black dress and shortening it. Waaalaa...a new dress is born. Thank God for friends!!! We are going over this morning to pick up the dress. The dance is tonight....nothing like last minute planning.....got to love these teen!!!

Our tree arrived this afternoon. Yippee!!!! The delivery men had helmets on when they brought the tree in so I am pretty sure it was transported on some sort of bike.

Tree delivery

It looks pretty good except for the curvy trunk....we turned
that toward the wall so we can't see it....magic!!

Tah Dah!! We have a tree with lights and ornaments!!!

Oh Christmas tree...Oh Christmas tree...how lovely are your branches!!!

I have been searching for an old Chinese bench to put in our entry area. I have looked in many antique shops and on the street but have not been able to find one in the condition and at the price that I am willing to pay. Well....on Monday I went to one of our favorite tailors at the fabric market to have a jacket made. AND.....in their little "sitting" area there was a bench....exactly what I was looking for!!! As I think back on this....my mom sat on this bench while she waited for my Dad to try on his suits. I have been to this tailor many times and never noticed "the bench". To make a long story short....I bought the bench from the tailor. I think this is really fun because I know exactly where it came from and how it was used. Ahhhh....I am soooooo easily entertained!!!The bench...."tailor made"

and now the quilt has a friend....
Abi says that the bench needs something on it....Oh darn...I guess I will have
to do some more shopping.
BTW....the twigs are now standing where the water cooler used to reside.

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing at a flower market in HongQiao and found some Christmas dishes. So...as soon as Thanksgiving was over we got the dishes out and are using them at dinner. Tim is giving Abi and I a very hard time because it is "not even December 1st" yet. We think he might be a little bit of a Scrooge but he stopped and got Christmas lights for our tree tonight so I think he is just bluffing.

We have snowman dishes for fun.......

and poinsettia dishes for those fancier meals....

and a few extras just in case we need....well.....more dishes...

Abi went to school yesterday but stayed home again today. Her throat is still very sore and she has a low grade fever. She only had a half day of school today because it is "career day" so if she was going to miss another day of school....today was a good day.

When Abi was at school yesterday she saw our Christmas tree. It is still hanging around the school along with six other trees. They said the tree men was overwhelmed with deliveries. I am assuming the trees are all being delivered on the back of a bicycle. Imagine a 2 meter tall potted Christmas tree on the back of a bike. We see things like this every day.....I am amazed what they can carry on a bike. Several times we have seen a man with 10 or more wicker chairs tied to his bike.

I am just hanging around the house today with Abi and working on a quilt. I went to the little bakery by our apartments this morning and it was pretty cold outside. Maybe winter is going to stay this time.

Abi is still not feeling great this morning but she went to school anyway. Tim had a conference call that started at 5:30am and he is still on that call. We really enjoyed last week because he did not have early or late calls because of the holiday in the States. Later this afternoon he is going "business" golfing. He showed me the course on the computer last night and it looks really hard....mostly islands. Yikes!!!

I am going to the fabric market this morning to pick up a jacket and some shirts and then a group of women from our apartment building are going to lunch in Puxi. They described the restaurant as southeast Asian. I am not sure what to expect...but I bet it will be an adventure!!!

We can see two bridges this morning but it is still very smoggy and nasty looking outside. On days like these I feel that we should all be wearing respirators...when you can see the air, it just can not be good for your health.

I have several quilt projects going. I machine quilted two last week and then decided that I did not like one of them.....so....I have been "unquilting" it for the past several days. 'Unquilting" is not nearly as much fun as quilting.

Over the weekend Tim moved our water cooler out of our entry area and into the kitchen. The kitchen is a logical place for a water cooler but there were no available plug ins. This is true throughout our apartment....there are very few electric plugs. Tim is very handy and was able to get power to the water cooler but it only had power if we left the kitchen lights on. He found some wires behind the microwave that could be "hard wired" for the cooler but the electric system is a little different here so he did not want to mess with it. So....yesterday Xiao Zhang called our "handyman". He arrived shortly after she called (I still find this amazing....in the US we would have to wait for days) and after looking at the situation...said it would be 50 kuai (about 7 dollars). He knew exactly what he was doing and got the job done quickly. He is starting to be a "regular" around our house. He hangs pictures, does electrical, and yesterday he told me he can also do dry wall. Hmmmmm....I wonder if he paints?

It is Monday night and we are still waiting for our Christmas tree to be delivered. I made some calls today and I am hoping they will figure it out by tomorrow.

Abi stayed home from school today with a sore throat and a sinus ache. She is doing better this evening and spent most of the day in bed doing all the school work that she missed by not being at school today. We took a break this afternoon and watched a Christmas movie to get us in the holiday spirit and made some more Christmas ornaments while we watched the movie.

Christmas ornaments for the missing tree

The weather was really ugly today...we could not even see one bridge. The fog/smog was very thick all day.

This evening Abi was getting a little cabin fever and pushed Tim and I out the door to go swimming. She took her reading book with us and read while we swam.

Not a very exciting day in China....

We are still waiting for our Christmas tree to arrive.....it was supposed to be delivered last night...then we expected it today...and still no tree. We are starting to wonder what happened to it.....I guess we will figure that out tomorrow. In the mean time....we bought a ton of red, clear, and pearl beads at the market today. We also bought some silver wire and red ribbon and we have begun production of our Christmas ornaments. So...tree or no tree we will have ornaments.

It is Sunday evening....Tim went across the street to get a massage...Abi and I are procrastinating doing our homework because playing with the beads is way more fun than Chinese lessons and History lessons.

We enjoyed our mini version of a turkey dinner tonight and are looking forward to a Turkey sandwich for lunch tomorrow. BTW....a frozen turkey....about the size for one family was between Y550 - Y750....that is $75 - $100. YIKES!!! I bought a small turkey breast and it was also $75. Needless to say....we will not be having turkey very often while we are in China and we are REALLY going to enjoy our turkey sandwiches.

FYI...has anyone noticed what is happening to the yuan? When we moved here the exchange rate was about 8-1 US dollar....now it is about 7.3 - 1 US dollar.

This afternoon as we were driving back to our apartment and our driver pointed to the hole in the knee of Abi's jeans and said......"How do you say this?...Broken?" We all laughed and said .... ...well.... you can say torn or ripped. Then she said....."My son (20 year old university student) has this in his pants....he does not like it. So I tell him...My bosses daughter has this in her pants and she likes it. So...I tell him....don't worry....it is .....how do you say?" And I said "trendy?" She said..."yes....I understand....I tell him not to worry about his jeans." Then she said....how do you spell trendy?" We all cracked up....

Artwork from the Christmas Bazaar

This is the block print we found today....it is called "the red door".
It reminded us of a picture we took in Tibet.....

This is the photo we took in Tibet....the little girl was sooooooooo cute.....

These are the tribal masks we found...they look a little scary here but they
are really friendlier in person.

Good news.....three of our rugs arrived from Tibet last week...this is one of them.....

Today we got up early and went to JinQiao. Abi's school was having a Christmas Bazaar....much like the bazaars in the US. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. They had some very interesting vendors. One of my favorite purchases....a pair of tribal masks to go with a picture that Abi bought in Africa. We also bought a live Christmas tree.....this was not really planned but Abi really wanted to have a tree in our Apartment and the price was right. We bought a 2 meter tall potted tree for Y125. The delivery fee was Y45 because we live 20 minutes away from the school. So....our total investment...$22.67. They are supposed to deliver the tree tonight. Now that is service!!!

After the bazaar we raced back home and picked up our food, drinks, and neighbors and then went back out to JinQiao for another Thanksgiving dinner. It was a join effort between eight families and we all had a very nice time. Our contribution....desserts, wine, and an appetizer.

The feast

Tim carving the turkey

Tim serving the turkey to Angie

The cast of characters

Dessert anyone???

We came home and took down all of our fall decorations and got out our Christmas decorations....that took about 15 minutes. There is something to be said about minimalism!!! Abi made a tree topper angel out of a paper doilie, a toilet paper roll, and a tennis ball.

PS....we just can't help ourselves...Abi and I are going to Yu garden tomorrow to buy beads and wire to make ornaments for our tree.

PS #2.....we listened to the radio broadcast of the first half of the BSU/Hawaii football game on our way home from Abi's school. You just have to love technology.....we were driving in the car in China....listening to the radio broadcast from our home town through Tim's computer and the internet. How cool is that?

Feeling a little home sick we got up on Friday and created our own Black Friday shopping. We did not have "super sale" newspaper ads to entertain us but we made the best of our day. We started off at City Diner (our second favorite breakfast place) in downtown Puxi and then made our way around the city looking for a few Christmas gifts. One of our big finds....CRANBERRY JELLY. Although this was not a Christmas present it felt like one!!! A turkey sandwich is just not right without cranberry jelly.....well....actually I really don't like cranberry jelly but Tim does.

Notice anything strange about the sign on the back of the bus? Abi...the alert sign watcher... noticed this as we were driving through Puxi.

Tim and Deb....sitting in the back seat of our "hot mini van". We miss driving ourselves but on days like "black Friday" it is nice to be driven.

The blimp has been flying around the city lately......and on Friday it flew right over the river in front of our apartment.

Abi and Deb at City Diner Cafe

It does not feel like Thanksgiving week. In our "normal" life we would be driving to Idaho today to celebrate the holiday with our extended family. This year Abi and Tim have school and work on Thursday.....that is so weird!!! Tucker also has to work around the holiday and chose to work this week and request time off at Christmas when we will all be home together. This will be our first Thanksgiving without Tucker and his without us. If I think about it too much I will start to "bubble".

We are taking Abi out of school a few hours early tomorrow (our Thursday) so we can go to dinner with some US expat families. The other HP group made arrangements to rent a restaurant in Pudong and they are preparing a traditional turkey dinner. So....about 45 of our closest friends (that we will meet for the first time tomorrow) will enjoy dinner together. It is good to have a community of people to celebrate our crazy traditions with.

No school for Abi on Friday and Tim is going to take the day off work. So.....we are going to create our own "Black Friday" and do a bit of Christmas shopping.

On Saturday we will have another Thanksgiving celebration with my coffee connection friends. I have been trying to introduce Tim to this group for a while but something always comes up and we miss the opportunity. The dinner is a joint effort with each family bringing a few dishes to share.

We are thankful for our family and our many friends all over the country and world. We send you happy thoughts and blessings this Thanksgiving!!!

Tim is home from Prague!!! He is happy to back to the "warmer" weather....he said Prague is beautiful....pictures to follow.

Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai

Abi and I with Andy Roddick...it was so nice of him to come out in the rain!!!
Outside of Qi Zhong Tennis Center there were many terracotta soldiers....amazingly enough...all of them had faces of the tennis players....

Yesterday Abi and I sent most of the day with my friend Brenda at the Tennis Masters Cup. The stadium is located about one hour drive from our house in a part of Shanghai I had very seen before. The location for the stadium is a little bit remote....it is accessible by the subway and it is a long taxi drive.

We watched two doubles matches and then the two singles matches. The first singles match was Roddick vs Ferrer....Andy did not do very well...they only went two sets. The second singles match was Federer vs Nadal.....Federer won.....also in two sets

Doubles match....the orange team won.

Stadium lights between matches....

A. Rod vs Ferrer...Andy is on the left.

Federer serving....

Nadal receiving the serve..

Federer wins.... 6-1, 6-3

Another week has flown by....It is Thursday evening...Tim is still in Prague (it is snowing there) and Abi is on her way home from basketball practice. I spent the day working on a couple of quilt projects and went to a Thanksgiving lunch held by the American Woman's Club of Shanghai. We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. In true China style the turkeys were very fresh...two of them greeted us at the door (still living) and two were....well...lets just say they did not make it to the "greeting". I heard they arrived yesterday from the US. I thought they tasted a little jet lagged. Ha Ha

The big Turkey!!! and the paper centerpiece. I was the lucky winner of the table decoration.

Lunch with the gang....

Sherie (on the left...she is from Portland, OR) and Ceyda....

I had two more Chinese lessons this week....I am so happy with my new teacher (not that I am retaining much of what she teaches me) because she is pushing me out of my comfort zone. I have to do an oral report every class period about what is happening in the real world...AND I have to say it in Chinese...of all the nerve!!!

Wednesday I got to see my Chinese students again....they were just as cute as always. I am getting to know the teachers better so that is fun as well as helping the kids. I was again humbled by my conversation with one of the teachers. He asked what I did the past two weeks...I told him about my tour of the Shikumen houses. He said he had never been there. I get in the car and cross the river into Puxi several times a week(some times a couple of times a day) and think nothing of it. For some local people it might as well be a different country.

Our 4th grade English lesson this week went like this... A) "Excuse me. Where's the store? (restaurant or movie theater) B)"Over there". A) "Thank you". B) "You're welcome". Our new vocabulary words were... hats, T-shirts, stickers, store, restaurant, and movie theater. I did not make up the lesson...it was in the book. I would guess that none of these kids have ever been close to a movie theater. The 6th grade lesson was about describing people. Their vocabulary words were straight, curly, short, long, black and blond. Our conversation was this...A) Who's that girl over there? B) Which girl? A)That girl. Oh that's Sally. She has long straight black hair. I try to roll play with the kids but they are very shy. A few are warming up to the idea so I think I am making some progress.

No school for Abi tomorrow. It is parent, student, teacher conference day. We will be at the school at 8:00am (Abi is grumbling about this and wanted to know why we had to go at 8:00 instead of 12:00.) and then probably go out for breakfast. Then...maybe make a visit to the fabric market.

I am very excited about Saturday. Our friend Xiao Wu gave us tickets to the Tennis Masters Cup Semi- finals. We will be watching 2 doubles matches and 2 singles matches. Yippee!!!

We are still counting the days until we are back in the states....