Hong Kong Holiday

We enjoyed a four-day trip to Hong Kong over Thanksgiving weekend.  It was really quite amazing to us how different Hong Kong was from the Chinese mainland.

Anyway.... we had a great time.  On Thursday, we took a 25 minute cable car ride up to the peak of a mountain with a famous monastery.  Actually, much more famous than the monastery is a the large Buddha statue at the top.

Chessie and the kids on the cable car just as we got on....


This is a view from the cable car on the way up.  You can see the cable where we came from....


Budda was huge!  Here's a photo that should show his size in relation to the shops near by....


Steps up to Buddha....


Of course we couldn't leave Hong Kong without a trip to Disneyland.  It was a fun day.  You can easily find stuff to keep you busy for a day.  It definitely feels like Disney -- but more like Disney lite after spending a week in Walt Disney World.

This is the Disney themed MTR train to the park.  Notice the Mickey shaped handle to keep your balance.  And surely you didn't think that we would forget it was Bucket weekend.  Boiler Up 32-25!....


Required photo with the castle in the background....


Chessie, Bella, and Lorren with Mickey.  Ema and I were riding Space Mountain!....



And as Bella said, "There's a really big Woody!"....


We also headed up to the Peak via an old tram that takes you straight up the slope over downtown Hong Kong.

You can see how steep the tracks are about to get through the front of the train....


This is a view from the peak....


We visited Madame Tussaud's wax museaum.  There were lots of life like figures available for photos

Clayton with the Beatles....


Bella giving up a few inches to Yao Ming....


And when we had returned home, Michael had found us all the way in the China....



> Clayton

A Golden Harbor Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is truly a North American holiday.  Typically our gratefulness is centered around the love, health, and fortune of our families.  I don't think we knew what to expect regarding celebration of Thankgiving in China.  Of course, we knew there weren't going to be large Snoopy baloons parading down the street.  Would other North Americans celebrate or just give it a slight nod?  Could we get the foods that remind us all of Thanksgiving day?  I'm happy to say that all of the questions were answered in a very positive way.

Steve and Sandra Carpenter host an annual Thanksgiving party.  This year it was on Nov 19 at their town house in Golden Harbor.  They provided plenty of turkey, and everyone else all chipped in with a dish.  Chessie made sweet potato casserole and refrigerator rolls, so we felt at home.

Between dinner and dessert we enjoyed about a 15-on-15 pick up American football game.  It felt like Thanksgiving.

Some photos are below.  I'm guessing there were probably about 75-100 people there.

This is the kitchen after the turkey was pretty much cleaned out.

Here's the look into their dining room where some of the food was kept.

This is looking down into one of their sitting rooms where some people were eating.

The kids spent all of their time on the trampoline in the back when they weren't eating.

> Clayton

Our House, Part I

Sorry if you saw this post originally a week or two ago.  The video wasn't working, so I pulled it off.  I've had some problems uploading video to the blog, but that appears to be fixed now.

This isn't going to be as exciting as the Deathly Hallows, but we thought we would do a video tour of our house in two expisodes.  Chessie and I came to Wuhan in Oct 2010 to look at homes for our stay in China.  We looked at about six different homes -- stand alone houses, town houses, and apartments.  The one we chose was a pretty easy choice.  It was the house with a floor plan that best matched what we were used to in the USA.  There was also another house that was huge and spectacular -- definitely a story for another time.

This first episode shows the downstairs.  Everything is pretty well explained in the video, so let's get to it.

> Clayton

Speaking Chinese 谈话中文

It's obviously tough sometimes getting around China without speaking the language.  It also quite amazing all of the things you can communicate to people without saying words -- a lesson we learned very quickly.

We are slowly making progress learning the language.  The most progress we made was with our Chinese teacher, Fennefer 方园.  Fennefer clearly isn't a Chinese name, but you may be surprised that it is her English name.  I think there's a story there, but it obviously wasn't that interesting because it didn't stick with me.  Fennefer was recommended to us through the company paid language training company.  She would come to our house once per week beginning in Feb.  She worked with Ema and Chessie for one hour and then worked with me for two hours.  (Bella wasn't interested.)



Lessons continued through June.  Fennefer is a student at Wuhan University.  She went home to Beijing during the summer, so we decided to just take a two month break instead of finding a new teacher.  She came back to Wuhan, and we restarted lessons in late Sep.  Unfortunately after just a couple of weeks, she said she was returning to Beijing for the rest of the semester.  It was already Oct by then, and the company paid benefit expires at the end of the year.  We decided just to let it go.  We liked Fennefer, but overall is wasn't a great experience.

The person we need to communicate with the most is Mr. Huang, our driver.  When we arrived, I quickly learned out to send text message to him in Chinese.  This was perfect because I could take my time to figure out what I needed to say, and with an English-Chinese iPhone app I could be accurate.  I mostly just needed to send a few characters that told him where we needed to go and what time.  Of course, that was all under the assumption that he needed to pick us up from our house.  After awhile I was able to communicate more complicated items.  For example, Chessie walked around the local area with the kids one day this summer.  It was so hot they decided they wanted a ride back home.  Since Mr. Huang didn't know that they had gone out, I had to communicate to him where they were and what he needed to do.  Everything worked out fine.

Mr. Huang is who I learn the most from now.  I try and talk with him as much as I can in the car.  Words I learn from him seem to stick in my mind better than they did learning with Fennefer.

> Clayton

Halloween in the Development Zone

Halloween is definitely something that is very different in Wuhan compared to Indiana.  I'm sure the reasons are mostly obvious.  Aloha Diner has a Halloween party, and there is opportunity for the kids to dress up one day at school.

Sunday evening was the party at Aloha.  The kids were excited, and it turned out to be a pretty good time.

First, the costumes.  Ema was Hermione Granger from Harry Potter....

Isabella was Rapunzel....

Lorren was Anakin Skywalker....

Many thanks to Grandma Tuttle for the costumes -- they are wonderful.  The kids love them, and everyone was very impressed at the party.

The Aloha party included food, candy corn, carmel apples, candy, and games.  A lot of the kids' friends were there, and everyone had a good time.  There were plenty of adult friends there also to talk to while the kids were having a good time.

The first photo is Sheridan wrapping Luke up like a mummy with toilet paper.  Sheridan is in the fourth grade and a good friend of Ema's.  Luke is in K-5.  The second photo is Ema playing a bowling game with others looking on including Sheridan and Bella.  The background is French Street just outside the Aloha.

Paco and Esme were at Aloha at the beginning of the party after finishing a late lunch.  I have a much better photo of them here than when we were at their home last weekend.

Chessie made arrangements with four different houses in our neighborhood for trick-r-treating Monday evening.  The kids will also be able to don their costumes at school on Tuesday.  Overall, I think they'll get the right amount of Halloween action to last another 366 days.

How real were the costumes.  Well, I didn't float away when Ema did this, but they were real enough for everyone to have a great time.



> Clayton

Mexican Fiesta

Sorry I ignored the blog for so long.  Now back to the show....

Last Saturday night was a special treat.  We were invited to a friend's house for some authentic Mexican food.  Francisco (aka Paco) works with me at Fuel Systems.  He's from Juarez, Mexico.  He and his wife, Esmerelda (aka Esme), invited us over to their new home.

Paco and Esme moved to Wuhan just over one year ago -- so they have about four months experience on us.  They lived in Hankou their first year.  (More on that later.... that sounds like another good post.)  For our purposes here, that means they lived in the downtown Wuhan area.  Paco had a 45-60 minutes commute each way to/from work.  (My commute is less than 10 minutes in contrast.)  While enjoying many aspects of Hankou, they decided it was best to move closer to Cummins.  They moved to the Development Zone in mid October.

Back to the fiesta.... they invited us and some others to their new home as a little house warming party.  The main attraction, of course, was the food.  Paco and Esme made quite a feast.  They made guacamole, salsa, and pico de gallo.  There was bread topped with beans and cheese as well as theses delicious breaded cheese balls.  The main course was fajitas.  They had beef, shrimp, and mushrooms for the fajitas.  There was also quesadillas for the kids.  The fajitas were spectacular -- both the beef and shrimp!  The beef and shrimp were even great together -- we learned that's called campechana.  You can't exactly get authentic tortillas in Wuhan.  We felt extra special because they broke into their stash of tortillas from home.  Everyone went through quite a few tortillas.

Their new home was nice too.  It's a two story apartment with an incredible amount of space.  It has three or four bedrooms downstairs and then a bunch of odd shaped rooms upstairs.  Here's a photo from the night.  This is an area next to the dining table.  We couldn't eat at the table because it was full of food.  From left to right.... Chessie's back, Sarah, Tracy, Esme, and Tony.



Tracy works at Cummins with me and Paco.  He and Sarah live next door to us.  Tony is the relocation guy that helped all three of our families find our homes here in Wuhan.  He also helped Paco and Esme move to this new home in the Development Zone.

Sorry there's not more photos.  As you can see I remembered the camera.  Right after I took this first photo, the battery died.

All of us were still talking about the food all day Sunday.  That should be your takeaway from this post.

> Clayton

It's Bella's Turn to Blog

I have lost my tooth and the tooth fairy has gave me money and gave me 15 and I have lost  six teeth and I have   Ema and Lorren and Mom and Dad and me Isabella. I love dogs and cats and boys and girls and I see people that don't do things that I see in America because they are Chinese. And I live in China. I ride my bike. I am almost off my training wheels and on two wheels like Ema. And I do roller blading on French Street sometimes and I do making Lincoln Log houses with a roof and back yard. I know that 1 x 1 is 1. And I have five people in my family. And I don't really have a favorite color. And my dad has big ears. And Ema has glasses now. I want to see Cars 2 and Harry Potter movies.  I want to read a really big book.  Ema is reading really big books like Order of the Phoenix.

Bella

She's lost two teeth in the past week.  Here's a photo of her new mouth.  (We call her Jack -- like jack-o-lantern, but she doesn't like it.)

How We Got to Know Mr. Huang

Huang Jianxin 黄建新 has been our driver in China ever since we arrived in Wuhan.  Mr. Huang -- as we call him -- is about 40 years old, he has a son that is high school aged, and has had many differnt jobs as a driver including driving taxis, trucks, and wedding cars.

The story of choosing Mr. Huang is funny.... He had been driving for us for just under a week and was the third driver we had in those first 10 days or so.  The company secretary, Wendy, had never been clear with us about getting a permanent driver.  Out of the blue one day, she told me it was time to interview drivers.  We went downstairs and sat down with Mr. Huang first.  I wasn't sure what to ask, so Wendy suggested I ask if he has a family.  Family men are safer and much more reliable she said.  Then we hopped in the car for a 10-15 minute driving test which felt pretty silly since he had been driving my family around the past five days or so.

There was one other guy to interview.  I thought to myself, "What is the purpose of this?  How can me asking questions through Wendy and going on a 15 minute drive differentiate these two men?"  I was sure I would pick Mr. Huang just because he had been driving us already.  We got in the car with the second guy.  First, he smelled bad.  Then he took off out of the parking lot like a bat out of hell.  He didn't wear a seat belt.  When Wendy told him to put the seat belt on, he looked around for it like he had no idea where a seat belt would be located.  While he looked for the belt, the car was swerving all over the road.  Let's just say the decision was easy.

Mr. Huang has been very good to us and we hope he will continue to drive us for a long time.  I thought you might enjoy a small taste of drving around in Wuhan.  On Mon, Wed, and Fri, Mr. Huang picks us all up at 7:40.  He drops off Chessie and the kids at school, then we head to Cummins.  I recorded our Monday morning drive.  (It's in two parts.)  It gives you a taste of what our mornings are like and some geography of our community.

> Clayton

Getting Around in Wuhan

I thought I would try to give you a little getting around in Wuhan.  Mr. Huang is our driver.  (They'll be a little more about him in a couple of days.)

We have a Honda Odyssey -- funny since we just sold an Odyssey in Indiana just before leaving.  See the photo below along with one of Mr. Huang strapping Lorren in his car seat.

Mr. Huang takes us wherever we need to go around Wuhan whenever we need to go somewhere.  He takes me to and from work every day.  On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays all of us go to school and work at the same time.  He drops everyone off at school and then we head to Cummins.  He also takes Chessie and Lorren home at lunch time on those days.  (The girls ride the bus other times.)

He takes Chessie to the store which allows her to buy groceries in a similar way to how she was used to in Indiana -- one or two weeks worth at a time.  Most people have to carry home their goceries walking or on the bus, so loading up the car and bring it home is quite a luxury here.  He waits for her at the checkout line and help bag and take the items to the car.

My most frequent business trip is to Xiangyang about 300 km northwest of Wuhan.  This is convenient, because I would much rather drive than have to fly.  When I need to go to Xiangyang, we just get in the car and go.  Mr. Huang stays there with me until it's time to go home.  This, of course, requires us to plan if he won't be in Wuhan to drive Chessie and the kids.  But we've always been able to work around it just fine.

One last item.... Wednesday was Ema's birthday.  Here's a photo of her with her requested strawberry Jell-o poke cake -- homemade, of course.

> Clayton

Now Starring.... Ema!

I have noticed that Chinese people really like music. Especially when I started to learn the recorder! Of course I had no idea what the notes were, but there's always time to learn. I first learned to play the B note (the first note in "Mary had a little lamb"). Then I learned to play the A note (the second note in "Mary had a little lamb"). Then I learned to play a korean song called "Dragonflies". Imagine that! Me playing an actual song! It was really fun! Then I learned to play the G note ( the third note in " Mary had a little lamb"). Finaly I learned how to play a song I knew! Mary had a little lamb!

Yikes! There's a moth in the office! This reminds me about something that happened over  the summer....

It was a wenesday evening.  Dad was on a business trip so Mom had to take care of us. Then Mom told us to be quiet. I asked why and she just pointed at the bakers rack. I looked over there and saw what Mom was talking about. Bella shivered. There right in front of the bakers rack was a giant spider! I was terrified! Mom got out the vacum cleaner to suck up the spider. It was really funny! First Mom lunged at the spider, but the spider ran away. On about the forth lunge, Mom got the spider to get in the vacum cleaner. Anyway the moths dead so thats it.

Ema

The Force wil be with you, Lorren.... always.

One of the forseeable consequences of moving to China was Lorren would miss regular preschool.  The international school has a preschool, but it's insanely expensive.  My company will only pay for school beginning at age 5.  So we planned to be without.  Theresa made us a preschool activity box that Chessie could use with Lorren to start the learning process, and we would just work a little harder to make the appropriate social connections.

Chessie and I considered putting him in a Chinese preschool we could afford.  Then an opportunity arose.  Chessie was asked to volunteer as the nurse at the international school.  In exchange, Lorren gets to attend the K-3 class on Mon, Wed, and Fri mornings.  He was so excited about starting school.  Here is a photo of Lorren with his teacher, Miss Xiong (pronounced SHONG).  He gave her a flower for National Teacher Day.

Lorren is a Star Wars nut.  He's constantly playing with his action figures, turning ordinary objects into lightsabers, and asking to watch any movie episode you're willing to turn on.  He's going to be a Jedi when he grows up -- unlike his father who grew up to be a 'dad'.  I asked him in early August how he was going to become a Jedi.  He said he was going to learn how to use the Force from Miss Xiong!  Strangely, Miss Xiong knows all about the Force and is going to teach what she can!

Lorren may not be learning much about how to use the Force, but he is learning other things.  He loves telling us all about them.  Two weeks ago he learned that he has bones.  He was constantly poking himself and showing his bones and then poking others and showing them their own bones.

Watch the video for him to impart some knowledge about shapes.

> Clayton

Welcome to China!

Many people suggested we should blog about life in China, and we did consider it even before we came here in January.  Finally it seems like the right thing to do to best share stories, photos, and adventures with family and friends that can't be here with us.

We will try to post at least once per week.  Every post will include a photo -- mostly of the kids.  We'll show you photos like....

The kids enjoying the view -- each in their own way -- from the Great Wall....
















Lorren on a camel at the Wuhan Zoo....

















Bella at kindergarten graduation with her teacher, Miss Mott....
















Ema, Bella, and Lorren taking a rest with a Lego man in Beijing's Chaoyang Park....

Or Chessie showing off her new sleeve protectors which are popular when the weather demands long sleeves....

This is just another way to communicate with everyone.  If you're only interested in the witty one liners about life in China -- stick with Chessie's Facebook feed.  The blog will have more about our day-to-day lives and the people and places we've come to enjoy during our time here.

Please subscribe to the RSS, leave comments, and pass on to others that might be interested.

> Clayton