Where there's smoke, there's fire???????

Just when I thought life was becoming, normal, routine, boring (whatever adjective you prefer to use)......

Thursday night, after talking to Mark's mom, the kids were doing homework and Levi and I were watching a movie. Elise emerged from her cave and wondered what smelled. No one knew, so we opened the patio door and got back to our duties. A few minutes later, we all started to wonder and so I had Levi open the front door. Our whole hall was filled with smoke. So the kids and I grabbed shoes, my purse and got out of the apartment. I called the service center and told them they needed to get someone over there now. We ran down the stairs and our neighbor and his two kids were just getting home. So he ran upstairs and got his wife and newborn baby. When he got outside we started calling every apartment and telling them to get out. We did get to meet a lot of our neighbors. In the meantime, a few people from the service center showed up and checked things out. Our electrical box in the hallway had burned up. We never saw any flames, just lots of smoke and man did it stink. So they took me back up to my apartment and assured me that was what really happened and that everything was going to be ok. So I turned everything off so that they could shut the power off to our apartment and put in a new electrical box. The kids and I went and hung out at Nancy's apartment for a while. Needless to say, the kids were pretty shook up and were freaked out that it was now 10:30 and their homework wasn't done. But everyone was safe and our apartment seems to be in good working order again. I also remembered that the red buttons on my wall are to be pushed when there is an emergency.

Yesterday, Ron's wife Bonnie and I traveled up to Zhangjiagang to see our men. (Betsy, Mark has a bachelor pad in ZJG that he stays at a couple of nights a week. It takes about 2-2 1/2 hours to get to the site from Shanghai where DC is building this plant) So that is who Ron is. Mark and Ron were actually shift partners about 5 years ago before Ron retired. DC hired him back for this project. He's a good guy and him and Mark get along very well. He's also a Christian and so I'm glad Mark can share a lovely bungalow with him. So Bonnie and I made the trip. It was fun, but a very gross and rainy day out. So the guys just showed us their apartment and then took us to lunch at their favorite restaurant. Our dinning(yes, I meant to type it that way because that is what the sign at the restaurant says) was a very slow and interesting experience. It took us 2 hours for lunch and we were one of two tables. I had really wanted chicken, but alas there was no chicken to be found at the Champ de Ble! So, she wondered if I liked fish. Yes, I do like fish and was feeling even a little adventuresome. So my fish comes out on a plate. That's all nothing else, just one big fish, pan fried, head, tail, scales and all on a plate. So I chopped the head off and pried it open to find a bunch of rosemary twigs. But I started picking and soon my fish was gone. It was really quite good, just a lot of work to eat it. After lunch, we had to head back home because it's another 2 1/2 hours and the kids would be home from school.
A couple of weekends ago, when the boys were playing soccer at Dulwich, the befriended a national boy named Gong. Well, Jacob and Gong have become good friends. I think he text's Jacob on a daily basis. They were going to get together last night and play soccer, but the weather was really gross. So he came over for dinner and we ordered Papa John's. The boys just hung out and played Wii and PS2. He couldn't stay long though, because he had already been at school on friday from 6:30-6:10 and he had a class on Saturday morning. He also told us that he has a 5 hour class on Sunday. Now, you know why the Chinese are so smart. They eat sleep and breathe school. If I had to guess I would say this boy comes from a wealthy family. His dream is to go to college in the States but only a few lucky ones get to do that. Yesterday, was international kids day. This is a special day for kids and their parents buy them gifts. Thankfully, the boys knew he was coming with gifts for them, so we also got him a gift. He bought the boys a Nike soccer ball, soccer trading cards and some posters of famous soccer teams. He also came with a box of individual cakes from a local bakery. We have had more cake this week. He seems to be a very nice kid. He wanted our boys to pick an american name for him that was close to his chinese name. So they chose Greg for him. He said he liked it, but we'll see if he uses it. That is something that many of them do. A lot of them choose ordinary names, but some of them choose some funky ones, like Sky, River, Cherry or Rain are some that we have seen.
Another way that I was reminded that I was in China, was when I opened up my email last night and found a note from the music teachers at Concordia. Apparently Jacob has a concert Tuesday night and he needs to wear navy pants. Navy pants for boys are hard enough to find in the States let alone China. So off we went to the fabric market today. After Jacob got all measured he pointed to a date of June 10 when they would be ready. I though he was going to faint when I told him I needed them on Tuesday. He spoke to his other co-worker and after a few minutes she whipped out the calculator (and I thought oh no, this is going to cost me a fortune to get them by Tuesday) and typed in 90. I didn't even barter with her because I knew I was inconveniencing them. So for 90 yuan (about $12) Jacob will have navy pants for his concert on Tuesday. He assured me that he was never wearing them again after that!! I figure for 12 bucks, who cares:)
Another way I was reminded that my life really isn't too normal, is the fact that Elise, Levi and I have all had queasy guts for about 3 days now. We call it the Shanghai gut. You never know when you are going to get it or what causes it, because you all can eat the same thing and half of you will get sick and half won't.
So, that's been our lives the last couple of days. I guess not so ordinary after all!!!
Love to you all!