Day 29-33 "The Bugs Have Arrived!"

Day 29-33 “The bugs have arrived!”

We found a few things in a local magazine to do this week, but we are definitely running out of activities. I don’t know for sure how we are going to fill our time our last week and a half here, but I’m sure we will figure something out.

This week we went back to the Shanghai museum and visited the galleries we hadn’t seen before. We also went to the Shanghai Natural Wild Insect Kingdom and the Shanghai Kid’s Museum.


The Insect Kingdom had small animals along with the insects. We seem to catch feeding time when ever we go to these places so the kids did enjoy watching the snakes eat mice. I think they grow their own small animals/food there. There were a ton of guinea pigs and also many small animal consuming creatures. At first the kids (mainly Claire and Riley) were pretty upset about this feeding process, but after I explained that if they lived in nature that’s what they would eat they seemed to except the facts and enjoy watching the amazing process of a snake eating an animal bigger than its own head. Aiden has always been into bugs so he enjoyed the insects quite a bit. It’s too bad most of it was in Chinese because I think we could have spent a lot more time learning in this zoo. This place was full of giant dead and alive bugs. It also had a petting zoo where you could pet the rabbits, guinea pigs and goats. There was an owl and some sort of primate also. The sign said it was the smallest kind of primate, but again most of the signs were in Chinese so I don’t know what kind it was. They were very entertaining to watch play with each other.

The Shanghai Kid’s Museum was a bit disappointing. Most of it was very simple and not a lot of displays. There were 8 different exhibition rooms and each was on a different subject such as space, nautical or communication technology. It was fine the day we were there because it was pretty empty, but if this place was full, it would be hard to really see or experience anything. The two last rooms finally had interesting and worthy exhibits in my opionion. The room that my kids spent at least an hour in is much like the Everett or Seattle Children’s museum. It was filled with various child size exhibits modeled after real life experiences. There was a doctor’s office, bank, restaurant, store, a stage with a few props, and a climbing tree house. There were also a couple of puzzle type things to work on. There was a reverse vacuum and balls that the boys had fun seeing how far they could get them to fly. There was also a wall with several planks that you inserted into different slots to set up a track and see if you could predict which direction the balls would fall. The boys entertained themselves for quite a while with these activities. Claire on the other hand found another family with three children who also spoke English and enjoyed doing all the pretend stuff with them for quite a while. We have seen very few people traveling with three children. Mostly as you would expect we have seen many families with only one child. The last exhibit in this museum is full of books. They have a reading session twice a day where they read aloud to the little kids. The lady who was in there said it is usually in Chinese, but occasionally in English (I suppose it’s who ever shows up at that time). It was wonderful to be surrounded by so many books written in English, unfortunately for Aiden and Riley they were all Claire’s age, but it was great for Claire. The boys found a computer with a game running on it that they filled their time with while Claire and I read several books together.

We have gotten in a nice routine of walking after dinner. Our walks have changed this week though; the bugs have moved in. It is very noisy now, not just the city and people noise, but the cicada have arrived in full force. At times the noise is so deafing that you can’t hear each other talk. They are interesting bugs. They will be completely quiet for several minutes and then all of a sudden an entire row of trees takes off in a spectacular chorus of singing or chanting. We learned the hard way how they eliminate these bugs. We were walking home the other night and noticed a big truck a short distance in front of us spraying into the trees above us. The air around us was filled with pesticide and so was the food that was being sold on the street. We were walking on what is known as snack alley, the street is lined with small open fronted stores selling a variety of cooked foods. We walked as fast as we could to get out of the targeted area, but we were also covered in pesticide along with the trees. I just don’t understand this action. We have been on the street several times late into the evening and very early in the morning when there were few people on the street. I think they can’t ignore the bugs because they suck all the moisture out of the trees and the trees will die, but why do this right in the middle of dinner time when the street is swamped with people? Along with the cicadas the mosquitoes have arrived too. Just last week there were no bugs around and now they are everywhere. Interesting…

We also had a small medical emergency this week. Riley burnt himself on the steamer. For breakfast every day we buy frozen buns filled with pork or beef and then we steam them in the steamer. Riley didn’t realize there was a vent in the top and put his arm across it to unplug the steamer and got a nasty burn. I have to say I sort of panicked at first (which is unlike me in these situations…if you’ve ever heard the story of Aiden breaking his arm and the splint I made for him you’d know how calm I usually stay) because I quickly realized that we had a limited first aid kit with us, the kids had used all the ice, and there is no way I wanted to take him to a doctor here if I could avoid it. This burn concerned me because Riley wasn’t complaining about any pain. It is about 1 ½ inches round (exactly the shape and size of the vent c0ming out of the steamer) and the skin immediately peeled off. There was no blister and no pain. I immediately thought this kid has got a 3rd degree burn and I am in a foreign city. Ugh!! I know Riley wasn’t thrilled when it started hurting a short while later, but I was relieved. He is mostly disappointed because we have plans to go to a water park this coming week and if it’s not healed he wont be able to swim. He’s also missed out on swimming every day this week. Big bummer! It’s starting to heal and I can’t tell you how relieved I am. I think it turned out to be only a second degree burn, bad, but not bad enough we needed to seek medical help. The drug store here is amazingly bad. I can’t find any sort of gauze or wrapping material only band aids. I brought quite a bit of this stuff with us, but used it up on my foot the first couple of weeks we were here. I am really curious what the people do here for this type of problem.

Observations this week…

Very few people have gray hair (only the really old and many of them don’t have gray hair either). So there is either a lot of L’Oreal being used or genetically they don’t gray.

No wedding rings and very little jewelry worn.

Fake eyelashes are becoming very popular here.

They take great cautions to avoid the sun. Some people were sunglasses, but most use visors that cover their faces. I think they use the visors because it’s easier when you are riding a bike or scooter, but they shield their entire face. They also use umbrellas a lot. It’s driving me a bit nuts because they pretty much use umbrellas all the time, because it’s either raining or sunny. Do you know how hard it is to walk through a large group of people using umbrellas? They all hit me right about eye level; I am constantly dodging the umbrellas. They also make their own arm covers so that their arms are not exposed to the sun when they are riding their bikes or scooters; if they don’t have the homemade arm covers then they where long sleeve shirts on backwards to protect their arms. All this coverage from the sun would explain their beautiful young looking skin. The only people who have really weathered looking skin are the street workers. They wear large brimmed hats, but they are out in it all day long.

I am tall here. I am 5 foot 4 inches tall and in the subway I can see over most of the crowd. It’s pretty amazing. I’ve never been tall. There are people taller than me, but the majorities are pretty petite, including the men.

No one ever sits down on the street, sidewalk or a curb or anything close to the ground. They are very good at crouching. I see groups sitting around playing card games all crouched, not touching the ground. I think we take for granted that our ground is relatively clean. I don’t think my thighs are strong enough to crouch for as long as I see these people doing it.

Did you know there are no time zones in China? They have the same time all the way across the country. I just assumed that if we traveled west we would be in a different time zone, but I guess they don’t do that here. It’s interesting to think about how the light (or lack of at different times of the year) might affect the people across this country.

They don’t add a stinky smell to their natural gas. When we use our cook top I have to be really diligent about making sure the flame doesn’t go out (it along with most of the other appliances doesn’t work very well) while I am cooking. I can’t smell the gas pouring out and the flame goes out pretty readily. Even though I hate the smell of natural gas, it’s a good thing to have that smell.

There are many pregnant women here. It’s interesting to think that nearly all of them are getting ready to have their first baby. I so remember that feeling and all the unknowns that come with it. Nobody has been through this before; they are all first time moms. Just something I thought about…also you know how the English dictionary is always changing and we add and delete words as we use or need them. I would assume they have a similar type system. What will happen to their current words that mean brother, sister, cousin, aunt or uncle? They wont have any reason to use those words soon (Because of the one child law) so will those words be deleted from their vocabularies and eventually their dictionaries?

Maternity clothes are ugly here. They are the cutesy, ugly smocks with little bears and infantile pictures on them that went out with the 80’s in the US. I am glad that I had more stylish choices when I was pregnant.

Everyone has old, single speed bikes here (and no hand brakes). Many of them need new brakes (the constant screeching is awful). People must buy new bikes, but honestly I haven’t seen anything except black, simple, single speed bikes. Where do you buy such a bike? I see many make-shift bike repair shops in alleys around here. These old repair men are very busy every time we pass. I haven’t seen a single bike that has been bought in the last 20 years here, or at least that’s how they all appear.

I like the subway. I wish there was some way for us to get a subway in our area. I don’t see it ever happening, but it’s so much easier once you learn how it all works. I bet my car would be so much cleaner too (all that kid goo could be in the subway rather than the seats in my car)! I’d like to use my car just for long trips and when I needed to move a bunch of items. I can see where an extensive subway station is really a great asset to a city.

One last thing, a couple people asked for an update on our bathroom experiences. Claire and I have gotten very good at using the squat toilets here. We had to break down and use them when we were in Beijing. I guess Claire had been using them here, but I had avoided them. I honestly don't mind them too much now. I can not tolerate how stinky and disgusting the bathrooms are, but the actual squatties aren't that big a deal once you get excellent instructions from home. Thanks everyone! I am attaching a picture...I know it's in poor taste, but I bet a few of you are wondering what they look like...I know I was before we got here. This picture is of a pretty clean one, at least visually, but the smell in these bathrooms is AWEFUL!