Going home?

We have been getting ready for our annual trip to the US. As I have been talking to friends here, I keep saying, "we go home _______." , "when we go home, _______". But the other day I got to thinking. . . where is home? Because by the end of the summer, I am again telling people, "we go home ______." Is our home the US? Of course. This is especially true for Andy, Becca, Josh, and I. B in particular has distinct memories of living in the US. But we sometimes wonder what our youngest actually remembers of living in the US. And even if we moved to another country tomorrow (not that we are planning on that, I'm just saying), the US would still be home and claim a piece of our hearts. But then, is China our home? Definitely, we have a house here, a life here. But does one trump the other? And that, I think, is a truly hard question. This is illustrated as we fill out forms. Just yesterday Andy was trying to pay with Paypal, but because our phone number wasn't located in the same postal code as our address, it freaked out and refused the transaction. We claim an old Indy phone number (cause really, who wants or will honestly call a China #?), with a Seattle address, but actually are in neither of these places. From the outside, it sounds like we are a little confused. Or you can see the evidence in talking with Tori as she jumps from Chinese and English with ease. I think one of our great lessons is to find home no matter where our family is. Because what really defines home? A place? Last summer when we returned to China, I got off the plane in Shanghai, breathed in the thick, humid air with that distinct China smell, and I felt like I was home. Or in the US as I hear our kids laughing and playing with friends they have known their whole lives, I am home.

The Neighborhood

There are many things that we really enjoy about living in China. I think that one of the things that we often take for granted is our neighborhood. We live in a gated community (which actually has less to do with safety and more about preventing theft). But this provides a very safe environment for our kids. They often get home from school and go out searching for friends. They have a lot of freedom that would not be possible in the US. For example, this morning our front door seemed like a revolving door with kids in and out. At one point, I counted 5 kids that weren't ours. Since there is only one international school on our side of the city, most of the kids that live here are also classmates of our kids. All the moms pitch in and look out for the kids. Really makes it feel like what community should be. And what it used to be in the US. How did we lose that?

Gearing up

We leave China in just a little over a week. I think that I have everything bought. I have pondering packing, but in reality will pack just a couple days before we leave. On our way back to the U.S., we will make a stop in Japan to see Dave and Amree (Andy's bro and sister-in-law). They are expecting a baby and due any day. I have hopes that I will get to snuggle that little one during our time there, but as we all know babies come on their own time! Someone asked what I need to do to get ready to go back to the U.S. And honestly, it is not nearly as much work as getting ready to come back to China. The shopping that I need to do on this side is for gifts. Now in the U.S., I have a ton of shopping of things that we bring back every year. I have also been getting my lists in order of what I need to buy, do, accomplish while stateside. Though that is not a favorite task because it can seem like an overwhelming amount to accomplish in just 6 weeks. The kids have begun to pack their bags. They each have a small suitcase that they take on the plane with them. Becca often packs hers, thinks about it, unpacks some things, and then re-packs it several times. I cannot say that I blame her for wanting to get it just right -- 14 hours is a LONG time to be on a plane! But in the meantime, there is a lot going on here. Andy's boss and family arrived from the U.S., we have taught English several times this week, plus all of the usual end of the school year things. I think that I will breathe a big sigh of relief when we get on the plane. . .

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! To all you wonderful Dads, thank you for all the love and countless hours you give your kids. And to Andy, you are such a great Dad. I love watching you with our kids. Watching you experience their joys and hurts with them. All the small things that you do for them each day. We are each so blessed by you! So thank you for the many things you do for each of us. So thank you for . . . .

For taking special time with each of the kids.

For your sense of adventure. And passing that on to our kiddos.

For your tender heart.

For your exuberance.

For being there when one of the kids are worried.

For being the help that they each need.

For being the the love of my life. And my partner in adventure.

We love you and are thankful for you each and every day. I am grateful to be able to go on this adventure of life with you.

Tori's kindergarten 去看一下

(qu kan yixia -- go for a look at the school)

Last week Tori's class had an open day where all the parents could attend and see what a typical day is like. It was so wonderful for me to see Tori at school. She clearly loves her school, teachers and classmates. This school has been a blessing to her not just in her language, but really just a great school for her to attend. For those of you who do not know, Tori attends a local Chinese kindergarten. All the classes are (obviously) in Chinese and her language has expanded exponentially this year. We plan on her attending next year as well. We will have to watch out -- she will quickly pass us in Chinese! She already sounds like a local when she speaks (for fluidity and pronunciation).

The girls all lined up ready to go outside.

She is such a character!

The teacher had read a story about traditional times where the groom did not see the bride until after the wedding. In the story the groom asked to see various parts (arm, foot, hair) to guess what the bride looked like. Here Tori is under the cloth. As soon as she stuck her arm out, everyone in the class shouted, "美恩 "(Tori's Chinese name). :-)

And here she is!

Tori in her element -- doing art.

Eating lunch. Surprisingly, they eat with spoons not chopsticks. I think by grade school all the kids are eating with chopsticks.

I had hopes to show you a fun video of Tori and her class doing their morning exercise. But alas, our internet is way too slow! I will upload it when we are stateside.

Xi'an, 3rd and final day

Sunday morning we woke up and made our daily pilgrimage to the Golden Arches for breakfast. We then walked to the city wall. The city wall surrounds the old city of Xi'an. The current city expands well beyond the city wall. The wall has been restored and you can ride bikes all the way around. We got to the top and our only options for renting were tandom or single bikes. And none of them had child seats on the back. So we decided to try the bikes with the Tori and Josh on the back and Becca rode her own bike. We were so proud of Becca because she rode all 14 kilometers around! We grabbed late lunch and then made our way back to the train station to go home. What an amazing weekend!

The view from the top of the wall.

I am not sure where they are racing off to, but they look to be having fun!

After being up a lot of the night taking care of and then worried about Josh, I look really tired.

Another picture showing the different sides of China -- standing on a wall hundreds of years old with how many tower cranes in the background?

Boarding the train. There is a certain amount of organized chaos of boarding a train in China.....

Back on the train and homeward bound.

Xi'an, Day 2 after the Warriors -- Shadow Puppets

After seeing the warriors on Saturday, we returned to our hotel for a rest and then went to the Muslim Quarter to eat. And eat we did! We grazed our way down the street, bought some souvenirs, and finally ended up at a restaurant for dinner. This one was a major improvement over the previous night. We feasted on lamb kabobs and other yummy food.

The kiddos in front of the Bell Tower

The Drum Tower with a familiar sign -- this says a lot to me about the relationship between old and new China.

Afterward our delicious dinner as we were meandering down the street, a man approached us asking if we wanted to see a shadow puppet show. I must confess that I was leery. This is a very common scam in China -- invite the foreigners to a "special" something (commonly a tea ceremony), rack up a huge bill and then they are stuck paying it. We ended up deciding to go for a couple of reasons: the man was very up front about what we had to pay (we even asked about other costs and he assured us that there were none), he showed us the theatre, and then finally the man himself convinced us. He was definitely not a scam artist -- way too shy and unsure of himself. So we followed him, payed the very nominal fee, and were quite unsure of what was in store for us. Little did we know the fun experience we were going to have! Xi'an is well-known for making shadow puppets and has a long history of making them. We sat down and the show was interesting. We were given a summary of the story in English beforehand because the music was in more traditional Chinese. (Though honestly, I am not that we would gotten the whole meaning even if it was in the language spoken today. :-) Still far to go on the language front!) After the show, we could go behind the stage and try out the puppets. The artists (a husband and wife) showed us how the puppets were made. They are made of leather and hand painted with special dyes. We watched as the wife was finishing one of the puppets. Overall, an interesting and fun experience!

Unfortunately, after the puppet show Josh's stomach was not feeling the best. We immediately went back to the hotel. In the middle of the night, he was up and vomiting. We were concerned about our boy and wondered what the morning would bring. Thankfully, he felt totally better the next morning and we continued touring. We think that he ate or drank something that was bad. Or didn't wash his hand well enough or something before eating or touching his mouth. I am EXTREMELY thankful that it didn't happen the night we were on the train! (But obviously more thankful that he was better so quickly.)

Xi'an, The Terra Cotta Warriors

On Saturday, we woke up fairly early ('cause the kids were excited to begin the day) and went to check out the breakfast the hotel provided. Andy and I had fairly low expectations that we would find enough for the kids to eat. And we were proved right. So, true to the Wilcox norm of traveling in China, we ate breakfast at McD's. It is funny because the only time we eat there is for breakfast when we travel. We wanted the kids sufficiently fueled up for a busy morning of going to see the warriors. I must confess that I was almost giddy. I had wanted to see the warriors for many years and was excited to be on the way.

Looking out over the warriors. It was truly an impressive and awe-inspiring sight.

There are 3 pits they have found and begun to restore. This is Pit 1, the largest and one that has had the most restoration.

Pit 3 contains High ranking officials in what looks like a war council.

Pit 2 contains mostly calvary and some archers.

Kneeling archer

High ranking offical

The walkway leading back to the carpark provided for a fun bout of tag.

We read a couple books with the kids and researched about the army before coming to Xi'an. After all of this, our kids were fascinated with the archers and the generals. I think that we read somewhere that there were only 7 generals found. Which is an impressively small number considering that Pit 1 contains approximately 8000 warriors! As we left Xi'an on the train, we asked the kids what they thought of seeing the Terra Cotta soldiers. They all really enjoyed it, but Becca made a comment that prompted an interesting conversation. She said, "It wasn't exactly like I thought it would be." So we asked the kids and it turned that they had a lot of ideas of how it was going to look. Here are some of their thoughts:

• "I thought more of the warriors would be restored and finished." - Becca
• "I thought that it would be underground, like in a cave." - Josh (which makes sense, since he knew that it had been buried underground)
• "I thought we could get closer to them." - Josh
• "I didn't expect that there would be SO many of them." - Becca
• "I didn't realize they would be so big." - Becca (most of the figures are 6ft. -- 1.8M or slightly taller)

Look, this is what we look like as part of terra cotta army.....

Dive bomber

As we were on the top of the Bell Tower, it provided a great view of traffic. At this traffic circle, the bikes would generally cross at the crosswalk and then continue on in the bike lane. Now this is not always the case. In Suzhou, bikes and e-bikes seem to be in the thick of traffic a bit more. But in the center of Xi'an, it seemed that most bikes were staying in the bike lane, except. . .

But there were some rebels that took on the full traffic experience. Now it is a common sight to see more than one person on a bike or e-bike. And I have seen the person on the back doing all kinds of things: putting on make-up, holding an umbrella, . . . But I think if I was the woman on the back of this bike, I would be paying attention and not texting. But maybe that is just me.

Xi'an

I am about to overload you with info and pictures. Just thought I would give you a fair warning....

We arrived in Xi'an mid-morning on Friday. After we got off the train and had deposited our bags at our hostel, we set off to explore. Our first goal was to find the Muslim Quarter wander through and visit the mosque. For some reason, this area turned out to be rather elusive and hard to find at first. We just saw it as an excuse to practice our Chinese and kept asking people how to get there. Eventually, we found the Muslim quarter, but, man, the mosque was a challenge to find! While on our search, we found and sampled some street food. And of course, some 冰淇凌 (ice cream).

Eating nan bread.

We found a quiet corner to enjoy our ice cream.

Dried fruit seller

Our girlie matched Andy in her determination to explore. (though that is not Andy beside her, just random Chinese man . . . I think he thought we were walking too slow)

I admit that I was ready to give up and head on, but Andy was determined to see the mosque. And find it (after wandering up and down this one street too many times to count) we did. This was one of the most unique mosques I have ever been in (and I have been in quite a few). It felt much more like a Buddhist temple here in China than a mosque.

Outside the prayer hall

Many women were taking pictures of us and requesting the kids with them in pictures, so we asked for a picture as well.

After leaving the Muslim Quarter, we walked (a very short distance) to the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower sits in the middle of the city, and all of the streets span out from this spot. We climbed as far to the top as we could and the view was wonderful. We spent quite a bit of time at the top as the kids were entertained by watching the traffic below.

At the top of the tower

Andy demonstrating just how hard it is to be a tall man in China.

Watching the street below

At the bell tower each of the girls got a chance to ring the bell. Josh whose ears are sensitive to loud noises, wanted no part of ringing the bell. And he was right, it is rather loud.

After the bell tower, we found a unmemorable restaurant and fed our weary troupes. So that concludes our first day. Yes, that was just our first day in Xi'an!