As promised, here are some pictures that Mark and James took on their bike ride last Saturday.

So this is actually a giant sculpture of a compass. Mark's favourite actually (and there are a lot of sculptures in Suzhou). He has always wanted to take a picture like this.

I also wanted to post some pictures of Abigail's room since I didn't get a chance to last weekend.


The butterfly stickers all over her room are from Ikea last weekend.

This week zoomed by. Not only has the school not hired a new music teacher but the other music teacher who I have been helping had a death in her family and she had to fly home this week! I was left with the elementary music program completely in my hands. Needless to say I got through it and thank goodness she will be back on Monday. Everyone else seemed to have a good week. There was a staff social at the school last night and Mark's band (made up of the high school counselor, a middle school science teacher and the head of grade 3) performed. I didn't stay.... I felt anti-social last night. We did go out for our weekly dinner at a restaurant down the street with our friends the Warren-Hurleys. We've been doing this every Friday for a little over a year now. I snapped some pictures.

See, so much more fun than a stuffy staff social :)

So Abigail and I went to the shopping centre close to our apartment this morning. We arrived about a half hour before the doors open so we scoped out the Wal-Mart in the basement. People always laugh when I tell them there is a Wal-Mart in Suzhou so I snapped a few photos. Most of them are of snacks I thought you might get a kick out of.

They have Great Value brand just like in North America. Although I'm not entirely sure what "Candied Haws" are.
Here's a picture of the mall upstairs.

After we walked home we had a really nice lunch with Mark and James who had been making homemade tortillas! We finally got our hands on whole wheat flour and have been loving it! Here's our spread, fresh fruit and veggies, berry dip and curry dip from Laura's epicure, cheese quesadillas with the whole wheat tortillas and baked cinnamon tortillas. We watched Top Chef while we were eating and were feeling quite impressed with ourselves. It's really sad how limited we are here in the far east ;)

I'm a food blogger now! Anyway, we are settling in for the night. Hope everyone is well and a big congratulations to John and Nancy Norwood on the birth of their second son Eli!
Love from China.

I'm back!

I just checked and the last time I posted a blog was last November! So, at my mother's request, I am promising to revive The Smiths in China blog.
We have been back in China for three weeks. This is our third year and it looks like it will be our final year here in Suzhou. It is bittersweet as we have made some good friends and had amazing, life-changing experiences but I don't feel right about moving once James enters high school (next year, yikes) so next summer looks like the best time to move on to another international location. But... more about that later.
The first three weeks of the school year have been busy. James is settling into grade 8, has joined the cross country team and is in student council for the second year in a row. Abigail is in grade 5 and has a new teacher who is from Fiji, she has already started choir and girl scouts and was excited to see her friends after the summer break. Mark started a new position this school year teaching computer technology as well as "learning technology teacher", which means he trains other teachers in how to use technology more effectively in the classroom. I was asked to teach elementary music as the teacher who was supposed to come and teach this year has no showed. Hopefully they will find someone to fill the position soon because I am definitely out of my comfort zone! I am also coaching the high school and middle school tennis teams, leading girl scouts for grades 2 and 3 and teaching a staff step class.
Now that you're all caught up, here's what we've been doing this weekend.
Abigail and I embarked on our third annual trip to the Shanghai Ikea yesterday. The main purpose of the trip is for new staff to shop for whatever they might need to set up their new apartments but anyone can come along and I wanted to pick up a few items. Abigail is always keen to come on shopping trips! The bus trip was about 2 hours, we got stuck in a little traffic but nothing too major. I took this as we approached the city.


Here it is! Looks like the Ikea close to you doesn't it? The inside does as well but I didn't take any pictures of the inside.
Here's Abigail enjoying her lunch of swedish meatballs (fueling up for round two of shopping).



We spent the whole day at Ikea. We were picked up at 8am and weren't home until 5pm. Of course I had to get everything I bought all set up and looking the way I wanted. So we were working hard until bedtime. Here are some pictures of the apartment. I know some of you are curious about our digs :)

kitchen/dining

James' room

I thought I had a picture of Abigail's room but I guess I don't. I would go and take one right now but she's asleep so it will have to wait.
Speaking of bed, it's time to wrap this up. Mark and James went on a 30km bike ride yesterday and explored our neighborhood a bit. They took pictures so I will post those tomorrow night. Hopefully I can get back into the habit of blogging.
Good night!