Home schooling

Oh, sometimes it is hard to tell which way is up! I started home schooling The Paying Customer in February because he was miserable at school. I was concerned by the apparent ease of the school before news of its troubles reached my ears, so it wasn't hard to pull him out once he started to show signs of anxiety. He is a good student and he is easy to be around, so we are having fun together. Hopefully we are covering enough material to keep him on track with his schooled peers. Aka the Works is still at Rego for the time being. So long as he is still learning and enjoying his quirky classroom teacher, he can finish out the year there. Chinese officials have advised us to find a new school for next year, despite the owner's assurance that they will still be in operation. Sorry, that is not a bet we are willing to take! Still trying to figure out what we are doing next year. One day at a time, and thankfully, that means it is time for Spring Break! 

Travel Tips

Actually the previous post wasn't the first time I created a "page" on the blog....its just the first time I posted it. I've had another one sitting in draft form for months, figure I'll push it live and edit as necessary. Let me know what you think.

It is heavily based on people coming to Shanghai to stay for awhile, but I have a number of coworkers who read this blog and I figure it gives a glimpse of daily life to everyone else.

http://mommadumpling.blogspot.com/p/shanghai-travel-tips.html

--papadumpling

Visitors!

Despite all of the "interest", and all the people that said "we'll come", all of  those that were so excited to visit a foreign country and have someone show them the sites....no visitors.

Until now!  My parents will be visiting next week so I  thought it was finally time to put together a post describing some of the things to do in Shanghai. I also figured out how to add a "page" to this site, so keep an eye on that page because I'll update it from time to time with more tips and information.

Without further ado, please check it out:
http://mommadumpling.blogspot.com/p/what-to-do.html

I don't like China

why I don't like China:

I can't understand the language

some food is disgusting

crossing the street is dangerous

the Internet stinks

pollution

a lot of cigars

we don't have a car

must walk Biscuit

few plants

to many phone calls

i miss my friends

i miss home

to be continued

Da Ride

Poppadumpling here. I finally found the motivation to ride my bike to work. The roads outside the city-center are all 'class A' bike lanes, making this quite easy. The biggest problem was that I still live 12 miles from work and am not in very good shape.

I think I'm going to shoot for doing it once or twice a week, possibly going one-way on different days. The underground parking garage has a large area devoted to bicycle parking and storage. I did manage to complete the ride in 62 minutes on the way to work and 78 minutes on the way home. There was a headwind and it started to rain before I got all the way home.

http://g.co/maps/8348f 

I definitely need to take some pictures along the route. The rapid growth in Shanghai is amazing. You see a tremendous number of abandoned buildings, many of which are being torn down to build new ones. Its like seeing 200 years of history compressed into a single ride.