Fireworks, Park, and National Teachers' Day

My blog frequency took a serious hit once I found out my teaching schedule.  I begin this coming Monday and could do very little prep before I had my schedule because the Chinese are notorious for changing things up at the last minute.  Last summer, I was told how many classes I would teach each week and began to prepare a bunch of material for those classes.  Then, when I arrived in China, it was totally different.  I felt like I had wasted quite a bit of time in planning out the class and so this time, I was committed to the idea of doing almost nothing until I felt like my class details were firmly nailed down.  Teaching Spoken English is quite a bit different from my usual communication classes, but I plan to integrate some components of my SUU classes, such as critical thinking and public speaking into the class.  I brought some of this material with me (the ones I forgot were scanned for me by Tammi Miller--thanks, Tammi, and so I have them).  The oral English component will be taught out of a few different textbooks I brought with me.  However, I hadn't structured the class or decided which topics to do week by week until just a few days ago.  I work well under pressure, so everything will be just fine.

The biggest adjustment to teaching in China is that nobody thinks I'm funny here.  Wait, maybe there isn't much difference between HNU and SUU.  The students also are not used to an interactive environment.  They simply want to take notes, memorize the material, pass the final exam, and get their degree.  I suppose they aren't much different than American students in believing that a degree is the ultimate payoff for an education rather than to simply "be educated."  Anyway, last summer was difficult for the first couple days of class, but I noticed over time that they became more comfortable with me and would open up.  I WILL break them down eventually.  They can only resist my charm for so long, at least that's what I'm telling myself to get psyched up.  I went to this spot on campus called the English Corner where every Monday and Thursday from 7 p.m. until about 9 or 10 p.m. students go to practice their English.  It was quite fun to go and engage these dedicated students who are there after all the time spent at work and school just to practice conversing in English.  I asked one kid about the learning style of Chinese students and he said, "We prefer to be bored."  I pushed him a little for clarification and he elaborated by saying, "We are so used to the teachers just lecturing and having us take notes that we don't know any other way.  We accept it."  I said, "Well, I plan to meet my students in the middle.  I'll give them a little of what they are used to, but they are going to have to stretch themselves quite a bit to adapt to my style."  He looked at me, smiled, and said, "Good luck."  I'm really excited about starting and will update you with pictures from class next week.  Yes, I plan to wear my teacher hat and my tourist hat at the same time and snap a few pictures of the class environment.

I wasn't aware of this before, but Tuesday was National Teachers' Day in China.  Apparently, it is quite a big deal here and students will often go visit their elementary (called Primary here) and high schools to give gifts to their former teachers.  I think I blogged a few days ago about being asked to take some pictures teaching for the Hunan Normal University website.  On Tuesday, Amy called me in for a meeting and gave me a gift of a framed picture of myself teaching and a card with pictures of all of the most famous teachers in China (along with me).  Of course I felt a little out of place in this collage of famous teachers, but it was a nice honor and a really flattering gift. I thanked her for the nice gift and she asked if we honor our teachers in America.  I didn't really respond verbally, but I think my chuckle communicated the answer loud and clear. They also made me business cards with the HNU logo and my Chinese contact information.  Today, Lily came over and told me I was on the web and showed me which links to click, so I could find it.  I'll post a screenshot I took of the website below. 

I'm not sure if Stacie blogged about this yet, but we finally got to see the weekly Changsha fireworks.  Apparently, Changsha (and also the Hunan Province in general) is the fireworks capital of the world.  I remember watching the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony and thinking how spectacular was the display of fireworks.  I was recently told that all those fireworks came from the Hunan province and some from Changsha.  So, it's a big deal here.  I wondered why so many thousands of Chinese people would go to these firework shows every single Saturday and not get bored with them, but I discovered that each week has a different theme.  I'm not sure what the theme was from last week, but there were some remarkable things I had not seen before, such as fireworks exploding into different shapes (such as hearts) and different visuals overall than I have never seen at the Utah Summer games or 4th of July firework celebrations.  We walked down to the river, which is really only about 100 yards from our front door and found a spot on this little bridge extending over the water about 150 feet.  As crowded as it was, it was really nice to find such a quiet spot to ourselves.  I've posted a video below of Jeanie in absolute euphoria over these fireworks.  It cracks me up every time I watch it!  She kept saying "Boom," "Woohoo" and "Pink!!!" 

We also went to the most beautiful park with four other Chinese families.  I know this is going to sound strange, but they were all just really wonderful normal people.  I'm not saying I expected the Chinese to not have good families, but it just reminded me that people are people anywhere in the world and the Chinese are not that much different than we are. They love to take their kids to the park, play frisbee (Chinese word here translates to "flying plate"), ride bikes, fish in the pond, go on leisurely walks, and eat snacks.  That about sums up our family too, so we are fitting in well.  Lily told us today that the other families really enjoyed spending that time with us and want to plan a variety of other activities.  Stacie wrote a good deal about our park experience, so I won't go into too much detail.  I should add that the poor shrimp that Lucy brought home as a pet has died.  We planned to release it into Taozi lake the day it died, but we never made it.  We put that poor shrimp to rest the old fashioned way (Hint--flush).  Surprisingly, Lucy seemed ok with her shrimp being gone, so we didn't make too big a deal out of it.

Lily told us the next family outing might be to visit a traditional Chinese farm to see how it operates and to buy some "organic" food.  We are so hungry (no pun intended--really because it's so stupid) for any experiences that we can have here that we would not pass up an opportunity to go anywhere and do anything.  In fact, next weekend is the mid-Autumn festival and all the students are out of school.  Today, I booked a tour for our family (with our friend Sophia) to go to Zhangjiajie for three days.  I blogged about my trip there last summer, so most of you know what this park looks like.  The tour includes the bus, the food, and the hotel.  In addition to going up the world's largest outdoor elevator, we also will get to see this spot nicknamed "Heaven's Gate."  It's a big hole in the mountain that let's a huge stream of light through (hence the name).  We are all set and leave next Thursday in the early morning.  Everyone is so excited! Surprisingly, it was only 3300 yuan for all eight of us ($540).  It will probably be our one big trip this semester and then we'll have to wait until the winter break to hit Beijing and see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and the Summer Palace.  I'm not sure because of my teaching schedule if we will be able to do much besides Zhangjiajie and Beijing.  We will also have a short trip during the semester to Shaoshan, which is the birthplace of Mao Zedong. 

Anyway, we are doing well.  Everyone is adjusting to life here in China.  It's only been 3 weeks, but we are starting to feel like we might be able to do this.  If we can't, it's a little too late to change our minds anyway.  I have my angry moments where I get sick of people treating a face-to-face conversation like they are shouting to an auditorium of people, or people almost running over my toes when they drive by on their cars or scooters, or having Chinese food for lunch and dinner every day, but overall we are seeing a really wonderful culture up close and personal.  Obviously, the language barriers prevent us from really learning about these people or their experiences in great depth, but we are working on that.  We study hard every day as a family and have picked up quite a bit of vocabulary that's helped us on the street.  We still aren't quick enough to be able to understand it when it's spoken to us quickly and the characters are a whole different ball game (even though we are learning those too).  It's nice when someone speaks English and we tend to gravitate toward them.  I can now understand why the foreign students at SUU are hesitant to branch out and make friends outside of their cultural group.  I definitely feel their pain. 

One more quick story before I sign off.  There's a scene in Karate Kid (the new and inferior one with Jackie Chan) where Jaden Smith tries to speak Chinese to this guy on the airplane to Beijing.  The guy just looks at him and says, "Dude, I'm from Detroit" in a perfectly native American accent.  Well, I was walking up the stairs to our second story apartment and saw this Chinese guy.  I said "Ni Hao" (hello) in a very strong American trying to sound as Chinese as possible accent.  He said, "Hey, man.  Whassup?"  Turns out he's from California and his parents are Chinese, so he's lived here since 2008.  But, he was raised in the United States.  Now, after embarrassing moments like those, I just say "Hello Ni Hao" to everyone.  It's a little repetitive, but I don't feel like such an idiot.  I can't tell you how many times, though, that I have said "Ni Hao" to a Chinese person and they responded with "hello" back.  I also will sometimes try to speak Chinese with great difficulty and then I find that it's a word they actually know in English and I could have avoided the trouble of speaking Mandarin.  The exchange would go something like this: "Women yao zhe ge cai chi" (We want this dish to go).  They respond with "Oh, you mean to go."  Keep in mind that it probably took me 30 seconds to spit out that one sentence.  Nonverbally, they communicate to me: "Oh that's so precious.  Look at that American guy trying to speak Chinese."  I'm convinced that if you don't have a thick skin, you will NEVER learn a foreign language.  They laugh at you, point at you, and smile when you make mistakes.  They don't mean it in a hostile way.  It's just sort of funny to them.  Imagine a grown man saying in English: "I want food.  This kind.  Thank you."  He might as well be saying "Mama" like one of those little baby dolls with the strings you could pull.  Stacie also looks kind of nervous when I try to "represent" the family with my Chinese skills.  I think I'm a little embarrassing to the family because I'm certainly not very good.  But, I'm brave.  I asked Annie why Stacie has that look on her face and she told me it's just kind of funny how nervous and unconfident I look when I'm speaking Chinese. 

I hunted all over for this thing.  Finally found it at a an appliance center on our side of the river.  It's a zip up wardrobe with a heating unit on the bottom to dry our clothes.  Stacie said "Enough" after it once taking 5 days to dry a single load of laundry.  We aren't sure exactly how long this one took, but it was more like an hour to an hour and half. 

Ezra loves to try new treats.  This ended up being barbecued chow mein noodles.

This is how I kept Stacie happy in Cedar and this is how it's done here. 

I'm on the wall of fame, baby!!!

All the inspiration I need to be a great teacher.  A textbook they gave me (in Chinese) and a picture of the person I admire most in the background. J/K

So this is what homeschool looks like?  I think most people envision homeschool families churning butter and making their kids do household chores (well, they do that too).

Do you think Jeanie likes this new dessert we found.  Fried bananas drizzled in caramel.

AKA "Shrimpy."  Rest in peace, little guy.

No, Nicol!  Don't do it!

One of the couples we went with to the park and a continuation of my quest to find the Asian Doppelgänger for everyone I know.  That guy on the right reminds me of my colleague, Matt Barton.

Watch out for the "flying plate."

Such a beautiful park.  I like this picture because is shows everyone all lined up.

Stacie is always making friends.  She is so popular here. I think it's the cute freckles.  This lady on her right had a daughter named "Happy" who would take Jeanie around and hold her hand. It was really sweet.  Hey, is that Matt Barton again :)

Annie hates the fireworks, but everyone else is having a good time.

Who's the hero of the day?  That's right.  It's Dad who made french toast and served up Minute Maid orange juice.

I'm famous for at least a few days.  Not sure how long this thing will be up.

This largest outdoor elevator in the world is on our tour next week.  I went on it last year, but it's going to be even better seeing the look on the kids' faces.

This is the spot I didn't get to see last year, but is on the agenda this time.  I can't wait.  It's called Heaven's Gate.

This glass walkway is built into the side of Tianmen Mountain (Hey, I actually know that means Sky Door without anyone telling me).  The pathway, which was built in 2011 is much like the glass-bottomed walkway at the Grand Canyon.  This 70 foot bridge is 4,000 feet above the ground and tourists can look through the glass bottom which is 2.5 inches thick.  Not sure I'll be going on this one to be honest.

fashion

The class went well on Saturday. Love the kids! Love their families as well. We all went to a beautiful park this Sunday and the children fished for fry sized fish with a net. No  one was able to catch one, but we fed these guys a lot of crackers. It looked like it was raining in the pond because so many fish were rising to surface to eat the cracker crumbs.

feeding the fish

catching fish at the park, Lucy is learning how to do it

We walked a little ways through the park and the children played frisbee for awhile. It was really fun. They are great kids. They shared their food and toys with us and tried to teach us a little Chinese (it didn't work on me though I already forgot it all.) All of the children had a great time together with very little common language to use. It is awesome to me.

Annie and me at the park

Lucy and "Shrimpy" Notice the smile!

Lucy has gone from completely miserable here, so far away from her American home, to having many daily triumphs. First we noticed she would let us put her down to walk in the busy streets while we held her hand, instead of being held constantly. Then we noticed she would run ahead of us when we reached our apartment complex and go inside without us. Then she was singing in public! Yesterday we went to the fireworks and she actually looked at the kind people that talked to her instead of hiding her face. She even let a young student take her picture. Today she came the rest of the way out of her shell. She let my friend Lily take her to the pond without me so she could try to catch a fish. She had a great time with her for about an hour. Of course it helped that she was dying to catch a fish. She would try to get one then "Ohh!" in disappointment over and over again. Then on the way home we had to split up and go in the different families' cars in small Stein groups. Lucy went in a car with Annie and a very kind Chinese family. She was upset at first and the father said "I bet she is hungry," and offered her a chocolate bar. She grabbed it and apparently enjoyed every bite, loudly and messily, even reclining like a cough potato for emphasis. She then began to act like the little nut she is for us at home. She said random things like "apricot chin" and laughed loudly. She sang and teased, and was way too loud. This kind family also gave her a pet prawn or shrimp, I don't know the difference exactly. She is now as happy as ever, and completely herself. She named the shrimp "shrimpy" and told me all about how it wishes it was home with its family. (She doesn't wish that though.) She decorated it's container with stickers and took it on a picnic on her special blankie. She has played with it all evening. Her brothers and sister keep referencing "Darla" from Finding Nemo. It is such a relief to see our baby girl happy.

Crossing the pond with our friend "Happy"

I know the photo is blurry, but this park had 15 to 20 bride and groom couples at any given time around the pond. Most had these traditional Christian white gowns. Three had pink gowns, which is not usual in China. One couple was wearing revolutionary military fatigues, both of them. Our friend explained that couples wore the military dress clothes to their wedding during the 60's and this couple was taking pictures in this old style. See the pink dress?

Evelynn loves these jeans with ruffles and buttons. It has a large bow in the back too. Her t-shirt says "sweet babe, make your life tasty"

Lucy's new clothes. The word below the bear is something like "Darbng" Maybe it is suppose to say "Darling"

Getting our favorite treat and attracting a lot of attention :)

Chinese Ronald McDonald on his way to the McDonalds All Stars demonstration. I missed his face, which was the interesting part!

Another thing we have noticed is Chinese fashion. We will try to gather a few examples to post another time, but here are Evelynn and Lucy trying out some chinese-style clothes. There are a lot of t-shirts with English words on them. A small few of them were really cool shirts. Most of them are complete nonsense. We have seen these statements: "a little bit sweet and a small amount tasty" "corn-trast iphone coordination" and some uses of grammar that make us cringe. We are going to start writing them down and sharing them with you. Also best-friends often are seen in exactly matching dresses. They are really cute. Couples will wear the same exact t-shirt. I saw a couple with t-shirts that each had two pandas on them. Another couple had an English shirt that said 2 friends + 2 gether = 4ever. Another couple had t-shirts that said "love" (in English) several times on them. There is a lot of interesting fashion, but it is hard to take pictures of it because it is rude to take people's picture without asking them (even though they often take ours on the sly.) We like to read the shirts as we are walking around town, because the poor English is amusing.

Stacie's First Day of Class and Important Family Decision About Food

So, today was Stacie's first day of teaching.  I'm sure she will blog about it in detail and give you her perspective.  From my perspective, she was wonderful, the children in her class were adorable, and Lucy was super demanding for me while I kept her occupied during this 2 hours of class time.  The class runs every Saturday from 9:20 a.m. to 11:20 a.m., so we had to get up about 7:30 to get everyone ready.  It was difficult because we only have one working shower (the boys shower at night and the girls in the morning).  It has something to do with hair and makeup or some other nonsense.  It works, though.  We adjusted our hours a little so that the kids would go to bed at 10 p.m. instead of their usual time of 9 for the little girls and 9:30 for the older ones.  We just had too many nice Chinese people wanting to do fun things with us in the evening and Lucy was falling asleep during these excursions.  However, our plan backfired and now the girls are staying up super late.  Those of you who are parents will recognize this pattern, but they are constantly getting up for drinks, to tell us it's too dark in their room, that it's too light in their room, that they are hungry, that the blanket is too warm, the bed is too squeaky, Nicol and Ezra are talking too much, and on and on.  I went to bed last night at just after midnight and Lucy was STILL awake.  So, when I nudged her this morning at 7:30 a.m. to get her breakfast and ready for Stacie's class, she was not pleasant.  We did manage to get there on time, but just barely.  The class is in the International Building, which is about a 15 minute walk from our house.

When we arrived at the classroom, we were told to wait a few minutes because Stacie's friend Lily was teaching another group during the hour before Stacie's class.  When we finally went in, the children were visibly very excited to see us "Meiguo Ren" (Americans).  In the back of the room were 7 mothers, presumably there to support the 7 young Chinese students I counted.  As you probably know, most parents just have one child and so the mothers are very involved in the education of their children.  I'm not implying that families with more children don't have dedicated parents, but the only child pressure (probably on the parents and on the child) is clearly evident here.  I did notice that there was only one boy (Lily's son Joey) and all the rest were girls.  Joey was clearly the class clown, which could be attributed to his mom being a teacher or him showing off for all the cute little Chinese girls in the class.  He is only 7 years old, so he probably isn't quite old enough to take notice yet, but he was certainly animated in class and really enjoyed being playful.

Lily asked Stacie to introduce herself.  Then, Annie, Nicolas and Ezra went up in front of the class and told the kids their names and their hobbies.  Jeanie and Lucy refused to participate in any way (although Jeanie said she plans to join the class next week).  Stacie began the class by showing the kids a few pictures of our family and some scenic spots in Utah that we like to visit.  We brought pictures of things that represent our family well, such as trips to Yellowstone, the movie theater, the Tiki Shack, camping, fishing, etc.  The kids were very interested in these pictures.  The mothers in the back were interested too, but they didn't want to interfere with the class much.  Instead, they stayed back about 10 or 15 feet and took pictures of their children with their new American teacher.  I told Stacie that these mothers would likely be in the back of the room when she taught, but not to be nervous because they are very supportive of the kids and the teacher and they are often there to refine their own English skills as well.  So, it's not a threatening environment at all.

After the pictures, Stacie did some phonics drills, sang a song, read a story, and some other things.  She was very natural with the children and they really enjoyed the class.  I think Stacie was nervous for the first day (as anyone who teaches knows this feeling).  There is always uncertainty regarding what the class dynamic will be like in terms of personality of the students and their starting proficiency in the subject matter.  It turns out that Stacie's first hour class could speak English well enough to at least interact with her.  The second class had slightly younger children and their English was a bit less advanced.  Stacie used the same material as in the first class, but she had to go much slower and providing instructions about what to do, such as "repeat after me" or "please read this part" were harder to communicate.  My favorite moment from the second hour class was when the kids were introducing themselves.  All of the kids in both classes had such unique and wonderful English names.  They often choose the names themselves or with the help of their parents.  So, you hear names that you might expect, such Ariel, Jerry, and Lucy.  But, we also learned some new names today, such as Music, Morning, and Happy.  Annie and I sort of chuckled (discreetly of course) when we discovered a couple of the boys were named Pearl and Betty.  To them, it did not matter if the names were fairly feminine sounding in Western culture.  They like the names and have chosen to run with them.  I actually really admire that.

One of the sadder moments from class was when this adorable little boy got stuck with a really hard phonics exercise.  Apparently, there were more people in the second class than Stacie was told there would be and so she ran out of the easier exercises.  She had to give this boy one from the first class.  He was receiving help on it, but he still felt frustrated and started to cry.  It was heartbreaking.  I just wanted to give him a hug, but his mom had it under control.  Also, they already look at me like I'm the strange foreigner.  I'm not about to start going around hugging their Chinese children.  I know I'm not creepy, but they don't.  Overall, it was a big success and I think the foundation is now set for Stacie to have a very good experience this year teaching these children.  I forgot to mention that another very positive aspect of this experience is that Annie, Nicol, and Ezra got to assist with the class.  They would all go around and help the kids sound out words or complete the written exercises.  It's a great way for them to feel like they are contributing to their own person growth, but also to the growth of these sweet little kids.  One more side note--these kids are studying English for hours on Saturday.  What are American kids doing on Saturday?  Stacie and I have talked about how we think one huge limitation of our culture is that we do very little to encourage bilingualism.  And, don't tell me having high school kids suffer through a year of Spanish in high school is encouraging the learning of a second language. I'm telling you.  We are going to get left in the dust and it won't be a surprise to me at all.

Moving on...we started a new tradition today of going out to lunch as a family each Saturday after Stacie teaches.  We decided to go to one of our two favorite restaurants.  It's the one down the narrow (and and not so slightly dirty) alleyway near the university.  We went there are on first day to get Gua Ba Rou (sweet and sour pork) and Tu Dou Shao Ji (potatoes and chicken) and the kids absolutely beg us to go there every time there is even a hint that we might go out to eat.  It's owned by Liu Jie (means Miss Leo) and her husband (I just call him Shifu or Master since I don't remember his name).  He laughs when I call him this, so he's clearly not offended that I don't know his name. The other favorite family spot is the place we went for Annie's birthday where you put skewers of whatever meats or vegetables you want on to a tray and take it to a man who grills it on the barbecue for you.  I'm fairly certain that both these restaurants are going to be frequented often by our family.

As alluded to in the title of this blog, we are starting to come to grips with a certain reality here about food.  It's incredibly difficult to cook three meals a day in this apartment and to clean up after each meal.  It's certainly much more complicated than at home and we found ourselves cooking for one hour and then cleaning for another hour.  Multiply that by 3 meals and you see the problem.  We discovered that if we can find the right restaurants, i.e. establishments that have food that isn't ALL fried and that are relatively affordable, we can eat out for about the same amount of money than we could going to the grocery store and buying our food.  However, our health is super important to us.  Stacie has always been a healthy girl, but I have struggled at times.  I'm doing really well right now resisting the foods that aren't good for me and taking in a lot of fruits and vegetables.  I don't weigh in regularly here (who knows kilograms anyway?), but I'm certain I've dropped a few pounds from the way my clothes are fitting.  I would say I'm probably only eating about 10% animal products right now.  It's progress for me even though some might not think it's such a big deal.  Anyway, we are going to eat out once a day (probably for dinner most nights).  We'll have oatmeal, bread, or fruit for breakfast, something simple for lunch (liked steamed rice or steamed vegetables, and then dinner out at an affordable restaurant.  I think that will be our pattern and will allow us more time to do fun things and to work on the things we came to China to work on.  The kids were understandably thrilled when we told them we would probably go out to eat every single day.  I personally tried to play it cool, but I can't believe it either.  I LOVE eating out.  I always have.  I think it comes from traveling with my dad when I was a kid and it was just a special thing to go to a diner or to go out as a large Jewish family and eat and talk for 3 hours while the waitresses tried to clear us out for more customers.  For Stacie, the pleasure of food lies in a good home cooked meal.  I agree that this is very nice too, but that ain't happening very often here in China with our one rice steamer, hot plate, and now a couple of small tupperware bowls.

I thought these younger kids were crackups.  The kid in the blue shirt up close is "Betty."  The one girl in the group, Lucy, was really excited after I told them my name and that I love movies.  She just went off at a million miles an hour in Chinese.  I have no idea what she said, but she was probably running off a list of all her favorite movies. 

Here Ezra is helping these kids with their assignment.  He's usually so quiet and mild mannered.  It was nice to see him asserting himself a bit and helping out.

These are the moms in the back of the room watching.

This is the kid that was really sad that he got such a hard question.  Annie is also trying to cheer him up, but it's not working very well. 

Can you tell this is a super fancy restaurant?  You never know where you will find the most delicious food.  Those things in the background that look like straw dispensers are actually chopstick dispensers.

Stacie with Liu Jie.

Liu Jie's husband is the master chef.  Check out that SUU T-shirt he is wearing!  Chance and Brenna (two SUU exchange students) gave it to him last year as a gift.

The road back to campus from the restaurant.

This guy grills every night starting at 7 p.m.  We absolutely love it and the prices are reasonable.  The kids (the older ones anyway) would eat here every single day if we would let them. 

This is how it works.  You grab one of those trays at the top of the display.  Then, you grab whatever you want and take it to the grill.  Then, wait about 20 minutes.  In the front is a wide variety of meat sticks.  Toward the center just below the corn on the cob are chicken hands.  I think I'll try that next time.  I didn't get them before because they look kind of fatty.  My personal favorite is the eggplant (top right) and Stacie loves the Man Tou (marshmallow looking things at the top left), which is a type of bread.  It's all good, though.  We even got the octopus once and it was delicious.  I guess you can barbecue anything and it will taste good.

The children are really interested in going to McDonalds.  This gives you an idea of the prices.  Twenty yuan is about $3.25, but we are not going by American money anymore.  We are paid in Chinese money and are living on Chinese prices, so this is much more expensive than the other local places. Plus, who wants to eat at McDonalds anyway.  It pretty much sucks in every country.  Anyway, the kids are saving their allowance, which right now is 40 yuan a week for the older kids and 20 yuan for the little girls.  I guess if they wanted to blow it all in one shot, they are more than welcome to. 

I walked in on this scene and just had to ask what they are doing.  They said they were trying to solve a mystery.  Someone stole a pink flower and they were identifying suspects.  I asked if they were Chinese police or American police and they answered "American."  Then, I asked if the bad guys were American or Chinese and they said "Chinese."  Hmm, they've seen too many of my movies about Chinese Opium smuggling.  Then, I asked them to make their best police face and this is what I got.

Last summer, I was able to find the Asian equivalent of my father-in-law, Mark Huish.  This time, I find the Chinese version of my sister-in-law, Summyr Stein.  I'm still on the look out for the Chinese Shannon Stoddart (by request), but that's going to be tough.  Irish-looking doesn't always translate well to Asian. 

I couldn't get a good picture out the back of our apartment, but here are those bars I was telling you about and the wall with the glass shards on top embedded in concrete. 

Eating and lions, by Stacie

I feel this back and forth response to being here in China. I love it, and I feel helpless. I love so many things here, and even the adventure of things, but it is difficult to take care of yourself and your family when you can't communicate well enough to be able find things or to do some things. It is the end of our second week here, and I feel a little unsettled still. We are rolling with it, and enjoying being here anyway.
I love it here, especially the people. One saving grace of being helpless in China is my new friend Lily. Lily teaches children English here in Changsha, and she grew up at the beautiful national park in the Avatar movie: zhang jia jie. I am always in her debt. She helps me with all my questions, and I have to be careful about what I ask her about or she might buy me something. She helped Ezra with his cough and asked one of her doctor- friends to take a look at him to make sure it wasn't serious, he is fine now. She has given me my teaching project, and now I feel useful and happy. She is always checking up on me. She is extremely kind!

Lily and her son Joey (their American names)

The building dedicated to the revolutionary general

The other day we went to look around at the HNU, and she explained one of the buildings there. I found it really interesting. The building was dedicated to a General in the Chinese Revolution. After the war, the ashes of the fallen soldiers from Changsha were kept in the building to honor their loyalty and sacrifice for China. Eventually the ashes were returned to the soldiers' homes. Their are two lions outside flanking the front entrance. The lions are guardians to keep the occupants healthy and safe. You might notice that the ears are back and the tongue is out, that is because they are playful. Also this one has a child, the left one has a ball instead. The chinese above the door is in the pre-revolutionary style of writing from the right to the left; today chinese is written left to right except for special things like this.
Lily explained that many people's homes have lions flanking their front door as well. The lions keep the family healthy and safe. Then inside the home there is often a picture of a tiger, another guardian with the same job. The city of Changsha has many of these lions in front of banks and other buildings as well. My kids like to stick their hands in the lion's mouth and pretend they are being eaten. :-D Some of the lions have a stone ball in their mouth that was carved as the mouth was carved and is too big to take out, it rolls around in the mouth, again to show they are playful. (It is okay that they are playing on them if you are wondering.) Also, the older lady in the photo is doing tai chi (very slowly). There were other people around this building doing tai chi as well.
Cooking here is interesting too. We are trying to find place to eat out that fit our criteria: not super greasy, our kids will eat something there, not too pricey so we can go often, and within walking distance. It is likely we will find a few places, but for now no place has fit all those requirements. It is hard to walk in somewhere and ask about the food and prices because of our lack of language skills. We have been trying to eat at home too, but it has its own challenges. As far as eating out, China is really interesting. Their are plenty of nice, well-established restaurants around. There are also tons of little shops that sell food too. The small food vendors can have a street cart or they can be in a small storage-unit like store. When we walk down the large streets the food-vendors are about two to five per block. Also, when we walk down small apartment filled alleys and side roads that seem quiet and off the main road, there are still all these small food vendors.Some of them are in the bottom floor of the apartment building.
As far as cooking, the fruits and vegetables are different. We have found potatoes, corn, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and other familiar things to eat; but all the leafy greens are foreign to me. I have been trying a new one each time. One tasted like asparagus, another turned the water purple like a beet green would. The greens we ate today smelled and looked like leaves off of a tree, but tasted mild like spinach. I find it fun to try the mystery greens. Even funner is the mystery fruit. We ate a mangosteen today and the fruit was slimey and looked like white orange sections inside a woody purple peel, but it tasted delicious. The other day we had longan, it was in size and texture like a peeled grape. It tasted good too.
We generally eat fruit, oatmeal or bread for breakfast, the kids find it familiar and it is a nice break from eating Chinese every meal. We often have soup or rice or noodles, any of those with a vegetable or two for lunch. They all taste like Chinese food because they are flavored with soy sauce. We have made corn on the cob and mashed potatoes at home, which was a more American flavored meal. We buy the imported Skippy peanut butter in a tiny jar. We also keep a supply of soda crackers and cookies of some kind in case the little girls, or anyone else needs something they can eat without cooking. We have a hot plate and a rice steamer and that is it, one for each of the two electrical outlets in the oven-free kitchen. The fridge is small and doesn't stay cold too well, so we are careful about what goes in there.

homemade soup

eating at home

maozi bread and the very soft white bread they sell here

bing bread

mangosteen fruit

mystery greens of the day

trying the mangosteen