Ok, I missed an update last week. I think I was just busy in other areas and sitting and writing was the last thing to complete.
Phase 1: Settling in…
We are considered to be in the “settling in” phase of our experience here. It has been just over a month. I think one of the most helpful things in our family experience in the past has been when we have been on vacation and spent time in villas. Those times were actually practice (you know its really hard to write your spouse is trying to talk to you) being in a small area together for an extended period of time. Like writing this blog. I have found that sitting in the living room and writing is beneficial because I pay more attention to my writing because of the clamor that I have to block out. No rugs means that sounds bounce off of walls—acoustically speaking –not good.
Apartment Life
Anyway, apartment living has been our real focus in addition to the school transition. The mid term progress reports were due this week.
Aaron
Aaron is doing well. He despises art—not because of the teacher, who is a great guy-but because of his interest. He is acing Bible and History, and doing okay in the other academics. Aaron has a few friends he hangs out with and last night they got together to shop for fireworks in the FuKang neighborhood. Tonight he will go to the youth group as he usually does. They seem to have fun and from what I can tell he really enjoys it. In his free time here in the apartment Aaron is on his laptop in the living room. The internet signal doesn’t carry well through the concrete walls and I have to buy a device that carries the wireless into the rest of the apartment.
Kelsey
Kelsey is bellowing right now as I try to continue to write here. Speaking of Kelsey, she is doing an excellent job in her academics and is right now getting ready to spend the day with her friend Josie and Maddie. Josie has just moved to a new apartment across town. So, what will happen is that Josie’s mom Kim, will come over in a taxi and meet Kelsey at the Harvest gate. The Harvest gate is a spot where we have access to the street. It has a guard who sits in his little box and we have to walk though a tiny que gate. We call it Harvest because the Harvest coffee shop is there and that is where I go to English corner every Friday night from 6:30 to 9:30. There Kelsey will get in a taxi and they will probably pick up another friend Maddie who lives in their old FuKang neighborhood. Then its back to Josie’s new apartment complex which is translated in English as Sunshine 100. Kelsey now has a cell phone which is a necessity for independence in Tianjin or anywhere in china.
Andrew
Andrew has a low grade fever. He is cranky at times. He is on the other laptop right now using SPROUT from Nick Jr.’s website. Andrew has been our TV kid and coming to PRC he has done well moving away from the shows he used to watch. But many of the familiar things are available on the internet. So again technology eases the tension in the adjustment. He does say that he misses Oakley and his cousins and his dog.
Transition accomplishments for this week
Sunday: Spent two hours at China Mobile and successfully set up monthly cell phone plans for the four of us with Peter (met at English corner) who translated for me. Our plan is each one of us has 200 minutes and 300 texts for 50 Yuan ($7) so for 4 phones the total is just about $30. The bill must be paid in person at the end of the month. I can and probably will prepay for the rest of the year just to avoid the paying in person part. Its that or have our ayi do it for us. Part of Wu Mae’s job is to take our bills and basically stand in line for us to pay our various utilities, electric, water, and phone. She is such a big help and a terrific cook. Susan is learning how to communicate with her more effectively everyday. Right now she comes to use 3 days a week. Kind of a Chinese Alice from the Brady Bunch. Where would the Brady Bunch be without Alice? You remember how she would buy meat from Sam? Well, Wu Mae has found us good deals on chicken at cheaper prices, among other things, from a local market.
Monday: Came home from work and went to the local Ren Ren Le department/grocery store to price out a TV set. I went by myself and then got into a language problem so I phoned Peter to translate for me. When I discovered that it would take them 3 days to get the TV delivered to my apt. across the street, I decided that I would not buy there. I then went out via taxi and met up with Peter at E-Mart. E-Mart is a shopping area that is Korean owned. They had a stockpile of the brand and TV I researched and wanted, and I walked out with Peter with a 32 inch LED Flatscreen ChangHong Brand. It costs about $350—on sale because of Chun Jie. I treated Peter to KFC and came home ate and set up the TV. Peter had to leave as it was around 9PM at this point. It took me about 30 minutes to discover what the button functions were and how to hook up the DVD. Some of the function buttons are similar to home and some are not, the Chinese characters are of no use to me as I am illiterate as they come at this point. But by 9:20 PM we christened out new TV by watching the BBC’s Planet Earth DVD series.
Tuesday Night: Ate pizza and watched more of the Planet Earth. This pastime was better than home because we had the pizza delivered to our apt. door. Susan spent her whole day at school helping with data entry for the science fair. She felt useful and Dee & Steve were appreciative. I use Steve’s classroom as my homebase since I teach both of my English classes there. His wife Dee is a high school science teacher.
I had several meetings this week-nothing to write about really. On the good news front, the company endorses the work I have done in Beijing and I may continue to assist with CBC at Kuanjie church this summer. We have also opened up the opportunity to any interested partied here in Tianjin who may want to assist. I think that Vince likes this idea too.
Friday was China day. This is the day when the Chinese staff organize local Chinese activities under one roof and it becomes a celebration of the culture. We have some pictures. Faculty and students are encourage to wear traditional Chinese clothes.
Phase 1: Settling in…
We are considered to be in the “settling in” phase of our experience here. It has been just over a month. I think one of the most helpful things in our family experience in the past has been when we have been on vacation and spent time in villas. Those times were actually practice (you know its really hard to write your spouse is trying to talk to you) being in a small area together for an extended period of time. Like writing this blog. I have found that sitting in the living room and writing is beneficial because I pay more attention to my writing because of the clamor that I have to block out. No rugs means that sounds bounce off of walls—acoustically speaking –not good.
Apartment Life
Anyway, apartment living has been our real focus in addition to the school transition. The mid term progress reports were due this week.
Aaron
Aaron is doing well. He despises art—not because of the teacher, who is a great guy-but because of his interest. He is acing Bible and History, and doing okay in the other academics. Aaron has a few friends he hangs out with and last night they got together to shop for fireworks in the FuKang neighborhood. Tonight he will go to the youth group as he usually does. They seem to have fun and from what I can tell he really enjoys it. In his free time here in the apartment Aaron is on his laptop in the living room. The internet signal doesn’t carry well through the concrete walls and I have to buy a device that carries the wireless into the rest of the apartment.
Kelsey
Kelsey is bellowing right now as I try to continue to write here. Speaking of Kelsey, she is doing an excellent job in her academics and is right now getting ready to spend the day with her friend Josie and Maddie. Josie has just moved to a new apartment across town. So, what will happen is that Josie’s mom Kim, will come over in a taxi and meet Kelsey at the Harvest gate. The Harvest gate is a spot where we have access to the street. It has a guard who sits in his little box and we have to walk though a tiny que gate. We call it Harvest because the Harvest coffee shop is there and that is where I go to English corner every Friday night from 6:30 to 9:30. There Kelsey will get in a taxi and they will probably pick up another friend Maddie who lives in their old FuKang neighborhood. Then its back to Josie’s new apartment complex which is translated in English as Sunshine 100. Kelsey now has a cell phone which is a necessity for independence in Tianjin or anywhere in china.
Andrew
Andrew has a low grade fever. He is cranky at times. He is on the other laptop right now using SPROUT from Nick Jr.’s website. Andrew has been our TV kid and coming to PRC he has done well moving away from the shows he used to watch. But many of the familiar things are available on the internet. So again technology eases the tension in the adjustment. He does say that he misses Oakley and his cousins and his dog.
Transition accomplishments for this week
Sunday: Spent two hours at China Mobile and successfully set up monthly cell phone plans for the four of us with Peter (met at English corner) who translated for me. Our plan is each one of us has 200 minutes and 300 texts for 50 Yuan ($7) so for 4 phones the total is just about $30. The bill must be paid in person at the end of the month. I can and probably will prepay for the rest of the year just to avoid the paying in person part. Its that or have our ayi do it for us. Part of Wu Mae’s job is to take our bills and basically stand in line for us to pay our various utilities, electric, water, and phone. She is such a big help and a terrific cook. Susan is learning how to communicate with her more effectively everyday. Right now she comes to use 3 days a week. Kind of a Chinese Alice from the Brady Bunch. Where would the Brady Bunch be without Alice? You remember how she would buy meat from Sam? Well, Wu Mae has found us good deals on chicken at cheaper prices, among other things, from a local market.
Monday: Came home from work and went to the local Ren Ren Le department/grocery store to price out a TV set. I went by myself and then got into a language problem so I phoned Peter to translate for me. When I discovered that it would take them 3 days to get the TV delivered to my apt. across the street, I decided that I would not buy there. I then went out via taxi and met up with Peter at E-Mart. E-Mart is a shopping area that is Korean owned. They had a stockpile of the brand and TV I researched and wanted, and I walked out with Peter with a 32 inch LED Flatscreen ChangHong Brand. It costs about $350—on sale because of Chun Jie. I treated Peter to KFC and came home ate and set up the TV. Peter had to leave as it was around 9PM at this point. It took me about 30 minutes to discover what the button functions were and how to hook up the DVD. Some of the function buttons are similar to home and some are not, the Chinese characters are of no use to me as I am illiterate as they come at this point. But by 9:20 PM we christened out new TV by watching the BBC’s Planet Earth DVD series.
Tuesday Night: Ate pizza and watched more of the Planet Earth. This pastime was better than home because we had the pizza delivered to our apt. door. Susan spent her whole day at school helping with data entry for the science fair. She felt useful and Dee & Steve were appreciative. I use Steve’s classroom as my homebase since I teach both of my English classes there. His wife Dee is a high school science teacher.
I had several meetings this week-nothing to write about really. On the good news front, the company endorses the work I have done in Beijing and I may continue to assist with CBC at Kuanjie church this summer. We have also opened up the opportunity to any interested partied here in Tianjin who may want to assist. I think that Vince likes this idea too.
Friday was China day. This is the day when the Chinese staff organize local Chinese activities under one roof and it becomes a celebration of the culture. We have some pictures. Faculty and students are encourage to wear traditional Chinese clothes.
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