School Goings-on

School has held some entertaining activities for the girls.  Pip took part in an overnight campout.  All the 2nd and 3rd graders stayed at school with night games, movies, and tents set up in the library.  She did well for her first night away from any family, and had fun.  Nina took part in the Connect Four tournament where she made it to the finals and played the last game in front of all the elementary students.  She lost, but was gracious and took home some hardware for 2nd place.  There have been some neighborhood cats born recently and they like to hang out on our back patio, especially on the rainy days.  The momma looks exhausted. ;)

Outside of that, we've been wandering a bit as usual. We also made a cake that was quickly devoured and had some friends over for a game day.  Lastly, a shoutout to our newest nephew, Jack.  Congratulations to Jake and Kelsey and we're all excited to meet him sometime soon!

Already June

We're not sure how, but we've started June.  The weather has been beautiful so we've been out and about, playing more badminton, going to parks, riding bikes, and even pulling weeds.  Between that and school, time seems to be vanishing.  The girls got their school photos and it is interesting to see how the Brits do it all.  The option of getting a sibling photo is kind of fun, and of course Nina can't get over how "cringe" some of the photos are.

 

                      

We were happy to take in an outdoor concert this weekend.  We saw three acts on a rooftop of a high ropes course.  Pip is really into gymnastics and Ninja Warrior.  She likes to climb around the house and do random jumps.  She also has been playing a lot of recorder and actually got to play a solo at her last assembly.  She was supposed to play one song whilst accompanied by the music teacher on piano, but he couldn't make it and she ended up playing two songs.  We were proud of her courage to play in front of the school.  Nina is taking a lot of end-of-the-year exams and is also a finalist in the school Connect Four tournament.

Houtouwan

A few years ago, Nana saw an article about the abandoned island of Houtouwan off the coast of Shanghai.  It is a remote island that can be tough to get to without a guide or native Chinese speakers, but we gave it our best shot and got lucky enough to visit.  It seems a bit of a miracle given the number of unknowns leading up to our arrival, but it made for a fun adventure.

Houtouwan was once a booming fishing village that was prosperous and, despite their distance from Shanghai, did such good business that they could afford to have ships for import and export purposes.  But in the early 90s the fishing dried up and they couldn't overcome how remote they were from everything else and people left town.  25 years later, nature has taken back the village and ivy has covered the buildings, trees break through the roofs.  It is an amazing site and very beautiful.

As for the obstacles, we had to wake up early to get to a certain bus stop that could take us over a major (20 mile) bridge to get to the ferry terminal. The bus speed was not going to get us there in time, but an opportunistic uber van did; regular uber drivers are not permitted on this drive. The ferry station was also full of ambiguity. Nina and Pip helped to translate where we were going, but there were four destinations and we had to hope that we were on the correct ship.  After a stop at a different island we weren't entirely sure where we were going, but ended up on the island of Gouqi, which connects to Houtouwan.  

Because we weren't sure if we'd even make it, and after reading some online reports, we hadn't booked a hotel in advance and a local helped find us a spot.  Our first hotel was very nice, but unfortunately they only had room for one night. We found another hotel down the street and it all worked out.  The girls enjoyed the beach, but there was no swimming allowed while we were there.