People's Square

Just one more little note on running here. It is considered strange, very strange not admirable. Here you run to catch a bus. And several buses have waited or pulled over expecting me to jump aboard. You can't get away from people here; wherever I run people point, stare and take pictures. It is often more exhausting than the actual workout.

We went to People's Square on Saturday and saw the craziest thing. We entered the garden area and there were people everywhere with papers hanging above them or sitting in front of them. There were clotheslines with papers clipped all along them. Rich starts reading the papers and realizes they are personal bios. It is like a living classified section. People, mainly the parents of 'eligibles', are match making. They bring descriptions and pictures of their son or daughter and hope someone wants to marry them. It is eharmony Chinese style. Crazy.

We were playing around at a fountain in People's Square when an 'artist' asked for a dollar to draw a picture of the kids. A dollar is equivalent to about six yen. Sure, for a buck go ahead. I know my kids look alike but this guy drew four pictures of the same face with different hair and in Matt's case big 'ol ears. The kids loved it though, especially Lily.

We also went to Nanjing Road which is a huge pedestrian street that is packed with people selling every knock off you can imagine. Any requests? Just let me know.

Sunday we are off to church. A little scoop on church here. You can attend a practicing denomination if you were already a member of that particular church, outside of China. You can also attend if you marry a foreigner that belongs to a religious sect. No proselytizing. There are service missions that teach English but no religious discussion is allowed. We are just happy we get to go. We have about 200 people in our branch but we are spread far and wide. As I figure out the metro things seem a little closer.

Here is our sojourn to church. Walk fifteen minutes to the metro station. From our station we ride to another station where we connect to a different line. We have learned this is a journey best taken without the stroller. To connect to the other line we have to take ten different staircases. Some of them have escalators but not all. We could take the elevator but first we have to find someone that can unlock it, not worth the trouble. After we connect it is a 30 minute ride out to where we meet; which is an office building. We use a large conference room for sacrament meeting and Sunday school. Primary and the other auxiliary meetings are in various rooms down the hall. It works and it has climate control, bonus! From our metro stop you walk another ten/fifteen minutes to the building. All together not a bad trip, as long as it's not raining.

This guy is always asleep on the corner. He is a motorcycle taxi. Something I haven't used yet but I'm sure the day will come.

This is all of us in a regular taxi (Rich is up front giving directions). Sometimes it is worth paying a little extra to avoid all the steps at the metro. I love the look the driver gives us when we all pile in. If we hail one on the street Rich walks ahead or no one will stop. Once he has one we all run and get in before they can protest. My kids can enter and exit a car in five seconds flat; which is truly amazing because at home getting them in the car was a thirty minute ordeal.

Overall, we are having a great time. Everything is an adjustment and nothing is streamline, especially shopping. But we're getting there. We all miss our friends and family. Matt is having the hardest time without his friends. The girls have each other to play with but he is solo and we haven't met anyone, through church or otherwise, with a boy his age.

We felt very inspired to come here and I know the Lord has not forgotten about us now that we're here. We are praying to know His will and plan for us. Blessings to you all.

Stacie