Sunrise over Shanghai

Since returning from the US, I've been pretty jetlagged. I went to bed early last night, but woke up at 5 AM this morning. It was a good opportunity to see the sunrise and take some photos though.




Boots enjoyed the sunrise too!

Party photos from Brad and Niki's wedding

Taking a shot at the Saf (Safari Lounge) in Brookings Thursday night. The Saf is an old haunt - most of our friends worker there as bartenders, bouncers, the DJ or waitresses at some point! Alos, Brad and Niki met there. Our group of friends is scattered around now (Colorado, San Francisco, Iowa, Minnesota, New Hamsphire, and a couple still in various corners of South Dakota) so weddings are the only time everyone really can get together. So we pretend we're young again and try to party like we did back in college! :-)


Niki and Brad. Congratulations!!!

A lot of the photos are from John and Megan Sievers - thanks guys! Megan has an iPhone - how cool is that?? Although she is kind of technology-impaired so many she should give it to me... (just kidding Megs!) Although - their camera really made me look like a ghost. I was going to tan before I left, but it costs about $10 a session here! Chinese love white skin (almost all of the face soap, body wash, etc. is labeled as whitening) so at least it is desirable here, even though it is not back in the US.

The red Oldsmobile used to be mine. I started driving it in 8th grade when I was 14 years old. Mom and Dad gave it to me at my high school graduation and I drove it until we moved to China and sold it to our friend Aaron. Someone hit the driver's side mirror a few months ago so Jon (Mr. Fix-it) helped glue it back on.

Back in the USA

Jon and I were back in South Dakota for about a week. We managed to squeeze in a wedding (not ours!) and seeing both of our parents. Dad grilled juicy T-bone steaks for us - yummy!

It is starting to get cold there. What a change from Shanghai! I took quite a few photos of our family and farms specifically for our friends here in China. I made a separate page for them, as it would take a long time to upload here.

We found 13 Geocaches around Nisland and Belle Fourche too. That was really fun! A lot of them were micro caches that were very cleverly disguised. My best friends Chad and Kendra had their 3rd baby, a little girl named Emma Elizabeth, about a week ago. She was born four weeks early due to Kendra's high blood pressure, but both mom and baby are doing great. It was a wonderful surprise for me! Emma has a full head of dark hair, just like her little brother Gavin did.

Enjoy! http://www.emilyminor.com/HomeSept07/index.html

Archive fixed!!

I finally took a few hours to figure out what was wrong with my archive. It's fixed, so anyone who wants to look at any old posts can now do it!! The links are to the right, on the bottom of the list.

Sorry for the previous inconvenience.

Begging

This is something you see way too often. Beggars wait around restaurants or shops (especially where Westerners are) and then start pulling on you when you leave. These people were really persistent. They stood in the middle of our group, tugged on our bags, and kept telling Ning that he didn't give them enough! Usually we ignore them and make a quick getaway, but the cabs were scarce tonight. The little boy just kept yelling, "Hello! Hello! Hello!"

It's so sad that the parents teach the kids to extract money from people. It's like telling the kids they'll never be able to do anything but beg. Parents parade their kids, especially if they are disfigured or disabled, through the subway and make the kids ask for money. I've read that there are government agencies that will help find a job for them. I've also read stories of parents hurting their kids so people will give them more money. I don't know how much of that is true though. Either way, it's a social problem that all big cities have.

Shopping!

I am always talking about going to the fabric market and having stuff made, so I thought I'd post a photo of one of the shirts I got. I'm standing by some traditional Chinese scrolls that we bought. They have the four seasons painted in watercolor on them.

Jon's shirts are long-sleeved, button-down with white collars and cuffs. No buttons on the cuffs - nope, he only wears cuff links now. He is like a woman and shoes.... "Oh look honey, cuff links! I just want to take a quite look. Oh, I don't have these ones yet...." LOL.... he told me I could buy as many cheap shoes here as I want, so I will let him buy as many cuff links as he wants too. They are $1 or $2 so I think we can handle it.

September 11th

A show called "The Flight That Fought Back" was on tonight on the Discovery Channel, about Flight 93, the fourth hijacked plane on September 11th. It's been six years. SIX YEARS. That hardly seems possible. When I think about it, all of the emotions and memories of that time come back very quickly.

At that time, everyone said we'd remember exactly what we were doing when we heard, like our parents recalled the moment they heard JFK was shot. It's true. I was driving down 6th Street, in my red '88 Oldsmobile, going to my first class that day which was Mass Media Law. It really sunk in what was happening when I was turning left on to Medary Avenue. In class, our professor talked about how that day would affect the media. My next class was Spanish, and the advanced class before us had been watching the news in Spanish. That teacher turned it to English for us and we watched the screen in silence, shocked. Our teacher came in and said it was sad but class had to go on. I wanted to walk out then and I still wish I would have.

The next few days were spent glued to CNN, trying to make sense of what happened. Friends skipped work, class, and going out to watch the replay of the second plane smashing into the tower over and over. Cars lined up for hours to fill their tanks with a gas; people were afraid there'd be a shortage. It was impossible to buy a flag anywhere. The newspaper printed flags and I believe there are probably still some of those up in Brookings yet today. On Sept 12th, Megan and I drove to every convenience and grocery store trying to find a national newspaper. We were finally successful at one of the hotels across the interstate. I still have it.

Exactly three months later, I flew back from a weekend in Florida with Jon. I wondered why my flight was so empty, but Jon didn't tell me that it was because it was December 11th until I arrived home again.

We're flying home on September 12th for Brad and Niki's wedding. Now, I'm kind of glad that it's not on Sept 11th. It's not something I'd really care to think about for hours over the ocean. I wonder if plane ticket sales still decrease on that date now. I bet they do.

Subway Chinglish

Line 2 seems to have several new public service announcements from the "Urban Mass Transportation Branch Shanghai Public Security Bureau." This is the second good Chinglish sign from them. I'm expecting to find some more.

Stalking her prey

We finally saw a pigeon! It landed on our balcony and sat there for well over an hour. It had a band on it's leg. Boots was freaking out. She really really really wanted out to go after it, but we were afraid in her excitement she might go over the railing! So she had to just watch it from behind the glass.

Tourist stuff

Pat is a Vortec (hoist division of Daktronics) that was here for about 2 weeks. Sunday we went to the fabric market, the pearl market, Yuyuan Garden and the Bund together. Pat so kindly took a few photos for the SDSU article for us.

This was taken from a restaurant looking at the more popular side of the Bund. Usually photos include the Pearl TV Tower, which is on the side I was taking the photo on.

We saw two ships collide while we were eating! They started blowing their horns at each other and it looked like they were going to pass each other closely but be OK. One barge caught on the other and was totally spun around. We noticed that none of the boats have headlights - maybe that is part of the problem.