Universally Acknowledged Truth

We went to the Confucian temple this evening to buy a going-away gift for Isabell. Wow. That was pure craziness. Chris went into the temple while the boys and I waited outside. We didn't know if they were going to charge an admittance fee or not, since all we wanted was to buy a specific souvenir from inside.

While Chris was inside, the boys and I found a bench to sit on. It soon became clear that we were quickly becoming a spectacle. People gathered around us staring. An elderly lady smiled at me and held up three fingers (asking if I had three kids.) I smiled and nodded and she gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up. I find it amusing that I'm the one who gets the credit for having three boys (instead of Chris getting the blame, lol.) Another woman brought her baby up to visit with the boys. Remember, all this is going on with about 20 other people staring at us. The baby shook hands with all the boys while his parents laughed heartily. I kept glancing up at the temple, wondering where in the world Chris was.

Off to my left I noticed a young woman taking pictures of us. I was starting to feel a bit panicky from all this attention. We were in a large public square and I really wanted Chris to return. Suddenly a woman sits down next to Zack and says "What's your name?" She speaks English! We ended up chatting with her for quite a while. She's a Chinese-American who lives in Atlanta and is here visiting for the summer. We also met her sister who was visiting from Seattle. When she told me she lived in Seattle, I thought she said Chicago and had to ask her twice to repeat herself. Then she asked me where I lived and I replied "Wu Tai Hua Yuan". They have to ask me to repeat it twice, lol. My chinese is as accented as their english :) The Seattle sister has a son close to Petey's age and she's very interested in doing a language swap. I teach her son English and she teaches my kids Chinese. We exchanged phone numbers. Can you imagine striking up a random conversation with someone in America, agreeing to tutor each others children and exchanging phone numbers all within a 20 minute time frame? Chris says this is one of the best things about China, being out and about among the people, getting to know them. I agree with him, it really is an awesome place.

And, while I'm chatting with my new found friends, the kids have decided to put on a show for the crowd. The begin running in circles, play fighting with each other. I could hardly pay attention to them (other than making sure they were still in my line of vision) because the two sisters demanded my attention so aggressively. Atlanta kept whacking me in the arm, to emphasize what she was saying. I had two different women come up and ask if they could photograph Connor. I held him up for the pictures, and he covered his face with both his hands. This cuteness made the on-looking crowd laugh. (Poor Connor, he's doesn't like all this attention. Chinese women are always so eager to interact with him, and help him. Last night at the restaurant, the waitresses kept trying to help him take a drink or tuck in a napkin for a bib. He just scowls and shakes his head no.)It's too bad they don't ask Zack or Petey to pose for pictures. They'd ham it up big time for the cameras. So, while the kids are running around like lunatics, showing the Chinese just how American kids act, Zack accidentally pulled off Petey's Chinese zodiac necklace and broke the string. Petey just started bawling crocodile tears, much to the amusement of the crowd. The necklace was easily fixed, and thankfully Petey's break down was just the distraction we needed to get away from the chatty sisters.

Whew. What a day. But we did get a beautiful gift for Isabell. It's a poem written based on her name. The calligraphy is beautiful and it's written in classical chinese characters. I know she's too young to appreciate it now, but when she's older she'll think it's cool.

Tomorrow: the zoo...

Some days I find it very difficult to find time to write in my journal. This saddens me, because I really want to chronicle our adventures here. I suppose I could justify it in saying that we're having so many adventures that I don't have time to write them down :) However, I think the fact of the matter is that we're just trying to settle into our new life here and I'm not on any sort of schedule yet. Whenever I sit down to the computer, there is so much to do that lj seems to get pushed aside. Also, our Internet connection is much slower than I'm used to (chalk that up to a just-barely DSL connection as well as a wi-fi system that Chris set up but can't figure out how to make secure. I suppose Chinese instructions are very confusing, lol. One of our collegues who lives two buildings away said she picked up our wi-fi signal. That's frustrating because sometimes when I'm in the next room over I can't pick it up! Our walls are solid cement.) Anyway, my point is that I wish I had more time and ease to just pop on LJ and write random thoughts like I used to. There is so much here that I want to comment on or remember.

Yesterday was our first day of "church". I put that in quotes because it was held at someone's apartment and there were only two other families attending. However, it was wonderful to be around kindred spirits. The Yui's are from Hong Kong. They have 2 kids and the 15 year old girl totally talks with an American accent. Ok, actually it is Canadian as they lived there for several years. The Watley's are from Michigan. They have 5 kids, spanning ages 16 to 4. They have 2 boys the same ages as Zack and Petey!! Our kids hit it off so well together, I'm very happy. Zack and Jay were sitting on the couch, making farting noises with their armpits and laughing their heads off (this was after the church service was over, not during!) Petey and Eli were wrestling. Connor bounced around from one pile of boys to the other. Unfortunately, they live pretty far away from us, so we probably won't be getting together outside of church, but still it's great that they have buddies. AND the Whatley's have an oven so she made lasagna and muffins for the pot luck. It was wonderful to have some familiar food.

Today was Cici's first day AND the first day of homeschool. I'm exhausted! Cici seems like she will work out well. She wore high heels which I find amusing but is totally an everyday footwear in China. She had a hard time keeping Connor occupied during homeschool. He just did not want her around him. I felt bad for her because she really tried, but he wanted me and no one else. She'd try to hand him a crayon and he'd take it from her and throw it across the room. I was a little embarrassed by his behavior. But later, he went in the bedroom and called her "Cici, toys." He said it in a sing-song voice, inviting her to come play with him. After lunch (we ate with the group) Chris and I took off for a couple of hours and left her alone with the kids. This was our first time alone in about 3 weeks. He took me to the electronics district where we tried to find the best deal on a printer/copier/scanner. I need one to print out worksheets for the boys. We found an HP for about $60, but we didn't get it. We kept looking for the next best deal and ended up with nothing :) We'll have to go back.

When we got home, the boys were still right where we left them: playing video games. We had told her they are only allowed to play for 30 mintues a day. I don't know if she misunderstood us or disregarded what we said. We'll have to try that again tomorrow. She did have Connor asleep so that was good. I think it may be easier for her once the weather cools off. It was much too hot/humid to play for long outside today. As Petey points out, it's almost difficult to breath because of the thick humidity. I'm pleased with her so far. She commented on how the boys hardly ate any lunch. As far as I can tell, the Chinese don't subscribe to the American custom of expecting kids to eat what's served to them, whether they like it or not. It really worries them when my kids don't eat well at lunch and they are often asking me what my kids would prefer to eat. I'm ok with what we are served for lunch, and I feel that eventually my kids will start to eat it if that's all there is. Chris says this is all part of the "little emperor"syndrome that has swept across China. Little emperor's are the pampered children of China. Because most families can only have one child, the children are usually very indulged. It makes sense if you think about it. There is only one grandchild to two sets of grandparents. Anyway, back to the point here: Cici says she can fix food that she knows the boys will like better. Apparently she has know several Italians and learned to cook Italian food. She says she'd be happy to fix lunch for the boys. I think we'll give it a try and see how that goes.

And now for the homeschool report: it went pretty well for the first day. The kids were excited about it and pretty cooperative. We did math first and then we painted Chinese characters. They liked that a lot. Next, I put one kid a typing lesson (it's a game, they really liked it) and the other did reading lessons. We swapped it up after a few minutes. We only did about 2 hours of homeschool today, but I'd like to do 3. I know everyday will go more smoothly as we settle into a routine and Connor gets more accustomed to Cici. I hope things with her will work out. I was worried she was overwhelmed, but she said she'd be back tomorrow :)

The kids are home safe and sound. It's amazing what a difference it makes having them in the house. They'd been home for 15 minutes and it looked as if a hurricane had torn through the house. That's OK! It's a hurricane of love :)

Connor was so happy to see me that he just sat on my lap saying "Too, Mama." over and over. That's his way of saying "I love you too, mama." Petey got a little teary-eyed when he was telling me how glad he was to be home and even Zack cuddled up to me and told me that he missed me. Zack looked as if he'd grown a few inches. Is that possible in only 3 days? He's going to be taller than me in just a few more years (that's not saying much, I'm a shorty, lol).

I'm trying to tie up all the loose ends that I can think of as we get ready for this move. Wendi, I was going to burn you a tmbg cd tonight but then I couldn't find any blank cd's! I'm sure Chris knows where they are but he's already asleep. I'll send your package as soon as I burn the cd (hopefully tomorrow sometime.) Shall I send you Wil Wheaton's "Dancing Barefoot" book, too? I think you'd like it.