Click here to view their slide show.
Congratulations, Ryan and Casey! May God bless your marriage! Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your day!
8.06.2007
07-07-07
Ryan and Casey were among many couples who got to have their wedding on such a fun date. I had the pleasure of photographing their day and we had a great time. Ryan and Casey were all smiles all day and made my job easy. I think my favorite moment was when Ryan saw Casey for the first time..he was beaming! Here are a few of my favorites from the day.....
Click here to view their slide show.
Congratulations, Ryan and Casey! May God bless your marriage! Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your day!
Click here to view their slide show.
Congratulations, Ryan and Casey! May God bless your marriage! Thank you so much for letting me be a part of your day!
7.10.2007
A little behind...
Between China travels, a family vacation to Charleston, numerous weddings, and plenty of laundry, I have definitely neglected my blog. I know it's not an excuse, so I will do my best to catch up!
Before leaving the country, I was able to photograph a wonderful family with three beautiful children. Kerry and Stefanie Roe invited me into their home to photograph their lives which includes their son, Avery, and two adopted daughters from China, Audrey and Charlotte. I really enjoyed spending time with them, and graciously took in any advice for traveling to China! Here are a few favorites from our session together
You can view the Roe family slideshow here.
Soon after we returned from China, my good friend Maggie got married. I had the privilege of being a part of her wedding day by photographing it. We had a beautiful day at Bel-Wood Country Club. You can see their slideshow here and just a few of my favorites are below, although it was very hard to pick.
I am so happy for the two of you! May God bless your marriage!
I have quite a few more events to post, so keep your eyes peeled for my more recent weddings and trips!
Before leaving the country, I was able to photograph a wonderful family with three beautiful children. Kerry and Stefanie Roe invited me into their home to photograph their lives which includes their son, Avery, and two adopted daughters from China, Audrey and Charlotte. I really enjoyed spending time with them, and graciously took in any advice for traveling to China! Here are a few favorites from our session together
You can view the Roe family slideshow here.
Soon after we returned from China, my good friend Maggie got married. I had the privilege of being a part of her wedding day by photographing it. We had a beautiful day at Bel-Wood Country Club. You can see their slideshow here and just a few of my favorites are below, although it was very hard to pick.
I am so happy for the two of you! May God bless your marriage!
I have quite a few more events to post, so keep your eyes peeled for my more recent weddings and trips!
6.10.2007
What I'm going to miss about China
It's Wednesday. We leave Monday. I can't believe how fast this trip has gone! I'm going to miss it here, but then again, I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss home. I am ready to come home, but before we go, we are headed out to Beijing. I'm looking forward to our weekend trip to the historical city. I am mostly excited to see the Great Wall. That, in itself, makes the whole trip to Beijing worthwhile. We're even, Lord willing, going to be able to see a missionary family from our church while we're there.
Since we won't get back until Sunday, and we fly out Monday, this may be my final blog post of the China trip. But before I say 'adieu,' I wanted to give you all a little wrap-up of my trip, giving you what I will miss and what I will definitely not miss about China....
What I'll miss.....
Since we won't get back until Sunday, and we fly out Monday, this may be my final blog post of the China trip. But before I say 'adieu,' I wanted to give you all a little wrap-up of my trip, giving you what I will miss and what I will definitely not miss about China....
What I'll miss.....
- Learning a new language and culture
- Experiencing something new every day
- Cheaper prices
- The food
- The people (especially our new friends, Mary, Linda, Avery, & Echo)
- Being able to walk most places
- Feeling different from everyone else
- Feeling as though we're disconnected from reality being here
- Not having to work and just relax, shop and sight see everyday
- Being able to travel a new place and see exotic things with Matthew
- The smells
- People always watching you and laughing
- being a minority
- People hoarding you on the streets trying to sell you stuff...."Lady, lady! You want to buy watch? bag? cheapy cheapy for you...you my friend... Lady!"
- The smells
- The uncleanliness of everything
- Not being able to drink the water
- The spitting/peeing/pooping in the streets
- The smog/air
- Feeling very large, comparatively
- Did I say "the smells"?
- Being away from family and friends, and Lilly
- The 14 hr flight to and from China
- Having to sit in a tub in order to shower (not conducive to shaving my legs)
A week in review.....
Again, I'm a slacker, so here's a week's worth of recap....
Monday:
Monday was our 2 yr anniversary! I can't believe we've been married 2 years already! And who knew we'd be celebrating it in Shanghai, China? Craziness! We went out for a romantic dinner to an Italian restaurant (we couldn't have Bravo's as part of our tradition, so we just had Italian instead). The restaurant was called Va Bene and it was in an area of town called Xintiandi. The area is very quaint, a lot like Hyde Park. Dinner was fantastic, definitely more expensive than we're used to, but it was a special occasion. I just feel so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man who loves the Lord so much (oh yeah, and loves me too). I am looking forward to many more anniversaries!! (although, I don't think many more will happen in China).
Tuesday:
We ladies thought we'd bring a little taste of home to the dinner table Tuesday night. Emily, bless her heart, brought skyline chili from the states. We cooked Skyline, spaghetti, and toasted bread with butter, and invited the 2 bachelors, Joey & Matt (also in the MBA program) over to dinner. I think they were very grateful to have a normal meal for a change, as we all were. It was a great time of just relaxing in the apartment, eating food that probably upset our stomachs more than the Chinese food....Ahhh, home :)
Wednesday:
My days are all blurring together, so I'm not sure what we did during the day while the boys were at work. But I do know we spent about 6 hrs at a few pearl shops one of the days, so I'm going to say that was on Wednesday. :) We spent a lot of time looking for pearls and finishing up any pearl shopping that needed to be done. Let's just say it is all very overwhelming and tiring with all the haggling and bartering. The longer we take to shop, the more we pay, because by that point, we are all way to exhausted to put up a good fight for the right price. At that point we say heck with it all. Ugh!
That night, we all went out to a restaurant not far from us to have Mexican food on Mexican night. They have all types of food, but Matt Byrnes (one of the other MBA guys) invited us to go with him to get 20% of all Mexican food....also very good! The worst part of the night was, however, a woman and her 2 children begging for money. Matthew and Michael both gave the kids some money to get them to go away, but unfortunately that made it worse. They all kept hanging on to each of us and followed us for a couple blocks. Not until we got into a cab did they all go away.
Thursday:
We went out to a Shanghainese restaurant and had one of the best meals we've had while staying here, in my opinion. There was nothing special to it, but it was all so good. Meals here are typically family style, where you order about a dish per person, and when they bring them out, they place them on a lazy susan in the middle of the table so everyone can try a little of each. One of the more interesting dishes that night was a baked duck, filled with rice and vegetables. The whole duck was there, head and all. Fantastic.
After dinner, we took a night riverboat cruise on the Huangpu River. We were able to see the city of Shanghai at night, which was beautiful. We rode up along the Bund (the area along the river) and passed the Oriental Pearl Tower. I got quite a few pictures of that which you will see at a later time :)
Friday:
Another dinner out, we went to Barbarosa in the middle of People's Park, a park in the middle of the city (a small version of Central Park, if you will). It was a nice little restaurant with a good setting.
So far, we have had Chinese (Shanghainese, Sichuan, Yunan, etc), American, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Filipino, Mexican, and I'm not sure what else. But we sure have taken advantage of the diversity in this city :)
Saturday:
We went to the Shanghai Zoo. It's not nearly as nice as the Cincinnati Zoo, but what is for $4 a ticket? It was actually a pretty depressing zoo because the facilities for the animals were very poor and very small. In fact, most of the animals look depressed, lying around in their cages, dirty and motionless. And there would be only 1 animal, for the most part, of each kind. We saw a gorilla (by "a", I mean one gorilla, lying in a small room only about 3x the size of the gorilla itself), a panda, a polar bear (who was very dirty and had only mirky green water to swim in), and many many Chinese people. I have never been so saddened by animals in captivity than I was at this zoo. At least in Cincinnati, the animals have a whole habitat that they can roam in and be somewhat free.
I found that the people were the most interesting part of the day. Not only would they feed the animals right next to "Don't feed the animals" sign, they would use the bathroom just like the animals. I'm not sure if I've talked about this before, but parents tend to let their kids go to the bathroom on the side of the streets, etc. Talk about convenience. They took that behavior to an extreme at the zoo. Our first encounter with it was a woman who was sitting on a park bench with her son in her lap. Very normal, until you look closer. The boys pants were pulled down to his ankles, the mother's legs were spread apart just enough so the child's toosh could fit between without falling through. On the ground was a plastic bag that clearly had "stuff" piled on top. I about threw up.
When I thought that couldn't be for real, I was sorely mistaken. Later, we saw another woman squatting in the grass next to the kangaroos. Her daughter, also between her legs in the same fashion, was going #1. Sick. Then I got to thinking to myself: they probably think we're disgusting by letting our children sit in their own waste until we get around to changing them. hmm....let's weigh the options: a clean, sanitary way to let our children relieve themselves, or public defocation...hmm, I think I'll stick to the diaper method.
Later that night we headed out for a Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurant. For about $20 a person, we got all we could eat of beef, chicken, pork, rice, noodles, sushi, fish, drinks, and anything else you can name. It was very tasty and so much fun. We were put in this small room by ourselves that had the table on the ground and pads to sit on, like real Japanese style. Fortunately for us, it only looked like we were going to have to sit Indian style for dinner because underneath the floor table was a place for our legs to hang. Whew! That would have been a long, stiff night otherwise. There were two grills in front of us that we cooked all our own food on. It was definitely a really neat experience and well worth our $20!
Well, if you've made it this far, congratulations!! I'm sorry I made you read so much! I just want to be sure I include it all. This blog is not only for you to know what's happening on the other side of the world, it's also to help me remember what we did. I have a horrible memory, so I'm going to have to rely on my blog and Matthew's memory (or steel trap, as I like to refer to it) to know what happened on this trip. I'm already having a hard time remembering what we girls have done during the day most days!! Ahh, old age is setting in....
Until next time, we love you and miss you!
Monday:
Monday was our 2 yr anniversary! I can't believe we've been married 2 years already! And who knew we'd be celebrating it in Shanghai, China? Craziness! We went out for a romantic dinner to an Italian restaurant (we couldn't have Bravo's as part of our tradition, so we just had Italian instead). The restaurant was called Va Bene and it was in an area of town called Xintiandi. The area is very quaint, a lot like Hyde Park. Dinner was fantastic, definitely more expensive than we're used to, but it was a special occasion. I just feel so blessed to be married to such a wonderful man who loves the Lord so much (oh yeah, and loves me too). I am looking forward to many more anniversaries!! (although, I don't think many more will happen in China).
Tuesday:
We ladies thought we'd bring a little taste of home to the dinner table Tuesday night. Emily, bless her heart, brought skyline chili from the states. We cooked Skyline, spaghetti, and toasted bread with butter, and invited the 2 bachelors, Joey & Matt (also in the MBA program) over to dinner. I think they were very grateful to have a normal meal for a change, as we all were. It was a great time of just relaxing in the apartment, eating food that probably upset our stomachs more than the Chinese food....Ahhh, home :)
Wednesday:
My days are all blurring together, so I'm not sure what we did during the day while the boys were at work. But I do know we spent about 6 hrs at a few pearl shops one of the days, so I'm going to say that was on Wednesday. :) We spent a lot of time looking for pearls and finishing up any pearl shopping that needed to be done. Let's just say it is all very overwhelming and tiring with all the haggling and bartering. The longer we take to shop, the more we pay, because by that point, we are all way to exhausted to put up a good fight for the right price. At that point we say heck with it all. Ugh!
That night, we all went out to a restaurant not far from us to have Mexican food on Mexican night. They have all types of food, but Matt Byrnes (one of the other MBA guys) invited us to go with him to get 20% of all Mexican food....also very good! The worst part of the night was, however, a woman and her 2 children begging for money. Matthew and Michael both gave the kids some money to get them to go away, but unfortunately that made it worse. They all kept hanging on to each of us and followed us for a couple blocks. Not until we got into a cab did they all go away.
Thursday:
We went out to a Shanghainese restaurant and had one of the best meals we've had while staying here, in my opinion. There was nothing special to it, but it was all so good. Meals here are typically family style, where you order about a dish per person, and when they bring them out, they place them on a lazy susan in the middle of the table so everyone can try a little of each. One of the more interesting dishes that night was a baked duck, filled with rice and vegetables. The whole duck was there, head and all. Fantastic.
After dinner, we took a night riverboat cruise on the Huangpu River. We were able to see the city of Shanghai at night, which was beautiful. We rode up along the Bund (the area along the river) and passed the Oriental Pearl Tower. I got quite a few pictures of that which you will see at a later time :)
Friday:
Another dinner out, we went to Barbarosa in the middle of People's Park, a park in the middle of the city (a small version of Central Park, if you will). It was a nice little restaurant with a good setting.
So far, we have had Chinese (Shanghainese, Sichuan, Yunan, etc), American, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Filipino, Mexican, and I'm not sure what else. But we sure have taken advantage of the diversity in this city :)
Saturday:
We went to the Shanghai Zoo. It's not nearly as nice as the Cincinnati Zoo, but what is for $4 a ticket? It was actually a pretty depressing zoo because the facilities for the animals were very poor and very small. In fact, most of the animals look depressed, lying around in their cages, dirty and motionless. And there would be only 1 animal, for the most part, of each kind. We saw a gorilla (by "a", I mean one gorilla, lying in a small room only about 3x the size of the gorilla itself), a panda, a polar bear (who was very dirty and had only mirky green water to swim in), and many many Chinese people. I have never been so saddened by animals in captivity than I was at this zoo. At least in Cincinnati, the animals have a whole habitat that they can roam in and be somewhat free.
I found that the people were the most interesting part of the day. Not only would they feed the animals right next to "Don't feed the animals" sign, they would use the bathroom just like the animals. I'm not sure if I've talked about this before, but parents tend to let their kids go to the bathroom on the side of the streets, etc. Talk about convenience. They took that behavior to an extreme at the zoo. Our first encounter with it was a woman who was sitting on a park bench with her son in her lap. Very normal, until you look closer. The boys pants were pulled down to his ankles, the mother's legs were spread apart just enough so the child's toosh could fit between without falling through. On the ground was a plastic bag that clearly had "stuff" piled on top. I about threw up.
When I thought that couldn't be for real, I was sorely mistaken. Later, we saw another woman squatting in the grass next to the kangaroos. Her daughter, also between her legs in the same fashion, was going #1. Sick. Then I got to thinking to myself: they probably think we're disgusting by letting our children sit in their own waste until we get around to changing them. hmm....let's weigh the options: a clean, sanitary way to let our children relieve themselves, or public defocation...hmm, I think I'll stick to the diaper method.
Later that night we headed out for a Japanese all-you-can-eat restaurant. For about $20 a person, we got all we could eat of beef, chicken, pork, rice, noodles, sushi, fish, drinks, and anything else you can name. It was very tasty and so much fun. We were put in this small room by ourselves that had the table on the ground and pads to sit on, like real Japanese style. Fortunately for us, it only looked like we were going to have to sit Indian style for dinner because underneath the floor table was a place for our legs to hang. Whew! That would have been a long, stiff night otherwise. There were two grills in front of us that we cooked all our own food on. It was definitely a really neat experience and well worth our $20!
Well, if you've made it this far, congratulations!! I'm sorry I made you read so much! I just want to be sure I include it all. This blog is not only for you to know what's happening on the other side of the world, it's also to help me remember what we did. I have a horrible memory, so I'm going to have to rely on my blog and Matthew's memory (or steel trap, as I like to refer to it) to know what happened on this trip. I'm already having a hard time remembering what we girls have done during the day most days!! Ahh, old age is setting in....
Until next time, we love you and miss you!
6.05.2007
a little of this, a little of that....
It's getting harder to keep up with the blog, so I apologize for the delay in posting. I'm also not going to put up any pictures for now, just because it takes too long. If you want to see pictures, go to Matthew's blog. I have a ton of pictures, so I'm just going to make an album when I get home and you can see them all then.
This past weekend was a great one. We started out by going out to dinner with our Chinese friends, Echo and Avery. They took us to a Sichuan Chinese restaurant, which we thought was what American chinese food was modeled after. Not quite. It was good, but still very different from American (we knew it would be, just thought there would be SOME similarities). Everything the girls ordered was very hot (taste, not temperature). It was even a little too hot for Avery & Echo, so it was very entertaining watching everyone freak out because their mouths were on fire. But the best part of the meal came at the end. Our dessert was fried bananas covered in what we called "sugary goodness". It was a syrup-like consistency, that once cooled, turned hard. I think it was the same kind of sugar that bakers use to create those sugar masterpieces (for those who watch the Food Network, you know what I'm talking about). Anywho, it was sooo good that once all the bananas were eaten, we were all trying to break off the sugar from the plate that had already hardened. Mmmmm......
We had a very long day on Saturday. We traveled to Suzhou, a small town of 2 million people just outside Shanghai. The bullet train took about 40 min to get there. Our welcome in to Suzhou was a little boy peeing in the train station while squatting right next to his mother. His split pants gave him ample room to go to the bathroom without messing up his clothes. How convenient. I actually remember this happening the last time I was in China with Anna, but I hadn't seen it in Shanghai. Ahh, memories.... what fun.
The train station was a madhouse of people. There was everything from beggars, to travelers, to people trying to sell tours and cheap junk. We decided to walk to our first destination, even though we weren't quite sure where that was. Suzhou at first impression is not a good city. A lot of construction. A lot of smog. A lot of people.
To keep a long story short, here's Suzhou in a nutshell (look, I'm in a nutshell!! -sorry, couldn't help it): The city goes on forever, as does Shanghai, but the buildings are only 5 stories tall as opposed to 80. The people stare a lot (felt like Kunming again). I don't think they've seen may westerners and we stuck out like sore thumbs. Especially Michael. Suzhou has many gardens, but we only went to 1 (you see one, you see them all). We climbed a 9 story pagoda. We went to a silk museum and saw silkworms eating leaves. We rode in a rickshaw. It was fun times.
Our train didn't leave Suzhou until 9:50 that night, so it made for a very long day. But that didn't stop us from getting up Sunday morning for church! We were invited by 2 girls that work in our hotel to go to church with them. Mary & Linda (sisters) are from the Philippines and go to a Filipino church in the city. We all attended with them and it was quite an experience. The pastor flipped between Filipino and English, so we understood most of it. All the worship was done in English, and people who gave testimonies spoke both languages. The service lasted 3 hrs long! It was very interesting and very uplifting. The Lord is definitely moving and working in that place.
Afterwards, we were invited to lunch at the pastor's apartment, as is the whole church every Sunday. Some of the older women cook lunch, so we had ourselves an authentic Filipino meal. It was very good. While at the pastor's house, we learned about their church and how it all works in China. Apparently, having a Christian church in China is illegal. There is a Christian church in Shanghai, but they are regulated by the government and can't teach everything that is in the Bible. The Filipinos don't try to hide the fact that they are holding a church service. You can get that by just how loud their worship service is. The pastor informed us that they have been going now for 6 years and only by the grace of God because they are being illegal. Mary told us one of the reasons she thinks the church has lasted so long is because no Chinese attend. It really makes you appreciate the freedoms that we have in the U.S. We are so blessed to be in a country that allows us to worship freely.
After lunch, Mary took the girls out shopping to a cheap mall. By cheap mall, I mean a big building filled with little shops (and I mean little) selling either junk or knock-off goodies. It is fun to barter and "insult" them with my prices, however it's a very exhausting process. You get tired of people saying "lady, looky looky, cheapy cheapy. You want bag, watch? Prada, Gucci? You my friend. You very beautiful. Looky." Yeah, that's our life. But it's well worth it when you can get a nice "North Face" jacket for $20. Gotta love it!
Anyways, I have more to write and more to say, but I think you've read long enough for now. I will add some more later. So for now, God bless! We miss you all!!
This past weekend was a great one. We started out by going out to dinner with our Chinese friends, Echo and Avery. They took us to a Sichuan Chinese restaurant, which we thought was what American chinese food was modeled after. Not quite. It was good, but still very different from American (we knew it would be, just thought there would be SOME similarities). Everything the girls ordered was very hot (taste, not temperature). It was even a little too hot for Avery & Echo, so it was very entertaining watching everyone freak out because their mouths were on fire. But the best part of the meal came at the end. Our dessert was fried bananas covered in what we called "sugary goodness". It was a syrup-like consistency, that once cooled, turned hard. I think it was the same kind of sugar that bakers use to create those sugar masterpieces (for those who watch the Food Network, you know what I'm talking about). Anywho, it was sooo good that once all the bananas were eaten, we were all trying to break off the sugar from the plate that had already hardened. Mmmmm......
We had a very long day on Saturday. We traveled to Suzhou, a small town of 2 million people just outside Shanghai. The bullet train took about 40 min to get there. Our welcome in to Suzhou was a little boy peeing in the train station while squatting right next to his mother. His split pants gave him ample room to go to the bathroom without messing up his clothes. How convenient. I actually remember this happening the last time I was in China with Anna, but I hadn't seen it in Shanghai. Ahh, memories.... what fun.
The train station was a madhouse of people. There was everything from beggars, to travelers, to people trying to sell tours and cheap junk. We decided to walk to our first destination, even though we weren't quite sure where that was. Suzhou at first impression is not a good city. A lot of construction. A lot of smog. A lot of people.
To keep a long story short, here's Suzhou in a nutshell (look, I'm in a nutshell!! -sorry, couldn't help it): The city goes on forever, as does Shanghai, but the buildings are only 5 stories tall as opposed to 80. The people stare a lot (felt like Kunming again). I don't think they've seen may westerners and we stuck out like sore thumbs. Especially Michael. Suzhou has many gardens, but we only went to 1 (you see one, you see them all). We climbed a 9 story pagoda. We went to a silk museum and saw silkworms eating leaves. We rode in a rickshaw. It was fun times.
Our train didn't leave Suzhou until 9:50 that night, so it made for a very long day. But that didn't stop us from getting up Sunday morning for church! We were invited by 2 girls that work in our hotel to go to church with them. Mary & Linda (sisters) are from the Philippines and go to a Filipino church in the city. We all attended with them and it was quite an experience. The pastor flipped between Filipino and English, so we understood most of it. All the worship was done in English, and people who gave testimonies spoke both languages. The service lasted 3 hrs long! It was very interesting and very uplifting. The Lord is definitely moving and working in that place.
Afterwards, we were invited to lunch at the pastor's apartment, as is the whole church every Sunday. Some of the older women cook lunch, so we had ourselves an authentic Filipino meal. It was very good. While at the pastor's house, we learned about their church and how it all works in China. Apparently, having a Christian church in China is illegal. There is a Christian church in Shanghai, but they are regulated by the government and can't teach everything that is in the Bible. The Filipinos don't try to hide the fact that they are holding a church service. You can get that by just how loud their worship service is. The pastor informed us that they have been going now for 6 years and only by the grace of God because they are being illegal. Mary told us one of the reasons she thinks the church has lasted so long is because no Chinese attend. It really makes you appreciate the freedoms that we have in the U.S. We are so blessed to be in a country that allows us to worship freely.
After lunch, Mary took the girls out shopping to a cheap mall. By cheap mall, I mean a big building filled with little shops (and I mean little) selling either junk or knock-off goodies. It is fun to barter and "insult" them with my prices, however it's a very exhausting process. You get tired of people saying "lady, looky looky, cheapy cheapy. You want bag, watch? Prada, Gucci? You my friend. You very beautiful. Looky." Yeah, that's our life. But it's well worth it when you can get a nice "North Face" jacket for $20. Gotta love it!
Anyways, I have more to write and more to say, but I think you've read long enough for now. I will add some more later. So for now, God bless! We miss you all!!
5.31.2007
Be on the lookout....
Just so you know, my website will soon be changing. I officially own the domain name www.leahrobbins.com and will be moving my website to this location soon! I also have a new email, leah@leahrobbins.com, so you can begin to use that email. Thanks for your patience in this transfer, but I just didn't want anyone to get lost when I officially switch over! Thanks!
5.30.2007
Buddhism in a nutshell...
The other day, Emily, Jamie and I decided to visit the Jade Buddha Temple just around the corner from our apartment. Although I've seen Buddhist Temples before and was prepared for what I was going to see, it still continues to sadden me. These people are so lost. As we walked around, we heard chanting coming from one of the rooms. We walked in to find a group of monks chanting and burning incense on an alter near a picture of a woman. There were a group of Chinese people also standing nearby in normal street clothes holding sealed paper bags. They all then lined up and walked out of the room. We assumed it was a funeral of some sort, but we weren't sure. Later, we started talking to a man who worked in the Temple, and he explained some things about Buddhism to us (either trying to convert us, or just educate...I'm hoping the latter. Side note: I totally wanted to share the love of Jesus with him, but we were restricted...it was a rule posted outside the temple). Anyways, while we were talking to him, those same monks came out into the courtyard area where we were standing and chanted while the family put the paper bags in a burning well. He explained that it was a ceremony for the dead and the family was burning fake money for their loved one to take with them in the next world. Sad.
Despite the idolatry, the architecture and landscape was very beautiful (just don't look at all the statues and gods in the rooms, and you have yourself a nice vacation spot). :) Unfortunately, I did not have my good camera with me, and the little camera I had was holding onto life from the last bit of battery juice left, so I was only able to get a few pictures. I'll post some later, but right now the internet is moving slow and it takes so much just to upload a couple pictures.
So we left the temple and headed back to the apartment. On our way back, we passed a little tea shop that we decided to stop in. Jamie wanted to buy some tea, so we had come to the right place. There was a man and a woman in there, but apparently the man didn't work there, he was only friends with the owner (the woman). She didn't speak English, but his English was very good. So he translated as we sipped samples of tea at this mini bar area. It was a hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but have very good tea. He even taught us some Chinese phrases like too expensive (ty gui la), very good (hung how), I'm sorry (de bu chi), I love you (wo I nee), and good-bye (ty chien). Some of them we already knew, but he helped correct our pronunciation.
Tang, our tea friend, during our conversation, told us that he owned a pearl shop just around the block. When we were done with our tea, we decided to go with him to his shop. It was a very very nice pearl/jewelry store, not one of these hole-in-the-wall places. There was a little fountain in the front of the store with oysters and fish, and told me to pick an oyster. I pulled one out of the pond and he took us over to a table and chairs and opened up the oyster. There were at least a couple dozen pearls in it! He then demonstrated to us the difference between fake and real pearls, and simple tests that can be done to prove it. I can show you those when I get home if you'd like. It's pretty cool.
He invited us to look around his store and guaranteed us a very good price on his pearls. His employees were helping us as we were looking at the jewelry, and were giving us their price on them. He then would pipe in and give us a lower price. One of the girls told us that we definitely need to buy while her manager (Tang) was there because he liked us and was giving us a really good deal. They wouldn't give that deal. Now it could all be a scam, but I don't care. It's beautiful pearls at a cheap price. And they are all real. We haven't bought from him yet, but will because he was very helpful.
It was a very good day because we made some Chinese friends, and had good cultural experiences. I'm very excited now to go pearl shopping!
Despite the idolatry, the architecture and landscape was very beautiful (just don't look at all the statues and gods in the rooms, and you have yourself a nice vacation spot). :) Unfortunately, I did not have my good camera with me, and the little camera I had was holding onto life from the last bit of battery juice left, so I was only able to get a few pictures. I'll post some later, but right now the internet is moving slow and it takes so much just to upload a couple pictures.
So we left the temple and headed back to the apartment. On our way back, we passed a little tea shop that we decided to stop in. Jamie wanted to buy some tea, so we had come to the right place. There was a man and a woman in there, but apparently the man didn't work there, he was only friends with the owner (the woman). She didn't speak English, but his English was very good. So he translated as we sipped samples of tea at this mini bar area. It was a hole-in-the-wall kind of place, but have very good tea. He even taught us some Chinese phrases like too expensive (ty gui la), very good (hung how), I'm sorry (de bu chi), I love you (wo I nee), and good-bye (ty chien). Some of them we already knew, but he helped correct our pronunciation.
Tang, our tea friend, during our conversation, told us that he owned a pearl shop just around the block. When we were done with our tea, we decided to go with him to his shop. It was a very very nice pearl/jewelry store, not one of these hole-in-the-wall places. There was a little fountain in the front of the store with oysters and fish, and told me to pick an oyster. I pulled one out of the pond and he took us over to a table and chairs and opened up the oyster. There were at least a couple dozen pearls in it! He then demonstrated to us the difference between fake and real pearls, and simple tests that can be done to prove it. I can show you those when I get home if you'd like. It's pretty cool.
He invited us to look around his store and guaranteed us a very good price on his pearls. His employees were helping us as we were looking at the jewelry, and were giving us their price on them. He then would pipe in and give us a lower price. One of the girls told us that we definitely need to buy while her manager (Tang) was there because he liked us and was giving us a really good deal. They wouldn't give that deal. Now it could all be a scam, but I don't care. It's beautiful pearls at a cheap price. And they are all real. We haven't bought from him yet, but will because he was very helpful.
It was a very good day because we made some Chinese friends, and had good cultural experiences. I'm very excited now to go pearl shopping!
5.27.2007
A Tour of Shanghai
Yesterday (Saturday), the gang headed out for a fun filled day in Shanghai. The Munozes have a friend of a friend that lives in Shanghai and out of the kindness of her heart, took us all around to see the city. Her English name was Avery, and her friend who came along with us was Echo (sp?). Both spoke broken english, but it was very good, especially compared to our Chinese! They were both so sweet and so much fun! I think I had more fun learning Chinese with them and learning about their culture than I did seeing the city!
We first went to the Yuyuan Garden and Temple area which was beautiful. It was built for one person during the Ming dynasty. It was a quaint garden with rock formations and little gazebo type things and ponds with plenty of giant goldfish (I know they weren't goldfish, but that's what they looked like).
We walked around outside the garden where there were a bunch of little shops and street vendors, selling anything from expensive memorabilia to cheap junk. So we did some shopping with the help of Avery and Echo, who did all our bartering for us. That was extremely helpful. Not that we couldn't do it on our own, they were just very good at it and would tell us if a price was good or not.
We then made our way to the Oriental Pearl Tower across the river in Shanghai. We went close to the top where we could get a full city view of Shanghai. I'm sure it would have been great site, but the air was so smoggy and foggy that it was hard to see much, or make for a very pretty view.
We then headed to dinner at a Thai restaurant, where Avery and Echo did all the ordering for us. There were Thai dancers on stage for our entertainment, which was quite amusing. Dinner was a hodge-podge of dishes put on a lazy-susan in the middle of the table that everyone shared. That's pretty much the style of eating around here: community dining.
After dinner, we walked through an area that I would describe as the Hyde Park of Shanghai. There were a ton of bars, restaurants, and western people. It was a very quaint area, one that we'll have to hit up at another time. We just walked through to see it, but on our way through, the guys ran into Jocheim, their German colleague at Grohe. So us wives got to meet him.
After a long day, we trekked back to the apartment and crashed. It was a good day.
(Side note: Now, loading pictures is kind of a pain with our internet being slow, and Matthew didn't feel like writing in his blog, only posting pictures. So, we decided that I would write, and he would post pictures. You can see his blog at web.mac.com/mrobbins4031)
We first went to the Yuyuan Garden and Temple area which was beautiful. It was built for one person during the Ming dynasty. It was a quaint garden with rock formations and little gazebo type things and ponds with plenty of giant goldfish (I know they weren't goldfish, but that's what they looked like).
We walked around outside the garden where there were a bunch of little shops and street vendors, selling anything from expensive memorabilia to cheap junk. So we did some shopping with the help of Avery and Echo, who did all our bartering for us. That was extremely helpful. Not that we couldn't do it on our own, they were just very good at it and would tell us if a price was good or not.
We then made our way to the Oriental Pearl Tower across the river in Shanghai. We went close to the top where we could get a full city view of Shanghai. I'm sure it would have been great site, but the air was so smoggy and foggy that it was hard to see much, or make for a very pretty view.
We then headed to dinner at a Thai restaurant, where Avery and Echo did all the ordering for us. There were Thai dancers on stage for our entertainment, which was quite amusing. Dinner was a hodge-podge of dishes put on a lazy-susan in the middle of the table that everyone shared. That's pretty much the style of eating around here: community dining.
After dinner, we walked through an area that I would describe as the Hyde Park of Shanghai. There were a ton of bars, restaurants, and western people. It was a very quaint area, one that we'll have to hit up at another time. We just walked through to see it, but on our way through, the guys ran into Jocheim, their German colleague at Grohe. So us wives got to meet him.
After a long day, we trekked back to the apartment and crashed. It was a good day.
(Side note: Now, loading pictures is kind of a pain with our internet being slow, and Matthew didn't feel like writing in his blog, only posting pictures. So, we decided that I would write, and he would post pictures. You can see his blog at web.mac.com/mrobbins4031)
5.25.2007
What a week...
Well, week 1 in Shanghai is coming to a close and we've had a very fun couple of days. Yesterday (Thursday), the boys were able to work from the apartment, so we had them around for the day, which was fun, even if they were working the whole time. So the boys worked in the "office" (a glassed in room), while us ladies headed out to the spa for a little massage. Fabulous. It's a rough life for us :)
For dinner that night, Matthew and I ventured out on our own to discover the great unknown that is Shanghai. So we ended up at McDonald's. I know what you're thinking - "You're in China...why the heck are you going to McDonalds?" Our answer: "You try eating strange Chinese food day in and day out, knowing you have 3 more weeks of it....God bless America and our fat food!" :) We did have to take a picture while we were there. Which makes us wonder, do Chinese people take pictures of themselves in America outside an Asian Wok restaurant? Hmm....
Tonight (Friday), we had a traditional Chinese meal, dim sum. Dim Sum is essentially a little of this, little of that style of eating. You order a bunch of different things to try each thing. You don't get a lot of one thing, which means we were able to venture out and try some different dumplings, noodles, rice, beef, etc. It was quite tasty, one of our favorite meals thus far. We even ordered some ice cream for desert, which they brought out to us with tiny little spoons....talk about portion control.
Right after dinner, we went to the Shanghai Centre Theater where we watched a spectacular acrobatic show. It was INCREDIBLE! There's really no good way of describing it, other than absolutely amazing. The things that these people perform - balancing acts, juggling, jumping on each other's shoulders, ribbon dancing, etc - all so simply amazing and leave you on the edge of your seats in anticipation and nervousness! The audience just goes "huh!" the whole time! This group is a very talented, strong, and flexible group of people! The ribbon dancing was my favorite of the show. It was so beautiful and graceful, I just about cried. It was just that moving (then again, I cry at everything, but trust me, it was fabulous). Cameras were technically not allowed, but I had the little camera with me. I tried to minimize my use of flash, hence some blurry pictures. If I had my big camera, I probably would have been able to get a little more, but there's no way that even on film you could capture the beauty and grace of these people. It's just something you'd have to see for yourself.
Tomorrow, we are headed on an all day tour of Shanghai with a friend of a friend of the Munozes. We are very excited about what's in store for us! Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures with my good camera. Until then, God bless and goodnight!
(Ok, FYI, I have a bunch of pictures to show, but for some reason it's not uploading correctly, so check out Matthew's blog for pics! Sorry!)
For dinner that night, Matthew and I ventured out on our own to discover the great unknown that is Shanghai. So we ended up at McDonald's. I know what you're thinking - "You're in China...why the heck are you going to McDonalds?" Our answer: "You try eating strange Chinese food day in and day out, knowing you have 3 more weeks of it....God bless America and our fat food!" :) We did have to take a picture while we were there. Which makes us wonder, do Chinese people take pictures of themselves in America outside an Asian Wok restaurant? Hmm....
Tonight (Friday), we had a traditional Chinese meal, dim sum. Dim Sum is essentially a little of this, little of that style of eating. You order a bunch of different things to try each thing. You don't get a lot of one thing, which means we were able to venture out and try some different dumplings, noodles, rice, beef, etc. It was quite tasty, one of our favorite meals thus far. We even ordered some ice cream for desert, which they brought out to us with tiny little spoons....talk about portion control.
Right after dinner, we went to the Shanghai Centre Theater where we watched a spectacular acrobatic show. It was INCREDIBLE! There's really no good way of describing it, other than absolutely amazing. The things that these people perform - balancing acts, juggling, jumping on each other's shoulders, ribbon dancing, etc - all so simply amazing and leave you on the edge of your seats in anticipation and nervousness! The audience just goes "huh!" the whole time! This group is a very talented, strong, and flexible group of people! The ribbon dancing was my favorite of the show. It was so beautiful and graceful, I just about cried. It was just that moving (then again, I cry at everything, but trust me, it was fabulous). Cameras were technically not allowed, but I had the little camera with me. I tried to minimize my use of flash, hence some blurry pictures. If I had my big camera, I probably would have been able to get a little more, but there's no way that even on film you could capture the beauty and grace of these people. It's just something you'd have to see for yourself.
Tomorrow, we are headed on an all day tour of Shanghai with a friend of a friend of the Munozes. We are very excited about what's in store for us! Hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures with my good camera. Until then, God bless and goodnight!
(Ok, FYI, I have a bunch of pictures to show, but for some reason it's not uploading correctly, so check out Matthew's blog for pics! Sorry!)
5.23.2007
James & Caitlin
Right before I left, I was able to get one last engagement session in. I will be doing James & Caitlin's wedding in November, and was very excited to do their engagement session downtown. Caitlin is a big NYC fan, so we wanted the big city feel. Hopefully I was able to capture that and more. We had a great time downtown and I am very excited to do their wedding in November!
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our time together. You can also see the slideshow here.
Thanks for a great day and I'm looking forward to your wedding!
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our time together. You can also see the slideshow here.
Thanks for a great day and I'm looking forward to your wedding!
5.22.2007
Michael & Kari's Wedding
Ok, a little side step from Shanghai for a moment....
On May 5, I did a wedding of an old childhood friend. It was a great day, except for the fact that the groom had an appendectomy the day before. Michael was not feeling the greatest, but both were in great spirits throughout the day. I was very impressed with both of them, and in the end, they were married, so that's all that matters!
Here are some of my favorite pictures and you can see their slideshow here.
May God bless your marriage and show you His glory in your rough but wonderful start together!
On May 5, I did a wedding of an old childhood friend. It was a great day, except for the fact that the groom had an appendectomy the day before. Michael was not feeling the greatest, but both were in great spirits throughout the day. I was very impressed with both of them, and in the end, they were married, so that's all that matters!
Here are some of my favorite pictures and you can see their slideshow here.
May God bless your marriage and show you His glory in your rough but wonderful start together!
5.21.2007
Lazy days....
On Sunday, we all decided it would be a good idea to just lay around. So we basically stayed in the apartment most of the day and talked, worked on blogs (I worked on photo jobs), watched TV, and just took a day to unwind before the boys started work.
We did venture out for dinner at a restaurant near our hotel. For awhile, we were the only customer's in there, and we got a lot of attention, being foreign and all. Jon and Michael took care of the ordering with our waitress, who spoke very broken english. We ended up with 5 dishes, some which we're not 100% sure of what they are. But fortunately, we are all feeling brave and adventurous (especially me!) when it comes to the food, and tried it all and pretty much finished it all up. I even ate shrimp on a stick!! (P.S. I don't like shrimp, but this wasn't to bad. The worst part was cleaning off the head and legs - ick!) But I survived, as we all did.
We then just walked around the block to a local grocery store to try to conjure up some goodies for dinner at another time. On our way, we passed the Jade Buddhist Temple, which I'm sure we'll be visiting at a later date.
Here are some pics from Sunday:
the "tasty" shrimp on a stick....it's blurry because I was probably shaking out of nervousness. It looked like it was going to crawl right off the stick.
Jaime enjoyed her shrimp a little too much.
Emily's tasty chicken foot.
The Jade Buddhist Temple
Yesterday (Monday) was the boys' first day of work. I must say that I did miss them during the day and this whole working thing is totally overrated. But regardless, they still had a job to do. You can read about Matthew's work experience on his blog.
Us ladies took it easy during the day. We worked out (yay for us!) and then hung out in the apartment for awhile. We then decided, that since we are in China, maybe we should get out and explore. We wanted to see what was around our apartment and find a good restaurant to go to. I was in the mood for just a good bowl of noodles, but we couldn't seem to find any place that served those. Either that, or we didn't look hard enough. We also wanted to find a restaurant that had menus with English writing or with pictures. We happened upon a hot pot restaurant that had both, so we decided to try it. For those who don't know, a hot pot is a local cuisine where they bring out a big steaming bowl of broth (ours was the Ying and Yang - mild and spicy) and put it over a flame so it can boil. The broth they brought out had a fish head, eyes and everything, floating in it, a good way to start our meal.
You then are supposed to order vegetables and beef, which they bring out raw, and cook them in the broth. We decided to order the chicken and duck, some spinach, and potatoes. The "chicken and duck" was actually maroon cubes of meat flavored jello, or at least that's the best way to describe it. Even after cooking it in the pot, the consistency and color stayed the same. We each tried one, then decided for health reasons, to not continue eating the jello cubes of meat. Thank goodness we ordered potatoes, because that's basically all I ate. We also had an audience while we ate, because there was a family sitting near us who kept watching us and laughing at us. They probably thought it was funny because we had no idea what we were doing. Quite an experience.
We walked around the area of our hotel a little to find out what's around us. What we found was that there's not much around us. So to do anything exciting, shop, or go to a good restaurant, we're going to have to travel more to the middle of the city, which is what I think we're going to do today (Tuesday).
Later that night, after the boys returned home from work, we all decided to stay in for dinner and we ordered New York pizza. Not the best pizza ever, but definitely fantastic compared to some of the meals we've had. Don't get us wrong, we are trying new things and enjoying it, but knowing we have 4 weeks ahead of us with new foods and new things, we are not opposed to some good ol' American food. Also, being the first day of work for the boys, they were exhausted and we just all wanted to relax in the apartment.
I've included some more pictures of the day below.
My plates..I just thought they looked cool, even though we weren't sure if we were supposed to use the bowl, or the plate, or both...hmm...
sorry it's sideways...this was through the window of where we were eating
one of the many fruit markets...it all looks good, but you really can't eat it because they wash it in their water
the first accident we've seen...so Chinese drivers AREN'T invincible. I'm surprised we don't see more of these or are involved in more of these based on the way they drive
We did venture out for dinner at a restaurant near our hotel. For awhile, we were the only customer's in there, and we got a lot of attention, being foreign and all. Jon and Michael took care of the ordering with our waitress, who spoke very broken english. We ended up with 5 dishes, some which we're not 100% sure of what they are. But fortunately, we are all feeling brave and adventurous (especially me!) when it comes to the food, and tried it all and pretty much finished it all up. I even ate shrimp on a stick!! (P.S. I don't like shrimp, but this wasn't to bad. The worst part was cleaning off the head and legs - ick!) But I survived, as we all did.
We then just walked around the block to a local grocery store to try to conjure up some goodies for dinner at another time. On our way, we passed the Jade Buddhist Temple, which I'm sure we'll be visiting at a later date.
Here are some pics from Sunday:
Our feast
the "tasty" shrimp on a stick....it's blurry because I was probably shaking out of nervousness. It looked like it was going to crawl right off the stick.
Jaime enjoyed her shrimp a little too much.
Emily's tasty chicken foot.
The Jade Buddhist Temple
Yesterday (Monday) was the boys' first day of work. I must say that I did miss them during the day and this whole working thing is totally overrated. But regardless, they still had a job to do. You can read about Matthew's work experience on his blog.
Us ladies took it easy during the day. We worked out (yay for us!) and then hung out in the apartment for awhile. We then decided, that since we are in China, maybe we should get out and explore. We wanted to see what was around our apartment and find a good restaurant to go to. I was in the mood for just a good bowl of noodles, but we couldn't seem to find any place that served those. Either that, or we didn't look hard enough. We also wanted to find a restaurant that had menus with English writing or with pictures. We happened upon a hot pot restaurant that had both, so we decided to try it. For those who don't know, a hot pot is a local cuisine where they bring out a big steaming bowl of broth (ours was the Ying and Yang - mild and spicy) and put it over a flame so it can boil. The broth they brought out had a fish head, eyes and everything, floating in it, a good way to start our meal.
You then are supposed to order vegetables and beef, which they bring out raw, and cook them in the broth. We decided to order the chicken and duck, some spinach, and potatoes. The "chicken and duck" was actually maroon cubes of meat flavored jello, or at least that's the best way to describe it. Even after cooking it in the pot, the consistency and color stayed the same. We each tried one, then decided for health reasons, to not continue eating the jello cubes of meat. Thank goodness we ordered potatoes, because that's basically all I ate. We also had an audience while we ate, because there was a family sitting near us who kept watching us and laughing at us. They probably thought it was funny because we had no idea what we were doing. Quite an experience.
We walked around the area of our hotel a little to find out what's around us. What we found was that there's not much around us. So to do anything exciting, shop, or go to a good restaurant, we're going to have to travel more to the middle of the city, which is what I think we're going to do today (Tuesday).
Later that night, after the boys returned home from work, we all decided to stay in for dinner and we ordered New York pizza. Not the best pizza ever, but definitely fantastic compared to some of the meals we've had. Don't get us wrong, we are trying new things and enjoying it, but knowing we have 4 weeks ahead of us with new foods and new things, we are not opposed to some good ol' American food. Also, being the first day of work for the boys, they were exhausted and we just all wanted to relax in the apartment.
I've included some more pictures of the day below.
Our first hot pot....if you can see, there is a plate to the right with the "meat" in question...
My plates..I just thought they looked cool, even though we weren't sure if we were supposed to use the bowl, or the plate, or both...hmm...
sorry it's sideways...this was through the window of where we were eating
one of the many fruit markets...it all looks good, but you really can't eat it because they wash it in their water
the first accident we've seen...so Chinese drivers AREN'T invincible. I'm surprised we don't see more of these or are involved in more of these based on the way they drive
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