November camping

Just like in the states the boy scouts go camping on a monthly basis. This month troop 12 hooked up with troop 88. We found a place out in the countryside that offered archery, laser-tag, kayaking, hiking and an empty field to setup camp.

Several of the scouts started scouting in other countries and have joined our troop. We have one boy from Australia and another from the united kingdom. Scouting in these countries is very similar, but they do have their own books, ranks and merit badges.

The Australian scout brought his handbook and it was very interesting. We were working on totin chits and he dove right in with the rest of us. To give him credit under the australian system we had to make a few judgement calls about rules like "know your local knife safety regulations" and "your local firecodes". You'll notice the US handbooks don't emphasis knowledge of the local laws for knife safety. Perhaps they should?? We had some fun deciding if local meant, china, the US or Australia.

While it rained most of the day, the Puxi troop managed to sweep the Pudong troop 3-0. For those of you new to Shanghai Puxi means "west of the Pu river" and Pudong mean

s "east of the pu river". The word "xi" means west, "dong" means east and "pu" is an abbreviation commonly used for the the Huangpu river.

There was a climbing wall, but lets just say it didn't pass our safety inspection. There were also no helmets, ropes or other safety gear anywhere we could see

The course itself was quite elaborate, with bunkers, walls, trees and other assorted obstacles.

Go-Kart YAY =^)

Hi!HIhihihihihihihihi hihihihihihihihihihihihihihhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-

iiiiiiiii! Me and The Paying Customer and

Papadumpling went to a public go-kart place this Wednesday. Note to self: If I get a family fun cente

r business, MOVE THAT THING OVER TH

ERE!!!!!!!That's all I can say.

(a couple pics added by pappadumpling)

fyi.....lets just say the Karts go a wee bit faster in china than they do in the states (pd)

House of cards

A vacant home with a private dumping ground. I mean yard.

I don't believe everything I hear, but early in our stay someone told me that the real estate vacancy rates in some parts of China have reached over 50%. I have no idea where this person got her information or if it is even remotely accurate. However, I have noticed quite a few empty buildings in the area, especially in our compound. Real estate in China, as I understand it (and I admit I know very little) is different from what we are used to. For one thing, when a new construction is purchased, only the outside walls and roughed in plumbing are included. The buyer finishes the walls, adds cabinets, sinks, flooring, etc. In addition, you don't purchase the land, you only purchase the building, so you have few rights should the planners decide to re-purpose the land on which your home sits. The reason I bring this up is that our lovely compound (and it is lovely!) has several streets of such unfinished homes. From the outside, they look almost the same as the finished houses, but they are unfinished on the inside. The management of the compound has put these unfinished house to use and they now serve as storage for furniture that isn't being used, work areas for the gardeners, break areas and other things. Many of them don't even have doors that close properly, allowing stray cats to find their way inside. It was pretty surprising to me to see these buildings being used this way, knowing what the rent is on our place! It leads me to believe that there are no renters for these properties if the management can afford to leave them vacant and use them in a way that they can not be quickly converted to living spaces. The street we live on is about 80% occupied, and seems typical for our compound. But I think that maybe 15% of what has been built is unfinished 8 years later. And yet construction continues all around town? Very curious.

Sandbags or cement? Garages on one of the unoccupied streets

One of the furniture warehouses

Low quality construction, but the inhabited areas are well maintained

Employee locker room in back, vehicle parking in front.

Back on track

We're terribly sorry about the lack of posts recently, but mom (a.k.a. mommadumpling) is coming back today from the wedding, so we should be able to do something on the blog when she's back.

See ya!! =D =P =D

Camping!

Pappa dumpling here. About three weeks ago The-works/Paying-customer & myself hooked up with the local boyscouts and went camping! That is Boyscouts of America btw, don't confuse them with the the Young Pioneers or the Shanghai Scouts.

Interest in scouting in Shanghai is surging, about 5-6 years ago there was only one troop (troop 12), as Shanghai grew/expanded another troop was started in Pudong (troop 969) to better support people on the east side of the city. This year a 3rd troop (troop 88) was founded in pudong as the troop 969 split. Overall its amazing how quickly things grow, develop & change in Shanghai.

Two weeks ago we went on the 6th (7th?) annual Richard Horak bike & hike. Richard was an active scouter in Shanghai for many years and organized the first bike & hike. At one point he moved back to the states, only visiting Shanghai occasionally. His love of this event caused him to make sure his trips always coincided with the event so that he could attend. He passed away several years ago and troop 12 continues this event in his honor.

For this campout our amazing activities coordinator (12 year shanghai resident from california, former scoutmaster, former asst-SM & overall incredible scouter) showed us around some of the rural parts of Shanghai province. We camped in a field located at the Meadowbrook Equestrian center. The owner is a former UK scout and a very active supporter of scouting, hosting campouts from many of the Shanghai packs & troops throughout the year.

We started by riding to the Huzhu Pagoda. A 900 year old structure located west of Shanghai about 20-30 miles. This 20-meter tower leans more than the tower of Pisa and is located near the top of one of the tallest "mountains" in Shanghai province. Its older than the one in Pisa and leans a wee bit futher, but isn't as tall. Its located in a beautiful national park that made for a nice break from the days riding. It started leaning after some people started digging under it looking for buried treasure (pirates!).

After that we headed over to the tallest mountain in Shanghai. In the village of She Shan there is an old Catholic Bassilica, one retired

observatory and one active observatory. At 328ft Sheshan mountain is tallest point in Shanghai province and we climbed up and enjoyed the views of the surrounding countryside.

While in She Shan we also enjoyed an authentic chinese-style lunch. One of the parents was bilingual and ordered a very tasty collection of dishes. Including peanuts (with chopsticks!), chicken soup served with an entire chicken in the bowl (cut into pieces and served on the bone), rice, eggplant, tofu, bokchoy, fish and some other stuff. We washed it down with pepsi & orange-juice (mix together for best flavor) The boys did well & tried many of the dishes and voiced no complaints about the dishes they didn't like or weren't comfortable tasting. I was very proud of them!

We finished the day by riding back to the campsite for hotdogs & a campfire. By the end of the day we had ridden over 20km and everyone slept very well. Evan was in charge of building campfire and Owen helped prepare the dinner. One advantage of a smaller troop is that everyone gets an opportunity to pitch-in and help out (we had 7 scouts and 5 adults)

One of the other scouts traveled by train all the way from Nanjing to join us on our campout. He is part of the "lone scout" program were he & his dad work through badges/advancement without the full support of a troop. He's about an hour way, close enough for campouts, but to far for weekly meetings.

Owen's favorite part was sleeping in the tent. Evan liked biking. I enjoyed the fresh country air at the horse farm we camped at. Evan and Owen also taught the boys some of the camp songs they learned at gerber last summer.

The other expats

I have meet some fascinating people in Shanghai, and most of them have come to Shanghai because they are married to someone who is now working here. Most of these are women following their husbands, but in the case of the other 2 Americans I have meet in the compound, they are husbands following their wives' careers. In Chinese, a wife is called a tai tai (pronounced tie tie) and our neighbor jokingly calls her non-employed husband a guy tai.  I have meet lots of people coming to Shanghai to work in engineering or management, which I surmise is fairly typical. Some of the familiar companies that employ our neighbors are Siemens, Disney, Ikea and Unilever. 

The spouses that trail are often quite accomplished in their own right who for one reason or another are not working in Shanghai. I  have met an ivy league graduate, a medical doctor, 2 college professors, 2 nurses, and an MBA who married right out of college and is now eager to get some good work experience.These are the people I spend my days with, shopping for groceries, having coffee, exploring Shanghai. It's nice to spend time with such educated people learning about their cultures as well as the Chinese culture all around us. Maybe we'll start a book club. 

Before we moved here, I worried that we would be older than everyone else, as so many people I had talked to told me they lived abroad before their kids started school. But I have found expat families of every age. Some are new here like me, and others have been abroad for a long time. Some have moved around all of their lives. Many of the families are multinational, with spouses from different countries, and speaking several languages in the home. Yesterday I helped my French friend with child care so she could attend to a dental emergency. She and her husband are from France. Her children, ages 3 and 7 speak French and Chinese, as they have lived in China for the past 5 years. We had fun playing with matchbox cars and pokemon figures despite our language barrier. I have met people from Germany, Thailand, China, Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand, France, Sweden, Australia, Korea, Japan, Spain, Great Britain and Brazil. Most of them speak English very well, and I am grateful for that.