Shanghai Weekend

We had a bit of a busy weekend here visiting the BIGGEST CITY IN THE WORLD!  It took us about two hours to get to Shanghai--a 20 minute bus ride to the train station and then and hour or so on the bullet train and then another half hour on the subway to put us close to our hotel.  We are getting a little smarter and quicker about purchasing the tickets ahead and getting around in the stations so that helps but I still get stressed out trying to keep everyone together and moving. 


Entertaining ourselves while Matt tries to figure out how to tell the Chinese cab driver where we need to go.

After checking in to our nice hotel, 22nd floor rooms, we decided to find the "knockoff market" that we had heard soo much about.  We had to take two taxis and each dropped us off in different places which were actually pretty close to each other but we couldn't see each other and had no way of knowing how close we were, kind of funny, kind of scary.  But we figured it out and headed down into the subway station where the huge market was and found... KFC!  Not exactly the same as the KFC's that we are used to but we were pretty pleased with our lunch.  then we hit the market.  They have little shops for clothes, toys, souvenirs, electronics, shoes, sunglasses and shop owners outside saying "Hey lady, you want a purse?  Come in, I give you best price, come have a look!"  And then you find what you want and say how much and offer them 10% of that (that is what our friend told us he always does, we didn't go quite that low) and haggle back and forth.  Kendra and Kaleb were really needing shoes and we were happy with what we found for both of them and we got Klora and Kendra some nice headphones (for Christmas), Kyle got a laser pen, Klora got a phone case, Krista got a watch and Matt got a shirt that won't show how much he sweats in this crazy humidity.  We were pretty happy with the deals we found but also anxious to get out of there if you know what I mean.  We will definitely go back next time we need shoes and to get souvenirs before coming home!


Awesome shoe finds, now a few days worn

modeling our swimcaps

We found some good Chinese street food for dinner and swam at our hotel (in all the pools in China they require you to wear swim caps!, a new thing for us but we knew about it and had borrowed some from branch members, we had so much fun laughing at each other when we first put them on). 



The next day I headed to the conference center where the Shanghai branches of our church meet for a Women's Conference, so nice and relaxing and uplifting and a nice catered lunch too.  Matt took the kids to the Shanghai Science and Technology museum--not as relaxing, or uplifting, but... Thanks Matt!  It is huge.  They loved the animal exhibits and race car simulation the best.  Then he got them all changed and over to the church place in time for us to all sit and listen to Elder and Sister Gong (Asia area authorities in the church) and President and Sister Nelson (President of the Quorum of the 12 apostles) speak. 


After that we found a "Noodle Bar" for a yummy dinner then caught a couple of taxis back to the hotel for another swim.  Then while Matt put kids to bed, I ran out and found some food for the trip home the next day. 

Sunday morning we enjoyed the amazing hotel breakfast buffet again--fruit, pastries, eggs, bacon, sushi, dumplings, salad bar, potatoes, olives, oatmeal, cereal, fried rice, sausage, yogurt, fish, muffins, toast, and other things that we didn't recognize and can't name and mostly didn't try because there was so much that we knew we liked!  Then we dressed up, packed up, and loaded up in taxis and headed back to the conference center where we attended church with one of the Shanghai branches of our church.  It was so different for us to be in this big conference center (like the conference room of a big fancy hotel) for church with a big group of around 150 members.  We are now used to our cozy group of 40 meeting in a nice home in Hangzhou.  Nice to meet more of the saints in China, Klora and Kendra visited with some of the girls they met at Young Women Camp the weekend before, and the kids all went to their classes (Matt and I did have to go with Kyle, Krista and Kaleb at first).

Then the fun was over and we put on our packs and hiked to the subway station, took our last look at the big city, really pretty impressive.  Can I just add that each time we were lost or unsure on this trip, someone who knows just enough English has been there to help us find our way.  And it happened more that a few times.  We love these bighearted people and know we are being watched over.

Matt maneuvered us through the subway station (thanks to his Chicago mission subway experience), 40 minute subway ride, and to the train station for a few hours wait for our train.  We were all pretty tired by this time and the food that I had found the night before ended up not being too substantial or impressive--wouldn't you know this two hour wait on a SUNDAY would be the one time since we have been in China that we were near a McDonalds AND a Burger King!  KFC was there too but we had done that.  Very tempting but we don't shop on Sunday.  Anyway, you don't want any details of the long wait in the train station, the long train ride back, or the long bus ride home (wasn't really long)--just imagine 6 tired kids, 2 more tired parents and all that sitting and waiting and crowding and people staring at you--everything harder to handle when you are tired.  Enough said.  We made it home and want to go again sometime... but not for a while.

the view from our 22nd floor hotel room

Exciting Announcement

No, we're not expecting. We'll leave that kind of news up to others.

We have known of an upcoming District Women’s Conference happening this month in Shanghai. At first we were all going to go, but we determined later on that our budget is tight enough that perhaps just Julie should go. After further discussion we determined to make the most out of our opportunities while we are here and decided, again, to take the whole family to Shanghai and make a weekend out of it. So we went ahead and booked a hotel, where several other branch families are staying, then we heard that President Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of 12 Apostles will be coming that same weekend and will be holding a Devotional just following the meeting. This is a pretty unique opportunity that might not otherwise have been afforded to our family back in Idaho. The whole district is still a pretty small group; perhaps only 500 people. Here is an interesting article about the LDS Church in China which includes some background history on President Nelson’s connection here.

President Russell M. Nelson
President of the Quorum of 12 Apostles
Of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

 

For the weekend we have a hotel about 10 minutes from the Shanghai Branch Conference Center. We plan to swim, go to a museum, see the ‘knock off’ market, (where copy cat brand name items are sold for cheap), attend District Women’s Conference (Julie) and devotional following the meeting, then attend church with the Shanghai branch on Sunday. I thought I had purchased train tickets correctly online, until I prepared to go pick them up and discovered I had purchased the tickets with the wrong departure date. Luckily our good friend Bonbon, Maggie Hubble’s cousin, helped us get the departure date corrected at the station and we are set to travel. Should be fun.

Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

 

Girls Camp – Klora and Kendra just returned from Girls camp Saturday night. Since their young Women’s leader lives close to the church, they just went home with her after camp and we met them there Sunday morning. The theme of Young Women’s camp this year was “Embark in the Service of God”. Doctrine & Covenants 4:2 . The girls stayed at a hotel and had “camp” at Baiguoyuan outside of Shanghai. They ate S’Mores, roasted Starbursts and drank Hot Chocolate. What a treat. They had a cooking contest, (Won 2^nd place), hiked, had a testimony meeting, etc. On Sunday morning Klora and Kendra were both invited to share their testimonies with the branch and it sounded like a great experience for both of them. Kendra collected email addresses from several girls there and has already emailed them back.

 

Who doesn’t love school? Well, it might just be Kaleb, but who really loves starting school in Kindergarten? He has had a particularly hard adjustment. Not only is school uncomfortable, he barely understands “Hello”, “Good bye” and “Sorry” in Chinese right now, so it has been a bit overwhelming for him (and us). His school is nice and his teacher is great. She has already had us over for an outstanding dinner that was equal or greater to a thanksgiving feast in size and taste. Very, very nice. Hopefully he adjusts better in the coming weeks.

New Teacher – This week Julie’s school got a new English teacher from London named Daniel. He seems like a very nice guy and connects well with the kids. Kyle invited him over for Dinner Saturday and he got a lot of attention from our kids, including walking with Klarese, Ping Pong with Kyle and Chess with Krista, we apologized several times. Nice to hold long conversations in English though.

 

Rose Ice cream? – On Friday evening we took the kids who weren’t at girls camp out for ice cream. We avoided the durian and potato flavors, but Julie couldn’t pass up the Rose flavored ice cream. It was … unique, but good enough to eat.

Other adventures

We recently walked to Ta (Tall) Shan (Mountain) Park near our flat. We have gone there a few times before, but this time we made it to the top. Spectacular view.



Temple half way up Ta Shan Park

View from the top

For Mid-Autumn Festival, we were invited to Maggie's parent's house again for a wonderful traditional Chinese dinner followed the next day by a BBQ with teachers from Julie's school. We went to a hotel owned by one of the teachers families in Mogan Shan, which is a bit more of a resort town outside of Wukang, where we live. Mid-Autumn Festival was a great experience.

Maggie's parent' house

Swimming in the stream



Maggie's Dad

Dinner at Maggie's Parent's house

The BBQ at Mogan Shan

Jane, the teacher at Julie's school in charge of the English program^

 

Well, this blog is getting a bit long in the tooth, we’ll try to update again next week after we return from the devotional and Women’s Conference in Shanghai.

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