Cricket Market

                                                                      

I thought we were going to the Pet Market but it turned out to be mostly crickets.  The whole cricket operation is amazing.  Hundreds of people are sitting around in the market tickling crickets with a stalk of wheat to make them chirp.  There is a cricket in every little box in the pictures.  

This is the story that explains why this area has great crickets!

When you have a bunch of crickets to keep alive you have to give them food and water just like any other pet.  That is what this lady is doing.  Check out the picture with the little food and water bowls for the little crickets!

They have cricket fights to see who has the best cricket and those go on in the little plexi glass container because you wouldn't want your prize cricket to escape! At least this is a sport that won't fill you garage with gear!

Don't forget the cage!

                                                         
                                                                               

The kids really want a Chinchilla!  I tried to get them interested in the crickets but no one was biting in that hook.  I thought at least the crickets could be cheap.  But they would not be coming inside the house!

There were all kinds of other creapy things at the market like these little squirels.  The array of water creatures and reptiles were impressive!

We are not bringing home a squirel!

                                                          

There is Something in My Soup Looking Back at Me!

We actually went to  a low end Chinese restaurant last night.  As usual much of the food that looked good on the menu didn't look so good on our plates.  So now we have plates and plates of food that we won't eat and I am feeling bad for the cook.  When what I thought was going to be fried wontons shows up as soup, I just start eating it.  I try not to look too closely at my food here.  Sean gets a wonton soup when I am almost done with mine and says "Something in my soup is looking back at me!".  These are little tiny shrimp with big black eyes.  I couldn't eat anymore.  Here is a picture of the soup.

I am still going to try not to look too closely at my food or I may starve!

The Financial District

                                    
 
When we first got to Shanghai, we stayed in a fabulous high rise hotel in the center of the Financial District.  It was cool to stay in that area because it's the center of lots of fun stuff.  My favorite part was that the Metro (subway) was across the street.

The Pearl Tower is the cool tall pink structure.  One can ride to the top of it and do the tourist thing.  We never did it because there were always thousands of tourists in line for it.  When we arrived in August, it was hotter and stickier then the hottest day in Phoenix!  I didn't believe that anything could be more miserable then Monsoon Season at home, but now I do.  Try Monsoon Season multiplied by ten.  Next summer I am going to try the teas that the Chines drink to detoxify your body and stop the effects of the heat.  Non of these people seem to sweat so it must work.

From the 27th floor we could see thousands of home that the locals live in.  I have been told that all these houses have airconditioning and flush toilets.  I have a hard time believing that because many of  them have their windows open.  If I have a choice of a/c or windows open in August I would chose a/c.  Lots of the locals believe that the cooled air is bad for you and causes health problems.

Here we have a cool riverboat!

This picture is funny because about ten minutes later everyone was drenched and dying for air conditioning!  I promise that is more miserable then Monsoon Season in Phoenix!

I love the bottle opener building!  It's an architectural marvel, I am sure.  I love it because it can be seen from everywhere!  We live out in the middle of nowhere but I see it all the time.

First Day of School

We always have to take pictures to mark the first day of school.  Ryan entered Kindergarten and Lindsey entered the second grade. 

The first day of school was extra special because we got to walk home in a Typhoon.  Of course, Mommy forgot the umbrellas and it started dumping rain just as the kids walked out of the classroom.  We were living in our temporary apartment and it was a 40 minute walk home.  By the time we got to the apartment, there were six inches of rainwater in the street.  When cars would drive through the water, it looked like an ocean lapping up the lawns. 

                                                   
We were almost late for school because we had to stop to take pictures!         


We are passed the fun first couple weeks when there was no homework.  Now it takes a couple hours to finish Lindsey's homework every night.  We have a little catching up to do because this school is so far ahead of the public schools in Arizona.

The good news is that Mc Donald's can deliver our Happy Meal to the house if we don't get dinner made.  They actually have a phone number we call to order the food.  Then a man on a scooter brings the food to our house and we pay a whole $1 for that service!  Mc Donald's tastes better here then at home!  But the Chicken Mc Nuggets come with sweet and sour sauce instead of BBQ sauce.                                                

Our House

When we looked at apartments in the city they were small and awefull.  Sean looked at a hundred different housing options and this was the only one that he felt at home in.  It is HUGE!  I only took pictures of the downstairs because the Ayi has Saturdays off and I would have had to pick up the bedrooms. 

To get the big house we had to live waay out of town.  Sean has an interesting commute that consists of a scooter, a subway and then a bus ride or a bike ride.  I have heard that the scooter ride includes chickens in the street.

The Ayi works five days a week from 12-4pm and we have to pay her $200 per month.  I am in heaven!  But there is a downside to the cheap Ayi, she speaks no English.

                                            

The best part about having an Ayi is that I can cook and make a huge mess and she will clean it up in the morning.  If we put the dishes in the dishwasher she either puts them away dirty or washes them again so we don't bother anymore.

Next we have the wildlife that came with the house.  We have lots and lots of wild cats that are happy to eat

our food but won't let us near them.  The frogs and snails are plentiful as well.  The windows of the house sweat at night and the snails leave little tracts in the sweat when they crawl over the windows.  It is kinds

creepy!

Things They Load On Bikes

The people here use their bikes to move everything.  I think that our BBQ was delivered by a guy on a bike.  When my massage chair was delivered I was surprised that it came in a truck!  The problem is that the pictures are hard to get because I am usually in a taxi or on the scooter.  These people book on their bikes even when fully loaded.  I never have time to get out my camera before they are gone!

                                                                                     









Unfortunately people kept walking by so I couldn't get a good shot of the bicycle but you get the idea.
Below we have a shot of what Sean wanted to get.  But we have decided that I would get my Chinese drivers license and we would rent a car.  Then Sean can borrow the car when he needs it to go to meetings in farther away places.

Here is a true maintenance man!

Qibao Water Town

This is a fun old town area that is very close in to Shanghai.  The other bigger water towns take a couple hours to drive to but the close proximity makes it busy.  I don't know if this is a rebuilt area to attract tourists or not but it's still fun!

Of course, we had to do the boat ride!  The little man in the back moves his little oar in the back from side to side to propel the boat.  The boat ride is short but it's fun.  This little town only has one little canal that the boats cruise up and down.

As we cruised the canal, we could check out the back of the restaurants and in the picture below you can see the chef in his white hat.  We were watching him and he spit out the window so we didn't eat there.

House Of Barbie

The House of Barbie doesn't look like much on the outside but the inside is amazing!  With rows and rows of Barbies, Lindsey was in heaven!  I can't imagine how many Barbies there are.  The store is five stories and the central staircase has a different Barbie every square foot vertically and horizontally! 

                                                                                                                         

There is also a designing room where the girls can design their own Barbie and it will come out dressed like it was designed.  Lindsey was a smart cookie and thought that sounded expensive and was sure mom would nix that concept. 

                                                                             
Here we have the kids looking like true Barbies!  Can you pick out Ryan?  He had fun doing this but he doesn't ever want to see the picture again.  He is too cool to look like a girl.

After a long day of shopping it's nice to lounge like a princess! 

Fun Food

                                                                                                               

One of my favorite things to do is check out the street food!  Can you believe that people eat this stuff?  Yes, those are little birds.  A lot of visitors mentions the lack of wild birds flying around and everyone knows why.

Some of the street food is very yummy.  I liked the barbecued Oysters, Calamari and the breakfast dumplings.  The kids decided that the fried chicken that we can get in our little town is as good as a Chicken

Mc Nugget.

 The grocery stores are pretty scary.  Most of you heard about the big brown rat that jumped over the deli counter at me in a fancy store.  He jumped about six feet when he saw the scared blond lady!  A regular occurrence at the grocery store is for the fish to jump out of the tanks.  The kids love that!  Someone just grabs them by the tail and tosses them back in the tank.

I find the wet markets to be interesting.  The food is supposed to be fresher here.  I usually purchase fruit and veggies at the wet markets because they are much cheaper.  I can't buy the meat yet.  The flies turn me off.  And then there is the odor.  But the veggies are great!