Don't Make Eye Contact With the Tweens

I know it's a strange title for a Happy New Year post but that was the warning we received from multiple sources when preparing for New Year's Eve.  We live close to Nieuwmarkt and it evidently had a reputation for being the place where teenagers hung out to launch their fireworks and if you make eye contact with a teenager they might throw their firework at you. 

The fireworks started going off as soon as it was dark and we braved the neighborhood to see what the noise was all about and appreciating more the safety and warmth of hour apartment overlooking the canal.  Fireworks went off up to to midnight and a couple hours after.  We even got a good view of some just right outside our window. 

I guess a canal would be one of the safer places to launch fireworks.  We're happy to have this view.  It was a bit foggy New Year's Eve and I was fearing it'll be another year when we wouldn't see anything like our first NYE in Seattle.  It was a nice start to 2020 and we're looking forward to seeing what this new year brings.  Gelukkig nieuwjaar!

Sanders's on the Move

Dear Friends and Family,

Well, it's another blog entry so you know the news is big.  To spare those that don't have the time - WE'VE MOVED TO AMSTERDAM!"  For those with a bit more time you can read on.

It always seems that September is when we make our moves.  6 years ago we moved to Seattle and 4 years before that I moved to Beijing.

Scott received a great opportunity to work for Booking.com managing their corporate network and data centers - the way he explains it, he's doing the same thing that he did for Amazon except for a wider scope and with more people.  We've been looking for a chance to go abroad again so when this opportunity presented itself we figured we'd take it.  The timing couldn't be more than perfect since we were already planning on celebrating Scott's 40th birthday in Munich.  He'll get to start his first day at Booking less than a week after turning 40.

We've received alot more support moving here than we did moving to China, which was essentially just an offer to pay for the extra luggage.  Booking.com moved almost 800 employees to the Netherlands and came close to bringing over 1000 the year before so they have the system down with a department dedicated to supporting expats every step along the way and making sure partners are happy too.  

We still own our townhome in Seattle, but we took the bold step of not leaving anything behind in the US and had everything sold, donated, shipped by truck/boat, checked in our luggage or leant long-term to friends and family.  :)  It turns out we left the US exactly 6 years and 2 days after arriving in Seattle.  With our average of staying in one place for 6 years, maybe we'll stay in Amsterdam for another 6 years or maybe not - just don't wait too long to come visit us!

While Scott starts his new job, I'll try learning the language (although English is widely spoken here) and get our household set up.  I'm looking for another halau to continue dancing hula and maybe in time I'll find another job, possibly start a new career, and maybe start using social media again ... hehehe.

5 years can go by fast...

2017 has been quite the year - enough so that I thought since it's now the end of the year and I'm the worst at using social media and sharing what's going on in the Sanders household, I figured a blog post would be the best way to share everything that has happened.

The biggest event was the loss of my grandmother Chiyo Kamihara Kato (or Obaachan, as we called her).  She passed away in March after succumbing to her injuries from a fall she had at home.  She's always said she felt she had a good long life and I think that was evident from meeting all the people that came to her service.  More reassuring is that she's finally with my grandfather who I know she missed ever since he passed 46 years before her.  Still, Seattle just hasn't been the same without her - what I miss most is her laugh.

Biography from her program: Chiyo (Takeshita) Kamihara Kato was born January 19, 1924, as the fifth daughter to Haruji and Kuma Takeshita in Bellevue, Washington.  
The family grew berries and vegetables on their farm until they were moved to internment camp in 1942. First to the assembly center at Pinedale, California, Tule Lake and then Minidoka.  This is where Chiyo decided that she didn’t want to stay in camp.  She found a map, closed her eyes, and decided to go wherever her finger landed, which was Kansas City, Missouri.  Thru the War Relocation Assembly she was sent to live and work with the family of George and Ellen Hayward to help get breakfast ready.  The Haywards were able to send Chiyo to college and she joined a sorority and after graduating, she worked with Mr. Hayward at the Thompson & Hayward Chemical Plant.   
Chiyo returned to Seattle and married long-time family friend Kazuo Kamihara.  They had two daughters, Jean and Mary, and the family enjoyed clamming and picking berries and went mushroom hunting until Kaz passed away in 1971.   
She continued working as a loan officer until she had to retire due to health reasons.  She also volunteered as a Sunday school teacher and Girl Scout leader and held various officer positions with the Children's Hospital.
In 1987 she married Akira "Poison" Kato (passed 1992) and gained three sons – Phillip, Richard, and Eugene.  
She was a a gardener, quilter, amateur geologist, and world traveler.  She canned pickles and various fruits, made jams, and after Thanksgiving, her kitchen became a bakery and Chiyo would bake dozens of cookies and blueberry muffins, all to share with friends and family.  She could swing an axe into her 80's and until the end Chiyo made sure to keep the weeds out of her and her neighbors' gardens, and added every rock that “spoke to her” to her rock collection. She passed away on March 31, 2017.
She's survived by her daughters Jean Kamihara (Seattle) and Mary (Stuart) Takahara (Hawaii), sons Phillip Kato (Hawaii), Richard (Joy) Kato (Seattle), and Eugene (Shelley) Kato (Bellevue), grandchildren Maile (Scott) Sanders (Seattle),  Traci Takahara (California),  Russell Takahara (California), Tim Takahara (Japan), Erin Kato (Bellevue) and Cameron Kato (Bellevue), along with numerous nieces and nephews.

For those who don't know we're still living in Seattle and have been since 2013.  We bought a townhome in the Fremont neighborhood, which is centrally located for Scott to go to work at Amazon downtown and me to go to work at the University of Washington main campus.  To answer some other FAQ's: yes, Scott works long hours for Amazon but he's enjoying his work (he was recently promoted this year); no, we don't have any kids or pets; no, we don't know how much longer we're staying in Seattle; and yes, we're still traveling...

See the rest of our photos from our trip here.

2017 was an active travel year with two big international trips made this year.  In February the Takahara siblings plus significant others traveled to Japan to see Tim and the Sapporo Snow and Ice Festival.  Tim was in his fifth and final year with the JET program so we figured it's time to see him in case was heading home.  In the summer he was able to find a different program that kept him close to his JET assignment so he's still there for at least another year.  It's the first time I was in Japan since 2003 and it was great exploring old neighborhoods and seeing how things changed in Tokyo.  Of course I forgot all of the little Japanese I learned so it was good to have Tim to translate.  We all started in Tokyo then traveled north to Towada and then over to Hokkaido to Sapporo for the festival and of course some beer.

Scott took most of the 500 photos in this album.

Our next trip abroad took us to Israel and Jordan in November.  Wanting to go somewhere new, we decided to visit the Middle East and see all the places we heard about back in our church-going days including Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, and the Dead Sea.  While we were there we felt news reports of the region were overblown as we felt pretty safe walking the streets of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  Our two weeks were mostly based out of the two largest cities and we booked different tours a-la-cart to see other cities.  Most memorable (for the good and bad) was our trip to Jordan where we got to see the beauties of Petra and the desert Wadi Rum.  These were great sites to see but I wouldn't recommend booking through Tourist Israel or Fun Time.

For those of you on Facebook, you probably noticed the only recent photos of me are of me in a Hawaiian dress and wearing bright red lipstick.  To explain, I've been dancing hula for the past three years and one of our group's members is very good at documenting our performances and posting them online.  This year I got to perform in my first bi-annual ho'ike which is like a recital for our hula school and most of my family and Scott's family came up to see it.  It was great to see our two years of work come to life and perform with all my hula sisters.

I think that raps up the year for us.  2017 truly had its ups and downs but we appreciate the time we've had with friends and family.  We hope 2018 continues to bring us new adventures and brings you all good health and happiness wherever you are.

- Maile and Scott

A Relaxing Trip

I can't believe I've been in Europe for over two weeks (for Scott, it's been a month) - it's been going by really fast.  Despite how fast the time has gone by, the trip is actually relaxing, slow pace.  We're not rushing from site to site to see everything.  Scott and I were last in London six or so years ago and we got to see most of the major sites then.  This trip we've been able to focus on the smaller sites and experiencing the day-to-day life: commuting to work, shopping in the local grocery store and yarn shops, watching a movie, and people watching from a coffee shop.

We are in Europe though and we did have to see some sites.  In Dublin, it was the Old Jameson Distillery, Guinness Brewery, and Newgrange (Europe's older, smaller version of Egypt's pyramids).  In England, it was Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and this weekend the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour!  Oh, and I guess there's this thing called the Olympics happening this weekend so we'll try to catch a glimpse of that too.  =P

Still living in China but this time, blogging from England

Hello all (if anyone is still following!)  I'm still alive and living in China.  It's just been a relatively busy year and with some recent developments, I decided I had something worthwhile to post.

Now that I've been in Beijing for almost three years, nothing seems exciting enough to post, but something is probably better than nothing.

We're in England for a month this summer!  We've been fortunate to have many travel opportunities for Scott's work this year.  In May we were in India and now we're in England and tonight, on our way to Ireland.

While in Reading, England we had the privilege of seeing the Olympic torch pass by.  The London Olympics start in 16 short days and we hope we'll be able to see an event.  If not, it's just exciting to be in the same city as the Olympics for the second time.

More pictures

I posted some more pictures from Seattle and Taipei (finally!).  I of course have more from Seattle but I'm working on sorting through them.  Can't believe I've been in Seattle for one month and I'll be back in Beijing before I know it.

Seattle for the Summer

A last-minute trip decision now has me in Seattle for the summer.  It's nice to escape the hot and humid Beijing weather and I'm probably more helpful to my aunt and grandmother than I am in Beijing.  I'll still be working on my English lessons only more remotely and I'll get to spend some time with family and friends.  Our friend Jen has been in Seattle for work and I've been able to catch up with her before she returns to California.  We took a drive out to the Olympic Peninsula, but didn't go as far as Forks, which has become a popular destination amongst Twilight fans.  We did however have dinner at Bella Italia where the characters Edward and Bella had their first date (or so I've been told).

Escape to Taipei

After almost saying for two years I'll visit Taipei, I finally did.  Unfortunately Scott couldn't go, but that's because he had his only travel plans to Singapore and the Land Down Under for work so no need to feel bad for him.  He took my point-and-shoot camera and his assignment was to take pictures too, so we'll see what he takes and I'll share.  

The main reason for the trip was my good friend Emily and her husband Adam were visiting Adam's brother and family in Taipei for a last-minute trip.  I hadn't seen Emily since my wedding 2 years ago and my trips back to the US didn't line up with hers as she and Adam had been in Ecuador during the majority of that time working for the Peace Corps.  Now they're done and Adam will starting grad school this coming fall so it was perhaps the best chance for us to meet up in a while.  It was wonderful to see both of them.

Taipei was a nice break from China.  People are polite and the city is clean.  It brought back some old memories of Tokyo especially with all the cute shops and restaurants it had, so maybe you can call it a less expensive version of Tokyo where everyone spoke Mandarin instead of Japanese.  Everyday I took advantage of two things I don't get a lot of in Beijing - boba and donuts!  Yes, we have donut shops here, but Beijing doesn't have Mr. Donut's pon-de-rings or Dunkin' Donut's mochi donuts that Scott and I fell in love with during our mini tour through Japan eight years ago.

We visited Taipei 101, Shilin Night Market, a flower market, the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial, and National Palace Museum; rode the Maokong gondolas; and ate at a toilet-themed restaurant where the chairs were toilets and the food was served in mini-toilets.  It was a short 4-day trip, perhaps long enough to see the main sights and short enough to want to go back.

I'll post the rest of the pictures shortly...

Spring Travelling

What do I do when Scott goes on a two-week business trip without me?  Go on a trip of my own!  While Scott heads to Singapore, Perth, and then Sydney, this week I'll get to spend a few days in Taiwan with my good friend Emily and her husband Adam.  Taiwan has always been on our list of places to go but with the timing of Scott's trip and Emily's it's a great time to go.  Scott will just have to go on his own sometime (or I can tag along for a second trip...hehe).  Spring has brought a good many trips for us.  First we went to Xi'an with Scott's sister and then Sichuan for our anniversary and now these next trips.  On that note, perhaps it's a good time I post some entries and photos from those trips...

Sarah's visit

<-- Sarah was frequently stopped by people who wanted to take a picture with her.  It was like I was with a celebrity!

It was nice to have someone to finally take around Beijing.  It's almost been a year since my brothers were here and since then I've found other cool parts in the city I've wanted to show someone.  While Scott worked we girls played around Peking University, Old Summer Palace, Olympic Park, Hutong Cooking Class, we got manicures and pedicures, had wings at Hooters, danced away at Ladies' Night at Club Vics, Ming Tombs, Mutianyu Great Wall, and Lama Temple.  We still had plenty to do with Scott: foot massages, drink an erguotou, Tienanmen Square, Maliandao Tea Market, Houhai and of course Xi'an.

Scott has been to Xi'an before but with the Olympics and other international events hosted in China, Xi'an has made itself more tourist-friendly since Scott last visited almost 10 years ago.  It isn't a trip to Xi'an without seeing the Terracotta Warriors.  Seeing row after row of uncovered statues over 2000 years old is amazing and luckily they haven't uncovered all of them.  There's still more to reveal once they develop the technology to preserve the statues' paint that currently fades shortly after it's exposed to the air.


We ventured out of the city and found a tour to Huashan (Mount Hua/Flower).  Huashan is sometimes known for its dangerous walking paths and there were a few spots I can see why it developed this reputation.  I can't imagine climbing the mountain during the winter.  We took a cable car up to the top and had great views of the mountain.  There's also the option of walking up but not many people choose this route.  Luckily the cherry blossoms were in bloom and I got some great shots of the blossoms with the background of the mountain.



Sichuan

We took a tour to the region of Sichuan with the China Culture Center.  We've taken day tours with them before and this was our first outside of Beijing tour we took with them.  CCC didn't disappoint.  The majority of the meals they picked for us were great and the tour was run smoothly.  The people in our tour group came from a variety of backgrounds with a good number living in Beijing because they work for their respective embassies.  The highlight was of course seeing the pandas.  The panda reserve in Ya'an is like the San Diego zoo except the only animal there was the panda.  We lucked out with some cool weather so the pandas were awake and active.  The cutest pandas were the toddlers in their panda kindergarten.  For a donation, I even got to take a picture next to a panda.  He was much bigger than I had expected so I was somewhat happy he was occupied with the carrot they gave him.  The only negative was that I only got 30 seconds to sit with the panda and I'm pretty sure my actual time with it was less than that.

Scott's taking a camera with him on his trip and I'm taking my new SLR to Taiwan so we'll have more stories and pictures after we get back...

The Search for Internet

So my latest excuse for not posting is the difficulty we've had over the past weeks accessing the internet.  Coincidentally our internet at our foreigner-filled apartment complex started going in and out (mostly out) shortly after the government announced a new office that manages Internet information.

This week I had my final for an accounting class and I needed to find a reliable connection.  I tried taking a test last week and half-way through I lost my connection and the class website wouldn't let me log back in because it only allows students to log-in once to an exam.  

My search for the Internet took me across the city - 

From our apartment on the northwest part of the city, I thought I'd first try going to a small street in the middle of Beijing that has some cafés I've been intending on trying.  Unfortunately when I arrived at 10am I found out that nothing on that street opened until 11.  So I walked 20 minutes to another pedestrian street and finally found a café with free Wi-fi.  Unfortunately they didn't have food so at this point of day I am running on a peach and an iced hazelnut mocha that ended up being a disappointment.  

Feeling hungry I thought I'd go to Fat Burger which is in the northeast part of Beijing, but by the time I walked to the nearest bus station, waited 15 minutes for the bus not to show, and ride a taxi, I didn't have enough time to really eat if I wanted to arrive to my photography class on time (more on that later).  So I caught a bus and then transferred to another bus to arrive at my photography class located in southeast Beijing.  Still not having anything to eat, I got another iced mocha before class began.  This iced mocha was no better than the first so at 2pm my food intake is 1 peach and two bad tasting iced mochas.

After class I headed toward Sanlitun (east Beijing) which has three Starbucks with a block of each other.  I figured at least one will have a table next to a power outlet for my laptop and a reliable Internet connection.  One of my classmates so happens to live in Sanlitun and so we traveled there via subway together.  When we arrived, she kindly invited me to her house for some espresso and I figured why not since I was half curious to know what types of apartment other foreigners lived.  Her place is very nice and spacious, but this would be expected I guess for a diplomat's family with three small children.  After an hour I thought I should get going to find my Internet.  My classmate then told me about this bookstore that she goes to for studying, and when I arrived I found a big table next to a power strip and thought I was set, I have found my spot.  I ordered some food for dinner and maybe 40 minutes later, I was told to move out because they need to set up for an event that was supposed to happen on the roof but was moved because of the rain.  Not finding a good spot I decided to walk out in the rain and walk to the Starbucks close to the subway station.  I figured if it was crowded (and it was) I can just continue on to the subway to go home.  Since the Starbucks was crowded I got onto the subway because with the rain it was near impossible to find an available cab.  By this time it's 6:30pm, right in the middle of rush hour so it was an uncomfortable, hot ride home reminiscent of the days in a squished train in Tokyo.  Needless to say I was very happy to arrive home, crank up the air conditioner and watch the season finales of America's Next Top Model and Smallville.  I figured I deserved a break and left my search for Internet to continue the following day.

Friday 3pm was the deadline to finish my accounting exam (we had a 24 hour window) so when my cleaning lady was a little late than usual, I got nervous.  As soon as she arrived, I left to jump into a cab and return to Sanlitun.  I decided to go to the newest Starbucks, which is spacious and usually empty.  I arrive and I find the perfect table next to a power outlet.  I order my Iced Venti Vanilla Americano and a sandwich, sit on my table only to have a staff member kindly tell me that there's going to be an event in the section I sat in.  Luckily there was another table available (although smaller) where I could start my test.  During my test, their event began (I think it was a orientation for new hires) and they were a bit noisy so the staff apologized and gave me a coupon for a free tall drink.  Luckily the internet held and I was able to finish my test. 

So as I mentioned earlier I'm taking a photography class with the Beijing Center of Photography.  Scott gave me a nice SLR camera for our anniversary so I figured the least I can do is take a class to learn how to use it properly.  Hopefully this means more interesting and quality photos in the future.  Here are some pictures I took from Jingshan Hill which has a nice view into the Forbidden City.

(above) view facing into the Forbidden City
(below) view facing North Beijing

Our New (4-month old) Apartment

Here are some pictures of our new apartment.  Scott was tired of working and living within 5 minutes walking distance so we moved one subway stop away to the university-student-filled Wudaokou.  Given the location, for the same rent we were paying (roughly $1000/mo) we had to get something smaller, but that's okay because it's only the two of us.  When we were looking for our apartments, we came across a few two-bedrooms that somehow managed to squeeze 6-8 people in it.

Anyway, back to our apartment.  It's a two bedroom, one bathroom maybe 800(?) square feet.  Aside from the location, my favorite thing about our new place is the kitchen because it's part of the apartment and insulated from the outside elements, so this winter I wasn't cooking in a 50 degree kitchen.  One thing I'm still trying to work out is our hot water.  One day it works great and another not so much.  I'm not sure if it's because our water heater isn't working or I'm not patient enough.

Sarah enjoyed the hard bed otherwise she can vouch that our couch is quite comfortable in case anyone wants to drop by.  =)

Update on our old place: There was a fire in the floor below the one we lived on.  From what we can see on the outside of the building, the fire wouldn't have gotten our place but we definitely would've had some major smoke.

Front entrance that goes into our dining room; kitchen on right.  The kitchen has sliding glass doors around it, which I don't know what to use for.

Living room that you see when you walk in through the front door.  The area between the yellow curtains is like a sun room that looks into the complex's central courtyard.

Bathroom that has also serves as our laundry room.  So in the left corner when you walk into the bathroom there's our washer/dryer, in the next corner is a shower with a Jerry-rigged shower curtain, next to that is the toilet, and in the right corner as you enter the bathroom is the sink.  This is more like a typical Chinese bathroom.

Master bedroom - the picture is a bit strange because I used a stitching software to piece the pictures I took, but I people can get the basic idea. 

Guest Bedroom / Scott's office.  Scott's computer set-up (one desktop and two laptops) is at the foot of this bed. 

Spring is Here (and halfway over)!

I can't believe winter has already come and went and I've been doing such a "wonderful" job keeping this blog up-to-date.  Oh well…. real quickly on what has happened these last couple months in the 'Jing:

Chinese New Year was relatively low-key for us.  No fireworks blowing up at us like last year.  We had a relatively successful batch of jiaozi thanks to the cooking class I took and lots of fireworks to keep us awake at night.  Our new apartment faces into a courtyard so all the fireworks were amplified as they echoed between the buildings.  They're always cool to watch though and since our new apartment is on the 12th floor, the fireworks exploded right in front of our living room window.  As tradition we went to one of the city's many temple fairs.  I posted some pictures of what we saw.  We went to a smaller temple fair this year so it wasn't as crowded and plus it had a stage for some performances.

Our first snow finally came on February 10th, much later than the November snow we had in 2009.  I took the opportunity to go to the Summer Palace and take some pictures.  There's something beautiful about bright red buildings covered with snow.  It was during the week so I was surprised with the number of other people that were there but like me, they all had their cameras and snapped away.  The coolest part about the Summer Palace was the lake was completely frozen.  Despite the signs that said don't go on the lake, I did, and walked straight across.  There were many other Chinese people on the lake so I figured if I fell through, someone could rescue me.   

For Valentine's Day, Scott got me the biggest bouquet of roses I've ever seen with almost 100 stems.  The flower delivery service he used has their people deliver their in clown outfits.  When I first heard the doorbell I ignored it figuring it was someone trying to sell me something.  But after a few more knocks, I looked out the door and there was the clown!  100 roses is pretty heavy so I wonder how many the poor clown had to deliver that day.  In true Chinese style they make their deliveries on bike.  We saw a couple of them when we went out that night.

So that was pretty much our winter.  I've been staying in doors working on my lesson plans and Scott has been busy with work. 

-------------

Sidenote: I had this story written up and intended to post it three weeks ago!  But since then we've had Scott's sister Sarah visit us so I'm now just putting this up.  I have pictures of Sarah's stay that I'll post soon as well as pictures of our new apartment…

Back in Beijing

In preparation for the Chinese New Year, where the traditional first meal should be jiaozi (dumplings), I took a cooking class in one of the hutong homes in Beijing (http://hutongcuisine.com).  The main cook was in Italy for vacation so her brother and sister took over her teaching duties.  Overall impression was I enjoyed learning the nuances of Chinese spices and the marketplace but their teaching techniques were sometimes brutal, although perhaps not as bad as the Tiger Mom.  Many times they would tell me and the other girl taking the class, "No, stop, you're doing it wrong! Do it like this!" and they quickly take over the task we were apparently not completing to their standards.  The other girl from the class said their sister was much nicer so I'll consider going back for a future lesson.  In the brother and sister's defense rolling out the perfect jiaozi wrapper is difficult and if not done properly can lead to filling pouring out and ruining the dish so it's not something that should be taken lightly; but a little patience would've been appreciated.  In any case, I now have a recipe in hand so I'll try my hand at my own batch this New Year's.

The girl I took the class with was nice.  She's a student from New Jersey and will be leaving Beijing in a couple of days after spending her holidays here for an internship.  The kicker though was a conversation we had on our way to the subway station after class.
Me: What year are you?
Girl: I'm a sophomore. Were you in college, like, years ago?
Me: Sure… I guess you can say it's been a few years. I graduated in 2004.
Girl: Okay yeah, because you look like you've been out of college for a while, I mean, you look the same age as my brother.
Sheesh, talking about feeling old!  The Beijing pollution must've really done a number on my skin. =P

Anyway, we're obviously back in Beijing after spending almost a month in the States.  I'm pretty sure I gained at least 10 pounds from all of the cooking my mom did and the great places we ate at while we visited Seattle. For those we didn't get to see here are some of the answers to some FAQs.
Q: When are you coming back?
A: Not sure, we're waiting for the economy to get better and wait for the right opportunity.  There's been a lot of growth and opportunities in China so it makes sense for us to be there right now.

Q: Maile, what are you doing to pass the time?
A: I found a part-time job providing voice recordings for an English school; they're sort of like sample lesson plans for non-native-English-speaking teachers to use.  I've been keeping myself busy with online accounting and Chinese classes.

Q: Maile, how is your Chinese?
A: Not very good but I think my listening skills have improved. I still rely on Scott to do the translating.

Teaching Part 2

Meeting up with people I remembered there was a story I hadn't shared on the blog about a second experience I had teaching.  Each class is divided into two 50 minute segments with a 10 minute break in the middle.  During one of the classes, the kids were already seated before the break was over so I figured I'd give them an opportunity to ask me questions.  A boy quickly rose his hand and asked, "Why are your eyes so small?"  And yes, let me remind you that I was teaching a class of Chinese children who all had small eyes.  So my response was, "Why are your eyes so small?" and I went on to the next child.

What I've learned is that for some Chinese, it boggles their mind for someone who looks like them to say they're American.  To them, Americans don't look like me and I think especially with kids it's a difficult concept to grasp.  It was a cute story though and Scott had a good laugh when I told it to him.

Another thing I learned is that kids can also be brutally honest.  One nice girl asked me how old I was and then the last question I took was "Why are you so fat?"  Haha I guess it's a wake-up call to start that diet again especially after my trip back to the States.  I'm currently in Redlands and my mom timed her visit to "the mainland" from Hawaii at the same time so she's been cooking non-stop.  Here's our menu -
Saturday - shabu shabu (Japanese hot pot)
Sunday - sweet & sour port and long rice
Monday lunch - short ribs and inari sushi
Tuesday - lasagna
Wednesday - pot roast

I'll definitely miss her cooking when we go back to Beijing.  Cooking can be fun but usually when there's more people (for a few nights we had 7 people at home for dinner).  Maybe I'll get around to finally taking those Chinese cooking classes.

Changing address

So in case there's anyone that keeps track of addresses out there, please remove the address at Tai Yang Yuan from your book.  We're looking to move so any mail that arrives in China after mid-December might not get to us.  Scott's work address is always a reliable place to get stuff to us (well, 85% of the time).  They at least have a receptionist there that can coordinate deliveries. 

After living within 5 minutes walking distance from work for the past few years, Scott is ready for a change in scenery.  We're hoping we'll find a place in the more happening part of Beijing in Wudaokou.  It's only one subway stop away from where we're living now so it won't be that much of a change.  I'm not even sure if Scott can still consider it much of a commute when the majority of other people in this city have at least a one hour commute - his will still be under 20 minutes. 

Anyway, as soon as we have info about our new diggs, I'll post it.  Maybe I'll even post pictures but knowing me, it takes me a couple of months so maybe you can expect some by February 2010.  =)

Year One Pictures - finally!

I figured out a way to post pictures non-manually so they're loading as I type.  It only took me a few months to figure it out. =P  There's 355 pictures - one for almost every day of Year 1.  Enjoy!  I'm especially proud of the mapping I did so you can get a sense of where the pictures were taken.

Playing teacher

So the lady I do book recordings for needed a substitute for her Tuesday and Thursday classes.  At first I didn't want to but eventually I gave in.  We figured it would be good experience for me - I'd have a better idea of how her classes are run and therefore improve the quality of my recordings.  First of all, let me give a shout out to all the teachers I know.  I now fully recognize that work doesn't start and stop when the students sit in there seats.  There's alot of prep work involved.  For me, prepping for class included memorizing a story about a monkey and a crocodile, the story about King Midas and then practicing pausing and playing a movie at the right time so I can add some commentary.  Probably nothing difficult compared to teachers back home but still. 

There were a couple moments when I blanked out and forgot what I was supposed to say next or perhaps used a more complicated word than what I was supposed to but my boss seemed impressed and invited me to teach a future class during the next semester.  So we'll see.  It can be nervous though not because of the 12 or so kids I had to entertain but because the entire class was being recorded.  Evidently all the kids (and therefore their parents) get an audio copy of the class so they can play it back and review what happened.  The parents were probably also eager to find out if the substitute teacher was actually a native English speaker.  I got some funny looks when the parents dropped off their kids with the occasional "She's an American" explanation coming from my boss.  I even had a kid come up to me and ask multiple times if I was Chinese (in Chinese).  I would just respond in English that I cannot speak Chinese and that he should be using more of his English.  When the kids aren't punching each other and screaming they can be quite cute. 

The lady that runs the school though is pretty straight with me.  She recognizes that parents are very much focused on what the teacher looks like and not whether or not they're competent in English.  If asked I'm to tell them that I'm American (no need to mention the Japanese part) and that I have teaching experience.  Since I technically taught four classes, I guess I wouldn't be lying.  So we'll see, this coming Spring I might be teaching more regularly and I can add teacher to my resume.

My funny husband / Counting somewhere

So as everyone knows Scott has been here for a little more than three years and I've been here a little over one.  And as those who follow this blog or studied with me in Japan know foreign languages are not my strong suit.  So when my husband tells the census people (in Chinese, no less) to return the next day when his wife is home, I could only draw two conclusions of what was going through his head.
1) The most flattering - "My wife's Chinese language skills are much better than mine.  She'll be better suited to deal with these people."
2) The most likely - "I had a long day at work and I don't feel like dealing with you people right now.  Better to come back tomorrow - my wife has more patience for this type of stuff."
Luckily the people returned the next day with someone who spoke English but still, when he first told me that people were going to stop by the next day conveniently while he was at work, I could only laugh.

Anyway, I think it's kinda neat we're included in a census somewhere.  For obvious reasons we weren't included in the US's 2010 census but we're counted here in China.  For the first time they're including foreigners in their head count but even when they come up with an official number, people have their doubts that it'll be close to the actual figure.  The tricky part is they have large migrant population so locating them and getting their information is probably futile.  Oh, also I got a neat little collapsible laundry basket (kinda like the ones we used in college) for participating in the census.  Maybe if they handed out free stuff in the US, people would be more willing to give up all of their personal information... probably not.  For the census here, they asked us the following questions - name, birth year and month, highest level of education, purpose for being in China, and the length of time we were here.  Again, it's kinda neat to be counted somewhere with the added bonus of a souvenir to commemorate the what-turned-out-to-be uneventful visit.

US Embassy

I went to the US Embassy today because Scott needed more pages in his passport. If only I had gone a few months earlier, it would've been free but now they charge $82! The process was pretty quick though and only had to stick around for an hour. While I was waiting, an 85-year-old woman came into the office because she lost her passport. The poor woman was traveling by herself! Evidently it was her 12th visit to China but after this incident she said she's never coming back. I wouldn't blame her. I myself don't tend to go back and visit a place more than once so coming to China 12 times is amazing. Kudos to her for traveling solo at the age of 85 too. She seemed pretty sharp so hopefully it all worked out for her.

Her story reminded me of the time I forgot Scott and my passports in the hotel safe in Amsterdam. We made it all the way to the tip of Holland ready to jump on a boat and cross the channel to England when we realized that we didn't have them. Luckily the passports were still in the safe when we got back to Amsterdam but if they weren't, I might not be alive today to tell the tale... haha.

Studying Chinese

So Scott and I went to a CCC class that taught us some of the lingo to get a foot massage. Being here for 3 years Scott is already a pro and has his favorite spot close to where we live but I dragged him along anyway. Besides, what's an hour-long lesson when you know you get a foot massage afterward? So when (or if) anybody comes out to Beijing, I'll at least have my handy booklet to say, "Ouch, the water is too hot!" or "Can you work that spot a little bit more?"

This weekend was also my 10-year high school reunion. 10 years has definitely gone by fast. I'm a little bummed that I couldn't go but I'm sure 2020 will be here before I know it. Go wildcats!