I'm walking on sunshine!

Whoa-oh!

I was just so excited to wake up this morning and not see rain!  Check out this beautiful morning:

Pretty darn exciting, even if it's not your traditional "beautiful morning."

:o)

Also exciting: after bothering our landlord to fix out main A/C unit 4 times and surviving with only the bedroom A/C unit since we got back to Shanghai, they finally agreed to replace it! The old one left today, and we're supposed to get the new one tomorrow. Here's hoping that it works better!  

Holy Bao, Batman! It's a post!

(a Bao is a bun or dumping, something "put together." Also, getting something "to go" at a restaurant is "da bao.")

HEY!  I'm back!  Maybe?

We had a wild and wonderful spring and summer, and I'm hoping that this is that start of "back to normal" postings. Heads up: I'm hearing rumblings that VPN's aren't quite doing the job that they used to do, and posting on this blog needs a VPN that works!  Cross your fingers that this is just a blip.

 To recap....

Last spring saw the lower school put on "School Daze" with the 2nd-5th graders. 

We also moved and paid 3 months' rent + 1 month deposit + .5 month for realtor fees in cash!! 

 That's 21,100 RMB right there.

Our new place also needed repairs done on the AC unit.

Why, yes, that's a repair guy climbing on the outside of our balcony with just a rope around his waist.

Why, yes, we do live on the 12th floor.

Yikes!

Mark also put on a music festival at the upper school. Way successful!!

We got to hang with some of our most favorite professors. 

I also got to conduct middle schoolers. 

Way fun!

This summer, we had a new addition to the family....

Meet Maggie!  She's the blonde one in the middle. 

I'm already being replaced... My parents are giving the squirt my stuffed animals!!

Coming back to Shanghai was bittersweet. 

I, for one, didn't like having to travel the long haul by myself. My seat mate didn't let me sleep on him. Imagine that!!

On the other hand, we got to come back and have dumplings. 

YUM!

Now if only it'd stop raining...

Day number 6 of constant rain!

We're missing you at home and wishing for some sun!

XOXO

SNOW!!

You knew I wanted snow and sent some in our direction!! You're too kind!

On Sunday, we had the ultimate "Do Nothing" day: No leaving the house and definitely staying in our PJs. Internet putzing galore.

For some reason, I decide to check my phone for the weather and see this:

WHAT?! Snow??!

A peek out of the window reveals snow whipping sideways...

And flurries attacking us!

Oh how frightful!

Especially waking up to this on Monday morning:

Boy, it was icy though! I slipped on the ice on the three steps out of my apartment building's front door.  No harm. Mark also saw a car upside-down on his way to work that morning. 

That afternoon we were gifted with even more snow:

First day back to school after a break (the 13th day of school since December 20th), and there's snow to entertain kids that never ever see it. 

Holy cow, were they a handful and a half!

But guess what I heard all day from kiddo after kiddo.

.

.

.

.

"Don't let the snow stop!" - words straight from our winter production.

Aren't they darling???

Hey! Who turned off the lights??

Nope, that's just the air quality.

Apparently, Shanghai was in the international news for the air pollution. I saw this and cracked up (before I starting hacking up my black and crusty lung... KIDDING!)

Home, sweet home. 

During those couple days, my air quality app looked like this:

Yep, that's right. It says "Beyond Index." Look how much we overachieve!

Don't worry, we bought a ton of air-purifying plants, we take the necessary precautions... Just wait out the couple days, that's all.

And see, Mom?  Today was a beautiful, if rainy 68, and tonight is even better at 58. 

We're surviving just fine. 

We promise. 

:o)

Smoke on the Water

Cue the classic rock!

I'm sure that you've heard that pollution is pretty crazy around here... We can be behind the stinkiest cars in your life. Add that to the normal grime that is China, and you get the best reason to wash at night. :o)

I promise that it's worse in Beijing. Shanghai is lucky in that there's a lot of wind to blow things around, but it's unlucky in that there's a good amount of fog that can happen to make it look worse. Have you ever seen your weather app just say "Haze?" Not in Denver.

And really, our part of town is usually better since we're not in the center of the city.

For the most part, the sky is a dusty blue here. Clear days are gorgeous.

And then you get this:

Just looks like a dreary day, right?

The fun part is turning this into a game of stats. How high is it today? How high was it an hour ago?

This is what it is currently. 

Not that I know what the difference is between PM 2.5 and PM10, but I think that red is bad, right?

Wait, hold up! There's a convenient chart for you to learn your colors!

We've mostly been in orange, with yellow and a few greens. Lately, it's been getting worse, so we have gone to the Morbid Maroon shade on two days.

Relax, Mom. There's no need for a gas mask.

All that happens is that we make sure to run our A/C units (at a comfortable temperature), since they filter the air. The kids stay inside for recess. We avoid being outside or elevating our heard rates. The  doors and windows stay closed, and we try not to sit in traffic.

At home and at school, we've overloaded on air-purifying plants, and I am having fun trying to keep them all alive. I still have 14; 2 plants have gone on to greener pastures.  :o)

Hmm, since today isn't so good, maybe I can convince Mark in a trip to the plant market again???

Hoping to live in a jungle...

Guest Post: China Trips

Last week I took 50 seventh graders to Yaolinzhen as part of the outdoor lab-esque program called China Trips. Every student from grade 6-12 visits a different region of China depending on their grade. Most of the trips are service oriented so that the experience can fulfill part of the IB curriculum requirements. The 6th and 7th graders however get an outdoor education trip that is focused on team building and comfort zone challenges.

Yaolin is 4 hours and 30 minutes southwest of Shanghai and we made the trip in the pouring rain of Typhoon Fitow. When we left the school it was just starting to rain, but as we drove south if started to let loose. Each town we passed was more flooded than the last. 

When we got to the hotel we had to present all 50 kids and 5 adults with matching passports in order to check in to our rooms. Surprisingly, this only took about a half hour because not one person forgot their passports. It was a miracle! After dropping our things in the room we got back on the bus to head to the campsite for introductions. 

notice the standing water...

 a short walk up this trail to the campsite...

After a few hours of getting muddy in the field we went back to the hotel for a great meal and an early bed time... for the kids.

The next day we split into two groups. One group, my group, would camp on Tuesday and the other would camp on Wednesday. We ate a big breakfast and packed lunches before heading back to the campsite. The day was filled with three main activities.

1. Archery... awesome!

2. Wilderness Skills... boring and long

3. How to build a fire... with tissues and a lighter.

After a short break and a snack we set up our tents. Setting up a tent can always be a challenge but doing it with 25 7th graders who have never set one up before was borderline impossible.

The day ended with a camp fire and a giant spaghetti dinner.

Day three consisted of a hike with some nice scenery.

Day 4: Repelling, rock climbing, and laser tag.

On Friday we woke up and checked the kids out of the hotel. We got all the bags and kids into the lobby only to find out that the bus was going to be late. How late? 3 and 1/2 hours. We played every version of tag known to man before checking out two rooms at the hotel for movies. The bus finally came and we made it home just in time for happy hour. Thank god!