5 Chens go Home

So here we are, back where we started; Rich in China, the kids and I at my sister's house in Utah.

Trying to look on the bright side, what have we gained? An unbelievable experience right in the heart of China. Rich and I toyed with the idea of just coming for a few weeks of vacation but it wouldn't have given me the perspective I've gained over the last six months. I love my husband, I just don't always understand why he thinks and acts the way he does. Now, I  get it, at least some of it.

I feel a little bit like a deserter. I said I would give China a year but after six months and a new school year approaching we decided that the kids need to be in school. Good for all of you moms that can homeschool. I envy your caliber, I just don't want to emulate it. I gave it a try and I failed miserably.

Rich has stayed behind and is working on securing a job that includes a schooling stipend. Matt and Lily need to be in an international school. Mia and Piper are still young enough to attend a local school. We looked into putting all of the kids in a local school but they would be placed according to their Chinese ability; which would put both Matt and Lily in kindergarten. How's that for an esteem builder? I figure they'll already need to undergo years of therapy, why add to it.

Until that amazing job is found, the kids will attend school in Utah. The public school system may be flawed but it is leaps and bounds ahead of me.

We are headed to Austin on the 17th. My new cell is 435-979-7175; give me a call if you want to get together while we are there.

See ya'll soon!

S

OINK

Only IN China; I know China starts with a C not a K but if I had wrote ONIC would you have said oink? That’s what I thought. There are so many things that are commonplace in China that you would never see anywhere else, okay that you wouldn’t see in the States.

If I took the kids out during the winter and any flesh was showing, people would stop me and beratted me in Chinese. I’m sure if I had known what they were saying I would have been offended. Ignorance is bliss. (My Chinese motto.) The Chinese have an innate fear of cold that I don’t understand. Cancer is caused by cold, the flu is caused by cold, canker sores are caused by cold. The problem is, cold seeps into your body and chills your CHI. Not joking, this is the theory. Rich went to a Chinese doctor because his back hurts so much he can’t sleep. He came home with bruises the size of oranges all over his back. He said it is called cupping. A cup is placed on your back, a fire is lit and your cold CHI is sucked out. After ten treatments, you‘re healed! Rich is in so much pain it’s worth a try. I’ll keep you posted. Suppousedly you can buy ‘Do It Yourself’ kits and maim your friends and family in your own home. Maybe I’ll set up a clinic; I wonder how much liability coverage I’ll need?

Another ONIC. Men walking the street in nothing but boxers, rubbing their bellies. I thought summer in Austin was hot and sticky. It has nothing on Shanghai . The temperature doesn’t get as high but the humidity is unbelievable. I am always sticky and since the Chinese don’t seem to sweat, AC is a luxury, not a necessity. To keep cool men walk around with their shirts pulled up rubbing their bellies. I have asked why all the rubbing but know one seems to know.

When it is really hot you’ll have the privelage of seeing men walk around in nothing but their boxers. Typically, only old men do this but it’s not discriminatory. If the heat carries over into the night the men then pull out their bamboo mats and lie out on the sidewalks in their boxers. If you’re lucky they’ll put on a wife-beater. I’m glad this society hasn’t embraced the tighty-whitey, that could be awkward.

That’s how the men handle the heat. The women just wear nightgowns day and night. Which isn’t too bad, unless the material is transparent, yikes!

I know I’ve mentioned food before but I have a few new additions.

Yes, those are real ants.

Donkey meat.

Turtle soup, made in my own kitchen, but not by me.

Snails, Piper can’t get enough.

The rest of Beijing

A few more pics from our trip to Beijing.  You may have noticed we were two kids shy.  We left Mia and Piper with Rich's parents.  We didn't think the stroller could take the steps at the great wall.

Matt and Lily on the train to Beijing. 

When we told the kids we were taking the train, their initial reaction was, 'No'.  They imagined the train to be the same as the metro (subway).  To get them pumped, I showed them some pictures of sleeper cars and told them this is what we are riding in.  Little did I know that we were riding economy, hard sleeper class.  It did not look at all like the pictures and I'm sure if those pics had been scratch and sniff I would have realized the smell was off too.

Matt and Rich on train.

This picture typifies both personalities to a tee.  Matt too crazy (he is a nine year old boy after all).  Rich too serious (he is forty and Chinese, what else did I expect?).

The Olympic Village: Bird's Nest and The Cube.

There were these sculptures all through the Wang Fu Jing shopping center.  

Yuan Min Yuan is this cool park that used to be the Emperor's summer palace and garden.  It was enormous and exquisite but also the focus of many raids.  The final pillage was during the Second Opium War.  The compound was set on fire and never rebuilt.  The guide told us it was to serve as a reminder of foreign aggression and humiliation toward China.  Ouch! 

Matt and Lily loved it because it was one of the few places that didn't post 'No Climbing' signs.

This is Tiantan, translation: the temple of heaven. 

We had to be on the bus at 6:30 every morning, crazy, I know!  By afternoon, the kids were wiped out and would sleep while we drove from site to site.  On this particular day, Lily was awake while Matt slept.  We thought his appearance could us some improving so she took care of the lipstick while I covered the facial hair.  I thought he looked great!  All of the old ladies on the tour thought he was adorable. 

He has since gotten us back by drawing full beards on the girls at night.  Lily, who can dish it out but can't take it, screamed, cried and then wouldn't talk to anyone the rest of the day.  Mia, loved it and didn't want to wash it off.  Piper was clueless.   Nothing unexpected in any of those reactions. 

The Great Wall

   

The Great Wall was incredible. A brief history lesson.  The Great Wall is 3900 miles long, that is just the man made wall portion.  If you include other barriers like rivers and trenches, the length from end to end increases to 5500 miles.  For a little perspective, the United States is about 3000 miles wide from east to west.  The Wall took about 2000 years to build, from around 400 BC to about 1600 AD.  Here's a politically charged question for ya.  If the Chinese were able to build a stone wall that is between 15 and 30 ft in height and 15-25 ft in width back in the days when donkeys were hauling, why can't the United States build a border fence?  Just curious.

We could have spent the whole day here but our senior citizen group couldn't stay out in the sun for that long, so we only got a few hours.  When we got to the wall our tour guide told us we needed to buy a tram ticket to get up to the wall.  This happened a lot on the tour.  We would get somewhere and the initial entry fee would be included, but if we wanted to get into the actual temple or palace we had to pay an additional fee.  So frustrating, especially for a cheapskate like me.  This time, I'm afraid I threw a little fit, no thrashing on the ground but a little foot stomping.  In the end the guide pointed in a vague direction, said we had two hours and was gone.

We wandered around until we found an entrance.  During our wanderings we came across a man with a camel.  He had a sign posted next to his camel that said 2 RMB.  Great a picture on a camel for 50 cents.  We put the kids up there, took some pictures and handed the guy a 5 RMB note.  He hands it back and says, 'No, 100 RMB.'  Rich and I point at the sign and say it says 2 and he says that is for a picture next to the sign, the camel is 50.  We throw the 5 kuai at him and go to walk off, suddenly we are surrounded by four camel thugs pulling at our camera and yelling at us in Chinese.  In the end, camelboy said we owed the money because we didn't ask if it was a different price.  Rich retorted with, you owe me 100 kuai because you touched my girl (to put her up on the camel) without asking.  In the end we gave him 10 RMB and called it good.  It was a little scary though, check out the picture, the guy was huge.

After our adventure with the camel, it was on to the wall.

The wall was crazy steep.  Even with the handrail it was hard to get down.  Getting up wasn't too bad.

If I had to guess from this picture how old Rich is, I would say twelve, fourteen max.

Over all, the Great Wall is the coolest thing we have done in China.

Beijing

Cross it off the bucket list, I've seen Mao's body.  As many of you know, I'm a Communist at heart so this was a lifelong dream come true.  For those of you that don't know me well, I'm kidding, my true mantra would be closer to 'Pass the tea'; 'Beck for President'; 'Welcome to Obamanation and extreme taxation' or any other catchy, right-wing, gun-lovin', conservative message. 

Mao has been dead for 33 years and his body is encased in a glass casket in Tienanmen Square.  After standing in line for over two hours we were frisked and quickly shuffled passed a large mound of orange wax in a green uniform.  Mao's bones may have been buried somewhere under the fabric and paint but to me it looked like a bad Madame Tussand's replica.  Rich shed a few tears.

From Tienanmen we crossed the street to the Forbidden City.  That was very cool.  We went to Beijing with a tour group so we didn't get to decide how long we stayed a the various sites.  Rich is the perfect candidate for a tour; he follows directions, stays with the group and doesn't mind following a yellow flag around all day.  I, however, did not love the tour setting, especially the geriatric, Chinese tour setting.  Matt and Lily were the only kids and I was the only foreigner; we got lots of attention from all of the little old ladies in our group.  We were also disciplined for unruly behavior such as jumping, running and climbing; all of which are considered extremely dangerous.

Here is a prime example of completely out of control behavior.  Children scaling walls to the height of their extremely tall (5'6") mother. It is a miracle they survived.

Here's Lily at the Temple of the Sun.  She was finally coaxed down from this unstable, solid granite wall by a group of concerned citizens.  Where is that girl's mother?

This is our oppressive tour guide.  He really was nice, we were just on a tight schedule so that flag was always up and moving.  No time for lallygagging or second looks.  Hurry, hurry lots to see! 

I am so easily entertained.  Matt going cross-eyed is hilarious to me.

These two people are not actors or dressed up to give the city a more authentic feel.  These are their everyday, casual , going to market clothes.  Love it!

Nothing special about this picture, I just love this womans classic Chinese style, the more patterns, the better.

Mia chips in.

Mia has joined the working class to help support her lazy and self indulgent parents.  She doesn't seem to know she is being exploited so where's the harm?

We took Lily to a shoot and the clothing rep saw Mia and asked if they could use her as well.  You betcha!

To Rich and I's credit we are teaching English once a week, Rich is doing some engineering drawings for an Austin firm and I am working on an export endeavor. It's random but it keeps us fed.

Yeah, A friend for Matt!

Matt has had a hard time adjusting to China.  He is a social kid and there is no 'social' here.  Unless you count nine hours of homework a night as engaging.  We have been unable to find any nine year old boys for him to hang out with...until now and suddenly China is not so bad. 

We met Jayden through a friend at church and he and Matt clicked.  We get them together as much as possible.  Which isn't super easy since he is two metro transfers and a taxi ride away.  But if that's what it takes, so be it.

To impress Jayden, Matt is saving his money for this outfit.

Looka Looka, Cheapa Cheapa

Here's what we've been up to....

Matt's day with dad. They went to the Bund; which is on the west bank of the Huangpu River.

Then to wrap up their day, they went and looked at dead animals.

Good times.

We went to a water town called Zhou Zhuang. When Rich described what a water town was he used Venice as a comparison. It was no Venice, but it was nice. It was green, the air was clear and I could stretch out both arms without taking out another human being. When we pulled into town Mia looked around and asked if we were still in China. I replied yes, to which she responded, 'wow, it isn't even very crappy.'

This is still one of the weirdest things to me, strangers that want to take pictures with my kids. It happens everywhere, I don't get it. Of course I think they're adorable but why would you want pictures with some kids you don't know?

This is the oldest lady I've ever met, she is 96. That is really old!

You can buy a fish to honor your ancestors and place it in the pond.  That is a lot of hungary ancestors.

Everywhere you went the peddlers try to lure you over to there stand by saying, 'looka looka, cheapa cheapa'.

Biggest news of the day...Piper poops in the potty!  We started potty training six months ago and have had on again off again success. When she hit her third birthday and was still dropping a load in her drawers I decided to use the 'Kristen Hilton Method'. Here's the scene. Piper peeing on her special red potty whenever I sit her on it but refusing to poop, even though it has been three days. Having decided we are done with diapers I pull her underwear up and wait for her to go and hide (after awhile she didn't even bother hiding). Telltale sign the deed was done, she would say, 'I'm not stinky.' I would then ask, 'Piper, did you poop in your pants?' The girl, without any hesitation, would say ‘no’. So I let her walk around with her hot little nugget until she would ask me to change her. We would then go in the bathroom where she had to clean herself, and her underwear up. I thought after doing it once she would never want to do it again so she would use the toilet. Nope, instead she got quite proficient at it. Finally, after a week of this she got tired of it and said 'I don't want stinky pants; I want to go poops on my little potty.' Halleluiah! We've been going clean and strong for four days. Let’s hope it sticks. Thanks Kristen, I owe you one.