Typhoons, Tours, and Plenty of Sweat

This has been an amazing week of firsts.  We are officially residents of Shanghai, our passports say it's true.  We went to some big office building last Tuesday for our "interview".  I use that term loosely because all I had to do was answer my phone and sign a paper.  That's all it took.  Now our family are guest Shanghaiese.  So we made a day of it in Pudong and did the tourist thing.


After the interview we went to visit the Shanghai Aquarium. It is located right next to the Pearl Tower.  (We'll be making a trip back to the Pearl Tower this Thursday.  We can't wait!) I think everyone was evacuating the coming typhoon at the aquarium.  Great place to take the children.  Lots of tubes and tunnels to walk through and see sharks, fish, and rays floating overhead.  The most interesting thing for me was the number of people that took pictures of my children.  I believe they were the most photographed creatures at the aquarium that day.  I got a couple of cool pictures of jellyfish and incubating sharks.  The sharks were so cool.

Beautiful back lit jellies were so cool.  The room
just glowed with these bright pink creatures.

Nod to the Olympics

The are the incubating sharks.  It was so cool to watch them
 swim around in their little egg sacs.  Amazing part of
the exhibit.

The children decided to build their own storm shelter on
the couch and rode out the typhoon.  It was a great day to
stay in our pajamas and watch movies.

Tuesday night we got to meet Typhoon Haikui.  Another first.  We stayed home Wednesday and watched trees blow over, branches fly through the air and intermittant downpours.  Let me just tell you there is no Chinese Jim Cantore to tell you what is happening, when it is going to happen, and how bad it is going to be.  In fact, the english speaking Chinese news station led off with that poor Chinese hurdler that let down 1.3 billion people because he couldn't compete.  After 20 minutes of discussing his shame and lost income due to his inability to compete in the Olympics, there was a 2 minute blurb about Haikui (pronounced hi-kwee).  According to my own Jim Cantore, it was about a Category 2 hurricane.  That was plenty for me. 

Pearl Tower is on the left and the
Shangri La is on the right.

Thursday night we headed back to Pudong and went to eat at Yi Cafe at the Shangri La Hotel and then walked along the riverfront.  Shanghai looks amazing at night.  It is all lit up like Vegas.  There are walking paths all along the river and you can basically walk as far as you would like along the river.  A great thing to do after filling up at the buffet at Yi Cafe.  Here are a few pictures from the riverfront along with the Pearl Tower and the Shangri La.  There are several riverboat cruises that occur at night as well.  We plan on doing one of those in the near future.  Great way to get a fabulous views from both sides of the river.

Children's first taxi ride

First ride on the Metro

Sunday we headed out in a taxi and went to our favorite restaurant in HongMei Lu.  Amy's is always packed and we are usually the only westerners there.  The children are learning to like Chinese food and they are certainly expanding their horizons.  Their only gripe is that you can't get a milkshake there.                                                                                                                                                 




After lunch, we hit the Metro and went to Xintiandi which is part of the former French Concession.  Great architecture and really cool fountains.  That is what I love about these pedestrian malls.  Super opportunities for taking pictures!








Now Xintiandi is very touristy and full of great restaurants and shopping malls.  Best part for the children was the location of a Cold Stone Creamery.  It was a great place to cool off and wonder why on earth our family are the only people red-faced and sweating like pigs.  I mean really, nobody here sweats but us!

Refreshing chocolate

Yummy Sweet Cream