More every day life

Paige got to Skype with BF Ellie while Ellie was visiting Susu and Poppy. They talked for about an hour and a half - late night for Paige, early morning for Ellie. So much fun to hear them giggling and laughing like they had seen each other yesterday.
Friday night was a fun school event: Bingo. Tons of people showed up and we had many rip-roarin' games of bingo with lottery ticket fun baskets being given away at the same time. Winners of the Bingo games got to choose from a table of yummy baked goods.

One of the breaks was a chicken song. Two middle school teachers leading the charge. YMCA song was another get up and jiggle around song. Lots of fun and laughter, pizza, popcorn and new friends. We met the new family from Australia who live down the street from us. Their children, Hugo and Pearl, are adored by the girls who have taken them under their wings on the school bus.

I had a fun romp through a wet market I found next to Storey's Saturday morning pottery class. This guy was cracking me up. He was running around cutting, weighing, chopping meat up for clients, all the while this cigarette hanging out of his mouth with ashes about 1/2" long precariously dangling on the end. When he saw me laughing and taking a picture, he started laughing and finally removed the cigarette - probably just until I walked away!

A chicken was being removed for a customer while I took this, so I moved quickly so I wasn't there for the rest of the process. They do it all right here for you - the defeathering, etc. Anything you would like.
The Chinese eat a lot of fish, and all kinds of fish. Some of the lovely choices.


Fresh dumplings.
Hand made noodles.
Rice and grain.
Beautiful, fresh veggies. I can't get enough of the vegetables over here. So many different kinds and all so delicious.

Yet more fish.
The choices of tofu here are like the cheese counter at home. Everything from stinky tofu to fried tofu, dried, wet, soft, firm, aged..... Our cook makes the best tofu pudding we have ever had (actually, never had tofu pudding before!). It is creamy and smooth with ever so slight almond and vanilla flavoring.
More grains, nuts, rice, beans, spices.
Storey was taken by friends to a gymnastic class yesterday, after an afternoon Girl Scout outing. We went to pick her up and couldn't find it! The address was correct, we knew we were in the right area, but everyone we asked kept sending us back to the previous place we had been. It was a bit of a circus. I finally called another mother who explained over the phone how to get there. All buildings have guards, and we had asked several guards who had all said it didn't exist. Such is the world in Shanghai. We found Storey who loved her new class. It will be easier next time!

From gymnastics we headed to Otto's, an Italian restaurant around the corner from us. As we were driving by the corner, we saw a huge truck filled top to bottom, front to back with pineapples. The men were throwing the pineapples out onto the corner. There were pineapples under the truck, in the street, and piled high on the sidewalk. We were marveling at the brashness of it all. When we exited from dinner and started walking home, there on the corner was a gal selling the pineapples from a very reduced pile. I went to ask how much and had to ask twice because I couldn't believe the cost. 5 RMB for 3 pineapples. So we paid about .73 cents for three gorgeous, and salivatingly delicous pineapples. That was good as it helped off-set the price of the far too expensive Italian restaurant! Anything western costs 10 x what the Chinese equivalent would be.

It is a rainy Sunday afternoon. Storey has taken to making dinner for us every Sunday. We have had yummy spaghetti, meatloaf, and tonight it is lasagna. We haven't found any lasagna noodles in any of the stores, so Storey and Ridley are down making the noodles. I am sure it will be the best lasagna ever! Happy Sunday.