The Bizarre

So now for an account of "the bizarre." Over the next few days, we explored around Shanghai, ate some great food, and had taco salad three or four times for dinner (at dad's request).

Oddity number one: Chinglish. I'm sure if we had Chinese signs hanging around the translations would be just as bad, right?

I had no idea burning cultural relies was such a problem in China.

Anyone know what Fits are?

Name of a bakery.

Oddity number two: Laundry on the street. Due to lack of dryers and living space (I'm guessing), most housewives hang their laundry outside. If they are above the ground floor of an apartment building, they have the luxury of hanging their unmentionables above eye level. However, there are those unfortunate several who find it a necessity to hang them closer to the ground. As seen here.

Yes, that is an apron hanging from a street sign and the handlebar of a motorcycle. Luckily they have their pet bunny to stand guard.

Number three: Crazy Carts. In order to maximize efficiency, the Chinese have mastered piling three to four carts' worth of stuff onto one! More often than not they remain safely fastened to the carts, but sometimes, as we saw on the freeway when someone had lost three or four mattresses from out of the back of their open vehicle, it all comes tumbling off.

Yes, that is a teeny, tiny little cart under all of those chairs.

Ingenuity at its finest. 



Escape number three?

So yes, that was a rather underwhelming blogfest.

A month ago, I got back from another trip to visit my family (yes, once again without Kenny--I am a horrible wife) that took me to China! (although in my defense, when I told Kenny about the option to visit my parents, he snobbishly replied, "yeah, sure, go ahead. I've already been to China.") Although we remained mostly in Shanghai, we walked around enough to have Colton asking "do you even really like sightseeing?!" by the end of the week.

After arriving on Saturday night and an appropriately uneventful Sunday (although the visit to the Shanghai branch was intriguing), we set out to explore one of the most modern places in China.

Our first stop was the Shanghai Bowuguan (museum) filled with plenty of cultural relics and surprisingly free! Since most of the other visitors in the museum were taking copious amounts of pictures, we decided to follow suit. Here is a small sampling.

The pictures are refusing to go where I want them to, so just enjoy the spontaneity.

  

The jade(example above) was probably my favorite. Although there was a surprising lack of green jade.

 

I thought this exhibit was also interesting, although for different reasons. For China's take on the "Tibet situation", see here.

 

 

 

By the end of the museum, as so often happens with priceless cultural artifacts, we were so artifacted out that we were setting time limits for each floor. Our record was the last floor, which we completed in a swift fifteen minutes. We were not the only ones in need of a break, however, as we saw plenty of people enjoying naptime.

 

 

 

Our break came a little later out on the street, when my dad managed to find a booth demonstrating head massagers.

 

 

 

 

 

Our final activity for the day was a long hunt for a giant jade buddha at a temple in the middle of the city. The buddha was okay--after a while, all of the temples in Asia start to look the same--but we did enjoy trying to win ourselves some luck by throwing coins in the top of an incense tower. I know this is a horrible picture of myself, but mom caught me in the air!

 

Yes, my left hand looks like it's been crushed and my face isn't much better, but check out my levitation! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My coins had pretty good aim, but I couldn't quite master the force. At one point my coin went straight through the opening at the top and flew into the shrine on the other side. Never to be recovered.

 

  

Colton was a bit better at it than I was.

 

Stay tuned for more from China: The Bizzare, and Paparazzi galore: Colton's Claim to Fame.

Windy-cue!

I'm still getting the hang of this blogging business, and seem to have a habit of accruing a long list of events to blog about before feeling the need to actually sit down and hash them all out. So be prepared for a blog-bombardment over the next few days. (also, Kenny has yet to make his blog-debut, but has a very fun story to tell when he finally does)

Our Windy-cue, as Kenny named it, was our attempt at a Labor day celebration (yes, that was almost two months ago), and was not for the faint of heart. We had planned on gathering down by the lake with our neighbors and friends a few days beforehand and I am not sure if anyone ever bothered to check the weather. So on the day of, come hail or high water, we were going to have our labor day barbecue!

This particular spot by the lake is known as "The Point", and is very picturesque, has a little area for swimming, and is normally extremely crowded on warm summer days and any day specifically set apart as a day of barbecuing. Suffice it to say, we were the only ones out there besides some hard-core runners bundled up for a Chicago winter.

Regardless, we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

(Ryder was trying to smile, but it was blown into a grimace--check out all that snot!)

We all huddled together for warmth, tried to keep the coals from blowing out of the grills when we took the lids off, and fought over spots behind this tree, which provided the only shelter from the wind blowing off of the lake.

Oddly enough, the only one who didn't seem bothered by the wind was baby Elliott.

Then again, I don't think anything ever bothers Elliott.

And yes, Kenny has short sleeves on (after gallantly giving up his coat to me).

"Windy city" indeed.