Changing Seasons

Time goes by so quickly. It's hard to believe that it's September already and we'll be marking our 6-month anniversary here in Shanghai. We've had a hot, hot summer. August was the worst of it with temperatures in the high 30Cs (nearly 100F) accompanied by the soupiest humidity I've ever had to endure. I couldn't walk far without being soaked with sweat. Thankfully, the heat has lately broken and today, despite the drizzle, was pleasantly cool.

Recently, we went skiing again with Penny. This time, we were accompanied by 7 members of her family, including 4 children. We weren't paying close attention when we on the metro and forgot to get off at our correct stop. It was literally the end of the line, so we had to wait a moment before the train started up again.



The only person on the train was a woman sweeping the cars. The train started up again to resume the opposite route back. We got off the train this time and took a taxi to the indoor ski place. The place as busy; full of people. For most of the people in our party, this was the first time they had been on skis.




Here is Penny and her family. The children are 13, 10, 10, and 6. Dang Dang has been to Shanghai before. He and Eric have a shared interest in G.I. Joes. You can't see it here, but Dang Dang is playing with a toy grappling line that came with the G.I. Joe action figure Eric brought him from the U.S. We were all surprised that he managed to hold onto the thing throughout the skiing excursion.

We parted ways after skiing with plans to meet up again later that night. We walked along the river on the Pudong side so we could see the bright lights of the Bund. The children were quite tired by that time as were the adults.