It's Halloween

It's not a normal holiday here but the Chinese have jumped on the commercial bandwagon and turned it into a marketing opportunity so you see plenty of decorations and Halloween paraphernalia about.  The foreign community, especially Americans have their own parties and gatherings and provide ample motivations to dress up and celebrate the holiday.  Doug's cell group from church arranged a party on Saturday and they found another one to attend on Sunday afternoon with way-too-much candy, face painting,  and trick or treating fun.

Meet Sophia the First.

The beautiful princess and the scary pirate 

Now, is THAT is a scarry pirate?

After the face painting .  

Pumpkin into Jack o lantern

Carving the Halloween pumpkin with Lia has suddenly become a tradition.  We were here last year for it also, so two years sounds like a family tradition to me. Anyway it was serious business. Lia put a lot of thought into it and even made up directions on how to proceed. . .which we were careful to follow precisely .  First we had to find a pumpkin which is not easy in China.  They are not the bright orange ones like the US but these are darker in color, very thick and heavy, grown for cooking.  But we were able to find one at one of the on-line shopping sites that are so popular here and was delivered the next day.

We carved out the top and I cleaned out the seeds, ready for the serious stuff.  Lia marked and Will cut. They were a team.  They almost forgot a nose but we're able to come back and add one.

Wet Shanghai

October is suppose to be one of the driest months in China but not this year.  We have had so much rain. I was out in the weather today on my way to a class to learn how do do Chinese knotting. Here is an under the umbrella look at the downpour. There was no wind and temps are still warm so my umbrella kept me dry enough but knees on down was soaking when I got to my destination.

I managed to make a couple of knots but found it really challenging. Only could complete with teachers help.  We were all struggling with her directions.  over, under, left, right. . wow, gotta practice this one.  Think I will look for YouTube video diections.

Arts and Crafts Research Center

So much art in China on the street or galleries is Modern art or Contemporary in nature.  That's probably true in cities  everywhere but for some reason I find it most prevalent here. There is plenty of patriotic, tribute type statuary in parks but there is some really proactive and progressive stuff out there too. That's probably a whole cultural discussion. . .
  But today Will and I visited a place dedicated to preserving some traditional arts and crafts that are notable to Shanghai and this surrounding region.

The tiniest needles and the finest, smallest silk threads ever to make the elaborate silk costume designs. You can't imagine how small each stitch is. Talk about labor intensive work!

This guy demonstrated paper cutting, all free hand, tiny cuts, all one piece with this seemingly really large sissors.  We were mezmorized and obviously I bought the piece he made for me. It was a horse.

Perfect Yixing pots that were very pricy. I have purchased pots like these over the years but none as fine (or as expensive) as these.

Ivory carving

And then lunch.  How to eat the perfect dumpling. . .first you bite a dainty little hole in side and discreetly suck the "juice" out.  Then dip it ever so lightly into dark vinigar and pop it into your mouth.  These are called Xioulongbao dumplings. Shanghai style. This one happens to be pork, which is our favorite. Btw, each one is made with exactly 18 little pleats to close it up

Here is the Yixing pot. The square one is priced at ovER $2000 because of the famous artist and craftsmanship.

Shopping for foreign products.

The housekeeper  of course does all the shopping and keeps everything well supplied but there are a few things that we have to seek out if we get a taste for familiar foods.  After our language class this morning (which by the way is going painfully slow) we took our favorite bus, (757) to Carrefour with list in hand.  Carrefour stores are a French chain that does well here.  Like a Walmart, except better and has lots of imported products that we recognise. 

Farmland, Tyson, Birds Eye, Smithland just to name a few. Will is kind of fussy about his bacon so we have to stock up on US style bacon. Lia has a taste for corn so since fresh is no longer in the markets, we bought some frozen. Was clearly marked as American sweet corn kernels.  Wonder if it really is better than local.

Speaking of a taste of home, we went to a Mexican restaurant over the weekend and we enjoyed a Mexican pizza for a starter. The fish tacos were just as good as any Baja style.

And then back to local.  Did Hot Pot one day for lunch. Burner on table, they bring a pot with water and spices to boil. This pot happened to be divided so one side was spicy and other side "bu la de," (no spice.) You drop your meats and veggies in to cook and then scoop them out and eat with choice of sauces. One can eat a lot of food before you realize how full you really are.

Evening and morning

Bright lights of buildings near us.

Rainy morning in the neighborhood.

Raininy morning from kitchen window

Pouring rain out the window of my pottery studio/workshop

Longhua Temple

Glitzy, modern Shanghai has its ancient side too. This is Longhua  Temple, the oldest Buddhist temple in the city.

The pagoda dates back to 977, with continuous renovation of it most fragile wooden components on the exterior.

The 500 arhats.  

Lia's day

Lia's bus is big. Several buses come into the complex each morning from various schools but Lia's school has the most kids so biggest bus.

Grandpa's helping with her homework.

Giggling before breakfast

We had to have some visa pictures taken for our upcoming trip to Vietnam so Lia had a pic taken too. Pretty sweet picture. 

Practicing piano at home. Violin is taught at her school. It's actually manditory, everyone learns it. Her school is sort of famous for that. Haven't heard the students yet, am sure primary is pretty basic.

Walking tour

I bought a book of walking tours of interesting neighborhoods in Shanghai and today we did Chapter 2.  We took the Metro to Xuhui District and followed the map as we strolled along Wukang Road for a fun and interesting self guided tour. This is where the rich and famous lived at the height of Shanghai's Concessionary days when foreigners carved the city into districts to benefit themselves. They may have done thier wheeling and dealing on the Bund but they lived in grand houses in this once rural setting. Many of these houses and villas are still standing in various degrees of renovation among the present day apt buildings, shops, homes, restaurants of the area. The area streets are lined with Sycamore trees which give it a pastoral feel in the middle of the city.

Will is leading the way with guide book in hand.

This house has the remnants of a stone well beside the front door.

The former residence of Soong Ching Ling, the wife of SunYet Sen, the "Father of China."  She lived here until she died in the 80's.  I need to read more about this woman and the whole Soong family. Peaked my interest.

Came across this little shop with a line out the door and down the street selling the most amazing ice cream. My salted caramel and Will's chocolate were absolutely worth the wait.

Past some street merchants, one cart selling dried fruits and the other selling an odd assortment of dishes.  Lovely thing to do on a pleasant Saturday afternoon.

Video

I am trying to upload a hilarious video of "Lia teaching Grandpa Chinese."  I hope it worked.  She is so serious about correcting his pronounciation. She is learning at school and doing an amazing job. Those little ones just absorb language like a sponge anyway, but her tones and pronunciation is really good--so Doug says. She has Chinese homework every night and English homework twice a week. Next week math homework begins.  Homework in Kindergarden!! Just reinforcing good work habits I think.
   She talks to the housekeeper (Aiyi) in Chinese and actually has translated for us to her. Will and I are going to Chinese class twice a week but we are struggling with simple phrases.
  Lia all ready to head out the door to catch the bus.  Still takes her scooter to the bus stop.