Bonjour!

Hello again!  I have missed you.

We have just returned from a delightful evening at Celine's home.  The four of us went for supper with Celine, her husband Kristoffer, and Caroline.  Their apartment has a terrace, three actually, and we had a wonderful barbecue with a beautiful view of the park and river.  It was such a fantastic day and evening that we sat outside, drinking beer and wine, until about ten o'clock.  Luckily both Ryan and Nicholas had naps today so the late night, so far, hasn't affected them too much.  It was so nice to be able to eat outside again.  During the summer in Canada we always ate outside and we have been missing it here.  It was a lovely evening with great people and I hope we can do it again soon.

Today was a pretty slow day here.  I had my massage this morning and a nap with Ryan after lunch.  Tim went to Carrefour for groceries and made apple crisp to take for dessert this evening.  It was nice to relax for a Saturday and not be in a hurry to get anywhere.

Yesterday was another busy day.  The kids and I left fairly early in the morning to go check out a pool and find some sneakers.  Before we could even leave Eastern Venice though, the boys just had to watch the excavator and dump trucks that were working next to the compound.  This was something we used to do a lot back home.  We would have what we liked to call 'van picnics' where we would get a sub from Subway or take a snack and go sit at a construction site watching all the machines work.  If it was nice out we would open the back door to the van and enjoy the activity.  It was a great, and cheap, way to entertain them for quite a long time.  Occasionally we would take Nanny or Bumpy along so they could have a chance to watch the construction.

Once they had enough of the excavator we left for the mall.  The particular place we were looking for turned out to be on Taiyuan Jie, a popular pedestrian shopping street next to the hotel we stayed in the first night we were in Shenyang.  On the eighth floor of this mall there was a fitness center with lots of machines, an aerobics room and a pool.  It was too far away though and you had to buy a membership instead of being able to pay per visit, so I quickly decided not to bother with it.

From here we went to the children's floor.  In almost every mall I have been to there isn't just a children's section, but an entire floor devoted just to children.  This particular mall had a great toy department, a play area for kids and loads of designer stores for clothes and shoes.  We found a spot that had sneakers and, surprisingly, had a relatively painless experience picking out shoes for both boys.  By this point everyone was getting hungry and I had told Nick and Ryan that since they ate their veggies and bananas the night before, they could have subs for lunch.  When I asked Tian Ye about Subway he said he thought there was one in this mall but we couldn't find it.  I was sure there was one on the walking street because I had seen it listed in one of the taxi books but I hadn't been there so I didn't know where it might be.  We asked someone but nobody seemed to know so we decided to go back to the van for the taxi book.  I found it but there was no address listed so we decided to drive to San Hao Jie and try to find the Subway there.  We drove around looking for it with no luck so I suggested to Tian Ye that we drive to the Rich Gate Mall, where YooHoo is, since we knew there was one there.  At this point he asked me again what we were looking for and I said, "You know, the place where you and Nicholas got the sa ming zhi".  Oh!  He clued in to what I was talking about and here I thought he knew what we were looking for the entire time.  He agreed that we should just go to that mall so off we went.

When we got to the mall we passed the food court, a rather fancy one, outside YooHoo and I decided I would eat there after we got the boys their subs.  We went up to the fourth floor and purchased their food then went back down to the food court.  I picked a restaurant and ordered some beef and rice that cost 30yuan.  I tried to hand the woman the money and she just stared at me like I had three heads.  She started talking to the 'waiter', who spoke a very little bit of English, standing beside me and I couldn't understand what the problem was.  He told me to follow him and we walked back out to the entrance of the food court and a service desk.  He spoke to the woman there and I tried to hand her the money to pay for my meal but she just took out a plastic card out and told me I needed another 10yuan.  Huh?  It took a minute to sink in but I realized that the only way to pay for my meal at the food court was to buy a card for 10yuan and put money on it then use it like a debit card to pay for my meal.  I was going to do it then I thought, 'This is ridiculous.  I'm not likely going to eat here again anytime soon so why do I want to buy a card that I will then have to carry around and try to find if I do decide to eat here'.  I said thanks, but no thanks and went over to where Nick and Ryan were sitting with Tian Ye.  The three of them ate their subs and we left.  Tian Ye asked why I wasn't getting my food and I told him.  I felt like I was being kind of cheap, but it was the principle.  I think it's crazy for a restaurant to not accept cash for food.

On the way home I stopped at Carrefour and bought some sushi which was really tasty.  I got a couple pieces with lobster on them and Nick decided that he would try them, finally.  He loved it!  Now he's 'into' lobster sushi and ate most of mine.  Go figure.

So that was our last couple of days.  The boys have their sneakers for preschool and Nicholas is still trying to convince me that he shouldn't go there.  Hopefully he will enjoy it more next time.

Tomorrow we aren't sure what we are doing but Tian Ye is coming at 11:00.  I guess we will figure it out when we get in the van.  I love it!