Last week ended up without any major incidents to report--thank goodness! Karis and Eli finished up their first full week of school, and both are still LOVING it! In spite of the early mornings and even the homework that Karis has every night, they are anxious to return each day and have LOTS to share when they get off of the bus. They even both learned a song in their Chinese class that they sang to Ayi today when they got home, to her great pleasure! We are super thankful that they are enjoying learning and making new friends like they are!
This weekend was a busy one with friends. We were planning on going to the baseball game on Friday night with a group of western friends, complete with a hot dog picnic dinner packed (and other traditional baseball food that takes a little hunting to find here in Tianjin!). Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs, which (fortunately, due to the amount we spend walking and on bikes!) doesn't happen very often here. We decided to switch plans and most of the group came to our place instead. I was very thankful for our large living room area, since there were about 18 of us dining together.
Saturday turned out to be a rainy day as well, and after a full week of school, the kids were pretty content with sticking close to home and just being together. With the older two being gone so much of the daytime hours, all 4 seem to have a renewed joy with being able to play together! Saturday night we did make it to the baseball game with a group of our teachers and other students from our language school. It was wet, but we still had a blast cheering on the Tianjin team in the last official games of the season. The kids, of course, watched a few innings and then spent the rest of their time running around the infield of the track located behind the baseball field. As you can see in the photo, Noah is keeping in line with the Joseph family tradition of loving baseball, even trying to swing at pitches tossed his way! In spite of a good amount of rain (at least from our Tianjin perspective), we had beautiful skies on Sunday and today, even being able to see blue and some clouds! I couldn't resist taking a photo off of our 11th floor balcony.
Sunday we had one of Kevin's summer school teachers and her fiance over for dinner. She believes the way we do about important things, and is hoping that her fiance will soon do the same. Unfortunately, he literally does not know one other person who is like-minded, thus the intro to Kevin with the hopes of a friendship beginning. I am so thankful for my husband's giftedness in language! While I am struggling still to get out more than a sentence or two in a row, he really is able to converse in a way that makes native-speakers feel comfortable. Talk about a blessing! We realize that one of the bigger challenges here in China is this: that so many of those who are like-minded with us on important things are female, with a huge gap in the number of males who also are like-minded. This obviously puts the ladies in a very difficult position, especially in a culture where marriage is SUCH a huge deal. If you're not married by the time you're 25, you can bank on facing tremendous pressure from your family. One of our struggles is how to encourage and instruct these young women as they ask our opinions on the matter...
On a different note, we're starting to think more about a return trip to Dallas at Christmas time as I look to purchase plane tickets this week! It's made Kevin and me talk about going back to the States and some of the changes we'll experience and feel in the process. We watched a movie the other night (our usual M.O is to rent a movie on iTunes to download and watch on the weekends) and both Kevin and I freaked out at two parts that probably none of you would even think twice about! The first part was when a young woman ran to a bathroom sink and used her cupped hand to get a drink of water from the faucet. We've become so accustomed to staying away from faucet water getting near your mouth, that both Kevin and I caught our breath at the sight! [I even noticed today when our Ayi was filling up our rabbit, Bo's, water bottle, that she used the bottled water rather than tap!] The second part that got our attention was when a guy climbed onto a bed to lay down with his shoes still on. Even though he was on top of the comforter, the sight of shoes anywhere past the first 3 feet of the doorway (which is our new normal, and all of Asia's, due to the incredible filth that is tracked in on your shoes from outside) made Kevin and I both let out an "Ugh! What is he doing?!" We've also see how the kids have gotten used to watching movies, but not so much tv programs. (We did just get cable, which allows us 20 something channels, including 2 kid channels--in Chinese, of course--and an English news channel. We were told by numerous people that this would probably help both us and the kids in our language progression!) When we let the kids watch a tv program and then call them in to the table to eat, their normal request is, "Can you pause it?", convinced that we will oblige (this is especially the case with Hud, the 3 year old)! We have to continually remind them that you can't pause a tv program (at least not ours!), to which we get many protests and arguments (again, mainly from Hud) before he is convinced that we are right! Ah, the transition phase continues...
