Qingdao Part One

We had a five day weekend this past weekend. Our normal scheduled called for a three day weekend, but all of the foreign students went on a two day field trip during the first two days back in school. As a result, teachers were allowed to take the days off, giving us five days to do whatever we wanted. We used those five days to do a trip to Qingdao (pronounced Ching-Dow), which is on the East Coast of China, well North of where we are at in Changzhou. It is known as a coastal/beach city, as well as being the home of Tsingtao Beer. This blog entry, and the next one, will summarize the trip. [In a prior draft, I wrote that the name of the town was Tsingtao. It was called that at one point, but now it is known as Qingdao, with both being pronounced the same way.]

As all trips start out, this one started out with planning on how to get there. Qingdao is not accessible by one direct shot, because you have to go up and then around the coast. Trains take 18 hours. Because of this, we made the bold decision, believe it or not, to take our one, two and four year-olds on an overnight bus trip. The bus, designated a sleeper bus, took only a short 10 hours.

Our bus left at 8:30 p.m., which we thought would be fine because it was right when the kids would be going to bed. We headed down to the bus station at about 6:30. After we had taken a local bus and were preparing to transfer to another bus to get to the station, we realized that we left one of the sippy-cups at our house. We knew it would be a long night already, let alone without the all important sippy-cup. As a result, Jane and the kids hung out at the local bus stop while I ran back home and grabbed the cup. We then headed down to the bus station, going to McDonalds for dinner, where we saw a few co-workers who were taking the train to Beijing for the vacation. After eating, we headed across the street to the bus station (we had never been there before). While walking, we then realized that we left Evelyn's blanket at home. However, it was too late to go back and get it, so we would have to make the sacrifice (I say we and not Evelyn, because I knew we all would be paying for the mistake). We made it to the station at 7:55, and we were told that we were at the wrong place. Apparently, we needed to go to the North Station, and we were at the New Station. Luckily, the bus was going from the New Station to the North Station and then to Qingdao. Because we were there before 8:00, they just let us get on early, and they therefore didn't have to stop at the other place. We barely made it.

A sleeper bus is, as expected, a bus that you sleep on; or, if you have three kids, one that you don't sleep on. After putting luggage beneath, you got on the bus and took your shoes off. There were three rows of "beds", left, middle and right. Because we were getting on last minute, we were scattered all around the place. The driver's assistant, however, put us in the same lane across, moving some others around. It is hard to describe how it works sleeping on a bus. As stated, there are three rows, and each row is two stories tall, with a person on top and a person on bottom. Each person gets a bed, which was probably six feet long. The head portion of the bed was elevated, and the feet portion was sunken, so you were not quite laying horizontal. This is because the feet of the person behind you went under your head (separated by hard plastic), so that they could squeeze as many people on as possible.

We were the only people on the bus with kids, and most of the other people were men. There were a few televisions scattered throughout the sleeper. When we got on, there was a relatively violent gangster movie. Dan was completely transfixed on it, even though we kept trying to distract him. I tried to get our portable DVD player going, but it would not work. It didn't work all weekend, and I think it has died after all of the wear and tear. We tried to get the girls to bed right away. As always, I slept with Evelyn, Jane with Etain, and Dan on his own. For the most part, it worked pretty well. [I guess it is one of those situation where it is horrible while it is going on, but as soon as it is over you think that it was not all that terrible]. The worst part about it was that Evelyn (and Etain)is so picky about sleeping, and since the spot is so tight already, it is very uncomfortable. For about three hours, I slept on a six inch sliver of the bed, with my arms raised above my head (don't bother trying to picture it, just rest assured that is was uncomfortable). After a while, I felt like I was in traction, and my upper limbs were entirely numb. But, I guess this was better than having the girls waking up the entire bus screaming. The girls and Dan did seem to sleep acceptably, and Jane and I probably got an hour or two of decent sleep in there as well.

Our bus actually arrive about a half hour early. When it stopped, only a few people got off. The kids were still pretty much asleep (as it was about 6:45 a.m.), and it was hard to tell what was going on. Jane did get up and ask, and we were in fact there. The bus started moving, however, which had me a bit panicked. It stopped for us about a block down the road, where it let us out in front of a hotel. We had no idea where we were going (directionally; we had a place set up already), so we went inside and got directions. We then got a cab to our place, which was about a 10 minute ride away. The cab cost about $2.

The first thing I noticed about our place was that the entrance was up 15 steps, which meant that every time we went out, the stroller, kids and any bags had to be lugged up and down. We got in, and it was too early to check into our room. However, they did have a lounge area, which was open. We hung out there until our room was available. Our place was a hostel, and the lounge in the basement was actually pretty cool; we spent a lot of time there. At 7:00 a.m., the place was empty, so it was nice to have a spot to finally relax after the long night. Our room was soon ready anyway. We got a triple room, with three beds in one room with its own bathroom. It was perfect for what we needed.

We decided to get cleaned up and then we just headed out for a walk to get our bearings in the city. Our place was probably 12 blocks or so from the coast. Even though it was hazy and cool, there was some pretty good sightseeing. Here is a picture of Dan along the coastal sidewalk. In the background is Zhan Pagoda (pronounced John). If you ever buy a bottle of Tsingtao beer, this pagoda is on the label.

Here is Evelyn after getting cleaned up at the hostel's lounge.

Here is Etain on the morning that we arrived. Her face is covered with sweet potato. We bought a few sweet potatoes from street vendors. In Qingdao, though, they were cooking in makeshift broilers, and not in trash cans. Lah-de-dah!

Here are some of the fresh seafood offerings that are sold at most of the street corners. These octupi (this did not pass spell-check, but I think it is correct) were so fresh that they escaped the container a few times, though they did not make it far.

Here is Dan with some of the other fresh fish offerings. Everywhere you looked, there were fish hanging around to be sold, fish swimming around in tubs outside of restaurants (I say fish, but I should say 20 different types of fish, clams, turtles, frogs, eels, etc.). Drying and preserving must also be very important in Qingdao, as every other store had bins and bins of dried seafoods and vegetables. One of our favorites were dried sweet potatoes. (I hated sweet potatoes until coming to China, now I actually like them (as I may have mentioned earlier)).
Here is Dan with another local dish, a starfish. Dan was looking at it because it was bright purple, and he (and I) couldn't believe that people ate them. The guy selling them probably had never seen a blond kid before, much less three of them, so he gave it to Dan. Unfortunately, we still have "Stinky", as we have named him. We touted this thing around for three days, despite the overpowering smell. It is now out on our porch, with the hopes of drying up and stinking less.

Here is a picture of Dan and Jane walking along the beach on the first day that we got there. It was quite cool and there was a mist in the air. Our family was bundled up in winter clothing, which seemed appropriate. Despite the weather, there were a few dozen people wearing bathing suits, playing volleyball and exercising on the beach. There were even a few people swimming as if it was a hot summer day.

Jane says that, according to the travel guide she read, one thing that everyone must do in Qingdao is swim in the sea. I could see how this would apply for a summer vacation, but not in the winter. I figured, instead, that it was a trap set by the locals. Only someone crazy enough to read the travel guide and actually believe it would swim in the freezing cold. That way, the locals can easily spot the tourists (as if we do not stick out enough already), and they can easily swarm you as you get out of the sea, shivering. While your body focuses all of its energy on warming you up, your brain does not work as well, and they can try to overcharge you for nicknack's that you have no use for. It is quite a ploy, if you ask me. We, however, were wise to their game, and we did not do any swimming.

Here is a picture of Dan and Jane along the same beach, showing some of the large buildings in the background. These buildings are of a small district, though, and they come nowhere close to the buildings that exist in downtown Qingdao. I thought that the small dome-shaped building right on the water looked cool. I figured it was going to be some fancy place, as it reminded me of the Sydney Opera House. When we walked closer, though, we discovered that it was an abandoned restaurant and bar.

Where we stayed in Qingdao was known more as the old part of town. The government of Qingdao, I understand, basically built an entirely new district in one of the suburbs, which became the new central district. We never made it there due to time and weather constraints, but some other people that we met said it was like San Fransisco. Everything you could possibly think of was available in about one square mile.

Our area was neat as well. It was full of activity, as there were tons of shops and street vendors everywhere. Jane really liked it because it reminded her of the towns that she stayed at in China 14 years ago. It was also very different from our city of Changzhou. Changzhou is very new, grand and clean. There are high-rises everywhere, and the streets are lined with flowers and gardens. There are only a few streets that have all of the activity that existed in Qingdao. There, every place was full of stuff. Resultantly, it was quite a bit dirtier (where we were, at least), but that is just because there are tons of people on the sidewalk at any given time. The beach area and the boardwalk were very nicely kept though. Here is a picture of the kids and me at the start of one of the many streets lined with vendors. I think the woman to my left was selling slippers and underwear.

Here is a picture of the girls bundled up in the stroller from the first night. The first night was cool, but not necessarily cold. I think this picture is funny because I think Evelyn looks like a tough-guy muscle man who does a ton of weightlifting for upper body, but has little spindly legs. She seems to have a face that says, "You want a piece of me?"

Here is Etain playing at one of the tables in our hostel's lounge. It was very trendily decorated.

Here we are, again hanging out in another corner of the lounge (we were there often, as it was easy, relaxing and familiar). Dan and I are playing Power Rangers on Playstation 2, and Jane and the girls were just hanging out, waiting for their lunch.

On the first night, we didn't really know where to go for food. We decided on one restaurant because it had a variety of meats and vegetables, and you could pick your own. We were expecting to be served a big bowl with rice and a bunch of mixed ingredients. Instead we were sat down at a table and in front of us were placed two lighters and boiling pots. The waiter brought over two broths, one spicy and one mild, and then they brought over the meats, tofu and vegetables to the table, all still raw. We needed to get the broths boiling, and then we added whatever ingredients we wanted to each pot to make our own personalized dishes. It was good, and Jane and I thought it would have been a great place for a date night. It was not the greatest place, though, for small kids. Etain was very cranky from the minute we sat down, as she was starving. It is hard to explain to her that she has to wait for broth to boil, and even when the broth was boiling, it was a full time job sorting out all of the ingredients that each kid would want in their bowls. The broths then boiled, sometimes spitting sprinkles of extremely hot water out on the table. To say the least, it was a full time job getting each of the kids fed and satisfied. I pretty much wolfed down anything that was left as the others were getting up to head home.

That night we all were pretty exhausted. Dan and I hung out in the lounge for a bit while the girls went to bed, but I would say that we were all fast asleep by about 9:00 p.m.

For day two, Jane planned for us to visit a scenic neighborhood park area, along with a stroll to one of the public beaches. We all woke up, ate breakfast and headed outsite to find that it was very cold and drizzling. It was not raining too bad though, and it looked like it was going to clear up, so we piled into a cab and headed to the park area 10 minutes away. When Evelyn got in the cab, she walked all over the back seat. The cabs here, for some reason, all have white seat covers. Given that Evelyn's shoes were soaked and dirty, the seat soon gained that fate as well. The driver was not too happy. He was then cut off, and he mumbled things to himself and shook his head for the last five minutes of the ride. I think he was just having a bad morning, but he was pretty happy to see us go.

We got to the scenic area and strolled around, but the weather really did dampen the mood. Qingdao was a German colony long ago, and there are plenty of buildings throughout the city that have distinct European architecture. The area we went to had plenty of that, and Jane mentioned that it seemed a lot like being in Europe. However, because the weather was bad, we did not stop to take many pictures. Instead, we decided to find a place to have a quick and early lunch and to decide what we wanted to do. We walked along the shoreline for a very long time, but everything we came across was closed. We assumed that it was "off season", and the particular area where we were only catered to beach dwellers. We probably walked for about 1.5 miles before coming to Underwater World, which was one of the attractions that we had read about before coming. Though we had no prior intention on going there, we decided to try it out, because it was indoors.

First, though, we stopped in for lunch at a small restaurant across the street for noodles and rice. Here are Dan, Evelyn and I (Etain was asleep in the stroller). What you are looking at is half of the restaurant. It had four tables, about 12-15 mismatched chairs, and a kitchen that was about 3 feet by 6 feet. Not a lot of glitz and glamour here. Except for some very fancy restaurants, such as ones that are in hotels, this is what most of the restaurants are like (I call them the real Chinese restaurants). You can easily feed a family of five for 3-4$, and Jane and I think that this is where most of the best food can be found.

Here is Evelyn walking along the entrance to Underwater World. It was situated right on the coast of the sea. On the left of the picture is an enormous hill (or a small mountain) which was hollowed out to contain the acquarium and museum. To the right, on the other side of the wall, is about another 50 feet of rock, and then the sea.

Underwater world's entrance. As may be gathered from the title, it was a museum of all types of sea life, along with numerous aquariums.

Here is a picture Jane took; I dont know much about it. I can only assume that this tank housed alligators or sharks, which is why the Chinese took such care to keep kids away that they put up a rope. You pretty much have to take care of yourself here when it comes to living cautiously, there is not a lot of concern for what could possibly happen. Survival of the fittest, I guess (no offense to Evelyn).

Evelyn really liked the sea turtles, which were very active. I dont know what it is, but even the faces of the turtles seem to look Chinese to me.

Here is a shot of one of the monstrous fish that were swimming around. It was in one of those tanks that allow the fish to swim on both sides and above you, such that there is a tunnel inside of the tank for you to walk in. There were thousands and thousands of fish. This one, I would say, was about 4 feet long. I didn't appreciate how big they were until I saw a diver in the tank feeding some of the fish. He was much smaller than some of the sharks and stingrays that were swimming around him.

Here is Etain after waking up from her nap, checking out some of the animals swimming overhead.

Here is a decent shot of Evelyn along the wall of one of the many tanks.

Here are Jane and the kids in front of another tank. This particular tank was tubular and it was three stories high, with a coral reef running from top to bottom. There were tons of saltwater fish inside, most with bright colors. It was pretty cool because one of the movies we have been watching a lot lately has been "Finding Nemo". We saw plenty of fish that looked exactly like all of the characters in the movie. Evelyn walked around pointing and saying Nemo for about an hour.

Here is Etain checking out one of the sharks. It is not the best picture of the shark, but it had a long and jagged snout that looked exactly like a hedge-trimmer. I am pretty sure that I knew these things existed, but I dont think that I had ever seen one before in real life.

Etain peeking into the alligator pit:

Side note: Hopefully this is one of the last pictures you see of Etain with a pacifier in her mouth. On the last day of the trip, we lost hers. Now that we are back home we have another one, but we are trying to ween her off of them. Tonight will be her second night going to bed without one. Evelyn was a bit more vociferous about keeping hers, but we are trying to get them away from her as well. Tonight will be her first night sans paci.

Second side note: As I finished that sentence, a sonic boom went off outside our apartment. A new store just opened across the street, being somewhat like a 7-11. To celebrate they had balloons and flowers throughout the storefront. Now, at 9:40 p.m., there is a fireworks display. It will probably last about 10 minutes, with the fireworks being extremely elaborate. Fireworks are a typical way of celebrating, and you will hear a display going off every other day or so, at any time of the day. (In the back of our house, there was a display at another store at about 5:45 a.m. the other day).

After Underwater World ended, we still had a large part of the afternoon left. We decided to go on a tour of the Tsingtao Brewery. We wanted to do this anyway, and with the poor weather, it was the perfect time to go. Here are Dan and I standing outside the brewery. I cant remember what the sign said exactly, but it says something like "Tsingtao will bring you joy and happiness."

In the middle of the tour (we did our own walkthrough, not a real tour), we came across this tiny room. Jane initially passed it up with the girls in the stoller, but Dan and I went in. She came back when she heard Dan laughing hysterically. As soon as you walked through the saloon-style doors, the floor declined at about a 30 degree angle. It was like a fun-house room where everything was slightly off center. Dan was slipping and sliding all over the place. The girls then joined in on the fun. It really made you feel like you were very drunk. It seemed like a weird thing to have at the brewery. It seemed to give the impression of "Look at all of the fun you can have when drunk" as opposed to "Here is how drinking can negatively affect your senses." There was a camera outside; here is a pic of us all stumbling about. Right after we got out, a big tour of people in their mid-twenties came along. Dan went back in and put on a show for them, knowing that they were all laughing at his slipping and sliding. It was hard to drag him away from the stage that he was on.

Here we are at the end of the tour having our complimentary half pitcher of Tsingtao. It was really hitting the spot, and it tasted a lot different than the beers that you would get in a bottle at a restaurant. The kids were snacking on popcorn that Evelyn ordered. She went, on her own, with some Chinese ladies to another part of the room to get refills. After Jane, she seems to be communicating the best, followed closely by Dan. Bringing up the rear are Etain and then me.

Here is Dan, trying to act cool while taking a picture with a new lady-admirer. We hung out in the Tsingtao bar for about an hour and a half or so, becuase it was actually a great place for the kids to run around. There was an empty stage where they danced and performed for the slightly inebriated crowd. Everyone was paying attention to them and they loved every minute.

After the pitcher ran out I ordered a Tsingtao dark. I commented to Jane how much better I thought it was. We were then talking about something else, and when I went to take a drink, I saw Dan taking a swig. I honestly think he thought it was soda or hot chocolate or something. Either way, he did not like the taste of it, which we were fine with hearing.

After the brewery, we ate dinner at another tiny Chinese restaurant. We ordered noodle dishes and lamb kebobs, all of which was great. We tried to find a taxi home, but they were all taken. Jane met some women who told us what bus to take and for how many stops, so we decided to chance it. I was sure that we were going to get lost, but sure enough, Jane got us to our place in pretty good time. This time I went to bed early with the girls while Jane hung out with Dan at the lounge, but it was a long day and they were in bed not too much later after us.

Qingdao Part Two will come in a day or so...

Recent Trip to Pagoda Park

For the most part, the weather has been pretty cold recently. We have not been making it out as much, especially because we have been working on getting the new apartment up to speed. We now have telephone and internet, and we are borrowing our friend's laptop until break. So we are up and running with new commentary and pictures.

We got a break from the cold weather the other day, which we used to go down to pagoda park. It was a great day, nice and cool in the morning and even slightly warm in the sun. Here are a few pictures from that day.

At the entrance of the park, there was a large bed of red and yellow flowers. It matched Dan's yellow sweatshirt, so we grabbed this pic. Dan still has some sweet potato on his face, as we ate sweet potatoes made in a trash can before entering the park. The highlight of the park, for the kids especially, was the playground. Here is Evie preparing the climb the ladder which accesses the slide. She went up and down the same place roughly 600 times.

Here is a shot into one of the tubes on the playground. Evelyn and Dan are on the other side, but all that you can probably notice is the slit in this kids pants. This is how children are potty-trained here, or, put another way, it is how they are not potty trained. Almost all of the young children have these slits in their pants. Sometimes, you will see a diaper on the baby, but the diaper is simply a pad, it does not wrap around and tie to the child's waist. Jane and I found this out when we tried to buy discount Chinese diapers. What we thought were full-blown diapers were simply these pads. We used them for Evelyn, putting them on the inside of underwear. She is so close to being potty-trained, she tells us when she needs to go, but she refuses to go on her training potty.

Diapers here are extremely expensive, as are all childrens' items. Jane wanted to buy a sippy-cup the other day, but they cost about $10-12. Our hope is to potty-train Evelyn, and soon thereafter hope that Etain will follow suit. Maybe Jiu Jie will help in this crusade as well.

Here is a good picture of Evelyn, Dan and Jane in front of the pagoda. For the most part, the air has been very hazy. However, on our one day off, it was very clear. There were tons of Chinese families touting their children around the park, taking semi-professional pictures of the little ones.

Here is Evie smelling some flowers in the park, and ripping a handful of them out of the ground.

Dan and Evelyn in front of the pagoda.

Evie in front of the pagoda:

A good shot of the pagoda alone:

At the park, there is one section where there are about 7 or so fish tanks full of different types of goldfish.

Sorry Etain fans. She slept the entire time that we were at the park. We did not want to wake her, so we tried to keep her completely secluded in the stroller. Otherwise, there would be tons of people trying to peek into the stroller to see her, eventually waking her up. As a result, we could not get a single picture of her.

Across the street from our new apartment complex is another complex in which many foreigners live. In that complex is a kindergarten, conducted fully in Chinese. It is very nicely run, with many of the teachers speaking conversational English. Two of Dan's friends go there, so we enrolled him there as well. Below is a picture of him on his first day of school at the new place. So far, he really enjoys it.

Sorry for the short and succinct writings. Tomorrow we hop on a night bus to Chingdao for a 4 day vacation. We will be sure to take plenty of pictures, and we will keep everyone informed.

Quick notes

Just a quick post while I am at work. I am looking out the window and I see 18 construction cranes. New stuff is going up everywhere. Entire buildings seem to get put up in a few months. The quality of construction does not quite compare to back home. On a walk near our house the other day, we walked next to a building that is just being finished. As we were walking by, the fencing that keeps people out of the site blew down. Inside were women in their 60s or so, hauling off the large construction waste. They hauled it off in wheelbarrows, which were then dumped into a cart which was pulled by a bicycle to the dump. This doesn't seem like the most efficient way to do it, but I guess there are enough people to do it, who will work around the clock for low pay, and so it is the preferred method. I may be wrong, but I think that the small waste, such as paper, nails, wood shavings, etc., just gets left behind and planted or paved over.

Also, on the construction site were clotheslines with the womens' clothes drying. Though there are plenty of washing machines, there are very few dryers; everyone hangs their clothes to dry. It takes quite a while now that the weather is getting colder. It is quite common to walk down the sidewalk or go into a restaurant, and right out front hanging will be the shop owner's underwear.

The weather is beginning to change, and it is starting to get a bit colder. Yesterday, our day off, was a great day though for jeans and a sweatshirt. It seems like the weather pretty much is the exact same, with the same seasons and all, as in St. Louis. I did not bring my winter coat, thinking I could make it through the semester. It appears that I will have to buy one here though to tide me over.

Jane and I went out the other night with a couple from Italy and a guy from Germany. We went to a Thai restaurant, where we had a private room. The food was good, but at one point, I ate something which I thought was a carrot shaving. It turns out that it was a pepper that was ridiculously hot; my mouth was numb for about 5 minutes. After I cooled off, we went to a dance club, where the most popular song was a very techno-dancy version of "Take Me Home, Country Roads", sung in English by a Chinese singer. It was pretty cool.

These are just a few random thoughts, I know.

Halloween

It has been extremely busy around here over the past few days. As I said earlier, we have been moving into a new apartment about 12 blocks away. All of our stuff is now in that apartment, and we are quite comfortable there. Except for a few trips using a car, I pretty much carried all of our stuff to the new place on my back. On one trip, I had a comforter and two pillows on my back sandwiched between me and an enormous backpack full of clothes. I was also pushing our double stroller, but inside the seats were our water cooler, water tank, and plastic bags full of food. Needless to say, I got a lot of stares from the locals. But it was all worth it. There are just a few more kinks to work through. First, we had to fix the hot water, but hopefully now we have that working. The new place also does not have a phone hooked up, but we have informed the landlord and we think she is taking care of this. We will provide the new phone number (via email) once it exists. Lastly, our new place does not have a computer or internet hookup. [I am actually sitting at the old apartment now working on the old computer]. Rather than lug the computer to the new place, we decided that we will just buy a laptop when we come home in January (electronics are actually cheaper in the U.S.). I will still try to get to posting as soon and as much as possible, though.

Here are some pictures from the past week or two. First, next weekend is when we have our traditional 3 day weekend. Our schedules have been changed a bit, and now I do not work on that last afternoon, so I actually have a 3.5 day weekend. Jane and I also heard through the grapevine that we will not have to teach on the following Monday or Tuesday, so we are going to basically have 5 days off. Resultantly, we are going to take a trip. There are two front runner locations, right now. One is Chingdao, a small beachfront town that use to be a German Colony (and the place where Tsing-Tao Beer is made); or Daishan, a beachy island that is scenic and laid back, accessible by an overnight ferryboat. We have heard good things about each, we now just need to make up our minds. Here is Evelyn (the true author of this blog), doing some research as to where we should go. Here are Evelyn and Dan in the old apartment, most likely watching Annie. I remembered my younger sister Kathleen liking Annie as a kid, so I got it at a local dvd store. In the past two weeks, we have probably watched it 75 times. The songs are, regrettably, permanently etched in my brain. (It actually is a good movie, though). Evelyn does a hilarious impression of Annie when she is going to fight some boys for tying cans on her dog's tail. Our family must remember to ask her to do it when we come home to visit.

We headed downtown the other week with our day off. Here is Dan, waiting for the bus, practicing some tai-chi moves.

Here is Dan later that day climbing one of the statues in the park. As you can see, he has taken off all of his winter gear that he was wearing earlier. The mornings are nice and cool, but mid-day the temperature has been perfect. I would be happy with this temperature all year long, but I do not think it will last more than a few more weeks. (I may be wrong, but I always thought that I heard people say that "Indian Summers" would be followed by harsh winters. Here, they do not have Indian Summers, but they did have a "Tiger Autumn", which means winter will be bad. It should be no surprise to us Missourians, though, who are use to seeing the weather at its worst.)

Here is a shot of Etain after a bath. Jane thought she was looking especially angelic, so she decided to take a photo. Unfortunately, she says, I had to be in the frame as well.

A big event over the past few days was Halloween. The Chinese do not celebrate this holiday, so it was up to the foreigners to coordinate any activities. Whenever activity coordination comes up, especially if dealing with kids, Jane jumps up and takes charge. She played a huge role in our school's Halloween celebration, and she also planned with another mother/teacher a party amongst all of the foreigners who had children. Here are Dan and Evelyn dancing at the foreigners' party (most foreigners are from Europe, and specifically France, just in case you were curious).

Here is Etain, caught red-handed trying to "pick out" a Halloween treat.

Here she is in a more flattering pose.

Here are the sanga (three) kids at the party. It was held in a ping-pong room in a complex across the street from us. There were three ping-pong tables, covered so that we would not destroy them. We had to be out promptly at 6:30, because that is when the games began.
Another picture of the kids at the party, showing off the decorations that Jane played a major role in making.

Here is Evie eating her popcorn. I am excited to visit in January so that family can see all of the kids, and especially Evelyn. She seems to have changed the most since leaving. She talks constantly, and is a total performer. Other notes on the kids. Etain is doing pretty well, but for the past day she has been feeling somewhat sick. She is not her normal self, which is independent and happy. She walks everywhere, as she did from day one. She climbs everything. One of her favorite things to do is climb onto whatever piece of furniture you are sitting on, climb into your lap and lie down, waiting for you to tickle her belly.

Evelyn is on the brink of being ready for potty-training. She tells us when she does her business, and we bought her a potty seat. She sits on it a lot, but so far with no results. As soon as she is trained, Jane plans on trying to get Etain trained early. In speaking, Evelyn uses both English and Chinese, with plenty of Evelyn-ese mixed in as well.

Dan is doing well. About two weeks ago, we took him out of the school at which Jane was teaching. The days were too long for him, he was too young, and (most importantly) he was learning very little Chinese (the main thing that we wanted). We thought he would benefit being home with Jiu Jie, which he has. He is doing very well with Chinese, and he plans to teach everyone when we come home to visit. The other night, he and I went out for dinner. I ordered jiedan lomien [gee-dahn low-mi-en], which is like home-made chicken noodle soup with a fried egg on top. I could eat it twice a day, seven days a week. Dan had some noodles, and he also had lamb kabobs. The kabobs are prepared on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, so while I sat at our table, he watched the man barbecue. At one point, he jumped up and down, saying, "I did it! I did it!" He then informed me that the cook asked him if he wanted lao jiao (lao-jao [I don't know how to spell it any differently for phonetic purposes]). Lao jiao is hot sauce, and Dan said, "Bu yao," which means, "I don't want it." He was very proud of himself. Tonight, before I left, he counted to 100 in Chinese, without any problems. [He is 4. I saw an old kindergarten report card of mine from when I was five, which said that I could count to 27 without error. He can do four times better, and in a different language. But, to my credit, Chinese counting is much easier. Instead of having confusing terms like twenty, thirty, etc., they just count two-ten, three-ten, so instead of thirty six, they say three-ten-six. Heck, I can even count to 99 (I do not know the word for 100).] Right now, Dan's Chinese vocabulary is probably 5 times what mine is, and I have been studying in my spare time. Also, we plan to enroll him in another Chinese kindergarten. It is on the campus of a housing complex in which many foreigners live (across the street from our place), including some of his friends. Though it is totally in Chinese, it is very well run. We are hoping that it is the best of both worlds: he learns Chinese and has entertaining activities (we suspect he may be getting bored hanging out at home with his two younger sisters). He starts next week.

Back to the pictures. Here is Dan at the school party (he no longer goes to school there, but they had him as a special guest). He is playing pin the nose on the pumpkin, a game that Jane made.

Here are Jane and Dan and the other students of the school (only her primary school took part in the Halloween party, my teenage students are too cool.) As can be seen, Dan was Batman.

Striking a pose:

Here is Dan and his buddy Eric, from his old class. Eric is 6 or 7 and is the top student in the class. Despite the age difference, he and Dan had some sort of special bond, and they both missed each other when Dan left the school. They were happy to see each other.
After the Halloween parties ended, we were exhausted and went to bed. The next day, Saturday, was Jane and my 5th anniversary. We planned on having Jiu Jie come over that evening to watch the kids so that we could go out. At 7:30 a.m., our front door opened and Jiu Jie walked in. We told her she did not have to work for another 10 hours, so she gave us some breakfast that she bought and headed back out. Jane was sure that she told her the right time, and she thinks that she just stopped by because she likes us. She came back later that evening, and Jane and I headed out. First, we went to an Indian restaurant in our new neighborhood. They served, along with the food, large Budweisers, and it was the first time I had this beer in China. It tasted better than Chinese beers, but different from Budwiesers you would get in the States. After dinner, we found a hotel nearby our house, because Jiu Jie was going to stay overnight with the kids. The place was extremely cheap, and quite nice. I would recommend it for any visitors. We then headed out to a dance club, which gave us a free bottle of champagne at midnight. We hung out there for a long time, probably too long, and then crashed back at the hotel. The next day, Sunday, was my birthday. My gift was the greatest gift of all, a day of rest. Jane took the reigns with the kids and let me relax.

After that, it was back to work, which has been the situation since. We saw today that Obama is the president-elect. For the most part, American politics are not heavily discussed here; any discussions take place among foreigners, and the opinions are all over the board. Of the Asian people that I have spoke with, they are happy that Obama won, because they are very anti-war (any war, in general). On our one English speaking television channel, though, there is concern that Obama will hinder free trade between China and U.S.A., hurting the Chinese economy (a concern here, and probably a desire for many in the U.S.). I have no intent to discuss our political views (especially since Evelyn, the true writer of this blog cannot vote for another 16 years), and so I will say simply that I hope it all works out.

Thanks for reading.

We are still here

I just wanted to drop a quick note to let people know that we are alive (sorry, no pictures). For the past week, in addition to school, we have been moving into our new apartment. Our new place is about 12 blocks from our old place. We are now completely moved in and are doing well. Our new place is brand new, we are the first people to live there. This means that it is perfectly clean and modern. I will put some pictures up soon enough. Our old place was not appropriate for the kids, in that it was dirtier (to the point of being uncleanable), drafty (bad in the Winter), and it had no play area for the kids (only a parking lot). Our new place solves all of these issues, as there are playgrounds outside, and the place is in much better shape. Jiu Jie is probably the most excited about our move, as she spends more time there than we do.

To move, we borrowed a friends car one night and did a few trips, and I also walked a lot of stuff over the past few days. We are now in and Jane is happy to have a place that we actually will decorate.

We also have had two Halloween parties, at which we took many pictures. Jane and I went out for our anniversary, and we found a very good hotel for any visitors to stay at, costing about $20 per night.

Unfortunately, our new place does not have a computer hook-up yet, so we have not been able to download pictures from our camera. I will try to take the camera to work to get pictures up here, as there are some great pictures of the kids in Halloween costumes. Further, we do not have a landline telephone in our new place. Any attempts by people to call us would, obviously, not have worked.

But we are still here and are doing fine. I will do a new blog in a day or so, with pictures. We will also get things sorted out. Hopefully when people are cruising the Internet to find out about election coverage, they can stop by here to see a new entry.