The Lewis Family Goes to China

Welcome Home Party

2008-07-13T22:02:00.000-07:00

We had a terrific welcome home party where we got to see many of our friends all at one time. Since Sue's nephew Alex is here, I bought a sugary-cereal (basically junk food in my opinion) that the kids would really enjoy, called "Froot Loops". You can see the giant sized boxes available for big families here!

At an American party, there are not performances like a Chinese party; people gather in small groups and chat. Here are George, and Kelly, (outside), talking with my brother-in-law, Balin (inside).

Our little blond nephew, Sam.

The kids finally got out of the pool to get something to eat!

John and Tanner, having some sweets...

The little boy from across the street came over and watched the big boys in the pool...

LEFT: Madeleine, the daughter of Jack's 2nd grade teacher, and RIGHT: a friend of a friend who came with his sports gear on - very American looking!

Sue's mom rented some big tents for us to have shade and protection from the bit of rain that fell. It was a good place to sit and keep an eye on the kids in the pool.

Maria, Nathan and Henry Flurry. Henry was Peter and Jack's music teacher before we left.

Mrs. Koons and Ms. Koons - so many blondies at this party!

Ken Walker and Marc Darr, drinking beer and watching the boys in the pool.

Playing hoops in the pool - yes fouling is allowed!

Hmm, I don't think you'd see this kind of play in the NBA!

Cassandra grew so much while we were gone! I can't believe she's 13 already!

Most people had left by 9pm or so, and the last person left about 11:30! The sun set on a wonderful day, and we'll leave the cleanup until tomorrow!

Hail in July

2008-07-10T16:02:00.001-07:00

We had a craving for American style pizza - our first since returning from China, so we went to one of the local pizza places. It was a long wait for our pizza but well worth it when it came! Here's Sophie trying to be patient.

Peter and Jack's 15 year old cousin, Alex is here visiting us for a week. The boys LOVE having him around and they rarely let him out of their room!

Sue, also getting hungry as we wait for our pizza to be delivered.

OK, Chinese friends, here's an authentic American pizza restaurant for you... and it smells so GOOD inside!

Gosh, we live in a small town! We ran into one of our old friends, Scott Simmons who was also coming in for lunch.

The monsoon started in the afternoon as it usually does this time of year, and we got not only rain, but HAIL! Jack had to go out and stand in it to see how it felt.

The courthouse across the street, looking through all of the hail!

The streets are so deserted compared to China! This is about 1pm on a Thursday... where are all of the bicycles carrying people rushing around under their rain ponchos??

Alex, outside, checking out the storm...

The next stop was the local ice cream store - actually frozen yogurt, at the TCBY...

The boys enjoyed their ice cream...

... and I saw this old cowboy "chewing the fat" with some other customers... you wouldn't see someone like him in China!

This American Life!

2008-07-05T15:05:00.001-07:00

Our friends in China were sad to see the end of the blog, and I realized that I could use this medium to show them some of our American life. So in this blog I tried to see things through Chinese eyes, and show some things that I think the Chinese would think are strange.

Today, Sophie and I went to the grocery store, where she "helped" me shop. This is the local health food store that sells everything organic, pesticide free, chemical free, etc. Sophie is helping me choose some nuts and granolas, of which there are so many types to choose from!

Of course going to and from the store requires a car, rather than a bicycle. We have had a lot of rains lately, and no rain-poncho was required! My car is a Toyota Prius, a hybrid gas/electric car that gets about 21 KM per liter of gas. Notice the traffic - TWO cars going by during this shot.

Sophie sits in the back in her US Dept. of Transportation approved safety car seat! Children up to about 22kg must be in an approved car seat or you can get a big fine! The U.S. is much more safety conscious than China. Before now, Sophie hasn't been in a car seat for a whole year! Peter loves being in my car because it is very clean, especially compared to some of the taxis we were in in Hangzhou! "Dad, there's no cigarette butts in the cup-holder!"

Shopping for veggies at the store. No individual wet market merchants here, just rows of produce! Where are all of the people?? Who do I bargain with over the price of lettuce?

So many times in China I would go to the local market and there would be no milk, or I would buy the last carton available. The biggest size there was about a quart. Here there are SO many milk choices and sizes. Non-fat, 1%, 2%, whole milk, soy milk, vanilla soy, from a pint to a gallon! I can't imagine them ever being sold out of milk!

To my Chinese friends - I hope you enjoy!!

A Goodbye to Blogging

2008-07-02T15:21:00.001-07:00

WOW! 32,000 page views on this blog so far! Before I started this great blogging experiment, I estimated perhaps 10,000 by the time we returned, a gross underestimation! Thank you so much for watching and following our travels, and a double thank you to all of those who commented and emailed us. It was so nice to have emails from home while we were so far away.

Coming down the driveway to our house is such a different experience than hiking up the 94 stairs was to our Hangzhou apartment! We have fallen back into our cars very easily, and we have to, as the nearest store is about 10km away. We miss the public transportation, the walk across the street to the little convenience store, and the smiles of "Grandma and Grandpa" the building managers at Qing Gong Lo as we went out every day.

However, everything here is so big and convenient, and the air is so clean and clear! We have left this sign up that was made for us for the past couple of days. Looks like a few cobwebs - a couple of spiders have moved in since we were gone! They'll have to pack up their bags and move somewhere else now.

Peter and his friend Danielle, hanging out in the pool. The kids have been having their friends over and are just loving being social again! The hardest thing about China was missing their American friends, and finding Chinese friends their own age to communicate with.

A warm, sunny day in Arizona. It is so inviting to be outside - we really missed our outside space in Hangzhou, but this forced us to get out of that apartment a lot to see so many beautiful things in China.

To all of our western friends - Thank you again for all of your support and encouragement during this adventure, we really had the time of our lives!

To all of our new eastern friends - we miss you dearly and we will try hard to keep in contact with you. Though we're sad to be so far away from you, we feel very happy that we have made lifelong friends on the other side of the world! When you visit the U.S. our door is always open!

I'll continue to post to this blog occasionally as I think of things, but I will surely miss writing nearly every day about our breathtaking, fascinating times in China.

We're Home Again!

2008-06-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

It was with great sadness and great expectations that we left China to go back to our home in Arizona. We will sorely miss the wonderful people we met during our year there - the good friends we made, the hardworking students we taught, and all of the people that helped us and looked after us so well!

Flying over Prescott, and later, driving around and doing some shopping, the first thing I noticed was the complete lack of PEOPLE! True, it was a Sunday night, but I drove to the grocery store on nearly deserted roads, and saw perhaps 20 other people shopping in the local Fry's store - so BIG and CLEAN!
What a pleasure it was to get into my sparkling car and drive around listening to a radio station playing a song whose words I knew! The few cars I did see obeyed the traffic laws and of course no one honked! I bought a few supplies, and although being able to read the labels was SO CONVENIENT, I found I also missed the challenge of searching for what I wanted. I felt completely anonymous as I relished using the automatic checkout kiosk, paying with my debit card instead of wads of cash. Not a single person stared at me.

When we walked into our house, the first thing that struck us was that it was SO BIG! For a year, the 5 of us lived in a space that is about the size of our master bedroom and bathroom, and by the end of the year, it seemed completely normal! We laid on our BIG COUCH - one that can easily hold 5 people and laughed about the tiny sofa in our Chinese apartment that we had always sat on "cheek-to-cheek".
We stayed up until our normal bed-time in Prescott to catch up to our new time zone - finally going to bed after getting up 31 hours earlier in Hangzhou. I opened the window, turned out the lights and climbed into my soft bed, listening to a few crickets chirp outside - what a delight! We heard no honking, unmuffled engines, shouting in the street, building construction, or distant celebratory fireworks - just quiet! Though we will miss the frenetic pace of China, the peace and blue skies of Prescott are a wonderful welcome home.

The Patriotic Haircut

2008-06-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

I couldn't post this earlier because Jack wanted to surprise our family back in the U.S. with his new haircut. Also it took me a couple of days to get my internet service re-established. In a previous blog, you may remember a little boy who had "2008" and the Olympic Torch cut into his hair. This gave Jack the idea to do a US theme with his own hair.

First, getting the flag cut into the back...

... and of course "U S A" cut into the top of his head.

Lookin' good there, baldy!

Now for the dye...

Some of Sue's students, who came to the barber shop with us to help with translation...

The flag is complete!

... Now here's Jack with Sue's students - with his new 'doo. Ready to come home!

Goodbye to Jiliang Campus!

2008-06-28T04:17:00.001-07:00

On Thursday, I gave my final and turned in my grades! Friday we had a final visit to campus where we said our goodbyes to our friends and students. The boys are very popular with the students as they don't have much chance to interact with foreign children. Here we are with some of my students.

Jack and Peter with two of my students, Sarah and Anna...

Overall, we had such a wonderful time at Jiliang University. We met so many wonderful people and we will miss all of our students!

Sophie's Goodbye Party

2008-06-26T02:15:00.001-07:00

It has been a week of goodbyes, and one of them was completed today at Sophie's preschool. We stopped on the way there to get a cake for 35 little squirts and of course a milk-tea for the boys. Peter and Jack posed for me in front of the milk-tea store.

We made it to the school, and Sue, Peter and Jack took their place of honor with Sophie, who was ready to hand out cake to all of the children.

Here's one of Sophie's teacher who's a real joy.

A view of the cake, before it was devoured. With 35 kids in the class, and 4 teachers, not a scrap was left!

Peter and Jack were LESS THAN THRILLED to be at a 3-year-old goodbye party, but we made them go anyway. This is one of those "Smile or I'll smack you" pictures :)

Sophie served cake to all of her classmates.

Finally, Sophie got to enjoy her own. Yum!

Here are Peter, Jack and Sue with all the 2 teachers and 2 helpers for the classroom. Sophie will miss them! So will we!

Sophie has had such a great year at this kindergarten. The teachers have been so lovely and patient with ALL OF US and our limited ability to communicate. They have also taught Sophie a lot of Chinese, and now she plays in Chinese as well as English. Sophie will miss all of her Chinese chums as well.

Hangzhou Rock Garden

2008-06-24T06:06:00.001-07:00

While I finished up the last of my classes today, Sue took the boys to the Hangzhou Rock Garden with our friend Laura.

Jack loves taking close-ups, as he took of this flower...

Sue enjoyed this small field of purple flowers. I'm sure some of you botanists out there can tell me what they are, but I have no idea!

Some scenic views at the edge of West Lake...

Jack caught this caterpillar on the edge of a leaf.

... and another shot without the flash. A dramatic difference!

Wandering the rock garden paths...

And here are the boys afterwards with our advanced Audio-Visual system. My laptop and a couple of pairs of headphones.

And finally, one more leach picture that Jack took at Tian Mu Shan. So Cute!

We are packing up our apartment now and trying to fit everything into our bags - what a mess! It's amazing that in a few days this giant pile of stuff will fit into just a few bags!

Tian Mu Shan and the Leeches

2008-06-21T06:46:00.001-07:00

The graduate department of our university put together a wonderful trip to Tianmushan, a mountain nature preserve that has two peaks approximately 1500 meters high. The department arranged a bus and allowed me to fill it with some friends and past students. Here we are: Amery, Chris, Peter, Tim, Anita, Sophie, Rebecca, Jack, Sue, Danny, Lisa, Sarah, Jenny, Vincent, Sara and Blue!

Xiao Zhou has been so great all year - I send him all of my copies via email every week and he has them printed and ready to go for me every Tuesday morning! I feel quite spoiled as all of the other teachers have to make their own copies.

Sue, with my student Lisa, a 2nd year law student. Since this is a preserved area, there are many large trees and it is SO green! It was also very hot today, probably 90 degrees, and cloudy. Very humid and warm!

Sue found some sort of chrysalis from some long gone resident. We saw these all over the place, and the forest was abundant with butterflies.

Maybe this fuzzy fellow will build one too!

Xiao Zhou, and another one of my past students, "Blue". I think she always wore blue in my classes, but today she wore red!

Peter and Jack took a break and hung out by one of the many waterfalls we passed on the way up the mountain.

"Sara" and "Lisa", two of my law students...

Peter and Jack talked to Chris, who is studying for his masters in Precision Measurement. He is also a very fast runner and is the fastest hurdles runner in Zhejiang province. They like the same video game, Warcraft 3, so they had plenty to discuss.

Rebecca and Anita came with us too, and it's always a pleasure to have them around. They get on so well with the boys and Sophie LOVES them!

Peter with Jenny. He is now about the same size as most of my students :).

Here he is again... I think he's now taller than Rebecca and Anita.

... but he hasn't passed me up... YET!

Jack found a creative way to get across the stream - shimmy across a fallen piece of bamboo. I was SURE he was going to go into the water but he made it across without a problem.

Here's Chen Ye, "Sara" next to one of the large trees in this dense forest!

Sue and Anita admiring the foliage...

Now we're half-way up and it's very warm out. Everyone is soaked to the bone with sweat and we're all hot as you can see from our red faces!

We found a nice resting spot beside the trail and sat down for some lunch. They brought a spread of duck-wings, some sandwich fixings, cookies and other munchies for lunch.

Then Peter noticed something on Jack's leg. It was a LEECH! Yuck! I managed to pry it off of him with my fingernail. Here it is stuck to a chopstick. One of the other teachers at the university warned me that leeches are prevalent at Tianmushan and I should take great care to wear long pants. I took it as so much Chinese folklore and thanked her for the advice -- but it was TRUE!

When we got home tonight, Sue pulled off her socks to find a leech had bitten her through her sock and her wound bled for quite awhile. They are really amazing creatures. They put some kind of anesthetic on the bite area, so you don't feel them bite. Their saliva contains anti-coagulants so the wound bleeds and bleeds. Sue's was still bleeding a couple of hours after we got home and treated it!

The green path that we were walking on - so tranquil - it looks deceptively cool, but it was so HOT!

Sophie found a little fountain and tried to splash me the best she could!

The fountain comes down this bamboo trough that originates near the waterfall. Many people drank from it but I wasn't going to risk it only 7 days before going home!

We did however put our heads under it, and it felt GOOOOD. Thank goodness for short hair. The girls with all of that long black hair decided not to have a go.

Taking my turn... so refreshing!

We took a little side-trip to a really stunning waterfall...

Here we all our for a group shot!

Making our way up the slippery rocks...

All the more difficult with Sophie on my shoulders. She decided that riding was more fun than walking. I can't say I blame her!

... a view up the ultra-green path!

Finally a break at the lookout point. It was a bit cloudy so the view wasn't that good, but it sure felt good to rest after carrying Sophie up here!

Anita, having a break after a tiring hike!

... and here we are, 2/3 of the way done! Rebecca and Anita are standing in front of a tree that died about 80 years ago and is more than 2,300 years old!

We're all egging Sophie on. "Sophie, can't you please WALK? You're so LAZY!"

We made it back to the bus down the mountain and transferred to our bus back to Hangzhou. We all had a great time today being out in nature!

Tsingtao's 'til Home

2008-06-19T00:17:00.001-07:00

We're getting close now! Sue created a pyramid of Tsingtao beer cans until we go home, and as you can see, we have 10 days left. This has generally been our beer of choice here - it's the most popular brand, and in my opinion, the best tasting.

While I was at school giving a final test today, Sophie and Jack were having a lazy pajama morning.

Eventually, Sophie went off to school, and Peter and Sue went out to have a British tea service with our friend Stefania. One thing Peter loves about Hangzhou is the greenery, and it has only gotten greener since all of the rain we've had lately - this is Hangzhou's rainy season. Peter stood in front of a wall of ivy attached to a brick building, which he though was pretty cool.

The building was covered with ivy!

Peter and Sue went to tea at the Rose House with Stefania, and besides tea, they had quite a dessert spread.

Peter and Stefania hung out in the rose house with the tea, the decorative British surroundings and the desserts. Yum!

Wet Weather and Fish Tales

2008-06-18T04:26:00.001-07:00

This weekend we went around West Lake in the tram, trying to get a last look at one of the most beautiful parts of Hangzhou.

We met Danny for dinner, and he and Jack had a wasabi eating contest. Yikes. They both had steam coming out of their ears and tears in their eyes, but they took the hot green mustard like men.

Danny, Peter and Tim hanging out on a boat on West Lake.

You may have heard about the flooding problems in China. This is the rainy season in southwest China and apparently over 1.2 million people have been displaced by all of the water.

Hangzhou has certainly had its share, but life continues under umbrellas and ponchos! Our bus has had to negotiate several flooded streets.

This guy has a sweet ride for his kid; an enclosed tent on the back of his bike. Sophie has her own poncho and she wears it grudgingly. The hardest part is getting her bike seat dry before we put her in it.

The rainy scene on the way to school...

We envied this little boy for his green galoshes! I am still wearing the same pair of shoes I came to China in. Shoes just don't come in my size here as far as I can tell, so I'm looking forward to other shoe choices when we return to the U.S.!

OK now for the fish story. Sue and the boys were down by the lake and they saw this boat with a foot of rainwater in it -- and a LIVE FISH! How did the fish get in there?? Did it jump in from the lake? We have no idea, but it was about a foot long and swimming around happily in there.

As they were watching, this man came by and noticed the fish - ah ha, an easy catch, but how to get it home! He had his handy umbrella with him, so he closed the umbrella, grabbed the fish, and stuffed it inside! You can see him holding the fish by the mouth below.

... and off he went, with the fish trapped in the umbrella. He hopped into a taxi cab with his bumbershoot bonanza and presumably went home to a delicious meal!

Some Interesting Pictures

2008-06-17T05:05:00.001-07:00

On our Putuoshan trip, Kendall really got Jack interested in photography. He was especially interested in taking pictures of small things...

Besides Jack, our friend Aamir was also creative with the camera. He asked Jack to show different emotions...

Sadness:

Silliness:

Anger:

So then Rebecca and Sue had to have a try!

Sadness:

Fear!

Anger!

Surprise!

Puzzlement!

I'm doing some past pictures because there's not a lot going on for us this week. We are finishing up our classes and giving final exams. We're also packing up our apartment and trying to give away as much stuff as possible so that the load of things to bring home will be less daunting. Our week of sad goodbyes is coming!

Zhejiang Provincial Museum

2008-06-15T06:38:00.001-07:00

We have been in Hangzhou all of this time but have never made it to the Zhejiang provincial museum which borders West Lake on the Bai Di. The museum is three floors which chronicle over 7000 years of history in this region! We saw everything from replicas of the first wood houses made with primitive tools to the military costumes from the Warring States period and a Texaco Oil Co. sign from the turn of the century. Quite a diverse collection!

After a quick visit to the museum, we hopped a boat to the West Lake islands on this balmy day - gorgeous in every direction!

Hydrangeas greeted us upon landing on the island, "Three Pools Mirroring the Moon".

We let the boys stay up until midnight last night playing a computer game with our friend Danny, and they were grumpy today. Even though they were tired, they made me a scrumptious French Toast breakfast this morning for Father's Day. However they really wanted to stay home but we dragged them out anyway, so here I am headlocking the two grumps.

Jack perked up after awhile and played with his sister on the boat.

A flower shot for Sue to paint when she gets home in 2 weeks!

One of the boys spied this snake swimming rapidly through the water. Yikes!

Our four kids... Peter, Sophie, Jack and our newly adopted son Danny, also another teacher at Jiliang. He comes over and plays network PC games with the boys and they LOVE it!

Looking across one of the pools at "Three Pools Mirroring the Moon" island.

A family picture, looking back across West Lake.

All of the kids, including Danny, got up in the tree for this shot...

Jack was the first to find the tree and climb it - he loved it up there!

This is the same scene as is on the 1 RMB bill, so it's well known all over China!

The lily pads were all blooming in the three pools.

Jack loves hopping around across these doorways. He's all arms and legs these days!

And finally Sophie, who's favorite activity is to be outdoors running at top speed. The island is good for that as there are no cars and it wasn't too crowded today!

Goodbye Party for Sue

2008-06-14T04:18:00.001-07:00

On Friday night, we went out to campus for a goodbye party with some of Sue's students. Sue said goodbye to two of her classes...

We ordered a 6 foot long Subway sandwich and fed it to the students which they really enjoyed (devoured!) - especially since most of them had missed dinner to be there!

These are all Freshman English majors, and the majority of them are girls - I counted 4 boys - here are two of them on the right...

They all look so YOUNG!

A Chinese party is of course completely different from an American party. At a Chinese party, the attendees fall into 2 categories, either audience member or performer - sometimes both. The guests of honor (in this case, Sue) are expected to do some type of performance to entertain the crowd; so we got there, and WHAT TO DO?

Sue and I sang a few camp songs, and taught them Row, Row, Row Your Boat which we sang in the round. Then they lined up and did a "Bunny Dance" around the room, to music...

... around the room they go...

Here's Sue, being a part of the Bunny Line...

I also recounted my first date with Sue which was a good human interest story for this crowd of (mostly) freshman girls.

Once the guest of honor performs, then other people get up on stage and do their performances. One boy sung a song to Sue. Another 4 girls lip-synced and danced, and then there was a pass-the-microphone karaoke session.

It was fun to see Sue with all of her students - they really love her and wrote many sweet sentiments to her. She will miss them too!

Factory Visit

2008-06-11T05:03:00.001-07:00

Peter and Jack got their first taste of working today during their visit to the factory that is managed by our friend Damiano. They saw the rows of workers sitting in front of the conveyor belt, putting together electronic components.

Some soldering happening here - the plastic bell sucks away the fumes, and the long wire is solder being used on the component.

It was Jack's turn to work the line. Unfortunately the only thing he was qualified for was boxing the finished products. One of the workers graciously instructed Jack how to put the boxes together.

... Jack gives it a try...

... and SUCCESS! The first box is COMPLETE. Ok Jack, now only 8 more hours of the workday to go. Keep moving, the conveyer belt stops for no man!

Next, Jack instructed his brother about the finer points of box-construction.

Next, it was Peter's turn to give it a try...

WHEW! After putting together 2 boxes, it was time for a COFFEE BREAK! Damiano of course had his Italian sized cappuccino, next to Jack with his American sized cup of coffee.

A big thanks to Damiano for letting us come visit his factory! I'm sure production crawled to a fraction of its normal pace with the Lewises in the way. Sue and the boys really enjoyed their tour of a real factory!

Rainy Bamboo Forest

2008-06-09T00:25:00.001-07:00

Monday is a state holiday in China, for the Dragon Boat Festival. Today was extremely rainy, but I convinced everyone to leave our small apartment and go experience the bamboo forest in the rain! We loaded up on umbrellas and a raincoat for Sophie - after a few "aww, Dad" and "Do we HAFTA?" cries of anguish, we made it out the door by 11:30.

We wandered down this dark, misty path in the downpour, and we all commented that we felt like we were in some Chinese movie!

Jack and Sue going without an umbrella, briefly, for the sake of the shot.

The exit from the bamboo forest, so GREEN and WET!

Peter loved being out in the misty, green forest and watching the water stream down the hills.

A little blurry, but I there are few shots of just Sue and I so I thought I'd include this one for posterity's sake.

We all came home soaked to the bone, although we had a good day in the rain.

Kissing the Kitty

2008-06-07T23:09:00.001-07:00

We went to breakfast and Sue found a little kitten running around in the open-air store, obviously a stray! Although I expounded dramatically upon the possible microbes, heavy metals, parasites, and other health hazards that she would expose us all to by touching this bedraggled kitten, she picked it up anyway.

Though I admire Sue's loving nature and her ability to see past external flaws (perhaps that's what allowed her to marry me), I still maintain that stray Chinese street animals should be left alone. Thank goodness we came to a compromise that she would pick up the cat but Sophie would only look at it.

I shuddered when Sue not only cradled the kitten in her arms, but stroked it and then KISSED it on its head and face. YECH! I thought I would go home immediately to check that our medical insurance was paid up, or at least buy her some peroxide... hmm, how to say that in Chinese?

Sue put the kitten down, finally, to wait for the bus, and as we were waiting some Chinese guy spit on the street behind us. The cat ran over and lapped it up with gusto, as we watched in horror and disgust! I don't know if this revulsion will stop Sue from picking up stray animals, but hopefully it will give her pause the next time she exposes herself to one!

To Ningbo and Back Again

2008-06-07T08:04:00.001-07:00

We took a 2 hour trip yesterday to Ningbo to check out the town and visit our friend Qiu Dan Ling (Anita). The weather was so hot and muggy that we wished it rain, and boy, did it!

Before the storm however, we made a visit to Tian Yi Ge, a very old private collection of books and associated building that was founded by this man, Fan Qin (1506 - 1585). There were many old buildings and a very nice garden setting in which to walk around and see displays of ancient books, mahjong tiles and art.

We walked around the gardens looking at all of the carvings and decoration...

... including this structure which is a Zun Jing Pavilion, a building built to store and respect the classics. It was originally built by a local government school, but then moved to its current location in 1934!

Sophie consistently runs everywhere at top speed and RARELY falls down no matter what surface she is running on - she's very sure footed. However today her shoe caught a crack in the walkway and down she went skinning her hands. No blood though. Peter rushed over to comfort her - what a good big brother!

Fortunately, the wounds weren't anything a little ice cream couldn't fix. It was so darn muggy today. You can see the hair sticking to her sweaty little mosquito-bitten mug.

Some shots of the kids at the Tian Yi Ge park.

Balancing the camera on a "monopod", or what the rest of the family unknowingly calls a "rock".

... and just off camera on the left side there are about 20 people watching us try to get this shot. We never quite got it as it took awhile to herd the kids into position, but we got close :)

We then went to lunch and timed it PERFECTLY as it started downpour like crazy. We hung out in the restaurant until there was a break, then we headed off to find Dan Ling's office in a modern office building in downtown Ningbo.

Meanwhile, she had come out in her work clothes, in the downpour to find us! Eventually, through liberal use of cellphone technology we hooked up. She showed us around her office - she works for Web English, which has a very modern facility for teaching English, and we met her co-workers, some Chinese and some westerners who were all so nice.
After her shift was over, we went to dinner at a local restaurant...

Finally, we all jumped on the bus and headed back to Hangzhou. We had a very tired driver and this big bus was WEAVING. We tried singing "99 bottles of beer" to keep him awake but on retrospect we think this just annoyed him! Finally I asked Dan Ling to say something to him. She asked him if he was ok to drive and he said he was, but now he knew we were watching him so he perked up. The next thing we knew, he had his headphones on and was serenading us with some old fashioned songs he was listening to. Nice ambiance!

The Many Seasons of West Lake

2008-06-05T04:13:00.001-07:00

While I taught, Sue, Peter, Jack and Stefania rode to West Lake, today. The lotus plants were in full bloom and Sue took many shots of them for future painting inspiration!

So much new growth on the lake! In the winter time, all of this is trimmed down to brown stalks that are below the water line. What a difference a few months makes!

Near the lake is a small rock garden that they wandered through, off of Beishan Lu.

Stefania, Jack and Peter, stopping for a rest.

Tomorrow after Sue finishes class we get on the bus to Ningbo, about a 2 hour ride from here. We'll do a quick tour of the town and visit our friend "Anita" who works there now. Expect a couple of days until I get around to blogging again!

Last but not least, here's a little video of Sophie doing a dance she learned at school:

Children's Art in Hangzhou

2008-06-04T05:34:00.001-07:00

Sue spent the day with Anita and Rebecca, and they went to the Hangzhou Museum, and the temple above Wushan Square. Next to the museum entrance were 8 wells, where people could come and get water. No caps, no screens, just 2 meters down and you see water!

LEFT: We hiked up this temple - 4 long flights of stairs which Rebecca and Anita, of course, did in their high heels. This must be a remnant of foot binding :). RIGHT: After seeing them do it, Jack wanted to give it a go, so they switched shoes! He managed to climb up and down the stairs ok, but they had to give him a lesson on how do do it elegantly.

On the third floor of the temple there's a charming little teahouse overlooking Hangzhou. Peter said it was like sitting in a cloud. This temple costs about 30 yuan to get in, but we enjoyed it!

LEFT: The gardens outside of the temple, and RIGHT: Jack being, well... Jack!

Inside the Hangzhou museum was a children's exhibition from ZJKM Art School (www.zjkm-artschool.com) with entries from 5 years old, on up! The kid that did this picture was about 9 years old - amazing detail!

Sue really wanted the picture below because it represents our time in China so well. A white family is on a famous bridge on West Lake, being welcomed by Chinese people, which has happened to us countless times! The museum attendant told us we could buy the pictures, and Sue asked if she could buy this one. Unfortunately, it was already sold! Sue chose another, but when she went back today to pick it up, they had called the previous buyer and told them an American family was interested and could they please buy it back. When Sue came to pick it up, the school's headmaster was ready with the re-acquired art piece and took a picture of Sue holding it.

We chose a few souvenirs to take back home, and here is a stone carver working on one of them!

Lastly, Sophie's school was picking peaches, and they gave us some to eat - delicious! The guy on the right, Sophie calls "Her Boy!" Whenever we see him she says, "There goes my boy!!" He's a very nice guy who is great with the kids.

Graduation Day

2008-06-02T00:54:00.001-07:00

Our friend Qiu Dan Ling "Anita" graduated today, so we made the trip out to campus to see her get her picture taken. There is no graduation ceremony, likely due to the number of people. Instead, students line up for their classes' turn to get their picture taken by the professional photographer. Each group hastily throws off their robe and hat, and gives it to a student in the next group for their picture, so the robes get a lot of use throughout the day! I snuck in behind the professional photographer for the money shot...

... and the celebration shot!

Staging a kiss of Anita's cheeks by Peter and Jack. They were good sports, although Jack would NOT let his lips touch her skin :) You can only ask an 11 year old to do so much.

Taking a serious shot with the graduate...

... and now for something a little less formal!

This was the next group of kids getting their picture taken; I'm not sure why they weren't in robes - just another mystery of China.

This taking of photos will be going on for several days to get through everyone - hopefully the weather will cooperate!

The Hangzhou Zoo

2008-05-30T23:50:00.001-07:00

Though the kids had been to the Hangzhou Zoo before, I had not, so we went back there today to hang out under the high canopy of trees and look at the local captives. Here are the Sophie, Jack and Peter near the entrance.

LEFT: This little girl stopped briefly to watch the foreigners go by. Love the red parasol! RIGHT: A little cave we went through in this very lush park.

Here's Jack, that handsome little devil.

We came across this nice little pagoda amongst all of the lush greenery.

Near the pagoda was a lone sole seal who was doing some tricks. This is for my brother-in-law who wanted pictures of things being balanced on noses. Here you go Dan :). The seal held this pose for quite a long while. Amazingly strong!

Some beautiful giraffes here...

The zoo was a great place for Sophie to run, which is her favorite thing to do. It's always fun to get her in a crowd because she darts all around us, and the other Chinese are wondering where her parents are. Tee hee.

Since the boys' previous school were the Abia Judd Jaguars, I had to get a picture of this lovely fellow, yawning in the heat.

Let's see, which animals shall we see next??

While at the zoo we saw this beautiful butterfly. I could tell Sophie was thinking, "Hey, where can I get a set of wings?"

So many people were feeding the animals! The attitude towards animals in zoos appears to be COMPLETELY different here than in the west. Some guy was tossing slices of bread to this bear - I think he tossed down a whole loaf of bread while we were there, much to the crowd's enjoyment. There wasn't a zookeeper in sight.

Aah, chariot rides, pulled by a GOAT! How could we resist!

Then we saw this little boy with a very distinctive haircut, paying homage to the upcoming 2008 Olympics. The torch...

... and the year, 2008 emblazoned proudly upon his crown! Jack immediately thought he would like to do something like this to his hair. What a surprise!

After an enjoyable couple of hours, we walked through a little more bamboo forest as we exited the zoo, and grabbed a cab back to the city.

Here's a shot of the delicious milk-tea that can be found as frequently here as Starbuck's in Seattle. It's a sweet tea with some kind of powdered milk added, and in the bottom are balls of tapioca which are sucked through a large diameter straw. The straw pierces a piece of cellophane wrap that they heat seal onto the top while you wait, so that it's spill proof - very ingenious. Cold or hot, milk-tea is strange but delicious!

Children's Day in China

2008-05-29T20:07:00.001-07:00

On June 1st, China celebrates "Children's Day", a day where children are celebrated and gifts are given to them. Since June 1st will be on a Sunday this year, Sophie's school put together a celebration today that involved waves of children getting up on stage at the local park and dancing to music. We were lucky that we were in only the third wave of children, as it was a crowded, busy morning!

When we got there, Sophie's teacher put lipstick on her so that she would be extra beautiful on stage. Yes, this same lipstick was shared amongst all the kids...

Here's the drinking station, where Sophie found her cup for a drink of water.

Their classroom bathroom, with the shin-high urinals, and the trough to squat over. Water flows from one end of the trough to the other.   In a trough situation, you always want to be the furthest one upstream, for obvious reasons.

The chamber pot is also brought out during class at regular intervals to prevent accidents from the little ones.

We were told several days ago, "Make a costume out of old paper and plastic bags, and make a hat having something to do with a goat!" Well, we did our best. Here are some of Sophie's classmates, getting ready for the big show, in their costumes. RIGHT: Sophie says her friend's name is Xu Wo Ling,


LEFT: Sophie in her costume trying on her "goat-hat", and RIGHT: one of her friends all decked out, Sophie says her name is Jia Yi"


Sophie, practicing her dance moves with one of the boys, Ling Long.

After 30 minutes of pandemonium getting preschoolers into fragile recycled costumes, it was time for a walk to the park. Thank goodness Peter and Jack came, they were so helpful! Here are Peter and Jack carrying the camera gear and Sophie's goat hat, which at this point has been categorically rejected by Sophie.

Sitting in the crowd, receiving instructions in Chinese with the rest of the parents. Yeah, right. Thanks to Peter for taking the picture! I cajoled Sophie into wearing the goat-hat, VERY briefly.

Sophie waited in the wings with her teacher for her turn to go on stage.

The group that went on before us, who were supposed to be bakers...

Sophie waited for the bakers to perform...

... and here are the little bakers, dancing on stage.

Parents were very AGGRESSIVE getting to the stage to take a picture of their children. I gave Jack the video camera and told him to worm his way up to the stage, which he did very successfully. Crowds always part for Jack in China! Next,I worked on positioning myself strategically, so that I'd be able to rush the stage when it was Sophie's turn.

After studying how other parents did it, I said to myself, "Ready.... GO!" I flailed my arms and pushed other young mothers, fathers, ayis and grandmothers aside as I charged the stage, and... TOUCHDOWN! I dove down in front for a shot of my little girl on stage!   When in Rome...!

Only 3 of the kids, including Sophie followed the teacher's cue to stand up, partially because it was so noisy and confusing!

Then, as the students were listening for their next cue, some fireworks exploded which shot pieces of paper into the air above their heads. Sophie grabbed her ears, and it was pretty much chaos after that. The fireworks definitely had not been a part of the rehearsal!

We stripped the costume off after being on stage, and the kids played for a bit. Sophie tried to limbo...

Jack demonstrated how to use some of the old people's exercise equipment.

Sophie and one of her classmates, hanging out after the show...

We were all pretty much exhausted after all of that excitement, and now school is over for the day. Oh look, it's only 9:30 am!

300 Days!

2008-05-28T03:36:00.001-07:00

The boxes of souvenirs are shipped, and the apartment is getting more bare as we prepare for our exodus back to the U.S.! Our "300 Day" photo, and we're all still smiling.

We are trying to enjoy all of the things we like about China in this last month before we leave. One of the small things we enjoy is the ubiquitous "milk-tea"; a tea and milk concoction with black balls of tapioca in the bottom. An extra wide-diameter straw is provided to suck up all of that chewy tapioca goodness! We go for a walk in the evenings along the city streets to the local milk-tea outlet, and it no longer seems strange.

We are enjoying not only a different culture, but also a climate that is so different from Arizona. It is HOT and HUMID here, and we have had monsoon like conditions here lately with lots of RAIN. The boys love all of the green, and the moss and the vines growing everywhere. The rivers, lakes, canals and waterways also provide a nice touch to the city, however there is a mosquito problem. LEFT: Here are the boys today, near Lingyin temple enjoying the rain on an 80 degree day.

The classrooms are not air-conditioned, so it gets downright HOT in there with 20 or 30 people inside. The classroom windows are always wide open and the fans on at high-speed, but I still find myself sweating while teaching!

We're excited to see our family and friends back in Prescott but we'll sure miss our friends here! Let's make the most of our next 30 days!