Halloween Party

This is the boss at the school Carl works at, Andy.

Carl

Chanley, Andy's daughter

Debora

DJ and her friend

Eric, another teacher

Frank, one of the staff at the school

Fred and Ilinka, teachers

Gabe, another teacher

Things in Beijing leading up to Halloween party

DJ wanted me to record her singing the Twinkle Twinkle song that she learned in school.

DJ thought this was a seat.

This is one way to watch TV.

This is the new bike that Susan got.

Beijing Mutianyu Great Wall of China

Waiting for the subway early in the morning to start our trip to the Great Wall.

This is Linda, another teacher at the school I work at. Several of us went together to the Great Wall.

You have to get up very early to beat the crowd on the subway. It was and hour ride on the subway.

 

Another hour and a half on the bus. And 45 more minutes by taxi to get to the Great Wall.

It had always been a dream of mine to eat a sandwich at the Great Wall. We bought Subway sandwiches at the base and walked up the steep hill past the vendors to take a cable car up to the wall. Because we had DJ with us, we did not go down the steep steps on either side of the section of wall we were on and reversed the process to go home.

This wasn't the best air quality day. It is best to go right after a good rain.

Rule 2 - No scratching.

Saying goodbye on National Day.

We took my parents to the airport and saw them off.

The only way to get DJ to stop crying was to take this picture.

After we saw them off, we went to snack street where Suzanne and I had fried scorpion and starfish, and she had fried seahorse. This was a first for both of us and a last for me. We did have pictures, but they accidentally got deleted, so you will never see this from me.

It was China's National Day, which is like America's Independence Day. Many Chinese have the whole week off and travel to be with family. Beijing's population must have increased by at least 25 percent. Wangfujing snack street and Tiananmen Square were very crowded. 

 

Boss' daughter's birthday.

Our boss, Andy, was giving a birthday party for his daughter, Chanly, on Sunday. It was also Mid-Autumn (Moon) Festival. Suzanne, Deb and I went. She turned five. It was also a staff BBQ. In the back are two of the other foreign teachers, Eric and Fred. Behind Suzanne is one of the Andy's friends and foreign manager, Gabriel.

We met Andy's mother from Hong Kong and his famous artist uncle, Willy Wang, who lives in Houston.

We gave Chanly a Barbie and some clothes. I have her in several of my classes. This cake taste much better than the moon cakes they eat for Moon Festival.

Suzanne also received a pearl braclet from Andy's mother.

We had just finished singing Happy Birthday and she was ready to blow out the candle.

Then her two year old little brother blew it out before she could. She was very upset.

Downtown Daxing

This almost looks like a upside down Mcdonalds sign...but since you are in China, then it's a chinese eating place.

Giant mooncake for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival.

laterns

One of the malls we went into had rides and DJ loved them.

She got this mask from Pizza Hut when we ate lunch there.

Daxing is in the outer suburbs of Beijing. It is a relatively small section of Beijing and about half-way to the actual countryside from Beijing center.

Three year old's take naps where ever they want to.

Maybe something a little smaller.

We are looking for something bigger than the last e-bike that was stolen.

Getting closer.

This is an e-bike for the cops in Beijing.

Clear day in Beijing.

Is having a smog free day worth taking pictures of? In Beijing it is.

 

 

Meal out with parents.

 

 

When we saw that we weren't going to be able to go back to the US this summer my parents came to China to visit us. I know that took a lot of money, and some giving up things, and planning. Thank you very much for coming to visit and being able to visit. We took them out to a Chinese place to eat one night. 

 

 

Granpa Gil, grandma Linda, Susan and DJ.

Amazingly everyone was eating with chopsticks.

DJ always finds friends

To market, to market, to buy a fresh....anything.

This is an open air market that is fairly close to us. It is open in the mornings and closed pretty much in time for the nap time after lunch.

 

 

They have people who make fresh things while you wait.

If you can't find it here, then they don't use it in China

Yes,this is food that they eat...on the ground.

They have spices and fresh ingredients all over.

Fresh meat,with or without flies?

You can even get duck.

Fresh noodles.

Going to see the great wall.....

Carl had the day off, so we wanted to go to see the Great Wall. That meant a lot of walking and getting up early etc. The rest of the crew decided to stay home, but we wanted to go. When we went to catch bus 936 at Dongzhimen, a lady dressed in a bus shirt told us it would be quicker to take bus 980. It didn't take us to the right place or even anywhere near the wall, but at least it was only 3RMB each way for one person and was an air conditioned bus with a nice view of the countryside.

 

Mountains in the background

 When we got off the bus, we were in a smaller town.

 It looks nice enough huh?

It happened that the person that we thought was ok to get off the main bus with, was a crook. So, when we got off then the cabs to go to the wall were high priced ones.
We had a nice outing, and got a few bus rides.
Did we see the Great Wall? Not this time.

 

More catching up with pictures

Here are the rest of the this and that pictures. Pictures that we have taken of different things.

 

 

Susan was trying to dye her hair.

We were trying to dye it green, using Kool-Aid.

Things You'll Need To Make Homemade Green Hair Dye

• Glass mixing bowl Lime sugar-free gelatin dessert mix Green food coloring Whisk Hot water Hair collected from your hairbrush Foil or plastic bags Blow dryer
• It is better to have things all within reach when you start.e

Instructions

1. • 1
     Boil two cups of water, and allow the water to continue to simmer gently while you're preparing the green hair dye.
   • 2
     Open the envelopes of gelatin and empty them into a glass mixing bowl. You'll need one box of dessert mix for short hair, two for medium length hair and three for long hair.
   • 3
     Add 1/4 cup of boiling water for each package used to the powdered gelatin and whisk to mix well. A thick paste will form. Begin adding boiling water a tablespoon at a time, whisking with each addition, until the paste becomes thin.
   • 4
     Study the color of the green gelatin dessert depicted on the box of Jello. Decide if that shade is the color that you want for your hair to be. If you want a deeper shade of green, add green food coloring a drop at a time, whisking well and following each addition until the paste deepens to the shade that you desire.
   • 5
     Allow the green hair dye to cool just enough for it to be comfortable to apply to your scalp. Use it immediately. Wear disposable gloves when handling the dye because it will stain your skin.

Here is DJ.

Sometimes playing is such hard work.

This is a balloon that I had found for DJ and she loved.

DJ and her grandpa Gil.

DJ and her grandma Linda.

Spot had to get in on the picture with grandpa and DJ.

"Well I always see you all using toilet paper, and now you say bad DJ?"

This is the back of the baloon.

DJ's costume.

DJ's belated birthday gifts

 

Carl's parents came to visit us here in China about the end of August. Right before they got here, we left our other job and moved etc. In all this going on, we have sort of neglected the blog. The next few days I will spend time and update you on everything, and also be able to clean out our camera.

 

This first batch here is presents that I got for DJ for a late birthday gift from money that Carl's dad and step-mom sent for her.

 

 

This is a trike for when her legs are strong enough to peddle on her own, but for now I can push her and she can ride. We had to modify it some and take off the baby holdings so she would do better with it.

 

 

 

After modifications.

This one and the next one will be her Christmas gifts, some of them anyways.

Z-Visa problems.

When we were first coming to China to teach, we had to go through a process of exchanging information with the school and sending papers to get our Visa. We believed until recently that everything was alright. It turns out that the first school did not give us the correct visa. We had a Z-Visa for working, but not for teaching. As a teacher, you should also have an expert certificate book. We thought the first school had this, but kept it for some reason when we left and that the second school would get another for them. An expert certificate book is something that is gotten once and is not the schools, but the teachers. Something else that you keep with you is a resident registration book. This is something the school helps you get, but you hold onto and get a new one each time you change schools. If you are coming to or are already in China, be sure you have the correct paperwork. A sticker in your passport may say you have a Z-Visa, but it might not be the correct kind. Your passport may have a sticker that says 'resident permit', but this is only used for entering and exiting the country and is not the same as a resident registration permit. All the correct paperwork takes about 6 to 8 weeks to process. The school should pay for everything and the total cost is less than $100. you should also ask to see the schools license to hire expert teachers. It will have a license number and you should make note of this for future reference. There are places you can contact and may get some help if you have problems with a school, but the best thing is to be alert to fakes or scams.

New pets for us.

Susan had said that she would like a rabbit for finishing her 11th grade on time. Susan and I went out one day and found her a rabbit cage,water bottle, and three rabbits. One of the rabbits,the black and white one, is for DJ. They all have names also. The black one is Harry for Harry Potter. The brown one is Joel, for one of Susan's friends. The other one is DJ's black and white one which we call Jenny. She can say Jenny pretty easy.

Carl is holding Harry, DJ has Jenny and Susan has Joel.

Back to the Hutong for a day

We had talked about going back to the hutong area, where we had been when first comeing to China in 2010. We just had to find a day when we all had time to do it though. Susan was missing the restraunt where she had tried to break the door going to eat breakfast one time,inside joke. Also a bar that we had went and ate at a few times. It finally came to when we had a Saturday free, and could go. Here are some pics of a lake that was close to a pizza place that TJ and Jennie had taken us to. The pizza place, we just didn’t find. The other two places we went looking for had also been changed, and weren’t there. It wasn’t a wasted trip, we all had fun and it was a nice day for it then.

Don't you love the chinglish?

This is DJ's way to see Beijing.

Chicken Nuggets, a 3 year old's favorite meal.

DJ has new things

DJ has been growing so much, that she really needed some new clothes. One day while Carl and I were out shopping, we found some shirts and a few shorts for a good price. She just had to try one of them on.

Susan and I went out shopping one day, and found some DVD’s that we liked. I have shown DJ the Teletubbies some, and she likes it. If we could just get her off the Sponge bob though.

Special lunch

The school that Carl and I work for, also sends Carl and another teacher out to a public school to teach at. The headmaster of that public school, had invited Carl, the other teacher Hayden, Jason one of the teachers that I work with, and I to go out to lunch. They had a big meal of Chinese food, and then at the end had ordered pizza when they found out we didn’t care for the Chinese food that much. 

After the lunch, then Carl and I went walking and saw lots of different things.

This is the headmaster at the public school, and Hayden is the other teacher that helps Carl.

Here is a statue outside a building that we saw

Other teachers

Other teachers and Jason

Another building we saw

DJ has a new friend.

I have always heard and believe that God moves in strange ways, and makes things happen for different reasons. On Wednesday night, I had taken DJ outside to go to one of the local little stores in our community to see if we could find another shower head, long story there. When we were walking around, we met this lady who spoke pretty good English and her 16 month old little girl outside. We talked and the kids played some. The lady named Jessica asked if I wanted to exchange phone numbers and then we could arrange play dates for the kids. I did, and so today DJ and I went over to Jessica’s house with her daughter Ann The two girls had fun together. Right before we had to leave to come home, Jessica’s husband Leon came in. Leon can speak Chinese and Russian, and Jessica speaks Chinese and working on improving her English

This toy was one of DJ's favorite toys that Ann had.

This is Ann.

DJ likes playing the keyboard.

DJ and Ann both had fun playing.

This is DJ, Ann and Jessica.

DJ and Ann both liked playing ball with Leon after he came in from work.

Susan is a senior now.

Susan has been taking her homeschool classes through globalstudentnetwork since about 8th grade. She has just finished her 11th grade ending with a Algebra 2 course. Now she is a senior. We already have her 12th grade courses planned out for her. Her courses will be:

English

Transition to college math

*PE

*Art history

*Student leadership

Enviromental science

*Microsoft word

Act prep

French 2

*Citzenship

*Music appreciation

*Sociology

*Marine biology

*Microsoft excel

*Poetry

World history

*Intro to theatre

*Computer application.

 The courses that are special marked * mean that they are semester courses.

I also have a special way to do the ACT, and the two Microsoft courses without having to buy the courses online. If anyone needs to know, just ask.

Next summer, when we go back to visit the states then she will stay with Carl’s parents until college. She is already planning to go to college when she is 17, and study to be a Vet Technician.

Day playing at Fundazzle and DJ got dedicated.

China was about to have their Dragon Boat Festival. That is the festival where they eat sticky rice a lot. Since that was happening, then the school we work for gave us off Friday. I took that chance, and gave Carl a quite day at home alone. I took the girls and we went to a place called Fundazzle. It is a big inside playarea for kids of all ages. I was thinking about having DJ’s third birthday there in August. She had fun. There was a section just for toddlers. Susan took her through other parts, and they had fun climbing etc. There was also a big ball pit at one end.

Then on Sunday, the church we go to was having a baby dedication, and we had DJ in the program. She had gotten up early, so right before the part for her, she started her morning nap. She has a certificate that says what it was for, and her name though.

This was the child dedication. The youth minister was doing this service.

This was at Fundazzle, in the giant ball pit area. It is big enough for a swimming pool.

This one you can just barely see DJ at the left of Susan. She had a blast.

This was inside the toddler only area. She loves the little cars like this.

"All these people are in my way, I will go over here and play"

This is the toddler area.