What a great branch! And what a church building! The two Shanghai branches meet in this leased mansion. Our branch (and the also the Pudong branch, I imagine) are very international, and bigger than I expected. We're told that during the summer months, the numbers dwindle, since the expats often take family leave, including the branch and district presidencies. Today, however, there were quite a few people stuffed into the sacrament meeting room (main floor), with the service televised in the overflows in two basement rooms. Today, there were about 10 BYU students from Civil Engineering who had come to study Chinese superstructures (buidlings & bridges). I even ran into an old friend, Elder Gary Ng from Hong Kong, who was a missionary in Provo when I was a ward mission leader. He's now a BYU Civil Engineering student.For the first time (finally) Scottie cried when we left him in nursery. He typically has shown no remorse that his parents were leaving him with strangers for 2 hours. But the jetlag, culture shock, and 5am morning schedule were enough for him to express his concern, and remind us that he does need us for comfort.
Scottie has been an angel the entire trip. He barely made a peep on the long 12 hour flight from Vancouver to Shanghai--mostly played with his cars and trains. Starting with this trip, he's begun to show a really silly side--a kind of slap-stick humor--that we haven't seen before. It's fun. And although he misses Grandma Colleen deeply, so far, he's had both Mom and Dad around at all times to give him attention. And wherever he goes, he draws a crowd of onlookers. Our toe-head son is a celebrity around here! On our cab ride home from church, Scottie was poking his head out of the window, waving and pointing. He nearly caused an accident! A scooter-driver took her eye off the road to smile and stare at Scottie, and nearly hit the car next to her.
Several things to notice about this picture of Scottie with a local boy near our home. (Aside: The foreign guesthouse overlooks this track & field complex...Nicole took advantage of the track yesterday morning, and drew some attention to her speed.)
(1) Scottie is eating a Chinese icecream cone and loving it.
(2) The little Chinese boy has a leash on. Nicole and I speculate that it's to help him walk.
(3) Notice the open flap on his pants? He's being potty-trained. We had heard of these, but got to see one with our own eyes.
