The Lewis Family Goes to China

Welcome Home Party

2008-07-13T22:02:00.000-07:00

We had a terrific welcome home party where we got to see many of our friends all at one time. Since Sue's nephew Alex is here, I bought a sugary-cereal (basically junk food in my opinion) that the kids would really enjoy, called "Froot Loops". You can see the giant sized boxes available for big families here!

At an American party, there are not performances like a Chinese party; people gather in small groups and chat. Here are George, and Kelly, (outside), talking with my brother-in-law, Balin (inside).

Our little blond nephew, Sam.

The kids finally got out of the pool to get something to eat!

John and Tanner, having some sweets...

The little boy from across the street came over and watched the big boys in the pool...

LEFT: Madeleine, the daughter of Jack's 2nd grade teacher, and RIGHT: a friend of a friend who came with his sports gear on - very American looking!

Sue's mom rented some big tents for us to have shade and protection from the bit of rain that fell. It was a good place to sit and keep an eye on the kids in the pool.

Maria, Nathan and Henry Flurry. Henry was Peter and Jack's music teacher before we left.

Mrs. Koons and Ms. Koons - so many blondies at this party!

Ken Walker and Marc Darr, drinking beer and watching the boys in the pool.

Playing hoops in the pool - yes fouling is allowed!

Hmm, I don't think you'd see this kind of play in the NBA!

Cassandra grew so much while we were gone! I can't believe she's 13 already!

Most people had left by 9pm or so, and the last person left about 11:30! The sun set on a wonderful day, and we'll leave the cleanup until tomorrow!

Hail in July

2008-07-10T16:02:00.001-07:00

We had a craving for American style pizza - our first since returning from China, so we went to one of the local pizza places. It was a long wait for our pizza but well worth it when it came! Here's Sophie trying to be patient.

Peter and Jack's 15 year old cousin, Alex is here visiting us for a week. The boys LOVE having him around and they rarely let him out of their room!

Sue, also getting hungry as we wait for our pizza to be delivered.

OK, Chinese friends, here's an authentic American pizza restaurant for you... and it smells so GOOD inside!

Gosh, we live in a small town! We ran into one of our old friends, Scott Simmons who was also coming in for lunch.

The monsoon started in the afternoon as it usually does this time of year, and we got not only rain, but HAIL! Jack had to go out and stand in it to see how it felt.

The courthouse across the street, looking through all of the hail!

The streets are so deserted compared to China! This is about 1pm on a Thursday... where are all of the bicycles carrying people rushing around under their rain ponchos??

Alex, outside, checking out the storm...

The next stop was the local ice cream store - actually frozen yogurt, at the TCBY...

The boys enjoyed their ice cream...

... and I saw this old cowboy "chewing the fat" with some other customers... you wouldn't see someone like him in China!

This American Life!

2008-07-05T15:05:00.001-07:00

Our friends in China were sad to see the end of the blog, and I realized that I could use this medium to show them some of our American life. So in this blog I tried to see things through Chinese eyes, and show some things that I think the Chinese would think are strange.

Today, Sophie and I went to the grocery store, where she "helped" me shop. This is the local health food store that sells everything organic, pesticide free, chemical free, etc. Sophie is helping me choose some nuts and granolas, of which there are so many types to choose from!

Of course going to and from the store requires a car, rather than a bicycle. We have had a lot of rains lately, and no rain-poncho was required! My car is a Toyota Prius, a hybrid gas/electric car that gets about 21 KM per liter of gas. Notice the traffic - TWO cars going by during this shot.

Sophie sits in the back in her US Dept. of Transportation approved safety car seat! Children up to about 22kg must be in an approved car seat or you can get a big fine! The U.S. is much more safety conscious than China. Before now, Sophie hasn't been in a car seat for a whole year! Peter loves being in my car because it is very clean, especially compared to some of the taxis we were in in Hangzhou! "Dad, there's no cigarette butts in the cup-holder!"

Shopping for veggies at the store. No individual wet market merchants here, just rows of produce! Where are all of the people?? Who do I bargain with over the price of lettuce?

So many times in China I would go to the local market and there would be no milk, or I would buy the last carton available. The biggest size there was about a quart. Here there are SO many milk choices and sizes. Non-fat, 1%, 2%, whole milk, soy milk, vanilla soy, from a pint to a gallon! I can't imagine them ever being sold out of milk!

To my Chinese friends - I hope you enjoy!!

A Goodbye to Blogging

2008-07-02T15:21:00.001-07:00

WOW! 32,000 page views on this blog so far! Before I started this great blogging experiment, I estimated perhaps 10,000 by the time we returned, a gross underestimation! Thank you so much for watching and following our travels, and a double thank you to all of those who commented and emailed us. It was so nice to have emails from home while we were so far away.

Coming down the driveway to our house is such a different experience than hiking up the 94 stairs was to our Hangzhou apartment! We have fallen back into our cars very easily, and we have to, as the nearest store is about 10km away. We miss the public transportation, the walk across the street to the little convenience store, and the smiles of "Grandma and Grandpa" the building managers at Qing Gong Lo as we went out every day.

However, everything here is so big and convenient, and the air is so clean and clear! We have left this sign up that was made for us for the past couple of days. Looks like a few cobwebs - a couple of spiders have moved in since we were gone! They'll have to pack up their bags and move somewhere else now.

Peter and his friend Danielle, hanging out in the pool. The kids have been having their friends over and are just loving being social again! The hardest thing about China was missing their American friends, and finding Chinese friends their own age to communicate with.

A warm, sunny day in Arizona. It is so inviting to be outside - we really missed our outside space in Hangzhou, but this forced us to get out of that apartment a lot to see so many beautiful things in China.

To all of our western friends - Thank you again for all of your support and encouragement during this adventure, we really had the time of our lives!

To all of our new eastern friends - we miss you dearly and we will try hard to keep in contact with you. Though we're sad to be so far away from you, we feel very happy that we have made lifelong friends on the other side of the world! When you visit the U.S. our door is always open!

I'll continue to post to this blog occasionally as I think of things, but I will surely miss writing nearly every day about our breathtaking, fascinating times in China.

We're Home Again!

2008-06-29T12:41:00.000-07:00

It was with great sadness and great expectations that we left China to go back to our home in Arizona. We will sorely miss the wonderful people we met during our year there - the good friends we made, the hardworking students we taught, and all of the people that helped us and looked after us so well!

Flying over Prescott, and later, driving around and doing some shopping, the first thing I noticed was the complete lack of PEOPLE! True, it was a Sunday night, but I drove to the grocery store on nearly deserted roads, and saw perhaps 20 other people shopping in the local Fry's store - so BIG and CLEAN!
What a pleasure it was to get into my sparkling car and drive around listening to a radio station playing a song whose words I knew! The few cars I did see obeyed the traffic laws and of course no one honked! I bought a few supplies, and although being able to read the labels was SO CONVENIENT, I found I also missed the challenge of searching for what I wanted. I felt completely anonymous as I relished using the automatic checkout kiosk, paying with my debit card instead of wads of cash. Not a single person stared at me.

When we walked into our house, the first thing that struck us was that it was SO BIG! For a year, the 5 of us lived in a space that is about the size of our master bedroom and bathroom, and by the end of the year, it seemed completely normal! We laid on our BIG COUCH - one that can easily hold 5 people and laughed about the tiny sofa in our Chinese apartment that we had always sat on "cheek-to-cheek".
We stayed up until our normal bed-time in Prescott to catch up to our new time zone - finally going to bed after getting up 31 hours earlier in Hangzhou. I opened the window, turned out the lights and climbed into my soft bed, listening to a few crickets chirp outside - what a delight! We heard no honking, unmuffled engines, shouting in the street, building construction, or distant celebratory fireworks - just quiet! Though we will miss the frenetic pace of China, the peace and blue skies of Prescott are a wonderful welcome home.

The Patriotic Haircut

2008-06-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

I couldn't post this earlier because Jack wanted to surprise our family back in the U.S. with his new haircut. Also it took me a couple of days to get my internet service re-established. In a previous blog, you may remember a little boy who had "2008" and the Olympic Torch cut into his hair. This gave Jack the idea to do a US theme with his own hair.

First, getting the flag cut into the back...

... and of course "U S A" cut into the top of his head.

Lookin' good there, baldy!

Now for the dye...

Some of Sue's students, who came to the barber shop with us to help with translation...

The flag is complete!

... Now here's Jack with Sue's students - with his new 'doo. Ready to come home!

Goodbye to Jiliang Campus!

2008-06-28T04:17:00.001-07:00

On Thursday, I gave my final and turned in my grades! Friday we had a final visit to campus where we said our goodbyes to our friends and students. The boys are very popular with the students as they don't have much chance to interact with foreign children. Here we are with some of my students.

Jack and Peter with two of my students, Sarah and Anna...

Overall, we had such a wonderful time at Jiliang University. We met so many wonderful people and we will miss all of our students!

Sophie's Goodbye Party

2008-06-26T02:15:00.001-07:00

It has been a week of goodbyes, and one of them was completed today at Sophie's preschool. We stopped on the way there to get a cake for 35 little squirts and of course a milk-tea for the boys. Peter and Jack posed for me in front of the milk-tea store.

We made it to the school, and Sue, Peter and Jack took their place of honor with Sophie, who was ready to hand out cake to all of the children.

Here's one of Sophie's teacher who's a real joy.

A view of the cake, before it was devoured. With 35 kids in the class, and 4 teachers, not a scrap was left!

Peter and Jack were LESS THAN THRILLED to be at a 3-year-old goodbye party, but we made them go anyway. This is one of those "Smile or I'll smack you" pictures :)

Sophie served cake to all of her classmates.

Finally, Sophie got to enjoy her own. Yum!

Here are Peter, Jack and Sue with all the 2 teachers and 2 helpers for the classroom. Sophie will miss them! So will we!

Sophie has had such a great year at this kindergarten. The teachers have been so lovely and patient with ALL OF US and our limited ability to communicate. They have also taught Sophie a lot of Chinese, and now she plays in Chinese as well as English. Sophie will miss all of her Chinese chums as well.

Hangzhou Rock Garden

2008-06-24T06:06:00.001-07:00

While I finished up the last of my classes today, Sue took the boys to the Hangzhou Rock Garden with our friend Laura.

Jack loves taking close-ups, as he took of this flower...

Sue enjoyed this small field of purple flowers. I'm sure some of you botanists out there can tell me what they are, but I have no idea!

Some scenic views at the edge of West Lake...

Jack caught this caterpillar on the edge of a leaf.

... and another shot without the flash. A dramatic difference!

Wandering the rock garden paths...

And here are the boys afterwards with our advanced Audio-Visual system. My laptop and a couple of pairs of headphones.

And finally, one more leach picture that Jack took at Tian Mu Shan. So Cute!

We are packing up our apartment now and trying to fit everything into our bags - what a mess! It's amazing that in a few days this giant pile of stuff will fit into just a few bags!

Tian Mu Shan and the Leeches

2008-06-21T06:46:00.001-07:00

The graduate department of our university put together a wonderful trip to Tianmushan, a mountain nature preserve that has two peaks approximately 1500 meters high. The department arranged a bus and allowed me to fill it with some friends and past students. Here we are: Amery, Chris, Peter, Tim, Anita, Sophie, Rebecca, Jack, Sue, Danny, Lisa, Sarah, Jenny, Vincent, Sara and Blue!

Xiao Zhou has been so great all year - I send him all of my copies via email every week and he has them printed and ready to go for me every Tuesday morning! I feel quite spoiled as all of the other teachers have to make their own copies.

Sue, with my student Lisa, a 2nd year law student. Since this is a preserved area, there are many large trees and it is SO green! It was also very hot today, probably 90 degrees, and cloudy. Very humid and warm!

Sue found some sort of chrysalis from some long gone resident. We saw these all over the place, and the forest was abundant with butterflies.

Maybe this fuzzy fellow will build one too!

Xiao Zhou, and another one of my past students, "Blue". I think she always wore blue in my classes, but today she wore red!

Peter and Jack took a break and hung out by one of the many waterfalls we passed on the way up the mountain.

"Sara" and "Lisa", two of my law students...

Peter and Jack talked to Chris, who is studying for his masters in Precision Measurement. He is also a very fast runner and is the fastest hurdles runner in Zhejiang province. They like the same video game, Warcraft 3, so they had plenty to discuss.

Rebecca and Anita came with us too, and it's always a pleasure to have them around. They get on so well with the boys and Sophie LOVES them!

Peter with Jenny. He is now about the same size as most of my students :).

Here he is again... I think he's now taller than Rebecca and Anita.

... but he hasn't passed me up... YET!

Jack found a creative way to get across the stream - shimmy across a fallen piece of bamboo. I was SURE he was going to go into the water but he made it across without a problem.

Here's Chen Ye, "Sara" next to one of the large trees in this dense forest!

Sue and Anita admiring the foliage...

Now we're half-way up and it's very warm out. Everyone is soaked to the bone with sweat and we're all hot as you can see from our red faces!

We found a nice resting spot beside the trail and sat down for some lunch. They brought a spread of duck-wings, some sandwich fixings, cookies and other munchies for lunch.

Then Peter noticed something on Jack's leg. It was a LEECH! Yuck! I managed to pry it off of him with my fingernail. Here it is stuck to a chopstick. One of the other teachers at the university warned me that leeches are prevalent at Tianmushan and I should take great care to wear long pants. I took it as so much Chinese folklore and thanked her for the advice -- but it was TRUE!

When we got home tonight, Sue pulled off her socks to find a leech had bitten her through her sock and her wound bled for quite awhile. They are really amazing creatures. They put some kind of anesthetic on the bite area, so you don't feel them bite. Their saliva contains anti-coagulants so the wound bleeds and bleeds. Sue's was still bleeding a couple of hours after we got home and treated it!

The green path that we were walking on - so tranquil - it looks deceptively cool, but it was so HOT!

Sophie found a little fountain and tried to splash me the best she could!

The fountain comes down this bamboo trough that originates near the waterfall. Many people drank from it but I wasn't going to risk it only 7 days before going home!

We did however put our heads under it, and it felt GOOOOD. Thank goodness for short hair. The girls with all of that long black hair decided not to have a go.

Taking my turn... so refreshing!

We took a little side-trip to a really stunning waterfall...

Here we all our for a group shot!

Making our way up the slippery rocks...

All the more difficult with Sophie on my shoulders. She decided that riding was more fun than walking. I can't say I blame her!

... a view up the ultra-green path!

Finally a break at the lookout point. It was a bit cloudy so the view wasn't that good, but it sure felt good to rest after carrying Sophie up here!

Anita, having a break after a tiring hike!

... and here we are, 2/3 of the way done! Rebecca and Anita are standing in front of a tree that died about 80 years ago and is more than 2,300 years old!

We're all egging Sophie on. "Sophie, can't you please WALK? You're so LAZY!"

We made it back to the bus down the mountain and transferred to our bus back to Hangzhou. We all had a great time today being out in nature!

Tsingtao's 'til Home

2008-06-19T00:17:00.001-07:00

We're getting close now! Sue created a pyramid of Tsingtao beer cans until we go home, and as you can see, we have 10 days left. This has generally been our beer of choice here - it's the most popular brand, and in my opinion, the best tasting.

While I was at school giving a final test today, Sophie and Jack were having a lazy pajama morning.

Eventually, Sophie went off to school, and Peter and Sue went out to have a British tea service with our friend Stefania. One thing Peter loves about Hangzhou is the greenery, and it has only gotten greener since all of the rain we've had lately - this is Hangzhou's rainy season. Peter stood in front of a wall of ivy attached to a brick building, which he though was pretty cool.

The building was covered with ivy!

Peter and Sue went to tea at the Rose House with Stefania, and besides tea, they had quite a dessert spread.

Peter and Stefania hung out in the rose house with the tea, the decorative British surroundings and the desserts. Yum!

Wet Weather and Fish Tales

2008-06-18T04:26:00.001-07:00

This weekend we went around West Lake in the tram, trying to get a last look at one of the most beautiful parts of Hangzhou.

We met Danny for dinner, and he and Jack had a wasabi eating contest. Yikes. They both had steam coming out of their ears and tears in their eyes, but they took the hot green mustard like men.

Danny, Peter and Tim hanging out on a boat on West Lake.

You may have heard about the flooding problems in China. This is the rainy season in southwest China and apparently over 1.2 million people have been displaced by all of the water.

Hangzhou has certainly had its share, but life continues under umbrellas and ponchos! Our bus has had to negotiate several flooded streets.

This guy has a sweet ride for his kid; an enclosed tent on the back of his bike. Sophie has her own poncho and she wears it grudgingly. The hardest part is getting her bike seat dry before we put her in it.

The rainy scene on the way to school...

We envied this little boy for his green galoshes! I am still wearing the same pair of shoes I came to China in. Shoes just don't come in my size here as far as I can tell, so I'm looking forward to other shoe choices when we return to the U.S.!

OK now for the fish story. Sue and the boys were down by the lake and they saw this boat with a foot of rainwater in it -- and a LIVE FISH! How did the fish get in there?? Did it jump in from the lake? We have no idea, but it was about a foot long and swimming around happily in there.

As they were watching, this man came by and noticed the fish - ah ha, an easy catch, but how to get it home! He had his handy umbrella with him, so he closed the umbrella, grabbed the fish, and stuffed it inside! You can see him holding the fish by the mouth below.

... and off he went, with the fish trapped in the umbrella. He hopped into a taxi cab with his bumbershoot bonanza and presumably went home to a delicious meal!

Some Interesting Pictures

2008-06-17T05:05:00.001-07:00

On our Putuoshan trip, Kendall really got Jack interested in photography. He was especially interested in taking pictures of small things...

Besides Jack, our friend Aamir was also creative with the camera. He asked Jack to show different emotions...

Sadness:

Silliness:

Anger:

So then Rebecca and Sue had to have a try!

Sadness:

Fear!

Anger!

Surprise!

Puzzlement!

I'm doing some past pictures because there's not a lot going on for us this week. We are finishing up our classes and giving final exams. We're also packing up our apartment and trying to give away as much stuff as possible so that the load of things to bring home will be less daunting. Our week of sad goodbyes is coming!

Zhejiang Provincial Museum

2008-06-15T06:38:00.001-07:00

We have been in Hangzhou all of this time but have never made it to the Zhejiang provincial museum which borders West Lake on the Bai Di. The museum is three floors which chronicle over 7000 years of history in this region! We saw everything from replicas of the first wood houses made with primitive tools to the military costumes from the Warring States period and a Texaco Oil Co. sign from the turn of the century. Quite a diverse collection!

After a quick visit to the museum, we hopped a boat to the West Lake islands on this balmy day - gorgeous in every direction!

Hydrangeas greeted us upon landing on the island, "Three Pools Mirroring the Moon".

We let the boys stay up until midnight last night playing a computer game with our friend Danny, and they were grumpy today. Even though they were tired, they made me a scrumptious French Toast breakfast this morning for Father's Day. However they really wanted to stay home but we dragged them out anyway, so here I am headlocking the two grumps.

Jack perked up after awhile and played with his sister on the boat.

A flower shot for Sue to paint when she gets home in 2 weeks!

One of the boys spied this snake swimming rapidly through the water. Yikes!

Our four kids... Peter, Sophie, Jack and our newly adopted son Danny, also another teacher at Jiliang. He comes over and plays network PC games with the boys and they LOVE it!

Looking across one of the pools at "Three Pools Mirroring the Moon" island.

A family picture, looking back across West Lake.

All of the kids, including Danny, got up in the tree for this shot...

Jack was the first to find the tree and climb it - he loved it up there!

This is the same scene as is on the 1 RMB bill, so it's well known all over China!

The lily pads were all blooming in the three pools.

Jack loves hopping around across these doorways. He's all arms and legs these days!

And finally Sophie, who's favorite activity is to be outdoors running at top speed. The island is good for that as there are no cars and it wasn't too crowded today!

Goodbye Party for Sue

2008-06-14T04:18:00.001-07:00

On Friday night, we went out to campus for a goodbye party with some of Sue's students. Sue said goodbye to two of her classes...

We ordered a 6 foot long Subway sandwich and fed it to the students which they really enjoyed (devoured!) - especially since most of them had missed dinner to be there!

These are all Freshman English majors, and the majority of them are girls - I counted 4 boys - here are two of them on the right...

They all look so YOUNG!

A Chinese party is of course completely different from an American party. At a Chinese party, the attendees fall into 2 categories, either audience member or performer - sometimes both. The guests of honor (in this case, Sue) are expected to do some type of performance to entertain the crowd; so we got there, and WHAT TO DO?

Sue and I sang a few camp songs, and taught them Row, Row, Row Your Boat which we sang in the round. Then they lined up and did a "Bunny Dance" around the room, to music...

... around the room they go...

Here's Sue, being a part of the Bunny Line...

I also recounted my first date with Sue which was a good human interest story for this crowd of (mostly) freshman girls.

Once the guest of honor performs, then other people get up on stage and do their performances. One boy sung a song to Sue. Another 4 girls lip-synced and danced, and then there was a pass-the-microphone karaoke session.

It was fun to see Sue with all of her students - they really love her and wrote many sweet sentiments to her. She will miss them too!

Factory Visit

2008-06-11T05:03:00.001-07:00

Peter and Jack got their first taste of working today during their visit to the factory that is managed by our friend Damiano. They saw the rows of workers sitting in front of the conveyor belt, putting together electronic components.

Some soldering happening here - the plastic bell sucks away the fumes, and the long wire is solder being used on the component.

It was Jack's turn to work the line. Unfortunately the only thing he was qualified for was boxing the finished products. One of the workers graciously instructed Jack how to put the boxes together.

... Jack gives it a try...

... and SUCCESS! The first box is COMPLETE. Ok Jack, now only 8 more hours of the workday to go. Keep moving, the conveyer belt stops for no man!

Next, Jack instructed his brother about the finer points of box-construction.

Next, it was Peter's turn to give it a try...

WHEW! After putting together 2 boxes, it was time for a COFFEE BREAK! Damiano of course had his Italian sized cappuccino, next to Jack with his American sized cup of coffee.

A big thanks to Damiano for letting us come visit his factory! I'm sure production crawled to a fraction of its normal pace with the Lewises in the way. Sue and the boys really enjoyed their tour of a real factory!

Rainy Bamboo Forest

2008-06-09T00:25:00.001-07:00

Monday is a state holiday in China, for the Dragon Boat Festival. Today was extremely rainy, but I convinced everyone to leave our small apartment and go experience the bamboo forest in the rain! We loaded up on umbrellas and a raincoat for Sophie - after a few "aww, Dad" and "Do we HAFTA?" cries of anguish, we made it out the door by 11:30.

We wandered down this dark, misty path in the downpour, and we all commented that we felt like we were in some Chinese movie!

Jack and Sue going without an umbrella, briefly, for the sake of the shot.

The exit from the bamboo forest, so GREEN and WET!

Peter loved being out in the misty, green forest and watching the water stream down the hills.

A little blurry, but I there are few shots of just Sue and I so I thought I'd include this one for posterity's sake.

We all came home soaked to the bone, although we had a good day in the rain.

Kissing the Kitty

2008-06-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

We went to breakfast and Sue found a little kitten running around in the open-air store, obviously a stray! Although I expounded dramatically upon the possible microbes, heavy metals, parasites, and other health hazards that she would expose us all to by touching this bedraggled kitten, she picked it up anyway.

Though I admire Sue's loving nature and her ability to see past external flaws (perhaps that's what allowed her to marry me), I still maintain that stray Chinese street animals should be left alone. Thank goodness we came to a compromise that she would pick up the cat but Sophie would only look at it.

I shuddered when Sue not only cradled the kitten in her arms, but stroked it and then KISSED it on its head and face. YECH! I thought I would go home immediately to check that our medical insurance was paid up, or at least buy her some peroxide... hmm, how to say that in Chinese?

Sue put the kitten down, finally, to wait for the bus, and as we were waiting some Chinese guy spit on the street behind us. The cat ran over and lapped it up with gusto, as we watched in horror and disgust! I don't know if this revulsion will stop Sue from picking up stray animals, but hopefully it will give her pause the next time she exposes herself to one!

To Ningbo and Back Again

2008-06-07T08:04:00.001-07:00

We took a 2 hour trip yesterday to Ningbo to check out the town and visit our friend Qiu Dan Ling (Anita). The weather was so hot and muggy that we wished it rain, and boy, did it!

Before the storm however, we made a visit to Tian Yi Ge, a very old private collection of books and associated building that was founded by this man, Fan Qin (1506 - 1585). There were many old buildings and a very nice garden setting in which to walk around and see displays of ancient books, mahjong tiles and art.

We walked around the gardens looking at all of the carvings and decoration...

... including this structure which is a Zun Jing Pavilion, a building built to store and respect the classics. It was originally built by a local government school, but then moved to its current location in 1934!

Sophie consistently runs everywhere at top speed and RARELY falls down no matter what surface she is running on - she's very sure footed. However today her shoe caught a crack in the walkway and down she went skinning her hands. No blood though. Peter rushed over to comfort her - what a good big brother!

Fortunately, the wounds weren't anything a little ice cream couldn't fix. It was so darn muggy today. You can see the hair sticking to her sweaty little mosquito-bitten mug.

Some shots of the kids at the Tian Yi Ge park.

Balancing the camera on a "monopod", or what the rest of the family unknowingly calls a "rock".

... and just off camera on the left side there are about 20 people watching us try to get this shot. We never quite got it as it took awhile to herd the kids into position, but we got close :)

We then went to lunch and timed it PERFECTLY as it started downpour like crazy. We hung out in the restaurant until there was a break, then we headed off to find Dan Ling's office in a modern office building in downtown Ningbo.

Meanwhile, she had come out in her work clothes, in the downpour to find us! Eventually, through liberal use of cellphone technology we hooked up. She showed us around her office - she works for Web English, which has a very modern facility for teaching English, and we met her co-workers, some Chinese and some westerners who were all so nice.
After her shift was over, we went to dinner at a local restaurant...

Finally, we all jumped on the bus and headed back to Hangzhou. We had a very tired driver and this big bus was WEAVING. We tried singing "99 bottles of beer" to keep him awake but on retrospect we think this just annoyed him! Finally I asked Dan Ling to say something to him. She asked him if he was ok to drive and he said he was, but now he knew we were watching him so he perked up. The next thing we knew, he had his headphones on and was serenading us with some old fashioned songs he was listening to. Nice ambiance!

The Many Seasons of West Lake

2008-06-05T04:13:00.001-07:00

While I taught, Sue, Peter, Jack and Stefania rode to West Lake, today. The lotus plants were in full bloom and Sue took many shots of them for future painting inspiration!

So much new growth on the lake! In the winter time, all of this is trimmed down to brown stalks that are below the water line. What a difference a few months makes!

Near the lake is a small rock garden that they wandered through, off of Beishan Lu.

Stefania, Jack and Peter, stopping for a rest.

Tomorrow after Sue finishes class we get on the bus to Ningbo, about a 2 hour ride from here. We'll do a quick tour of the town and visit our friend "Anita" who works there now. Expect a couple of days until I get around to blogging again!

Last but not least, here's a little video of Sophie doing a dance she learned at school:

Children's Art in Hangzhou

2008-06-04T05:34:00.001-07:00

Sue spent the day with Anita and Rebecca, and they went to the Hangzhou Museum, and the temple above Wushan Square. Next to the museum entrance were 8 wells, where people could come and get water. No caps, no screens, just 2 meters down and you see water!

LEFT: We hiked up this temple - 4 long flights of stairs which Rebecca and Anita, of course, did in their high heels. This must be a remnant of foot binding :). RIGHT: After seeing them do it, Jack wanted to give it a go, so they switched shoes! He managed to climb up and down the stairs ok, but they had to give him a lesson on how do do it elegantly.

On the third floor of the temple there's a charming little teahouse overlooking Hangzhou. Peter said it was like sitting in a cloud. This temple costs about 30 yuan to get in, but we enjoyed it!

LEFT: The gardens outside of the temple, and RIGHT: Jack being, well... Jack!

Inside the Hangzhou museum was a children's exhibition from ZJKM Art School (www.zjkm-artschool.com) with entries from 5 years old, on up! The kid that did this picture was about 9 years old - amazing detail!

Sue really wanted the picture below because it represents our time in China so well. A white family is on a famous bridge on West Lake, being welcomed by Chinese people, which has happened to us countless times! The museum attendant told us we could buy the pictures, and Sue asked if she could buy this one. Unfortunately, it was already sold! Sue chose another, but when she went back today to pick it up, they had called the previous buyer and told them an American family was interested and could they please buy it back. When Sue came to pick it up, the school's headmaster was ready with the re-acquired art piece and took a picture of Sue holding it.

We chose a few souvenirs to take back home, and here is a stone carver working on one of them!

Lastly, Sophie's school was picking peaches, and they gave us some to eat - delicious! The guy on the right, Sophie calls "Her Boy!" Whenever we see him she says, "There goes my boy!!" He's a very nice guy who is great with the kids.

Graduation Day

2008-06-02T00:54:00.001-07:00

Our friend Qiu Dan Ling "Anita" graduated today, so we made the trip out to campus to see her get her picture taken. There is no graduation ceremony, likely due to the number of people. Instead, students line up for their classes' turn to get their picture taken by the professional photographer. Each group hastily throws off their robe and hat, and gives it to a student in the next group for their picture, so the robes get a lot of use throughout the day! I snuck in behind the professional photographer for the money shot...

... and the celebration shot!

Staging a kiss of Anita's cheeks by Peter and Jack. They were good sports, although Jack would NOT let his lips touch her skin :) You can only ask an 11 year old to do so much.

Taking a serious shot with the graduate...

... and now for something a little less formal!

This was the next group of kids getting their picture taken; I'm not sure why they weren't in robes - just another mystery of China.

This taking of photos will be going on for several days to get through everyone - hopefully the weather will cooperate!

The Hangzhou Zoo

2008-05-30T23:50:00.001-07:00

Though the kids had been to the Hangzhou Zoo before, I had not, so we went back there today to hang out under the high canopy of trees and look at the local captives. Here are the Sophie, Jack and Peter near the entrance.

LEFT: This little girl stopped briefly to watch the foreigners go by. Love the red parasol! RIGHT: A little cave we went through in this very lush park.

Here's Jack, that handsome little devil.

We came across this nice little pagoda amongst all of the lush greenery.

Near the pagoda was a lone sole seal who was doing some tricks. This is for my brother-in-law who wanted pictures of things being balanced on noses. Here you go Dan :). The seal held this pose for quite a long while. Amazingly strong!

Some beautiful giraffes here...

The zoo was a great place for Sophie to run, which is her favorite thing to do. It's always fun to get her in a crowd because she darts all around us, and the other Chinese are wondering where her parents are. Tee hee.

Since the boys' previous school were the Abia Judd Jaguars, I had to get a picture of this lovely fellow, yawning in the heat.

Let's see, which animals shall we see next??

While at the zoo we saw this beautiful butterfly. I could tell Sophie was thinking, "Hey, where can I get a set of wings?"

So many people were feeding the animals! The attitude towards animals in zoos appears to be COMPLETELY different here than in the west. Some guy was tossing slices of bread to this bear - I think he tossed down a whole loaf of bread while we were there, much to the crowd's enjoyment. There wasn't a zookeeper in sight.

Aah, chariot rides, pulled by a GOAT! How could we resist!

Then we saw this little boy with a very distinctive haircut, paying homage to the upcoming 2008 Olympics. The torch...

... and the year, 2008 emblazoned proudly upon his crown! Jack immediately thought he would like to do something like this to his hair. What a surprise!

After an enjoyable couple of hours, we walked through a little more bamboo forest as we exited the zoo, and grabbed a cab back to the city.

Here's a shot of the delicious milk-tea that can be found as frequently here as Starbuck's in Seattle. It's a sweet tea with some kind of powdered milk added, and in the bottom are balls of tapioca which are sucked through a large diameter straw. The straw pierces a piece of cellophane wrap that they heat seal onto the top while you wait, so that it's spill proof - very ingenious. Cold or hot, milk-tea is strange but delicious!

Children's Day in China

2008-05-29T20:07:00.001-07:00

On June 1st, China celebrates "Children's Day", a day where children are celebrated and gifts are given to them. Since June 1st will be on a Sunday this year, Sophie's school put together a celebration today that involved waves of children getting up on stage at the local park and dancing to music. We were lucky that we were in only the third wave of children, as it was a crowded, busy morning!

When we got there, Sophie's teacher put lipstick on her so that she would be extra beautiful on stage. Yes, this same lipstick was shared amongst all the kids...

Here's the drinking station, where Sophie found her cup for a drink of water.

Their classroom bathroom, with the shin-high urinals, and the trough to squat over. Water flows from one end of the trough to the other.   In a trough situation, you always want to be the furthest one upstream, for obvious reasons.

The chamber pot is also brought out during class at regular intervals to prevent accidents from the little ones.

We were told several days ago, "Make a costume out of old paper and plastic bags, and make a hat having something to do with a goat!" Well, we did our best. Here are some of Sophie's classmates, getting ready for the big show, in their costumes. RIGHT: Sophie says her friend's name is Xu Wo Ling,


LEFT: Sophie in her costume trying on her "goat-hat", and RIGHT: one of her friends all decked out, Sophie says her name is Jia Yi"


Sophie, practicing her dance moves with one of the boys, Ling Long.

After 30 minutes of pandemonium getting preschoolers into fragile recycled costumes, it was time for a walk to the park. Thank goodness Peter and Jack came, they were so helpful! Here are Peter and Jack carrying the camera gear and Sophie's goat hat, which at this point has been categorically rejected by Sophie.

Sitting in the crowd, receiving instructions in Chinese with the rest of the parents. Yeah, right. Thanks to Peter for taking the picture! I cajoled Sophie into wearing the goat-hat, VERY briefly.

Sophie waited in the wings with her teacher for her turn to go on stage.

The group that went on before us, who were supposed to be bakers...

Sophie waited for the bakers to perform...

... and here are the little bakers, dancing on stage.

Parents were very AGGRESSIVE getting to the stage to take a picture of their children. I gave Jack the video camera and told him to worm his way up to the stage, which he did very successfully. Crowds always part for Jack in China! Next,I worked on positioning myself strategically, so that I'd be able to rush the stage when it was Sophie's turn.

After studying how other parents did it, I said to myself, "Ready.... GO!" I flailed my arms and pushed other young mothers, fathers, ayis and grandmothers aside as I charged the stage, and... TOUCHDOWN! I dove down in front for a shot of my little girl on stage!   When in Rome...!

Only 3 of the kids, including Sophie followed the teacher's cue to stand up, partially because it was so noisy and confusing!

Then, as the students were listening for their next cue, some fireworks exploded which shot pieces of paper into the air above their heads. Sophie grabbed her ears, and it was pretty much chaos after that. The fireworks definitely had not been a part of the rehearsal!

We stripped the costume off after being on stage, and the kids played for a bit. Sophie tried to limbo...

Jack demonstrated how to use some of the old people's exercise equipment.

Sophie and one of her classmates, hanging out after the show...

We were all pretty much exhausted after all of that excitement, and now school is over for the day. Oh look, it's only 9:30 am!

300 Days!

2008-05-28T03:36:00.001-07:00

The boxes of souvenirs are shipped, and the apartment is getting more bare as we prepare for our exodus back to the U.S.! Our "300 Day" photo, and we're all still smiling.

We are trying to enjoy all of the things we like about China in this last month before we leave. One of the small things we enjoy is the ubiquitous "milk-tea"; a tea and milk concoction with black balls of tapioca in the bottom. An extra wide-diameter straw is provided to suck up all of that chewy tapioca goodness! We go for a walk in the evenings along the city streets to the local milk-tea outlet, and it no longer seems strange.

We are enjoying not only a different culture, but also a climate that is so different from Arizona. It is HOT and HUMID here, and we have had monsoon like conditions here lately with lots of RAIN. The boys love all of the green, and the moss and the vines growing everywhere. The rivers, lakes, canals and waterways also provide a nice touch to the city, however there is a mosquito problem. LEFT: Here are the boys today, near Lingyin temple enjoying the rain on an 80 degree day.

The classrooms are not air-conditioned, so it gets downright HOT in there with 20 or 30 people inside. The classroom windows are always wide open and the fans on at high-speed, but I still find myself sweating while teaching!

We're excited to see our family and friends back in Prescott but we'll sure miss our friends here! Let's make the most of our next 30 days!

Song Dynasty Park

2008-05-25T07:11:00.001-07:00

Today we visited a park whose theme has been taken from the Song Dynasty. We went with Alice, Guido and Francesco, and Damiano and Stefania. Here are Guido, Peter, Stefania and Damiano pictured below.

We arrived at the park early in the day, and this merchant was awaiting his first sales...

Colorful decorations everywhere, and all could be had for the right price!

These pots were set aside to age vinegar, and you could sure tell with your nose!

Peter enjoyed looking around but became tired quickly as it was SO HOT and HUMID out. We all did a good bit of sweating!

LEFT: A sign for a shop that sells the vinegar, and RIGHT: Some horesemen wandered through town, all decked out in period garb.

Here they come again looking handsome, but very menacing!

Damiano and Stefania, looking around the Song park.

There was an old pharmacy there, and we smelled something interesting...

Aah, here's the smell! Some Chinese medicinal tea cooking over the fire. Very pungent! It'll cure what ails ya!

Next, we found some period clothing to try on. It was SO HOT and HUMID, so what did we do? Put on more clothes! Here's Queen Sue.

The King and one of his Princes...

The other Prince is just back from conquering other warlords, no worse for wear! An of course we have our own Chinese Princess!

In our royal wear with the waterfall as the background. There's also another waterfall going on under my shirt!

Our three little royals, ready to assume the throne.

Jack was be-knighted by King Damiano.

Guido, Francesco and Alice, looking marvelous in their Song clothing.

Stefania and Damiano also took a short rest on the bridge...

All of the grown-ups... Thanks to Peter for taking this shot for us!

More ancient Chinese Song artifacts to buy...

In the middle of this theme park there was a water feature with rope swings, hanging rings, and a pond with lots of floating obstacles on it. The kids had a really good time here. Sue and Sophie crossed the rope bridge...

Peter also took his turn...

He also enjoyed running across the water obstacles.

Jack easily swung on the rings across the lake. I was amazed!

Success! However, no skin left on the hands...

Peter, Jack, Sophie and Sue crossed this floating log obstacle...

Here is Sophie before falling in...

... and AFTER!

Sophie is certainly not one to complain about going around mostly naked, however. In fact, it is her preferred state.

The kids found some historic figure's lap to sit on. However, all of the signs in this park were in Chinese, so we had no idea who it is.

Jack enjoyed a bowl of cold pasta containing cucumbers, hot pepper flakes, and vinegar. Delicious!

Usually, he isn't up for these types of poses, but today he was being a really good sport.

They found their own hamster wheel to run in. Maybe we could use this to generate electricity back in the U.S.!

Jack gonged a bell that could be heard for miles around...

This drummer played, while a man balanced a ping pong ball on a stick, on top of which was another stick which balanced a glass. Impressive!

Cooking lunch. Yum, looks good!

Sophie whispers a secret to her buddy, Francesco.

They were watching a little puppet show / musician act and they were both engrossed by it.

Love this little boy's hairstyle!

The two buddies, exploring the Song park...

So many things for sale on this busy little street!

Souvenirs...

Candied fruit...

... and decorative fans for this HOT day!

Not So Strange!

2008-05-24T06:21:00.001-07:00

Since we're coming up on 300 days in China, we have been reflecting on all of the things that aren't so strange to us any longer. The list we made:

* Multiple people on a bicycle
* No helmets, anywhere
* Baby butts, hanging out of split pants
* Being constantly stared at, gawked at and talked about
* Squat toilets
* Squishing into a taxi cab
* No seatbelts or car seats
* Crossing the road and vying for space with moving cars
* Throwing trash on the floor in the noodle shop
* Washing dishes by hand
* Constant, noisy spitting
* Climbing 6 flights of stairs several times a day
* So much togetherness as a family
* So MANY people, everywhere!
* Drinking teas with all kinds of crazy leaves and flowers in them
* Having a housekeeper who doesn't speak English
* Being a minority
* Counters that are three feet tall
* Constant construction, everywhere
* Fireworks going off all the time
* Drying our underwear outside
* Riding bicycles everywhere, in any weather conditions
* Being illiterate
* Watching a DVD on a small computer screen, squished together on a couch made for 3 Chinese people
* Taking our shoes off and wearing slippers inside
* Hopping on the train to Shanghai
* Not having a car (we miss this, now!)
* So much city noise

When we need the comforts of home, we go across town to the only Subway, which is very similar to those in the U.S.!

Sophie and I, finishing our sandwiches at Subway...

Jack, playing with Sue's camera

Sophie saw this pink bike outside and she REALLY liked it. When we get home I think there will definitely be one in her future!

Sue's bicycle was also stolen this morning, so we're not sure if we'll buy another one before we go or not, but it sure is an inconvenience. Even though we lock them up every night, we have had 3 bikes stolen so far!

I have the best strategy for bicycle protection... Leave it outside to get rained on, dirty and rusty, so that it looks really bad. Also, push it over once in awhile so that it gets scratched up. This helps too. Mine is the only one that hasn't gotten stolen so far, so I guess it has worked!

An Evening Stroll on West Lake

2008-05-22T06:06:00.001-07:00

We reached a high of about 90 degrees today and it's also getting quite humid. We got out of our apartment and went down to the lake to enjoy the evening as it was cooling down. A few mosquitos, but also lots of bats in the air to eat them!

The willow tree lined boulevard next to the lake was lit up - the lights just came on as dusk settled on Hangzhou.

There were many people out on boats enjoying the views of the lake and the city lights.

We found a place to take some pictures with the city lights in the background. We were able to get a couple of pictures but the kids just wanted to run, so we gave up trying to do other family shots tonight besides the ones below.

I think we'll wait for another day to get more family shots when we can bribe with ice cream or some other treat!

Our First Babysitting Job

2008-05-20T04:13:00.001-07:00

Our friend and neighbor entrusted us to watch her new baby (45 days old!) while she went to the store. It was nice to have a baby around for a couple of hours, and also nice to give him back when it was time for bed!

Babywise, things are done SO differently here. Sue went to help her friend Amu take her baby to the hospital today for his shots. She went to their apartment and she was just getting ready. First, she wanted to bathe the baby. The hair is washed first, while the baby keeps his clothing on, lest he get cold. Once the hair is dry, the rest of the baby's body is washed.

The baby doesn't wear any diapers, but instead has split bottom pants.
Rather than a diaper, a piece of cloth is ripped up and passed through the baby's legs, then a piece of elastic is put around the waist to hold the cloth in place. It's not at all absorbent and in fact when Amu was ready to go the baby peed which got all over Mom's clothes so she had to change.

Then there is the problem of carrying everything. The mom has to carry a) the baby stroller, b) any shopping bags, c) baby supplies, and d) of course the baby! They live on the 4th floor so navigating all of this stuff up and down the stairs for an outing is quite a Herculean accomplishment! The baby stroller is a 2-button job, so when you want to collapse or expand the stroller it takes 2 hands to do it; definitely not easy when you have your hands full with everything else! They finally made it to the hospital after the ordeal of going out, to find out that shots are only given on Thursday. Arrgh!

Sophie was very happy to help watch the baby!

I got a message on my phone from the school that I had to forward to a Chinese friend to have translated. It said, "By the 25th of May, please make some clothes for Sophie out of old plastic bags and newspaper for Children's Day, to promote the green ideas of reuse and recycling. The clothing must include a hat that in some way resembles a goat for a performance that will be held." Sue got a good start today by making a dress for Sophie. Cute! Thank goodness I didn't have to make this!

Sue and the boys went out with Stefania today and enjoyed dumplings together. Delicious!

They took advantage of the beautiful weather and enjoyed the bamboo forest...

Sophie's school just installed new play equipment on the roof of their building. Space is at a premium in the big city, but this is a great place for the kids to play. It will get hot this summer though! Every day after school Sophie asks to go up and play before we bicycle home to our apartment.

Today in class I taught my students how to play "UNO". At one point I had 4 games going at once, 9 people per game and shouting at the top of their lungs. I also passed out some of the Bazooka bubble gum that Linda sent (Thanks Linda!) and the kids really enjoyed trying to blow bubbles.

Putuoshan - Day 3

2008-05-17T23:11:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we were out of clean clothes for the kids, so we tried to avoid the beach as much as possible! We walked through the "Purple Bamboo Forest" to yet another temple which is built on a jetty into the sea.

Many temples like this one have some sort of an urn for collecting money. LEFT: People throw money into the top RIGHT: Squeezing in to lay hands on the lucky dragon.

Worshippers touching the urn for good luck. I had to really be aggressive and elbow my way in towards the urn to get this shot as throngs of people vied for position to touch as much of the urn as possible.

Past the urn, we walked further out on the jetty to explore. Peter and Jack loved hanging out with Danny and exploring the cracks and crevices.

The color of (at least this part) of the East China Sea is very brown. I don't think (and HOPE it's not) pollution, perhaps it's silt, but it's not the blue we're accustomed to!

Rebecca, saying goodbye to the sea she only just met, as this is our last day in Putuoshan.

A decorative dragon figure, with worshippers in the background...

Sophie and Sue enjoying the views. Sophie loves being anywhere there are wide open spaces. In China of course there are much less railings and other safety devices so we had to keep a close reign on her at this temple.

"Ta Daa!"

A far off view of another temple across the bay, which we visited on Friday.

LEFT: Lighting some incense in a firebox, and RIGHT: The sky started to clear up and it got warm quickly!


OK now the incense is lit, and time to make way closer to the temple door.

What a gorgeous building! These temples have a lot of money coming in, and everything is immaculate.

LEFT: Sophie, cheesing for the camera (actually, in China they say 'qieze' or 'eggplant' when they smile for the camera). RIGHT: A view across the front of the temple.


Another immaculate passageway. I waited a LONG time to get a picture of this without any people in it! Sophie was so patient with me!

LEFT: Carrying Sophie one-handed up the walk - GOSH she's getting heavy! RIGHT: Some woman thrust her baby into Danny's arms without a word and pointed her camera at him. He was happy to oblige.

Danny, carrying Sophie, both having a great time as they walk down the street to our hotel to leave for the mainland.

Putuoshan - Day 2

2008-05-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

While we were waiting for all of the 20-somethings to wake up, we went to the beach for a little early morning sand-play.

We spotted this woman washing her vegetables on the street, getting ready for the breakfast and lunch crowds.

Once everyone was ready and fed, we started our climb of Mount Putuo. One of the ivy-grown walls next to the path...

Some of the beautiful canopy over our heads...

This monk was doing his pilgrimage to the top, complete with backpack. He would kneel and touch his head to the ground about every 3 steps. Exhausting! Passers-by would give him some water to help him on his way. There's Peter, passing him on his right.

Jack looked in the bushes for critters to take pictures of. I'll do a separate blog of all of the critter pictures he took!

The boys really loved all of the green moss and wanted their picture taken by the mossy rocks here...

Sophie sat down on the stairs for a break. Doesn't she look tired?

After an hour's worth of stairs, here we are at the top!

We walked down a wooded path to the temple on the top. Here we are at the temple entrance with the sign behind us to prove we all made it!

We strolled inside the temple to take a look around at the grounds...

LEFT: a set of prayer pillows under some decorations hung from the ceiling. RIGHT: Peering through a doorway into one of the temple rooms.

Looking down one of the many temple hallways...

This is the typical pose we saw of many hundreds of people who come to Putuoshan for their pilgrimage.

More prayers being said...

Laura and Kendall hanging out in the courtyard...

More open air courtyard of this mountain-top temple.

Part of the group taking a rest and looking at pictures after our hike up the mountain and walking through the temple!

There are many beads and Buddhist artifacts for sale up and down the mountain. This man was waving is arm to beckon would-be customers over to his display...

Kendall and Sue enjoying the view on the way back down the mountain.

Sophie caught a ride most of the way down with Aamir or some other poor sucker who she was able to beg into carrying her!

Jack was a trooper up and down the mountain. Kendall showed him how to take pictures of bugs and other creatures so he stopped every 50 feet to do so!

At the bottom of the mountain, we had to cross a park to get to the beach. We found many pigeons and - pigeon feed for sale! Jack laid down on the grass and asked us to sprinkle some food around!

He loved it! The pigeons did have a hard time staying on his slippery, short hair...

Sophie also had a great time being with the pigeons. Peter however couldn't be bothered. He made a bee-line for the beach!

The pigeons also loved Sue. They would land on her even if she didn't have any food!

Rebecca tried and tried to get a bird to land on her, but they just wouldn't! I told her to act like a tree, which she is doing here.

Finally, success! The birds found her and her food.

The birds sure enjoyed perching on Sue!

They were also (rightly) a little skittish of landing on the kids, but Peter saw what fun we were having and came back to join in.

However, the beach was beckoning and what a nice beach it was, called the "Thousand Step Beach".

We bought (negotiated!) a sand bucket with tools for the kids, and Sophie immediately ran to the water's edge to break ground.

The boys commandeered some of the more useful tools and started building a sand castle.

This was Rebecca's first time to ever sea the sea, so she really enjoyed the water and the sand.

She built her first sand castle with the boys. They started one, but the tide was coming in so fast that they had to restart further up the beach.

The rest of the group had seen the beach before, and they had different ideas!

Lots of little things in bloom...

Jack, helping to make an earthworks to protect the sand castle from the onslaught of waves.

LEFT: Jack, who we told not to get wet, now thoroughly soaked, and RIGHT: Sophie loved to run so much on the beach we had to track her down by her footprints.

The three engineers, calling their masterpiece complete as the tide started to claim it back for its own.

All refreshed after a long beach nap!

After a bus ride back to town, we looked for a place to have dinner. We passed by the town well where we saw many people come to get water by lowering the bucket...

Trek to Putuoshan

2008-05-16T06:14:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to Putuoshan (Mount Putuo), an island in the East China Sea. It is famous worldwide for Buddhists who like to make a pilgrimage here; and its temples are shrines for Guanyin, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. There is even a 33 meter tall golden statue of her that can be seen from quite a distance.

Our troupe of travelers included our family and several other English teachers as well as our Chinese friend "Rebecca" who was a tremendous help in navigating us around! Going with 10 people is a bit like herding cats, but it was fun to have everyone along and they were also so helpful with the kids! From left to right: Kendall, Peter, Laura, Rebecca, Sophie, Sue, Danny, Jack, Aamir and Tim!
We started out on a 6:30 bus this morning that took us through Ningbo, and loaded us, bus and all onto a ferry to a small port city where we could catch a speedboat to the island of Putuoshan. Our friend, Kendall, also an English teacher in Hangzhou was a big hit with the kids. Sophie called her "Candle" instead, and then "Fire Candle!"

We boarded the ferry with the rest of humanity for the 45 minute crossing. What a beautiful day! Peter, Danny, Tim and Laura pictured below.

Our good friend Rebecca who did such a good job taking care of all of us laowei (foreigners!) with Chinese translation and making sure we didn't pay too much for things! She's an excellent bargainer - able to wear away the will of the most jaded salesman!

Our friend Amir who also was a great help with the kids. Any time we wanted Sophie to do something, we would say, "OK, you have to do ___, and then you can play with Aamir!"

After 5 hours on the bus (including the ferry) and a 20 minute boat ride we were on the famous island of Putuoshan! The first order of business - hit the beach! Sophie immediately stripped to her underwear - time to lube her up with some sunscreen!

The tide was way out, so Danny, Jack, Peter and Aamir traversed it looking for creatures.

Peter, Aamir, and Jack all had their "mud socks" on after traipsing through the huge slick of thick sticky mud!

I sacrificed my own feet so that I could get a shot of theirs... and I HATE having dirty feet :).

Sue is still smiling, even though she knows she's going to have 3 muddy kids and one muddy husband to clean up before we re-enter our hotel. Sophie of course loved the mud, and the Chinese on the beach were MORTIFIED we let her play in it! We had to throw out her shirt and underwear afterwards!

Peter and Jack loving the mud between their toes!

Rebecca, helping Sophie get even dirtier!

Peter and Jack, starting to wash their feet off - the giant Guanyin goddess of Mercy on the hill behind them.

A small crab that the boys tormented for awhile, waiting to get caught.

The wind was really blowing so we tried our hands at kite flying, too!

After the beach, we decided to explore some of the other island sights. Kendall and Sue posed for me in front of these charming little houses.

Aamir helped by carrying Sophie. Of course she actually LIKES being carried this way!

We snuck in a visit to this temple before it closed at 5pm and it was certainly gorgeous with its saffron paint and seaside vistas. Here are Sue and Rebecca taking in the view.

LEFT: An inscription on a rock to the Goddess of Mercy, and RIGHT: a temple doorway in the late afternoon sun.


Kendall enjoyed sitting in the sun and taking in the seaside views.

... and so did Peter!

One of the ornate walls inside of the temple...

LEFT: For good luck, you're supposed to touch the dragon on the urn or throw coins up on the top. Sophie gave it a try. RIGHT: Entering into the inner courtyard.

LEFT: The urn where people donate money, and RIGHT: a peek inside the prayer room.


The inner courtyard, catching the light of the late afternoon sun.

Gratuitous flower shot against the saffron colored walls.

OK, back outside of the temple now, I wonder which way we should go? Good thing we have Rebecca with us!

Next on our itinerary was to see the 33 meter (about 100 feet!) high statue of the Goddess of Mercy, which you can't miss seeing if you're on this side of the island!

She looks out on quite a view! To the left, the temple we just visited...

... and to the right, a little inlet where we played on the beach; at the end of which is our hotel.

LEFT: Jack doing his own Goddess of Mercy imitation, and RIGHT: a group of pilgrims on their approach. They walk about 3 steps, then kneel down in the prone position as below, then stand up, walk 3 more steps, and repeat the process. They have done this for quite a long ways. Many temples have 108 steps, or some multiple of 108 where this process will take place.

Kendall led Jack and Rebecca in some yoga. Seemed fitting in a place like this!

A carving on one of the walls of the Goddess of Mercy, Guanyin.

Tim, giving the Goddess of Mercy a kiss.

More pilgrims, making their way to the base of the statue.

Here's our group - Laura, Peter, Danny, Sue, Rebecca, Jack, Sophie, Aamir and Kendall!

LEFT: The Lewis family in front of the Goddess and RIGHT: Wow! China has tourists too!

Aamir helped keep the boys in line!

... and after a long day of busses, boats, travelling, temples and goddesses, it was time to EAT! We found this little restaurant where Sophie is picking out her dinner. We had some great crab and clams and a variety of veggies with some rice. Delicious!

Tomorrow - hike to the top of Mount Putuo!

Starting to Pack Up!

2008-05-15T01:33:00.001-07:00

We have accumulated so much STUFF in just one year here in China! Sue spent a large part of her day boxing many items up and taking them to the post office. Here they are at the post office putting bands around the boxes, getting them ready for shipment.

It cost about 1000 yuan to mail it all, about $150 US, for surface mail and it will take about 2 months to get there - so it will be a race to see who gets home first, us or the boxes!

There are all kinds of strange fruits at our local market. One of them which we bought today looks like a cross between a purple grape, a cherry, and a raspberry. We'll let you know how it tastes! We also found these nectarines, below, that they must have put some sticker on as they ripened in the sun to make a beautiful Chinese character!

This weekend we will go to Putuoshan, an island with beaches and monasteries in the East China Sea. It has about 3000 residents and 1/3 of them are monks. So, you may not see blog entries for a couple of days!

Three Sheets to the Wind

2008-05-14T03:37:00.001-07:00

One of the chores our ayi does regularly (and sometimes us) is to do the washing. Luckily, we have a washing machine, but it only uses cold water, and we have no dryer. In AZ a dryer isn't needed as much, but here it is a much more humid environment so things take a LONG time to dry.

Our dryer, instead, is a pair of steel cables, one mounted on the north, and one on the south sides of our apartment. It's always interesting to come home from school and see our unmentionables flying in the breeze six floors up!

Today, Sue put the sheets and the mattress pad outside, and didn't remember to clip them to the cable with clothespins, so they flew away, and landed on the roof four stories below us. Thankfully, our ayi came to the rescue and talked to the building maintenance people and was able to retrieve them!

Here's Jack, lesson well learned, clipping the sheets to the cable. He's a little scared of heights, so this was a scary job for him!

This amazing 87 year old man came up and spoke perfect English to Peter and Jack. He had lived in Shanghai during the concession era and had worked as a young man with lots of foreigners. Since we have been watching Chinese history programs for part of our homeschooling, we realize how much he has seen China change during his lifetime!

He invited us to an "English Corner" on Sundays near the lake. Maybe we'll get a chance to go soon!

One of the pastimes of the young university teachers is to smoke the hookah. Tobacco is pumped through water, and smoked through these contraptions. Many bars offer smoking through these things, but it's STILL smoking so we only LOOK at the these interesting looking devices.

There is still a lot of news about the earthquake. About 20,000 people have died, and the body count will probably continue to rise. CNN reported that more than 3.5 million homes have been destroyed. Much of the country's rail system has been diverted to transport thousands of soldiers to help clean up. Several of my students are from that area but thankfully their families survived.

No Earthquake in Hangzhou

2008-05-12T14:46:00.001-07:00

Thank you for your emails wondering about our safety after a large earthquake hit in Central and Northern China. We were not affected, although many of our students said they felt it. Our building made strange creaking noises yesterday afternoon but I chalked it up to building construction. However, since it coincided with the time of the earthquake, I realize now that's probably what it was.

The news reports are now saying that more than 18,000 people have died in the quake around Chengdu. We have some teacher friends who went there so we are anxious to hear whether they are alright.

I have several students who come from that region, so hopefully their families are safe. I didn't bring it up yet in class but probably will tomorrow. I have heard many people comment about how 2008 has been a difficult year for China. First, the biggest snowstorm in 100 years. Next, the EV71 virus scare, and now the earthquake. Hopefully China's luck will change as the Olympics approach!

Today I did a culture lesson talking about step by step instructions. We had a lesson where we made Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches with about 80 students which was a lot of fun. Lots of sticky Chinese people! Ninety percent of them thought they were delicious; the other 10% thought they were disgustingly sweet. Next, we watched the opening scene from "Raiders of the Lost Ark" which they also enjoyed.

Although the boys haven't been to their school for about the past few months, they stopped by today to say goodbye to their classmates. The classmates had gifts and well wishes for them. It reminded Peter and Jack of their previous difficult experiences and they have been thankful for the homeschooling we have been doing for them lately. Going to the school with no "Chinese as a Second Language" support was very difficult for them. I think they will have great empathy for ESL students when they return to the U.S.! At any rate, it was good "closure" for them and they are looking forward to seeing their U.S. friends again!

Lunch at the Sofitel

2008-05-11T05:54:00.001-07:00

Today we went with our French and Italian friends (Alice Milner, as well as Stefania and Damiano) to the Sofitel, which is managed by Alice's husband. We sat out on the terrace under an umbrella by the lake on a 70 degree day - so pleasant!

Sophie and Alice's son Francesco played together and also had a wonderful time chasing each other around!

Jack was Mr. GQ in his tie (LEFT) and (RIGHT) Sophie giving a big hug to Francesco.

Here are the two gentlemen, Damiano and Jack... so cool!

Our tables on the terrace, overlooking the city and the lake. Gorgeous!

The taxis on the street below. We always love to see the green lights in the windows of the available taxis.

Peter was thrilled to receive a giant hamburger which he polished off in no time. Then he sat in the sun and read his book; he was so content!

Our friend Alice, whose husband manages this beautiful hotel. (Jack took this picture!)

A gigantic Dragon Boat on a cruise off in the distance...

Here is Sophie, levitating off the rock. Her feet rarely touch the ground!

Jack was so good with the little kids. He let them push him off the rock and he made a big show of it which they LOVED. On the right - possibly one of my favorite pictures of Sophie that captures her joie de vivre!

A cityscape of Hangzhou on this beautiful day.

Jack learned to tie a tie today, and here it is flying in the wind as he launches himself off of the boulder by our table.

Our two little gentlemen, so well behaved at this luxury hotel. Thanks Stefania for these pictures, and Alice for the wine and dessert!

Taking a break with their candy boxes... Sue opened her chocolate box up that the hotel had given her for Mother's day and came to find the chocolates were... GONE! The thief (Sophie) had chocolate around her mouth!

The girls left for the fashion market where Sue found some fabric and a tailor to make her a shirt and a pair of pants (linen!) for 200 quai! Here she is getting measured by the tailor.

Since Thursday we had Sue's students over, had a RISK tournament, toured the city with Danny the teacher, went out with Tim and Fang, then Damiano, Stefania and Alice! It was a lovely weekend!

West Lake with Westlake

2008-05-10T01:05:00.001-07:00

After a late night of Risk, one of the other foreign teachers, Danny, stayed over in our second apartment. Since he lives on campus, he hadn't been to West Lake very much so we showed him around. The ironic part is that he has been here 9 months, and his last name is "Westlake!" We raised Jack's bicycle seat so that he would have something to ride. Sue and Sophie were on one bicycle, Danny on the second one, Peter on the third one, and Jack and I on the fourth. Jack is getting HEAVY to pedal up the hills!

We went south off the Guo Villa and climbed into a boat for a nice row and verbal tour around some small arms of the lake. The driver served us some green tea and provided umbrellas for the sun which was starting to get warm.

Danny and Sue being silly in the boat. We're going to send it to Danny's girlfriend in America.

Sophie is famous for changing her moods very quickly. She can turn her sad face into a happy face in about .0000003 seconds. Proof below:

Peter allowed her to sit on his lap for awhile and enjoy the view...

It was starting to get bright out, so Sue lent Sophie her sunglasses.

Jack, hanging out, enjoying himself on the boat.

We spotted these guys dredging up some dirt from the bottom to create this little island. We're not sure if they were raising these plants as crops or what - so many mysteries in China!

We stopped at the Su Causeway and fed the fish - a West Lake must!

It's rare we get a picture of the 5 of us together - I don't often bring my tripod around and there are usually too many people to use a tripod anyway. Thanks, Danny!

Here he is, being goofy for the camera.

Jack, Danny and Peter LOVE playing Warcraft III together. They have a warcraft language all of their own. "Does the Skull King bounce his spells off of the building onto the Acolytes? I don't know, but we need to do a Star Fall!"

We stopped at one of our "haunts" at West Lake, Le Varza, and we have befriended this woman, who is also from Wuhan, the same city from where we adopted Sophie. This woman also has a 4 year old daughter, so she always entertains Sophie while we eat, and even takes her to the bathroom! Sophie loves her and calls her "ayi" or "auntie".

Today we had a small accident on the bike. Sophie turned her foot so that it went into the spokes of the back wheel, while she was on her bike seat, during our ride to West Lake! It was really caught in there and we were afraid it was broken! We carried her around today and checked for swelling, but luckily there was none. She is now missing some skin on her foot but once she saw something that interested her she ran off to investigate and we breathed a big sigh of relief!

Shopping at the Carrefour

2008-05-09T17:04:00.001-07:00

Sue went to the Carrefour to go shopping and pick up some Western provisions (cereal, pasta, coffee, and bread). It sure is nice to have an outpost of Western food here. Apparently the French are suggesting that the Olympics should be avoided due to the situation in Tibet! So, Many Chinese have elected to ban going to Carrefour because it is a French chain (even though it's locally owned and employs many Chinese!) However, this is our source of wine, cheese and bread - so, we're happy to ignore any political tensions that may be occurring and eat well!

Some delicious chickens and chicken feet - what a selection! I think it's impossible to pick out the same feet that were originally together!

If chicken feet aren't to your liking, how about pig feet! Hmm, what to cook for dinner?

Here's a premium turtle, waiting for your shopping cart. MMmm, doesn't he look yummy? Anyone have any good turtle recipes?

Thursday night we had some of Sue's students over. We made them an American dinner which they seemed to like, but they did eat some of our Chinese food afterwards!

Last night some of the other foreign teachers came over (and one student) for an exciting game of Risk - world domination! The risk game lasted until 11pm which the boys LOVED, then talking until 1am. Then everyone (except the Lewises) went to the bars after THAT! Peter exclaimed, "Those YOUNG people are crazy!"

The Wall Museum

2008-05-06T03:36:00.001-07:00

In ancient times, there was a wall around Hangzhou, during the Warring States period. Emporer Chin Emporer Qin (201 -207 BC) unified the states, and joined all of the walls together. His other achievements were the building of many canals and roads, the introduction of a common money system, and standardization of laws. Jack, Sue and Sophie went to the wall museum today to look at a rebuilt section of the wall that used to surround Hangzhou.

Peter and Jack enjoyed the views from the top of the wall.

The entrance to the wall and the museum. It's clear today, but starting to get quite hot and muggy!

After lunch, Sue noticed a group of red-hatted tourists going down an alleyway, so what did they do? They followed! They came across the Hangzhou Catholic Church which was built in 1659. It was burned twice, once in 1692 and once in 1912, and converted into a temple twice, in 1691 and 1730. today, it is the cathedral of the Hangzhou Catholic Diocese.

Next it was back to Sophie's school to pick her up.

The school has been on a campaign the last couple of days to check the children carefully, and teach them Currently there is a scare about the EV71 virus which has dangerous symptoms for small children; it's a variant of hand, foot and mouth disease and there is no cure for it. We have been told by the U.S. State Department that we don't need to change our behavior for now, but it's something we're watching closely! We may pull Sophie from school if we think it's not safe!

It's a Monday

2008-05-05T02:38:00.001-07:00

After homeschooling, it was time to get outside and enjoy the sun and warm temperatures. Here's Jack, hanging out by the lake, waiting for his lunch.

After lunch, we took a little promenade around the southeast side of the lake. Peter held my cappuccino while I took their picture - then proceeded to drink part of it. I think he LIKES it!

Everything has leafed out SO much during the past month. The boys loved the paths with a canopy of greenery overhead. They're always so happy when we get outside and into nature!

This guy was playing some violin type instrument while people sang. The boys said they definitely would NOT be putting this music on their IPods any time soon! It was fun to watch, but not fun to hear!

Some colorful plantings near the east side of the lake...

Tomorrow I get a new class of 34 students. These will be students that have just been accepted into the graduate program. They have all passed the CET6 ( College English Test - level 6) so their English should be good enough to have some interesting conversations over the next 10 weeks!

Return from Shanghai

2008-05-04T01:30:00.001-07:00

Today, Sunday, was definitely more relaxing for us than most Chinese. Sue was supposed to have classes today, to make up for a holiday we had last month, on April 4th. Tomorrow is also supposed to be a holiday, but it is also a make-up day for June 9th. In the U.S., we just have holidays. Here, they make up many of their holidays by trading them with weekend days!

As I sit here writing this, on Sunday, I can hear the school children getting off of their school busses after a day at school. As the boys say, "Sucks to be them!"

Peter and Jack at the Shanghai train station today as we made the trip back to Hangzhou.

The train station restaurant has some delicious Illy coffee. How can we refuse!?!

The waitress played with Sophie for awhile, which is standard procedure whenever we go to a restaurant, then snapped this picture of us in transit.

Peter tried to take a picture of us all asleep on the train, but with all of these children around, I always sleep with one eye open.

Jack had taken his rabbit, Blackjack to our friend's house on Thursday to be cared for while we were away. Unfortunately, within a few hours of the rabbit's arrival, it died! We're not sure why - was it too scared from the bike ride over there? Did a cat or some other animal scare it to death? Did it eat some bad food? We're not sure, but we were sad to lose her!

I will try to convince Jack NOT to get another rabbit before we go home in about 55 days - and then try to figure out what to do with it!

The friends that watched Blackjack were the same ones whose fish I watched when they went to Thailand. Their electricity failed for several days, so more than 80% of their fish died. I guess we shouldn't watch each other's pets any more!!

Old China, New China

2008-05-02T07:33:00.001-07:00

To me, nowhere that I've been in China has a greater contrast between old and new than Shanghai. Since we had a few days off (Thursday and Friday are holidays in China), we decided to come back to Shanghai and relax.

In the foreground, charming little streets with noodle shops and family grocers. In the background, huge megatowers of glass and steel!

LEFT: A huge building near Nanging Dong Lu that looks like the docking port for a spaceship. RIGHT: In the foreground, some locals in the alley having a visit.

It looks like today is shaping up to be a clear day, so we decided to head over to the Jin Mao tower, currently the tallest (completed) building in Shanghai.

Most people go to the Pearl Radio and Television tower (far left) and pay about $15 US to stand in long lines and visit the observation decks.

Our Lonely Planet guide recommends to go to the Jin Mao tower and go up to the "Cloud 9" bar. There you can sit at a beautiful window table in the gorgeous bar and have a drink for about the same price. We went there too early today and it was closed, so we'll try again later this evening if the clear weather holds.

Today (Friday) is also a national holiday, so there are many crowds about and lots of flags up. Below: The Chinese flag displayed proudly amid the towers of glass and steel.

Looking across Shanghai and the Huang Pu river.

We stopped at the Shanghai Urban Planning and Development center where they have a historical account of Shanghai's long history as well as future plans for growth and development. Shanghai in the old days...

A scale model of Shanghai which contains about 30 million people at this point.

Peter is becoming interested in all things architectural, so he really enjoyed the Urban Planning center. Part of future plans are to build a 32km bridge out into the sea where ships can dock. Then trucks would load the goods and bring them into Shanghai, without having to bring smaller boats up the river!

We went across the street to People's Square where it was starting to get hot! It's supposed to hit 90 degrees today.

This cute little boy sporting a lovely queue was playing with a bubble-gun, which, for our kids suddenly became a must-have!

Well we found the store where the boy had gotten his, so here's Sophie attempting to inject some bubbles into Jack's mouth.

Sophie, of course, REALLY enjoyed trying to catch the bubbles on her tongue.

Jack, Peter and the Chinese Pippi Longstocking (remember her??) in a sea of bubbles!

LEFT: Sophie and I waiting for our dinner, and RIGHT: Peter, during lunch today, showing the proper technique for eating noodles. Slurp up a whole bunch, then use the chopsticks to keep feeding them in.You don't want to bite them, because long noodles signify a long life!

Near the lunch restaurant today was a jelly-bean store. How cool is that? We love Shanghai - it has everything!

Next we went back to the Jin Mao tower now that the "Cloud 9" bar was open to have a drink and look at the views...

Sue and Jack on top of the world...

Next, we went back to the restaurant that Cara, Shawn and I had gone to before getting on the train. It was wonderful to sit by the river and watch the traffic go by on such a warm day!

A view of the river from our table...

We were sent an email with pictures of people holding the sun... so of course Peter and I had to try this :).

Hanging out at dinner with the 3 kids...

Finally, as the sun completed setting, the building lights across the river came on. Beautiful!

We made our way back across the river to the Bund and pushed through the crowds for some Gelato. What a clear, warm night that we all enjoyed!

The Pearl Radio and TV tower all lit up.

Can You Say, "Vanquish?"

2008-04-30T04:09:00.001-07:00

One of the vocabulary words in my English class was the word "vanquish", as in "The Hulk vanquished his enemies!" Well, that is exactly what happened to our neighborhood train ticket office! We used to buy our train tickets here up until a couple of weeks ago... now not even the building is left standing; just a pile of rubble!

After awhile, some workers came to sift through the remains to find any recyclable parts; bricks, bits of metal, etc.; anything that can be reused!

Speaking of the word "vanquish", our rabbit has gotten HUGE! He vanquishes rabbit food, vegetables and water at an alarming rate! He is getting much faster, stronger and harder to catch, too! Look at those FEET!

Here's Jack and Sophie with our friend Amir; he had been teaching underprivileged children how to speak English near the Tibetan border which he loved. His contract ended, so now he's shopping around for more opportunities in Hangzhou. He is so good with children and our kids love him!

Peter's computer was also nearly "vanquished". During the last major construction, the indoor portion of the air conditioning unit was moved to the opposite side of the boys' room over the desk. Somehow it wasn't hooked up properly and excreted over a liter of water while it cooled their room overnight. Normally this wouldn't be much of a problem, except Peter's laptop was the recipient of the deluge! We dried it out carefully during the warm day. Tonight, we crossed our fingers and pressed the power button. Miraculously, it appears unharmed! Whew!

Tunxi Ink and Tea

2008-04-28T00:32:00.001-07:00

It was so nice to sleep in on Sunday morning after spending all day on Yellow Mountain! We couldn't sleep too late, however because there was apparently construction on the floor above us which started at 8am. At least we were afforded an early enough start to be on the street by 9!

Our first stop was the Old Town to get something to eat. We spied this pork shank drying in the morning sun. Not what we had in mind! Here's Jack also looking a bit out of place with his blond hair in this foreign scene!

This woman was selling vegetables from her cart. A nice selection, but a bit inconvenient for the 7 of us.

Jack, again, being a good sport as not one, but 3 separate girls asked for their pictures with him!

After breakfast, we went to the Tunxi Ink Factory - a famous place for buying ink products, ink stones and other art supplies. We were told not to buy ink stones in the tourist old town areas because they might not really be stone, or they might be too porous and absorb the ink too quickly. Sue spent about $100 US for an ink stone that she was very happy with!

The man below is in the process of making black ink. It takes 12 ingredients, and each ingredient by itself is also used in Traditional Chinese Medicine, so theoretically it is non-toxic :).

Meanwhile, I was outside watching the kids, when a photography/art tour came by. One of the photographers used the great ploy of giving candy to Sophie so she would stand their and pose for him and the rest of their entourage.

Here they are, all snapping away at the kids...

... and here are the kids posing for them!

The photography group moved on, but Sophie was still standing there, wondering if she could get another chocolate just for being cute!

After the ink is dried, it is formed into blocks, and this woman is lettering the ink stick with gold paint.

The finished ink sticks, ready for shipment!

Next, it was off to the tea store. Anhui province is very famous in China for several different types of tea (Green teas and Black teas) so we went to a tea store for a tasting. Here are Anita and Rebecca helping out with Sophie.

Some interesting shutters on this old building...

... and here we are at the tea store having a tasting. We asked the taxi driver to wait, so he came in and tasted with us! A down-home affair!

Anita and I, waiting to be served our next round of tea.

In all, we tried 2 different green teas, which cost about 1280 yuan per 1/2 kilo, or about $180 US per pound! We also tried some delicious black tea (they call it RED tea here). I was surprised that the boys REALLY got into tasting the various types of teas!

Jack, trying some delicious chrysanthemum tea. His favorite!

We tried 2 different types of chrysanthemum teas, yellow and white. We preferred the yellow chrysanthemum teas. We bought some of each to take home. It was wonderful to have them all explained to us and to sample each one!

Finally, we hopped on the bus for the 3 hour trip back to Hangzhou very satisfied with our Yellow Mountain trip. If you haven't seen the Yellow Mountain pictures yet... keep reading!

Trek on Yellow Mountain

2008-04-27T20:27:00.001-07:00

Yellow Mountain (Huang Shan) is a spectacular range of 76 peaks that has been a tourist attraction for 1200 years! Countless painters and poets have trudged around the range, bestowing the peaks with names such as "Nine Dragons", "Ox Nose", and "Fairy Capital".

To hike to the top takes about 3 hours, and then once you're on top there are several hours of trails, which are all granite staircases. There are THOUSANDS of stairs that traverse the peaks, up, and down and UP and DOWN!

Rather than get tired out schlepping three kids to the top of the mountain, we opted for the easier solution - an 8 minute ride up 3700 meters in a beautiful Swiss-made cable car, which boasts to be the longest cable car in Asia.

Very rugged terrain passed by beside us as we climbed the mountain by cable car, which we were so thankful for!

The five of us among the peaks of Huang Shan, ready for several hours of stair climbing!

The regulations for this scenic area were also posted in English, of course telling us not to enjoy the views while walking, and don't flirt with the monkeys. Cute!

It's so nice to get up into the mountains, away from all of the crowds... WAIT! Who are all of these people?? Yes, even the high mountains in China have crowds! Since it is Saturday, there are SO many people.

Wu Pei Zheng "Rebecca", and Qiu Dan Ling "Anita" accompanied us on this trip and both of them were SO helpful in reading signs and carrying and coaxing Sophie on more than 5 hours of stairs!

Now that it's almost May, we can really feel the weather beginning to change. Today was a gorgeous day of about 75 degrees at the top of the mountain. Sue, Peter and Jack are enjoying the views...

Peter and Jack mounted this peak while I stayed on the peak several hundred meters away and took a picture of them. LEFT: They're on the peak, a little SPECK on the top right of the peak. RIGHT: Zoomed in to the little viewing platform they were standing on.

... an example of one of the many sharp peaks at Huang Shan.

Many of the chain barricades that protect visitors from thousands of feet of free-fall are adorned with padlocks. The lock is inscribed with the names of lovers, and locked to the chain to "lock away their love". Then they throw the key into the abyss, so that their love is locked together forever.

Everything on top is done by manual labor. These three men are hoisting this slab of granite to make a new bench.

There are several hotels on top of the mountain and EVERYTHING is brought up by porters from the gondolas to the mountain peaks. These porters make 40 quai (about $6 US) per DAY for carrying these heavy loads up thousands of stairs. The long stick that protrudes from the shoulder brace can be rotated downwards so that the load can be supported while the porter rests. If you think you're having a hard day, think of these guys who do this EVERY day!

A good example of the "umbrella" trees which are so prevalent here.

A look across the Huang Shan range's rugged terrain.

This peak is called "Flower Blooming on Brush Tip", because it resembles a hand holding a calligraphy brush. According to the signs, this peak was formed about 1200 million years ago.

Peter and Jack try their hand at being porters. Sophie is the lucky one who gets to ride!

Whenever we got away from the bathrooms, Sophie would declare that she had to Pee Pee! Here's Sue helping her take care of business next to the "trail" aka excruciating number of stairs!

LEFT: A great view on top of the world (or bottom, if you're from the U.S.), and RIGHT: a very small sample of the stairs upon stairs upon stairs!

Posing for a picture with our friends and guides, "Anita" and "Rebecca".

Another porter, carrying dirty laundry down from one of the hotels.

Carrying food and provisions back UP to one of the hotels. All of the 5 or so hotels that are up here were all built from materials hauled up on these guys' backs; including furnishings, grand pianos and building supplies!

This guy's job is to carry up Westerner's luggage. If you ever come to Yellow Mountain, think of these guys and remember to pack LIGHT!

LEFT: A peek through the peaks, and RIGHT: Jack and Sophie find a refreshing mountain stream.

Fabulous views. However we had to hold onto Sophie constantly as there were precarious drop-offs at every turn.

Of course ours were the only American boys up there, so everyone wanted their pictures with them. They were such good sports to pose when people asked!

Some teenagers getting their pictures with Sue and Peter.

Sue wanted her picture with this good-natured guard who was there to discourage any horse-play near the edge.

We continued our hike to the next peak, and had to wait behind this group of four porters who were carrying up a new hot water heater. About every 50 meters they would set it down and rest. What a laborious day for them!

We stopped for a rest on yet another mountain peak - hundreds of more stairs tackled! We were now getting pretty tired and we couldn't imagine doing this hike while carrying a water heater!

LEFT: We made Sophie sit as much as possible so that she wouldn't run off of an edge some place, and RIGHT: "Anita" holding tightly onto Sophie for us. She was such a big help!

Sue and Rebecca surveying the world.

Anita and Tim coaxing Sophie up the next staircase!

More rugged mountain views. It's getting later in the day now, and a bit more hazy. We're also worried about getting back to the cable car in time, which closes at 5pm, and we have no idea how long it will take us to climb all of the stairs to get there, even though it is only about 4 KM away.

This rock on top of "Flying Hope" peak has a special meaning. If you come touch it 3 times, then when you descend, marriage is imminent. "Rebecca" went up and touched the rock. What is she hoping for??

... and here's Rebecca who touched the rock 3 times. Good luck Rebecca!

The boys found a nice resting spot with a vista between the mountains.

A bystander took this picture of our intrepid troupe.

Sophie waited while we took another look at the map. Now we were starting to get more worried that we wouldn't make it back to the cable car in time, which meant hiking DOWN the mountain for another 3 or 4 hours, mostly in the dark!

In the center of this picture, one of the hotels perched among the high cliffs.

Since time was getting short, I hoisted Sophie up on my shoulder for the thousandth time and MADE TRACKS! the trail was getting very crowded now (LEFT), so we had to bulldoze our way through mountains of Chinese, but I WASN"T GOING TO MISS that cable car! My strategy was to sing loudly with Sophie, "Up the hill we go, up the hill we go, under the trees, through the Chinese, up the hill we go!" The Chinese people would turn and stare at us and magically part as their jaws dropped open. You can see (RIGHT) how crowded the trail was!

Peter, enjoying a view and a 3 minute rest break, then FORWARD-HO to the cable car!

Finally we made it to the cable car and OMIGAWD look at the line! At least we were in it though, so we were reasonably sure we'd get a ride back down the mountain.

Standing in line, admiring the beautiful views. There is little concept of personal space in China. The guy behind me was standing so close to me his whole body was touching mine. I was expecting a marriage proposal from him at any moment! I tried to focus on the view.

Finally, here we are at the FRONT of the line. What a relief to know we'll get a ride down the mountain!

We started hiking about 8am, and by the time we got into the gondola it was about 5:30, so we were all hungry and tired. After dismounting the cable car, it was a 30 minute SCARY bus ride back to the entrance,and then another 45 minutes by cab back to town. We had left our hotel at 6am, and we arrived back around 9pm after a very full day. Everyone's legs ached - but guess who had the most energy??? Sophie of course! Even though she walked most of the way, her nuclear powered internal engine was still going strong!

Overall it was a wonderful and memorable day!

The Tunxi Grottos

2008-04-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

After we finished our shopping in Old Town, we went to the Tunxi Grottos (Hua Shan Mi Ku), a series of underground granite caves that were made hundreds of years ago, but no one knows why. Tons upons tons of stone had been removed, but it is unclear where it all went!

Since that time, it has been made into a recreational area where you can explore the grottos, do some archery, boating, etc. Jack and Sophie started off by getting a ride to the suspension bridge which is the entrance to the Grottos.

Peter and Anita followed suit in a less fancy, but higher speed contraption.

This stocky woman could MOVE!

Rebecca and Sue also got a ride, while I ran along side and took some pictures.

Next we crossed a suspension bridge to enter the grotto area...

Peter and Jack exploring the underground grottos...

Blond-headed Jack, emerging from the cave.

The next feature of this recreational area was a large pond. We asked to take the small boats, but it was near the end of the day so they took us on a larger boat.

Here's the inside of the boat we took instead...

Sue and Sophie, enjoying a warm afternoon on the lake.

Sue, Anita and Rebecca also enjoyed the afternoon sun on this little swing near the lake.

Jack found an oar in a boat and had fun splashing and playing. He gets SO much attention here in China due to his blond hair. I wonder if he will miss that attention or not back in America?!

Sophie loved climbing around on the rocks, but she did encounter some mud!

LEFT: Anita next to the lake, and RIGHT: Sophie slipped and fell in some mud and her bottom got VERY muddy. So we had to place tissue where ever she sat (on the boat, in the cab, etc.) until we could get back to the hotel to change her.

A farmer tending to one of his beasts as the sun sets...

A beautiful sunset in the Tunxi valley...

On our way back to the taxi, the boys spotted this "gun range" outfitted with pressure guns that shoot tennis balls. How could we NOT stop??

A gunner's view of the range. A load of tennis balls, an air compressor and 10 yuan. What more could a boy want??

Both boys, firing their guns at will...

All of us spectators, cheering them on.

The boys enjoyed all of the green grass and the place to run like wild animals (which they are on the inside) :)

Sophie also loved to run, and Anita and Rebecca were both SO GOOD about running after her all the time! I think they will get their workout tomorrow on Yellow Mountain!

Yellow Mountain town of Tunxi

2008-04-25T05:18:00.000-07:00

We woke up at 6am to get ready and make the bus for Tunxi, a 3 hour ride away, at the base of Yellow Mountain (Huang Shan) in Anhui province. Huang Shan is one of the most spectacular scenic areas in China, on the scale of the Grand Canyon in the U.S.

As I mentioned previously I was very concerned about going there without a hotel reservation especially with the 3 kids, and calling ahead I found NOTHING available. Finally I found a Chinese website that had a local phone number. I called and they said to fill out an online registration form and they would call me back. During our bus ride, they called me back telling me they had found us rooms in the town of Tunxi, not far from Yellow Mountain. WHEW! They were "2 star" hotels meaning that you couldn't see the other 3 stars due to all of the grime and grunge, but it was a place to sleep so we overlooked the faults. The stained carpets and traffic noise did not keep us from sleeping, although Sophie did, as usual!

After dropping our bags, we were off to see the Old Town. Here's Sophie arriving in the cab.

Some of the buildings in this old town are more than 200 years old - however they were adorned with Chinese lanterns emblazoned with the Coca-Cola symbol!

Some of the many treasures and shops we saw...

Sue went crazy over all of the cool art supplies, ready for purchase if you're willing to haggle!

Decorative lighting on every street corner and building. So festive!

Qiu Dan Ling "Anita" and Wu Pei Zhen "Rebecca", two of our friends who are English majors at our university accompanied us on this trip. It was WONDERFUL to have them along as they were so helpful in buying tickets, hiring drivers, helping with Sophie, and making everything run smoothly!

LEFT: Our friend Anita. RIGHT: A store selling lots of interesting objets d'art.

A view of the Old Town street.

More sights of Old Town...

Sue and Sophie taking in the sights. Many kinds of fungi and tea for sale!

Sophie loved seeing all of the toys to play with that were down at her level...

Sophie found these two HUGE stuffed-animals which are characters invented for the 2008 Beijing Oympics. They are "Bei-Bei" and "Huan-Huan". There are five of these characters in all, "Bei-Bei", "Jing-Jing", "Huan-Huan", and "Ying-Ying" and "Ni-Ni" which form the saying "Beijing Huan Ying Ni" or "Beijing Welcomes You!".

We ate at a local restaurant in old town (3 times because the kids liked it there), and they made a special flat-bread rolled out and fried with chocolate and butter. Delicious!

Sophie's Parent Day

2008-04-24T07:18:00.001-07:00

Sue, Peter and Jack accompanied Sophie to her kindergarten where she got to show off her school for a morning Parent's Day. She was thrilled to show everything she had learned and worked on to Mom and her Big Brothers.

Jack, watching Sophie's activities... He bought a new backpack recently and wears it everywhere!

(LEFT): The beds that are rolled out during nap time for all of the kids, and (RIGHT): Sophie shows some of her toys.

Tonight, our friend Ashley came over from school and babysat the 3 kids. Sue and I went out ALONE to a foot massage, followed my noodles at this little shop below. It was great fun to watch our noodles being handmade. We ordered our meal, WITHOUT MSG, thank you very much.

Tomorrow we go to Yellow Mountain or "Huang Shan". We have tried desperately to get a hotel over the phone but to no avail - everything that is on the internet is booked, so we're going without reservations and HOPING we get a room! Yellow Mountain has 76 peaks and is to China what the Grand Canyon is to America - something not to be missed. The scenery will be beautiful and will hopefully overshadow any dismal accommodations we run across :).

We will be away from the computer until Sunday so the blog will not be updated for a couple of days - but stay tuned for a pictures and stories of what promises to be an "interesting" trip!

Pineapple Season Arrives!

2008-04-23T04:55:00.001-07:00

In the U.S. many types of produce are available all year round, but perhaps not in their freshest state, flown from a long ways away. Here, everything is grown locally and is SO DELICIOUS when it is in season! When we first arrived, oranges were in season and they were everywhere, then pomellos. Now those are harder to find, but strawberries and pineapple are everywhere! In another month, peach season arrives and I can hardly wait! Here are some bamboo baskets of pineapple waiting for sale.

Sue's students received their second batch of pen pal letters from 8th graders at Mile High Middle School. Thanks to Beth Sharp who helped coordinate this project - there is now a bridge between these two groups of students. Sue's students were completely thrilled to receive the letters that included photos, coins, candy, comics and even music. One person even received a pair of sunglasses! Sue's students are diligently working on return letters!

Sophie has a little French/Italian buddy named Francesco. They played at the Radisson last week during brunch and had a wonderful time being with each other!

While Sue and the boys are gallivanting around town, Sophie is at school. Here's Sophie at her school inspecting a hangnail while the rest of her classmates do calisthenics.

Peter and Jack were out with Sue while I taught school and found a little coconut stand. How strange for American boys to bargain for coconuts in China!

After coconut shopping they went to a foot massage and paid extra to dip their feet into a bowl of fish which fed upon the flesh of their feet!

Peter, Sue and Jack outside the Hangzhou Tea Museum.

This week two of my four classes end, and I get a batch of new students for the next 10 weeks. That batch of students I will have for 6 hours per week, so we should have some time to do some interesting projects! We can't believe that we only have 10 weeks left of teaching!!

Beishan Hike

2008-04-21T00:40:00.001-07:00

On this very misty/rainy day we spent the first half of the day doing home-schooling activities; math, geography and writing. Although it was still pretty wet when we finished, we headed out to lunch and then on a hike over Beishan mountain.

Our goal was to find Manao Temple. We started off our hike from this park's trailhead...

Up the hill we went through the mist!

At the top of the hill was an inviting entrance to a little teahouse. But the boys aren't interested in tea, so on we went.

Jack went "off trail" for a little bit to really get close to nature!

We found this millipede in the path, so the boys looked at it awhile.

They decided it would eventually get crushed if it stayed there for long, so they moved it off into the bushes with a stick.

Looking up at the clouds and mist through the trees...

When we got to the temple area, it was close to time to get Sophie, so we never actually went in! I allowed the boys to vote to either see the temple or get ice cream. Guess which one they picked!?! We'll try again another day.

Italian Rendezvous

2008-04-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

This morning we met Alice and Guido, Stefania and Damiano for brunch at the local Radisson hotel which puts on quite a nice spread! This table is close to a children's room where there are toys and Winnie the Pooh on TV. Perfect! Alice and Guido's son Francesco was also there who Sophie adores!

Peter was very satisfied after a big meal and a pile of fried bananas. Yum!

After breakfast, we went across town to see a small model of Venice, Italy in a new entertainment town that is built in the same style of Las Vegas. There's a hotel with a sphinx, a German Castle, a theme park, and a large outdoor amphitheater. We saw just a small portion, but the scale of the town and the investment is immense!

They wouldn't allow us in as the place is still under construction. Stefania tried to sweet-talk the guard for awhile but he was concerned about his job, so he said, "No". Luckily, we found an open door around the side of the complex, so we scooted in there for this picture below.

Eventually the guard caught up with us, and kicked us out, but in a nice way! He did direct us to the marketing office however, and they led us around the property briefly.

All of these buildings are apparently completely empty. These will all be hotel rooms. The Chinese, from what we can see, don't do much for entertainment. Now that they have clothes, cars, and disposable income however, this place might be really hopping in a few years!

Jack takes a break and smiles for the camera...

Damiano and Stefania with Peter and Jack in "Venice's" town square, which is apparently a 1:1 replica!

The kids LOVE Stefania and Damiano and talk about them often - and they are so good and patient with all of our kids!

Here Come the Brides

2008-04-19T07:33:00.001-07:00

The weather cleared up enough for us to try out a new park today, Prince Bay Park, at the south end of West Lake. Part of the Qiantang river has been diverted to flow into West Lake, and the resulting tributary flows through this 197 acre park.

We knew we must be at the right place when we got there, as this group of yellow-hats exited the park just as we entered. The 3 chaperones definitely had their hands full!

The little guy in white did not like his friend hanging onto his hood!

Lots of tulips were planted, although many of them had already been cut back!

I was ordered to take this picture of a windmill by Sue. She thought her Mom and Grandma would enjoy seeing a picture of a windmill in China!

The boys stayed home today since we have had them out touring hard for the past 5 days, so only Sophie accompanied us today.

More tulip fields!

This was definitely THE spot to get wedding photos taken.We saw perhaps 100 brides running around in their gowns getting their pictures taken by wedding photographers - usually a bored looking groom was in tow.

So many staged shots, everywhere we looked!

This couple was posing for their picture...

... and several other brides and grooms were queued up waiting for their turn at the same spot!

Looking across the river, it was easy to spot many more brides!

... at this park - TULIPS and BRIDES!

Sue and Sophie found this chariot to sit in for pictures. We later found out that it cost 1 quai to sit in it and have your picture taken. But we feigned foreign retardation and snuck off without paying.

We found this show going on where two dragons danced around the wedding couple, then they open up this special, giant lock and "lock away their love". Then they make a show of throwing away the key.

Our little flower sat inside of this big one. "Cheese Daddy"!

Here she is again, filthy from running around the park and grinning ear to ear for the camera!

Guo's Villa

2008-04-18T00:39:00.001-07:00

First built between 1851 and 1861, this garden is named for Guo Shilin whose private residence this was. This is considered to be most characteristic of the classic gardens in eastern China, and it sits on the edge of West Lake. It's also the best example of a private traditional garden in Hangzhou. It fell into disrepair for many years, and in 1991 it was re-opened after renovation.

Peter took this picture of me admiring the garden which is split into two halves - the "Living in Quietness" section where the host used to meet guests, and the "Sky in the Mirror" section harboring a large pond.

A small pagoda perched upon a rock face for a view of the Su Causeway.

Peter and Jack loved this huge maple that provided a shady respite on this warm day.

We spied this group of ladies playing mahjong and they tried to get their grandson to come out and see Peter and Jack, but he was too shy. I tried coaxing him out too, but he would have no part of it!

Peter always enjoys being outside, especially in these manicured gardens.

Jack went for the art shot this time :)

Of course wherever there are beautiful gardens and sunshine, you're bound to see couples doing wedding pictures! Here's one I snuck...

Next door to the gardens we found several boats available for rent. It was such a nice day that we hopped on and he brought us to a calm inlet and rowed us around for an hour. Very relaxing! Jack even got out his book and read awhile.

Jack on the boat, sporting the new buzz-cut he got yesterday. He's loves having a buzz-cut and he's the only one in our family that can pull it off (maybe Sue could too, but Peter and I have weirdly shaped heads)!

Paddling through the new Spring greenery on a 75 degree day. Nice!

I use tongue twisters in class a lot to help teach pronunciation. Here's one I thought of for this picture: "Sue's son seldom shuns the sun!" Try saying that 3 times quickly!

Southern Song Dynasty Kiln Museum

2008-04-15T03:58:00.000-07:00

Today included a trip to the Southern Song Dynasty Kiln museum, which Sue has been dying to go to since we arrived in Hangzhou eight months ago. This kiln was unearthed in the early 20th century and fired pots for the Song dynasty (960 - 1279 AD), and porcelain for imperial use.

To the left is the giant kiln that could fire hundreds of items simultaneously. On this dig site they also found pottery from previous eras. In fact, on the right is a pot that dates back to 2000 B.C. - more than 4000 years old!

Now that Sue has had her curiosity satisfied, hopefully she won't want to build one this big when we get home! :)

Hangzhou Scissor Museum

2008-04-15T03:53:00.001-07:00

I know. The Scissor Museum. You must think we're REALLY bored to go to a scissor museum, but it is also a working factory and famous the world over for SCISSORS, and nail clippers, and garden clippers. This scissor company, Zhang Xiao Quan is known the world over for its quality scissors and has been in business making scissors since 1663! Almost 350 years of scissors!

Of course as parents, we had to turn this into a lesson on the value of a college education. The boys watched this woman for quite awhile as she placed single blades into this machine to be punched. She had boxes and boxes of single blades ready to be inserted into the machine. She does this all day, every day. Ugh!

Sue has made it her mission to visit every museum in Hangzhou, so we can now check this one off the list. They also visited the Natural History Museum, however after they got their they found it had been closed for SIX MONTHS due to an in progress move. It must take a long time to move pickled, bound feet! (No, I'm not kidding!) At least they can say they have been there!

They did find a nice cage at the museum that they tried out. Maybe I can pick one of these up cheap in a move sale! It might come in handy!

For posterity's sake, here's a picture of me in one of the 8,000 Hangzhou taxi cabs, with Shawn visible in the back seat, on a rainy night. Eight thousand may seem like a lot of cabs, but for a city with between 7 and 10 million people, depending on who you ask, it is often too little! Shanghai, with 30 million people has 50,000 cabs.

Botanical Garden Nose Meat

2008-04-13T03:08:00.001-07:00

This Sunday afternoon, the boys and I went back to the Botanical Gardens to get out of the city noise and traffic for awhile. Sophie has continued to have a cold and cough so we kept her home all day to rest. We don't know if she'll go to school tomorrow or not! The Botanical Gardens are said to contain monkeys, but these were the only two I saw:

Many people in the gardens were harvesting some sort of greens to eat. We couldn't tell what was edible from what wasn't, of course, but they sure could!

The flowering plum trees are pretty much finished now, but many other kinds of flowers were in bloom!

Jack found many spotted moths on the flowers, so he posed with this one.

LEFT: An old sign post next to the path we were walking on, and RIGHT: A wooden bridge crossing a quiet pond.

Jack caught a lizard that was very willing to bite anything they put near it. Then we got a great idea. "Hey, let's see if it will bite someone's nose!" Peter volunteered. Jack, surprisingly would have no part of his nose in the lizard's grip.

After the lizard incident, we hiked to the top of the hill to find a beautiful tea house in the trees.

Inside the teahouse courtyard...

Cara and Shawn's Last Day

2008-04-11T02:39:00.001-07:00

We braved the wet weather, and went out on a hike through some of the forested parts of the city. Luckily the rain stopped since we had our umbrellas with us, so it was just a nice misty day.

This woman was starting a fire to cook dinner with. She was out of coal for her little furnace, so she had switched over to wood. Smoky! It smelled like camping.

We also stopped by the silk market today where there are more than 300 shops that all sell silk products. Scarves, pajamas, shirts, skirts, ties, underwear, sleeping masks, bolts of silk. Anything that can be made from silk can be found here!

One of the local silk shops...

Of the 300 shops, this was definitely the scariest mannequin!

Tonight we will hop on the train to Shanghai and stay the night there (Cara, Shawn and myself). Then we will go to Pudong tomorrow morning where I will see them off, back to the U.S.A.! They have had a very eventful and memorable trip!