South Dakota

Jon and I left for the the US January 11th. We visited a few friends in Sioux Falls Friday night, stayed with my parents a couple days (mom took the above photo), went to Dak in Brookings for a day, and then went to Nisland to visit Jon's family. Monday his grandmother was put in the hospital and got out a week later. We decided to extend our stay four days more. Then, our boss asked us to come back to Brookings for a few meetings so we are staying even longer. I'll post some more photos when I have time.

Walk around the French Concession

When Holly was here we followed a suggested walk in our guidebook. It took us all over the French Concession. It was cool to see that part of town and read about the history. I guess it's a good thing to be a tourist in your own town every once in a while. We really had a good time but our legs were very tired by the end of the day!

A woman doing Tai Chi in the park.

You will always see people flying kites in the park.

This is a Russian Orthodox church. It is not in use anymore.

We discovered that you can go up to the 38th floor and then walk up a flight and out onto the roof! This is on the other side of our building. It seems much, much higher than our apartment!

Holly and Jon, freezing on the roof

A interesting fact is that a lot of buildngs do not have the number 4 on any of the floors. Our building doesn't have a 4, 14, 24, or 34. 4 is a very unlucky number - similar to the Western belief that 13 is unlucky.

supper at the Spot

Holly, Ning and I ate at the Spot one night. It was pretty good - nice to get out with some friends! Holly was actually my boss when I worked in the IT department at Daktronics in Brookings. Ning worked at Dak there too and Holly spent a lot of time with him helping to set up the network in the Shanghai office.

It's pretty odd to think that we now all live in China!

At the Portman

Jon, Holly and I went to the Portman one night for "a" drink. Holly and I had a drink but Jon had a few. :-) It has a great atmosphere but is pretty expensive!

One of the interesting things about the Portman is that the rocks glasses are pre-tilted. No drinking required to question your depth perception. :-)

Yuyuan Gardens

Some photos from Yuyuan Gardens when Holly was here. I can just imagine when it was a private garden. I can imagine myself being a lady of leisure and reading or doing crafts in many different areas of the garden, watching the kids run around the ponds and climb the rocks.

Yuyuan Gardens Part 2

Cloud 9

A few weekends ago, Jon and I went out for sushi with our friend Daniel. Then we all went to see his girlfriend, Wendy, and her dancing class belly dance. After that we went to the Grand Hyatt, which has a bar called Cloud 9 on the 87th floor. This photo was taken on the 85th floor looking down to the 56th floor.

It was a pretty nice place to chill out. We had a good time with Daniel and Wendy!

postal service

Our friend Inge (from Rotterdam, the Netherlands) sent us a nice box with Christmas goodies. It is pretty funny that it was clearly marked FRAGILE everywhere, but arrived smashed. Luckily it was only cookies that were slightly crumbled!

Inge is coming to visit for 2 weeks in July and already has her tickets booked!

Singapore Airport

Daktronics just put a new display in the Singapore Airport for EyeCorp. I was there to do training January 7-10. The display looks great.

We had to get special passes to get through security without boarding passes, and more security clearance to go up behind the display.

I wasn't the only one taking photos of the display! It is always funny to me to see other people taking photos. I have the right since it is a Dak display, but I always thought people would wonder why anyone would want to take photos of a billboard.

Random info about Singapore

The one thing that I did close to site-seeing was go to a mall to eat supper one night. In the courtyard is the world's largest fountain. I managed to catch the laser-light show. It was pretty lame. The fountain was just a light mist - I was expecting massive blasts of water shooting through the air!

Singapore was really hot and humid. One interesting thing is that gum is practically illegal. Yes, gum. As in the kind you chew. They want to keep the city pretty. (and it seemed to be working.) In 2004, they lifted the ban, so now you can chew gum IF you have a doctor prescribe it and you register to buy it at the pharmacy.

Singapore was the place where Michael Fay was caned for spray-painting cars in 1994.

CAT

CAT stands for China Advanced Toastmasters. I'm the VPE Elect (Vice President of Education.) The image is of our meetings for the next few months. CAT is the only club in Shanghai dedicated to the Toastmasters who have reached the first goal of giving 10 speeches, or their Competent Communicator award. I was in the Daktronics corporate club back in Brookings and received my CC award then. I just earned my CL (Competent Leader) award a week or so ago.

Street Meat

This guy was on the street one day and I said I wished I had my camera out quick enough. A few days later, my boss Dan got the photo. He said: Right on the main road. You pick out your chicken or pigeon, and he butchers it right there. Mmm Mmm Good.

Menu Chinglish

I haven't posted any Chinglish for quite a while. On menus, usually the translations are literal. So they aren't quite Chingish - just interesting names for dishes!

Donating

My friends Abbey and Chris have just adopted two boys from Ethiopia who are 4.5 and 6. This and the Christmas seasoning have led me to looking a lot at charities in China lately.

There are quite a few that help orphanages. It's sad - they say 95% of the kids in orphanages are girls. (Traditionally, girls are less valuable than boys.) Two of them I like are Love Without Boundaries and Half the Sky.


I ordered a Christmas present online through Amazon.com, and Amazon will give 4% of the total price to Love Without Boundaries. If you ever order on Amazon, please go to the LWB website first and click on the Amazon link to order. A few extra seconds of your time means a donation for them!

If you sell on eBay, you can sign up to give from 10 to 100% of the proceeds to Half the Sky. Click here to learn how to do this through MissionFish.

(The photos are of Molly (adopted from China) and Micah and Macy (adopted from Korea.) Molly's mom works at Daktronics and Micah and Macy's parents are my cousins. I took their portraits last year.)

Happy New Year

Jon and I celebrated by going out for hamburgers and a bottle of wine. Then we watched a few fireworks shows from our balcony,

Have a great 2008!