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Jennifer's Corner

Happy New Year!! The year of the Tiger!

Finally!!! The website is done! Break open the champagne!!! After working on it on and off for the past year and a half, I'm finally ready to show it to the world. I think this was the hardest part. Because when I send my e-mails, they only go to our friends and family, knowing that anyone can access our personal lives is a little unnerving for me. I will probably end up password protecting this page so I can have more freedom writing knowing that only the people we know and love will be seeing it. I will send out a separate e-mail with the password when that happens.

Also, I've included some of my favorite pictures, the full story of our trips will be included in the "Places We've Been" tab if you're interested. We just returned from Bali. You can check out our trip by clicking on "Places We've Been" and then Bali.

I'm sure there will be tweaks that I need to do and improvements that will be made but it's nice to finally have it "online". I'm still working on how to incorporate a world map into all of this. Because my geography stinks, I'd like to be able to show the places on a map as well as educating Sean and Sophie.

So what's going on?? Well, Christmas in Laos and Vietnam was a lot of fun. We started out in Laos where we spent four very relaxing days. We all loved Luang Prabang, I can tell you this because we bought the most "stuff" there. I've found whenever we like someplace we usually spend way too much money then have to come back and find homes for everything. When we arrived I thought Sean and Sophie might be bored as it's a little town that can easily be walked and really not a lot of action. I truly believe our best vacations are visiting places like this because after living in Shanghai we all need time to de-compress and enjoy the quiet. We rented bikes and did a lot of walking. And, of course had a few foot massages (very cheap!) where we listened to Sophie giggle and Sean snore!

In Vietnam we visited Hanoi, Halang Bay and Hoi An. Hanoi is this crazy overcrowded, loud, "let's scam the tourist" kind of city. We only stayed one day in Hanoi and that was long enough. Our overnight junk boat cruise in Halang Bay was a great experience although a little cold to swim we still had fun kayaking and exploring caves. After an overnight sleeper train ride we ended up in the beach town of Hoi An. We bought way too much there too so I guess you can say we enjoyed that as well! We all ordered shoes and clothes made to fit and ready in one day. We'll see how long they last but fun to do anyway.

When we returned to Shanghai (red-eye flight), Santa had come and we stayed up all day playing with the presents and enjoying Christmas at our apartment.

Two days later we packed up the apartment and moved a few blocks down the street to our new place. We were all surprised at how attached we'd become to that apartment. We were definitely going to miss it but our wonderful views wouldn't last long as a new high-rise was going in right behind us. The new apartment is a little bigger with a much better layout for Sean and Sophie and friends that visit. The kids have their own bedrooms and, I still have my office so I can work on this darn website! The view is not as nice as we don't get to see much of the river but we have a huge deck we can see amazing views of the Shanghai World Financial Center (now the 2nd tallest building in the world) and the Pearl Tower. We can also walk to a lot more places. Sean and Sophie would have preferred to live closer to school to be with their friends but we like the city life and all it has to offer. And, once they saw that they had their own Wii room and playroom and that it was safe for them to go outside and play on their own, they didn't put up too much of a fight.

But, the new place did come with many problems. Besides the mess we had to clean up, most appliances were broken and needed fixed. And as usual there was a barrage of Chinese workers coming in and out of my apartment not speaking a lick of English. I'm glad I don't have to worry about my safety because at that time anyone could have come through my door! The dishwasher guy was the best story. The dishwasher was clearly broken and after two weeks of tinkering they finally decided to take it back to the factory. The previous tenants were Chinese and never used the dishwasher. Finding capable repair men is also challenging because they too don't know how one should work. Anyway, the guy came on this motorcycle bringing his little toolbox that had little wheels on the bottom and wheeled the dishwasher (scratching my wood floors but didn't seem to care) out of the apartment. He then somehow got it on his bike and took off. He returned a couple days later again on his bike with his little toolbox, and a good as new dishwasher. I wish I'd gotten a picture but didn't want to upset him.

Sean and Sophie are doing well. They are already making plans for the summer when we come home. Sean like many of his friends here in Shanghai is really involved in Cub Scouts this year. He's wanted to join but I've been putting it off as I know how much time it requires. But, he loves it and is participating in the Pinewood Derby next month. I can't believe that is still around. I remember my brother doing that like 35 years ago. Sophie is in Girl Scouts and really doesn't care either way as long as her friends are there. Sophie and Scott did have a great time at the Daddy Daughter Dance where Sophie got her "curly" hair she's always wanted. She did look cute.

Scott is doing fine. He's in Germany right now for work and is excited to visit a new area of the world. A place we haven't been to yet.

I'm taking a Photoshop course and trying to start Chinese Lessons again. Ugh….

As I write this the Super Bowl is on (it started at 7:00am). In order to see it we have to go to a bar where it is televised. This would be ok, but the commercials are all cut from the game as well. So, I opted out of the 7:00am bar scene. A lot of my friends took their kids out of school for it. Is that crazy or is it just me???

I guess that is all for now. I will update periodically so feel free to stop by whenever.

Please consider sending me your thoughts and possible improvements; I'd love to hear them. You can reach me by clicking on "Contact Us" (see below) or our regular e-mail address. I really hope you enjoy the site!

Jennifer

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