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!!!