It's fun to work on the weekend...wait

So I am down outside of Guangzhou in Kaiping for a fun filled weekend of….work. Yesterday was a great cold and rainy day where all I wanted to do was spend the day with Renee and the kids and hang out inside our apartment in Shanghai, too bad they are over 1,000 miles away, so that wasn't too practical. I have learned that I really don't like working on the weekends, I did it during the busy season at my company back in the States, and didn't realize how much it stunk. It's even better when you get to walk back to a hotel in the cold rain and go to an empty, kind of scummy room. I guess I shouldn't complain too much, cause even though I am working the weekend right now, my weeklong Chinese New Year Holiday is coming up, something I never got to enjoy back in the States in February.

Who Is She?

Maddie and I had an Abbott and Costello type of moment last week one night after work. I got home and said my regular hello's to all in the house when Maddie came running up to tell me about her time at the playground. I will put the following into a narration format, so you can get an idea of why I was so confused. When Maddie was done with the story she ended with:

Maddie: and when we left is she said goodbye.
Me: Oh that's great Maddie, (I didn't actually think anything in the story was great, rather I was just trying to give her positive reinforcement) so who is she that said goodbye?
Maddie: No dad, is she said goodbye to us at the playground.
Me: Who is she that said goodbye to you at the playground?
Maddie: Is she said goodbye to us at the playground.
Me: Okay, but what is the girl's name that said goodbye to you at the playground?
Maddie: Dad, is she said goodbye to us at the playground.

Maddie then looked at me as if an alien had just landed on my head and went running off to play some more. I also felt as if an alien had just landed on my head, so I asked Renee who the girl was at the playground that said goodbye to them and Renee replied it's Maddie's playrground friend named Ishi, at which point I just felt like sitting down for a couple of minutes to let my brain rest.

Ridiculed

Last week I had to go pick up my tailored pants. On a quick side note, having suits and pants tailored made here on the cheap is a really really cool thing about being in China. Anyway, last weekend (similar to this weekend) was snowing in Shanghai and the temperatures were right around freezing. Renee had a church retreat to go to, so it was me and the two kids to head into downtown Shanghai.

Renee helped me with dressing the kids and I thought they were dressed fine for the weather. Anyway, we arrived at the place to pick up my pants after taking a ferry ride across the river. To give you an idea, the place is full of different stalls and stands where someone can get suits made, pants made, shirts made, basically anything made out of cloth, silk or wool can be made by the people in these stalls. So as I was trying on my pants to make sure they fit, people were coming up to the kids to take a look (typical cause they are white). They then noticed that Jacob was only wearing one pair of pants and they started to make comments to me. For those of you who don't know, a great majority of the Chinese tend to put about 5 or 6 layers on their kids before heading out into the cold…so many layers to the point that usually the kids faces get red, not red from the cold, but red because they are burning up. God forbid that Jacob was only wearing one layer. Well I tried to convince the people that he is fine, but since my language skills are pretty non-existent, I don't think me standing up and pounding on my chest like I was a bite size Gorilla implying that us Americans are tough translated too well. So the ridicule continued until we made our escape.

For all of you who really wanted to know, Jacob's hands were a little cold (only because he kept taking off his gloves), but the rest of him and all of Maddie were perfectly warm enough for the weather.

Congrats

Over the weekend, my sister got engaged to be married, so big fat Congrats to her and her new fiancée BJ. The preliminary plans right now look like they are going to be married in November and they will do a destination wedding in the Bahamas. Can't wait to go to the Bahamas, although the trip from Shanghai to the Bahamas is not the shortest, but it should be fun.

Let It Snow

Over this past weekend into Monday there was continuous precipitation that included some snow and freezing rain and some other fun. The total accumulation over the 3 days was less then 2 inches, but it was the largest snow fall in Shanghai in 24 years, which tells you that they don't get significant snow falls here in Shanghai. Needless to say the 2 inches of snow caused some problems throughout the city (and throughout the country). Typical to anywhere that doesn't often get snow (and places like Maryland), people were in a little bit of a panic, but when you take the subway to get to work, the weather above the ground doesn't really affect your commute.

The bad weather throughout China stranded a bunch of people who were looking to take the trains home for New Year Holiday, but we are prepping for my parents to come into town, so the snow gave us a chance to finally take down our Christmas decorations and get some of the house ready for their visit.

Sanya Pictures!!!

As promised (a month ago), here are a select few pictures from our trip to Sanya:

View back onto the island

Looking at Hotel

View from hotel to pools and ocean

Nice Clear Water

Kids Having Fun!

Mini-shipwreck

Ready to have fun

That's not completely true?

So I hardly write about things outside of the goings ons that affect my life, besides when I first started this whole blog thing, mostly because I want to keep things pretty light hearted here. But when I come across things that are just not true, I find I have to write something on it, and that is what Renee found when we were looking through the Beijing Olympics website. On the "Places of Worship" webpage, the Chinese Olympic Organizers note that "China is a country with religious freedom and respects for every religion." They then go to list 5 religions and how one might go about worshipping. Some things to point out is the fact that the 5 religions listed are the only religions recognized by the Chinese government, so if recognizing 5 religions is "every religion" and "religious freedom" then maybe they are telling the truth, but I'll let you decide on that. And if religious freedom looks like being able to worship in government approved worship places with government approved worship materials and books with government oversight, then they are surely very free. Unless you hold a foreign passport, like we do, then it is pretty hard to worship with "freedom." To note, there are many people that come to find the Father in the heavily regulated Christian church in China (not to mention the many more that come to know Him in underground churches), but that goes to the fact of how powerful the Gospel message is.

Anyway, just wanted to get out some truths from the statements you might see leading up to the Olympics.

Also as a completely different side note, I have been reading a lot of doomsday-sounding articles about the US economy and a lot of the media have been fashioning the word "recession" in their articles. Again, I want to keep things light, but go ahead and look up the definition of recession and see if in fact the US is in one (or close to one for that matter), sometimes, even in the US, you have to weary of some of the things being said. Just another thought.