West Lake with Westlake

After a late night of Risk, one of the other foreign teachers, Danny, stayed over in our second apartment.  Since he lives on campus, he hadn't been to West Lake very much so we showed him around.  The ironic part is that he has been here 9 months, and his last name is "Westlake!"   We raised Jack's bicycle seat so that he would have something to ride.  Sue and Sophie were on one bicycle, Danny on the second one, Peter on the third one, and Jack and I on the fourth.  Jack is getting HEAVY to pedal up the hills!

 

We went south off the Guo Villa and climbed into a boat for a nice row and verbal tour around some small arms of the lake.  The driver served us some green tea and provided umbrellas for the sun which was starting to get warm.


Danny and Sue being silly in the boat.  We're going to send it to Danny's girlfriend in America.


Sophie is famous for changing her moods very quickly.  She can turn her sad face into a happy face in about .0000003 seconds.  Proof below:


Peter allowed her to sit on his lap for awhile and enjoy the view...

It was starting to get bright out, so Sue lent Sophie her sunglasses.


Jack, hanging out, enjoying himself on the boat.


We spotted these guys dredging up some dirt from the bottom to create this little island.  We're not sure if they were raising these plants as crops or what - so many mysteries in China!


We stopped at the Su Causeway and fed the fish - a West Lake must!


It's rare we get a picture of the 5 of us together - I don't often bring my tripod around and there are usually too many people to use a tripod anyway.  Thanks, Danny!

Here he is, being goofy for the camera.


Jack, Danny and Peter LOVE playing Warcraft III together.  They have a warcraft language all of their own.  "Does the Skull King bounce his spells off of the building onto the Acolytes?  I don't know, but we need to do a Star Fall!"


We stopped at one of our "haunts" at West Lake, Le Varza, and we have befriended this woman, who is also from Wuhan, the same city from where we adopted Sophie.  This woman also has a 4 year old daughter, so she always entertains Sophie while we eat, and even takes her to the bathroom!  Sophie loves her and calls her "ayi" or "auntie". 

Today we had a small accident on the bike.  Sophie turned her foot so that it went into the spokes of the back wheel, while she was on her bike seat, during our ride to West Lake!  It was really caught in there and we were afraid it was broken!  We carried her around today and checked for swelling, but luckily there was none.  She is now missing some skin on her foot but once she saw something that interested her she ran off to investigate and we breathed a big sigh of relief! 

Shopping at the Carrefour

Sue went to the Carrefour to go shopping and pick up some Western provisions (cereal, pasta, coffee, and bread).  It sure is nice to have an outpost of Western food here.   Apparently the French are suggesting that the Olympics should be avoided due to the situation in Tibet!  So, Many Chinese have elected to ban going to Carrefour because it is a French chain (even though it's locally owned and employs many Chinese!)  However, this is our source of wine, cheese and bread - so, we're happy to ignore any political tensions that may be occurring and eat well!

Some delicious chickens and chicken feet - what a selection!  I think it's impossible to pick out the same feet that were originally together!


If chicken feet aren't to your liking, how about pig feet!  Hmm, what to cook for dinner?


Here's a premium turtle, waiting for your shopping cart.  MMmm, doesn't he look yummy?  Anyone have any good turtle recipes? 


Thursday night we had some of Sue's students over.  We made them an American dinner which they seemed to like, but they did eat some of our Chinese food afterwards!

Last night some of the other foreign teachers came over (and one student) for an exciting game of Risk - world domination!  The risk game lasted until 11pm which the boys LOVED, then talking until 1am.  Then everyone (except the Lewises) went to the bars after THAT!  Peter exclaimed, "Those YOUNG people are crazy!"

The Wall Museum

In ancient times, there was a wall around Hangzhou, during the Warring States period. Emporer Chin Emporer Qin (201 -207 BC) unified the states, and joined all of the walls together.  His other achievements were the building of many canals and roads, the introduction of a common money system, and standardization of laws.  Jack, Sue and Sophie went to the wall museum today to look at a rebuilt section of the wall that used to surround Hangzhou.

Peter and Jack enjoyed the views from the top of the wall.


The entrance to the wall and the museum.  It's clear today, but starting to get quite hot and muggy!


After lunch, Sue noticed a group of red-hatted tourists going down an alleyway, so what did they do?  They followed!  They came across the Hangzhou Catholic Church which was built in 1659.  It was burned twice, once in 1692 and once in 1912, and converted into a temple twice, in 1691 and 1730.  today, it is the cathedral of the Hangzhou Catholic Diocese.


Next it was back to Sophie's school to pick her up. 

The school has been on a campaign the last couple of days to check the children carefully, and teach them Currently there is a scare about the EV71 virus which has dangerous symptoms for small children; it's a variant of hand, foot and mouth disease and there is no cure for it.  We have been told by the U.S. State Department that we don't need to change our behavior for now, but it's something we're watching closely!  We may pull Sophie from school if we think it's not safe!

It's a Monday

After homeschooling, it was time to get outside and enjoy the sun and warm temperatures.  Here's Jack, hanging out by the lake, waiting for his lunch.

After lunch, we took a little promenade around the southeast side of the lake.  Peter held my cappuccino while I took their picture - then proceeded to drink part of it.  I think he LIKES it!


Everything has leafed out SO much during the past month.  The boys loved the paths with a canopy of greenery overhead.  They're always so happy when we get outside and into nature!


This guy was playing some violin type instrument while people sang.  The boys said they definitely would NOT be putting this music on their IPods any time soon!  It was fun to watch, but not fun to hear!


Some colorful plantings near the east side of the lake...

Tomorrow I get a new class of 34 students.  These will be students that have just been accepted into the graduate program.  They have all passed the CET6 ( College English Test - level 6) so their English should be good enough to have some interesting conversations over the next 10 weeks!

Return from Shanghai

Today, Sunday, was definitely more relaxing for us than most Chinese.  Sue was supposed to have classes today, to make up for a holiday we had last month, on April 4th.  Tomorrow is also supposed to be a holiday, but it is also a make-up day for June 9th.  In the U.S., we just have holidays.  Here, they make up many of their holidays by trading them with weekend days!

As I sit here writing this, on Sunday, I can hear the school children getting off of their school busses after a day at school.  As the boys say, "Sucks to be them!"

Peter and Jack at the Shanghai train station today as we made the trip back to Hangzhou.

The train station restaurant has some delicious Illy coffee.  How can we refuse!?!
 

The waitress played with Sophie for awhile, which is standard procedure whenever we go to a restaurant, then snapped this picture of us in transit.


Peter tried to take a picture of us all asleep on the train, but with all of these children around, I always sleep with one eye open.


Jack had taken his rabbit, Blackjack to our friend's house on Thursday to be cared for while we were away.  Unfortunately, within a few hours of the rabbit's arrival, it died!  We're not sure why - was it too scared from the bike ride over there?  Did a cat or some other animal scare it to death?  Did it eat some bad food?  We're not sure, but we were sad to lose her!

I will try to convince Jack NOT to get another rabbit before we go home in about 55 days - and then try to figure out what to do with it!

The friends that watched Blackjack were the same ones whose fish I watched when they went to Thailand.  Their electricity failed for several days, so more than 80% of their fish died.  I guess we shouldn't watch each other's pets any more!!

Old China, New China

To me, nowhere that I've been in China has a greater contrast between old and new than Shanghai.  Since we had a few days off (Thursday and Friday are holidays in China), we decided to come back to Shanghai and relax.

In the foreground, charming little streets with noodle shops and family grocers.  In the background, huge megatowers of glass and steel!

LEFT: A huge building near Nanging Dong Lu that looks like the docking port for a spaceship.  RIGHT:  In the foreground, some locals in the alley having a visit.


It looks like today is shaping up to be a clear day, so we decided to head over to the Jin Mao tower, currently the tallest (completed) building in Shanghai.

Most people go to the Pearl Radio and Television tower (far left) and pay about $15 US to stand in long lines and visit the observation decks. 


Our Lonely Planet guide recommends to go to the Jin Mao tower and go up to the "Cloud 9" bar.  There you can sit at a beautiful window table in the gorgeous bar and have a drink for about the same price.  We went there too early today and it was closed, so we'll try again later this evening if the clear weather holds.
 






Today (Friday) is also a national holiday, so there are many crowds about and lots of flags up.  Below:  The Chinese flag displayed proudly amid the towers of glass and steel.


Looking across Shanghai and the Huang Pu river.


We stopped at the Shanghai Urban Planning and Development center where they have a historical account of Shanghai's long history as well as future plans for growth and development.  Shanghai in the old days...
 

A scale model of Shanghai which contains about 30 million people at this point.


Peter is becoming interested in all things architectural, so he really enjoyed the Urban Planning center.  Part of future plans are to build a 32km bridge out into the sea where ships can dock.  Then trucks would load the goods and bring them into Shanghai, without having to bring smaller boats up the river!

We went across the street to People's Square where it was starting to get hot!  It's supposed to hit 90 degrees today.


This cute little boy sporting a lovely queue was playing with a bubble-gun, which, for our kids suddenly became a must-have!
 

Well we found the store where the boy had gotten his, so here's Sophie attempting to inject some bubbles into Jack's mouth.


Sophie, of course, REALLY enjoyed trying to catch the bubbles on her tongue.


Jack, Peter and the Chinese Pippi Longstocking (remember her??) in a sea of bubbles!
 

LEFT: Sophie and I waiting for our dinner, and RIGHT: Peter, during lunch today, showing the proper technique for eating noodles.  Slurp up a whole bunch, then use the chopsticks to keep feeding them in.You don't want to bite them, because long noodles signify a long life!

Near the lunch restaurant today was a jelly-bean store.  How cool is that?  We love Shanghai - it has everything!


Next we went back to the Jin Mao tower now that the "Cloud 9" bar was open to have a drink and look at the views...


Sue and Jack on top of the world...


Next, we went back to the restaurant that Cara, Shawn and I had gone to before getting on the train.  It was wonderful to sit by the river and watch the traffic go by on such a warm day!
 

A view of the river from our table...


We were sent an email with pictures of people holding the sun... so of course Peter and I had to try this :). 


Hanging out at dinner with the 3 kids...



Finally, as the sun completed setting, the building lights across the river came on.  Beautiful!


We made our way back across the river to the Bund and pushed through the crowds for some Gelato.  What a clear, warm night that we all enjoyed!


The Pearl Radio and TV tower all lit up.

Can You Say, "Vanquish?"

One of the vocabulary words in my English class was the word "vanquish", as in "The Hulk vanquished his enemies!"  Well, that is exactly what happened to our neighborhood train ticket office!  We used to buy our train tickets here up until a couple of weeks ago... now not even the building is left standing; just a pile of rubble!

After awhile, some workers came to sift through the remains to find any recyclable parts; bricks, bits of metal, etc.; anything that can be reused!


Speaking of the word "vanquish", our rabbit has gotten HUGE!  He vanquishes rabbit food, vegetables and water at an alarming rate!  He is getting much faster, stronger and harder to catch, too!  Look at those FEET!

Here's Jack and Sophie with our friend Amir; he had been teaching underprivileged children how to speak English near the Tibetan border which he loved.  His contract ended, so now he's shopping around for more opportunities in Hangzhou.  He is so good with children and our kids love him!
 

Peter's computer was also nearly "vanquished".  During the last major construction, the indoor portion of the air conditioning unit was moved to the opposite side of the boys' room over the desk.  Somehow it wasn't hooked up properly and excreted over a liter of water while it cooled their room overnight.  Normally this wouldn't be much of a problem, except Peter's laptop was the recipient of the deluge!  We dried it out carefully during the warm day.  Tonight, we crossed our fingers and pressed the power button.  Miraculously, it appears unharmed! Whew!