Oh, Freedom!

Oh freedom,
Oh freedom,
Oh freedom over me!
And before I'd be a slave,
I'll be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord,
And be free.

We have a car and a driver, and I've been humming this tune all day. Michael is wonderful. He drives quite slow and carefully, which causes no complaints from a mother of two. He doesn't know his way around very well, but I can direct him to our frequently visited spots and I could care less when he needs to search for new places. He speaks not a lick of English - he didn't understand the word "no." But he is very sweet, quite helpful and awfully nice to my girls.

We spent the morning at Century Park, which I believe to be Shanghai's largest city park. Located in Pudong, it is also quite new and very well planned. Full of paths leading to different gardens and lakes, it was a lovely place to spend a 60 degree day.

We hit the playground first, located in the amusement park. We have found that most Chinese parks have an amusement park section. This one had bumper cars, a small roller coaster, a blow-up castle and a few other rides. As well as a rather large playground, which the girls enjoyed thoroughly.

Once finished climbing and playing, we took a walk to explore some of the grounds. L-- and S-- found a lovely bench on which to sit facing some men fishing. I explained to them that we need to keep our voices low near fishermen. The men held quite long poles - possibly twice as long as poles in America. They were made of metal, but strongly resembled rats tails. I pictured a cartoon of a rat with his tail fishing, his body facing away from the lake, and his head turned around watching in quiet, fishermen-like interest. The poles seemed quite thick and rather heavy where the men held them, and went down to a small point by the end which they held rather near the water. The pole had quite a bit of movement, bouncing much like a tail would.

Neither of the men caught a fish while we watched. But as we walked away, we noticed another man carrying a plastic bag and a large, bamboo pole. His pole ended with a claw, much akin to the metal claws in arcade games where you maneuver them to pick up the best stuffed animal and then drop it through the hole into your possession. We discussed the purpose of this pole, until we noticed that the bag held a fish. This was the fisherman to have watched, for apparently he caught a fish by stabbing at it with his long bamboo pole. This type of fishing seems to require much more skill!

The girls slept hard after the visit to the park, and I had to wake them for our Friday playgroup. Only two people came, both of whom expect to leave Shanghai within the next few months. We had a lovely conversation, and I feel like I got to know both of them better. But still disappointing, especially compared to the large turnout the playgroup pulled in January.