Frigid

It is colder than lint in a snowman's belly button here in Shanghai.

We don't know why it's so freakin' cold here because the temperature says it's around 30 degrees fahrenheit, which is cold, but not Icelandic. People say it's the humidity. It might be - who knows, but this is the coldest 30 degrees we have ever felt.

It certainly has us yearning for July when it's 95 degrees with 100% humidity and we all have 100+ mosquito bites.

A Big Fat Liar

Last spring, Annie (who possesses a disdain for winter, and in particular, snow) asked Scott what the weather was like in Shanghai. His response was as follows:

"Well I hear it's similar to Houston - really hot and humid in the summer. People say the winters are pretty cold but they NEVER have snow in Shanghai."

Below is the picture taken of our neighbors front yard this afternoon. Needless to say, even the "Good for Man" won't do him any good tonight.

Airports

Airports are a bit different here in China. The differences are fairly striking and our experience at the Shanghai Airport has us yearning for Southwest’s “Cattle Call” and Chili’s Too.

First, the airport is gigantic – there is no doubt one could see it from space.

Second, the runway is forever and a day from the terminal. Imagine taxiing from Dallas to Houston or Kansas City to St. Louis.

Third, the dining choices are a bit limited. If you’re not interested in the government run noodle diner (where even the waiters smoke) then you’re pretty much S.O.L.

Fourth, the bathrooms are in the basement, with no elevator access, and the stairs are at an angle so steep the guy who climbed Mount Everest wouldn’t even attempt it. Thus, if you have some form of disability or are old, you have two choices … hold it or wet yourself.

Fifth, if you have never been burly enough to participate in American Gladiators or Professional Wrestling, then it’s best if you just wait until everyone else has retrieved their luggage before approaching the bag belt. Never before has Scott wanted to “go postal” until he was upended by a spry 95 year old Chinese woman trying to get to her box of luggage large enough to contain a dead body.

Moral Dilemma

We have written about “English Names” before, but we’ve run into several women recently who have presented us with a moral dilemma. Their names are:

Chocolate
Twinkle
Dolly

All seem to be very nice women, so we can’t decide if we should go on about our business or give them the memo that they chose “Stripper Names” to identify themselves.

An Answer to an Old Question

It’s amazing what sticks with you throughout life. Commercials and tag lines from years and years ago are etched in our brains. Will we ever forget “Where’s the Beef?” What about Max Hedroom? … or Spuds McKenzie? – all absolute greatness.

One old-school commercial that keeps popping up in our heads ever since our move to China is the Dial spot that asked “Aren’t you glad you use Dial … don’t you wish everyone did?”

After riding in elevators, seeing the buses, walking down the street, etc., we have an answer to that question:

“Hell Yes … Hell Yes!”

Bu Chou - Update

Bu Chou’s surgery seemed to go well. The doctor inserted a new shunt to help relieve the pressure in her head. The surgery was last Monday and she will probably be in the hospital for another five days or so. She is in good spirits and appears to be feeling much better. She still has enough fire in her belly to curse at every single nurse who comes into the room. She despises IVs and lets them know it with vigor. Of course, whatever she's saying must be pretty funny because the nurses always laugh and they seem to love her.

Bu Chou - Surgery

Bu Chou is going under the knife again Monday in Shanghai. The doctor will be inserting another shunt to help drain the fluid from her cyst. Bu Chou has been doing well since returning home from the hospital at the end of December, but without the shunt, the pressure in her head has steadily risen. Her headaches and vomitting had gotten a little more frequent recently and, thus, it was decided that she needed another shunt.

New Year’s Treat or Lost in Translation?

In the building Scott works in, there is a Chinese restaurant that serves local Shanghai food. It’s a good restaurant as far as Chinese food goes and he eats lunch there with colleagues on a semi-regular basis.

This week he and several co-workers went down there for lunch to catch-up after the holidays. They had a great meal and when the waiter brought their change, he also brought a desk-top calendar for each of the patrons.

Scott didn’t pay much attention to the calendar until today when he was clearing off his desk before heading home for the weekend. He opened the calendar and thumbed through it – each month had a picture of a dish offered at the restaurant with the name in both Chinese and English. Scott turned the calendar to January and thought it an interesting choice to ring in the New Year – “Fried River Shrimps Balls.”

Now for those of you who don’t know, River Shrimp is a common dish in China, but Scott is not so sure he really wants to sample the balls of said shrimp.

A Good Visit

While Hooters for Christmas dinner was quite exciting, it wasn't the only highlight of H.D. and Jill Reed's visit to Shanghai. Despite Bu Chou's hospital stay occupying a good portion of their visit, we were able to give them a good flavor of our day to day life in China and were also able to do a little sightseeing.

At the end of the visit (which concluded today on Jan 1), they had developed some significant learning's about our life in China:

• Mr. Chen (our driver) and Mae (our housekeeper) rank right up there with Morgan Freeman in "Driving Miss Daisy" and Fraulein Maria.
• No fireworks laws means that every Tom, Dick, and Hong can have a glorious show in his or her backyard or apartment roof. This makes New Year's Eve is REALLY cool - even without the presence of Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest.
• Traffic laws are merely suggestions (unless there is a police car within plain view).
• 15 people really can fit in a 4' by 4' elevator.
• Brett Favre jerseys can be purchased a LONG way from Green Bay, WI from someone who is convinced that football is played by kicking a black and white round ball.
• $10 boxes of cereal do not come with bars of gold as the prize inside. Despite the extraordinary price, they come with alien decoder rings just like in America.
• One bicycle can hold not only a person, but also a water dispenser, a full size refrigerator, and a washing machine.

A Christmas to Remember

About 20 years ago, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers recorded a holiday album. One of the songs from that spectacular audio classic was the hit "A Christmas to Remember." This year, we surely had that kind of Christmas and just as Kenny and Dolly promised, it gave us that "springtime feelin' in the middle of December."

Annie's parents, H.D. and Jill Reed, were here in Shanghai to celebrate Christmas with us - Chinese style. With Bu Chou in the hospital until Dec. 27th, our plans just kind of evolved all week. With the help of our housekeeper (who could sit with her at the hospital during the afternoons) we were able to spend some quality time with the Reeds. On Christmas we we had a nice morning here at the house before heading out that afternoon for Christmas dinner.

We had several thoughts on what to do for a perfect Christmas meal. We thought about doing a turkey at home. We also thought about having a large Chinese meal at a restaurant. In the end, however, we decided the best place for a memorable holiday meal was the Shanghai Hooters. We didn't exactly know what to expect, but were definitely not disappointed.

Upon walking into the restaurant we were greeted by 15 Hooters girls shouting at the top of their lungs in unison "Merry Christmas and welcome to Hooters." We were also surprised to see a very large Christmas tree in the foyer (as an FYI, we now know what Charlie Brown's Christmas tree would have looked like if it had been 20 feet tall). About halfway through our meal, 7 waitresses crowded around our table and one of them made an announcement:

"Attention Hooters! We want to extend a special greeting to this lovely family that decided to have their Christmas meal with us here at Hooters. Please give them your applause." The 7 nice ladies then proceeded to serenade us with a version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" that none of us will EVER forget.

After this one hour of fun, we all (especially H.D. and Scott) certainly had that "springtime feelin' in the middle of December!"

Bu Chou - The Latest

Sorry for the delay in updates, but the last few weeks have been quite a whirlwind. After Bu Chou had her shunt removed, it took about 4 days for her fever to go away. It took about another 3-4 days for the vomiting to subside. They did a spinal tap a week after the surgery to determine the status of her infection and they determined it was basically gone.

She seemed to stabilize the weekend before Christmas and we thought she might be able to come home in time for Santa's arrival. However, the doctor decided on the 23rd that she needed to remain in the hospital a while longer. But, after seeing her on Christmas day, he decided she was stable enough to come home on the 27th. Here is the discharge picture with Scott, Bu Chou, and the nurses. The nurses insisted on snapping a photo because quote unquote "they (Scott and Bu Chou) both looked so cute that morning."

Thus, last Thursday Bu Chou returned home. She had a really great weekend and is now walking again and eating like a horse (after over 3 weeks in the hospital, the rice congee at every meal had gotten a bit old.)

Her current medical status is still a bit in-flux though. She now does not have a shunt to help drain the fluid out of the cyst in her head, and still has the hydrocephalus issues that originally brought her to Shanghai. Hopefully she will remain stable and there is a chance the fluid could drain on its own, but we're effectively in "wait and see" mode right now.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers - we very much appreciate it!