Fantastic end of the year concert… and culmination of the alto sax. Love that Shanghai American School opens the doors for their students to try new things. While the dancing was a big hit for Jordan, sadly and thankfully the saxaphone was not…
Shopping was abundant in China… Not your typical walk into Target knowing what you want and walking out of there five minutes later. Shopping in China meant you go in with an “idea” and you come out with something close. None the less, shopping in the underground market was one of our favorite weekend past times. Where everything is cheap… in every way… and shopping provides you with a hard lesson in negotiating.
A few afternoons Chris and I ventured out to find some keep sakes for our house in the states. You have to do a little digging on Antique street, but I am pretty convinced we found the heaviest possible pieces we could find… a PAIR of cement elephants! …and we couldn’t leave China without THE General (our Xian warrior) — We drove home proudly with our purchases and the back end of the van dragging.
I always loved shopping on this street because the children were always out running around.
The stories they could tell…
Driving in China… well this is a blog entry in itself. We had a lot of friends that worked for GM there that did dare to endure the ridiculous written drivers test. Challenging every bit of your common sense when answering each question. When helping my good friend study for her written test, I remember going over one particular question…
If your car becomes submerged in a river do you…
A. Roll down the window
B. Hold your breath after calling for help
C. Put a bag over your head
The correct answer was C
There was also a question about hitting a farm animal… and whether or not you first priority was to resuscitate it…
Having said that… there wasn’t a time we got in the car and didn’t close our eyes to many close calls. Right hand turn HAS the right away, even if the oncoming traffic is driving 100 mph in your lane. So we were surprised that we had made it through three years of living in China and having the same driver without even one fender bender… until our last week. The funny part about fender benders in China, is that the cars stop exactly where they are… no pulling off to the side to let traffic move on… This draws considerable attention. Other cars will pull over, scooters stop to watch and they all stand around either arguing loudly or just putting in their two cents. This is a huge social event. Our driver, Mr Zhu NEVER got mad. So arguing was unlikely. I often wondered if he was friends with absolutely everyone in JinQiao. He would talk to everyone as if he had just had them over for dinner. I will miss this man..
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