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

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.

2012 Lantern Festival - Nanjing China

Entrance to the Nanjing city wall

We were invited by some friends to go to the lantern festival on the Nanjing city wall. It was very colorful and beautiful.

The kids enjoyed some neat (and tasty) candy, handmade right in front of us. Drake had a Dragon, Avery a Pegasus and Colten a Koi Fish.

 

 

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!

High Speed to Shanghai

For Drake's b-day weekend we headed to Shanghai via the Bullet Train. What could be as long as 4 hours by car, 2.5 hours by rail is cut down to only one hour on the High Speed train from Nanjing to Shanghai.

We were excited to ride the train and were pleasantly suprised by the comfort in the first class car. While walking to the dining car we went through the coach car, which was pretty packed and is set up similar to a bus - still for the time savings, not a bad way to travel.

For all five of us to travel first class cost about $50 USD.

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!

Monkey Island (Huo Dao) - Sanya, Hainan, China

OK, The name says it all - we took a cable car over the ocean and went to an island full of monkeys!

There were rules which mainly consisted of not feeding the monkeys any snacks brought along - which we did or consuming anything for yourself - which we did.

We did however pay for all of the kids to feed the monkeys some sort of air crisp thingys - pretty cool, the monkeys came in droves to grab some from their hands. It freaked Avery out a little. One monkey tried to steal a can of club soda from our friends backpack - I posted the video clip on youtube - you can see it here: MONKEY THIEF.

Two monkeys tried to attack Colten - I'm not sure if it was becasue he was their size but both grabbed onto the sleeve of his shirt before being shooed away - - it scared him in the moment but never slowed him down to try to interact with them.

There were lots of little babies which were just adorable!

And yes we let some sit on our heads - - to this day, Andrew can't stop talking about the soft monkey paws on his face and I can't stop thinking about monkey balls being on our heads...

Christmas Merry from Nanjing 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 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.