Year 2 Begins!

Well, to put it bluntly...we SUCK at updating our Blog.  I am going to make a solid effort to change that this year!  Today, as I was reading Cam and Elisa's updates it dawned on me that we should probably be doing the same thing!  Now, their blog is a bit more exciting since they have lots of baby news to share, but I will try to keep ours as entertaining and informational as possible!  :)

First, we started this year on cloud 9.  First class on an international flight is pretty amazing.  The usual feeling of being sleep deprived and hungry for good food was replaced with sadness at the sight of land and we felt oddly full when it did finally hit the runway!

Travis enjoying our fabulous seats, curtesy of Continental!!!

The day we landed, we went to Wings, a local bar, to see some of the new meat that joined SCIS.  We met a few new teachers and felt like the big kids that knew it all!  It also felt great returning, knowing exactly what to expect, what a difference from last year.  The best part was that our apartment was spotless.  Our ayi cleaned it top to bottom all summer, and it showed.  It is so great to have her again.  This summer we actually had to clean, do laundry, and take care of the places we stayed in...sheesh, it is good to be home where clothes are washed and put away, dishes are cleaned, and clothes are ironed all without me lifting a finger!

In SCIS style, the parties began right away!  Our first gathering was at Okura Garden Hotel.  The administration treated us to cocktails and dinner where we all got gussied up!  I love a party where I can dress up.  It was great night to catch up with all of our friends.

Clare, Vaness, me, Krystle, and Amanda enjoying our reunion after a summer apart.

The next party was an 80's themed birthday party for 3 lovely ladies- Hiromi, Kara, and Cristina.  We had a blast dressing the part, acting the part, and dancing to some of the best music in history!  Check it out!

 Krystle and I posing before the rest of our friends show up.

Travis got a hold of a lovely wig and sported it the rest of the evening!

As for school, everything is wonderful!  Travis is teaching 5th grade again and I made a big move to 2nd grade on the big campus.  I love walking to work without taking the metro!  It is so nice to get there in 10 minutes.  I also love being on a campus with more people.  I loved my friends at ECE, and I truly miss seeing them everyday, but so far I LOVE 2nd grade!  I have a great class that is very excited to learn...let's hope it stays that way!

We are really enjoying our second year.  It is so nice to know where to shop for groceries, where to eat, where to go out, what to do, and all that makes a place feel like home.  :)  We look forward to many more adventures this year and will share them as they happen.

Is it really February?

As I am checking facebook multiple times, daily (maybe too often) and responding to my emails to slowly (because they seem to be never ending), I remember we have a blog and this would make the updates SO much easier!  It's been awhile since we last updated and it would be impossible for me to even begin to tell you everything we have done in the last 5 months, hence (Joey Tribbiani's favorite word) you get this...

Beijing- It was great, look at our pictures on Facebook from October to get the end of the Beijing update, which I believe was called "Beijing 1 of ???".  The question marks were quite accurate.

Qingdao- In November we traveled to Qingdao, a port city in northern China.  It was beautiful.  We went with our friends Krystle and Zach.  This is the city where the beer- Tsingtao is made.  We spent a day touring the brewery and drinking beer, Travis' dream vacation!  We ate good food, spent time at bars, met interesting people, and went down by the water.  It was a fun weekend and we can't wait to go back when it is warmer out.

By the shore in Qingdao.  It was a beautiful beach area.

Eating dinner at an Italian restaurant in Qingdao with Krystle and Zach.

In December we had our first visitors!  The moms came first and then Cam and Elisa made it here.  It was so nice to have family here over the holidays.  I had a VERY difficult time not being home in America, and was on edge (just a bit :) during the whole month.  The moms arrived on Dec. 15, the first day of snow in Shanghai!  I was ecstatic to see the fluffy white stuff finally making an appearance in Shangers.  It doesn't happen often, and quite a bit fell.  However, it made our round trip to get our moms from the Pudong airport, 5 hours long!  We stayed here for a few days, and then we met Cam and Elisa up in Beijing.  We stayed in Beijing just long enough for Travis and I to each get the flu.  It was wonderful to be sick while on vacation and in a hotel (insert sarcasm).  Besides the fact that I was not too excited to head back to Beijing since we were just there and it was going to be colder than Shanghai.  I knew everyone else wanted/needed (if you go to China, you have to see the city) to go, so I agreed to head there for a few days.  The only thing I was really looking forward to doing was going back to the Great Wall.  And lucky for me, I was sick that day and missed it.  We headed back to Shanghai for Christmas and had a nice turkey dinner thanks to Bubbas!  The rest of the time we explored Shanghai and shopped til we dropped!  Mom just loved all the shopping!!!  It was so sad to see them leave, especially knowing it would be another 7 months until we saw them again.  Although, I now realize how quickly time passes here...

The yummy turkey dinner we had on Christmas Eve.  We used the turkey as an important part of our pictures that day.  :)

The fabulous moms at Tiananman Square in Beijing.

On New Year's Day Travis and I went to Sanya, Hainan for a week.  Hainan is an island province in the southern most part of China.  We stayed at the Howard Johnson, which was actually a huge, beautiful resort!  We spent our days reading by the pool, which was amazing, but VERY cold.  The city was not so great and didn't have much to offer.  We were glad we got some sun and R and R, but wouldn't recommend the place to friends.

This is just part of the pool at our resort.

Travis and I in front of our hotel.

And then we went on the BEST trip ever!  Bangkok...

To be cont...(hopefully before the next 5 months)

Beijing: 1 of ???

Hi all,

We have just flown home from a great trip to Beijing.  Here is a quick update for those that we don't talk to regularly.

We had Friday, Monday, and Tuesday off for a national holiday and decided to go to Beijing with a group of friends from work.  We booked a tour company to help us get around and flew out Thursday after work.  Friday and Saturday were spent taking numerous tourist tours and Sunday we got to do our own thing.

Friday:  We started off our trip by heading to the Ming Tombs.  It may be a great place to see some Chinese history but the part we saw, wasn't!  We went to a huge area where 13 Emperor's from the Ming Dynasty are buried.  The tour consisted of one of the 13 tombs.  It was the one tomb that had been destroyed.  Therefore, there was no palace to walk through because it had been burned.  The actual tomb was down quite a few flights of stairs and looked like a bomb shelter.  There were three thrones, a bunch of empty red metal boxes that looked as if they came from IKEA and not much else.  There were however 12 more tombs with palaces attached that we could not go and see and one more that was open to the public but again, we did not sign up for that tour.  It was not our favorite part of the trip!

These tombs happened to be about an hour drive from our hotel and seemingly in the opposite direction of next destination which was the Great Wall.

Once we reached the GW it turned the trip around.  First of all, Christy, to her excitement got to ride a chair lift up a mountain to get to the wall!  It was easier without skis on but no less traumatising!  I was trying my hardest not to shake the chair as I turned from side to side snapping pictures and pointing out beautiful scenery, however...I was unsuccessful and ended up being sitting most of the chair ride in timeout, not allowed to move or make noise!

Once we reached the top the view was amazing even though it was a really foggy day.  We walked around on the wall for over an hour snapping pictures and posing.  We could only see a small part of the wall but what we did see in that short time was mind blowing.  On the top of mountains sits a huge wall. It stretches for over 5 miles and was built hundreds of years ago when machinery wasn't invented yet.  We all found it impossible to be true as we laughed and played in utter disbelief!  

The trip down may have been the highlight of the trip (not to downplay how great the trip was but getting down from the GW was a blast!).  We had the option of walking down something like 25,000 steps, taking the chair lift, or riding a sled down a luge.  We opted for the luge.  I went first in our group as I wanted to go as fast as possible without slow people getting in the way.  There were others in front of us but we delayed as long as possible to give us some room before leaving.  Three of us that looked forward to the ride took off in intervals first, followed by the people wanting to take it a bit easier.  It may have been on wheels instead of ice but it was still a blast.  It banked during the turns snaking down the side of the mountain (don't think it would meet US safety standards!).  It was pretty fast when you allowed it to be.  Although the people in front of us didn't allow it to be.  We caught them quickly and as loud unruly foreigners do, we began breaking rules.  

There were parts when the workers couldn't see you on the track and we would stop and wait during these parts allowing for more space and ultimately more speed.  It was a blast!  Christy, who did not ride the same way I just described, even had fun on the luge.  It was really easy to control and go slow if you wanted.  After the trip down we spent a few minutes arguing with vendors about their crazy prices and bought a bunch of "junk" (I mean well needed artifacts and decorations) to put on display in our apartment.

Friday night we went out for dinner and made a wonderful discovery.  There was a street that had booths set up as far as you could see cooking and selling street food.  Thousands or people were out for the evening and as we went in for a look it was hard to walk around or even catch a glimpse of what they were selling.  We made it up to the front and to our surprise it all looked quite good (well, not all...some looked gross and scary but in general, of the things we would actually eat, the preparation and quality of that looked good).  We were looking for something a little more restful after our long day so we went into a random restaurant.  It ended up being some of the best food we have eaten in China and after 7 or us stuffed ourselves with what seemed like endless platters of food and beer we were given a bill for roughly $56!  Gotta love that!  When the bill came, Tony took it from the waitress and began laughing out loud and passed it around the table.  It was funny to watch each reaction and then to glance at the waitress who had no idea what was going on.  We each put in our $8 and then went out for sight seeing, more junk shopping, and fried bugs!

Ok, so not quick as I wrote earlier!  I'll write more later but I'm tired of typing and you are probably tired of reading.  It was a fun trip with a great group of people.  Hope you enjoy another update!  Again, I am not proofreading and the spell check isn't working so, Sorry Jennifer!  Let me know what I need to correct and I'll get right on it!!!

T and CK

Today...Have to tell you this!

A glimpse of what our days look like...at least today

After work we decided it was a good idea to go shopping.  That may not be shocking if you are keeping up!  We took off for the fabric market around 4:30.  We had to change trains a minute later and after listening to "someone" tell me the wrong train to get on (first time she has ever been wrong...even though she was SURE, it was the right one) we figured it out after about 10 minutes.  Got off the train.  Went to the right one.  Made it to the market at 5:30.  It closes at 6:00!  Still managed to purchase everything I wanted, three more shirts and three pair of pants (I didn't bring a lot of clothes!).

This is where it gets fun.  Christy had decided to go out of the way to get dumplings so we had a nice tasty treat as a side to our Ayi made dinner.  A great idea in my opinion!!!  We love dumplings!  However, it was on "THE ROAD" that Christy hates.  Nanjing road is crazy and crowded and a bit overwhelming at times.  This surprised me completely as we have been there twice and she has just about lost it both times (I believe in both other circumstances, I was blamed for "bringing" her to Shanghai!).  But this time, SHE choose to come down here and it was for FOOD!  I believe that to be the kicker!

Even though it was close to where the market was, it took us 20 minutes to get over there, then we had to walk a bit.  As we came out of the metro and into a throng of people, I just looked over waiting for the...OOPS, let's not do this!  It never came.  For the first time on that road she walked liked she owned it!  Running hobbling old ladies and young children off the road, She was on a mission!  Not one Sigh or...I'm gonna kill you look this time (except to the people who managed not avoid the woman on a mission)!  We ended up finding the place and after wandering for a few minutes we figured out the line we needed to be in.  It was chaos up there.  Multiple good cheap restaurants in a small area = congested chaos!

Normally, this would drive Christy up a wall and we would be out of there!  Nope, not when dumplings are involved!  She patiently (yes I said that) waited in a hot overcrowded line!  We eventually made it out of there and back onto the road.  Again, she owned it (this time on a mission to get home and eat).  The metro was closed, so our plan was messed up yet again, and yet again, no whining or complaining.  Just a hand in the air waving for a cab!

We made it back by taxi which was the best part.  We already wrote about the cab driver that loved to cuss at us in English because he only knew those words and he laughed and laughed about it.  This cab driver had on Celion Dion and was belting it out!  Christy started singing with him and both were giving it their all.  Christy couldn't be happier (I think because someone was actually a worse singer than her)!  The cabbie just loved having a partner!

The whole dumpling diversion ended up taking an extra hour at least.  We ate our meal, with...a side of dumplings.  And it was wonderful!  What a fun evening!

Life updates

We've already been here 7 weeks.  That's crazy to me but it's more crazy to think of how many things we have done and how fast it is all going.

We ate our first Ayi prepared dinner last night.  We decided to compromise and have some meals prepared by our Ayi and the others we will still go out for.  It was very nice to come home from work to a clean house with dinner all prepared and waiting.  Clothes were hung out to dry with the others all put neatly away.  Our change from grocery shopping as well as the receipt for our internet and electric bills were on the table.  That all sounds great but we also had to complete some our first housework because of this new addition to our lives.  We had to rinse the dishes and leave them in the sink for when she comes next and wrap up the leftovers for our lunch today.  It's obviously not as easy as we have made it seem!

We then took off to the metro and headed downtown to the Bund.  The Bund is on the west side of the river and looks across to a beautiful skyline on the east side.  We had an amazing view from the fancy seventh floor roof top bar.  The pictures are on facebook.

Our group was ready to move on after a few hours and we went down the street to another place that was a bit less fancy, not the same view, but much cheaper!  The night ended up being one of our favorites here so far.  We were in shock most of the night as we looked out at the view and kept saying, "I can't believe we live here!".  So Fun!!

I'll keep this one short.  Hope you all are well!  Keep contacting us as much as possible because we miss you all!

T and C K

I have officially taken a step forward in life...I bought Calvin Klein underwear

So we went shopping today.  Our first real shopping experience where we didn't have a plan of going to one place to get something specific.  Not only did I take a huge step forward in my life but Christy's lifelong emotional roller coaster has hit a new high.  We went with no real purpose or plan of what we were going to get and she came home with two pair of Seven jeans, one Channel bag, one North Face winter jacket, a pair of comfy Abercrombie pants, a new Nokia blackberry style phone, Ugg boots, five DVD's, Glee Season 1, and a key chain!

I believe she summed up the experience quite well when she exclaimed, "It's like Christmas!!!".  Shopping here is actually kind of fun (if you know me at all, you know that is a huge statement).  If we even slow down in front of a shop they begin the sales pitch.  Of course, since Christy is interested in everything every store is offering, we didn't pass too many without going in.  They would then run around grabbing things and asking "you like?"  If the answer is no they run to get something else to put in your face.  If yes, the real fun begins.

They then give you a price.  Usually on a calculator where they punch in the number they are offering.  That is when we get to act completely disappointed and begin to walk out of the store.  They quickly offer another price and we repeat.  They then give us the calculator and we type in a number that is roughly 60% lower than what they are offering.  Then, it is their turn to act completely exasperated.  Depending on how everything goes we seemed to end up paying between 50 and 60% of their original price.  All in all, when the experience was over I totaled up all of the prices she had paid and it came out to around $270 for EVERYTHING.

I did manage to stop in a few places that actually sold men's clothing and bought myself some new skibbies and 3 new shirts.  The shirts have $72 US price tags and I ended up getting them for $11 US and $2 for each pair of underwear.  We passed the calculator quite a few times and I even put the stuff down and stopped arguing the price which sent the woman into an almost panic as she began shouting out lower price after lower price until she just agreed to what I wanted to pay.  Fun!!!

Although that ended up being quite a deal it doesn't compare to the tight fisted shopping that Christy was able to pull off.  When we walked into the coat store that was full of North Face jackets and coats Christy ended up settling on one rather quickly.  The lady gave her a price of around 1000 yen.  Christy put it down and said NO and began to leave.  The lady said "just for you, new low price" and typed in something around 980 yen.  Christy repeated her original performance and then grabbed the calculator from the lady and typed in 500.  The lady let out a loud sigh and explained to Christy how great of a deal she was giving her at 980.  She basically turned the coat inside out to show her the quality and the stitching and everything about it.  Christy retyped 500.  The lady then said "good for you, not good for me!".  Christy repeated her 500.  This went on for a while until the lady began coming down on her price.  It is at this time when Christy would usually start raising hers to meet in the middle, but she didn't.  The whole process took only a few minutes but without going up at all the lady ended up selling her the coat for 500 yen.  Which is just over $70.  Christy closed the deal by promising to return if she agreed to the price!  Nice job Wifey!

All in all it was actually a fun day of shopping!  My message to all of you reading out there is:

Come Visit...and buy nice new things!

Until next time, best wishes from us!  Keep in touch as much as possible because we love hearing about what is going on in your lives as well.  We miss you all!!!  Take care

The Klumps

Start of School and other stuff

Hi everyone.  We have successfully completed two weeks of school and over one month in Shanghai.  We have experienced quite a few different feelings and emotions so far.  It's been crazy, hectic, exciting, super fun, exhausting, exhilarating, gross, and sad to be away to list a few things.

Christy is adjusting to her overwhelming class of 11 students.  Having an aid has helped her immensely with the stress of handling so many little people at one time.  She is getting used to traveling on the metro and we have worked out a pretty good morning routine where we both leave at the same time.  This is helpful because we obviously can't trust her to cross roads all by herself.  Although our morning routine was a bit messed up the other day when she decided to sleep in and take a taxi with a couple of her friends.  On my way out, either in a morning fog or because she is a lock Nazi, I locked the door.

I didn't think much of it as I made my 10 minute trek to school and settled into my classroom around 6:15.  I had quite a bit to do to prepare for my 14 hour day with Back to School night following the regular day.  Don't feel sorry for me...I knew I would be returning to a freshly cleaned house, washed and hung out to dry clothes, neatly ironed shirts and pants, as well as carefully folded underwear put away in my drawer.  You may be thinking, Wow, what a wonderful wife!...that she is.  However, she never lifts a finger here!  See this was last Thursday and Thursday is one of the days that our maid comes.  Anyway, back to my story.  I got a call around 7:15.  I answered and was surprised to hear crying and screaming.  I made out that it was Christy and struggled to hear her say, "you locked me in the apartment, you *&%$!!!!!!!!!"

Needless to say, I quickly got up and began my return home to rescue my wife.  I passed many teachers going the other direction who were completely miffed by what I was doing.  My quick explanation of, "Locked my wife in the apartment, can't talk", caused mixed reactions of laughter and looks of death from some of the women who already considered me shady that I had managed to not get hit by a car, while my lovely wife was plowed over.  During my short walk back to the house I couldn't imagine how, even in China, they would design an apartment that you could get locked into.  Upon my grand arrival to rescue Christy I glanced at the inside door handle and noticed a sizable key hole.  Yep, the exact key hole that would fit the key Christy carried on her key chain everyday.  I'm glad we both have a sense of humor and that it is already a funny story.

Back to school.  Christy's building is amazing.  The classrooms are huge and everything is designed especially for all the little ones.  However, it is a new building and not all the kinks are worked out yet.  They can't print or make copies yet!  Not an easy problem to deal with while trying to teach.  They don't have all the curriculum materials they need, and they don't have internet.  So basically she is teaching without materials or resources to create or gather some.  Kinda frustrating!

My school on the other hand is wonderful in just about every way!  We have tons of materials, printers, copiers, etc, etc!  But that isn't the best part.  I know it is early but the staff is amazing.  I'm learning so much everyday!  Getting new ideas, planning huge and fun projects, and learning all about the world from stories instead of text books.  Quite cool!  The kids and parents have been wonderful.  Again, it is early but I am extremely impressed by what the 19 (yes only 19) kids are capable of doing.

We took our first trip outside of Shanghai today.  We went to Hangzhou.  Our school has another campus over there and we were offered positions at either one.  We ended up choosing Shanghai but wanted to see what the other area was like.  It is a town built around the West Lake which is supposed to be absolutely beautiful.  We took a trip down one of the rivers that flow into the lake but didn't actually make it to the lake today or to the campus.  That trip will have to come later.  What we saw was gorgeous!  The river was surrounded by mountains and was very picturesque.  We will post pictures in a few days on facebook.

The rafting was a blast.  We went with around 120 people and there were other groups on the river as well.  After getting off the bus we bought Huge water guns (under $2) and headed on our way.  We got down to the river by riding in an ox pulled cart.  Quite entertaining in itself!  We got on large bamboo rafts with benches for seats and headed out.  Right away things got wild as everyone had the large squirt guns.  It ended up being a gentle ride (slow current with a man with a large bamboo pole steering us), but not restful.  It was an hour long water gun fight on open water.  Everyone was drenched and we laughed for most of the hour.  We followed that up with a BBQ of hotdogs, hamburgers and 80 cent 1 liter beers!  The bus ride home was nap time for us (Christy has extended that...as she tends to do, and is sleeping as I type) because we are headed out to Big Bamboo to watch some college football.

Everyone seems to think that it is all paradise over here but we have come upon some issues.  We are currently debating over what to do with dinners.  Christy wants to start having our Ayi (maid) cook for us a few nights a week.  I would like the flexibility of continuing to go out wherever we want every night and order whatever I want and feel like.  So, as you can see, there are some real difficulties here!

More updates to follow!  We'll let you know when we update this again.  Thanks for keeping up with us!  I hope there are not too many typos because this is too long to proof read.  I'm sure Jen will let me know if there are!  Miss you all!

T and C K