Healthy Apostrophes!

We have chinese cell phones with chinese calling plans. Overall I like their model a lot better. You buy the phone up front then purchase a service plan to go with the phone. The total cost is much lower than the bundled phones you get in the US (about 30 RMB/month or $5/month) after spending $2-300 on a phone.

The odd part is we get text messages from the phone company, written in chinese. Recently I got this one:

有一天"我"字头上丢了重要的一撇,就变成了"找"字,为了找回那非常重要的一撇,问了很多人，那一撇代表什么?商人说是金钱,……最后长寿的人们告诉我:那一撇是健康和快乐,否则什么都是浮云！亲爱的朋友，工作再忙，压力再大，也别忘了照顾自己！

Which Google translates to:

"I" head lost an important one to write, it becomes a "find" in order to recover a very important one to write, ask a lot of people, the apostrophe mean? Businessman said the money . last longevity of people tell me: the apostrophe is healthy and happy, otherwise, what are the clouds! Dear friends, no matter how busy work, the pressure is big, do not forget to take care of themselves!

Yes, this message was sent by the phone company! I need to ask a co-worker to explain it to me, I suspect in Chinese it is a clever play on words using some ancient chinese proverbs mixed with modern slang. Either that or somebody's kid got their hands on the keyboard & hit <send>

So, take care of yourselves and watch your apostrophes!!

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.

Citizenship in the Nation!

Ok, a couple weeks ago the boy scouts worked on the "Citizenship in the  Nation" merit badge. An interesting requirement for this badge is that you have to visit a US Federal Facility. Tough to do in Shanghai? NO! Quite easy in fact. All you have to do is visit your local Consulate or embassy. It also doesn't hurt to have a scoutmaster that is a member of the diplomatic corps.

We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I managed to find a few on the internet with the help of google images.

 This is the main gate. If you look closely you can see that the exterior guards are kindly supplied by the Chinese Government.

The compound itself is 3-4 acres of prime, downtown Shanghai real estate. We quickly learned that despite urban legend that the land is not legally US soil. The US does have permission to police itself on the grounds and maintains its own security inside the walls (Marines!). Everyone must have a valid ID, no cell phones and you do pass through a metal detector on the way in.

When the compound was restablished about 20 years ago the head of the consulate lived in the building pictured here. The activities at the consulate have grown so that the upper levels are now used as office space, but the main level is reserved for special events and meetings.

Another interesting fact is that any Federal agency that needs to have office-space in Shanghai works with the consulate. I found it interesting that the FAA has space in this building! Perhaps I can find an excuse to head there on a business trip???

This is one of the few places in Shanghai where you will find the US flag flying on a regular basis. The Marines take their responsibility very seriously and keep things ship shape at all times. An interesting fact as to why Marines are used to guard all Embassys & Consulates dates back to the 1700's. When the US first sent ambassadors abroad the sailed everywhere and the Marines were responsible for accompanying the Ambassador ashore and protecting him. 

Finally to complete the badge they also had to watch the news for a week, which were able to stream on the internet, and send a letter to a senator/congressman using email!

We also received a small gift. A pin that looks like a yin-yang symbol made of the American and Chinese flags spun together. Very cool!

Zai Jian!