Day 34 "Pizza!"

Day 34 “Pizza!”

Today one of Jeff’s co-workers welcomed everybody from their team to her house for a gathering. I was really looking forward to it because I hadn’t been able to see the inside of anyone’s home yet. I had been very curious. Jeff’s team here has 9 employees and just about everyone showed up. It was a bit awkward at first as many parties are, but after a short time everyone loosened up.

Xiaoyan served pizza, delivered from Papa Johns. I found that interesting. I am finding that most of the women around here (0r at least the ones we have had a chance to get to know) don’t cook. They have either a hired person who does all their cooking or they have mother in laws who do all the cooking. The people we have gotten to know since we have been here are all pretty comfortable financially compared to many I see on the streets. I would guess the poor families know how to cook for themselves.

Their apartment is in PuDong, which I mentioned in an earlier entry is the nicer part of Shanghai. They live about 4o minutes from our apartment and quite a taxi ride away. It is a really nice tree lined neighborhood. There are many apartments, but they are not as tall as in the city where we are and they are further apart. It really was much more peaceful in their neighborhood. The kids started getting restless during the party and decided to go outside and play soccer with Xiaoyan’s 9 year old son, Alan. They actually had an area outside where the kids could play. It still wasn’t grass, but at least there was a wider open space than we have here in the middle of the city. There was also a part of the river that ran parallel to their apartment. While the boys played soccer Claire and I took a nice walk around the neighborhood and along the river. It was sooooooooo nice to walk and not have anyone pushing, yelling, and hitting me in the eye with their umbrella. It was quiet except the cicada in the trees. I felt like this neighborhood was probably about as close to good old Woodinville as I was going to get here in Shanghai. It was nice! Being in the city (and even here in the outskirts of the city) has really made me think more about the book I read last year called “The Last Child in the Woods”. In this book the theory is that humans need nature, especially children. I wonder how much nature deprivation these children are getting. It makes me sad! I think if most of us were posed with the question what is your fondest or even perhaps first memories most people would answer that they remember something about being outside, will that be true for the children of Shanghai? Of course there is grass here and there, but there are signs everywhere saying you can’t walk on it. The grass is for show, it’s not to be enjoyed. Children don’t climb trees or swim in the cool lakes or oceans here. People who live in big cities or countries like this don’t have those same opportunities to be in nature and enjoy the peacefulness of it. I feel extremely fortunate to have such wonderful, peaceful surroundings at my real home.

The inside of the house was tidy, small, but well decorated. The thing I was most curious about was the toilet. I didn’t think anyone would really have a squat toilet, but I was curious. I had to laugh because not only did they have a western toilet, but it was an American Standard toilet. I know that this family lived in Canada for many years so they are probably a bit westernized, so I am still curious about true natives of this country and their toilet situation. You know me, always thinking and wondering about everything! The apartment wasn’t a whole lot different than the inside of our apartment, many of the same features and decorations.

The other co-workers were nice. Most of them are quite a bit younger than Jeff and I, so they are either not married, or have very young children. Only one family came, the rest came without their significant other. It was interesting listening to them quickly switch between English and Chinese during our conversations. We played several games together. The games were nice ice breakers and got everyone laughing and enjoying themselves. Some of them were similar to games we played in college and were drinking games way back when. Jeff and I taught them some magic tricks that we hadn’t done in many years and they seemed to be fascinated trying to figure them out. I had a nice conversation with Xiaoyan’s husband, Ping. He lived in Canada for 10 years and has many interesting perspectives after having lived in Canada and China (and also as an exchange student with the US for one year in Salt Lake City). I don’t want to share his perspective here, but he left me with many interesting things to think about. Future entries….

Sorry no picture today!