Easter 2012 in Beijing

I was so completely exhausted from my first very busy Easter in Beijing.

It all started with my usual sunday morning bus ride to church with my parents and sister.

After church, we went around the corner from the church to a big mall called Solana.

They had a central courtyard for us to walk around.

One part of the mall has everything for kids including ice skating.

Since I am not big enough for ice skating yet, I played in the little kids play area.

I really like going up and down steps now that I can do it by myself.

I see you.

Excuse me, coming through.

This was my first time in a ball pit.

It had a lot of very colorful balls.

It was very fun.

Where does the train go?

When mom and dad finally got me away from the play area inside, we went outside just in time for the Easter egg painting.

I found one just my size.

Here comes the paint.

This is fun.

We should have Easter every sunday.

Can we do this at home?

Many other people enjoyed Easter at the Solana Mall with us.

The mall is at the northwest corner of Chaoyang Park and this is what looks to be a giant fried egg.

Just playing.

Some times we have a small drip under the main valve for our heat and DJ likes to play in the swimming pool.

Girls and their fashion.

Now that's sitting pretty.

Guess who.

Thanksgiving and Deb's birthday dinner.

DJ and May and Deb.

One of our friends from the thursday social meeting we attend was kind enough to come with us to a restaurant to help us order and celebrate Deb's birthday and Thanksgiving.

 May also got Deb a scarf for her birthday.

George and Connie and Roxanne.

 

Chloe and Adam and May and Suzanne.

Carl, May, Deb, Suzanne, DJ, Chloe, Adam, Connie, George, Roxanne, Debbie, Archie.

Mid November update.

I have been busy the last month transfering our movie collection from DVD to an external hard drive for easier storage and use. It will be easier to carry a hard drive than a suitcase full of DVD's. Since we are adding to our collection all the time, I have also purchased a program to catalog our collection. I have also started looking for the next job. My contract here ends on the 19th of February next year. We know we would like to find a place were Deb and I both can work or at least a place that would permit her to tutor on the side. We also would like to move to some where that doesn't have such hard winters. We had our second snow the other day and more is expected tomorrow. We went to a birthday dinner for David, who turned 19, but forgot to take the camera. Everyone was there, including all the TA's and teachers. Everyone except Mei. Mei was in Beijing on business, but after she returned, she had a new teacher welcome dinner for all the Ivy staff. Again, I forgot to take my camera. Debbie's boys came over to our house while the teachers had their dinner. Last week, Suzanne home bleached most of the black out of her hair and then went to get it dyed blue. She came home with purple instead. DJ has been busy as usual playing until she drops and takes a nap. We are having a Thanksgiving / birthday dinner for Deb next week with a few friends. I won't forget the camera this time.

Two sisters at rest and play.

Have a drink, have some rice, go to the bathroom, enjoy the view and meet the newest teachers.

DJ likes to have some of our drink now every since she learned to drink from a straw.

She has found that she really likes cola.

If she can catch the straw.

Suzanne was having lunch and doing school work while Deb and I were gone to a lunch meeting at Sharon's. DJ was keeping her company sleeping at her feet.

"I can't find it, can you Spot?"

Actually, DJ had spilled her rice by accident on the floor and Spot was cleaning it up when DJ decided to help her big brother by getting down on the floor and licking it up like he was showing her.

DJ calls her pacifiers 'bofoes' and still needs them from time to time. She was having an especially bad day here, needing three.

All at once.

"Stop taking a picture and get me a magazine."

If you looked at some of the previous post, you would see how this was an old building that they tore down six months ago. They have been building a senior living center. The buildings in the foreground are two levels with storage on the bottom and apartments on top. The tall, long, brown and white building with the red roof is five floors. They are almost ready to have people move in.

These are the newest teachers to Ivy, Chloe and Adam. They had been teaching in Cambodia for nearly the last two years where his father is a missionary. He's from Florida and she's from Essex in England. They just arrived on Sunday and started on Monday. We took them around today to get money changed, phones and groceries.

One last Fall walk down to the river.

It was in the middle of the afternoon when we started our short walk down to the river and the light on the faux lighthouse was just right.

DJ and Spot both were getting apartment 'cooped-up-itis'.

Everybody took their jackets except Deb, but it really wasn't that cold. It was about 16 degrees C, but there was a moderate cool wind from the WNW.

DJ was really enjoying her stroller ride.

Spot loves going down to the river or the parks where he can roll around in the grass.

Fall colors and DJ under glass.

DJ has really grown since last year so we had to go shopping for some new winter clothes. The heavy winter suit that she got lost in when we put it on her last year barely fit this year. That's okay. We won't need such extreme cold weather gear next year when move to the south of China.

Friends on National Day.

Meet Winnie the DJ.

Roxanne, Archie, Suzanne and David.

David, Debbie and Carl.

 

Yesterday was China's National Day. The government offices are closed for three days and most people take off for the whole 'golden week', although most of the stores are open. We had Roxanne, Debbie, David and Archie over for the afternoon and evening. We had spaghetti, garlic bread and salad for lunch. After visiting and playing games we watched a couple of movies and brought back 'char'( meat on a stick) for dinner.

Early birthday dinner for Suzanne.

We had an early birthday dinner for Suzanne this evening at a very popular restaurant. Her birthday is September 30th.We invited a Chinese couple that live in the same housing community we do. His name is Jason and her name is Bella. She doesn't speak any English, but Jason isn't too bad. I was glad he could makeit, but the waitress was even more happy to see him because it would have been very interesting to try and order even with a picture menu.

This is a new family from England. They are from Essex county, just south of Suffold county where I lived for a while and graduated from high school. They just arrived a week ago. Her name is Debbie and works at Ivy with me. She shares a birthday with China's National Day, October 1. In the middle is her oldest son David who is 18, and on the left is her youngest son Archie who is 11.

Suzanne got this pillow from Jason and Bella.

She got a hair straightener and a few other things from her mom and 500RMB from me and $20 from her grandma back in the states.

The nice restaurants in China have seperate rooms for patrons. The smallest rooms are for eight people and you have to order a certain amount of food. Tonights dinner was 572RMB and there was plenty of left-overs to take home. We had pork ribs, fried shrimp, pepperd steak, asparagus, broccoli, fried rice, fried sweet tofu, spicy pork pies and brown sugar pies.

DJ and Suzanne.

DJ and Spot taking a nap on the couch.

DJ trying to escape.

DJ loves her big sister.

DJ's new winter hat.

Some old friends stopped by to say hello and give Suzanne some early birthday presents.

Suzanne loves her little sister.

DJ.

DJ is extra busy today with two phones.

All packed.

Ready to go.

DJ's new winter shoes.

Susan's new shoes.

Do you see me?

DJ's new dress.

Winter is just around the corner. Ivy is still working short handed with new teachers promised to arrive soon, whenever that is. Susan is finished with 10th grade and starting 11th. She will be 14 at the end of this month. We are still working out the details of what she will do for college, possibly after her 13th and final grade of high school. She has been doing a great job with her school work and helping out with her little sister and getting things done around the house. She really is a beautiful and bright young lady. DJ is getting into as much as she is permitted. After this last winter here, we all will look forward to moving further south where we will not be snowed in 5-6 months. We are also going to try to return to the states for a visit sometime next year depending on what kind of contract we get.

DJ's birthday party.

Deb had planned a birthday party early because I was going to be working all day on the 28th. The party was for everyone that could come, including Ivy, but most of them had to work or rest. We were going to have the party at our apartment, but then Deb changed it to the 2nd floor of one of the KFC's. When she showed up to set up for the party, she found that they were part of the city that had it's power and water turned off, without notice, for a little while that afternoon. So, she changed plans and had the party on the 6th floor of New-Mart at the food court instead, because they had power. It all worked out great in the end. Everyone that was coming finally got together and we all had a wonderful time. At first DJ didn't know what was going on and really didn't care. She was out of the house, at the mall and the center of attention. As she began opening the gifts, she started to look forward to the next one, but not without first complaining that she hadn't finished playing with the last one. She hated the candles, but loved the cakes. When I first went to buy the cakes, they wanted to sell me a layered cake, but Deb and DJ had already picked out what they liked and the bakery couldn't make them into a layered cake, so I bought two cakes.

Thursday lunch social.

DJ was ready to go when I got in from my morning classes. 

We were going to our friends apartment for the weekly social meeting. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DJ tried on some of her new clothes she got for her birthday when we came home. 

 

See if you can guess this song.

Odds and ends.

This is DJ playing with another kid on a ride outside a convience store.

DJ likes to go fishing at the grocery store. 

 

DJ tries out her sisters heels. 

 

Spot's water. 

DJ figuring out how to use a straw. 

Eating corn-on-the-cob. 

Listening to music on sissy's MP3. 

I think she likes it. We know what to get her for Christmas now. 

Her new sip cup has a straw. 

This is at the entrance to our housing area from the main road. The three wheeled converted motorcycle has a truck on the back that holds all the tools and spare parts that a bicycle repairman would need. He parks here all the time. When he isn't working, his wife is.

This is a battery recycle canister just inside our housing area. You don't see these in American apartment complexes. They recycle a lot more than most people think. 

The construction that was started at the beginning of spring is coming along very quickly. They have mostly finished the outside of the five floor main building and have put up most of a two floor structure beside the main. The workers that are doing the construction live on the bottom floor. They put sheets up for privacy because the building isn't finished with doors, windows or anything else except maybe a drop light. They live here with their family. It is a difficult way to live for now but will be okay once they finish it, which I hope they do in the next month before winter starts. 

There is another long structure behind the main building that is only one floor right now that will also be two by the time they are finished.

Staying out of and getting into: trouble.

DJ is starting to learn how to swing. Her big sister had a swing ever since she was a little baby.

As soon as sissy isn't around or watching, DJ goes into her room to play. I think we will need to get a lock her door at the next place, just to keep DJ out of trouble.

Don't be fooled.

She was faking.

This is the kind of trouble she can get into. She found a pen that was leaking in sissy's room.

Riding Spot.

Good doggy.

Park outing.

There are only a few good days left for the summer that I will have most of the day off, so today we walked to the big park.

These flowers were very unusual to us. They are very stiff and almost looked fake.

Just as we arrived at the park, there were some fireworks being set off. Because it was daytime, the fireworks were in the form of colored smoke.

There was a large ceremony of some kind at the art gallery. There were many people of the press taking pictures and television cameras. As soon as they saw us, they turned their cameras on us. I am certain we will be in newspapers and on television all over China in just a few days. Susan was even surrounded by this form of 'paparazi' in the same evening when she went down to the river for a walk.

These group of drummers are famous in Jiamusi and some of them live in the same housing area we do, where they also store their very old drums.

This and the next several pictures show some of the ornate work on one of the pavilions in the park.

Just like our trip to Willow Island this year over last year, DJ is a little older and can better enjoy going to the park and looking at the fish in the pond.

Of course, she also had to make some new friends.

We stopped for lunch on the way home.

DJ took a nap on the way home and just as we were walking into our housing area, it rained heavily just until we got inside and then stopped. A fun, wet end to a nice day.

Saying goodbye to Nicole.

Nicole has been a friend almost since we first arrived and has always been willing to try and help us in anything we needed done.

She is moving to the provincial capital, Harbin, where her husband has been working. I know she will miss her family and friends here, but I also know she will enjoy being with her husband again. 

Several of her friends gathered to say goodbye. 

On the left is Sharon. She had just returned from a vacation back in the states. She has been a long time friend of Nicole's and hosted this going away party. 

Nicole was very moved by the love shown by her friends. 

Sitting on the right is Harold, Nicole's son. I know that he is looking forward to seeing his father more regular, even though he will miss his friends. 

We had a short Bible lesson. 

The man on the right is Leroy, Sharon's husband. He works at one of the local factories over-seeing an American companies interest. Leroy and Sharon have lived here for around five years. 

Some friends of Nicole's.

Willow Island trip: 2011

Come with us on our trip to Willow Island this year.

This is a short path we take from our housing area to the main road that leads down to the river. You can see the one story old housing that used to be everywhere in the city. Most of it has been torn down to build apartment buildings. There is still people that live here. They have not been forced out of their homes and made to purchase an apartment they can't afford. It must get very cold inside during the winter.

Just before we get to the main road, there is a church where you would normally find shops. This is on a friday morning. Not an empty seat to be found.

We walked along the river for a ways to get to the boat that goes across to the island. The parks are very nice and our favorite part of the city.

DJ stopped to play a little chess with some of the other kids. The pieces are too big and heavy to move.

We are finally on the boat and pulling away from the city side of the river. People are sitting down below and standing along the rail.

We stood inside the wheel house.

DJ enjoyed this trip on the boat across the river better than she did last year I think.

Once on the island, we took another ride. The boat was 12 RMB for both ways for all of us. The horse or camel rides wanted 10 RMB each. We finally talked one of the drivers into taking all of us for 20 RMB.

There are many carnival boardwalk type games on the island, as well as rides of all kinds and several haunted houses. There is also lots of places to buy food and drink and increased price. It is a great place to get away from the city if you don't bring a lot of money to waste on the games.

I think DJ liked the buggy ride the most.

It is a little different walking along the river on this side looking back at the city.

They were setting up a stage with lights for a concert down by the river along the beach on the city side. We did not go to the concert.

DJ made friends with this little girl and they played and had a good time at one of the little outdoor restaurants on the island.