Curious Kids

So the elementary kids all figured out the foreigners were in town and that they even spoke a bit of mandarin....so they had to come have look. They were just curious, but very excited to sit and talk (or just stare). I was explaining this to helper lady and she said it would be the same if a Chinese were to go to small town America....no, not really.

This little girl could only stare, she never smiled, but she stared. She was cute, she came back the next day to take another look. She wouldn't even talk to me, but they said she was about the same age as Adayla.They came over on one of their school breaks and then again the next day. Some of them were very brave and would practice one of their English sentences / questions that they had learned. We tried to teach them a song, but they were too shy to want to sing with us.

Adayla had been coloring early in day and we decided to share with them. At first I thought they had never colored before as they were so excited to get started. We asked Jane and she said they have crayons but that it was probably because it was a coloring book from America. Especially since it was a princess crayon book from America. Adayla was a bit hesitant to share, but I told her she was so lucky to have all these things from America and that Lil Gma or Grammy and Gramps could always send her more! She happily shared with them and they all colored together for quite awhile. They were very particular in copying the front to color them the right colors.

The Chinese Chef

Okay, so her food wasn't exactly matching our preferences, but she could whip out all sorts of things. She was so cute, Jane's mom that is. She was so happy and just keep on feeding us. Most of the food is from what they grow and store. She made up a fresh batch of tofu one afternoon (I would have watched, but I was needing a nap!) Her are some more pics from the kitchen.

The above two pics are the tofu, litterally bean curd. I am really sad I missed seeing how in the heck you even do that. We ate in later that evening in the pancake below.

This is the pancake that she made, it was one of the things I liked the most. She made all the dishes look so easy as she whipped them up!

A Walk to the Fields

Jane and her mother led us to their family fields. As soon as we left, it started to rain some more and rained the whole time we were out. Adayla was a bit grumpy, but she survived. Tally enjoyed the ride on Tim's shoulders. Their fields are really beautiful, a bit stinky because of the fertlizers, but perfect aligned.

Adayla a bit whiny about walking in the rain, look Jane's 52 year old mother give her a ride!

Bamboo is one of their best resources, they can do anything out of it. These are grape fields, all with bamboo!
Why I hated the fields, the flies were everywhere! Yuck, see all the ones on Tally and Tim!

Ryann's first vacation

This trip can be marked as Ryann's first vacation. Sadly she won't remember it, but we did capture a few pictures. These people loved her! She was passed around probably more than I should have let her, but how could I not. First of all, they were very confused by the pacifier. But quickly learned that she likes it...alot! It made her happy when she started to cry. But many times when they put it in, it was completely upside down.

Her mom found a place for me to put her down once she was asleep. How cute!

This is Jane's dad holding her, it took him a day and a half to warm up to the idea. I think he liked it! They have been bugging Jane a bit to get married, but I think they will a bit more after having "grandkids" in their house for a few days!

BayBerry Picking

I stayed with the girls while Tim went off to pick Bayberry's....the whole purpose of our trip. When he has a minute, he can add the story, but for now here are the pictures. They are quite tasty, kind of a cross between a strawberry and a raspberry, but a little sour. No latters involved, you climb right up in the tree.

Final Night

The last night was fun as well, after all the school kids are complete strangers left, some of Jane's relatives and family friends came to hang out. We sat outside and they asked us all sorts of questions, like about Tim's job back in the States, how long the flight was back to America, was it in the morning in America as it was nighttime there, and many more.

Tally's friend, she has a thing for Chinese men.
Just hanging out....
The 2nd day we were there, we woke up and didn't have electricity. So that evening the kids that had class at 6:30 were sent home because of no light. So we hung out with the school kids some more and gathered for a group shot!

The Road Home

The short version .....rode 5 hours on a bus without AC, Morgan took it out on the lady when given a few parenting pointers on how to dress her kids,Tally barfed all over herself, Tim, Adayla, and the taxi on the way home, what would have been a $6 cab ride therefore turned into a $30 cab fare, and we have all been throwing up and enjoying a good case of diarrhea for the last 3 days... and it has been all worth it -- it was a wonderful trip

The time went by too quickly and soon we were back on that bus to Shanghai. They all came to wish a good trip home and to come back next year! I think before the bus ride home and after effects, we would have had no doubts about going back. We probably will, I just need to forget the following:

The bus was just fine for about 3 hours and the air conditioner broke on a hot and humid day. Okay, so lets roll down the windows...they didn't open. So needless to say, we were a bunch of Sweaty Bettys!
Ryann got to hang out in her diaper because I had dressed her thinking the AC would be on.

Tally and Adayla's hair were wet! Thankfully the bus wasn't full this time and we had plenty of room to spread out. But I was more thankful that it was only that we didn't have AC and that the bus was still going. I joked with Tim earlier that I hoped we didn't get stuck on the road for hours waiting for another bus to pick us up!

We arrived back at the bus station and headed with our hands full for the taxi line. On the way, about 10 Chinese chewed me out for Ryann not wearing clothes. The temp was 85 or 90, I don't think she was going to freeze. Tim started saying things like well she is not your kid so that they didn't need to worry about how she was dressed. On the way to the taxi line, you are approached by a few unlicensed drivers looking to pick people up and make a few extra bucks. This one lady kept hounding us and then began to tell me how my kid needed some clothes. She got a good yelling from me....all in English, but I am thinking she totally understood even though she couldn't understand!

Finally we were in cab and the nice driver blasted the air towards us! Just when we started to feel relief, out of nowhere, Tally barfs all over everyone and the taxi. No warning, no crying after, just a few good up chucks and she was fine. So what do you do when that happens? We just laughed. There was nothing else we could do!

The cab fare was about 40 RMB, but Tim thought to offer the driver 200 RMB (almost $30) for being so nice and patient with Tally's barf. He couldn't have been happier with the tip. We were just grateful he didn't yell at us or kick us out of the taxi.

Home never felt so good! That was 4 days ago, Tally has had a "sore tummy" since then and is back in diapers, Adayla is better after 3 days, and Morgan and Tim were up a good part of the night Saturday letting it out which ever end felt the urge.....reminded us of the two days before we were married! We had expected that we might get sick and took all the precautions we could (other than completely no eating their food), but you know, we would have missed an amazing opportunity had we not gone. This trip has been one of our best experiences of being in China. That being said, there's no place like home... and our home is SHANGHAI!

Check back next week.....

We are headed out of town tomorrow for yet another fun and exciting adventure in China. Our Chinese tutor has invited us to her hometown south of Shanghai. We will be boarding a bus with our 3 kids for an 6-8 hour ride to where she grew up. (We will need to capture the excited Chinese as they board the bus with the foreigners, but they will probably almost walk after the first two hours with us!) It is time for harvesting peaches and she says it is a great time to go. She grew up in a village with something like 500 other people. Even now no grocery stores or vegetable stand. They mostly grow their own food, but can spend the day going to a bigger nearby village for any other necessities. So this means no hotels, so we will be spending the entire time at her parents house. We are looking very forward to what "small town" China is like!

Back in America!!!

We made a brief stop in America last week, about 1 1/2 hours or so!

So, we didn't really get back to America, but it sure felt like it at Johnny Moo!! It is an American style diner with all the good stuff: hamburgers, fries, curly fries, shakes, and not to mention free refills on your coke (only place that we know of that does that)! They just opened one within walking distance from our house. So we be frequenting it often, at least we will walk there and back right?! We were so excited once we saw it coming and paid close attention to when ever we passed by to see if people were in eating inside. We thought it had opened and so one evening we walked there with some good friends and arrived to find it opening the next week. They invited us to the day before they opened free food party! Even better!

My New Man

I don't think I even need to say which one is the before pic. He had let it grow and grow and finally decided it was time to start looking like a professional again! What a handsome guy (in both pics)!

This is $3, 3 shampoos, hair cut, in-chair massage, and 1 1/2 hours later!

2 Month Old Ryann

She is already 2 months and sharing her smiles. What do they say all babies do is eat, sleep, and poop? Well she does all, but the latter. She does poop, but only about 1 time a week! She is such a good baby, a bit spoiled, but is content hanging on the couch by herself now for a few minutes. Adayla always comes up to me and says, mommy lets make Ryann laugh. Tally still does nothing but love her to pieces. I was quite irritated the other day when we were all (Tally, Ryann, and I) together eating breakfast. We were happy and things were good when Ryann starts screaming a hurt scream. She was mad! I couldn't figure out what happened. I looked at her hands and on one of her fingers was a pretty good tooth imprint....Tally did you bite Ryann? "Yeah!" Mommy is not so happy and says in the not calmest voice, go to timeout. She is now crying, too. She comes out and tells Ryann sorry and I am left confused as to why when she usually is super lovey and very protective.

About two days later, I am looking at Ryann's fingernails and notice they are long again, and do as I usually do....bite them off myself! It dawned on me that Tally was just doing what she had seen me do (of course I don't bite her finger, just the nails!)

So Ryann is loved by all and we have had so much fun with her the past two months. Here were her stats at her 2 month check up: 10 lbs 11 oz and can't find the paper with her length, I forgot because it was in centimeters and I just don't instantly translate that yet! She is stinkin' cute!

Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwujie)

The Dragon Boat Festival, or Duanwujie, was actually last Sunday, but we decided to wait to report about it until this week because I was supposed to go this weekend with my MBA class for the annual alumni activity, complete with our own Dragon Boat races. Unfortunately this weekend was very rainy here in Shanghai and so we decided that it wasn't going to be much fun to hang out in the rain with the kids all weekend. So we didn't go this year, but next year, rain or shine, we will go.

We still want to share what this holiday weekend (Sat-Mon) is about since it is unique to China. The best way to explain it is to read the below article from the Shanghai Daily:

"Sunday marks the annual Dragon Boat Festival and it promises to be a feast for the senses - a cacophony of sound, a blaze of color and tastes and smells to excite, writes Tabitha Ang. For most, the month of June signifies the middle of the year. But according to the Chinese lunar calendar, the fifth month has just begun and people are preparing to celebrate another traditional festival - Duanwu Jie. Otherwise known as the Dragon Boat Festival, it takes place on the fifth day of the fifth month on the lunar calendar, and this year it falls on Sunday.

Legend has it that the Dragon Boat Festival commemorates the life and death of Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), a great poet. He lived during the Warring States Period (476-221 BC) before the unification of China in the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC. Qu tried unsuccessfully to warn the emperor against the expansionism of the Qin Kingdom. When the Qin took Yingdu, Chu Kingdom's capital, in 278 BC, Qu's grief was so intense that he drowned himself in the Milou River. Villagers used boats to try to save him but failed. Today's dragon boat races commemorate the rescue attempt while according to legend, rice dumplings were thrown into the river to prevent fish from eating the poet's body.

While dragon boat races provide a feast of festive action, glutinous rice dumplings called "zongzi" are also a tasty highlight. They are available all year round but come into their own during the Dragon Boat Festival. They are all made with glutinous rice but complemented with different fillings and wrapped in fresh reed leaves. They are then steamed or boiled in a pot.

Some are stuffed with diced chicken; others with diced duck, lean pork, egg yolk and mushroom.Some have no filling and are eaten with sugar or syrup. Yet, while the shapes and fillings vary from region to region, they are mostly wrapped either in triangular or pyramidal shape."

-- from an article in the Shanghai Daily.com

So no Dragon Boat pictures to show, but here are our "zongzi." Our favorite is the red bean paste kind, it's a bit sweet.

I know you're dying to try one now, so here's how you can do it yourself at home: (also from ShanghaiDaily.com)

1. Get some bamboo leaves about two palms long and three to four fingers wide.

2. Soak them in water and clean them with a soft brush. They will serve as the wrappers for the zongzi.

3. Soak glutinous rice in cold water for several hours. When the rice becomes fat, you are ready to start wrapping.

4. Take two or three bamboo leaves and overlap the edges to form a funnel.

5. Put glutinous rice inside, bend the leaf ends back to cover the funnel top and firmly wrap it up in the shape of a pyramid.

6. Secure with a string.

Got it?

The Tricky Swing.......

I definitely have to give it to China for all the cool parks and playground equipment that they have. We have been to several, but this is hands down Adayla's FAVORITE place to go. She refers to this swing as the tricky swing, you know mom, the one where you do this....she then demonstrates the riding pose for you. She could ride this thing for hours and just giggle like it was her first time. I am still working on posting a video, I have the instructions, but it seems like too much work to get from my camera to the computer...so you don't get the giggles this go around. Only bad thing is that is very labor intensive for the adult! :)

This is the starting platform where the tire must be dragged to the top by the adult.

The end of the swing where the rolling tire bounces off the stopper tire and kids about fall off. (Look closely and in one of those strollers is a sleeping Ryann.)

Happy Rider Tally

Giggling Adayla (this is the pose she gives you, but imagine the swing not there, legs crossed and everything!