My ability to speak Chinese...

Today I had my first Chinese class, or Mandarin, if I should be more correct :)

First of all i decided to go to school by metro, just to get to know the city better. This trip proved me again how huge this city is. On the map it didn't seem to be dangerous, but I needed 50 min to go from door to door... And it was only three subway stops... :) Anyhow, it went almost perfect, beside one moment... I used the map to find the school and I was on a good way until I started thinking about how hungry I was and at this moment I lost focus... This resulted in taking a wrong street... I had to call school to get some help and after 10 minutes I was there.

I rang the door and a little Chinese girl opened it with a wide smile on her face. This little girl turned out to be my teacher, a grown up women :)

Next moment shows how misleading perception can be... After first talk she says that I look Chinese...!!! And when she opened the door she was surprised that a Chinese girl (me) comes to learn the language... :)

I do not have to mention, that first half an hour was completely shocking for me as my teacher was speaking a lot Chinese and expected me to repeat whole sentences...

But now I can proudly say that I can count to ten and write every figure in Chinese and pinyin J

一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十

Different, strange and interesting things about Shanghai, part 1

After almost two weeks in Shanghai I had a chance to observe and conclude :) There are many things very different from what I am used to, some are very strange to me and almost everything is interesting.

What is interesting is a huge interest of Chinese people in non-Chinese kinds and babies. What is starange about it is how strong they react…

During our first days, we were walking close to the TV Tower (Oriental Pearl Tower). There were of course many Chinese people enjoying the day. Many people were pointing at us and especially at Marcel and Vincent. And so far nothing strange about it… Suddenly a small group of people came closer to Marcel and started taking photos of him. One girl grabbed Vincent and asked her friend to take a photo of them… That has created a crazy spin of new people coming to us and taking photos of our kids. We were so surprized by this behavior that we didn’t react in any way… Until we ’woke-up’ and started walking through the crowd.

The other day, my mom was walking with Marcel in his carriage in the shopping mall and again, suddenly, some people came and took the cover we were using to protect him from the spot lights away and started looking at our little boy, talking very loud and pointing at him to other people passing by.

I know he is very cute (J), but this way of acting gets quite scary…

The umbrella industry in Shanghai

Coming here from Sweden I am definitely used to the rain and wind. And I am used to rain and windproof jackets. It is almost a fashion in Sweden :)

Here in Shanghai you do not have it... What you have here instead is umbrellas... When it rains everybody have one... If you are in a shopping mall and it starts raining, do not worry, there are many people selling umbrellas just outside the mall...

If you already have one and you enter any shop with a really wet umbrella... again, do not worry that you will make a floor wet or shopping will get uncomfortable because of water dropping from your umbrella... at the entrance of every shop, bank or other institution you will meet people handing out plastic bags for your wet umbrella or you simply place it in a wrapping machine... There is no way you can be found guilty for making any place dirty or wet :)

When it gets sunny, everybody takes out umbrellas again to hide from the sun :)

Now I have to get one as well, maybe I will fit in a little bit better :)

First 9 hours!

Last night Marcel slept 9 hours in a row :) Not bad as for a 3 months old baby :) He definitely belongs to our tribe of 'Celebrating the sleep' :)

After such a good sleep he was in a very good mood.

On the photo, Marcel talking to grandmother :)

...new in Shanghai...

The first week has passed... a lot of first impressions and thoughts... I noticed that my way of experiencing this place is different from as it would have been, if we came here only for holiday... I always think about ways of dealing with everything that is different in the future... since we will stay here for a while :)

Living in the very central part of Shanghai has a good side... it is very good start point for visiting city. I cannot say that everything is very close, because nothing is close here :) But it is definitely easier to reach various places. If it only wasn't raining almost every day... But as I have heard today, only couple of weeks more and the weather will change :) to very hot and steamy one... :)

Interesting thing in my perception of this place is that it doesn't feel so strange as I expected it. I find my way around and enjoy it :)

But there is one thing that 'worries' me - language... It is difficult without knowing mandarin... and English doesn't help much... It is the biggest motivation for me to learn basics of mandarin... Let's see how it will go :) So far I recognize two words - exit and entrance, as well as 1, 2 and 3. Not bad, isn't it? :D

Shanghai is a huge city, but for some reasons not so overwhelming and there is something strangely calm about it (I know it may sound ridiculous, but it is true :)). This city, simply make sense :)

Until mid July we will live in the apartment on 21st floor with a very nice view to the sky scrapers on one side and the river on the other one. Then we will move to a calm area a little bit outside city center. So, I hope that until then we will manage to visit most of the places here in the center :)

And the boys:

Vincent - what a great big brother he is :) Marcel adores him as well. Vincent is very excited about China, he absorbs everything and feels very confident and self going. It feels good for me and Ro.

Marcel - today we made him laugh :) There are many wonderful things in the world, but baby's laughter makes its own category, not comparable with anything... Just lovely :)