Christmas

Hello. Here are some pictures from our past Christmas week. I am sorry if the descriptions are short and/or unimaginative, but this will be the second time I write this blog. The first time I wrote it, yesterday, did the entire blog, went to publish it and had my computer crash. Everything was lost (and it was pure literary gold, I tell you).

People have asked me what Christmas is like in China. The best answer that I can give, after going through it, is that it is more like Valentine's Day in the United States. Many businesses and even plenty of residences put up some Christmas decorations. Often this simply involves putting up a picture of Santa, but there are some places that really go all out. (There are very few houses here, so there are no individual buildings completely covered in lights, as you may see back home). Also, though there is more holiday shopping that goes on, it is nothing like back in the States. No one, other than foreigners, are off for Christmas; it is a working day as usual. As a result, there are no mornings full of gift opening. Children here have no expectation of getting gifts for Christmas. I was told by a Korean student that Christmas is mostly for couples. Someone will buy a gift for a spouse for a significant other, but that is just about it. This, to me, seemed more like Valentine's Day. Also, with no huge party with family (which we were sad to miss), Christmas seemed to just come and go. We had fun with the children on Christmas morning, but without the major party, the actual holiday aspect of the day seemed a bit anti-climatic.

On a different note, here are some of the pictures from our past week or so. First, here is a picture of the kids playing in the cubby holes under our entertainment desk. They went in and out of these spots for about an hour, getting themselves stuck (somehow) every once in a while. For some reason the picture kept loading sideways, making them look like a totem pole.

Last Saturday, Jiu Jie babysat the kids while Jane and I went out to a Japanese dinner with our director Jenny. There is a Japanese restaurant two blocks from our complex, which Jane and I had gone to a few times for appetizers. We found out, though, that they had a special every day in which anything on the menu can be ordered, in any quantity, with all of the beer and Saki (Japanese rice wine) you want for 120 Yaun. This is equal to about $17. We went and ate for about 3 hours, eating about 15 different sushi rolls. We also had salad and grilled beef, which are two things that are hard to find in other places. Here are Jane and Jenny toasting their Saki (the only toast here is to say "Ganbei" (gahn-bay), which has a literal translation of empty glass. It therefore means 'chug it').
As you may be able to tell, Jane's hair is much lighter. One time when I went and got a haircut, she asked how much it would be to color her hair. I do not remember the price given, but it was a small fraction of the price that this would cost in the United States. Eventually, she decided to do it. She went out one Saturday while I stayed home with the kids. After she was gone for four hours, I called her, curious as to what was going on. She said it was going horribly and that she was just going to leave. We went and met her, and yes, it was not going right. Her roots were dark, and, except for a big orange circular spot on the top of her head, her hair was different colors of light brown, blonde and white. She saw straight through me when I told her that it looked ok. The next day to work she wore a headband and a beret. Rather than go back to have it fixed, which they told her they would do, she borrowed a hair coloring box from a French teacher. (Jane says that the teacher put the box on her desk wrapped with a bow, with a note saying "You need this more than me."). Jane did the box treatment at home the next night, and her hair came out looking great.

Here is Dan and two of his friends at the concert put on by Jane's classes. Even though Dan does not go to school there anymore, he still will come with Jane when his school is closed, as it was last week. He is a major hit with the teachers and staff, and he was the guest of honor. Eliot, the kid on the left, is the son of Severin, a teacher from France who gave Jane the hair dye. He goes to the same school as Dan. I can not think of the girl's name, but I think she is also from France.

Here are Jane's 4th graders doing there Christmas performance. I was not there, as I still had classes with my upper level kids. I think, though, that the recital included a mixture of Christmas songs, rock and rap songs. Except for the hats, it could have been any other choreographed dance on any other day.

Here are Dan and Jane at the Christmas concert that was put on by my school kids. They wanted all of the teachers to be there, so we each came and brought the kids with us. Jane and Dan were already there when I arrived with the girls in the stroller. Evelyn had fallen asleep on our way to the school, so she was asleep when we arrived at the concert. When we got on the 8th floor, where the concert hall was, it was very quiet. I was wondering if we were in the right place. I opened the door to the concert room, and as soon as the door opened a few inches, an extremely loud squeal came from one kid's electric guitar. Evelyn, who was sleeping peacefully, jumped about a foot in her chair, scared to death. Rather than opening the concert with a nice Christmas ballad, a group of students played a very hard-rock version of Bon Jovi's "Shot to the Heart"; not one you hear at many school concerts.

As expected, the kids were a major hit at the party. Here is Dan with a group of the Chinese teachers. The girl in purple, Melody, is my chemistry lab assistant.

Here is Etain, being beckoned away by one of the foreign teachers.

Here are the Christmas O'Tooles in China. As you can see, Evelyn is still recovering from her hard-rock wake up.

Here is what the kiddos woke up to on Christmas morning. We took out the video camera for Christmas morning, so a lot of the gifts are on video instead of in pictures. Unfortunately, our video camera is not capable of being hooked up to the computer. Here, though, are a few of the pictures.

Dan received a Transformers guy with a Bumblebee Transformer mask. Here he is, ready to save the world.

Evelyn received a makeup and jewelry playset, here she is showing off her new earrings.

Etain received a children's musical playset. Here are the kids performing Christmas songs as a trio. Here is Little Louie Armstrong, taking a solo.

Here is a shot of the carnage that was our living room at about 8:00 a.m. on Christmas morning.

This is Dan showing off the tent/play area that the kids got for Christmas. For some reason, he insisted on doing a yoga pose while modeling it.

Here is Etain, playing right along with her ge ge and jie jie, "older brother" and "older sister". Etain is the shouda me me, "little baby sister".

Evelyn, watching herself on television (via videocamera) as she plays.

Here is Evelyn riding the inflatable reindeer that Etain got as a gift. I am surprised that it is not already popped, as Evelyn really goes to town on it. Evelyn also received a cool outfit, which we will show off when she wears it. She is wearing her boots, which have a punk-rock feel to them. Of course, they are on the wrong feet.

Here is Etain, moving along at a more gentle pace. For some reason this picture will only load sideways. We hope that everyone has had a good Christmas and that they do have a good New Years. Just as Christmas has come and gone, so too has this post. I'll try to get another one up here pretty soon.

Our Apartment and Other Pictures

Ladies and Gentlemen, to start off this blog posting, I give you, the one and only... Evelyn!

These pictures were taken during and impromptu photo shoot the other night before bed, which is usually when the kids are in their giddy moods. Just earlier that day Jane and I were talking about taking some pictures of the kids to get them into modeling in Shanghai. These shots, especially the one where her arms are stretched out to her left, made us think that we had a good thought. Luckily we had the camera out that night, when she was looking especially cute. The next morning, Etain was playing with a small metal broom which had a sharp edge (not something she usually plays with). She whipped it around and put a nice scratch on Evelyn's left cheek. She has some healing up to do before she can put herself through college.

Here are some pictures of our apartment, which we have been in for about two months. It is still, for the most part, undecorated. There are two reasons for this. First, Etain climbs up on everything and pulls everything down. Any nice decorations would certainly have been destroyed by now. Second, there are, to our knowledge, two types of stores in China. The first is where everything is very expensive. The second is a store where a person randomly sells their stuff. These are stores that you have to bargain at, and you have no knowledge of the quality of what your are getting. Though you can get things much cheaper, it is exhausting, time-consuming work (haggling can take a very long time). We (Jane) simply have not had the energy to decide on a decorating scheme and do all of the purchasing yet. Still, the place is good for us. It feels like home, and it is light years better than our old place was.

When I decided to take these pictures, the camera was in my bedroom drawer, so we will start there. Here is shot one of the master bedroom, with a 'large' ledge area in front of the window. I think the plan was to get a bunch of plants for that area.

Here is picture two of the master bedroom, showing the wardrobe and entrance to the room.

Here is the master bath. The bathrooms are very nice. The showers have heat lamps, and it is hard to imagine living without them now that we have them.

Here is Evelyn and Etain's room. For the last few weeks, Etain has been sleeping horribly. For a while, she even slept in our shower (in her tent like crib (see a much earlier post), and with tons of padding). We then moved her into our room, but neither remedy helped. Just the other day we decided to put Etain in Dan's room by herself, and let Dan and Evelyn share this big bed. Etain finally slept very well. Dan and Evelyn slept alright as well, so, as I write this at 10:00 p.m., Dan and Evelyn are sleeping in the bed you see.

Dan's room is very similar, except that it has a very nice built-in bookcase/shelving unit across an entire wall. I took a picture of his room, but it was very dark. Oh well.

Here is picture one of our living room. The red carpet on the floor was our first purchase for the apartment; otherwise the place was completely furnished. On the right is the main heating/air conditioner unit. There is no central heating or air. This main room and each bedroom have units (the ones in the bedroom are smaller). I think they heat and cool the room just fine (as long as you can figure out how to use the Chinese controls). The floors are tile, which get extremely cold during winter. Each bedroom has wood flooring on top of tile to help with this issue. I have not seen carpet anywhere. As a result, everyone who comes into the house takes off their shoes at the door, walking around in their socks or in slippers provided by the homeowners. This keeps the floor from getting too dirty. Almost all of the homes that we have been in have a shoe closet immediately inside the door. The other day Jane said, "Just image how dirty our carpets were back home, with people walking all over them with their shoes that they wear outside." To an extent this is true, but it is much more fun to roll around on a carpet floor when playing with the kids compared to tile.

Shot two of the living room, just showing off the television, on which plenty of Disney DVDs are watched.

Here is Etain, climbing on the dining room table. The above picture of the television was taken while standing just a few inches from the table, so the dining room/living room is actually one big room separated on one side by a small partition.

Here is a shot of the entrance to the apartment. The table is out of view immediately to the photographer's left. The gray part is the front door, with the wood piece being the shoe and coat closet. You can also see the entrance to the kitchen. Our Christmas tree is set up in an area which we intend to use in the future as a computer desk/workstation.

Here is picture one of the kitchen. Not a lot of cabinet space. You can see our water cooler, along with the simple stove, microwave and convection oven. You can't really tell by this picture, but the countertops are pretty low, as they are everywhere. The sink is very deep, which means your back starts spasming after a minute or two of doing dirty dishes (by hand, of course). Every time Jane goes anywhere near the stove, she hits her head on the overhead hood. I guess this is her excuse as to why she doesn't hang out by the stove very often (I can say this because she is already asleep and I will be gone before she reads this).

Here is shot two of the kitchen, showing the mustard fridge and the sliding glass kitchen door. The fridge is pretty tiny, but it is twice the size of the fridge that we had at the old place. It often seems like it is just as cheap to go down the street and have someone else cook for you, so we eat out, weather permitting, up to 4-5 meals per week (we never ate out back home).

Here is the main bathroom's wash area. In this picture it is full of everyone's stuff, because at the time Etain was sleeping in our bathroom, which therefore never got used. It is now a bit cleaner. On the other side of the window is a full bathroom. You can also see the washing machine in the picture.

Here is a picture of the dryer. Off the living room we have a nice closed-in deck. It has clotheslines built into the ceiling, that raise and drop by turning a crank. The other day Dan and I sat out there and did some coloring, because the weather was so nice. Unfortunately, our family of five usually produces a lot of clothes to dry (which takes a while in colder weather). Thus, for the most part, the deck has been used exclusively a dryer.

Here is a shot of our Christmas tree. It is not quite as grand as the one we had back home, but it is decorated with home-made ornaments, so we like it. Everyone in the family got their own ornament, which Dan and Jane made. My ornament is a bubbling bottle. Some think it is a chemistry bottle, but most think it is a bottle of pigio (beer). Jane has been on a major yoga kick for the past month or so, so she got a yoga girl. Dan, per his request, got a baseball cap. Evelyn's ornament is a shoe with a big E on it, because she spends a good portion of her day getting into and out of different shoes. Etain's ornament is a big crab with a T on it, for Tanie. She gets a crab because, basically, for the past few weeks she has been a big crab. (She can print out a copy of this blog for future counseling appointments). Our nanny, and every other Chinese person spoil her so much. She then whines to mom and dad, expecting the same treatment, which she usually does not get. [I just proof-read this and realized that it sounded bad. It is all meant mostly as a joke. I don't want to make her sound like a bad kid, and especially not a kid with bad parents.].

On a different note, here is a picture of the Starbucks two blocks from our house. I think this is a cool building, right at the entrance of a park. I have never been in there, and I am told that Jane has only been in there once or twice. I include it only because I think it is prize-worthy photography...

This past Friday we did not have to work. Dan went to his school, and Jane and I then took the girls to our playground for a while. Here is Evelyn hanging on the bar before going down the slide. She will not go down without hanging first.

Here is Etain at the bottom of the slide. Luckily, our playground is intended for younger children (there is a huge playground in the park across the street, which is better for Dan), and slides are pretty short. Etain does not quite get the physics involved in a slide. Instead of sitting down and going down on her butt, or even on her stomach, she tries to walk down. We always have to be there to catch her and guide her down.

Here is a picture of Danny at his new(er) school. He has been there for about one month. It is easily the best place he has been. For some reason, on this day he decided to wear his formal school suit. He is pictured with Elliot, from France, whose mother teaches with Jane. They are the only two kids in his immediate classroom who are not at least half-Chinese.

On this day, Jane and I got off early so we each picked Dan up. His school is across the street from our apartment. Because Jiu Jie was watching the girls, we decided to head up the street to one of the Japanese restaurants. Here are Dan and Jane sitting at one of the sunken tables. Each of the tables were in their own rooms, which were secluded from the server's hallway by a traditional paper door. Jane ordered our food in half-Chinese/half-Japanese.

Here is Dan enjoying his sushi. It is tasty meal, and a fun alternative to the simple Chinese places that we usually go, but it is nearly 3-4 times as expensive. We just grabbed a few sushi rolls as an appetizer.

Here is a complete side note: Right now I am listening to our ipod while typing. The song that just started was "Beds are Burning" from Midnight Oil, a song from the mid-eighties. Not too long ago we ate dinner with an Italian couple and with a guy from Australia. The couple are our friends and they work for a mechanical manufacturing plant here in town. They were trying to convince the Australian to come work for their company. The Australian: none other than the brother-in-law of the lead singer of Midnight Oil. It was a special night.

To finish this post off, here are a few random shots:

Here is Evelyn, doing who knows what.

Here is Etain, looking cute in Dan's hand-me-downs. She and Evelyn are basically wearing the same clothes interchangeably. She is also getting her fourth tooth, two on top and two on bottom.

Here is Dan showing off his 'Star Wars' tattoos, which he, apparently, thought made him pretty tough.

Wanan, saichen, mintien jie. (good night, goodbye, see you tomorrow).