More Accurate

This may actually be a more accurate representation of the two of us than the previous picture.

New Family Photo

This family photo was taken up at Redfish Lake in Idaho in August, jus before we came to China.

Prize Winning Dish

This is the "best" dish I saw at the Chinese restaurant from the previous post. I hope you can read the caption. It says, "Stewed black chicken with fungus and edible scorpion." Yours for just 328 RMB, or roughly $50!

"You are my everything. I am so ashamed of my vocabulary."

Austin and I started Chinese class a week and a half ago. It's amazing how many gaps in my knowledge have been filled already. I mean, of course, I didn't know anything about Chinese before I came. But as I've mentioned, I've learned a few things in the marketplaces. But already in just a week and a half I know more of the detail words that I used to just leave out—now I can ask what things are called and even have a better idea of what they're saying when they answer. (Of course I still have to write it down so I can look it up when I get home, but it's a step in the right direction.) Our teacher is good, patient, and has a good sense of humour. The class consists of me, Austin, our friend Carrie, a Russian girl named Yekaterina, and a Ukranian named Sergei. (I think that is such a cool name. If only I were Russian, I would name my son Sergei!) (Or Nikolai. That is a cool name too.)

Little things are still impressing me. I was at the grocery store looking at the serve-yourself rice. The other ladies around me were picking it up, sifting it thru their hands, looking closely at it, and one lady even picked up a kernel and tasted it. What on earth were they looking for? I looked at the lady who tasted the rice inquisitively as if to say, “Is this the good stuff?” She nodded, so I scooped up a bag. Maybe some day I'll know what makes rice good or not. (PS I think I found the right noodles for Lo Mein—just need to figure out the best way to cook them!)

Also small and insignificant to most: the cleaning products here have a different set of scents. Instead of pine and citrus, they smell more like incense and patchouli. Who'd have even thought that there would be a difference?

My mother-in-law, Gwen, was in town for about a week and a half, and it was fun to spend time with her—especially to let Carson spend time with her. She was a great help in getting us set up for our work and school schedules. She helped us both get bikes (hooray!) and took Carson a couple of times when I had to run off to class. Always nice to have family around. In fact, any visitors would continue to be welcome so start checking out plane ticket prices now!

The Friday Gwen was here, Logan took us all out to eat at a fancy Chinese restaurant with a stage. They exhibit a sampling of all the types of entertainment you can find in Beijing: Chinese Opera, Kung Fu, Face Changers, Magic shows, dancers, actrobats, and the like. The restaurant also featured the strangest cuisine I have yet seen. For example: Braised Goose Head, Edible Scorpions, Donkey Meat, Duck Tongue, and Sea Cucumber cooked up any old way you want it. If you want it. Why would you want it? To me these are all foods that, yeah, you could probably eat. But if you're not starving and desperate for sustenance, why would you want to? Having said that, Logan ordered for us all and found some gems on the menu. So we dined on tasty Chinese dumplings, noodles, Kung Pao chicken, barbequed pork, a spinach pyramid and several other yummy veggies, fried shrimp rolls, um, what else? It was all delicious. And the show was pretty amazing too. I think the Face Changer was my favorite act. I have no idea how he changed his masks/faces so quickly!

Also while Gwen was here, we had tickets to an event at the China Open Tennis Tournament. We saw a Polish girl play a French girl, and then a Russian doubles team play a Chinese team. The Chinese team was ruthless, and it was pretty cool to be in a stadium full of Chinese people cheering for their own. “Jiayou! Jiayou! Jiayou!” The China Open also gave me my first experience with squatting toilets. I have to say, for all the negative connotations that concept carries, it really wasn't that bad. In fact, don't most of us try to avoid touching a toilet seat in a public restroom anyway? These were even automatic-flush squat-pots! I walked in, took care of business, walked out again without ever touching a thing—besides the lock on the door (although I've since been to where people don't even touch that--“Oops, excuse me!”). Not as bad an experience as we would like to think.

In closing, when we return from China, I need to go to a Spanish speaking country again. Or maybe even a German speaking country. SOMEwhere with a foreign language I can already speak a little bit. When we were in Mexico 2 years ago, I was afraid to talk to anyone, even when I knew the basic words for what I needed. I was afraid they'd think I was stupid or be offended by wrong words or improper pronunciation. Now that I've been forced to use a foreign language to survive, I'm not nearly as paranoid about that anymore. Spanish would be a CINCH compared to this language!

(PS The title comes from the cover of my friend's notebook. You see totally awesome nothings like this written in English everywhere—t-shirts, advertisements, school supplies. It's pretty awesome.

"Austin, I am the Lord."

We're approaching the end of Harvest Festival break—8 days of no school and no work—starting with China's 60th Anniversary celebration that I told you about last week. Tomorrow, life in the real world starts up again, but this past week we have spent the time enjoying some blessed days of freedom.

On Saturday, Austin's mother landed Beijing. Having recently become an Empty Nester, and also having her husband gone for a week-long business trip, she decided that the house was too quiet and it was time to visit her grandkids in China. We're so glad she's here. We get to keep her until next Wednesday. All the kids have had a lot of fun playing with her and learning from her.

In preparation for her coming, Austin and I decided that maybe we should buy a foam pad for our other bed. The mattresses here in China are quite hard (think cardboard on a box-spring), so we bought a thick foam pad to put on our mattress. We left Carson's bed alone because we figured he's light enough that it wouldn't matter. But as petite as my mother-in-law is, we figured she could would probably appreciate a little more cushion on her bed than Carson was willing to put up with. So we headed to Dong Jiao Market.

The Market is now my favorite place. Just two weeks ago, on our first visit, I was still scrambling to learn basic vocabulary and numbers. Plus, I had no idea how to bargain. In America, you pretty much just buy things according to the price tag. At the Market, you almost never pay the original asking price. If you do, you're probably a sucker. It's taken some work to make that mental shift. But now my vocabulary has expanded from the two phrases “How much” and “Too expensive”, to “How much per __”; “I want __”; “I don't want__”; “Do you have __”; “Can you fix __”; “Wait a minute.”; and my numbers recognition and usage has soared. So now I think shopping and bargaining in a market is a lot of fun. (As a side note, I don't think American's have entirely lost the ability to bargain. We just call it “sale-shopping.”)

My favorite thing about the market (any market) is all the stuff! Seriously. Stalls and stalls and rows and rows of almost anything you can think of! Kitchen, bathroom, and office supplies; furniture; clothing; toys; fruit—oh, the mounds of fruit!; bedding; sewing repairs; meat; spices; bicycles. You name it. I mean, most of it's probably not the best quality. It's probably like shopping in a WalMart. Except that instead of having to travel all the way from WalMart to Target to Fred Meyer to find the best price, you just go from the first stall to the one next door and then to the one across the aisle and then buy what you want from the guy with the best price. And if you're really good, you can get them to duke the pricing out amongst each other to get you the best deal. Perhaps some of you, like Austin, have spent time in a 3rd World country and think this is no big deal. But for me, this is awesome. So far, we have bought a bike and baby-seat, two foam mattress, a rug, a mop, a great, big mixing bowl, and various quantities of fruits and nuts for less than $150 total. (If only we were making an American salary instead of a Chinese salary. We could live like kings!)

The title to this Dispatch comes from a funny phone call from our landlord. Betty is the English name of our landlord. She speaks good English. Her husband, “Reynaldo”, learned to speak Spanish at University many years ago, but also speaks a little English. Austin has tried to speak Spanish with him, but as limited as his English is, he still seems more comfortable using it. So, even though Betty speaks better English, Reynaldo is usually the one who communicates with us. Two days ago, Austin received a phone call, and the Chinese voice on the other end says, “Hello? Austin? This is the Lord.” “The landlord?” “Yes, the lord!”

And finally, some exciting news (from my twisted linguistic mind): I saw two deaf people signing to each other in the park last week—and it looks like the Chinese may use American Sign Language! So maybe those skills won't be totally useless afterall. If only I knew some deaf people here...