My apologies for the delay on this blog. I got a fairly good variety pack of the foods that are often offered at work. A preface: my employer is a joint venture meaning my employer (Johnson Controls Inc) has a partnership with a Chinese company. The company provides a subsidized set of meals through the day and night (we are a 3-shift operation). I typically join for breakfast (~4 times/week) and every day for lunch. The price for all employees: white collar, blue collar, operations is the same. 2 RMB for breakfast and 2 RMB (Chinese RenMinBi) for lunch. Given the current exchange rate, each equates to to a whopping 30 cents. I actually look forward to the lunches. The breakfasts are not as appealing. They consist of a hard boiled egg, a bread bun with veggies inside, and a bowl of hot noodle soup. Find below several days' of lunch fare with play-by-play:
You are going to certainly notice a pattern and the white rice comes standard, along with that blue carton which is a yogurt. They stab the yogurt with a straw (no spoons here). Chopsticks on the left edge. For each pic, I'll start top left corner and go clockwise: Each lunch includes a choice of meat. Always 2 or 3 choices with one typically being fish. This day included some chunks of meat and bone. Probably pork and the bones go right into the bowls. They don't do any sorting of bones. Some chunks are just bone. You don't know it until it's in, and if confirmed bone, purge. After making the meat selection, up comes choice #2. It's often a choice that includes tofu, bean curd, or some other mystery non-meat. On this day, it was a noodle type food of which I don't know the material. But it tastes alright. Then the standard bowl of sticky, white rice. Each lunch includes a bowl of soup. No choice here, you just get what they offer. It's always piping hot. It was eggdrop this day. The other choice is 2 of 3 or 4 vegetables. There's always something green available like cabbage, cucumber (I think), bok choi, sprouts.... I chose the sprouts and baked beans this day. These baked beans are not real hot and sauce is not thick. It's typical to use your big bowl of sticky rice as a "plate". You bring the other foods over to it, dump sauces on the rice, and generally just flavor the rice as you see fit. Rarely does one eat the entire rice bowl plain.
Ok, remember top left clockwise: Sliced onions in sauce, have no idea, chicken with all sorts of bones mixed in (I think they just took a big machete to a carcass with no regard for butchering 101), rice, green vegetable, maybe cabbage, egg drop soup again.
Egg drop soup, tofu (ewwww), rice, dry fish (packed with bones and hazardous to one's esophogus, eat with care) and more greens. Must have been a rough day because I only took 4 small bowls including tofu.
Pork/Bone chunks, crispy greens, cabbage I think, rice, sprouts, non-egg drop soup (I don't know the correct names, and I mean english names, for most of this stuff)
Fried pork/bone, cooked celery (everything is always cooked, never raw), light colored cabbage, funky egg drop soup, sprouts, sticky rice
Egg drop soup, cabbage, cauliflower, rice, complete fish with head, fried with orange sauce, more green veggies. So, I could not bring myself to grab one of these fish so I snapped this photo of my friend's tray. Mind you, complete fish show up regularly in a variety of presentations. When they are not fried, they look even more fishy. Fried just has an amazing ability to make anything look more appealing. Anyone getting hungry yet?
Lettuce, Mushrooms and green shoots, KFC-like fried drumstick, rice, seems like more cabbage but these have not all been the same cabbage, more like cabbage 1, 2, 3, 4 or mystery green veggie A, B, C, or D. ?-drop soup. Not sure it was egg that they dropped in this one.
Cauliflower with beans, rice, ? with a carrot, fried fish, cabbage F, soup.
And now you have a week and a half in the life of Ryan at the canteen for work lunch. I do enjoy the lunches and you certainly can't beat the price. My colleagues always remind me that this is hardly quality chinese food but I like it. Maybe my expectations are too low.
The pictures loaded super fast today so maybe you'll see more blogging from the Bowman's. Have a good weekend.
Saturday I had the privilege of going to Huge Grace, an independently run orphanage in Shanghai with others from our church. It was such a blessing to be there! It was a large, clean, light, beautiful house where children with special needs are loved, and cared for. It was amazing!!! So different than the picture that I had in my mind before we arrived. I am so thankful that God has provided this home and staff to love these beautiful children. It was a fun morning of loving on and interacting with these kids. When we arrived, it was lunch time so I had the privilege of feeding the little boy in the above picture. At first, I didn't know what to say because we speak different languages but quickly realized that he was a child who loves to laugh so we just made silly noises and laughed together. So fun! I wish I could have taken him home with me! The rest of the morning held coloring, and just observing the children as they did their normal daily life of playing. What a blessing! This was truly a dream come true! I am praying for an opportunity to more regularly volunteer in an orphanage--waiting for God to show me which one and to work out all of the details. 
And below, we've got a couple of pictures of our 1st floor, with all the decorations up. Things have settled in pretty well.
We actually bought this painting from the artist in a popular art shopping street. The shops are often run by the artists themselves. We bought this tulip picture from the artist and even had him tweak the colors to better match our Holland home (during our first China go round). But we never hung them for lack of space. So, they've made the return back to China and have a great place to hang out. You must come and see it in person for the full effect though!!!
Here's the living room with lots of seating. It's been fun to be able to host larger groups of people. With the extra space, lit backyard, and the freshly assembled grill, we are ready to start hosting shindigs. Should be fun. We could use as much community/fellowship as we can get in this big city. Having a close knit group of friends makes China life all the better.
Found my favorite fritos in the local western food grocery store. $7.21 for a small bag. I passed this time but not sure how much longer I can hold off. The box of Cocoa Puffs was over $10 for the box. Ouch. 
You are going to certainly notice a pattern and the white rice comes standard, along with that blue carton which is a yogurt. They stab the yogurt with a straw (no spoons here). Chopsticks on the left edge. For each pic, I'll start top left corner and go clockwise: Each lunch includes a choice of meat. Always 2 or 3 choices with one typically being fish. This day included some chunks of meat and bone. Probably pork and the bones go right into the bowls. They don't do any sorting of bones. Some chunks are just bone. You don't know it until it's in, and if confirmed bone, purge. After making the meat selection, up comes choice #2. It's often a choice that includes tofu, bean curd, or some other mystery non-meat. On this day, it was a noodle type food of which I don't know the material. But it tastes alright. Then the standard bowl of sticky, white rice. Each lunch includes a bowl of soup. No choice here, you just get what they offer. It's always piping hot. It was eggdrop this day. The other choice is 2 of 3 or 4 vegetables. There's always something green available like cabbage, cucumber (I think), bok choi, sprouts.... I chose the sprouts and baked beans this day. These baked beans are not real hot and sauce is not thick. It's typical to use your big bowl of sticky rice as a "plate". You bring the other foods over to it, dump sauces on the rice, and generally just flavor the rice as you see fit. Rarely does one eat the entire rice bowl plain.
Ok, remember top left clockwise: Sliced onions in sauce, have no idea, chicken with all sorts of bones mixed in (I think they just took a big machete to a carcass with no regard for butchering 101), rice, green vegetable, maybe cabbage, egg drop soup again.
Egg drop soup, tofu (ewwww), rice, dry fish (packed with bones and hazardous to one's esophogus, eat with care) and more greens. Must have been a rough day because I only took 4 small bowls including tofu. 
Pork/Bone chunks, crispy greens, cabbage I think, rice, sprouts, non-egg drop soup (I don't know the correct names, and I mean english names, for most of this stuff)
Fried pork/bone, cooked celery (everything is always cooked, never raw), light colored cabbage, funky egg drop soup, sprouts, sticky rice
Egg drop soup, cabbage, cauliflower, rice, complete fish with head, fried with orange sauce, more green veggies. So, I could not bring myself to grab one of these fish so I snapped this photo of my friend's tray. Mind you, complete fish show up regularly in a variety of presentations. When they are not fried, they look even more fishy. Fried just has an amazing ability to make anything look more appealing. Anyone getting hungry yet?
Lettuce, Mushrooms and green shoots, KFC-like fried drumstick, rice, seems like more cabbage but these have not all been the same cabbage, more like cabbage 1, 2, 3, 4 or mystery green veggie A, B, C, or D. ?-drop soup. Not sure it was egg that they dropped in this one. 
Cauliflower with beans, rice, ? with a carrot, fried fish, cabbage F, soup.
