Communication in China

Yesterday one of my colleagues asked me how I was managing, how was I feeding my family? Given that no society has much patience for those who are both illiterate and mute, I could kind of understand her question and concern. Yet, I communicate a lot in China, as I do in all the places I have been and can barely say hello (I can by the way, say more than hello and Jeff and I have been faithful about listen to our language tape, having a tutor at least three times a week, and practising a lot. If I can use Chinese here, when will I use it?) At the university, my collegues speak decent English but elsewhere and other than "hello, what is your name?) it is a bit challenging finding someone who speaks English, especially in stores or restaurants. Grunting and pointing is always effective but by far the best way to communicate is with a smile. It is amazing how much I actually communicate with a smile. Children and family here provides many opportunities for discussion; yesterday morning on the way to school, I told a grandmother how beautiful the baby was on her back; at the girls' school, I hope all the kids I smiled at realized that I appreciated how cute they were and loved sharing this morning ritual with their parents (I am no longer teary-eyed when I drop them off -- it is starting to seem rather normal. Plus, sometimes I get to see them at noon so it is not such a long stretch).

A fabulous restaurant

I woke up late, at seven, becauswe I still was suffering slightly from lack of rest. WE quickly readied for school, and set out at a fast pace, struggling to keep up with the mass of chinese children. It is needless to say that the first 2 hours of school were not irrelevant, they were jam packed with the normal chinese school day except for one thing there was the american odditiy with brings us to the morning exersizes, usually you do a long string of movements, however today we had to perform a different task. WE were instructed to salute the chinese flag, I used the wrong hand, using it to shield my face from the murderous gaze of the sun. Immediately about five chinese girls abandoned saluting the flag in order to correct me, my fingers were straited once I had switched hands and I had to raise my salute over my eyes, so that still the sun was staring at me, the rest of the stretcfhes continued in a wave of heat, in fact it was not very hot when in the shadows,k however when facing the sun, the heat was like a wave, the rest of the day continued, until at last I was finished with school, and I lumbered behiknd my family as we went to a store to take photos which we needed to make sure we were the correct person or something like that. Then we combed our hair, brushed our teeth, and then we hurried to play badmitten, (JUlia's birthday present) before my moms student arrived. Soon we had to abandon an amusing game of badmitten in which I played horribly with my left hand, for my mothers student. We walked down to a hot pot place that we had walked past almost every day, and wondered if someone would help us order there. WE arrived in the restaurant stepping into a steamy crowded restaurant, we were escorted to a grate where they now placed a large bowl filled with on one side spicy spitting water and on the other side salty seafoody and also spitting hot water. Bother sides bubbled with equal venom. Then me and my father got up and walked to area where there were pans filled with vegtables and meat on sticks. There were around 80 different pans, alll holding siome unique kind of vegtable [or a very very unique kind of meat] all of which you could choose from. My dad and I loaded our pan, with mushrooms, cauliflower, tofu, and whatever we saw that looked good. Then we strutted back towards our table, barely able to see over the piles of vegtables and meat dangling dangerously off the ends of sticks. We set the down, my moms eyes became wide, we had already a pan filled with more lettuce and mushrooms, and now we had all this. My moms student, seeing us not doing anything, grabbed several sticks and shoved them into the boiled liquid. It cackled and steamed, but it could do nothing against the rush of hands that all hurried to place vegtables in the hot pot. After that we sampled the spices, and my sister and I agreed apon a peanutty spice that we them showered apon all of the cooked vegetables, all in all, it was a great dinner, one of our better ones, however we always end up saying that. After finishing, we left full and exausted having spent only 11 dollars and collapsed into our apartment, nmy sister and I weary from another monday in my chinese school.
Hana

A day in Xian

We thought you might like to have a look at a two minute string of pics (again, experimenting with new technologies) covering our daily life in Xian. In it we cover the Expert Hotel (our home for the next five months), our neighborhood, the nearby park and our school. Enjoy!

We'll we thought we were going to put the video up, but it appears that the filter or size wouldn't allow the post. Who knows - the symbol that came up after more than 45 minutes of waiting for the download to complete was all in Chinese...

So here are a few pictures to give you a sense of our neighborhood






Outside the Expert Hotel


Inside views



Our Neighborhood

The Wall

After all the words posted here, we thought you might like to see some images for context. For Julia's b-day we took a trip back to what was for us, Xian's most memorable memory from our one week trip here this summer - the 8.7 mile wall that surrounds the central city. It is a wonderfully restored, beautifully decorated, completely intact relic from a previous era and a site that is, in our view greatly underappreciated. They have bicycles that you rent (along with motorized tour buses and three wheeled taxis) for 100 minutes that allow you to traverse the wall and stop off at the restored guard houses or other vantage points to view life in the city below. With all the space on the wall and the relatively high (around $6 per adult) admission, there are never many people up there, so you really get the feeling that you have the wall to yourself. It is a nice little work out, especially with a series of hills you have to overcome to make it to different sections of the wall, but with all the eye candy, it makes for a great hour and a half tour. So from our eyes to yours, here are a few photos of our celebratory trip to the wall. The first photo is a context shot, looking down one of the smaller sides of the rectangular wall. Then we have the girls taking their turn on one of the two seaters and us at a rest stop.






The guards were assembling for an event at the south gate while masses of Chinese were assembling near the north gate at the entrance to the train station.











The Chinese crowds never cease to amaze us Nebraskans... And I leave you with this final shot of Patrice and the birthday girl pedaling past one of the Chinese new year decorations.

This post (which was our test in adding images) was brought to you by

Happy Birthday, JNUlia

Today was Julia's birthday. I woke late having gone to bed even later than normal, I awoke at 6:30 and quickly readied for school. WE left early, wanting to get yo tiao for Julia as a special treat on her birthday.

We arrived at the yo tiao stand, a full basket of yo tiao lying uneaten on a school day, when everyone was rushing everywhere, we quickly bought five yo tiao, and huried onward. Stufing the rest of the greasy subsence into our mouth we were ushered into a throng of chinese children. I dropped Julia off first addressing her teacher to the fact that it was Julia's birthday. Immediately as I left her classroom was transformed into a singing frenzy. I continued onward with my new chinese friends at my sides. I was first in the hardest class of the day, chinese. Trying desperately to read symobols that all looked the same I struggled through the first hour of the day. Then came ten minutes of lets see if we can confuse the american frenzy, where I was dragged this way and that, everyone murmuring chinese phrases that I was deaf to. Before finally being led up to the second level where my new friends were wqaiting to play a game with a string. Then to math, my second best subject, for at least I could understand what problem they were doing! But the hardest part was how you had to write the answers. Either way it was fairly easy and the day contionued we going outside to do the movements required. Then I had to sit through songs in english about you school, about eating in the canteen, a new word for me, since we have not used the word canteen for lunchroom for a long time. Then I barely managed to get by during another lesson where you had to read from a chinese book and listen to the teacher reading. Although it was hard I managed to survive the day, and I hurried out the gate to where faced my dad armed with the camera, and my mom with a happy Julia having received a few birthday cards. We went home strait away, my mom cleared up her work and we waited amid the vehicles streaming by, waiting for a taxi. Finally one emerged from the chaos, and we were taken to a korean restaurant. We ate in front of a grill positioned right in front of us, we grilled mushrooms and meat, we wrapped them in leafy lettuce and dipped them in a hot sauce, we cooled our mouth on some potato pancakes, snacked on slipperly noodles. Then we walked down the street to the wall. We paid a small fee and continued on to a world class site, where 3000 years ago Xian had been the largest city in the world. We biked around the perimeter of the wall, feeling the fifty degrees air, as we struggled to enjoy the sites that flickered around us but meanwhiel trying to get done with the 8 miles fast enough so that we would not be late. Construction surrounded us, where before had stood many building all positioned around the wall now in their place stood piles of rubble, we were surprised by the amount of places that all seemed to be under construction, we passed a train station that seemed flooded with over 10000 people, sitting on luggage, some from remote places, that you could tell due to there wear. After the wall we walked around looking at the typical masks and puppet s and asking prices for stamps with dragons on them. Then we ate in a cafe, and hurryed home to learn how to play badmitten, we enjoyed hitting around the ball before it became too daqrk and we went inside and started the real popcorn party for JUlia's birthday, which included watching National Geographic.
By Hana

Being an American parent in China

Being a mother, an American mother, in China is hard. I feel like I am constantly bothering the kids about everything. Give me your hand (there is a huge truck coming right at us), wash your face (I see signs of coal), don't forget the purrell (there was no soap in the "bathrooms"--and I use that term generously). So many imminent dangers, it is hard to relax. I look around for the other Chinese moms who are harrassing their kids but alas, there are few moms and even fewer dads playing with kids or walking them to schools. Most Chinese children, we are learning are taken care of and even live with their grandparents. As one mom here put it, we are too busy for kids (her child is just four months old but living with her in-laws). Obvious advantages to this and certainly efficient in many ways; the young parents can return to work without having to get up at night, no taking kids to school, and certain no endless badgering to stay clean and out of harm's way. Yet, as I walked the kids in today -- on Julia's 8th birthday -- and thought of where I was eight years ago and how Jeff and I worried about Hana (who was safely and very happily at our friend's hom) we talked about what our future child would be like. The last ten years of being a parent have no parallel and, as many know, few words to describe what is like to be a parent. One is so important, so powerful, and so powerless; you are, you are living in the moment and soaking up all that is worthwhile and good in life. Parenthood undoubtedly has its bad days but for whatever reason, they are usually hard to remember.

I cried today as we dropped the girls off, just as I have every other day this first week of Chinese school, but I often still tear up as I drop the girls off at school in the U.S. And like in Lincoln, the girls run off; usually Hana turns out for a last wave and Julia runs into the embrace of a friend with an ear-to-ear smile. Today it was Hana who was embrace by a friend and Julia turned around to make sure we watched her follow all the other black haired children in the school gates.

So there Jeff and I stood, both beaming with pride and me with a tear forming...and the grandparents stood around with similar smiles, perhaps feeling that these are the best days in their lives..being the parents they never were. We have decided that as the girls grow up and have their own children, we too will be Chinese grandparents (if our kids allow). By the time our kids have kids America may, in fact, be more like China and parents truly will not have time for their kids. Oh, what they will miss!

Springtime by Julia

the meowing kitty cats
the buzzing bees
the swirling butterflies
the waving leaves
the chirping birds
the scattering squirrels
are all
part
of
the Chinese spring