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Permalink Spring break in Shanghai. Most of our friends went to Singapore to play, but we stayed since the “money pit” is taking all of our extra funds these days. Rachael and family were in town, therefore, we planned a day out in Shanghai. We went to the Urban Planning Museum – always a good thing to do on a NON-CHINESE holiday. We had the place to ourselves and we enjoy seeing the displays.
The first display at the entrance is the Shanghai Pudong skyline. We all commented the scale was all wrong as the Pearl Tower is not taller than the WFC!
 Josh, Alyssa, Emersyn & Eleri
We all laughed at the model of Xintiandi.
Our favorite was the Starbucks coffee shop on the corner – just like at the real Xintiandi.
We loved the little man that had fallen over as it looks like he was run over by the car…just like in real Shanghai!
The very large floor model was fun for everyone to find landmarks throughout Shanghai.
Eleri posed for me at various “photo ops” with a big smile! Most of them being her idea of the perfect photo op!
A photo of Emerysn just to prove she was with us!
From the Museum, we went to the real Xintiandi for a coffee/juice at Starbucks…just like the model!
We walked around Xintiandi for about an hour. The kids had fun looking in the various shops at Xintiandi.
We had dinner at a new Chinese restaurant, The Fortune Cookie. We all enjoyed the meal and were too full for our dessert plan of chocolate at Whisk. We decided to walk around TaiKan Lu. TaiKan Lu was a funky shopping area when I first arrived in Shanghai…now, it is very touristy with a new name for the area – Tianzifang. I hadn’t been there at night so it was fun to see all the lights and the kids had fun shopping in the stores. We walked around for about an hour to get ready for our chocolate dessert at Whisk.
Then, we went to Whisk for about an hour. The “about an hour” was becoming our joke of the night as Rachael’s driver was driving us around Puxi. Eleri and I shared my favorite dessert, the warm chocolate cake.
When we arrived back to our place, the family came up for a drink/hang…we told the driver “about an hour”, but it was much longer! It was a beautiful night to sit out on the deck to enjoy the view. We watched them pull very large items up the crane on the building in progress.
It was a fun day playing in Shanghai with our friends!
Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 255 user reviews.
Permalink Emersyn had an assignment for language arts which was to put together a 2-5 minute video on a Genocide war. Jim remembered a paper Ernie wrote about his time in the Vietnam War. Nancy scanned the document over to Emersyn and she began her project. When she finished her video, she was at 12 minutes. We cut it back to 7 minutes. Emersyn decided she would take points off her project before cutting more as they content would be compromised. The week the students were presenting their projects, Emersyn was home sick. Her teacher, Mr. Lambert, watched her video when she returned to school. He had a tear in his eye when it finished. He asked her to enter her video in the Shanghai Student Film Festival…deadline for application was tonight.
She needed to add video clips to her photo images and cut the time by 2 minutes. She sat down with Mr. Lambert to cut the time and they only shaved off a fraction of time – he was having the same problem as we did – what to cut. He allowed her video to be over the 5 minutes.
The film festival was Saturday, March 22. Emersyn left for the leadership desert trip Saturday morning and was unable to be at the event. We were settled into a quiet night at home when Mr. Lambert email me saying we should attend the award ceremony…hint, hint. He was one of the leaders of the film festival. We left Eleri home alone (the first time at night) for the ceremony. The Film Festival was held at Concordia this year. All the international schools from Pudong and Puxi attend this event. In addition, about 5 local schools join for the first time this year. There were over 200 students active in the film festival this year.
At the ceremony, the awards were divided between Elementary, Middle School and High School. The S2F2 film festival awards recognition for films from the following categories
Middle School
-Best Documentary
-Best Animation
-Best Narrative
-Best Music Video
-Best Video Art
-Best PSA
-Best Mandarin Film
-Best Beyond Shanghai (For films outside of Shanghai schools)
-Best In Show
For each category, a clip would be shown for the top three winners. After the awards were shown, the 1st place winner video would be shown in full. Emersyn won 1st place for her documentary, Soldiering in Vietnam. She tied for Best in Show – the best of all the winners in Middle School. The other winner for Best in Show was a girl from Dulwich School on her music video. Her music video was very impressive with film techniques in black and white and color.
We are very proud of her accomplishment!
Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 233 user reviews.
Permalink Eleri’s making corner is always a mess – I just cleaned it up. I really need to take a before photo one of these days, but it is rather embarrassing. Her corner was ready for making the annual Leprechaun trap. The last time I was at the market, I bought 50 glue sticks so she is still working through her stack! Eleri grabbed a few boxes from her “save it so I can make with it” pile.
Since Eleri started early, she made one trap last weekend and the second trap this weekend
Eleri’s first trap has a climbing wall with beads for holding.
At the top are coins. The coins are glued to the top of the box, but he can try to take the ones in the red container as they are not glued. Once he steps onto the foil to grab the shiny pearls, he will drop down.
Eleri’s second trap has a swing so he can have a little fun while he is looking for gold and shine. There is a rope for climbing to get to the top.
The shiny balls on the flowers are not glued down to encourage the leprechaun to climb. Once he crosses the flower bridge and steps on the “false bottom floor” to get the glitter, the bottom will drop from his weight.
Eleri in green ready for school and ready to catch a leprechaun!
Eleri did not catch a Leprechaun, again! She is beginning to question if Leprechauns actually exits. This may be the last year she makes a Leprechaun trap!
Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 226 user reviews.
Permalink The first day of sunshine brought the laundry to the streets.
The lady is holding the “tool” for putting all these clothes up high.
You know you are in Shanghai…when you see laundry out drying!
Average Rating: 4.9 out of 5 based on 202 user reviews.
Permalink Concordia’s Middle School Bands in a “Musical Journeyâ€. The music was performed by the Middle School Bands which included combined 5th-8th Grade Intermediate Band and 7th & 8th Grade Concert Band. The Intermediate Band played three songs and the Concert Band played four songs for about a 40 minute concert to enjoy the “musical journeyâ€.
Emersyn is in the Concert Band. The Concert Band played:
Honor and Pride
Mars, Bringer of War
Korean Hill Song
Arabian Dances
Emersyn is now first chair for the alto saxophones. She was to have a solo for the Arabian Dances, but she had been sick all last week. Rodney did the solo. It was a cool solo with the Saxophone beginning the song passing a solo to the flute and then a solo to the clarinet before the band join in on the song.
The evening was a busy one with no before photo of Emersyn. Jim was driving from a meeting two hours outside of Shanghai. He was to be at school at 4:30pm, but arrived at 5:45pm. After school while we waited for Jim, Emersyn was working on her video for the Shanghai Student Film Festival while Eleri and Ellie did homework in the cafe. We grabbed Ethan after volleyball for a 30 minute dinner at Pistolera before running back to school for the concert.
Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 230 user reviews.
Permalink 
Emersyn has become our expensive child! She takes full advantages of all the opportunities at Concordia…which is great and expensive. This school year, she will go to MUN in Kuala Lumpur, the leadership trip in the Taklimakan Desert and the dive trip in Thailand. I pay for all these trips in cash – a large stack of cash. The good part is it is 100 rmb notes and not 100 dollar notes!
Average Rating: 4.4 out of 5 based on 227 user reviews.
Permalink MS Students art was displayed at various places around the school. Emersyn took a painting class as an elective for semester one. Eleri and I were in the cafe on our Wednesday night before fencing when we noticed the new art work of pretzels. We chose our favorite one and talked about the various colors and designs. When I asked Emersyn where her art work from the painting class was displayed, she said the pretzels in the cafe. I took my camera to take photos the next Wednesday.
Emersyn’s pretzel is the second one on the bottom from the left. She has nice shading and colors…we like her pretzel even if she doesn’t!
Average Rating: 4.8 out of 5 based on 283 user reviews.
Permalink Eleri’s class has been studying magnets. The class field trip is to the Maglev, the Magnetic Levitation Train which runs to the airport, the first field trip of the year. Eleri was excited to wear her field trip shirt.
The Shanghai Maglev Train or Shanghai Transrapid (上海ç£æµ®ç¤ºèŒƒè¿è¥çº¿) is a magnetic levitation train (maglev) line. It is notable for being the first commercial high-speed maglev line in the world — during a test run in November, 2003, a Maglev vehicle achieved a Chinese record speed of 501 km/h (311 mph). The journey was designed to connect Shanghai Pudong International Airport quickly to the outskirts of central Shanghai where passengers could interchange for their final destinations in the city centre. Construction of the line began in March 2001 and public service commenced on January 1, 2004.
The line runs from Longyang Road station in Pudong to Pudong International Airport; both stations provide transfers to Line 2 of the Shanghai Metro. At full speed, the journey takes 7 minutes and 20 seconds to complete the distance of 30 km. A train can reach 350 km/h (220 mph) in 2 minutes, with the maximum normal operation speed of 431 km/h (268 mph) reached thereafter. A one-way ticket costs ¥50/$7 or ¥80/$12 for a round-trip return ticket.
I have been to the museum with Emersyn’s class four years ago. I find the museum interesting with lots of facts. My favorite interesting fact is the glass on the train is a special decelerating glass for the viewing. If not, the outside scenery would be a blur due to the speed of the train.
I was in-charge of four children for the day as we had three parents from the class to volunteer.
 Darren, Tara, Eleri & John
Eleri with friends in her class.
 Lulu, Eleri & Paige
A group of Eleri’s classmates having fun together.
 Lulu, Paige, Eleri, Aidan, John, Darren & Will
Next, we rode the maglev to the airport to have lunch. We enjoyed our lunch on the airport floor – something we all have done before in our many airport sitting days. Eleri has a nice group of children in her class this year so they were all having fun together. Then, back on the train for the quick journey home. Jim takes the Maglev often from the airport when we have have a car issue/conflict. It is easy to get a taxi from the Maglev station or for Mr. Nie to get Jim on the way home if the timing is right. Jim generally travels with a carry-on suitcase – fast and light.
It was a fun field trip with Eleri. I enjoy the time with her while I can because soon field trips will be over in Middle School – they will have class trips.
Average Rating: 4.5 out of 5 based on 164 user reviews.
Permalink In Jinqiao, these red lanterns were hung for Chinese New Year. The lanterns were on all the trees on both sides of the street – very pretty. The first time I saw them, I didn’t have my camera. The next few times, it was raining. I only get to Jinqiao about once a week – to get Eleri for fencing. I finally got a photo on a day without rain. The next time I was in Jinqiao, the lanterns were down…I was able to capture the image just in time!
Average Rating: 4.6 out of 5 based on 245 user reviews.
Permalink At the fencing center, there is this big poster. Eleri posed for me with her proper fencing pose. She is enjoying lessons every Wednesday. It is a group lesson, but she is the only one. Therefore, I pay group prices for an hour of private lessons – works for me!
Average Rating: 4.7 out of 5 based on 237 user reviews.
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