Treasure Island

Dave used to live on this island so showed us around it. The island was created for an exhibition and then used as a naval base. Now everything is basically falling apart, but the views are really great!

Book Club

The 3rd Thursday of the month I usually go to book club. This month we read "One More Day" by Mitch Albom, who is also the author of "Tuesdays with Morrie." It's a easy read (I actually just read it in one evening) and very good.

We meet at an interesting cafe somewhere downtown - this time it was Whisk, which I have blogged about before. It is heaven via chocolate, and good food. It turns out Suzy's husband knows the owner, who came out and had us sample a bottle or two of wine he was thinking of putting on the menu.

Catharina, who is Swedish and works at the consulate; Alicia, who is Australian and is an exporter; Suzy, who has a business taking people shopping; me; and Kerstin, who is German and works for TUV Rheinland.

This was a really fun night - we're all expat women who work and have no kids (all of us but Catharina has a cat or two though) so it seems we have a lot in common. Catharina was surprised to meet someone who spent time in Sweden; we even showed everyone else how to play Kubb!

Mail

I've always loved getting mail. Today I got a package with a elephant stamp from Thailand. Something about the writing, elephant and baht made it seem quite exotic to me (hence worthy of a photo). Thanks Esther!

On our farm, the mailbox was located on the gravel road at the end of the driveway, which is typical in the midwest. I heard a story once that my cousin John had a girl from California visiting the farm. Apparently she had never been in such a desolate area (said sarcastically by me) because she said to John "You really get mail out here?"

To which he solemnly replied, "Actually, it's just for looks. The Pony Express does come by once a week though."

The Peak

The Peak is pretty famous in Hong Kong. Click on the photo to view it larger - it looks much better that way! I used PhotoShop's photomerge feature to create this from 3 photos I took. It about a 180 degree view.

Jon and Adam - what a clear day. (not. as usual.)

Weekend in Hong Kong

We had a day off on the 11th, and Jon and I were in Macau and Hong Kong for business, so we decided to stay down there for the weekend. Adam lives in Macau, which is about an hour ferry ride away from Hong Kong.

Friday night we ate at a Greek restaurant, found a new t-shirt for me (from France, I was told), went to a bar called Carnegie's, and then finished the evening at the sports bar in our hotel. The restaurant was great. Jon found a little piece of plastic in his food, but told the waiter not to worry about it. Of course the waiter was worried about it, so gave us all free dessert. I was too full for dessert and I think he felt bad because I didn't get anything, because then he showed up at the table with shots of ouzo. And he ensured we drank them.

Hong Kong has double-decker busses and trams. The streets and sidewalks are very narrow too.

Saturday Night

On Saturday, we fit in a trip to the Bund, the grocery store, the Propaganda Poster Museum (which is walking distance from our apartment), a walk through a bit of the French Concession, the Pearl Market, lunch at Bukharra (an Indian restaurant), a Dutch movie our friend Inge brought over, a nap, a quick stroll on Nanjing Lu, a drink at 789 Nanjing Lu, and a couple beers at the Captain's Bar. It was a busy day. (These are all Esther's photos.)

I like this photo of us! I feel like we are on a movie set or something.




I've wanted to go to the Captain's Bar for a while now, and it was on Esther's to-do list because a co-worker had told her about it. It's on the top of a hostel and the cheapest bar with a Bund view. Granted, the cheapest with a Bund view is still expensive! A draft Chinese beer was 45 RMB. We buy the bottled beer at the convenience store next to our house for about 4 RMB.

Anyway, we had a really good time talking about all of our memories (or lack thereof) from Sweden and discussed who we'd kept in touch with and who was doing what.

no tai chi

We wanted to get up early on Saturday to see Tai Chi being done at the Bund, but we didn't actually want to get up early. So we left about 9 AM - and that is way too late too see Tai Chi! I think they say sunrise but that is about 5 AM. I like to sleep much more than that.


(Esther's photos)

Suzhou

One of the things that we still can't quite get used to is that traditionally the babies don't wear diapers, even when they are a few months old. They have pants with a split in the crotch, and when they have to go they just go anywhere. Perhaps a curb or drain, or the metal grate around a tree on the sidewalk. (or in Tiananmen Square, see this post.) Now, it is MUCH better for the environment that 1.3 billion people did not or do not wear disposable diapers - that is wonderful. But, having human excrement anywhere is not so wonderful. I also can't quite get used to private parts not being private. This little guy was just playing around but when he squatted down there was nothing private anymore....

It poured rain most of the day. We went to Tiger Hill, which the guidebook says is usually packed. The great thing about the rain was that there was almost no one there.

Dak Shanghai

On Friday, I was going to work as usual when my boss convinced me I should take the day off and go to Suzhou with Esther. (He was right! Thanks Dan.) We showed her around before going to the train station. She really liked the LED displays as a background - I have to agree, it looks pretty cool.

Guitar Hero

Jon bought the new Aerosmith game for Guitar Hero in Hong Kong.

It's fun - Jon even plays our friend Adam online sometimes.

Eating at Element Fresh - it's pretty close and has great food.

Finestre

We took Esther to supper at Finestre her first night here. It has great food and a great view - we actually take all of our guests here.

Why Daktronics needs to be in China... check out ALL of the LED lighting! Buildings, boats, etc.

The Bund

Qibao

Today, Esther flew in! She took a 2 AM flight from Bangkok to Shanghai and I met her at the Maglev station. After relaxing a bit, we met Jon for lunch and then went to Qibao, an area that is like an old water town. It was a little bit touristy, but we only saw 4 other white people in about 3 hours so it was quite local.



One of the thousands of guys who bike around, constantly ringing a bell, to remind you to bring all of your recyclables to him.



Baby birds on a stick... yum.

We've been following the situation in Thailand, as Esther should be flying back there Sunday. However, with the state of emergency and such, maybe she'll be staying a bit longer! Who knows. We certainly wouldn't mind!

Check out her blog here.

789 Nanjing Lu

Saturday night was Inge's 2nd to last night here, so we decided to go out. We went to the "taser", otherwise known as the Le Meridian hotel. They have an expensive bar that overlooks Nanjing Lu.

Inge got a little burned in Hangzhou yesterday. She is wearing one of the dresses she got made at the fabric market. Jon is in a fabric market shirt too (as usual).

Propaganda Poster Museum

We also went to the Propaganda Poster Museum. It's a private collection and we met the owner. A lot of the posters were destroyed right after the Cultural Revolution so it was pretty amazing to see so many posters from throughout so many years.

We bought this one - it's a unique one because it is felt.

Inge

Our friend Inge, who we went to school in Sweden with, arrived on the 13th. She'll be here about two weeks. Inge's suitcase was loaded with goodies for us! Boots even got a present! We love Stroopwafels so she brought 3 packages of them, some books for me, and a game called Moods that we ordered from the US and played a lot in Sweden.

One of the best part about having visitors is when they cook for us.... :-) Inge made nasi, with her family's secret peanut sauce. She made it for us several times in Sweden and it is SO good!! She'd also sent us packets to make it in the US, but we couldn't quite get the secret sauce right. We really enjoyed getting it again.

Hugo's wedding

Hugo, one of the Keyframe animators, got married on Sunday.

Jasmine and Hugo

One of the cool things about a Chinese wedding is that the bride will change dresses at least three times. So she gets to wear a few of her favorite dresses, not just one.

David, Jimmy, Ryan, Sofia and Yvonne taking a shot of baijiu.

The Dak group with the beautiful, happy couple!

Summer in South Dakota

Last month, a few of my co-workers from Shanghai and Macao went to South Dakota. Judd took a some people from the A/P region to the lake and Andy Tai (from our Macao office) shared these photos with us. Seeing these actually made me homesick for the first time since moving to China. Thanks for letting me put these photos up, Andy!

Beautiful blue sky, blue water... this is what SD looks like at the lake in summer!

Typical SD farm

Andy (PM in Macao), Fred (head of Shanghai repair center), and Gina (process engineer)

Judd driving his boat

the work never ends.... Jon S.

Fred and Gina taking photos of Judd

Jon trying to do a flip

Shanghai guys

As we were leaving Era, I noticed that Dan was carrying Wendy's purse. You'll notice many guys in Shanghai carrying cute little purses - mostly belonging to their girlfriends. I promptly complained about how Jon never carried my pink purse.... so he very grudgingly obliged and glared at Dan.

The moment was too good to miss. I don't think Jon will ever volunteer to carry my purse. He thinks pink isn't his color.

The Jin Mao Tower

The Jin Mao tower is currently the highest building in Shanghai that you can go in. The World Financial Center has beat it, but it's not open yet.


The top disappears into the clouds.


The bar at the top is called Cloud Nine.

It's the rainy season now, so very rainy and foggy all of the time. Most of the time we were in a cloud, but suddenly it blew away for a short time so we could see out below.

(These are all photos Hanna took.)

Hanna & Henrik visiting

Our friends Hanna and Henrik are visiting from June 7 to 16th. We are super excited! We all went to school together in Jonkoping, Sweden (they are Swedish). In 2004, we visited them while they were living in Prague. In 2006, they visited us in South Dakota. We were planning to visit them in 2007 bu we moved to China instead. This year, they came to Shanghai, next summer we are going to Sweden to visit them, and in 2010 we've discussed driving Route 66 in the US!

You can read about and see photos from their journey in their travel journal.

All of us celebrating in Shanghai again!

Minna's Wedding

A couple weeks ago Jon and I were able to attend Minna's wedding. Minna works at Daktronics in HR and also tutors me in Chinese occasionally. There didn't seem to be an actual ceremony like we usually see, but just a large celebration, speeches from the family and the biggest meal I have ever seen! The dishes were piled on top of each other and kept coming long after everyone was stuffed.

Minna and her husband. She started out in a white, Western wedding dress, then changed to a gold dress, then finally changed into a red traditional Chinese dress. (Red is lucky in China, while white is the color for funerals.)

The guests all signed this, which was then cut up and names drawn for prizes.

Shelley and Sue (both work at Dak)

Yolanda, Gina and Chris (all from Dak)


Keyframe with the couple

Cody (Dak salesperson) and his family with the couple

A new dish for me - soft shelled turtle.

Ryan and Jon drinking baijiu (white wine, but really strong alcohol)

Minna toasting at the table. The couple toasts every table.

Abram's motorcycle

My co-worker Abram just bought a motorcycle with a sidecar. It's a replica of one used by the military in Mao's day. It's pretty popular with foreigners - both Dan and Jon really want one! Yesterday we saw a whole family of foreigners on one. The dad was driving with one kid on the seat behind him, and the mom and baby were riding in the sidecar.

Jon S. and Abram.

Ning and Abram.

Mahjong

Wendy and Daniel came over on Friday night to have a few drinks and Wendy taught us all to play Mahjong. It was a lot of fun and I think we all managed to win one game so we were getting the hang of it. I'm sure we'll be having a lot more game nights in the future.

Sarah & Micah

One of the best parts about being home is seeing friends we only see a few times a year. Every time we are West River, we make sure to see Sarah and her son Micah. It makes me a little sad to see how much Micah has grown each time we see them. He really loves us though and calls us Uncle Jon and Aunt Emily.

This is Bear Butte. I'd never seen a cloud hang over it like this before!! It was cold and getting ready to snow.

I also love to go shopping in the US!! We bought a travel Scrabble game to bring back with us. I love word games! You can play a mini-game here.

US visitors

A group of six Executive MBA students came to the office today to learn about business in China. Their small group was doing research on keeping mid-level management employees in China. They were part of a larger group of about 80 students, who all were getting their EMBAs at a school in Chicago.

A woman named Samantha is from Sioux Falls, and knows a woman who works in Personnel at the Dak office there, which is how she found out about Dak Shanghai. Another guy in their group, Jeff, had previously lived in Suzhou for two years. It was great talking to them, but we hardly had any time.

Later I met them at their hotel. The whole group had gone to the fabric market and bought many clothes. Unfortunately, about half of them didn't fit at all. The guys who made the clothes still wanted them to pay for everything and take it, but of course they didn't want to. This caused quite the common and they were pretty persistent.

I'd been telling Rob and Chris about all of the places Jon and I have traveled to, and they asked just how old I was. I guess I don't look old enough to have been to 27 different countries. :-) I told them was my birthday and they bought me a glass of champagne to celebrate.

Jon's Girlfriends and Boyfriend

Since Jon is the sales manager for China, he is often on the road with Linlin and on the phone with Judd and Aileen (PMs in the USA). Whenever he gets a phone call after 10 PM, I ask, "Is it your boyfriend or your girlfriend?" If he's traveling, I'll ask him if he's going to have dinner with his girlfriend.

Jon and his girlfriends (Geoffrey wanted a kiss too!)

Jon is always on the phone with Judd - I guess Judd is a good boyfriend. :-) I think Judd's wife feels the same way. Since we are 14 hours ahead, it is usually late at night for one of us when they are talking. Judd definitely is on the phone more with Jon than I am!

Judd and Aileen are both PMs in Brookings.

SDARL

Jon and I, along with Dan, spoke to the SDARL group Wednesday morning. We talked about Daktronics and our move and lives in China. It was really nice to see 37 people from our home state! My dad was part of the class before them, and mom and dad have hosted the whole group before, so everyone knew me as John's daughter. Being South Dakotans, we all had some type of tie to each other. My dad fed cattle for Erik, Anita lived in Belle Fouche and happened to be someone Jon's dad had thought about calling to AI cattle, one man's mom lived a few miles from my house, etc. etc. It's a small world, even from South Dakota to Shanghai.

Rachel and Lura were good friends of ours since high school. We were all in FFA together. It was pretty amazing to see them in Shanghai! Luckily, they had their only free night that night! We took them to supper at Simply Thai and then had a drink at their hotel bar. We also showed them our apartment.

Rachel said she'd wished that she had brought some jeans - they didn't have very many chances to wear them so she didn't bring any. I happened to have a couple pairs that are now too big for me, and they happened to fit her perfectly. She has my favorite pink corduroy pants too - I am so happy they went to a good home! Lura got a few shirts too. We had a good trade though. Earlier we had discussed how I bring back Western "feminine products" from the US since stores only have maxi pads, so they left me some western products. :-)

Rachel, me and Lura on our balcony. They agreed that the view was great!

Lura works for the Tri-State Neighbor and was keeping a blog about the whole trip. Jon and I were mentioned several times and have photos of us (and our kitchen) in it. We really hope they can come back and visit personally!

Thursday, I escorted two of the group members to a clinic here. One of them had been sick for several days, vomiting and with diarrhea. The doctor got her hydrated again with six bags of a saline IV. They were worried about her kidneys and blood pressure but luckily she improved enough to fly to Hong Kong with the rest of the group the next day. She was a trooper - she had me take photos of her with the IV and with her nice nurse Amy!

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. :-)

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!

Holly visiting

My friend Holly has been visiting us for the last few days. She used to work at Dak (and was my boss in IT.) Now she lives in Beijing and teaches English. She came to visit and we toured the town. Here we are at the Bund.





This is Nanjing Lu - the "Times Square" of Shanghai.

Yee-haw - Shanghai, South Dakota

It's a bit strange to see a stuffed steer here. It's quite realistic. This is outside of a Japanese restaurant near the office. Abram, Sofia, Yvonne and I had sushi there for lunch once.

On the day before October holiday, Sofia wore these cowboy boots to the office. I pictured my dad wearing his cowboy boots with shorts..... first of all, farmers and cowboys never ever wear shorts. And they live in their boots. Of course, like any city, here they are just a fashion statement.