Say Hello To My Little Friend

Everyone, I would like to introduce you to Gus, our tiny new addition. Getting a cat was not part of our China plan so let me explain how this tiny guy came into our lives.

On Tuesday night Chris and I were walking home from dinner when we saw this tiny kitty run from one bush to another. I have a MAJOR soft-spot for animals so I immediately tried to catch him but to no avail. My heart ached as we walked away and I could hear his tiny cries. Wednesday night when I was walking to meet Chris for dinner I heard a kitty meowing right in the same area as the night before. I thought this must be fate and set out to rescue him.

He was hiding in a long stretch of bushes along a busy street and I began crawling around in the dark trying to find him. I spotted him several times but couldn't catch him and people were staring but I didn't care. I soon had a group of people helping me catch him and we finally succeeded! I think most of them were so helpful because they thought it was my own cat I had lost instead of a stray. Anyways, he was terrified and clawed/bit my hand pretty good until I put him in my purse and carried him to the pet shop around the corner. Seriously, it is right around the corner from where I found him and from where we live, how fortuitous! Chris left work to help me at the pet shop and after a flea bath and buying a few essentials we took the kitty home.

He is a major scaredy cat but we are warming him up to us slowly. The petshop people said he can't be more than 2 months old but there is no way to know for sure.

I'm glad to have a little friend with me in China.
Welcome to the family little Gus.

A Stroll Through the Park

Last Saturday we went to Century Park with Deborah and Stephen Skokos and Jodi and Taylor Sparks. It is a lovely park and rather large! It made me feel like I wasn't in Shanghai and I am great with that. We rented bikes and separated into groups to ride around and see the sites.

The girl bike was significantly slower so the boys quickly pulled ahead but about 10 minutes into the ride we caught up due to a flat tire on the boy's bike. They claim it happened while riding on the designated road but I have my suspicions since we saw them riding on some landscaping a few minutes prior.



Since it was a hot day and walking the bike back to the rental place seemed like an insurmountable task we lent our bike to the boys so they could bring it back like this.



Once they exchanged the bike the ladies wanted to have a try on the three-seater and we took off without looking back. The three-seater was way better than the side-by-side one! Sorry fellas for leaving you in the dust.

Part of the park had a water fountain you could run around in and it wasn't a surprise that the boys wanted to have a go.



Unfortunately the fun had to end in bloodshed after Taylor did a nosedive and sliced his chin open. The split chin resulted in a several hour adventure trying to use superglue to fix it. We have some pretty graphic pictures but I refrained from posting them except this one. This was taken mid-fiasco when superglue and paper towel made contact. And here is a link to Taylor and Jodi's blog in case you want to take a closer look at the wound.
http://ask-a-scientist.blogspot.com/2010/07/very-bad-day-for-my-face.html

The superglue actually worked in the end and we all had a great time at the park!

Yuyuan, Lotus Garden, Acrobats, and Game Night

We have actually done a few fun things! Last weekend we walked around Yuyuan which has a bunch of shops and a garden. Since it was night we skipped the garden but we walked around the shops and took some pictures with Haibao. He is the character created for The World Expo and he is everywhere here!

I am so grateful there are actually a few ladies here that I have become friends with and we have done several lunch dates. On Thursday a couple of us had lunch and attempted to see the Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum but it's closed for a few weeks. Whoops. But it was in a nice area with a lotus garden so we took a few pictures.

On Friday we went to see the Shanghai Acrobats with Jeremy and Mallory and it was pretty sweet! It was a little like Cirque but shorter and the acrobatics were more impressive. Fun!

Saturday night we hosted a little game night. I know, we love our games. We had a blast with everyone and I will be so sad when these people head back to the states.

Optimus Prime

Those of you that are familiar with Transformers may be wondering why I would be blogging about such a thing. But just look at the similarities in these two pictures..

Optimus Prime Me

Do you see it?
Take a closer look at what my new swim cap has written on the side.

Now you must see it!

Our apartment complex here has a pretty sweet clubhouse including karaoke rooms, a gym, squash courts, billiards, ping-pong, and a giant lap pool. Swimming sounds like a dream in the hot and humid weather here so I have decided to add it to my workout regimen. The rules for pool usage are written in Chinese but they have kindly included pictures for us foreigners and I can at least gather that a swim cap is required; hence the new Optimus Prime swim cap.

I was at the supermarket today and I thought I should at least check what they had in the swimming department and it was slim-pickins' as far as caps go. But I have no idea where a sporting goods store is and I don't want to spend a lot of money so I grabbed myself this little Optimus Prime beauty of a cap. I'm pretty pleased with my purchase.

PS - I know the picture of me is pretty great with just the swim cap and goggles but for some reason the gold chain I am sporting makes it ten times cooler.

Alive in China

In case you were wondering, we are alive. We have found a place to live and are just getting settled. I just got a VPN today which allows me to access websites other than gmail and people.com, YES! There will be cooler posts about things we do here but like I said, we are still just getting settled.

I live in China, I never thought I would, but here I am and I haven't had any emotional breakdowns.