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Aug. 28th, 2006 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizzybennetGrumble, grumble, rackin-frackin, ACK!@! sob, sob, sob.
That's about how homeschool went today. I'm half-tempted just to put him in Chinese public school for a couple weeks. Then he'll be oh-so-thankful for a mom who is sacrificing all her free time to teach him!
*deep breath*
and now on to more positive things...
I forgot to mention that on our first evening there I had a back massage. This was my first massage ever, so I have nothing to compare it to. I don't know if all massages are so painful, or if this is just the Chinese style...it hurt! And it still hurt for days afterwards, sort of like I'd really worked out my back. Still, my muscles were much loser and I was glad I went. I've been carrying Connor on my shoulders a lot since we moved here, and she worked out all that knots and tension up there. It was painful, but in a good way :)
Thursday was our last day in Suzhou, but our train wasn't until 4:30. We had the whole day to kill. We spent a long time in the hotel room in the morning, just lounging around. Chris and I watched "McHale's Navy" on HBO while the boys played their Gameboys. After the movie, we got out the map and once again debated about what to do. We decided to check out the shopping district and then go to the Humble Administrators Garden. I learned after we'd gotten there that Suzhou is famous world-wide for it's beautiful gardens.
Off to the shopping district we go. I'm really interested in getting some lighter clothes. We all sweat like pigs when we are out and about. Of course, if you check my weather pixie, you can see that the temperature and the humidity are usually about the same. For example, 90 degrees, 90% humidity. Our clothes are drenched with in moments of stepping outside. I don't see many Chinese with sweat poring off them, but they aren't wearing the same type of clothes we are. I thought maybe if I could buy something light and airy, I'd not sweat so much. Well, what was I thinking trying to shop with the kids in tow? And it's not so much the kids as it is the attention we attract. Chris and I will have to do that alone.
Once we got to the shopping district, we were flagged down by a guy selling athletic shoes. Chris needs a new pair, but we didn't think we could find his size here. He is much larger than most Chinese men, both in height and weight. He told the guy what his shoe size was, and naturally the guy assured us he had that size. We followed him for 2 blocks and into the backroom of a building. No, no shoes Chris' size. However, Zack ended up with a spiffy pair of white and green Nikes. They are very old school and he loves them. He put them on right away, so you may be able to see them in the following family pics.
Lunch: KFC. It's just so much easier to eat where we know the kids will actually consume some food instead of just sit there sulking. KFC and McDonalds are huge hang-outs. People just go in there and sit (or sleep). As a result, it is often difficult to find a table that will fit our whole family. Luckily we found one, but as we were leaving there was another family lined up and waiting to get our seats. We have slow kids and sometimes it takes us a while to get moving. Chris overheard the little girl who was waiting say to Petey (in Chinese of course)"Get out of the way, you little foreigner!" Her grandmother quickly reprimanded her and told her not to be so rude. Chris didn't say anything :)
We didn't get many photos of the shopping district, but here is an Engrish shirt that we saw. We debated for a while what this was "suppose" to mean, but could never quite come up with anything satisfactory.
Next, off to the Humble Administrators Garden. We hired a tour guide to take us around and show us the garden. Her english name was Happy and she was exactly that :) She spoke fluent English so I was happy to finally hear some of my native tongue. For those of you who are new to my friends' list, Chris is very interested in Chinese magistrates and scholars. He did his thesis on majestrates, so this garden was of particular interest to him. What I found most intriguing about Happy was that it was obvious she had had some communist coaching in her tour-guiding techniques. She always made sure to point out the rooms that only women were "confined" to, which paths women were never allowed to walk on and so forth. However, when I asked her if the gardens had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, she ignored my question and went on to discuss how the Japanese had destroyed the garden during WW2. I probably should not have brought up the Cultural revolution, but I was felt daring. Her non-answer was answer enough.
The Chinese love to take and pose for pictures. I suppose Happy was no exception, plus she was doing it as part of her tour-guiding-duties. She kept telling us to pose for pictures. I'm really glad that she did, because we don't have very many pics with both Chris and I in them. And yes, while we were sitting for Happy to photograph us, other people were snapping pics of us too. Some people try and do it on the sly with their camera phones, but it's still pretty obvious.
Here you can see Zack's cool new shoes.
Maybe I can use one of these pics as our Christmas card photo? If only we weren't all dripping wet in sweat...
And a pic of us walking...with Connor on my shoulders. Again.
I snapped this outside the garden gate. See those bags against the wall? They are filled with plastic bottles. Many, many people take the time to search for recyclable bottles. We started saving all ours for Chen because I discovered that she was removing them from our trash after she left everyday. It's too bad we can't simply say to each other "Hey, will you save your bottles for me?" "Sure, no problem." However, she figured it out, so I guess words aren't always necessary. Speaking of Chen, one day I discovered her sitting in the stairwell eating her lunch. I told her to come inside and eat at the table which now she does everyday. I wonder if that is the accepted custom for housekeepers, to eat outside the house, or if she just wasn't sure? Anyway, you see that we can communicate in our own way.
These rocks are used throughout the garden. They are special rocks found at Lake Tai and usually only the very rich could afford them for their gardens.
After the garden, we caught a taxi to the train station. Once there, we had about 2 hours to kill before our train came. We discovered that Connor had a diaper that had overflowed quite effectively, so I took him to the bathroom. This was the first time I saw a trench toilet. These are somewhat like squatters, in that you must squat to use them. However, it is just one long stainless steel trench running through the stalls. You straddle the trench and squat. I didn't use one. There certainly wasn't a changing table, so I had Connor stand while I cleaned him up. As I was getting him clean, I noticed a woman had left the door open to her stall while she pee'd so she could watch what I was doing. Yea, I think that's the most extreme case of ogling I've ever had. She turned out to be a nice lady with a daughter Connor's age. She sat next to use in the waiting room and we tried to get our kids to play. They didn't want to have anything to do with each other, lol.
The train ride home was uneventful as was the rest of the night. We were just so glad to be home. It was an exhausting, but so fun!, couple of days.
I'm glad I've caught up. I'm not leaving my laptop at home on the next trip. I don't care how light we are traveling!!
Thank you to everyone who has been keeping Carol in your prayers. I've since learned that her anuerysm did not rupture, it was a slow leak. After two operations, they were able to repair it. However, she will still be in the hospital for at least a month and the risk of stroke is very great for the next couple of weeks. The twins are doing fine, thank heavens. Her hubby sent out an email to all her friends to give us an update. He said that they found out the twins are a boy and a girl!! I'm going to buy them matching Chinese silk baby outfits. Oh, and of course embroidered shoes too. I love baby clothes shopping and being over here makes it even more fun :)
That's about how homeschool went today. I'm half-tempted just to put him in Chinese public school for a couple weeks. Then he'll be oh-so-thankful for a mom who is sacrificing all her free time to teach him!
*deep breath*
and now on to more positive things...
I forgot to mention that on our first evening there I had a back massage. This was my first massage ever, so I have nothing to compare it to. I don't know if all massages are so painful, or if this is just the Chinese style...it hurt! And it still hurt for days afterwards, sort of like I'd really worked out my back. Still, my muscles were much loser and I was glad I went. I've been carrying Connor on my shoulders a lot since we moved here, and she worked out all that knots and tension up there. It was painful, but in a good way :)
Thursday was our last day in Suzhou, but our train wasn't until 4:30. We had the whole day to kill. We spent a long time in the hotel room in the morning, just lounging around. Chris and I watched "McHale's Navy" on HBO while the boys played their Gameboys. After the movie, we got out the map and once again debated about what to do. We decided to check out the shopping district and then go to the Humble Administrators Garden. I learned after we'd gotten there that Suzhou is famous world-wide for it's beautiful gardens.
Off to the shopping district we go. I'm really interested in getting some lighter clothes. We all sweat like pigs when we are out and about. Of course, if you check my weather pixie, you can see that the temperature and the humidity are usually about the same. For example, 90 degrees, 90% humidity. Our clothes are drenched with in moments of stepping outside. I don't see many Chinese with sweat poring off them, but they aren't wearing the same type of clothes we are. I thought maybe if I could buy something light and airy, I'd not sweat so much. Well, what was I thinking trying to shop with the kids in tow? And it's not so much the kids as it is the attention we attract. Chris and I will have to do that alone.
Once we got to the shopping district, we were flagged down by a guy selling athletic shoes. Chris needs a new pair, but we didn't think we could find his size here. He is much larger than most Chinese men, both in height and weight. He told the guy what his shoe size was, and naturally the guy assured us he had that size. We followed him for 2 blocks and into the backroom of a building. No, no shoes Chris' size. However, Zack ended up with a spiffy pair of white and green Nikes. They are very old school and he loves them. He put them on right away, so you may be able to see them in the following family pics.
Lunch: KFC. It's just so much easier to eat where we know the kids will actually consume some food instead of just sit there sulking. KFC and McDonalds are huge hang-outs. People just go in there and sit (or sleep). As a result, it is often difficult to find a table that will fit our whole family. Luckily we found one, but as we were leaving there was another family lined up and waiting to get our seats. We have slow kids and sometimes it takes us a while to get moving. Chris overheard the little girl who was waiting say to Petey (in Chinese of course)"Get out of the way, you little foreigner!" Her grandmother quickly reprimanded her and told her not to be so rude. Chris didn't say anything :)
We didn't get many photos of the shopping district, but here is an Engrish shirt that we saw. We debated for a while what this was "suppose" to mean, but could never quite come up with anything satisfactory.
Next, off to the Humble Administrators Garden. We hired a tour guide to take us around and show us the garden. Her english name was Happy and she was exactly that :) She spoke fluent English so I was happy to finally hear some of my native tongue. For those of you who are new to my friends' list, Chris is very interested in Chinese magistrates and scholars. He did his thesis on majestrates, so this garden was of particular interest to him. What I found most intriguing about Happy was that it was obvious she had had some communist coaching in her tour-guiding techniques. She always made sure to point out the rooms that only women were "confined" to, which paths women were never allowed to walk on and so forth. However, when I asked her if the gardens had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, she ignored my question and went on to discuss how the Japanese had destroyed the garden during WW2. I probably should not have brought up the Cultural revolution, but I was felt daring. Her non-answer was answer enough.
The Chinese love to take and pose for pictures. I suppose Happy was no exception, plus she was doing it as part of her tour-guiding-duties. She kept telling us to pose for pictures. I'm really glad that she did, because we don't have very many pics with both Chris and I in them. And yes, while we were sitting for Happy to photograph us, other people were snapping pics of us too. Some people try and do it on the sly with their camera phones, but it's still pretty obvious.
Here you can see Zack's cool new shoes.
Maybe I can use one of these pics as our Christmas card photo? If only we weren't all dripping wet in sweat...
And a pic of us walking...with Connor on my shoulders. Again.
I snapped this outside the garden gate. See those bags against the wall? They are filled with plastic bottles. Many, many people take the time to search for recyclable bottles. We started saving all ours for Chen because I discovered that she was removing them from our trash after she left everyday. It's too bad we can't simply say to each other "Hey, will you save your bottles for me?" "Sure, no problem." However, she figured it out, so I guess words aren't always necessary. Speaking of Chen, one day I discovered her sitting in the stairwell eating her lunch. I told her to come inside and eat at the table which now she does everyday. I wonder if that is the accepted custom for housekeepers, to eat outside the house, or if she just wasn't sure? Anyway, you see that we can communicate in our own way.
These rocks are used throughout the garden. They are special rocks found at Lake Tai and usually only the very rich could afford them for their gardens.
After the garden, we caught a taxi to the train station. Once there, we had about 2 hours to kill before our train came. We discovered that Connor had a diaper that had overflowed quite effectively, so I took him to the bathroom. This was the first time I saw a trench toilet. These are somewhat like squatters, in that you must squat to use them. However, it is just one long stainless steel trench running through the stalls. You straddle the trench and squat. I didn't use one. There certainly wasn't a changing table, so I had Connor stand while I cleaned him up. As I was getting him clean, I noticed a woman had left the door open to her stall while she pee'd so she could watch what I was doing. Yea, I think that's the most extreme case of ogling I've ever had. She turned out to be a nice lady with a daughter Connor's age. She sat next to use in the waiting room and we tried to get our kids to play. They didn't want to have anything to do with each other, lol.
The train ride home was uneventful as was the rest of the night. We were just so glad to be home. It was an exhausting, but so fun!, couple of days.
I'm glad I've caught up. I'm not leaving my laptop at home on the next trip. I don't care how light we are traveling!!
Thank you to everyone who has been keeping Carol in your prayers. I've since learned that her anuerysm did not rupture, it was a slow leak. After two operations, they were able to repair it. However, she will still be in the hospital for at least a month and the risk of stroke is very great for the next couple of weeks. The twins are doing fine, thank heavens. Her hubby sent out an email to all her friends to give us an update. He said that they found out the twins are a boy and a girl!! I'm going to buy them matching Chinese silk baby outfits. Oh, and of course embroidered shoes too. I love baby clothes shopping and being over here makes it even more fun :)
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no subject
Date: 2006-08-28 01:52 pm (UTC)But I am so happy to hear about Carol and that the twins are doing well HUZZAH!! God is good!
Home School
Date: 2006-08-29 01:21 am (UTC)Re: Home School
Date: 2006-08-29 03:31 pm (UTC)I just always have to remember to have patience. Patience, darn it! :)