Today, Tuesday April 5th, is a national holiday - Tomb Sweeping Day. We have had a long weekend as a result and have enjoyed the time off. Not sure of all the details of the holiday but in a nutshell the Chinese honor their ancestors and family who have passed away by burning offerings of money (they use fake money now). The idea is that the burnt money passes to them in the afterlife and provides them with prosperity. People also burn paper furniture, houses and other material things so that their relatives will have all these things in heaven. We passed a family doing this ritual on the sidewalk of a busy road on our way to dinner the other evening and while it seemed odd it also seemed very solemn and a good way to remember your loved ones.
This weekend Cynthia finally reached her wits end with her Chinese cell phone which seems to have a mind of its own and randomly places calls to people on her contact list - repeatedly. Her iPod also died and so now she is without music. This conversion of electronic anomalies led us to the Apple store here in Jin Qiao where some indescribable force overcame me and I purchased 2 iPhones and a 32G iPad2. The iPhones were for Cynthia and Mason (whose Chinese phone would randomly reset itself not to mention the micro typing pad which required precise stylus skills and a magnifying glass) The iPad2 was for me because I needed...to ...um...work...er...well I just really needed it - okay!? Not to be left out - Regan "lost" his Chinese phone for which I paid a handsome price of 150 kwai ($20) To be 13 and without a phone in Shanghai is next to insanity - or so I am told - but it is nice to be able to keep tabs on our family's social butterfly - so we headed to Carrefour and bought Regan a new phone. Finally, Landon was not to be outdone by all this electronic madness and he ended up winning a new laptop at the Scout's Blue & Gold banquet. Actually, he earned it by being the scout who recycled the most bags of plastic, cans and paper. Early in the year Landon's den leader challenged the boys to recycle (which is not done in most homes in Shanghai) and promised the winners some sort of an electronic prize. Well in the spirit of recycling the laptop is a recycled Compaq Presario (the Den leader owns a computer consulting business) and Landon was so proud of his prize which rounded off our family's electronic bonanza weekend.
This weekend Cynthia finally reached her wits end with her Chinese cell phone which seems to have a mind of its own and randomly places calls to people on her contact list - repeatedly. Her iPod also died and so now she is without music. This conversion of electronic anomalies led us to the Apple store here in Jin Qiao where some indescribable force overcame me and I purchased 2 iPhones and a 32G iPad2. The iPhones were for Cynthia and Mason (whose Chinese phone would randomly reset itself not to mention the micro typing pad which required precise stylus skills and a magnifying glass) The iPad2 was for me because I needed...to ...um...work...er...well I just really needed it - okay!? Not to be left out - Regan "lost" his Chinese phone for which I paid a handsome price of 150 kwai ($20) To be 13 and without a phone in Shanghai is next to insanity - or so I am told - but it is nice to be able to keep tabs on our family's social butterfly - so we headed to Carrefour and bought Regan a new phone. Finally, Landon was not to be outdone by all this electronic madness and he ended up winning a new laptop at the Scout's Blue & Gold banquet. Actually, he earned it by being the scout who recycled the most bags of plastic, cans and paper. Early in the year Landon's den leader challenged the boys to recycle (which is not done in most homes in Shanghai) and promised the winners some sort of an electronic prize. Well in the spirit of recycling the laptop is a recycled Compaq Presario (the Den leader owns a computer consulting business) and Landon was so proud of his prize which rounded off our family's electronic bonanza weekend.
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