Familiar Faces!

Can I just say that it's so exciting to see friends from home!!!   This past week Josh and Mo (2 of our friends from Milwaukee) were here in China working in Taicang which is between Suzhou and Shanghai, and they planned to spend the weekend in Shanghai so we went to meet them!   It was so nice to see a familiar face from home, yes we see expats, but it's just not the same as the good old Milwaukee kickball and beer drinking crew!  We met Josh and Mo at the Hongqiao copy market and we let them try their skills as well as learn some of Bill's crazy negotiation tactics with the copy goods. 

Mo is a pretty fit guy but this XL Under Armor shirt clearly was not made for western people!  I think overall they got some pretty good deals and were happy with their purchases! 

Some more pearls to add to the jewelry box! 

Then we enjoyed some beers at Shanghai Brewery and had dinner at the our favorite watering hole, the Boxing Cat Brewery.  

You have to laugh at some of the crazy signs here!

This was the bathroom sign at Shanghai Brewery: 

We had to head back to Suzhou and they stayed in Shanghai, but on Sunday they met us in Suzhou at our local favorite Zapata's.   I think they were glad to see some familiar faces and to have Western food just as much as we were happy to have some company! 

Should I Be Worried???

Every few days or so I get text messages in Chinese characters that I can't read and think nothing of them.  Typically they come from my service provider and tell me how much usage I have left, etc. and I have become accustom to just deleting them and not paying any attention.

Well, today I just received a message from a number I wasn't familiar with…
各位市民请注意，4月27日15时00分至15时15分，苏州市民防局（人防办）将在市区试鸣防空警报信号，请保持正常秩序！

I figured I better translate it… maybe it'd be for something free at the new restaurant in town Element Fresh(as I've heard some other girls were receiving coupons)!

Nope, nope, nope, that is not at all what that text message said…
Members of the public please note that April 27 15:00 to 15:15, Suzhou city Directorate of civil defence (Civil Defense Office) will try singing in urban air defense warning signals, please keep the normal order in!

I had to reread this text a few times and was a bit worried at first.  I immediately sent Bill a message asking him if he received a text message from the government.  Nope he hadn't.  Which he still hasn't received one and this makes me question it even more!  After thinking about it, I'm guessing… HOPING… it's just for a test of the warning signal… like a tornado drill right?!?!  But TIC, so one really never know what's going to happen!  We'll certainly find out on Sunday at 3pm!

Today in Headline News from The Shanghaiist…

You never know what kind of news stories you are going to get here and what's really real or not!

Today on the Shanghaiist (a Shanghai city blog newspaper) there are 2 articles I'd really like to highlight:

The first is that the Grand Prix race actually ended 2 laps early because the guy with the checkered flag was a little trigger happy and waived it 2 laps early.  WHOOPS.  Wonder if he still has a job today.
http://shanghaiist.com/2014/04/22/chinese_grand_prix_accidentally_end.php


The second article is this new flavor here at Burger King.  I've never been in Burger King here, nor do I ever plan to go to Burger King so I'm afraid I can't tell you how this is going to taste!

Now at Burger King Shanghai: Creamy PooPoo Smoothies

http://shanghaiist.com/2014/04/22/now_at_burger_king_shanghai_mouthwa.php

Formula 1 Racing - Shanghai

Since living abroad for the past 4 years Bill and I know that holidays are the worst times to be home alone, so we always try to make sure we do something to take our minds off of being homesick.  This Easter Sunday we headed to the Formula 1 Grand Prix Racing event in Shanghai.

As we were walking in there were loads of people selling binoculars and ear plugs.  A few friends of ours went last year and told us to bring ear plugs however, Grant filled me in on the deal that F1 changed the required/allowed turbo's for the cars this year so it wasn't nearly as loud as I thought it would be and as it was in the past.  

Bill's co-worker Gary from the UK secured our tickets while in the UK which was really great and a much easier process for us and so Gary, Grant (another co-worker who came into town for work meetings this week), Bill, Mr. Fu and myself headed off to the track on Sunday morning!   Since Mr. Fu drives like a race car driver we asked him if #1 he'd be able to work on a Sunday to drive us to the track and then we figured, rather than have him sit in the car he might as well come into the stadium and watch if he's interested in racing!   He agreed as we thought he would!

 This guy was the TV camera right behind us.  He had a nice little hammock in his boom lift to take a snooze between the Carrera Cup and the Race.

We lucked out according to Gary as we got to see a pre-race race of what's called the Carrera Cup - a race of only Porsches.  So that happened around 12:30 and then at 3 the real thing started!

Lewis Hamilton, a Brit, held the lead for the entire race and it was definitely an exciting first time for me to be at a race.  Being my first time I hope Grant wasn't mad that I picked his brain on the drivers, countries, strategies, etc., he didn't seem to mind too much and we had some good laughs throughout the day!

 There's Hamilton:

We had great seats in the Grand Stand on the first turn.  Fortunately and unfortunately there weren't any wrecks… that's why you go to the race right?  To see the crash?  (Rookie speaking here!)  All in all a good Easter Sunday!

Wide Load Coming Through...

Today on my way on from picking up some oatmeal and bread I almost got plowed over by this ebike man with his cardboards!  Or at least I think they were cardboards.  His ebike was quite a bit faster than mine and I was zooming away in my lane only to hear all the massive honking behind me and for him to pass me at the intersection while we're waiting for the light to turn green.  CRAZINESS!!!  It's amazing the loads people have on their ebikes here the most I do is put 1 small bag of groceries between my feet on the floor.  

Sorry that's all I have for today.  On Wednesday I went to a wine lunch so real soon an order of wine will be delivered for me and yesterday (Thursday) I spent the day cooking away for my friend who just had a baby.  I thought I'd bring her a meal.  This week has been pretty dreary and rainy so I haven't been out exploring much.   I hope that all of our family and friends have a great Easter weekend whether you celebrate or not!  We will be heading to the Shanghai Formula 1 Race… I'll report back on Monday how it was! 

Happy Easter Weekend!

Xi'an in Pictures

Day 1 Xi'an
We flew into Xi'an from Shanghai in the morning and we were delayed by a few hours leaving Shanghai so when we finally got to Xi'an it was around 2pm.  It was a 2.5hour flight from Shanghai.  We decided to take a walk to the city wall because I had read we could rent bikes to bike the city wall. On our way to the wall we passed this restaurant worker taking a snooze.  We chuckled and took his picture!  

 Here is the city wall. The moat on the outside is under major construction… as is every city in China… so we had to go a few round about ways to get to the South Gate Entrance to the top of the wall.

 This is on the inside of the wall walking the edge.

 Sweet potatoes anyone?

 We rented a tandem bike to go around the wall.  Which was a great way to see the outskirts of the city.

 Those are a lot of snacks!  I have no clue what they are but he's going to go sell them somewhere!

 DAY 2:  Terracotta Warriors!   The warriors are about a 45 minute drive from the city out near Emperor Qin's mausoleum and burial place.  We hired a local guide named Liu(Leo) to show us around the 3 pits of warriors and to take us to lunch as well as show us the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Muslim Street and the Great Mosque.

It's pretty amazing to see all the soldiers and the detailed work that went into them.  They are constantly uncovering more areas of the pits and piecing them back together.
After seeing the 3 pits we headed to a local lunch spot of Liu's called 3, 6 noodles.  The owner says if you eat 3 noodles for lunch you are okay to eat dinner but if you eat 6 noodles for lunch then you don't need dinner.   We definitely didn't need dinner after these noodles and they were so delicious!  Probably one of the best meals we've eaten in China.

We then made a quick pit stop at the local Chinese Traditional Medicine market.  When a person would be ill and go to the traditional medicine hospital the doctor would prescribe a concoction of ingredients that one would boil together, strain and then drink the liquid.   As we walked up there was a lady sorting dried leaches.  Liu explained that the leaches and many other animals… snakes, lizards, seahorses would be used to rid the body of cancer.  So you'd boil them in water then drink the water.

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda is the symbol of the city as Liu told us.  When the monks were praying to Buddha for food a goose fell from the sky and so they didn't eat it but buried it and worshipped it as a sign from Buddha.

 The Muslim Street.  This area of town is like a big flea market almost, there are tons of food stalls and shops and all the people that own the shops are all Muslims.  We went to the Mosque here which is one of the only Mosques in China that has Chinese architecture vs Muslim architecture.