A Chinese pick-up truck

Just thought you all might like to see what a pick up looks like here in China. I'm kidding, of course but the funny thing is you don't ever see trucks like we have in the US. They either use this type of bike thing that they pull by hand or they have more of a moving van type truck. I'm always amazed at what all they can carry by hand on these things. Fortunately for this guy, these chairs aren't too heavy.

One other thing...about Expo!

I just had to add one thing to the post I just made about the Expo.  I told you all that the Expo place was big but I need to put that in a greater context.  Today at the Expo, they had 425,800 people visit!!!!  Can you even imagine that number of people in one place?  That is roughly 7.5 times more people than the entire population of the city in the US where we moved here from!!  And we think a football stadium that holds 100,000 people is amazing!  By the way, that is just ONE days worth of visitors!  So far the World Expo website says that they have had 30,831,900 people visit!  That’s right...almost 31 million people!  Does that not just floor you?  It does me.  The majority of the visitors are Chinese and coming from parts all over China.  You have never seen a herd of tour buses or people until you have seen the parking areas around the Expo.

John and I always laugh that the Chinese people, for the most part, don’t really have any concept of personal space – meaning that we get bumped into more here then any where we have ever lived or traveled.  Imagine Super Walmart the day before Christmas and you are just beginning to have a very small taste of what it is to live in this mega-city of Shanghai.  But we laugh because you know, in the US, if you bump into someone the polite thing to do is say, excuse me or pardon me or something.  But here, they literally bump into you and just keep on walking not thinking anything of it.  At first I got so annoyed by this – I mean, where are your manners, people???  But then I realized that when you live in a country with over a BILLION people, if you say excuse me every time you bumped into someone that might be all you are ever doing!  I’m exaggerating a bit on that but really, our sense of personal space in the US is so different especially when you consider that most of the people here in Shanghai live in tiny high-rise apartments not much bigger than 400-500 square feet with neighbors all around them.  The other funny thing they do at the grocery store if your basket is in their way is they just bump into it until you either move it or it moves out of the way on it’s own.  Again, it used to drive me crazy but now I find that I just go through the store bump, bump, bumping along not thinking anything of it.  And strangely, they don’t think I’m being rude a bit.  I can just imagine that I will move back to our small mid-western town and get quite the talking to when I’m in Walmart and bump someone’s cart not thinking of where I am and how, “oh yeah, that’s RUDE!” :)

Well, these are the things that we learn and grow and love about getting to experience a different culture so close-up.  And on that note, I just want to add one last thing that is fascinating to me.  It amazes me to really see first hand how deep our cultures are engrained into us – without us really even knowing it.  I can’t remember exactly what it was that Leo and I were talking about last week but I recall that we both ended the conversation just floored that the other person could not grasp what it was the other was talking about!  It had nothing to do with language barriers – it had everything to do with coming from two different cultures where things are just done so differently!  I could not wrap my brain around what he was saying as a feasible (and “good”) way of doing things nor could he understand why you would want to do it differently then his way!  It was funny and really just showed me that no matter what culture it is you are raised in, you have things inside you that are just purely cultural.  One really isn’t better than the other (although often times “we” think our cultural way is far better) it just has to do with differences.

Anyway, I just thought that you all might find some of those musings interesting!  Blessings!

Shanghai summers...

Summer is here!  It is hot and steaming and wonderful! You know, John and I have a rule that you can only complain about one season or else you are just always complaining – so I choose the winter – and no matter how hot and steamy it gets here, I just say, “ahhhh, so much better than the cold!” :)

The summers are funny here in Shanghai because literally most of the expat community leaves and goes back to their home country.  So it just leaves us here to fin for ourselves!  We have been having a nice summer, though, spending most of our time doing school in the mornings and swimming in the afternoons.  Since all the friends are gone we do school the month of July and then with 4 weeks of school already done we can take off weeks whenever we want during the year...the beauty of homeschooling!

One other fun thing we have done this summer - we went to the World Expo that is being held here in Shanghai.  On the 4th of July, the American pavilion asked American families living here who have children adopted from China if we would want to walk in the USA parade.  The girls were very excited to get to walk in the parade and wave to all the people.  For John and I, we thought everyone is ALWAYS staring at our family, we might as well go and be in a place where they are supposed to stare at us! :)  But, lo and behold, it rained on our parade, literally!  We got a very special tour of the inside of the US pavilion (without having to wait in line which was great) and then were getting ready for the parade when an imminent downpour of rain cancelled the parade.  The girls were disappointed but since we were already there we just went ahead and enjoyed the rest of the day at the Expo.  I have to say that I was a naysayer going into the day, thinking it wouldn’t be much fun and just tons of hot, sweaty people in long lines.  Well, that was true for a time but by about 7 o'clock most of those people were heading home so we stayed until almost 10pm and had a great time running into all the different country pavilions seeing what they had to offer.  We got to eat authentic Belgium waffles which were great and see lots of interesting pavilions, like Egypt, Chile, Brazil.  We plan to go back again and try to hit some of the pavilions of places we might never be able to go to in “real life” – like Cuba, Afghanistan and a whole bunch of those other “Stan” countries.  The Expo site is HUGE and has tons and tons of pavilions in it of countries from all over the world.  So we plan to go back again one of these weekends!  Anyway, the picture above is of the girls when we were getting ready to go for our parade day!

Hope you guys are all enjoying your summer!  I always love summer – I just love the feel of loosened schedules and that fun just seems to be in the air a bit more!

Happy Birthday, Mei Mei

Lauren turns 7!

I say it with every passing birthday but once again, I can’t believe that my little sweet Mei Mei has turned 7!  

And here in no particular order are the...
7 Things I Love Most about Lauren!

1. her amazing smile – it really does light up a room – and has since the day we adopted her!
2. her fun loving, “let’s play” attitude
3. her sense of adventure and willingness to try so many new things and new foods without complaint!
4. her sweet giggle that just goes all over her body
5. her willingness and joy to give you whatever it is she has...truly, it can be the last piece of her favorite candy and she will offer it up to you without any prompting or asking – and without feeling like she has to!  She loves to give gifts to others.
6. the way she will be off in the distance from me, playing with friends, and still turn around on occasion and give me a little wave just to say hello! :)  It always warms my heart!
7. To me, there is nothing better than watching Mei Mei when she is excited about something – she jumps up and down and squeals and you just can’t help but be excited about it too!
   

The list could go on and on but those will be for another year! And can I just add for all you moms of young kids that read this...there is hope – she FINALLY sleeps through the night without issue and has for a couple of years now!  I remember for years (literally) thinking that day would never come!  :)