What are you eating?

All the Dumplings have put on weight since we've come to China. While we do have a few favorite Chinese dishes and have visited several very nice Chinese restaurants, we eat very little Chinese food. Isn't that a shame? I feel a certain amount of embarrassment about it, despite the reassurances from friends from Europe, Asia and South America that they also don't each much of it. I have racked my brain and these are my excuses:

1. Food safety concerns. Anyone who reads the news knows this is a problem. We buy mostly imported food.

2. Most of the foreigners I have met  here have regular bouts of digestive discomfort. Staying with familiar foods feels safer.

3. The language barrier sometimes requires a leap of faith. Restaurant menus are often poorly/humorously translated. While Papa long ago earned the nickname "Mikey" for his willingness to try anything,  the rest of the family is not nearly so brave. 

4. There are some Chinese spices commonly used in this area that we don't like. Even if we knew what they were, we're not sure we could communicate well enough to avoid them.

5. Many meat dishes are prepared with the meat cut into small bites but with the bone remaining because the Chinese like the flavors and nutrients that the bones/gristle/fat/skin contain. It can be tricky/messy to eat, especially when using chop sticks. Now imagine the chicken/duck/fish served with the head still attached. 

6. For a while, Papa Dumpling ate Chinese food for lunch each day at the office cafeteria. He has had his fill.

7. MSG and other additives.I was amazed at the grocery store shelf space devoted to it.

8. So many foods from all over the world are available to enjoy here. We aren't lacking for delicious choices.

WE NEED IDEAS!

We haven't posted much this year  despite multiple requests to post. If you have any questions/suggestions for us, let us know.  I have abandoned several posts because I was unsuccessful getting the photos to upload. We're nearing the end of our stay in China.

More photos: Life in Shanghai Links

Here are a few more photos from around our compound. This afternoon we have a special visitor arriving, and I hope that she will explore the area just outside our compound with me so that you can see the contrasts!

The free shuttle that takes us into town. 

The Shanghai American School (on right) from the main road.

The community playground. There are also playgrounds at the school.

The smaller community pool. It is open until the end of October,
but it is already too cold to swim.

The compound store.It is small, but offers enough variety that I
 really have no excuse not to cook dinner each night.

Just beyond the fence are the high school sports fields.
Baseball, soccer and track.

The Shanghai Links Clubhouse. It has 2 restaurants and hotel
rooms. But like many things in China, it always feels eerily
empty. The golf course looks to do pretty good business, however.

The community club house. Work-out facilities, meeting room,
play area for kids. Foosball table, tennis courts.

The larger community outdoor pool, this one is favored by
aka The Works and The Paying Customer.

Cannot really tell from the photo, but the ocean is just
beyond this fence.

A typical street in the compound. Lots of wide open spaces.

A walk in the (dog) park

View of houses and school from dog trail. Sometimes smoke
stacks on passing ships are visible on the horizon to the right.

This looks like it was a nice garden when it was planted. Now
it is mostly left wild. 

Biscuit and I have a morning routine of taking a walk together when the boys leave for school. We like to take a service road that cuts through the golf course to an abandoned garden area that is commonly used by dog walkers.

The access road into our compounds is narrow, and all of the school buses (about 30) are made to wait after dropping off the children so that the bus traffic is moving only in one direction at a time. They park on the service road and wait for the all clear signal. Biscuit has a few Chinese friends that always try to call to her and pet her. She is much larger than a typical Chinese dog, and I've been asked if she is pregnant!

More photos of the neighborhood should be forthcoming.

Golf course view.

Cypress. Fun to look at and to smell. Many are
permanently bent from the wind.

Guard booths on many corners. Manned 24/7.

The American School. Each week the last 3 flags are changed
to reflect the nationalities of the students and staff.
 I am learning new flags every week! 

Our street just after the morning rush. Our house is at the curve
on the right. The school is on the left.

Biscuit's new bling.

We haven't missed you, Mr. Smog!

Yesterday we planned to explore a nearby island that has several wetlands and a forest. We packed a picnic lunch, and set off into the haze. As we drove toward our destination, the skies continued to darken, and we realized that it wasn't a cloudy/foggy day, but a return of the smog. In fact, this was the worst-looking smog we have seen in Shanghai, maybe even worse than the winter days we spent in Beijing. We have been blessed with so many clear days since our summer vacation and move to Pudong, that we forgot just how polluted the city can get! I remembered that the United States Consulate, located 36 km away, monitors the air quality at their location and tweets the reports on a regular basis. I tried to access the numbers from the car, but of course the Chinese Fire Wall thwarted my attempts. Later I was able to confirm our suspicions that the air in Shanghai had reached 'unhealthy levels' on the Air Quality Index and within hours it moved into the 'very unhealthy' range.

View of the 10 km bridge to the island

Soot from the windshield

The Little Dumplings (haha!) reported that the new school does not allow outside activities when the pollution levels reach the "very unhealthy" level, and we decided this was a sound policy. We'll return to Chongming Island on a clearer day!

Where am I?

We have been back in Shanghai for 7 weeks now, and I am still amazed that I am in the same city. We are 20 or 30 miles from our old house, but it feels like we are a world away. When we moved to Shanghai, I never would have considered living here. Why would anyone choose to come all the way to China only to live in an American-style community? But there are so many things that I am enjoying about our new location:

The sky is blue.

The almost constant breeze.

There is no soot accumulating on the outdoor furniture, but the management washes the windows once a month anyway.

The internet connection is so fast!

The house has almost all the comforts of home. How I missed wood floors!

The car gives us more freedom than I imagined.

Papa is more relaxed.

The new school is challenging in the best possible ways. So far, the school is exceeding my expectations, and I expected quite a bit.

We have a small fenced yard for the dog!

We can see ships passing by on the sea from the bedroom windows.

The compound's convenience store has a great selection of groceries that Americans want, without any additional price gouging.

We have traded the constant honking of cars for air traffic. I prefer the airplanes,which are louder than the cars, but the noise is so much less jarring. Oh, and sometimes we hear ships sounding their horns.

We are surprised at the people who can and will speak English here. I suspect there are more foreigners on this side of the river.

We are socializing more with Papa's coworkers and their families.

Taxis? Horrible traffic jams? Not so much!

The shuttle runs all day long, so except for the distances involved, grocery shopping is more convenient .

Of course, there are also a few downsides to life in Pudong:

Everything is more expensive, and we have a few new expenses (the car, the school supplies, oh my!)

We miss seeing our Puxi friends every day.

Although Papa's commute takes about the same amount of time as before our move, now he is driving, so he doesn't get to use that time to relax.

We had better amenities in our old place (indoor pool, hot tub, beautiful landscaping, more television stations). High class problem, I know.

The old shuttle ran to a wider variety of places.

The access roads outside the new compound are twisty and narrow and sometimes harrowing to travel down.

We have to work harder to have a "Chinese Experience." I'm not sure that The Paying Customer and aka The Works would agree that belongs in the downsides column. But I feel that we have so much to be thankful for, and I hope some day they will feel the same way about this experience. If we have to be away from our home this year, this isn't such a bad place to be.

The octopus vs the cloverleaf

In china they appear to be utterly opposed to highway intersections that use the cloverleaf or the diamond model. My daily commute is 50km (30 miles) to/from work every day and spend most of it on highways/tollways.

Each time I approach an intersection you need to pay attention to the signs (at least those with some english on them) and adjust for the wide range of driving experience found on the chinese roads. The octopus style intersection makes this challenging because its new/different and there are no straight lines or right angles:

The line in green is the route I follow every day. I pass above the north/south road, then under the east-west road, finally merging with traffic from both directions. For comparison if I was doing the same thing in grand rapids it would look like this:

As you can see the octopus provides a shorter overall route and allows you to maintain a higher speed while passing through the intersection. It also takes up less space, which I suspect was a big concern when building the interchange. To accomplish this it does have many more bridges as the roads weave through each other. Visibility isn't as good and it was a bit disorienting the first time I went through it. You also have no way of making a U turn which can be a big problem if you miss a sign since you won't be able to make  U turn at the next intersection either!

Overall the highways in china are very well built, smooth and in good condition. The surface streets are another story for another time. I want to take some pictures of the route to show some more of the oddities of my route. Especially the "ghost road" I ride on every day :-)

The new school

Tonight I had the pleasure of attending the Middle School Open House at our new school.  Most of the evening was spent in the usual classroom visits where we learn a little bit about the teachers and the curriculum. But the evening started out a little bit differently, and I think it is a good sign for the year ahead. The Principal welcomed us in the school auditorium, taught us some school chants and gave us an observation test. We were then treated to a few presentations by the staff. My favorites? The creative arts department dressing in shipping cartons and danced on stage to "Mah-Na-Mah-Na" was definitely my top pick. But another noteworthy performance came from the PE staff.  One PE teacher played "Let it Be" on the piano while the other 4 teachers sang new lyrics, the chorus being  "I love PE, I love PE, I love PE, I love PE, Physical Education, I love PE" and did a choreographed dance number that included passing colorful balls back and forth. The school obviously has a very energetic and creative staff that understands what makes a middle school mind tick!