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!

Christmas in Macau

Macau is a small island off the coast of Hong Kong, about an hour ferry from our city of Shenzhen on mainland China. Originally, a Portuguese colony first claimed in the 1800's, Macau developed into an European city with strong Chinese undertones. When Hong Kong was returned to China in 1999, Macau was as well. Now it is a hot tourist destination for well heeled Chinese folks who like to spend $250US/night on a hotel on the "strip" and gamble. Many call it the Las Vegas of the East.
We had learned all of this before deciding to visit there with the Correias and opted to stay in the old Portuguese section instead. Russell, who is Portuguese American, had wanted to visit Macau for a long time and we were more than happy to see it too. So here is what we found -- beautiful European looking cathedrals, a fantastic old, but still used cemetery, archaic, narrow streets, blue and white tiled fountains and walls, detailed mosaic sidewalks throughout the town center, motorcycles galore, amazing food... Also, because of this very cool Portuguese and Chinese fusion, there were beautiful Catholic churches and Buddhist temples. At nearly every shop entrance, there was an one foot high Buddhist altar with little incense and fruit, offerings to the god of prosperity and good business, I was later told by my very knowledgeable TA, Ms. Hou.
Anyway, we were all pretty taken with this little island. In the following pictures you will see a Catholic church, Renata and Hope in front of the Square's Christmas tree, lights above the town center, the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral and a Buddhist temple. Enjoy!!!