Yesterday we hosted a group of kids from one of our previous hometowns...Corvallis, Oregon!

Go Beavers!

This group of kids have been studying Mandarin for several years and spent the last three weeks touring and attending Chinese school. They are headed home on Saturday and are at the end of their trip. I took them on the ferry tour to Puxi and then they came back to our apartment and swam for about 2 hours. We fed them pizza and home made chocolate chip cookies....and soda....with ice!!! Then we all sat in the big window and watched the night time city view. They were so happy to have a little taste of home and a place to "hang out" for the evening.

Corvallis kids at the wave pool

Last week I mentioned the adorable baby that my quilting friend is caring for.....well....here she is...Baby Bing...

She came to quilting today and I got to hold her....she is soooooooo cute and soooooo tiny. My handbag weighs more than she does!
Baby Bing has about 15 new quilting "aunties" and we all stood in line to hold her. I don't think I should show these pictures to Abi....

Another quilt finished!!!!

I am calling this one Redwork with a Twist.

I embroidered the block designs with my embroidery machine and then HAND QUILTED the entire quilt! That is a first for me......probably the last too....ha ha.

Today is day four of Abi's "Life as Culinary Arts Intern". It has been a bit of a slow start but I think everything is on track now. She called me while I was at quilting to say that she was going shopping to buy corn. I have never heard anyone so excited about buying corn before. Anyway....they are developing a new recipe and she was put in charge of shopping for the ingredients which required going to three different import stores by taxi. She is getting to be such a "city girl".

She has some great stories about the characters that work in the kitchen. Abi is the only female and the only non-Asian (go figure!) in the kitchen except when the head chef is there...he is a New Yorker. The first day Abi was at work there was a parade of people wandering through the kitchen to see the "blond girl" intern.

Tucker has a big design deadline tomorrow at 9:00am. Keep him in your prayers as he is still in high stress mode and counting the days until his review......June 5 at 10:00am.

We continue to hear heart warming and heart breaking stories about the earthquake victims in Western China. The last report that I heard was that 5 million people are homeless. As a quick reference point....that is about 1 million less people than the entire population of the state of Washington. I have to say that I have been a bit anxious about living in a high rise apartment now and have had a few sleepless nights of worry. They say that all the buildings in Pudong are built to withstand a 5.7 quake and there has never been an earthquake in Shanghai.....well.....until a few weeks ago as we felt the ripple of the quake in Chengdu.

It is hard to know what to do for the quake victims....so......we are going to follow the Community Center lead and donate money to buy tents. We have been assured that these tents will be taken directly to the areas in need.

On a brighter note....one of my quilting friends is a nurse and has volunteered to be on a team to help children recovering from surgeries. Yesterday I got to see a tiny baby that she is helping....oh.....my gosh!!!! She is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute. She is a newborn and was left at a hospital in Hainan because her parents could not take care of her. She was born with a spinal cord defect which has now been corrected. She came on a train with a nurse from Hainan and the doctors in Shanghai did the operation. She is a tiny little thing...weighing just about 5 pounds. They call her Bing and she is now thriving!!! My friend will take care of her until she has recovered from the surgery and they find a family who will adopt her.


To change the subject again....there is a group of kids in Shanghai from Corvallis! They have been studying Chinese for several years and are here on a three week cultural experience. We met some of their parents on Tuesday evening and we will see the kids next Wednesday. Domino's pizza just opened in our neighborhood so I think these kids will be ready for some good American junk food by Wednesday!

Quilting...
I am determined to finish all the quilting projects that I have started before we go home for the summer. Part of me wants to finish them so they are.....well...finished....and the other part of me wants to finish them so I can.....start some more!!!!! Here are three that I finished in the last couple of days.....All of these are more art quilts for the walls....Abi's comments...."Why would you want to put tassels on a quilt...you can't snuggle with tassels!" She has a point but our walls like to snuggle with them!!!

All is well in Shanghai tonight. Xiao Zhangs family members are all okay. There was no damage to her parents home but some damage to her sisters home.

I spent most of the day in a box making workshop.

It was a lot of work but very fun!

and.....it has already been put to work!

Earthquake in China today....

At about 2:45 today our building started swaying. Three of my quilting students were still in our apartment when one of them said..."I think the building is moving". And...it was! The light fixture over the sofa was swaying back and forth and it felt really weird. Our entry door was open and it started making a strange sound against the door frame and the whole room was rocking. We were not shaking....just rocking. The rocking/swaying lasted much longer than a normal earthquake. ....So....at the time this was happening we were not sure if it really was an earthquake or some other strange thing happening to the building. Yikes!!! We decided we should get out of the building so we rushed into the stairway and walk down 36 floors.

The stairway exits to the driveway at the front of our building so we asked the security guards what was happening....they thought we were nuts and had a great laugh. "Crazy Westerners!"

Then....a few minutes later they said all the buildings were shaking....then a little later they said there had been an earthquake in western China.

The earthquake center is the province where Xiao Zhangs parents live. Please keep them in your prayers.

After Abi left for school this morning I went for a walk.....I took my camera with me to keep me entertained....this is what I saw...

Out the elevator and into the lobby...
Past the mail boxes....ours is on the right on the top row
out the back door....
to the walking path that connects our buildings...
this path goes past three buildings...
drivers lined up waiting for passengers....
bikes bikes and more bikes....

Ah...we are now on the street...
walking toward the ferry station and the river front...
entrance to the river park....


path to the river park...
basketball court on the river....not much basketball being played today....mostly just sitting..
ah....the river...

the view from the river....
people excercising and visiting....

This guy is popping up all over town...he is the mascot for the world expo that will be held in Shanghai in 2010..

more river...

river park with the city scape behind...
in the park....
big ships passing....

axelias blooming....makes me a bit home sick...
back on the street....the river walkway is not finished so you have to exit several times along the way....
back to the river walk....

trees are very pretty.....
workmen on the river walk..
more green things...

park decorations....
a lighthouse.....
metal trees with feet...

exit the walk way again onto "pee street"....this is our nick name for this section of street because the taxi drivers like to stop here and use the bushes.....gross!!!!
on the street again...
construction work on the new tunnel....

bus station....

construction work around the bus station...

more work....
more construction....
second ferry station....people getting ready to board...

more buses...
floating restaurant...
city scape....

pedestrian walkway....
City shop....our import grocery store...
back side of the river park...

on the street for a while longer....
up the stairs....
ah....the river again.......with a huge white ship passing a smaller red ship...

watching the river...
resturants and ....coffee shops!!..do you recogonize those green umberllias?
STARBUCKS!....no time to stop today....

More resturants....
and.....a very small McDonalds...
outdoor seating for ice cream.....

this is the newest section of the river front walkway...
more outdoor seating...
view of The Bund.....

more green space....
the world globe building....
the river bend.....

the end of the walk way.....time to turn around....
Wow!...there are a lot of tall buildings here....
more of the river....

looks very different going this direction...
ah....almost home....these are our buildings in the background...
more green space...

back on the road again.....
our street.....
more of our street....and now back to the lobby....