Mid-Autumn Festival is over (yes we tried the mooncakes - red bean, lotus flower - they all tasted like a bad fruit cake!). And the October holiday has finished too - lots of fireworks (the Chinese sure know how to do this right!) all celebrating the birthday of the People's Republic of China (established at Tiananmen Square in 1949). Regardless the reason I'll take a 7 day holiday anytime!! We did have visitors for one day over the holiday - Amy (the 19 year old from the Suzhou visit) came down with her 18 year old friend Emily...took the train down just to spend the afternoon with us! We were touched and really enjoyed just talking with them. They really like having Kelly as a friend! People have been shocked that all 5 daughters (well first shock is that there are 5 daughters!) but that they all came to China with us. It is very cultural here for the parents to live somewhere else working and the children to stay with extended family. They also laughed that we thought Chinese babies were so cute since they think Western babies are the cutest! We taught them to play Uno (yes this is still the only game we have!) and they loved it - maybe because they kept winning. Must have been beginners luck because Abigail is our Uno expert! Amy also did some translating for us with Ayi Shi...apparently Mr. Xu was very confused about his first visit for the night of fellowship that Andy invited him to (thought he was picking up DVD's for us??)...anyways he is very interested in going both Tuesday nights and Wednesday mornings and wanted us to know so we can try to work the schedule so he is free. He also hopped out of the van the other day wearing Ayi Shi's cross and was very excited to show me he was wearing it! We'll see where God takes this!
We have purchased 3 bikes - the others are, yes, in the shipment. These have given us a bit more flexibility than walking everywhere. It has also given the older girls a little more freedom to ride out to 'Bubble Tea' or Starbucks to meet class mates. A word on 'Bubble Tea' - if you like to chew things in your drinks you would like it! They add 'pearls' which are black tapioca balls to the tea - which I find as an unpleasant surprise when I am drinking but Kelly loves them!
We are starting to know people - had some 'home cooked' meals with three other families (note they did the cooking!), Andy has two running partners, Kelly's cell group has kicked off (Megan and Lindsey to kick off this week) and we attended a community group meeting. We were riding our bikes home from community group when we had another surreal moment of - can you believe we're riding bikes at 9pm home from community group in Shanghai China?? Some moments it just seems so unreal in a good way...and some moments we wish it weren't real (ha!).
We've done some more exploring of the Shanghai markets...the Dong Tai antique market, South Bund fabric market, Painters Street, underground market, and we found an amazing puzzle store! We were shopping for furniture (a new dining room table that actually seats our family) at the furniture market and then went to the antique market - as we were getting out of the car Mr. Xu warned us in Chinese to not buy anything! Buo Hao...not good. Helpful to know! We dined on fried dumplings, Snickers bars and Iced Tea and left that as our purchasing!
It is a big week at the Thielman house: Lindsey is in Yang Shao Guilin on the 8th grade interim trip, I am in Guangzhou for the week (a story in and of itself as GZ is drastically more Chinese than SH), we are supposed to get our air shipment (of course it was supposed to come Monday...), they are supposed to be getting us a new washing machine (as the old one broke last week Wednesday!) and we are OVER THE TOP excited because Betsy, Karina and Courtney Linn arrive on Saturday!!! It is such a blessing that they are coming!!!
Love to all of our family & friends in the West!!
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