Pictures (testing)

Hi everyone, I figured out how to post pictures! Ok so this is our living room. We haven't received our shipment yet so it is still pretty bare. I got the rug, picture and flowers from Ikea. The white, leather furniture isn't really me but could be worse :)

This is the dining room. Our front door is to the right and the sliding door is to our tiny kitchen. We have the picture Mum and Dad gave us and the picture Treasa gave us on the glass shelves on the left. The table seats 6 but very tightly.Ok, so wood floors throughout. Rug from Ikea. Abby's room and our room to the left. Guest bathroom and James' room to the right. This is where I plan to put majority of our family pictures when they come.
This was our coffee table but I moved it against the wall for more room in the living room. We had some pictures of Jack, Mason and Ryker framed from the summer.
The view out our front balcony. To the left is the clock tower and central park is the green area.
This is our window seat. It faces the back view of the apartment. It's wide and long enough for 2 people to sit and play cards or read. We figured it might come in handy as extra seating when people are over.
View from the balcony. We have a balcony in the front and the back but the front is glassed in and has storage cabinets so I keep my ironing board, James' ripstick and cleaning supplies there. The balcony off the living room has a table, chairs and I have a few plants out there. Just planted the forget-me-nots from Laura's wedding, and Abigail's fairy garden is out there until winter. Abigail can access the balcony from her bedroom as well. Nice to sit out at night and look out at the city.
We went to the bird and flower market yesterday. Both of the kids got a couple of turtles. We also bought plants for the balcony and got Abigail's fairy garden started.
This is for Mum, Abigail's fairy garden. If you look closely you can see the bridge and pagoda. We'll add to it later.
The night scene from our balcony. The center building has the tetris game on the side. You can see the blocks on the left. Sometimes it has the olympic mascots waving.

We'll post more soon. :)

September 24, 2008

Ni Hao Everyone! I hope this finds everyone well. We had a special treat this past weekend skyping as we got to see Mason, Eli and Ryker on the monitor! Mason waved, Eli stared and Ryker tried to eat the camera! It was great! We're hoping we'll see Jack sometime soon (hint, hint).
The boys left for camp this morning. It is quite eerie walking around the school as 2/3 of the population is gone. So it is just the girls for the next 3 days. Abigail and I are planning to get some Papa John's pizza and a DVD tonight. It may be difficult as all 4 of our dvd places are only open for an hour in the evenings because apparently the "DVD police" are in town(?)
We found out last week that it is very hard to find deodorant and contact solution in Suzhou. We did manage to find some but had to take a taxi to the eye hospital in old Suzhou and paid a fortune for deodorant (I know what Mark is asking for Christmas this year!)
We have next week off. It is the Chinese National Day but they take a whole week off. Abigail's birthday is Tuesday. I am hoping to convince Mark to go to the bird and flower market on Saturday morning. I would love some plants for my balcony and this market is apparently also dubbed "pet street". They sell birds, fish, turtles, frogs, dogs, cats and one of my kindergartners told me she bought her hamsters there. I would love to see it. Mark is trying to avoid James begging for a dog or cat but we may compromise with a turtle, we'll see.
James is doing well in school. Surprisingly he does not have a lot of homework. I thought once he hit middle school he would be hitting the books until all hours of the night but apparently the IB program doesn't work like that. The philosophy is less homework and more projects. He was quite happy that one of the assignments in his english class is to read a book a month and sit down and tell his teacher about it. That was right up his alley. He told me his favorite class this year is Chinese which was surprising. I think he is quite anxious to know what everyone is saying when we are walking around Suzhou.
Unfortunately good books for the kids are hard to come by. The 2 libraries at the school are quite good but both James and Abigail are looking for books in specific series. The school does monthly scholastic book orders which is nice and the prices are reasonable. We're also going to look in Shanghai next week.
Anyway, that's all for now. I keep trying to post summer pictures on facebook but the internet is so slow here and often times out before the pictures are uploaded. I'll keep trying though. Lots of love until next time!

September 17

We are settling in for the night and I thought I would write a quick blog before bed. We had a very successful trip to the ikea in Shanghai with about 50 other people from SSIS (2 buses). I was happy to be able to feather the nest a bit since it looks like our shipment won't be here for at least a couple of weeks. Ikea here is just like everywhere else, it was just a bit more crowded. We are planning another trip into Shanghai (just the Smiths) for golden week which is September 29- October 3.
Abigail and the rest of the primary school ran in their own Terry Fox run this morning. They ran all around the school property, not sure exactly how far. Mark, James and the secondary school (middle and high school) will leave the school to run their own Terry Fox run by the lake tomorrow. For those Americans reading this Terry Fox was a Canadian man who lost his leg to cancer and tried to run across canada in effort to raise money for cancer research. Unfortunately he lost his battle with cancer and Canadians all over the world honor him by organizing races/ charity runs each year. In fact, I remember running the Terry Fox run in Malaysia when I was 10. I also ran it in Houston with James when he was 7.
We continue to settle into China. Some aspects of our life are simpler, such as all going to the same place at the same time and returning together in the evening. All the kids' activities are in the same place. However some things seem to be a challenge. Of course not speaking the language is hard. The supermarkets here are a nightmare so we try to buy our groceries at smaller shops. Unfortunately the place for the freshest meat is different from the wet market where we buy our fruits and vegetables, and the bakery where we buy bread is separate as well. We do a lot of walking!
Life did get a little easier this week because I realized that the little shop downstairs in our complex sells really good (and fresh) fruits and vegetables. I was impressed that the man that runs the shop speaks very good english and even has a website with his inventory! He delivers up to the apartment at no charge! So I email down and he brings it up!
Mark and James will be going away to "camp" next week. Every fall grade 3-12 go camping for three days. Grade 3 sleeps in the school gym and as the children get older they go further and further away. High schooler sometimes travel outside of China. So Mark will be going with his grade 9 homeroom class to Hangzhou and James will be going to Wuxi. They stay in 4 star hotels so it isn't really camping. They will participate in an outward bound program during the day. Mark has told me that he is in charge of karaoke for his group!
Speaking of Mark, he is officially a "head of house". When the students enroll at SSIS they are sorted into a "house". There are four houses and they participate in various competitions throughout the school year from staring contests to chess tournaments to various sports competions. At the end of the year points are tallied and there is a cup for the winning house. So Mark is officially the head of the Monkeys (there are also Dragons, Tigers, and Phoenixes). I think he is going to have way too much fun with this :)
I am coming down with a little bit of a cold and so am going to stop here. We are thinking about all of you in Texas and hope everything returns to normal as soon as possible, just glad everyone is safe.
Love you and miss you all.
Love, the Smiths

First 2 weeks of school

Hi Everyone, I have been meaning to write since last Friday but have been busy with back to school stuff and actually have been quite tired lately.
Anyway, enough excuses. Everyone is settling into the 08/09 school year. James is dealing with all the big changes that middle school brings on top of being new, attending an international school, and having both his parents at school with him! He has joined the cross country team, they practice 3x a week and I think that will be plenty to keep him busy for now. He seems to be making a few friends and spends his lunch period playing yu gi oh in the hallway with quite a big group.
Abigail really likes her new teacher who is from New Zealand and has started taking chinese. She joined the choir which practices 2 lunch periods every week. Apparently they have quite a few performances at the school as well as out in the community. At Christmas time they perform at an orphanage in Suzhou. I think she will really enjoy it.
Mark is busy as usual teaching kids from grade 9 - 12. The school has a very comfortable atmosphere and the teachers are very social outside of school, Mark also commented the other night that the percentage of male teachers is quite a bit higher and I think he likes that after teaching with mostly women for the past 3 years. It looks like he will be volunteering his after school time to the school production of Oliver Twist, working on sound and lights.
As for moi, I have been working with pre-K and kindergarten doing their PMP program which is very similar to the kidfit I was teaching in Texas. I have also been working as resource co-ordinator for the elementary school. I took a step class yesterday after school which was fun. There is talk of getting a group of teachers together 1 day a week for a tennis round robin so I'm really hoping that gets organized.
We have a long weekend starting tomorrow, not sure why but we'll take it! The school is organizing some buses to take a group to IKEA in Shanghai on Saturday so I am really excited about that! It will give us a chance to feather the nest a bit. We still have not received our shipment - apparently there was an issue with my resident visa because my marriage liscence has my middle name on it and my passport doesn't. The chinese police didn't like that. Stay tuned I guess. I'm trying to get Mark to post some pictures so hopefully we'll have a link set up soon.
That's all for now, Lots of love to everyone!

some interesting observations from suzhou

As everyone warned us, the chinese drive crazy and have very little regard for traffic laws... however, they all drive relatively slow. So the fright factor is minimal. Although we did see a taxi hit a scooter the other night.


Despite us westerners not understanding a darn thing about the language, culture, or daily life, the chinese people always smile and try to help us out (I think having the adorable children with us helps)


Almost every apartment complex (and there are many), has an inner courtyard/garden as well as a playground and a walking street with a few shops.


Taxis cost 10RMB, which is about a 1.50 US


The school has snack everyday at 10:30 for all the students and staff. Usually bread and jam with some kind of fruit.


It is overcast almost everyday but the mornings and evenings are quite pleasant to be outside


The number 4 is considered to be unlucky and apartments on the 4th floor are rented for less. (No worries - we are on the 7th floor)


Everynight most apartment building have a light show on their exterior (including ours) It is a crazy city scene that puts Las Vegas to shame!