Shanghai Flower Port...

One of the guys that works with Mark mentioned that there was a flower park out by the Pudong International Airport that we should check out. It was quite an adventure to find it...Mr. Yao, our driver, hadn't heard of it so we all found it together after a few wrong turns.

We weren't prepared for 100's of acres of tulips in every color imaginable. I think there were at least 600 different varieties of tulips throughout the park. There were a couple of areas with windmills to make it look like Holland, a beautiful waterfall with tunnels behind it for the boys to explore, a few gazebos for photo ops (lots of wedding parties go there for their pictures as we saw at least 2 that day), and millions of gorgeous flowers to look at, photograph, and smell.

Here's a few pics of us tiptoeing through the tulips...

The dissection...

As part of Derek's class study on invertebrates, they got the chance to do a hands-on study of one invertebrate...the SQUID, complete with dissection! The kids were paired up with a friend to minimize the number of squids used (as well as help if one of the kids wouldn't touch the squid). Derek and his friend Gavin named their squid Squiddy...a very Derek-like name.

They started by learning about some of the parts of the squid:


The fins are at the top, the body is called the mantle, they have 2 long tentacles and 6 legs (not 8 tentacles), and they actually have a beak like a bird that they use to bite their prey.


Derek and Gavin study their squid...from a distance. Gavin was anxious to get his hands on it, but Derek wasn't so sure he wanted to smell like them. I don't blame him -- I ended up lending a hand (or two) and smelled like them for 2 days!


The spot right there was where the beak was, plus the brain is in that tiny white pouch. The brain sizes varied, but most were about the size of a small marble.


Not for the weak stomached people...this is Squiddy with all his insides exposed. There really isn't much to them. The black pouch through the middle is the ink sac. They also have a stiff piece of "bone" called a quill behind that pouch that we were able to remove so the boys could write with the quill and ink from their squid.

Derek and Gavin took turns getting ink on the quill so they could write their names. Not much ink in ours...maybe he/she got scared being caught and squirted whomever was getting it.


Derek showing off Squiddy's beak. The kids were allowed to take their beak with them to show parents IF they washed it off. Yeah, that's just what we needed in our house...a smelly squid beak! It quickly disappeared and was never to be seen/heard from again!

I find it amazing all of the hands-on learning that they do at Concordia. Though the squid dissection is not a common thing -- one teacher doesn't mind doing it, so she volunteers every year -- they do a lot of learning-by-doing instead of just learning-by-reading. Alex's class learned about rocks, minerals, and crystals by growing crystals in their classroom. They also went on a field trip to the Shanghai Geological Museum to see samples of quartz, calcite, fluorite, etc. so they could read some facts about them, sketch an example of one they saw at the museum, and take pictures.

Visiting the Shanghai Wild Animal Park

Last week, the boys had 1-1/2 days of vacation for Teacher meetings. Mark took the boys to a very fun Wild Animal Park in Pudong (the part of Shanghai where we live). Here are a few pictures of the many wonderful animals that they saw: So sad, the Gorilla was holding his hand out begging for people to give him food even though the signs said not to feed him. A few of the many beautiful birds in the Bird House... This is a Capucin Monkey, like the ones in the "Night at the Museum" movies... The boys LOVE elephants! The panda had just finished a snack and was ready for an afternoon nap... Derek and the giraffes... There was a lady at the entrance selling binoculars. Before Mark had a chance to say NO, the boys had already opened them up and started viewing... The boys took time to pose with the "tigers"... For a small animal park, they had many impressive animals. They had a liger --- it was a lion/tiger with the coloring of a lion but with stripes like a tiger. It was beautiful!

Picking Strawberries...

Today was a bit of a rainy Saturday, but it ended up being a perfect day for...PICKING STRAWBERRIES! Some of the people that Mark works with invited us to meet them this morning to pick strawberries, and we weren't really sure what to expect. It ended up being a fun...and extremely tasty...adventure for the whole family!

The Strawberry Farm was a field set up with dozens of these strawberry greenhouses. The strawberry plants were situated on these little berms (hills) that ran the entire length of the greenhouses, with about 6 rows per greenhouse. We had a timeslot to pick strawberries for about an hour, and the berries cost 40 RMB per kg (about $3 per pound). The berries were absolutely beautiful...the boys went for the ones "the size of your hand", and I followed them picking the small but very sweet ones! The only downside...we weren't going to eat them before washing, so we had to wait for the hour drive home before we could taste any!

We snapped a few pictures...

This was just one of the 3 baskets we filled...

The boys finding "just one more" for the baskets...

The rows were pretty narrow, so you had to be careful not to fall over!

Still smiling after an hour of berry picking...waiting to taste them at home!

Finally able to take a taste...DELICIOUS!

This afternoon, Mark went to meet up with some other co-workers to learn how to play rugby. There's quite a group of them that meet every Saturday to practice/learn/have fun. As long as everyone finishes the fun with no injuries, it's a successful time!

Tonight, we're meeting with a travel agent to plan our first vacation. The boys have about 1-1/2 weeks off for Easter/SpringBreak/ChineseLaborDay at the end of April. Even though we haven't seen much in China yet (haven't even been to the Great Wall in Beijing yet), I think we're going to save some of the shorter trips for a long weekend instead of a full week. We're thinking someplace warm...maybe Phuket, Thailand or Singapore, Malaysia. It all sounds SO exotic, but to put it in perspective: both locations are about a 3-hour plane ride from here, so not much further than a trip to Disney World. We're going to see what Julie (the Travel Agent) recommends for that time of year, and she comes highly recommended by many others that we know use her for their plans. I can hardly wait for a vacation!

Book Week at CISS...complete with Character Parade

All this past week at CISS, it was themed "BOOK WEEK". The kids spent time reading, learning about writing and illustrating books, and talking about their favorite books and authors. The school even had an author/illustrator named David Biedrzycki there to visit each of the classes talking about writing and illustrating, and he taught both classes how to draw his favorite dragon.

David Biedrzycki, author and illustrator

Friday was the boys' favorite part...they got to dress up like their favorite book character for school, and the entire Elementary school did a Character Parade to show off their characters and books. Alex dressed as Harry Potter and took his favorite "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" book for the parade. Derek dressed as Hiccup Horrrendous Haddock III and took his "How to Train Your Dragon" book for the parade. Each class got to go up on stage and show off their costumes.

Alex's entire class...

Derek's entire class...

All of the teachers even got into the spirit. Alex's teacher, Mrs. Carroll, dressed up as the Yellow Brick Road from "The Wizard of Oz". I'm not sure, but I think that Derek's teacher, Mrs. Munson, dressed up as Amelia Bedelia...and Mrs. Bailey, who teaches the 1st grade paired class that is with Derek, dressed up as Amelia Bedelia as well, complete with crazy hat and a rubber chicken to "dust" with baby powder. How fun!

Alex's Teacher, Lisa Carroll (the yellow brick road)

Derek's teacher, Mrs. Munson (left), and 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Bailey (right, with the crazy hat)

This was a good week for the boys! Praise God for small things that make the weeks fun!

Alex's Class Leading Chapel...

At Concordia International School Shanghai (CISS), the kids have chapel every other Tuesday morning. Alex's 4th grade class and their partner 3rd grade class got to lead chapel this week by reading Bible stories and leading the songs. In total, there are 36 kids -- 18 in each class.

The theme of the chapel was "Kids of the Bible". Alex got to read about the little slave girl who told Lazarus to go to the prophet, who told him to how to be cured of leprosy through God's word. Though he sometimes gets a little nervous, he did a great job!



I think Alex is finally getting more comfortable in the school. He has made some new friends, spending time playing with Nicholas, Jonathan, Matthew, and Gregory at recess and during free time...but he still very much misses all his friends at Peace back in Michigan!

Figuring out food in Shanghai

Greetings on this beautiful spring afternoon!

We just returned from our typical Saturday afternoon grocery shopping outing. It's amazing to walk through Sam's Club, which opened up over here just a few months ago, and see all of the things that we recognize. Of course, then you head over to the meat area and see the VERY fresh fish and seafood...some still swimming in the tanks, others chilling out on ice.

Here are pictures of a few common items in the Koke house. See how many you can recognize:

salt comes in a bag...

Oreo cookie sticks...

Hershey bars...

fruit snacks...these are grape, but they have strawberry, peach, and orange too...

Skippy peanut butter...

Mt. Dew...

skim milk...

The most interesting thing to get used to is the milk. It comes in a one liter box, and we buy stuff imported from either Germany or New Zealand. It isn't kept in refrigerated cases when you buy it...it's on the shelves right next to baby food! We typically keep 4-5 boxes in the pantry and just pop one in the fridge to get cold a bit before we want to use it. We definitely don't drink as much of it as we did back in Michigan, but it's good for cereal and the occasional glass with cookies.

The other thing to get used to is washing the fruits and veggies. You use special "fruit and veggie" wash to clean your items before you use them...strawberries, apples, potatoes, pears, carrots, celery...anything without a peel (like a banana or orange). We can buy fresh fruit right outside our apartment complex. A nice man has a truck with the back loaded with fresh fruit...VERY tasty and cheap! We're quickly becoming regulars to his "truck stand".

More to come later...