GirlTravelOR

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Shanghai Aquarium

This past weekend Lizzy and I went with Nathan on a trip to Shanghai. Nathan had a tech conference there, and rather than do another weekend alone (we'll still have two in September alone), I decided we would go with.

As it turned out, we didn't get to do much sightseeing. The location of the conference was so far out of Shanghai it was 48 kuai (6.5 USD) just to get to the closest Subway station. (This is a ridiculous amount. My average trip in Qingdao by taxi costs about 2.5 USD.) Not to mention the time factor, with good traffic and taking a taxi the whole way, it was still nearly an hour to just get downtown. Not particularly worth it for just a couple hours.

The one thing we did do (tourist wise) was go to the Shanghai Aquarium. Lizbeth has been obsessed with fish lately so we figured it would be a fun activity to do as a family before Nathan had to check into the conference. At more than 20 USD a ticket it was a little bit of a disappointment but still a lot of fun. I only wish they had a little hands on area like the ones in Oregon are apt to have and maybe a dolphin show or something (or at least some dolphins!)

Funny thing was, as besotted as Lizzy is with fish, she was quite terrified of anything larger than her, especially the fake plastic penguins. But she still enjoyed the trip a lot.

Unfortunately the whole thing was very dark and hard to get any clear pictures. Here are a few of the better ones.

We returned about 5PM, then Nathan had to run off the conference so L and I wandered around a mall. Afterwards we had a late dinner at a Chinese restaurant about 9PM. Lizbeth passed out on the walk home. This picture was taken after the diaper changing she slept through. Other than a two hour nap we had been going since about 5AM that morning to catch our flight. Unfortunately, she woke up shortly after this was taken and had a really hard time going to bed not at home. Poor baby.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

If You're Wondering Why...

I haven't posted in forever, it's because I just haven't had any energy! I'm napping almost every day.

And if you're wondering why I'm so tired, the answer is in the picture below!

And if you're wondering when Greene Baby 2 is going to greet the world, my due date is around April 7th. This makes me about 9 1/2 weeks along.

I had hoped to post my sonogram picture here, but it was such a fuzzy image, it just wasn't worth the effort.

Regardless, we're very excited about our new little addition!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Just Because She's So Pretty

I absolutely love this picture. It's hard to get good pictures of Lizbeth these days. She would much rather come see what you are photographing than be in the picture itself. This is such a good picture of where she is right now. Sweet smile, her hair with a touch of curl, so many pearly white teeth poking through. The only thing not evident in this picture is just how busy she is!

Lizbeth is into everything these days, running, climbing, dancing, spinning. She's super cute, and has a sweet personality. Generally feels really bad when she does something wrong (if I don't catch her throwing food off her plate, I'm usually alerted to it by her telling herself "no, no!"). She's still not much one for cuddling, but she loves to sit in your lap to play with toys or read a book. For 30 seconds, that is. :-) Everyone exclaims about just how smart and good-natured she is, Chinese and foreigners alike! She loves the ocean, and going places. She loves wrestling with her daddy and going for bikerides. She sleeps great (takes 1 minute to put down at night), though she is an early riser! Somewhere between 5:15 and 6:00 we can count on hearing her cries for us. She also loves to eat, but is starting to be a bit of a picky eater.

Overall she is a delight, and we feel so blessed to have her in our lives.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Exploring

Yesterday I got brave and decided to take Lizbeth on a biking/photographing trip. Last Saturday Nathan and I had gone for a 5 1/2 hour trip down to the older sections of Qingdao but we had only taken the older camera and the battery died three pictures in. Kicking myself for not taking my super awesome Canon camera, I was itching to go back. We didn't go nearly as far (Nathan usually has Lizbeth on his bike and her plus her seat weigh a lot!), but it was a good first run.

Lizbeth loves rocks

An old, unmatched door

I just liked the way this picture lined up

Lizbeth also loves the ocean

These little shacks might not look like much but they have an ocean view!

An old street

Old German houses from the Badaguan area

A quiet Qingdao street on our way home

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Ayi Trip

Last Monday, while my sister was here, my Ayi arranged to take us on a trip. As with all things that are discussed and planned in Chinese, I wasn't too clear on exactly what we were going to be doing.

First, we took a bus to a place where we could meet up with our other friends who were going and our Ayi.

Then we walked to another bus, which thankfully was air conditioned since we were on it for an hour and a half.

We arrived at a large park named the "2008 Olympic Sculpture Park". It had a large man-made lake in the center where you could take paddle boats, a small carnival area with bumper cars and a few other things, and life size bronze statues of all of the Chinese 1st place winners.

We had a nice time wandering around and took paddle boats and ate icecream, but it was incredibly hot and sticky!

Lizbeth and her Ayi

The locusts were again everywhere and incredibly loud!

Friends

A Statue

Hot and Sweaty for all

Bubbles!

Pretty girl

Lizbeth fell in love with her Shu Shu (Ayi's husband). She had met him once before but they really hit it off this time. He carried her everywhere and she even took a nap in his arms. Ayi told me last Wednesday that he misses her already.

Paddle Boats

Lizbeth wasn't so keen on sitting still

After lunch we all went to have lunch together

Some of the group went home after lunch but Ayi had planned for us to go to an indoor amusement park. We were actually quite impressed with it, although it was quite expensive for the rides, between $1.50 and $4.50 per ride. They might have an all day special but we're not sure.

Double Decker Carousel

Pirate Ship (we all went on this one and it was quite fun)

Lizbeth had conked out by the time we got to the amusement park. Poor baby. All day was too long for her.

After she woke up we took her to the bounce house before leaving the park.

By 4:00 we were all exhausted and ready to be home. Unfortunately, the trip home was where the adventure really began. We waited for a long time for the bus, paid the 4.5 kuai fare (most buses are 1-2 kuai) and got on ready to relax-only to have it break down...TWICE! My ayi argued for a long time with the bus attendant to get our fares back (even calling the supervisor), then we had to take another two buses and a taxi to get home...totaling nearly four hours! Needless to say we were exhausted by the time we arrived after 8:00 PM. Thankfully Lizbeth was amazing through the whole ordeal.

It was a fun day, but was definitely a "Chinese" experience. We never really understood what exactly we were doing, had a lot of standing around and waiting time, and a LOT of time on the public bus. These days are always great in that we actually feel as though we are living in China, but we are so thankful to come home to our air conditioned and comfortable apartment!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Typhoon

Well, more of a tropical storm by the time it got to us, thankfully. But it still created some impressive waves.

Check out the size of the people with the umbrellas at the corners of the photo for size approximation.

These pictures were taken from my friend's apartment, one building closer to the ocean than us. We live three buildings and a grassy area away from the ocean.

Check out the size of the swells.

And the giant crashes.

You can't see it, but about thirty feet out from that wall where the people are standing is a sea break. This made the waves break far enough out that you might be able to feel the spray but were in no danger of really being hit. It made for a great show.

This morning the waves are much smaller, but the ground is torn up. Must have been some powerful winds to tear granite tiles up from the ground. Not even sure how that works. Lizbeth and I were out there earlier, but I forgot my camera so no pictures :-(

Thank Him for wearing down the intensity of the storm and keeping us safe so all we had was a wonderful display of His power.

Visitor

If you've been wondering where we've been (since it's been forever since I've posted), we've had a visitor! Lizbeth's Aunt Elizabeth (say that three times fast) came to visit us for a week and we were busy. Here are a few pics of them together. I hope to post more soon.

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)