Beijing 2008 Olympics Torch Run

I got up early this morning to watch the Olympic torch run through Shanghai. Part of the torch run route was through Xintiandi and People's Square. One of my girl friends lives in the Xintiandi part of the city and her apartment management was keeping her updated on the torch route. The torch was originally supposed to come to Shanghai on the 20th, but was delayed for a 3-day period of mourning for the earthquake victims.

I got a text message saying the torch was coming at around 8 am, so I managed to get myself up and dressed and in Xintiandi by 7:30. Eric opted to stay in bed. I figured that since the torch was so close to me that I should make the effort to go see it. Streets were barricaded and lined with police officers. The pedestrian area of Xintiandi was cordoned off and the Starbucks on the corner had bike locks on the doors.



There was a general sense of excitement and anticipation with people lining the streets waving Olympic flags.



We found a spot to stand and wait for the torch to pass through. From what we had been told, the torch and torch bearer would be driven to one end of the street. They would get out, light the torch, and run down the street. We saw sponsorship vehicles for Samsung, Coca-cola, and Lenovo; buses of seemingly important people; emergency vehicles; and motorcycles. We continued to wait until the crowds started to disperse and the police started to take down the rope barricades. We were left baffled and hugely disappointed.



I got up early for this? It seemed that the people most disappointed were foreigners. I've heard similar stories of disappointment from people waiting at different locations in Shanghai. No one could tell us exactly what happened or when and where we could actually see the torch.

There does seem to be one person who managed to see the torch and has photographic evidence (link goes to Shanghai dear Edward's flickr photo stream). I'm glad someone got to see the torch.

Baby Gift

We've been very fortunate to have such a great support network of friends here in Shanghai. We've become good friends with one of Eric's officemates, Penny. She brought us to her hometown and introduced us to her family, a really wonderful group of people. Her sister and nephew have visited us in Shanghai before. Penny's sister gave us a baby quilt and recently, her cousin sent us a hand-knitted jumper for the baby.



Her cousin has a 6-year-old daughter who is absolutely adorable. When we were visiting them, she showed us a video of Le Le when she was 4 on a Chinese children's program. She sang a song and did a little dance. I don't think I managed to write a post about that (along with a lot of other things). Here's a picture of the two of them.



Here Le Le is taking individually wrapped flowers from her mother to hand to all family members. Le Le picked out the buttons on the jumper. Right now the jumper is folded in the baby's dresser. I know I will dress him in it at least once for pictures, but this is something that I will certainly set aside for a keepsake.

The Last Few Weeks

Finally, it's May. We're in the home stretch here. I've lately been promoted to weekly doctor's visits. Eric was at the last one and we saw the baby on the ultrasound. The technician did some measurements to estimate the size of the baby. I'll get blood drawn at the next doctor's visit.

Most of my girl friends are pretty open about discussing personal issues -- in-depth discussions about medical maladies, relationships, and so on. Pregnancy brings this general female camaraderie to a whole new level. I find myself discussing the state of my cervix and its anatomical neighbors with not just my girl friends, but also with women I have just met (I'm also blogging about it -- never thought I'd be doing that). And no one bats an eye.

I've joined a Bumps and Babes group here that meets a couple times a month. These meetings usually have a speaker or a topic for the women there to discuss. We've had a breast-feeding consultant, a chiropractor specializing in pregnant women as well as children, a small business owner along with other people. I've been fortunate enough to have found other women who are due around the same time as myself. Some of us have formed a smaller group where we can commiserate about our respective pregnancies and, hopefully, will have little buddies for our babies as they arrive. We've had our first birth. Kristy delivered a boy via c-section on 25 April. Kari is currently overdue. Cara may go into early labor. And I'm just waiting until the end of May.

I had my morning workout today tugging on my compression socks. The pair I'm wearing today are thigh highs and are tighter than my knee-high compression socks. Imagine me sitting on the bed in my underwear huffing and puffing as I try to work the stockings over my feet. It's already a challenge to reach my feet. After several breaks, a lot of cursing, and about 15 minutes later, I have successfully got the stockings in place. Now I'm sitting here in pajama shorts (nice and stretchy), a t-shirt and my stockings. I can assure you that I look ridiculous. I'm going to dig out my muu-muus later on.

We just got a portable stereo with an iPod dock, something I've wanted to get for a while. Someone was telling me that newborns have initial sleep difficulties because their new environment is so quiet. They have gotten so used to the sounds of mom's heartbeat and digestion as well as other background noises that absolute quiet is unnerving. I'm not going to play sounds of digestion but some music would be nice. I've been sitting here all morning listening to music. The sound is much better than the laptop speakers. It's sunny and beautiful outside, but I'm having difficulty motivating myself into some decent pants to go for a walk outside. Maybe I'll have more energy after lunch. What I really want is a good chocolate milkshake. I've found exactly 1 place that serves a decent one like you'd get at Steak n Shake. I might have to flag down a cab and get one.

Approaching Maximum Density

Here's a shirt I got at my last doctor's visit:



Hee hee! Notice how the shirt is straining over my massive 8-month belly. Not pictured are my lovely swollen feet encased in orthopedic compression stockings. I'm quite the picture.

Let's see, I believe I have about 6-7 weeks left until baby arrives. So happy he's coming before summer!

Going on Month 8

I'm going into month 8 here and I'm ready to have this baby now. Thankfully, my feet don't hurt anymore and I have some energy back. Eric laughs because he can hear me huffing and puffing through the door when I'm trying to get up from my chair to let him into the apartment.
I've joined a group for expecting moms and moms who've recently given birth. There's a few of us who are due around the same time and we're making plans to get together and commiserate about sore feet and expanding body parts.

I had the most wonderful surprise today. I logged onto my blog page and surprisingly, it's not blocked anymore. We'll see how long that lasts. These things are never predictable.

I've neglected this blog for a long time and there's much I need to catch up on. For now, I'm going to post this brief entry and call it an early night.

Happy Lunar New Year!

During Chinese New Year, the city of Shanghai empties as people leave the city to spend the holiday with their families. The result is an oddly empty city. Here we were walking around Xujiahui at around midnight on Chinese New Year. Fireworks were literally exploding all around us. There isn't a single fireworks show like what we have on the Fourth of July; rather, individuals, or individual businesses, buy fireworks and simply light them on the sidewalk. Walking out onto the street, you almost feel like you're experiencing a war zone. The sound of all those fireworks exploding makes normal conversation impossible. We were at some friends' apartment recently. Their apartment is located on the east side of the river on the 31st floor. We can actually see the river and part of the west side skyline from their balcony. Fireworks were going off all evening, but started to get really intense around midnight. It was really cool to watch the entire city exploding with fireworks. Still pictures don't do the sight as much justice as a video, which Eric is editing now.

Chinese New Year actually is observed over the course of 15 days, with each day having a special significance and with special rituals that are traditionally observed as well as special foods that are eaten. On New Year's Eve, you are supposed to to open windows and doors to let good luck in. On New Year's day, you are not supposed to clean as that will sweep away your good luck. And on it goes. I'll share more as I figure this out.

Huang Shan

Huang Shan literally means 'Yellow Mountain'. It is located in Anhui province and is about a 1 1/2 hour flight from Shanghai. We took this trip at the end of October with the Shanghai Expat Association. Our group was small, 8 people total including us. As part of the itinerary, we visited 2 historic villages, one of which is Hongcun. Hongcun was one location used for the 2000 movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.



A large pond sits in front of the walled village. There is a stone walkway and bridge leading to the front gate. Inside, the village is comprised of stone buildings separated by narrow alleyways. Yellow Mountain is a popular tourist destination for both Chinese and other nationals. Along with our group were several other groups, usually consisting of at least a dozen people per group. The groups usually had a leader carrying a pennant and guiding the group with a small microphone and a portable amplifier. The group members typically wore either matching hats or matching T-shirts. The alleyways were lined with shops selling all sorts of souvenirs.



This shop was selling scarves and had apparently hung out a duck along with the merchandise.

We also toured an ink factory where we saw a demonstration of how traditional Chinese ink sticks were made. The ink was made from soot collected from burning a certain kind of oil. Bowls set over the fire collected the resulting soot. The soot was then processed into ink. In the factory, a woman was hand-carving a mold for the ink sticks. A man would take lumps of ink and pound them with a wooden mallet. He would then pull off balls of ink, weigh them, and then place the balls into a rectangular mold and press it into place with the lid. The ink in the molds would then be set aside to air-dry. Once dry, the ink sticks would be knocked out of the molds and sold. The person using the ink would usually have a flat, shallow dish -- oftentimes carved from a special stone -- with a bit of water. The ink stick would be moistened and then the ink slowly drawn in circles around the dish to dissolve the ink. This process of dissolving the ink was considered meditative and important for collecting one's thoughts about the calligraphy or sketches one was about to do.

The next day we drove to the base of Yellow Mountain and took a cable car to the top. At the base of the mountain were feathery bamboo forests. At the top, were weathered pine trees. We checked into one of the hotels on top of the mountain and hiked around the trails. A typical Chinese landscape ink painting oftentimes depicts tall, dramatically spiky mountains. You don't really understand or appreciate those paintings until you see Yellow Mountain. The mountains are granite. Geological processes have transformed them into striking pillars. Many of the peaks have oddly vivid, interesting names, like "Beginning to Believe Peak" (a monk had heard about the famed beauty of Yellow Mountain and only when he saw it for himself did he 'begin to believe'), ''Eighteen Arhats Facing the South Sea'',"Immortal Sunning His Boot'', ''Squirrel Skipping to Celestial Capital'', ''Golden Cock Crowing Towards the Heavenly Gate", '' Monkey Gazing at the Sea'', and the list goes on. There are over 70 peaks contained in this region.



This particular peak is "Monkey Looking at the Sea". On the top of the peak is a rock that resembles the back of a monkey as it is looking out.

People snap locks onto the chain barriers, many of which are engraved with names or initials and a date.



The locks represent everlasting love. Once locked, the key is tossed into the gorge (though I'm not sure if keys are even sold with these locks since they are sold to be fastened onto the chain).

We walked to a part of the park called the Grand Canyon, named after the American Grand Canyon (really, this is what our Chinese guide told us). This part of the park had no crowds -- even here, in the great outdoors, we ran into several tour groups like the ones we met at Hongcun -- and we enjoyed having a bit of peace to ourselves. The park had a nice series of trails and stairways with railings cast to resemble tree bark.



This is one of the stairways build along the side of the mountain.

The following morning, we woke at 4:15 to watch the sun rise. When the weather cooperates, the sunrise is supposed to be spectacular. We wore warm coats provided by the hotel and joined many, many other people to find a lookout point to watch the sunrise. Even at that hour, we heard tour leaders guiding their groups with the microphones -- not something I cherish listening to at 5AM. We found a good spot to wait and were shortly joined by about 40 other people, none of which were the least bit quiet. One man starting crowing.



Here is a pre-dawn picture of the mountains. The weather was not cooperative and it was grey and overcast. The sunset was weak. I think I should have stayed in bed. The entire thing would have been improved by a set of noise-cancelling headphones and a thermos of hot chocolate.

Later that day, we went to Emerald Valley, another location for the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The water was an amazing turquoise from natural copper deposits.



While there, Eric was 'attacked' by a praying mantis. Ask him how loudly he was shrieking for me to 'get it off!'

It felt so good to get out Shanghai and