June 17 - The final days in Shanghai

As promised, here is a description of our last few activities in Shanghai. After returning from our anniversary trip to Suzhou, we gave and graded class finals, turned in grades, said goodbyes, and packed up to leave our apartment and return to the USA.  We also include a few final shots of interesting sights we've seen around our neighborhood - there are always interesting sights, and so many that we have not shared!

First of all, we had to build a frame to protect a large wooden carving we bought as a souvenir. After trying to negotiate with a person at a home improvement store (a real communication failure, even when he called for a team of reinforcements), we decided that the thin wooden box John was planning was not going to happen because they did not understand what we needed for a frame. And when we asked about cardboard they told us they had none. Undeterred, we walked to the back of the building and found a whole mountain of discarded cardboard! And wooden pallets with slats we could use for frames.

The challenge was walking the mile back to our apartment.

 Next we had some last-minute shopping to do at what the foreigners call the "fake mall" - a mammoth maze of tiny shops that sell knock-off goods.  People can wander around in there for days looking for a particular merchant who made them a good deal the last time "because we're friends."

At the fake mall you can get new prescription glasses, trinkets,
purses, clothing, cut-out cards, electronics, scarves, shoes, and
most anything your consumer heart desires. Buyer beware!
Kathy's Uggs lost a sole mid-winter, and her Jimmy Choo
purse handle ripped out before she was through using it. 

A floor full of scale-model buildings representing the city of Shanghai

There were so many museums we had not had a chance to visit! But we did venture out during our final week to see the Urban Planning Museum and its scale model of Shanghai. It was a great time to see the model because we could recognize and be impressed with an aerial view all the areas of the city we had visited (mostly via subway). John, with his amazing sense of direction and navigational skills, had become very comfortable with all the subway lines and how to get anywhere we wanted to go.

The students from the English club, who helped us plan and run activities for English Corner every week set up a goodbye dinner for us at an elaborate fish and hotpot buffet. They loved learning about American culture and our family.

We also had a farewell lunch with two Japanese women and a man from Vietnam, some foreign exchange students who attended English corner.  They came to listen to us speak in church one week and two of them have enjoyed attending even since we returned home.

We had one more dinner get-together with the "empty nesters" group from across the city.

A very entertaining game - empty nesters know how to have fun!

Sadly, we also had to say goodbye to Jeremiah, our pet cricket. Happily, Jeremiah lived much longer than we thought he would, and filled our apartment with his song. Constantly.

We set his little cage down in the park with a supply of carrots
so he would exit the open door of the cage and have a supply of
food. Then we took back our souvenir cage.

Final pictures after the final, and tearful goodbyes. One class,
after hearing John tell them how special they are,
 did not want to leave, even when the other class was ready to file in.

Kathy will miss how respectful the students are, how easily they laugh,
and the way they are used to turning in assignments with two hands
and a little bow.  

And now, a few interesting sights.

A special dessert of sliced tomatoes
sprinkled with coarse sugar.

Waxberries (yum!) and special Dragon
Boat Festival treats - leaf-wrapped
glutinous rice with a meat-filled center

Our window-box garden. People who
know us know that we will always
have a garden, no matter what.

Bamboo scaffolding is everywhere
in construction zones.

Typical subway scene. We truly became subterranean creatures.

In our neighborhood was what seemed to be a place where
people could track and buy stocks - we're not sure!

"Our" egg lady, with her selection of a dozen different types of
eggs we could buy.

"Our" vegetable lady cutting slices of squash and winter melon
for customers who just want an inch or two.

Outside the supermarket, a guy on a motorized vehicle stops to
chat with friends on the street (Note the arm chair).

Further down the same street - a card game.

Lots of motorized bike barking on this sidewalk.

Transporting fish tanks??

Fish sticks

Water heaters are on rooftops in the country and the city.

Watermelons have thin rinds and are so sweet!

We plan one final blog post to share some of our favorite signs we saw in China and some of the fashions we saw on the streets.  Stay tuned for one more entry . . .

June 10, 2018 - Winding down - in Suzhou

Yes, we are back in America, but we have a couple more entries before we wrap up our China experience.  First of all, we need to cover our final weeks.  So this entry will cover our last English Corner, our last medical class, and our wedding anniversary celebration in Suzhou, one of the "water towns" close to Shanghai.

To start off, June 12 was was our last English Corner, a Tuesday night class open to any university students who want to practice speaking English and learn about American culture. We celebrated by giving them Costco Chicago mix popcorn we brought back from the States, with a slide show about Americans and their love for popcorn. We also showed some slides recapping our time in China and told them that June 12 is our 34th wedding anniversary.

But the English Club students who help with English Corner knew that - they came prepared with a cute anniversary cake for us. They also came with a slide show of pictures they took of us throughout the year, put up disco lights in the classroom, and played Karen Carpenter's "Yesterday Once More" to honor us. It was a song they encouraged everyone to sing along with "because you all know this one." Some of their other English teachers teach them popular (!) English songs from various genres.

Note the traditional Chinese shirt. The
students loved it.

The cake had rose petals lining the sides.
The students gave us beautiful goodbye gifts.

We also taught our last medical English class. By now we know a (very!) little bit about some of the differences between health care in China and the U.S., including things like the importance Americans place on privacy vs the rather public nature of Chinese health care at their facilities and the fact that Chinese patient information is shared freely with family members (sometimes not at all with the patients). 

Our class was a challenge because even though the students were
very nice, their culture is such that they are not accustomed
to interacting with each other or with the teacher during class. 

After our last class, a surgeon walked us to the curb at the hospital to help us call a taxi. He insisted, because he wanted to be a good host. But taxi drivers do not always like to pick up foreigners. When one stopped for him and found out that he was actually getting a ride for us, the taxi driver refused. At least we think so. What we know is that the two had a long, heated discussion. At one point the surgeon motioned for us to get in the cab. When the driver kept arguing with him, we climbed back out and told him we would call a Didi, which is China's version of Uber. 

But now the surgeon's honor was involved. After arguing still more, the driver ended up pulling away, and the surgeon ran down the street, still holding onto the passenger side window to continue the discussion, being carried along by the vehicle and finally taking a tumble. Cell phones and batteries flew everywhere; the surgeon's arm got scraped up (and it turns out he cracked a rib or two). A crowd gathered; one woman had a picture of the license plate of the driver for the police. We felt bad and he was embarrassed about his show of temper. Hopefully the camera on the corner documented what was necessary for justice. 

We have a  34-year-long tradition of celebrating our marriage by "getting away" for a Friday night over-nighter near our anniversary. This year we revisited the ancient water town of Suzhou with our friends and then stayed an extra night.   

Ansteads took a picture of us and we took a picture of them as
we opted for interesting conveyances to our hotel.

Suzhou, although it attracts tourists
because it's an ancient water town,
is still a major metropolitan area.
This is a pedestrian area that has a
lively, social atmosphere day and night.

Some girls outside a store modelling for
pictures. We think it's some kind of a
game store.

One of the reasons Suzhou is famous is because it has so many beautiful traditional gardens. We visited the most famous one, "The Humble Administrator's Garden." 

This garden had buildings like other
gardens we've seen, but these had
more windows. The Humble
Administrator could use these buildings
to entertain visitors or to contemplate nature.

Pingjiang: a wonderful old street of vendors to explore

This water town is called the "Venice of the East."

We took a boat ride, of course.
And he sang for us, of course.

Our anniversary dinner included a
famous Suzhou dish that was a tasty
sweet and sour fish, presented with
maraschino cherry eyes.

Our anniversary weekend coincided with the Dragon Boat festival.
Sources differ about the origins of this holiday. It was a school holiday,
but none of our students were going to see any of the dragon boat races.

We saw boats in Suzhou that would become dragon boats for the races.

We visited a quiet little island, riding around enjoying lotus blossoms.

It's easy to see why Chinese people prize lotus blossoms. They're breathtaking, and we enjoyed a great anniversary even during the busyness of finishing up our school year. Next? Finals and packing and more goodbyes.