Ode to Reading

O, Reading, how we love thee
Let us count the ways:
Harry Potter and Bella Swan
Our list could just go on and on
You bring us joy, you make us cry
You help us make the time go by...


Wait a minute...our mistake!



No Treading, on this "grass" of mine
Not yet green, but very fine
It begins to grow from just a seed
If only those darn dogs could read!!!

We often find humor in the poor translations, misprints and peeling letters on English words. This sign leads from a dirt path to a public circle where people meet to exercise (dance, martial arts, hacky sack), play games or chat. I (Marcie) looked at the sign for a good 10 seconds, trying to comprehend that there was No Reading allowed in the circle and then figured it out by reading the other side. It has become an inside joke in our family with the kids each making up little poems about reading as we pass.

Alayna No 3

Hi everyone,

Last week, we went to dinner with some Americans. They are with the exchange program that my mom and dad were with when they were here 14 years ago. They have a daughter named Megan. She is so cute. At first she was really quiet, then we all got so noisy. She was really fun to be around. She is in pre-school. She had this little book it has a snowman on the front and she kept wanting us to read it to her.

This week, I have achieved a lot of things, like learning new vocabulary words. I also have learned some more math characters and math itself. The English is still too easy, but I help other kids with their English. Every week, there is American man (usually) that comes in for the children to practice speaking English with a native speaker. I wish they would pay me!!!!!

Well, I'm having a better time in China now!

Bye!!!

Alayna

The Antennae on the bus go...

This is my bus. I have a TV on my bus. We normally watch Tom and Jerry.

from Coleman

Note from Marcie: The first week of school, I showed up to take them home from school in a taxi, since I had to pay some bills there. The kids were so disappointed that I was there, it hurt my feelings...until I realized it was all about the TV burning a hole in their vision on the bus! I guess it is just another opportunity for them to hear fast pace Chinese.

Marcie No 3 March 24

As I look out our kitchen window, I see the massive trees that line the street have tiny white blossoms. We had a dusting of snow yesterday, followed by a thin layer of ice on all the mud puddles this morning. The sun has been shining almost everyday, too, giving more false impression that spring is here. We've been here for a month now, and life is settling into routine. The kids are finally getting help with their homework from a couple of recent (or almost) college grads, making more time for practicing their instruments and family time. Addison's single motivation seems to be time on the computer chatting with her friends, and it is working very well. She gets all her homework done, practices two instruments and keeps her room relatively tidy without much prompting. Saylor has mountains of homework (apparently once you get behind, the teacher won't look at any of the new work until you're caught up) and very little free time. She probably has the hardest time concentrating and the most excuses about why her work's not done. Before you start feeling too sorry for her, you should know that she has a lot of fun in the in-between times. Alayna is at the perfect age (and has the right disposition) to make a smooth transition although we are finding she is a huge distraction to Saylor. She's had enough Chinese to know what is going on, but is young enough that there aren't huge demands of her time for homework. Coleman had a meltdown (screaming, clinging, crying, etc) two days ago and did not want to get on the bus. I told him I couldn't stay at home with him because I had to go to school, too. Miraculously, he boarded the bus, but made sure that Mark and I both knew he was miserable. After school we snuggled and talked. I told him if he was sick with a fever or was throwing up, I would definitely be able to stay with him, but couldn't cater to him just because he threw a fit. Yesterday morning, he crawled into bed with an "I don't feel good" story. It just seemed too coincidental to believe, but sure enough he had a fever. In hindsight, I think his body was telling him two days ago to take it easy, but he didn't have the words or symptoms to go with it. He was the perfect amount of sick: too sick to go to school, but not sick enough to be slowed down. We had a great day together playing games, working on reading, practicing cello and piano and watching movies. Mark's adjustment (grace) period seems to be over and work is demanding more of his time. He leaves for Harbin in northern China tomorrow (one night), goes to Shandong next week and will go to Beijing in early April with more business trips to come. We will probably all tag along on the Beijing trip, as there is a national holiday (aka 3 day weekend) just before he needs to be there. I finally wore Mark down and hired an Ayi (Auntie) to help me keep our apartment in order (it really is a bigger job in China). She comes three times a week and helps with cleaning and laundry. This frees up my time to study and get other projects done (like blogging). This weekend we celebrate Addison and Saylor's birthdays. Even though Addison has been practicing for a while, it is hard to believe that we will really have a teenager in the house. We continue to be thankful for all our blessings and count you among them. We love to hear from you, so when you have a chance, drop us a line.

Archaeology 101

The layers of sediment that have settled on my Chinese language skills have been building up over time. As most of you know, my twin sister and I were born in Taiwan, but were adopted by an American family when we were 2 months old. The first two months of our lives were spent in a Chinese hospital maternity ward, where all of our needs (and most of our wants) were eagerly met by the nursing staff. We lived in Taiwan until we were almost three, enough time to lay a Chinese language foundation. After we moved to the States, our parents enrolled us in Chinese classes near Purdue University, but when you are four years old in a warm classroom on a Sunday afternoon, a nap seems so much more appropriate. My next attempt at "studying" Chinese was actually a graduation present from my mom. Melanie and I were invited to spend 6 weeks in Taiwan for a study tour hosted by the Taiwanese government. The short amount of time coupled with the fact that I was eighteen and on my own for the first time didn't make that learning experience very productive. It did, however, spark an interest in my country and language of birth. I chose Manchester College not only because they had an exchange program to China, but because they offered Chinese language correspondence courses through Ohio State. In my junior year, I earned college credit by doing workbooks, speaking with a teacher on the phone twice a week and working with a Chinese tutor in person once a week. My tutor thought I had a natural ability to speak Chinese because of my Chinese blood, but when I got to China in 1995 for my semester abroad, I was still a novice. I made great progress during my 5 1/2 months here, even taking a boat by myself to visit my study partner in her hometown of Qingdao (of beer fame).
Since then, I have paid little attention to the Chinese language, mostly due to lack of confidence. When Addison was in Kindergarten, her teacher asked me to read a simple sentence at her parent/teacher conference. The sentence was as follows:
我会写字, which means "I can write words". What I said was this:
我会马字, which means "I can horse words". There is very little that can boost the ego after such humiliation. I spent about 13 years tuning out Chinese, and worried that I would never be able to recover from it.
I know I am in the perfect class for my language ability. I almost didn't want to go to school, because I thought I'd have to start at the very beginning. Instead, I'm in a middle level beginning class with other foreigners who want to learn Chinese at a fast pace. My teachers have excellent teaching styles that make learning Chinese both fun and interesting. They are the archaeologists, dusting off my language, finding whole words and sentences patterns that were long ago buried. I am the only English speaker my the class, so from day 1, all communication between teachers, classmates and myself has been in Chinese only. In fact, most people at the school don't even know that I'm American, so they only speak to me in Chinese. On the first day, the only characters I recognized were the 45 new vocabulary words that were staring up at me, plus a handful of other common ones. I memorize that same amount every day, plus am remembering characters I thought I'd forgotten. It feels so good to be learning again. Coleman was sick yesterday, and I was surprised how disappointed I was to not go to class. Before, I learned to get a good grade. I see some of my classmates, now, fretting about upcoming tests. Now, I am learning because I want to and that alone has set me free.

Hi Everyone,

I enjoy it here more than I did before, but it is still dirty, stinky, and dry. It's pretty gross. I thought China would be much more different than America, but it's not.

If you take a look at these pictures, in the first one you can see me in my school uniform. If you can't read the white logo, I will tell you what it says. In English, it says Dalian Ming Xing Primary School. Then, it has a long white stripe with a little blue line and navy blue line down the leg and arms. It also has a red tie around the neck. The last part of the uniform I don't really like. It is a big red hat that says the same thing as the shirt of the uniform. The reason why I am saluting is because we have to do that a lot. At school none of us have a big smile on our face.

In the other picture you can see us at my dad's work. Earlier, my dad was copying our passports. He put them in his briefcase that was by the window and went home. When he had got, home he noticed that he only had FIVE passports. At first he thought he was missing Addison's passport, but then he realized he was missing mine. So the next day we went to my dad's work to see if it was there. We looked in the copy machine; it wasn't there. We looked on my dad's desk; it wasn't there. We looked on other people's desks; it wasn't there. The next thing I knew I was talking with Coleman about how far it would be if we fell out of our dad's building because he works on the 20th floor. I turned around because something wasn't so comfortable that I was sitting on. I looked down and I found my own passport. It must have fallen behind my dad's briefcase. We were all so happy that we found it. Before, my mom was teasing me that I had to go back to the States. I really thought they were really serious, so even now I am even talking about going home. After that we went to the front of my dad's office and we had that picture taken.

That is the end of my blog today!

Alayna

Addison No2-Hi

Hello, China is still the same. Dirty, stinky and cold. Sometimes, there is sun out but it is always windy. I really miss everybody!

One of my friends in the picture is named Chen Wen Jun. Her English name is Penny. She sits next to me in class and is very nice. In the other picture, I am taking a math test on Saturday at school. It was 1 hour long!

Every day from Mon.-Fri. I go to school from 7:00 am to 5:00 pm.......10 hours straight! I eat lunch at school....the school lunch......It is Ok....sort of good. I have plenty of time to get some of my homework done at school, so I don't have as much to do at home.

I hope everyone is having a great time in our home town , the bestest Portland, Oregon ever !!!!!And everywhere else in the world! I wish you were here!

From,

Addison N.

Saylor No.2 March 21, 2009

Hi everyone,
This is Saylor. Today I am writing about friends. I have made one good friend so far. Her name is Song Yue; her English name is Linda. She rides the same bus as me and even gets on and off at the same stop. She is in the same grade as me, but not in my class. I want to invite her over to our apartment on my birthday for dinner, but my dad has to talk (in Chinese) to her parents first. I can’t believe my birthday is in a few days.
The uniform that I wear to school is quite comfortable. Every day, we wear a red bandana around our necks and line up in rows and columns to do exercises. On Mondays, we have to wear a red hat when we gather for raising the Chinese flag.
Across from our apartment is a large park with a lake. It is very beautiful. In the summer, there will be swan boats that we can rent. In the mornings, hundreds of people all walk around this lake (in the same direction) to get exercise. There are people who take a dance class, play their version of hacky sack, do tai chi or other kinds of exercise, too.

I caught two fish at an amusement park, but they only lived a week and a half.

Observation Deck #1, From Mark

Disclaimer...The following commentary is from my personal experience and viewpoint, and may not reflect the experience of others.

Since we have 4 kids enrolled in Chinese school, differences in educational systems have intrigued me. In the States we hear much about the problems in our schools and how far we are behind the rest of the world. Although I agree the USA school system has definite weaknesses and room for improvement, I can't say the Chinese system is the model we all want to follow.

Below are some of my observations:

Chinese schools place extraordinary demands on the children in the form of math, language, time, and homework expectations. Since opening the door in the late 1970s and through the accelerated growth of the 1990s and 2000s, Chinese society has gone from one extreme, suggesting formal education was to be punished, to the other extreme, pressuring children to compete rigorously for admittance into the best universities. The motive behind this new found rigor is to assure the children a successful and good-paying occupation. This pressure is exceptionally acute due to the fact the vast majority of families have only one child, and thus place their hopes of posterity on that child.

This translates into 10 hour school days, 3 hours +/- of daily homework, and weekend tutoring classes to boot. No break for the weary. What is missing, however, is not just unstructured free time, but sports, music, theater, art, and various other activities necessary for a balanced life.

Several Chinese people have confirmed, via recent conversations, that this phenomena is new, vastly different from just a generation ago, the kids who are now parents. Albeit a gross generalization, Chinese society, as a whole, is virtually obsessed about getting ahead financially and materially, akin to someone who is highly motivated to leave the past and make a better life for themselves. I certainly admire this determination.

In one sense, it is the fad of the day. Like all fads, it comes and it goes. My hunch is that as this young generation grows into adulthood, there will be a cultural counter trend movement in the opposite direction, i.e. rebellion against such rigors due to burn out and undue pressure from both parents and society. The counter trend could manifest itself in a number of ways, some of which not too different from those experienced in the 1960s and 1970s in the USA--although the genesis of the causes are perhaps different.

As compared to the educational system we have in the States, the Chinese will excel in specialization. What is lacking however, is a well-rounded education (i.e. liberal arts), a notion for creativity, and the skills to live a balanced life. Of course, societies and systems evolve, and China is no exception.

In the meantime however, this push to get ahead will undoubtedly propel China's economy to extraordinary heights, becoming the world's largest, and wielding great influence on the rest of the world.

Coleman No. 2 March 20, 2009

Hi everyone,

I am not enjoying China (except for the parts that he does like-mm). The thing I like about school is playing soccer 4 times a week. At home, my sisters and I do homework. I get homework on the weekends. In Portland, I did not get homework on the weekends. One fun place we went was called Liberty Park. It was an amusement park with lots of rides. I got drive a bumper car without a parent. It was fun. One of my favorite things to eat are these small dough balls that are rolled in sesame seeds and fried. They have them in Portland, but are better here. I like talking to my friends on skype.

Love,

Coleman

Ten Things We Miss About Home

10.) Driving a car (and having a trunk to put stuff in)
9.) A milk source we aren't afraid of
8.) Netflix
7.) Kitchen Aid Mixer
6.) Cold water in restaurants
5.) No smoking in buildings
4.) Maple syrup
3.) Composting - the egg shells alone...
2.) Recycling - this subject warrants its very own blog
1.) A nice Pino Noir (that's just the grown ups!)

The Joy Luck Club

We are all making friends and learning their names, too! Remembering Chinese names is very difficult for us, especially if we don't know the character or meaning. The kids and I have started asking friends to write down the characters in their names as well as the pronunciation. About two weeks ago, I received a very nice note from the mom of a boy in Addison's class offering to help out in any way that she could. They have been here for a year and a half, and know exactly what it is like to be at the start of this journey. She is also from Taiwan (although she is fluent in Chinese and several other languages) and the dad was born in Kansas (sound familiar?). We met for lunch and realized that our similarities go well beyond that. Her kindness came at such a vulnerable time. Addison's school doesn't have a school uniform that fits her, so she is the only one not wearing one. She was also missing some books and needed a good dictionary. She showed me where to go for any tailoring needs (Addison's uniform can be completely overhauled for $12 US dollars) and took me to a huge bookstore (that I can now find all by myself!). We ate at a nice Japanese restaurant for less than $5/person. I'm still getting used the the cheaper prices here! She invited me to lunch the next day with her expat friends. There were eight of us in all (a very lucky number in China): two from Hong Kong, two from Singapore, three from Taiwan and one from Canada. We are all considered foreigners here, even though we are all ethnically Chinese. Everyone spoke English and had English names, but they preferred to speak rapid Chinese, which I couldn't follow. The two women from Hong Kong both live in the same complex as our family. One woman actually recognized Mark as the "Old Foreigner" who walks around the lake in the morning. (Mark's bigger than life persona here is a whole different Blog Post). They meet weekly for lunch at a different trendy restaurant. Everyone has been so gracious about sharing information about schools, housing, banking, living, etc in Dalian. Several have chauffeurs (which they are generous about sharing)and all have domestic helpers. Needless to say, it is very different from the suburban middle class life I'm accustomed to in the States, a point that I am still coming to terms with. Next week is a shopping trip to several western stores including IKEA. As my Chinese improves, I look forward to nurturing these friendships.

Fairy Tales Do Come True!

Once upon a time, there was a Girl from the Most Humble Beginnings, who was given the gift of Opportunity. When she grew up and married The Man of Her Dreams, they knew that this was one of the greatest gifts they could pass on to their four children. Together, they dreamed and plotted, plotted and dreamed, until their path was finally made clear. Three years before in the Land of Portland, Oregon, The Man went to the huge Japanese company he worked for (equivalent to the Kraft or Pillsbury empires of the US) and asked if there was any chance of an overseas assignment to a Chinese speaking country. The company took the idea and ran with it, making The Man the first non-Japanese employee of the company to be given this Opportunity. After several years of patience (and impatience), including Renewing Their Vows so that their marriage certificate stated The Girl was born in China not Taiwan, they were finally cleared to go. The Man's company helped them pack up their belongings and promised to take good care of them. Friends in the Land of Portland took over their business and personal affairs and sentimental treasures and threw them Fabulous Goodbye Parties. The company set them up in a beautiful Castle in a 6th floor apartment in the Land of Dalian, China, where they had met 14 years earlier. The Children were put in Chinese schools so that their Chinese language would be solidified in their brains. The Girl spent 3 hours every day in accelerated Chinese Language classes with a couple more hours of studying each night. Things were not always easy for The Girl and Her Family. Language and culture barriers often surprised, frustrated and even angered them. They made new friends in the Land of Dalian who helped them ease into their New Life as Expats. They sought out help from local Chinese students who studied English to help the kids with their homework. They ate wonderful Asian foods that kept their bellies full. No matter how tough things seemed to be, their Little Family tried to stay grounded, using Sunday mornings for Precious Family Time. Although this Fairy Tale is far from over (they committed to a year and a half), we know that they lived Happily Ever After.

Contact Information

1.) Email: Marcie - beautifulbeautifulforest@msn.com, Mark - nehermoller@msn.com, Addison - addisonpanda@yahoo.com, Saylor - saylorn@gmail.com, Alayna - alaynaruby@gmail.com. The kids will have a limited amount of time to check emails, and only when they get their other work done.
2.) Snail Mail - Print and paste version
中国辽宁省大连市 邮编: 116001
中山区明泽园25号2单元6层A号.
Mark Neher & Marcie Moller
P.R. China

If you want to know what it says:

Mingze Yuan (our apartment complex) No. 25, Unit 2, 6F, Apartment A
Zhongshan District
Dalian, Liaoning Province
PR China 116001

3.) Blog - I accidentally published this incorrectly in several locations. Some people have had luck with posting comments to us through this medium, but others said they weren't able.
www.neherlynews.blogspot.com (but it seems like you might already know this!)

4.) We have a home phone (It's a pink stand up Hello Kitty phone that the kids love to watch Mark use!)
011-86-411-82720788

5.) Facebook - Marcie only (can't get Mark on board)

6.) Skype - this will be our savory treat - to be able to talk with our friends and family face to face. All you need is a computer, internet connection, a microphone and/or a webcam (I think these are fairly inexpensive) and a FREE skype account. It's easier to arrange a skype conversation in advance, but we will probably always have our account open when we have free time at home. Our profile name is neherfamily and the user name is Marcie Moller. With this information, you should be able to find our family's account.

7.) Hop on a plane and come and visit us! We have an extra queen size bed in a private bedroom, but Coleman can always bunk with us to give you two rooms with queen size beds. We also have living room furniture that could sleep 4 grown men pretty comfortably!

Squatter's Rights (and Recommendations)

1.) Always bring your own toilet paper and wet wipes
2.) You can hold your breath
3.) Watch where you step
4.) Flushing is unfortunately optional

I hate squatting toilets, mostly because I’m not good at using them. My first encounter with the squatter was in Taiwan, when I was 18 years old, and much too immature to appreciate that it is better than nothing in a pinch. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this mind/body experience, let me enlighten you. From what I can tell, there are two basic types of toilets in the world: the “western” version, which is what we are all used to, and the squatter. The squatters I’ve seen range from a hole in the ground to a trough that many can use at the same time (with dividers if you’re lucky) to a porcelain basin in a private room. Not only do you need to have good leg muscles (mostly upper thigh) to get low, but you only have an 8 in diameter to work with. It’s actually not the squatting part that is the problem for me; I could squat all day if I had to. I have been cursed with bad aim and a healthy stream that ricochets on to my shoes. Understandably, I had a goal of avoiding squatters the whole time I am in China. This is easily doable, as our apartment and any hotels we stay in will all have western toilets. We didn’t even give the kids the heads up about squatters, thinking they would never have to use them. Unfortunately, I was in denial about it. Kids have to go when they are in a restaurant, at a public park or at school. They try to hold it, but going in the squatter is better than going in the pants, I always say.

Ten Things I wish I could Change, but Can't

I’ll be done complaining after this, I promise!

10.) Heat in the apartment that stays on all winter, regardless of outside temperature
9.) Keeping my children quiet in the apartment
8.) Keeping the dog upstairs from moaning at ALL hours (we are only sure it IS in fact a dog b/c we’ve heard it bark)
7.) They way the landlords prepared the fridge for vacancy without propping the doors
6.) Hot water heater the size of a large watermelon (tiny exaggeration)
5.) Public urination
4.) Nonexistent poop and scoop laws
3.) My automatic “dish dryer” (what’s the point?) for a dish “washer” or “clothes” dryer
2.) Shorter hours of school for the kids
1.) Thirteen years of tuning out Chinese

Marcie No. 2 March 8

We are getting ready to start our second full week in Dalian. Tomorrow, I start Chinese language classes at the university where Mark and I met. I am more nervous this time because I don't have a built in network like I did when I went in college. Fourteen years ago, when I hung out with all the other English speaking students, people figured out quickly that I was American. Now, I don't really have a category to fit into. I've heard people speaking English, but they don't automatically assume that I'm American. The majority of the students are Japanese and Korean, with just a smattering of Europeans, Americans, Middle Easterners and other Asians. I think it will actually be good to not have an English speaking crutch to rely on. I will have enough time in the morning to get the kids off to school, enjoy a cup of tea, spend quiet time with Mark and get to school myself. I'm done with school at 11:30 or noon, which gives me the afternoon to accomplish all the things that need to get done. We've been in such a holding pattern, waiting for China to happen, that it feels very good to have something just for me again. I've been wanting to give my brain a workout since Coleman started kindergarten last year, but the timing wasn't right. I've had too much idle time in the past year and a half, so I think it will be good to be busy again.

The kids finished their first full week of school, and based on the number of tears shed, it was probably the most difficult thing they've ever had to do. Saylor got to the point that by Friday she didn't even want to get out of bed (which is so unusual for her). We are sure that they are just on a steep learning curve and that will be accustomed to their new schools by the end of the month. We have a lot of good role models back home (who are Chinese but adopted by Americans as older children) that went to the US from China without any English language experience. They have a new appreciation for those kids who are all thriving in Portland. We asked Saylor's teacher if she really needed to be present for the last hour of the day, since we had to pay additional tuition directly to the teacher for this hour. First, she gave Saylor a boot camp type drill that basically forced Saylor to admit she WANTED to be there, and then she told me that Saylor is doing a great job in class. Saylor is in the top class for her grade, so she knows (thinks) she has the option of moving to a lower class that doesn't have the academic expectations (i.e. homework). Alayna is doing fine, although she still doesn't know any one's name, including her teacher. She gets most of her work done at school and seems to be making friends. Coleman is excited because he starts soccer tomorrow during the last hour (not an option for our girls). He is mostly concerned about what goes in his belly and very loud when it's time to make decisions about food choices. Addison is having the most difficult time. She is at a very volatile age. I've decided I'm oil and she's water (although we are so much alike, I'm not sure if that expression applies). The saying in our family used to be "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!", but I've been replaced. Mark's job in the evening has been to sit and work with any of the kids who need help translating their homework. He is still working with Saylor as I write this (9:15 p.m.). She will probably get up in the morning and still have a little math to work on before school.

My back is almost completely better. A friend took me for a Chinese massage (not the relaxing kind, unfortunately) and I think I was actually bruised after. When he found the pain, he dug in until I couldn't stand the pain. Our new crisis (isn't there always one?) is that I found lice nits in Coleman's hair this afternoon. With so many kids in a small space (40 kids in a classroom and on the bus!), I knew it was a possibility, so I've been checking frequently. There were less than 25 eggs and I didn't see any live ones. He was already due for a hair cut, so we took care of that right away. Of course, my head itches (as I'm sure yours does, too), but I can say confidently that we have not passed it to anyone in the US and are lucky that we caught it before it spread.

Saylor No.1 Feb 28, 2009

Hey,
China’s great! I like that we can go down to the little square and exercise. (The square has bars, a slide, something like a treadmill, something that you sit on then you pull yourself up, and something like a ladder)
Something that gets on my nerves is that even though my mom knows we aren’t twins, she asks if Alayna and I are. (I think it’s rude)
One thing I think is cool is that there is this really weird shaped building on a hill that lights up at night. The building has an ice cream cone shaped bottom, with a ball on top. Addison thinks it looks like Statue of Liberty’s torch with a round flame. My mom thinks it looks like a huge golf tee with a huge golf ball on top. What do you think it looks like? We just found out that this building is a weather station - mm.
When we are playing in our apartment (mm), a funny thing is that my sisters think they are clowns in a circus that are boating (when they move around the floor on their slippery rugs-mm). They think my dad’s feet are rocks.
-Saylor-
Mm – sentences that have been edited or added by the mother have this symbol.

Coleman No. 1 Feb 28, 2009

Hi. This is Coleman.
I am having a pretty good time. There are lots of street foods. Tonight I had squid on a stick and the second day I had a crepe with an egg crack over it. Say hello to all my friends. The school has uniforms. It has navy blue, white, and light blue with a red hat. We have over 8 hours of school. We have four bedrooms and two bathrooms. I have my own bedroom for the first time in my life! The English class is harder than I thought it would be, but it is still easy. I am basically speechless in Chinese class. We flew in business class to China. I had my own medium size TV. It felt like the people in the movie WALL-E. We got real meals on the plane, and they were huge! It took three days to get to China. We spent the night in Japan. It was like skipping a day without sleeping. I have a bunch of Chinese and English school books.
I hope you are having a good time.

Sincerely,
Coleman

Alayna No 1 Feb 28, 2009

Hi everyone,
I will not see you for a very long time. But when I come back I’ll see you again. This place (China ) is a very different place. Right now we are living in an apartment. It is all furnished with couches, beds, T.V.’s, and other things too. My favorite thing to do in China is eat street food. (It’s really good food). I also like the park right outside our apartment.
Right now our family is trying to get our apartment set up so we can make food and eat our own food. We have to boil our own water and cool it down, so we can drink it. When we drink it, it is still too hot. (I’m usually so thirsty that I drink it any way.) So far I like China more than I thought I would, but it still isn’t my favorite place.
One of my favorite things that I don’t have to do for a while is practice my violin. We thought a piano was here so we didn’t bring our piano but it turns out that the people that we are renting from took out the piano that was here. We don’t have a piano right now. Since Saylor only plays the piano Coleman, Addison, and I would have to play our instruments and Saylor doesn’t. It wouldn’t be very fair, so none of us have to play our instruments.
Well that is the end of my writing today! Bye!

Lanie (Alayna )

Addison No1 Friday *Sigh* Thank Goodness

The first week of school was slow. It was at least 10 hours a day with endless homework that I mostly did at school during our breaks. I think I will enjoy this trip even though I will miss everyone.

I most likely will not Post often so if anyone wants to get a hold of me, my e-mail is: addisonpanda@yahoo.com .

Addison Neher

Playing Frogger

Most of you should remember the Atari game from the early 1980s based on a frog trying to cut across many lanes of traffic without getting squashed. (If you know it, please hum the theme song now.) This is exactly what crossing the street is like here it China. My children have been taught to fear jay walking and given tools such as holding hands, looking both ways, using the crosswalk and making eye contact. None of that helps them here. Sometimes, we wade out into the street, only to turn around to save ourselves. Other times, we get stuck between traffic of opposing directions. If they aren't going to stop for the little old lady, I don't think they are going to stop for anyone! We also think we've cracked the car honker's Morris code. A short toot means, “I’m here, heads up”. A few short bursts can mean “Out of the way”. A long horn almost always means,
“IIIIIIIIIIII’mmmm nnnnnnnooooooottttt ssstttooooopppppiiinnngggg!”

What's in a Name?

I must confess that speaking Chinese is difficult for me. It is partly because I’m still a beginner and shy about using it, and partly because it is embarrassing to have to explain why I don’t speak better Chinese and how my American husband is so good at it. As I got ready to hail a taxi with the kids for the first time by myself, I had sweaty palms and gave myself a quiet pep talk. I opened the taxi door, while the kids waited outside, and asked the driver if he could take us to the school. He didn’t understand me, so I showed him the name of the school on a piece of paper. He said he could take us, so we got in the car. We chatted for a while on the way, and I was feeling pretty good about the experience. We were almost to school when he told me my error. I had asked him to take us to XingMing School, which means full name (first and last) school instead of MingXing School, which means bright star school. The kids are never going to let me forget this. On the flip side, when we were hooking up our internet, the translator asked me to show her my worknet. It took ten seconds of confusion before I understood that she wanted to see our network!

Top 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions, Comments and Observations

The kids haven’t quite realized that these things won’t stop the whole time we are in China.

10.) Are they all yours?
9.) You must be Americans
8.) Staring, staring and more staring
7.) 1…2…3…4 children! Wow! 4 children!
6.) Where did you learn to speak Chinese? (to Mark and the kids)
5.) Your children are so beautiful! (I would omit for modesty, but it happens too frequently)
4.) What nationality are you (Marcie)?
3.) Follow up question: Why can’t you speak Chinese?
2.) Are you cold? (We keep adding more layers to avoid this question, but it still comes!)
1.) Are they twins? This might be the universally most asked question for Saylor and Alayna

Snapshots...more to come!

We are here!

March 3, 2009

It’s been over a week since we left Portland, and we are settling in just fine. We still don’t have internet, so I’ve been stingy about hacking into my neighbor’s unsecured wireless to send out messages. Mark’s company was supposed to assist us in this area, but the best they could do was slower than dial-up, so we are back to square one. We know we are at the starting line of an amazing journey, and Mark and I feel mentally prepared for the challenges. It’s been a bit harder on the kids. They started school yesterday, and the three girls said they felt frustrated enough that they wanted to cry. Coleman actually has the most hurdles to overcome, as he has had the least amount of practice speaking Chinese, although we think he understands quite a bit. Alayna made up a game that she would give Mark a hug if she made a friend, and Mark would give her a hug if she didn’t make a friend. Of course, at the end of the day, she owed Mark many hugs! She actually had a tear on her cheek when I got on the bus with her after school, and she said she wanted to go home. Changed is very difficult for her, but she always likes the outcome. I think she just misses her friends.

We’ve spent a bit of time trying to get our papers in order. This is necessary to have residency as well as be able to receive our boat shipment when it comes. We drove about 30 minutes, out to the industrial area of Dalian to turn in our forms, and they rejected our physicals that we got in Portland because our doctor didn’t have an “official” seal (which is important in Chinese culture). We had to come back, get new physicals (including blood work and an x-ray of the lungs), and then go back to finish our paper work. I’m sure there is a light bulb joke in there somewhere!

Our apartment is gorgeous! A small forest was sacrificed for the sake of the furniture, moldings and floors. The moldings and doors are solid wood with hand carvings and very ornate. There are two huge wood pillars in the living room, plus a large wood carving which makes it more like a museum than a home. The floor seems to be a fairly soft wood (probably rosewood) and highly polished. It feels a bit like stepping onto an ice rink when you only have socks on. The furniture is very large and modern, but there is plenty of space for it. We were going to have Saylor and Lanie share a bedroom, with Addison and Coleman each having their own, but the girls all decided to share a room with a king size bed. The spare bedroom is just waiting for you!

I have to qualify the quality of our apartment by saying that there are things that aren’t done well. There aren’t any traps on the plumbing pipes in either of the bathrooms, so unsavory smells linger. From the bathrooms, we also can smell cigarette smoke from other apartments. When the kitchen fan is on, it exacerbates the problem. Our washing machine leaks, so there is water damage from not keeping the floor dry.

We’ve been eating so much good food it feels sinful. The only problem is that we eat so much and so often, that I’ve never really been hungry when we sit down for a meal. The kids have been very adventurous trying such things as conch, scallops with all their organs, squid (already a favorite), all kinds of pastries, street food, Peking duck, steamed breads, and various greens. As we wait for our boat and air shipments, we are limited on what we can cook at home. I just bought a wok yesterday and was able to make a soup with the duck bones from the Peking duck (they offered the bones – I didn’t even have to ask!) and fry eggs for breakfast (with chopsticks).

Mark and I also thought we’d be able to get more fit while we are here because we’d eat less sugar and fat and walk more. Although we probably do get to walk more, there are so many more tempting sweets than the last time we were here (ice cream cone for $.15-$.30). We can also get just about any American comfort that we want (or can’t live without) within walking distance. At the grocery store, we can buy olive oil, Land O’Lakes cheese (even our favorite co-jack), bread, butter, pizza, Pringles and other western treats, although it is expensive. If we decide we can’t live without a western style mattress, we can buy one across the street (we are still holding out). The prices on a lot of Chinese things such as eating in a restaurant, clothes, and groceries and supplies in a supermarket have gone up, too. Things that are still inexpensive are street food, taxis, and the Chinese bargaining markets.

Mark’s company has been very good to us. Since we landed in Dalian, there has always been someone helping us get settled. There are two company cars, and both were at the airport to help us with luggage and transportation. Human resource personnel helped us shop for things we needed immediately (potable water, cleaning, kitchen and bathroom supplies). They negotiated with our landlords when the apartment wasn’t left in the condition Mark had agreed on (the fridge was moldy, there was no piano, and no method of hanging clothes to dry). We’ve also been grateful for Itochu’s help in getting the kids’ school uniforms and supplies and helping the kids get settle into school. As I said earlier, we couldn’t have gotten all the paperwork done efficiently without the company’s help.

Mark had three really good friends from his time in Dalian in the 1990s. Two of them are in North American (Los Angeles and Toronto), making their way with the English they learned at the Language school, Da Wai, where we all met. The only one to stay in China, HongBo is still here in Dalian. We’ve gotten to know his wife, YuLing and their son, ChenChen. They, too, have been generous with their time, helping us get settled. ChenChen is 17 months old and very cute. He is shy, so we’ve had to work extra hard to earn his friendship. YuLing and I spent an afternoon together, shopping for supplies and only needed to call Mark one time to help translate!

This morning, I was walking Alayna to her classroom and she somehow tripped over my foot and went splat on the hard floor. I picked her dead weight off the ground and held her while she cried. I didn’t want her to cry, because I knew her class would think she was sad about being there. As soon as I shooed her off to class (because I still needed to take Saylor to her class), I realized that I must have strained a muscle in my back. I’ve never done that before, but it feels similar to back labor. I can’t even stand up straight, but hobble around like an old lady. I hope it doesn’t last too long.

I realize that I’m writing more than anybody cares to read, but I’ve decided that I should capture this moment while I still have the time. I’m always good about journaling when I’m at the start of a new experience, and then I stop. After the honeymoon period, my only incentive will be to have correspondence with all of our dear friends and family in the states. I have more time on my hands, now, because school hasn’t started for me. Next week, I will start classes at Da Wai. Addison leaves the house with Mark at 6:45 a.m. The younger kids go to school at 7:40, and I need to be at my school by 8:30. Coleman, Saylor and Alayna are done with school at 4:30 and Addison is done at 5:00 p.m.! As soon as our stuff arrives, I will be very busy.

Love to you all,

Marcie