Well, actually we have found 2! Basically in China, you find two that you like and begin negotiations on both of them. I guess there is a high liklihood that at least one of them will not work out. I like both houses a lot so either would be fine. We are just praying now that God would open the door (literally) of the house where He wants us for our time in China.
The houses certainly are different than what we have back home - that's for sure. To begin with all the floors and stairs are marble (the bedrooms have carpet)! It's funny that in the US we think of marble as a luxury but here it is cheap, durable and cool in the summer so all the places have it. We will have a little back yard but it's tiny in comparison to what we have in the US. I think we can still squeak in a little metal swingset for the backyard. The girls LOVE to go out and play so hopefully we can get that. The complex does have a playground and will have a pool opening soon so that will be nice. We will definitely have room for visitors so all of those who are wanting to visit China - the next 3 years would be the perfect time! :)
After doing our second look on the houses, we spent the afternoon exploring Century Park in Pudong. Pudong is the area of Shanghai that we will live in (east of the river) - Puxi is the older downtown area on the west side of the river. Puxi looks very much like downtown NYC to me. It has very narrow streets and TONS of people everywhere. Pudong has only been developed in the last 10 years so it is much more modern with very wide (4 lane) roads and seemingly fewer people - but that's a relative thing! :) Century Park was beautiful. It is the largest public park in Shanghai and would be comparable to Central Park in NYC. We rented a bike and went for a ride around the park. It was very nice. The funny thing though is it was wedding picture central! I bet we saw 10 different brides and grooms posing for wedding pictures. The brides rent western style white dresses to have their pictures taken in but for the actual wedding they have several Chinese style colored dresses that they wear. Even funnier to us was the grooms in these all white tuxedos or suits. Evidently they think that is what goes with the white wedding dresses.
We finished the evening by having a 1 hour foot massage. I talked John into doing it with me and he was hesitant at first. But I think by 5 minutes into it he was LOVING it. This was a really nice foot massage because they also did our shoulders, necks and arms. The massages here are cheap and awesome! This place where we had the massage is only about 5 minutes from where our house is so I will definitely get spoiled living here as far as massages go!!
I haven't uploaded any pictures from my camera so I'll try to do that later but at least wanted to give an update on where we are in the process. Today we will move over to a hotel on the Puxi side so we can explore around those parts a bit. We figured it would be much easier to explore around there for the first time without 3 kids in tow! Then on Sunday we will head back to the US. I'll try to post one more time before I get home...because we all know that once I am back in the normal swing of life with 3 kids I'm lucky to get something posted once a month! :)
2 comments:
Wow! What a fast pace and an awesome trip. I guess you don't have the options there that you have in America. It seems like we have been waiting forever for our house, but we are getting exactly what we want (for the most part) whereas you are going to know where your house is before you even go over for "good", but you kind of had to pick and choose between what was available. It's amazing what life throws at you. I think your family will do just fine. You have a solid foundation and know where to turn in times of need...God. I'll be excited to hear about your trip when you get back.
Thank you for taking us on your journey! I can't wait to start saving money to come visit, especially for the message! Happy Belated B-day!
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