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.

License to Drive (in China)

Yes, today we got our Chinese drivers license. I wish I had more pictures but prepping the papers took more work than expected (thanks to our neighborhood police station and their supreme typing skills) so my head was elsewhere and I left my camera behind.

We hired a "translator" who ended up spending alot of time with us over the weekend. Prior to meeting us, she completed some other documents we needed, including translating our names into Chinese. I am now officially and legally (in China) 金伯莉（jin bo li) and Andrew is known as 安德鲁（an de lu). 

Our experience actually getting the license though was great. Of course the "DMV" workers were a little grumpy - just like home - but the efficiency of the process was impressive.

SImilar to when we got our medical screenings when arriving here, we went station to station to complete each step. You would think in such a big city(8 million people+) the wait would be harrowing but I have to say, I would chose this over any DMV experience I have ever had back home, and that includes GA, VA, & MD.

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.

Shanghai

Our time in Shanghai was short but we tried to make the most of it, even through the bitter cold, and see as much as possible. 

We were lucky enough to stay in an apartment hotel (for only $50 a night which is a steal from the regular rate) that was walking distance to Nanjing Lu, People's Square and The Hersheys Store, which in my opinion, had better hot cocoa than the actual Hershey park in PA. 

The People's Park was fun. There were several amusement rides  that  the kids (and Andrew) enoyed it while Colten took a nap.  The prices to ride were moderate but you do need a tickets for each ride - no "bands" like we are use to in the States. 

We also made it to the top of the World Financial Centre which has the world's highest observation deck - with a glass floor - which really freaked Colten out for about the first 20 minutes of being there.  We waited until dusk so that we could see the day and night view for one admission fee. The night view was great, not only for the beautiful city lights but because of the new year celebrations, we saw fireworks shooting off as far as the eye could see - everywhere  one after another. Pretty amazing!

While in the area we took a few photo ops in front of the Oriental Pearl Tower, which Colten really wanted to go into - everytime he sees it now he say "me, go".

Let's see - - oh, and apparently fresh pressed sugar cane juice is big on the streets so we had some of that - not my thing but it was ok.

We also checked out a place we now refer to as "toy street" because it was packed with nothing but and where Drake picked up a long awaited Mickey Mouse transformer -  it was a pretty big deal for him - and only cost 20 yuan... roughly the equivalent of $3.30

At some point during our trip we found ourselves defrosting in a Toys r Us and Colten fell in love - with Pluto. He must have pushed this dog around for 2 hours so, of course, we had to buy it.

Last but not least, Shanghai is famous for their xiaolongbao so we had to go to the famous Nanxiang Dumplings at YuYuan Gardens - we tried everything on the menu - yum!

Guanyin of the South Seas

Guanyin of the South Seas at Nanshan Temple in

Sanya, Hainan Island, China

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?

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.

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.

Day 8: Discovery STS-131 ready for launch!

While at the Space Center we watched the Hubble 3D IMAX movie- AWESOME!!! checked out a few more exhibits and then got in line for the bus to the Causeway (closest public viewing area from Launch Pad 39A)... at this point it's about 4am.

When we finally got onto the bus it only took about 30 seconds before Avery was asleep. Now it's 5am. We reached the Causeway close to 5:15am set out our picnic blankets, bundled up (it was a bit chilly) and began waiting.

NASA had speakers setup so that we could follow all of the communications from Mission Control and the Orbiter. There was a brief moment when a computer system failed and we may have a "NO GO".. but it was quickly rectified and once again we were "A GO".

At 6:04am we were able to see the International Space Station fly over us in the sky. It showed as a bright white light, due to the sun reflecting off of it's solar panels. The ISS was visible for a full 3 minutes - it was awesome!

Finally it was time!!! coming upon the 10 minute marker, we started waking up the children. Anticipation was high... it seemed like no time and forever all at once. 60 seconds: we put our binoculars into focus... 30 seconds: cameras ready... 10 seconds: Ahhhh!!! 

9. . . 8. . . 7. . . 6. . . 5. . . 4. . . 3. . . 2. . . 1

The 6:21am ingnition lit up the sky and ocean, it was beautiful and surreal. To know you are watching 7 human beings literally being blasted out of this world is such a huge idea to wrap your mind around. It was like nothing else. Unfortunately, I am not able to show any pictures like the ones I have in my head, I wish I could, because it was just stunning and is something I hope my children will never forget... I know I won't.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/launch/index.html

Day 7: Wait, Wait, Wait

Today we packed all of our stuff, loaded up the truck and checked out of our resort... with no particular place to go for another 14 hours. We had some lunch, made a quick shopping trip,  observed a falcon in an eagle's nest, rode along a coastal neighborhood checking out the houses and real estate, found a park and played a bit, had some dinner and prepared to head to the space center.

Arrival time was set for 12am. For the first time in Crook family history we were on time, in fact, we were raring to go!

Day 6: Kennedy Space Center

Today we visited the Kennedy Space Center so we could inform the children of all the happenings of space exploration and to prepare them for the launch on Monday morning. We took a bus tour where we were able to observe the shuttle on the launch pad. By this point we were about 36 hours out from the launch.

I took as close of a picture possible from about 1.5 miles away. >

^This is the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building), today it is the fourth-largest structure in the world by volume.

 Just to give you an idea the American flag painted on the side measures: 209 feet (63.7 m) high, and 110 feet (33.5 m) wide. Each of the stars on the American flag painted on the building is 6 feet (1.83 m) across, the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court, and the stripes are as wide as a standard road lane.
 

At the end of our tour Drake saw a unique rainbow in the sky.

 

Day 5: Cocoa Beach

It was a nice relaxing day in Cocoa Beach... we used this time to recover from our Disney all nighter.

Andrew and Avery dug into the sand looking for shells... yes, DUG into the sand.

& Drake played in the surf...

Colten & I hung out under the umbrella and took pictures.

Day 4: The Magic Kingdom

The day belonged to Princess Avery and began in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique located in Cinderella's Castle.

She had her hair and nails done, and everyone (I mean everyone!) oohed & ahhed at her dress and sllippers. One cast member stopped me and said " working here everyday for 10 years, I see alot of dresses but this is the best one I have ever seen".

After her appointment Avery caught up with the Fairy Godmother (who, afterwards, spoke right to her from the float during the parade). 







During the parade, we enjoyed some popscicles. Cinderella waved to Avery and Ariel blew her a kiss!

After the parade, we met with Cinderella and she told Avery how she had heard so much about her from Fairy Godmother. It was great!    

The night belonged to Drake.
After dinner, outside of the kingdom, we went back in for round 2. Because the day had been so HOT and crowded, it was hard to stand in line to get on many rides. Thanks to FASTPASS, and most normal people taking their kids home for a good night sleep, (not us!) we were able to maximize the ride experience. Drake rode pretty much everything in the park, worth talking about - his favorite was of course Space Mountain. Avery's favorite ride was Splash Mountain and Colten's was a tie between Monster's Inc scare floor (he laughed and bounced alot) and It's a small world (he was very still and looking at everything).

We spent a total of 16 hours at the park and it was worth it! It was a great time and I am so glad that we were able to share this as a family and enjoy each other at Disney World. It was a magical day for sure!

Day 3: Cocoa Beach

Today was a relaxing day! We chartered a boat and went on a nature tour to a remote island where we saw a sting ray, baby sea turtle, jellyfish, a school of other fish, lots of different birds, dolphins, gators, manatees, and collected some really cool shells.

We topped off our night with some sunset kite flying on the beach.... it was awesome!!!

Avery had a Parrot and Drake had a Discovery Space Shuttle