#340 China Halloween

Tonight was Halloween and the most happening trick-or-treat locale in all of greater Suzhou is in our neighhorhood, Jin Shui Wan (a.k.a Golden Lough). There must have been more than 300 panhandling kids in the neighborhood tonight, our four among them.

All six of us had costumes custom tailored in downtown Suzhou. Juliana went as an M&M, Joseph as some kind of Ninja, Marco was Darth Maul from Star Wars, and Maria is Madeline from the children's books.

Kathlen and I were the duo of Superman and Wonder Woman. As you can imagine, we got lots of attention with our authentic superhero duds. As I walked around with the kids, I had more than 10 people ask to pose with me for photos. Despite the somewhat lame "S" on the chest, the costume was a hit. Kathleen also got many kudos for her elaborate get-up. She won best costume at "Halloween Bunco Night" on Friday.

My favorite neighbor costume though was our friend Keith who dressed as a man taking a shower. Very creative.

#339 Dude Ranch

I spent the day Saturday with my workgroup on a teambuilding outing. We set out at 9:00 AM with a busload of Cat employees for the 90 minute drive to the "Cowboy Style Country Club" near Taihu Lake. This place was a lot of fun with horseback riding, dragon boat racing, go-karting, laser tag, rock climbing, and other teambuilding games.

We had a full agenda of activities and like every Chinese tour group you see, we had a a leader a megaphone. Daniel (pictured above) was our megaphone-wielding colleague and team leader. The day started out with a very good barbecue lunch and birthday cake for the people with birthdays in October. Next we split into four teams for dragonboat racing. Next was a half hour of free time which I used to take a horseback ride. It was hilarious that the dude ranch required a personal flotation device as safety gear to ride a horse. I liked the horseback riding, though it was a pretty short ride. The next group activity was lasergun combat.

At 4:00 we left the Cowboy Club and went to a nearby orange grove where we got to sample delcious oranges right off the trees, then had dinner in the grove's own restaurant. Among the local favorites are the "three whites" - white shrimp, whitefish, and silverfish. I asked why the third white is silver, but no one knew the answer. The final dish was the famoush hairy crab, which in my judgement requires more work than the small yield of crab meat is worth. But this hairy crab is a tradition and an autumn obsession in the Suzhou and Wuxi area.

#338 Maria's New Smile

Maria discovered last week that she had two new bottom teeth appearing on the inside of her two front, lower baby teeth. The poor girl is more than six years old and had yet to lose her first tooth.

The situation earned her a seat in the dentist's chair where she got her first-ever shot of novacane and had two teeth pulled. Now she has a charming, gap-toothed smile that earned her 60 RMB from the tooth fairy. She was happy.

#337 Yangcheng Lake

We joined some Suzhou friends for a short overnight trip to Yangcheng Lake, about 30 minutes northeast of Suzhou. The Fairmont Hotel is run by an American and he offered our families a discount room rate and arranged for some kid-friendly activities during our stay. We went up on Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Thursday afternoon.

The kids enjoyed swimming, fishing, rollerblading, and an evening viewing of Toy Story 3 on a big outdoor screen next to the pool. Yangcheng Lake is famous for the autumn delicacy called "Hairy Crab". It is a Suzhou tradition dating back probably thousands of years. We passed on the hairy crab dinner because it was a bit too pricey for what looked like a pretty small meal - about $30 per person. Instead we opted for the Fairmont buffet which was pretty good and was capped off by a fantastic dessert bar which included a chocolate fountain.

Among the pictures above you can see me on the cormorant's boat, watching some local fisherman ladies change locale, and finally sampling sugar cane with a couple of the workman on the hotel grounds.

#336 Wuxi Tourist Trap

Day two of our week off, we did some sightseeing in Wuxi. This is town that I now work in, though I have never actually been to the city. Our office is in an industrial park near the freeway and I have never ventured outside the office.

There is one famous sight in Wuxi - the giant golden Budda in the hills overlooking Taihu Lake. This was our first stop of the day, and we stayed only briefly because the entry fee to the park was over $30 per person. Since it is a national holiday (and China has a billion people), there were hoardes of people queueing up to buy these incredibly overpriced tickets. We decided to settle for a picture from the parking lot rather than part with the cash for six tickets.

Next we sought out a city park called Xihui Yuan which offers a simple hike to a view of Taihu and downtown Wuxi. This made for a nice family activity, though there was also a pretty high ticket price to get into this city park. With the gate fee and a one way ticket down the cable car, it cost our family $40 for this simple activity. So my advice to China travelers, Wuxi is an overpriced tourist trap !

#335 Tragedy Strikes

We have been enjoying our stay-at-home national holiday this week. On Monday, we took a long bike ride with the kids to a place called the "Precious Belt Bridge" which is a thousand year old bridge near downtown Suzhou and about seven miles from our house. So the whole family did 15 miles on the bikes round trip and it was a nice bit of local sightseeing.

In the afternoon, I took a long canoe ride with Michael, my friend and neighbor. We set out to see if we could travel by canoe to downtown Suzhou. We almost made it to the major canal that encircles downtown Suzhou, but after more than three hours of paddling, found the passageway blocked with a bamboo barricade.

This takes us to the tragedy story. By now you have noticed that there are no pictures posted with this blog. The reason is that upon returning to the boat dock in our neighborhood, I tried paddling the boat onto the concrete boat ramp and capsized. The water was only three feet deep, but it was deep enough to soak my iPhone 4 and destroy it. Pictures from the adventuresome day were on the phone.

I have only had the phone for about a month. What a disaster !

#334 D-wich X-Country

The kids' school today held the annual junior school (mandatory) cross country running competition. Juliana, Joseph, and Marco all competed and did admirably. It was a pretty hot day and they all had to run more than a mile along with their classmates. The winners gathered points for their house (think Harry Potter house points).

Of all of three, Marco seemed to be suffering the most pain as he crossed the finish line - he is blessed with his father's running talent. Today is the day before the start of a week long national holiday in China, so I was able to leave work a little early and come out to see the running. Kathleen and I were proud of all of them.