So we didn't actually skip Christmas, we just downsized it! Considering that anything we gave each other for Christmas we had to take to Malaysia and Thailand with us, we opted for fewer and only small-sized presents! Although we had planned to cook Christmas eve dinner in our condo, we weren't able to find the foods we wanted at the grocery near our house and we were too tired to trek out to the other supermarket. So we had Popeye's Chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner. Mike did make the traditional cinnamon applesauce so we had that for bedtime snack.
The good news is that Santa did fly into our hotel and deliver presents and fill the stockings! I hope he enjoyed the Famous Amos cookies and chocolate milk we left for him!!
After a quick swim on Christmas morning, at 1:00 we boarded a train for a 7 hour train ride to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Christmas Vacation, Part 1 - Singapore
As this is the first blog of the vacation (but written 12 days into the adventure), let me say that so far this has been a vacation of interesting travel. Getting from place to place has definitely been part of the adventure. And since I am writing this from a covered patio on a Thailand beach during a warm rainstorm, I am happy that we will be here for the next 3 days with no travel! The kids are in the pool, I'm enjoying the view while writing and Mike is napping. Perfect!
(I will attach a photo album of the whole vacation later, we have minimal internet access here).
Our trip started with a delayed flight from Shanghai to Singapore. Before takeoff, someone on the plane had a medical emergency and they had to evacuate her. Luckily we were still in China, so I was able to call a friend who was still in Dalian and ask her to Skype our hotel in Singapore to let them know we might arrive after 11:00pm (when the front desk closed). As we arrived at the hotel at midnight, this was a phone call that averted potential disaster! We loved our hotel – the kids swam everyday in the pool (in fact they have a goal to swim everyday of this vacation – so far so good).
Before we moved to China, we considered an expat assignment in Singapore, so naturally we compared the lifestyle of Singapore to China. After living in China, being an expat in Singapore would be SO easy! They speak English, every kind of food is available, and every kind of shopping is available. However, you'd have to make a lot of money! Singapore is expensive. Very expensive! Our first meal at a Mexican restaurant with 2 kid meals and 1 adult entree and one margarita cost $60 (US).
Because we were curious about what life might be like to be an expat in Singapore (you never know where life will lead you), we took a tour of the Singapore American School. It is a huge school with 3900 students – 10 times as big as the kids' current school! It would be a dream school to attend. After reading so much about it online, it was nice to see it in person.
We stayed at a service apartment right at Clarke Quay – the hotel was situated above a small mall with a Subway, a book store, food court, grocery store, and Japanese crepes. In the Clarke Quay surrounding area were hundreds of restaurants and bars. While there, we ate Mexican, Middle Eastern, Burger King, Subway, frozen yogurt, ice cream, and crepes.
We started our visit with a taste of local life. Mike has kept in touch with classmates from graduate school who are long term expats in Singapore with three children. We went to their apartment in the late afternoon for a swim then they took us to a nearby neighborhood for a delicious Italian dinner. The kids had a great time playing together and Mike and I enjoyed catching up with his classmates.
The heat there tired us out easily so we didn't see a lot of the traditional Singapore sights, but the kids and Mike did go on the Singapore Flyer – the largest ferris wheel in the world. It is 42 stories high and takes 30 minutes to complete a rotation in an air-conditioned capsule large enough for 20 people. We also enjoyed the beautiful Christmas lights on Orchard Road and were able to do a lot of shopping for essentials and Christmas presents. And, as always, we visited the Science Museum (and getting free entry by using the membership card for the southern California museum we bought last Christmas). We also saw Gulliver's Travels.
Overall, Singapore was a great place to visit, but I think it would be more enjoyable to actually live there. While public transportation is easily available, it often took a lot of walking to get to and from the stations we wanted to use. And we often found ourselves waiting in taxi queues for 10-30 minutes. I think if you were a local, you would drive or know how to navigate the system a little bit better.
(I will attach a photo album of the whole vacation later, we have minimal internet access here).
Our trip started with a delayed flight from Shanghai to Singapore. Before takeoff, someone on the plane had a medical emergency and they had to evacuate her. Luckily we were still in China, so I was able to call a friend who was still in Dalian and ask her to Skype our hotel in Singapore to let them know we might arrive after 11:00pm (when the front desk closed). As we arrived at the hotel at midnight, this was a phone call that averted potential disaster! We loved our hotel – the kids swam everyday in the pool (in fact they have a goal to swim everyday of this vacation – so far so good).
Before we moved to China, we considered an expat assignment in Singapore, so naturally we compared the lifestyle of Singapore to China. After living in China, being an expat in Singapore would be SO easy! They speak English, every kind of food is available, and every kind of shopping is available. However, you'd have to make a lot of money! Singapore is expensive. Very expensive! Our first meal at a Mexican restaurant with 2 kid meals and 1 adult entree and one margarita cost $60 (US).
Because we were curious about what life might be like to be an expat in Singapore (you never know where life will lead you), we took a tour of the Singapore American School. It is a huge school with 3900 students – 10 times as big as the kids' current school! It would be a dream school to attend. After reading so much about it online, it was nice to see it in person.
We stayed at a service apartment right at Clarke Quay – the hotel was situated above a small mall with a Subway, a book store, food court, grocery store, and Japanese crepes. In the Clarke Quay surrounding area were hundreds of restaurants and bars. While there, we ate Mexican, Middle Eastern, Burger King, Subway, frozen yogurt, ice cream, and crepes.
We started our visit with a taste of local life. Mike has kept in touch with classmates from graduate school who are long term expats in Singapore with three children. We went to their apartment in the late afternoon for a swim then they took us to a nearby neighborhood for a delicious Italian dinner. The kids had a great time playing together and Mike and I enjoyed catching up with his classmates.
The heat there tired us out easily so we didn't see a lot of the traditional Singapore sights, but the kids and Mike did go on the Singapore Flyer – the largest ferris wheel in the world. It is 42 stories high and takes 30 minutes to complete a rotation in an air-conditioned capsule large enough for 20 people. We also enjoyed the beautiful Christmas lights on Orchard Road and were able to do a lot of shopping for essentials and Christmas presents. And, as always, we visited the Science Museum (and getting free entry by using the membership card for the southern California museum we bought last Christmas). We also saw Gulliver's Travels.
Overall, Singapore was a great place to visit, but I think it would be more enjoyable to actually live there. While public transportation is easily available, it often took a lot of walking to get to and from the stations we wanted to use. And we often found ourselves waiting in taxi queues for 10-30 minutes. I think if you were a local, you would drive or know how to navigate the system a little bit better.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Skipping Christmas
Yes, we are sort of skipping Christmas. We will be touring Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand for the 3 week winter break in school. We'll have our family celebration of Christmas in a Singapore condo. It seems weird, but I think it is helping us appreciate our family traditions even more.
We did get a chance to make Christmas cookies before we left at our favorite bakery (EuroBake).
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We did get a chance to make Christmas cookies before we left at our favorite bakery (EuroBake).
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Kiana v. China
Kiana is on the school basketball team - a group of girls in grades 8-12. Last weekend they played a game against a Chinese middle school in downtown Dalian. What a great opportunity! It was so much fun to watch and see the girls interact - the tough plays on both sides and the kindness extended when needed. I just kept thinking that it's these experiences that make moving to China even more memorable!
The Chinese School:
The girls:
Action shot:
About to sink a free throw:
Good game, good game, good game....
Kiana and Maddie:
Ok, I can't resist saying that Kiana played awesome! She was the high point scorer on her team!
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The Chinese School:
The girls:
Action shot:
About to sink a free throw:
Good game, good game, good game....
Kiana and Maddie:
Ok, I can't resist saying that Kiana played awesome! She was the high point scorer on her team!
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Sunday, December 5, 2010
UGC, UCG, VGG, LIGG, Oh My!
I took Kiana shopping for UGG boots yesterday. Real UGG boots are hard to find here, so we knew we would be looking at fake ones. And it is amazing how many we found!
The shopping area we went to was downtown. It is a multi-level building with one floor devoted to shoes. If you can picture the floor space of a small grocery store, filled with rows upon rows of 10ft x 10ft miniature stores. Each store is individually owned and is filled with shoes. I would estimate over 100 little shoe stores on this floor.
Since winter is blowing into Dalian (literally), each store had boots. Kiana was looking for a particular pair of UGGs - she needs black ones so she can wear them to the winter concert. I think she tried on at least 20 different boots in 15 different stores!
Some of the boots looked like real UGGs and others definitely were fake. The fake ones had some pretty funny names: UGC, UCG, VGG, LIGG. They ranged in price from $20 USD to $130 USD. The $130 ones were the only ones that actually might have been real UGGs.
She finally found a pair that fit (most were too big or small or too stiff in the soles). We paid $33 USD. (If you are in the US, I bet you are thinking - wow great deal! If you are in China, I bet you are thinking we paid way too much!)
Shoe shopping is much different here than in the US. The customer service is great! We had a lot of help to get just the right boot at each store. The women were all very kind and helpful. The funny part is that when we would say that they didn't fit or she didn't like them and go to leave, they would try to get us to stay by bargaining down the price. They thought we were faking that we didn't want them to get a lower price!
It was a fun day of shopping!
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Thursday, December 2, 2010
Our Trip to Xi'an
Xi'an is about 2 hour flight from Dalian and is home to the Terracotta Army. This has been on our list of must-see sights in China, so we decided to go for Kevin's birthday weekend.
Here is an edited blurb from Wikipedia about the Terracotta Army:
The Terracotta Army (bīngmǎ yǒng; literally "soldier and horse funerary statues"), is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China. They were created and buried to protect the emperor after his death.
The figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers near Xi'an.
The figures vary in height(6.0–6.4 ft), according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.
Here are a few pictures from the weekend. It is much more impressive in person!
Double click on the album to view the pictures:
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Here is an edited blurb from Wikipedia about the Terracotta Army:
The Terracotta Army (bīngmǎ yǒng; literally "soldier and horse funerary statues"), is a collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China. They were created and buried to protect the emperor after his death.
The figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by some local farmers near Xi'an.
The figures vary in height(6.0–6.4 ft), according to their roles, with the tallest being the generals. The figures include warriors, chariots, horses, officials, acrobats, strongmen and musicians. Current estimates are that in the three pits containing the Terracotta Army there were over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses, the majority of which are still buried in the pits.
Here are a few pictures from the weekend. It is much more impressive in person!
Double click on the album to view the pictures:
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| Xi'an |
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Happy 10th
Kevin's birthday was 11/11 and he celebrated with a homemade Rubik's Cube cake and a trip early the next day to Xi'an.
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