Pearl Market etc.

Hi everyone, here is an update on the past couple of weeks.
Last Saturday I went with about 30 other teachers from SSIS to the pearl market. The name "market" kind of threw me off because I expected an outdoor place with various booths and people shouting and crowds (similar to the copy market, children's market, and walking street). Here is what I found
They should probably rename it the pearl mall because that's what it felt like. It was clean and not crowded at all. Each one of the tables in the middle is owned by a separate owner and then the bigger shops are along the perimeter. The jewelry was absolutely beautiful and the prices were unbelievable. I will definitely be going back!

I had promised Abigail that we would have her birthday party in October since we didn't have one on the actual day. Her birthday falls on golden week here so most of her friends leave town. Anyway, October came and went and we finally got around to having her party last Saturday. We took a small group of her friends to a spa to get manicures, then out for ice cream and then back to our place for presents and a quick play. True to the living in China experience, I took the girls into the dvd shop to pick out their own dvd to take home instead of a party bag. $1 us, and the girls were thrilled, can't beat it. The girls had a great time at the spa, it was a very easy party but worked out really well. Here they are at the spa and showing off their nails on the way home.














This week went well. James had a cross-country meet at the Shanghai American School and improved his 3k time yet again, the season will be over on Monday. Abigail went on a field trip to the Shanghai science museum. She is really enjoying the many activities she has become involved in including dance, choir, computer club, photography and cooking class where she has learned to make cheese biscuits, dumplings, pizza, cookies, and more. James participated in the House Trivia contest this week, representing the blue monkeys. Mark is the head of the house. James managed to get his team some points but they ended up losing. Oh well.
The last time I blogged I posted pictures of Abigail's new haircut, this week we took James downstairs to get his cut. I didn't take him to the fancy expat salon, I thought he could handle the chinese place in our apartment complex. So no more shaggy, surfer hairdo.
He of course isn't looking at me here, I couldn't get him to look up from his video game. That's his school uniform jacket. Both he and Abigail have fleece school jackets that they wear when the weather gets colder.
Last Sunday we went for a walk in central park and I took some scenic shots. The first one is of a statue in the park. One of many. There are sculptures all over Suzhou, they're really neat actually. It was a rainy day so the pictures look misty.

This morning we headed out early to walking street in attempt to finish our Christmas shopping. It is my goal to have it in the mail as of tomorrow and have a month to get to Canada and the US. We also picked up Abigail's new dress from the tailor's but we were so busy that she has yet to try it on. While we were out walking I had the bizarre experience of being asked to pose for a picture with a young chinese man! Really strange. There is a temple right in the middle of walking street and I wanted to take some pictures so here is the temple, as well as one of the shopping streets nearby.

After walking street we went to go see a pantomime play that the expat association put on. It was quite funny, the kids really enjoyed it.
So that's about it, we will be celebrating American Thanksgiving at the school this Thursday. They will be having a turkey dinner for any staff families that would like to attend so I think we will all enjoy that. I will be sure to take pictures! I make it policy to always have my camera on me these days!
So...have a good week everyone!

Abigail's big day

Hi everyone, time to blog again before another school week starts. The kids don't have school on Monday or Tuesday because we have proffesional development but James and Abby will come in with us and hang out with the other staff kids at the school.
The race I wrote about last weekend was fun but not financially rewarding. Oh well. It was fun to get excited about it. Here's the group watching the race at Mr.Pizza on Tuesday night.
James had a cross country meet this week and beat his 3k time by 5 minutes. Very proud of him, especially since he has been suffering from a cold and it was cold and rainy. This weekend we have been running around doing errands and finally got around to visiting the tailor this afternoon. We had heard having clothes made is quite cheap and a "must do" experience so we thought we would check out the local silk place. Abigail has chosen a dress from some pictures we found on-line and picked out some fabric so she is having a christmas dress custom made for her! Here she is having her measurements taken, she felt like quite the princess!

We also went to have Abigail's hair cut at the local salon. As some of you know, I have been painstakingly trying to get Abigail's bangs to grow out for almost a year now and we are finally to the point where she can tuck them behind her ears! yaaayyyy! Anyway, we chopped it to about shoulder length.

So that's about all to report for this week. We hope everyone is well. Obviously a big week in the US and we were able to watch quite a bit of coverage at school with the students as the day went on. Most of the americans we talked to were pleased and hopeful. I'll be cautious and choose to leave my political opinions out of the blog :)




Last weekend before I got picked up to go shopping in Shanghai I took some pictures of our apartment complex Sudu Gardens. So I'll post them below. Lots of love until next weekend!

Birthday and Halloween

It's been awhile so I thought it was time to catch up. As most of you know, it was my birthday last Monday (we won't say which one) and coincidentally, also my first day teaching! On Sunday we had brunch at a TexMex place and went into Old Suzhou to do some shopping. We found the Sephora (make up place) and a nice department store. Here are the kids in the rickshaw we took while shopping around town (always an experience)




So my first week teaching high school english went well. I have grade 9s and 10s. Mark and I have quite a few of the same students which is fun for them (and us I suppose). We had a rainy week and the weather continues to cool but not to an uncomfortable level yet. We hear from other teachers that it's coming.
James joined student council this week. He continues to make more friends and is showing a lot of improvement in cross country. He has three meets coming up in November, one with another international school in Suzhou and 2 in Shanghai. He is making his grandfather proud I'm sure.





On Friday the kids were aloud to wear black and orange to school for Halloween instead of their uniforms. The staff kids all got together for some trick or treating in the evening. There were about 30 kids in all. Quite a big group. We had a good time and got some very interesting chinese candy to try!

Here are the kids walking to the complex where they trick or treated. James was the "grim reaper" and Abigail was a pop star. We got some interesting looks from passers-by!

This is Abigail's new friend Tabitha. She is from England (but was born in Singapore). She had her first sleepover at Tabitha's a couple of weeks ago.Here is the group. There are some older kids that weren't there. Most of James' friends opted to go to the middle school dance so he was one of the older ones there. I thought costumes would be pretty scarce and we would have to get creative with what we had at home but as you can see, it wasn't really an issue. A lot of the british and australian kids were celebrating halloween for the first time so that was neat.

Yesterday I went with 8 other teachers into Shanghai to do some early Christmas shopping. We went to the Children's Clothing Market and the copy market. The children's place was underground and had every designer label you could think of. Rows and rows of shops where we spent about 2 hours. You have to bargain in these places which I'm really bad at. Since there is a language barrier, I basically pass a calculator back and forth with the shopkeeper until we are both happy or I choose to walk away. It can be exhausting but I was quite successful.
The copy market is 4 floors of watches, designer bags, silk, shoes, and clothes for adults. This is where the locals tend to be a little more aggressive. They shout "hey lady" as you walk by and try everything in the book to try to get you to buy what they have. I was actually quite proud of myself for surviving that place on my own but still unclear whether I got ripped off!
Mark had the kids and 2 of their friends for the day and once I got home we all went out to dinner at a Korean restaurant with another family from school. Here is the only picture I took at the copy market. A man carving a gift I got for Jack (I'm guessing he doesn't read the blog).

So that's all for now. Apparently there is a very important horse race this Tuesday in Australia (both Australia and New Zealand take the day off), so Mark is being pressured to participate in horse betting. He'll bet on his horse tomorrow and then watch the race on Tuesday night with everyone at the local haunt Mr.Pizza. They'll also be covering a different race from the other side of the world so we will be tuning in to see how that goes. Should be interesting.
Lots of love to everyone. Take care, and thanks for all the birthday wishes - they are much appreciated!