Giving thanks in China

Here is more of what happened while Blogger was shut down in China:



In case you didn't get a chance to see on Flickr, this was Tiffany's ingenious Halloween idea. It is the opposite of the City Weekend magazine cover (see earlier blog entry for photo) and constitutes what I consider to be a good Halloween costume. Well, there's two kinds of "good" costumes, I guess. One would be the classic, elaborate, no-holds-barred costume that is detailed and complicated, and requires a lot of effort. The other is ours. Which is to say timely, humorous and slightly offensive. Maybe not as much effort, but a lot more thought.

Clearly, the recent magazine met the timely requirement. And it was humorous to see that we had switched the text on our t-shirts (and exhibited the requisite ethnic correlation). The life of single expats in China follows one dominant rule of thumb: White (non-Asian), usually older men like to date younger, Chinese girls. Thus, the City Weekend magazine cover article. So when Tiffany and I walked in to an expat Halloween party with our friends Meredith and Mark (dressed as Chinese crossing guards on left), we were greeted with lots of slightly uncomfortable laughs. Like, "ha ha, that's really funny. Have you met my new Chinese girlfriend?" To a Halloween aficionado like myself, it was music to my ears!



Later that weekend, Tiffany had her work Halloween party at Shanghai Centre. We took a group of kids trick or treating through the apartment towers and then finished in the main hall and watched the kids flying around on a candy-fueled high. We went as a classic devil and angel duo. I was only able to scare one child, and he barely cried, but it was a fun afternoon nevertheless. On the right is Tiffany up on stage with a bunch of the kids at Shanghai Centre, where she works.

And my parents were back in town, on a tour through Asia. Unfortunately they arrived, only to find me handicapped.

Nevertheless, it was great to see them, and we got to show them around Shanghai, and some of our favorite hangouts.

I did get my cast off and while I'm still on crutches, I have a removable walking boot, so at least I can take it off at night and sleep easier. I'm seeing my surgeon tomorrow and hopefully he will give me the green light to start physical therapy.

Despite the torn Achilles that we're dealing with right now (and by "we" I really mean Tiffany, since my job is to lie still, and she has to cook all the meals, clear my dishes, and basically run around and get everything for me, not entirely unenjoyable for me, but she is definitely ready for me to get back on my feet), Tiffany and I have a lot to be thankful for. We both have great jobs in China, we have gotten to do some incredible traveling around Asia, Tiffany has her health, and I'm working on getting mine back.

And besides, we have great blog readers who motivate us to keep up our little travel journal! Like my Aunt Bessie, one of our faithful readers, who just celebrated her 80th birthday, and is kind enough to print up our blog entries and bring them over to my grandmother to read. So thank you Aunt Bessie, and thanks to all our readers. We will keep bringing you our stories from China and around Asia, and hopefully you will enjoy reading them and get to share a little bit of our experiences!