I heard it through the grapevine...

Last visit we made to Huzhou to search for apartments we were fortunate enough to meet a new friend so, on this trip - after we found the aparment we had been searching for all this time, he invited us to his best friends' vineyard.

Yes, our first trip to a vineyard, in China at that!  I was suprised to know that the northwestern countryside surrounding Huzhou is made up of lots of grapes! It was a fun day with lots of new friends that led to a great dinner with homemade grape wines and special grape cuisines.

Seems like our new city will be a delicious one!

See more photos here

Crook Family Photos 2012

Yes - we did it! And of course it took me six months from the original thought I had to get our yealy family pictures made but - its complete; until next year...

Since this was our first year in China I thought we would do a theme - Han Dynasty. At first, I was just going to buy a Qipao but that it was hard to find one to fit my bust, then I was going to have one made but it became too expensive - apparently since I am American and have three kids, I have alot of money considering "the Government pays to take care of my children". I am not sure where this thought comes from but a fairly large amount of people believe it.

Anyhoo, I finally decided to use scrounge the net looking for a deal. I found one on the chinese groupon site. This turned out to be great because during the actual picture shoot Colten did not cooperate like he told me he would each day leading up to picture day (I tried to prep him prior to).

The first pictures were taken inside and at first he was into it but when it was not his turn anymore things went down hill fast. He screamed and cried and kept tearing his clothes off - which made it more difficult after an hour of redressing a screaming child.

Next, we went outside for some "on location" shots - - by  this time it was high noon, and in Nanjing you might as well call that Hell. It gets so hot here. Imagine if you can two Americans walking through the streets in Chinese garb followed by two children, also dressed, and another one acting a fool and looking a mess. It would be an understatement to say we stood out in the crowd.

So we were melting, sweating, yealling, redressing Colten - it was crazy. The package only cost 248 RMB which equates to about $39.36 - this includes a 12" photo, 7" mouse pad, 4 wallets, an 8" photo book, and 18 photoshops - - we don't get those until next month.

If you look at our photobucket page you can see a slow progression through our photos of Colten's toll on the process but - - for $40, as long as one family picture is good - I'm good.

  

Our Next Move... Huzhou, China

Yes, we have decided to stay in China and also to move to a new city. Andrew has upgraded his job from kindergarten to highschool, which should prove to be much more rewarding for him.

Huzhou is a third tier city whereas Nanjing is a second tier city. This means that Huzhou has only 3 million people against Nanjing's 8 million  - yes, they commonly refer to it as a "small town".

We are super excited. To us this means more of a transition into the Chinese culture, a bigger push to further our language skills and understanding. Sure, Huzhou still has a DQ and Louis Vuitton but, it will definitely take us out of the Western comfort zone that we have enjoyed in Nanjing. This is because there are considerably less foreigners there and even less foreign families.We leave Nanjing at the end of August.

The adventure continues...

Road Trip!!

So, we just got our license and thought it was the perfect time to try out driving in China... We rented a van, had a friend tag along and set out to explore a new city.. the city of Huzhou.

Know for it's scenic views and famous for brush writing - we found Huzhou to be an interesting mix of old China and new China.

We saw painted dogs... I asked the seller if the dog was born this way and she had the nerve to tell me yes! haha...

Huzhou also has many rivers flowing through it so we decided to take a boat ride. All in all a nice trip and suprisingly easy drive on the highway.

Hangzhou - Where heaven meets the Earth

This is a holiday weekend so we decided to take a trip to Hangzhou, about a 3 hour car ride, to see the famous West Lake (Xi Hu). The only problem about holiday weekends is if Andrew is off then so are millions of other people - all who seemed to have the same idea that we had.

What little bit of the lake I did see was nice but mostly I saw a sea of Chinese people- all of who, if we stood still long, enough would swarm around us to get a good look. This doesn't happen in Nanjing very much anymore so it's a little weird to experience again.

One night, after dinner, we rented one three seat bike and a two seater (one was a baby chair) and took a night ride around the lake. I would suggest this to anyone visiting West lake, its the only way to see the sites.

We also ate at a famous restaraunt Wai Po Jia (The Grandmas) which was terrific. You have to wait in line and once you are in you are given only an hour or so to finish your meal then you have to go! There is always a line - and the spicy bullfrog is YUMMY. They also had the most inexpensive Mao Pao Tofu at onl 3rmb... i guess that is like .50cent ? so yummy.

Once while walking aound we took an opportunity to ask a police officer if the kids could take pictures on his motorcycle.. he said yes! Ironically, while we were snapping the photos, my cell phone was stolen off our stroller. I am so use to sitting it down and not really having to worry about it in Nanjing. I guess tourist cities are the same all over the world.

Heaven on earth - -Not sure about that but, but I hope we can revisit soon.

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè (Happy New Year)

Welcome to 2012, officially! 

According to the Chinese Lunar calendar we are now entering 

The year of the Water Dragon.

 
 
 

 

Above: View of some Fireworks from our apartment... this went on from morning til night but around 11:30pm until 1am it really did"POP OFF!" It was insane! I can only equate it like being inside a rainbow war zone. I don't think either Andrew or myself had ever seen such amazing fireworks so close - eye level and no more than 75 feet from our balconies - on any side of our apartment. Truly an amazing, fun, celebration that we are glad to have experienced thanks to the people of Nanjing!

Guanyin of the South Seas

Guanyin of the South Seas at Nanshan Temple in

Sanya, Hainan Island, China

The beach in Sanya, Hainan Island China

This is the beach view from our room. The weather was super nice - especially since it was freezing when we left Nanjing and now we are running around in tanks and shorts.

 

Avery enjoyed being buried in the sand!

Happy 9th Birthday Drake!

Today is not only Chinese New Year eve but also Drake's 9th Birthday... 9 Years Old!!!!

Wow! How time flies.

Due to the lack of wrapping paper in Nanjing.. or atleast my lack of finding it we decided to hide Drake's gifts and send him on a wild goose chase to find them.

Each clue lead him to a gift, building up to the "big one" an electronic keyboard.

 Continuing with the theme of Xi Yang Yang from Colten's party Drake had a Hui Tai Lan cake and it was so yummy!

We love you Drake, Happy Birthday!

Gao Roe a.k.a. Dog Meat

Yes, it took a while to find it but we did! In China it is normal to see sausage or other meats hanging out side of a restaurant, apartment, on a clothes line right next to the linens drying so we usually don't pay much attention. Today was different. After a long day of exploring the city and coming across some great deals, we were headed home - still exploring so, the area was new to us when we happened upon a fine dining establishment. Andrew quickly asked, "is that cat?" and when I looked at it I agreed, "yea I think so, it has claws". WHile I scrambled in the bottom of the stroller looking for the camera, Andrew went inside to ask some questions. When he and a lady came back outside, and he asked "what is this" she proudly declared "Gao Roe". It must have been silly to her becasue as a family we all instantly said " DOG!!"  - Yes ladies and gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure:

When talking with a co-worker, the day after our discovery, Andrew was assured that any dog eaten is "farm raised" and not someone's pet... really?

Happy Thanksgiving from Nanjing China

Today we watched Andrew’s class put on a play about Thanksgiving in America – Avery had a role and it was her first performance ever. She had the only solo line (“Land-ho”) and pulled it off without a hitch!

To warm-up the crowd, Colten’s class did a rendition of wheels on the bus – Colten loves that song but was more interested in watching his classmates perform and pulling his pants legs up than rolling the wheels 'round – all in all, very funny and cute!

The play was great, and it was also written by Andrew. Everyone seemed to have fun and the other parents were very impressed. Afterwards, the class sang a chinese song about being thankful - so cute! It had somewhat of a Napoleon Dynamite feel to it - hahaha.

Living In China: Month Three

Pantyhose + Shorts = Pants: Fashion, Fashion, Fashion! It is all about the 80’s here in China. They ladies love their rabbit furs and pantyhose! Also, tights = pants (as long as they are worn with a sweater that atleast covers your butt).

Energy Efficient: our gas use for the last three months is equivalent to less than $5. We have a small washing machine and no dryer. Yes! – we hang dry everything (80’s!) in our special “drying room” which is a lot like a sun room for our clothes.

 Chit Chat: Reach out and touch someone – or atleast the tv or computer screen. We have weekly calls with our family, it’s free and super easy to stay in touch – maybe too easy. The only difficulties for us is the 12 hour time difference – but not too difficult.

 Satellite Service: from Phillipines, censored HBO – The Hangover is just not the same without Galifanakis pretending to jerk off the baby, am I right?

 VPN Service: This allows me to post to our blog, access facebook and any other non- Chinese sites not available through the Chinese Internet – actually using these services, we can access any country’s internet. Pretty handy.

 Loreal & Maybelline: Here these are high priced, department store counter cosmetics. Yes, the $10 base and $2 blush that most American high school girls experiment with are located next to Estee Lauder and some other fancy French cosmetic I have never heard of.
Light as a feather: the joy of eating Chinese food, no bloating. And really, I’m not hungry two hours later. We eat great here. Cabbage, rice, tofu, broccoli – tons of veggies actually, some traditional mixture of egg and tomato (yummy) with just garnishes of meats. Eating this way – and walking everywhere- has really changed the way we feel throughout the day.

Happy Halloween from Nanjing China

Since we can’t just buy a costume at Wal-Mart… 

Today, I painted Avery’s face like a kitty and made her a tail with one of my scarves.  

Drake happened to have a skeleton shirt so, we went with it an painted his face to match. Colten had his lion costume from last year which is suppose to fit a two year old but, the pants only came to his knees and he didn’t want to keep the head piece on so, he was just Colten with a furry short-pant suit on.


The school hosted a Halloween party and along with treats and costume contest, they did the monster mash and other silly dances...

Thanks to Andrew; Lots of fun for everyone!

Living in China: Month Two

Settling In: Things have become easier day by day. We live close to the local Wal-Mart (within walking distance) and shop there often. Food is tricky, we hired an Ayi (Chinese Nanny) to help in the apartment and with dinner 6 days a week but, it didn’t work out. She was lazy and couldn’t take direction and we were paying WAY too good for that kind of attitude so after 2 weeks, she was gone. Just walking into any ole restaurant is not really an option right now since we cannot speak or read Chinese, unless there are pictures we don’t eat there – there also has to be a lot of people there for us to consider it which makes it even more difficult because we in ourselves are a bit of a spectacle when in public (re: san ghe, san ghe, san ghe). But so far so good – hey! Life is an adventure.

Silver & Gold: In the last few months we have met many friends and been hosted to some of the best dinners we have ever had. It’s hard not to generalize Chinese people as a whole because most everyone we have met has been supremely generous to us, which is not an easy task considering the size of our family. We have been lucky enough to see some of the city sites thanks to our new companions and I think that has allowed us to understand the culture and language more and navigate to where we need to go with ease. We have made some great friends and are amazed everyday by their kindness.

Easy Peasy: Being a full time student myself, I underestimated the feat in relocating to a new country, establishing a family of five comfortably, homeschooling Drake efficiently and while juggling other everyday tasks and anything else that may pop up – which there are a few things daily! Outside of my own time management issues and dilemmas, the children have adapted superbly. I don’t think we could have imagined or asked for a better transition.

Boom, Boom, Boom: Lucky us, our community is in a new part of Nanjing so there are apartments being sold, stores and restaurants opening every day. What does this mean for us? Random fireworks shows happening throughout the day. Morning, noon, night – some are pretty some are loud but all are right outside our building. In China, any point of celebration calls for fireworks, baby born; just married; graduate; holiday. This is also just one of several things we have taken note of as a more free civil liberty policy than in the US (more on that later).

Gone one day, here the next: In China, when they build something no time is wasted. Across the street from our apartment is a building under construction. In only a few weeks it has been raised several floors and looking from different points in our apartment we have said a few times – was that building there yesterday? Of course it probably was but the progress being made each day is pretty amazing. I am keeping a photo diary of one of the buildings for a later post.

Wal-Mart: No matter where we go, we can’t seem to stay out of the local Wal-Mart. Anytime we have been on vacation we have had to make a stop into wallyworld for something we just couldn’t go any longer without. In Nanjing, it’s no different. We seem to go there at least every other day and without realizing it before, put on a show for the locals as they watch us fill our cart with liquid items and follow us to the checkout isle to see how we will fit it all into our stroller – it’s so bizarre. Some of these people literally follow us around and then stand at the end of the checkout, just watching. I imagine it to be a lot like the job of a National Geographic cameraman who can’t interfere when the lion is about to pounce on the zebra, they can only sit silent and observe.

Double Happiness

Last night we attended the wedding ceremony of our newest friend here in Chine, Luan (Chinese) and Bjorn (Swedish). They are already married, in Sweden but now needed to be married in China as well – more for “face” reasons or as Luan put it "my parents want to make sure everyone knows I am married"… as she is pregnant. It was a great party. The food, spirits and festivities were hun hao.

Bjorn serenaded Luan with a popular Swedish tune and then his rendition of its now or never, which I thought was an inappropriate but hilarious choice considering the occasion. After the ceremony and dinner there was karaoke by several drunken Chinese men, a tai chi dance by Luan’s mother (it’s her new hobby), all of the kids were able to take the mic and sing – yes of course Drake and Avery sang about three times, Colten danced. I told them to sing the ABC’s once – they did and all of the Chinese people loved it. They all received stuffed animals as prizes and at the end Luan gave all of the children in attendance 100RMB each (about $16), she says its tradition. 

There was also this weird period of time during dinner when the “dj” played careless whisper by Wham! On loop for at least an hour - - let me repeat, ONLY that song for an hour… also hilarious!

It's a Party!!

On Saturday we had a big party for Colten and lots of his friends from school came. We had pizza (from Papa Johns) and cake - a 16" Xi Yang Yang (Happy Goat) head with white chocolate shavings as the wool and fruit whip filling).

The cake was yummy but by American standards may not have been considered sweet enough. Chinese desserts are maybe a third less sweet than what we are use to but everyone enjoyed it and we had a great time.

Interestingly enough, Colten received alot of gifts, which we were told after was not common in China. Typically money is given to the guest of honor but perhaps because we were hosting such an American style party, others joined into the tradition and brought gifts instead of RMB... I have to say, money is always a good gift, no matter what the tradition but, Colten enjoyed his toys all the same.

Living in China: Month One

So, after our first night, things in China got a whole lot better. Although the language barrier is difficult, people always try to help us no matter where we are. On day two we began looking for an apartment and within three days we had picked one and were waiting to move in. It is close to a metro station and to the school Andrew will work at. It is in a nice, new community that is lined with greenery, water falls, and koi ponds. Our landlord had all of the requested furniture (closets, tv stands and tvs) made/delivered/installed and within 3 more days we were moved in.  The apartment community is nice, the apartment layout if fabulous but, as with many other things in China, the details are lack luster. For example in out entryway/office, we have this nice exposed brick but when the workers painted the ceiling, they dripped paint onto it and didn't bother to clean it...wtf? My opinion of this so far it that there is a disconnect with the people who do this type of work, painting, plumbing, etc.. they really don't care and there is noone to hold them accountable for  discrepancies in their work. Of course the owner of the apartment should have been fired up over it but then again, he's not living here so what does he really care, and who is he to correct a professional, even if the work is shoddy? - its an odd way of thinking about things... I can't quite comprehend it yet. Below are a few other obseravtions from our time here in China...

"San ge, San ge, San ge" - pronounciation: Sang-ah ; translation: Damn! They have three kids! We hear it everywhere we go. Andrew gets alot of thumbs ups from old men and we all get smiles and whispers. Its such an interesting reaction and no matter where we go, or how many times we go there we hear it constantly, and in the exact same fashion: "San ge, San ge, San ge"

Chinese dogs are amazing - first you have to know that traffic here is ridiculous. There seems to be no pattern but some how everyone is following the same routes. Knowing that, it is amazing to see a pomeranian or poodle (I see alot of both) running next to a scooter and watching for on coming traffic. The dogs are so obedient. Typically they walk without a leash next to their owner and if for some reason they loose sight of them, they stop and look frantically for their owner. They cross the street better than some humans I've seen and seem to also know this invisible pattern of the streets.

A dog owner can make just one call to their dog and it comes running - I am truly fascinated by it and don't understand it but, I am going to get to the bottom of it - I really need my children to follow directions like this!

Chicken feet, Duck head anyone?  We have found going to a sit down restaraunt daunting at times and if the menu has no pictures, we now just get up and leave... we still do not know many words and it becomes somewhat of a spectacle when we get to a point of saying "Chicken?, Chicken?, Is this Chicken?"... The few time we have pointed to a menu and tool a chance it was a 50/50 split on getting something we would actually eat. Don't get me wrong, the food here is great but sometimes when you order beef or chicken, you get bones, feet, head.. and we just aren't use to that - at least Andrew and I aren't. To this point Drake has eaten a chicken foot and Avery has nibbled on a chicken head but, that still doesn't mean I want to order it for dinner! Shrimp and prawns also come out in their natural state, and as much as I like shrimp, with each head I have to pull off, my appetite decreases dramatically. Another thing the kids have taken a liking to is "duck neck" - yes, it is packaged as a treat and smells like vienna sausages and you can feel the vertebrae in the package...

China is NOT handicapped accessible: It really is the most mind boggling thing and maybe I noticed it sooner than most since we travel with Colten in his stroller everywhere we go. Nanjing has a great public transportation system, brand new metro and it is so clean and convenient but not stroller, wheel chair (or any other  physical impairment) friendly. Very few stations have an elevator into the station and those that do, rarely operate it. Also it is pretty common to carry a stroller 30-40 stairs up or down, only to find an escalator going your way at the next level. And if you do happen to catch an escalator down, you will find the opposite – 30 stairs to pass before you reach the train. It seems to be some weird joke by the Chinese transportation system, and I will admit – I have double over laughing several times at the insanity of me and my husband carrying Colten in the stroller with a full basket down two flights of stairs only to find ourselves at a conveniently placed escalator or lift, also known as an elevator in the U.S., its enough to drive one mad! Chinese humor – I don’t get it.

High Heels: The Chinese sneaker. We walk everywhere, and even if we get a taxi somewhere or take the train, you can believe it only lessens our steps by a few… maybe I should get a pair of six inch stiletto boots to help me get from point A to point B, that’s what the Chinese women seem to do. Fashion is so important here in China and even if you are not dressed to the T, you better have some hot shoes on! I have tried to where heels here, and I am luck I didn’t twist my ankle in the process – maybe I have weak American ankles from sitting all day and driving everywhere my whole life – who knows but, one thing is for sure – these Chinese women are rockin’ the heels… Maybe that is why foot massages are so important here.

Click to see our pictures

Ni Hao!

(Aprx 13:30 china time) So, here we are! Pudong Airport in Shanghai China. Because we had to gather all of our stuff and were the last off the plane we had mentally prepared for the crowds, pushing, shoving, protecting our possessions – we are on high alert so to speak. So after picking our stroller up at the gate and leaving the terminal area we were surprised to find an almost empty airport. It was just us and a handful of people. Where did all of the people on our plane go? I mean it was kinda eerie. Not at all what I had imagined. We gathered our 12 bags – strapped them together and proceeded to Customs. It was so funny to me because there are two lines “to declare” and “nothing to declare” – but there was no process or force to make someone go through the declaration process, at least that I could see. After we declared nothing’ we began to look for our guide, Brett Isis from Teaching Nomad. He is the recruiter that found the opportunity at Etonkids for Andrew.

Bret arranged a taxi for us to take us to the train station. However,  after loading our bags we were told that we would need to pay an extra baggage fee to board the train and while that wasn’t much, the thought of dragging these bags in and out of transportation mediums was well just not going to happen. So we took the taxi all the way to Nanjing a 3.5 hour ride. Just what we were hoping for after a 15.5 hour plane ride!!

~Somewhere along the way we stopped for a bathroom break and a few drinks ( 3-20oz cokes and 2-20oz sprites all for about $3.17)~

The taxi was a bit costly at about 350 usd but in the grand scheme of things a great deal (by US comparison) considering the distance. It ended up working out for us in the end. Our driver who was from Shanghai got lost and had to keep stopping for directions to our hotel. Once the we got into Nanjing it didn't really bother us because it was so exciting to see all the brightly lit sites of the city. Plus for those of you who have never driven or taken a ride in China its like an NYC cab ride on HGH!! By the time we got to the hotel we were so tired, hungry and had really just ran out of steam. It was now close to 20:45. Our hotel room was really small but the manager explained to us that the next night we would be moved to the large executive suite the next night. After getting settled we headed out into an unknown chinese neighborhood looking for food. Needless to say that night we ended up eating pizza at a local shop who’s English name was “Pizza Home”. The menu read “We came from Pizza Hut but we can do it better”… It was pretty good but again, we were hungry and tired so I think that helped. Once we got back to the room we all showered and within 10 minutes I would say we were all having the deepest sleep of our life!

Flight 229 - Atlanta to Shanghai

August 21, 2011 | 5:30 am – we were headed down stairs to load up all of our baggage onto the Westin shuttle service. Aside from a few last goodbyes things went really smooth until we arrived at the airport. Now mind you, I have taken pretty detailed notes on which bags we have, and their purpose – how much weight we are allotted between what number of bags so, I was a bit surprised when we were told we must begin paying for bags – after only 7 had went down the belt. As I was trying to explain why I knew that she was mistaken… “See ma’am I have 4 sets of 3 bags …[she talks over me]… I have 4- 29” bags, 4- 25” bags and 4- 21” bags for carry-on and there is still one 25” bag sitting here [she talks over me again] - by this time Andrew is freaking out. Finally a manager comes and she didn’t really give a hoot either. These 3 women stood there and talked to us like we were completely incompetent and of course if you begin to show any irritation they act like you are going to go psycho in flight and begin saying stuff like “sir, I’m here to help you, no need to get mad” with a condescending tone. Argh! It was crazy. Finally we were allowed to go through- without the baggage fee. What a waste of time… so, good thing we got there early.

Our dads accompanied us to the airport, we all had breakfast together and chatted until it was time to pass through security. The goodbyes were short and sweet and I think it went well except that Colten was not happy to be leaving his Granddaddy behind.

Going through security took more time than we expected and was kind of a mad house going through the xray scaners with 10 bags and 3 kids. On top of all that for some reason Colten did not want to take his shoes off. Once we reached our gate we had about 15 minutes on the clock to spare however, we were rushed onto the plane and told that it was ready to take off right way… again, it was crazy breaking down the stroller, gathering the children and maneuvering 5 carryons and 5 personal items on the plane + a diaper bag that I stuffed into my bag to make it as one.

The seats were comfy and provided much needed space; Economy comfort is well worth the upgrade fee. Another perk was the all you can drink liquor, which I did indulge in between hours 3 & 6 of the flight. Afterwards I tried to sleep. I also attempted to watch Julie & Julia, pretty cute movie but it took me about 7 hours to get through the 2.5 hour movie due to walking laps around the plane with Colten. There were lots of open seats so we were able to sprawl out between 3 rows making it far more comfortable than I would have imagined. I was later told by an American woman I met in the back of the plane that this was the least crowded plane she had ever seen and she had made the trip with her children 3 times.

I thought it was pretty neat that aside from movies, music, television shows, there was a moving map option that let you see exactly where you were in real time and at the end of the flight displayed a summary of flight time, distance, altitude, etc. Overall I thought the flight went really well, our children did wonderful and the accommodations were satisfactory. The movie selection was pretty good- better than I could have imagined. Note: earbuds are provided.

My only complaint was the old white stewardesses – they just seemed so bitter the whole flight and I don’t think they ever cracked a smile. The Asian ladies were pretty nice though.

The Finishing Touches

Even though we spent the last week packing and weighing everything that we intended on taking with us we had to make a few slight changes.

On the way home from Chicago Andrew learned that Delta actually allows up to 52 lbs per bag so of course we had to maximize our allowed weight. So, in our last minute effort, Andrew picked up the calcium vitamins that we had not yet purchased and we began to add a few other things that had been put to the side.

The plan for our last night in Georgia/United States was to load my mom’s (Taurus station wagon) Car and my Dad’s (full size conversion) Van with all of our bags, have a nice family dinner and stay overnight in Atlanta close to the airport since our flight was scheduled so early (09:55). We stopped at Buckner’s Family Restaurant – known for their fried chicken and lazy susan serving style. Nothing like a home cooked southern meal as a proper sendoff to Asia.



We stayed at the Westin Atlanta Airport – the accommodations are decent and because we had stayed there before, we knew that they had an indoor/outdoor pool so the kids took their suits and enjoyed the pool for a few hours. After bath time, we room hopped most of the night but usually ended up in my mama’s room (Granny) because she bought snacks and drinks. So that night Colten stayed in Granddaddy’s room and Drake and Avery stayed in my Mama & Aunt Carrie’s room. Again, Andrew & I barely slept (maybe 1.5 hours) – I think at this point our bodies had started to reject sleep as a necessary function.