Our First Guest

Today was an absolute joy as we were blessed with the unexpected company of one of Dustin's friends from college, Colin MacAlpine. Dustin and Colin sang together in the Purdue Glee Club. Colin just happened to be in town on business and had Sunday free in Shanghai. We invited him to come to church with us and then out to dinner afterwards (church here is either 2pm or 4pm--we chose the 4pm now because it has the nursery as well as the class for Danny).
Getting to church was unreal. The traffic was crazy and even though we left 75 minutes before the service, we made it just in time to get the kids into their classes and ourselves into our seats. Thankfully, Colin had not been waiting long. We will have to leave at least an hour or more ahead of time next week.
This was my first time to actually sit through the entire service (we went to the 2pm last week and I spent most of it outside with Josh) and I was so excited. The congregation is a huge mix of people from all over the world and as Dustin has written before, gives you a small glimpse of what heaven must look like. Both the boys had a wonderful time in their classes. I laughed as I picked up Josh because I was told "he really likes fish crackers" and was then warned by a second worker that he may not eat his dinner. (He had been eating on the way to church as well, so maybe he is either having another growth spurt--or completely addicted to carbs).
We headed just a little farther in town to eat at Tony Romas--it has fantastic ribs and just all around American food. Dinner was fun to catch up with Colin and find out about his family. Thankfully the boys were fairly well behaved. We decided, as Colin was feeling pretty good with the jet lag, to take Colin to see the Bund (this is the part of Shanghai where most of the foreign buildings from long ago are located--beautiful architecture--and it is all lit up at night) and Pudong (Shanghai's section east of the river and closest to the ocean. We live on the west side of the river called Puxi. Pudong is where all the new modern buildings are being built and is the financial hub of the city. It is also beautiful in the night as two large skyscrapers light up with different pictures such as the Mona Lisa and with pictures of flowers and fish).
Unfortunately our first drive past the Bund was hindered by construction in the area. Shanghai is hosting the World's fair next spring and is diligently working to get ready. Our second pass through brought better sights and you could really see the buildings. We had our drivers take us across to Pudong and they let us off to walk close to the river. Here Danny got to see the tourist boats along the river that were all lit up and also the large cargo ships coming into port. He had a wonderful time and it was fun to show Colin some of the city he normally does not have a change to see while on business.
We dropped Colin off at his hotel and said goodbye until the next time he might be in Shanghai. We traveled back out to our house--we have found that we are actually quite out in the country compared to the rest of the city. The boys, as it was well past their bedtimes, fell asleep in the car. Overall, we had a great evening and we were so pleased to be able to go from explorers of the city to hosts of the city.