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. . ."!
