Our First Panda

On Sunday, we decided to head to the Zoo after church (Yes! We can go to church here ... sadly by government mandate only foreign passport holders can attend, but we are thrilled to have a body to worship & fellowship with on Sundays!). It is fairly close to where we live. I was pretty excited to see my first Panda in China!

I must admit I was a bit disappointed ... I had imagined them outside in a pen surrounded by bamboo, instead they were inside these dimly lit cement cells behind thick, smudged glass. Bummer. They were still pretty adorable though!

A few of the other animals ...

Our favorite part of the zoo was that there were actually some really nice green spaces with ponds in them. It was so nice to be somewhere and see mostly just green trees and grass ... very rare in Shanghai.

On the walk home, we got caught in a torrential downpour and ducked into a bakery while the worst of it passed. Once it had we headed home - through flooded streets with lighting flashing across the sky and thunder crackling and crashing above. It was fantastic!