Compounding matters is that my family is here. I want them to see the best and brightest side of our international living experience. (Because, after all, overall our time here has been mostly positive. Yes, we have been stretched and challenged. We've had times we've been humbled. But we probably wouldn't trade our experience.) And, this is what I must remind myself of when yet another red capped inland Chinese tourist takes a picture of our girls whilst be picnic seaside, when the delivery man taps his watch and rolls his eyes when I inspect my shipment for damage, and huffs even more impatiently when I find broken items at the bottom of the cardboard and styrofoam mess. The list could go on, but I think you get the point. And really I'm not bitter, I promise. I've just had a few Bad China Days (or is it a Bad China Daze?)
31 May 2009
Bad China Days
Bad China Days: the days when living in the Middle Kingdom proves most challenging, not the smells or language barrier but the days when everything seems difficult, people seem out to rip off the foreigner, and my frustration level soars. They are the days our cultural trainer encouraged us NOT to blog. The days my facebook status might read something like: Jen is ready to implode or Jen is wondering where the easy button is or Jen is really not a xenophobe but is considering becoming one.
29 May 2009
Beijing Bound
Mom jetted off to the city of 17 million Sunday morning, for a few hours among the masses at IKEA before heading back to Beijing Capital airport to collect her sis and auntie flying in from Vancouver.
We'll post more pics soon (sorry, readers, but it still very difficult to get posts up as blogger remains blocked.) We enjoyed three great days in Beijing before heading back to QD where the girlies were anxious to see their aunties.
We've had one day to chill, and today will head out to the Western end of the city for a seaside picnic and some spelunking around the Old German end of town.
22 May 2009
Pengyous in Peking
When you send a 10 year-old-off with a digital camera there is a high probability you'll get back a SD card full of fuzzy self shots, pictures of random things (a particular favorite of this age, and to be fair even older kiddos, is out-of-focus shots on and from moving vehicles.) I was pleasantly supprised that MGJ's pengyou (friend) shots were were cute and playful, in-focus, and thankfully, not excessively plentiful!
They clearly had a great time together, but saw great sights too. (Will post her photos with a cultural focus next.)
20 May 2009
Lock Down
It's now been over a week since my last post. In the meantime, our host country has in all its paranoid wisdom decided to block all access to blogs. That means I can't post for our home computer, nor can I peek in on the blogs I usually follow.
It's frustrating. Especially since I have gone to great lengths over the course of our time in China to only send out mass communication that has favorable info about our Asian home. I have had friends who have written disparaging blogs, or perhaps just ones that are particularity accurate, and they have been very promptly blocked. I've tried to keep ours upbeat, positive, and discuss things in terms of differences and culture. But, apparently to no avail.
For like two seconds I was flattered that we had been blocked, because sometimes it's a sign that you've said something profound enough to get noticed. But, it's a mass block, not a slap on the wrist for the foreign mom blogging from the Middle Kingdom about outdoor naps and book week.
Of course, since I've not been able to post, I've been all the more keen to do so.
Here are some topics I considered:
Beijing Bound—which would have featured cute pics of MGJ pulling her faux (but fairly close) Louis Vuitton roller case down the sidewalk in front of our apartment home, bound for her first ever spend-several-nights-away-from-home-field-trip.
“Mom, would I have been able to take a trip like this if were still living in Lisbon?” she had queried. I answered no, that it would be a Cubs game or a day trip to the state capital. I think she got the significance of the event, although when she called after her first day and a trip to Great Wall she still said her favorite part of her day was chillin’ in the apartment suite @ the hotel with her friends. (Which Sean thought was saying something, since she'd just been to one of the Seven Wonders of the World!)
Flowers and Gardens and Snails--There would have been pics of the flowers we planted in our small backyard. You would have been regaled with a retelling of EHJ's love for nature both in flora (she is the only one who sticks with it ‘til every plant is in the ground) and fauna (at one point this week she had a snail in one hand and a lady bug in the other.)
Windex Clean vs. Bleach Clean – I've been ruminating on this one since we arrived in China. Just because things sparkle doesn't really mean they're clean!
Perspective- No matter how frustrating our day has been there is always something going on here that makes me thankful for the most basic of things.
Block Party
No… I’m not talking about firing up your Weber or joining a Conga line with your neighbors. Instead I’m proposing we take it back from the Great Firewall of China. Here’s how it will work: you vote on one of the above proposed topics, and I’ll generate something based on popular demand. We may be blocked; but we’ll try to publish anyway. (I won’t go into details as to how.)
Use the comment section to cast your vote. And remember, as they say in Chicago, “Vote early and often!”
Later, Tai Tai Johnson
It's frustrating. Especially since I have gone to great lengths over the course of our time in China to only send out mass communication that has favorable info about our Asian home. I have had friends who have written disparaging blogs, or perhaps just ones that are particularity accurate, and they have been very promptly blocked. I've tried to keep ours upbeat, positive, and discuss things in terms of differences and culture. But, apparently to no avail.
For like two seconds I was flattered that we had been blocked, because sometimes it's a sign that you've said something profound enough to get noticed. But, it's a mass block, not a slap on the wrist for the foreign mom blogging from the Middle Kingdom about outdoor naps and book week.
Of course, since I've not been able to post, I've been all the more keen to do so.
Here are some topics I considered:
Beijing Bound—which would have featured cute pics of MGJ pulling her faux (but fairly close) Louis Vuitton roller case down the sidewalk in front of our apartment home, bound for her first ever spend-several-nights-away-from-home-field-trip.
“Mom, would I have been able to take a trip like this if were still living in Lisbon?” she had queried. I answered no, that it would be a Cubs game or a day trip to the state capital. I think she got the significance of the event, although when she called after her first day and a trip to Great Wall she still said her favorite part of her day was chillin’ in the apartment suite @ the hotel with her friends. (Which Sean thought was saying something, since she'd just been to one of the Seven Wonders of the World!)
Flowers and Gardens and Snails--There would have been pics of the flowers we planted in our small backyard. You would have been regaled with a retelling of EHJ's love for nature both in flora (she is the only one who sticks with it ‘til every plant is in the ground) and fauna (at one point this week she had a snail in one hand and a lady bug in the other.)
Windex Clean vs. Bleach Clean – I've been ruminating on this one since we arrived in China. Just because things sparkle doesn't really mean they're clean!
Perspective- No matter how frustrating our day has been there is always something going on here that makes me thankful for the most basic of things.
Block Party
No… I’m not talking about firing up your Weber or joining a Conga line with your neighbors. Instead I’m proposing we take it back from the Great Firewall of China. Here’s how it will work: you vote on one of the above proposed topics, and I’ll generate something based on popular demand. We may be blocked; but we’ll try to publish anyway. (I won’t go into details as to how.)
Use the comment section to cast your vote. And remember, as they say in Chicago, “Vote early and often!”
Later, Tai Tai Johnson
11 May 2009
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