Month One

Can’t believe it has been one month since landing here in Shanghai…it feels like forever since we left home and yet still feels like we arrived yesterday with all the newness around us here in Shanghai. As with living and moving anywhere, we have had our Shang-hai and our Shang-low days. Thought we would share some praises & prayers regarding the past month and looking ahead…

Praises:

• We have all been healthy - minimal bouts of ‘digestive issues’ (despite eating food from places I never thought we would!) and no other issues at all!
• We moved right into our furnished townhouse – given that our air shipment won’t be arriving until the 2 month mark, we are so thankful that we are at least living in our townhouse versus a temporary living space!
• The girls have settled into Concordia International School – quite an impressive educational institution. As I write this Megan is riding camels in the Black Gobi desert tracing the history of Buddhism and Kelly is digging ditches to deliver clean water to a very rural village in Yunnan Province in South China – amazing opportunities!
• We have joined a great church – Abundant Grace International Fellowship. They have a heart for the nations as well as strong families.
• We had some pretty low expectations moving here regarding sunny days, blue skies and green spaces (this is a praise to have such low expectations!) and Shanghai has over-delivered! In preparation for the World Expo (which has been going on since July) the Shanghai city government made a lot of changes – which thankfully we have gotten to enjoy! Praying they continue after the Expo is over!
• Mr. Xu and Ayi Shi are both wonderful – the ability to speak English definitely is secondary to being trustworthy and doing an excellent job!

Prayers:

• Despite climbing 4 flights of stairs every time we go anywhere, we need to find a regular outlet of real exercise for everyone. Moving from 2 acres to the 3^rd & 4^th floors of a large living complex definitely changes what you do in your ‘spare’ time.
• Continued protection (sometimes from our own poor choices) regarding what food we eat!
• At church, we are trying to figure out which community group to join – so far, the ‘perfect’ or even ‘near perfect’ group (regarding when they meet and what kids the families have) has not been revealed (and no we aren’t comparing to the group we have back home since there couldn’t ever be a comparison!!)
• Regarding school, we have been disappointed to date in the Christian elements of Concordia – seems more Christian in name only. As the girls have noted they have heard more cussing in both English and Chinese from teachers and students already than in a whole year at Haas Hall.
• Managing expectations (especially for the task oriented, list makers in the family!)– you can’t accomplish as much in a day as you would back home (traffic adds time, the city itself is huge, communicating to figure out what you want to buy/do takes longer, etc). This is a bit of a struggle as we still have several foundational things to get finished (like opening a bank account, getting our ‘permanent’ car, buying a safe…)
• We know what a blessing and opportunity it is to be here, we also never really imagined how hard some elements of this move would be. Everyone has moments of ‘just wanting to go home’. We need to lean harder into our Jesus during these moments and have Him comfort our hearts, still our fears and give us strength!

Thank you all for your prayers and support…we couldn’t be here if we didn’t have you there!

Suzhou

Kelly and Andy had the priviledge to spend 20 hours in the beautiful city of Suzhou this past weekend. We were met at the train station in central Shanghai by a friend of a friend named Amy. After boarding the train, it only took 30 minutes until we pulled into the Suzhou station. The three of us were met there by our host, Mr. Pan, whose son, Samuel, is a student studying at the University of Arkansas. Andy met Samuel a few days before we left for China.

Mr. Pan took us to a beautiful hotel and checked us in, insisting that he pay for the room for the evening. After dropping off our bags we proceeded to the 29^th floor and were treated to an amazing buffet with a wide variety of western and Chinese food. It took a little bit of time getting used to this revolving restaurant but while we ate we enjoyed a 360 degree view of this ancient city. After dinner we walked on a peaceful street alongside a quiet canal. Mr. Pan told us about his childhood and how he had grown up living next to a canal like this and what life was like in China when he grew up. It was a wonderful evening.

The next morning Mr. and Mrs. Pan picked us up at 7:45 and checked us out of the hotel. We then picked up Amy on our way to the Mandarin church service. Church was held in a beautiful new building on the shore of Lake Dushu that looked more like it should be in Rome than in eastern China. Amazing cathedral ceilings and huge columns were only part of the incredible architecture of this church. We then went to the Suzhou Museum and viewed pottery from the Tang Dynasty, which was between 1100-1400 years old. Mr. Pan was like a walking encyclopedia explaining all this to us through Amy’s interpretation.

After a delicious, traditional Chinese lunch we went to The Humble Administrators Garden. This is one of four “Great Gardens” of China. It was truly beautiful and very unique in that around each corner, it felt like we were in a completely different garden with the changing design and floral arrangement. Truly a work of art. When it was time to head back to Shanghai the Pans had arranged for us to be driven back by their nephew. Terribly convenient to not have to wait at the train station for our trip home. This probably saved us 2 hours and allowed us to be back in time to join Sue and the girls for dinner after church with some friends.

So Amy turned out to be much more than a guide and interpreter and the Pans much more than hosts, they are our “good friends.” The people of China are very generous and hospitable. We are very blessed to be able to live life with them.

Adventures...planned or not

Being a tourist in Shanghai is lots of fun! Friday we traveled about 30 min outside of Shanghai to one of the ancient water villages – Zhujiajiao. This town dates back more than 1700 years, with over 36 beautiful wood, stone or marble bridges connecting the town across multiple streams. It China's version of the ‘Venice of Italy’… Maggie & Ms. Lynn were noticeably missing, so we didn’t really feel like we were in Italy again! It was very peaceful and beautiful with the willow trees hanging over the streams, riding in the river boat and seeing some of the authentic houses (which were nestled among the many tourist shops). We had a fabulous meal of fried rice, dumplings, tomato & scrambled egg, and noodles (can you tell we stick to the edible fare that we know!). We did order the countryside chicken – not sure what would show up on the table and just hoping it didn’t have its head still on! It came out as a whole chicken (minus the head thankfully) in a bowl of broth – they offered to cut it up so then we had a whole chicken all cut up (bones & all) in a bowl of broth! A little challenging to eat with chopsticks but Abigail especially loved it (oh and Betsy we are going to need some Tide Stain Stick when you come visit to get the greasy broth out of her shirt!!). The ride home was fun as one of the little ones had to go to the bathroom – urgently. Now if we were truly locals, we just would have pulled over, let her go to the bathroom on the side of the road (literally just on the road) as we have seen that many a times…however we finally got to an understanding with the driver that one of the ‘babies’ as he calls them needed to use the WC. At first this information just made him drive faster on the highway (not exactly the intended result) and then he gets off and pulls into the Porsche dealer. Now as a general rule, I feel bad using the bathroom at McDonalds without buying something, but that was clearly out of the question here! He convinced them it was an emergency and they graciously led us to the bathroom…lesson learned; always try before you get in the car!!!

On Saturday Andy & Kelly headed off to Suzhou (about 30 minute train ride) where they met with a University of Arkansas student’s family who are Christians. Many stories to tell which they will have to do since I wasn’t there! As for the rest of us, we headed out to the zoo. We saw lots of birds & monkeys and many humorous things (outside of the animals!). For starters, the signs about not feeding the animals are clearly just suggestions…lots of people were throwing food in the cages or trying to get the animals to eat from their hands (we opted out of that as I didn’t want to get any random germs from the zoo, I’m sure we’re getting enough other ones!). They also had a ‘bailing animal’ section aka: domestic pets. Glad we knew what this was called in advance as we totally avoided going to see dogs and cats in cages…not my idea of a zoo. We LOVED the giant panda…way cute. We then headed into downtown to buy some art supplies for Megan – except for her paints which they wouldn’t ship, everything is ITS (in the shipment - as we have come to identify many things). Fun experience, very local shop…successfully found canvases, brushes, paid for them and even used the bathroom there. So one tip on the bathroom – if you just use the one that says handicap, it will be the western style toilet versus the squatty potty. Handicap or no, I’m using it! We finished off our afternoon with a bike ride around Century Park (some one which Megan got out and pushed the bike – not sure if it was the peddlers or the bikes pedal system, but it wasn’t easy!), played some badminton and Frisbee and then went to the burger/shake shop of Johnny Moos.

A very fun and busy weekend to help us get to know our new surroundings better! Still missing home and some of the simplicities & routine of life there (oh and definitely the family and friends!!!)…as someone at church said, you can’t rush through the transitions as this is when the growing really happens. No pain, no gain??

Xi Jian Y’all…love ya!
The Shanghai Seven

Routine??

Today marks 3 weeks since we 'landed' in Shanghai and if we had to characterize our routine so far we would say CRAZY! Hoping this is still a lot of transition and not the new normal! Here is a peak into our daily routine for Mon-Fri:

6am - Everyone is up - not sure what we all do for 90 minutes but we are usually rushing out the door at 7:30. Breakfast is a bit of a challenge for family that loves cereal and used to consume 7+ gallons of milk a week. French toast/oatmeal (both which require cooking at breakfast when we don't even actually like to have to cook for dinner!!) are standard and a treat is when we splurge for cereal. Thankfully the girls all wear uniforms so that makes picking out the clothes quite simple - we'll take a picture and try to get it to upload soon!

7:30am: We all head out...

The girls head to the bus - there are Ayi's on the bus who immediately attend to Zoe & Abigail getting them buckled in and then at the school they gather up all the 'little ones' and walk them over to their classrooms. School goes until 3:30 at which time Andy & Mr. Xu are there to pick everyone up. Then it is home for a snack (cut up watermelon when Ayi Shi has been here for the day) and homework. Everyone down to Zoe has homework - every night. It is intense!

Andy usually heads out for a run or a meeting at the school (volunteering, HS coffees talks..) or one of many errands to continue to get things settled for the house. Three days a week he meets with Ayi Shi as she comes over. This week she went shopping and cooked sweet & sour chicken (which is really an American Chinese dish, not traditional!) and homemade dumplings.

Sue heads out with Mr. Xu to the office. The drive lasts 45 minutes passing masses of people doing tai chi, making dumplings in their small shops on the street, hanging their laundry out, playing badmitton on the sidewalk and a sea of humanity riding bikes & scooters all in a nutty driving pattern that just seems to work.

6:30-7pm: We're all back at home and getting dinner underway. We have our favorite local 'noodle man' restaurant where we can feed 7 people for less than $20, we know the best delivery places, have a few (as in three!) dishes we can actually prepare and are working to have our Ayi cook every day that she comes!

Everyone finishes up homework, trying to contact friends, preparing for the next day and we all get to bed later than we'd like!

So what have we learned in the last week....

• Don't buy the watermelons from the back of anyone's truck (they sometimes inject them with river water to make them look bigger) - this tip thanks to one of Lindsey's friends! God watched over us when consuming the two that we had purchased before this learning!
• When it rains, plan on it taking significantly longer to get a cab...poor cab planning caused us to be 25 minutes late for church on Sunday - not fun! And when you can't find a cab to catch home, it only takes 30 minutes to walk back - even for little legs.
• Everyone needs rabies shots - rabies is one of the top killers in China, even a scratch by a stray would need to be treated as if it is rabies. Wish I had known this one before we left home!
• ATM and Ikea sound very similar to a Chinese driver as Mr. Xu headed off across town to the Ikea when all Andy really wanted was to go a few blocks away to the ATM. Now we say Starbucks (which is right next to the ATM) and Mr. Xu just looks at us oddly when we come out without any coffee!
• A 4 lb package shipped from the States to PuDong China costs $93...thank you Mom and Dad for sending the world's most expensive coloring books for the girls!
• To a 5 year old (aka Abigail) as long as you're with your family, you have no concept of other things going on. Last weekend she asked Zoe when we were moving to China and each week she asks if her best buddy Parker Stucky is going to be at church! Now she does know something is up, because most mornings she asks when her Legos will be here!
• Unfortunately the last learning is that our shipments won't get through their inspections before the two upcoming holidays so we are looking at mid-late October before anything arrives from the States. Hoping the temperature doesn't cool off too much before then!

We love you all!

Century Park

A picture to go along with the post from today:

Here are the bikers at Century Park!

Goings On

Sorry for the long delay to post...school alone makes the days crazy busy! But here is the update since the last post -

We've decided to make each Saturday an 'adventure day' since our time here in Shanghai is limited. For starters this past weekend, Andy & Kelly boarded the metro to a random stop on the Puxi side of Shanghai (the older side of the city), got off and walked around - people watching, finding fabulous local food in small street side 'restaurants' and immersing themselves in the 'real' China (not just expat China where we live) - they had a blast! In the afternoon, we all went to Century Park - a very large 'green space' just a mile from our townhouse. We rented bikes (one seated three, the other could seat up to six) and rode around the whole park - which included many fountains, lots of flowers, huge fields with lots of people/kids playing, lots of small lakes, a bonsai garden and a small amusement park. It was fun...although the sweltering heat resulted in a lot of sweaty people!

Sunday's are consumed mostly with youth groups & church. Kelly & Megan start at 11:30, Lindsey at 2:45, Sue/Andy/Zoe/Abigail at 3. Everyone is wrapped up around 5pm. We gave Driver Xu the day off so we were 'cabbing' it back and forth across PuDong all day! Thankfully as we were getting ready for a ~30 min walk home from church (because there were no cabs around), a family we had just met offered us a ride - thank you Jes$s!!! Church is amazing - more than just the worship or the teaching, but just to be in this foreign country, with people from around the globe and worshipping our one G@d!!! The girls are all meeting kids their ages who go to the church and several who live in our same complex as well (another answer to pr@yer!).

Monday was back to school and the start of work. How to sum up work so far...I am the only native English speaking person there, it took me a while to figure out how to get my computer to stop typing things in Chinese, when I show up at 8:30 I am the 3rd or 4th person there and I wait in line in the morning for the elevator to the 31st floor! Certainly is going to be different...not bad, just different (good think I really like change, in everything...ha ha!).

Today is Lindsey's 13th birthday! She has had a great day...some girls from her class decorated the outside of her locker so everyone (even juniors as she says!) was saying happy birthday to her. Then she got to wear the birthday crown all day (that would be a construction paper hat) and the whole 8th grade class sang happy birthday to her! At home we had some gifts (without wrapping paper - apparently something that is hard to find here!) and a cake without flames on the candles - but it was special and will certainly be remembered as the first of several people's birthdays we celebrate here!

As we wrap up our second week, we are starting to get into more of a routine (which is critical with 7 people, working and school!), meet more people and feel a little more comfortable (like we can actually do this after all!). Thanks for all of the pr@yers! We love you all and still miss HOME like crazy!

PS - Everyone loves to get emails from friends/families back home - it is a great way to start a day before heading out in to a world of new things!

Love to all!

The Thielman Shanghai Seven

Reflections on Week 1

Crazy things we've seen in our first full week of Shanghai life:

• Dry pork and seaweed donuts (no we didn't buy them!)
• Countless live animals for sale in the Carrefour grocery store (we haven't even been to the real outdoor food market where you can buy just about any animal it sounds!)
• People with grocery carts literally full of raw meat (this has changed our strategy about letting Zoe & Abigail ride in the carts)
• Little kids with split pants, shucks, little kids with no pants!
• Men 'relieving' themselves - wherever nature calls them

Wonderful things we've done in our first full week:

• Went to an amazing Christian church - different everything else here but our same God!
• Started all the girls in school - each day is getting better as they get caught up on the work, meet people and get used to the funky schedules.
• Have the house settled at least to get us by for the next 2-3 weeks before our shipments can clear customs
• Have figured out how to communicate (again at least to get by for now!) with the driver, the people in Carrefour (using the iPhone app to translate what we want to buy into Chinese!) and other random encounters (lots of hand motions work well)
• Found a wonderful 'hole in the wall' local restaurant - excellent noodles & fried rice and the whole family can eat for just $6 (of course there are only 7 tables in the whole place so we kind of overwhelm them when we arrive - which would explain some of the stares we got!)

Things we still have yet to do: work permits, residence permits, bank accounts, pick out a car (still negotiating for something smaller than the utility vehicle!), get our shipments, figure out cell phones for everyone, oh and start Sue at work! That should be enough for the next couple of weeks....

So to celebrate surviving our first week we had our $6 dinner out and then had $11 foot massages (that lasted a full 60 minutes!!!). We've already started the list of places to see and things to do when friends/family come to visit...so just let us know when you want to come!

Love to all back home!

Typhoon Day!

Yes that's right - third day of Concordia and all of Shanghai schools are closed in preparation for Typhoon Kompasu....how sweet of God to give the girls a breather from the overload of new school, new schedule, new people by bringing a typhoon! I love how our Father works!

As far as weather goes, today really was nothing more than a bad rain storm - we were quite under-impressed for our first typhoon. So enough talk of the weather....

We have made some definite forward progress the last few days - we now have internet (very important!) and a VPN (even more important to allow us to get around the great-firewall of China so the girls can Facebook, have access to 'The Office' on NBC.com and we can blog!). We had three computers (now that the older girls all have the Mac's from school) doing Skype back to Fayetteville this morning (so so so good to see friends - now we need to get some grandparents dialed in too!). We've got most of the unpacking done in the apartment (although neither of our shipments have arrived so the real unpacking hasn't even started). We own some simple things (like a fry pan, spatula & strainer) so we've started to eat at the house - french toast and spaghetti!! We have also hired an Ayi that will work 4 hours a day for three days a week - primarily cleaning, laundry (the machine is major small so this takes forever) and cooking - traditional Chinese style! She doesn't speak any English - this ought to be fun! She is actually the same Ayi that our friends the Wallers had here ~18 months ago - so thanks Susanne for the reference and connection to Ayi Shi!

Each of the girls started school on Monday - Abigail and Zoe are doing great - wonderful teachers, making friends and having fun. Lindsey, Megan and Kelly are...well...making it through each day (there have only been two) and praying/trusting that it gets better! The school is really big (6 floors, no elevators for students to use!), the schedule changes every day, and they are trying to jump into things already in motion. This area could definitely use some prayer from the West!

Can't believe it has only been a week since we left....seems like so much longer! We love you all!