The short version
(posted by Dave - Monday, 8/31)
Ah, the events in China continue to pile up much quicker than we can write about them! I imagine at some point, things will settle into a routine and we'll wonder what we can write about... maybe in a couple of years? Anyway, here's a quick headline news version of what we've been up to.
Friday: We ate two meals! Not just any two meals, but 1) our first home-cooked meal by Jiang Ayi, our Chinese housekeeper, and 2) our first Sichuan hotpot, featuring all sorts of meats and veggies dunked into boiling oil loaded with chilis and other spicy good things. By "meats", think any imaginable part of any animal. (we liked the duck tongues)
Saturday - another three hour bus odyssey into Chengdu. (Okay, the three hours are round trip, but it sounds better than "one-and-a-half hour bus odyssey") Highlights include origami paper, a readable map of China, an English language bookstore with overpriced panini, and a vertigo-inducing 7 story computer mall where we got a printer and (drumroll please) our first pirated 75 cent DVDs!
Sunday - while Jane actually Went Out Into the World and Got Stuff Done (including getting Xander set up with a piano teacher and asking around for secondhand piano connections). I sat around on the curb in front of our apartment and watched Zekey and Ysa go back and forth on scooters all afternoon. It actually turned into quite the block party, with all sorts of kids and parents in our building and the building across the street coming out to talk and play. (and yes, Jane and Xander also came and joined us.) It was almost a block party! We were just missing the beers, the grills, and the ability to converse, but it was great fun anyway.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Saturday, August 29, 2009
So many photos, so few captions...
(posted by Dave)
Okay, brace yourself, everyone - we’ve got a Flickr account and we know how to use it... What that means in plain English is that we’re finally getting around to uploading lots of our photos online, so we’ve got lots of pics to talk about. This one, for example, is the last photo you’ll see for a while of me with a full beard. Chinese barbers know a lot about cutting hair, but very little, it seems, about the art and science of beard trimming. Combine that with my extremely limited Chinese and some very lame pantomime, and you get a (mostly) beardless Dave. It’s okay, Jane seems to like me with the Miami Vice look - at least until it gets too scratchy...
Friday, August 28, 2009
Ito Yokado!
(original posting date: August 10)
Just a little video taste that Jane took of a Chinese (okay, Japanese) big box grocery store that we went to on our first weekend in Chengdu. You can see our North American expedition winding our way through the aisles past salespeople in surgical masks and tanks of live fish. Do I look dazed yet?
Oh, and the video may or may not show up, by the way - I'm playing around with what works and what doesn't with this remote posting tool that I'm using. Do let us know if you can't see it, and I'll try posting the web address for the original film clip on Flickr...
(original posting date: August 10)
Just a little video taste that Jane took of a Chinese (okay, Japanese) big box grocery store that we went to on our first weekend in Chengdu. You can see our North American expedition winding our way through the aisles past salespeople in surgical masks and tanks of live fish. Do I look dazed yet?
Oh, and the video may or may not show up, by the way - I'm playing around with what works and what doesn't with this remote posting tool that I'm using. Do let us know if you can't see it, and I'll try posting the web address for the original film clip on Flickr...
I am taking full advantage of this time to write. Wow - time to have!? Well, Dave is out with our new Chinese friend Joy (actually Dave’s college friend’s friend) and with Ysa. And the boys have just been invited upstairs for dinner at the upstairs neighbors’ home! Their daughter Lang Lang, who is 5 years old, was down here playing. We met Lang Lang yesterday when her mother, who speaks great English and is an English teacher at this university, stopped by to introduce herself and Lang Lang. Today the man who must be Lang Lang’s father knocked, presented us with a package of dried beef, and wordlessly but with a smile nudged Lang Lang through our doorway. Our boys had a nice, mellow time playing K’Nex (building block system) with her. She’s a sweet girl; I just need to learn some Chinese to be able to communicate with her! And now the boys are up there enjoying home-made Chinese food; I’ll have to check out what they had.
We have been HOME now since Saturday (gotta get used to saying that)! Our “waiban” (foreign affairs office assistant) had graciously brought us here from where we’d been studying for 3 weeks. It was about 1 hour away by car (yet still in Chengdu – big, big city). He and his wife took us out for lunch at a convenient place about one block away. We discovered steamed egg, a big plate full of quivering, pale-yellow, smooth, pudding-like goodness.
Right away on Saturday, Luo Bo took Dave over to the Foreign Affairs office. (Well, actually, the very very first thing we did after lunch was go out and purchase toilet paper.) He arranged for our nanny/house-help/local goddess to come over and we figured out the terms of her employment with us. He called for water delivery to be set up for us and they arrived within the hour – we’ve got our own personal office water cooler now!. He arranged for another staff person, Sarah, to come by and answer some of our questions. Dave returned with lots of ______ for us to eat, and then as the kids were being put to bed, I escaped to meet up with Sarah. She and I visited many supermarkets, as they translate them here, and I returned with a bathmat, dish soap, 4 pillows, and 1 bottle and 2 cans of Snow beer.
We spent Sunday, Monday and today mostly cleaning the apartment. Yes, having read “Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui” to deal with our clutter in the last 2 years has turned me into somebody who doesn’t want to have clutter! When I saw the big, beautiful closet spaces all filled to capacity with unorganized stuff, I knew I couldn’t have that. Prior residents sure didn’t want to tackle this project, but now future residents can have lots of space and things organized.
Along with the indispensable help of the “Aiyi,” we have: cleaned every book and bookshelf (6 of them), cleaned windows, walls, doorways, cleaned 2 tall upright dressers, swept and mopped floors, scrubbed the inside of 5 tall storage closets. We have sorted through 24 blankets to determine which to take to wherever has a big enough washing machine. We have washed innumerable washcloths, hand-towels and 8 big towels. We have washed every bedsheet, and sorted out what to keep or not. We have washed every item in the kitchen – 17 glasses, 13 mugs, 19 plates, 8 bowls, many cooking supplies, silverware. We discovered baking soda that expired in 2001, as well as baking powder that expired in 2007, along with other (thankfully, bug-free) ancient cooking supplies. The cinnamon is still a keeper! ☺ We still have to go through a deep drawer of herbs, and another one of I-don’t-know-what… Sorting through 4 shelves of old shoes and the back upright closet full of bike tires, bicycle baskets, 12 duffel bags and other outdoorsy-looking things still awaits us.
The hardest thing to deal with has been the boxes of books and ESL-teaching materials. We have reviewed and thought about every item; for example, pondering if a future student could use something we might not want. We are keeping some items of various styles here for future residents. Many books and teaching supplies will soon go back to the MPC resource library at Sichuan Normal University, where we just spent the last 3 weeks. Several other boxes of teaching supplies we are keeping with the intent of going through them after classes have begun and we have a better idea of what our curriculum will be. As it stands, we have 4 bookcases totally full of books and teaching supplies. We have a few boxes yet in storage on purpose. And we have one bookcase totally full of children’s books; about 1/3 were from prior residents – yay! And we have 2 desks with generous quantities of games, about half ours and half that come with the place.
I am mindful as I clean and sort how lucky we are to have this time, the resources of some very helpful people here, patience (tested, fickle, but sometimes accessible), and a home. The other MCC volunteers across the world are never far from my mind lately. I think about new friends I made who are in Africa and Latin America who have to have “flee bags” ready, should violent emergency situation erupt. I have been taking cold showers (not too hard to do in summer, but still) in honor of my counter-parts in areas of the world where basic sanitation and clean water are difficult to obtain, even with their outsider-privilege. We’re working hard, trying to keep perspective, and settling in.
We have been HOME now since Saturday (gotta get used to saying that)! Our “waiban” (foreign affairs office assistant) had graciously brought us here from where we’d been studying for 3 weeks. It was about 1 hour away by car (yet still in Chengdu – big, big city). He and his wife took us out for lunch at a convenient place about one block away. We discovered steamed egg, a big plate full of quivering, pale-yellow, smooth, pudding-like goodness.
Right away on Saturday, Luo Bo took Dave over to the Foreign Affairs office. (Well, actually, the very very first thing we did after lunch was go out and purchase toilet paper.) He arranged for our nanny/house-help/local goddess to come over and we figured out the terms of her employment with us. He called for water delivery to be set up for us and they arrived within the hour – we’ve got our own personal office water cooler now!. He arranged for another staff person, Sarah, to come by and answer some of our questions. Dave returned with lots of ______ for us to eat, and then as the kids were being put to bed, I escaped to meet up with Sarah. She and I visited many supermarkets, as they translate them here, and I returned with a bathmat, dish soap, 4 pillows, and 1 bottle and 2 cans of Snow beer.
We spent Sunday, Monday and today mostly cleaning the apartment. Yes, having read “Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui” to deal with our clutter in the last 2 years has turned me into somebody who doesn’t want to have clutter! When I saw the big, beautiful closet spaces all filled to capacity with unorganized stuff, I knew I couldn’t have that. Prior residents sure didn’t want to tackle this project, but now future residents can have lots of space and things organized.
Along with the indispensable help of the “Aiyi,” we have: cleaned every book and bookshelf (6 of them), cleaned windows, walls, doorways, cleaned 2 tall upright dressers, swept and mopped floors, scrubbed the inside of 5 tall storage closets. We have sorted through 24 blankets to determine which to take to wherever has a big enough washing machine. We have washed innumerable washcloths, hand-towels and 8 big towels. We have washed every bedsheet, and sorted out what to keep or not. We have washed every item in the kitchen – 17 glasses, 13 mugs, 19 plates, 8 bowls, many cooking supplies, silverware. We discovered baking soda that expired in 2001, as well as baking powder that expired in 2007, along with other (thankfully, bug-free) ancient cooking supplies. The cinnamon is still a keeper! ☺ We still have to go through a deep drawer of herbs, and another one of I-don’t-know-what… Sorting through 4 shelves of old shoes and the back upright closet full of bike tires, bicycle baskets, 12 duffel bags and other outdoorsy-looking things still awaits us.
The hardest thing to deal with has been the boxes of books and ESL-teaching materials. We have reviewed and thought about every item; for example, pondering if a future student could use something we might not want. We are keeping some items of various styles here for future residents. Many books and teaching supplies will soon go back to the MPC resource library at Sichuan Normal University, where we just spent the last 3 weeks. Several other boxes of teaching supplies we are keeping with the intent of going through them after classes have begun and we have a better idea of what our curriculum will be. As it stands, we have 4 bookcases totally full of books and teaching supplies. We have a few boxes yet in storage on purpose. And we have one bookcase totally full of children’s books; about 1/3 were from prior residents – yay! And we have 2 desks with generous quantities of games, about half ours and half that come with the place.
I am mindful as I clean and sort how lucky we are to have this time, the resources of some very helpful people here, patience (tested, fickle, but sometimes accessible), and a home. The other MCC volunteers across the world are never far from my mind lately. I think about new friends I made who are in Africa and Latin America who have to have “flee bags” ready, should violent emergency situation erupt. I have been taking cold showers (not too hard to do in summer, but still) in honor of my counter-parts in areas of the world where basic sanitation and clean water are difficult to obtain, even with their outsider-privilege. We’re working hard, trying to keep perspective, and settling in.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
And now, a few things that I know how to say in Chinese...
(originally written during week two of our language training)
Can I please introduce myself? I am the professor at the Language Institute. Am I Canadian? No, I am not from Canada. I am from the United States. What subject do I teach? I do not teach Chinese Literature. I teach English. I teach in the Foreign Language Department. Ah, we are both studying in the Foreign Language Department! I have a business card. My brother has a business card. I have 200 business cards! Do I like to swim? Do I like to play ping pong? Yes, maybe a little. No, I cannot go to the Beijing Opera today. I am afraid I am very busy. Please, you may sit down now - I must go. Goodbye. Goodbye.
(originally written during week two of our language training)
Can I please introduce myself? I am the professor at the Language Institute. Am I Canadian? No, I am not from Canada. I am from the United States. What subject do I teach? I do not teach Chinese Literature. I teach English. I teach in the Foreign Language Department. Ah, we are both studying in the Foreign Language Department! I have a business card. My brother has a business card. I have 200 business cards! Do I like to swim? Do I like to play ping pong? Yes, maybe a little. No, I cannot go to the Beijing Opera today. I am afraid I am very busy. Please, you may sit down now - I must go. Goodbye. Goodbye.
Old news and new news
Hi, everyone. We're still trying to figure out this here newfangled computer thing in China, so bear with us as I try to post some old things we've written in the last couple of weeks. I'm posting remotely for the moment, so I'm not able to see (or edit) the blog myself - apologies for any typos, omissions, etc.
Before we left, we told everybody we know that they can always be in touch with us via Facebook. Guess which application has been consistently blocked since we've been here? Yep, the good ol' book of faces... Sooo, a big favor - if you can read this blog, could you email the link to anyone who knows us? Emails to us are always (natch) greatly appreciated. I (Dave) have been a bit lax about getting back to folks who have written me, but promise to write back soon!
One more tip that I may or may not have written about: If you'd like to see our photos online, we have them posted at Flickr. Here's how to see them:
1) Go to flickr.com/photos/zawelski/
2) Sign up for a free Flickr account
3) Go back to our photo page and click "add zawelski as a contact".
4) We'll add you as a contact, and mark you as family/friends so that you can see pictures of us!
Okay, on to trying to add some blog posts with pictures. We're settling in fine here, cleaning out the place, making friends, etc. More news to follow soon.
Hi, everyone. We're still trying to figure out this here newfangled computer thing in China, so bear with us as I try to post some old things we've written in the last couple of weeks. I'm posting remotely for the moment, so I'm not able to see (or edit) the blog myself - apologies for any typos, omissions, etc.
Before we left, we told everybody we know that they can always be in touch with us via Facebook. Guess which application has been consistently blocked since we've been here? Yep, the good ol' book of faces... Sooo, a big favor - if you can read this blog, could you email the link to anyone who knows us? Emails to us are always (natch) greatly appreciated. I (Dave) have been a bit lax about getting back to folks who have written me, but promise to write back soon!
One more tip that I may or may not have written about: If you'd like to see our photos online, we have them posted at Flickr. Here's how to see them:
1) Go to flickr.com/photos/zawelski/
2) Sign up for a free Flickr account
3) Go back to our photo page and click "add zawelski as a contact".
4) We'll add you as a contact, and mark you as family/friends so that you can see pictures of us!
Okay, on to trying to add some blog posts with pictures. We're settling in fine here, cleaning out the place, making friends, etc. More news to follow soon.
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