Planes, Trains and Taxis

Apparently this is what it takes to travel from Guangzhou to Shanghai in bad weather…this and 24 very interesting eventful hours! About 10 minutes out from landing in Shanghai, the flight crew announced (in Chinese) that we were being diverted to Hefei (the capital of Anhui province and about 400 KM from Shanghai). According to the flight crew, the ground crew would help once we landed…unfortunately when we landed at 10pm there really was no ground crew available. My strategy for starters – stay with the pack, find someone bi-lingual. I have many choices – I consider the Monks, decide no. For a while I stick with the Russians – until they say if enough of us band together we can force them to take a plane to Shanghai that night. I see them actually talking to the local TV crew (I guess a diverted plane is a big deal in Hefei!) and complaining – I consider an international incident, drop the Russians and find two Aussies traveling with an interpreter – perfect – thank you Jesus! Everyone beings boarding buses to hotels – sounds better than sleeping in the sketchy airport so off I go on the bus. To get a hotel room key, you shove your way into the group, wave your boarding pass and grab a key from the desk attendant’s hand – I can do that! Our hotel was the Metropolis “Entertainment” Hotel…I just didn’t ask questions, and went off to my room which was a toasty 53 degrees F. I get a phone call about Midnight – it is all in Chinese and I am assuming it is the airline telling us plans for the morning. No interpreters around at this point. Next strategy – show up in the lobby early, before anyone in China would think to arrive so I don’t miss the pack! When I arrive at 6am – the desk attendant writes down 6:20 on a piece of paper so I have made it with time to spare. The next person comes down and heads out the door but then returns and tells me to follow him. Being the safety cautious person I am, I ask if he was on the SH flight and then head out of the hotel with him (yes somewhat lower standards than normal considering the circumstances!). Apparently we have to walk to another hotel for the buses. Thank you again Jesus!

So now we’re all checked back in for an 8am flight…which has been delayed! I position myself in the waiting area where I can watch (some might say stalk) my ‘groups’ – the Russians, the Aussies and a few Chinese. Soon there is yelling and a fist fight breaks out – a throw the person on the seats, punch his face and break his glasses kind of fight. I wonder…where is security? Then the angry person turns to the airport staff, throwing things at them, yelling and has now attracted quite a large crowd watching him. I wonder again…where is security and pray I am not seated by this crazy person on the plane. Eventually the screaming man is escorted out of the area. Soon I notice some of my target people, getting up, talking to the airport staff and leaving with a piece of paper. So off I go and find out that the airline is recommending people take the train. Okay if it will get me home today I’m game. While I’m getting my paper, a Russian woman who speaks English and Chinese, asks if she can go with me…why yes! Thank you again Jesus!

Off for the taxi and to the train station about 30 minutes away. Long lines at the train station but we find two others from our flight near the front of the line, hand them (perfect strangers) money and our passports and ask them to buy our tickets. Business class seats are available but the seatless tickets (aka standing for 3 hours) are sold out – okay if you insist, business class it is. We wait another hour and board our train headed finally for home!

Weekend Fun!

On a number of occasions we have told our older girls...living here in China isn't always like 'real life.' Megan's recent weekend in Japan was an excellent example of this! Her friend Gillian, who lived in Shanghai last year, moved to Tokyo this year. For Gillian's 16th birthday her parents flew our Megan and her other friend Meg to Toyko as a surprise! So we first learned that who would be considered 2 minors in the United States can, in China, go to the airport, check in and board an international flight without any adult even being with them! The weekend was mainly spent with friends just being together again...catching up, experiencing Japan, shopping, eating crêpes and sushi, laughing, and talking! Pressure is on...Megan turns 16 in April - maybe we'll take her to Johnny Moo's for dinner!

Last weekend was both the Winter Masquerade Ball for Concordia High School and the Girl Scouts Daddy-Daughter Dance. A reason for many in the Thielman household to get all dolled up...and a reason for Andy to buy a new suit (yes that's right, we didn't even bring one to China!). Both Lindsey & Megan went to the ball with groups of friends and Andy escorted his lovely littlest ladies to a night of dinner & dancing! Once again we discovered our princesses have such different personalities...Zoe LOVED the dancing & twirling in her fancy dress, Abigail LOVED getting ice cream afterwards just the three of them and coming home to her Word Search (her latest favorite activity!).

This weekend kicked off the Concordia soccer season! Kelly is on the varsity team for the second year - starting at defense. Lindsey also made the varsity team and is a starting mid-fielder. A bit cold (40 degrees) but a fun time to be outside, getting 'fresh' air and watching the girls play! Hard to imagine but life just got a lot busier with practice & games Tuesday through Saturday every week!

An Assault on the Senses

Sometimes a trip to the JinQaio Carrefour just begs you to take pictures and share of the adventure that we call grocery shopping! Now Carrefour is actually mild compared to the local grocery stores and also the wet markets where the native Shanghai people won't even take foreigners because they can't handle it! There are two sections of Carrefour that we majorly try to avoid...meat and dried fish...both as the title of this post suggests, an assault on the senses. As for meat there is really fresh - as in still alive, swimming in tanks, crawling on ice, jumping or slithering around; there is fresh - being cut off the slab and thrown into grocery carts, bare hands, no wrapping, lying fresh & bloody on ice; and then there is frozen - every body part included, legs sticking in the air! Last week must have been some kind of special on frozen as there were literally dozens of people in the frozen meat section (thus the reason it drew my attention!) What was most interesting is that in order to get the piece they really wanted everyone took the frozen meat and kept throwing it on the ground to break it up. So....you want me to buy meat first that everyone has touched with their bare hands and then second that has been thrown on the ground in the store where everyone walks with who knows what on their shoes?!?! Wouldn't surprise me if we had some people become vegetarians after this adventure!

Next comes the dried fish section - sometimes unavoidable as it stands between the fresh fruits & veggies and the bread! Let me just say as far as meat & fish go, apparently you can dry & preserve just about anything and any part of anything! This section isn't as much the sight but more the smell that is overwhelming! Tough to pick out french bread with the strong smell of dried fish floating in the air! Of course the time we saw a little boy (with his father's help) peeing in a coffee cup right by the open bin of dried shrimp didn't help either!

And I wonder why we order out 3-4 nights per week?!?!

Bringing in the Year of the Dragon

Xin nian kuai le! Happy New Year! This week all of China celebrated with fireworks and firecrackers to bring in the year of the dragon and our second CNY here in Shanghai did not disappoint! Noise (as Joseph calls it) started about 6pm and came to full crescendo (think war zone level!) from about 11:30pm to 1am!

Again fireworks like we would see for an entire show back at the 4th of July shooting off on every street, in our lane, and right on our sidewalk. Zoe and Abigail slept through it all - unbelievable! Joseph on the other hand cried at each noise early in the evening and then decided to manage by needing to see where all the noises were coming from - so we ran from window to window, upstairs to downstairs and looked for all the pretty colors...until he finally crashed at 1am! Andy and the older girls did what any typical American family would do...set off our small assortment of firecrackers, played some frisbee in the streets and wandered around in awe!

Chinese New Year is the most significant holiday in Chinese tradition and the year of the dragon is the most auspicious year of them all (the dragon is the only mythical animal of the 12 zodiacs). Births in China are expected to go up 20% this year as parents want their children to be dragons - still a one child policy but lots of people to have babies! Apparently hospital beds are already booked out through August for the maternity ward in the larger cities! Now that is planning ahead! Oh and another tidbit...for each zodiac sign, whenever it is your year, tradition is that you wear red every single day for the entire year (that's gotta be a lot of red underwear being sold here!)

With Joseph still not finalized and our desire to not join the hundred million people traveling in China, we decided to stay home for the week long holiday and it has been wonderful! Playing games, reading books, watching movies, relaxing and having fun...no where to go and not much to do (since almost every place is closed!)...something I think we all needed! Reality will be tough to take next week!

7 Days Too Many

7 days too many...this is our opinion of our recent week long adventure with Zoe at the Shanghai United Family Hospital! When we returned to Shanghai this summer both Andy & I agreed that we needed to be better prepared for an emergency here in Shanghai (maybe having an emergency with Joseph at the Detroit Airport was our stimulus!)...we thought we'd just do some research, collect the right business cards to give to a taxi driver, have our stash of cash for admissions and we'd be done. Guess God had other plans for our learning! She started with the stomach flu and somehow ended with a nasty multi-resistant urinary tract infection... thankfully now each are completely gone and we are headed home today!

A couple of interesting things about hospitals & this adventure....

* Even though the hospital is in Shanghai, it is about 60 minutes from our house. This has made one of us always being here quite a logistics challenge with one driver, work, school and after school activities. For those wondering, no I did not put it all on a spreadsheet to figure it out!

* Zoe was in the international wing of the hospital...I definitely would not say she was roughing it from her amenities - large private room, pull out futon for us, flat screen TV, DVD player, free Wi-Fi. What she liked most though was the bed that adjusted!

* In China before even admitting you to the hospital, even if you have insurance, you need to pay! So for Zoe they assumed a 3 day stay (at the time we laughed and assured her they didn't know what they were talking about!) and charged us $3000USD...thank goodness they take credit cards!

* Overall the care was superb! We also kept checking each step of the way with our wonderful pediatrician friend Lynn Morrison...and the treatment, changes & decisions all followed exactly what we would do in the States.

* One of the sweetest things was the envelope that Zoe got from her class filled with get well cards. Here are some of my favorite comments (remember these are from 8 year olds!)...

- Please come back to school before you leave China

- When you read this card does it make you feel better?

- Too bad you are sick you are missing out on great stuff - today we are learning multiplication!

- Get well soon - life is different without you!

- I hope you get well soon. Speaking of getting well, what sickness do you have - virus, pnemonia, cancer?

- I don't know you that much but I will pray for you to get well soon!

What did we learn besides the ins & outs of the ER services here in Shanghai...only what we already knew...how wonderful and amazing the network of family & friends is that we have back home. Despite the distance, we still were completely covered in prayer and are truly blessed by all of you!

More Pictures from Hawaii!

Mele Kalikimaka!

That's Merry Christmas...in Hawaiian! This year we celebrated Christmas in Hawaii with the Strack side of the family - the 'half way' point to meet between the East Coast and Shanghai! Eight days in Kona on the Big Island - simply beautiful! Our days were spent sleeping in (jet lag really seemed to hit all of us!), going to the beach in the morning and then the pool in the afternoon while Joseph took his nap. Really roughing it! Here are some highlights:

* Kelly & Megan spent one morning with their cousins Andrew & Daniel scuba diving - it sounded amazing (if you don't mind being 40 ft below the water!). A 'school' of dolphins swam over them, they saw sea turtles, pet an octopus and held a sea cucumber - not bad for their first dive ever! The next day the four of them plus Andy took surfing lessons - a bit harder than scuba diving but they all got up for lots waves.

* The beaches were wonderful and the water just amazing how clear and the shades of blue. Our first beach was actually a lot of lava rock and black sand and really made us question our paradigms of what we thought Hawaii was going to look like. After that we did find some gorgeous white sand beaches - which definitely matched the vision!

* For dinner one night we attended a luau...delicious food, lots of fun hula and flame dancing. Not exactly Joseph's favorite because it was a bit loud but he hung in there as long as we moved farther away from the stage. Zoe however loved the hula dancing and even more getting up to get her own drink of punch like a 'big girl' (thus the reason we think she had about 25 servings and was willing to refill everyone else's cups too!).

* We went to a wonderful outdoor church on the side of Mauna Kea mountain for a Christmas Eve candlelight service. Joseph's favorite part was blowing out the candles & having us relight them!

* The little girls especially just LOVED playing with their grandparents...out in the waves with Grandma, Uno back in the room, swimming at the pool, digging in the sand, staying up 'late' watching a movie. It was definitely, as always, very special time!

* We went to Target shopping - more than just a few times! We also ate at Taco Bell - again more than a few times! Can't get anything like a Burrito Supreme no onions with Raspberry tea easy ice in Shanghai!

We all appreciated the sunny days & blue skies, and mostly loved being with family again. Thanks Mom & Dad for an amazing time together! At the end of the week we actually sent Kelly & Megan on to Sante Fe, New Mexico to meet up with their wonderful friends in the Linn, Morrison & Schwartzman families for a fabulous week of snowboarding. Just got off the phone with them as they await their flight at LAX back to Shanghai - exhausted even before the 24 hours of travel, but definitely renewed by the time with friends. Now landing at 10pm in Shanghai tonight and having school at 7:30am tomorrow morning...not so sure how that is going to work but they agreed in advance to be cheerful (hummm....)!

As for New Year's in Shanghai I would call it woefully uneventful - Lindsey would call it pathetic! There is no ball dropping in times square, although we did watch earlier in the evening the fireworks display at Sydney Harbor Australia. With several of us still recovering from jet lag, the little girls & Joseph went to bed early and Andy & I fell asleep on the couch - we definitely owe Lindsey for being the only one to stay up to sadly celebrate on her own! As we look back over 2011 we are amazed at all the ways God has revealed himself in our lives and all that He has provided. We look forward to following Him in 2012 and wish all of you an abundance of blessings in this new year!