The Lantern Festival

The last day of Chinese New Year culminates with a Lantern Festival. The Chinese make “tangyuan” or dumplings, to eat. These are dough with a cabbage and pork filled center, or sometimes a sweet filling. There are parades of red lanterns throughout the streets and MORE fireworks—holy cow does this country love its fireworks! They have a lot to be proud of, but inventing fireworks seems to be one area where they really like to show off.

Campus Village, the small expat community where we live, put together a nice Lantern Festival for us right at the village. The children made their own tangyuan (dumplings); then we had prepared dumplings for dinner , followed by a show of traditional Chinese entertainment. There was singing, Mongolian folk dancing, Chinese Opera with its amazing mask changes, a magic show using beautiful scarves and umbrellas, and a clown doing balloon tricks. One of the funniest things was a group of our security guards, who are normally very dignified and restrained, doing a comical dance that reminded me a bit of YMCA. These guys rarely smile while on their shifts-it is probably their military background, but they were up there having a riot goofing around and grinning! So many of the Chinese seem so reserved and serious, but when you get to know them, many of them are very fun loving and have a great sense of humor.

Apparently this type of variety show is very typical for the Chinese. Intel is actually putting one on Friday as a company team building/celebration. Tony is actually getting up on stage to sing and dance!!! If I hadn’t had 100 other examples of the fact that our lives have radically changed, that one really makes me feel like I slipped down the rabbit hole! I would give ANYTHING to see it, but apparently it is for employees only. I am trying to bribe someone for photos and video though! I think he has threatened everyone with their jobs to keep it confidential because he knows it would go right on here.

But I digress…. Back to the Lantern Festival...

The children were then each given a glowing red lantern and we had a parade through the streets to the field where they were setting off the fireworks. Again, the show was great, but a bit too close for comfort. Flaming ashes falling all around us and roman candles going off in all directions. We seem to have made it through Chinese New Year without any serious firework injuries, so we will just enjoy the cultural experience and count our blessings! (and hopefully get a bit more sleep at night!)

My Beautiful Beach and My Beautiful Beach Babies

Here is MY AWESOME beach! I'm sure it has a name , but I don't know what it is just yet. We live about a 2 minute drive, 15 minute jog, or 5 minute bike ride from the beach. It is lovely and I can only imagine how much prettier it will be when spring arrives. The kids and I have been walking on the beach, and our new family project is to collect beautiful sea glass—colorful glass that has been worn smooth by the tides and sand and washed up on the shore during low tide.

Here are some photos of Taylor, Carter, and their new friend, Gracie, on the beach one day last week. Gracie is one of the teacher’s daughters-adopted from China as an infant, and is now here from Oregon—as American as Taylor in every way but her looks! Those of you who know me, know that the beach, any beach, is my happy place. I have been running and walking on the beach and will use it to help me train for the Great Wall Half-Marathon I plan to do this May. I also can’t wait until it warms up again so the kids and I can explore the tide pools! It was all I could do to keep Carter out of the water on a 40 degree day!We plan to spend A LOT of time here! :-)

Chinese New Year Fireworks- The Year of the Ox

(photos by Yukiko and Damon Flennaugh-fellow Intel expats who captured the fireworks much better than we did! Thank you Kiko and Damon!)

Part of the tradition of Chinese New Year is to set off fireworks to ward off the evil spirit Nian. Every Wang, Chang, and Li can buy POWERFUL fireworks on every street corner. For that matter so can every Tom, Dick, and Harry- expat who usually do not have access to such firepower. We know loads of Westerners who are trying their hardest to blow themselves up as well. The fireworks have been going off nonstop all week-all day, everyday, and all night long too. We live out in a very quiet, remote area, so it hasn’t been too bad by us, but friends of ours who live downtown say it’s like living in a warzone and haven’t slept all week. They seriously think they may have post traumatic stress disorder by the time this week is over.

We went into Dalian city for the “big” Fireworks show in Xinhai Square on Tuesday night. It was by far the most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen in quantity, variety, pace; the sheer volume was breathtaking. The Chinese invented fireworks almost 2000 years ago, so they’ve had a few years to get this right.


We were supposed to have seats for the show in a grandstand area, but we could not understand where we were supposed to go and could get no one to understand us well enough to read our passes and direct us. So we were in with the masses and it was just as well. We could see just great, it wasn’t too horribly crowded (for China), and it gave us a better cultural experience than if we’d been up segregated with a bunch of Westerners. The kids were a little frustrated because the Chinese fawn all over them with their blonde hair. They want to touch them, take their pictures, and hug them. They are just trying to be nice, but it invades the kids’ personal space and they get pretty uncomfortable and shy. All in all the kids thought the show was awesome, but they were whining about how cold they were. It was a mild night(about +30F) and they were bundled up. It definitely made up our minds to skip the Harbin Ice Festival this year where it is -30.(see previous post) Even with the breathtaking sculptures, I’m not sure my little hot-blooded Arizona babies could take it! Pretty sure Ice fest would turn into Whine Fest. Hopefully next year!

On a Lighter Note...

On a lighter note: I can’t find turkey but here are some options we DO have; Riversnail anyone? NO idea what the other one is but it just SOUNDS good, doesn't it? :-)

I definitely can also get VERY fresh seafood in the wet market if I wanted; the other day a Chinese woman went to lean down to put something in her cart and the fish she had just bought flip-flopped at her . She jumped about a foot and screamed! Also, the buckets full of fresh crabs often have escapees and I almost stepped on one trying to scuttle his way to freedom. :-)

I like fresh seafood as much as the next person, but maybe not quite that fresh!

Chinese New Year Gives Us a New Perspective

Chinese New Year:
Think Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years all rolled into one. Now also think that it is your one chance to see your family for the year. This entire country shuts down for a week! Almost every store, office, and service is closed for the entire week while the Chinese return to their hometowns for their annual visit. So I had one week to try to figure out how to get food, water, and information before everyone left. We were without our driver and unable to go anywhere for 2 days. Luckily he preferred the triple overtime. His family is here in Dalian, so he didn’t want more thant the 2 biggest days off. We BARELY made it to our office to order our water bottles before they closed at the beginning of the CNY week. For the first time in our lives, we had to REALLY take notice and be concerned about our potable water. It certainly wasn’t an emergency by any means—we knew we could go knocking on other expats doors—but it certainly got our attention.
Also, for the first time in my children’s lives they are truly getting hungry. They are trying many different things and trying to get used to all of the different foods, but they do not like most of it. For many days, I was unsure of what was safe to eat, where to shop for certain foods, how to prepare them so we don’t get ill, etc. For about a week, they ate peanut butter, bread, cheese, and pasta. THAT’S IT! Many of you know how dramtic Taylor can be. She says to me after the third day of bread and cheese for breakfast as her only option, “Mom, I feel like a poor person.” I wanted to tell her that the cheese runs us about 8 US dollars per small block! Then Carter woke up out of a dead sleep one morning muttering, “I want turkey!” Just about broke my heart, and TRULY breaks my heart for all of the families who ARE starving here in China, the U.S. and other places around the world. I can not wait for Taylor to see what living in true poverty can look like.

As a parent,it is a horrible feeling to think that your kids are going hungry or that you cannot provide for them. We are just getting the slightest inkling of that feeling-we are totally fine and with plenty of resources-- just trying to figure it all out, but it is disconcerting to say the least. Like I said, this week has been like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years: we are so thankful for our blessings, and this New Year and our new life has definitely helped give us all a new perspective already.

Community Time at the Dalian American International School (DAIS)

So far the kids love their school and we have been extremely pleased with it as well. The kids were actually bummed that school was off this week for Chinese New Year! It has been the most stabilizing factor in their little lives since we got here.

Dalian American International School (DAIS) is a great learning environment and would be a teacher's dream to work at in many ways. Taylor has 16 kids in her class with a teacher and an aid. All the teachers are native English speakers and all instruction is in English. Most of the kids in her class, however, are English Language Learners, and English is their second or third language. They come from all over: Austria, Korea, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, etc. The behavioral expectation is set very high; unfortunately you can spot the American kids right away because they are usually the ones not paying close attention or getting in trouble. :-(

Taylor was pretty funny -she went in expecting to be bored in her class again and feeling like she'd "know it all". The children in her class have been challenged and pushed to a higher academic standard, so they are all right there with her. It was humbling for her-which she sort of needed- but I'm happy to say she loves the challenge and is no longer bored. She has, however, managed to breach not 1 but 2 language barriers to fall in "love" with a German boy who only speaks German and Mandarin. Go figure! :-)

Carter also really loves his class. He is the only boy with 6 girls. His teachers are both Mandarin and the class is in Mandarin. It is exploratory play and overseen by a Montesorri teacher who speaks English. It costs 900 RMB/month=130USD/month! When the teacher told me, I had to ask if it was per week or per month--I had no idea! He is going MWF 9:00-3:30. Because it's in Mandarin, I want to make sure I get some good home teaching time with him as well--and play dates with other kiddoes too. Also, it takes me over 3 hours to get back and forth to the store, so if I run errands, the half day option wouldn't give me enough time.

Every Friday DAIS has a “Community Hour” where the whole school gets together and each grade is responsible for putting on a program. It is great for their public speaking and performance skills. Taylor and the other new students were introduced. Then the 3rd graders presented a program about Chinese New Year and the Year of the Ox. I learned a ton about the Chinese Zodiac and the mythology behind it. Taylor’s first grade class stood up and sang “Xin Nian Kuai Le” or “Happy New Year” in both Chinese and English, which Taylor LOVED-she doesn’t need much encouragement to perform! She belted it out like a show tune-both in English and Chinese. Her Mandarin class also made Chinese Dumplings this week and special paper cut outs-other Chinese New Year traditions as well.

All in all school has been the best aspect of our "adventure"-- not causing us any headaches--so far! :-)