Mu's mansion and mountain views from the Old City

Breakfast yesterday at Lamu's House of Tibet, our new favorite place, right across the street from our inn.

Michael had the Tibetan breakfast special: yak yogurt, yak butter tea and tsampas..all tolerably good, but weird.

Helen wants you to know that Mommy bought her a ring that a big girl would wear, and she is taking excellent care of it.

We went exploring to the Mu mansion, a Ming-style palace on the edge of the old town, where the ruling family of the area once lived. It had fallen into disrepair and was completely destroyed, but was reconstructed from historical records in 1998. So it has that new feeling, but still visually pleasing.


My favorite part was the hillside Jade Garden, with some flowers still in bloom even in January.

From the garden we began climbing up the covered stairs to the Lion Hill Park, with views of the rooftops of the old town and the mountains beyond.



Thomas took this picture..a nice one, I think. The weather has been cold (in the 40s) and crisp, with some sun.

We visited a Taoist temple, where we didn't take pictures but did have a nice chat with the priests about the girls. The priest told me my Chinese was very good...nice of him to lie like that.

The yin yang symbol is associated with Taoist beliefs.

Please forgive all the mountain photos -- I am so captivated by the views.



I love seeing all the babies on their moms' backs...a few minutes before taking this picture, we ran into some people we know...what are the odds? They are teachers from Xi'an who had been on the Sichuan bus trip with us back in October. They had just finished hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge-- the major hiking destination around here for the hardy twentysomething crowd.

At night we wished on a floating candle and followed it down the canal through the city,

Altogether a satisfying day..in the afternoon we spent several hours doing nothing...reading in the courtyard while the kids watched gong fu movies on TV. After the little girls went to sleep, we left Thomas in charge and walked two steps out the door for a drink, which was a thrill for us..and a foretaste of the future when Thomas will be old enough to babysit regularly!

Lijiang --our Shangri-la

Here is our little home in Lijiang, emphasis on the little...but the inn is in a fantastic historic part of Lijiang called Old Town. Block after block of narrow winding alleys and traditional architecture.

This is our courtyard with Helen in our doorway. I was really happy to find the place scrupulously clean -- quite a treat for 3 star accommodations in China, and only $50 a night including high speed internet in our room. So you will be hearing from me after all.

A little about Lijiang -- it is in the far northwestern part of Yunnan, not far from the Myanmar border. It is in a valley which has always been a crossroads between the Tibetan plateau, Myanmar and the rest of China. As we flew in , we saw a lot of snow capped peaks which surround the valley. If you want to stretch it a bit, which we are happy to do, you could call these the foothills of the Himalayas. We're hoping to see them up close later in the week after adjusting to the altitude. The Shangri-la reference is based on James Hilton's novel, "Lost Horizons" which I bought last night in a book shop. About 4 Chinese cities claim to be the inspiration for the book, and one was even renamed Shangri-la by the provincial government. Lijiang's claim is flimsy, but since I am here and not there, I'll take it.

The streets of the Old Town are a delight. It does all seem a little bit staged for tourists, but really well-done --the kind of tourist place that makes you glad you are a tourist. And since its winter, its not too crowded. And Sophia would like you to know that there are PONIES in the streets.

Thomas even took a ride and posed in the guy's giant furry hat.

Helen had to have a turn, too.

We had some Yunnan coffee on a balcony overlooking the square, and some local dancers began down below. Check the video, if you can.


This area is the historic home of the Naxi people. Their weaving and crafts are in shops all over, and they have their own written language, Dongba, which is the only known pictographic language still in use. I bought Thomas a Dongba dictionary yesterday, so we'll get him to blog about it.

The architecture of the Old Town has been preserved and maintained with lots of money from UNESCO. In the late 1990s, an earthquake destroyed much of Lijiang. But the traditional Naxi buildings withstood the quake - only the modern buildings were damaged. So traditional style ones were built in their place, enlarging the old neighborhood and ensuring a steady flow of money to preserve it. Architecturally its stunning.

We strolled around a bit yesterday, although we were tired and had lugged our bags all the way across the Old Town, because the cab dropped us at the wrong gate (no cars are allowed in). A fellow tourist, Chinese guy fluent in English, helped us find our way. Every one is so friendly here, we have met some nice people from all over the world, including a California family who now lives in Shanghai.

This woman was sure that her demonstration proving that her silver was real (that's a blow torch she is holding) was going to get me to buy a $25 silver bracelet, but I wasn't ready to commit -- did get Helen a ring there which she is treasuring, but I fear will be lost this week...

Love all the local costumes, though some are a bit elaborate.

More tomorrow.....

Amazed by Shilin - the Stone Forest

We had vowed to see the Stone Forest rain or shine, so despite the 80% chance of rain in the forecast,we hired a car to drive us there - about 2 hours away. On the way, the driver was quite insistent that we stop off and see this temple on the side of the mountain. Turns out, it was quite impressive, though there was not enough English signage for me to give you the name. I will look it up some time. There was a giant gold happy Buddha to greet us.

Absolutely beautiful flowering trees among the statues...I mean this is January!!

Some of the most colorful and best preserved temple guardians we have seen in China yet.

A strange mandala of some kind...see Helen's reflection?

You would NOT want to mess with this guy...I think the temple is in good hands.

Finally we arrived at the Stone Forest..and no rain! Only some wet drippy rocks, which added to the effect (and the excitement, as the stone stairs were a little slippery. The stone forest is a major tourist area, although by arriving at lunch time and foregoing lunch (I had packed peanut butter and crackers) we avoided nearly all the tourists.

A lot of the larger stone formations have names...this one is named Ashima, who was a girl in love with a boy in the true Romeo and Juliet style legend. The local ethnic group here is called the Sani, and there were tons of costumed Sani people all over the place, giving tours, etc. We scoffed at the idea of a tour guide, after all there was an English map and lots of signs....

Sophia took some time in the backpack, and we fed the ravenous carp in the Lotus Pond.

Then we discovered the "Deep and Narrow Valley and the real adventures began.

These formations were made by water..some of the area was under water and everything was delightfully damp and moss-covered.

There were numerous caves and crevices, and the paths led deeper and deeper into the labyrinth. Lots of stairs.

Sophia, powerful two year old in her yellow boots, did a fair amount of climbing on her own, especially when the low clearance made it impossible to keep her in the backpack.

Thomas led us in..and without a guide, he eventually led us out...but in the mean time there were some moments when the map and signs did not match up, and I felt a rising tide of panic....we were supposed to be at the car in 20 minutes...where were we? Suddenly we spotted the first human we had seen in a half hour or more, and found that our path had led us out right by the entrance to the park!! So while we didn't see the whole forest, we saw the deepest and darkest part and were all pretty satisfied with that.

We came back to go for a swim in the hotel pool which was quite cold. Only Thomas and Helen ventured in.



In the evening we had a meal of Yunnan specialties..although they were out of the herb and chicken dish I wanted, we ate pretty well..I really liked the fried cheese (its a sheep's cheese, but tasted like feta..fried with a sliced of Yunnan ham..delicious. Thomas liked the huge side of roast beast..I think pork..that we ordered based on the menu pictures. On our after dinner walk we saw this man making chalk pavement drawings...

Tomorrow morning we leave Kunming for the smaller and more remote town of Lijiang, where we will spend the rest of our vacation. I really have had a very positive impression of Kunming. I have said that I couldn't imagine anyplace other than Xiamen where I could really enjoy living..but I would love to live here. The pollution has not been a factor (although hard to tell, since it rained)..it was warm and pleasant, especially when the sun came out in the afternoon, the people are laid back and friendly, and the city has a nice open feel in the modern downtown area, and a diverse and eclectic feel in the old city market. Overall -- I would really recommend it for a visit!

Kunming -Green Lake and Crossing the Bridge Noodles

If we're lucky, you can watch a video I shot at the Green Lake Park in Kunming at the bottom of the page. There were hordes of gulls on the lake, like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock when they got to swarming the paddleboats.

So naturally we had to get a paddle boat, and the men folk provided the leg power..actually Helen pedaled briefly but her legs didn't really reach, and Thomas would not give up his spot to me. He liked steering the best, but we did bump into the underside of a few bridges.


Do you see how even Sophia is into the "chezi" 2 finger pose?

Kunming is called the eternal spring city..as this tulip bulb in January will attest..being forced for the Spring Festival, I think.

Some old timers provided the musical backdrop...

As it began to drizzle we left the park for a bit of shopping. In the folk craft store, Helen and Sophia got caps made by the Yi people.


The shopkeeper and I managed to communicate about the different styles of dress for some of the local minority groups.

Ok -- this is Chinglish, I know, and I am stealing it from Michael, but this good advice belongs here with the "Crossing the Bridge" Noodles, 过桥米线 (guò qiáo mĭxiàn)

The famous local dish features super hot broth topped with a thin layer of oil (hence the sign) in which you quickly add slivers of meat, fish, egg and vegetables while at your table....then the delicious rice noodles and ready to eat!


So the story behind the name is that a woman whose husband was studying for the imperial examinations would deliver his lunch to him every day. She had to cross a bridge to get it too him, so she made the broth really hot to be sure it would still be warm for him.

After lunch it began to rain in earnest, so Sophia slept in her stroller while we passed an hour in the Yunnan Provincial Museum. Lots of artifacts from the bronze culture of the Di people 3000 years ago, discovered in the 50s when some bronze artifacts turned up in the bird market and an archeologist spotted them and began to dig...thousands of pieces were found, large and small.



There were also a lot of Buddhist treasures from Dali, a city about 4-6 hours away, which we are bypassing due to traveling with small children.

The weather broke and we had a nice stroll around town, towards the pagodas, on the way, lots of Ming-era architecture (Xiamen has almost none, so its a treat)

This incongruous building was my favorite...


Finally the pagodas...West Pagoda, in a crumbling neighborhood.

Sophia looking very local and attracting A LOT of attention..a car stopped in the middle of the road to stare at her.


And the East Pagoda, a little better kept up, although the area around it seemed too "gentrified"with chain restaurants going into fake Ming era buildings.

We went back to the hotel to watch a video and out for a late dinner. Because we are party people and veteran parents, we selected McDonalds for tonight -- a popular choice, though not in the Lonely Planet Guide. It even had a tiny play area and hong bao (red envelopes given to children for Chinese New Year) in the Happy Meals (coupons for free pops inside). When you are a kid who has been sightseeing for 6 hours..McDonalds is a highlight.

Do you love Thomas's new look or what? Its a Chinese do-rag.

On the town in Kunming

We have arrived in Kunming without incident and our 3 star hotel has free internet so here we are. The weather forecast is rain and low 60s...so when we arrived we set out right away to the central square of the city, where we saw some old gates surrounded by modern urban development. Kunming is bigger and more modern than I expected.

There is more evidence of the diversity of culture that the Yunnan province is famous for. We ventured into the Muslim neighborhood and found a street market full of all kinds of foods.

Dried fruits, nut candies, glutinous rice dumplings served at New Years...stall after stall. We bought a ton of nut candy, having acquired a taste for it in Xi'an, but not being able to get good stuff in Xiamen. Feeding candy to the kids was a recipe for a successful explore of the old city.

We did not buy any dried fish, however....

Nor did we have room in the backpack for the roasted pig that Thomas wanted...

How about some Yak meat..only 50 yuan per kilo..

The old city is slowly crumbling, and newer developments are encroaching, but we really liked the old world feeling.


Some fried squid was tempting..

There were tons of pipe stores, well, actually "bong" shops...not sure exactly what is being sold to put in those things.

The market is called the Flower and bird market...and finally we did find some birds and flowers, just as it started to rain.

There were lots of crafts and artisans at work. It was hard not to buy a ton of stuff.

Thomas managed to acquire some meat on a stick...


And Helen saw her buddy the ubiquitous Huan Huan, as we made our way back through the upscale shopping area. We did take refuge in a hot pot restaurant and had a good dinner.

We topped off the evening with dessert at Haggen Dazs - which was insanely expensive at $4 each for a tiny scoop of ice cream.

Why I like Chinese

This is my character practice book, where I write the characters I am learning over and over again..

This is our Chinese textbook.. I am proud to say that Michael and I have finished this book just this week. In fact this morning we have a "test" from our tutor. There are about 175 characters in this book, Unfortunately while they all look familiar now, there are many I can't remember consistently. The more complicated ones are made up of smaller pieces, called radicals. The same radicals appear in numerous characters, and these are the ones I tend to get confused by. But one thing is interesting is that certain radicals have a meaning which helps you to figure out what the character is about. An example is Lao shi 老师. The Lao character has a cross sitting on a horizontal line with a diagonal line through it on top. That radical means respect, and the character Lao means elder..Lao shi is teacher (see the relationship?) Its fun to try and find the connections this way, although some characters are used just for sound and the game doesn't work.
I also like learning written Chinese to reinforce the oral language. There are just too few sounds in Chinese for all the words. Even if I could keep all the tones straight, which I do not much of the time, there are still a lot of duplicates, where you need the character or the context to know which one it is. Somehow knowing how it is written is a help with keeping them straight in my head.
I have a Chinese name 林 子安 ... Lin Zi An ...we worked on it with our teacher. Lin is the Chinese word for "forest" , and is also a common surname in China, so that seemed easy. An is phonetic for Ann, but also means peaceful/contented and Zi is just a sound the teacher threw in there to make it sound better. 林 峰 Lin Feng is Michael's name...Lin for Forest and Feng means mountain summit, the teacher thought it was a good choice for Michael's lofty thoughts, I guess. I have been using Ann Forest in China to simplify things, but it turns out that in China, women do not take their husband's name, so our teacher thought it sounds like we are brother and sister. You just can't win.
I do feel that I am at a plateau with speaking Chinese. I know enough words, no doubt mispronounced badly, to survive..find a bathroom, order dinner, ask what things cost...but not enough to ask interesting questions, nor understand complicated ideas at all..Plus I talk like a 2 year old most of the time, with the words in the wrong order, etc. Still I amuse the Chinese people around me with my efforts, which counts for something. But I am not sure how much progress I can make in the next few months. At least with the writing I feel the progress, as I am slowly able to read some signs, recognize other characters as I am riding the bus, etc.
So although I have not been posting, I have been busy. I have also been corresponding with some folks by email, and my mother in law got Skype, so my correspondence time has been busy. Tomorrow we leave for a week in Yunnan (check the map below), our big vacation. The campus is emptying out, even the convenience stores are closed, so it will be good to get away. Of course taking three children to a new place is not exactly relaxing, but it will be stimulating, I hope. Yunnan is a place famous for its natural wonders and colorful ethnic minority culture. We will go to two cities...Kunming, the capital, and Lijiang, as small city up in the mountains, closer to the Myanmar border. If you don't know where or what Myanmar is, think Burma. I am hoping to blog from there, as Michael is bringing the computer and the hotels have promised DSL, but we'll see. While fairly remote, Lijiang is a haven for Western backpackers and trekkers, so we are optimistic. We will return to Xiamen Feb 2nd, ahead of the Chinese New Near traveling chaos.

Sugar cane and the side streets

The main gate to the university is now barely passable, as you can see -- I think they have torn up the street to replace sewage lines. It is a mess out there. By the way, that is not stopping pedestrians from walking through the construction site, although I elected not to take the stroller there. There is clearly not the same level of safety precautions for either workers or passersby in China, as I have never seen so much construction done up close. So our path between the supermarket and the post office, our two destinations for today, ended up taking us through some winding alleys behind the apartment buildings next to the campus. I,m pleased because I have discovered some more interesting sights back there, just when my regular routes had become somewhat routine. Today, and all this week I have both girls with me, as Helen is on a one month break from school.

Today I showed her the primary school where she would go next year if we were staying in Xiamen longer. We know a number of kids there, children of our friends on the campus. All her classmates will go there next year. The shop next door sells school supplies (I go there for my Chinese character practice books) and Yo-yos, which are a huge fad here, especially among the boys.
Of course Helen had her eyes out for snacks, because she always wants to try something new, and she knows I am a sucker for this kind of curiosity. We had already munched some baozi (bread with meat and or vegetable filling), when she spotted the sugar cane:

The seller takes a machete and trims off the outside and leaves a clean cut to gnaw on.

She insisted that it was delicious, and I did have some. While the juice was sweet, it is kind of like eating a stick, and you end up having to spit out the pulp. Yuck! Sophia rejected it too. Helen gnawed at it all the way home and then presented some to Daddy, who has been wanting to try some. As he said -- not very nourishing, but fun.

I am happy to have Helen around during the day again. She likes to get out and explore, which keeps me from being lazy, and her presence amuses Sophia (also antagonizes, but its a total package deal). On the street I ran into a woman who sells Chinese paper cuts from her home. I had met her at a luncheon that the uptown expats gave earlier in the month. She was there with the artisan who makes the paper cuts to do a demonstration. I asked her about lessons to learn how to make the paper cuts, since Helen is obsessed with cutting paper, which has replaced drawing in her world. Her kindergarten teacher taught her a few simple designs (and of course she likes to make snowflakes, American style) Anyone who knows Helen well will remember that she has had many incidents with scissors, including multiple incidents of cutting her own hair. Since Santa put scissors in her stocking she has been unstoppable. Anyway, my new friend called the paper cut teacher, and I am please because he will invite Helen to a class in the new year (after Chinese New Year). Right now, if you ask anyone to make a plan more than one day in advance, they say "...how about in the new year?" ...Because the whole population is getting ready to travel somewhere else in China to see relatives.
So of course we are leaving on Saturday for the Yunnan province to see some scenery and more traditional areas of the country.
Sorry about blogging only once every 3 days or so...I am more and more busy, it seems, and always vying for the computer with my children and husband! We had a quiet weekend, which was good for all I think. We even missed church to hang around the apartment and take walks in the neighborhood. Thomas in particular seems to need these "recharging" days -- he and I had some serious talks this past Friday about not whining so much and I was pleased to see him making a real effort to be curious and interesting.
We are still enjoying some sun. A winter storm is blanketing northern China but it is still quite mild in Xiamen, although more chilly weather here is expected later in the week. I keep wondering what the rainy season will be like!
There are some new links listed above. Both they are other families blogging from China, both quite interesting and much more thorough than me, with some good photos. The Lewises are in Hangzhou teaching English, and Christine is here in Xiamen (My Adventure in China). You can check them out on the days I fail to produce an entry for you! I have been in email contact with both, and enjoy the internet companionship of other moms as crazy as me, leaving the familiar to live in China with kids.

5000th visitor and Cai Laoshi's pictures

I am pleased to announce that the blog has made it past the 5000 visitors mark. I know that hundreds of those visits are my folks, Mom Forest and Aunt Marie checking every day, but there is also a small feeling of fame...recently I met a woman at church I had first met online via the blog..and a Kindergarten parent told Michael at Helen's bus stop that he had seen it. So naturally I should be doing a better job of posting more often. My apologies. One ready excuse has been that our internet connection has been slow at night during finals week, but that's only the half of it. In truth, I am in a bit of the winter doldrums. While its only chilly and not truly cold, we haven't seen the sun much lately, and I am at loose ends a bit...full of plans not yet realized for travel, a little bored with my local haunts, intimidated by my plans for studying more Chinese, etc, and a bit lacking in spunk. On a positive note, my cough has not developed into anything substantial, just a nagging annoyance, and Helen's lip healed with no loss of baby teeth from her fall. I am trying a Chinese remedy a friend recommended for my cold: its called Banlangen Keli, and it is a bittersweet tea mixture, which appears to be doing me no harm and maybe some good. At 3 kuai for 20 packets, the price was sure right.
Today was Helen's last day of school for the term. Her teacher, Cai Laoshi, has been taking photos throughout the semester, of my English classes as well as Helen's activities in the classroom. She sent me over 100 photos, many similar to ones I have already posted, but I thought a semester photo summary would be fun...

Helen and her buddies on a field trip to the city park this fall. They are shouting "Che zi" at the top of their lungs..the Chinese word for eggplant that kids shout instead of "cheese". also the "V" sign is absolutely mandatory -- both my older kids can't stop doing it.

A patriotic moment during rehearsals for the flag ceremony before Helen's promotion to a speaking part.



The kids made masks as a Halloween activity during my English class. They also took turns dressing up and saying "trick or treat."

Here's the class posing with the coloring page I brought for the end of the Thanksgiving lesson, with the Thanksgiving prayer in the guise of a poem...Thank you for the food we eat/Thank you for the world so sweet/Thank you for the birds that sing/Thank you for EVERYTHING!



During Christmas week Thomas came to visit Helen's class with me and helped her classmates make Christmas trees. She was really pleased to "show him off." (and he was suitably embarrassed, but a good sport).

Our recent foray into kite making on New Year's weekend.

There you have it, Helen's school year so far in review. She got a report card with lots of positive check marks, and they are working on having her speak out a little more, which she can do a little when prompted. Still unclear to me how the wheels of comprehension are turning in her brain. She was not the earliest bloomer in language development anyway, and I am not sure how well the immersion is going from a linguistic standpoint, although my language teacher friends would encourage me to keep her hearing Chinese and keep the faith. For the next month she has only her tutoring and Chinese cartoons to immerse in..and whatever I can impart in my bad accent. From an identity standpoint, kindergarten is a complete success..I can see how her acceptance of the way everything is done is an acceptance of herself as belonging there..even though she doesn't understand everything that goes on...she will have the same memories of Kindergarten as other Chinese-born kids..in my book that counts for a lot.

More on red underwear, and Ann's midlife crisis

First - the underwear. This has generated a lot of comments, so I thought I would snap a quick photo to share. Think of this as one of MANY such displays. Of course there are other signs of Spring Festival preparation, but they are really just getting rolling.

It's been an interesting week here in Xiamen. This was us on Saturday:
After this unseasonably warm afternoon, we went to the SM Mall for dinner and some window shopping. Forgot my camera, which I would have liked because while its primarily a mall like any other, there are some unique features, including the best bread in China, the bamboo kiosk and most importantly, the Food Court -- which is a place I really like -- tons of Chinese, ethnic minority and other Asian food stands, and you just walk along and point to what you want and they deduct is from your debit card. Anyone who visits will surely get treated to a meal there, because it is such fun to watch them make the food.

On Sunday it turned cold, and Helen had taken her plunge from the bed and was a little moody (she has since made a full recovery). Michael and I went to our Chinese class and one of his students, Fu Qinqin, has been watching the kids for us each week. This time we were able to go out after class with our teacher and another student, and Fu Qinqin took the kids to McDonald's, where we met up. The kids like her, especially Sophia, who calls her "Foo HIN hin!" By mid week I was wearing my winter coat out in the evening.

Relating to my midlife crisis...many of you know that I am turning 40 in the coming month. I am blaming my sudden desire to go back to school on this fact. Plus I always liked school, and living on a college campus is proving too much for my willpower. This week I applied to enroll at Xiada in the intensive Chinese program. It would only be for one semester, of course, but my tutor thinks I can go straight into the second semester beginner class. I will be taking a written Chinese exam to see if I can place in that class, so I am studying characters like mad! Originally I needed to learn enough Chinese to survive, then my motive was to reinforce what Helen is getting, but somewhere along the line the quest to learn Chinese has become about me -- accepting the challenge, plus giving some rhythm and purpose to my days, now that the routines are established and just surviving isn't a full time occupation anymore. Of course, the issue is Sophia, and feeling a little bored at home with her, tied down by her 2 year old attention span! I think she is a little bored, too. I would like to get her into the campus nursery school, a division of the Kindergarten program, but the principal is not sure if there will be an opening mid year, also she is a few weeks too young, but they could probably overlook that now that she is potty trained. My other option is to hire a nanny/babysitter part time, which most professional families, both Chinese and foreign, have opted to do, because it is very inexpensive. Of course I feel a bit guilty about all this, since I know she loves being with me, but.......? For the time being I haven't committed, just weighing the options, but I can envision myself sitting in a classroom with my books, hard at work on those characters...
I will have to blog some more soon about our Chinese studies so far.

Other updates -- my mom is continuing to tolerate radiation therapy for her tumor, and we love talking to her on Skype. Thanks so much for the ongoing prayers.

Updates, air pollution and red underwear

It's Saturday morning, I have no new photos to load, so this will just be an update. It's been a foggy morning, unseasonably warm and sticky..we are getting mosquito bites again. In January -- that's hard to believe, even in Xiamen.

Hard a scare last night when Helen took a plunge from her bed to the floor and split her lip open and knocked two baby teeth loose. She maintains they were loose already. I had visions of taking a taxi to the nearest hospital, calling our friend Tian on the way....but the bleeding stopped with an ice pack, and while its still a bit of a mess, we're hoping for the best. Really our lives here are built on the hoping for the best motto! There has been a clinic here that catered to foreigners, but it closed its doors last week, so of course this week Helen has an accident and I have developed a chest cold. Not quite severe enough to send me to a Chinese hospital yet! The language barrier is one reason, but also people say that the doctors use antibiotic IVS to treat everything ..people call it "going on the drip." Instead I am following the home remedy route..including tons of ginger soup.
Ginger soup is something Deborah discovered at our favorite patio restaurant. Its made with brown sugar, water and A TON of sliced ginger, simmered for a while. Ginger has obvious medicinal properties and the taste is very soothing, so since Michael discovered the recipe online, we have been making it. What did expats living here do before the internet?...it's such a lifeline and source of information for us on everything .. even the best way to catch up on local news.
Speaking of local news, here is a link to the article I mentioned last week about the chemical plant that will not be built in the Xiamen area due to successful mass protests here last spring.

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080109/full/451117a.html

The protests were the largest in china since Tiananmen Square, but the government reaction has been quite different. Air quality is a huge issue in China. The reports of other Fulbright families, especially as the winter months brought with them lots of coal burning heat in the north, are fairly appalling. We are having more hazy days as well, but usually the air is quite breathable on the island -- on the mainland the air is visibly polluted some days. I can see why the people of Xiamen were so passionate about keeping the chemical plant out. And amazing that the local government tolerated the protests and acquiesced to their demands.

On a lighter note, I have been meaning to blog about the red underwear. The stores are full of red underwear and socks as the new year draws closer, along with the more expected household decorations. Here's the story...most people know about the Chinese zodiac animals if you've ever eaten in a Chinese restaurant in the US. When "your" year rolls around, you should wear something red every day of the year to maximize your luck. Hence the red underwear for people who might not want to wear the same color shirt every day. Helen's tutor told me that she remembers when she was a kid (turning 12, since there are 12 animals in the zodiac) she remembers the year her mother gave her a bunch of red underwear and a pendant with her animal on a red thread to wear all year). The coming lunar year is the year of the Rat (or Mouse, if you prefer) and guess who is about to get red underwear???? Our Thomas, the Rat amongst us! I was discussing this with my coworkers when I made another cultural discovery...you can find out how old someone is by knowing their zodiac animal. This caused me a little consternation when my boss stated that she was a monkey and I blurted out, "so am I!" and then began to laugh because I am obviously older than her, and now it was clear that she is only 28 and I am turning 40!

Teaching English to small children

I haven't said much about the work I am doing teaching 4-7 year olds English. Christmas was a big time for us -- since, as I like to say: "its always Christmas at Join Kids", just like its always Chinese New Year in classrooms that teach Chinese in the US -- at least from a decoration standpoint. The children attend a weekly 90 minute class with a bilingual (Chinese) teacher. Once a month I see each class for 45 minutes of "oral English". About 10 of Helen's classmates from the Kindergarten are also my students at Join Kids, which is fun, since I feel like a celebrity when they all rush up to me, saying "Huan Huan Mama!"

I think it has been a pretty successful so far. Not every lesson I have come up with suits every group, but most of the time it works, and I always enjoy them, and most importantly, we have a positive experience every time. Some of the children have very good ears and good accents, especially the youngest ones! I have also met several friends of Malinda's girls (last year's Fulbright family).

We try to be game oriented, and the teachers, especially my boss, are very dynamic and engaging. Near Christmas we had a couple of "open classes" for prospective students, and of course I had to be visible as the token native speaker. Since I wasn't teaching I was able to take some pictures. Actually, Thomas and Helen came with me that night, Helen just for fun, and Thomas to "help" in the other class by playing along and calling out some numbers in English during a game. Aren't the kids so cute!

"Santa" is an English professor from Xiada who helped to develop their curriculum and interviewed me..

I really want to try and upload a short clip of them teaching, but I have to wait for the early morning hours!

Just a couple more pictures for you -- Sophia and the Baby Deborahs (all her dolls are named that now, I think she misses Deborah as much as I do)..also her new tiny umbrella, which we bought while shopping downtown today, and Sophia drew the attention of everyone passing by waving it around and saying "its raining". We got off Zhongshan Lu and onto some side streets and found all kids of things, including a store that sells coffee and pasta, cheap clothing and a paper goods store with a whole floor devoted to Spring Festival lanterns and other decorations -- you can bet I went pretty wild in there.

Kite flying with the Xiada Kindergarten

On the weekend before New Year's Helen's school organized the older children and parents for a kite making outing. January 1 was to be a holiday from work and school, and so as to have the 31st off as well, the Saturday prior was schedule as a make up day on campus -- the professors held class, including Michael, and the kindergarten had classes in the morning. The parents were invited to attend and bring the makings of a kite FOR THEIR CHILD TO MAKE. This is Helen's principal, welcoming everyone.

Helen was at a big disadvantage here, in that I have never made a kite, and I had the directions translated. I was quite self-congratulatory at finding kite string in short notice. so with chopsticks, duct tape and construction paper, she set to work.

I should have known I was in trouble when the parents began working feverishly on the kites while the children were still lining up. I guess the competitiveness of parents is an international phenomenon. Some of their kites were huge, with elaborate designs and the sticks were clearly perfectly lightweight bamboo -- no other chopsticks in sight!

Here are the kids parading down the soccer field with "their" masterpieces...I will say this, Helen was a very good sport about it, even when hers didn't fly more than 6 inches off the ground, she still ran around gamely! It was not a great day for kites any way -- not much breeze, and only the store-bought kites really got off the ground.

But still a fun morning and Helen is proud of her certificate...Sophia had fun running about, too.

I just love these inflatable arches..if there is something to celebrate in China -- you can be sure there will be an inflatable dragon to greet you!

Xiamen Marathon

Early Saturday morning we dragged the kids out of bed and went with one of Michael's students to watch the Xiamen Marathon, which passed right by the campus along the Island Ring Road (along the beach). It was a fine clear day, chilly but not cold -- just right for a marathon. There were lots of students out volunteering and a fair amount of spectators for the race, which is one of the top marathons in China. We had our free flags to wave, and waited anxiously to see the leaders, who passed by on the way downtown to the turn, and again on the way back , with about 6.5 miles to go to the finish..

Here's the timing truck and the leaders... at this point the Chinese runner was in the lead, which really pleased the crowd..but in fact the two Kenyans were working together to set the pace, and the one pictured on the left Kenei Kiprotich apparently pulled ahead in the last 500 m and won the $30,000 prize easily in 2:09:49, and the Chinese runner finished third. The Chinese women did better though -- the woman in the yellow shirt running in this pack of men, Zhang Yingying led most of the way and won with a fast time of 2:22:38, and Chinese women took second and third as well...after seeing Zhang run by we hurried home to catch the results on TV and saw her cross the finish line on TV..

You can see the story on the marathon by pasting this link:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/sports/2008-01/05/content_6373155.htm
It was a good time watching the runners, we had heard about the Marathon, but it has usually been held in March -- I guess they wanted to avoid the rain and the heat!





On a technical note -- I am having trouble posting photos and can't see them as I am posting -- someone please let me know how things are looking these days..Thomas is finally back to school tomorrow for a few weeks before the next holidays begin, so I can get back to a regular schedule. I went back to Tai chi today after an absence of nearly 2 weeks and it made a big difference in my energy level -- also I had been feeling like I might get the kids' cold, but now I feel fine.

Today we went to the famous "Yesterday Coffee" of Chinglish fame for lunch after church. Not sure if I posted this photo before or not of the "bunsen-burner" like method of making the coffee...I noticed some postcards around of Lijiang, the city in Yunnan we are planning to vacation in, and managed to ask the owner if he was from there, and we got in a conversation about Yunnan and coffee -- which is apparently grown there and this method of preparation is typical...we'll have to check it out when we go.

Xiamen Science and Technology Museum

On Friday, the last day of Thomas' Christmas break, I kept Helen out of school and we joined some friends -- Julia, who teaches at Thomas's school and her 2 girls, 5 and 10 -- in an outing to the science and technology museum. Helen was there on a field trip there the first week of school, and has been bugging us to go. It is brand new -- and we were the only ones there, just about. I was really quite impressed -- it was very hands on, as you can see in the photos -- filled with interesting experiments, and most of the signs were translated to English (not always clearly, but the effort was there, and physics was not my best subject anyway).

We were pleased to discover a playground, complete with ball pit-- and I realized they had not been on a real playground in months - only these "fitness playgrounds" designed for adults -- so I was so relaxed watching them run around with fewer worries about someone getting hurt. I have been realizing lately that the constant vigilance of keeping them safe, especially Sophia, with all the time we spend walking along the streets and through the campus -- it really gets quite tiring, mentally and physically..she is becoming quite an handful some days as her two-ness goes into full gear.


One of my favorite exhibits was the body functions, which included a nose which sneezed when you filled it with water, to everyone's great delight, and a boy who burped after drinking a giant soda. There was a staff of two dozen or more on duty at the museum with nothing to do, so they were quite into the kids.


Our last stop was the giant bubble station...a really fine day -- my standards for children's museums are pretty high, living so close to the Strong Museum in Rochester, NY, but I was very impressed with this one. It is in Haicang, an up and coming light industrial area on the mainland.

Speaking of Xiamen and industry -- some of you may know about the massive protests in Xiamen this past spring to oppose a planned chemical plant close to the city. The organizers used blogs and text messages to rally thousands of people to march to city hall to oppose the building of this plant, which is widely believed to present a serious threat to Xiamen's air quality, which is outstanding by Chinese standards. For thousands of Chinese to organize a protest, and for it to be tolerated with no arrests or violence, was quite a stunning event(try searching "Xiamen protests" -lots of interesting stuff comes up). People have told us "it could only have happened in Xiamen" Anyway, a friend told us this week that it has just been announced that the plant will be built somewhere else in Fujian province, but not in Xiamen. People had feared that it might be built here anyway after the dust settled, but apparently the government has decided to respond to the local concerns -- rather a victory for the forces of free speech and environmentalism I think.

Hot soup on a cold day

I have already failed at one of my new years' resolutions, which was to blog every day, instead of "falling behind"...now I have 3 days worth of material. But Blogger has been very slow lately -- maybe its our computer or all the students online. Anyway -- this past week has been a chilly one, as I mentioned, and we have spent some time huddled around the space heater in the evenings. Michael and I have a weekly lunch out usually, and the first day Thomas was feeling better, we headed out at midday for a nice bowl of noodle soup.

This restaurant is not too far from the campus -- it is around the corner from the 2 bookstores. I met the owner at the temple this fall when she was out with her nephew and I was feeding the turtles with Sophia. She invited me to come to her restaurant, and now we are regulars..in fact when we walked in on this day, the owner said-- "Sophia -- I haven't seen you in a long time!". We think of it as Beijing-style food -- homemade fresh noodles in a nice broth -- mine was beef and cabbage, Michael had vegetables, Thomas chicken (Helen was at school on this day) and we also had some little pork sandwiches on thin sesame breads. I also like the ambiance of the place -- there are polished dark wood tables with marble tops and the classic blue delft style china serving ware, also framed calligraphy on the walls -- some real taste has gone into the place...

Finally - a picture I had to snap before the decorations come down -- a palm tree decorated for the holidays by Helen's bus stop:

New Years' Day ...shopping

While the really good people of the campus were out climbing the mountain in droves -- we were told this is a tradition among the students, plus we could see them all up there from our window -- we took it in our heads to go shopping with the rest of the population. It has turned quite chilly here, as our friends in the north may be secretly pleased to hear..lows in the upper 40s at night, only up to 59 or 60 in the day. So we could all use some warmer clothes. We are going to Beijing in February, so winter coats are required! Michael and I went in shifts because Thomas is down with a cold.
Helen and I had a great time on Zhongshan Lu, the main shopping street downtown:
She brought her own money in a little "Pucca" purse (relative of Hello Kitty) and made some little purchases, while I focused on the big stuff -- jacket for Thomas, winter clothes for the girls and myself. We each got an outfit - I was particularly happy with my Eddie Bauer lambswool sweater, with the US price tags still on it ($42), which I got for $7. I have developed my favorite clothing haunts -- with good quality stuff, and open to bargaining. Usually I pay 50-60% of the opening price. When we got tired, Helen and I enjoyed a break in the sun with some candied fruit on a stick -- I could live on that stuff!