Footie Fun in Secondary

MGJ & Teammates

Play it Forward

MGJ in action

Team Photo

(Girls from the US, France & Korea round out the team)

The Journey to the Tourney

Countdown to the Unknown...

April 2006

Ti'an An Men Square, Beijing

Foreground: Mr Johnson & the Johnson girlies
(then aged 6, 4 and 11 mo.)

Background : Beijing Countdown Clock

When we moved here in 2006, every major plaza in China had a countdown clock marking the days, hours, minutes to the start of the Beijing Games on the auspicious date of 08.08.08 (@8:08). At that time we believed we would spend a little over two years in China, and those countdown clocks coincided almost exactly with our original departure date. An exit in 2008 was postponed to 2009 and then moved out again with the economic crisis to 2010. When we were in the "Doldrums Days" of early 2010, waiting and wondering which way the wind would blow, we eventually accepted an offer to extend again... for two years... an offer, which you all now know, was recently rescinded.

Ours is a relatively common expat story. In theory, our state of limbo should be excellent fodder for an expat blog. Almost every international service employee finds themselves in our shoes at some point. That it's such a normal part of the international experience should make it easy to blog about.

But its not. It involves uncertainty. (And nobody really likes to admit that they are scheduled to leave in a little over two months, but they STILL don't have a solid idea of where they are going or what the assignment will be.)

Our day-to-day routine seems to have changed little. There has been more motivation on my part to purge... things we've long since outgrown and no longer need (that never-the-less tend to linger in the bottom of dresser drawers and the corners of the garage). I have boxed these things up and shipped them off... to the used book bin, to be marked for the expat charity bazaar, passed on to friends who's child is a size smaller. Mr Johnson is finding his days exponentially longer when there is less to keep him busy. The girls still have their homework, and playdates, and footie and swimming. But my mind is racing of everthing we'll have to do once we we finally KNOW.

The Olympic countdown clocks have long ago been removed from the public squares in China. In cities like ours their will always be a reminder of the 2008 Summer Olympics, with logos and monuments to the Sailing Regatta held here that summer.

But, there is a new clock, silently ticking away, reminding us that time is slowly, steadily, running out.

We're at mid-term in the first semester @ school.

We're six weeks past Mr Johnson's program being cut.

We're ten weeks away from being out of here.

We're STILL not sure where we are headed, only that it's out of here.

(Which doesn't sound so significant, but its one decision we know for sure.)

We're in the fiscal fourth quarter.

It's been one week since my last blog post.

(This is beginning to sound a bit like a confession.)

Look Mum, No Training Wheels!

{Nesting}

My friend over at gogovivi.com began a photo challenge a few weeks ago called The View From Here. (Be sure to click and follow her links in my sidebar). The photo entries have been beautiful, often coupled with thoughtful prose on the week's topic.

My blogging style is relaxed to say the least. I often write as an outpouring of what I've been ruminating on, and thus, posts come weeks after the actual event, and never daily. Yet, the idea of an assigned topic was interesting, and this weeks topic of "Nesting" correlated perfectly with the increasing autumnal feel of Qingdao's October weather.

As I started thinking of what to try to capture with my "point and shoot" style, I saw our sweet old pup, exhausted at the day's end, stretched out in the awkward way she favors. Something about the way she relaxes at the end of the day (and in the middle of the day, and in the morning just after the bustle of activity trying to get three girls out the door on time) makes me feel like she has the idea of nesting figured out perfectly.

Most days, she chooses to take her lazy snoozes in a space closest to wherever the nearest family member is. (As I write this, mid-day on a Thursday, she has plopped down on the hardwood floor, directly behind my computer chair.)

But after the girls go down at night she fully resigns herself to her proper nest. She paws at her bed as if digging, and gives the fabric cover a tug with her teeth... before finally declaring it properly feathered.

Then she lays down, often with her head dangling down on the cool marble floor ... and nests.

The Staycation :: {Images} of Being Tourists in Our Own Town

The Staycation :: {Thoughts} on Being Tourists In Our Own Town

"We live here... we don't have to be tourists," one of our good friends once bemoaned to his adventurous wife, who sought every opportunity to get out and immerse herself in in Chinese culture.

We met this American couple and their spunky toddler the week we arrived in Qingdao, in February 2006. They had arrived just a few days ahead of us, and we bonded immediately.

It was easy to understand her husband's lament. The very first week, whilst the Johnson five where still sleeping off jet-lag in the apartment suite of their five-star-hotel, our plucky new American friends where braving coal dust skies, bitter temps, and the biting wind of the Yellow Sea along Qingdao's iconic symbol, Zhan Qiao Pier.

"It was like a sea of people just enveloped around us," my friend later regaled me.

To me at the time, I felt that everywhere I went in China there seemed to be a sea of people. And every time we ventured anywhere with our three blonde girls (all six and under at the time) we seemed swallowed up. I didn't know if I'd every fully share my friend's adventurous spirit. (Especially when a simple trip to the grocery seemed daunting enough!)

Over time we became more brave. We learned to tuck blonde heads under hats or hoods. We had our share of frustration and tears, unwanted photos, comments and attention. But we did eventually get out and see the sights and sounds around us... in Qingdao and beyond.

This week the girls and I headed to an older section of town. We toured Pi Chao Yuan, a food street famous for tasty morsels. We wandered among the food stalls, peeked into alley ways, chatted with vendors, and noted the architecture. We weren't swarmed. We weren't overwhelmed. Perhaps its not even fair to say we were being tourists, because it felt very much like we fit in.

When we finally settled in at a traditional courtyard restaurant (after sampling stinky tofu, spicy lamb skewers and hawthorn jelly) we actually saw one of our Chinese neighbors and exchanged friendly smiles and waves. We sat on traditional benches. Watched and listened to traditional Beijing opera (at ear piercing decibels!), and dined on spicy chicken (traditional style as it was served head, feet and all!). The girls favorite was the most traditional Chinese food of all: rice. They tucked into their 12 cent bowls, after working up hearty appetites sight seeing.

On this trip MGJ played "Tour Guide Barbie," she had been to this savory street with her class last spring and new the ins and outs of transactions. She read the Chinese characters on the wooden shingles of each shop. It was clear it was she who garnered the most respect from the shopkeepers for her dialog skills and navigation abilities.

We seem to have found a lifestyle and routine that does not often allow for trips down narrow alley

ways first carved out a century ago. Or jaunts to original buildings from the German colonial days.

It is, in part, of course, because we've already seen many of the "tourist sites" in Qingdao.

But also because we are simply busy with the business of daily life in QD:

Saturday morning soccer.

After school activities.

Playdates.

Homework.

Shopping.

But every once in a while it's good to play tourists in our own town.

Even if, as our friend suggested, we don't have to be tourists... we live here!

The Staycation :: In Phrases

A weekend get away at the Shangri La for Mr Johnson & the Tai Tai

(The three joining for swimming, sauna, & snacks on the 20th floor club lounge)

Playdates New Scooters

Seaside Walks Beach Side Scooting

Bei Bei masters the Two-wheeler

Art Projects 1000 piece puzzle

French Wine with Danish Friends

Introduction to Soju and SeolJoongMae by our Korean friends

Dining alfresco

Sleeping in Staying up late

Playing Tourists in our own town . . .

The Staycation :: In Photos

The Staycation :: National Day

Today is the National Day holiday here, marking 61 years since the founding of the PRC. Red flags with yellow stars flutter from every flag pole, in the grimy air, on this less-than-clear, warm, autumn day.

We usually get out of Dodge for this week. QD is a popular spot for domestic tourists, and the early days of October represent the last hurrah for our beach side community. Red capped inland tourists follow flag touting tour guides along the board walk, the Olympic Marina and Old Towne. And this year we joined them. Rather than hopping a jet out of here-- past highlights have included holidays in Sanya (2006), Phuket (2007), Singapore/KL (2008), and Krabi (2009) we joined the fray!

Today EHJ, Bei Bei and I rented a pedi-cart and peddled our way through throngs of tourists and locals. We delighted in circling around people who insisted on snapping photos after being asked not to... creating a sort of frolicking retribution that rendered offenders speechless.

EHJ and I did most of the peddling, and Bei Bei was our break girl. These bicycle based vehicles are designed around the kind seen at tourist spots in the West... but lack basic safety features, like breaks on all the pedals. One functional, though somewhat awkwardly placed break is found down the center of the frame, it required Bei Bei's standing on it with her full weight of nearly 50 jin to coax the cart to a stop.

Still not satisfied after 30 minutes spent weaving through pedestrians, we hired a motorized buggy and joined other renters (about $7 for a half hour with no instruction... just handed a key and off we backfired) terrorizing pedestrians along the board walk, pier, Olympic Marina and in the pedway of the newest high end shopping plaza.

All-in-all, not a bad way to pass the first day of our 10 day "stay-cation".