Summer 2010

Well, summer is officially winding to a close as we start our new school year. Our summer plans ended up changing unexpectedly and quickly at the beginning of June, when Rebecca, Kayla and McKenna returned to the US to allow us to address McKenna's recurrent UTI's. The doctors we were working with here in Shanghai were all great, but we were getting some inconsistent lab results and decided any further testing and diagnosis would be much easier in the US. So, Rebecca took a leave of absence and the girls returned to Michigan and bounced between Grammy Pammy and Papa's house and Ms. Teresa and Mr. Dan's house (Thank you again!!!!) We are so blessed to have such loving and supportive friends and family. For those of you that were following our McKenna saga on Facebook, please know that she is doing fine and that we are using antibiotics to temporarily control the infections. The hope is that in the next year she may outgrow, or at least partially grow out of the condition. We hope to be able to postpone any further actions until next summer or until we move back to the US at the end of our assignment.

Anyway, after reducing the trip planning time from 6 weeks (originally we weren't supposed to travel until mid July) to 6 days; getting everything ready for our 8 week summer break was a whirlwind of jewelry shopping, work, packing, and saying goodbye to friends who were leaving Shanghai this year. And then suddenly, we were in Michigan. The girls did fantastic on the flight, and we made it through the airports and customs with no issues. Grammy Pammy picked us up at the airport, and 3 hours later we were in Kohls (no joke - 3 hours..., you can't pass up a good sale :) )

Over the next 5 weeks, we spent countless hours in doctor's offices, waiting rooms, hospital labs, administrative lines, on hold waiting for the appointment desks, etc. But we also got to to see Lizzie and Jared get married (beautiful); ride horses (thanks Sarah!); go speedboating, tubing and jet skiing (thanks Gavin family!); ride on Papa's sailboat and go camping in the motor home; go up to the farm to spend time with Grandpa Wayne and Grandma Betty; attend Monica's baby shower (Monica looked great and the baby is beautiful!!!); visit all of our friends in Brighton including school friends we hadn't seen in 18 months; have a great BBQ with the McLean clan (thanks Tracey for hosting); and just really enjoy extra time with the people we love. While unplanned, it ended up being a great time.

The downfall of all of this, for all of us, was that Jeff had to stay in Shanghai alone for this time and continue working. We have learned that we really do not like being apart. The girls missed Daddy terribly and Jeff was frustrated by the distance and time between us. Mid-July he finally took the flight we were all originally scheduled to come in on, and joined us in Michigan. We joined the rest of the Scramlin clan in Hillman, and attended Erin and Jared's wedding (another beautiful day!); and then headed to Nebraska to visit with the Lundys and attend Jeff's 20th high school reunion.

We had a great time in Nebraska, and after weeks of running around like over-scheduled crazy people, it was wonderful to soak up quiet time in Alliance. The girls enjoyed swimming in the city pool, playing with Grandma and Grandpa's dog, Missy, and the fact that Grandma and Grandpa's morning coffee at Dairy Queen guaranteed that they got to eat ice cream every morning at 10:00! Jeff and Rebecca had a great time at all the reunion activities and Jeff thoroughly enjoyed not only catching up on what everyone was doing, but watching their reaction when he said that he was now living in China!

While we were in Nebraska, Jeff's brother Brian and his family joined us from Norfolk, NE and his brother-in-law Earl and niece Tara surprised everyone and drove out from Forrest, VA. The mini-family reunion was fabulous - it had been 6 years since we had seen Tara! We packed in two big barbecues, some games of pool at the Eagles club, and the guys played golf. We also got to spend some time with the families of two good friends - John Hall and Janice McCall Kresin. The three families met up at Fort Robinson State Park for jeep rides, stage coach rides, mammoths, pony rides, buffalo tacos, old fashioned pictures, and horseshoes. Fun was had by all!

The last week in Michigan flew by, and then, suddenly, we were back in China again! The weather here is HOT. Really, really, really hot. We are thankful for our air conditioning and the Vizcaya pool. We are enjoying seeing our friends and neighbors and meeting new neighbors. There has been a big influx of Ford families this year - 14 Ford ISP families, primarily from the Detroit area just arrive in the last few weeks. After a week of summer camp, school started this week for the girls. We can't believe how big they are getting! McKenna started Year 1 (kindergarten) and Kayla is now in Year 5 (4th grade). They are old pros at the morning routine and the bus now, of course, and the first day went off without a hitch. We are sad to see summer end, but the school year promises to be a fun and exciting one, and after our great summer break, we are look forward to the year ahead.

Easter Break - March 2010

China does not celebrate Easter, but this year Easter weekend coincided with Qing Ming (Pronounced "Ching Ming" - Chinese Tomb Sweeping Holiday which is similar to our Memorial Day in the US). We took this opportunity to travel to Xi'an (pronounced "She-on") and visit the famed Terra Cotta Warriors housed there.

A local farmer dug up pottery fragments digging a well in 1974 and ultimately around 8000 life sized pottery warriors and horses, are believed to have been buried as part of a Chinese Emperor's mausoleum over 2,200 years ago. Probably around 2500 warriors, horses, and chariots have been painstakingly restored over the last 36 years. Only a small portion of the total site has been uncovered, and much of the remaining site will remain buried until technology advances are found to allow better preservation of the paint on the soldiers as they are removed. Most of the extremely bright colors flake off during the excavation. We took about 4 hours to tour the site and museum with a tour guide. The whole thing was quite unbelievable. At the end of our day we met the local farmer who originally found the site and who now works at the museum. Kayla was excited when he signed her Xi'an picture book just as we were getting ready to leave.

Xi'an itself is an ancient city and we spent one afternoon riding atop the city wall on tandem bicycles. The weather was good and the kids were excited to "pedal" with us. McKenna couldn't really reach the pedals so she mainly just went along for a ride. Kayla was able to help though. The city wall completely circles the city and is around 8 miles long. We did it in about 1.5 hours then found some ice cream.

Other activities we enjoyed included watching kite flying in the park, visiting an ancient pagoda, and walking through a Muslim mosque and outdoor meat market. We saw our share of Cow liver & hearts heaped up on tables for sale. Needless to say, we opted for a Japanese restaurant that night. I'll take sushi over goat intestines any day.

A Great shot of the girls

Air pollution index raised from "Marlboro lights" to "Silk Cut"

We recently read a website (webzilla.com) that equated the pollution index to the brand of a pack of cigarettes smoked during a 10-minute walk in downtown Shanghai. In other words a ten minute walk in downtown Shanghai currently has the same effect as smoking a pack of "Silk Cut" cigarettes and is approaching the levels of "Benson & Hedges". You don't have to be a smoker to understand that no matter the brand, the smog here is bad.

Most mornings the smog hangs low over Shanghai as a result of the use of low grade coal as the primary fuel for cooking, heating, and running the factories. Close to 70% of China's electrical power is generated from coal, and most of it appears to be blowing right into the cities that they support. Much of the pollution consists of particulate matter, including concrete dust from the massive number of construction projects, ash, etc. For reference, particulate matter usually ranges from around 60 to 200 (Dec. 26th it was 175). For comparison, US cities usually range from 10-30. So Shanghai has around 10-15 times more particulates than a typical US city. In addition Sulfer Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide are also significantly worse, due primarily to the extensive use of coal fired power plants.

The most noticeable effect of the pollution is the thick brownish haze that coats the city. There are some clear days when the wind blows the smog out, but in the year that we have been here I can count the number of clear days on two hands. Additionally, we never see the deep blue sky that we are used to in the US. In fact, that was the first thing we noticed while on vacation in the US this summer was the blue sky.

Another effect that we notice often is that anything which sits outside overnight is coated with a fine layer of dust (like charcoal). You cannot walk in bare feet outside, because even a few steps will have the bottom of your foot blackened from the soot. As a result of this, we have become very regiment about removing our shoes before walking through the house. The car windows must be cleaned every morning as well to keep them clear.

It took some adjustment to get used to the levels of pollution. For Jeff, he no longer wears his contacts and wears only glasses now as the air is causing too much irritation in his eyes. Additionally, he discovered that the smog exaggerated his seasonal allergies and needed Claritin to fight back. For a while he suggested that he was allergic to China, but it really only turned out to be the smog.

The 20 million people who now live in Shanghai are also contributing. I recently learned that the number of people who use their own personal vehicle to commute to and from work is around 15%. This number is growing rapidly as the people are buying more vehicles at a incredible pace. GM sales were up an unbelievable 60% this year! This year will mark the first time in which China will sell more vehicles than the US, somewhere around 13 million vehicles.

All of these factors combine to contribute to the poor air quality. Hopefully, we will see improvements during our time here, but I would be very surprised due to the rate of growth. For now, we will take every vacation and holiday opportunity to get away from the city to get some fresh air.

Daily Life In Shanghai

Attached in our blog are some great photos from the typical Chinese Tourist hot spots as we have begun to explore inside and outside of Shanghai. After re-reading some of these it kind of gives me the impression that we are all on an extended vacation here. Some of the next blogs we will write will get into our typical daily experiences. Some are quite surprising.

Grocery Shopping: A couple of blocks from our house (walking distance) is a French shopping store called Carrefour. This all purpose store is a lot like a Super Kmart. It has clothes, appliances, food, and all other sorts of things. The first floor is like a mall with flower stores, shoe stores, a Pizza Hut, and Subway. Take an escalator to the second floor and you enter the grociery store. One of the things that is most evident when entering, besides everything written in Chinese, are the crowds, especially in the evenings. Lines can quite long.

A quick note on lines: In the US, people tend to be quite orderly in lines. Line up and take turns. In China, not sure if it is because of the sheer number of people or what, but if you wait in line, you may find yourself waiting forever. Pushing is not uncommon, and I seen my share of Grandmas who have moved in front of me in line because I didn't move fast enough. I am becoming more aware of these sneaky ones and I am no longer afraid to box out Grandma if she gets to assertive.

The scariest thing in the store is the meat department. The butcher area has pork, chicken, beef, snake, turtle, frogs, and other 4 legged creatures no doubt. Plucked chickens are stacked in coolers, and the beef are sliced up in front of you with raw meat unpackaged in the the coolers. People pick through the meat like produce. It's not clean, and it smells. We don't get our meat in this store as a result. Instead we buy imported meat, typically from New Zealand or Austrailia at specialty meat stores. The picture here shows live turtles and frogs which are considered a delicacy.

We do shop at Carrefour for most staples like, bread, juices, milk, eggs, etc. They also have a nice import goods section where we can get cereal (about $10 per box), Chips and salsa, & pickles. Availability of import food is not guaranteed, so foreigners tend to stock up when they see things that they like, because it may be a while before it comes around again. For instance, this week, we could not get tortilla chips (grrrrr!). The imported food is expensive, but trust me, it is worth every penny.

Another interesting note is that no one store has all the food we want. Not like the supermarkets in the US, where you get everything in one place. Here you begin to learn that there are 3 or 4 shops that you need shop at to get everything you need. Part of it is the fact that we are more particular about what we eat and the other part is availability.

One recent frustration that I had at Carrafour was that I went in with Kayla to purchase an electric scooter. As usual the place was packed and many people were buying scooters. I found the one I wanted and after about 1/2 hour of trying the clerk took pity on me and found someone who spoke english to tell me that the one I wanted was already sold to someone else. No big deal, I just picked another one. I knew that I needed to take the tag off the bike and pay for it then return for the bike, however, after I waited in line at the checkout for another 20 minutes, only to find out that I was in the wrong line, I finally gave up. Kayla cried the whole way home. The next day, Rebecca tried, and found out that you had to pay at the cosmetics counter. Not very intiutive.

Back Online - July 7, 2009

Ok, so it has been since April that the Blogspot website has been blocked within China. There appear to be other ways to access it though :).



The end of May Rebecca and I took a day off of work and flew with the kids to Beijing for a long weekend - The Dragon Boat festival holiday. We had great weather up there with the exception of the first day which was our day on the Great Wall. There was light rain, but virtually no crowds so the rain was bearable. We saw all of the typical sights in Beijing and will post photos or links to them soon. Both of the kids continue to attract a rediculous amount of attention when we are traveling together or just walking together downtown. It reminds me of the papparizzi at times.



The kids finished the school year about 2 weeks ago. They both did fantastic considering the circumstances. We were concerned with school placement especially Kayla, because the school operates on a British School system which would not typically allow her to be in Year 3 (2nd grade equivalent) even though she was 2nd grade in Michigan. It was tough on her for the first month. The school system here was about 1/2 year ahead of Michigan plus the new language. By the end of the year, she caught up to the class in Chinese Proficiency and will advance to the next class this fall.



For me work at PATAC (Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center) in Shanghai has been demanding and extremely challenging for me. My first semester in college shortly before I dropped German 101 was the only experience that has come remotely close. Unfortunately, this time, a foreign language is required. Anyway, between the new names, faces, organization, etc. I have easily consummed one years worth of information in the first 5 months. I told Rebecca that I literally cannot remember the first 3 months of being here and only now am I beginning to recognize the neighbors.



In other news, two weeks ago I severely sprained my ankle running down our outdoor steps (not advisable). No broken bones, but my foot and ankle are only now returning to normal size and colors. Then to top it off, I all of a sudden woke up with about a 30% loss of hearing in my right ear. It's all good now, but I was honestly about one broken chopstick away from limping my sorry hard of hearing self to the airport so I could board the next plane for home. The good news is that it's too far to walk to the airport and since I still cannot communicate with the taxis drivers, we're all still here.

Pictures of Hangzhou and Suzhou

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=tz2looq.9znzfddi&x=0&y=ns0pwh&localeid=en_US


Attached is a link to our album of pictures taken on our recent trips to nearby Hangzhou (about 3 hours from Shanghai by car) and Suzhou. We took the train to Suzhou; the train ride itself was only about 30 minutes and the kids loved it. Hangzhou was an easy trip for us and a great way to break in to traveling in China. We went with Jeff's coworkers, and they had planned the trip, made hotel reservations and selected the restaurants. All we had to do was show up! Suzhou, on the other hand, was completely our gig. Mr. Wong helped Rebecca buy the train tickets and made sure that we made it to our train in Shanghai, and they we were all on our own. Rebecca was able to test her Mandarin skills, and learned that she has a lot left to learn! We stayed in a beautiful hotel and the weather was wonderful. In the end, both trips were roaring successes.


There are captions with the album. Sorry if there are too many - we tried and tried, but just couldn't filter out any others. We took several hundred pics on these trips, so we were glad to get it to where we did! Enjoy!

Shanghai in the Spring

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=tz2looq.c9r05y3q&x=0&y=5jdh5z&localeid=en_US

The link above will take you to a photo album of some of the photos we have taken in Shanghai since our arrival in January. The bulk of the pictures were taken by Rebecca during a tour of "Old Town" - an area of the city that dates back to the 1920's and 30's. Life here is much different from what we are all used to - cooking outside over hot coals in a bucket, using public toilets and chamber pots, homemade bamboo and straw/grass brooms, shopping in the alley markets, etc. The tour was an amazing window into another lifestyle. At the end of the the album are a few shots of some of the skyscrapers in Pudong (the "new" side of town, on the east side of the river.)

For those of you in touch with Rebecca through FaceBook, many of these are already in FB and may be familiar to you.