Wow! The clan has been here for over six months already! Everything is really starting to click on all cylinders now as we have adjusted to our life in Shanghai, be it the crowds, the air quality (which has actually been pleasantly clean for most of the summer), Grandma moving in (by surprise no less), and, in Fifi's case, starting school for the first time!
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| An Auto Awesome interpretation of the neighborhood pool from above |
We've also come up on a bit of a holiday season here in China, having celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival, where we got a few days off, and getting ready to celebrate China's National Day in October. For Mid-Autumn, we decided to take a trip to visit the in-laws in Wuxi, but not before celebrating with our neighbors at the apartment complex!
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| Some Dance students were invited to perform at our Mid Autumn banquet |
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| Hand-made moon cakes! |
For our latest trip to Wuxi, we decided to see some of the sights. Wuxi is something of a mini "Hollywood" town in China, as many "period pieces" have been filmed here due to the large "Ancient China" movie sets in the area. Among these are the "Water Marsh Town", inspired by one of the great Chinese classics, "Heroes of the Water Marsh" （水浒传):
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| Hanging out with the driver |
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| Traditional style family meal |
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| The main gate of "Water Marsh Town" |
A Kung Fu show was included in the price of admission:
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| I really, really suck at archery |
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| A film crew! |
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| A mockup of the Imperial Palace |
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| A sampling of the films shot here |
The next day, we went to a nearby park that I'd gone to with Brother Ming a while back called "Dragon Head Island" （龙头渚):
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| Fifi experiences her first Chicken Prep |
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| Fail |
But the title of today's post is mostly about our adjustment with Fifi spending most of her week at school. The biggest impact to myself has been that drop her off at school each morning. For Mommy and Lukas, the change has been much more drastic, as they were accustomed to Fifi's presence every day, all day. So, I took a week off shortly after school started to hang out with Mommy and Lukas at home, and during that week, we did quite a few activities together!
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| The Shanghai Zoo, with only one kid... how long as it been! |
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| Add caption |
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| I remember riding these way back in the day in Taiwan |
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| How did that cat get in there? Note the baby monkey clinging to the mommy monkey, too! |
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| One of the coolest (and free!) museums in Shanghai - the Shanghai Wushu Museum! |
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| Master Huo Yuanjia of "Fist of Legend" fame! |
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| Hah! |
While hanging out with just one kid is quite a bit more relaxing, we definitely missed Fifi's company. Fortunately, she is doing quite well at school, and of course, we save most of the fun activities for when she's around!
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| Boating at Century Park |
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| A nice bridge with water lilies at Century Park |
Finally, a performance!
Stay tuned for more super exciting adventures!
