Family Date

I was looking back over the last few posts and it looks like all we do is party!  Not really true.  I guess I just think of writing about something interesting that has just happened.  So I'm going to do it again.  But in upcoming posts I will write some "day in the life" stuff.

First of all, let me say that we have a somewhat wacky schedule.  Mark especially, he is one busy dude.  His weekends are always full of classes he is teaching and other responsibilities, they are far from relaxing.  So not being daunted by the calendar, we simply rewrote our week.  So to speak.  The calendar may still say Wednesday, but in our house it's more like a Saturday, since it's Mark's one day off.  Seth is on break from school for the summer except for a few things to tie up too. 

About a month ago we were given 3 gift certificates for the new Starbucks opening down town.  We were all ready to get out of the house and do something different so it was time.  Today was gorgeous.  Brilliant blue sky, nice even temperature, sunshine, like I said, gorgeous. 

We have 2 electric bikes that get us around town so Seth took Mark's bike and started off, Mark and I doubling on my bike.  It was a bit of a ride, especially working our way through the traffic on BeiJing Lu.  One guy we saw couldn't be troubled to wait for traffic to move and drove up onto the sidewalk, went for about a block, found an opening in traffic and went back on the street.  The bumper sticker saying "If you don't like my driving, stay off the sidewalk" is no joke here. 

We made it down to Starbucks about 11am only to be told that becomes of some advertising performances, the wouldn't be serving until 1pm.  This wasn't going to work as I had a Coaching appointment at 2pm back at home, on the other side of town. 

But it was a beautiful day to just walk around in the area.  So we found the Dairy Queen not far away and had an ice cream lunch.  What are days off for? 

It was fun, funny, low key, laughing and talking and walking around.  We each came home with something reflective of our tastes. 

Seth bought a couple of Wii games
Mark bought a much needed new hat, and a new flashlight.
I came home with a new plant.  Any day with a new plant is a good day.

Now back home after my meeting, did some chores, spaghetti sauce in the crock pot.  All in all, a really nice day.

And we still have Starbucks to look forward to.  Next time.

Chinese Labor Day

Cookout! 

This last week held the holiday of Chinese Labor Day.  There  is a local language school at which Mark is a teacher of English, and I am a student of Chinese.  One special thing about this school is that they like to host fun events to mark the holidays as they come by.  I like this in a school!

So, although the weather had been a bit unpredictable the choice was to celebrate by going on a cookout.  Way to the South end of the city (we live on the North end) is a beautiful Park called Hai Geng.  I love parks, especially here.  The Chinese seem to take great delight in green spaces, much to my joy, and even just the inside area of an apartment complex is beautifully arranged and planted.  So you can imagine the time and energy spent on parks.  

We all met at the school and then traveled by taxi and van to the park.  We walked in and took a meandering path past groups of card players, people playing Chinese instruments,  groups of grandmas and grandpas with their grand children, and trees, flowers, and large ponds with water lilies. 

lady selling bowls of charcoal

We came to an area all set up for cookouts.  There was a long straight sidewalk that turned off the path we were on.  And on each side of the sidewalk were a line of tables set up for Chinese barbecue.  A round or square table with a circle cut in the middle and benches around it.  A bowl of charcoal could be purchased from a passing cart and put in the middle where the hole was and a grate placed over it for cooking.

One difference I noticed between this cookout and ones I've attended in the US is that the cooking in the US is preparation for the main event of the party.  While here, it seems the cooking is all part of the event.  As we sat around the table, one person seemed to be the unofficially declared cook, but there were plenty of onlookers and helpers as we used chopsticks to turn the meat, move cooked food to the edges and undercooked food toward the center.

Baba!

One thing that was NOT different was the abundance of food, grilled beef, chicken wings, potatoes, and other grilled veggies, hot dogs, and Baba.  Baba is a really delicious flat bread cooked over the fire and was homemade by one of the teacher's Mom.  Yum!

The day was a perfect temperature, although the rain seemed to come and go throughout the day.  But there were awnings stretched over all the tables, and the wind wasn't blowing so this troubled us not at all.

Events like this help me stretch my Chinese without feeling out of my league.  Because of the mixture of students and teachers the conversations were all an interesting conglomeration of English and Chinese. 

We met an American family at the picnic that are also students at the school.  They have 4 small children and are doing an amazing job of helping their kids learn the language in a low stress low key way, by simply speaking to them as often in Chinese as in English.  Making it a normal part of their vocabulary. 

So for an American who used to have to wait till September for Labor Day here was our headstart.  I think maybe though, I'll still celebrate in September too!  That's the nice part about being a part of 2 cultures, twice the holidays, twice the food, twice the fun.

Happy Spring!