OK, So I am a little behind!

Just returned from Summer trip home and realize how many people keep in touch with us here by reading the blog. So, I will have to do MUCH better at putting updates out here! Sorry to all of you who are feeling out out of touch. Here is a quick update of what has happened in the last few months:

• I participated in the 2008 Great Wall Marathon. Well, it wasn't pretty, but I did it! I did the half marathon and did it with a combo of run/walk. My goal was to finish in under four hours, which I did. Check out the final results here. I think there is a video somewhere, if I find it, I will put it on YouTube.
• Work for both Tom and I is going well. Tom has a decision to make regarding staying with Delphi or going with the new company that will be buying the brake business from Delphi. Both appear to be good opportunities, we will just have to wait to see what the final decision is...
• Natalie finished Kindergarten. All good stuff! In fact, they would like to have her move up to 2nd grade math (only math, the 1st and 2nd grades at Concordia are already combined for some classes). So, now she has to do math worksheets this summer!
• We all traveled home to see family in the States in June. Very short visit as I am working now and don't have as much time as I used to. Sorry to all I didn't get a chance to see!
• Tom and I went to St. Martin in July to celebrate our 20th anniversary this year (it is in August). Stayed at the Alamanda resort which is right on Orient Beach. Took another Random Wind tour (highly recommend) and basically just laidon the beach! This was our first vacation of more than 7 days. Very nice!
• Spent the last few days in the States with my family.
• Said goodbye to Natalie for 6-weeks! We felt it best to let her stay in the states rather than come back here with us working every day. Plus, Vizcaya is a ghost town right now! Nothing for her to do without me home all day. I am sure there will be more to come in the future blogs regarding my loneliness for my little girl!
• Went to Indy to catch my flight back, then had to reschedule for following day due to flight delays. rented a car, drove back to Fowler, then turned around and drove back in 15 hours. I HATE TRAVELLING!

Which brings me to my only rant for the day... Travelling. When did travel become such an awful activity? If you have travelled by air lately, then you know what I am talking about. The whole activity stream, from booking travel all the way to actually executing the travel plans is just not a pleasing experience anymore. I know it is an industry wide problem, but come on, surely there is some what for someone to figure out how to get people from A to B without all of the hassles. Anyone have any ideas???

Great Wall Marathon - I DID IT!!!!

Well, it wasn't pretty, but I did it! I did the half marathon on the Great Wall. My goal was to finish in under four hours, which I did. Check out the final results here.

We left Shanghai on Friday around 11am. We got to Beijing and started looking for our driver. We had arranged for a driver to take us from the airport to our hotel, which was about 1 1/2 hours from the airport. But alas, no driver to be found! So we started our calls to the travel service and the coordinators. Luckily we found our driver after about half an hour. Not bad for Asia travel! And so we were off. We made it to the Pinggu Yuyang hotel around 4pm. The lobby was filled with tourists who had flown in for the marathon. Some were expatriates in China, but many were just visitors who had flown here just for the race. Crazy. So we checked in and got our first look at our room. Not bad, though they called it a 4-star, and we agreed no way! We did agree though that the beds were absolutely the HARDEST beds ever. All joking aside, all of us had a poor night's sleep. I guess we might as well of chosen to sleep in the Farmer's Hostel at the race start and slept on straw mattresses. They would have been softer. Anyway, after we checked out our rooms, we took a stroll around the area (we were in Pinggua which is northeast of Beijing). It was really different from Shanghai in that they must not see many westerners. The children in particular seemed totally in awe of seeing Westerners close up. They were very friendly and welcomed us to their city. One interesting thing we observed while out shopping for some fruit and water was a food item that all of had only heard rumors about: chicken embryos cooked in the shell and eaten whole. It is actually hard to explain. But the chicken eggs contain really baby chicks that are 1-4 days away from hatching. They are boiled whole and then pealed and eaten whole. We saw them and then were lucky (unlucky?) enough to see a woman buy and eat one. She peeled away the shell, grabbed the chick embryo with chopsticks, poured some red sauce on it, and proceeded to eat it's head. Yuk!!! We thought of some good names: Chicks and Salsa & Chicks on the Half Shell. Back to the hotel where we taught Ceyda to play Euchre (she did great!). Then up to our HARD HARD HARD beds for no sleep!


Our alarms went off around 4 a.m. Packed and to the lobby by 5 am. We are a bit perplexed by the process of what to do with our luggage. The bus we could fit our luggage onto did not have room for us. The coordinator was trying to tell us that our luggage would show up at the hotel we were staying at, but he didn't understand that we had made our own arrangements for Saturday night. We finally decided to take the risk of leaving our luggage on another bus and loaded up into another one. We got to the Wall after about an hour. The race is held at the Huangyaguan section of the wall. We had another panic moment trying to figure out what to do with our luggage during the race, but we drug it up to the square where the race starts and got it checked in. Once we ditched the luggage we had to find the toilet. And then we experienced another first. We have all had to use a squatty potty before, it is pretty common around China. But we had never had the open room squat pot experience! There were 5 slits in the floor with no separations. So we had a group pee! Interesting...


After relieving ourselves of our worldly possessions and our morning hydration, we were ready to go. They left in two groups. Then it was the first group of the half marathon. Then us, the 2nd group of the half marathon. And we were off at 7:51! We were only walking so the large pack left us pretty quickly. The first part of the race was about 6k uphill to the wall. Very hard. The next part was on the wall itself. Frankly, I thought that was not too bad. Very beautiful. Our group separated into two packs: Myself and Raquel, and everyone else. The wall section was about 6k. After that, we headed to the road and through a small village. The village area was very interesting. It was really small but I am sure that this is the big annual event for them! Once through the village we headed back to the start. I ended up running the last 5k, I had planned to run more, but decided not push it. Plus my knees were pretty sore already.

I finished in 3:52:26 (11:02 min/km 5.45 km/h)!

After the race was over, we grabbed our bags and loaded into a bus heading back to Beijing. We had decided to splurge and stay at the Crowne Plaza! Nice splurge. The damn bus ride back took almost 3 hours. We had subway sandwiches after the race, but we are all pretty exhausted. After we got to the hotel, we all showered and shed our stinky clothes. Then to the bar for some post-marathon drinks! We ate dinner across the street and headed hope early!

All in all, a big accomplishment! Not sure I will do it again, but it was well worth the experience. I think I will check out the Polar Circle race in 2009...

Jinqio 8k & Upcoming Great Wall Marathon

OK, I am bit behind in reporting news! Last Sunday, April 20, the Bramer's and the Miller's participated in a local event, the Jinqiao 8k. At 9:00 am there was a funwalk that the kids and Tom participated in. The walk was 2k which was basically around the block. Kathy and Brian Miller walked the 8k and I actually ran it. Since 8k is the MOST I have run at one time since high school, I had low expecations. My goal was to finish in 50 minutes. My results were:

• 45:36
• 90th woman overall (out of 197 women)
• Not sure where combined overall since the mens times on the result sheets showed that ALLL men finished by 42:03, yet I know that there were men behind me. Bu there were 557 Male entries, combined to a total of 754 entries. I surely finished in the top half anyway!

So, not too bad. I felt ok, but was very tired by the time we came back and ate. I slept hard for 2 hours that afternoon.


So why all the running? Well, we have the Beijing Great Wall Marathon coming up on May 17th. We are actually doing the half-marathon. The half-marathon is 13.1 miles or little over 21k. My friends, Kathy Miller, Raquel Thueme, Ceyda Yuce, and I are heading there on a Friday, walking Saturday, and returning home on Sunday. We have been walking for several months leading up to this. The race is partially on the Wall itself, and partly through the local villages. Kathy and I headed to the Radisson Hotel, which is a couple of blocks away from her apartment, to walk up and down the stairs as that part of the trainin has been the hardest to duplicate. Of course, heading to a Chinese hotel to train was interesting in itself. It took us 15 minutes (not kidding) to figure out where the stairwell was! We asked several employees, but they would guide us back to the escelator or elevator. Probably should have learned the chinese word for stairs before we went! Regardless, we did find our stairs and after about 35 minutes of huffing and puffing, decided our hearts had enough! I want to go and do this a couple of more times before we go. I have been afraid to put my time goal as I really don't know what to expect. However, I have been thinking of shooting for less than 4 hours, but not sure if this realistic. If you analyze prior year times of women my age, I think that 4 hours is probably realistic. This race does not necessarily draw a lot of "walkers" and I think that will be what I will be doing most of the race. For sure the plan is for Kathy, Raquel, and Ceyda to walk the whole thing. But I hope to walk to three hours and then run the final hour. That is the plan anyway. More to come...

One week and Three days

Meant to get this out here this weekend, but this weekend just seemed to be filled up. Anyway, it gave me some time to gain perspective on the events of the week and to see if this week was also going to be as interesting!
Day 1
I covered some of the first day already, but thought I would share some thoughts. The week started with Tom flying to Beijing at 6:00 a.m. That meant that my first few dys of my new job were spent flying solo with Natalie. But that turned out to be no problem. Plus it meant the driver was available to take me to work and pick me up and night. Much more convenient. We headed off to Puxi around 7:30 after dropping Natalie at the gate to catch the bus. It was a bit melancholy to see all of the mother’s walking their kids. But, it was a decision I made to give up so I have to learn to adjust to it. Then there was the minor accident on the way to school. Check that summary out here.. So, the first day was interesting as it always is when you start at a new job. HR takes 2 hours of your life away by explaining all the things you can’t do, how not to get fired, and that your annual salary is so high already you will never a pay increase on their current compensation programme. Different country, same story! Sorry to all my HR-professional friends out there!

Then to my desk. Which didn’t exist. Nor any equipment. Oh, and no supplies. Luckily I brought a pen and my “professional management note taking device” (known as an account book for those of you in the know). And I was off and learning! I will admit that I had a huge headache at the end of the first day. I probably should have stretched my brain out a bit more before I made it run for 8 hours. Home to the house and Natalie. Oh, and the Ayi. She had dinner ready and Natalie had already eaten. So we ate together while Natalie chatted on about her day. Natalie did ok that day though she told me she missed me. Truthfully though I think she tells me that because she hears me say that to her. Anyway, we both survived. And we were both in bed by 8:00. I was so tired. And I slept like a log!

Tuesday was more of the same, but no headache this time. I did realize that navigating the roads at rush hour in Puxi is not a fun thing to do. But I knew that I was moving transportation mediums soon anyway! It is hard to describe the mass of humanity that exists the businesses here to head home at the end of the day. So few people live near where they work. But more on that later..

The third morning I had the driver drop me at one of the subway stations that is not too far from our house. It was about 7:45 when I got there. I got my ticket and headed downstairs. . I have ridden the subway quite a few times, but never at this time of day going to the heard of Shanghai. Not too many people waiting around, so I felt good about maybe it not being too crowded I was lucky enough to get behind one other person waiting, so I was pretty close to the front. Then the train came. OH MY GOD. There was so many people already on that train. I felt there was no way that the the 10 of waiting to get into that particular car would never fit. But then the rush of the other 8 behind me pushed me right into the car. I have no idea how it happened, but soon I was crammed into the middle of the car. No need to hold onto anything to keep from falling since you are so jammed in, there is no way to fall. And it got worse. We had three more stops before we even crossed the Huangpu river and 5-10 crammed into our car at each stop. The good news was getting from Pudong to Puxi in 15 minutes. Finally we got to People’s square, where I had to change trains from line 2 to line 1. I have decided that streaming of people moving from one train to another would be fabulous to watch from above. The throngs of people ebb and flow and rarely do large collisions happen. Anyway, two more stops on Line 1 Shaanxi Lu. It took me only 40 minutes from subway station to subway station to get a block and half away from my building. Pretty nice! Plus there is a Starbucks across the street from the subway so I treat myself to an American favorite as a reward for transporting myself in a very Chinese method! Don’t get me wrong. The first few days of riding put my personal space issues to the test. But, it is not too bad and it really was a matter of finding the right times of day to take advantage of it. After I got into the office Wednesday I had a laptop. So another half day of figuring out how to change some of the applications language to English.

Tom returned Wednesday night and Thursday Natalie had Student-led Parent / Teacher conferences. So, after three days at the grindstone, I took a half a day! What a life, right? After her conference I had plenty of time to take the subway at a much better time of day! I ordered my supplies. This consisted of looking at pictures of supplies that the admin took with a camera. The pictures all have the product number and description in Chinese on them and I just copied that file info into a form. So, it was not too hard for me, though I accidentally ordered a case of coke!

Friday morning, the driver dropped me at a different station where I purchased a transportation card (called Jiao Tong Ka). Now I felt like an official Chinese worker. I just scan my card and it automatically debits against the amount I placed on it. I keep it in my purse and I just wave my purse over the reader. Also, we changed to this other station for pick-up and drop off as it is much smaller and quicker. Though on the other hand the other station also had a large fake market in it where I could shop a bit after a hard day of work (Ok, I only bought 2 bags that week).

First week was pretty good. I love my job and what I am doing. The people are nice, though I feel uncomfortable about my inability to speak their language. Probably 95% of the communication among the rest of the staff is in Chinese. And I miss my girlfriends here. I am still on the email chains and see all of the fun places they are going and things they are doing.

Visa or Not to Visa, that is the Question
This week started with another visit from HR. Apparently there is “minor” issue with my Visa. The HR manager asked me if I could fly to Hong Kong this week and get “a Hong Kong” visa. Needless to say, I was more than a little unsettled. I was actually so confused, I wasn’t able to get stressed out. I always keep in mind that this is China, and you never hit a wall, you just have to be prepared to meander through situations. So, I listened to HR and told them I needed to check with Delphi as my visa is currently being sponsored by them. Anyway, long story short: I am now getting an official work visa, but it by no means resolved yet how I am going to do that. And yes, I keep coming to work anyway!

France Sucks
Also this week there was an email circulated by a department employee (for all I know he sits right next to me!) that contained pictures of the protests occurring around China at the Carrefour stores. I heard a little about that from Tom, but was not that familiar with the whole issue. Everyone in the office stood around and chatted about it all day. I couldn’t really understand what they were saying, but I picked up a lot of angry tones. For or against, I do not know. I will admit to currently being immersed in a culture that I do not always understand. This sense of nationalism is just not something that we experience in the U.S. At least not on the scale that they do here.

Natalie’s Emergency
And finally, Tuesday came. Natalie has gone to school now for 8 months. And in that 8 months never once did I receive a call from the school nurse. But today, on my 7th official day of working, the nurse calls at 2:55 to tell me that Natalie has fallen in P.E. and acquired a large bump on her head. I am at last an hour away. School is out in 15 minutes. Do I send her home on the bus and have the Ayi deal with it? Do I call Tom and see if he can get her? Do I run out to the street to catch a cab to head there? Whew. I talked to her on the phone and she said she could ride the bus, but then she started to cry again. She was trying to be sooooo brave. What a trooper. I decided to call Tom, and he of course was able to leave work and get to the school in 30 minutes! I also headed home a bit early as everyone know that father’s can’t be trusted to truly assess a child’ health. But she was fine. She talked at dinner as much as she always has, so I took that as a good sign that she felt alright.

Summary
Going back to work was the right thing for me to do long-term. So far the hardest adjustment is missing the extra time with Natalie and not getting to see my friends very often. I feel like I am growing personally by making myself use the public transportation and to try and be as self-sufficient as possible. Don’t get me wrong. It was wonderful to have a year off and to totally de-stress. It is up to me now to keep that balance and try to learn how to work without letting stress build up!

First Day of New Job for Shelly

Today was my first day of work at Roche Diagnostics Shanghai Limited. Yes, I have finally gotten my lazy self back to the grindstone. I am helping Roche start up a PMO within the Shanghai business area. I came upon this opportunity through a friend's husband (xiexie Mike!) and was lucky enough to be qualified for it. I have known for a few months that I really needed to get back to work. Not that I was not having fun with my friends, but I came pretty quickly to the realization that I was not ready to give up my career permanently and so I felt I needed to take any good opportunities seriously. Ideally I would have gone part-time, but that didn't work out this time.

My office is in Puxi on HuaiHai Lu. That is pretty far from Pudong. This morning Tom had to fly to India so I am lucky enough to have the driver available these first few days. So this morning, I dropped Natalie at the gate to catch her bus and headed on the long ride to work. Right before we crossed the Nangpu bridge, a car slightly brushed our van. Man, was Zhong Biao pissed! He told me later that the other driver was newly licensed and didn't know anything about how to drive. So of course after the van was hit, he put the van in the park right there in the middle of the bridge entrance and started arguing with the other driver. Too funny! In the U.S. you would exchange insurance, take a picture and be on your way. These two guys argued about how much the other guy needed to pay. Zhong Biao wanted 800 RMB. But he ended up settling for 600 RMB. It was just so funny to watch the exchange. We had one and a half of the two lanes blocked for at least 15 minutes before they pulled to a median. It took a total of about 20 minutes to resolve since the Police showed up. Which meant that I was 5 minutes late to my first day of work! Ta da. How to really impress your new company on the first day of work: be late! But it turned out to be no big deal as HR was still making some final tweaks to my final contract terms. Of course I feel bad now about the car and feel like I need to pay the 200 difference. Though later this evening when I looked at the mark, I could barely even see a scratch!!! Such is life here in Shanghai...

When I got home, the house was totally clean, the Ayi cooked my dinner, and then picked up all the dishes. Needless to say, that made transitioning back to work WAY easier than it would have been in the states. I did have to spend most of last week working with the Ayi to transition cooking responsibilities! Of course in reality she is probably a better cook them me, so I really have no worries there. In fact, Tom is excited about eating Chinese more nights during the week. Natalie usually dictates our meal content, but I have decided that she too must learn to adapt her palate. And Natalie behaved well for the Ayi which I guess I expected though 5 year-olds are very good at MANIPULATION. Just ask her grandparents...

Well, I am pretty tired, so I guess I better get this posted and up to bed. More to come....

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!


_________________________________________________________
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!