Boot Camp

A friend of mine invited me and some others to join her for boot camp.  Its held once a week at a nearby park.  Today was the first day and can I say "ouch"!  Actually, it was really good.  There were two trainers and four woman there.  The weather was perfect and I feel great...well sore too, but great for going and trying it.  We ran around the lake, then did some squats and kick boxing type moves.  We did lunges, push ups and sit ups and also some partner work.  I'm having a hard time getting up the stairs and I don't want to think about getting on the bike to pick up Morgan from school, but I am looking forward to going again next week.  

Weather

You know things must be slow for me to be talking about the weather.  But it really is different here.  It feels like the temperature rises quickly in the morning, but by 2 or 3 pm it starts to cool off.  The wind picks up and it the temperature drops.  

We've had a lot of rain this month which was what Mr. Yu and Sophia warned us about.  In May we can expect rising temperatures.  And the summer is said to be unbearably hot and humid.  Something to look forward to, I guess.  At the very least a good excuse to the use the pool.  

Tongue Depressor

Warning...don't let the cute picture fool you, gory details to follow:

Molly has a tongue issue.  She sticks it out all the time and lately it has been getting in the way.  Earlier this week she was standing, then wobbling, then fell forward towards the floor.  She sat up crying with blood running out of her mouth.  Yep, she bit her tongue.  She obviously bit it pretty hard for it to bleed.  I calmed her down and gave her cold water to drink.  She settled quickly, but her tongue continued to bleed for a few minutes.  I called Mark but he wasn't concerned and sure enough it stopped bleeding shortly after that.  

Well, we had another incident tonight.  The girls had taken a bath and I was getting Morgan out of the tub.  When I looked over I watched Molly slip and hit her chin on the edge of the tub.  And, you guessed it, she bit her tongue again.  Poor thing.  This time it was really bad though.  I can't even describe to you the horror of this.  Blood was pouring out of Molly's mouth, much more than last time.  Morgan started sobbing telling me she kicked Molly in the face, when I know she didn't.  My shirt was covered in blood and will now be thrown away because there is no salvaging it.  And poor Molls just sobbed and sobbed.  I was able to give her cold water again and it seemed to help.  The bleeding did stop eventually but I know she is pain.  She whimpered and snuggled with me until it was time for bed.  

She really needs to do something about her tongue.  Its cute the way it sticks out, but I'm afraid she'll bite it off next time.  Talk about a tongue depressor.

Wow...that's service!!

I ordered airline tickets today from www.elong.com, www.expedia.com's China counterpart.  I was having a hard time getting information from the actual website, so I called their customer service number.  Judy was very pleasant and helped me to book our tickets to Hong Kong.  We were discussing payment and I was ready to give her my credit card number but she didn't take it.  She told me I would pay when the tickets were delivered.  As in hand-delivered.  To my door.  The same day.  Sure enough the delivery man arrived about 20 minutes ago with the tickets and a credit card machine with him.  Within minutes he was gone and I now have our tickets and itineraries. 

So come May 7 we'll be on our way to Hong Kong.  We are taking the girls to Disneyland.  Morgan is ecstatic as you can imagine.  We've heard really good things about this Disney.  It is a small park with rides and attractions geared towards young kids.  In fact, the only ride that Molly won't be able to go on is Space Mountain, but Morgan is plenty big.  They also just opened their "It's a Small World" ride and High School Musical show.  It should be fun! 

What a Weekend!!

We've had a busy weekend.  Morgan had gymnastics on Saturday morning.  She still really enjoys the lessons and was thrilled to jump on the big trampoline this week.  We left right from there and went to a birthday party for her friend Bradley who turned 5 this week.  Bradley's family is from Delaware and they moved here in December as well.  The party was at Think Town, which is affiliated with Gymboree.  It was a huge area filled with tons of activities for the kids, like a hand on museum.  The biggest hit was the ball pit.  Gross, I know!  The kids also liked the rock climbing wall, astrology room, and science show.  

This is our first birthday party in China, so we didn't know what to expect.  For the most part everything was "normal".  We were surprised to hear the birthday song in Chinese.  And even more surprised that Morgan new the words.  Apparently they sing the birthday song in Chinese and English at school.  Think Town provided everything for the party including lunch (chicken nuggets and pasta), supplies and cake.  Bradley's Mom had requested a chocolate cake, which was what they got.  It was not your typical child's character birthday cake.  It was covered in fruit with a glaze on top.  Very fancy actually, but still delicious.  After more play time, we headed home.  We also managed to go swimming in the evening before dinner.  It was a busy but good day.  

Today we met two other families for brunch at the clubhouse in our compound.  The food was good and the kids had a ball, thanks to unlimited use of the bouncy house.  We headed home and Mark had to pack.  He left for Korea this afternoon and will be back on Thursday night.  Morgan is looking forward to a sleepover.  It's our tradition that when Daddy is away, she sleeps with me in our room.  We'll miss Mark while he is away but will look forward to seeing him over the weekend.   

Stinky Tofu

I can't believe I forgot to mention this in my last post.  I experienced stinky tofu yesterday.  No joke this is the true name for the local delicacy.  Stinky tofu is nothing more than fermented tofu. But by stinky, we're not just talking about an unpleasant odor.  We are talking major stink bomb. Words cannot describe the stench.  Despite its awful odor, which can be compared to manure, its supposed to be pretty mild.  Yesterday it was deep fried and sold by a street vendor.  It was all we could do to quickly move away.  Although, that didn't seem to help.  The odor seemed to follow us for most of the morning.    

Quibao Seven Hidden Treasures

Today I took a tour of an area of Shanghai called Quibao, or Seven Hidden Treasures.  To be honest, I can't tell you what those treasures are.  Surely they don't include the cricket museum.  An area used to display all there is to know about cricket fighting.  Yes, you heard me right.  Just like dog or cock fighting, they have cricket fighting here in China.  It couldn't possibly include the miniatures museum or the pawn shop.  But this is mostly what the tour consisted of.  Which is exactly why me and the two friends I was with split from the group only half way through the tour.  And it's disappointing really.  My friend Sue and I had taken a tour before in another area of town and were really pleased.  So this was a bit of a let down. 

However, I was able to take some nice pictures of old town Shanghai...the way things used to be.  This is a "water town", which only means that there is a canal running through it and the locals use it for their daily living.