Tidbits

If you ever wanted to find where all the Americans are in Shanghai, visit a baseball field. I’ve never seen such a concentration of Americans as I have on Brandon’s T-ball field. The league that organizes it separates the sports by day, so Saturdays are reserved for baseball of all ages. Sundays, they play soccer. All the American dads are either coaching or standing nearby cheering their children on, usually by giving them advice. One morning, I was standing near two [rare] international dads, watching their sons. They were talking loudly about how Americans are crazy about this sport and other sports as well…and how they seemed to think we, as Americans, put our children in sports from the age of two…”or something crazy like that.” Haha I wanted to correct them, “It’s actually three years old.” But, I didn’t, especially considering we had Brandon in soccer at three and his dad was the lead coach! Haha Yeah, so I guess it’s an American thing…we love our sports. What we found interesting, however, is how difficult it was to find anything Baseball related here in Shanghai. They have one guy on the side of the fields selling big catching gloves, and packaged sets of baseball items…which he charges a phenomenally high price. We didn’t want to pay such a high price for something that we know we can get back home so cheaply. However, when we started to shop around in Shanghai, we finally understood why that guy can get away with selling his stuff for that price (which he imports from Taiwan or something). There are NO gloves or other baseball accessories, anywhere. Soccer? Sure, no problem. Roller skates? Yeah, of course. Ping pong sets…yep! But, nooooo baseball stuff. Just about when we were ready to give up, there was a small section of one floor of one mall, where we found a couple of gloves in the back corner. One medium size and one bigger size…and not much cheaper than the guy on the field. Ugh! So, we got the medium glove, thinking maybe Brandon can grow into it. We got the last one in that size. You can bet we’ll be stocking up on these kinds of things when we go back home. Just one more thing…

I had lunch the other day with one of my girlfriends who is Chinese but had lived in the States for quite a few years. We had a lovely lunch, talking about many things. She had visited Shanghai in 2000. She talked about many differences between then and now in this great big city. Having seen the “before”, she is one who can truly appreciate the “now” of Shanghai. According to her, the traffic was almost unbearable back then…scared her to death! She mentioned that while there are many more cars on the road today, the city officials have worked really hard to govern the traffic more appropriately. Also, she said that the city is generally MUCH cleaner than it had been back in 2000. She has also noticed many more expat friendly venues throughout the city, such as, restaurants, grocery stores, retail shops, etc. She also mentioned that customer service used to be beyond horrible, since everyone is "assigned" a job from the government. So, there used to not be many incentives for people to work harder. However, the government has given many of the companies more control of their employees, such as giving them incentives, pay raises and even dissolution of contracts. She says it's MUCH better now. Hmmm. Also, she said that any person from a minority group (like a smaller tribe or village) in China, can have more than one child. It's just the "majority" groups who cannot. I have also learned that if someone from the majority group wants to have more than one child, they have to pay the government something like 200,000 RMB...which is close to $30,000 USD, for each additional child. Wow, that's a lot of money! It's no wonder why many of the chinese people seek other countries to settle down or go to them to have more babies. Hmmm. Seeing Shanghai through her eyes over the course of our lunch, I was also able to appreciate what we DO have here in Shanghai compared to many other parts of this big country and it was nice to get her perspective and understand a little better, the efforts made to make Shanghai more inhabitable, especially for expats.

The Chinese can’t dance. I’m sorry, but they can’t. I’m talking a good percentage of them, of course, not all of them. I’m not the top authority on such things, mind you, but it borders on hilarious to watch Chinese try and dance. Just as hilarious as they think we are when we try and use chopsticks or speak chinese. Hooters is a restaurant we frequent semi-often, as it has American food and good music. Hooters girls are taught choreographed moves to certain songs, but to watch them in their stilted attempts to dance these steps, is almost painful to watch! It was confirmed, however, when I went out one night with a girlfriend. We started with dinner and ended up at another nearby restaurant that had some rockin’ American tunes. We stayed for awhile and danced our hearts out. While on the dance floor, it was incredible how stiff Chinese people are when they dance. Rhythm just isn’t their groove, I guess. It all worked out though, since my friend and I were happy to show many of them just how it’s supposed to be done…or, well, close enough, at least. We had several people come up and thank us as they left the venue. Good times…


We ended up going to the Shanghai Flowerport again because the kids have been begging us to take them again. And since the tulips are only around through April, we figured we should go once more. I have been trying to figure out just what the appeal is for my kids at the Flowerport. Granted, the first time we went, we had a sensational time…but even after going a second time, the boys want to go back. They have never even asked to go to Disneyland this many times. Obviously there is a lot to see and do for adults, since the flowers create such a beautiful background, but why do our kids love it so much? It occurred to me this place is like a natural amusement park, providing all of their favorite things…running, jumping, games, playing, bouncing, sand building, challenges, boats, bridges and labyrinths. A place like Disneyland provides a TON of visual stimulus for kids, which draws them back over and over again. Where THIS place provides physical stimulus for them, as well as several lessons on biology , chemistry and physics. I imagine this would be a teacher’s paradise as well. Everything about the park, is natural, including all the rocks, etc. Everything they touch, see, and smell are from natural sources. For example, the kids wanted to play with their cars on some rock outcroppings. They kept falling over themselves over and over again, since their shoes seemed to “stick” to the rock. We were sitting on an outcropping of weathered granite. Because of it’s weathered condition, the texture of the rock was very rough, thus creating the bottoms of their shoes to “stick”. It was a good, quick and impromptu lesson about rock mechanics…on the spot. The WHOLE park is full of those impromptu lessons! My kids, on both occasions, keep asking questions about the natural world around them. Personally, I LOVE it! Allen and I were talking about how great this “amusement” park is and I wished they had parks like this in the States. Allen, however, pointed out a very sensible reason why they don’t. Liability. In the States, kids wouldn’t be able to jump off the rocks or scramble over an obstacle course made for adults, or walk behind a waterfall…not without major guard rails and signs and ropes and “da kine” to make it all safe. And a park like that, wouldn’t be the same. It would lose it’s natural appeal. This park has these things only on the most appropriate attractions, but most everything else is left to the parents to “supervise” their children, which creates those impromptu lessons about…gravity, especially. Other examples of lessons include, a biology lesson on algae and other plant life along the water’s edge… from a boat, or why we got stuck when our boat hit a patch of thick reeds and both the motor and the rudder didn’t seem to work because they got clogged, or how two opposing forces of gravity work when bumper cars going in opposite directions hit each other (one backing up while the other is going forward), or how to navigate a labyrinth using the sight of the sun in the sky or the sound of people’s voices in the direction you want to go…ETC! The series of obstacle courses alone provide TONS of lessons on physics as well. It really should be no wonder why the boys love this place so much. I feel so lucky we found something like this here in China…because as Allen pointed out, we will never see it in the States.




I have discovered that not all expats’ trips back home are as wonderful as mine had been back in January. Don’t get me wrong, SEVERAL of them are just as wonderful from the many stories I have heard. So, it came as somewhat of a shock that not everyone likes their home trips very much. I recently ran into a friend of mine from Europe and she mentioned that the weather was really crappy, their lodging was painful and the entire trip was hardly worth it. This person has been here less time than we have, so I was really surprised. She feels like this is home for her now and she is now considering that she might want to extend their time either in Shanghai or somewhere else just as challenging in the future. Hmmm. I find that interesting…can’t relate myself…but it’s interesting to me. For many of the expats I have spoken to personally, their first home trip provided them with not only perspective, but was also often a balm to their soul. Now, THAT is something I can understand, since my own home trip experience was so phenomenal for me. According to a friend of mine over here, I have seemed a lot calmer since returning from the States. I would agree…things are much better.

So, I’ve provided a few of the “tidbits” of our lives these days. With better weather, we seem to be getting busier with activities. I’ll keep you all updated…!