Month: December 2017

The title on this one is a little bit of an inside joke- everything that I have to proofread for the university’s website or presentations refers to innovations and something (like engineering) with Chinese characteristics.  It usually implies that those characteristics will improve the original, that is not always the case. So our group here has started tagging it on to everything that is close but not quite right.

We had a Christmas party here on the 23rd, and while not everyone could make it, we had a nice group of friends over. We had some Chinese friends and some expat friends, and mostly people who work at the university.  We had good food, good friends and good conversation.

I got to make Christmas cookies and made a lot of peanut butter blossoms and sugar cookies. I was so excited to share them with everyone because it’s the first time I’ve gotten to bake here.  I had a small issue getting some of the ingredients, but next time will be even better.

Alex got to introduce his friends Kitty and Kelli together, had a rousing nerf gun fight (until, like every mother has always told her children, someone-Alex- got hit in the eye with a nerf dart), and played My First Carcasonne with them.  Usually he gets stuck with just grown ups so, it was great for him to get some kid time. They also got to go outside and play a little bit of frisbee with some of the adults at the party.

I said a few posts ago that I would post pictures of our apartment when I had the house decorated for Christmas. So when everything was cleaned up for the party was a perfect time to take some pictures.

Christmas Eve was a pretty chill day, just hanging out and wrapping presents.   Christmas morning I was the first one up,  I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid I couldn’t sleep at night because I so so excited to see what I would get. Alex slept in until 7:30- I couldn’t believe it.

We always open stockings first.

And then he moves on to bigger presents.

Uncle John and Aunt Heidi sent him and Mark a matching present.

And then came the Santa presents…

All in all we had a great Christmas,  Mark got a game and a dutch oven, I got a sewing machine and a Chinese copy of Nightmare Before Christmas. So a belated Merry Christmas (Shèngdàn kuàilè) from Haining!

Just like it was at home, December has been a crazy month of trying to keep up with all the to do lists to make the holidays happen.  Alex had a Winter Concert on the last day of school, Mark had a week long conference in New Orleans, and Alex has been off school since the 15th.  It’s been a long month.

In the beginning of December we were interviewed for the local Haining paper. It was very strange because to us, we’re just another family, but here there aren’t many foreign families at all and I’m pretty sure we might be the only American family.  I don’t really know what it says, or how accurate any of our “quotes” are, but it was well received by locals, so they at least didn’t make us look like jerks. The translated version is at least fun to read  as a challenge to yourself. We’ve gotten some interesting reactions and made some new friends because of this article so it’s got its perks.  Haining Paper

 

Alex’s Winter concert at school required that he dress in a suit, so he got to have a new black suit, he was so excited about it because he says it makes him feel rich. The buttons on the suit are fake diamonds.

 

His class sang Jingle bells- they got one short song. They did well though, and it was fun getting to see his class all together.

I didn’t get much of a chance to take pictures of his school (because I had to try to get the best seat I could). But I did take some from the indoor walkway between buildings.

We were invited to the Haining Government’s foreigner’s Christmas Party at the Langham Hotel. It happens every year and there is a blend of foreigners and local government and political leaders invited.  The food was wonderful, a terrific variety of Chinese and western foods.  We met some new friends and got to enjoy a fairly fancy night out. While we were waiting in line for food, a gentleman and his friend insisted that we go ahead of them. They were talking about Alex, which is pretty normal for us here, and then they flagged a lady down to tell us that they recognized us from the newspaper article and felt like they knew us.   A little while later, the gentleman came over with the Dean of our university to translate for him, he wanted to toast with us which is a Chinese custom. We toasted and thanked him and exchanged business cards.  The next day I was talking with someone in my office, and they explained to me that the man was the head of the Chinese Communist Party here in Haining and is more powerful than the mayor.  Not a bad person to have on your side!

I decided I should showcase some of Alex’s pictures too, since he took it all very seriously.

This post is a little late as it’s been over a month since we went orange picking, but life and work and holidays have gotten the better of me.

 

Our friends Summer and Kitty (who took us to the amusement park) asked us if we would like to go into the countryside and pick oranges. Since we hadn’t gone outside the city yet, love oranges and have a great time with Summer and Kitty every time, we couldn’t pass it up.  They picked us up and it was a short drive through some really beautiful farm land.  In the beginning, there was a variety of crops, and I got to ask some of my ridiculous foreigner questions (Summer always answers them and never judges); who farms all this, is it corporations or single families?(mostly single families), What is that, I see it growing all over? (it’s rice – does not look like I expected).

There was a little farmers market set up right next to where we parked, and I was thrilled because Summer’s Dad (who had come with us) offered to help me buy some things and show me which ones were good.

 

The whole area was so beautiful and serene, I really felt like I could have stayed there all day. Because it’s more of a local thing though, our foreignness really stood out here.

Alex and Kitty were so excited, they each got their own basket and clippers and we got escorted into the grove behind someone’s house. We walked back and started picking! The owner walked back with us, and showed us which spot had the most ripe oranges.  Here the little ones are the best, more like tangerines.

 

Alex’s favorite part was all the sampling, he got to peel and eat a few oranges on the spot.  We came at almost the end of orange season, so most of the fruit was ripe and ready.

Once we were done , we sent the kids into the house to wash their hands.  As soon as they exited, they found the water pump. Just like Wuzhen, Alex was drawn to it and had to pump water, but Kitty was in on it too!  They had a blast pumping water, forget a playground, people just need to install water pumps everywhere.

On the walk back to the car, I noticed Alex’s eyebrow was very red and blotchy, and then there was another spot on his face. And I started to panic a little, thinking, what could he have eaten or touched that would give him an allergic reaction.  Then it looked like his nose was starting to bleed and I couldn’t figure out what was going on.  Summer’s parents told us that he shouldn’t eat any more oranges if his nose was bleeding because oranges make your body hot and that’s what causes nosebleeds.  Traditional Chinese medicine would suggest drinking some hot water to cool yourself down.  I went to wipe the blood away and realized that it was red ink.  He had touched a bottle with wet hands and the ink soaked in and then he touched his face all over.   It was such a silly thing in the end.

Summer’s Dad helped me buy fantastic eggs, some really lovely peppers- they are almost like serranos, and another vegetable that for the moment is escaping me (maybe it was cabbage?).  It was really nice of him to help me since I have very little experience picking fresh eggs or peppers and I’m sure I would have gotten the wrong ones.

It was a really fun day and I hope we get to do it again. The kids had a blast and I had oranges for days! We ended up giving them out at work because we had so many extras.

At the beginning of November, Alex’s school had parent – teacher conferences.  Which meant that as soon as we were done with meeting his teachers, he had the day off.  And we decided that we should visit the scenic and famous town of Wuzhen which is not far from Alex’s school.

For anyone unfamiliar with our school transportation drama,  Alex is driven to school by one of three guys – any day it might one of them. So this kid rolls up to school with a private driver, not because we’re so special but because I don’t have a Chinese driver’s license yet and can’t get a car until I get one.  This day though, we all drove in with Alex and his driver, with the plan that we would meet back at school for regular pickup in the afternoon.

We went in, met the teachers, heard mostly good stories about our kid. Almost universally got the comment that he is a chatterbox. Mark got to see the school for the first time since it’s completion and we both got a chance to see Alex’s classroom for the first time.  (I didn’t take any pictures, I was too busy being a responsible parent… next time though.)

After that we hopped in a cab and drove to Wuzhen. Mark had been telling me about Wuzhen since he applied for the job here. It’s beautiful, it’s very old, it’s got canals – what more could you ask for?  It’s perhaps most beautiful at night, but admittedly given our limited schedule with the driver we were only there during the day.

One of the first things we did when we got to Wuzhen was walking through a fabric dyeing museum. I had never seen anything like it, it was so beautiful.  There was a lady giving a demonstration on how they put the patterns on to the fabric before dyeing.

 

Of course, after walking through one museum, Alex was starving. So we made him order his own food. The reality is that he knows more Chinese than Mark or I do, and he handled it beautifully.  He said it was the best corn, and afterwards told the lady it was delicious in Chinese.

 

There was so much to see and do, and so many food options. There were stores and shops all along the way.  While we were walking we came across another museum and stopped to have a look.  It was a wedding museum, and while we didn’t partake, you could dress up in traditional wedding clothes and get your picture taken. Maybe next time! I think I enjoyed this one more than Mark and Alex, but it was fascinating to see the traditional style and how weddings use to be here.

While we were walking through the museum, there was a beautiful courtyard in the back section of the former house.  It was so quiet and beautiful back there, I wanted to stay forever.  Alex was not so patient however.

I really felt like I could stay right there where Alex is sitting, with a book and a big cup of coffee and never want to leave.  It was peaceful and beautiful, I can’t wait to go back again.

After we were done in the museum we went back to just wandering up and down bridges and walkways. Mark, and most of our Chinese friends, think Wuzhen is a  Disney-ified version and that are more authentic old towns to visit.  I loved Wuzhen and will be happy to visit any other old towns too!

By this time, the corn had worn off and Alex was starving again. So we went in search of food. There are many, many options for food along this way, but we wanted to find the right place. We ended up finding a  place that looked good, and when we went inside was actually a fancy hotel restaurant.   We sat down and looked at the menu and realized that we had made an error.  Mark usually handles the translation apps on his phone, he’s much better at that than I am, and seems to have better apps.  However, his phone was dead. There was only one picture per page in the menu, and we really couldn’t tell what to get.

As the restaurant found an employee who spoke some English,  the lady sitting at the table behind us offered to help. She told us not to get what we had been looking at because they had eaten it the day before and it wasn’t very good. She helped us order a fish, rice, veggies, and xiao long bao (dumplings with soup in them).  And then we chatted for a bit about why we were there and how Alex liked school.  If not for the kindness of strangers, we would have been stuck again.

Fed and happy again, we were able to keep walking.  I’m sad I didn’t get more pictures inside the restaurant, there were some beautiful blue windows.

We crossed back over a bridge to start heading back (in order to make it back to Alex’s school on time) and on the other side of the bridge there was a water pump.  I don’t know what is so exciting to Alex about water pumps… but if there is one, he’s got to pump it.  He was so happy to pump water, and so a few older ladies came by to wash their hands in the water he pumped and tell him good job.  And then a few more people came to see him pumping water, and then a few more. There were waves of people who were walking by, happened to see him and then had to stop and wash their hands too.  At one point, I was trying to get him to move along but as he was about to stop, some college aged girls came up to get water from him. “Can’t stop now Mom, I’ve got more customers!”

If you look on the left side of the picture, you’ll see someone with their phone out taking a picture of all this.  We’re getting more used to it, but this time was the funniest for me. Alex had around 20 people at a time watching him pump water, ask him questions, thank him in Chinese and be so happy when he said you’re welcome back to them in Chinese.  Mark pointed out that I should get a picture of the people taking pictures of Alex.

And Alex just loved it, he thought this was the best part of the day!  People asked us where we came from, and told me that Alex looked just like Mark and nothing like me. A good time was had by all.

A little bit farther down the road, there was a replica water pump… we had to stop again.

After this, it was really time to get moving so we could make it back to the school. There had been a mix up and the driver had come early back to the school, and then left again and I was so worried we would miss him or make him late again waiting for us.

As we were trying to figure out how to get back to the starting point, we found a little wooden bridge with lots of people on it. We had to stop and see what they were all looking at.  In the water, there were giant Koi- bigger than I’ve ever seen. Each one was at least a foot long, and there were so many.  People were throwing bread in to them, and they were fighting to get the food.

 

We made it back to the entrance, hopped in a cab, made it back to the school (after making him wait another 10ish minutes) and back to the university.  Despite the hiccups, this may have been one of my favorite things we’ve done in China yet. I’d go back tomorrow if I could.   This makes me very excited for Shi-town which is a more authentic old town.