China in all its glory

Always better late than never!

My first impression of China was... it's any big city. But spending the weekend there was really quite amazing. The entire city has basically been torn down and rebuilt in the past 20 years. The women are tiny and of high fashion. The weather was beautiful (about 67 and sunny with blue skies for the weekend... really quite unheard of in a city where many people where a mask to combat smog). It was really just a unique experience.

First, I had lunch with three HR teammates. Below in Nina Ju, marking the menu. I thought this an interesting way to order!

Jenny Wu checking her phone, and the pictures of the menu. The menus were many, many pages long, and all with pictures. Found that interesting as well! Also, did you know that Chinese people just randomly pick their English name at various points in their life? Nina has a 3.5 year old daughter and I asked what her name is. She asked Chinese or English name, and I said both. She laughed and said she doesn't have an English name yet. Apparently they pick that in school, or in college, or in their first job. There are websites out there that advise on the best way to pick the name so Americans don't laugh at you... the best advice was go to the SSA website, choose the year you were born, and pick from #11-99 of the most popular names from that year. That way you won't choose a name too old, too young, too popular or too crazy. Huh. Who'd a thought?

We didn't order "This help rice cake Fried crabs."

But we did order chicken feet! I'm pretty adventurous, but when I saw them spitting out the bones, I just couldn't bring myself to try it. Funny is seeing these dainty Chinese women spitting out chicken feet bones.

Some random buildings. I think they have the most unique landscape and architecture.

I went with my HR boss to Nanjing Rd. It was really quite amazing. He lived in Shanghai for 3.5 years, so was an amazing tour guide. Nanjing Rd. felt like a combination of Times Square and Navy Pier. There is no traffic allowed, so just a really cool place to walk and explore.

He would point things out I never would've picked up on. Example below is Shanghai No. 1 Department Store... when communism prevented anything differently.

Hello!

And then we made our way to Shin Tan Di. Except you don't at all spell it like that. It's made to feel like "old" China, except it has global restaurants. Really anything except Chinese. And is filled with ex-pats... and their Chinese girlfriends.

Happy New Year! Year of the ram, sheep, goat, whatever the animal is!

This one is for Dave... Devil's Share Whiskey and More.

Awww. From our hotel.

There was a birthday cake at the office. A guy in IT made it. Fancy!

The HR team...

Lunch with the HR team. Fish skin. I tried it. I only tried one.

Fancy!

The HR team enjoying lunch... and a lot a lot of food.

Hello Kohler! Kohler is huge in China. The brand, not just the building.

Amy and I SHOPPED at the fake market. We had so much fun negotiating and walking away and coming back and getting it cheaper. I have no idea if we got good deals or not, but if felt like it... so I guess it was! There were floors upon floors of purses, luggage, shoes, scarves, watches, sunglasses, electronics. You name it. All a fake knock off.

More landscape.

We also went to Yu Garden which, if you read on the website, is a mecca of beautiful gardens with a tea house in the middle. It's actually a shopping mecca, with a tea house in the middle.

There was of course a McDonalds, but with very different food. The pie... Red Bean Pie. Um, yuck!

But the Diet Coke was good!

Sheep on the roof!

Look at the blue sky! That doesn't happen very often because it's so smoggy there.

It was 65 degrees there. Look at how bundled that baby is!! She must've been dying of heat. Crazy there too though was all of the advertisements had pictures of western babies. But the China kids are ADORABLE. I don't understand!

The tea house. It was so cute.

The food that came with the tea. It was a little strange.

First up, sparrow eggs. They were hard boiled.

Chinese Tea Food. Of course!

Yum! Eggs! or... not so much.

And this was like a candied fruit of some sort. But all their candied fruit still has pits in it, like their maraschino cherries. Funny to bite into one with a pit!

Pineapple building.

It was clearly Chinese New Year. Not sure what these stores looked like without all this decoration!

Street food...

Purple Lambourghini...

This note... it just cracked me up. I made it bigger so you can read it yourself. I'm glad it wasn't mine... Amy promptly ordered new underwear. :)

An example of what the jerky looks like in the store. Literally, the section is called jerky. Looks... interesting.

China was a good experience. I would love to go back and explore, particularly the Great Wall. I did enjoy most of the food (with no head, and no feet), and the people were great. I'm glad I can say I went, and I'm sure I'll go again someday... but for now I'm happy to be home!

Angry

I just found out that the fourth grade daughter of a family we know in Jackson was diagnosed with leukemia this weekend. Her twin sister was diagnosed two years ago, and getting close to the end of treatment. Now they start over with lumbar punctures and chemo treatments, made all the worse because they know how awful it will be, and will have two girls in two phases of treatment. No one ever has wished to get more out of their treatments at Children's. And they have another daughter in sixth grade who must just be completely beside herself. They got the second daughter checked out because she had leg pain. It's been four years since Abby complained of leg pain and ultimately cancer was ruled out and bone infection was diagnosed. I'm altogether grateful that's what it was. And altogether angry for them that it's not. 

Lessons learned

1. Turbulent flights on small aircraft, followed by a spicy Indian meal, followed by a ride in the backseat of a taxi through the busy, bumpy, windy roads of Pune, India, do not do good things for my tummy.

2. Indian food is spicier coming up than going down. And going down is spicy. 

Sick

She had croup and was up much of the night before, so I stayed home with her. She was hopping around for awhile, but ultimately crashed. I refused to move... it may be the last time she sleeps on me. My baby girl.

Crazy volleyball girls

Volleyball season has started once again, and so far so good. We've played in two tournaments and won them both! The team is very talented and so much fun. They play a tournament in Wisconsin Dells February 14-15, and I'm so disappointed I can't be there. I'll be in China/India, so that commute would be a little tough. 

But to kick off the season, I had the team over before Christmas. They decorated gingerbread houses, and even let Nolan join in.  

But mostly? They hung out in the basement. They split up into two teams of 5 and put on horror shows. They were really quite disturbing, and there was a lot of screaming coming from down in the depths. Followed of course by high-pitched young teenage girl giggling. It was so funny to listen to... and so easy! No one needed me at all. Such a far cry from what play dates used to look like!

And one of the best things of this group? So little drama! They really like each other and get along. You just can't make that happen, so it's certainly a blessing. It makes the season so much better!