We are back in Shanghai....got home about 1:00 this afternoon. We were greeted by Xiao Zhang and a very clean house. The kids waisted no time getting their laundry to her so they would have clean clothes tomorrow to take with us to Beijing.

We had a great time in Hong Kong. It was hot but to my surprise much cooler than Shanghai. We saw blue sky and white clouds. Everyone spoke English which made life very easy. Overall I would say that Hong Kong is much much cleaner than Shanghai and felt more like "home". It was a very pleasant break!!! I can't wait to go back again...it is just a two hour flight from Shanghai, Abi and I think we could fly down and back in one day and do some serious shopping!!!

We took a three hour tour the first afternoon we were in Hong Kong so we could understand the layout of the city and become familiar with the "points of interest". Hong Kong is very "international" and we loved it!!!!!! There were Western style shopping malls, good food, wonderful views, and fresh air....sounds weird...but after living in Shanghai...blue sky and fresh air is such a wonderful sight. Oh....and did I mention it was very clean??? Hmmm...I wonder if I would think it was a clean city if I had not been living in Shanghai for the past 6 months???? The city has many different "mid-level" walk ways and outdoor escalators to make it easier to cross the busy roads and to get up the steep hill. We found the walkways a little challenging because they go in and out of different buildings and it was not easy to see if we were taking the right walkway. We walked in circles a few times and back tracked through large office buildings and one incredibly huge mall. But...the malls and buildings were clean and so were the bathrooms!!!! AND....the bathrooms had toilet paper!!! Small conveniences bring such joy!!!

When we got back to Shanghai today we stopped at Pizza Hut for lunch. I was quickly reminded that we were back in Shanghai when our waitress could not understand what we wanted to order. AAAhhhhh...I think it was a little depressing for all of us.

We are going to get some rest this afternoon, pack tomorrow, (Tim has to work most of the day), and then muster our energy and enthusiasm to make our trip to Beijing. I have heard that Beijing is very different from Shanghai.......Shanghai is the "international" city. But...Beijing has been making a lot of improvements for the Olympics so we may be pleasantly surprised. One thing for sure.....we are sooooo excited to see Kim when we get to Beijing. I think Tucker is counting the seconds!!!!

This is the latest in "fast food" in Hong Kong. In the food court at one of the malls we ordered "pepper steak" and rice. The steak and rice were served on a sizzling hot plate and the meat cooked as we turned it on the plate with chopsticks. We all thought it was wonderful.

This is the Hong Kong sky line from the top of Victoria Peak. We took a taxi to the top of the peak, eat dinner, and then road the tram back to the bottom after the sun set.

Tucker and Abi at the top of Victoria Peak with Hong Kong harbor in the background

Sunset from Victoria Peak looking West

We found a shopping mall...sort of by accident....on Sunday morning. The mall was in and area called Mongkok on the Kowloon Peninsula. The interesting thing about this mall were the escalators and the "spiral". The fourth floor had a four story atrium AND a four story escalator. You could expedite your trip to the top of the mall by way of two-four story escalators...4th floor to the 8th floor and then again from the 8th floor to the 12th floor. There were smaller escalators to individual floors and then you could "spiral" your way to the next floor by way of an upward walk-way.

This is one of the crazy stairs in the Mall in Mongkok. The stairs were illuminated with rainbow lights that changed colors.

Crazy kids (all three) on the escalator.

The "family" on the outdoor mid-level escalators....it was really hot and steamy on this escalator.


Night time in Hong Kong. I really liked the signs in Hong Kong....they hang over the street which is very different than Shanghai.

Very "cute" red taxis everywhere. Abi thought they looked like "Harry Potter" taxis.

Sandpan Boats

The tall building on the left is the IFC building. It is taller than the JinMao in Shanghai so it must be the 3rd tallest building in the world.....I am guessing this little factoid.

Abi and Tucker at the movie theater......we saw the latest Harry Potter in a wonderful...clean...very comfortable theater!!!

Stanley Beach - Hong Kong

Kowloon Peninsula across the bay from Hong Kong.

Abi watching the light show. Every night at 8:00 there is a huge light show on both sides of the harbor...it was pretty spectacular.

More beach....our driver told us that every year there are shark attacks on these beaches....YIKES!!!

The whole family went to a market today. We always find it amusing when we see "fake" products that have misspelled words on them or have a funny translation. Today we saw a leather belt that was supposed to say Harley Davidson but instead it said...Harei Davehong.
Tim bought a tee-shirt for Tucker that says...I come to Shanghai. I actually think the shirt was printed that way on purpose. We also saw a sign on the escalator that said....."Careless Bump Head".

Sad news....the Shanghai Daily reported yesterday that they have formed a task force of University Students to spot and report all misspelled or mistranslated signs. The city is planning to "clean up" it's image and get rid of all the "funny" signs. I am sad about this because it always makes me laugh when we find one of these signs. One of the "example" signs in the paper said.... "Slip Carefully". What happens if you Slip Recklessly??? Or....what happens if you don't slip at all????

Tim braved the heat and spent the day in a "golf" meeting. Tucker, Abi, and I went out briefly this afternoon to get lunch and pick up some shoes that Abi ordered. We discovered a place in the fabric market that makes custom shoes....ie....they can make them to fit us Westerners with large feet. Sad news....the shoes were not back from the factory. Now we have to go back tomorrow. AAARRRRGGGG! Oh well....TJC!!!

I have been on a hiatus from Chinese language lessons for a couple of weeks while the school found a new teacher for me. My last teacher graduated from University and went to Beijing while she is waiting to be accepted in a Masters program in the US. My new teacher started on Monday. This is good news.....except.....she will start University again in September so she is just temporary. (Note: She is Tuckers age....born in the year of the tuzi (rabbit) Wow! Do I feel old!) Anyway....starting in September I will have another new teacher.....#4 teacher in 6 months. I am starting to get a complex. After a friendly but stern conversation with Mandarin Today (which went something like this....."I am going to find another language school that can retain teachers on a long term basis." "Please do not invoice HP for any classes after August 31st and refund all prepaid invoices through the remaining year.") they assured me that the "September teacher" has a long term commitment. Hmmmm....I wonder? I decided to take one more chance with Mandarin Today because I will have Tim's teacher and he highly recommended her.

Today in my Chinese lesson I learned how to ask someone "covertly" how old they are. It would be rude to ask someone directly how old they were so the Chinese have a way of finding out this information by asking a different question. The question is.....Ni shu shenme? This literally translates to...You belong to what year? By "what year" they mean the zodiac sign you were born under. If you know this information....you can determine the persons age pretty easily. For example: I was born under the year of the RAT....laugh if you want...Tim is a HOG. In order to be born in the year of the RAT I would have been born in the year 1948, 1960, 1972, or 1984. By process of elimination you will discover that I am 35 years old....born in the year 1972. Stop laughing!!!!

News from Sauna City

There are a lot of jokes going around Shanghai about "cardboard buns". There was a cartoon in the newspaper today targeted at the production of cardboard buns and in the "buzzwords" section (this appears once a week to describe the newest Chinese words that relate to pop culture etc..) there is a new word zhixianbaozi which means "cardboard bun". I find this very entertaining!!!

We went out in the heat this morning for a few hours....Tucker finished the newest Harry Potter book last night so he was looking for new reading material. The HPotter movie does not come out in Shanghai until August 11th so we are planning to see it in Hong Kong next weekend. Abi and I decided we should read the 5th Harry Potter book before we see the movie. Reading is a good activity for hot muggy days.....so are naps!!!

We are going to Hong Kong on Friday...another hot and muggy place. Tucker has to leave the country for at least one day. He has a multi entry visa but he can only stay 30 consecutive days during one visit. So...we are taking a little vacation to see Hong Kong. We will be back to Shanghai for one day before we take the train to Beijing to meet Kim.

News from China....

You may have heard a news story a couple of weeks ago from China about a factory that was making steamed BBQ pork buns with cardboard filling instead of pork. The story was very graphic about how the factory was cutting up recycled cardboard, soaking it in a chemical to break down the glue, and then soaking it in pork broth to give it "flavor". The story made international news and totally grossed me out. The reportor said that the factory supplied "pork buns" to many restaurants and stores all over China. Note: you can buy frozen buns at the store and then steam them at home.

.....Now go back a few weeks.... Xiao Zhang has been making us "snacks" in the afternoon since Tucker arrived and Abi has been out of school. She has been introducing us to some local Chinese foods and a few times she made us....guess what???.....Steamed Pork Buns!!! These buns are pretty good, they are very filling, and they are not something that I could eat very often. ......A few days after we ate the steamed pork buns the news broke about the "cardboard buns".


.....Wednesday....XZhang makes steamed buns for us again.... I tried but I just could not eat them...all I could think about was cardboard and the dirty floor that the cardboard was sitting on at the factory. Later that night Tucker and I were looking in our freezer and guess what we found????....boxes and boxes of steamed buns. AAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!

.......Today.... The Shanghai Daily announced that the story about the "cardboard buns" was false....it says that the TV reporter made up the story because he had a deadline. It said that investigators assigned to the case could not find any "illegalities" at any of the factories they visited. The reporter has been "sacked" (a direct quote) and the senior editors at the TV station were "punished" (another direct quote) for reporting a false story.

Tim read this article to me today while we were driving.....I said....a huh.....Surrrrre it was made up! When we got home I told Abi about the story......and......She said the same thing I did. I think we are becoming.....shall we say....skeptical?

The kids stayed home today to read their books.....so....Tim and I went out to breakfast. Our mission for the day was to purchase Tim some new golf clubs....his belated fathers day and birthday gift. We were successful and he just went out the door to take the golf clubs for a test run at the driving range.

While we were out shopping today we got into a little fender bender. We were on our way to the Shanghai Grand Theater to buy tickets for Mama Mia when the car behind us ran into the back of our van. Things work a little differently in Shanghai when there is a car accident....but the long and short of it was that it took over an hour to get it all sorted out. One hour in the middle of the day in the summer in Shanghai is like 4 days!!!! So....Tim and I got out of the car and walked around Peoples Square while Mr. Zhang worked through the details. Here are some pictures from our "sauna walk".

This is the Shanghai Museum

This is an intersection at People's Square...note all the umbrellas...they are for the sun not the rain.

More umbrellas

The Urban Planning Building

It was another hot day in Shanghai. The kids did not want to leave the house and I was dreaming about a vacation in Alaska. I went out to run two errands and only made it to one before I went back to the air conditioning.

Tonight we went to dinner in Puxi.....just on the other side of the river in an area called The Bund. It was developed by the English so the buildings are all very "English style. It is now mostly a financial district with shopping and restaurants scattered among the bank buildings. We watched another rain and lightning storm while we were eating. But....when we went outside after the storm....it was still hot and muggy. So....Tim and I contributed to the delinquency of our children....we took them to the ice bar so we could cool off.

There is no "drinking age" in China so Tucker and Abi are not considered "minors". The "ice bar" is really a big "freezer" with tables that look like they are made of ice......before you go in they give you a big parka to wear. It was very refreshing after a long hot Shanghai day. We did not stay long because it was really cold and they did not serve any "kid" drinks. It was an interesting experience going from hot and muggy to freezing and back to hot and muggy. It took a long time for Tim's glasses to un-fog after we came out of the "freezer".

Tim and Deb dressed for dinner.

Abi taking a picture of Tucker taking our picture.

Ah....such sweet kids.

Typical big brother

Little sister gets a hug.

Remember the phrase "I'm melting" from the Wizard of OZ? Well....We're melting!!! It's hot and it is muggy and did I mention it is hot???


Yesterday we had the opportunity to visit with a photographer by the name of Mr. Wang. Mr. Wang is quite famous in Shanghai. His is mostly recognized by his company name, Gang of One, and his photos look very candid and are often of Chinese people in rural areas. I met him at the Community Center in May when he was giving a presentation. He is a very nice man and invited us to visit his studio while Tucker was in Shanghai this summer. He spent about an hour with Tucker, Abi and I talking about his work as a photographer, some of his assignments, and some technical camera stuff that went right over my head. He just returned from a photo shoot in Mongolia for the Lays potato chip company. You can visit his web site if you want to see his work at http://www.gangofone.com.cn/

It is a little after 9pm..... Tucker went to bed early tonight, Abi is deep into her "summer" reading, and Tim is guess what???.....on a conference call. Abi has to read two books for school next year (which starts in 26 days......Gulp!!!) and one of the books is Lonesome Dove. This is just a light read with only 850 pages!!!!.....of which she has read 21 pages. The new Harry Potter book comes out this Saturday so Tucker and Abi can "bond" while they enjoy their summer reading. A good activity for these hot hot days!!!

Tim is up to his eyeballs in work.....one of his supplier's factories is in Japan at the epicenter of the earthquake....and it sounds like there is going to be a dock workers strike that will cause more "issues". I don't know why he can not control these things???? ha ha!!!

I have finished a couple more quilts.....also a good activity for hot sticky days!!!

This is a smaller quilt that I am going to hang on the wall. It was an experiment to see if I could mix silk and cotton fabrics together. It worked pretty well, however.....the silk stretches so next time I will put interfacing on the back of the silk before I cut it. Hopefully the bright red will add some color to our very boring "apartment white" walls.

I am calling this my "Out of Africa" quilt in honor of Abi's trip to Africa this summer and because I thought the spots and strips in the fabric looked like animals from Africa. This was also an experiment using two different cutting techniques and it was great practice for machine quilting.

I have one more quilt that is ready to be "quilted" and then I can make some more tops!!! So many fabrics and ideas.........so little time!!!

Yesterday we explored the "Art and Bookstore" street in Downtown Puxi. We walked from Peoples Square to The Bund on Fuzhou road. There are book stores and art supply stores on both sides of the street. The weather was actually pretty nice...not too hot and not too muggy.

This is a magazine and newspaper store.

It is hard to tell from this picture but this crowd of people are on a crosswalk. I have never seen so many people in one small space before.

This is the first floor of a 7 floor book store. It was wall to wall people everywhere!!!

Tim and Tucker in an art store on Fuzhou Road.

Dinner at the Japanese restaurant - Abi's choice since she just got back from Africa.



Tucker and Abi showing off their perfect manners at dinner. I think Abi is still a little jet lagged.

We taught Xiao Zhang how to make pancakes today. After one pancake...she was a pro. We also tried some little pumpkin things that she made for us. They were pretty tasty....hard to describe but tasty.

We went for a walk after breakfast.....thought we would walk around the "hood" and see some new sights. We lasted about 20 minutes...it is hot and muggy, muggy, muggy. Norma and Laura....you will not be sorry that you missed the heat in Shanghai.

Mops for sale at a side street market

Shanghai is a city of contradictions....here is an example of the old and the new side by side.

We are spending the rest of the day inside.....playing Wii. Tucker brought his game with him so we are bowling, tennis, baseball and golf all in the comfort of our air conditioned living room.

Abi is home!!! We picked her up at the airport late this afternoon and took her out to dinner. We downloaded her pictures to Tim's computer and she gave us a photo tour of her trip to Africa while we were in the restaurant. What an amazing adventure and experience. She said she would share some of her pictures.


It is great to have everyone home together tonight.

Abi called tonight to say she was heading to the airport to come home! Yippee!!!! I can't wait to put my arms around her. Tucker is also excited to see her....I think he is getting tired of the "old people".

Not much going on this week. We have been staying inside where it is cool. The weather continues to be hot and muggy. The fog has been hanging around this past week also. I was told today that it is not fog....it is pollution. How Gross!!! Imagine what that is doing to our lungs and overall health.

Interesting article in the newspaper this week.
A lady was pictured with her pets......120 cats. I am not making this up....really! She estimates that she has rescued about 1200 cats over the past several years. Rescued from what you ask?......from restaurants. Triple Gross!!!!

Big step for Tucker today......he went out into the city of Shanghai by himself and survived. That is a huge accomplishment!!!

Tim is on his first conference call for the evening....his second one starts at 10:00pm and goes until 11:30. But...he said not to worry because his first call tomorrow does not start until 6:3oam.....very funny!

Tucker's day to be the cooking teacher.

Notice how short the kitchen cabinets are....this is not just an illusion because Tucker is so tall....they really are short. Unlike Western homes the kitchens are usually small, have no air conditioning, and are not the center of the home. Ours is a long galley style kitchen with the very basic cooking supplies. I have discovered we really don't need a lot of "stuff".

This is Tucker and Xiao Zhang....

The results of all the hard work in the kitchen.

It is Tuesday morning and from inside it looks hazy and rainy....and I know it is muggy too....thank goodness for air conditioning!!!

Tim is working at home this morning. He finished his last conference call at 11:30pm yesterday and started his day with another conference call at 6:00am this morning. This is the life of an American executive in China. Work during normal "China" hours in the day and having conference calls in the very early morning and late evenings with the States. Our Saturdays are still Fridays in the US so often times Tim will also have conference calls on Saturday mornings. See how much fun he is having??? I listened to a speaker at the Community Center last Friday about the pressure and stress that working expats are experiencing. First they are brought to China to "turn things around", "build things up", or "start something completely new". They are perceived to be the "Messiah" by the local workers with the expectation that they are coming to "fix all their problems". They work long hours and try to balance "work and family" life. They worry about their families transition and feel responsible for any "issues" regarding unhappy kids and spouses. They feel enormous pressure to preform for the company because the corporations spend a lot of money to relocate the employee and their families. Then...they face the "cultural differences" and the much slower pace that things get done in China. Add too all of this some international travel and jet lag. Wow!!!! That is a lot to deal with. Good days and bad days are mixed together....they have a saying here....some days are Shang-hi's and some days are Shang-lows. I admire Tim's ability to deal with all of this and still be a nice person.

Last night Tucker taught Xiao Zhang to make beef strogenoff. It was fun to watch. Xiao Zhang talks to us in Chinese mostly with some broken English and often times we do not know the words that she is saying but some how we manage to communicate and understand the "basic" message. I have pictures but for some reason the Internet will not let me upload them right now.....so watch for those later.

With mixed results with the tailors at the fabric market we invited a tailor to our house this morning that makes "house calls". I want to have some shirts make and Tucker has designed two pairs of shorts for his ID portfolio. I will let you know how this works out.

Tim took these pictures today......Sights from our walk to Puxi....Tucker and I on the ferry. I feel shorter and shorter everyday!!

Part of the ferry dock.

This is our favorite picture for the day. This little guy was sitting next to a fruit stand enjoying his watermelon.

Washing the dishes in his kitchen.


There is a box full of watermelons for sale in front of this home.

Fish drying on the sidewalk

The World Financial Center (tall building in the center) continues to get taller.

Today Tucker, Tim, and I walked to the ferry today and explored the other side of the river. It was hot and very very muggy. We only lasted a few hours but it was really fun. Tucker and Tim took some great pictures....which I hope they will share.... Here are some of the pictures I took.... This was taken in one of the alleys by the Yu Garden. We walked through some of the streets that have markets and food vendors. Tim bought an antique wood plane from a very cute old guy. His shop was the size of a small closet and his merchandise was old planes and saws.

The Ferry that crosses the Haungpu river.

Good thing Tucker is here to to walk Tim across the street!!!

Ticket booth for the ferry.

Pajamas in the middle of the afternoon!!!