Busy September (Augh- I'm getting behind!!)

Slacker, slacker. I was so determined to keep up better with the blog when we got back from summer. Oh well. So, here I'm going to smush all of September into one blog.
Well, now looking at all the stuff to write about, I may do it in 2...we'll see.

Anywho, the kids are all happy and settled back into routines and Ben at work and me and my tai-tai life. :) After struggling A LOT before the summer with not working, or cleaning my house, or having my kids around, I wanted to make my life much busier this year. After all, there are only so many times one can go to coffee before you just start twitching from the caffeine intake. :)

I have found an amazing Bible Study for this year- a group of mostly western women in this one that I can relate to and pour my heart out to. In this group I can be me, whether that's inspired, grumpy, happy, broken or whatever else. With this group I can say that I'm struggling with God about some things and still feel accepted and loved. I didn't have that last year and it's what I had missed the most out of my amazing Coffee Break group at home. God provides, my friends, sometimes when you least expect it.

I've also volunteered to be class mum (yes "mUm", not "mOm"- hey, they're Brits...) for Sophia's class this year. This is turning out to be very interesting. So much drama already. :) It's fun, though, and I like to be as involved with her and the school as I can, while I can.

I've also started training for a triathlon that I will participate in next summer when back in Michigan. I'm lacking my spectacular training partner from my half marathon, but I do have a friend that's swimming with me and then the running and biking I muddle through with Lady Gaga, Adelle and Muse. :)

So, I'm keeping busy this fall and feeling much more settled. I think it helps knowing that we are going to be heading home next summer and have many visitors from the States between now and then. Well, actually, now that I type that, that's not the total truth. I really do feel settled here and am happy for the moment being here. Not that I want to stay longer (that's for Ben if he reads this... :).

Ok, on to a few things that we've been up to. So much to see, limited time and all...
There was a Saturday early in September that we decided to head out to downtown and explore a bit. Always a bit scary with not knowing how the various cab rides and subways and locals will go with the kids, but, I'm trying to be a bit more adventerous so, off we went.

We started off with a shuttle bus ride to a Starbucks downtown (priorities, people). This lovely fountain was right outside and Soph liked the statue. Coop just wanted to go for a swim, though, so we had to move on. :)

We hopped into a cab that took us to the Nanjing Pedestrian Street. This was a place that Ben had heard was interesting so we thought we'd start there.
Here's the massive billboard with the gorgeous model...

And this beauty is the walking street (enter "wha wha wha wha whaaaaa" here). There were these neat little trolley things that brought people from one end to the other, but beside that, it was a bit of a dud. We thought it was going to be full of Western stores but they were pretty much all Chinese. I think we were supposed to go there at night when it's all lit up and then we would have been "wow"ed. :)

At the end we went inside this mall-looking thing to plan the next stop. Soph found a venue to perform so while we talked, she danced.

Cooper was beyond mesmerized by the fact that the building was open all the way to the 10th floor.

We then found a Metro (subway) and headed to People's Park, which is a part of the famous People's Square. It's a big park in the middle of the city and we found it pretty interesting.
There were these HUGE lilypad-looking plants in the water. I bet a cat could have stood on one and it wouldn't have sunk. What I should have followed this picture with is a picture of the crowd that quickly was gathering to also get Soph's picture here. We're just so fascinating, you see (riiiight).

At this same pond was a man fishing for lunch. The scene just looked so "China".

This part of People's Park was really fascinating. There were rows and rows and ROWS of people with pieces of paper or billboards or signs. On each was a face and, as far as we could tell, information about them- age, height, etc. We weren't sure if these were missing people or people they were selling or what. They were all younger- maybe in their 20's or 30's.
Come to find out (we asked our language teachers) this is a common dating scene here. The parents go there, post info about their kid and also go looking for a suitable person for their child. They can then meet the other's parents and set up a meeting for their children. And there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of people posted. So odd.

We ended our little adventure with a trip to Pizza Hut. Here, Pizza Hut is a fancy sit down restaurant that has really nice proper food, and pizza, of course.  I can only imagine if a Chinese person walked into a Pizza Hut back home. They'd be so disappointed!! :)

On September 16 several friends and I decided to go out for tea and throw Liz a bit of a baby shower. They apparently don't do baby showers in England (really, they don't do much with pregnancy in general there), so we wanted to give her a few gifts to show her we're excited for this little one to come!
We went to The Peace Hotel downtown by the Bund (right in the heart of downtown on the river). It was quite the "tea" really. I totally should not have had lunch beforehand!

Here we are entering the hotel. Liz is on the right. 9 months pregnant and you can't even tell from behind!

A bit of the savories we enjoyed- samosas, spring rolls, quiches, egg tarts, sausage rolls and more.

Since it is "tea" we all got tea. This fancy man walked around to every table and refilled anyone's hot water. He'd do this little dance whipping that pot around and then would end with pouring it into each person's teapot, never spilling a drop. Hilarious!

Oh yes, and he'd end by standing in this ridiculous stance every time. If I had to do that my thighs would be burning... :)

Laura, Edmee and Leslie enjoying the goods...

Part of my gift to Liz, from Sally and I. These are split pants. Worn by every Chinese child from a very young age until they are potty-trained. The idea is no diapers+split pants= when you gotta go you can just squat and go. Yup. And they do. Everywhere and anywhere (like the grocery aisle). Please know these were a gag gift and we do not intend for her to actually use them. :)

Other baby bits- clothes and blankets and bath things and toys.

Then it was on to the sweets. Oh, the sweets. Chocolates and madelines and brownies and tarts, oh my. I was waddling out.

Our fantastic crew- Leslie, me, Edmee, Liz, Sally and Laura.

A few days later Ben took a day off work and we explored another part of the city together. This was actually fun, even though where we went wasn't that great. Because it was just the 2 of us, we were able to take more time with things and relax.
So we went to this place called the Cool Docks. It's downtown, on the south Bund. It's catered towards westerners but I feel like they kinda missed the mark. It was probably cool to see at night all lit up and full of people as well.

This was the center of the restaurant part of the Cool Docks. There was a large square of various kinds of eateries with this big pond in the middle.

Unfortunately, the coolest looking building in the square turned out to be this Chinese Restaurant. Good thing the coolest looking girl got a pic of it. :)

After walking around a bit we found this fake beach. Someone had brought in a bunch of sand, set up this little area on the dirty, nasty Huang Pu River, and decided to charge people to come sunbath here. So disturbing. So fake. So China. :)

We did come across a few old alleys throughout the Cool Docks area. These were obviously redone to look newer and hip, but they still had the feel of an older time.

There were these random statues set up around the area that we had a bit of fun with. :)

We ended the afternoon by buying some wine from a store owned by the boyfriend of Cooper's teacher. Good prices and good wine. Overall a great day.

Ok, I'm calling this one for now. I have more to write but will leave it for another day.
Thanks for keeping up with us. I'll post some more tomorrow.
God's peace, love and blessings to you all!!