Back from Shanghai!!

Jocelyn Writes:
Hello all!!
The kids and I have returned from a great visit with our friends the Davoudgoleh Family in Shanghai... Spending time with Goldie, Jacob, Sherri and Ira was fun ...a bit like Club Med as they live on the grounds of the Shanghai Raquet ball and Tennis Club. They welcomed us, toured us around the Bund, Pearl Tower, Shanghai Museum, the water town of Qibao, took us on shopping excursions to the pearl and fabric markets and fed us American food (a welcomed break), took us for kabbalat shabbat services at the Shanghai Chabad House and taught us about how to prepare and host a Persian seder. The kids enjoyed seeing their buddies, swimming, preparing for and celebrating Passover!

Shanghai is quite international and therefore so different from Xi'an. We have a few pictures posted...and Ayden's blog below.

Ayden Writes:

Last week I went to Shanghai to visit Goldie, my friend from Rashi, and her family. My mom, my sister, my brother and me were all going to Shanghai but not my dad. We had to wake up at four o’clock in the morning so that we wouldn’t miss our seven o’clock flight. I was very excited on our way to the airport. When we arrived at the airport, the driver helped us check our bags. Then we thanked our driver and he left. After we checked our bags, we went through the security check. When we had all gone through security, we boarded our plane to Shanghai.

The plane to Shanghai was a very pleasant flight, that is to say that no one got sick. When we arrived in Shanghai, the Davoudgoleh’s were on the way to the airport. When they got to the airport, the Davoudgolehs greeted us with a great welcome, and then we went to the fabric market. The fabric market is a market where you can get clothes designed especially for you. There were three floors in the fabric market; we walked through all of them. By the end of the trip to the fabric market, I bought two skirts and one cashmere jacket. My sister bought a Chinese dress, two shirts and a cashmere jacket. My mom just got a jacket. I decided that going shopping in a big store with many people is very tiring.

Driving home from the fabric market, I was very excited to see Goldie’s house and to have American food. When we arrived at her apartment, we went to the second floor then unlocked the door and… it was beautiful, and everything seemed amazing. It was a warm, cozy house. First, Goldie showed me her room, which was a nice room. Goldie had a bunk bed and a regular bed. I was sleeping on the bottom bunk. For dinner, we had a delicious chicken. It was so good I couldn’t wait until breakfast the next day.

On Friday we went to the Shanghai Museum. The museum was very interesting for my family but the Davoudgoleh’s got alittle tired of the museum. They had already been there a couple of times. We only went to two floors (there were four) because my brother was also getting tired of the museum. My favorite room was the room with the coins. The room with the coins had all different kinds of coins from different places and different time periods in Chinese history. Another one of my favorite places was the calligraphy room. Calligraphy is when people write things in Chinese and draw pictures. My favorite picture was a tree with little flowers on its branches. Goldie’s class had made a little museum from what they saw at the museum (they went on a field trip). Goldie made a gorgeous coin. Even though the museum took a long time to get all the way through I still had a good time.

Friday night we went to the Chabad temple that the Davoudgoleh’s belong to. It took about a half an hour to get to their temple. First they had services. It felt so weird to be singing the songs we sing at Rashi and at HBT (my temple in Boston). After the service, we had a kosher Shabbat meal. First, we had some vegetables. Then the caterers brought out a whole other bunch of food that I didn’t try. Usually my sister doesn’t eat meat unless it is kosher, so she was really happy when the brought out the meat. The temple in Shanghai was not that different then my temple at home because the service was in Hebrew and they sang the same prayers and songs.

This week was Passover and the Davoudgoleh’s had two seders. I was at both of the seders with my family. The first seder was really fun and short because the adults knew that the kids could not sit for a long time. My mom made a Passover Jeopardy gme and we all played. The second night I knew one family because they had come the night before. The dinner at the seder was so good. Usually Passover is not one of my favorite holidays, but this year I had a lot of fun.

On our way back to the airport there was a lot of traffic because a couple of cars got in an accident. Someone was repairing the car in the street. My mom was scared that we were going to miss our flight to Xi’an. And we didn’t…and I am still here to tell the story.