4th September 2012

Well, tomorrow we will have been in Shanghai 3 weeks. In that time the kids have started at 2 different schools and 3 different campuses, we have found a place to live, a church, worked out where to shop and almost got our internet working well.

Sienna and Taren started school a week after we arrived. Although they both attend Yew Chung International School, they are at different campuses, about a 12 minute drive apart. Yew Chung has a very good reputation for teaching Chinese, and already we can see they are learning a lot. James started his school just over a week ago, and is settling in. Here’s a photo of him and Taren at the bus stop where they all catch buses to school at this point Sienna had already caught her bus. Each school has their own buses, so I spend about 20 minutes at the bus stop morning and afternoon getting kids onto or off their respective buses. James doesn’t usually look this worried – I think he was embarrassed that I was taking his photo!  Also, he doesn’t usually wear his blazer, as the average temperature during the day has been in the mid thirties since we arrived. Fortunately, it is much cooler today and rainy, with a forecast maximum of 27 °C.

The photo on the right shows part of our complex, and the lake that divides the apartment blocks from the “villa” accommodation. We have a 4 bedroom apartment on the 25^th floor. Although we were originally disappointed that our first 2 choices for accommodation in 5 bedroom town-houses fell through, we can see God’s hand in us living here – we are about a 15 minute walk from the shops and 25 minute walk to church. Much closer than the larger places were to facilities.

 
There are many canoes tied up around the lake and Taren is very keen to get out and about in one. Although it is nice to go walking in the grounds of our apartment compound, I think I’m the only one to have done it, as the kids are pretty tired after school, and hanging around at the bus stop, and usually want to go straight upstairs as soon as they can. 

The compound has a good sports club, and we joined up yesterday, so now we will try and get swimming on a regular basis.

 
The walking here is very pleasant as Pudong is spacious and well set out because it is the newest area in Shanghai – 30 years ago it was all just farmland. There are wide bicycle paths, and footpaths along all the streets as you can see from this photo – the 4 lane divided road is visible to the right of the bikepath Here the red is for pedestrians, the other side of the line is for bicycles and electric motorbikes. I took this picture as I was walking from our apartment to our closest supermarket. SUPER is the word – it is enormous – think of Kmart and Woolworths rolled into one, then double the size, and there you have it – there would be about 40 checkouts at the exit! 

I’m looking forward to getting a bike as the paths are so nice and uncrowded and there are no hills at all. I think that before too long we will all be biking to church – so what are we doing for church you ask? Well, we have now been to Abundant Grace International Fellowship at 3pm on Sunday twice, and think we will probably make it home, though the volume of the music temps Ian to try the more traditional and liturgical Trinity service, Sundays at Noon – though the real drawback with that is the absence of a children’s programme. Both Ian and I have started at BSF, where we will be studying Genesis – yes, I am looking forward to seeing what God will be teaching me after a sermon series at CABC (our church in Sydney) and our bible studies for the last several months were also on Genesis!!

I had my first 2 Chinese lessons last week and can now say:

"I am very happy" - wŏ hĕn gāo xìng

and "I am learning Chinese" wŏ xué zhōng wén.

Other helpful phrases I have learned are: My name is Terena     wŏ jiào Terena. I am Australian           wŏ shì àu dà lì yà rén. Pleased to meet you    hĕn gāo xìng rèn shi nĭ. Good morning!            zăo shùng hăo!

Goodbye!        zài jàin

Which, of course is a great way to finish this pseudoblog - zài jàin!