Tuesday Morning Image (TMI)

Playing Chinese Chess outside. People generally live life outside in China frequently going to the park for games and exercise. Please remember the elderly and retirees as the go about their daily lives.

Waiting for the Elevator

One of the joys of living in a 28 story building on the 20th floor is that a ride in an elevator is one of my daily activities. Only one small problem: Riding on the the elevator is a daily routine for everyone else in the building. So on occasion, I have to wait for the elevator to take me up or down. The matter is even more complicated in that the two elevators are not linked together, so I have to push the down arrow on both elevators in order to not guess which one will appear fastest. The button stays pushed until the elevator comes to the floor. So if I push both buttons, and one elevator comes I get on. But there is no way to cancel the other elevator's button, so the elevator thinks someone is still waiting for a ride and makes its appearance on the same floor.

This has been the routine each time we are heading up or down. We have become better at guessing which elevator will arrive first, so often we can only push one button.

Now for this morning. I was heading to the office to do some work and was trying to get a ride down. One problem: the workers were collecting trash from each floor and were occupying both elevators. That's not much of a big deal, except for the fact that they were stopping at every floor to get the trash. I had to patiently watch the elevator indicator proceed from 28th floor, floor-by-floor, to the 20th floor where I live. But once I got on the elevator, the ride to the bottom was fast.

It is a good thing that nobody lives on the first 19 floors of the building so there was no trash to pick up!

Mario Kart 2

The epic saga of baby Kanyon and his adventures with Mario Kart 2:


Out for an afternoon at Central Street

We took Kanyon out for the day down to Center Street (the longest pedestrian walking/shopping street in China, maybe the longest). It was incredible to see the foreigner baby on display. Almost every minute there would be a different couple coming up to us to koo over baby Kanyon. What was even more amazing was the fact that with each couple, it was the guy who wanted to see the baby. The girls were indifferent or more probably too shy to come over to see the baby.

We decided to venture into one of the many shopping malls and wandered our way around all the floors. Floor 1 - girls shoes, Basement - cool outdoor wear, including some CAT shoes (also Columbia and The North Fake Face), Floor 2 - Guy clothes, Floor 3 - More girlie clothes, Floor 4 - Children clothing, Floor 4.5 - children play area and arcade.


Playing Mario Kart 2

Since Kanyon was getting fussy from being carried all day, we decided to let him have a go at Mario Kart 2. He absolutely loves the arcade! But he absolutely hates to leave. We made the double mistake of letting Kanyon play with Mario Kart 2 plus giving him a diaper change on the way out. Leaving arcade + diaper change = very unhappy baby


Leaving the arcade

Being such great parents, we made things better by getting the boy some ice cream because of course ice cream makes everything better!


Ice cream making things better

Tuesday Morning Image (TMI)

Hanging leeks out to dry, we guess. Leeks are everywhere. From what we have learned, the older generation prepares leeks in advance so there will be food for the winter, much like canning in the states. Please remember these people as they prepare for the harsh winter ahead.

Baby Picture of the Week

Check out Kanyon in his Chuck E Cheese ball pit. I think he needs a bigger pit.

Weekend in China

Last weekend, we had the typical day in China. We loaded up into a taxi, 4 adults plus Kanyon and a driver, and headed across town. We arrived a a local eatery called Hamamas. This place rocks. It is both a coffee house and western restaurant. Hamamas has your coffee drinks (cappuccinos, espressos, macchiatos, mochas, etc.) plus western food (double cheese burgers, BLTs, giant philly cheese steak sandwiches, pot pies, and more).



After Hamamas, we went to play basketball at another campus, Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), with some of our teacher friends from the same company. As foreigners, there is always a game waiting for us. Luckily, we had a group of foreigners, so we could take turns on the court and not be too exhausted. We played and played rotating in and out of the line up. Chinese basketball is much like the NBA, everyone dribbles around and throws up so wild shots. Funny thing is that most of the students have gotten good at the crazy wild shots and will make most of them when there should be no way.

Basketball ends and we head up to our friend's apartment and watch some students try to assemble a corner shelf. After much debate and direction reading and waiting for the hammer, the shelve gets assembled. We go out to eat with our friends and their student before heading back home by taxi.

It feels great to get out with students in their environment. We are hoping for more and more opportunities to be with students, either our own or others. Playing and talking with students is the reason we are here, we're hear for them.

Tuesday Morning Image (TMI)

On of the many teaching buildings at Harbin Engineering University. The semester is here and I am teaching seniors American Literature and Culture. Please remember these students as they are studying in their last term at the school. Many are applying to graduate schools or interviewing for jobs.

Canadians are Great

How do you get four slices of pumpkin pie in China before Thanksgiving?...You have some Canadians on your team. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October, almost 6 weeks before their American counterparts. Since I know a couple of Canadians, I asked them why they celebrate the holiday so early. Here is their answer:

Since Thanksgiving is originally a harvest celebration, it only makes since that Canadians would celebrate the harvest early. The winters come earlier, so the harvest is sooner. Hopefully throughout the year we will continue to learn interesting tidbits about Canada. Stay tuned.

12:2 Time October 2008

Traveling to China

We are so excited to be here in Harbin. We survived the 30 hours of travel and arrived safely in China just over 2 weeks ago. The airplane ride over was great and seemed to pass a lot faster than any other time we have flown internationally. Kanyon probably had a lot to do with this. He kept us so busy on the flight that we forgot to look at our watches and consider how slowly time was passing.

The first night in Beijing we commented to each other that it feels like we returned home. As we drove on the bus to the hotel, I looked out the windows and saw the same China that we left 2 years ago. It was a welcomed and warm feeling to be home in China for this year.

Our first night in China, we didn’t venture out too far from the hotel. We made it to the corner store (actually a great little foreign goods market) and picked up some Kraft Mac and Cheese. We haven’t had to dig into this yet, but one day we will and we will be reminded of home in the states. Our first meal in China wasn’t adventurous either. We ate at the Subway connected to our hotel. This is quite funny, because we don’t even eat Subway in the states, but it was our first meal in China.

We continued to journey the next day with our short flight to Harbin where we were warmly welcomed by our Foreign Affairs Officer who is charged with taking care of us while we are teaching in Harbin.

Good Morning Class

I began teaching this week. My schedule is new to me and was just revealed, or finalized a couple of days before I began teaching. The schedule includes some classes of American Literature and two classes on American Culture. The culture classes are going to be quite fun and interesting. I feel really good about teaching this class.

The literature classes will be more difficult for me. Anyone who knows me knows that I prefer math over literature. I have made the adjustment to teaching with only one minor hitch. One student came to me after class and asked that I speak slower. I forgot how slow “teacher English” feels and tried to remember that for the next class.

It has been incredible to finally get to meet the students in each of the classes. The schedule is such that I have 3 different sets of students, but see each group twice a week. I am excited to get to know each of the students throughout the semester. Hopefully, I will keep the same students next semester.

We are still working out our schedule of office hours and activities with students. I even tried today to go to get a card so I could eat in the cafeteria with the students. As it turned out, the lady who issues the card was eating food and I was asked to come back tomorrow. There will be numerous opportunities to hang out with the students and I am excited to see this process beginning.

Campus Food Court

Halfway from our apartments to the teaching building, (10 min. to food, another 10 min. to teach) there are a group of restaurants where we are regulars.


Outside the teaching building

There is a great selection and variety of food here, much like a mall food court. The food court includes restaurants that serve traditional Chinese dishes, stuffed steamed bread (baozi), Muslim noodles, hotpot, sweet potatoes, kabobs, wraps, and other foods.

Along with the restaurants, this area has a convenience store, fruit sellers, shoe stores, book stores, copy shops, and barber shops all with walking distance of our apartment. Plus a Carrefour, Wal-Mart, and other great street vendors and restaurants.

It is all nice now, but we are curious as to how often we’ll get out once the weather dips and stays below freezing.

Drawing a Crowd

Everywhere we go the little man draws a crowd. This crowd is small; more people came later.

First Week Teaching

I guess an update is in order as I have been a little behind on the updates. We are in our first week teaching lessons and it has been great getting to know the students. Not that I can know all the names in the first week, but it is good to be here now doing what we came to China to do, teach.

My schedule is rather relaxed besides all the planning and prepping for the literature classes. Most of the prepping is on my part because I am not familiar with any of the literature I am suppose to be teaching the students. I am teaching American Literature and have 2 classes of American Culture. Culture is much easier because I am competent in that as I am an American.

One more day to teach and I will have survived the first week teaching. Then on to lesson planning again and teaching again.

Market Street Shopping

Shopping on the market street in China is a great cultural experience. We didn't quite feel settled into our new apartments until we found the nearest fruit and vegetable vendors. Within the first week, we found two different markets.

The second market street is further from our home and was quite the experience. First, we bought some semi-sweet mini rolls for Kanyon to eat. He nibbled on two and we ate the rest between M'Lynn and I. Next up on the street were some awesome flan. Maybe it's more of a European custard, but we saw these in Paris and hadn't seen them since. I picked up two of these to munch on (absolutely the perfect snack if you ignore all the calories) as we continued the walk. Next up, some moving silk worms. Maybe not silk worms, but they are as large as snails and were all still alive and moving. You could choose between the white or the brown worms/snail-like thingies. We were so shocked to see these that we forgot to take the picture. Maybe we'll leave that for another day. Finally up the street is the corn vendor. Andy picked up 3 ears of boiled corn (you can also buy the roasted variety fresh off the grill).

Anytime you're in China, we'll take you down the local market street and see what kind of goodies you choose along the way.

Baby Picture of the Week

Playing with all his new toys, including the new Chuck-E-Cheese balls.

Chinese Apartment

Check out our Chinese apartment. The place feels larger than the one we had back in the states. At least the livable space is bigger. Both bedrooms are 15 ft x 9 ft. The total area is 687 square feet.

The apartment is on the 20^th floor (out of 28). People are moving in beginning at the top and working their way down to the first floor. The building is completely new so we are excited about living in these apartments. We have been busily setting up the place with things that will make the place feel homey.

You can check out some of the pictures from our first week in Harbin online by clicking the Photos link above or CLICK HERE. More pictures are coming soon.