Who Would Have Thought They Had Hockey In China?

We got free tickets thru the school so yesterday we drove to the far side of Shanghai to see China's only professional hockey team play. The team is associated somehow with the San Jose Sharks so they had a few non-Asians on the roster but it was mostly Chinese players.
This being my first hockey game, I have no idea if it was good or not but we had fun anyway. These teams play in the Asia League with all the teams being from China, Japan or South Korea. The league is home to such hockey powerhouses as the Nikko Ice Bucks, the Nippon Paper Cranes, the High1 (that's it...High1), and my personal favorite - the Seibu Prince Rabbits. As usual something is probably lost in translation.
Pictures here.

I Don't Know What to Say

I tried cominig up with something witty to say about this but I've got nothing. Enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving

Believe it or not, Thanksgiving is not celebrated in all parts of the world. It's pretty much just another day here. Some of the western restaurants serve a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday night but that's about it.

So we're going to have our Thanksgiving holiday today. We got up early and went to church and now Kristi is in the kitchen trying to get everything cooked in our tiny little Chinese oven. I'm serving as designated dishwasher, trying to keep the mess to a minimum while typing this with dishpan hands.

It stinks that Kate won't be here with us but we'll see her in about three weeks when she comes in for Christmas. In the meantime, we're thankful for all the friends and family back home who stop by here to read all my stupid stories. It's great to know that people care about us and that we're not forgotten. We love the comments and the emails and don't even mind when you forget about the time difference and call in the middle of the night. Thanks for everything.

Playing Catch-up Again

It's been quite a while since I last posted anything here. It's not from lack of having things to write about. It's just been a little chaotic here lately. Kristi has started taking some online classes. She is also started substitute teaching occasionally at Emily's school and she teaches English a couple hours a week at a migrant school near our neighborhood (See the bottom of this post for more on this). As for me, work is crazy-busy right now as we wrap up the design phase of this project and move towards construction. Sometime after the first of the year, part of my job will move from Shanghai to the plant site. I'll spend 2-3 days a week there and 2-3 days in Shanghai.

Mom and Dad came for a visit in late-October and stayed for about four weeks. We had a great time hanging out with them and it was a blast watching them deal with the culture shock. It made us stop and think about the things that we have become so accustomed to that we don't even notice them now. While they were here, we revisited some of the old sights and took in some new ones. Kristi and I even skipped town for a weekend and went back to the States to visit Kate at Ball State.

I have pictures of all this and will get them posted over the next couple of weeks so bear with us, be patient, and keep checking back here.

(Just a quick side note here - many of the construction workers in Shanghai are from other parts of China. Most leave their families back home and get to see them only a couple of times a year but some of these migrant workers choose to bring their families with them. Unfortunately, the public schools in Shanghai are reserved for those who were born here so the migrant children aren't allowed to attend. They have to attend these separate schools that have practically no resources. About 50 kids per class. No heat, no library, no notebooks or paper.)