Our Favorite Restaurant

Every place where Dave and I have lived, we've always found a local eatery where we ended up grabbing a disproportionate number of meals. Sometimes it takes longer than others, but generally we eventually find that our favorite restaurant is within walking distance of our home. The trend began when we lived in Budapest, Hungary and found an excellent little restaurant called Hemingway, perched out over a lake in our neighborhood park. The setting was lovely, the food was comfortable, and we could walk there within 5 minutes. We moved from Budapest to St. Louis, and lived in a small apartment on the edge of Saint Louis University's campus. There I began work waiting tables at a small pizza shop called Vito's. Since then, the small pizza shop has opened a bigger (and nicer) place down the street, but it still stands as the best pizza in St. Louis. When we moved a few miles away to Forest Park Southeast, we were lucky to have The Billy Goat open up at the edge of the neighborhood. Hands down the best burgers in town, the Billy Goat also had great chicken salad, grilled cheese, and more. They specialized in bar food done well, with a chef on staff who would occasionally put together 5-course meals for regular customers. We loved it.

We moved to Shanghai, and immediately found a love for street food. In Pudong, our most frequent meal was dumplings purchased in the lane by our home. But when we moved to Puxi, we found very little street food near our home. We have only discovered our new favorite, and nearly too late - as we plan to move into the French Concession (still Shanghai) on September 1.

I don't even know the name, as I've never noticed a sign out front. But you can tell the restaurant because there's always a man with a little white cap standing at the grill in front, cooking up amazing lamb kebabs. The man is Uighur, a Chinese minority group hailing from Xinjiang, the northwestern-most province of China. The Muslim tradition of this province as well as its borders along the K-stans and historic trade with the middle east create a wonderul distinct food. Many dishes have some connection to Chinese food, but seem closer to the middle east. Grilled lamb, baked flat breads, and all sorts of foods which I can't identify but love to eat are succulent and juicy, or fluffy and warm. The milk tea and the bitter yogurt make perfect compliments, and we all down everything.

Now that we've discovered what we thought to be our little hole in the wall - apparently also discovered by the NY Times! - I've vowed to eat there every week until we've moved to our new home. And maybe again until we find our new local haunt.

Enjoying Shanghai

Yesterday was a great day.  A typical day in Shanghai, and probably not so typical of my life in other cities.  But a really great day - allow me to walk you through it.

The girls and I woke up leisurely, around 8:30 in the morning.  We're weeks into summer now, and have established our new routine.  Its much like daylight savings time - we sleep an hour later, we nap an hour later, and we go to bed an hour later.  Everyone is happy.

I left at 9:30 to teach my music class.  This summer, I am teaching two Music Together classes each week.  A Shanghai Summer offers no other activities for young children, beyond week-long summer camps.  So I offered to teach this music class twice a week - one class for each child.  As this was my first week of teaching, I left the girls behind for both classes.  And could easily do so, because they could stay at home with Wendy, our ayi, all day.

I taught the class, and it went beautifully.  There were a few names that I found quite difficult to pronounce - Thieu (Filipino, I believe) and Ichinosuko (Japanese) are difficult to fit into the Hello Song, but that just adds to the fun of a very multicultural class.

Class went without a hitch, and then I jumped into the car and asked our driver to take me to zou yi fu de di fang - the fabric market.  I'd had a shirt made, and needed to pick it up.  The girls do not enjoy the fabric market, so this was the perfect day to run this errand.  Sitting in the backseat of Driver Zhang's air conditioned van, paying no attention to the ugly traffic or the heat outside, listening to my Ipod, was a very relaxing way to cool off from a good class.

Inside the fabric market, one of the buttons was no good - that pull on the buttons from a large chest was only in style for a few months, so I asked her to fix the button.  In the next ten minutes, I walked the market and found a really beautiful red, linen dress.  No negotiation on price - this dress would cost 200 RMB.  For under $30, I couldn't pass this dress up.  I'm going to a wedding in September, and this would be the perfect dress.  Measured for the dress, made a few tweaks to my taste and body style, and then picked up the shirt.  On the street, a family makes fried rice every day.  They recognized me and asked where the girls are.  I asked for extra pickled peppers and a dollop of chili pasta, and ate the whole thing in the car. YUM!

Without children and ahead of my deadline, I asked Driver Zhang to take me to an art supply store.  This place was amazing - lined with pulled canvas of different sizes, loads of calligraphy brushes, bottles and bottles of different color and style of paints, and plenty of other random items to keep children busy for the summer.  And really, this stuff if not meant for children - these are serious art supplies.  I got a large bag full of supplies and a pile of canvas for under 300 RMB - that's less than $50.  A steal in the US.

Then home to enjoy a clean house, well fed children, and naptime for the afternoon.  We walked to ice-cream after dinner and hung out at the playground, but probably could do that anywhere.  Put the girls to bed and spent the evening talking to my husband on the balcony.

This good day in contrast to the day before, where an exchange about removing mold from our walls left me yelling on the phone and sending heated (but neatly professional) messages to managers.  And wondering why I live in such a place as China, where such simple things as professionalism and customer service are so very different.

I've no real answer to why I live here, but I quickly moved past that frustration to enjoy this amazing city yesterday.

Relaxing

A few weeks ago, I felt I had more on my plate than I could manage. I'd put life on hold for a few weeks to enjoy our guests, and once I dived back into Shanghai headfirst I could hardly find time to catch my breath.

But I said good-bye to everyone moving away. We said good-bye to L--'s school, and we enrolled in another. We began the search for a new home, and have two really great options. I finished another article for local publication. And lastly, today I taught my first Music Together class.

I was pretty stressed about this class. I didn't sign up to teach because I had any real interest in being a teacher, and bringing music to other kids. I looked at this summer and saw weeks of empty days yawning on toward August, with two lonely kids clawing at each other. They needed music classes, so I offered to teach them. I was amazingly nervous, confident that my lesson plan would be messy, that I would not be able to manage the room, and that I would forget the words to the songs. Well, I did forget one line of the song. But everything else went pretty smoothly, and I realized that its not a very hard job. Singing with kids is fun, and since Mom is holding them, I only need to maintain an energy level through the class that the kids are willing to follow. I can do that, and I enjoyed it.

And after class this afternoon, I sat and read a book. And after putting the kids to bed tonight, I sat and watched TV. And I felt no guilt either time - there was nothing I really needed to do with that time. I've still got a To Do List, but its all minor, and its all stuff that can fall away without any major consequences. My time - beyond 3-4 hours a week as Miss Lynne - belongs to myself, and my children.

Booked

With our friend Doug borrowing one of our computers, we've been spending a lot of time online this evening.  And now we're fully booked.

My camera and I are coming home for Michelle's wedding - a beautiful few days spent in the Midwestern fall with many close friends.  Flights booked:

Via Chicago, I arrive in St. Louis at 9:05pm on Tuesday, Sep. 8.

Via Chicago, I leave St. Louis again at 8:00am on Sunday, Sep. 13.

And the best part?  Frequent flyer miles bought my tickets, and so I'm able to fly business class on the way back.  Good thing, too - because I've got to go back to "work" immediately upon my return.  At least after this international flight, my kids will sleep through the night!

Our friend Doug - previously mentioned as a candidate for the US Foreign Service - came over this evening to register for his interview.  He will stand for his Oral Exam on Wednesday, July 22 in Washington, DC.  Sadly, none of our mutual friends moving to DC over the summer will have yet arrived.  Its probably best, really - no one to distract him from this interview.  He will leave Shanghai on July 18th and will arrive back home on the 23rd.

Bloody Toes

China can feel a bit crazy sometimes.  We are out of our home for the evening, because of mold growing on the walls of the girls’ bedroom.  Rather than simply staying at the hotel across the street, we’ve skipped town to stay at the Le Meridien hotel in a large park just outside of town.  It has a lake, an indoor pool, an outdoor pool, grounds for walking and plenty of playgrounds.  Unfortunately, just as the girls were growing brave in the outdoor pool, a storm arose and has not left.  No problem - we moved our play to the indoor pool, held our picnic on the floor of our spacious hotel room, and are now watching Snow White.  But in the midst of that, we went for a little hotel exploration and discovered that although Le Meridien is an international chain, this is still China.  The glass foyer full of two-story windows and a glass ceiling barely kept out the rain.  Plants had been cleverly placed to hide the drips falling from every seam in the roof.  We reached the end of the hallway, and decided that the drips outside weren’t much worse than those inside.  We tried each door, and found that all of the exits in this whole hallway were locked.  Good thing we weren’t running from a fire!

We found a door which allowed us to leave the building, and explored the rainy grounds.  The terrace next to the lake held water up to our ankles, and the walkway near the pool was so slippery that I fell in.  Well, I didn’t fall into the pool - that would have been funny.  I fell into the cute little moat surrounding the pool and left a mighty gash on my toe.

For the first year or so of my life in China, when something bad happened to me I immediately blamed China.  I began to forget that unfortunate occurrences take place anywhere in the world.  Now that China is more fully my home, my dander rarely rises over simple mistakes.  But sometimes it becomes strikingly apparent that in China, most projects are done almost right.

Mold Removal

We piled the girls in the stroller, and removed them from the apartment early this morning so I could get right to work on the walls in their room.  A bucket full of hot water, 1 Cup of bleach, and some sturdy gloves to protect my hands - with these tools gathered in front of a strong fan and an open window, I removed the mold from the walls in the girls' room within about 20 minutes.  I also removed most of the paint from the walls.

Sometimes I'm glad I'm just renting!

Reconnected!

Thanks to a good friend (thanks, Erin!) our household is now fully accessing the internet through a VPN from home again.  Phew!

Unfortunately, this is as much of an update as I am offering right now.  I'm supposed to be finishing another article for Shanghai Family Magazine - have published 2 stories and a few photographs over the last few months.  Working on story #3 - which was due yesterday.  And have promised another one in mid-July.  This career as a writer is really taking off, even if in my own small world.

Also, we're rushing to fix the mold problem.  The landlord has promised enough money for us to bleach the walls and then escape to a hotel for the evening.  So we're spending the night in Sheshan tomorrow night - just outside of town, this hotel has a lake, both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and is located within walking distance of a large sculpture park with a beach, a swim park, and plenty of large bouncing things for kids.  Plus, its surrounded by hills, grass and trees... and the sky almost looks blue out there.  The perfect place to blow away a summer weekend - and especially on the landlord's Yuan!

And lastly, I become a bit more regularly employed next week.  I will be teaching two Music Together classes beginning on Tuesday, and so the weekend will be further devoted to memorizing the songs and dancing around with my children to a few of them until we're all completely tired of this otherwise catchy kids music.

So I've not got much to say, and can't promise much more in the coming days.  But it sure has been nice connecting again!

American?

Am I American? she asked me over dinner.

Yes, I replied.

Why am I American?

Funny that this is such a hard question, but Dave and I both looked at each other stumped. Is there a clearcut answer to this?

Because you were born in America, we replied. And although it is true, it doesn't hold water. Her friend Xavier was born in Shanghai, and he is American. And Mei Mei will be born in China, but she will be American.

Because your Mommy and Daddy are American, we replied. And this is true also, but does it really sum up the answer? Besides naturalization, these are the two ways to become American - by birth. But when asked in China, does the answer do the question justice?

Because your favorite food is macaroni & cheese seems like a more reasonable answer for a 3-year-old. As I've thought about this over the last day, and as I'm reading a book by Chinese-American author Amy Tan, my best answer is this.

Because we believe in freedom - freedom of movement; freedom of speech; freedom of religion; freedom of thought; freedom of choice.

I'm not going for profundity here, but can you come up with a better answer?

Mourning a School

L-- graduated from preschool this afternoon, with a beautiful ceremony. Each of the 17 kids in her class, 2 to 5 years old, sat quietly. They wore pretty dresses and nice shirts, sitting on brightly colored Ikea patio chairs. They sat still and listened quietly to their teacher, as Mrs. Leary talked about what they had learned over the year. How they had learned to write their names and about volcanos and atoms, but how they had also learned to be kind, to compromise, to be good listeners, and to be good friends to each other. And because of that, she is very proud of each of them. She called them each by name, and they came up to receive a bouquet of flowers, have their photo taken with Mrs. Leary, and take their Yearbook.

Can you imagine? A yearbook for a preschool?

The Wonder Center called for a yearbook.

This preschool was only open one and a half years. This preschool only had 19 students this year, and only a few additions the half year previous. And as such, this school was a microcosm of the expatriate community in Shanghai. People move quickly, and only stay in your life for a short time. Foreigners struggle to succeed in China, and projects are often foiled by the simplest things.

This school had 5 teachers at any one time, but closer to 10 over its lifetime. And each of them were amazing.

Lu lao shi (teacher Lu) and Miss Yuko were the Chinese teachers, who spoke exclusively to the children in Mandarin. They taught Chinese songs, which my girls love to sing - and which bring such wonderful expressions from the people we pass on the sidewalk. They took on the challenge of speaking only Mandarin to a classroom of preschoolers who all spoke English, many as their second language. None of the children spoke more than cursory Mandarin, and Miss Yuko and Lu lao shi worked patiently and kindly to communicate as loving teachers.

Eveline and Fiona were the art teachers. But not hired as teachers, each was hired as an artist. Eveline has trailed her husband as a spouse for over a decade, and has found paints and canvas at each destination. She sat in the circle of children with a book of Rembrandt’s paintings and discussed self-portraits. Then she gave the children brushes, paint and canvas and worked patiently with them over days and weeks to watch them create their (recognizable!) self-portraits.

Eveline moved back to Holland in the middle of the year, and Fiona took over. Fiona is a graphic artist from Australia, and only had the chance to teach for 6 weeks, but quickly earned a workable comfort level with the children to help them create. Her artistry created a beautiful yearbook.

Miss Julie is an early childhood educator from Omaha, who began the school year with a baby in her belly. She taught with her son in the class, which made the year challenging for both of them, but also made her easily accessible to these students. I once asked L-- to list her teachers, and she forgot to list Miss Julie. When I asked about her, she said that Miss Julie’s not a teacher, she’s just a Mom. Miss Julie is a wonderful teacher, whose simple lessons on reading and writing kept L-- mesmerized and who could confidently bake a load of bread with 5 little helpers. When L-- first started school as a terrified little 3 year old, Miss Julie held her hand, held her on her lap, and carried her through the school until she became comfortable exploring on her own. Miss Julie’s baby eventually came out of her belly, and she and baby Sam spent less time in the school.

Miss Jinah took over as the second teacher. She paid close attention to each child, and could always have a detailed discussion about their individual learning style, their struggles for that day, and their closest friends at the moment. She learned how to teach at the Wonder Center, as she had student taught there a year ago. Miss Jinah is a natural with a rowdy group of children, often being the one to spark the water fights and the games of tag. But she is also one to get close to a child, always holding one on her lap during quiet moments.

Each of these teachers were amazing, and each of them loved our children. The high ratio of teachers to children must have made the school an amazing place to teach, but certainly made it an amazing place to safely be a young child.

Each of these teachers were awesome, but the Wonder Center was nothing without Mrs. Leary. Mrs. Leary must have been born to run a preschool. But having lived a non-traditional life as the child of an American diplomat, Mrs. Leary was born to run a non-traditional school and to be a non-traditional preschool teacher. She wore short skirts and served wine in the school after-hours. Her school was based on the Reggio Emilia philosophy, an education philosophy based on building respect, responsibility and community in young children through allowing them to explore and discover the world around them, placing them in rich and supportive environments and basing the self-guided curriculum on the interests of the children. Mrs. Leary ran everything in the school, creating songs for the children, math projects based on super heroes, and multiple science lessons on atoms, just because it so captured the imaginations of the kids. She created a whimsical play area inside and outside of the school, deemed a nearby park The Magic Forest, and sometimes let the children jump on her trampoline. She taught preschoolers to “use their language” to solve problems, and never allowed tattling. She would walk away from a conflict, telling the children she looked forward to hearing their compromise upon her return. She never called a piece of art beautiful. She knew that beauty is not always the point of art. Rather she discussed each piece with the artist and their friends, pointing out her love of the color choice, or what the painting resembled. She picked up frogs and grasshoppers. She walked around with a camera in her pocket at all times, and she took an amazing number of photos - the glossy, 80-page yearbook if full of incredible pictures of my child and her friends. Each of our children are lucky to have known Mrs. Leary.

She taught them to be writers;

to be artists;

to be learners;

to be explorers;

to be good friends.

She loved each of these children, and she loved the school.

The Wonder Center closed this afternoon, and I can’t even re-read that without crying. Because these teachers and this place had such a wonderful impact on my daughter - a child who loves to learn, but really fears new people - a child who began school as a terrified introvert but can no longer be described by either word. Because this place had a beautiful impact on our whole family. School ended at 1:00 every afternoon, and often the parents and children would not leave the grounds until nearly 2:00. S-- and I were welcomed into the school community every afternoon, and she grew as a confident child ready to start school on her own soon. And I joined an amazing community of women, parents who sought out such a school in such a city. Too many of these families move away within the next week. And the schools doors are permanently closed. This community is finished. And equal parts for L--, S-- and myself, my heart is broken.

Guest Blog: Nana and Poppa

As a child, most of us carry the classic dreams of seeing the world, becoming rich and famous, and more. At least, I did. My dream of seeing the world arose from reading my grandfather's National Geographic magazines, staring at the photos of Africa and China. But there was always an element of realism in my dreaming, understanding how unlikely it was that a kid from a rural town in Nebraska (State motto: I don’t know; what do you want to do?) would really get there. Still, I made my lists of dreams and life moved on. Over the years I accomplished some of my dreams, eliminated some others (my eyesight wasn’t good enough to be a pilot) and set aside several more (I still hope to be rich and famous).

Which brings me to seeing the world. When Ann and I got married, neither of us had seen much of the world. I had made a college trip to Mexico and a fishing trip to Canada, and Ann had never left the country. In fact, neither of us had even met an African-American or Asian person until college in my case, and after college in Ann’s case. Over time, my various careers took me all over the United States for brief visits; but we had kids, a mortgage, and Ann's business, significant family travel just didn’t happen.

But the dream to see the places I had read about, particularly China, still smoldered.

So, I found our first trip to China (May 2008) overwhelming. The mere fact that we were really going was overwhelming enough; coupled with the nearly 24 hours of travel it takes to get there, the noise, the pollution, the crowds, the strange food, eating with chopsticks, our unfamiliarity with the language, and other difficulties would have kept us from going in the first place except that we had a place to stay, a guide and we really wanted to see our grandchildren.

That first trip lasted three weeks. We visited The Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, The Forbidden City and had a great three days in rural China. Lynne wrote blogs about that trip when we made it last year and Dave’s parents made the same trip a couple of months ago and you have read their blogs about that trip as well so, I will write nothing more about the first trip except to say that standing on the Great Wall of China had been of those dreams from age 10. Standing in Tiananmen Square had only been significant for the last 19 years (at that time). Both, however, were incredible experiences.

Ann then returned to China for two weeks in August to help Lynne move to their new digs, and we have just returned from a month long trip together. This time we were much more prepared for the long trip and we expected the noise, the pollution, the crowds, and the unfamiliarity with the language. And by the way, one of the real joys of China is the strange food.

So, this trip we spent the first few days just getting our body clocks adjusted and finding our way around. Since Ann had already been to their apartment, she knew her way around the neighborhood so we pretty well hit the ground running. Our second night there, we met a couple from our church who have become good friends of ours. They were with a tour group and happened to be in Shanghai at a hotel within walking distance of us. So, we got together for dinner and had a great time. It is a small world, after all.

After a few days, Lynne and Dave left for a trip to Singapore, and Borneo in Maylasia and left the girls in our care. What a joy that was. We went to the zoo, the botanical gardens, the Magic Forest, McDonald’s, several playgrounds, watched movies, read stories, visited L--’s school and had a marvelous time. In case you don’t know it, our grandkids are extraordinary in every way and we enjoy being with them.

The highlight of the trip was a week in Central and Western China with the whole family. I should talk a bit about flying with this family. Moving 6 people through Chinese airports is a pretty interesting experience. Lynne carries everyone’s passport so we all have to go through together. Ann and I have one bag between us and a couple of carry-on bags with camera, books, puzzles, and munchies. These guys have two ENORMOUS bags (each is larger than L), two back packs stuffed full, a camera bag and two child car seats. So baggage check is a real treat.

We first flew to Xi’an in Central China, (about a 2 ½ hour flight from Shanghai) primarily to see the Terracotta Warriors. However, I really enjoyed the city. Xi’an was the capital of China several times and has been on that site for 3,100 years. The old city is surrounded by a wall built in the 14th century. The wall (12 km around) is still intact. The best way to see it is to rent a bicycle and ride around the top. We, of course, did so. Ann and I rented a tandem bike and enjoyed the ride very much.

Our first night in Xi’an, we visited Defu Chang Restaurant and had a great meal of a dozen or so different kinds of fried and steamed dumplings. Excellent.

The next morning we headed out bright and early for the Terracotta Warriors. (I should also explain that when we arrived in each city, we were greeted by a guide and a driver who were responsible for getting us everywhere we wanted to go, answering our questions, making restaurant reservations, and solving any problems. Lynne set all this up and did a fine job.) After our visit to the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace in Beijing the year before, I had declared them to be the ultimate example of the arrogance of power and wealth. After visiting the Terracotta Warriors, I have changed my mind. This guy (Qin Shihuang) was emperor in 210 and decided that he was a God and would return to earth after he died. Therefore, he would need his army. So, he buried a reproduction of his army. Archaeologists are still uncovering more of this army but they believe there are more than 8,000 terracotta soldiers buried here along with chariots, horses, etc. Absolutely amazing. The other amazing thing is the excellent condition that many of these soldiers are in.

That evening, we strolled the Muslim Quarter and ate street food.

The next morning it was off to Kunming in Yunnan Province (another 2 hour plane ride). Yunnan Province is in far southwest China and is bordered by Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and Tibet.

The primary reason to go to Kunming is to catch a plane to go somewhere else; but since we were there, we visited Devil’s Gate. How can I describe Dragons Gate? We rode up the mountain in a cable car and we were at least 1,000 feet above both the city and the most polluted lake I have ever seen – Lake Dian. Our guide said that all lakes in China are ranked on a pollution index, with 1 the best and 5 the worst. Lake Dian is a 5. We walked back down the mountain, through tunnels and along ledges with great views of the city and the polluted lake. At nine points along the walk down, we would come upon a Buddhist temple which had been carved or built into the side of the mountain. The work involved in doing this and building the path down the mountain was pretty impressive and it was a nice walk down.

We then went to our resort for the evening. Nice place. It had a big pool for the girls to enjoy, and several hot springs. We played in the pool, soaked in the various hot springs, and generally relaxed. We decided, at some point in time, to have supper outside on the lanai but could find no one who spoke English to take our order. Dave and Lynne eventually found a menu and by pointing at various things got us a great poolside supper.

Off again. This time a one hour flight to Dali. The Dali airport is on a mesa above town and so the drive to town is at least half an hour, much of it skirting Lake Ertai which we were scheduled to ride on later in the trip. Dali is approx. 2300 meters and is beautiful. It is the center of the Bai culture and a very interesting place. We first went to Old Town where we had a great lunch. In fact, the lunch was so good that we went back to the same restaurant for supper. As was our custom, each of the four of us ordered something from the menu and then we all shared everything. After a pleasant lunch, we jumped back in the car and visited a few small villages in the area. The first village had native dancers performing their native dances and three servings of tea. In the second village we watched indigo dye being prepared for batik and purchased some finished products. We then returned to Dali and spent the rest of the day exploring Old Town.

The next morning, we took a nice ride on Lake Ertai. Rode out to an island which housed a fishing village and explored there for a while. Grabbed some snacks which served as our lunch and headed for the cable car. We were not returning to the same hotel that night, but we left all of our stuff there because we were going to stay at a mountaintop “resort” that night and could only take what we could carry.

We rode another cable car up high on the mountain and then disembarked for the walk to the resort. I had understood that the walk was an easy 8 kilometer walk, and while that is a pretty good distance, I was prepared to make it. However, the walk began by climbing vertical stairs for at least 500 feet carrying children, packs and ourselves. I was already tired when we got to the road to the resort. However, the road was level, very well maintained and not a difficult walk at all. Rita (our guide) informed us that it was a 12 kilometer walk and we started off. It was a beautiful walk – high on the side of the mountain with great views of the city below and we were able to move along at a fairly good pace. After several short breaks and a couple of long ones, we reached the cabin only to find that it was another 500 foot climb.

The camp was a typical hikers camp – cabins with a dining room, showers, and a great view. Another great supper and off to bed.

The next morning we rode another cable car down to Dali. Picked up our bags and headed over the mountains to Lijiang by car (a 4 hour drive). This was an incredible drive. We began in high mountain valleys growing rice, tobacco, potatoes, and other crops we did not recognize. As we began to climb higher and higher, we still passed farm fields stuck to the side of a slope and some of the most intricate terraces I have ever seen. The views were amazing as we climbed to 10,000 feet or more. The traffic was pretty amazing as well. Heavy duty trucks carrying heavy loads slowed things down since there were few passing opportunities, but more than a few times we found ourselves behind a homemade truck which had been converted from a Cushman or some similar motorbike. These “trucks" would be hauling loads well beyond their capacity to haul, belching smoke and, in short, looking like they would not make it another mile.

We arrived in Lijiang in the rain and it rained off and on during most of our two nights there. It is a beautiful city at 3,100 meters (about 10,000 feet) altitude and would be even more so in the sunshine. The old city is built along a series of canals that come down from the mountains and was quite confusing for me to find my way around. No vehicles are allowed on the narrow streets and it was a wonderful place to walk around.

The next morning, back in the car to drive up the Yangtze River valley to Tiger-Leaping-Gorge. The floor of the gorge at its lowest point is 1800 meters and the mountains on either side reach 5500 meters, making it one of the deepest gorges in the world. The gorge at its narrowest point is 33 meters wide. We took an incredible walk alongside it for a mile or more. It made me want to take the whole two day hiking trip, but that will be another time.

We returned to Lijiang in the late afternoon. Arose early the next morning to visit Black Dragon Pool with Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the background. It was rainy and we could not see the mountain but it was a beautiful walk in the mist anyway. That afternoon, a flight back to Shanghai.

A Few Updates

A few updates, on the whirlwind that has been our life for the past few weeks.

1st: China has blocked all access to blogger.com, which hosts this blog. I am only able to post on the blog when Dave has his work computer at home. This leads to very few postings, and few more this week, as Dave will spend the week in Chicago. Again, my apologies for scant reading lately. I'm hoping that China lets up, as we get further away from the 20 year anniversary of Tiannanmen Square. If it does not, I will find a new host.

2nd: Our friend Doug has officially been invited to come to Washington, D.C. for his oral interview. As a reminder, this friend is applying to the American Foreign Service and the process is as bureaucratic an application process as you will ever find. Having been invited, he will log onto a particular website between midnight on June 20th and midnight on June 24th EST to choose the date and time of his interview. He will then send himself to D.C. at his own expense, and will learn at the end of the day whether or not the State Department has accepted him as a future employee. Only 20% of those who reach the Oral Interview will be accepted in the Foreign Service.

3rd: Amazingly, there is still no word on the Wonder Center. The last day of school is this Friday, less than one week away. This leads the speculative parents to believe that the school will permanently close its doors on Friday. We will dry our tears, and prepare our children for a lesser school in the French Concession in the fall. L-- will do fine there, and I think that S-- will stay home with me for another term... if not another year.

4th: We have found mold growing on the walls in the girls' bedroom. We close their windows and their door every night, and have two very young children sleeping in a non-ventilated small room with mold spores growing rapidly. We may be moving sooner than we had planned.

5th: The era of a full house has almost finished. My parents leave tomorrow for St. Louis, after having spent a lovely 4 weeks with us. Amusingly, Dave leaves tomorrow as well. Leaving a deliciously quiet house for me tomorrow night.

6th: We no longer own a home. Our house in St. Louis officially closed on May 27th, without a hitch. A tidy sum of money now sits in our account in the states. We are homeless, in some sense, and although that money offers a lot of security, the sale of our permanent home was a sad release of a security blanket. If ever anything went wrong, we knew we could go back to our house and move on with our lives, surrounded by family, friends, church and affordable living.

Lastly, we enjoyed some wonderful travels. With my parents, we all traveled to Xi'an and then on to Yunnan Province, both in China. Sadly, this will not be posted before Dave and his computer leave for the states. But at least it gives you something to look forward to.

Working Title - The Tai Tai Project

The Chinese word tai tai translates to English to literally mean wife. Here I have reached the limit of my Mandarin fluency - although I know the literal definition, I have no idea the connotation related to the word tai tai in Mandarin. However, when a foreigner uses the phrase tai tai in conversation, they refer to, shall I say, women who lunch. This is not a compliment, at least not in my circle of friends. It refers to the foreign women who follow their spouse to Shanghai, outsource the parenting to an ayi, don't learn to drive or to speak the language, and spend their time shopping, getting massages and meeting for lunch at the "it" places. Wearing heels.

By description, the difference between myself and them is not vast. I could argue the differences, but it would stray from the point of the Tai Tai Project. The sheer fact that the word wife does not clearly define most of the women I know is a source of great interest to me. In Shanghai, I have a large number of girlfriends. This is new for me - I've historically been "one of the boys," but I'm enjoying the company of girls. And I'm particularly enjoying the wide array of strong, amazing women I have the privilege of getting to know. Each of these women has a different reason for coming to Shanghai, more complex than simply that they followed their husband's job. Each of these women has a story which led her to this amazing place, and those stories never cease to amaze me.

Hence the project: the Tai Tai Project, for lack of a better name. It is my goal to collect oral histories of these amazing women. Partly as a writing exercise for me - I look forward to writing interesting stories in each woman's unique voice. But partly just for fun. I've already collected three, and what a privilege it has been to interview these three women. Of the three, their stories could not be more alike in many ways - each dropped their life to follow their husband to China, and has spent the last few years focusing entirely on their young children and meeting their family's needs. But each is so amazingly different as well. Becca moved away from New Zealand, her home country, freshly out of college to offer her services as a nurse and midwife in impoverished Romania, where she met her American husband ten years later. Kate got pregnant during her freshman year of college, dropped out of school, and then married the father and went on to have 4 children within 7 years. Lori graduated from Princeton and then Harvard Business School, worked for a decade as a business woman for some of America's top companies before changing her life entirely to focus on being a mother in Shanghai.

I don't know the endpoint this project will lead me toward, although I have some exciting and ambitious (possibly overeaching) ideas. But even if they go nowhere, I'm certainly going to enjoy the journey.

Guest Blog: Tiananmen Anniversary

If they had only known what their actions would result in, would they have protested?

Now, 20 years later, millions of Chinese are unable to tweet, blog, youtube, flickr, or any other number of things. If someone had told those students 20 years ago that this was going to be the result of their actions, I am sure they would have had second thoughts about taking to the streets. What a price to pay!

In all seriousness: this is another of those surreal times in China, where we as "outsiders" think of this as an important, watershed moment in China's recent history that should be discussed and debated at an anniversary like this, but the vast majority of the people around us only have the vaguest notion of what, if anything, happened in and around that square 20 years ago; and most of those that do know would probably defend the government's motives (stability, etc.), if not their methods. Is this a time when we Westerners are trying to impose our way of thinking on a nation that is doing just fine, thank you very much; or are we right to think that the oppression of the few is too high a price for the gain of the many? We cannot know until the Chinese people are allowed to openly discuss and debate these questions themselves.

Guest Blog: Grandpa and Grandma

Lynne invited us to write a guest blog about our time in China with them. We are very happy to do so...even if it has taken us forever to actually do it!!!

We left for China on Tuesday, April 21 and returned home on Tuesday, May 5. To be honest, Jenny was pretty intimidated by the idea of China. It seemed so far away and like a "difficult" place to visit. But she was in for quite a surprise. Yes, it was far away, but both flights were uneventful and even pleasant (six total movies for Jenny; five for Doug). To be greeted at the airport by Lynne and our granddaughters made it seem more like coming home than arriving in a "far country." We were driven through the streets of a very modern city by the friendly driver, Zhang (the gentleman that regularly drives for Dave and Lynne). Cars whizzed past and we gulped a bit at the "no rules" driving of everyone around us. We were very glad for the fact that WE were not driving (this was true for the whole of our time in China!). When we arrived at our B&B, we were delighted by the lovely home Lynne and Dave have. They provided a beautiful suite for us and we quickly settled in. It was absolutely wonderful to have our two dear little granddaughters around and to be able to spend quality (as well as quantity) time with them!

We visited several restaurants in Shanghai and really enjoyed the food. This was another surprise. We rather expected that we would lose weight (even secretly hoped that the food would put us on a "forced" diet, so to speak). Unfortunately, between the delicious meals prepared by Dave & Lynne and the meals at fantastic restaurants – well, let's just say we didn't lose any pounds. Most of the time at restaurants serving Chinese food, we asked Dave to order for us and he did a splendid job of choosing a great variety of foods so there was always plenty to eat and plenty to like! It was also surprising that there were many restaurants offering Western style food (Italian, etc.) that was excellent, and we enjoyed these as well.

Lynne took us to the Fabric Market and we had fun ordering some clothes (after the requisite haggling . . . Lynne is good at it, so Jenny let her do that for her! Doug was a bit more adept, except for Jenny making him back down too quickly!). We also saw L--'s school -- which was really amazing . . . when we walked in we were struck with just how "happy" and whimsical an atmosphere was created by the teachers there. We can well understand now the disappointment Dave & Lynne have that the school may be closed in the Fall.

The first Saturday in Shanghai, Dave took us on a walking (and, to be honest, "cabbing" also) tour of the city. Lynne and the girls met up with us for lunch and we had such a great time. Shanghai was amazing to see . . . the construction and productivity of the city were mindboggling. On Sunday we all went together to the World Financial Center, one of the tallest buildings in the world. It was quite awesome to see the city stretched out below us and to get even more of a perspective on the size and growth of Shanghai – and the Lord even gave us a relatively clear (by Shanghai standards!) day.

For the next week we had the joy of traveling with Dave & Lynne and the girls to Beijing and to Yangshuo – a great mixture of contrasts. If Shanghai is like a combination of our New York and Los Angeles multiplied by two, Beijing is like our Washington, D.C. – with historic buildings, wide avenues, and public squares. Lynne proved again her prowess as a travel agent by arranging our stay in a two-bedroom suite right downtown. We visited the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Temple of Heaven, as well as a traditional area which we saw from the seat of a rickshaw (the drivers were given a full week off after hauling us around!). We also took a day trip to see the Great Wall – where we will have lasting memories of grandchildren taking their tiny steps on that huge edifice. We really felt like pinching ourselves at times to be sure that this all wasn't a dream. To actually be in China, with our loved ones, and seeing such amazing sights -- it was a gift from the Lord to us.

Yangshuo, by contrast, was the China of traditional post cards: foreground of rice paddies with waterbuffalo and women wearing cone-shaped straw hats and with background of steep Karst hills. We stayed at an eco-resort right on a river. We also managed to get in some shopping on a Yangshuo market street, ruthlessly driving for some tremendous bargains (only triple the "Chinese" price). We varied our town time with walks through villages amid the Karst Hills.

We enjoyed the people we met along the way in China. Although most did not speak English, they were friendly. The pressure to buy from street merchants was somewhat intimidating; but, in the end, it just added to the atmosphere.

Leaving our loved ones on Tuesday morning, back in Shanghai, was not easy – especially since we do not know when we will all be together again.

Dave & Lynne are sure great tour guides! They made our time in China so much fun—we got to see so much and do so much—and yet it was restful too. Thanks, you guys, for all you did to give us such a wonderful visit. We love you all and miss you greatly.