Attached Pics.
Archives
When we arrived in Shanghai, China it was a big move for myself and my family. It helped alot to be able to write down our experiences and e-mail them to our friends and family. They all gave us a lot of much needed support during that time. After a few months of "adjustment", it became commonplace for me to write updates. Here is an arichive of e-mails sent before creating this website and updates after the website was created.
Family Photo Album:
E-mail to our Friends and Family 8/15/07
We arrived - Phase 2
Hello Everyone,
We made it back to hot and humid Shanghai with one lost bag (Scott’s), no internet connection (as usual), extremely jet lagged children, and really, really humid weather (I haven’t been outside for more than 5 minutes at a time).
We did get Scott’s bag back Saturday at midnight but someone had spilled beer on it and his clothes and bag stunk. I’m thinking it was the drunk driver that delivered our bag.
I finally got in touch with the apartment IT team (actually I think there is only one person on the team) and had the internet fixed on Sunday.
Between all of us there was at least one person up anytime within the 24 hour time frame from Friday to Monday. On Tuesday Sophie got up at 4:00 and Sean was up at 5:30 so by tomorrow things should be back to normal. With jetlag comes charming splitting headaches that refuse to go away and all in all crankiness.
Sean and Sophie were very happy to see Ayi and Mr. Lin. Especially Ayi and Sophie! She’s cooked 2 wonderful western meals that she learned from her cooking class this summer, although the presentation is a bit hilarious at times. I think she really enjoyed the class. She made a great potato salad without mayo (I’m not sure she new what it was).
How do the locals deal with the heat you ask? Well the women wear pretty dresses and high heels and never go anywhere without their umbrellas (of course!) and the men walk around in boxer shorts, no shirt and slippers. I’ve never seen so many bare chested men in my life, and the slippers just make the outfit complete.
Sean and Sophie had their first day of school today. They were both really excited after meeting their teachers on Monday. I received permission to ride the bus with them this morning only to witness Sean and Sophie fighting the whole time. Why can’t they just get along!!!! Anyway, once they got to school it was complete chaos getting to the class room. Long story short, I’m going to have to meet them at school to make sure Sophie gets off the bus and that she goes to the right building then stands in the right line to get to her classroom. Then, I’ll have to meet them after school to again make sure Sophie understands the procedure of getting home. I’m planning on doing this only for the first 3 days so we’ll see what happens. Maybe her loving brother will step up to the plate and help me out.
Side Note: Playgroup will appreciate this one – Sophie was clinging to my leg freaking out with all the kids and I went up to the principal and of course voiced my opinion on the lack of order and she said to me “that one isn’t yours is she?”. Can you believe that? Where is she from anyway? I picked Sophie up gave her a big kiss and said “of course she’s mine!”
I’ve totally lost all my Chinese language abilities so once again I’m not communicating very well with Mr. Lin or Ayi and the Chinese people are driving me crazy with the not waiting their turn in lines deal. I think I need a serious massage!!
I need to go but I wanted to tell everyone what a great time we had this summer. Thank you to everyone who cleared their schedules for us and made us feel like we never left NC. For those of you we missed, I’m very sorry but the summer went by much faster than anticipated.
Zai jian! (I’m pretty sure that means good-bye)
Jennifer