Video

Double tickle torture of the two girls...

Birthday Invitation

Anyone who thinks they can make it to Dan's 5th Birthday Party is invited. No need to bring a gift if you spring for airfare.

Also, my sister asked a question regarding the last blog. Shipping is expensive, there is no way around it. It is even more to ship things from China to the U.S. than it is to ship the other way around. (This, I guess, is why we have not been flooding people's mailboxes with letters and gifts). Also, most of the keyboards on computers here are just the same as in the United States. Every once in a while you will see one that has some characters on them. There are two types of Chinese writing. One is pinyin. This is writing using English letters and words are spelled out how they sound. Pinyin is how I have been writing the few words on here, such as boudza and ni hao. Pinyin is very rarely used. The more common writing is with characters. The computers have a system in which the characters can be typed, but it is difficult to use (for the Chinese). There are tens of thousands of characters, and so to type one, you have to hit a combination of different keys. So to type a certain character, you have to hit a group of keys until that character is created (I guess the combination is based on pinyin, but I am not sure). This means that typing a single character can involve typing 4 or 5 different keys on the keyboard. Our office computers are often set to this Chinese setting, so every once in a while you will just sit down, start typing, and on the screen will be Chinese characters. Pinyin typing is also very difficult, because there are four tones in the Chinese language (an up tone, a down tone, a falling and rising tone, and a neutral tone). Each tone is written out in the word with signals over the letters, so that its meaning (based on the tone) can be understood. For example, the simple word "ma" can mean many different things based on what tone it is said in, including: mother, hemp, sesame, numb, game, horse, morphine, headboard, mark, and to scold. It is these tones that make Chinese difficult; otherwise the language would be much simpler.

I will try to post again shortly.

A Nice Late Christmas

Hello. I am at work now typing on our new computer. We have exams right now in all of our classes. I do not give any exams today, so I basically have most of the day off. As a result, I can play around with a few things here, such as how the pictures are loaded. Two days ago, we received a package in the mail from my mom full of Christmas gifts. The kids tore into them and it was nice to get some gifts a bit after their ones from Santa have already become a bit stale (to them). Evelyn, still in the Christmas spirit, wore her Santa outfit. As you can see above, Dan received a Game Boy Advance, along with a few games. He has been playing them religiously every night. The girls also received a lot of dress up clothes, which they really enjoy. Evelyn has been wearing her pair of play high-heels constantly. Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying their toys, which we are thankful for.

Here is Princess Etain, dressed in her royal garb. Interestingly, she hates having barrettes in her hair, but she loves wearing her tiaras. I guess barrettes are not fancy enough.

We also received a doctor's uniform. Both Dan and Evelyn really liked it. When Evelyn put
it on, we thought that she really looked like a
physician (except for the pink princess high heels).

In addition to looking like a doctor, she also looks like any Chinese woman walking down the street. It is very common to see people wearing these masks to cover the mouth and nose. In the warmer months, people wear them so as to not get others sick. I think this is also true in Winter, but I think they wear them as well for an extra layer of protection from the cold. It has gotten noticeably colder in the past few days. It rained for the first time in a long time a couple days ago, and ever since there has been a cold dampness in the air. This morning when I walked to school, there were very small snowflakes falling, though they would melt immediately. Snow is quite uncommon in this area of China (We are on the same latitude, roughly, as Jacksonville, FL or Austin, TX, and so weather in these places is similar. As a result, we are always just a bit warmer than in St. Louis). According to accounts, last Winter there was a foot of snow that fell here, and the entire city shut down for about a week (which is not too terribly surprising to me; imagine trying to ride your bike to work in a foot of snow).

Here is a picture of Dan wearing his Star Wars costume that he received. The legs were very tight on him, so it took a bit of work to get it on him. After it got on, it stayed on, and he wore it to bed that night. The costume is great because lately he has been using construction paper to cut out masks of different Star Wars characters, so I am sure it will get a lot of use.

Yesterday, when I woke up for school I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. However, no water came out of the faucet. When I turned on the shower, a few drips did come out, which I used for brushing. We found out when Jiu Jie got to our place that our entire building's water was turned off for the entire day, to be put back on at midnight. Luckily we had a full bottle of drinking water for the girls to use. When we got to school, the water was not working, and we found out that it was not working for any of the other teachers as well. It turns out that the entire Northern part of the city (where we live) had no water. (I assume about 2.5 million people were affected). [Imagine Chicago telling the entire North Side, "Sorry, no water today."] I guess everyone used the bottled water for cooking and cleaning, but what a mess (to make sure you know the extent of the issue, toilets could only flush once, taking half of the day to refill with a slow trickle of water.) Luckily, we cooked a lot of pasta previously, so we had dinner without the need for a lot of cooking or cleaning. As promised, the water was turned back on at midnight; this morning there was water, though it spurted out of the faucets erratically. Hopefully this problem solves itself very soon.

Also, along with the water, another weird thing happened yesterday. I went to my bank to find out all of the deposits and withdrawals that have gone on in the past two months. (We get paid by automatic deposit, but we do not get any receipts or anything, so it is up to us to check that we have been paid enough. (I also worked some overtime, so I wanted to check)). When I got to the bank, they showed me all of Jane's transactions without a problem. When they pulled up my info, though, nothing worked. They could show me my balance, but they could show me no information about my account history. When I asked if they would have it later, they said probably not. I will try again later, but it seems quite possible that that information is simply lost.

These are just two of many different things that happen all of the time. As a foreigner, you are definitely not use to these things happening. But, you are taught that sometimes, you simply have to shrug your shoulders and say "T-I-C; This is China."

Sai chen.

New Years

Hello. Here are a few pictures that were on the computer from the past week. First we have a picture of a dinner that our nanny (called an Ayi, which means aunt) made for us. After Jane and I returned from work, Jane gave her 20 yuan, which equals 3 dollars. She left, bought all of the ingredients, and then came back and cooked with Jane. As you can see, there are many vegetables, which is common in all of our dishes. We eat considerably less meat than we did in the U.S. It seems that we now get our protein from peanuts and eggs in the same amount as other meat. On the plate, from top left clockwise, are a sausage stuffed boudza (which are a favorite of Dan, Etain and Jane), a zucchini/cucumber type vegetable with ham (the ham here is not very good, it is a lot more like Spam), cucumbers with chicken, sprouts, and brown rice with broccoli. I wanted to remind myself to take a picture of the rice bin at the store. My experience in the U.S. is that there is brown, mixed grain and white rice. Here, there are numerous types of white rice. At the stores, white rice sits in huge bins and you fill your own bag with it. There are always at least 4 different types of white rice, which all look the same to me. Every time you go, there will be people pondering for several minutes which rice to get, running their fingers through the rice and doing a very thorough inspection. Jane finally found a store that sold brown rice, which we like more since it is healthier for us. When Jiu Jie saw our brown rice, she told us that we should just throw it away. Here, brown rice is looked at as cheap and dirty; she thought we were crazy for wanting to eat it. Just one of the several differences that we have noticed.

Here is a picture of Evelyn being thoroughly entertained by 'Home Alone', one of the many Christmas movies that we purchased.

This past weekend Jane and the kids and I ran downtown to do some shopping. When we got off the bus, I ran to the bank to withdraw money, and Jane and the kids headed towards the store. Apparently they were met along the way by a large rodent of some sort, which was picture worthy. Evelyn is wearing her new coat that she got from Santa. Even though it was not too terribly cold of a day, everyone was pretty well bundled up, as it was windy. It was about 9 degrees Celsius. [The conversion from Celsius to Fahrenheit is Fahrenheit= Celsius x 9 / 5 + 32. Using this, 9 Celsius equals 48 Fahrenheit].

Here are Dan and Jiu Jie, who watched the kids as Jane and I went out for New Years Eve. I did a poor job of adding pictures, so I will talk about New Years Eve further down.

Here are three pictures of the kids eating breakfast one morning. I was already at work this day, but Jane wanted me to put all of these on here as she thought they highlighted each child's personality quite well...

First is Etain, wearing her princess tiara, which she wears consistently. It also suits her well, as she is seen as the queen of the family. Just before writing this I had to fill out visa information for the kids, signing each of their names to forms. After I signed Dan and Evelyn, the Chinese girl who was helping handed me Etain's form, saying, "and now for the cutest..." Etain seems to know it as well, as she expects to be spoiled, often getting what she wants.

Here is Evelyn, wearing a onesie and her boots. She must have been feeling formal this morning because normally she would wear only the boots. This is suiting for her because she is the crazy one, quickly establishing herself as the clown of the family. She is also very independent. Our tile floors get extremely cold. As a result, we always try to keep the kids well bundled. Evelyn hates it when we get her dressed up, and minutes later her clothes are off. She does whatever she wants, and that is that.

Here is Dan, the sweet and serious one. He wanted to wear a tie to school this day, which is not uncommon. He has really taken on the role as a good big brother (and son). He constantly helps and tries to teach his sisters. He is also constantly interested in what is going on. The kid also talks constantly. Jane wants to write a journal of his one-liners, which come daily.

OK, here are Jane and I before going out for New Years Eve. We ended up going out to a bar/club that I had not been to yet (Jane went previously with our friend Jenny). We started out the night by meeting up with Jenny at her place. When we got there, she was not in her apartment, but she was rather in a neighboring apartment where a Filipino teacher lived. When we walked in, there was a large assortment of foods, and the Filipinos (there are 4 Filipino teachers) were all sitting around singing karaoke. They are always doing this, as they love their music. The karaoke choice of the night was Abba, which, even though I liked, I did not sing. After karaoke we headed to the bar. I was hesitant to go because Jane told me that it was a very packed club with extremely loud music. When she went previously, she said that the dance floor lighted up and moved (I think you just stood still, and the dance floor shook back and forth to the beat of the music). I was interested in seeing what it was like, but I was not looking too forward to being shaken all night. When we got there, though, instead of going to that part of the club we went to a different part on the 4th floor (the shaking dance floor was on the 1st floor). This place was much better, as it had tons of space with tables and a large bar (It was actually like a bar that you would see in a Chili's or Applebees, only much much larger, with a DJ stand and little platforms for dancing. There ended up being about 20 or so foreigners that made it out, mostly being teachers from our school and from another school here in town (everyone pretty much knows each other). We got a small table right in one of the aisles, and pretty much hung out there throughout the night, spilling out into other parts of the bar from time to time. I drank beers, which most people do not have (To get a beer, you go to the bar, order it, your order is then given to a runner, who goes to the kitchen area and fetches the beer, bringing it back to you. They do not keep beers directly at the bar, I guess because they are rarely ordered). Most people drink mixed drinks. Commonly, a table will get a large bottle of alcohol and several mixers, and people pour their own drinks out of large carafes at the table. A lot of people at the clubs are interested in hanging out and getting to know foreigners. As such, you get offered drinks and cigarettes (all Chinese men smoke) from other people. One guy, just to meet all of us, bought an entire bottle of Jack Daniels for the table. There was a countdown at midnight, with a small amount of celebrating the new year (mostly from the foreigners), but otherwise the holiday was not seen as different from any other night (at least this is the impression that I got). It was a fun night, and we were out until about 2:30 a.m. Anyway, as stated long ago, here is the picture.

Finally, here are a few pictures of the pig-tailed girls, hamming it up for the camera.

Today, Monday, is the first of two days of teaching for us, and then we have 3 days of end of semester exams. Next week we have a day of closing ceremonies, and then we are off for break. We are still trying to decide what we are going to do for break (every travel option that we look into is extremely expensive).

Now that we have a new faster computer, and maybe some extra time with the holidays being over, I will try to get another post in here relatively soon. Saichen until then.

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).