New york here I come.

New york here I come.

From one huge city to another, then 4 days in the suburbs. Things I
look forward to:
-Fresh air
-Quiet
-Grocery shopping
-Seeing friends
-Journal time

Things I am dreading:
-Long restless plane ride with questionable food. A 15 hr flight is
the last place I want to get food-poisoning
-Forgetting something vital, like my laptop charger.
-Getting lost. because of
-Jet lag.

New York

I went to NY for 3 days for a work meeting, some prep, and hanging out with old friends.

I LOVE New York. I want to move there! There's just a thrill in the air. Mischief. Excitement. I love admiring the old buildings, the character of the subways, and exploring the creative little cafes, and street vendors, and shops. Its peppier than Shanghai. And more grandiose than SF. Maybe it was the blend of brilliant summer sunshine and blue skies? Sigh.

Saw  http://www.denguefevermusic.com/"> Dengue Fever . "A six-member band from Los Angeles who combine Cambodian pop music and lyrics with psychedelic rock."

Saturday brunch at M. Wells in Long Island was something delicious.

Dinnner at Katz Deli, (see photo of HALF a sandwich)!!!  It was pouring and I was lost, but shared my umbrella with a nice lady who was an event planner. 

Dinner at Cheese Pub- which was had basically a cheese bar!!!! Expensive but awesome. Melts in your mouth! And the decor was like barn meets cafe- with swing out milking stools under high rustic tables. SO cute! Loved it!

We also happened to stumble across Frends With You Rainbow land. Imagine me jumping up and down with glee! It was big and colorful and amazing! The characters reminded me a lot like katamari (a video game abotu rolling a sticky ball to pick up things) The cement had bright stripes on it, and Big cartoony airfilled things floating and spinning in the breeze. It was like they were alive, and bopping around like I would expect any real live cartoon thingy to act like. The tower shaped one we went into was dark with lots of glow-in-the-dark stickers inside. My legs were sore like rubber after 5 minutes of jumping. It was at the end of the Highline, an old elevated railroad track converted into an urban garden, beautifully landscaped with native flowers and plants, integrated with vestiges of the railroad tracks. There was installation art pieces as birdhouses, lawns to lounge on, and the plants glowed brilliantly in the evening moonlight. http://www.friendswithyou.com/blog/rainbow-city-the-high-line-

the kitten

As we left our compound Sunday morning, the neighborhood was already
bustling with grammas, carts, and kittens. KITTENS?! Inded two very
small kittens were wandering the sidewalk, unbeknowst to them, many
humans were awkwardly and adoringly dodging them to save their lives.

These kittens were tiny- like 1-2 weeks old. You could scoop 'em up in
the palm of your hand. And put them in your pocket. Their legs were
wobbly, and would fall down every few steps. They were curious and
unafraid to weave between parked motorcycles and human feet.

I couldn't help myself! I was melting already because of the Shanghai
summer, but these little guys were just too adorable. We stopped to
watch (aka rummage for my camera) and one of them came up to Timon's
foot, smelled it, then climbed ontop, his whole body sitting on
Timon's foot (flip flops). Then he hugged Timon. awwww! The kitten
wrapped his paws around his ankle and tried to climb up Timon's climb,
unsuccessfully.

I was still "aww"ing and rummaging in my cavenrous purse at this
point, when the kitten found a new interest and my camera came to
slow. That's my story of the kitten.

What is it?

What snack has to do with canons, velociraptors, pterodactyls, and hot
air balloons? and a crossing chicken?

And why do the above named items make me want to eat this product???

teaching english

Today we headed 1 hr to the Jinshan area to help teach english at
Mengshan Xuezuheng migrant school*. Our buddy works with several
migrant schools helping them with resources, arranging volunteer
groups from international schools, and 1-day trips to help them keep
their studies consistent

None of us had any teaching experience - yikes! Fortunately the
curriculum had already been made for us- it was about holidays,
specifically: Easter, Halloween, and Dragon boat festival. Our group
had the less experienced english learners- so much of the lessons had
to be translated into Chinese. It was hard to talk slow and enunciate.
Since I was useless for translating, I wrote all the words on the
board. We taught them the question words- and they stared at us
blankly, until it was translated. The other to classes the kids
probably knew more english than I Mandarin...

We had two boys in our class- one was huge and one was tiny. And the
tiny one was really shy. I asked him what his name was, and he
nervously smiled as he curled up in a ball hiding his face and turning
red! It was really cute. I wonder if I was ever like that?

Repeated they asked me about the words, "recieve", "activities", and
how to say "Halloween".

Halloween. Hall-wee? Ha-low-WEEN. Ha-low-wee. Ok. Good enough.

I didn't even know how to explain the the "c" in "recieve" sounds like
"s". They kept reading it, "Ruh-KEEv"

It was a long day, but we enjoyed the kids. The two girls you see
sitting in front of me were the class clowns- They were drawing these
bucktoothed silly drawings of each other and the "It wasn't me it was
HER" gestures. The two girls you see in Timon's photo were pretty
smart and were asking how old I was and stuff.

*Migrant schools are public schools for the children of migrant
workers. They can't go to the Shanghai public schools without a hukou-
or proof of residency for Shanghai. Previously private schools had
popped up to service the children without a hukou, but they weren't
regulated and sometimes of low quality. ANyhow, the school we worked
with today was fairly decent, one room had a TV mounted in the corner,
and the rooms were packed with two person desk and small wooden
chairs. It was a k-8 school with 800 kids- but on Saturday, about 40
signed up for our session, focusing on middle schoolers. All but 5
were giggling girls. Most of them came from Sichuan and Anhui province.

fourteen inches

I did it!

One busy weekend!

We've been busy! Like running around town and being crazy people busy.

Saturday alone I had 4 parties not just to attend, but prepare goodies
for two of them! So spent a few weeknight prepping, cooking, and
designing.

0. headed to the printer to print out the cards, decorations, 

stationary for Timon to write notes....

1. Baby party welcoming a very little Isabelle into the world! The
ladies from my small group and I all brought tea party-esque dishes,
cucumber sandwiches, curry chicken salad, cupcakes, scones, and I made
lemon curd and a cheese plate. The colors were mint green and pink-
our friend (who we were showering) already had about 50 pink "baby
congrats" cards on every surface imaginable- so it was easy to
decorate with flowers and stuff. I also designed little cards (quarter
sheet) for all the guests to write prayers and blessings for the baby.

2. Gallery opening/closing. A group of our friends joined forces to
have a small studio amoung an artist's community for about a year, but
after their first big gallery show found that the Gov't was planning
to demolish the entire studio block/area? to redevelop. This meant
everyone was forced to leave. : ( sad sad! Many of the local artists
had renovated and invest money into their studios- some even lived in
theirs! This last show: "Disappearing" was a sort of good byes and
last hurrah to the space itself- not sure if they are looking for new
studio space.

The show itself was small but well appreciated. One piece encouraged
patrons to scrape a bit of the fresco(painting on plaster while wet)
into an envelop to take with them. Another pieces translated a Chinese
story about a secret community that grew peaches. There was a
confessional tent- where they provided paper to write your confessions
then feed it thru the shredder (see photo). As the shreds fall, the
light catches them, and its fun to watch- sorry I was too slow to get
it on film! 

And the one in the back had me in it. Not kidding! The
artist, a girl named Faith, had illustrated a photo from an earlier
gallery opening (which had me in it). She had illustrated it on an
entire wall and then chipped away various parts.

3. Farewell party-
Farewells are sad. Farewells are happy. We all go through various
changes through life whether by choice or force of nature, and
sometimes we have to say goodbye to our pals- at least momentarily.
After many years in SHanghai, a couple and their two twins are moving
back to Michigan. We have just moved to SH when Jen went into child
birthing with her two twins. We enjoyed pizza, m&ms, and sun chips at
our friend's office sapce which has a large outdoor deck/patio. It was
a beautiful night.
Too dark to take photos unfortunately. I made them nautical inspired
flags to hang on the wall, for guests to write their farewell wishes
to the family.

4. DD's party: then we headed to an apt party hosted by a good friend
of Timon's. They had a large black frame on their living rm wall, to
project films onto- it was pretty awesome! It was a packed house, and
yet Timon (as usual) ran into people he knew- guys he had met YEARS
ago. It was amazing. Timon was like- "hey I met you at an event 4
years ago, remember?" Another guys from 2 years ago. Timon really has
an amazing memory. Its a good thing- since I can't even remember what
day it is.
At 11pm we headed home to catch up with T's sister, who was just
waking up in sunny Portland, Oregon. She had 4 birthday parties to go
to....