Roshley in PRC

Man, do we have a lot to catch up on. Since my parents left, we spent a weekend in Qingdao (where Tsingtao beer is brewed) to attend their 20th annual beer festival. The following weekend my friend Jim and his girlfriend arrived in Shanghai, after first visiting Beijing. We had a great time with them and will post some pics from their visit, as well as some of Jim’s pictures from Beijing.

We may do a more detailed post on our trip to Qingdao eventually. But my coworkers asked me to put together a short PPT presentation to show photos from the trip, so I thought I’d share it here as well. Enjoy!

Some of you have already seen this picture, but for those of you who haven’t we thought we’d post for your enjoyment.

We’ve noticed many dogs here wearing shoes when they’re outside, so we thought we’d try some out on Cooper.  It rains quite a bit in SH and every time we have to take her for a walk when it’s raining her paws and legs get really muddy.  We thought the shoes might help with the muddiness, but as you can tell from her facial expression in this picture– I don’t think the shoes are going to work out.  I wish I had taken a video of her first time walking in them!  Even our Ayi had to giggle watching Cooper struggle with the shoes.

In other news, Rob’s parents are in town!  They arrived last Friday and are here until next Monday.  Our first house guests!!  They’ve agreed to do a guest blog post, so stay tuned for that sometime in the next few days!

Earlier this week we decided to go check out Toy Story 3 with a few friends.  It was our first time to a movie theater in China, so I was excited about the experience.  All things considered “going to the movies” is pretty much the same in China as in the U.S., but there were a few key differences.

The price– When we went to buy the tickets (a day early) I realized the prices in SH are similar to any of the major U.S. cities.  It was 100 RMB/ticket, which is almost $15!  That being said, you could buy a VIP card by paying 800 RMB upfront and save 20% off your ticket price as well as food– a pretty good deal.  The theatre was also assigned seating, which was really nice, although we had to get there 30 minutes early to keep our seats.

The concession stand– This was probably the biggest difference for us.  First of all, there were two concession stands.  One for beer (yes, BEER!) and ice cream and the other for popcorn, soda, and candy, etc.  I convinced Rob to order a beer just because he could, which you can see in the pic above.  I didn’t want beer, so I went to the other concession stand where they had tons of other stuff.  I wish we had taken a picture of the concession stand menu!  Just to give you an idea of some of the more noteworthy items– what you see Rob holding in the picture is beef jerky.  We also saw squid on the menu, as well as Pocky (yum!).  For any of you who don’t know what Pocky is see this Wikipedia explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocky.  Of course, popcorn was available, but it was definitely not the kind of popcorn we’re accustomed to!  There were two kinds available, which they called “sweet” and “salty”.  The sweet kind was in the front and seemed to be more popular with the locals (Shanghainese people tend to like sweet foods).  I thought it would be like Kettle Korn, but it turned out to be more like caramel popcorn, but not as sweet.  We opted to order the salty popcorn, but even that was a little sweet.  AND there was no butter available!  I rarely put butter on my popcorn, but it was still strange to not see it on the counter.  Although the ticket prices were a bit expensive, the food prices were much cheaper than in the U.S.  We got a huge combo (two large sodas and a large popcorn) for about $6, plus the discount!

The movie– Our overall movie watching experience was pretty similar except for the Chinese subtitles (in 3D) at the bottom of the screen, which didn’t bother either of us much.  Rob complained that the 3D technology was different and not as good, but I didn’t notice anything.  Although, the glasses were much larger and heavier, which was a bit annoying for me.

All-in I would say our first movie-going experience in China was a success!  I would definitely go back.  :-)

P.S.  Can’t believe it, but today is our 1 year anniversary!  Time sure does go by quickly!!

Last night, I went to Guyi, so far one of my favorite Chinese restaurants here, and ate my first spicy frog leg.  It was delicious!  The flavor was really tasty and the texture of the meat was kind of like fish.  I had no idea how to eat it, so I had to ask friends for a tutorial, which of course I got made fun of.  It was worth the humiliation though…. YUM!  I would definitely order again.  :-)

Rob is currently out of town at a work retreat, but I got a text from him last night saying a “highlight” of his dinner  was being served half a cow head!  Right now, I don’t have any other details, but I’m sure he’ll give a full report on the blog next week.  Stay tuned…..

As most of you know, we just recently returned from our first trip back to sunny CA!  We had a GREAT two weeks seeing friends and family (more on that later) and also spending time with our dog, Cooper.  Part of our plan on this trip was to bring Cooper back with us to Shanghai.  The pic above is her in her travel crate on the airplane.  It was a long flight, with the first leg going from LAX to Detroit and then onto Shanghai.  Total airtime was a whopping 19 hours and as you can tell by the look on poor Cooper’s face, it wasn’t a great experience for her!  That being said, she did really well despite only going to the bathroom one time (in the middle of the Detroit airport) and having to stay in the crate for so long.  Luckily, we were able to keep the crate on our lap for most of the trip and we could open the side flap a little, so she could look outside the window and watch the clouds.  Right now, Cooper is in quarantine, but she’s being delivered to her new home, our apartment, on Sunday.  I wonder what she’s thinking about this weather.  Right now we’re enjoying 95 degree temperatures with 90% humidity– lovely.  Hello summer!!!