Life Recently

First, some random neighborhood happenings. Someone on our street is moving:

Gets me every time!

Anyway- a few months ago I posted about how Ali and I walk to a nearby store to pick up our milk, eggs, etc. Here is the store- Jiadeli A fellow student tipped Jimmy off to a vegetable market that is just across the street from Jiadeli. I was so excited because we go in one direction for the milk/eggs run and then in the other direction for our fruit and veggies. For the sake of the Ali I split these errands up into two different days, so the opportunity to get them all done in one area was great news. One day, after going to Jiadeli we hopped across the street to check out the new-found market. Oh wow.... I could tell immediately that we would not be shopping here. Below you can see the veggies displayed on the blue bags with a huge pile of garbage piled up behind them.

Here is a closer look. Those are some green onions or something on the blue bag and then the garbage begins. My jaw just dropped. Seriously there was so much garbage and people were just bagging up their veggies like they were picking them out of the garden! I wouldn't doubt it if the veggies we buy come from a similar situation before they wind up on the table where we shop, but I would have a hard time sifting through garbage to get to them. Most things that you want to buy are found at a "market". There are children's markets, art markets, fruit markets, veggie markets, etc. When it is a market that has fruit, veggies and meat/fish you call it a wet market. That's what this market is. We saw many other appetizing things for sale here.

Tubs of crabs:

Live chickens:

They take them out, weigh and kill them and even scrap the feathers for you.

There are so many fish and water creatures here that I've never seen before and I guess people are eating them. You see people walking home all the time with bloody fish in plastic bags.

I posted a little about our Thanksgiving but I never mentioned the fact that we went to two other Thanksgiving dinners! Since it's not a holiday here, not everyone was able to celebrate on Thursday because of work. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to a friend's house for our second Thanksgiving dinner. He works for the consulate and I visit teach her and their family is pretty spectacular- such nice people and three very sweet children. Their little boy, Jonah, is two months younger than Ali and the two of them are pretty cute together. Jonah has an older sister who is 8 and she is so great with Ali. She took such good care of her all night and even plays with her on Sundays. She is such a sweet, responsible little person. We love her.

Our third and final Thanksgiving dinner was the next day, Sunday. The host family is amazing. They have been in China for 18 years! (I cannot imagine!) They have 5 children and Ali loves them!

The young single adults also came to dinner so this is a photo of the family with the YSA.

Her BFF is this little guy, Jed. They are two peas in a pod and we love Jed! I wish we could bring him home with us. She is so entertained by him and he just loves her too. This picture of the two of them is too cute!

He doesn't even care that she is holding a fork and that his life could be in danger.

Staying in this one bedroom apartment would not be possible without the help of one amazing website. It's called Taobao.com and it has been a lifesaver. I have ordered a few (or according to Jimmy, too many... hehehe) toys on here to keep Ali entertained. Before we got here I hadn't bought even one toy for her. She received some from grandparents and other family members but we spent so much time outside so she didn't need a lot.

The cool thing about Taobao it is that the toys are SOOOO cheap! Here she is sitting on her inflatable chair. I think it was $3 or something like that. The other cool things is that shipping is usually $1 and it get's to you by the next day or two. We just ordered a couple things for her Christmas and one of the items got to us 12 hours after ordering it. Other favorites that we have ordered are a shopping cart with plastic fruit for $5 and 100 plastic balls (like the McDonald's play place) for $3. Even though I'd rather be outside playing with her (and so would she), it's fun seeing what cheap stuff we can get. They have EVERYTHING on there! The only trick is getting the pages to translate, since it's all in Chinese, and trying to put in the right characters to find what you want. On a slight side note, makeup here is very expensive. They keep the cheap brands like Cover Girl and Mabeline behind a counter like it's Mac. The cheap foundation that is usually $5 at home is at least $15 dollars here. I didn't bring any extra makeup because I had no idea how expensive it would be. I found some foundation for about $10 on Taobao and decided to order it since it was the cheapest I had seen. When I got it, it looked fine but when I put it on I almost died. The smell was SOOOO bad! It was a mix between garbage and an old person. Not pleasant and not something you want to put on your face. I can't decide if it is homemade stuff that they put in a bottle or just really expired. Either way, it's gross. So we are staying away from anything besides cheap toys. We just got a few of her Christmas toys that we ordered and I'm SO excited to give them to her. I'm glad we didn't getting them sooner or I wouldn't have been able to keep them from her!

Only Child

This is the last month, for the rest of our lives, when we will only have one child! I can't believe Ali will be a big sister in about 30 days. She is getting so big and grown up already! It seems like she has a new tooth every week! Here she is feeding her baby.

The baby must not have been eating well from the spoon so she thought she'd take the baby to the food instead. Clever! I'll have to remember this technique.

I got a little Christmas tree a few weeks ago and she enjoyed decorating and undecorating it.

This is how the ornaments ended up. All in one location. So cute! She's a natural decorator for sure!

She has been so good at helping mommy clean. She saw me dusting and had to have her own rag. Now when she gets her hands on a tissue or wipe she will go around cleaning things.

And since that photo highlights her curls, here is another close-up. Her hair is so pretty and soft! It is getting curlier and curlier as it gets longer.

And since the photo also highlights her cuteness, here is another close-up!

Other cute factoids:
*When you ask her to do something and she doesn't want to do it she will squat down. I think she learned that from bath time. I had mentioned before that she likes to stand in the bath and we will go for her towel to get her out and then she'll squat. It's pretty funny and cute!
*She still LOVES to play with other kids and we LOOOOVE the older kids in our branch! Several of them have become such good friends to Ali and they play so well with her and take such good care of her. It's nice that she's able to go off and play with kids now! Great break for mommy and daddy! I can't wait till she can go to nursery... and neither can she!

*We are talking a lot about the new baby and showing her my belly and she has become obsessed with belly buttons! She has to check on hers about every 5 minutes throughout the day. I'm glad she found hers because mine was getting sore from all the poking!

A Baby Shower!

I got a call a few weeks ago asking if I was busy on November 30th because the ladies from church wanted to throw me a baby shower. I was so surprised and excited! Everyone here is so nice and does so much for everyone. Another girl is due in 2 weeks so it was a combine shower.

(They had that documentary-type movie called Babies playing behind us. It's a very interesting movie.)

Some of the branch ladies.

Beautiful, yummy, American-tasting food!!!

Let me just say, it was an amazing evening!!! I would just fill the rest of the page with exclamation points if I felt that it would get the message across. I would still be talking Jimmy's ear off about every detail if I wasn't able tell that by the next morning he was already sick of hearing about it.

First of all, it was at one of the sister's apartments and she LIVES AT THE RITZ CARLTON!!! Did I feel like I was in Shanghai??? NO! At least not in the Shanghai I know. I felt like I was at the Ritz! And I was! And I never wanted to leave. I almost didn't. We got there at 6 pm and I didn't get home till 11 pm. I wanted to crawl into one of her soft, fluffy, comfy beds and not come out till next year. The view was amazing, the food was amazing, and the decor in this apartment was out of a magazine. This sister knows how to shop Shanghai and live Shanghai. This is such an interesting place. In the sates, you can live pretty comfortably on not very much money. But transfer that amount of money here and you live like us and it's not very comfy. We are aware that there are people in this city living really nice lives, but it's very easy to forget unless you get to step into it for a couple hours. If you have extra money, living here could be amazing. This sister knows the best places to go. She has been collecting furniture and decor and getting a steal of a deal. You could never find this stuff back home for the price she is paying. She is getting art work painted and framed for SO cheap! I'm talking big, beautiful frames made for $15. These frames would cost hundreds of dollars back home...... um, so I'm getting carried away. This is about the time that Jimmy looked at me and just said, "Honey." I knew what he meant. But I'm just so amazed at how "the others" live. Not jealous, because I realize we're in totally different periods in our lives, but just amazed.... and wouldn't turn down an invitation to go live with one of them. Hehehe!

The point is, I had a lovely baby shower (and it doesn't hurt that it was at the RITZ!!!). I am so grateful to everyone who came and all the gifts we received for Baby Boy. We're so lucky to be in such a nice branch!

I was walking around snapping pictures of her apartment like a dork and then I realized that it was weird of me to be doing that so I stopped.

Tis the Season!

Growing up, food was always a huge part of the holidays. My mother is the most amazing cook and baker on the planet. Everything she makes is delicious. While I may not have inherited her cooking talent, I am very fond of baking and it just isn't the holidays without baking! I was a little worried that we were coming into the Christmas season and I wasn't going to have an oven to make yummy treats for us and our friends and neighbors. However, a girl in our branch moved back to America yesterday and she gave us her oven! Merry Christmas to us!

I know you're thinking to yourself that this looks like the Easy-Bake-Oven you got when you were 10, at least that's what Cory and Rachelle said when they saw it today. I have to agree. And if I had any of those nifty little packs that the Easy-Bake-Ovens came with, I would totally feel like I was 10 again. But these are pumpkin muffins. And when I say pumpkin muffins I mean from scratch, pumpkin muffins. There's no open the can of pumpkin puree. You have to buy the pumpkin and then bake it, and then smash it and then make your muffins. It is pretty fun making everything from scratch. My mom always made everything from scratch and I always thought I would too but I really haven't done much of that in my adult years. It's just too easy to buy a can of this and a box of that and throw it all together to make dinner. Being here, if you want to eat it, you have to find a way to make it from scratch, go without, or be super rich so you can buy all your food from the imported stores. 1 small box of pancake mix is $10! But I make my own dry pancake mix and just add the eggs and milk when we want pancakes. I also make my own spaghetti sauce (not a big deal to most people but I never took the time before) and we're going to be making a lot more of that since we're so excited to eat pizza!! Good thing I switched doctors! If Dr. Jia thought I was big before, she should see me in 6 more weeks after I've been baking my little heart out! Anyway, here's our little pumpkin starting in on her second muffin. This girl loves her a muffin!

My two sweeties eating muffins for breakfast.

In other news, Ali has discovered that pen writes on skin. It was a fun morning of writing on Mommy, herself and then all over the duvet cover.

Doesn't she look like a little person who just got caught? So guilty, yet so cute!

When I saw what she had done to the duvet cover I got down on the ground at her level and pointed to the bed and said, "No, no, Ali. Only draw on paper." Then I just kept looking at her to see what she would do. We had a staring contest for a few seconds and then this little grin crept onto her face and she giggled. I don't know if she really understood that she was in trouble and it was so cute so I couldn't help but giggle too. I love this girl!

Thanksgiving

One of the saddest things about living in a foreign country is not being home during the holidays. I was afraid that we wouldn't get to enjoy any of the thanksgiving festivities but there were several activities organized by American students. We visited Jimmy on campus for some pumpkin pie and apple cider. Is this not the cutest?!

Ali loved the first piece she ate but them decided it was just the whipped cream she liked.

Here are three of the Hult kiddos: Aisha (from Brazil), Pablo (from Columbia) and Ali.

Ali made a hand turkey with daddy.

After enjoying our Thanksgiving treats, we went with two other students and their wives to get some lunch. The restaurant was a couple blocks away on this street:

This lady is from the restaurant next door and here she is rinsing her noodles... with a hose, on the sidewalk. Isn't it amazing how they do things here? It's not exactly appetizing to see how the food is prepared and the dishes are washed. We don't eat out much but it was a special occasion. Hehe.

We ordered wonton soup. It wasn't bad but we both agreed that we wouldn't eat it every day.

Below is the couple from Columbia (Pablo's parents). They are really nice people.

One of the students organized thanksgiving dinner at a nearby restaurant/pub. We paid 100 rmb for all you can eat dinner and luckily we were some of the first few in line because about half way through the line they ran out of most of the food. They replaced the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes with french fries but kept the turkey coming. Ali loved the food and ate almost a whole plate by herself!
We have so much to be thankful for. It seems that when you have the least, you find more reasons to be thankful. Ever since we moved here, I have been so grateful that at the end of the day we all get home safely, that we're healthy and that we have each other.

Mr. HSA

Last week, Hult held elections for HSA, Hult Student Association. Jimmy had several students approach him to ask if he was considering running and told him that he had their full support. He had already kind of talked about running and maybe this gave him the little push to enter the election. Each student made a slide that was part of a slideshow that ran on the TVs at school. They also gave a short speech before voting took place. It should come as no surprise that Jimmy was chosen as 1 of 4 students out of 80 to represent Hult. We are so proud of him and the person that he is.

What a Difference 2 Months Make

I know there's a song that talks about the difference a day makes but it certainly took more than a day. It took about 60 days to start to feel like we could survive here. But somehow, things always get better with time and patience.

I went into that store where we bought food the first night we got here and somehow it wasn't the dirty, crowed place that it was that first night. It was almost like a mini-walmart! They not only have snacks, they also have shampoo, toothpaste, envelopes, rulers, umbrellas, all kinds of stuff!

When we've been out all day and come home, it actually feels like home. The tub is still disgusting no matter how many times we have scrubbed it. It needs to be re-caulked badly.Despite the little things, it's nice to come home to our apartment.

This is where I go to buy our fruit and vegetables.

The first time we went in here none of the stuff seemed edible because it is so dark and wet and smelly in here. Now I go at least twice a week and pick up our fruit and veggies. All the fruit is here on the left side and is sold by one vendor. Then you walk to the right, into another section and there is a big long isle down the middle that has a ton of different veggie vendors. It's common for the stands to not post prices so you never know if the people are charging you more just because you're a foreigner. I went to several different vendors before finding a girl that we really like and she gives us a really cheap price. We love our veggie girl! I got a big bag of green beans the other day for 1 RMB! I don't love our fruit people but they are the only fruit vendors in this market so I go to them.

Instead of going to Carefour every time we need a food item we go to a small local store about 10 or so minutes walk from our place. These are the sights we pass on our walk. This will give a feel for what life is like in our neighborhood.

-pipe coming out of who knows where, bowl, and women doing her wash

This is very typical and can be seen several times per block. The pipe part is kind of unique but the rest is typical.

The shop with the yellow sign is selling curtain rods and there is a lady sitting behind a sewing machine making drapes. On the white table they are also selling cheap DVDs. I just love the random combination.

More shops...

The classic table on the right is outside of a "restaurant" and some guys are eating noodles for lunch.

Randomly you will see a barber shop like this set up in an alley. I hope to see Jimmy get his hair cut at one of these at least once. That would be awesome!

Clothes hanging to dry on the right and chicken on the left.... hanging to dry? I have no idea!

And to end... here are those cute people I live with!