Joab's Commute

I (Joab) often say the morning commute in Shanghai is a full contact sport that combines a rock concert mosh pit and a line of scrimmage from American football.  Today I decided it was time to try and capture a portion of the madness that is my morning commute.

First, some interesting facts about the Shanghai metro system from Wikipedia

• It only opened in 1995 (the third line in China after Beijing and Tianjin)
• There are 12 lines and 292 stations, which makes it the third longest metro in the world
• These lines delivered 2.26 billion rides in 2012 - making it the fifth busiest  in the world

This graphic provides a great perspective on how rapidly the Shanghai metro has grown since it first opened in 1995.

My commute pictures start at my only transfer on my 45 minute commute.  At Yi Shan Road Station I am transferring from line 3 or line 4, which roughly run along the first ring of Shanghai sub-burbs to line 9, which heads to the Southwest corner of the Shanghai metro.

After coming out of line 3 or 4 there are a series of stairs that I didn't bother to capture.  My first picture is the above-ground passageway that connects these two lines to line 9.  Three years ago, when I first started this commute, I had to exit the station altogether and re-enter the line 9 station, so this passageway is an improvement.

To the right of the streams of people outside the passageway is an empty lot that hasn't changed much in the past three years.

At the end of the long passageway there are stairs that duck under several mini-billboards, currently advertising the Microsoft Surface tablet, and head to a small flight of stairs and then some escalators. 

Next is the first escalator, which is relatively short, roughly 50 meters, and dumps you out in a transit room that has the larger escalators.

These large escalators are probably 100 meters long and they take you down to the platform where the real fun begins.

At the platform you can either go right to take the north bound train or join me and go left to take the south bound train.  On the south bound side there are 28 doors and near my door I counted roughly 30 people.  That means there is likely over 800 people - just on the south bound side!  In other words, there is probably more than 1,600 people waiting on the platform.  Basically, wall to wall people!   

The biggest challenge in the morning is getting on the train as when it arrives at the station it is usually packed with people.  This morning was no exception as it took me three tries to get on the train.

I didn't even try to budge my way on the first time.  The second time I try and reached the train only to be pushed back by the crowd.  The guy with his elbow in the middle eventually did get on after the door open and closed on him a couple times.

Finally, on my third attempt, I successfully got on.  We were crammed in like sardines!

After two stops it is time for me to get off at the Cao He Jing High Tech Park stop.  The crowd of people spring out of the train like a jack in the box and we all rush towards the escalators.

The platform at Cao He Jing looks just as crowded as it did at Yi Shan Road.

Finally, after walking through the turnstile I get on a final set of escalators and can once again see the light of day!

Silas' Six Month Bonus Features

My kids love the bonus features at the end of any movie they watch. In fact, they like them so much now, they sometimes have to see what bonus features are on my disk before they can watch the video!

Having a new baby is just such a gift. Really, we are so very blessed. And next week our littlest blessing turn six months old! Where has the time gone?!

Wanted to record some of our families favorite Silas "bonus features" (and will give you six, since he is six months old on the 18th )!

- Silas has dimples. As the above pictures points out. And because he loves to smile at anyone, he shows them off a lot.
-Silas has Mongolian spots on his feet. These are bluish-black birthmarks that usually are on babies of color. My baby comes from pretty white parents! Perhaps there is some color in our past that we do not know! Silas also has very olive colored skin, so really think there is some "ethnic" genes

Easter 2013

A quick post to share highlights from our Easter weekend.

What is an Easter morning without a new family picture!
Here is the latest Six Meyers picture.

Backyard Fun: Our Easter Saturday was a lot of fun as our neighbors had an Easter Egg hunt in their back yard.

Salome was so cute showing off her eggs, which were plastic and filled with candy.

Asa made sure to get every egg, even those perched high in the trees!

Miriam was well pleased with the bountiful amount of eggs she found.

Easter Sunday: On Sunday we enjoyed another egg hunt a variety of outdoor activities sponsored by our church - The International Church of Shanghai.

Asa enjoyed making a little pig out of a plastic egg.

Miriam braved the rock climbing wall

I wasn't able to capture Salome enjoying the jumpy castle slide,

but when she fell asleep on my lap on the way home I knew she had a good time!

Em is still here!

Dear Joab has taken to writing more of our life down in blog posts these days. Thought I would give you a "Mom/Em" perspective on things as me today (note- what an amazing husband to even ask!) I said, that I would get adequate caffeine to make it through the day! Kind of a joke, but really I am just go-go-go most days. Most of my days start at 2 AM when my 17+ lb five month old wakes up for a feeding. Silas is so big! And he loves to nurse! I have tried to introduce solids...and he just laughs at me. I am hoping he rounds a corner soon and sleeps...we shall see.

Overall, we are doing well here in China land. This year has taught me a lot- mostly that to really live in a place that will never be home is well...hard. The goal in so many ways is to live our days here well. I sure pray we are!

Salome- oh my. She is so cute. SO VERBAL. I told her to come to lunch today and she responded with "Mommy, my Barbies are talking to me right now- I can not come to lunch". We bought some street breakfast food this morning and walked to the park- there she found another little girl and the two of them sqatted on the grass talking eating street food....

Asa- We bought a second-hand Wii game..and now Asa is in Wii heaven. Asa loves games (fun for that matter). And he and Miriam have a lot of fun together playing that. Asa still loves to make me laugh, eat a lot food (especially chocolate and bacon) and make amazing things out of Legos.

Miriam- is tackling a lot of school work like a pro. Her mind loves to learn, and she is filling it up with all kinds of stuff!

Now, Silas is up from nap. My time here is done. Lots of love to you from China- Em

Chinglish Humor

Living in China can be a source of great amusement, especially when it comes to the "creative" ways that the English language is used.  What we would call "Chinglish" or a mixture of English and Chinese is the preferred way to produce many English ads and materials.  On a recent Saturday date Emily and I ran across two places that made us smile.  

"Bar Culture" at Si Nan Mansions

The first was an "exhibit" of the Si Nan Mansions that are refurbished lane houses in the French Concession.  After reading a few of the captions it became clear what was billed as an "exhibit" comparing the daily lives of families in France and Shanghai was actually a not so subtle promotion of the government backed developer's greatness. For more commentary on the pros and cons of the development, check out this article. 

The photo that caught my attention featured a group of Western female models raising alcoholic beverages at a bar with the caption "The bar culture that blends a diversity of mainstream concepts brightens the night skies of the cities." I was unsure if they didn't care about the fact that their English didn't make any sense or if it was an intentionally convoluted sentence.

"Creative" Office Ads

The convoluted caption was nothing compared to the office development ads next to a subway stop near our home, however.  Somehow office workers lying in inter tubes, water saying and pulling out their "Superman" tattoo were suppose to convince would be tenants of the appeal of the office space.  I hope you get a good laugh out of the ad like we did.  

Oh, the simple joys of living in China - a place where things often just don't make sense.

Personally, I think the superman picture was the best; had to get a close up.

Notice that the hands, chest and face seem to be from a different guy!

Big Daddy Date to The Aquarium and The Bund

One family tradition we have recently enjoyed starting is having "Daddy Dates" with the girls and "Guy Time" with the boys.  The big idea is to spend dedicated time with the kids.  Typically this is dedicated 1:1 time, but this past weekend we had the chance to have a very special "Daddy Date" at two of my favorite spots in Shanghai - The Shanghai Aquarium and the Bund.

At the aquarium the kids not only enjoyed creating fish themed crafts, but also interacting with the many types of fish on display

Asa, Miriam and Crystal (a good friend's daughter) stand in front of the Shark Mouth on their way into view Sharks and Sea Turtles.  As you can see from Crystal's paper they were also on a scavenger
hunt looking for facts about the sea animals.

Asa enjoyed posing with various animal figures found throughout the aquarium and the Emperor Penguin was his favorite.

At the end of the tour / scavenger hunt the kids had a chance to touch small sharks!  It was interesting to see how timid Miriam and I (Joab) were to touch them while Asa spent over a half an hour petty them like there were puppies!

 

 

At night we slept right next to the fish inside the aquarium!  In fact, the kids and I were right between two walls of Moon Jelly Fish that had neon lights shining on them.  Fortunately, the neon lights went off around mid-night and didn't come back on until about 6 am!

The time at the aquarium ended with breakfast where I found the kids had created their own jelly fish with a small coin purse and mini-flashlights!

What a special time at the aquarium with Miriam and Asa!

Since we were already in the Financial District (called Lu Jia Zui), I thought we would wander down to the Huang Pu River as it has a great view of The Bund on the west side. 

While enjoying a special treat at Starbucks on the river, Asa decided to use the muffin wrapper to create a "Muffin Man" out of his chocolate muffin.  I love this guy's creativity!

Two of my favorite buildings on The Bund are the old HSBC Bank Building (on the left) and the Customs House (on the right).  Asa joked that we were "going to London" when we cross the river to see these old buildings, which isn't too far from the truth as these are some of the most famous buildings that represent the old British Concession.

In front of the HSBC Bank Building are two iconic bank lions - one with his mouth shut and the other with his mouth wide open.  The HSBC legend is that these two lions represent two of the original bank chairmans - one that was very talkative and the other very tight lipped.  The kids and I enjoyed having fun with them - not Miriam trying to pull Asa's head out of the lion's mouth!

 

 

The search for street food

Miriam has a love...and it is for candied crab apples. We have literally spent two months hunting down sellers on the street for this common northern (Beijing) street food, but not so common here in Shanghai. The sellers have to dodge the "street cops" that like to capture these small stands (that are illegal) and also it is Chinese New Year holidays, so most sellers have returned to their home town for a month or so.

I would take Miriam on the back of the electric bike over the Chinese New
Year holiday to scout out possible areas that these sellers might be...but always came up empty handed. These candied crab apples only cost about 50 cents per stick, so so cheap and Miriam wanted one soooo badly- that I (Emily) was determined to make it happened!

Sunday night we went to our local mall to celebrate the end of the holiday (and to eat northern Chinese food- our favorite). And there at the mall!!! We found them! Miriam was - THRILLED!

From the above pictures, you can see Asa is not a big fan!!