Wandering Browns

Eyeing the cicada... After the typhoon, we went to Moon Lake park to get all the wiggles out. Landon spent most of his time "fishing" with sticks in the flooded lake. As he neared the end of his attention span with his fishing game, he asked me why the fish weren't biting. I told him that he didn't have anything on the end of the stick that fish liked to eat, and that the stick was probably scaring them away. Next to Landon's fishing spot was a giant cicada, obviously dead. I pointed it out to Landon and we talked about its different body parts. Landon was very curious about the wings and legs of the giant bug, but was pretty nervous about getting close to it. I explained that the very loud motor noise in the trees were cicadas singing songs. The cicada and the pine cone I tried to explain to Landon that this cicada was dead, that's why it wasn't moving. Landon sweetly started throwing leaves at it. I asked him why he was throwing leaves. He s...

The tower is very tall! One of my favorite things about Ningbo is that even though it is a modern city, there are buildings and structures with significant history nestled in between the skyscrapers. On our Sunday afternoon walk, we came upon one of them- the Tianfeng Pagoda. This seven-story tower was originally built in 695 A.D. during the Tang dynasty. During construction, sand was piled up in the area to make construction easier. Surrounding the tower, there is a "big sand" street and "little sand" street referring to these sand piles.  It was partially destroyed during war in 1128 and rebuilt in the Song dynasty in 1144, and the architectural style and features reflect more of the Song dynasty. Since then, there have been numerous fires and other damage to the building. In 1984, the pagoda was tilting precariously so they restored to its former glory and appearance. Not apparent from first glance, the tower has six more levels hidden underground. It was u...

Aftermath at Moon Lake Park After a week of rain, what we REALLY needed was a sunny day. What we got instead was a typhoon- the first one to directly hit Ningbo since 1948. It was a super typhoon and at one point was a category 4, although I think it got downgraded by the time it made it to Ningbo. Friday morning, Landon and I went outside and took a long walk because we knew we would have to be inside for most of the weekend. The typhoon was supposed to start making landfall around 5 pm Friday night. Austin came home from work at 6 pm. I asked him if the refinery guys were concerned at all, and he said that the guys he was working with made fun of him and the other members of the crew for even asking about having Saturday off, because "only kindergarteners" stay home when there is a typhoon. OK. The wind started blowing hard Friday afternoon, and Landon and I watched it blow harder and harder until at last, Austin returned home.  Friday night, we went outside for a l...

Parks are our favorite for getting wiggles out! A few months back, a friend's apartment was damaged by fire and her family ended up in an extended-stay hotel for a month or so until they could get back on their feet. She asked me for tips on how to live in hotels with a toddler. Here I will share them with you. Aside from brief times at grandparents' houses, we have been living in hotels for over a year now. "Living" in a hotel is different from vacationing and staying at a hotel. On vacation, there are plenty of activities and attractions to stay busy all day, and it isn't always to keep toddlers on a routine for vacation. My definition for "living" in a hotel is staying in a location for longer than a week or two and trying to establish some sort of normalcy in said location. Here are my survival tips for LIVING in a hotel: Railroad museum in the Netherlands- Our hotel room was so small that we went on excursions a few times a week! 1. Get O...

It was only misting the morning we walked over to the Old Bund area of Ningbo. Still too wet to do an outside activity, we opted to check out the Ningbo Museum of Art. I will have to dedicate an entire post to the Old Bund, or Laowaitan once we go there in good weather. It is basically the area that the Portugese and Dutch settled when they were traders in Ningbo, so the streets are narrower and it has architecture reminiscent of Europe. It is right across the river from our hotel, so it wasn't too long of a walk to get over to the museum.  The most impressive aspect of this museum was the outside architecture. The architect, famous Chinese architect Wang Shu, designed this building as the "ark of art." As we moved through a series of ramps to the entrance with giant doors, we were entering the ark of art. The museum is completely covered in wood and was built in the old Ningbo harbor waiting room/cargo shipping warehouse. It was a really neat building, and really ...

View of one of the rivers from our room... Park trees My favorite part about going to a new place is plunking Landon in the stroller and exploring our new home on foot. We had a few days of intense humid heat here, and we were trying to figure out laundry and grocery shopping, so we didn't explore outside of our errands too much. In those early days of trying to get over jet lag and figure out how life works in China, I found several things to do on hot, sunny days. After that, it has rained basically all day every day. I have never been anywhere with such constant precipitation! I'm not afraid of a little rain, but when it is raining hard I like to have an indoor destination in mind to get out of the rain. The problem is, I don't know the city well enough to have a long list of indoor destinations! It seems like in Asia more than anywhere rain is treated like hot lava falling from the sky, and everyone must have an umbrella and rain gear in order to survive. Needl...

Aquarium entrance- ticket booth is to the left with the golden trees... It was impossibly rainy day in Ningbo on Wednesday, and the day before was almost 100 degrees F with 100% humidity. The super hot day, we had stayed inside to stay cool, and two days in a row cooped up in the hotel were not an option. So, we found an indoor attraction and took a taxi out to Ocean World. I was under the impression that this was just an aquarium, what we found was much, much more! To start, Ocean World's exterior is borderline over the top, but so exciting for little kids! The octopus, the swordfish, the mermaids- it is all so enchanting. Even though it was raining, Landon wanted to go out there and check it out. The ticket office is situated between the aquarium and theater, on the ground floor. I saw many people head toward the main entrance to the aquarium and realize after climbing a flight of stairs that the tickets were downstairs! Tickets are a little pricey at 160 rmb for adults an...