Workin' the Weekend

This weekend were workdays for Sue and I.  We have Oct 1 - 9 off, and there are a couple of days off in November, so the whole country works on Saturday 9/29 and Sunday 9/30 to make up the difference. 

Sue had class yesterday, and I had class today.  I was amazed to see nearly 100% attendance on a Sunday!  One of my students left early due to her brother's wedding in her hometown over the upcoming holiday, but nearly everyone else was in attendance!

Even Sophie had school today (Sunday) but we kept her home since she has the sniffles, for a day of recuperation before we go to Xi'an tomorrow.

While Sue had class, I had a home day with the boys, and while I had class today, Sue took Sophie out and bought herself some clothes.  She is definitely becoming more adventurous and her Chinese is getting better!

She loves her Chinese classes.  Her teachers are very patient with her and tonight she and Sophie went out BY THEMSELVES, IN A CAB to find us dinner since our ayi isn't working this weekend.  She would gladly have worked but it just seemed cruel to me!  

Sue went to the local Starbucks and her class today, which are both in the same 18 story building.  To her amazement, she found this beautiful park - where?  on top of the building!

 

 

 

We have seen this scene a lot - restaurant (or store) staff lined up while they receive direction from their manager.  It looks like some kind of pep talk right before opening.

 

They went to the bookstore today, too.  So much for that HOME day so Sophie could relax :).  Here she is with two other girls that played with her in the store while Sue shopped.

Sophie is making rapid progress in Chinese.  She says, Good Morning, Goodbye, Hello, I don't want it, and can count to 12 now!

Tomorrow we take a taxi to the airport, hop a plane for the 4 hour ride to Xi'An and will spend the next 5 days there.

Meeting My Students

Today I taught for 4 hours so I had to get up early to catch the 6:30 bus for the 1 hour ride to school.  The sun was still low in the sky; it never gets as bright as Arizona due the pollution here.

Some of my students invited me to a delicious lunch today!  After lunch the plan was to go to their dorms (pictured left),and pick up some bicycles, then ride to see the Tidal Bore again on the Qiantang River near the university where there are some good viewing spots.  Unfortunately we were a few minutes too late so we didn't get to see it today!

However, we did have a nice lunch and a nice bike ride around Xiasha which houses 26 universities!

 

These are some shots of their dorms which are numerous!  The post-graduates have only 2 to a room, but the undergrads are 5 or 6 to a room!

Here are my students (the 3 boys), and one of my student's sister, Ling, who came with us.  Her English was very good!

 

Ling skipped 3 classes to come with us, to practice her English and see the Tidal Bore.  We didn't get to see the tidal bore but she did get lots of English practice!

Some snack food that was available - they looked yummy!

Next to the river was this posting:  Danger, don't go beyond the gate!  Many people each year are killed by coming too close to the tidal bore to get a good look!

My students couldn't believe I was taking a picture of this old man bombing down the road on his scooter, but I thought he was very interesting looking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This man was selling some kind of citrus fruit that looked like grapefruit.  It was SO hot that it must have been cooked inside :)

Another snack - baked sweet potatoes.  They bought me a sweet potato that is cooked inside this coal fired drum.  It tasted very good!   They were very good bargainers, checking to make sure the seller's scale was level!

Some of the coal that is used to cook the sweet potatoes.

... and Ling, eating her sweet potato.  Yum!

I made it back tonight to see Sue for 10 minutes and she headed out the door to be a guest at a friend's English class at a different university in town.  I'm sure she'll have a great time! 

The Tidal Bore

Today we visited the tidal bore, and I had the kids each write a summary of what happened and what it is:  Here is Peter's summary:

The Tidal Bore - By Peter Lewis

Every month or so, there is something that occurs in Hangzhou called a tidal bore. It is an amazing event where two powerful currents clash together with an awe-inspiring roar of foam. The gravity of the moon pulls the sea inland against the river’s current. As the sea invades there is a roar of water flooding all of the land unfortunate enough to get in the way. Many people die from this because they get too close from the designated viewpoints and drown. The tidal bore can grow to be up to 21 feet high at the best-case scenario. It is a great tourist attraction but to see it you’ll have to wait through the hot, sweaty afternoon to see the phenomenon.  No one knows exactly how long it’s been doing this and I don’t think the amazing spectacle will die out any time soon.

Here was Jack's summary:

Dear Dad,

I had a good time at the Tidal Bore.  I can not believe how high the water got on one side it got 20ft tall!!!  I really hope that next time we could go to the other side of the river and watch the Tidal Bore. Yet I think it may not have been worth the wait. Next time I hope we can go out a little later so we do not have to wait an hour to an hour and a half.  I really enjoyed spending time with you and Peter. I hope we can do this again!!!  I hope you enjoyed the Tidal Bore as much as I did.

Sincerely,

           Jack

We sat by the side of the river on this very HOT, SWEATY day, waiting for the "wave" to come up the river.  I took the boys out of school to see this "phenomenon" as Peter calls it, and hired a van to take us about an hour away up the river to see it.  On the spot we sat, the wave takes approximately 2 hours to make its way up the river!  This merchant selling tangerines made a lot of money off of us.  Although they are green they are great inside and they tasted so good.  He also had much-needed bottles of water for sale!

Some Chinese Dad gave Peter this fan he made out of a plant stalk.  Peter loved it.  Jack drenched himself with his cold water to keep himself cool.

Yanzi giving Alexis some impromptu train schedule help as we wait for the wave to come...

And then, off in the distance, we SEE IT!  A huge wave coming up the river at about 25 mph!

It's about 6 - 8 feet high and it's tearing up the bank.

We are standing on a road above a sea wall and the wave is raging toward it.

... and here is the wave, making all kinds of noise as it rushes up the Qiantang River.  Depending on the bank and the riverbed, the wave can be over 20 feet high!

... and there it goes, fighting against the oncoming current of the river!  The tide is extremely powerful and sometimes people stand in the wrong spot.  Further upstream 8 people were killed last month by being overcome by the water!  So, Mr. Adventure-Dad had to turn back into Mr. Safety-Dad had to make sure we were in a safe spot!

Alexis, another teacher, and our friend Yanzi  who organized the trip.

Jack designated himself as the sole orange and water bottle carrier.

He was hot but he had a good time, especially because he was missing school to go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

... and here are the kids with our ayi Xiao Xu.  She made another TASTY dinner for us tonight - a beef and peppers dish, a pork and bamboo shoots dish, a mushroom and egg soup, and a beans and garlic dish, and pork and bok choy filled dumplings.  All were yummy!  She also cleaned the house spotless and did our washing.  We love her!

Sue taught today so she missed out, but we may have another chance tomorrow to go with my students.  We'll see!   

Autumn Festival

Today was the Mid-Autumn Festival, a big holiday in China.  It is typically celebrated by the giving of "Moon Cakes", small breaded cakes that can have any number of surprises inside from meats, to fruits to bean paste.  You never know until  you bite into one!

Sue went to Sophie's school today where they had the parents help the kids make Moon Cakes.  Sophie got dressed in her finery to celebrate the day!

 

Having a drink and getting ready to make moon cakes!

 

First the teacher demonstrated how to make the cakes.  Put some bean paste in the bowl, and some kind of flour mixture around it, then press it down into a mold to give it that distinctive moon-cake shape (sort of round with lots of little ridges on it).

 

A bird's eye view of Sophie and her friends doing their thing...

 

Now carefully press it into the mold...

 

Look Mom! My very own Moon Cake filled with sweet bean paste! Yummy!

 

Sue went to the park again to visit her friends and give them some Moon Cakes, and receive some, too! 

We have seen huge lanterns being lit that float way up into the sky - very pretty! 

Today was day 2 of our new ayi and a 2nd delicious dinner and a clean apartment were nice to come home to today!   We love having her around! It gave Sue a chance to go to her private Mandarin lesson today and she learned a lot!  She is practicing tonight and giving it a good effort!

Unfortunately, today her bicycle was stolen.  She bought a little rinky-dink lock that I scoffed at but she insisted it was good enough.  The lock was very easy to operate but not much of a deterrent.  I guess it's back to the market to get another bike!

An Ayi is Hired!

Today I taught my class again - lesson 2 today, a pronunciation and reading lesson.  I also received back the students' paragraph homework and thought -ugh, what did I do??? It takes a LONG time to correct 140 essays!  Some were quite humorous.  One young lady talked about the end of her last class - they celebrated the end of the class by playing a game of basketball with their teacher.  She said she played so hard that her "face was as red as a monkey's ass."  I laughed my head off on that one! 

Sue went to the fabric market today and saw loads of fabrics but didn't find the seamstresses that were used to a Western clientele so she didn't get anything.  It was also quite a ways away and she needed to get back for Sophie and to let the ayi in. 

Our ayi (which means "auntie"), started today and so far she's terrific!  She bought groceries, cleaned, did laundry, and cooked us dinner, which was delicious!  Sue gave Sophie and the boys some extra attention that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise and I had a happy wife when I got home.  She comes for about 20 hours a week and it costs about US $115 per month.    Having her come clean and cook is much cheaper than going out every night as we have done up to this point.  Such a deal! 

Hiring the ayi was quite a challenge.  I met her at a local restaurant and she doesn't speak ANY English.  So I had to use my broken Chinese to explain to her what we do and don't like to eat, what household duties I wanted her to do, and negotiate a monthly rate.  Then I led her back here on our bicycles to show her around, and the deal was done!

She has a nice manner about her and she got along well with Sue today, and Sue managed to communicate with her by pantomiming.  I would have liked to have seen that!   :)

There wasn't much to take pictures of today so here are some extras from our excursion to Hefang street, the Chinese Medicine Museum and West Lake yesterday...

Huqing Yutang Chinese Medicine Museum

Today we visited the Huqing Yutang Chinese Medicine Museum, which chronicled thousands of years of study of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine.

On the way, we ran into this Dad with his son and had to take a quick picture!

The boys took a break from Runescape to come with us to the Traditional Medicine museum.  On the right is the entrance.

The buildings that housed the pharmacy and TCM museum were gorgeous...

 

This wood carving was traditionally hung by the shop door showing people preparing medicine, and was called a "wound curing pellet" sign board. It was used to show that ready-made Chinese medicine was available. 

Here's the family standing with SunSimiao, the "Medicine King".  He lived from 581 to 682 A.D., (101 years old!) , and was well versed in the Confucian writings and other schools of thought.  He wrote "Precious Vital Prescriptions" and "Precious Ancillary Prescriptions", that were each over 30 volumes.  He summed up all medical knowledge up to the point of the Tang Dynasty in a systematic fashion and is honored today for his contributions and accomplishments in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

... and a close-up of the "Medicine King".

The buildings were adorned with many elaborate lights and lanterns; such as this one.

 

This is Li Shizhen, who lived from 1518 - 1593 AD.  Among other works, he wrote the "Compendium of Materia Medica", which took him 26 years to write.  The book records 1892 kinds of medicines, attaches over 10,000 prescriptions, 1000 medicine pictures, and is 53 volumes in total for more than 2 million words!  What an accomplishment!

 

 

Here's a customer consulting about her prescription.

Jack looks like he fits right in doesn't he?  There are many windows in this building that open up to charming little courtyards...

... and here are the boys standing in one of those charming courtyards, with samples of plants to be used for medicinal purposes.

Medicine can come from many different sources as we can see here!

Parts of the creature on the left can "promote qi to relieve pain, resolving blood stasis, to stop bleeding, strengthening the kidney to reduce urination." 

Parts of the monkey can clear "heat and settle fright, sweeping phlegm and stabilizing asthma, resolving toxin and dispersing swelling."  I gotta get Dr. Darr some of this stuff!

Sophie loved playing in the little courtyards too.  It was a very rainy, misty day so puddle splashing was especially fun.

Another indoor courtyard that we explored, off of which was the Accountant's Office.

Here's the accountant's office that was really beautiful.

In the waiting area, some of the older people were enthralled by Sophie as they waited for their prescriptions to be filled.

 

... and here's the pharmacy.  We picked up some cough medicine for Sophie.  We'll let you know if it works!

 

... and here are the pharmacists mixing up the necessary ingredients for the customers.

... waiting for delivery!

Next we hoofed it to West Lake to take a boat to some of the little islands in its center.  After the Medicine Museum, here is Jack contemplating his "qi".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting ready for the boat...

We saw these packs of playing cards that I just had to get a picture of!

In the same shop, the kids found electric bubble blowers.  They were a big hit, but kind of a sticky mess!

Lots of people at the park on this Saturday.  Here's a couple enjoying the lake...

 

An interesting little restaurant in the park.  We'll have to go back there.

We rode on these boats out to the West Lake islets.  Not too rainy now, just a bit misty.

International Ambassador Sophie decided to share this umbrella with her new friend, while the friend's daughter took their picture.

Another shot of the boats we took.

... here are Peter and I having fun with the camera and Sue's umbrella.

... and at the Mid-Lake Pavilion on an islet out in the West Lake

The boats weren't stopped by the misty weather and a pagoda is just barely viewable in the distance.

Jack and Sophie enjoying the flora and fauna.

This scene is depicted on the 1 yuan note, so we had to get a similar picture!

 Although it was gray and misty all day, we really enjoyed all of the greenery, and all of the water everywhere. 

We had a Thai dinner at a local restaurant, The Banana Leaf and then put the kids to bed early - they were all very tired after a long day of exploration!

A Sleepy Saturday

Peter and Jack woke up Saturday morning to a very nice surprise.  Amy and Bob M. came to their rescue during our night and bought them a membership to the computer game, Runescape.  Because we're in China, it wouldn't accept our credit card so we were very frustrated!

Thanks Amy and Bob, Peter and Jack are in Computer Heaven!!

 

 

While Sue was out on her bike,she snapped a pic of this lady riding on her scooter with her dog.  Little dogs are quite popular here, especially with older women.

 

Sue met these 3 college girls about 2 weeks ago and they have been helping her learn Chinese.  They don't speak much English, and they are very patient with her, so they are helping her a lot.  They also love to play with Sophie.  Possible baby-sitting material?  I think so!

Sophie at the playground, cheesing for the camera.

 

We found a nice little hole-in-the-wall noodle shop where you pick your fresh produce and give it to the cook and they make a bowl of soup out of it for you.  Dee-lish!  Everyone loved it.

 

Lunch for the 5 of us was only $3 US, however, next we saw a Starbucks so we stopped there and spent $20 US on coffee and cheesecake!  So much for saving money :). 

 

Peter and Jack enjoying a panini and cheesecakes.

 

"Hey, where's the cup-holder on this thing??"

Sue, Sophie and I wore our rain gear on our outings today but the boys wanted to go without and get wet.  Crazy kids! 

 

... and here we are at an intersection waiting for a light; and Peter is practicing being an 11 year old.  It's the perfect chance to have another sip of latte!  It's amazing how comfortable these rain ponchos are.  They are the perfect cut to go over a bicycle and attach to the basket in front, so you stay amazingly dry in all kinds of weather.

 

Sue ended up getting a flat, so here is her bike in the shop.

 

This is our local bike repair shop that we have stopped at to fix a seat, tighten a bolt, etc.This guy expertly slipped the tube out of the tire WITHOUT taking the wheel off, ran it through a pan of water and patched the tube's hole in less than 2 minutes!  Total cost, about  30 cents, US! 

Baoshi Hill

While Tim was hard at work teaching incredible wisdom to his students today, Sue went out to see the sights by herself!

The first thing she noticed was the newspaper spread out at the bus stop, ready for public consumption! 

 

... and here we are at the entrance to Baoshi Hill, right in the center of the city!  There are many respites from city life sprinkled around the city.

Baoshi Hill means 'Precious Stone Hill', because there are large free standing meteorites viewable on top of the hill, and other precious materials that were found.

 

There's a beautiful temple on the other side of the hill called Ma' nao temple that was originally built in the year 946.  It was destroyed and then rebuilt again in the Qing dynasty.

Love the Dragon's Back wall!

There are street sweepers everywhere picking up trash and leaves.  There are no leaves or pieces of litter on any of the bigger city streets, making things very clean looking.

 

If  you didn't look closely you might think this is a BMW.

 

But alas, it's a BYD!

 

We met Lauren tonight, another teacher that had gone through the Colorado China Council (pictured below in white).  We went out to a lovely dinner with Lauren, and her friends Anya and Judy, who are also English teachers.

Meanwhile, Tim enjoyed another teaching day where he taught for 4 hours.  Tomorrow, Tim interviews another "ayi" to help with cooking, etc.

Night Biking

Xi'An is Booked!

Today we picked up our tickets to Xi'An!  We're very excited to go over the week of National Day, when we have Oct 1 - 6 off.  It's about a 3 1/2 hour flight, and the Terra Cotta Soldiers are there; something we really wanted to see.  We were going to take the train, but it was 24 hours ONE WAY, which seemed a bit over the top!  The travel agent sent the tickets to me via a guy on an electric moped, and I told him I'd meet him at the corner of Hua Xing Lu and XueYuan Lu near our apt to make it easier for him to find me.  He handed me 5 round-trip tickets, and I handed over 8200 yuan (about $1100 US) in cash.  I felt like I was doing a drug deal!  I laid out the money on the pavement for him to count, and he laid out the tickets so I could inspect them.  We both nodded at each other and parted ways; the deal was done!

3 Dollar Massage

Sue taught today and I was on my own.  I went to a local shopping district and FORGOT MY CAMERA.  Arrgh!  To make up for it I found a great massage place that gives a good 1 hour massage for about $3.00 US!  This was the first massage I had where the girl got on the table and walked on my back and legs, hanging on to bars on the ceiling so she could do more or less pressure.  It was a sight!

Night Biking

For dinner, we rode to West Lake to a favorite spot called La Varza. 

I made all of my little ducks stay in a row behind me as we had a 1/2 hour ride each way to get there, and it was at night, to boot!  At first I didn't want to take the kids on their bicycles at night, but after enough whining, I turned from Conservative Dad to Adventure Dad.

A couple of things about biking in China:  First, don't ride with your hands over the brakes.  It makes you look like a weak sissy and everyone will pull out in front of you.  You have to ride like you're a suicidal maniac that wouldn't mind running over the pedestrian in front of you.  Or, if it's a car you're dealing with, you have to ride like you'd be happy throwing your life away just so you could get some of your blood on their car!  Second, there is safety in numbers.  If all of the Chinese pull their bikes out in front of the BIG TRUCK then you should pull your bike out in front of the BIG TRUCK, too.  Otherwise you will get left behind... forever.

Tonight we hesitated while the BIG TRUCK was coming, and we all thought we were dead, but he slowed down just enough to let us pass the intersection, yelling "Hello Hello Hello" out the window and laughing at our wide-eyed fear!

Other Stuff

Here are all of the new apartments and storefronts that have gone up on our road.  They look wonderful!  When can we move in, Sue wants to know.

Sue is putting a call out for single page brochures for those of you that are reading from the U.S.  She wants 15 copies of each brochure to use in classroom activities.  The cheapest way to mail them is to send them to our home address in Prescott and the US Mail will forward them for free to our address in China.  Tee hee.   

Mail to:

Sue Lewis

2795 W. Glen Haven Drive

Prescott, AZ 86305

Sue's First Teaching Day

Typhoon Nuthin'

Well we had buckets and buckets of rain but no wind, and it was pretty much all over by noon.  The typhoon went north of us so it was really anti-climatic for all of the preparation that had gone on around town and the school closures.  I guess Shanghai really got hammered but we were quite disappointed :). 

Sue's First Teaching Day

Sue went to her first day of teaching today and had a good time.  The students took pictures of a Real Western teacher with their cell phones, so Sue took out her camera and said "SMILE!" and shot right back.  Here's one of the girls having been caught taking her picture.

Sue teaches freshmen, and they are primarily English majors.  She has all girls except for 4 boys.  A much different mix and skill level from my classes!

Our Neighborhood

Our neighborhood is being absolutely transformed at an incredible rate.  This husband and wife team were laying a new sidewalk.  She would bring in the granite bricks and he would cut them and lay them down.  They layed our whole street in about 2 days.  Incredible!

Here's a pic I missed from yesterday afternoon - Sophie got picked up from school, and some other Dads were there picking up their kids.  Dads and Grandparents appear to be very involved with child rearing here.  In the morning it is mostly Grandparents who are dropping the kids off at school.

 

And here is Sophie at home tonight after a "Dad-erday" since school was cancelled due to the storm, and Sue was teaching.  The kids and I played computer games, card games, and watched movies, and watched the rain come down.  We ventured out around noon to go to the bank and the PC mall to look for a new computer mouse for the boys.

Peter and Jack love the PC mall - 3 floors of all kinds of electronic gadgets but unfortunately not many bargains.  I got a couple of 1GB USB drives for about $12US each that will be great for transferring files to school.  I had to bargain pretty hard to get the price down that low and walk away a couple of times.  Bargaining with 3 kids maybe better because the seller can see I'm on a limited time frame, especially when Sophie starts to squeak!

Typhoon Wipha coming to Hangzhou

Tim's Teaching Starts

Today was my first teaching day.  I taught 3 classes that were two hours each, about 90 students total.  My 4th class is on Friday.  My students are graduate students and they are incredibly smart - some of their Masters subjects:  Molecular Biology, Law, Economics,  Organic Chemistry, Optical Engineering, Physics, Electronics, Education, Mathematics and more.  One girl asked me, "What is a meter X 10 to the -9 power called in English?"  I told her it was a "nanometer" and she was very happy to know this for some paper she was writing!

I started by assigning them Western names, and many of them had no idea, so I assigned them names I knew!  So, now there are many Randys, Lindas, Dans, Judys, Bobs, Amys, Andrews, Julias, Sues,  Chrises, Kathleen and Caras running around China!

The classes went very well - I am excited to teach them and they are excited to learn English from a Real Westerner.

The weather turned very rainy today and started during the 1 hour bus ride to school so of course I forgot my umbrella.  I RAN from the bus to my office - I could have swam there and stayed dryer!  So for my first class I was COMPLETELY soaked - Iooked like a drowned rat!  Eventually I dried by the 3rd class, except for my feet!

One of the other teachers offered me a ride in her new car to the canteen.  We had lunch together but many people had parked behind her so she needed to back out in an "S" fashion.  She didn't feel comfortable doing it in her new car so she asked me to!  It was a fairly easy maneuver, and then she said just go ahead and drive us back to class, so I did!  It was a very short distance, otherwise I would have insisted that she drive because I could get fined heavily for driving without a Chinese license.

Most people in China have only driven a few months to a few years so you have to be very careful on the road and assume everyone is a new driver.  My friend had only driven for 6 months which is why she was uncomfortable about backing up!

On the Home Front

Sue stayed home today and had quite the exciting day.  First, she boiled my socks.  I have been having problems with Athlete's Foot due to the moist climate and/or sweaty feet in hot weather!  Today did not help! I think that washing socks in cold water all the time does not kill all of the germs, and there is no dryer here either.  So Sue boiled my socks today in an effort to get them extra clean.  Is that love or what?  She also got to use her fancy new clothes hanger.

 

Jack also stayed home today as he needed a mental break from Chinese. He still likes noodles though!

 

Peter hanging out doing Runescape.

 

Typhoon Wipha Coming

The storm we experienced today is apparently a precursor to Typhoon Wipha.  It is a major typhoon (see msnbc story) so the kids were asked to stay home from school tomorrow.  Sue however is still scheduled to teach classes, so she will leave for the bus at 6am.  From what we can tell, all construction has stopped and people are battening down the hatches!  We are in a fairly protected area and our building is built like a concrete bunker.  The walls are at least 1 foot thick so we're not worried.  The locals are taking it as a matter of course so we're trying to do the same.  We laid in some extra food and water just to be safe.  The boys get to miss school tomorrow, so to them, the typhoon is crazy awesome.

 

After the wet ride to the restaurant, we're enjoying a lovely Chinese meal.  We ordered lots of extra food in case we need to stay in tomorrow.  All the mothers out there - don't worry, we'll be fine!

Sue starts teaching tomorrow and is a busy bee preparing her materials.  We'll let you know how it goes! 

Three Wise Women

Today was chore day; we sent some letters and bills off in the morning and then I took the 11:40 bus to school to collect our airfare reimbursement.  They only gave us half of it; the remainder when we leave.  Maybe they're afraid we'll leave if we get all of it??

Sue tackled the post office, the grocery store, and a pedi-cab all day by herself while I was at school - she is definitely getting more comfortable here!  She found these girls doing some sort of promotion at the grocery store.  Jack was the photographer. 

Tomorrow is my first teaching day - I teach 3 courses, each one 2 hours long.  Then I'll attend a foreign teachers' meeting where they tell us the do's and don'ts of teaching in China.  Sue's first teaching day will be Wednesday.  It will be a long day tomorrow, so a short blog tonight! 

Voodoo Salamander

We stopped at the Flower and Bird Market again at the base of Wushan mountain because we thought the kids would enjoy it and because they have a sword shop there that the boys really wanted to see.  Peter got some numchucks and Jack got a sword.  The hand made sword started out at 260 yuan and we bargained down to 120 - about $18 US.  The sword is hidden in the inside of a cane, with a quick release button.  Jack is so pleased! 

When we walked through all of the critters for sale, they boys could not pass up this salamander, who has now been christened, "Voodoo".  The shopkeeper gave us food for him and told us we could raise him to be more than 2 feet long, at which point we could eat him!  I'm not sure if we should use garlic or soy sauce.

Next we went to Childrens' Park where we met our friends Enrique and Olga, and their 2 small boys Enrique Jr. and Sebastian.  This is a huge park with rides, pavilions for weddings, etc.

We tried to stay with the safer rides as we had no idea what the maintenance of the rides would be.  They all looked fairly tired.  Here was a good example - basically an inner tube with a Honda outboard engine in the middle.  You could get yourself spinning pretty fast with that!  Enrique's smaller boy got out after a few minutes.

Peter and Jack plotted their strategy on how to hit the other participants.

"Aah, Jack! That was such a good  hit, let's do it again!"

Sue says, "I can't believe they got us!"

Enrique and his son plotting their revenge.  Watch out, Peter and Jack!

Enrique Jr. and Sebastian running through the fountain area. 

 

It's closing time so the water is off.  Peter and Jack are hoping that the water will come back on.

We hit a few of the kiddie rides for the smaller kids.  Sophie loved them!

... and so did Peter and Jack, though they would never admit it!

Sophie's favorite question is, "Mommy, can I take my shoes off?"  She asks it in restaurants, restrooms, stores, etc.  The more disgusting the floor, the more she wants to take her shoes off!  Today we relented and let her go shoeless.  Then she found some mud or grease to play in so she is filthy!  Bathtime tonight!

Of course she never has to go to the bathroom when we're at home with our nice clean bathroom.  She always has to wait until we're at the grosses squat potty for miles and then she has to go RIGHT NOW.  I've learned to hold my breath for 7 minutes. 

We found this big-boy ride that the boys enjoyed...

The boys enjoyed themselves in all of the rides, though we avoided the ones that appeared to be the least maintained.  This is NOT Disneyland!

Sophie found these teenagers with a bubble blower, and she and Enrique went to play.

... more scenes from Children's Park.

The construction out our window is continuing.  The migrant workers that are working on the building are now staying inside the building in one of the vacant apartments.  They sleep in there all night with no curtains and the light on.  They are buddies that help each other out closely during the day and they even bathe each other in the evening.  It's kind of sweet!

Thankfully the work seems to end around 10pm so it is quiet at night, at least! These guys work 7 days a week and at least 12