Kids Summer in Shanghai 2008

Ever since we arrived two weeks ago now, it's been raining almost daily, except for yesterday. I must admit, I'm behind schedule toward my main mission of this summer trip. Finding the right tutor for Alex has been slow. Then there is the delay in local school calendar. US schools let out half month earlier than here. So most summer classes don't start registration until just last week. I had several things in mind for Alex before I came.

1. Chinese language - Mandarin (conversation and vocabulary building)
2. Swimming
3. roller blading - I heard from parents about coachs who come by daily to the community to train kids here
4. some form of arts, crafts... music class

So far, we've only had one language tutor come once. She is still in college, young and seems very cheerful and can be a good baby-sitter who can also converse with Alex if no so much in teaching expertise. But some how she had cancelled once, got so sick that she fainted on the subway on her way once. And given the college here don't let out for summer break until next week, it's even harder to get her here more than once a week. At least her rates are fairly low at just 30 kuai per our. Of course this is considering she is new at this. I finally decided to see another teacher, a teacher by profession. But everything takes several phone calls... So will see how that goes.

He did manage to start his swimming class last week. This is a 15-session program at 800 kuai, so under $10USD per hour. Then we can add on private sessions as needed which is higher at 120kuai per hour. The coach is very dilligent but tough on the kids. However there is obvious improvement from each session. So my hopes are high that he will be able to master at least free-style when it's time to return to the states.

Then there is the piano lesssons. Now that his grandpa went and bought a piano just this past weekend, I'm definitely obligated to find and hire him a piano teacher. These classes seem to cost much more than just Chinese tutors, starting at 100 Kuai per hour. Alex actually chose this one himself. He actually asked for piano lessons more than one time. Well, not that he doesn't want to learn swimming. He does, but he also complains when the coach demands more than he is willing to give.

And finally today, I have signed him up for the local summer camp session. It right here in Yanlord community so we don't have to trouble with commute outside. This program has a mix of sports activities, mainly designed to give these kids time away from their computer and TV time at home. Taught, conducted by local Chinese coaches, so more mandarin exposure. But the students are probably a good multi-national mix of all the residents in this place. This program covers four-hours a day, from 9am to 3:30pm minus 1 and half hour for lunch and costs 680 Kuai per week.

The local community youth center have many arts and music classes. But there doesn't seem to be any full day program for grade schoolers. So there will be too many trips during the day for drop off and pickup which can be too interruptive for my work. That's right, I am not a stay-at home mom. I have to work, flexible as it may be for me to work pretty much any where I can get online. The full day programs that are available here for learning Chinese are all geared toward foreigners and charges very high premium, easily over $2000 for a 4-week program. Even for those of us who're used to the San Francisco bay area cost of living, I would think twice before signing up for one of those programs.

Overall, I roughly calculate it will cost me around $1300 USD for 7 weeks with the above program and courses which is still considerably less than a 7 week full-time summer camp program in the Bay-area. But of course I would have to add on the air fare cost to make it a true cost calculation on my part. But you can't say the trip was just for him along. The fact we're spending quality time with grandparents here is a huge comfort for them in their old age. Then the fact Yanlord has very nice amenities for kids, with a beach resort like out-door swimming pool, imported coral sand, olympic size in-door pool with heated water, kids play ground, tennis courts, gym... staying here for free with grandparents... it's a no brainer...

foot prints across cyberspace

With so many blog sites to pick and choose from these days, how many foot prints can one have? If some of your friends are using Xanga, others are using facebook and still others are on blogger.com, etc... you have to be a member to be part of each of those networks... Or you just migrate from one net to another along with your friends...

2 years later ...

I haven't abandoned this blog because I'm lazy. For some reason I could not gain access back for the last 3 years... so have been blogging on Xanga instead. Now that this site is associated with Google, am wondering if the blogs on this site are still blocked from China and Taiwan... hmm....

So the dilema now is whether to continue this one or my Xanga blog... or start a brand new one all together on Yahoo 360, which I just discovered today.... I do have most photos on Yahoo... Afterall I haven't had to pay a dime for this blog site's posting yet while Yahoo and Xanga both charges annual fee.

Shanghai Real Estate

When you talk about Shanghai these days, you cannot avoid mentioning how hot the real estate market is there. I know because that is always part of the conversation with my parents these days. Of course given the fact they currently own 4 flats (condos) in old and new complexes, they're always watching and monitoring the ups and downs. Well, it seems to be mostly up's in the recent years. I even got dragged into their latest acquisition by pitching in 1/3 of the house price with my own line if equity on my home in LA. The reasoning are two folds. 1. The real estate there is booming more than any where else in the world right now; 2. the potential untagging of RMB to USD means RMB will appreciate. So by all means, leaving your money/equity sitting in USD is not as good as transferring them to China to buy real estate.

The latest situation on new housing development in Shanghai is 10 buyers making offers to 1 unit of condo for sale. They use the lottery # drawing to pick who out of the potential buyers get to bid on the unit since the new housing from developers have fixed prices. Some of these units get resold for higher prices even before the unit has completed construction. It's as if they are a form of commodity and not for living or renting....

Music is for the lonely

Music is for the lonely, I say. Because that's when you can truly appreciate the moods the writer and singer put into it. No distraction and play in full blast so you can hear the singer's each breath. Let the rythem take you and digest the lyric as if you're singing it.
Yes, it's been a while since I have been able to do this on my own. This was an activity I knew well as a lonely teenager, before boyfriends and before kids.... and without peer pressure of what type of music it is "cool" to like and dislike. So bring on the old Chinese folk songs and I would sway to them as I did as a little girl.

Code 46

Just watched "Code 46" last night. It is perhaps the most current movie that puts the city of Shanghai on high display as its futuristic city back drop. For those of you who have not had the chance to visit Shanghai in recent years, watch this movie. Aside from the city, Tim Robbins really surprised me with his hopelessly romantic role of a character. Never saw him as the type to fall in love with. I still think of him mostly as the wrongly accused in Shawshank or the goofy hula hoop inventor. I guess I really like this new master piece of his. Even though the movie didn't get too much shelf space at the local Blockbuster's. It's got just the right mix of sci-fi and romance. The sex scenes were very intimate yet charged with electricity. But it seemed as if the director intentionally only focused in on Samantha Morton, the leading lady of the story and leaving audience to imagine Tim's part... :-
The vision of such a social cast system as the consequence of the massive abuse of in-vitro fertilization, gene splitting and cloning technologies of the human race as our future is also very refreshing and intriguing. I can't deny there is definitely cause to believe that's exactly where we're headed from the way things are today... Afterall, just only today, I was refused from donating blood because I traveled from Shanghai to Hangzhou by train rather than by plane. I was exposed to potential uncontrolled regions of China's country side. Makes you think doesn't it. Piling on the evidence, read this article from NPR's Tech Nation program host, Dr. Gunn.

DNA, the Blueprint of Human Potential

OK, I'm officially scared. If you haven't noticed, I will tell you. Recently I was curious enough to try out Google's AdSense on my blog site. If you scroll down this blog page, you'll find a typical Ad tower panel on the left of the page. This is powered by Google AdSense engine which searches for key words on my blog site and posts the relevant sponsors' ads that are of potential interest to the readers of my blog site. I, myself would be their target no doubt.
I was really just curious and want to see how good Google's search engine and matching capability can be.... Well I asked for it and now I get it.

Check out this excerpt from this link:
Our race was not only affected by genetic tampering and experimentation but was also almost totally decimated by distortions in the planetary grids. You see, the Earth is a living organism as well and brings in energy from Source just like any living organism or planetary structure. We as humans living on the Earth, can only bring into our bodies the frequencies that Earth can bring in from Source. If the Earth's grids are damaged, then every life form living on Earth will have a damaged DNA template. Planetary grid distortions of the 3470 BC "Babble-on" Massacre caused mutation in the human DNA template that shortened human life span, blocked higher sensory perception, caused loss of race memory, and scrambled our original language patterns, which are built upon DNA fire letter sequencing. Our race has been amnesiac, dying young, and "babbling on" in rhetorical conflict ever since. This historical event was recorded as the biblical "Tower of Babel" story.

Please tell me I'm not as off the grid as this site reads... Although I admit I am a fan of super hero, super human genra of movies such as X-Men, Spiderman, heck even the spells of Harry Potter intrigues me. But I feel like I would be diving off the deep end if I start to believe all this... :-[

"Conscious Evolution"

Two quotes I found in my new reading, "Conscious Evolution" by Barbara Marx Hubbard.
These are actually quotes she quoted from others in her book. But it's nice that she did her research and collected the finest from her readings.

Jonas Salk stated in Anatomy of Reality, "The most meaningful activity in which a human being can be engaged is one that is directly related to human evolution. This is true because human beings now play an active and critical role not only in the process of their own evolution but in the survival and evolution of all living beings. Awareness of this placess upon human beings a responsibility for their participation in and contribution to the process of evolution. If humankind would accept and acknowledge this responsibility and become creatively engaged in the process of metabiological evolution consciously, as well as unconsciously, a new reality would emerge, and a new age would be born."

In 1486 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola wrote in Oration on the Dignity of Man, "We have made you a creature of neither heaven nor Earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in any form you prefer."

Oxymoron:

• Fresh water fish like a little bit of salt in their water.
  No matter how scratched up the piece of glass is, it will always look flawlessly prestine soaked in water. The part of my fish tank wall above the water line are always cloudy and fuzzy looking. But the submerged parts are crystal clear. We're all flawed because we're human. But we all can appear perfect if we are viewed in the right angle or if we find the most compatible medium which hides our flaws.
  
  
• I'm collecting filterred water in a tank for drinking and for my fishes, when it's pouring rain out.
  Why don't I just collect rain water? It has been raining every night for the past month. We all should just use rain ducs on our house roofs to collect them for house use... like how the solar panel work with the sun light.
  
• Our parents discipline us and punish us because they truly love us. Strangers don't care about the consequences we must face alone.
  
• Without the contrast of bitterness, one would not know how sweet sweet can be. So drink coffee with your deserts. Think of the happy times when you're sad.
  
• We must rage wars in order to keep peace.
• Wars are fought following orders. Battles are fought according to well thought out plans and strategies. But the outcome of a war is almost always destruction and death.
• Chaos rein the peaceful times. But the most ingenious inventions of human beings are often times the result of spontaneous activities or experiments that went terribly wrong.
  
• The most important, vital organs in our body are the ones we take for granted the most. Did you know the strongest muscle in human body is your heart? Do you appreciate your lungs 24x7 even when you're sleeping? So how often do you think of the most vital members of your company or organization? Do you even know their names?
  
• The more you care about someone or something, the more likely he/she will not hang around or you will miss-place it. Your intention may be to hide it so others can't steal it from you. But your good intention often work against your will. The trivial matters of your life will always cluter your thoughts and household. Purge, my friend, purge the junk. Just like "Clean Sweep" showed us on TLC.