Diving In!

The kids had so much fun jumping, twisting, flipping and diving off the diving board at one of the hotel pools. The girls had never been off a diving board before, and it had been a very long time for Caleb and Seth. Trampoline experience served them well, though, and the boys were soon doing flips with ease. Both girls jumped off fearlessly their first time... somehow I remember long hesitations on my part as a child, when faced with the distance between the board and the water. I did just fine this time, though!

Isn't it funny how it looks like Madelyn is crawling over the water in this picture?!
Gwen's classic jumping posture... knees bent like this, same every time. She loved it! Our only sorrow with the fun of the diving board was that Uncle Justin wasn't with us to accelerate the rate at which the children would try increasingly dangerous tricks! Wink, wink.

Tattoos on the Beach

The guys show off their henna tattoos. Don't worry, Nanny, they wear off in about two weeks! I was actually quite surprised that Scott wanted to get one, but it seemed like the thing to do, I guess! Don't they all look pleased?
The "tattoo guy" (do we call him an artist?) transferred the design on to the skin, then traced over it with a little pointed instrument (perhaps a stick!) dipped in henna. The girls both got tattoos also, but I don't have a picture of theirs. Madelyn's is the side view of a little striped cat, and Gwen's is Hello Kitty. Both of them have their tattoos on their ankles. I wasn't really into the tattoo thing, so I guess I'm the odd one out!

Snapshots of Thailand

This little shrine of sorts was on the grounds of our hotel.

Traditional Thai musicians in a restaurant where we had dinner one night.

This picture was taken for us by a friendly stranger after our dinner at a place called "On the Rock", a restaurant that we had to follow many twists and turns of this wooden bridge through what seemed to be rainforest to get up to. It was literally built into a cliff overlooking the shoreline. As seems to be common, the sides of the resaurant were all open to the elements... evidently it is warm enough year round for this to work. It allowed the sounds of the Andaman Sea to drift right in, providing wonderful dinner music! The lobby of our hotel was this way also, not enclosed.

This was the uniform for the traffic police. Not sure what this large nut was, but it appeared to have fallen from the palm trees near the beach. Coconut?

Loved these flowering trees. Anyone know what they are called?

Before We Leave

The hotel room is almost quiet, except for the whispers of one little girl who is the only one of the six of us who had a nap today. We are all trying to grab a couple of hours of sleep before we get up in the middle of the night to catch our 3:45 a.m. flight back to Shanghai. We've been playing on the beach in Thailand for the last few days, during the Chinese National Day week-long holiday, and it's been such a treat. I'm hoping to post some pictures once we get home tomorrow, but right now that seems a long way off!

Crossing the Huangpu River

It's the cheapest entertainment around, at only 1 yuan (12 cents) for adults and kids ride free. If you want to bring your bike along, it costs 1.3 yuan. It's great fun to be down among the boats and barges. We enjoyed the very different view of the Shanghai skyline than we get from our apartment!

The Jinmao Tower on the left, and the nearly completely World Financial Center on the right.

This is our complex, Shimao Riviera Garden. Our building is the second one in from the right.

Leap of Faith

What you can't see in this pictures is that Seth has just come up a 12-15 foot high, steep skating ramp. At the moment I took the picture he was jumping up onto the flat area above the ramp. I love the look of concentration on his face.

Glad Return

Scott arrived home late afternoon yesterday, after eight days away. He had been in the US, so he seemed very far away from us. We are so very glad to have him home again.

We are also pretty happy about the six bags of chocolate chips he brought with him!

Necessary

Today I paid the equivalent of six cents each for the girls and I to use a public restroom. What I didn't realize until it was too late was that they were also selling toilet paper at the entrance to the restroom. Shame on me, I should have had my own anyway... most public bathrooms in China do not supply toilet paper. This one featured what are nicknamed "squatty potties" by Westerners, because although they flush like your typical toilet, they are flat to the ground, making balancing a small girl properly over the designated spot while still keeping her clothes dry quite a challenge. Some public restrooms will have western style toilets on one side, and the stalls on the other side will all be The Other Kind of Toilet. In my experience, public bathrooms here are not very pleasant (read: clean), unless they are in a nice hotel or restaurant.

At least the one we paid to use today had a stick of incense burning in the corner. I wonder who's idea that was?

A Poem

Owls

All alone in the darkness of night

The owls come out and stay out of sight.

They look about with their eyes so yellow

And softly fly with their wings so mellow.

By Madelyn Liptak

September 2007

Technology

Not an exceptional picture but for the fact that Madelyn, on a ferry in Shanghai crossing the Huangpu River, is talking on a cellphone to her daddy, who is around the world in Florida. Except for the noise from the ferry's motor and other boat traffic on the river that made it tricky to hear, the connection was just fine. You've got to love that!

At the Fabric Mart

The fabric marts in Shanghai are well known for the custom made clothes you can have made for extremely low prices. Last weekend we visited one. It is three floors of tiny little stalls, each with its own fabrics and tailor. Each tailor has garments he or she has made hanging around the edges of the stall as samples so shoppers can see what kind of work they do. If you want to have something made, you can choose a style from among the samples, or bring a photo of a garment (like from a magazine), or bring a garment you already own that you would like to have copied. Then you choose what fabric you'd like it to be made from. It is fun just to see all the many beautiful fabrics!

The kids had fun looking at the hundreds of styles and colors of loose buttons that one vendor had on display. Both Madelyn and Seth bought themselves a little bag of buttons that they hope to use in a special creation.

There are also some vendors selling ready-made ties, scarves, and belts that can be cut to size. Caleb and Seth found neon (one pink, one green) and black striped and checked ties they liked for 10 RMB... about $1.20. They ran into some school friends at that stall, and all four agreed to wear the ties they bought to school the next week. Unfortunately, it was decided by the powers that be at the school that neon ties did not fit the uniform dress code!


Madelyn especially enjoyed all the glitzy fabrics in this stall.

A larger size stall than the typical.
The stall where Scott ordered a suit... notice the non-existent dressing room facilities... if you want to try on the pants you order here, you'd better not be shy!

Caleb and Cory

Caleb and his buddy Cory took this self portrait on Cory's computer. I love it!

Kitten Stuff

Yes, this is really our kitten's foot, but no, I did not paint her nails. I'm putting in a plug here for Soft Paws, which are little rubber tips you glue over your cat's claws so they don't damage furniture with scratching. Google it... you order them online, and the bonus is that they come in a variety of colors!
When I was growing up my mom used to dress our cats up in doll clothes... I think Madelyn inherited this desire. Here Princess is modeling an American Girl nightgown! Often one of the kitties will nap with Gwen in the afternoon.

Turns out both the kittens are quite happy to be pushed around in the doll stroller, much to the girls' pleasure!
Madelyn always gets one or both of the kitties to snuggle with when we settle down on the couch to read, schoolwork or otherwise.

Moon Cakes

Mr. Wu showed up at the door this afternoon with this box of moon cakes for us, to celebrate the Autumn Moon Festival (Mid-Autumn Festival). I had tried several varieties of moon cakes from the grocery store and found them not to our liking... these were better, but still not something I would choose. I'm sure they are an acquired taste! The presentation of the cakes, however, was lovely, so I took pictures of the layers of wrapping. Below is the box they came in.
When the two sides of the box were unfolded, we found these four smaller boxes inside.
Inside each small box was a different flavor of moon cake, wrapped in celophane. I opened each box while Mr. Wu was here so he could tell me what flavor they were. The four kinds were bean paste, two types of egg, and a green tea flavor.
Isn't the cake itself pretty? This one is the tea flavor. The filling is very dense and sweet. I would write in my vote for chocolate one... but I don't think I would win!What follows is some details about what the Moon Festival is about, for those who don't know.

On the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, the moon is round and the Chinese people mark their Moon (or Mid-autumn) Festival. The round shape to a Chinese means family reunion. Therefore the Moon Festival is a holiday for members of a family to get together wherever it is possible.

On that day sons and daughters will bring their family members back to their parents' house for a reunion. Sometimes people who have already settled overseas will come back to visit their parents on that day.

As every Chinese holiday is accompanied by some sort of special food. On the Moon Festival, people eat moon cakes, a kind of cookie with fillings of sugar, fat, sesame, walnut, the yoke of preserved eggs, ham or other material. In Chinese fairy tales, there live on the moon the fairy Chang E, a wood cutter named Wu Gang and a jade rabbit which is Chang E's pet. In the old days, people paid respect to the fairy Chang E and her pet the jade rabbit.

The custom of paying homage to the fairy and rabbit is gone, but the moon cakes are showing improvement every year. There are hundreds of varieties of moon cakes on sale a month before the arrival of the Moon Festival this year. Some moon cakes are of very high quality and very delicious. An overseas tourist is advised not to miss it if he or she happens to be in China during the Moon Festival.

Well, I guess one must try the moon cakes...

Peace At Last

I have to admit, on some days I enjoy this girl the most when she is asleep! Can anyone relate?! When she's sleeping, not only is she still and quiet, but it's then that I am amazed again at how beautiful she is.

A Morsel of Progress

Gwen runs into the bathroom where I am drying my hair.

"Mom, turn off the hairdryer. I want to tell you something!"

I turn off the hairdryer.

"I don't show my yucky food. I swallow it up for you!"


I'll take the small victories.

Saturday Shopping

I now remember that in one of my very early posts from China, when we had first arrived, I noted that it was not a good idea to go grocery shopping on the weekend. It is just insanely crowded.

Earlier today I forgot that I had made that mental note, and went to Carrefour to shop in the late afternoon. The store was very busy, but not as unmanagable as it had seemed when we shopped on the weekend the day after we had arrived here at the beginning of July. It probably seemed more managable today because I was not extremely jet-lagged or shopping with all my children, like I was on that first trip to Carrefour.

What I noticed today was that all sixty-three of the check out lanes were open. So I actually didn't have to wait that long to pay for my groceries. Yes, you read it correctly. 63 check out lanes. All open.

There are a lot of people in China.

It's the Little Things I Miss...

I love baby carrots.

There are no baby carrots here.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Last night in our apartment complex there was a show celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival. It was a combination of some acrobat acts, a little Chinese opera, and lots of talking in between by a master of ceremonies who spoke only Chinese but appeared, by the reactions of the nearly all Chinese audience, to be quite funny and entertaining. It was strange to be in the audience in this situation... we strained our ears for familiar words, catching only an occasional one that we understood.

This young pair skated in very fast circles on the small circular board on the stage, doing all sorts of amazing stunts involving the girl being held in precarious positions and spinning around. Whenever they stopped to bow, their faces were expressionless and they didn't even appear to be breathing hard!
Notice the positions the two girls on the right are in... and they are holding on with their teeth!
We loved the elaborate costumes these two were wearing.
A famous folk tale character in China, the Monkey King. This man was able to twitch his facial features in such a way that he really did look like a monkey!

Fun "Taxi" Rides in Suzhou

Both Gwen and Madelyn wanted to ride in these several types of bike taxis the minute they saw them. Scott and I were doubtful, but it turned out to be really fun. Nothing like being in the thick of the traffic... these guys wove in and out of it. We were inches from buses many times, in fact Caleb make a game of seeing how many he could touch.

This one was motorized, and had room (barely!) for all six of us.
This one was just a bicycle, and had room for just two. We squeezed into two of these between us, and had quite a wild ride through the city. Here I was trying to take a picture of Scott, Seth and Gwen in the other "taxi" while riding with Caleb and Madelyn in the other one... thus the blurry outcome!
Worn out from the day!