Snow in Shanghai

Imagine it snowed in Miami and you can pretty much get the picture of what this week has been like in Shanghai. It's the most snow they have had in the past 17 years. The good part about it is that most of the people here don't seem to mind as snow is a novelty for them. Snowmen have suddenly sprouted up all around the city and snowball fights abound. Everyone is whipping out their cell phones to snap pictures of the winter wonderland. Sev took Grace outside to play and while she making snow angels, several of the workers gathered around to watch- they had never seen a snow angel before! The bad part is that there are no snow plows here and shovels are apparently hard to come by. Most people are using their straw brooms to clear the snow. In our apartment complex they sent out an army of workers to clear the streets (I literally saw a group of 20 people sweeping the snow away). And most people don't have boots so they simply tie old plastic bags around their feet. Also, everyone uses their umbrellas to keep themselves dry which gives all of us Minnesotans here chuckle. Many schools were cancelled although (thankfully) Grace's was not. Now based on my above description you may think that we got over a foot or more. No, we got about an inch. Unfortunately for the good people of Shanghai, it's been enough to shut down highways and as Chinese New Year is next week, half the town is trying to travel to their home provinces. The lines at the train station ticket offices have been stretching around the block for over a week now.


Speaking of Chinese New Year, we have elected to get out of Dodge (as we have been told that the fireworks go off morning, noon, and night for a week straight) so this will be my last post for the next two weeks. We are headed off to sunny Sydney, Australia on Saturday. So best wishes to everyone in the Year of the Rat!




A street cleaner in the traditional blue worker uniform clears the street with a broom.


Twenty workers and guards clear the streets in our apartment complex while a resident looks on (you know he is thinking- "ha, suckers- glad I don't have to do that!")


Smiling faces as the ladies shovel and throw down some salt.

A Traditional Chinese Wedding

I mentioned in the last post that we were fortunate enough to be able to attend our friend Melissa's wedding in Hong Kong. This was the first traditional Chinese wedding we had been to and I was really excited to see how it differed from our western weddings. The day starts for the bride very early and begins with the traditional red Chinese gown. Melissa's gown was all hand embroidered and she looked absolutely gorgeous. The groom comes to her family home in the morning (since Melissa lives in Shanghai, this was done at the hotel room) where he is greeted by the bridesmaids who basically tease him for at least 30 minutes before letting him in the door. Then there is all kinds of exchanges between the brides family and the groom. There are traditional foods to be eaten and of course a traditional tea ceremony. I was able to come up to the room and see the last part of the ceremony (I missed the first part because of the Disneyland hangover- we all over slept)! Throughout the day, the bride is given jewelry from her parents and relatives (look closely at the pics to see the gold bracelets). The morning portion of the ceremony takes about 2 hours. Then everyone packs up and moves to the grooms house. Not sure what goes on there though. At about 6:00pm the actual ceremony takes place. The guests arrive and are assigned a table but there is no gift table and I didn't see anywhere to deposit a red envelope (traditional way to give money) although I am sure that each guest did bring an envelope for them. The bride wears a traditional western wedding gown, her dad walks her in and the bride and groom get up on the stage and do the ring exchange. In Hong Kong, this is presided over by a lawyer (and the ceremony was in english but I think that was only b/c it took place in Hong Kong; otherwise, I am assuming it would have been in the local language). Then there are loads of family pictures to be taken. In the meantime, the guests were free to mingle and play majong- they even had a whole separate room set up with majong tables!

Then the meal began. We were seated with the only other two Caucasians in the room- go figure.

It was a 12 course meal served by an army of waiters who would march in exactly at the same time each time a new course was served. No worries if your table was in the back as we all got our food at the same time. During this time the bride had her first dress change. She had a separate changing room adjacent to the ballroom specifically for this purpose. Also, the mother of the bride changed her dress as well. This went on throughout the night- all together, Melissa had at least 6 dress changes! It was really fun to see what she would wear next.

There was no dancing, DJ, or band like we have in the US although there was an MC who made all the announcements. Also, there was one game that we called "Embarrass the foreigners". Sev and the two other Caucasian guys at our table had to get up on the stage one at a time. They had to put on headphones and listen to a Chinese pop song and then sing it back to the audience. The first audience member to guess the song won a prize. It was pretty funny and somehow I manage to escape without participating.

The other fun thing that I definitely think we should incorporate into weddings in the US came when it was time to toss the bouquet. Instead of throwing it, all the single gals came up on stage and took a red ribbon in their hand. The ribbons were all wrapped around the bouquet which was held by the bride. On the count of 3, everyone pulled on their ribbon but only one was actually tied to the bouquet. I thought this was a great way to keep everyone safe and avoid the inevitable desperate pushing and shoving that goes on the US!

Anyway, the last course was served around 11:30pm and by that time, we were ready to call it a night. All in all, a very fun evening and interesting evening.

The bride in her traditional gown- note the bling at her wrist and neck.

Part of the tea ceremony where Melissa is recieving gifts from her sisters.

The western wedding gown (Melissa's knickname is Bebe in case you are wondering what's up with the sign in the background).

The third dress change.

The 4th dress change.

Sev making an ass of himself- all in good fun though!
The poster child for "What not to wear to a wedding"- pretty self explanatory.

Hong Kong (or why I love Disneyland)

It's been a busy couple of weeks for all of us. My mom was able to extend her trip and stay until Jan 14th. First of all, Grace turned 3 on January 3rd. No party this year- we brought a Dora cake (of course) to school, threw some party hats on the kids, and sang Happy Birthday in Chinese and English. Of course we had the celebratory dinner at Hooters per Grace's request. And the pacifier fairy came and took away her pacifier on the night of her birthday but left a Dora toy instead. It's been a rough couple weeks since then but I guess that's to be expected when you quit an addiction.

We were also lucky enough to be invited to a friend's traditional Chinese wedding in Hong Kong but I am going to do a separate post about the actual ceremony. We were in HK for 4 days and had a great time. It is MUCH more westernized than Shanghai due to the British influences of course. All the cabbies spoke English- what a refreshing change. Since we were there we decided to bite the bullet and take the kids to HK Disneyland. What an awesome day it turned out to be! I never thought I would be raving about a daytrip to Disney but here goes. In typical Disney style, everything was done exactly right. We took the metro train from our hotel and as we switched onto the last train to take us to Disneyland, a beautiful new train pulled up with Mickey Mouse shaped windows, plush blue velvet seats, and bronze statues inside the train of all the characters. And of course I can't forget the classical Disney songs being piped throughout the station.

Thankfully this is the smallest of all the Disney parks with only 3 main sections which was perfect for us. And since we went on a weekday there were no crowds. We started in Fantasyland and literally rode the carousel and the Winnie the Pooh ride at least 6 times each. Not to mention several trips to take photos with the various characters around the park. The most fun happened when Grace threw a fit getting off the carousel (big shock, I know) but upon exiting we were chosen as the "Magical Moment" family for the day :)

So Grace and Audrey got to take a private walk with Cinderella and ride the carousel with her.

We also hit tomorrowland and adventureland but there are really only about 4 little rides in each section. We also watched the Main Street parade and Grace was so overwhelmed that she started crying when it was over. Even so, we were at the park for over 7 hours! And we are definitely going to hit it again next year. It was also Sev's first trip to Disneyland and he was so smitten he wants to check out the one in Tokyo as well!

Oh yeah, one last thing- no split pants allowed so we weren't worried about bare butt being on the rides prior to us.

The train to Disneyland- Audrey "picked" a good seat

Grace running to greet Mickey

Cinderella and Grace taking a walk together

Audrey getting ready to go on the Pooh ride- again.

Audrey on the carousel

Who can escape Disneyland without this classic family photo?

Grace and her Dora cake

Christmas in China

Happy New Year! A lot of people have emailed me wondering what it is like to be in China for Christmas. Actually, it really wasn't as wierd as I thought it would be. First of all, about 3 weeks before Christmas, almost every public place (restaraunt, shops, hotels, etc) had put up some type of picture or cheesy replica of Santa. Granted, many of the Santa art had funny pictures of ducks and cartoon stars along with it but I give them credit for trying. And I was really surprised by the number of xmas trees everywhere. The people themselves don't celebrate xmas in their own homes but they like the lights and decorations along the street. All religious meaning has been removed from the decorations but that is to be expected here. And of course there were no mall Santas, no Christmas carols on the radio, no mad dash to the shops.

Thankfully, my parents had made the long trip to Shanghai to celebrate the holidays with us this year. They really helped to stave off the homesick feelings I am sure we would have had if we had been here alone. And we decided since it wasn't too Christmas-y here in China anyway, we would fly to a tropical destination to celebrate xmas. We chose an island owned by China called Hainan-just off the coast of Vietnam and Malaysia. The island is famous for hosting the Miss Universe pagent every year. My dad's brother who happens to be working in Hong Kong, joined us with his wife and daughter which made it really feel like a family vacation.

Anyway, I went in to it with low expectations as living here for the past 5 months has taught me to do. But we were pleasantly surprised upon arrival. The weather was perfect- about 80 and sunny everyday. The beaches were pristine- no rocks, no shells, no trash. The water was blue and warm. We stayed at the Marriott and really never ventured off the resort because it was so awesome! We couldn't help laughing everytime we wandered through the open air lobby and gazed upon the palm trees while "White Christmas" was playing in the background. Probably the most humorous moment occured on Christmas day when we went out for dinner at a Vietnamese restaraunt and a Philipinno cover band belted out "jingle bells" with an accent. I would absolutely say that Hainan island was better than most places in the Carribean that I've visited but I wouldn't say that anyone needs to make a special trip to visit the island- if you're in China and you have some extra time, it makes for a nice long weekend.

Grace with the worst Santa I've ever seen- but hey, you take what you can get!

Grace on a horse ride along the shore

Audrey and daddy out for a swim

A view of the pool at our hotel

The open air lobby of our hotel

The view from the lobby & our balcony