Hangzhou Anniversary Weekend

We celebrated our one year anniversary in Hangzhou a 1.5 hour train ride away from Shanghai. We had heard great things about Hangzhou and how beautiful the West Lake there was. However, we underestimated the length of time it would take to get to the train station in Shanghai and the amount of time it would take to actually get on the train. (there was xray machines and security checks due to Expo) The place was absolute chaos and we ended up missing our scheduled train so had to wait in line to get on the next train, which happened to be standing room only. This was the line to change our tickets (keep in mind we can't read what line we were supposed to be in! We ended up getting in the right line by asking around)

SO many people everywhere!

Cute restaurants and coffee shops surrounding West Lake (Xi Hu) - the most famous attraction in Hangzhou.

There was no lack of luxury car dealers in Hangzhou! Lots of money being thrown around in China these days....

Beer dispenser

We stayed up for the beginning of the US game which started at 2:30AM China time.

Bottle of Dom Perignon brought from the US (it was a gift from our wedding) to celebrate one year!

View from our hotel room. West Lake is on the top of the picture. Hangzhou was very hazy when we were there as you can see!

In terms of city buildings, it resembles Shanghai!

Walking around West Lake. It is truly beautiful, but would have been nicer on a clear day!

Yummy sushi lunch. You can order off the menu or take the plates on the revolving belt.

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The prices are indicated by the colored plates and corresponding prices in rmb below.

Housewarming Party

We happily hosted our housewarming party in Shanghai a few weekends ago (sorry for the delayed post!) It was a great turnout with about 20 of our new friends here! Here are some pictures from the party and our new apartment. It's the party we've always wanted to host but never had the space to do so. I think Felipe & I were born to entertain! Our next party will take place on Sat, July 10 when we return to Shanghai from the states!

Our bedroom

Guest room #1

IKEA cubby with pics of all our friends and family to remind of us home :)

Living room

Kitchen - I love it!

Our new oven we bought since there was not one in the apt! The best investment ever (it's a Delonghi!)

Bar setup for party

Guest bathroom

Guest room #3 (sorry no sheets yet!)

Dining room area (chairs were moved for party) with a newly purchased NYC canvas

Nighttime in living room. Patti - note the "House Divided" pic with the NY Mets/NY Yankees logo - our engagement gift from 2 years ago now has a home!!

New friends. Panos (in blue) is owner of two of our favorite restaurants here. He helped cater some of the Greek food for our party.

Cheese is hard to come by here (and VERY expensive) so this was a nice treat!

The spread. I made my own homemade blue cheese sauce and
buffalo wings! YUM. Oh and bought lots of hors d'oeuvre platters, etc because I'm a big dork and I get excited over these types of things ;)

Homemade guacamole.

Friends from Felipe's Chinese class and my workplace.

One of these guys (Kevin) grew up in Princeton and calls me "west windsor" - small world haha!

Post party at Heineken hosted event that took place for a big football (soccer) game. We were invited through our friend Panos!

Out and About

It's been less than two weeks since we moved in and are finally unpacked and settled! We had our big housewarming party last night which was a great success. (Pictures to be posted in the folliwing blog) It's nice having a home to come back to. Below are some pictures of our adventures and new friends we've made in Shanghai!

Felipe's Mandarin class


Dinner at Bella Napoli with friends

Drinks at Cuvee, a cute ltitle wine bar 1 block from our apartment!

Belgian beer at Kaiba (next to Cuvee)

Chinese workers stuffing sand bags in an alley

Antiques market full of some really neat stuff

Nice park in Xintandi (kind of reminds me of a mini central park, execpt no one lies out here!) Expensive expat apartments in the background. Yao Ming has a place in the Lakeville complex!

Partying at M1NT with friends

Random market we found

Not sure what any of this is...

Scary eel type things - EWWWWWW! People eat this?!

Making popcorn on a street corner

The much talked about China Pavilion at World Expo. It's nearly impossible to get in (I did make it inside but hopefully will at some point). Jackie had the opportunity to visit Expo on opening day (May 1) courtesy of complimentary tickets from our joint venture partner in China.

The mascot for Expo - except this is the whole family. So cute!

Soldiers walking in line at Expo. Pictures of various pavilions below - all very unique!

Apparently in the Brazil pavilion, there is a virtual screen/room that lets one simulate the excitement of scoring a goal at a soccer match.

Hilary Clinton was in town this weekend visiting the USA pavilion.

Nepal Pavilion

Qatar Pavilion

I thought this was so cool!