Melissa Gilbert (Laura), Melissa Sue Anderson (Mary) and Sidney Greenbush (Carrie) on Little House on the Prairie Intro Screenshot (taken from wikipedia)
Up until last night, I was wondering what this weeks blog was going to be about. Most of the week was fairly typical with a few notables things worth mentioning.
In my yoga class this week, there was a substitute teacher from India and I was the only student in attendance. It was a little awkward as the teacher would describe the pose and then look at me to see if I was doing it right. Of course, since I am not very flexible, my pose often looked nothing like his, but I was thankful that he mostly just let it go. I think becoming good at yoga is a lost cause, but I still love it!
Andy’s co-workers became fascinated about how he had proposed to me and they were asking all sorts of questions as to if it was like how men in the movies propose. They gave him their approval in that what he had done was sufficiently romantic compared to the movies.
Friday night we had dinner at some new friends’ home. I had been introduced to Mardiana through a manager at work who recently moved to Singapore. He purchased much of Mardiana and Andrew’s furniture before they moved to Shanghai from Singapore. Mardiana and I had been in touch via email and on the phone but this was our first meeting in person. Andy and I went to their very large, very beautiful villa after work on Friday. They turned out to be a very nice couple and Mardiana made us the most amazing English dinner. She is a fantastic cook and knows how to make savory cuisine from all around the world. She was born and raised in Singapore, but has ties to England and Malaysia as well. We enjoyed our evening and I really think the dinner Mardiana served was the most delicious I have had in Shanghai. I can still picture the taste of the custard dessert in my mind.
Saturday, while Andy did Maintenance Day at the lake, I went with my friend Junie and had lunch, a manicure and pedicure. I even had some Chinese characters painted on my big toes in preparation for my birthday this coming week. That night, a couple of us ladies went out and had a nice dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, the Naked Cow. Later I went with one friend to one of the area’s popular bars/night clubs named Attica to check out the notorious Shanghai night life. I am definitely not a night club-type person, but it was fun to see for a little while until I could not keep my eyes open any longer.
Sunday, I joined Andy and Patrik at the lake to race Calypso in her third race. It turned out to be a perfect day for sailing…just the right amount of wind and it was not as hot as it had been. There were only three red dragons (the type of boat Patrik and Andy own) in the race and the other two are helmed by expert, experienced sailors. So we pretty much knew that unless they did something really wrong, we were going to get third place. The first race, Andy was at the helm and it went okay, but by the end we were pretty far behind the other two boats. The second race was helmed by Patrik and he was proud to finish the race without any big problem, since it was his first race ever at the helm and second race ever! Andy took over the helm again for the third race and we did really well and hung right in there with the other two dragons. While we were not exactly neck-and-neck with the other boats at the finish, we really did give them a run for their money. We were excited as we felt we could see a lot of progress in our sailing and Andy is really getting so good at the helm. I feel fortunate to be a crew member on a boat with calm drivers who do not yell at their crew (this is not always the case.)
After sailing, the conclusion of every bus ride back from the lake to Shanghai is at a pub. Coincidentally often it is Happy Hour when the bus arrives back in Shanghai. Most of the members who took the bus had their arm twisted into having a beer. I was sitting next to a French guy who I had just met who is actually leaving Shanghai this week after working for Carrefour in Shanghai. On the other side of me was a guy from Barcelona who Andy has spent quite a bit of time with since he has an apartment close to us and they often share a taxi back from sailing. As I looked around at the other people around the table, there were three German guys, three French guys, the guy from Barcelona, two Chinese women, a British guy, a guy from Switzerland and us, the token Americans. It was really fantastic to be talking with these people from all around the world and to hear conversations happening in German, English, French and Mandarin. At one point, once the French guys figured out that we were American, we somehow got on the topic of television shows, since that is such a huge, important export of the United States. They started saying the names of the television shows in French and then tried to figure out what it would be in English. I tell you, it was so funny to hear these strong French accents saying “Nightrider” and “Mister T” and then my favorite, “La petite maison dans la prairie” or “Little House on the Prairie.” I was laughing so hard when I heard the French translation. Then we all started reminiscing about Mary and Laura and Charles Ingalls. I explained to them Andy’s term “Charles Ingalls Justice” of which he occasionally threatens to use if someone who cannot stand up for themselves is being picked on.
We all chatted for maybe an hour and a half and then the French guys invited us to follow them to a crepe restaurant around the corner that they recommended. A Dutch woman and another woman from either Australia or New Zealand (based on the accent) joined us. We all had one dinner crepe (not sweet, mine had mushrooms, ham and parsley) and one sweet crepe. Both were excellent! The food was from Brittany and I learned that that region of France is famous for sailing so I added that to the list of reasons why we want to go to France (right now the list contains the wine, the Tour, the food and the melody of the French language.)
Last night was a perfect example of those days where I really easily could have stayed home and finished Harry Potter and cleaned up the house, etc. But because I didn’t, it was a great day of sailing followed by the introduction to new friends, new places and the birth of new dreams (okay so spending time in France is not exactly a new dream, but the dream was yet again confirmed.) Shanghai is really such a great place to meet and mingle with people from all around the world. We are constantly reminded of how fortunate we are to be here!
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