New Shoes and Baseball

So our last few weekends have consisted of attending Saturday night baseball games, and this weekend was no different! I go armed with a ton of snacks and they kids come with bats, gloves, and whiffleballs in hand, ready to play in any open space they can find when they get bored of merely being spectators. Today they went to the game also sporting their newly purchased tennis shoes, some of our first (no, make that our VERY first) apparel purchases this side of the ocean for the kids (with the exception of a pair of socks or two)! We had quite the adventure yesterday, running around to find 3 pair of shoes that would fit the older three kids. I finally figured out the way the system worked. When you go into a store, they have quite a few shoes out on display. But these shoes are not just the styles that are available, they are actually the entire stock that the store has available. So rather than asking for something in a particular size that you see on the shelf, you literally have those shoes that you see on the shelf as your purchasing options. (I discovered this by trial and error, after I asked several times if the worker could find such and such shoe in a larger or smaller size. After getting several blank looks and a few phone calls to a mysterious but absentee supervisor, I figure out that all the shops worked on an as-you-see-it, so you can buy it basis alone! This actually made the process go a little quicker, as it greatly diminished our options. Especially since I was definitely opposed to buying pink or glitter for the boys! (I know, we're trying to acculterate to China, but we've gotta draw the line somewhere, right? And I'm smart enough to know what would really push the grandfather's buttons on both sides of the family and want to avoid that at all costs!!) Oh, and you only get one shoe at a time to try on (which is normally tightly wrapped up in saran wrap). Once you verbally commit to buying that pair of shoes, then they bring out the mate from some mysterious beyond!

So the kids are showing off their new shoes as they lay in the grass (that's right, I said "grass"!) at the track right next to the baseball field. The kids were so thrilled to have grass to play in, that we had a hard time getting them out of it! The Chinese kids around us kept asking me if they didn't fear mosquitoes, and I assured them that they did not. They were only too thrilled to have some soft green stuff to play in that they were willing to risk a few bug bites, of any type!

The picture with everyone in the concrete bleachers is the stadium that the baseball team played at previously, which was not nearly as kid-friendly (due to the sheer drop-offs at every level of the stadium!). We had a few friends attend with us a week or two ago when we went to a game at that stadium, but have since opted for the Sat night games at the one with grass.

The other photo is of the boys in the living room from our morning "cave building expedition". We decided that this was a good way to spend a Saturday morning when the heat is super extreme and the pollution especially bad, making outside play less than desirable! I'm still amazed at how we are affected by the "different" air quality here. Yesterday I really thought I was getting some kind of a cold because my throat and head felt so crummy after running around on the three wheeler with the kids while running errands. I keep thinking we'll get used to breathing here, but not sure how long that would take. I heard good advice from a friend today who said that one of her doctor's here in Beijing recommended leaving the country for a two-week period of time each year specifically for the purpose of allowing the pollutants in one's lungs to clear out. I thought this was good advice, especially if it lands us in some exotic beach location that has lots of fun and fruity special drinks!

Bo the Bunny

This week we've decided to try again! Back in May our family added one to it's ranks--a small rabbit we named Rose. Unfortunately, her life span was much shorter than expected. I won't go into the details, but the short of it was that we did not supervise our kids playing with her closely enough! Her tragic demise was upsetting more to me than anyone else, but nonetheless, her absence in our family (even after only having her for about 3 days!) was felt. We told the kids that after talking a lot about how we handle animals, we would try again and let them get another pet rabbit. So now we have Bo who has joined our family! We are really hoping that he is not just another sacrificial lamb in order for our kids to learn an important life lesson in how to treat animals. But so far, he is living large, enjoying an indoor cage and as much food and water as he can handle (which is a far cry from where he came from!)

Kevin's baseball friend Lief took us along with a friend of his who knew about a fun animal market. It was absolutely incredible to see the number of animals, of all different types and varieties (reptiles, fish, small animals, cats and dogs, etc.). They even had cages of squirrels (which you never see out in the wild here!) and these huge trays full of truly disgusting worms all over (for feeding the fish).

The other photos are of our special breakfast this morning. We made "kooky faces" with our pancakes, idea courtesy of HighLights magazine (thank you, Nana!). I thought the boys did a good job, so I pulled out the camera. When Noah saw the camera, he didn't want to miss out on the action, so he started yelling "cheese" until I snapped his photo, too. What can I say, a blonde-haired kid in China is no stranger to having their picture taken!

Beach Trip

This past week our family had the incredible blessing of a little get-away! We took off to a nearby city that was highly recommended as being a great vacation spot for families. We found a hotel that was near the beach and even had an outdoor swimming pool! Our team leaders here in Tianjin highly recommended that Kevin and I both take a break from classes and that our family try to head out of town for a few days as a way of getting in quality family time and also having a break from our normal routine here and the hustle and bustle of big city life. We gladly accepted their counsel, and had a great time relaxing and exploring more of China!

We even had the added blessing of my teacher, and closest friend here in China, join us for most of our time in Qing Dao (the place we were vacationing). Her family lives several hours by train from Qing Dao, and she was home visiting her parents during the summer break. So it was a pretty easy trip for her to come join us for our family adventure! The kids love having her along, and it was a great opportunity for me to spend more time with a dear friend, one who is newly like-minded on important things, as well!

The hotel we stayed in was a little off the beaten path, so we had our own stretch of "private" beach. The beach itself was really pretty, but had a huge amount of broken glass and other "hazardous materials" that made us all keep our shoes on the whole time. The 3 older kids' favorite part was going on adventures with Kevin, in which they would hike out on the rocks that jutted out into the ocean. Noah was pretty content just digging in the sand with his shovel and occasionally tasting a bite or two! The private beach part was a huge blessing, because just as we are in Tianjin, our family continued to be a spectacle wherever we went. Our "blonde beacons" shone brightly in every Chinese crowd--even those that we drew as people watched from the walkway above us as we played on the beach.

One of my favorite parts of the beach was the HUGE amount of brides who were there to take their wedding portrait photos. Our first day out to the water there was literally a line of brides waiting their turn to go out on the rocks to have their photos taken. And watching them pose was the best part. I don't think there was a single one who simply stood with a smile. Most of them had arms raised above their heads (see photo) or stood with their bodies and arms tilted kind of like an airplane! It was quite entertaining to watch!

Besides the beach, the kids had a ball at the swimming pool. There were obviously a huge number of foreigners vacationing there, because they even had music playing in English the entire time! I can't tell you how refreshing it was! We were even able to enjoy a western buffet breakfast each morning.

We took one day to go to Polar World--Qing Dao's version of Sea World. We were all surprised at how well it was put together, complete with dolphin and whale shows and even live polar bears and beluga whales! One thing that was a first--there was a portion of the park where you could pay a small fee and get a bottle with milk in it that was used to feed fish! There was a huge crowd around the shallow pool, all with bottles sticking into the top of the water where the fish were swarming around to drink! It was crazy! We found a secluded spot that was kind of like the park's reception area that had a window into the dolphin tank. I think the kids' favorite part was hanging out down there because of how much the dolphins were interacting with them! They would swim by and kind of stop where the kids were and you could even hear them "talking" with their dolphin squeaks. Really cool. My other favorite part was watching Kevin work his magic in order to get permission to leave the park entrance gate to go out and buy KFC for us to have for lunch. We didn't know when we entered one portion that you were unable to leave, and we had another hour and a half before the last show we wanted to watch but nothing except a few snacks to eat. Kevin was FINALLY able to convince the people working the gate (after being denied at the only other exit/entrance) that his kids weren't accustomed to the Chinese food inside (the only thing they were selling within the park gates), so he HAD to go out and get them chicken nuggets! After several calls to her boss, who we decided must be the GM or the owner of the whole park!, Kevin got the go-ahead to leave and still be able to re-enter! The whole scene was quite Chinese-ee, where everyone follows the rules to a "t". But hey, we got our KFC!!

A few other fun tidbits and major highlights. One was Kevin's language blunder--which happen very infrequently, especially compared to his wife's number of mistakes! At the pool, he got his tones wrong on one of his words and ended up asking for a "swimming cat" rather than a "swimming cap"! He got a few chuckles, but at least was understood. Another was my misunderstanding of a sign on one of the major roads when we were coming back from dinner in a taxi. The sign read "Qing Dao Party School". I thought it hilarious that some school was advertising itself so openly as a party school, assuming that academics were not being taken seriously, which is a huge shock considering the Chinese culture! Kevin explained to me, however, that it was more likely a statement on the school being aligned with the government here in China rather than a state of its social interaction. Oops! The third amusing thing is what we brought back as gifts for our Chinese friends here. (In China, when you go on trips, you are supposed to always bring back gifts for your closest friends. Usually, each region or province has food that it is famous for, so this is a very normal thing to bring back.) So the food that was recommended we bring was squid slices! So I went to the store and stocked up on dried squid slices, along with some shark slices (which I thought would be good for some of Kevin's baseball friends because of how "manly" the package looked with a shark on the front!) and other kind of dried fish slices. I'm so glad that they are tightly vacuum packed so I didn't have to worry about the smell escaping in our luggage and contaminating it all! Gotta love the cultural differences. Who knows, by the time we get back to the States I'll maybe be missing the squid slices of Qing Dao. . .

Week of Celebrating

We had a fun week celebrating all kinds of exciting things! Kevin's best friend from baseball had his birthday this week, so he came over to celebrate with us on Thursday evening. We had balloons, a bday banner, and even birthday cake! The best part was our dear friend's new interest in talking about things of significance on a deeper level.

Friday morning we took off to a HUGE greenhouse that has acres and acres of plants for sale. We purchased two large ones for our apartment (which is supposed to really help with air quality in your home as far as fighting off the bad elements due to pollution), and was once again amazed and thankful for China prices. It was also fun to see how far we've come in adjusting to life here. About 9 months ago, we went to the same plant place to make some purchases, and the trip was honestly pretty overwhelming! Trying to communicate, bargain, understand how the system works, acquire transportation to get the plants home, and maneuver through a crowd of Chinese people fascinated by our little blondies totally wore us out. But this time, we were able not only to figure out how to get home with our purchases, but were also able to find out if the plants we were getting needed a lot of sun or a little, etc. Kevin and I both agreed that it was nice to have a point of comparison and see that we are moving forward in our transitional phase, albeit slow on some days!

The kids had a blast, in spite of the heat and humidity, because we also discovered a pet area. Let me tell you, there is definitely not an active animal rights group here in Tianjin! The conditions were really pitiful, but the kids had a ball anyway getting to see so many dogs, in particular (with fish, rabbits, cats, and even a turtle thrown in the mix!).

And then Kevin and I had our friend Jennifer babysit on Friday night for us to have a date. For the first time in over 10 months I got to go to a movie theater and watch a real movie (even in English!!)! We had such a fun evening out, and so much of it felt totally "normal!" Now, we did crack up as we walked into the theater and were confronted by several ticket scalpers. After trying to figure out why they were selling us tickets to the movie at a cheaper rate, and being a little skeptical that they were actually selling us what we were wanting to buy, the scalper walked in with us! He then proceeded to usher us to the front of the ticket line and help us purchase our tickets there at the counter! Kevin and I still aren't sure what the relationship is exactly between the scalpers and the box office, but there was definitely an exchange of money going on that everyone was aware of, and we ended up with a cheaper ticket price?!! Oh, and a correction to my earlier entry about the kids going to the movie with Kevin and getting "normal" popcorn. Not so much. It is still one of the sweeter varieties typical of China! But we just thought of it as kettle corn :)

This morning (Saturday) we went to Trash Mountain with a picnic lunch. We hiked around for some time and then found a green hill to race down. The funniest part was Noah, who kept getting totally frustrated and falling down. I realized how infrequently he has gotten to walk in grass, and as a result he had a really hard time keeping his balance! He had no problem letting us know about his displeasure with the whole situation (his lungs I think could set some records. . .).

In about an hour, one of our Chinese friends is meeting us to ride in our three wheeler to a local restaurant and then go to the Tianjin Lions baseball game! Kevin won't be pitching, but we're going to support Lief and the other guys on the team anyway (plus we all just miss good ole' baseball!)! And would you believe that we've FINALLY gotten the team's schedule, but only because Lief wrote it down and passed it on to us? When I asked him about how people were supposed to know if the information wasn't published anywhere (on-line or in print), he seemed a little surprised at my question! He explained that the players would tell their families and then their families would just spread the word! Now keep in mind, we are in a city of approximately 9 million people, so there are a lot more people here than just the team's family members! It reminded Kevin and me of some of our cross-cultural training that dealt with how information is spread. Our western mindset is one way, but we see that the rest of the world does not necessarily follow those rules! So my big question is. . . how many fans will be at the game tonight? Until the next posting. . . :)

Baseball in a Village?

As an update on Kevin's trip this past weekend to a nearby village...He described it as a total "China Experience" (which means one in which you sit back and kind of ask "What?!")! He went with several other Chinese men to a village with a population of 800. The funny part was that the mayor of the town (don't think that's his official title, but you get the gist) had decided that their village should have a golf course. Now, keep in mind in a country of 1.3 billion people where they have even limited the number of children you can have in an effort to cap the population a bit, land is a scarce commodity, and costs a small fortune, as you could imagine. Regardless, this mayor had built, according to his claims, more golf holes than any other golf course in Asia! There were 99 holes in this 800 person town!! The people of the village themselves were not frequenters of the course, but it is close enough to Beijing and the foreign population there to support the business, which is apparently doing okay because the same mayor now is wanting to build a baseball field. (I think just one, rather than 99!) I don't know that Kevin was able to add much to the discussions during the trip, but he did discover that he feels he still has a long way to go to be fluent in Mandarin and he had a few good laughs along the way as well!

He and the older three kids also had a great time at the movie, with the exception of it being a little bit scary for them (especially Karis). They were NOT the only ones in the theater, and the movie theater even had regular popcorn (not the sweet or crazy-flavored varieties that are normally the only ones available in China!) So the movie was a hit for everyone.

The rest of this week so far has been pretty normal. I did laugh about the chicken enchiladas I cooked for dinner earlier in the week when I thought through the process. Rather than being one of my fastest-to-prepare meals back in the States (and therefore one of my favorites!), my prep looked something like this. I happened to have some corn tortillas passed on to my by a friend who had gotten them from an import store in Beijing (something I haven't seen once since we've been here!). I used regular chicken from our market that I boiled and shredded. But to get "cream of chicken soup", I made my own (for the first time!). I know, call me Betty C. I added some seasoning to a milk and flour mixture, that I then added to chicken broth on the stove. But to get the chicken broth, I previously had taken the meat off of a rotisserie chicken and then boiled the bones on the stove for about an hour to make the broth (which is supposedly has an incredible amount of health benefits!). I added sour cream, but had to "make" my own by adding vinegar to heavy whipping cream and then allowing it time to sour. Oh, and I did have cheese, but needed to shred it as the only way you can buy it here is in a block. So the meal was delicious, but required a little bit more work than my typical Stateside chicken enchiladas! (And we won't even go into the process of getting chips and salsa. . .) :) What can I say, we're still "finding our new normal", and yet it is amazing just how normal it really is all beginning to seem. . .

The photo is of the kids playing together this week. They were having a pretend game where Karis was (of course!) the mom who was instructing the boys in where they should go and what they should do. Some things never change!

Back in the Saddle Again!

This week was a pretty normal one for the Josephs. Kevin and I began classes again, this time with new teachers for the summer term. We were surprised how easy it was to jump right back into class after a week off. I must say, the extra study time I had during my week of no classes really did help me in reviewing a lot of information that was kind of getting all jumbled together in my mind. Oh, and I made it through both days of class without shedding a tear--for which my teacher was VERY thankful, I'm sure!

Unfortunately, Kevin's back is still not doing great. He's tried all sorts of things--even acupuncture and some more "traditional" Chinese type medicine through a Korean doctor in the area, but he's still not close to 100%. The team begins traveling this week, so he's thinking he'll just keep working out with them when he can and try to be available as the season progresses in case it does work out. (The season, however, is only about 6 or 8 weeks long, as far as we can tell, so we'll see how quickly he recovers or if he gets injured once again!)

It's Saturday night right now, and it's only Noah and myself at home. Kevin took the older three kids to a movie theater that is pretty close by that is showing (hopefully!) and English version of the new Toy Story. The kids were super pumped, and we're hoping it's a good experience! We got such a laugh out of just getting the tickets. Kevin went to the theater yesterday to inquire about the movie times and one possibly being shown in English. He was told that there were no English showings yesterday, and they couldn't tell him yet if they would have one during the weekend or not. A little bit different from being able to look it up on-line, look in the paper, or call 444-FILM like you can do in the States! When I actually went to the theater earlier today to again inquire about an English showing and try to buy the tickets, I saw on the screen that ours were the only tickets that had been purchased for the movie--so there's a decent chance that Kevin and the kids will have the theater to themselves! Again, a slightly different experience from Stateside movie-going (and our first attempt at a Chinese movie theater). Will give a more detailed report upon their return. . . :)

Tomorrow (Sunday) Kevin is going with his friend Tony first to Beijing and then to a neighboring village. Tony has a friend who is a baseball government official and they have some baseball business there. He doesn't know exactly what he's in for, but thus far all of our exploring around China has been in really large cities, so going to a village in and of itself should be fun for him! Again, will give a more detailed report as the fun unfolds. . .

One School Year Completed!

Last week marked the end of our first year of language school! We celebrated by taking a week off from classes before we resume again with our summer school schedule. We decided that besides our minds needing the break, it would be good to have some concentrated family time and time to get some projects done that have been waiting for too long! So Kevin and I took turns taking each of the older 3 kids on dates. Karis and I got our finger nails painted after getting ice cream that was kind of like dippin' dots in the States. Kevin took Eli to ride paddle boats on a pond close to our house and took Hud to ride a merry-go-round and get ice cream. Everyone has been having fun one-on-one time! We also took a trip into Beijing and spent the night there. Noah needed his one-year old shots and Kevin had a meeting to discuss future possibilities of partnering with some friends to start an after-school type sports program. One of the friends we met (for the first time) ended up being the younger brother of a guy I knew pretty well in college. Talk about a small world!

We had a hard time scheduling the dr. apt and the meeting, so Eli had the suggestion of our family spending the night at our favorite hotel that has an indoor/outdoor swimming pool! We decided it was a great idea, so we did and had a blast. We even enjoyed a western buffet breakfast on Thursday morning before we headed to the train station. When we were at the hotel on Wednesday night, we decided to get braver than our usual and try to find a random restaurant on the road to order dinner from. While Kevin was at the counter ordering (off of a completely Chinese character menu, I might add!), I was outside entertaining the local population with my four little ones. As I struggled to communicate and understand all the questions being fired my direction (which are especially hard to understand coming from the older generation, as their pronunciation is generally harder to understand and dialects vary even more so), my favorite comment came from a little 6 year old boy. After asking if ALL of these kids were mine, he declared to everyone around that I was "hen li hai" (which can translate to "very capable" or, as Kevin puts it, "awesome!"). I thought that was really cute coming from a 6 year old!

As of today, we're back in the saddle again with our usual routine of classes and weekly meetings. Kevin has backed down to only four days a week and I am only taking two for the next several weeks until the fall semester begins again in late August. We're hoping to take a trip to a nearby beach for part of one week, as it has been highly suggested to our family that getting out of Tianjin and away from our usual routine would be greatly beneficial to everyone in the fam at this point! I'm thinking that may be correct, especially after my last day of class about a week and a half ago. I was supposed to take the oral portion of my final exam for the semester, but was having a really tough day. I was feeling especially homesick, as my cousin was getting married that weekend in Colorado and all of our family was there to celebrate together. Knowing that we're missing out on big events like that is probably one of the most difficult challenges for me of living overseas! I had two friends back in the States who were both dealing with some deep hurts, and just wanted to be there with them to try to comfort and encourage with a hug instead of a long-distance phone call. I hadn't been sleeping well all week because I'd gotten an eye infection and the medicine had steroids in it, which I'm pretty sure was keeping me from falling asleep at night. Oh, and I realized the morning of the test that I hadn't prepared the correct stuff for my test, so I was feeling totally overwhelmed with the language and completely inadequate in communicating what I wanted to. So when my teacher walked in the door and asked me how I was, I had a TOTAL meltdown! I'm not talking about a tear or two, I'm talking the real deal meltdown! It didn't help that one of my oral questions I was supposed to talk about was my favorite place to vacation in the US! At first she tried to calm me down, then she went to get me kleenex, but when I was still going, she gave up and just cried with me! We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon together, and I was so encouraged by her and her friendship. He knew what I needed for my day to be lifted! Oh, and I got out of taking the oral part of my final! The bad news is, I do have to take it now today, but I'm pretty sure I'm in a better frame of mind to try again today than I was a week ago! As in reference to parenting, one of my favorite quotes (and hopes?) for homesick days now is "this too shall pass. . ."!