Sights, Sounds, and Smells of the City

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On the walk to the bus stop today

Gwen: Maggie get away from that poop!

Lucas: Is that human poop? That doesn’t look like dog poop.

Gwen: Um… hmmm. You might be right.

Lucas: Who would just poop on the sidewalk like that?

Gwen: Well the little potty training kids with the split pants just poop anywhere and lots of grown men pee outside. We have seen that, right?

Lucas: Yeah, but would a grown up just come over to these bushes and poop?

Gwen: Um, maybe a taxi driver was working all night and had to poop… Um…Hey! Let’s go put you on the bus!

My Birthday

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Today was my birthday.  It started out a little bit crazy but then it got smoother.  I got to go to the fabric market with daddy.  It was fun.  Because for my birthday I was allowed to get a qi piao.  It is a traditional Chinese dress.  It was almost like the whole building is made of fabric, although, no, it didn’t collapse.  I thought it was going to be just like one store, but instead it was like the pearl market with only clothes.  You can have yours made or they have already made ones that you can buy right then.  We looked at a few stores.  The first store had tons of fabric, but they wouldn’t negotiate at all.  Then, as we were coming to the end of the market, there was one store with no one in it.  They negotiated and had really nice fabric.  It was the best store of the ones we looked at.  Did I tell you that I have to wait for a month and a week until it is done?  Yes, because they are taking a break for Chinese New Year.

 

Dictated to Gwen

Chopstick Dance

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I miss Freerealms.  That game was all about me.  I really want to play Freerealms.  I was all about Freerealms.

On Friday, I ate pork and pork and pork and pork.  I had it for dinner at a restaurant.  I loved it.

We saw a dance at my school.  There was a Chopstick Dance.  I also did the Chopstick Dance with my class.  We did it in the morning.  I didn’t have chopsticks so I practiced with my fingers.  For the dance they gave us fancy chopsticks with red streamers.  They are light colored wood.  Just to borrow.  Not to take home.  I wore special clothes on Friday.  I wore a red and gold jacket with fancy buttons.  My pants had dragons on them.  It was silky material.  I wore it because it was a special day.  It was for Chinese New Year.  I showed my mom one move from the dance.

Dictated to Gwen

Back in Business!

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The internet is now up and running in the Shanghai house!  That was a long few days, wasn’t it?  Maybe not for everyone else, but being cut off from the outside world certainly took a toll on the Ericksons here in the China outpost.  Once the wireless was enabled yesterday all five of us plugged in.  Now we are back to fighting about our ipads and ignoring each other.  But so much has happened since we arrived!  School started, I toured some scary hospitals, and I spent an enormous amount of time at the grocery store.  We will need to get busy with some posts to fill you in on the drama and disappointment of life in Shanghai.

our new house

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When I first got in the house, I thought it looked much bigger than our old house… till I walked through it. The rooms are tiny, half of the house is stairs, and the master bedroom is not even the size of my old bedroom. The house is really nice, nicer than it looked in the pictures. I love it. It’s fun to play in it. There is a frog stuck in our backyard. He can’t get out because of our fence. I myself haven’t seen him yet but Ava and Henry told me about it.

And so it begins…

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The flight was hellish! I only got four hours of sleep, I almost spilled soup everywhere, and when I woke up at what was 1:00 AM in Baltimore, I felt sick. It feels like my jet lag is gone and I can’t wait to see the new house. I want to unpack all of my stuff and see it again. I have a lot of plans. I want to: collect Chinese opera masks and hang them on my wall, make new friends, skype my old friends to get their emails, pick out my cell phone, BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH ect. ect. The hotel is nice, I enjoyed the miso soup and tofu. I plan to learn to use chopsticks. I hope I have fun!

Scared

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We just arrived in Shanghai.  The flight was really long but I enjoyed it.  I couldn’t sleep.  At least I got to sleep 5 hours out of the 14 hours.  The funny part is that Henry said, “There are servants!”  We were in business class– it was very enjoyable!  That’s why Henry said that.  I am scared and I don’t know what is coming next.  I was pretty much crying through the entire flight.

We are staying in a really nice hotel.  The funny part is mom and dad got two rooms.  Actually, that isn’t really very funny.  I was awake all last night because of jet lag and Henry.  I was very, very sad and I still don’t know what is coming next.  You can never know what to expect when you move somewhere.

Dictated to Gwen

Corner Photograhy

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Mark took pictures of the new house and he took only corner pictures so every single picture you see is a corner picture of the house.  I still think he was trying to make side pictures, but instead he made corner pictures.  The house looks nice.  It is a little town housey, but I’ve got to get used to it.  I am not sure what China is going to be like because I have never visited.  I am not sure what is ahead of me and stuff like that.  I had to say bye to our minivan because we had to leave it in Georgia because of the moving.  I was sad, but I had to do it.

Dictated to Gwen