Thailand Vacation

We just got back from our family vacation in Phuket, Thailand. What a great trip! It was my first time traveling in Asia outside of China. We left on Tuesday, March 25 at 8:45 a.m. and got back Sunday around 4:30 p.m. The only bad part of the travel was that both Tuesday and Sunday were full travel days. The flights we had were on Singapore airlines and went through Bangkok. Be prepared for a long day of travel if you decide to make the journey from Shanghai! It takes about 5 hours to fly to Bangkok and another hour to Phuket. And we found out that Natalie still gets a bit air sick, though she didn't actually vomit this time! We stayed at Laguna Beach Resort. There is also several other hotels really close that are part of the area referred to as Laguna Phuket. The beach there is called Bang Tao Bay. I would guess that all of the hotels there are nice.

The hotel is a 5-Star hotel, but again, in Asia that does not mean the same thing as in Europe and America's. The hotel itself was beautiful and the rooms were nice. But our room smelled overwhelmingly of mold. There was very little hot water in our shower, which really didn't matter after coming in from the 90-degree beach. And there was a woman in the room above us who we referred to as the "Clacker" as she apparently wore high-heels all day and all-night long. We could hear her before she left for the evening around 9pm and then again when she returned around 3:00 a.m.! Too funny.

We really liked the beach there. It really is nice. And the food was good, though I had enough lemongrass by the time I got back. Natalie loved the pool at the hotel as it had a big water slide. She must have ridden on it several hundred times. Unfortunately she was a bit too small to be in the pool all by herself. There were too many other kids and people. She played in the ocean a lot too. She loves the ocean! She only got wiped out by the waves a couple of times. I had to admit that we didn't leave the Laguna Phuket property. We hung out at the pool and beach at the hotel and grabbed lunch and dinner at the cheaper restaurants right on the beach. We thought about going and doing some sight-seeing, but frankly it was nice for Tom to just lay around and do nothing. Maybe if we go again we will venture away from the tourist location. Every day, the hotel had two small elephants brought to the property for the kids to ride. Natalie didn't ride (surprise!), but she did touch them both a couple of times. Tom and Natalie had a sailing lesson one day. Unfortunately it was during a time when there was no wind. So, the guy teaching them did a lot of paddling off the front of the boat. After the sailing they took out a kayak and rode around the the lagoon. Tom was pretty tired by the time they got back. It seems that Natalie did NOT do a lot of the paddling.

I did get a chance to play around with the camera. It was quite fun trying to capture good pictures of the sunsets. You will have check out all of the pictures on shutterfly. I added a few videos out to youtube as well. Enjoy!

Natalie's School Homework

OK, I take a risk on publishing this blog entry and offending all of my family and friends who are even a bit religious, but it was just too funny to pass up. So BIG apologies up front!!!Natalie brought home some work she had completed in class the other day that stated the following:

Jesus Helps at a Wedding (John 2:1-11)

One day Jesus, His disciples, and his mother attended a wedding. All of them had fun until the wine ran out. Jesus' mother knew He could help and He did. After Jesus told the servants to fill the water jugs with water, a miracle happened. The water became wine! The wedding guests were very happy.

We can always take our problems to Jesus. He will help us, just as He helped the wedding guests.

So, what do you think the five-year old said to me, the wine drinker? She said "See mommy, Jesus can make you happy!" So I decided that it was interesting choice to use on a kindergarten color by number page.

Out of the mouth's of babes...

Harry Connick Jr. Concert

My husband is awesome. Most of the time. Ha ha. Seriously, he got us front tickets for a recent Shanghai visit of Harry Connick Jr., one of my favorite artists. Maybe you know him from the music in When Harry Met Sally, as Grace Adler's boyfriend (and later husband) Leo Markus on the NBC Sitcom Will & Grace, or from the Broadway revival of Pajama Game. Not only did he get us tickets, but we got FRONT ROW tickets that were right in front of the his piano. No better seats in the house, unless you count the view from the saxophonist's chair. The concert was in a smallish stadium, the Shanghai Gymnastics stadium. Maybe there were 2500 people there. So it was rather intimate. The concert itself was only about an hour and a half. Pretty short. But I loved it. And Tom liked it too even though some of the jazz standards were a bit slow for him.

Sorry, the pictures are a bit unfocused. Tom had to sneak it out the best he could. Check out the YouTube videos that I added. Pretty cool!

Oh, and before we arrived, we went to dinner on the 57th floor of the JinMao building. Does my husband love me or what? It was a pricey evening out, but I think I must be worth it because Tom did not ask for his money back the next day! I will let you think about that for a while...

Recipe: Oven Roasted Cauliflower

This recipe is very simple and low in calories. It is a quick way to prepare a side vegetable for your lunch or dinner. Also, it tastes good room temperature or even chilled. You can add the leftovers to your salad the next day! The parmesan and chives or spring onions are essential to achieving wonderful taste in this recipe. And be sure to keep your oven hot to get the nice golden brown color!


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Oven Roasted Cauliflower

Ingredients:
5 to 6 cups cauliflower florets, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter (from 1 medium cauliflower)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon sliced garlic
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
Chopped chives or Spring Onions, 2-3 tablespoons

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Place the cauliflower florets in a roasting pan or a glass baking dish. Whisk the olive oil with the garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Drizzle over cauliflower and mix well. Place the pan in the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes until fork tender, stirring occasionally to ensure even roasting. Don’t over cook! You want the cauliflower to be a bit firm. Remove from the oven pour onto a serving platter. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and garnish with chopped chives and serve immediately while still warm.

New Career: Cooking Classes???

A week ago, Friday, February 22, I held my first "mock" Cooking Class here at the house. What a hoot! I am seriously considering hosting a few friends here occasionally for a class or two. I had four of my friends, in the picture Deb, Sherie, (me), Angie, and Kathy, come over as guinea pigs to see if I could actually do it! By the way, thanks to Kathy for the beautiful hats! It actually turned out pretty good, though I definitely need to prep each item a bit better. And if the Ayi had not been here to help wash dishes between, it would have been quite a mess. I think that just takes some practice. Plus, I am not a clean cook anyway and need to improve that anyway!

So the menu was:

• Soy-Lime Chicken
  Chicken Breast - marinated asian-style, served with the marinade sauce on top
• Sautéed Brussels Sprouts - Simple sauté of brussels sprouts with honeyed walnuts
• Asian Slaw - Cabbage, radishes, and snow peas combine for a great side dish
• Zucchini Bread - American classic! Moist and tasty, especially when served warm

I am not a very good dessert maker, and the oven I have to work with is not very helpful! The Zucchini bread sunk a bit in the middle, but it still tasted OK.



So, now that I have tried it, I am going to try to hold my first class in March. I have organized my recipes as a result so even if I don't hold a single class or make a single RMB, it was worth if for that! I will post the recipes and progress out here as well!

CRASH!

Well, it was inevitable. One of us was going to get hit by a car or something! Don't worry, there is not bad ending, but read on to hear about how life really works here in Shanghai...

Wednesday started off great as my Mandarin teacher was sick (that is not what made the day good) and having a whole morning free, I decided to meet Kathy, Angie, and Ceyda for a long walk. After our healthy walk, we decided to meet for lunch. So I headed back to the house, took a shower, and jumped on my bike to head back to Hongfong lu. I had exited our villa entrance and was crossing the street at YuShan and Mingyue. The cross light showed about 5 seconds left when I was 10 feet from the bike lane entrance on the other side of the street (you have to go up a ramp to the "sidewalk" which allows for bikes and walkers to get out of the street). There happened to be quite a bit of traffic stopped on my right at the light. Unfortunately it meant that the scooter that had decided to run the red light didn't see me coming and I didn't see him until I passed the truck that was stopped at the light. CRASH! He slammed his breaks as my front tire came into view, but he still wiped me out! Luckily I partially jumped clear and only took the bike seat to my right rear thigh. He laid his scooter down, which was a pretty good size. All in all, his scooter the bulk of the wreck. It leaked some gas and the left side muffler got some dents and scrapes. But my poor bike (just the Decathlon cheap one thank god) ended up with a bent rear tire. He jumped up from his scooter immediately and I am sure was thinking "CRAP I JUST HIT A WESTERN WOMAN! I GO TO JAIL LONG TIME! But I told him no problem and being American, I apologized for not seeing him. Probably not a lot I could do about that, but that's my Midwestern values coming out! I limped the bike back to the house and parked it. The funny thing was that I had to change bikes and head to lunch! And no, I did not have on a helmet. Not defending, but in this case a helmet would have done nothing. I was much more likely to have my leg broken if it had stayed between my bike and the scooter.

Now I have to remove my tire and figure out how to get it fixed...

Daddy Daughter Dance

Last night was Natalie’s first formal, a Daddy Daughter Dance sponsored by the Girl Scouts. She and her dad had to get all dressed up. She looks grown up doesn’t she? I had bought a dress for her at the Nihong Children’s Market for 88 RMB, or about $12. The girls all earned a “night on the town” patch for the evening’s outing. They were told that they needed to take their Daddy’s around and introduce them to their friends and their Daddy’s. If you notice, I even got her up up into a decent looking bun! I had to watch a bunch of videos on the Internet to see how to do that. Hair styling is definitely NOT my forte!

It was funny to see how much Natalie’s expressions mimic Tom’s. The closer we got to leaving, the more anxious Natalie started to get. Tom said once they got there, Natalie was a bit shy. But she didn’t really want to dance to with him. She told him to “Go away!” Just like every other little girl. She did dance with her girlfriends though. Natalie told us that they played 3 High School Musical Songs, 2 Cheetah Girls songs, 1 Hannah Montana. And 3 songs she didn't know. Natalie felt that the dance was just ok. She is saying this morning that she did like it and dancing with her dad. Not sure she would want to do it again in the next few days though!

I uploaded all of the pictures to Shutterfly. There are some pretty

cute ones of Natalie with her Dad. Enjoy!

Harbin

We took a great family vacation to Harbin, which is in northern China. Four families went, the Bramer's, the Miller's, the Fansett's, and the Yuce's. So there were 8 adults and 5 kids (all girls!). Harbin is VERY cold we all had to buy lots of stuff before we went. We flew in on Friday morning and got to the hotel in time for lunch. We picked the Shangri-La as it is currently one of the few hotels with some western food. Plus it had a swimming pool (which I will get to later). After we loaded the kids with carbs from the lunch buffet, we all piled into taxis and headed across the river to our first ice park on Sun Island. The weather, while cold, was actually pretty good. The sky was clear and the sun was very bright. Of course many people took pictures of our kids, especially Grace Fanset and Natalie who attract a lot of attention due to their blonde hair! They had a replica of the Forbidden City that had four large ice slides on them. After negotating for about 10 minutes, the kids got to ride. Hannah didn't want to ride alone, so I volunteered to ride with her. The hard part was carrying the inner tubes up the steps! The ride down was fun. Even the two little ones, Grace and Natalie, went one time. As you can see, they were too busy having their pictures taken to be bothered with silly slides! After having some hot chocolate and peanut butter sandwiches we had brought with us, we had to head back to hotel. We found out AFTER we got there taht the park didn't have any night lights, it closed at 5pm. The funniest part of the day was trying to get taxis for all of us. A woman came up and offered us a "van" that would hold all 11 of us for only 40 RMB. We thought, "what a great deal" until we saw the "van". It looked like a clown car! But we decided to chance it, so we piled the moms in with the kids on top of us. the guys took the slightly larger seats near the front. It seemed like a lot longer ride to get back to the hotel than it did to get there! I am sure there were no shocks at all in that little van! So we took the kids back and took them swimming. Which was harder than you think. In the U.S. hotel, you could get the kids dressed and head down to the pool, no worries! But here, you had to sign in at the desk, buy swim caps for all who were getting in the water, go to the locker room and place your stuff into a huge locker with a key, then pass into the pool area. See, indoor swimming pools in China are really more for exercising as opposed to playing in. So the whole time that the parents were sitting at the tables watching the kids play, the girl who was mopping the floor was hovering around us, nervous because not all of us had on appropriate shoes (barefoot is bad). But we snuck in a few beers and the guys drank some Scotch anyway. After the swim, we got the pj's on the kids, piled them all into Bramer's room and ordered room service pizza. We put in a DVD on Tom's laptop and they all zoned out! The parents then headed down to the restaurant for some well deserved food and wine. [note that the we left Lauren in charge upstairs, she is eleven, very responsible, and had a cell phone ready to dial us if there was a problem. There was no problem!].

The next day we first headed to what is known as the "poor man's ice park". It was the old one at Zhaolin Park. The kids could ride many slides for free and play on a few of the sculptures. The park had advertised ice skating, but there was no skaiting to be found! But the kids had fun anyway. Again, hot chocolate and peanut butter sandwiches signaled the end of our playing.

Later that afternoon around 4pm we headed to the BIG park, also across the river, the Ice and Snow World. If you have seen pictures of Harbin, more than likely it came from this park. We got there early so as to not have to wait in line, whcih we heard happens at dusk. To call these building sculptures was a bit under describing. They were huge buildings made out of big locks of ice. At this point in the season, some of the sculptures were closed due to the fact that the ice just evaporates over time and is not so safe. But the kids didn't seem to care. This is one of my favorite shots of them, lined up in a row. Once it started to get dark, the lights came on. And it is very amazing. When the Chinese do something, they always do it BIGGER than anyone else. So while you might have been to an ice show in the U.S. or other country, I assure you that the scale of this one is much bigger! But it was also very cold. One by one, the families started heading back to the hotel. But first they got to hold Artic foxes, slide down a few slides, run through an ice maze, and eat frozen strawberries covered in frozen candy! Unfortunately the biggest slide, which you had to use a plastic sled for, was too big for the any of the kids to ride. Luckily we found that out before standing in line too long! All in all, a great park!

Once we headed back and again, got the kids ready for bed, we ordered hamburgers from room service for them and then the adults all headed back down. That night we all at in an Ice Bar, called the Ice Lantern Resteraunt. The table and chairs were in an igloo what was outside (though conncected to the hotel). We ate Hot Pot in -10C! We had to keep our hats, gloves, and boots on during the meal. It was pretty good (I am not the biggest hot pot fan) but not something you would want to do more than once a year! We had lots of laughs and generally enjoyed each other's company.

The next day, the women headed out for some shopping. Little did we realize that in being so close to Russia, the two things you could buy were Russian stacking dolls (very cheap) and plastic replicas of russian guns. Who knew? Literally there was nothing to buy. Not even the standard pashimas, bags, scarves, jewelry, etc. that you find here in Shanghai on every corner. But that was ok, we had a nice walk and spent no money. We all left for the airport around 1:30 and got home around 6:30 p.m.

Overall, this was a great short trip. Not sure I would want to go for more than two days as it is cold and just getting bundled up to go out takes 45 minutes. But the parks are worth it and it is a good vacastion for the kids as the iceparks are really all you can do up there. There is a Tiger Park that we opted out of as usually there are tourists who buy a chicken, a goat, or a cow to feed the tigers while your bus drives by. None of the girls were interested in seeing that!

We are now uploading many of pictures on Shutterfly. To check them all out from this trip use this link.

New Toy: Nikon D40x

This year I got a real surprise for Christmas. Tom was gracious enough to purchase me an awesome gift, a Nikon D40x SLR camera. Though frankly I know nothing about real photography! So, it is my new hobby. Or will be when I figure out enough to really do something with it. I thought I would blog some of my progress for both sharing with my friends who are helping me out with my education on photography (thanks Kathy K.!) and for those of you who have to hear me talk about it. Now you can see it and comment on it!

So everyone says to not be afraid and to just go out and play with it. So I did. First I captured some pictures of Natalie just out riding her scooter. I am using a zoom lens to really capture some detail. Nothing exciting here, though I love how the camera can focus on a single subject and "blur out" the rest of the picture. It really draws attention to the subject. See how much I have learned?

I also went across the street and took some pictures along one of the many canals that run

near our house. In the picture here on the left, you can see the JinMao off in the distance with the new even taller building to the left, the Shanghai World Financial Center. It is hard to see, but the Pearl Tower is visible right at the end of the canal in the skyline above it. It was pretty quiet out there as it was a Sunday as well as part of the New Year holiday still. As you can see, I really liked trying to capture the sun shining into the water. The water was pretty still and the reflections of the trees

made for an interesting subject. I took about 75 pictures while freezing my feet and hands off. I was trying to play with the light and I was amazed at how hard it was to get the picture focused correctly! I have a much greater appreciation for professionals or even amatuers who take good pictures. I hope some day to be there...

NiXīnnián Kuàilè! Gōngxǐ fācái...

Happy Chinese New Year! This holiday here makes the 4th of July look very small! I think there is a major difference in celebrating 230 years versus 3000 years. So first let me give you a bit of background on Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is the first day of the lunar calendar, so it is also called the Lunar New Year. And it is also referred to as the Spring Festival since it is the beginning of the Spring term, which is the first term of the 24 terms on the lunar calendar. The lunar calendar is represented by twelve animals. Each year is represented by one animal. This year is the year of the Rat. The 12 animals in order are: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Oh, and if this is your lunar year (you were born in the Year of the Rat) then last night you

should have worn red underwear and today you wear red socks. Red symbolizes good luck. Last night (Feb 6) was the Day Before New Year. Traditionally it is usually a day reserved for family and socializing and big feasts. The firecrackers are to scare away all of the evil spirits. Today is the first official day of the Chinese New Year, Nian Chu Yi. According to tradition, most Chinese will spend this day with family. The literal translation of this day is something like "welcoming of the gods of the heavens and earth". The 2nd day of CNY is typically spent visiting in-laws. The 3rd day is basically a stay at home day as it is considered unlucky to have visitors that day. The Chinese believe that on the 3rd day of the Chinese New Year it is not appropriate to visit family and friends, and call the day "chec hao", meaning "easy to get into arguments". On the 5th day, the god Cai Shen is welcomed as this is the day that businesses open back up and Cai Shen symbolizes prosperity. The seventh day traditionally is known as the common man's birthday, RenRi, the day when everyone grows one year older. The tradition calls for counting your age from this date. So, it is possible that you could be born in January and be two by the time February rolls through! The celebrations end on the important and colorful Lantern Festival, Yuan XiaoJie, on the evening of the 15th day of the month.

Yesterday, there were fireworks ALL day. Actually you can hear them several days before, but yesterday was unbelievable. We went to Deb & Tim Spofford's apartment at Shimao Riviera, which is down on the Hungpu river across from the Bund. What a great place to see the fireworks. None of the fireworks were "organized" like they are in the states. Basically people set them off outside on the sidewalk or just stop their car and light a box. And these are not little fireworks. These are huge boxes of great fireworks. Think of every neighbor you have letting of a 10 minute firework show right next to your house! And then multiply it by 100. In fact, you can not explain to anyone who has not been in China during this time what it really is like. Deb & Tim's son Tucker bought a few boxes and took them down to the street and set them off. Even though the boxes look big in the picture, the fireworks that came out were pretty small in comparison to the others around us. As Tom said, "It was like he felt when he took a shower with the Seniors in High School for the first time...". We had a good time last night watching the fireworks from above. Since we were on the 36th floor, some of the fireworks that were set off right below on the sidewalk actually cam up and exploded below us. What a great perspective. Also interesting to see all of the "strays" shooting off into the apartment complexes. We would be surprised to find out how many people are killed and injured during this holiday, but you don't really see anything about that side of it here! We didn't get in the taxi to come home until 1:20. Luckily there was little traffic and only a few fireworks to dodge! Natalie crashed 45 seconds after getting in the Taxi.

The pictures are from the party last night. I am using a new camera so I apologize that the night pictures are not great, but you can see how there are literally fireworks going off everywhere in the city. Amazing. I highly recommend experiencing this once in your lifetime!

Giants Win! Enjoying the SuperBowl in Shanghai

Monday morning we all got up early (ok, some of us earlier than others) to go to the Vizcaya Club house to see the SuperBowl. The party started at 7:00 a.m. They had a breakfast buffet and a Bloody Mary bar, but I will come back to that in a minute... Tom had volunteered to run the "gambling" for the game, he was up pretty late Sunday preparing a large paper with lots of boxes. You know, you pick a square and put your name in it, then he filled in the rows and columns with numbers. At the end of each quarter, the person whose name was in the square with the last digits of the score for each team won some money. He did a good job, of course! Kids won three of the payouts though. It was a different mix of fans I guess.


So it was interesting to see that there were a few die-hard Pats or Giants Fans, but for the most part it appeared that most attendees where just football fans. I would observe though that American's tend to not be as "outgoing" about wanting to know who all the other American's were at the Party. Obviously we knew quite a few people, but rarely did anyone approach to introduce themselves and find out where we were from. It is a major indicator of our American culture, the country of the Individual. Frankly I am not sure that other Americans's are all that intersted in knowing you just because you are American. Contrast that to Europeans and you see a major difference in how we integrate into another culture.


Oh, and one word on the inability of the Chinese to make a bloody mary. Anyone who knows me will tell you that it is one of my favorite drinks (especially if I am forced to drink before noon!) The tomato juice here is not useful in making them. The juice is sweetened and also very watery, so the texture of the drink is just not right. Also, these bloody mary's had a topping of tomato juice foam on the tom, caused I assume by the shaking of the drinks prior to putting into the glasses. So the drinks are bascially juice and vodka. And I am not sure that there was even real vodka in these. So alas, there are no good stories to tell about anyone at the party who drank too much! Ok, I feel better...

The broadcast we watched was on a satellite feed from Malaysia. So, we missed all of the commercials, which frankly was nice. Though we were able to see the same two commercials for "Alaska brand powdered milk" and JVC. I bet no one in the U.S. saw a commercial for powdered milk! And we got to see the whole half time show. Wow, Tom Petty is old, isn't he? Which means I am old... Natalie had met a friend from kindergarten at the party so she and the little girl's older sister played together most of the game. There were quite a few kids as most of the schools are out this week. Overall it was nice outing. And then we headed back home ate lunch and Tom headed back to work...