Molly turned 8 this month! She decided back in March that she wanted a Jungle Safari birthday party, and she began making plans. We had endless conversations about decorations, games, food. There were multiple checklists involved.
She had her heart set on dressing up as a lion for the party, and Hudson played the role of safari guide.
We ordered a cake from a bakery across the street, and it was no problem for them to match the lion on our decorations.
Molly enlisted the help of Kevin's mom to send vines and paper leaves along with various other jungle-related decorations. We tried to camouflage our newly installed internet cable wire with Happy Birthday letters.
Molly created a coloring station for her friends. She drew a crocodile, lion, monkey and elephant that we photocopied for the kids to choose one to color.
Kevin was a big hit as storyteller! Hudson helped him hold the visual aids.
Children representing six different countries attended.
After eating cake, the kids went on a treasure hunt for gold coins.
Molly changed into a zebra outfit and took pictures with her school teachers (above) and her summer tutor (below).
We held her party the weekend before school began, and her birthday fell on a Monday this year (Labor Day in the USA). I baked brownies and she celebrated together with her classmates that day.
Each student made a card for her and presented it during their afternoon celebration.
It touches my heart to see how loved Molly is by her many friends, classmates and teachers. This was her fourth birthday to celebrate in China, and she has blended her language, gifts and talents into this hospitable country we call home. Happy birthday, Molly!
I think about blogging as I'm walking to work. I wish I could bring you all along on a typical 20 minute walk through our city. There are things I'd tell you about the traffic laws, which have been considerably more enforced in the two years we've lived here - especially stopping for red lights. (Although motorcycles and bicycles don't stop for them at all.)
I feel very safe living here, but hands down the most dangerous part of life is crossing the street. There's not a rule about stopping before making a right-turn on red, so even crossing with the Walk signal turns into a game of Frogger.
Construction is constantly underway. I can't count the number of new buildings, apartments and shops being built just between our home and my office. They do shut down during the winter months but now that it is April, they are back in full swing. There is often a night crew to keep up the work nearly around the clock.
My office building is on the right, with the orange billboard on top. The company is on the 13th floor.
The company trains ladies to be live-in caregivers in Canada. I work with them 6 hours a week.
Our friends we get together with on Saturday nights invited us to a big dinner together this weekend.
I should've taken photos of the food! My favorite dish was sugared peanuts surrounded by sweet potatoes dipped in a honey-glaze and rolled with small krispies. It was warm and sweet, soft and crunchy all at once. Chinese meals don't end with dessert -- you eat the sweet dishes right along with everything else.
I've been wanting to write about shopping in our city, but I hate feeling like a tourist and snapping pics everywhere. Our city has one exceptionally large market for shopping/bargaining for pretty much every kind of item you can think of. I shop there for shoes and winter gear and stationery and sometimes clothes. We are fortunate to have an IKEA so we've gotten some decorative items, kitchen utensils and much of the kids' bedroom furnishings there (like their bedding and cute containers for their toys).
We buy fruit and eggs from local stands in our neighborhood, and that is one fantastic about living here. It is so convenient to pick up fresh produce at fairly inexpensive prices without going out of my way or waiting in checkout lines. As far as supermarkets go, we have several Wal-Mart locations and three big European stores are represented: Carrefour (France), Tesco (England) and Metro (Germany).
We do most of our shopping at Carrefour. The location closest to us has a small import section, but the biggest store is only two subway stops away (and what is pictured here).
Imported products we tend to buy are: cereal, granola bars, olives, salsa, pasta, tomato sauce, sour cream, refried beans, tortilla chips, cheese. Avocados are virtually impossible to find here in the northeast. I've heard of the fanciest import stores selling them on occasion for $9 each. Then last week my friend called me from Tesco and said she was holding a package of two avocados for $3.25 and did I want her to get some for me. You can imagine how fast I said YES. They were worth every penny. (And made me think I should take time to go to Tesco more often.)
I know I've mentioned this beautiful shopping mall before -- it is not far from Kevin's office and right across the street from my new job. It has a fancy (read = expensive) import store inside and nearly every designer shop you can name.
I may have taken a peek once or twice in the two-story Tiffany & Co store. I've never actually seen people buying things from these stores (the import luxury tax is off the charts) but the mall is a really nice, quiet place to walk around.
There is a restaurant/bakery in the atrium on the fourth floor that's become our favorite lunch date location.
Speaking of food and lunch, here are two pictures from the Christmas Eve luncheon at Kevin's office. Not everyone is pictured, but it'll give you an idea of where Kevin spends his days and who he's privileged to work alongside as they assist and advocate for people affected by disability.
Living in a foreign country has its daily challenges, but it is also a bigger blessing than we imagined when we applied for work here. I know we are right where we are meant to be.
~Dayna
One Saturday in November, I received a phone call out of the blue from my friend Linda. We met Linda in 2001 while we were teaching at a college in Changchun. She also taught at the school and became one of our closest friends. We had seen Linda twice since moving back to China last March but hadn't been in touch recently, so I was surprised to hear her say she had traveled to our city that weekend. And then I was even more surprised when she announced that she had traveled that day with her boyfriend, as they were doing some shopping in preparation for their upcoming wedding!
Such exciting news! Linda became a believer while she was a college student and spent the next 20 years waiting for a man to marry who shared her faith. We loved getting to know Alan over lunch and seeing Linda so happy about their upcoming wedding. And we were thrilled to learn we'd be able to attend the ceremony in January since it was scheduled for one week before our trip to visit Oklahoma and Texas.
On Friday afternoon, we headed to the train station but as our taxi crept through the afternoon traffic, we knew it would be next to impossible to make it to the train by 2:20. Sure enough, we raced through security and up to the gate to find the train had departed four minutes earlier. A very nice security guard took us to the information desk where they did their best to get us on another train. The 4:15 train was sold out, but we could upgrade our tickets to first-class and get seats on the 6:00 train. We only needed to pay the difference in fares instead of repurchasing the tickets, which was a blessing. Molly and Hudson were thrilled to see a children's play area and spent two solid hours enjoying themselves.
We made it to the home of our friends Randy & Jessica by 8:30 that night. Molly absolutely loves spending time with their 9-year-old daughter, and even though our stay with them was shorter than expected, we made the most of our time together. I believe their wedding in 2002 was the last Chinese wedding Kevin and I had attended together.
A typical Chinese wedding doesn't include a marriage ceremony. Couples file paperwork to officially marry, so weddings are basically a reception for family and friends. A large meal will be served and the couple visits each table for a toast with the guests. Since Linda and Alan are believers, they asked their fellowship leader to perform a Christian ceremony, so he gave a message and they exchanged vows and rings.
The short clip above gives you an idea of the processional. The guests aren't asked to stand as the bride walks down the aisle, but many people were talking and trying to get pictures of Linda. Kevin and I loved reconnecting with friends we hadn't seen in years and introducing Molly and Hudson to them.
Chessie, Caleb and their nearly 2-year-old son
Wang Ying, the foreign affairs liaison at our former college. She has been promoted but still works in the foreign affair department, and she wasted no time trying to recruit us back to teaching!
Abbie and Nikki from New Zealand. Abbie was 7 when we first met this sweet family, and now she is 20.
I couldn't get all the dishes in one shot, but I wanted to give you an idea of the wedding food. No cake! Lots of meat, shrimp, fish, vegetables and bread. So much food on every table!
Linda changed into a beautiful red dress for the reception.
We rode Changchun's light-rail system on the way back to Randy and Jessica's, which was fun since it was under construction when we moved away in 2003. We packed our bags, caught a bus to the train station and made it in plenty of time for the two-hour ride home. Such a happy weekend!
Warning: this post is random. People ask us about our daily life here and it's hard to explain. Parts of this city are more developed and polished than you could imagine, and then right next door, it's very clearly not. Here's a glimpse of some of our regular activities around our city of 7+ million people.
Let's start with shopping. Ten years ago when Kevin and I taught at a college in Changchun, we were the star attractions when shopping or walking down the road. Now, people hardly notice us because they are only focused on our kids. They are fair-skinned, blue-eyed and always mistaken for twins. They've had their pictures taken with strangers 174,000 times. Approximately. Here we are shopping at Wal-Mart:
Here's a shot of the Christmas decor section at Wal-Mart:
In October, there was much smaller display of Halloween masks and children's costumes. I don't remember seeing that at all last year. Decorating for all Western holidays is definitely increasing. Many shops and restaurants will have Christmas trees or wreathes displayed. There is a fancy four-story shopping mall close to Kevin's office. We had lunch there on Thanksgiving, and I noticed Haagen-Dazs was beautifully decorated for Christmas.
But the funny thing was right next to it, in the middle of the mall's main walkway, was this enormous Halloween display (still there more than a week into December).
In another shopping mall near our home, a Charlie Brown Cafe opened this year. We visited it a few months ago with two volunteers from our Saturday English classes. I had fun getting to know these girls as they translated for me in the adult class for several months.
Speaking of coffee, another friend of ours opened her own small "Book Cafe" for people who enjoy coffee, books and wifi in a cozy environment. She lives in an apartment on the cafe's second floor.
I've been meaning to explain for ages how we pay bills here in China. Bills are never received or paid by mail. Phone, cable and internet are paid upfront on a pay-as-you go system. Every month or two, we add money to our cell phone number by going to one of many China Mobile shops. (Anyone can add money to any phone number, so it can be a fun way to anonymously bless someone with unexpected money on their phone.) Every six months, we bring our cable box's sim card to the telecom office and reload it. Every two months, our electric bill (along with the electric bills of all of our neighbors) are pasted on the downstairs door of our apartment building. We detach it from the metal door, and take it in person to pay the balance.
For water and gas, a worker comes to our home to check the meter, and then we pay in cash on the spot and are given a receipt. This usually happens between 6 and 8 pm, about every two months. We pay our landlord six months of rent at a time - all in cash. We pay preschool tuition on the first day of the month with all the parents waiting in line either at drop-off or pick-up to pay the cashier. Our Chinese friends have bank accounts and debit cards, but credit cards are rare and personal checks don't seem to exist.
Let me know if there are other aspects of Chinese culture you'd like to see or know more about.
~Dayna
