Life A Little Easier

Happy Easter to All! We hope you enjoyed your time with family or loved ones over the holiday weekend. You were in our thoughts and minds.

Anyway, I thought I would give you a blog that kind of shed's some light on our everyday here in the "Middle Kingdom" and the people and things that make life easier for us. The Chinese translation for "China" is "middle kingdom" as in old times it was thought that the world revolved around this land. Perhaps some around here still think it does but who are we to say that it doesn't.

The above picture is one of Caden and Ayi (ahh-ee). We have talked about her before in past blogs but she is worth mentioning over and over again because she is awesome. Our kids basically are bi-lingual because of Ayi. You see Ayi doesn't speak English, she only speaks Mandarin Chinese and she talks non stop when she is here at our home. In this picture she is reading a book to Caden. We picked up some Chinese children's books at the local department store and the twins love it when Ayi reads to them. So they understand what we say when we talk to them and they understand Ayi when she talks to them. Now the problem is understanding the twins when they speak to us...so are they speaking in English or Chinese or a combo...??

The picture below is of our van and of our driver. He likes to be called "shif-fa" which is Shanghainese for "driver". He doesn't speak English either. Virtually every foreigner has a gray Buick mini van like this with a driver. They are all over the place - actually the Buick name is one of the most popular brand names for automobiles in China. In this picture, Caden and Ava have taken over the van. Shif-fa loves to let the kids play in his van and the kids love it to - - BUT it makes for a boisterous first 5 minutes of a car ride when they have to sit in their car seats.

Much of the time on weekends is spent outside as it is getting pretty nice here in Shanghai. Our neighborhood as you can see in the pictures is rather kid friendly. It has a playground & the streets are rather slow with traffic.

In the picture below Caden is riding his "bike" (as he calls it) with his friend "Josh". Josh's family is from the Wisconsin side of the MN/WI border and his dad works for 3M here in Shanghai.

This is a typical weekend afternoon much like any other in a small town neighborhood. The kids are playing in the driveway and the moms are gabbing about where we are going out to dinner later in the evening.

Once dinner is complete on a normal weeknight, it is time for the kids to shed their clothes and wind down for the evening. The picture below is one of their favorite games called "tuck" which translates to "stuck". They lay down and back themselves under the couch and then pretend they are stuck. {yes, the couch was provided to us by the housing management company - and no we didn't have many choices in colors}. The other game they like to play is "3". You probably noticed in the picture of Ayi above all of the couch cushions are pulled out. Well, this is because they just completed a game of "3". 3 is a game where you stand on the couch and count to 3 and jump or fall into the cushions... 1, 2, 3... Then it is off to bed at 7:30.

Until next time - we will be on vacation in Hawaii. :) Should make for some interesting blogs!

Saigon, but not "Still in Saigon"

I had my first opportunity to visit Vietnam as we have a relatively new supplier located there. This was one of those surreal trips for me as in the US we have a "painted picture" in our minds of Vietnam from the silver screen and of the relatively recent history of the past 30 to 40 years. This was my parent's generation "Iraq". I flew into Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon as most people in the world know it. I quickly realized that my painted picture was distorted and that Saigon is a very busy city with tremendous development underway.

The first thing that jumps out at you is the shear number of motorcycles and scooters. It seems every one has one as there are literally millions of them and it seems like they are all on the road at the same time. Surprisingly the pace of traffic with all of these scooter is still rather expeditious.

As with most supplier visits, I do get to taste local food and flavor. For dinner one night we ate at this outdoor style resaurant along the Saigon river. Vietnamese food is delicious and ranged from spicy sea food to tangy beef to the freshest vegetables I have ever tasted. This picture is of a desert that was something like glutonous rice - it was very sweet and the ball is actually collapsed as it is full of air. It was awesome.

The weather was quite warm - mid 80s to low 90s. Nice actually.

Our hotel was full of European tourists. Most of the tourist sites in the area are beaches and war related historical sites - museum, underground tunnels and so on. I did not get to tour any tourists sites as my time was strictly work related. Perhaps I'll go back with the family for this. I know that I'll be back for work related reasons as there is tremendous opportunities.

The picture below is of "Flat Emily" along the Saigon river near our hotel. Emily is the daughter to one of our friends and neighbors from Buffalo. Her elementary class is doing a project based on the book Flat Stanley where Stanley gets to travel the world as a flat paper rendition of himself. So Emily sent her "Flat Emily" to travel the world with us. We will send things back to her elementary school from Shanghai and from my travels to Vietnam and so on. Emily welcome to Vietnam. It is a nice place.

Until next time ponder this: The whole time I was there I had the Charley Daniel's song "Still in Saigon" ringing in my mind.