On the road again!!!

Tim and I are on our way to Prague for a week. We leave early tomorrow morning. Tim officially handed off the Shanghai portion of his job today so we have a "get out of China free" pass. We have really been looking forward to this trip and hope to relax and enjoy the "winter wonderland". It is snowing there and very cold. The Christmas Markets are in full swing and we plan to enjoy every minute of it.

I better finish packing......Tim packed last night in 20 minutes....it took me all day. Men have it very easy!

Family Visitors!

Aunt Joan and Uncle Ben arrived in Shanghai last Wednesday. They came by cruise ship and it was too big to come down the river to the new ship terminal. So....we went in search of their ship. After many false starts, some security breaches, some fast talking by Mr. Zheng, a small shuttle ride, and a big miracle....we found them! We arrived just minutes before they came down the plank.

They were only in Shanghai for a few hours but we managed to pack in a walking tour, a car tour, some shopping, and lunch at our apartment. It was great fun having them visit!

Welcome Home!

Tim was in ChongQing Monday and Tuesday while I was in YiWu and when we got home these beautiful cookies were waiting for us. Xiao Zhang made them with chocolate drizzles. They say Welcome back Home in English and in Chinese. We are sooooo spoiled!

Trip to YiWu

I have a bucket list of "things to do before leaving China" and on that list was a trip to YiWu. YiWu is a city about 2 hours (by train) south of Shanghai. It is "the worlds largest small commodities market". They say that 95% of all Christmas decorations are exported from this market. So....my friend, Shelly Brammer, organized a trip to see this market. We went last week...down on the train Monday morning and back on the train Tuesday evening.


Here we are bright and early Monday morning on the train. This train is now my favorite transportation in China....minimal amount of security, you can arrive at the station about 1/2 hour before your departure, and the seats are very comfy!! Our group....left to right....Karen , Shelly, Judy, Veronica and Kathy.

And....if the train is moving too slow....you can always transport yourself in the Space Part Locker.

View out the train window on the way to YiWu....I like the tops of the houses in this area...

Looks like we got off at the right stop!!!

Taxi queue....

The market is huge!!!! In the distance you can see part of "district 3 and 4. There are soon to be 5 districts....they are so big you could actually take a taxi from one building to the other....lots and lots and lots of walking!!!

At the market....

Fun sights at the market...

Funny!!!! I have always wanted a Gu Chi bag!

In the scarf area of District 3.....I think our group bought about 90 scarfs.

I was in heaven when we got to the sewing notions area!!!

Beautiful beads!!! This was like a candy store for me. All of these beads were wrapped with thread....they are so pretty!!! We bought bags of these for "future" projects.

We had an exciting "race" to the train station from our hotel. We finished around 3 o'clock and had a leisure lunch and then coffee......we were thinking we had lots of time before our 5:25 departure because it only took us 15 minutes to get to our hotel from the station. Oops!!! We forgot it was 5 o'clock traffic and there were no taxis at the hotel...What the heck??? So....after a long wait we hired a van to take us to the station....we left the hotel at 5:00. Our driver did all the crazy things drivers do here....drive in the bike lane....drive the wrong way on the street....make a diagonal turn across a very large intersection.....AND....we were cheering him on!!! This is not good....we have lived here too long now.

We arrived at the station, grabbed our bags, prayed that the train was late, ran to the gate dragging our suitcases, turned around and ran to another gate. (we were the entertainment for the train customers that day) Each time we showed our tickets they said "KUAI, KUAI, KUAI...which means fast. We went down some steps and along the walkway.....AND....our train was 5 minutes late!!! We were soooooooo lucky!!! Ah....such an exciting ending to our trip!

Back in the train station in Shanghai....

Our wonderful drivers walking off into the sunset (oops...parking garage) with our bags...

Need your vote!

Our son, Tucker, created a 3D video for a contest. His company sponsored it and he would love to have your vote.

Go to this link, login, and then vote for Armchair Astronaut. If you happen to have 3D glasses it is more fun to watch it that way....


http://www.freethetvchallenge.com/submissions/257
Armchair Astronaut : Samsung Free the TV Challenge

Wha....Whoooooo!!!

I was notified this week that my quilt "Shanghai Lights" was accepted at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah Kentucky. It is a finalist in the "New quilts from Old Favorites". This year the "Old Favorite" is the orange peel pattern.

As a finalist in the contest the quilt will be on exhibit at the Museum from March 10 - June 15, 2010, published in a book with all the finalists quilts, and then will be in a traveling exhibit until December 2013.

I can't put a picture of the quilt on my blog or it would be disqualified....so....stay tuned....or plan a trip to the museum!!!

This is the traditional quilt block.....Orange Peel

Christmas Bazzar at Concordia

Yesterday was the Christmas sale at Abi's High School. It is a great community event and lots of people shop there. It is easy because all the vendors are in one place and believe me when I say that is a real convenience!!! Driving or taxi-ing or subway-ing (I don't know if these are real words) all over the city takes a lot of time and perseverance.

Xiao Zhang and I started a little business last year making luggage tags. They sold well so this year we added some zipper travel bags and passport covers. All of these were a big hit this year....she sold our of the passport covers and the zipper bags and only has a few luggage tags left.

My other friend, Julia Zhu, that has a business in the Pudong Pearl market also had a table at the sale again this year. She worked for her Aunt for several years when she first came to Shanghai and then she started her own business when the Pudong market opened. That is about the time that I met her and it has been fun to see her business grow. Her sister and brother are both now in Shanghai....sister has finished university and is working in a Veterinary Clinic in Puxi and her brother is going to university just outside of the city. They both help her on the weekends. Julia has supported her family with her business. She is the oldest sibling and did not have the opportunity to go to university. I really admire how she has be able to do this. She learned English just by visiting with her customers and having the desire to communicate with them. I love to go to her shop and play with the beads!!! Almost all of her beads are natural stones and they are just beautiful.

From the right...Julia's boyfriend, a customer, Julia, and an other customer.

Xiao Zhang's whole family supported her yesterday....from the right....Xiao Zhang, her daughter, her niece, and her sister-in law. Xiao Zhangs Nephew is also living with them for a while. He is about to finish university and wanted to come to the Big City so see if he could find a job.

Xiao Zhang in action....

Julia and her boyfriend.

This guy was traveling outside the school when we arrived yesterday.....I totally love their recycling business!!! No pun intended...

Since the Expo came to town I have not seem many of these in the city. But now they are baaaccckkkkk!!!

The world gets smaller and smaller

I have a Scottish friend that lives in our apartment complex whose name is also......Debbie. I met her at my kickboxing class and she told me today that she is teaching Scottish dance at OMalleys which is...a bar. Anyway....she invited Tim and I to come tomorrow night so we can learn the dances....and....be prepared for our trip to Scotland.

Now...isn't is strange that we will be learning Scottish dance in China.......who knew???

Krista Visits Shanghai!!!

Our friend Krista Edsten spent a week with us in September and I am just now getting the photos on my blog. Krista and I met when we first moved to Vancouver. She was in our coffee group and went to the same church. Our boys were also in youth group together. They live in Minnesota now so it was a real treat to have her visit us in Shanghai. She adapted to the culture and our crazy expat life very easily. We had a very busy week......here are just a few highlights....

The American Women's Club of Shanghai had a dance and dinner in one of the newly remodeled hotels on The Bund. The theme was Great Gatsby...this is right to left...Krista, Me, Tim, Shelly, Michael, and Rebecca. We had a great time....

Rebecca and Michael.....

My boyfriend....Tim

Enjoying a refreshment before the party....

Where's Krista???? Lost in the mass of "things to buy" at the market....

Yu Garden

The tea house at Yu Garden

We took a walk around our neighborhood to see the sights....

Chicken fee anyone? We took a little trip through our local grocery market....

If not Chicken feet....how about pigs feet?

Our neighborhood DVD store....

Outdoor restaurant....

Our dry cleaner.....

Life is good!!!

This is sort of a visual for the next 4 months of our lives....many twists and turns and several variables....

It's Monday morning in Shanghai and I am sitting at the dining room table...which has become my office during the past month.....I can see 3 and a shadow of the fourth bridge. The construction began again at midnight of the evening that the Expo closed. Rumor has it that the dump trucks were lined up outside of the city counting the seconds to midnight so they could resume work on their buildings. Only in China could it be decreed that all construction be stopped for 5 months! The city was so quite during that time and the air was so clear. Now it is back to business as usual..... They are building two new structures in front of our building so it is now non stop pounding and drilling and exploding.

So....here is an update on the Spoffords....

Tim and I are officially moving back to America at the end of January. They called and asked what day we wanted to leave so they could book our air tickets....That makes it very official!!! Our flight is January 29th. We are both very excited about the next chapter. So...what do we have planned you ask......

Arrive in the US on the 29th of January......When we fly from here we always get a "do over day" which is very cool....I tell my parents that we can be there 10 minutes before they call us...

Tim will officially start his 3 months leave from HP in mid Feb. We negotiated this leave into our package when we extended our stay in China this past year.

We will be in Vancouver for about 3.5 weeks and then we are off to Germany to pick up a new car (we sold my car before we left so I am now car-less) and then we are driving to Scotland where we will stay for one month. I am calling this "Tim's re-education program"......I am taking him to the country so he can get away from the phone and computer for the first time in four years!!! We plan to relax and hike and probably freeze our bums off. I think this will be a great way to transition back to "real" life in America. We have several variables in our future so we are just going to roll the dice and see what happens....

When we return to America in April....Tim will still have about 4 weeks remaining of his leave and then he will begin looking for a new job within HP. He has been offered a position outside of HP so we will see what happens.....we don't know the future!

I am planning to return to graduate school and I am in the process of applying to several design schools across the US........Tim said he would follow me this time...... so....again...we don't know the future!!! It is sort of an exciting place to be right now.....

I will be spending the next 3 weeks working on my portfolio for school.....

Korea

One more entry for Korea....
This is my 4th trip to Korea in 4 years. I usually fly in and purchase fabric and shop at the downtown markets. This time I got to experience a different area of Seoul. Because it is around the Women's University there is lots of energy and little shops and young women studying in the coffee shops. Wow...there are tons of coffee shops...and waffle shops....they must really like waffles here.

Kim, Mi Sik took me to this cute restaurant that is in the alley street just down from the guest house. The food was very good traditional Korean.
After lunch we went across the street to this moon cake shop. The Korean moon cakes are very different from the Chinese moon cakes. They are eaten in Korea all year round not just during Moon Festival.

This is the one we purchased. It was very good....sort of like sticky rice with nuts and sesame seed in it.


These are two others....the green ones are made with mugwort???

The alley street that leads to the guest house





Ah....this was my favorite coffee shop....
It sits back off the street just a little so you can almost miss it if you are going up the street.

Entry to the Blind Alley....
The make great Waffles....like Belgium waffles.....
I went here twice and ordered coffee and waffles and ate them while I explored the area...yummy! Warm and right off the grill...

It is now 6:30 am in Korea....
I am packing and on my way to the airport.
I will be back in China around 1:00

Embroidery Museum

I was given a personal tour of Sookmyung University's Embroidery Museum yesterday by Hyun-Sook Lee who is the Vice Director of the museum. I felt very honored that she took time from your busy day to tell me about the museum.

Here is just a small sample of the beautiful things there...

Children's hats

A picture can not capture the incredible needlework on these items.

If you are ever in Korea you should put this on your list of places to see.....

More of Korea

I am staying in the Museum guest house that was located very close to the University.
The guest room is located in this building

Building lobby..I think this furniture is pretty cool....

This is my home....I feel like a college student...


This is my kitchen....and the bathroom is behind the closet. The bathroom is also the shower. The first time I washed my hands I turned on the faucet and water sprayed on me from the shower head

Here is my wisdom for the day....If your bathroom is also your shower....don't wear socks when you go to the toilet.

Korea Teaching trip

I am in Korea this week to teach at class at the Chung Young Yang Embroidery Museum. The Museum is part of Sookmyung Women's University.

I met Kim, Mi Sik last year in Shanghai. She was there to display her art quilts in an exhibition. She is a professor at the University and works with the Museum's learning center. She invited me to come to Korea to teach a technique workshop. And....that is why I am here now. I was very honored to be asked to teach at the museum. The workshop finished at about 3:30 this afternoon. We had 16 students, nice young graduate student named Boram Jeon who interpreted for us, and Kim, Do Han who is the manager for Bernina Korea.

Students preparing for class

The classroom was very nice......Bernina provided all the sewing machines for the class and Kim, Don Han stayed the entire day to help with the machines if anyone had questions.

Students working

We took a short break for lunch....I forgot what this was called....it was very good and colorful

Lunch break

Students working

Class photo