I bought star anise yesterday. I brought it home with a few other items I picked up at the Chinese market near my parents house. They are all still in a bag on the counter that I'm going to put away in a few minutes when I clean up my kitchen. I've come and gone a few times from the house since bringing it home and each time I've come back in, the familiar smell has struck me.
It's amazing how our sense of smell is linked to memory.
I've had this happen before with the distinctive bouquet that is gear lube. The truck I drove in college had a leak and when I smell gear lube, it brings back a flood of favorable feelings. The same thing happened with the anise - and it surprised me! Happy feelings about China? But we didn't like it there!
Mulling this over in my mind and heart over the last day brought me here. I stopped blogging rather abruptly at the beginning of our last year in China. There were different reasons for it, and I wasn't sure to how to move past them at the time. Even after coming home there were plenty of times I thought about picking up the pen (clacking on the keys?), but the time away kept me from diving in.
No more! Here I am. I have no idea how often I will write, but I think I'm ready to try again. I certainly have plenty that I didn't share here about our time in Shanghai. And I know you are all waiting for the remaining "Adventures in Driving" posts. I welcome you to join me. Who knows where the path may lead!
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Tailgating?
What else would this contraption be for?
Sorry for the picture quality, as you can see by the mirror invading the photograph, I took this picture from the van. Hopefully you can make out that this smoker (or whatever it is) is actually on the back of this guys really old-looking bicycle. I have no idea what he's cooking, but I can imagine he intends to sell it to people passing by on the street! At least, that's my guess since there's no actual sporting event nearby. Why not tailgate from a bike?!
Concrete
There's this strange thing about Shanghai (only one, you say? Hahaha!) that pretty much everything is made out of concrete. M & I have speculated on the reasons why and think maybe it's so that things don't mold. It's probably also because it's cheap and plentiful.
Concrete definitely seems to make some construction projects go really quickly (boy can they resurface a road FAST here!), but it also seems to make everything extra noisy. It seems like just about every building I enter has a tremendous echo, and when you start with a cacophony, that's not a fun or pleasant thing. It also means things are poorly insulated here. In the winter, for instance, when I'm out shopping, I really have to dress for the slopes. In the summer, well, it's better to just not leave my house.
I was able to snap a picture of how things are built here when a good friend of mine sat on this wall and broke it. (Ok, I wrote it that way for the drama. It's true, that's what happened, but the construction here is so shoddy - as this particular friend would say - that it's easy to break concrete by sitting on it!)
Also, only the top damage was caused by my friend. The photo gives us good insight into the building process here: start with brick and cover it with concrete.
Of course cover the brick with concrete! Who would want brick showing? Concrete is so much more lovely! M & I have actually seen walls made of beautiful red-orange brick being covered with concrete as the finishing touch. Down the street from this particular fiasco (above) there is a new apartment complex being built that isn't actually finished in concrete entirely. A portion of it is fake brick veneer (probably made from concrete, if I had to guess). Real bricks are apparently only good underneath.
As an aside, this picture was actually taken at my kids' bus stop. Nice place to wait for the bus, eh?
Almost 2 years
If you can believe it, we've been living in Shanghai for almost 2 years now. Wow. It's true! We arrived at the end of September in 2011. It's kind of hard to believe. A friend told me when we were moving here that the first year is really hard, the second year you've adjusted some, but it's still hard, and the third year you've finally figured out how lots of things work and then it's time to go home. Bittersweet.
I often wonder if it will be bittersweet to leave, but then I remind myself that we don't have ESPN and I can't predict the future. On the one hand, it's always hard to change. On the other hand, will going home be a big change? I'm here to tell you, I don't know. I know China has changed me. I won't be the same when I go back home, but isn't that always the case? If you're gone for a while, you're just not the same when you return. On the bright side, a lot of our good friends have contracts that are up when ours is, so many of us will be leaving at the same time. It'll spread the sadness around. Plus, some of our friends have already gone back and made a new home in Michigan!
Alright, enough of this sappiness. Let's get down to business. I've been out of touch for a few months for more than just the summer at home, although that was a major contributor. Let me talk about that for just a bit.
This summer was FANTASTIC! The weather was absolutely beautiful! I loved the cool temperatures (especially at summer camp!) and enjoyed feeling like it was fall just before we left. (Sad about the part where the cider mills weren't open yet - everyone dip a donut in some cider for me!) We drove a lot less this summer, which was a relief, and we weren't completely exhausted when we left. That last part was because we shortened the trip, which also made it harder to leave. The only major downside to the summer was the horrific and brutal jet lag that we (at least the adults) had coming over to the States. Absolutely yuck. That and Matt wasn't feeling well at all this summer. More on that later.
My other distraction at the end of Spring was a move across town to a new house! We really liked our house in San Marino, but some uncool things were happening due to the clubhouse being under new ownership. We took the opportunity to look around and found a house at The Emerald that we liked! The Emerald is the neighborhood connected to the kids school, so we get to ride our bikes every day! It's lots of fun, there are tons of other kids around, plenty of them are C & K's classmates, and there are adult friends nearby too! That last part is good because our adult friends from San Marino repatriated this last summer. (See above comment about a new home in Michigan!) Downsides are we're farther from some of the places we go regularly, like church, and we can't walk to the metro anymore. We can take the bus to the metro, though. Look for another post on that down the road.
Another sad part of moving is our Ayi hasn't been able to stay with us. It's just too far for her to come on her scooter. We tried a new schedule for the summer and our driver brought her twice a week, but the family we share her with wanted to go back to the old schedule. We are definitely going to miss Xiao Tao. I have a new ayi starting next week. I'll have to let you know how that goes.
I'd love to share pictures of our new place, but I haven't actually gotten around to taking any yet. While I managed to get most of the house unpacked in the 3 weeks before we came home for the summer, I still have one room that is eluding me. Not that I can't find it or go in, I just can't seem to get the stuff put away.
So moving, the end of the school year, and summer put a major dent in my blogging accomplishments. Since I write this blog not only to share our experiences with you, but also to document (in a way) our experiences for ourselves, this is a pretty significant setback. If I keep up with my average blogging rate, I'm definitely not going to be able to share everything I want to before we get home. So I'm going to have to get busy. Let's see what I can do about that!
I often wonder if it will be bittersweet to leave, but then I remind myself that we don't have ESPN and I can't predict the future. On the one hand, it's always hard to change. On the other hand, will going home be a big change? I'm here to tell you, I don't know. I know China has changed me. I won't be the same when I go back home, but isn't that always the case? If you're gone for a while, you're just not the same when you return. On the bright side, a lot of our good friends have contracts that are up when ours is, so many of us will be leaving at the same time. It'll spread the sadness around. Plus, some of our friends have already gone back and made a new home in Michigan!
Alright, enough of this sappiness. Let's get down to business. I've been out of touch for a few months for more than just the summer at home, although that was a major contributor. Let me talk about that for just a bit.
This summer was FANTASTIC! The weather was absolutely beautiful! I loved the cool temperatures (especially at summer camp!) and enjoyed feeling like it was fall just before we left. (Sad about the part where the cider mills weren't open yet - everyone dip a donut in some cider for me!) We drove a lot less this summer, which was a relief, and we weren't completely exhausted when we left. That last part was because we shortened the trip, which also made it harder to leave. The only major downside to the summer was the horrific and brutal jet lag that we (at least the adults) had coming over to the States. Absolutely yuck. That and Matt wasn't feeling well at all this summer. More on that later.
My other distraction at the end of Spring was a move across town to a new house! We really liked our house in San Marino, but some uncool things were happening due to the clubhouse being under new ownership. We took the opportunity to look around and found a house at The Emerald that we liked! The Emerald is the neighborhood connected to the kids school, so we get to ride our bikes every day! It's lots of fun, there are tons of other kids around, plenty of them are C & K's classmates, and there are adult friends nearby too! That last part is good because our adult friends from San Marino repatriated this last summer. (See above comment about a new home in Michigan!) Downsides are we're farther from some of the places we go regularly, like church, and we can't walk to the metro anymore. We can take the bus to the metro, though. Look for another post on that down the road.
Another sad part of moving is our Ayi hasn't been able to stay with us. It's just too far for her to come on her scooter. We tried a new schedule for the summer and our driver brought her twice a week, but the family we share her with wanted to go back to the old schedule. We are definitely going to miss Xiao Tao. I have a new ayi starting next week. I'll have to let you know how that goes.
I'd love to share pictures of our new place, but I haven't actually gotten around to taking any yet. While I managed to get most of the house unpacked in the 3 weeks before we came home for the summer, I still have one room that is eluding me. Not that I can't find it or go in, I just can't seem to get the stuff put away.
So moving, the end of the school year, and summer put a major dent in my blogging accomplishments. Since I write this blog not only to share our experiences with you, but also to document (in a way) our experiences for ourselves, this is a pretty significant setback. If I keep up with my average blogging rate, I'm definitely not going to be able to share everything I want to before we get home. So I'm going to have to get busy. Let's see what I can do about that!
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
ANZ Days 15 & 16: Auckland, NZ
We had to set our alarm today since we had to be out of our room at 8am, eating breakfast before 8:30, and in the theater to wait for our disembarkation announcement by 9am. Getting off the ship was fairly easy, getting our bags was a bit wild, and exiting the holding area was downright crazy! Thankfully my friend, M, was ready and waiting for us as soon as we got out! We loaded up her car and headed for her house to spend the last day or so of our vacation before we had to go back to China.
At M's the kids made instant friends with her two boys, who are a year older than C & K. The kids played while the adults chatted and it was time for lunch before we knew it! P and M suggested Mexican and didn't have to twist our arms at all!
Driving to lunch
After a yummy lunch we walked to the beach for more chatting and playing, then onto another playground (you'd think we were traveling around the world trying to set some kind of record or something!) where there was more chatting and playing. After that it was time for ice cream- yum! On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store for a field trip (and to pick up some things for dinner). It's always fun to check out the grocery store in a new place. They had dinner rolls! I was tempted to buy them and bring them back to China with me :). We did pick up some candy for Xiao Tao and Mr. Mao. Dinner was burgers and hot dogs on the grill (I'm not sure if it's the "Barbie" in NZ) and more fellowship! Saturday morning was more of the same with some more packing in the mix. The kids also enjoyed playing wii together while we were there.
It seems like we get to end lots of our trips these days visiting old friends before we come back home. I like it that way :). This whole trip has been a huge blessing and a wonderful experience! I can't deny, though, that it's going to be nice to sleep in our own beds! Thanks for following along on our adventure down under!
Monday, June 17, 2013
New Wheels
I've got some new wheels!
Ok, they're for the family. We're all really excited! We got our very own motorized rickshaw (aka tuktuk, aka pedicab) from some good friends (who were also our neighbors) who are repatriating this summer.
Isn't it just screaming 4th of July parade at the lake?!? We think we may be able to bring it home at the end of our time in Shanghai, but ultimately, we'll have to wait and see. (People who don't know about the lake think it looks like an Ice Cream Truck, by the way!)
It will mostly be used to get around the neighborhood (to school!) on rainy days, but I may get brave enough to take it outside for short distances. I had to drive it about 10 miles to get it from our old house (where we bought it) to our new house (pictures to come). By the way, these pictures were both taken this week. I just picked it up last Thursday! It's just been very cool here. At least until yesterday when it jumped to humid and 90 - yuck!
Whether it comes home to Michigan or we just have it while we're here, I'm sure we're going to get our money's worth. So far it's a big hit!
Ok, they're for the family. We're all really excited! We got our very own motorized rickshaw (aka tuktuk, aka pedicab) from some good friends (who were also our neighbors) who are repatriating this summer.
Isn't it just screaming 4th of July parade at the lake?!? We think we may be able to bring it home at the end of our time in Shanghai, but ultimately, we'll have to wait and see. (People who don't know about the lake think it looks like an Ice Cream Truck, by the way!)
It will mostly be used to get around the neighborhood (to school!) on rainy days, but I may get brave enough to take it outside for short distances. I had to drive it about 10 miles to get it from our old house (where we bought it) to our new house (pictures to come). By the way, these pictures were both taken this week. I just picked it up last Thursday! It's just been very cool here. At least until yesterday when it jumped to humid and 90 - yuck!
Whether it comes home to Michigan or we just have it while we're here, I'm sure we're going to get our money's worth. So far it's a big hit!
(P.s. For those of you wondering, this is the shirt I made back in March.)
ANZ: Cruise Critters
I've got one more post to do about our last stop on the cruise, but since the next post is after we disembark, I thought I'd take this chance to show you who we shared our room with during the cruise:
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