Shanghai in October is turning out to be really nice -- the weather has been really nice, with a lot of days in the 70s, and blue sky (low pollution) more often than not. We try to take advantage of it as much as possible by getting outside, especially on weekends.
The kids have been busy with school and other activities. Mallory enjoys her after school activities -- gymnastics, piano lessons, and knitting. Luke is in his last week of rehearsals for the high school play (performances this weekend). And Grant has been helping teach guitar lessons to elementary school kids on Mondays, as well as studying and preparing for the ACT (which he took on Saturday).
Heidi and I have been busy with all of the things that keep us busy. We finally had the final few things done on the house to get it looking like we want it to -- curtains installed, two chairs made for the living room, and our round wooden table repaired. Most of the family likes the house most of the time. There are still a few things that bug us about it, including the fact that we cannot get mobile phone reception in the house (unless you stand right near one of the windows, and that only works part of the time). We paid some technician a tidy sum of money to install signal amplifiers in our house on each floor, but it stopped working about 3 weeks ago, so we asked them to come back to fix it. The story we get from them now is that a part has been ordered, and they are waiting for it to arrive. We'll see.... The other thing that disturbs the people in our family with a heightened sense of smell (Heidi) is the general smell of the house. I don't think it disturbs the rest of us, but if you have advanced olfactory ability, apparently the house stinks. The only solution we have found so far -- a small investment in candles.
Heidi and Mallory have befriended some local, neighborhood stray cats. Because the cats have been surreptitiously fed occasionally and because the girls always look at them, talk to them, etc., the cats often stay on our back or front porches, just waiting to be paid some attention. Heidi claims they do a great job of keeping the mice / rats away, but I'm not convinced we would have a rodent problem if the cats disappeared.
If you feed one cat, she tells her friends, and then next morning more cats show up on your porch.
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We really enjoy the fact that our little world here in the Jinqiao area of Shanghai has so many things - restaurants, friends, shopping, medical clinic, DVD shop, slushie shop, etc. It is nice to be able to get around by bike or by scooter to be able to take care of lots of those things on our own, without being dependent on the driver.
Our church had a Halloween party/thing at a park on Saturday morning. The first part was some games and food, and then all the kids went "trunk or treating" from car to car.
Because there were only about a dozen cars but lots of candy, most of the kids came by all of the cars 3 or 4 times. We only had Mallory there with us, because Grant was taking the ACT and Luke was at play rehearsal. Mallory still had a good time with her friends, though.
We are continuing to find out about more of Shanghai's restaurants - lots of variety, and pretty good, if you know where to look. We found out about a new Mexican restaurant that is clear on the other side of town (in Puxi), and when we went there last night, we ran in to 4 other couples/families that we know - all from our side (Pudong) of Shanghai.
The kids have been busy with school and other activities. Mallory enjoys her after school activities -- gymnastics, piano lessons, and knitting. Luke is in his last week of rehearsals for the high school play (performances this weekend). And Grant has been helping teach guitar lessons to elementary school kids on Mondays, as well as studying and preparing for the ACT (which he took on Saturday).
Heidi and I have been busy with all of the things that keep us busy. We finally had the final few things done on the house to get it looking like we want it to -- curtains installed, two chairs made for the living room, and our round wooden table repaired. Most of the family likes the house most of the time. There are still a few things that bug us about it, including the fact that we cannot get mobile phone reception in the house (unless you stand right near one of the windows, and that only works part of the time). We paid some technician a tidy sum of money to install signal amplifiers in our house on each floor, but it stopped working about 3 weeks ago, so we asked them to come back to fix it. The story we get from them now is that a part has been ordered, and they are waiting for it to arrive. We'll see.... The other thing that disturbs the people in our family with a heightened sense of smell (Heidi) is the general smell of the house. I don't think it disturbs the rest of us, but if you have advanced olfactory ability, apparently the house stinks. The only solution we have found so far -- a small investment in candles.
Heidi and Mallory have befriended some local, neighborhood stray cats. Because the cats have been surreptitiously fed occasionally and because the girls always look at them, talk to them, etc., the cats often stay on our back or front porches, just waiting to be paid some attention. Heidi claims they do a great job of keeping the mice / rats away, but I'm not convinced we would have a rodent problem if the cats disappeared.
Mallory perfected the art of placing coins on your eyelids.
Our church had a Halloween party/thing at a park on Saturday morning. The first part was some games and food, and then all the kids went "trunk or treating" from car to car.
Mallory in a reprise of her flapper girl costume from last year.
We are continuing to find out about more of Shanghai's restaurants - lots of variety, and pretty good, if you know where to look. We found out about a new Mexican restaurant that is clear on the other side of town (in Puxi), and when we went there last night, we ran in to 4 other couples/families that we know - all from our side (Pudong) of Shanghai.
