HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!

well it is thanksgiving for me now, and you are all asleep already, awaiting your thanksgiving day! i'm about ready to leave for dinner...we're having a work thanksgiving dinner at the Renaissance hotel...not quite the same, but hey, it's turkey and it's clean ha. i just wanted to make a quick thanksgiving shout-out to everyone. i'm so incredibly blessed every single day of my life, and a large part of that is because of the amazing people in my life. i'm so so grateful for my family, more in these last couple years than ever, and i'm so so grateful for my good friends and the awesome influences i have to look up to. i'm also grateful for normal, american milk, flavored, sweetened yogurt, and pens that actually work :) lots of love to everyone!

HAHAHAHA oh my goodness, today i was even more of a daredevil than ever before! so all over the city, almost as popular as taxi's, there's guys on scooters and/or motorcycles you can pay to take you around, just like a taxi, except you're on the back of a bike. so...analee and i were on our way back to her house from the fake market (where i got an excellent "coach" bag and wallet for an excellent price). it's only about a 5 minute ride and there wasn't a taxi right there, so we just decided we'd go for it. we each hopped on the back of the bikes and held on! i don't want to go into detail again about the poor traffic skills and complete chaos that is the streets of shanghai because i don't want to scare anyone, but it was interesting. nothing too dramatic happened and we arrived safely. and we only paid 7 RMB, which is about one dollar. sweet. it was so fun!

I JUST WANT TO EXPRESS MY MOST DEEP SADNESS AND UTMOST DISAPPOINTMENT WITH THE STARBUCK'S IN CHINA....I'M IN LIKE THE WORLD CAPITOL OF TEA, AND THEY DON'T HAVE CHAI TEA HERE! WE HAVE IT IN AMERICA, BUT IN CHINA WHERE THEY SHOULD HAVE EVERY TYPE OF TEA IN THE WORLD, THEY DO NOT HAVE CHAI. IN FACT, THEY ONLY HAVE TWO (THAT'S 2) DIFFERENT TEA CHOICES AT STARBUCK'S HERE. SERIOUSLY?? VERY UPSETTING...

my sister hasn't been feeling too good the last couple days, so today, i took hyde and hattie with some other little friends to the shanghai zoo! it happens to be like right next door to us, so it's an easier, fun thing to do. and the sun is out today, except it's very deceiving since it is FREEZING outside. there's quite a wind, and it is not as warm as it looks. but we still had a good time. mostly there's monkeys and fish and elephants. at least that's where we spent all our time. the poor animals do not have very good living conditions, though. i'm pretty sure the monkeys were freezing as well, with nothing but cement cages with bark in the bottom. there were some actually like glued to the walls, all scrunched up, trying to get warm. or at least that's what it looked like. they should at least have some sun in there! it was kinda sad. then we went to the elephant show! it was actually way cool. they teach those giant things some pretty cool tricks. we sat on the front row, which was a bit too close for hyde...he went back about 5 rows and sat there to watch ha. hattie insisted on sitting on my lap since they were so close, but after awhile, she was laughing and loving it. and now for the best part (k it might not be that cool for some of you, but it was my first time, so deal!) you could pay 30 RMB, which is roughly $4, and take a ride on one! haha it was awesome.

i'm sure i looked like a fool up there, but that's ok. and i did get an actual video, but i'm struggling with making it work, so for now, you get pics!

today i went to my first of what will be weekly yoga classes. it was awesome. not really different than yoga in the states, except somehow it feels more like it belongs here in china than in america. that probably didn't make any sense, but that's ok. it was so nice and relaxing. a great way to start the day. then after i went with another yoga-er, kirsten, to starbucks for a delicious hot chocolate. it was fabulous! SOO...a few days ago, i was blog browsing, and one of my good friends had made a list of 100 things she loved. i thought that was neat, so later that night when i had some extra time, i decided to do that too! well i ended up coming up with more than 100, which really isn't hard. but i narrowed it back down, and i wanted to share...

100 things mara loves
01.music
02.ice cream
03.cameras
04.hoodies
05.the smell of rain
06.letters
07.the beach
08.chai latte's
09.pink
10.fingernail polish
11.good books
12.the sun
13.freshly cut grass
14.shoes!
15.driving with the windows down
16.singing in the shower
17.pillows
18.country concerts
19.gerber daisies
20.yellow
21.clif bars
22.head phones
23.rainbows
24.the smell of lilacs
25.lavender
26.sisters
27.dressing up
28.red lipstick
29.polaroid pictures
30.being comfy
31.snuggling
32.water
33.heating vents
34.normal toilets
35.toilet paper
36.road trips
37.starry nights
38.mountains
39.freckles
40.eskimo kisses
41.the gym
42.babies
43.bendy straws
44.pixie sticks
45.hot chocolate
46.cereal
47.ballet dancers
48.knee-lenth boots
49.chocolate brown
50.dancing in the headlights
51.mom’s chocolate marshmallow brownies
52.black
53.dresses
54.over-sized purses
55.a good movie
56.football games
57.off-roading
58.outlet malls
59.rosy cheeks
60.spider solitaire
61.hershey’s syrup
62.camp fires
63.claudia’s rice krispie treats
64.playlists
65.autumn-colored leaves
66.snow-ball fights
67.best friends
68.laughing so hard I cry
69.grandpa otto’s obsession with polaroids
70.climing trees
71.patterned tights
72.flip flops
73.baths
74.getting mail
75.kisses in the rain
76.being color-coordinated
77.seasons
78.journals
79.happy birthdays
80.cowboy hats
81.chocolate-covered almonds
82.washing the dishes
83.the simple things
84.crying till you can’t cry anymore
85.music videos
86.fun fonts
87.feet on the dashboard on a summer day
88.sunsets
89.special spots
90.midnight walks
91.ranch dressing
92.homemade bread
93.scarves
94.playing in the mud
95.pretty brown eyes
96.loofas
97.being inspired
98.memories
99.happy endings
100.thunderstorms

BUT the night didn't end at karaoke...afterwards we went to this street we call "food street". very creative, i know. it was around midnight at this point, and there were a bunch of people getting all kinds of scewered meat...and...things...don't ask, i don't know. or i didn't want to know...there's octopus, different parts of chicken, whole fish. i mean YUM!! needlesstosay, i had some of the veggies...ginger roots with too spicy spices, and some kind of mushroom somethin somethin. anyway, mostly i had bottled water ha. i'm trying, but some things i just can't bring myself to try!

KARAOKE TIME

look, i have an american friend! haha

apparently the peace sign is popular

i finally went out and had a night on the town!! i've been quite the unsocial person, mostly because i'm not sure who to be social with, but last night it was a co-workers birthday, so we all took her out and played! oh man. all i can say is KARAOKE. the chinese pretty much worship karaoke. and it's not necessarily a party, fun thing either, it's taken serious! so this is how it all went down...i wait FORTY (yes 40) minutes for a cab, finally get downtown to meet up with everyone. half go to eat, half go to get our room for karaoke. i went with the karaoke half. it was crazy-busy. this place looks like a club with a ton of private rooms. it was way way nice and new and modern-looking, too. we get our room right away cuz someone was smart and made reservations. it has a small, mini bar, a big, L-shaped leather couch with some tables, a couple other chairs, and a big screen. there's a little monitor thing where you pick your playlist, basically, and all the songs just start playing. there were 3 microphones. i mean this room had everything. sound effects, lighting effects, the works. PLUS they have servers and you can order any food or drink you want. it was awesome! haha i couldn't believe it. maybe some of you already knew about this or have seen this before, so it's old news for you, but i had no idea! the big difference i think between american karaoke and chinese karaoke is the chinese really take it seriously and sing the best they can and it's almost totally quiet except for the person singing. lots of slow songs. some were very typical chinese opera style songs. so thank GOODNESS we had more of our white peeps come and show em how it's done. it was awesome. like a private dance party. you can be as loud as you want. it was crazy. we had the room til midnight, and most everyone stayed that late, too. don't you worry, i was definitely a partaker of the karaoke madness...

halloween china-style

so many people have been asking about halloween in china, or if there even is a halloween in china. granted halloween was over a week ago, i'm barely getting around to figuring everything out and getting it up for you! there's quite a few people that live around us that aren't chinese...england, new zealand, france, places like that. and a few from america, too, and since halloween's growing more popular around europe and other places, we did have other people celebrating it with us! we weren't the only ones! yay! there were a few chinese people in some of my classes that i asked about it, though, and they said no they don't celebrate it at all. but in our compound, (which is basically a gated community), there were quite a few houses with decorations and kids that dressed up and went trick-or-treating, so it was fun! had a couple halloween parties for the kids to go to even! (i'm starting to feel like a mom some days...) so here's some pics of hyde and hattie and there halloween fun! and no, i didn't dress up myself. kinda wish i could've though...so sad

my baby hattie!!

this is my niece, hattie. she'll be 2 this coming february, and she's the cutest thing ever! well, most of the time anyway...after all, she is almost 2...well, long story, short, she has lots of fun curly, blonde hair for aunt mara to play with! and she's very patient and sits while i do it. one rainy day here in china, we were looking for something to do, so while she was strapped in her high chair, i got the elastics out and we played pony-tail with her hair! it was awesome. somewhere around 12 pony-tails i think?? then she was happy to pose for a picture :)

NEW BABY BOY!!! in china, nonetheless...

SOOO...we have yet another new baby in the family, born here in shanghai with me! his name's Liam Wayne Parkinson. 7 pounds, 20 inches long, and so so pretty! yes, a baby boy can be pretty. he came pretty quick tuesday, november 4th at about 10:15 pm. of course, that would be around 7:15 am for you in america. he's doing so well, and mom, (my sister anne), is doing wonderfully also. she's a trooper. so far, he likes to sleep in the day and cry all night long, so hopefully when he's home that'll switch around! liam's brother and sister, hyde and hattie, are very proud siblings. all hattie wants to do is touch him; pat his head, poke out his eyeballs, etc etc. so that's the newest, exciting thing that's happening around here! but just wait til tomorrow...i'm sure new, more exciting things will be happening then. after all, it is china....