Doggie Do

Dear Friends,

I know I am not displaying fantastic photography skills here but I didn't want you to miss this interesting little dog.  Not sure why anyone would need to do this!

Love,
H

Vienna to Shanghai

Dear Friends,

Teaching overseas has taught me that you never know who you will see again. The three of us worked together in Vienna and now we are all in Shanghai. Love catching up with friends!

Love,
H

Moving Shanghai Style

 Dear Friends,

As I sat working on my reports last week, this is what distracted me from my work. I watched these guys pile all this on a bike to move it over one building.  

Love,

H

Art Auction

Dear Friends,

I guess I should rename the blog to "Weekly Postcard" as infrequently as I have been posting lately.  Will work on getting back to it.

Last night we had our ECE art auction. My kids made this fantastic (if I do say so myself) piece to be auctioned off. It is really a shame that not one of the parents from my class was there to bid on it.  Nonetheless, it sold for about $200 which will go to Kiki's Kindergarten.

Love,
H

Tub

Dear Friends,

If you are in the market for a gold shoe bathtub, you can find it in Hong Kong.

Love,
H

Neighborhood Butcher

Dear Friends,

My friend Jenna lives next to one of the local butchers in Hong Kong. She is delighted by the daily sights and smells.

Love,
H

Taxi Line

Dear Friends,

I was welcomed to Hong Kong last weekend by this ridiculously long taxi line.  By this time, there were only about ten people ahead of me. Traveling is SO glamorous!

Love,
H

Panda Claws

Dear Friends,

Everyone needs a pair of panda claws.  Don't you think?

Love,
H

Acting Restaurant

Dear Friends,

This is an accurate name for this restaurant (and I use that term loosely).  In a city of amazing restaurant choices, the airport is really lacking.

Love,
H

Flat Stanley

Dear Friends,

Flat Stanley has decided to visit us again. (Thanks Logan!) This time, he gets a trip to Hong Kong from Shanghai. We are headed out and about in Shanghai tomorrow for the Labor Day holiday.

Love,
H

Spring in Shanghai

Dear Friends,

Spring is here! As much as I miss the warm weather of the Middle East, I do LOVE spring and fall. Caught this shot at the end of my run the other day in the local park.

Love,
Heather

Convention

Dear Friends,

As I approached this building at 8 am on a Saturday morning, I was curious to see what the line up was all about. Guess everyone needed some new "adult toys". On a completely unrelated note...check out the guy on the left with the fuzzy duck backpack.  Interesting...

Love,
Heather

Yellow?

Dear Friends,

I'm pretty sure even my students could understand the problem here.

Love,
H

Details

Dear Friends,

I love how they use flowers to add such beautiful details all over Bali.

Love,
Heather

Day Care

Dear Friends,

I saw this when I was out jogging on the beach one morning. (It's hard to snap photos on the iPhone and jog.) Brad found several of these places on his own while I was working, NOT shopping.

Love,
H

Gili Trawangan

Dear Friends,

We had a couple of nights free so we packed up and headed out. An hour boat ride later, we were on the small island of Gili Trawangan. Not a bad place to spend a couple of nights.

Love,
H & B

Whitewater Rafting

Dear Friends,

After a couple of days of work, it was time for a little fun. The choices- rafting or cooking. While both sounded great, we wanted to get out in the sun and warm weather while we had our chance. So...rafting it was!  Yes, we're in there!

Love,

H & B

Black Rice Pudding

Dear Friends,

We had a lot of good food on this trip. This was one of our desserts...black rice pudding.  Pretty much everyone at our table agreed that it tasted like Coco Puffs.

Love,
H & B

Kuta Sunset

Dear Friends,

As we were enjoying our Bintang on the beach, this was the view.

Love,
H & B

Beach Bar

Dear Friends,

After a day in meetings, we headed out to Kuta beach to watch the surfers and the sunse.t This is one great "beach bar". We were here about three years ago and just had to come back.

Love,
H & B

Breakfast View

Dear Friends,

This was just one of many beautiful views from breakfast each morning. Love the Balinese gardens!

Love,
H & B

Bubble Tea

Dear Friends,

While there are many things we would like to try here, this tea is not one of them. Should people really be drinking things that are these colors?

Love,
H & B

Rabbit "Lantern"

Dear Friends,

This girl loved her rabbit.

Love,
H & B

Candy Apples

Dear Friends,

We often see these on the street and at any festival there is. Guess we will need to try them soon.

Love,
H & b

Couple

Dear Friends,

This couple was throughly enjoying themselves at the lantern festival.  Loved watching them checking out all the lanterns.

Love,
H & B

McDonalds

Dear Friends,

You just can't escape the "Golden Arches".

Love,
H & B

Balloon Animal?

Dear Friends,

We had never seen a balloon animal backpack quite like this before.

Love,
H & B

Utensils Sets

Dear Friends,

I just love these utensil sets for kids.  Not exactly what you would find in North America or Europe.

Love,
H

Oreos

Dear Friends,

We have not tried these green tea ice cream Oreos ...YET!

Love,
H & B

Barbie's Matchbox Car

Dear Friends,

We think Barbie left her Matchbox car in the Former French Concession. Would have LOVED to have seen the driver of this!

Love,
H & B

Lantern Festival

 Dear Friends,

We went to the last night of the lantern festival with a few thousand of our closest friends. So glad we saw it and so happy to never have to endure the crazy crowds again.

Love,
H & B

Chinese Sugar Zodiac

Dear Friends,

These are characters of the Chinese zodiac made out of sugar. He pours it on the marble template, puts a stick in it and waits for it to cool. Yummy, sugary works of art.

Love,
H & B

Saturday Run

Dear Friends,

While we do find many nice places to run, we often have to go through places like this to get to them. Sorry about the photo quality, it's not easy trying to snap a photo on a phone in the middle of a long run. Actually, I cannot do it, the credit for this goes to my running partner.

Love,
H

Local Band

Dear Friends,

On a sunny afternoon walk through one of the local parks there were numerous bands fighting for attention. Each had their own speaker to make sure you heard every note!

Love,
H & B

Candy Floss

Dear Friends,

The Chinese can set up ANYTHING on a bike...even a cotton candy machine.

Love,
H & B

Laundry Day

Dear Friends,

Just another sunny laundry day in Shanghai.

Love,

H & B

Door

Dear Friends,

While we cannot claim that every building has a door as beautiful as this, they do pop up  in the most unexpected places.

Love,
H & B

Dessert

Dear Friends,

After a lovely dinner, we were delighted by these chocolate ice cream bites. They were perfect with the wine and the view.

Love,
H & B

Tai Chi

Dear Friends,

In addition to the kites, there were many individuals and groups out and about for their morning exercise.

Love,
H & B

Kites

Dear Friends,

An early morning stroll on the Bund was a true cultural experience. There were many men out early flying kites. This guy even let me fly his kite for a bit which was the first time I EVER had a kite off the ground. I should have stuck around for some more flying tips.

Love,
H

Best Dressed

Dear Friends,

We have seen the best dressed dogs in the world here.  Sorry this one is looking at the camera for you.

Love,
H & B

Pearl Tower

Dear Friends,

We actually made it across the river during our staycation. It was fun being tourists in our own town.

Love,
H & B

Horse Purse

Dear Friends,

While we have seen some unusual things here, we have not seen a person actually using one of these yet.

Love,

H & B

Night on the Bund

Dear Friends,

We loved the view from our room on the Bund. Our staycation was fantastic!

Love,
H & B

Puxi Checkers

Dear Friends,

Brad loves that he gets to play hockey a few times a week.  I wish the rink was a little closer so I could go watch more often.

Love,
H

Hockey Fans

Dear Friends,

We all bundled up and trekked out of town for Brad's hockey game one Saturday night. I loved having all the friends to keep me company in the stands. They were fantastic entertainment and the hockey was great too!

Love,
H

Pop Rocks

Dear Friends,

Good news!  China has their own version of Pop Rocks.

Love,
H & B

Carrefour Chickens? Ducks?

Dear Friends,

We could probably post for six months just by taking photos at our local Carrefour.  This is the dried poultry isle.

Love,
H & B

Taking Orders...

Dear Friends,

These delicious snacks can easily be picked up at the airport when leaving China.  Let us know how many packages you would like.

Love,
H & B

Bradley Knight?

Dear Friends,

Brad just loves it when I book the travel tickets and things like this happen.

Love,
H