ni hao!

ni hao!

welcome to china

a special welcome to all the BATW visitors today. For those of you unfamiliar this is a site where bloggers from all over the world can be connected. Every week a different blogger is chosen to give a tour of their area. I am very pleased to be invited and hope you all enjoy.

I am from the U.S.A. (me - Texas, hubby - Illinois) and with my husband and four children have been living in South America for over 7 years. We arrived in China in August and are just settling into this amazing country and enjoying learning about the people here.

We are living in the Guangdong Province, in a city called Shenzhen ( we are actually in the Shekou area). It is located just across the border from Hong Kong. You can easily take a ferry or train to Hong Kong for a nice day trip. Although I have not had the opportunity to visit much of mainland China yet I have the impression that this city is not like others in China. There are many foreign investors in the city, everything from electronics to clothing, pharmaceutical to machinery. It has become a proving ground of sorts to show the world how China is opening up.

One of the difficulties we have found here is the attention we draw as westerners, especially our children, having four plus the fair skin. Often on just a trip to the grocery store we will be assailed with people touching their hair and taking photos - with themselves in the picture of course. Last week we went to dinner and were stopped just outside the door for the photo fest. I think I could make a pretty penny if I set up a booth.

In Shenzhen there are restaurants for every taste. We have Japanese restaurants, thai, italian, tex-mex, and of course various fast food places. I have really enjoyed the chinese food although it is different from what I what see in the U.S. My particular favorites are the celery which is cooked in what I think is a sort of chicken broth and lotus root which is not only beautiful to see but tasty too. Martin Yan also has a cooking school here and gives classes.

Let's talk a little about language. Upon learning I was moving here I started to look into some mandarin. Finding that the words were in the same order as english i took heart, as this has been difficult for me in spanish. There are no singular and plural nouns, no gender specific nouns. You do not need to worry about past or present, active or passive, or pronouns. Wow, this sounded great. The pronunciation is so difficult and one word can have many meanings just by changing the inflection of your voice. so you must memorize where all the correct inflections go. How do you have a language with no alphabet! I see long nights of studying with headphones clamped to my head. àn bù jiù ban - one step at a time.

As I have the opportunity to travel more here I will share those experiences with you, so I hope you will all visit often. I leave you with some photos

visiting a temple

view from temple hike

hong kong haze

chinese cemetery from bus window

a favorite italian restaurant

a local shop

connections

i love this have a great day!

being expat

Before leaving Brasil, someone told me how much she liked me, that I was not like an American. This comment surprised me so much. Upon asking why this was, I was told that I was sincere. When I said something it wasn't just to be polite, I really meant it. This woman had lived in the U.S. for about three years and her experience was that American women say things insincerely. We smile at everyone indiscriminately, we ask how you are but really don't want to know the truth of the answer. We say things that are untrue so as not to hurt any ones feelings or make them angry with us, and then turn around and say the reverse to someone else. This left me with much to think about. How culturally different we all are.

When travelling to different countries I am ever more aware of the things I do. Do people think I am rude or affected, even insincere. I recently was in my seven year old's class-room and it was snack time. the teacher reminded the children that they must practice eating their snack with mouths closed and no slurping, as this is an American school. So the question is should we impose our cultural norms upon the world because they are what is comfortable for us?

About six years ago I was invited to a ladies dinner potluck, hosted by a dear Scottish lady. In my head I pictured us sitting in chairs around the lawn, a plate on our lap. I whipped up some not beautiful, but very yummy coconut oatmeal cake bars, and deviled eggs. I arrived to a beautifully set table with candles. I don't think one of my cake bars was eaten. Someone had bought a beautiful chocolate cake covered with chocolate shavings. It was all quite posh, and surprisingly formal. Isn't it funny how different our take on what the event was going to be. It was just supposed to be a bunch of us getting together for a girl's night but it was something quite culturally different.

While living in Brasil one of the customs was that when someone came to your home they must leave through the same door they entered, as being allowed in the front door and then ushered out the back meant you were not welcome. In China you always take your shoes off at the door. So many things to learn everywhere you go. Hopefully in my journeys I will be able to present myself well and also be able to embrace all that is good about others.

I don't think I like this template look, but will try for a bit. It is a bit fussy on the sides.

funk

I have been in a bit of a blog funk. I turn on the computer and sit in front of my post page and nothing happens. Today I will get back on track though. Debbie from BATW has asked me to host on monday. I don't really know what that entails but I am game. On the 10th I was supposed to write a refugee blog and I had read all these great stories and done research, and in my defense I did sit down to do it but never liked anything I wrote. If there is anything you would like to hear let me know, especially what questions you have on china as I will answer those for the monday post.

election

Wow, what an election! History was made. I must say that whatever your political party, we as Americans can all be proud of this election. John McCain gave a very gracious concession speech. I was pleased that president-elect Obama's speech was very respectful of McCain and very considerate of all the Americans who may not have voted for him. he could have given a rally-like, gloatful (is that a word?) speech, but the tone, I thought, was right. Everyday I am proud to be a part of this nation. I wish Obama well and hope that in the next four years we can put party politics aside and get down to doing what is best for our country.

thanks to nina for sending me this cute video.

vote

vote, vote, vote, vote, vote.

post changes 2

i decided i needed a change. i think the template is beautiful but i hate that my navigation bar is covered. hopefully not too fussy. i downloaded about 5 different templates so i may be trying them out at different times. let me know if you like this or any future changes.

spirit week

some photos from spirit week :

here everyone is showing their school spirit by wearing the school colours.

crazy hair day

you probably can't tell, but gwendolyn was a beehive complete with little bumblebees. i don't know how crazy remys hair was as it looks like that often. bronwyn had what we called mini brains all over her head.

the girls show their spirit on pajama day.

do you like the backwards princess?

the last day was character day and we were running late and forgot to take the picture. sorry.

halloween fun

super parrish

g.i. remy, spa girl, flower fairy

I feel as if I haven't posted in a month, even though it has only been about a week. It was a successful halloween. Here at the hotel there was a pumpkin carving activity and trick or treating. The kids had a lot of fun and of course got too much candy. On saturday the school had a fall fair and the kids dressed up and participated in a costume parade, had yummy food and played all kinds of carnival games. here are some highlights:




pumpkin carving with fraser place hotel.

ready to trick or treat!




ready for the fall fair the next day and the costume parade. someone at the fair asked me where the face painting was - i was so proud

pizza hut salad

Saturday we went to pizza hut for lunch. They have a salad bar and you can have one trip with your bowl. It costs about 30rmb, so around 5 dollars. I wish I had my video camera or even my digital, but alas I wasn't on top of my game last week. Anyway they buy one bowl to share and then take 30 minutes creating this huge artful tower. It is enough to feed eight. One person places the items in the bowl while another directs. It is amazing. I must hang out there more often. Two preteen girls were constructing their salad bowl and when they finished they headed back to their table but their mother got up and made them go back because they didn't have a tall enough tower. I cannot tell you how enthralled I was with the whole process. making the base and then creating a sort of wall on the sides of the bowl to hold it all in. I did find a you tube movie about it. I must tell you though that the salad in the video is nothing compared to what we saw. I know one of the bowls was at least 6 inches tall with cantaloupe walls. When I come home I am going to try this at chuck e. cheese and see what happens. you think they will revoke my privileges?

someone hearts me

well, what a surprise i got today when i was reading all my favorite blogs. someone hearts me and gave me an award. thank you ballerina girl. There are some rules that go with this so pay attention in case you are the next honoree.

link to the person who gave the award.

pass it to 7 others and link to them

leave a message so they are aware they have been gifted

so first on my list is http://themisplacedamericans.blogspot.com/ i just recently came across this blog and it fulfills my need to hear of all things expat.

then we have http://ms-adventures.blogspot.com/ i love the writing and different opinions mostly by women.

a blog i found in looking for people living in china. nice to have a companion wherever you are.
http://blogaroundtheworld2.blogspot.com/

this is my mom who just started her blog http://judaleigh.blogspot.com/

stephen - i love you http://hollyhockacres.blogspot.com/

britty and kenny the cutest newlyweds i know http://kennybritt.blogspot.com/

this final site speaks to my creative side inspiring me to do something creative each day. http://mayamade.blogspot.com/

i hope you all enjoy these blogs as much as i do and do not forget to visit ballerina girl, my friend living in my one of my favorite brasilian places.

gloves, anyone?

last night I bought pizza for dinner and upon opening the bag found these plastic gloves. We had a good laugh. Often here you will be given gloves when eating food that may require you to use fingers.

To those of you who read this blog in the hopes of seeing grandchildren, nieces, nephews, here are a few pictures .

presbyopic at such an early age.

cupcake birthday cake made by the birthday girl herself - gwendolyn

one of the birthday gifts - hong kong disneyland teaset

bronwyn painted my hair pink and blue - do you like it? Three weeks later and some pink can still be seen. The scabs and head-bump are from a fall at the theme park. it was quite a goose egg.

the ferris wheel at ocean park. This theme park is built on a mountain. This made some of the rides even more thrilling and amazing. Remy didn't ride a lot of rides for fear they would break down and roll into the sea.





beautiful girls



can I wear your hat, Mickey?


we all had a really good time. Hopefully we will get to go again.

hopes and fears

Parrish is sleeping peacefully. A thing that is not happening everyday now. The moments that I steal for myself are few. In twenty minutes these rooms will be full of noise. The sounds of children returning from school, of laughing and living. Often these noises drive me crazy, but right now in the quiet I miss the sweet voices of my children about their business. Soon my youngest will be off to school and the truth is that I will miss him. For almost 8 years I have always had a child at home. My life as an expat has always been about my children. I wonder and fear if I will lose the connectedness that I feel with my children as they start to gain their independence. I suppose it is the way of things and as they grow and move on to the next phase so must I.



After the birth of Parrish, I had a diffcult time coming to grips with the fact that there would be no more pregnancies, no more babies. For a year or more maybe I struggled with this, trying to move on to my next phase. I think that I have, but I have done it with sadness instead of embracing what the next phase brings to me. As my children grow and mature though, I wonder and fear that I am not giving them all that I can, not being the example I should, not making and cherishing the most of their short time with me. So much to fear, but I will not let it drown out all my hopes and dreams. I am a mother who sees and knows what these sweet souls can become. I am honored to guide them to their next phase and I will smile with the knowledge that they know who they are and where they want to go. Soon I will be sending them into the world brave and bright and shining.

post changes

changes can be good. I am a person who likes tweaking things. I like color and I like not too fussy. Yesterday, feeling like I couldn't really relate to my blog, I found myself searching through the cutest blog on the block and pyzam to find a new background that said, me. Bronwyn and Gwendolyn have the cutest backgrounds from pyzam, but I couldn't find anything that fit and the cutest blog site was a little too fussy for me. I decided to just use a pop of color and seeing that I was feeling in need of a happy color I chose yellow. I loved it. It was a beautiful, bright, I dare you to not feel cheery, sunshiny yellow. I must say that it was not my intention to hurt ballerina girl's eyes or make her run for the sunglasses. Since we love to hear from her and would hate to lose her as a blogina I have toned it down. Hope you like the yellow. Doesn't it make you smile?



this is artwork by jill morton. I love the colors.

celebrate you

During the course of some actual me time reading, I came across an article about aspiring to be more. This particular writer was trying to inspire people to be extraordinary. It struck me because we should always be striving to be more, to do better, but is there a time when we should say "hey, it wasn't perfect, but it was good."? Of course we should. You may think that I am championing mediocrity, such is not the case. I think we should always strive for the best, but I see many women who have a difficult time not achieving to the highest degree, when often they have been successful and maybe they didn't attain the level they were aiming at but they did go higher than the time before. We should give ourselves a break and learn to be happy with our accomplishments. When we accept ourselves and are happy with all we do we end up being more productive and more able to move forward and do better and better. So today I challenge you to cut yourself some slack. be happy with who and where you are.

some things to do to celebrate you:



1. laugh




2.have a spa day or at least a pedicure




3. look at your amazing children - you were a contributing factor.





4. blow bubbles

5. make a gratitude wordle!

and many more - write to me and tell me what you do. can't wait to hear from you

help, help, help

ok, major blogger issues going on. no, i am not very computer literate, but give me a break. instead of my wordle picture or my you tube video i just get the address line (see i don't even know the official term). bear with me i will figure it out. i cannot view videos - a china thing i am told. so sorry about the wordle picture but it does work by clicking on the link.

signed, helpless blogger

words

I love to read. I love they way others can put words together and create the perfect visual. Something of which I am envious. To be able to communicate with others, to be able to convey with words a feeling, to truly have the reader identify and connect to those feelings is a gift. In my primary class we were talking about having no words to express things. This really struck me. We talked about trying to explain what salt was, how it tastes without using the word salty. Explaining it to someone who had never had salt before. Words can be powerful and knowing how to use them is indeed a skill. My older sister once introduced me to a writing tool she called looping. Something I still like to do. For me looping is just writing without worrying about form or content; just what comes into your head. It can be freeing and sometimes it is amazing what comes out when you just let the pen flow. I found through a blogging friend this site http://wordle.net/ I love this site and the random way the words are arranged can feel like poetry. It is addictive and you don't have any control as to how the words are arranged. try it.
title="Wordle: addresses"> src="http://wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/232036/addresses"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

this is my "word cloud" with all the places I have lived.

improv

Today, well yesterday for me, there was an event going on in three cities that was put together by a group called improv everywhere. I believe they got their start in New York and i suppose have a bit of a cult following now. Today they will have a group of people all listening to mp3 players at the same time and place. They will all be following instructions and it will create a happening. I don't know how else to explain it. Anyway I have always been a fan of the musical. At times I have felt the need to break into song. This group did this bit of improv which made me laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYZ6rbPU2M

I hope you enjoy. go to their website. The thing that i like about the whole process is that it engages people. People stop and react and it is great.