The local market...

Brian discovered a nearby vegetable and fruit market last weekend, courtesy of a fellow middle school teacher who likes to shop locally. It is a fabulous market! Stalls overflow with produce and there are lots of options for meat, fish, tofu and fresh noodles, too. What a great Saturday morning destination. We hopped on our bikes to get there and loaded our purchases into our bike pannier bags. Urban living is pretty awesome.

Socializing on a Thursday night...

We don't do much on week nights because then we're too tired the next morning when the alarm goes off for work, but this past Thursday a wonderful colleague organized a small trip to Puxi for dinner and then a lecture about contemporary Chinese literature. It was such a fun night! We ate at an American-style Chinese restaurant called Fortune Cookie and, at the lecture, I wrote down a list of about 10 contemporary Chinese authors whose works I must read. This was definitely a fun way to spend a Thursday night.

Exploring ancient Qibao...

Qibao is a very cool and very old (1000 years old!) water town preserved within modern Shanghai. It used to be its own municipality, known for its textile production, and it's one of several water towns in and around Shanghai that feature canals as a primary means of transportation. The old temple in this town was originally built almost 1000 years ago, and has been rebuilt and restored a few times over the years. It's picturesque and lovely, and we were excited to ride the subway out there this Saturday to spend a good chunk of the day exploring and flaneuring.

The parking lot at Concordia...

We love riding our bikes to school every day. It's so liberating to NOT have a vehicle, with all of its maintenance and hassles. We just hop on our awesome Bitwin bikes and we're at school in about 3 minutes. Many Concordians also ride bikes and scooters to school, and another thing we love is that the parking lot is full of two-wheeled, rather than four-wheeled, vehicles. Here's one shot of the "parking lot".

Foodies unite!

It's always wonderful to find other people who love food as much as we do. Last night we hosted our friends the Turners, along with the Andrichs, for an Italian-themed dinner party where we all cooked parts of the meal and celebrated flavour and texture. Craig brought appetizers (Alaskan smoked cod, delicious prawns and an aperitif featuring champagne), the Turners brought 2 types of delicious arancini and a lovely green salad with fresh mandarins, and Brian cooked up a big pot of Sicilian caponata and then made the most tender beef tenderloin with a soffrito. Dessert featured chocolate and maple walnut eggplant with lemoncello. I envision many wonderful dinners with these folks...    :)

The apartment is settled!

We are so excited that we've been able to unpack, sort and decorate. Our apartment now looks and feels like home!

Hotel Thing Confluence...

Sometimes in East Asia, you find shops and products that have very entertaining English translations and variations; an example is this shop in Shanghai that specializes in kitchen supplies. It's called Hotel Thing Confluence and we just think it is the best name ever! Brian especially loves this place because of the amazing array of kitchen items he has been able to find to outfit our new kitchen.

Off to South Hunan province for a week of service and culture...

All of the high school and middle school students at Concordia go out on service learning and culture trips in September, and I was lucky enough to spend 7 days in South Hunan province, about 4 hours away from Guilin out in a tiny village of the Yao minority people. We filled a big trench with dirt, volunteered in a local school and learned a lot about the Yao and Nushu people. Nushu is a language in the region only spoken, written and understood by women (it was created many hundreds of years ago in response to gender oppression in the area). We also hiked a bit and enjoyed the beautiful karst mountains of the area, and we visited a 2000-year old village with an 800-year-old bridge. Amazing! It was a powerful and wonderful trip. Brian was in Xian for four days with almost 90 sixth graders while I was gone (and that definitely warrants a separate post!).   :)