Lantern Parade

Yesterday 12/26 the resort had a lantern parade where the kids got to carry a lantern throughout the resort looking for Santa. They had to sing Christmas carols to receive little gifts along the way. Sophie led the group at one point in "Rudolph" and they had fun seeing Santa in the sand under the palm trees! The lantern parade reminded us of the rectangular lanterns in Germany that the kids made and sang "Laterna" while walking through our neighborhood in Hofheim. These lanterns were stars (the star of Bethlehem) and the walk was considerably warmer. Fun!

Scuba diving Thomas

Thomas was very anxious to cash in on his Christmas gift from Amma and Bubba (grandparents) of a scuba diving lesson. He went today and loved it so much is already begging to go again before we leave. He took a one day intro to scuba course so he didn't get certified but could still go out for one ocean dive. He watched a safety video and learned hand signals and what to do if you run out of air (surface?!?). They then practiced for awhile in the pool before they went out for about a 30-45 minute dive in the ocean. He loved it and will most likely get to do it again (thank you grandparents!) Sophie and Noah are looking forward to going our on the boat to snorkel and perhaps a bannana boat ride. (Think large inflatable bannana shaped tube which we can all sit on while being pulled through the water at terrifying speeds! Merry Christmas!)

Kid's Lit Quiz

Another overdue post.....

Thomas was part of the Kid Literature Quiz Team this fall at school. The kids were put into groups of four kids to answer trivia questions all based on kid's literature. His team made it to the national competition (held in Shanghai). They competed against 17 other teams from inernational schools from all over Asia (mostly China). Thomas's team came in fifth! (Only the top team got to advance to the interantional finals held in Oxford England this summer! It was a great experience and he really enjoyed it! (Did I mention he was the only boy to compete from SAS?!?) The first photo shows him with his team (Thomas and three Asian girls!) and the other is with the Team leader.

Field trip to Lin Min

So this is one of the posts which is at least a month overdue. In November Noah's first grade class went to visit and bring goodies bags filled with school supplies and little toys to a first grade class at a local migrant school. The official population count of Shanghai is around 17 million people but if you factor in all the migrant workers it is much much higher 25 million by some counts. The migrant workers do not enjoy any benefits that "registered inhabitants" are afforded (housing, education etc). There are migrants schools that are little more than cement shells of buildings where the children of the workers get educated. The school receive no funding so want for a lot! There is a migrant school just down the street from the American school. SAS (Shanghai American School) has somewhat adopted them providing funds for a playground, windows and doors, desks and school supplies. Anyhow Noah's class had a unit on needs vs. wants as part of their social studies curriculum. They ended the unit with a visit to the school. They brought goodies bags filled with some things the kids might need and some things they might want. It was a very interested experience for me as a parent and a teacher. I think it is safe to say it made a bigger impression on me than it did Noah! SAS has 85 first graders divided into 5 classes. Lin Min School has 123 first graders divided into 2!!!! classes. A couple of things really stand out in my memory. First of all how many more boys than girls there were. About 3 to 1 -rough estimate. I know where we are and all but it is the first time I have really noticed it. Secondly as our kids passed out the bags the Lin Ming students sat quietly at their desks (two kids to a desk) and smiled but nobody opened the bags. A few took hold of it but not one child ripped into the bag. I am sure they were told not open them until we left. I am told corrporal punishment is still widely used. Wow! Very interested day. Noah was his usual bubbly self, smiling and trying to pass out as many bags as he could. He tried to sit down next to one little boy. Just another day at another school in his book!

Rock Wall or Diving Rock?

So the big question we have to answer every morning is do we start off with the diving rock or climbing the rock wall? The diving rock seems to win most days. I am including some photos of Sophie and Jon on the rock wall. The 145 pound Phillipino man holding the rope took one look at Jon and said "Maybe you can climb down too?" I think he was afraid of going for a ride if Jon rapelled (?) down. I am taking the photos. Maybe you can see me on the wall next time (or maybe not!)

The kids are working on perfecting their cannon balls. Noah has great form but for obvious reasons Thomas has the biggest splash! They tried a group cannon ball but it lost some of its form. Again I am holding the camera so no cannon balls for me!

We are truly enjoying a wonderful family vacation! Merry Christmas!!! (Santa did find our hotel room and managed to fill their stockings to the over-flowing point. I hope Santa was good to all of you!

Finally another post

WEll I am not sure if anybody is still checking our site since it has been soooo long since I have posted anything but my New Year's Resolution is to be better with this blog thing! I will start a little early! WE are currently on Cebu Island in the Phillippines for Christmas vacation. We decided to trade in snow and ice for sun and sand this year. (Although we were having neither snow nor ice in Shanghai!) Cebu is beautiful and the kids have spent the last two days in the pools. (There are somewhere around 7 or 8 to choose from!) I think we will be well water logged by vacations end. Here are a few photos and then I will try to catch up on some of our going ons since mid October! There have been a few.....

Golden week

Mr. Lu (our driver) showing Sophie and Noah the wonders of a "wet" market. A market where the meat is super fresh (aka alive!)

So after a long period of being unable to access this site to post our photos and info I can get on again! We are all fine. We enjoyed our first Chinese holiday week and have new appreciation for the word crowded. We stayed in Shanghai as Jon had to work several days and were tourist here. Wow! Shanghai was hosting the Special Olympic World Summer Games then as well so the amount of people in Shanghai was truly amazing. We visited He Ping park. A typical Chinese park with gardens, walking paths, men airing their pet birds in their cages, a man made lake/lagoon and several amusement park type rides. I took one look at the rides and quickly decided that the children could only ride the ones that kept contact with the ground! They enjoyed them while I sweated, calculating how long it would take to get back to the entrance of the park, call our driver to retrieve us and find the nearest emergency room (that provided Western style care). I was happy when we moved on! While we waited at the entrance to be picked up by Mr. Lu (our wonderful driver) a crowd quickly formed around us. We were the only western family I had seen in the park and clearly we were the tourist attraction of the day. They were fascinated by Sophie's blue eyes and blond hair. They pointed, laughed to each other and stroked her hair. They kept pointing at her eyes and then to Jon's which are not blue. When I took off my sunglasses and showed them my blue eyes they smiled as if it all made sense. An experience I won't forget soon.

Sophie on the bumper cars


Kids and mom on boat being driven by Thomas. Dad sat next to him and helped with the steering. They were row boats with some sort of battery power on them. They had two speeds: slow and slower. We floated around the man made lagoons trying hard not to splash any of the scummy water into the boat. I sure look relaxed, don't you think!


We also went to the Jin Mao tower (where Jon works) and had ice cream at the Grand Cafe on the 54th floor. We had a fabulous view of the Bund, Pearl tower and all the boats going up and down the river. What a busy waterway.


Here is a picture Thomas took looking up the side of the Jin Mao tower after we had come back down! Neat perspective.

Noah has decided that since we live in China he will only eat with chopsticks. This is fun but makes for a long meal when we have corn or peas. He will eat rice with a spoon as someone told him that is what the Chinese do. He has even mastered eating pancakes with chopsticks! See below for proof!



I went on an incredible walking tour led by a Chinese freelance photographer Gang Fang Weng. He took us through the older parts of Shanghai, many of which are slated for destruction. It seems that there is no equivilant of Preservation Societies here. Big developers can come in and buy up pretty much any piece of property as long as they have enough money. Really sad. This photographer grew up in the area and was able to take us through several homes. Amazing to see how the locals live. 6-8 families sharing a single kitchen, each with their own hot plate and water spout. 4-6 people in a room. It was very humbling to see. I will include a few of the many photos I took. I am not sure if they are as interesting if you didn't hear the talk that went along with the sights!



playing Majong


I wonder how long laundry hung like that would last in NYC?

We continue to love our time in Shanghai and are having fun exploring the ins and outs of this exciting, vibrant city.