Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Renata and I admiring this corner piece of Angkor Wat.Ruins of Naga, the many headed sea serpent, who helps create the world out of an ocean of cosmic milk. Yeah, whatever.

Fish Foot Massage in Cambodia

Here is one for cheap thrills. For $2/person, we were able to get our feet massaged (nibbled on) by hundreds of fish. Yum!

Incredibly ticklish. Victor giggled so loudly when he stuck his feet in that he embarrassed the kids.

Definitely worth the price of admission.

Angkor Wat

This is a side photo of the BIG Angkor Wat. It is the one on the Cambodian flag, the one that you picture when folks talk about Angkor Wat. Look at that sky! We never get skies like that in southern China.

Here is one of many carvings in the sandstone in a smaller Wat in Siem Reap. After going to the museum, I learned that she is an ASPARA, a dancing Hindu nymph. Isn't she fabulous? She does that thing with her fingers and wrists that all the Cambodian girls in Portland can do. So cool.

Cambodia, first impressions

We are in Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat, one of the seven man made wonders of the world. I honestly never thought that I would go to Cambodia, so this is such an amazing feeling to be here.

When we arrived at our airport which had Asian flares on the roof, we were greeted with the welcome smell of grass and various Christmas trees. Immigration was a breeze and then our driver from our hotel found us. He guided us to a motorcycle driven tuk-tuk. Luc's eyes lit up when he realized that that was going to be our airport transport.

Tanei Guesthouse is tucked into a busy street in Siem Reap. We walked into an entrance with a giant buddha and myriad plants and bushes. Luc picked up a fruit, asked what it was, and the driver said, "Mango".

We generously thanked the men who carried our bags up three flights of stairs to our room. The ATM gave Vic a $100US bill which is not so great for tipping. We thanked them a lot, tho'.

Then we turned on the AC, noticed the many TV channels not blocked here as opposed to China and fell asleep.

A 5:00 tinny, repeated tune carried up to our room from the street. It even woke the rooster next door who also started crowing. I thought it would be like Malaysia with a brief and loud call to prayer and then stop. So did the rooster, I think. But now it is 7:32 and the tinny tunes remain, unending. As my colleague Tami says, Really?

The Great Wall of Beijing

So, the great wall really is as amazing as everyone has said. I totally get that 7 wonders of the world thing...
We were lucky because today was a Monday and there were few crowds at Mutianyu part of the wall. To add to the excitement, we had a choice of a gondola up or a ski tow up. We took the ski tow up, enjoyed a sunny lunch and much walking on the wall. (Can you see that atypical blue sky over Beijing??) Magic! Finally, we took toboggans down, making a great day even better. I kept saying to myself, "I can't believe I am here, I can't believe I am here....." as Vic asked me,"Did you ever think you would be here?"

Silly scenes in Beijing

The kids inside of our hutong. What's with Luca?After lunch at Bei Luo restaurant. We got great food and a Mandarin lesson.
Cold!!! Renata models her new panda hat!!
Chloe and our clan being nutty!!

Hutong Hotel in Beijing

Here is Vic entering our hotel in the hutong in Beijing.
The hutongs which are connected traditional buildings were first built in the Tang Dynasty in the 700's. They were added onto in all of the subsequent dynasties and dramatically expanded during the last Qing Dynasty two hundred years ago. The reason I am so taken with these neighborhoods is because they were where the regular folks lived around the Forbidden City. So families who wanted their boys to have a better life first made them eunuchs (ouch!!) and then sent them up to the royal empire of the Forbidden City.

Here am I getting ready for the day in our hotel. The bathroom is tiny, but functional-- referred to by expats here at "shit, shower, and shave". The other great part of the hutongs is how they are adapted to and lived in now. Here are Marie Laure, Luca and I enjoying a more commercialized section of the neighborhood.
The crowds, as all over China, are massive. Victor shot this photo because he liked the dancing Pooh balloon over the sea of Beijingers.
Here are construction workers fixing the roof...

Hiking Dragon Back on China National Day, 10/2011

After what began as a tough day for some of our family, this turned into an amazing day on Dragon's Back on Hong Kong island. Can you believe that this is the most densely populated city in the world? Look at these views. This city continues to surprise and impress me.
A view of Big Wave Bay....
A slim and fit Mr. Serio...
I like this shot because with a little imagination you can kind of see the bumps in the dragon's back. Right? And oh yeah, the kids are touching AND not hurting each other.

Shekou International School X-C meet in Guangzhou

On September 24th, the SIS cross country meet competed in an invitational 5k in Guanzhou. Although we have a small team, we managed to snag a 3rd place for the boys under 16 division. Well done, Noah!

Victor and I are co-coaching along with fellow SISers, Brandon Little and Hillary Lauder. The coach to runner ratio is a two-to-one; this must be all the talk about small class size in the private schools...

Featured to the left is Cindy finishing her run with Renata next to her. Renata due to her summer illness decided not to compete in this meet. She did happily run the last 200 meters with Cindy, the last female finisher. Great shot, I think.

Below is our whole team. I have grown very fond of these high schoolers and one middle schooler and really enjoy spending time with older students two afternoons a week. Coaching staff rocks as well.

Home?

So this is our new view from our office here in Mount Orchid. As you can tell, it is a smoggy day and also looks like it may rain. I am so contented these days so much that the terrible air doesn't even touch me.

Home, I am learning, is a sense of place for sure, but truly my pack. So for me, that is V, R, and L. It helps when they have friends over and are noisily enjoying the Wii. It helps when cookies are baking in the oven. It helps when NYPD delivers a large cheese pizza promptly at our door. It helps when Discovery has Shark Week on, but even without all of these creature comforts here in China, home is just us four + Patch, but I am not even stressing about his absence. We lived together this summer and he adjusted surprisingly well to all of the home hopping. I have every confidence that he will love us equally when we return to Portland.

I know we only have months left to this very cool international post and I am trying to drink it all in this year. Watching Vic weave in and out of traffic on his e-bike, watching Luca stop goals on the soccer pitch under my gym window, listening to tinny Chinese music in Sihai Park, noticing all of the special moon cakes on display in Vanguard and Park n Shop.

So certainly not perfect, but home, just like our real home.

Amy our ayi

Here is Amy, our amazing ayi. Renata and I just flew back last night. After my shower, I was delighted to see our ayi, Amy, in the office ironing Luca's t-shirts. I know, I know, but she irons everything.
I took her picture and told her that she was the person about whom most folks back home wanted to learn. She laughed and smiled for the camera. And when I showed her the photo, she said, "That's good."
All ayis make ex-pat life easier, but our ayi is especially excellent at helping our life run smoothly. When she helped me unpack my suitcase, she found a skirt with a broken zipper and said that she will bring to a tailor to replace it. She also had our beautiful Chinese tapestry framed for just 180 yuan--about $25 because she compared shopped on our behalf.
Please post questions about Amy or ayis and I will try to fill in any blanks. Renee

What did I learn this year in China?

We've been out of school for 4 days and it seems like a good time to reflect on the year here in China. So here is a list in no particular order of what I learned this year.

1. Kids are really adaptive given time and opportunity

2. Geography is more interesting if you know people from there.

3. Bad air really sucks

4. I am functional in Mandarin, but the worst in my family

5 It only bugs me that Victor is better

6. Ovarian cysts, when bursting, hurt a lot

7. Water is good for you

8.Chinese and Korean children work really hard; a joy to teach

9. Grade 1 rocks

10. Living in an apartment is so much easier than a house

11. Really still miss Patch

12. Skype is a godsend for those of us away from our families

13. My father in law knows so much about China

14 Fresh local fruits are a true treat

15 Starbucks still rules the planet, even here

16 Online news is useful, but not like a real paper

17. Christmas and Easter in China are just terrible

18 Having an ayi is such a luxury

19 Chinese people, one on one, are so interesting and lovely

20. Chinese people are terrible drivers. the worst

21. Driving an electric bike is a thrill every time

22. Sweating all the time really stinks

23 Chinese babies=so CUTE

24 love Facebook now more than ever

25 Reading Workshop really works

26 Raising chicken and duck eggs is gratifying and terrifying at the same time

27 Dog meat does not taste like chicken

28 Turtles should never be part of a soup

29 Miss my mom

30 Moon Festival and Chinese New Year are very cool holidays

31 It is okay to be stared at-- a lot

32 Don't miss any of the processed food

33 But peanut butter is a daily thing for me

34 Dumplings and bao are so good

35 travel in Asia is cheap and quick

36 It is lovely to see my husband so relaxed and engaged

37 Pirated DVDs should cost only 1.00 everywhere

38 Living without a car is really easy

39 Ex-pats take care of each other

40 New Zealanders use some very funny expressions

41 Constant construction is noisy, messy and a pain to negotiate on a e-bike

42 the Corrieas are the nicest family

43 Max and Zoe were the lovely guests

44 It is not so hard to cook a western feast in China

45 Walmart products are really different in China, but still a terrible place

46 Having a mountain behind our apartment is a godsend in a city this congested

47 Really hope we have more guests to share these cool experiences with next year

48 It is easier to drink too much when you don't have a car

49 Thailand really is all that

50 Playing eucher with Vic, Renata, and Luca in various places is still my favorite family activity

Poetry Jam, April, 2011

Killed a baby chick today

In my grade 1 classroom, we are knee deep in growing things. We are watching tadpoles grow legs. We are watching silkworms molt and prepare to cocoon. And our tour de force incubator act includes (d) 15 chicken eggs and 5 duck eggs. Many other classes have come by and watched while I candled eggs to show them the growing embryos-- extremely cool thing actually to be able to seeing the developing baby fetuses.

Anyway, after the students of 2C left, I realized that I couldn't see anything in two chicken eggs. Having read that that was probably a sign of a non developing embryo, I culled them from their siblings and opened the eggs. The first egg that I opened had a barely developing yolk and had indeed stop developing. In the toilet went that one. The second egg, however, was hard to open and had a thick sac-- that should have told me that I was doing something that should never be done, particularly during Holy Week. So, once the egg was opened, what's a girl to do? I cracked the shell further and discovered to my horror a small black chick with a beating heartbeat--- AAAAAAA. I cried out and stashed it into the trash can in the bathroom. Then, like, Lady MacBeth, I washed my hands over and over. I just can't believe that I, protector and lover of all things small and furry, killed a chicken fetus. Just can't believe I did that... What if that was the only viable egg and now it's gone?? I have vowed to stop handling the eggs all together. Just so wrong....

Who needs a mini van?

Here are Vic and I returning from the local grocery store for our Sunday shop. Yes, that is a full set of 10 rolls of toilet paper in my lap. Fortunately, we have that super handy front basket for the perishables. We had the guard at our apt complex take this picture. He was chuckling, too!

Model United Nations, 2011, SIS

Model United Nations is an afterschool activity that Renata participates in. She has been busy for about a month preparing to represent India in the two areas of education and child soldiers. She has done a lot of research on India's literacy rates and % of child soldiers. Pretty cool stuff.

Yesterday she and her brother participated in the Model United Nations for southern China hosted at her school. Luca was a page for social and economic council as well as human rights council. Both of the kids are seated in the second row up-- she is two from the left and he is nine from the left. At the end, kids are elected by their peers for different titles. Renata was elected "Nicest" and "Most Likely to be Secretary General some day". She wanted to be elected "Hottest" but that went to another deserving middle schooler. She did score highly for "Best Informed Delegate" as well.

Next year when she is in high school, the Model UN is held in Singapore. Cool!! Luca will be a delegate when he is 7th grade as well.

Pretty proud of our kids today!!!

Proboscis and Orangutans and Macaques, oh my

Victor and I were fortunate enough to be able to attend a teaching conference in Borneo, Malaysia last week. We stayed at a beautiful 5 star resort in a city called Kota Kinabalu. Four pools, bowling alley, tiki bar, incredible food you get the idea...
However, what was even more fortuitous was that a short 45 minute flight across the island brought us to a nature preserve for endangered orangutans to which Renata has been buying trees since she was in 2nd grade. Cool, huh? Because to be honest, when you live in Portland, Maine, there are not many locations that are more remote or exotic than the island of Borneo.
So we took a 7 am flight across the island and were able to hire a van and driver to ferry us around two nature preserve. Not surprisingly, lots of folks visit that part of the island to see orangutans. What we learned we arrived was that the trip can be a bit of a two-fer or, in our case, a three-fer. First, we drove out to the orangutan preserve and arrived in time for 10 am feeding time. As we and the crowd of about 100 folks there learned, orangutans are kinda shy, so they take a while to show up for their snack of fruit and milk. Macaques, other hand, are happy to put on a show and eat orangutan leftovers. The bottom picture
features a mom and baby grooming. Of course, she just said, "Lift your arm, for god's sake."
Meanwhile, behind the macaques, three orangutans were swinging down ropes and filling their bellies. Finally, fifteen minutes into the side show, the big daddy orangutan featured in this second photo lumbered onto the stage about 10 feet from us. He was majestic. When I smiled at this beautiful 200 lb creature, Renata corrected, "Don't smile, Mom, he will think you are challenging him and attack you." Well, there is that.
When we returned to our taxi, our
driver brought us to a neighboring nature preserve that protected proboscis monkeys. These are the funny guys who are featured in the other two photos. According to my biologist husband, the males with the biggest noses are the ones that get their own pack, get to eat first, get groomed the most frequently because, "turns out the ladies like the big noses..." Really? Here is one of the dominant males in picture three. Just fabulous...

Sihai Park in Shenzhen

One of the great benefits of being a grade 1 teacher is getting to go on field trips. On Wednesday, we took our first graders to this local park about 15 minutes from our school. I was so taken with the variety of things to do there that I took our friends and family there again today.

To the left was a 15 piece band including two flutes, 3 mandolins, a cello, and 4 Chinese sitars (???). Of course the music was a little tinny for my western ears, but watching all of these folks play so joyfully for whoever showed up to watch will be something I won't forget.

Beautiful shaded areas dot the park. Here are the kids in a tree before they were asked to get down. What I didn't photograph were old guys playing Go and mahjang tiles, ballroom dancers, tai chi followers, and babies, babies, babies.

In other sections of the park were bumper car rides, foot powered boat rides, Chinese talking cockatiels, a tea house, duck and turtle fishing...

Finally here is a shot of a giant bull that was erected when they built the park four years ago. It was the year of the bull four years ago, of course.

The Lantern Festival

So it turns out that fireworks kind of go on endlessly around the time of the Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival. Today, we learned in our Chinese tutorial, is the 15th day after the first day of the new year and is a festival called the Lantern Festival. There have been more dragon dancing, more cool dress up clothes, hard to recognize, but festive snacks, and right now at 8:45 in cool and rainy weather, endless firecrackers and fire works. I think this is the official end of the Chinese New Year so I guess that dogs are sleeping a bit more peacefully in China tonight... I couldn't help myself.

Learning Chinese. Today was our 5th lesson and despite what the kids say, we are getting better--learning more vocabulary and syntax, of course, but also learning more about the Chinese culture. Yesterday, I read a book review of "Dreaming in Chinese" by Deborah Fallows She, a linguist and fellow struggler with Chinese, posits that one can not truly understand a culture without being fluent in their language. That idea has been kicking around my head a lot and made some sense to me today when I learned that Chinese use the word zhu zai "to live" to describe wherever you are staying or visiting. So when Cherry, our tutor, found out that we were going to a hotel for one night this weekend in Hong Kong, she said that she would teach us "visit" or "stay at" dai zai but it is better to say zhu zai even if just for one night.

Maybe it means nothing, but I was thinking about how we definitely delineate home, house and other in English and would never say we lived in a hotel unless we were Eloise at the Plaza...right? What do you all think?

One Night in Bangkok

On our way to Koh Lanta, we spent a night in Bangkok. Yes, we sang that song endlessly much to the annoyance of the family with whom we were traveling. On our one day of sightseeing, we decided to take a boat ride down the river that cuts through the city. These are some of the shots from that trip. I don't actually know the names of the structures, so I will label the best we can. one of the wats, temples...
backside of big, golden Buddha. Isn't he fabulous?
Just a sign above a street near our hotel...

Monkeys and Elephants in Thailand

These are some of the beautiful animals we met in Thailand last week.
The baby elephant was a part of a roadside attraction. We paid $3 to feed and pet him and his parents. That is Renata in the helmet; we were motorbiking across the island of Koh Lanta and just happened upon the elephants and the fruit stand.
The two shots of the macaques came from a kayak trip in a mangrove forest. When we parked our kayaks close to the shore, our guide pulled pineapples and bananas out of his satchel. That is Luca getting up close and personal with the quickest one who saw the fruit in his hand. Amazing. I hated to miss any of the action by even taking pictures. Unforgettable.

Sick Day in China

I am into comparing and contrasting our life in Portland and our life here in China (duh), so here is how a sick day shakes out in Shekou.

First, it is pretty common in Shenzhen to eat food here that is suspect. So Saturday night, we had a Chinese New Year celebration on my Jingshan campus that offered amazing food, steamed buns (bao), dumplings (jaozi), strawberries coated in caramel on a stick (???Chinese name). Somewhere in there something did not agree with me and Vic and thus it is Monday am and I am writing this blog from a Starbucks at a local mall called Garden City.

Why not home, you ask? Great question: our ayi, read maid, works from 8-12 M-F picking up, cooking and cleaning for the Serio Clan. Amy, our ayi, is a bit of a task master and I was reluctant to tell her not to come in. So I could barricade myself in my bedroom with a bathroom thankfully attached, but it is still kind of weird to have a 90 lb Chinese women swiffering Chinese style, hanging 3 loads of laundry, changing my kids' beds and making dinner for my family while I read and watch yuku in bed. I know that you understand... so here is how today has gone so far and will until Amy leaves and L and R return home.

6:30 Rouse the kids. Both try to also take a "sick day". no doing

7:10 Vic drives Luc on his motorbike to my campus so that Luc can board the bus with his friends there. On most days, Luc walk and yaks me to school. He waits on the soccer field while I turn off for my classroom in building 6.

7:25 Put a load of laundry in -- so Amy does not think I am a total deadbeat --take a shower and find my 14 year old watching "How I Met your Mother" on TV. "Is this how you usually spend your time before you catch the bus?"I ask. "Yup," she responds. I remind her about her teeth and her hair and her homework. She appeals to me once more about a team sick day. DENIED. She kisses my cheek and off she heads down the elevator to catch the Lan Qi Kou school bus to her school-- same as Luc's, but they are loathe to arrive together.

7:35 Vic returns and rushes through the shower so that Amy does not arrive with him unclothed ( I know you get this). He and I make a list of groceries for her to buy and we head out the door before her 8:00 arrival.

8:00 We also enter the elevator where we meet a sweet older Chinese lady who abruptly closes the door on my side. After a flurry of "Dou bu qi"s, (I am sorry) and my polite "mei wen ti" (no problem), she talks to us and tries very hard to be understood--she does the whole repeat in a different way thing...Finally, she spells on her hand "SCHOO" and I say, "Oh, school? Shide, Women shi laoshe!"(yes, we are teachers). She smiles, we smile. She says either you are very loud neighbors or aren't we lucky to have such nice Americans to teach our children English? and Vic and I nod and say,'Xie, xie. Zai jian"(thank you, good bye)

We board our motorbike and traverse the back streets to Garden City. Many folks are walking to work, selling the aforementioned bao on the sidewalk, biking to work in miniskirts and high heels and/or full suits. Of course, there is also a flurry of taxis, buses, and cars. Vic manages to squeeze the bike on the right side of the right lane and my foot rakes the sidewalk. Finally, we cross a major intersection and arrive in the rather large bike parking lot next to Walmart which is all decked out in Chinese New Year red. In front of the Walmart, we walk past a dozen retired Chinese women doing a fan dance to tinny Chinese music emanating from a boom box. This is zumba class, Chinese style. Very cute.

So here we sit, Vic on his laptop and I on mine. Both of us are hopeful that no colleagues see us here and more importantly that the coffee/tea and toast settles our stomachs.

Pictures of Renata, Luca and Hope, Christmas, 2010

Here are the kids!