Here they are... the ones I was talking about. hehehehe

Here we are with a few thousand of our fellow tourists!

This is us in the gardens at Tiger Hill

The crowds of people who start to gather when we stop. This is a pretty small crowd, we must be losing our allure!

Tiger Hill Pagoda

Riley and Daddy playing at the park. We love sand!

This was a video of the sign that read "Do Not Play in The Water", it's not that funny when you can't see it... That's right, it's next to the pool.

This is one of the bridges at Rainbo Walk, a favorite of ours for hanging out!

Li Gong Di at night

Who knew there were Mormons in China...

We went to The tiger Hill Pagoda today. A beautiful, but tourist filled, park nearby. The pagoda is hundreds of years old and truly amazing to see up close. "They don't make them like they used to" really has new meaning here!
No one tried to give us anything today, but we did have our picture taken many, many times. It's kind of fun being a celebrity! Brody bought some junk from one of the little stands and had a fun time bartering with the lady. As long as you are ready to walk away at any time, they will pretty much give you any price you want. We rode a horse drawn carriage around the outside of the park and Riley spent the whole time looking at the horse and saying, "niiiccceee"! Her word for any animal that she wants to pet. Our driver was telling us a bit about the sights in Chinese and we were able to understand what he was saying, that was really exciting. Mandarin is such a cool language and we are all working hard to learn as much as we can.
We spent the afternoon walking around the lake in our neighborhood and enjoying the gorgeous weather. Riley is having so much fun doggy sitting! She holds the little leash in her hands and this sweet little dog just walks along patiently beside her. She yells at us if anyone else tries to hold the leash.
Yesterday we rode bikes over to this cool part of the lake called Rainbo Walk. You can walk around the lake, play at a little playground and get some interesting things to eat. We aren't brave enough yet to buy food from the street vendors, but i don't think it will be long. I'll have to take some pics of where I get my fruit and veggies, you'll be wondering if I've gone blind, lost my sense of smell -or both! But I digress...
These young men were following us at a respectable distance, they were in white button down shirts and black pants and carrying clipboards and book bags. So Rich pipes up, "I didn't know their were Mormons in China?" This then digressed quickly to, "Do you accept Buddha as your personal savior?" and so on. It's a good thing we find each other so funny...

Who knew squatting could be so much fun...

We are homeless! The "decoration company" are tearing into every bathroom in our house today. They have found a leak on the 3rd floor under the tub, but nothing on the 2nd floor. This is good news; perhaps we will be back in our house by Halloween instead of Thanksgiving!
We are staying at our new friends Matt and Michelle's while they are on holiday. We get to take care of Pipi, the adorable poodle, while they are gone. So at least we are serving some purpose while we raid their cupboards and steal all their neighbors!
Brody has found a new buddy named Nathan. They spent a ridiculous amount of time on the trampoline today and I think they may be soulmates! Brody finally found someone who talks, runs and jumps as much as he does!
We are enjoying the amazing weather that blew in on Thursday. Literally, it blew in. It was hot and humid on Wednesday, same as always. That night we had a lot of wind, and the next morning... it was cool! It's like, 70 degrees, with a lovely breeze. For the first time since we arrived, China doesn't stink!!
We are off to be tourists tomorrow while my boys have a few days off. We have a list of local things we need to see, so we are starting at the top. Who knows... maybe there will be another "cultural exchange" with some of the locals!

China construction really blows...

Our walls are dripping. That's right, dripping! Everything here is made so poorly that it seems as though we will never have a "normal" problem free house to live in!
Anywhoo...
Had my first big meeting today with my neighbors Stefanie and Mary. These lovely ladies started the Suzhou Sports Club about three years ago. This is basically a club designed to emulate the Saturday Soccer leagues that we have at home. They said that when they moved here, there were no extra curricular sport activities for expat children. I, in all my wisdom (aka desperate stupidity and need to fit in) have volunteered to take over running the organization, as they will both be stepping down. What, you may ask, makes me qualified to run any organization when I barely manage to run my own household? Nothing. I have no qualifications other than I am the only poor shlup to step up and say "I will do it". So my head was spinning after said meeting with all the ways I will fail at this task and sorely disappoint children and parents alike! Not to mention that I had Starbucks on the way to Mandarin Lessons today, or as we call it xim ba qu ca fe, and was crashing hard from my wonderful caffeine rush. Then the man from the "Decoration Company" came, along with the realtor guy who just walks into my house any time he wants, and said the problem with my wet walls is because it rained so hard that the water was leaking in through the foot of concrete that is our wall. Yeah... right.
We are looking forward to next week. It is a holiday here, I'm really not sure for what, but Rich and Brody get the week off. We plan to explore some of the cultural high points of Suzhou. Not sure what those will be exactly, but stay tuned...

These are more pics of Brody's first day of school! His room is adorable.

The boys changing room... Brody changes into his "P.E. Kit" here and heads to the stadium for P.E.!












This is Miss Lambert, Brody's teacher. She is from Australia, came here from teaching in Cairo, and we all love her!!

Here is the first floor of our house "before" we GOT OUR STUFF!!!! Did I mention that we got our stuff?

This is Brody in a giant hamster ball that gets inflated and then floats on the skunky lake water!! It was very entertaining for all watching!

Our new friends! Otherwise known as the extortionists who tried to intimidate us into paying them for a photo they took just like this. That's right, a police badge was subtly flashed and crowds were agatherin'!

Brody, finding a moment of Zen at the top of Tai Ping hill, in an otherwise hectic lifestyle.

Namelss Chinese person holding our daughter... happens all the time.

Here's my crazy kitchen! Note the 2 burner Chinese stove. I've burnt many a grilled cheese on this puppy!

This is Jin, our driver. We called him Ching for about a month... stupid, white devils!!!

Brody at the gate on the first day of school! Very exciting!!

Sorry... I really suck at this!

Ok, I guess I'm not very good at keeping up with this whole process. It's been like, forever, since the last posting. So here's all the news that's fit to print!
WE GOT OUR THINGS!!!! I cannot express how excited we are to have gotten our stuff from the US! It's like Christmas, Birthdays and snow days all rolled up into one! We spent the long weekend (it was the mid-autumn festival so we had Monday off) unpacking boxes and just enjoying the smell of everything NOT FROM CHINA!! It has made such a huge difference in how the house feels. It finally feels like home!
We ate Moon Pies, the delicacy here that is served everywhere, from KFC to the finest joints in town- these are served to celebrate the Moon Festival. They tasted like cat food! But the folks here eat them like candy!! We also had a "cocktail hour" at Brody's school on Friday night. The Ayi stayed the night so we could go out afterward with people from the neighborhood! So picture this... free booze, free appetizers and teachers and parents enjoying all of it together!! It was crazy! I had a drink with Brody's teacher! I guess this is what it's like with a private education.
I had my second Chinese language class today and I think I've got it!! It's a fascinating language and it is all so literal, I love it. I was able to tell our driver what time to come tomorrow, find out how much I owed the vegetable lady at the fly infested, open air fruit and veggie stand, barter with the plant guy for a better price on already ridiculously cheap potted plants and show Rich up at dinner with some friends ! Life is good.
I have been suckered into taking over the soccer, oops I mean football, program here! It was started by some ladies from the states about three years ago and now they want a break! So I volunteered to run it. The theory was that it will be another great way to meet people and kids, but now I'm feeling a bit intimidated by the impending duties...
Speaking of Football, Rich has joined the men's league through Brody's school. It consists of teachers and daddy's of Dulwich College kiddos. Should be fun to watch, they take their football quite seriously here!
We had to kick the stray cat we found back outside as he thought it fun to pee on Brody's bed! So now we are on the hunt, figuratively speaking, for a healthy cat in China.
I think that's about it. I may attempt to download some pictures, I may just go put my feet up. Hard to say. The life of a Tai Tai is ever-changing...
Miss you guys and hope you are all having a great week. By the way, it was about 75 degrees here today! D

Another Day... Another Ayi

So there it is. I interviewed another Ayi today. For those of you unaware of the intricacies of expat life in China, an Ayi is a maid/nanny type person that comes into your home and does all the things I used to do. It feels very weird to hire someone to come and do "my job" but it SOP here, so... when in China. The lady seemed very nice, her current employer came with her to translate. The whole thing about this though is that you never really know when people are being honest with you. They seem to tell you exactly what you want to hear, but then I get the skinny from all the "seasoned" Tai Tai's (foreign wives) and they all seem so jaded! They say things like, "Oh, you are paying her way too much" or, "if she doesn't work out you just get a new one". This seems like a big deal to me. This person will be in my home, occasionally taking care of my children and cooking my food, I sure hope we don't have to go through this process multiple times!! But, I'll just have to see how it goes. Later, D

My very first blog! T minus 3 years and counting...

Here it is, our new blog! Don't ya love the name, Rich thought of it! He is so clever!
Stay tuned for more exciting news from the Far, Far East...