We moved (sort of)

The movers came on the 14th and 15th to pack and move our stuff, so technically we have moved. But our move to a hotel less than a mile from where we lived for the past two years hardly qualifies as a move, does it? We'll be here until the 29th when we'll finally have to say "goodbye" to Shanghai.

Our movers really did a great job, but there was one funny moment that we had to take a picture of. I mean, seriously people, why draw arrows on the box if you're not going to look at them? They were so embarrassed when we pointed it out, but only after we took a picture!

Here's our new view from our hotel room by day (our old apartment building is the brown building in the distance on the left side)...

and the view from here by night...

The building that looks like a bottle opener is the newly-completed second tallest building in the world, with the Pearl Tower just to the right of it. The Shanghai Stock Exchange building can be seen in the picture down this street on the left.

The shorter white buildings with the red and orange roofs are basically temporary housing, built to accommodate residents here until the land is developed by somebody who wants to build another skyscraper. For better or worse, that's what it is. So much going on here, and we're going to miss it.

The past couple of weeks have been quite busy with lots of "lasts" and starting to say our "goodbyes." Here several pictures of some of our "lasts" and goodbyes...

On July 15th, Adayla had her last day of Kindergarten. It is such a pleasurable walk from our place to her school... just a five minute walk within our apartment compound. So I took some pictures of the walk to remember the views:

Getting the elevator down from the 31st floor...

same view from Adayla's first day of school two years ago...

Just outside of our apartment building...

In front of our building...

Walking past the "tai qi" class who are always there no matter the weather...

Continuing along the way...

Outside of Adayla's school...

Again, same view from two years ago on her first day of school...

Outside of Adayla's classroom on her last day...
and going to class on her first day!

We have been so fortunate to have had such good teachers for Adayla for the past two years. Peng Laoshi and Zhu Laoshi are such a dynamic teaching duo, and Adayla has definitely benefited from being in their class. Here's a picture of Adayla with Peng Laoshi (Teacher Peng)...

Wednesday was just a whirlwind day. Adayla had her last day of class, the movers finished moving our stuff, we had an inspection and checkout with our landlord, and we moved into the hotel. Tim's last day of class was on Monday, although he still has a couple of final papers to finish before he's truly done. But regardless, we can now enjoy our time in Shanghai without worries of anything major hanging over our heads... and we're looking forward to that.