Our family took a 5-day vacation during the first week of October during the national holiday when we all had a break from school. We took a train to get there (about a 5 hour-long train ride), and I was amazed at how great the kids did! The were each in charge of their own small rolling suitcase with their clothes in it (part of traveling by train is you need to pack light, as there is no where you can store a larger suitcase where you can actually watch over it to make sure it is not stolen on the journey). We really didn't even have room for toys or entertainment, so they were on their own to stay occupied, and they certainly rose to the occasion! We did take the trip with another family (who has 5 kids, believe it or not!); so they kids had some buddies to play with, which they LOVED! This was one of the first times we've done a trip with another family with kids the same age as ours, and it was a real blessing for them to have playmates so much of the time (but still, remarkably, allowed us to have good family time once we were at the beach).
We stayed in a western hotel (a Holiday Inn) that had a really fun western breakfast and was right on the beach (and even had an indoor swimming pool, which was nice because the weather was cold enough outside that no one wanted to be on the beach ALL day long). But what really surprised me, besides how flexible the kids were with sleeping arrangements, etc., was how willing they were to eat whatever we could find. One of the drawbacks to the hotel we stayed in was that it was removed enough from the city center that we didn't have much in the way of food options. We opted NOT to eat at the hotel very often, but instead would regularly send Kevin off on one of the side streets to see what Chinese street food he could dig up--and he came back successful each and every time! I must say, I was craving a good ole' salad by the end of the week, but the kids seemed pleased as could be with our noodles and dumplings that were our staples for the week!
One of the reasons we chose this particular city to visit is that it has a spot that you can visit where the Great Wall actually runs into the beach! We took one day and taxied to where it was. Rather than paying the "usual" tourist price of about $10 per person to get far enough through the gate just to see the Wall, we had Kevin as our tour guide, asking the locals and eventually (after about a 45-min walk) discovering the back route where you could get down on the beach and go right up to the Wall! The kids were thrilled to discover that they even had horse AND camel rides there on the beach! We spent the day playing at this new spot with the kids (of course!) being the main object of the photography that was going on (NOT the Great Wall!). I'll include a picture of a frequent occurance--one of our western kids having their picture taken with a bride and groom, who were also posing for their engagement/wedding photos at the same location!Ying Ying's Wedding
One of the other funny moments that showed our "new level" of cultural adaption involved the prep for the dinner. YY had told me earlier in the week about how her mother had come in town and wouldn't let her use Gerber daisies in any of her floral arrangements, because even though they were pretty, they are considered a funeral flower here in China (which was news to me, as I OFTEN use them--mainly because they are so cheap). I didn't realize that this was a subtle hint that YY was giving me (which is very culturally appropriate) that I shouldn't use those kinds of flowers until Friday afternoon, about 3 hours before all the Gerber daisies I'd ordered the day before from the flower vendor were supposed to arrive! I couldn't stop chuckling to myself all morning while I taught class at the irony of my blunder; and then breathing a sigh of relief that I'd realized my mistake BEFORE my dear friend (and her mother, who is the one who cares!) arrived at my apartment! I had Kevin stop by another flower vendor on the way home and bought several other flowers that ended up working out great, and had Kevin pass out the "funeral" flowers to other western moms at the bus stop when he went to pick up the kids that afternoon (I figured we probably shouldn't even have them in the house, just to be safe). He made several of the American moms really happy, even though he said it was really awkward to walk up and start handing out flowers!
The other near miss was when Kevin was also running out to buy the last of the fruit for the evening party. I requested several specifics, assuming they looked good that day from the fruit vendor, but was so thankful that Kevin caught one of my mistakes. I asked him to get some pears, but he remembered that the Chinese word for pear sounds like the word that measures distance; so you never serve pears at wedding events because they hold the meaning that you're wishing "distance" or separation on the couple rather than unity! We laughed that if we caught these 2 near-catastrophes, there were probably about 10 more that we missed!Getting to the wedding itself was quite the event. I took Hudson to get pictures taken with the wedding party about 2 hours before the wedding at Trash Mountain. YY had asked if we could drive a group in our van; and we of course agreed. The crazy part was getting to the restaurant (which is where pretty much all Chinese weddings are held) after the photos. We were running late, because the red cars (again, Chinese tradition for the bride and groom and wedding party to show up in red cars) were late in getting to us (the drivers had too long of a smoking break, evidently!) The videographer decided that I should be the lead car, with him hanging out the back of the open back-end of the car so he could get better footage of the red car procession. He had this whole routine worked out for me, where I was supposed to go slow, then go fast, then let all the cars pass, then speed up and pass them again, etc. And all this, driving in Chinese traffic and running late to the wedding! It was totally insane. My adrenaline was flowing so much by the time we made it (PTL, without getting in a wreck on the way!), that walking down the aisle was no big deal!
The wedding itself was amazing. Hudson did great walking down the aisle, Karis helped hand out programs at the beginning, greeting all the guests in her qi pao (Chinese style dress) with a "Ni hao" (hello, in Chinese) and would you believe that the 4 kids sat at the table by themselves while Kevin and I were both up front during the entire ceremony without another adult to supervise (ie, kick them when they were too loud!) them the whole time?! It was pretty brief, only about 30 min., but Kevin and I were both thrilled that they could sit still and not be too distracting for that entire time. Eli was really precious, opening candy and handing whatever Noah wanted to him to keep him contained for the duration. The kids favorite part was when they served lunch and they included the heads of the chicken and ducks on the platters; not great to eat, but sure make fun toys!Catching Up
After the wedding, we spent the next week in recovery mode! We didn't realize how much all the events had taken it out of us. We've gotten back in the swing of things as far as hostessing friends, having kids events, and trying to squeeze in as much family time as we can. I've developed a usual Friday night routine (when Kevin has a usual-scheduled event) with the kids of watching a movie and having popcorn and M&Ms. I've got to be honest, I'm tempted a lot of the time to try to scurry around and get things done (I had cleaning out the bookshelves on my mind tonight, mainly because we're missing 2 library ones that I'm guessing got put back there); but it's become one of my favorite times to curl up with my 4 little ones, usually in a mound of pillows and sleeping bags, and just enjoying being together. These years just seem to be going by so fast!
One final humorous discovery. This past Saturday, the international school had a big Fall Festival for all the staff and their families. It was a ton of fun, including a cake walk, crafts, and even a bounce house! I was helping monitor some of the kids' rides for about an hour when I discovered just what was going on with the ride I was watching. It was one of those little kids's rides where you put the token in and sit there while it moves and plays a song; the funny part was the picture that was going across the screen. It was the twin towers in NYC, and there were airplanes that were flying past. When you pushed a button, there was a loud artillery sound, like heavy weaponry being fired! I'm not totally positive, but I think the message was that the passenger (a two-year old, most likely!) was trying to shoot down the planes before they hit the twin towers! Have you ever heard of anything like that for a toddler ride?!!! China, ya gotta love it...
