Back to College

It is official.... I am now a college student once again. Today I registered for classes at Soochow Suzhou Daxue (known to locals as SuDa, "daxue" = university). The whole registration process was a little crazy. First, you fill out the application, get your student ID, pay, take a test and buy your books. While credit cards are used some in China, for the most part it is a cash society. So I showed up and paid for my classes IN CASH. After paying, I was all set to buy my books, but was told that I first needed to take the placement test. With much trepidation, I went into the room for the written test. Ohmigosh. For the first part, I was supposed to translate from English into characters, the second part you had to choose from several sentences (that were of course written in characters) which was grammatically correct, and finally you had to translate a section from characters into English. Yikes! It was stinkin' hard. I think that I recognized about 20 characters on the ENTIRE PAGE. After staring at the page for several minutes, I finally told the teacher that I didn't know enough to complete the test. Yes, indeed Chinese keeps me humble. From there, it was on to the oral exam. I did much better on the oral portion and was able to have a conversation with the teacher about: where I was from, why I was here, how many children I have, their names and ages, where I lived, and how I would travel to the university every day. After talking with the teacher, she thought that I could go either way maybe a level 1 maybe a level 2 (level 1 is the beginners). I told her that I preferred to do level 1 due to the amount of characters that I don't know. She suggested doing what is called "level 1 - fast class." I bought the appropriate books and classes start Monday. Watch out Chinese, you have bested me so far, but I may just conquer you after all. Of course, only after several years of serious studying..... I will keep you posted on my progress!

1st Day of School

Yesterday was the first day back to school for Becca and Josh. Becca is in 3rd grade and Josh is in 1st grade. This is Josh's first year at EtonHouse. Andy and I wondered how his first couple of days would go because he can be really shy. But he had a great first day! Several of the students from his kindergarten are in his class as well as some other kids from our neighborhood. Even though the transition went well, this morning he asked if he had to go to school or if it was the weekend yet. Definitely my homebody! His ideal day would be staying at home in his pj's for most of the day and just playing. Becca, of course, jumped right in. She has been counting down the days and was so excited to start. Becca had informed Josh that she would sit with him on the bus to and from school so he wasn't worried. She told us and I melted with how sweet my girl is. But then when Becca and Josh got off the bus yesterday afternoon, Josh informed me that Becca had told him she wouldn't sit with him anymore because she wanted to sit with her friends. How short the feelings of sisterly affection last! 

Today Tori started at a local Chinese preschool. The school is taught only in Mandarin (Chinese) and we hope that after this year she will be fluent. We are the only foreign family at the school, but before too long Tori will stop being a "laowi" (foreigner) and just be one of the kids. Because after all no matter the language and culture, kids are kids. I had a funny experience yesterday at Tori's school. All the information that was given to us by the school said that the first day of classes would be August 31st (yesterday). So yesterday we went to the school and the guard informed us that the day was changed and the first day would actually be September 1st. I am sure that this will not be the only time I misunderstand something. I am convinced that life in China is trying to keep me humble. :-)

Tori with one of her teachers. Instead of giving the peace sign (which is how many Chinese pose for pictures), Tori is using her "peace signs" to make antlers. I love this crazy, silly girl!

Jet Lag again

Jet lag is a nasty thing. Before we moved to China, Andy and I had both traveled various other places and had some experiences with jet lag. But really, I had no idea what an ugly thing jet lag was until: 1. traveling to Asia and 2. experiencing it with small kids. The time difference between where we are in China and Eastern Standard Time is 12 hours. So essentially, we need to totally flip our days and nights. Usually, you fade early each night and have to power through it to stay awake until a resonable bedtime (you know, like 9 PM). Gradually you push it back until you are on schedule. As an adult, I can force myself to stay awake, but just try and explain that to a 3 year old. The other challenge is that each morning your body thinks it is time to wake long before any sane person would be getting up. This week Tori has gotten up at: 3:30, 2:30, 4:00, 5:30, and 5:00 and yes that is AM! (yawn) This is why we planned to arrive in China over a week before school started just to give us all a chance to get on the right time.  Eventually, we will be sleeping at the right time, but until then we will continue to see this at 6:30 PM:

Flying Solo

The kids and I left Cincinnati last Thursday (August 20th). While I thought that they would do great and that the trip would go well, I still had a few concerns about flying solo with three kids (to China) for the first time. We had planned it so that we didn't take off too early. I was thinking that I would just do curbside check-in because I had beaucoup bags - we checked 5 bags and a box. But it seems that things were conspiring against me. When we got to the Delta curbside check-in, I was told that due to the merger with Northwest that NW's curbside check-in wasn't working. But when another man came along and asked if I wanted help in with my bags (of course, in return for a gratuity- which I normally avoid at all costs, because I am indeed cheap), I gratefully answered yes. 

We were flying Cincinnati to Detroit and then Detroit to Shanghai. Our first leg of the flight was uneventful and we arrived in Detroit with over 3 hours to kill. We ate lunch and then found all 3 play areas in the Detroit airport. :-) One moment that amused and annoyed me in turns: I had taken all the kids into the family bathroom. And can I state that I think family bathrooms are WONDERFUL. While we were in there, someone began knocking on the door. I politely called out "Just a minute. Lots of people in here." The knocking continued rather insistently until we finished. When I came out, a woman barged in. Yes, just a woman. Her friend wondered why it had taken so long. I, the woman traveling alone with 3 kids, looked at her in disbelief and said that there was a women's bathroom right around the corner. She then informed me that there was a line and she didn't want to wait. I stared at her speechless and walked away from the FAMILY bathroom. I mean really, people. Okay, enough with my bathroom stories! 

We boarded for our 14-hour flight around 3:30 PM. Can I just tell you all that I think my kids are fabulous? They had had grumpy moments off and on all day, but really they did amazingly well on the long flight. Especially considering that the in-flight entertainment was on overhead screens that they couldn't even see. They read, played, ate, and slept some. Becca had some trouble getting comfortable and going to sleep, but at one point all of them were asleep for almost 2 hours. Truly incredible! We landed in Shanghai and staggered tiredly through long lines in quarantine and immigration. Tori kind of grumped all the way through wanting me to hold her. Which was rather impossible as I held all of our carry-on bags. Andy met us after we had picked up our bags and went through customs. A 2 hour drive later and we were home. And after it all was done, I would plan on doing it again in order to have more time in the U.S.

Leaving....

We are leaving Thursday (tomorrow) AM. I have such mixed emotions about this. I am excited to get back home, but at the same time I am sad to leave all the people we love. I expect that at least one of the kids and I will be fighting tears on the plane. My guess is that Josh will have the hardest time because he is just my emotional guy. I am mostly packed. And hopefully, my bags won't be overweight! So, if you have a moment tomorrow, think of me and the 3 kiddos winging our way back. I am hoping for no delays and kids who sleep!

Looking ahead

We have had an amazing time back this summer, but all good and wonderful things do come to an end. I have mixed emotions about this. It has been relaxing to blend in and do everyday things without being stared at. And it has been so good to see family and friends. But I find myself longing for home and our normal routines. I also greatly miss Andy. We have now been apart for 11 days and still have 10 more before we will see each other. This marks the longest time we will have been apart since we got married. In the meantime, I am going to take a trip to Seattle solo. You read that right.... I will get on an airplane by myself and then have the opportunity to spend 3 days with one of my dearest friends. But first, I am off to finish my shopping and begin the challenge of packing. (yet again. I have lost count of how many times I have packed and unpacked this summer.) This vacation has been a blessing, but also a ton of WORK. :-D

Date night

For some crazy reason, we took pictures of us separately and none together. Who knows what we were thinking?! (If you can't read the sign, this is the Purple People Bridge)

While we were in Cincy, we left the kids with grandma for a night and had a night out. We went to Ambar Indian (one of our absolute favorite places) and then headed to Sawyer Point to walk across the Purple People Bridge and on to the Newport Levy. Even though I did not grow up in Cincinnati, it seems like home to me because I went to college there and then we lived there for our first couple years of marriage. As we walked along the levy and looked across the Ohio River to Cincinnati, I was struck with how small the city looked to me. I wasn't even comparing it to anything else in my mind, but it just seems a bit smaller than I remember. Maybe it is similar to when you are a child and certain things or places seem huge, but when you come back years later those things seem to have shrunk. Obviously, nothing around me has changed but I know that I have. And often until you come across moments like those you don't even realize how you have changed. So Andy and I sat there on the levy watching the sunset and reminiscing. On our time in Cincinnati, but also over our last year. Sometimes as I have been back this summer it has seemed so surreal. Here are places that are so familiar to us but yet at the same time they seem different. While I know that my perspective has changed, I can't always point at something specific and say, "That. That is the difference in me." But I do think that one of the biggest differences this year has brought about in me is my willingness to adapt. And really the expectation that I will need to adapt on a daily basis. This last year has often brought me to the point where I realize that my attitude about an event or circumstance makes all the difference. Because I often have little control about the circumstance or problem, only my reaction to it. Really that is true no matter where we live, but I think it just becomes more pronounced living in such a radically different culture. And as I have had ups and downs, I am realizing more and more that choosing to have joy and see humor in crazy circumstances drastically alters the outcome. Not necessarily of the event but maybe my remembrance of it and how it impacts me and our family. Wow, how did I get from our date night to here? I guess as I remember all that we were talking about, I got to thinking. One conclusion that Andy and I realized is that we are so glad that we took that step and made the move last year. What an adventure it has been!