Days 22, 23, 24, 25 26, 27 “Wow, that was a close lightening strike!” quote by ALL of us at the same time.
This is actually just a picture of the kids playing in a fountain in People's square that we found on our walk today. They could stand in the middle of it and not get wet if they were careful.
This is actually just a picture of the kids playing in a fountain in People's square that we found on our walk today. They could stand in the middle of it and not get wet if they were careful.
We have mostly just been hanging out and swimming at the local pool this week. We did go to the Shanghai Urban Planning center. I would normally not have chosen to go to a place like that (especially with the kids), but a new friend that I made here told me it was really interesting; and it was. They had the entire history of Shanghai on exhibit there. It was fascinating to learn all the details about the different areas and how they became what they are today. The part the kids and I enjoyed the most was the exact model of the entire city. It was all laid out in a huge room in a 5000 to 1 ratio. 
We had fun finding all the different neighborhoods that we had visited and seeing them in relation to the whole. We’ve spent a fair amount of time on the subway and since you travel by underground it’s hard to have a perspective. We have a good map, but the visual was great. We learned all about the upcoming World’s Fair that will be held in Shanghai in 2010. Shanghai has been very busy preparing for this event.
We tried to go to the Amusement park on Saturday, but by the time we got there a huge thunder storm had moved in and we couldn’t stay. It was another scary storm. There were constant lighting strikes all around. We stayed under a large bridge for awhile hoping it would pass, but it didn’t so we ended up trying to fill our day with other activities. I thought we would take Jeff to the Shanghai museum since it’s free and air conditioned. When we got there it had a huge line coming out the front door and wrapping around the building. Obviously we weren’t the only ones with the same idea that day. So we thought we would go check out a local book store that we heard had a good selection of English books. Another strike out! This book store had 7 floors packed full of reading patrons (imagine the Barnes and Noble in Woodinville with all the reading people sitting around times 400!). We found an extremely disappointing section of children’s books. There was a section with every single Agatha Christie and Stephen King book in existence I’m pretty sure (in the children’s section?), but nothing that we were interested in or hadn’t already read. I knew that trying to find books to read was going to be an issue while we were here. We spend so much time at the library at home that we take it for granted that we have that resource. We couldn’t possibly bring enough books from home to keep us reading for six weeks. Only a couple more weeks here and we can go back to our excellent resource. Mostly, we spent the day roaming around from one disappointment to another. We did enjoy our walk through an area that we hadn’t been before, but other than that we just couldn’t find anything to do that day.
The one success was we did make it to the train station and buy our tickets to take us to a remote town for tomorrow. We are going to Hangzhou tomorrow. The train station is completely overwhelming. There is nothing in English or Pinyin. The place is packed with people and everyone is extremely loud and annoying. People are especially pushy and rude here. When we got outside to head over to the amusement park there were people every where selling the usual trashy items, but today there were a number of people selling small animals out of cages or boxes. Puppies, turtles, mice, chipmunks, rabbits and other small animals that I don’t remember were all being sold. Claire was EXTREMEMLY disappointed that we said she couldn’t get a puppy. They were really cute, but first off these puppies are way too young to be away from their mother, but second how would we ever get the puppy home? That’s not even taking into account the diseases that these poor little puppies are carrying. It was sad. She said over and over again, “Boy, I wish I hadn’t spent all my money, I really want to buy a puppy.”
Next week should be more interesting for us; my new friend, Stephannie introduced me to a local magazine that has many activities listed in this city for kids to do.
We had fun finding all the different neighborhoods that we had visited and seeing them in relation to the whole. We’ve spent a fair amount of time on the subway and since you travel by underground it’s hard to have a perspective. We have a good map, but the visual was great. We learned all about the upcoming World’s Fair that will be held in Shanghai in 2010. Shanghai has been very busy preparing for this event.We tried to go to the Amusement park on Saturday, but by the time we got there a huge thunder storm had moved in and we couldn’t stay. It was another scary storm. There were constant lighting strikes all around. We stayed under a large bridge for awhile hoping it would pass, but it didn’t so we ended up trying to fill our day with other activities. I thought we would take Jeff to the Shanghai museum since it’s free and air conditioned. When we got there it had a huge line coming out the front door and wrapping around the building. Obviously we weren’t the only ones with the same idea that day. So we thought we would go check out a local book store that we heard had a good selection of English books. Another strike out! This book store had 7 floors packed full of reading patrons (imagine the Barnes and Noble in Woodinville with all the reading people sitting around times 400!). We found an extremely disappointing section of children’s books. There was a section with every single Agatha Christie and Stephen King book in existence I’m pretty sure (in the children’s section?), but nothing that we were interested in or hadn’t already read. I knew that trying to find books to read was going to be an issue while we were here. We spend so much time at the library at home that we take it for granted that we have that resource. We couldn’t possibly bring enough books from home to keep us reading for six weeks. Only a couple more weeks here and we can go back to our excellent resource. Mostly, we spent the day roaming around from one disappointment to another. We did enjoy our walk through an area that we hadn’t been before, but other than that we just couldn’t find anything to do that day.
The one success was we did make it to the train station and buy our tickets to take us to a remote town for tomorrow. We are going to Hangzhou tomorrow. The train station is completely overwhelming. There is nothing in English or Pinyin. The place is packed with people and everyone is extremely loud and annoying. People are especially pushy and rude here. When we got outside to head over to the amusement park there were people every where selling the usual trashy items, but today there were a number of people selling small animals out of cages or boxes. Puppies, turtles, mice, chipmunks, rabbits and other small animals that I don’t remember were all being sold. Claire was EXTREMEMLY disappointed that we said she couldn’t get a puppy. They were really cute, but first off these puppies are way too young to be away from their mother, but second how would we ever get the puppy home? That’s not even taking into account the diseases that these poor little puppies are carrying. It was sad. She said over and over again, “Boy, I wish I hadn’t spent all my money, I really want to buy a puppy.”
Next week should be more interesting for us; my new friend, Stephannie introduced me to a local magazine that has many activities listed in this city for kids to do.
Here is a picture of Claire and one of her many admirers...this particular one was really insistent that he wanted a kiss. Claire politely refused.
This picture was one from a post I mentioned earlier about the workers all having matching unforms and the fancy home made brooms.
This particular picture was also on our walk through People's square where the kids were having fun. Sorry this label is below the picture...I can't get the blogger program to let me write between the pictures right now.
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