Sunday, October 31, 2010

China…

Miranda has suggested I write a bit for quite some time. It has been another great Sabbath and I guess I just felt up to it today. China is quite the place. I have moved countries enough to know to expect what you don’t expect and when you get the unexpected it’s not such a surprise. I expected China to be much more China-ey. You know, lots of crazy ancient Chinese architecture, with stone buildings and upturned roof tips. Tianjin is very modern. Once in a while you can find an old temple(mostly for tourism) or other building with a Chinese flare, but mostly, the city is modern apartment/business buildings with modern lines, beveled edges, or glass balconies. There are some really cool buildings to look at. We live right in the heart of it all, on the 15 floor of a 25 story edifice. We share our location with 6 other buildings the same height. Below there is a pretty cool little gathering area with trees and water features. In the morning when Miranda and I head out on our 10 minute walk to work, there is often a group of parents and grand parents with their children all around the ages of 2,3 or 4 years old. It is good to start out the day walking by the kids each morning. I guess they like to get a bit of social interaction as most of them don’t have brothers or sisters, and will probably have a full time job when they turn 5. Because most people only have one child, there is a lot of time, energy and money spent as an investment for their future. Not too surprising I guess. Well, as it turns out, children around here are expected to work very hard in their school and other disciplines. The bonus is that on the other hand they get a lot of toys and attention.

The traffic around here is great. If you ever come to China, do it with a sense of adventure as well as a sense of humor. The intersections are often just clumps of traffic trying to push through each other. The name of the game seems to be never back down, if your not sure honk, and there is always enough room to fit between two cars. The problem with the never back down part, is when two cars need to get out of each other’s way to proceed the opposite direction, they will often just sit it out and make the other person move first. Cut and paste that mindset onto two parties and you can have some pretty funny Chinese showdowns. I have seen a few traffic jams waiting on two cars having an intersection duel with neither willing to move out of the way. Honestly, one was about 10 minutes. They have these little red motorcycle trikes that have been covered in the back to create a little passenger cockpit. After coming out of wall-mart with arms full of groceries we decided to take one the short distance home. We weren't disappointed. Miranda laughed the whole way home. It was like we were in high speed chase, only we were barely able to go 20 miles an hour, because in China the road is there for everybody. None of this your side my side stuff. We flew in front of busses, down one way streets(the wrong way) and everywhere else we could get in the way before making it home. Our driver kept looking back wondering why we were laughing so much. Probably thought we were making fun of him or something.

Like anything worth doing in life, there are sacrifices that have to be made to pay for the experience, money or whatever the gain may be. Most of the time being here in China, or when we were in Brazil, presented a fun experience each day. Something to laugh about, roll your eyes and think only in China. The experience here is different enough to learn new and exciting things each day. Sometimes though, you just wish you could smell home. For me it is the desert sage, after a summer rain, for Miranda probably the ocean breeze. Feel the air.  Be around the people that bring you the most happiness. All the things you don’t think about, yet subconsciously classify as “normality”. I have come to realize, since living so much out of country lately, that I am quite a mountain boy. This next part gets kind of weird for me… but who cares I guess. Right now its just me,the bunnies, and my wife. Tucked away in an apartment nook thousands of miles away. I miss the spirit of the earth. I have always been close to it without really knowing what I was enjoying. I ll try to explain. In Hurricane I was only a few feet away from gardens, trees or grass. I could walk bare foot in a plowed field. I could go outside and pick something to eat. Anybody who knows me knows I did all summer. I could see so far away and there was usually something to see. The rain clouds building up on pinevalley, the sun setting on timbertop. There were always birds, or chickens or some kind of animal around the house as well. On weekends I was often in the mountains, carving trails, or building ponds, fishing, hunting, camping, fourwheeling or whatever. I was(am) always a messy kid, in the mud and dirt, throwing something or building something.In contrast, in Brazil and here in China I walk to work on hard pavement all the way. My view is limited to the big buildings nearby. I am inside working, calling or typing without even knowing if it is cloudy or sunny. Sometimes I come out of the work “zone” to find it rained really hard! I didn’t even know! The disconnect seems to be really big right now between myself and everything natural, or living. Cement, metal, plastic and all the other technological barriers have got me on another planet! The weird part is when I get to thinking about this I just want to go hug a tree. Or at least climb it! Or go to a mountain stream and drink until I can’t move. Or lay in a huge pile of fall leaves. Maybe lay down in the grass and get grass stains. I make myself laugh when I think about this. Anyway, with fall in full bloom I think about this stuff a lot. I love fall. If I ever blog again I ll talk more about China. So, I have been looking everywhere for house plants. We haven’t really found any yet. I bought a couple of bunnies and they have been fun. I have had this crazy green thumb thing attack me, and without the possibility of planting anything in a yard, I finally through some beans in a paper cup and started…well I’m not sure. But it is growing and I smile when I see it. Here’s a picture.

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Sunday, October 24, 2010

We are Parents…

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of Bunnies!!!

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Meet Ying and Yang…

Ying is the cute little girl (we think) and Yang is the fun bigger male.  I guess we’ll really find out what Ying is if we start to find other little bunnies…but for now, just her sweet personality screams girl, while Yang is speedy Gonzalez and all over the place!

They are the first (and most certainly not the last ;) to

join our little Hastings family.

IMG_2446 Y & Y are hopefully baby dwarf bunnies (our apartment is great…but a little on the small side for BIG bunnies). Cleaning up after them is helping us practice for real parenting positions…and we LOVE them!

 

In other news:

  • We’re slowly getting our apartment put together.  We’ve finally figured out where to get the good stuff on the cheap, have a couple of rugs for the living room, found my dream bed set and pillows at silk street in Beijing (that place is worthy of a whole other post!) and are gearing up to paint our wall either a bold red or a bold teal.  We’ve also started decorating for the holidays, which really helps to feel more at home!

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Trick or Treat!!!

We’ll see how many kids we get this year! Happy what?!

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(I had to dig through the gourd section at the store, but finally found one that somewhat resembled a pumpkin!)

  • Cooking.  Good old fashioned American (or anything close to it) cooking is hard to find here.  BUT…we’re also figuring that out…slowly. ;)  We got an oven, so that helps since almost everybody here only fries things on hot plates (blech). After bartering for some imported powdered sugar from the relief society pres. in our branch, I made a batch of home made cinnamon rolls that turned out pretty dang good!

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  • Work = chaos that is getting better.  We’ve had a crazy busy first month…but I guess that’s what you can expect with a change in management, especially if you’re the new management!  It’s already gotten better though and I feel like the company’s made some real progress.  I have a great team of teachers and love how the Chinese receive our school and our marketing. Here’s a picture of a party we threw for marketing…

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  • The Chinese love fireworks…we see them every night from our apartment…but we had our own little pyrotechnic show in our apartment this month.  Jordan was lying down with the laptop on his stomach (and more manly parts), got up and less than 2 seconds later…BOOM!!! His battery exploded and started a fire in our room.  I was in the living room and heard this huge bang, looked around the corner and saw flames under the door.  We put it out but it kept exploding like a firework fountain.  Everything but our floor left with a nasty battery acid hole was fine…but I’m pretty sure HP is getting a few phone calls. ;)

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These are the charred remains of J’s battery!

  • I’ve passed my first language test and it was the same one I took in Brazil…TMI, I know, but you know you are on your way to independence in a country when you can go to the pharmacy and get your birth control!  Sort of sad here though, they didn’t really know what it was and kept trying to hand me the abortion pill. Mmmm…No thank-you.
  • My sweet dog, Corkey passed away.  He was the best dog ever (yes, J…even better than Shasta!) and lived to the ripe old age of 18ish.  My mom said he got really sick and started having what seemed like strokes the day that J and I left for China.  I feel like my favorite dog stuck it out one last time for me.  Thanks Corkey.  I still remember picking you out at the pound, growing up with you, you barking at old boyfriends you never liked and our many trips around the block as you pulled Nic and I on the scooter  or our roller blades (you were one buff ten pound pup).  So many good memories and many more to come, as I’m sure my two grandmas upstairs are taking good care of you.  Love you Cork.

2 Birthday Boys!

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Last week was a very special week for two boys of mine…

My brother, Jon, turned 32 (wowzas ;)

and my nephew, Andrew, turned 2!

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Happy Birthday Guys!!!

xoxo

Friday, October 15, 2010

Wu Flung Poo…

Yes folks, this phrase was something that my brother, Nic, and I used to say to each other growing up.  Unfortunately, everything here so far has sounded like a weird combination of this phrase and the word “zhege, zhege, zhege.”IMG_2255

So, thanks for prepping me for China all those years, but I guess I should really start working on my Mandarin now.

;)

Aside from having absolutely no idea about what people are saying, we quite like it here.  Don’t get me wrong, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in Brazil…and don’t tell any of our Brasileiro friends this...but I think I’ve convinced myself I like this place a little better. Here’s why:       

  • Here we have our own apartment (Roomies, we had our fun times…but there   are definite reasons why married couples don’t usually live with others. haha)
  • We have 2 rooms in said apartment…this means we can have guests! Please ignore the above complaint about roomies, because guests= Not Awkward. :)
  • Each room in our little apartment has bay windows with breathtaking views of the city.  I don’t think I’d trade our apartment for one twice as big if it meant I had to give up my sparkly views!

IMG_2308This is how a sunrise looks from our bedroom window.

  • We are surrounded by 14 (no joke) malls and a plethora of gorgeous parks.  There is also a huge river, lots of tree-lined walk-ways and an Italian district all within a 5 minute walk of us.    
  • Campinas, Brazil was the second most expensive place to live in on an expatriate site I found.  Tianjin, China was the very last.  I think I’ll enjoy that financial freedom a little more.
  • It seems to be a lot safer here.  Laws are extremely strict here against criminals all the time, but especially when somebody messes with a foreigner.
  • Chinese Nationals seem to love Americans.  In some parts, you may be the first foreigner many have seen, so they treat you like rock stars.  This can get old if you’re in a hurry, but so far we’ve enjoyed it and it’s been a great marketing tool for the company.
  • Because of the things mentioned above, I feel like we have a lot more freedom…which is pretty ironic, considering that we live in a country ruled by communism. 

 

Here’s a quick picture recap of a Sunday evening stroll down the river:

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A couple of views from the river in our He Ping District.IMG_2325

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Jordan in front of the Italian District.  When we get tired of the weird spices, we’ll have to go there.
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Jordan had me pose here so we could secretly capture the guy in the back practicing Kung-Fu.  He was awesome!IMG_2342

A native making decorative lollipops by hand.  He free-handed this in about 2 minutes.  If it weren’t Sunday, we would have gone home licking a dragon one ourselves…IMG_2337

A crazy “Rudolph” catfish we found at the port.IMG_2335

Jordan in front of one of the cool palaces close to our house.IMG_2354

Following a tradition for their Autumn Holiday, we got to write our wishes on a hot air balloon and release them over the river.  It was so pretty to watch our wishes float up and away over the city.  It kind of reminded me of a Mary Poppins scene, except more romantic after the initial scare that a truck would run it over when ours first decided to float down instead of up!  It got over that obstacle and is now somewhere waiting to get our wishes processed! ;) Next time we’ll wait for enough hot air!

I’m sure we’ll find things we don’t like so much (such as unfavorable food and foul smells), but why not bask in the glory of China’s honeymoon phase?!

So, for the time being, I’ll try to keep you updated on all of the good…and interesting things that we find here.  But really, you ought to come and hear the “Wu Flung Poo, zhege, zhege” for yourself!