Walking Wuxi Wednesdays

Walkin Wuxi Wednesday

A group of girls from my apartment complex and I have decided to start walking to different parts of Wuxi on the third Wednesday of  every month. The weather here is finally nice and we are soaking up every minute of outside time we can get, cause winter is a'comin.

This morning we met up at 9;00a and set out on foot. We  headed right down Changjiang Bei Lu. We walked a total of 9.1km in just about two hours.

Take a look at our voyage!

Heading out for a walk with Mrs. Barcelona, Mrs. Georgia, Mrs. Singapore & Ms. Turkey

Not even a police man will let pedestrians have the right of way here. Cross at your own accord.

 

1st stop: baby Spa to see if there were any babies getting dunked with a floaty around the neck.

Split pant babies. It's the norm.

Quilts, anyone?

Sal says, "Hey mama, where is my hat? Dis sun is bright!"

 

This woman can multi-task. I need lessons from her. Baby & groceries. Alone.

Sal's stroller gets a lift. Muscle up, girls!

Everything is barricaded to keep scooters ( & unfortunately strollers) out.
We're gonna have big muscles after three years of lifting strollers together!

Water delivery. Love these guys.

Totally OSHA compliant, right?

Anyone heard on the news about what's going on around here?
Here's some Grafitti in support of the country we live in.
 

Painting. The ropes they're using? Also OSHA certified.

Game of frogger, anyone? 1.2.3...run!



Trendy Plastics. A plastic surgery center.

We made it all the way from Changjiang Bei Lu to Nanchan by foot! This was no small undertaking, but we did it and enjoyed the entire walk, snapping away with our cameras, playing tourists.


Add in the audio of a man moaning and rocking, and it made even me want to give him money.
I have yet to give a beggar money, but it does pull at your heartstrings to see disabled elderly on the streets.

E-Scooter parking lot outside Nanchan

Tuckered out. Both boys fell asleep midway for a nice little snooze.

The girls ( minus pregnant Mrs. Barcelona who caught a taxi home) at Nanchan

Canal at Nanchan

Rental Bikes. Watch out Lance Armstrong!

We finished out our walk at Starbucks at Nanchan and this is where I learned that I did not pack a back up onesie for Sal. Hence the shirtless boy in the photograph. Mama packed pants, but no top. Add in a leaky diaper and it spells disaster.

So, he was left to flex his pecs for the ladies, and no one seemed to mind much at all.

Shirtless in Starbucks

We all decided that we had enough walking for the day so a call was put out to Mrs. Georgia's driver who promptly picked us up in the van and brought us home.

 

Looking forward to our next walk.

 

There's so much more of Wuxi to explore!

p.s. thanks hratliff for the use of some of your photos!

Pencil us in

I've barely blogged at all this week! I have good reason, though...

...we've been on the go!

To give NZ a little reprieve from the Sal and mama show that takes place daily in our living room ...babble babble babble, mom makes faces and dances like an idiot, babble babble babble, laugh laugh laugh, Sal and I filled our calendar with activities that kept us out of the house for the better part of each day.

Making it even better, was our weather. We finally caught a break! We woke upon Wednesday to gray skies, and low humidity, and it was oh.so.nice. Of course the humidity and rain have returned for the weekend, designating today as a lazy day, but those three days were worth it!

On Monday, we walked from our complex to the local Xīngbakè ( Starbucks) with a bunch of neighbors to meet up for Wuxi International Club's first gathering since summer vacation. Many expats are returning after summer holiday, so it was nice to meet some new faces--and Sal got loved on even more. He's grown quite used to the attention.

Tuesday, we stayed in for a little while before heading over to a friend's house to visit for few hours.


Wednesday, we jumped in Mrs. Georgia's van and her driver took us to Nanchan Temple, here in Wuxi. We met up with Mrs. Frankfurt, and her son and toured the temple. Mrs. Georgia and I climbed to the top to take photos, and by the next day, both of us had sore legs! There is a lot of tourist driven shopping stalls in the temple area, but I am still having trouble enjoying the experience when I have Sal in a stroller. It is impossible to keep one eye on his stroller, policing who touches him and what not.

Stopping to window shop is a bad idea--because when I do that, I usually turn around to find a crowd of gawkers surrounding us. They will just keep coming until I start pushing my stroller over people's feet. It definitely detracts from the shopping experience, and makes me thankful for being able to window shop hassle free in the states. I did score about a kilo of apples for 5RMB, which I thought was just pure awesome. That's like 75 cents for 2.2 lbs!

Mrs. Singapore flanked by gawkers as she watched the boys while we climbed the temple stairs.

We climbed to the top

Nanchan Temple



A monk

On Thursday, Sal and I walked to Subway with Mrs. North Carolina and Mrs. Michigan for lunch. It was so nice out that we grabbed our lunches and sat at outdoors at a little cafe where we tried out their drink menu. Being that I am not a coffee or tea lover, I tried out the "Lime Green Lemon Lime Soda"...and it was just that---Sprite with lime green syrup added. Hellllloh sugar high! I think next time I'll give seltzer water a try. The hostess quickly moved us inside when it started to drizzle, cause you know, the baby might catch a cold or something!




Lunch with the ladies...Thursday

Friday was our busiest by far--my driver took Mrs. Michigan and me to IKEA where we met up with Mrs. North Carolina and Mrs. Barcelona for a shopping fiesta! I lllllllooooove IKEA here. Not so much at home, but here---it's a sense of security and familiarity. It's quite funny to go into someone Else's home here and see so many of the same items you have in your home though. Guess we all have good taste! We sat down to lunch before heading home, and all in all, it's nice to have other ladies to shop with! No rushing or anyone telling you not to buy things (which reminds me of this blog, which splits my side every time I read it)--actually, NZ is a pretty good sport about the things I buy and shopping that I do, since I am usually pretty spendthrift. After my grand purchase of 15 RMB ($2.25) for a pair of gray oven mitts, I walked out satisfied. Once we were done at IKEA, I dropped Sal off with his dad for an hour or so, and delivered supper to a couple who just welcomed a daughter.

I got home, kicked my shoes off after such an eventful day ( yes, shopping can wear a girl out!!!) and settled on the couch with my iPad. We ended up accepting an invite from the Michigan's for supper, so we grabbed a couple taxi's and headed out for some live music and German food. It was a really fun night, and the kids danced on stage, Sal got serenaded by a possible tranny singing Justin Bieber's "Baby baby song", and we returned home well fed and feeling like we've started to really live life over here, rather than just survive.


And that, my friends, is a good feeling.