Wuhan Zoo.

China combined 2 of their holidays this year.  They celebrated the Mid-Autumn festival and the National Day.  We had the entire 1st week of school off.  During that week we looked up something fun to do with the girls.  We found the zoo and gave it a shot.  The shows that they have with the animals are great!  It is like a circus the way that the animals preform at their zoos.  When we went to the zoo in Shenzhen we found the cages and enclosure sub par and at times a little sad for the animals.  That was nothing compared to the zoo here.  Really it was horrible!  The girls enjoyed seeing the animals and being out as a family.

In the taxi on our way to the zoo.  Robert was in the front seat.

The seal show.

They have a ton of black swans.  We thought it fitting that the houses for them are Chinese in style.

 It was so cute at Kenya and Jasmin walked hand in hand around the zoo. 

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Family photo in front of bamboo.

Kenya took this picture.

There were many names carved into the bamboo.  Robert carved "Draper" into it as well.

These monkeys were cute, but it was so sad.  They all lived in nothing but a cement cell that had one place for them to perch.  We paid just over $1 to go and feed them.  These monkeys had one thing going for them, they were well fed.

 There was a potted garden walk through area.  I found these mini trees cool!  It reminded me of the Shire in Lord of the Rings.

 A huge lily pad at the zoo.  Robert said he had never seen one so big.  There they eat the blossoms and roots.  Lotus root is served at every dinner that the school has ever taken us to. 

I could not resist taking this picture.  This old couple it so cute.  They walked hand in hand though out the zoo.  It appeared the the lady had some disability.   When we lived in Shenzhen we did not really see any young couples or really even hear about people being in love.  It seemed that even the people that we knew were married when we asked them about their spouse they did not want to talk about them.  We got the feeling that love wasn't really part of the culture here.  We love that here in Wuhan we often she couples embracing, holding hands and even kissing.  We see the love and affection in their eyes as they look at each other.  It seems like a nice family place here. 

We hope this will be Robert and I some day. 

Monkey riding a bike.

More holding hands.

 It is not uncommon for people to take pictures of our children and to shove their child next to our and force them to touch and take a picture.  This one turned out rather nice, so we snapped a photo too. 

The girls and some random Chinese child.

Running together! 

The tiger on the right very well could have been the largest tiger ever! 

The shows were great!  Bears riding bikes, jump roping and walking on a balance beam, tigers walking on balls and jumping through hoops, monkeys riding horses and bikes.   Like a said a great circus. 

More monkeys riding bikes.

Fall in Wuhan.

Jasmin one day decided to put on  Kenya's backpack.  She carries it around and opens and closes it, but this day she wanted to wear it.  She is getting so big!  Really, she is only 14 months and she is a full blown toddler!  She puts on the backpack gives kisses and then says bye-bye.  She then leaves the room and shuts the door. 

Jasmin going to school. 

Crazy Kenya wanting her picture taken because I was taking one of Jasmin. 

Just playing.  What kids should be doing!

 Robert took Kenya on a Daddy-daughter date.  Here in the apartment complexes they  have little places where people can go to exercise.  They are quite primitive and very uncomfortable but Kenya looks at them as another playground.  So when Robert asked Kenya where to go on their date she chose to go and play on the "exercise playground" and have ice cream.  They had a blast! 

 Kenya loves to put Jasmin in the stroller.  Everyone here thinks it is so cute and we hear them commenting about it all the time.  We think it is precious too. 

This picture is just after coming into the gate of our complex.  The building all the way at the end of the street is ours. 

 This are my favorite trees here.  In September there began to be what I thought was new growth at the top of the trees.  It was s vibrant lime green.  Then they began to turn yellow and then orange.  It is little things that have the seeds inside of them.  The most beautiful tree I have seen and it sure made it feel fall!  Really, I LOVE IT!

I want one of these trees in my yard!

 There is also a tree here with tiny yellow flowers on it that smells.  At first I was not sure I like the smell of the tree, it was a little over powering and reminded me of fresh scent feminine products.   I know that is a little embarrassing of a description, but really that is what outside smelled like for days.  I began to like it and now it is a pleasant aroma that I get as I drop by the trees.  When Kenya smells it she looks around and can identify the tree that has it. 

This is just a neat looking sculpture at one of the universities here.  Most of the universities here have a big sculpture in the front. 

 On September 30th China celebrated the mid-autumn festival or the Moon Cake festival.  Our complex put on a little talent show and served moon cakes.  It was a fun evening out.  One of the other mothers in the complex who speak English quite well told me about it and invited us.  She has a 18 month old daughter who Kenya and Jasmin played with.  This celebration was just a few days before the actual holiday. 

These men preformed a dance with these shields.

These ladies were doing a Chinese folk dance. 

Kenya watching the show. 

Here is our family photo of the evening. 

Children dancing and singing. 

 For the actual holiday it was on Sunday.  We thought we should celebrate it because we were in China.  We went outside looked at the moon.  It was super cloudy as it often is here.  We were super lucky and saw part of it for just a few seconds, literally, less than 1 minute.  We has some confetti poppers that we shot off and of course ate some moon cakes.  Then we went back inside and went to bed.

Kenya with her party popper.

Robert celebrating.

Family photo of the night.

Our picture of the moon that night did not turn out. 

Crazy China!

So, I was randomly checking my email and such and all of the sudden I was able to get to my blog.  That is very mystery.  Well, I guess you all luck out and get an update.  We now have internet at home and figured out how to set up our own wifi with a Chinese router. 
Here we go.
The first of these picture are just pictures to go with the posts that I posted a month or so ago. 

Daddy and Jasmin on the beginning of our journey.  (Spokane to Seattle)

Kenya sleeping on the flight to Korea. 

 

This was the best surprise on our trip.  The bassinet where Jasmin slept on the way to Korea.  LOVE Korean Airlines for this!!!

These are little steamed buns that they made look like pigs at one of our first dinners here in Wuhan.  Our boss, MR Tian had taken us to lunch in the first we got here. 

Where we live there is a small playground outside near our building.  We all love it!  The next few pictures are of the girls playing there the first few days we got here. 

The girls playing.

More playing!

Really the Chinese children have 2 reactions to our girls.  They will ignore them completely or try to play with them.  Kenya is always trying to make friends with everyone she meets.  There have been a few times where she has been able to play tag or hide-and-go-seek with a couple of different kids.  Mostly it is just the parents awe stuck my our girls.  They talk about their hair and how cute and beautiful they are, they also talk about how smart and advanced they are.  With the way they raise their children here Jasmin is more advanced than their 18 month old children.  They really hover over their kids and don't let them do much until they are much older.  I guess it is just savoring the only baby they get to have.  I can honestly say I cannot believe that my baby is not longer a baby and is now a toddler.

Our apartment has 3 balconies.  Every apartment here has to have a baclcony of some sort because that is how they hang out their laundry.  We have 1 right out of the kitchen for laundry, 1 right off the living room and 1 off of Robert's and my bedroom.  Kenya loves to play in the water when it rains.  So in this picture she was in her rain boots playing outside in the water/puddles on the balcony.

Kenya on 1 of our 3 balconies.

 Kenya on the mini bus ride to get our residency visa.  What a gorgeous girl!  Sorry it is a little blurry.

Beautiful Kenya!

On the same mini bus ride we got to once again see the traffic in China.  If you look in the picture it is not uncommon for buses to get close.  REALLY close.  You can see the mirror of the other bus literally less than 2 inches from our bus window.  This was a close call, but not uncommon.  When we lived in China before we did not ride the bus at all.  The subway there was complete and amazingly efficient so that is what we used all of the time. Wuhan's subway is not complete and not yet open so we use the buses daily.  It is quite amazing to see how close the cars, scooter, bikes, trucks, buses and pedestrians all get to each other.  Their awareness of their vehicles is amazing!!! 

Traffic China style. 

The beginning of the second week we were teaching they have Teacher's Day.  The school celebrated by taking us to dinner and giving us a bonus.

Here is a display of a duck tongue.  They said it was a delicacy.  It is the red spikey looking things on the left of the picture. 

You bet, we tried it.  Robert trying duck tongue.

It was a little spicy.  Not bad, but not what we would choose to eat. 

On the left is our boss giving a toast.  On the right is the principle of the school toasting as well.  

At any dinner the Chinese love to give toasts.  They walk around from table to table toasting with each table.  There were 3 tables at this dinner and so we had many what in America we would think of as interruptions of our dinner.  We then went as Americans and interrupted their dinners.  They however did not find us as rude.  Really, it is kind of fun!

Statute outside of the restaurant where we had Teacher's Day dinner.

Water wheel with fish in it that kept the girls busy. 

This was a nice dinner and evening out with our fellow teachers.  The girls got to come and enjoy it with us.  They how ever did not think the long evening was very fun after the first hour or so.  

Jasmin Playing downstairs in our yard.

Playing on the slides. 

Part of our complex.

 Here are picture of our apartment.  We were still moving in and such so the house is messy, but you get the idea.  Ok, really the house is messy and looks like this probably at least 50% of the time.   The aparement came furnished and so basically everything that you see if not ours. 

Our bedroom.

The girls shelves. 

The rest of the girls bedroom.  Bed and dresser.   The dresser is how Kenya got to the window on the left and was playing with it by herself. 

Our shelves.

Dinning area. 

Living Room. 

Kitchen and balcony out to where we do our laundry. 

Kitchen.  2 burners and no oven. 

Sideways bathroom.  Only a shower here in China. 

 Well, this is already a long post.  Lets just hope that I can get back on another time to update you all.  We have so much to share.

Warning!

So here is what you have all been waiting for.  Unfortunately it is an overload now!
Pictures and much more to come.  Pace yourself in reading.  All very long posts and there are several of them.  We are still internetless at home and are just using it at a friends house right now.  So my contact with still be patchy for the next little while.  Hope you enjoy.  Please email or comment question and we will answer them. 

Nanny Troubles.

Nanny troubles!

Our first week of classes went well. I did not have any schedule changes. I am still shocked at that. Robert however did. Just small adjustments to his schedule were made, but still changes. They have told us that we will keep the schedules that we have for 2 months; we will see how it works out. The only thing that did not go smoothly with the first week of school was the nanny that we hired. We hired a mother and daughter (she is 18 years old) who would either both be at our house or just one of them. They were hired to look after the girls, clean the house, and also make lunch for all of us each day. We the house was staying pretty clean and lunch was made everyday, but the most important part was not getting done. Looking out for the children and making sure they were safe. From the first day that we left Kenya was into things she should not have been. The first day she got a hold of some foot powder and was playing in it and she also got into a bunch of other things that are not safe for children to play with. Other things that happened during the week are: Kenya went outside to play all by herself for who knows how long; Kenya climbed on chairs to reach things on top of the fridge and one thing she found was a razor blade that she proceeded to cut herself with; Kenya was holding Jasmin and Jasmin fell and hit her head hard on the our coffee table and got bruise and bump; there were more thing that happened too. These are all things that I would think a nanny would know not to let happen. It appears that they were just not watching with the girls were doing. It is very common in China to let young children do anything that they want, but we really did not expect for the nanny to let her endanger herself or Jasmin. We expected the nanny to put her foot down when something was dangerous and wrong.

I feel like Kenya may be acting out to try to get me to stay home and for that reason I feel so completely guilty! I also know that Kenya is just doing these things because no one is stopping her. What 3 year old would not want to climb on anything in the house and or do whatever they pleased. Our nannies do not speak English, and so I know Kenya takes advantage of that, but really this is my children’s lives in danger. Just today we got home and found that Kenya had drank 2 different kinds of medicine: Tylenol and Gas Drops. Kenya told the truth and told us that she even gave some Tylenol to Jasmin. We were so furious at Kenya and more so at the nannies. Then later when we were putting the girls to bed and Robert discovered the window in the girls room was open. This window has not lock and no screen. Kenya told us she was playing with it earlier today. Yeah, we live on the 5^thfloor and my heart skipped several beats. So, perhaps it is time for a new nanny. Honestly Robert and I have been counting our blessing and recognizing that the Lord has answered many of our prayers about keeping the girls safe while we were away. All of these situations are scary but nothing has come of them. We are so greatful for our Lord and his watchful care of our girls!!

By the way we got rid of that Nanny the very next day.  We are nannyless and have been trading off watching the girls and teaching. 

Blessed With Long Days.

Blessed with long days.

We were so blessed that the first week that we were here sure seemed to have lasted forever. We were not teaching and we were able to get so much done as well as rest and get on schedule. Really I would think about something that we had done since we arrived and would like it was a few weeks ago and then realize that I had not even been in China for a whole week. We were so busy and yet we were blessed with enough time to rest and enjoy our family a little bit.

The next few days are all a blur. We were so busy getting things done for our apartment and unpacking and then running around with whatever else we needed to do that it became one very long week. If we were not doing some of the things listed above then we were sleeping or trying to keep our girls and ourselves awake as we tried to adjust to the new time zone. I do know that Tuesday we returned to Wal-Mart by ourselves and survived. And on Wednesday we called and had dinner with some other Latter Day Saints that live here in Wuhan. We actual figured out that they live in the complex just behind our complex. So it is nice to have some neighbors, per say, that share our same believes and that live SO close. They are a pleasant family with 4 kids, who are mostly grown (but still younger than us). One day, we went to the hospital here and got physicals for our residency. Man are they thorough with the exam here: x-rays, blood tests, vision check, ECG, and a couple of other things I am sure. We were excited to meet with Tammy, who we knew from Yaohua, and she told us what exactly we would be teaching. Robert and I both are teaching literature. I teach only 12 classes a week because I am contracted part time and Robert is contracted to teach up to 25 classes a week. I will be teaching 4 classes of 10^thgraders. Robert will be teaching 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th graders. Each of us will only be teaching the students half of the book. We are teaching from an American (Glencoe) literature book that would be the corresponding grade in America. When we attempted this at Yaohua it was a disaster. We will see how this works out. On Friday we got to go to the school to see the campus and where our offices are. Robert and I have a nice sized office all to ourselves. The campus is huge! There are over 5000 students on the campus. However the International Section (the students that we teach) of the school is just a small part. It was then we saw Mr, Tian for the first time. He is the owner of Yaohua in Shenzhen. He took us to lunch and gave a small welcome bonus. While at this lunch at the end I heard someone mention that classes might begin the following day, on Saturday, but the teaching schedule will be for Thursday. (They change their schedules around here to “make up” for holidays and such. It is really confusing without showing it and a long explanation, so we will just leave it at that.) At this point I did not have anyone to watch my children, so I began to think the school had put themselves in a hard spot. Then later that night after dinner we got it confirmed that classes started the next morning at 7:45am and that it was only for 12^th grade, which I do not teach. So Robert went to work and I was able to use that day to find someone to watch the girls for Monday. They told us that Sunday would be Friday’s schedule and that Robert and the other teachers would have to work. We began to fight that because we were told we would not need to work any Sundays. Then at almost midnight Saturday night we got a text stating that they would not be teaching. We were so glad, but really we were all asleep and it sure did startle us.

So the school that we work at now is a public middle and high school. This high school is very prestigious and has contracted with Yaohua for teachers and the curriculum for its International Section. So, I think technically we are working for the same school as before. I think.

We were all settled into a pretty good schedule and adjusted to the time change by the weekend. We have a couple of beautiful storms with lightening and thunder in the first week. It did a lot for the heat and took some of the humidity away. We have only had 2 days of extreme humidity and heat. There is a cool breeze that often comes through as well. Don’t get me wrong we are sweating like crazy everyday, but just not over whelmed with heat like we were expecting.

So then Monday classes began as planned, but not without last minute changes. There were changes to everyone’s schedule except for mine that were handed out Monday morning.

The reason that I write so much detail and explain all of this is because it just goes to show that life will have the same stresses as before when living in China. It was not just the school and the area that we lived in. This is life for these people and they just accept it. Knowing differently it is so difficult to have such chaos and disarray in life, especially in the work force. When we think of work it is often the most constant thing in our lives and if there is a change we expect and are notified well in advance so that adjustments can be made. Oh well, this is something that is part of life here in China. I cannot say that we will ever get use to it or that we will ever stop fighting it. Oh how much smoother things could be! Well, that brings you all the way up to the morning of our first day of work.

A Very Long Day 1

After we arrived at our apartment we were shortly taken to lunch. Both girls were so exhausted as were we. We needed to get supplies for our house. Immediate things like toilet paper and dishes to eat on, pillows to sleep on, the list goes on and on. Robert took the girls back to the apartment to rest and I went to run around with our helpful Chinese friends. On the way back to our apartment Robert got lost in our huge complex. Really, the complex is at least a few blocks in area. He got some help from ladies in our complex that spoke some English. They passed out as soon as they got home.

Let me preface this next part by saying, doing anything in China is not quick and easy. All we wanted to do was go to Wal-Mart and buy minimal supplies for our apartment. We got a couple taxis because of course we could not all fit into one. That would have made things to easy. We arrived at Wal-mart and waited for our friends to get there too. It is about a 10 minute taxi ride from our apartment to Wal-Mart. Then of course we did not know where anything was in their Wal-mart and so we had to walk around the whole store. We were gone 2+ hours on our excursion. We took 2 taxis back and when we arrived we could not find the other taxi for at least 20 minutes or so and they had some of our stuff in it. Of course when we got back we had no water. We cannot drink the water in our faucets and so our next concern was to get bottled water into our home. We set out to find water and buy a cell phone so that we could communicate with those from our school. Well again Robert stayed at home with the girls because it would have just complicated things more. Again I was gone at least 2 hours just to get a cell phone and water. When I got home they were all passed out on the couch again. I was so exhausted by then I got home showered and went to bed. Just a few hours later the girls were up and rested. That is the end of day 1 here in Wuhan.

Our apartment is quite big and nice. It is double the size of the one we had in Shenzhen but a little bit older than the last one. It is still a new apartment and is well kept up. We have 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom with 3 balconies. The kitchen has a door to separate it and keep the heat from getting to the rest of the house. We live on the 5^thfloor as I mentioned and there are not elevators. Bummer! What can I say, we will have great calves when we get back. It is a very nice double-gated complex. We have a small shopping area with lots of places to eat just outside of our complex. Our beds feel like boards and our couch is quite comfy. Mattress pads are one for the first things we are going to buy when we get paid. There is only one bed in the girls’room and so we are trying to train them to sleep together. It has been interesting. Our apartment was fully furnished when we got here. We really are enjoying it so far.

Long Time No Blog

Long time no blog! We have several good excuses and we will get right to them. We hope too many of you did not think we just got really lazy and stayed at home doing nothing for the last 6 weeks or so. We have been quite busy.

Our trip to China.
We started our trip by moving out of our apartment in Shelley on the 16^thof August. We rented a U-Haul and moved our things to Montana where my family would be able to watch over them and make sure they were safe. We also were leaving our cars with my mom and so we had to get those up to her. We were not sure when our visas and plane tickets would be so we decided to go and visit Montana until we left. A few days after we got to my sister house and stayed there we got news that we would be flying out on Saturday the 25^th. So we had a week to get ready and pack our bags for China. We were not able to pack much during the day because of the girls playing and getting into things so we pack little by little at night. We also started and completed watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy extended versions. We were up late ever night. When we left from Shelley we had sorted through things of items going to China and items not going to China. I impressed myself at how much I was able to bring. There really was not much of the things we had planned on going that got left behind. So we had 8 carry-ons and 7 giant check suitcases and 2 strollers. That is a lot of luggage for 2 adults while handling 2 toddlers. We definitely were not going to fit into our little car to drive from Kalispell to Spokane to get on the plane so we had to hire help. We asked some friends to transport our luggage in their van and we drove our car. Then one of our friends drove our car back to Kalispell for my mom to get at a later date.

We started out trip out on Saturday morning at 5:00 am from Kalispell to make it to our flight at 10:30 in Spokane. Robert and I went to bed the night before just after 3 am. I am not really sure what it was we were doing, it just seemed that there were so many odds and ends that we were trying to figure out or tie up. The trip went well. Our friends got pulled over for speeding and Robert felt horrible. Really the cop said that it was still the night speed, which clearly it was after dawn. We stopped in Libby to say goodbye to Granny and Kenya had some breakfast. Then off we went again. We arrived at the airport with hardly anytime. We made it and the got Seattle. We had a short lay over there and then on to our 10+ hour flight to Korea. The girls did great on both flights. On our flight to Korea the airlines had a basinet that we put Jasmin in a couple of times. It was a life saver because I was prepared to hold her the entire flight. Kenya watched way more movies in the month than she had in her entire life before that. It helped us get things done. On the flight she watched movies to keep her entertained and then slept for a few hours. We had an 15 hour lay over in Korea and we broken down and got a hotel that was over $160 for just a small room with 1 bed and bathroom. They did bring in a basinet there too that helped everyone sleep. This hotel was in the airport terminal and so we did not have to claim our baggage or go through customs to stay there. It was a lifesaver! But sure enough we were all up and awake at about 3:00 am. Off we went to catch our flight to Wuhan, China at 8:00 am. While waiting we met the other teachers who will be teaching with us. Samuel and Mel. They were very nice and began to help us out and play with the girls. It was only a 3-hour flight and that went well. When we arrived in Wuhan it was raining and we could not have been happier. Wuhan is known as one of the three furnaces of China because it is so hot and humid here in the summer. So to see that it was raining was nice because then the heat was not so bad. We got our luggage and that was interesting. A Chinese worker helped us just walk right through customs and we found Jack. Jack is the teacher the school has appointed to help us out with daily life and other Chinese matters. We then all got on a mini bus with our luggage and drove to our apartments. As we were taking our bags to our door it began to down poor. Only 3 of our bags got soaked. We then carried our 7 70 lb suitcase and 8 carry ons and 2 children up the 5 flights of stairs to our apartment with the help of Jack.

Yea, we made it!!!