Sunday dinner, American style

Sunday morning I went to the 94th floor of the World Financial Center, the tallest building in Shanghai. The elevator ride took a matter of seconds, climbing 430 meters (about 1300 feet, the length of 4 football fields). My ears popped going up. At the top, the view was like being in an airplane looking down on all the buildings, people and cars in Shanghai. Very breathtaking. The sky is pretty hazy, though, so I couldn't see past maybe 15 miles in any direction. After the view, I took the metro to church. I met several others in the branch and several people were visiting. I guess this branch gets 10-12 visitors each week. One of the visitors was a guy named Liu who joined the church a few years ago in Montreal just after emigrating from China. Turns out he is living in the same town I lived in the West Island area of Montreal. Small world.

One of the church members, Cameron De Vries, invited me to dinner with his family of 7. After church I went back to the hotel, then rode my bike the 6 miles to the De Vries's house. The De Vries family is like ours, pretty talkative. He and his wife Tanya have five kids, ages 11, 9, 7, 4 and baby. The little kids were watching that cartoon movie our kids love, Veggie Tales "The Pirates Who Don't know Anything." The kids treated me like a celebrity - "Hey Tom, look at my bruise" "Tom, watch me do this ..." It was a real treat to eat with them. They answered a lot of my questions about the ex-pat lifestyle. For example, owning a car in Shanghai is very expensive so they don't have one. They take buses and the metro or a taxi everywhere. Just to license a car here costs $5-10,000. Also, private schools are extraordinarily expensive, to the tune of $20,000/year per child, so the De Vries are home schooling their kids. I suppose the ex-pat lifestyle is easier for young couples, olders couples with no kids at home, or families with just one or two kids. The food was great, including pumpkin pie and cold milk. I haven't had milk since I got here. I was very complimentary of them and thanked them graciously for the food.