Weekend in Hangzhou

Syd and I spent the weekend in Hangzhou with our friends Ann (or Miss Ham, as Syd likes to call her), Declan and Julia. Hangzhou is a 2.5 hour drive by car from Shanghai or a 1.18 hours by train. We tried to hop the train but tickets for the return trip was sold out. So we rented a car and driver and made the long trek to Hangzhou. It was definitely worth the trip.

I've only been in big cities in China and was gratified to be in the peaceful environment of a lake surrounded by mountains. The main draw in Hangzhou is West Lake, which is reported to be 3 miles across and 9 miles around. There are several islands on the lake to visit and we were able to only see 2 -- one of which was the Three Pools Mirroring the Moon island. It is spectacular but unfortunately, it started to rain while we were on this island so Syd and I returned to the hotel. The weather was overcast the entire trip and even sprinkled on and off throughout the weekend. But the weather didn't dampen our enjoyment of this city, which was once the capital of China during the Southern Song Dynasty (A.D. 1127-1279).

View from our hotel room at the Hyatt

On one of the islands

One of the many boats that you can take to tour the lake

I would love to show you more but the battery went out on the first day in Hangzhou and, you guessed it, I didn't have my charger. It just makes me sick because we had a fantastic visit to the Lingyin Temple (Temple of Soul's Retreat), located in the hills west of the lake. This temple was the highlight of the trip for me (I mean other than spending time with my friends:)).There is a limestone cliff called Feilai Feng (Peak that Flew from Afar), which got its name because it resembles a holy mountain in India. The cliff contains four caves and about 380 Buddhists carvings in the walls. There was no way that the stroller could have made it through the caves and the cliffs, and there was no way that Sydney was going to walk the entire time. So Syd and I skipped the caves. But we admired the many work carvings on the outside of the cliff.

Since we were at a Buddhist temple, we also took a moment to burn incense and say a prayer. Mine was for the speedy recovery of Sydney's godfather, Steve, who we love and admire more and more everyday. There was also a room filled with dozens of statutes and in the middle were large statutes of Buddha. Sydney watched other people kneel on the yellow pillow in front of the large statutes and placed their head in their hands in prayer. Sydney insisted on getting out of her stroller and knelt down on the yellow pillow and said her own prayer. It was just so sweet.

I can't sign off without telling you about our lunch at a restaurant called Lou Wai Lou (Pavilion Beyond Pavilion) on the lake. We had Beggar's Chicken, which was fabulous. Everyone that I have met who have been to Hangzhou have raved about this restaurant, and for good reason. The Beggar's Chicken comes out wrapped in lotus leaves and then newspaper around the leaves. It has to be cracked opened with a hammer and the chicken inside just melts in your mouth.

For those of you who are planning trips to Shanghai, I highly recommend that you go to Hangzhou for atleast one night. We only spent one night but we all agreed that we could have used another day.

Dallas Bound in May

I will be returnig to Dallas on May 30th instead of the previously planned June 20th. My assignment here ends on May 31st and I'm told by my company that if I extend my assignment beyond 12 months, then I'll have to include the expenses covered by my company here in my US income and pay taxes on those expenses. It's not worth it to me to stay in China for an additional 3 weeks. So we'll be back on Friday, May 30th, at 9:45pm.

I am happy to be getting back sooner rather than later. Sydney's 2nd birthday is on May 30th so it will be nice to celebrate it with all of you. And I'll be glad to back in civilization again. There's a bit of logistics to work out in the next 2 months since my tenants will be in my house until the end of June. I've put Sydney on wait lists at daycares in Dallas for July and have contacted those daycares to move up the start date to June. I'm waiting to hear back from them. It will all work out and I'll be able to do laundry in one load again.

See you all in 2 months and 3 days.

Happy Easter

While we slept last night, the Easter Bunny made a surreptitious visit to the apartment to bring Sydney and Declan Easter baskets. Thanks to Ann's devotion to making Easter a memorable one for her son, Declan was able to spend the morning hunting Easter eggs throughout the apartment. Sydney was too engrossed in her Easter treats to participate in the Easter egg hunt.

After the morning festivities in the apartment, we all went to Easter brunch at the Westin hotel where we all made gluttons of ourselves. And enjoyed every minute of it. Unfortunately, brunch was scheduled in the middle of Sydney's afternoon nap so she wasn't able to join us.

Ann, Declan and Julia are leaving for Beijing tomorrow and I can hardly wait to hear about their adventures in Beijing.

Visiting Friends

Our friends Julia from Dallas and Ann and her son, Declan, from Colorado arrived in Shanghai last Thursday night. We were so happy to see them, and not just because they brought us great things from the US. Ann, Julia and I went to law school together and before Ann and I became Moms, we would take girls only ski trips every year --- with me on the Bunny Hill and them on the black runs.

We've been having a great time catching up and Sydney has been enjoying the attention of 3 more people. Sydney adores Delcan, whom she calls "Friend" or "Klen," and Declan has been a great big brother to Sydney. He plays with her, reads her books and keeps an eye on her while I'm busy. Besides being fun to be around, Declan has also been a great help.

This is their first visit to Shanghai so they've spent the last 2 days taking in the sights and enjoying the great food Shanghai has to offer. I was a bit worried about whether Declan would enjoy Shanghai because there are not many things for kids to do and I was worried that an 8 year boy would get bored. But he is a great sport and has been up for everything.

(Ann, Declan and Julia at Moon River Diner for breakfast)

(Visiting Old Town for some shopping)

(Declan enjoying Shanghai dumplings at Crystal Jade Restaurant)

A Week in Dallas

We arrived in Shanghai yesterday as scheduled. Sydney didn't sleep well on the plane so she slept 9 hours last night. So I'm hoping that she will be able to overcome her jet lag very quickly this time.

We had a great time in Dallas last week. It was a busy week between working, visiting daycares, getting over jet lag and visiting with friends and family. The week went by way too fast. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see everyone that we wanted to see or do everything that we wanted to do. We did manage to get Sydney's hair cut at Cool Cuts for Kids. She wasn't sure about it at first but it was over in 10 minutes.

We enjoyed seeing our friends in Dallas and seeing how much the kids have grown in the past 8 months. Sydney still asks about everyone that she played with last week. I can't wait until we get back to Dallas!

Weekend with Friends

Our friend, Chris Tang, from Oregon was in town for work and we were able to get together on Saturday with a couple of mutual friends of ours, Quyen and Loc, who live in Pudong. Pudong is across the river from where I live and while it is still Shanghai, it could be a different city. We hardly ever go to Pudong because it's about a 45 minute taxi ride on a good day. And the only time that we do go to Pudong is when we need to make a trip to Toys R Us. But Chris' visit was worth a trek to Pudong.

Interestingly, I met Chris through work. We negotiated a contract together on opposite sides of the table and became friends in the process. His wife made Sydney a beautiful blanket and bib when they heard that I became a Mom. Chris also introduced me to his friends who live in Pudong when he heard that I was moving here and I've become friends with them too. So Chris has been very good to me and I was happy to be able to see him yesterday.

I don't know how I managed to spend the day in Pudong with friends and not take one picture. It's mostly because we were too busy eating. We had fantastic dim sum for lunch and stayed in Pudong long enough for dinner. Quyen and Loc have been in Shanghai for 1.5 years and they are practically fluent in Chinese, and so are their kids. As a result, we were able to eat at places that I would have never tried because I wouldn't be able to order anything.

It was a beautiful, warm day in Shanghai today so Sydney and I went over to Chung's house to play with her daughters, Keira and Riley. Sydney was able to work off all of the food she ate on Saturday by riding a bike (actually, she only scooted on it using her legs), kicking balls and playing tag with me and her friend, Riley. Colleen and her kids, Riley (aka Big Riley) and Nicola (Sydney's classmate), came over to Chung's house later and we finished the evening off with pizzas.

Now that it has warmed up a bit here, I look forward to more weekends of playing outside with friends.

Keira (with the racket), Chung and Riley