Kindergarten...

This week we were asked by some local friends to come and visit the kindergarten where they work. They told us that we'd spend about 30 minutes playing with about 40 kids around the age of 5 & 6. Sounded like fun...and we didn't have anything else to do this Saturday morning, so we agreed.

Since we're 10 months into our time here, you'd think we would have figured out by now that things don't always go quite as they say it will.

On the hottest day so far this summer we woke up bright and early to meet our teammate and her 5 year old boy for a McDonald's breakfast and then we were off to the kindergarten. When we pulled up to the place we were a little shocked to see a huge crowd of about 200 people gathered around a "staged" area watching the children perform dances & plays. Imagine a big Parent's Night or whatever at a kindergarten school and you've got approximately the event that we attended this morning.

This girl (I think she was a teacher) was performing when we arrived...and we felt so bad because not a soul was watching her when we showed up. This kindergarten is on the outskirts of our city and I'd be willing to bet that not a person there has ever seen a foreigner in person. But she did good performing her traditional Chinese dance...

The children were so cute and extremely excited about their performances and the activities for the day. During some of the performances I got a chance to step inside one of the classrooms to take a peek at the kids preparing for the next event...

And then the ladies who were escorting us informed us that it was our turn to speak. A little shocked and nervous as to what we were supposed to say in front of this big crowd, I asked her what we were supposed to talk about. She said (the chinese equivalent of) "Just whatever!" So we got up there, introduced the four of us, and then she asked us to teach the children something. Our wonderful teammate quickly came up with the great idea of teaching the kids Duck, Duck, Goose. So...we taught Duck, Duck, Goose and they loved it! And all the parents laughed and took pictures of their children playing Duck, Duck, Goose with the adult foreigners.
The teachers insisted that the kids say Duck & Goose in English but somewhere along the way it actually became Goat instead of Goose, which you can hear in the video...but oh well! We were just glad that they caught on to the point of the game! This is us, changing the world one Duck, Duck, Goose game at a time:

We were pouring sweat after the game and a little ready to leave since the expected 30 minutes had turned into 2 hours but they insisted that we stay for one last performance that the "children put together for their foreign friends." So we stayed a little longer and got to watch these girls perform a traditional Chinese dance.

(notice the people up on the roof behind the school watching as well!)

They actually did some gymnastics too and it was pretty impressive to see them memorize all of that!

At the same time though, it reminded us of those little girls that perform cheerleading routines during the half-time of High School basketball games and they make you think..."hmmmm, why on earth would anyone let their little girl come out in little provocative outfits and perform suggestive dances?" This is why we cut the video when the "shaking" started going on. haha... just one of those culture things that apparently is prevalent in every society.

But they sure were cute in their pink outfits and gold spikey fingers .

By the end of the morning we were exhausted from all that Duck, Duck, Goose action, dripping in sweat, & ready to find some air conditioning...as were all of the children!

Honda Boxes

As I rounded the corner of the largest building on the campus where we study, I began to wonder if we would have a package in the mail room. You see, the mail system in China can sometimes be a little difficult, because it is not always uniform. We always have our mail from America, which is the only mail that we get, sent to the school. If we had it sent to our home we would receive a notice in Chinese telling us that we had a package and we could go down to the main post office, stand in line for a very long time, show our identification, and finally bring the package back home. This sounded like a lot of work, not to mention the time it would take (probably about an hour and a half). So we decided to have it delivered to the school, which we go to practically everyday. Now back to the story.

So I walked into the mail room at the school, and was greeted by two forty year old women friends who work there. They had a big smile on their face, which meant that they had a package that had English on it. My two friends, who do not speak English and I don't expect them to, only know me by my Chinese name...so when we get packages they rarely know if they are ours or not because they can't read English. So I rounded the counter and go back to where they are working and I begin to smile. HONDA. I saw a Honda Engine box and that could only mean one thing, my mom sent us some gifts from America. You see my mom works at a lawn mower business which is overflowing with Honda boxes that they get parts in. I didn't have to show my two friends my ID since they know my Chinese name and wouldn't even be able to read it and know that I am the person who the package was sent to. Then I throw it over my shoulder, tell the ladies thank you and their response is always "bu yong xie" which literally means no need to thank, or your welcome.

Then April and I carry the box home and by this time I know that my birthday presents are in it, and I know that as soon as I get home I am going to open it even though my birthday isn't for another week. Who is going to stop me? It is not like it was when I was a little kid and couldn't open my presents until the day of my birthday and even then not until it was the right time in the party. Or even before Christmas when the presents were sitting under the tree just tempting me to open them early. (which by the way I only did once, and then re-wrapped them) Sorry mom. So I opened up all my birthday presents a week before my birthday. I'm sure I'll get a comment on how now I will not have anything to open up on my birthday, but oh well. At least I can wear the new clothes that I got for my birthday on my birthday, oh yea, and eat the ENCHILADAS that we get to make (she sent us the ingredients to make our favorite enchiladas!) Fiesta! (which is a Spanish word...not a Chinese word)

Day to Day

Seems like we haven't posted in quite a while. Sorry about that. But honestly, I think it's because things have just been completely normal lately...which has prompted me to write this post (inspired by our friends' post on normalcy).
Usually we write about the odd things that we deal with every day living in this new culture or funny stories about our cultural "oopses," but for the past week, each day has been just as normal as what most of you deal with day to day...
Grocery shopping. Going to class. House cleaning. Fixin' dinner. etc...

And then while we're at home things usually go just about the same as they did back in the U.S.
Go & Row bark outside.
We can hear the footsteps of our little neighbor upstairs.
Horns honk in the distance.
We eat dinner in front of the tv occasionally...watching bootleg versions of Seinfeld.
Thunderstorms.
Bombs go off outside (ok so maybe this isn't quite what you deal with...but they are becoming normal to us) (and maybe we should clarify the word "bomb" to let you know that it's not actually what the middle east deals with but more so just loud annoying fireworks...which we like to call bombs and are growing completely used to)
I made cinnamon toast for breakfast this morning.
Brandon is watching a NBA playoff game right now on tv.

See? All normal things...except for the fact that maybe you don't have to ration your cinnamon and your NBA playoff games don't have chinese commentators. :)
Just wanted to give you a little insight into how things are still normal in our lives also...with a little cultural craziness only every now and then.

Half Way There

Hello Family and Friends, here is a picture of April at 20 Weeks! I can't believe we're already half way there.

Our Friend's Wedding

We woke up bright and early this morning to attend our good friend's wedding. Chinese weddings generally take place before lunch time. This explains why we get woken up so often at 5 a.m. by loud fireworks, which is Chinese tradition for warding off evil spirits that might haunt the new couple. This tradition had no place in our friend's wedding, which made it different than most Chinese weddings, but it still had it's own very Chinese feel. Luckily the festivities for this wedding didn't start until 8:30 a.m!

One of the first differences we noticed between a Chinese wedding and traditional American wedding:

I gotta admit. If I got covered in silly string when I was coming down the aisle, someone would be feeling my wrath. But, as this must be a usual custom, our friends handled it impeccably well! She got most of it pulled off of her nose by the time the ceremony got too far under way, but the yellow stuff stayed in his hair throughout the entire thing. It made for some really cool pictures!

It really was a very special ceremony with some neat traditions. Brandon was asked to give a short speech. He might could have done it all in Chinese but as the entire wedding was translated, he didn't really feel the need!

There were a lot of differences: like singing the wedding march (we didn't even know there were words!), singing Aud Lang Syne, & an interpretive dance. But we're so glad we got to experience it and even noted a few things that we should incorporate into wedding ceremonies back in the US. The bride and groom sang their favorite hymn for the guests and that part was really neat.

Brandon got a new Chinese traditional dress shirt made for the occasion but he ended up being only one of two people clad in one...and the other was our whitie friend! None the less he still looked very handsome. The bride wore a white dress for the ceremony but during the lunch time meal she changed into a traditional chinese red dress and looked absolutely beautiful. (This is one part I think we should take back to America!)

The wedding festivities ended after a large lunch for the "honored guests." It was great food! And then the new couple left for their honeymoon destination where they'll be for 15 days!! Another great idea! :)

Movie Commentary

We visited Computer City today to see what our "bootleg lady" has recently gotten. We bought several movies to watch over the course of the next few weeks. The bootleg dvds that we buy here don't have a movie summary on the back of the dvd package like your normal dvd bought in the US. So normally we don't read the backs of the movie packages because they either say stupid things, give away the ending, or are just completely unintelligible.
Today though, I scanned the back of the movies we bought. Here's what some of them had to say:

Tristan & Isolde:
"From execute producer Ridley Scott (Gladiator comes) a sweeping, fraction-packed asge of epicc battles..."
---seriously. who doesn't love a movie full of fractions?! epic battles and a math lesson?! what more could you want?

The Contract:
"I had mixed feelings about the ending. You won't see anything new in this movie."
---great recommendation to put on the back of a movie.

Dejavu:
"Contains some extreme violence that some may find disturbing, particularly during the explosion when many people are shown jumping off the boat in flames."
---never knew a rating system could be so specific!


We never quite know what we'll get when buying bootleg movies but...since that's our only choice for seeing anything that comes out of Hollywood, we'll settle for just about anything.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Yesterday morning at 6:45 a.m. our doorbell rang. Both of us still fast asleep at this time just pushed it to the back of our mind and thought, "if it's important enough...they'll come back." A little less than an hour later, it rang again...still too early for us to do anything about it. We went about our business of a normal Sunday morning here and then that afternoon our visitor returned. It ended up being Mr. Li, our grandpa-aged neighbor from downstairs who thinks Brandon is the coolest person on earth. Brandon answered the door delighted to visit with Mr. Li again, but the conversation went as it usually does with Mr. Li. Since Mr. Li is an older man his spoken language is nothing near the "Standard" Chinese that we are learning. It doesn't sound chinese at all to us actually and we like to call it "Mr. Li Hua" (or Mr. Li Speak). Anyway, he's one of the many locals here that when you don't understand what they are saying they just get louder and get closer in your face. Only, Mr. Li likes to add a little spittle into his sentences as well. Anyhow, the wonderful neighbor who we really have come to enjoy (Even though we can't communicate with him) came to inform Brandon that someone attempted to steal Brandon's bike at 5 a.m. this morning. A few questions came to mind:
Who steals a bike at 5 a.m.?
Who is awake at 5 a.m. to catch a bike thief?
Who steals a bike worth about 15 dollars?

Regardless of the unanswered questions we had, Mr. Li urged Brandon to go down stairs and take a look and then encouraged Brandon to store the bike in his storage room for the time being.

Another example of the neighborly conduct...

The other day our light bulb went out in our living room. I promise we're really not all that helpless... we can change a light bulb on our own. But one of the great things about the apartments here is that most of the ceilings are 12 foot ceilings. (or something close to that since they don't use FEET here) We tried several acrobatic feats of reaching the light bulb fixture, to no avail. So we went to a few of our neighbors to ask if they have a ladder. Our upstairs neighbor (you might remember him as the one who brought the reporters to the Christmas party!) said that we didn't need a ladder and then brought down a little stool with him. And then he attempted something that should be accompanied by the subtitle of "Do not try this at home."
He stacked a few chairs high, put his little stool on top of those like he'd done this a million times, reached the light fixture, pulled out the bulb, and told us exactly where and what we needed to go do.
So we went and bought the new light bulb, came back, and even though he told us to come get him when we got back, we attempted the life-threatening feat on our own and this time succeeded.

What would we do without our helpful neighbors?