Shanghai
OK, It's 11:35pm and I'm up doing laundry and checking the internet. In a bit of a quandry about the time--we took a nap at 3:00pm and I woke up about an hour ago (10:30pm), the entire rest of the family fast asleep. I guess we missed dinner! Not sure what to do now. Do I go back to sleep, do I stay up for awhile and try to go to sleep later, UGH!
I guess our bodies haven't quite adjusted to the time change yet.
We've had a great couple of days touring around Shanghai and I wanted to share some of it since I'm up! :) At breakfast yesterday we had baked beans and salad and some other assorted breakfast stuff. I've never had baked beans for breakfast before and I think I prefer smoothies and pancakes, but it wasn't bad! We went to the Jade Buddhist Temple and happened upon a ceremony blessing a new car. Hmm... All the monks in the temple were out chanting and sprinkling water on it. We bought the kids boy and girl dolls there from Mongolia.
After the temple, we visited the Yuyuan Gardens--we were quite the tourist attraction. Probably 5 o r6 people wanted pictures with us or with the kids. The lunch restaurant made a vegetarian meal for us, which was a huge blessing based on the pictures we were looking at on the way in. All sorts of interesting meat and fish items.
We took a one hour boat cruise on the river and then back to the hotel for baths and naps. It's unbelievably humid and hot here and we're coming back each day drenched with sweat.
A quick story about the traffic. I've found that the traffic lines here are simply a very vague guide for where you should drive. There are pedestrians, bikes, and scooters weaving precariously in and out of the cars. We've come within an inch or two of many other cars and several bicyclists. Our driver simply lays on the horn and swerves around them going full speed ahead. Michael and I both have to hold our tongues not to yell out! Oh, and did I mention there's no seatbelts? Quite an adventure!
Yesterday we went to the water city--can't remember the name, but it's similar to Venice in that it's got canals running all through the town. There was another Buddhist temple there where we saw an entire temple full of people walking through it and chanting in Sanskrit. It's a tradition to release fish under a bridge near there, so we bought some fish for the kids to release. It broke our hearts to see how poor the people there were. No one has bathrooms in their homes so they all go to the water closet in the neighborhood. Faith was so freaked out there she couldn't even go to the bathroom. I told her it was no big deal because in these kinds of toilets you don't even have to touch anything, which was good because there was plenty we didn't want to be touching.
I suppose I had better go check on the laundry now.
Love you guys!!
Nancy
I guess our bodies haven't quite adjusted to the time change yet.
We've had a great couple of days touring around Shanghai and I wanted to share some of it since I'm up! :) At breakfast yesterday we had baked beans and salad and some other assorted breakfast stuff. I've never had baked beans for breakfast before and I think I prefer smoothies and pancakes, but it wasn't bad! We went to the Jade Buddhist Temple and happened upon a ceremony blessing a new car. Hmm... All the monks in the temple were out chanting and sprinkling water on it. We bought the kids boy and girl dolls there from Mongolia.
After the temple, we visited the Yuyuan Gardens--we were quite the tourist attraction. Probably 5 o r6 people wanted pictures with us or with the kids. The lunch restaurant made a vegetarian meal for us, which was a huge blessing based on the pictures we were looking at on the way in. All sorts of interesting meat and fish items.
We took a one hour boat cruise on the river and then back to the hotel for baths and naps. It's unbelievably humid and hot here and we're coming back each day drenched with sweat.
A quick story about the traffic. I've found that the traffic lines here are simply a very vague guide for where you should drive. There are pedestrians, bikes, and scooters weaving precariously in and out of the cars. We've come within an inch or two of many other cars and several bicyclists. Our driver simply lays on the horn and swerves around them going full speed ahead. Michael and I both have to hold our tongues not to yell out! Oh, and did I mention there's no seatbelts? Quite an adventure!
Yesterday we went to the water city--can't remember the name, but it's similar to Venice in that it's got canals running all through the town. There was another Buddhist temple there where we saw an entire temple full of people walking through it and chanting in Sanskrit. It's a tradition to release fish under a bridge near there, so we bought some fish for the kids to release. It broke our hearts to see how poor the people there were. No one has bathrooms in their homes so they all go to the water closet in the neighborhood. Faith was so freaked out there she couldn't even go to the bathroom. I told her it was no big deal because in these kinds of toilets you don't even have to touch anything, which was good because there was plenty we didn't want to be touching.
I suppose I had better go check on the laundry now.
Love you guys!!
Nancy
posted by BrotherSister at 8:34 AM
3 Comments:
Wow! What great adventures and what lack of sleep. Faith, I totally understand your "freaking out" about the bathrooms. I, too, felt that way in Korea. Do you pick up Hannah Li today? Sent your blogsite out to several friends--I know Diana and Linda have seen it.
4:49 AM
that is so exciting. I can't believe the story you will have to tell her when she is older.
We love you and hope to hear/read more of your trip and hear about Hannah.
Love you, Karen and clan
6:26 PM
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8:50 AM
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