No time, no internet, no motivation

Well, it's literally been two months since I've updated last. As always, there are lots of great reasons why I haven't been able to keep up...mostly, though I can blame the internet. It seems that China doesn't like my blog and has been VERY effective with keeping me off of it. I am so glad that I am able to get on right now, for however brief a time. I can still access many sites (like facebook, youtube, and even others' blogs), but just not my own. Grrrr...

So what happened?

January:
-Willow turned 2.5 years old. I had intentions of throwing her a half-birthday-party. A plan that only existed in my head, and got stuck in brain matter.
-Noah reached the 5 month marker
-Celebrated another Chinese New Year. It was Noah's first, and Willow's third! Not as many fireworks this year, but enough to keep Willow equal parts fascinated and terrified. We bought a large box ourselves, and lit it off--much to Willow's horror. We have a video of us all freezing outside for the sake of gunpowder--and Willow is sobbing. Noah is nonchalant as usual. If our internet was faster, I'd upload it, because it's might entertain you.
-Adam enjoyed (I think...) a two week break from teaching
-Selfishly, I enjoyed not hosting anything during that two week break. I had a break from just about all my commitments, which was just what my introverted-self needed.
-We didn't eat a whole lot of meat during Chun Jie, since restaurants were closed, and the market wasn't selling any. How is Adam still alive?!

February
-Noah passed the 6 month mark.
-We continued to endure the brutally cold weather, with a few teasers of an approaching spring mixed in there.
-We received Noah's DNA microarray test results--which were normal! I hope to write more about this in the future.
-The attempt to get Noah's heart and kidneys checked via ultrasound failed. I also will write about this in the future. It was, in a word, traumatic. And in retrospect, it's hilarious.
-Willow became obsessed with Frozen, even more. She has most of the lyrics memorized, and works on the choreography. She would like nothing more than to have a single, thick braid draped over one shoulder.
-Um...I don't remember what we did in Februrary.

Now it's March! Tomorrow, Noah will be 7 months, and if China will let me on my blog--I really will try to update about Noah's development, personality, and health....for like the past three months.

In the mean time, here are some pictures for you.

We spent the big night of Chun Jie at a nice hotel--where we had a suite (for less than $100) that was larger and nicer than our apartment. Super nice! We ate dinner at Pizza Hut, and stopped at Starbucks the next morning. Pretty much the only places that were open, in the usually very busy Tai Yuan shopping/touristy area.

The Smell of Fireworks in the Morning

Lunar New Year.


It is a wonderful holiday in Asia--although you might not even mark it's passing in the USA.




It's pure magic. In a city of uncounted millions--the streets are all but deserted. Everyone is at home, celebrating with their families. Watching the National Variety show on CCTV, shooting off fireworks and noisy fire crackers. They feast on traditional dishes that are symbolic for everything they hope for in the coming year. They burn symbolic money and other disposable goods in the streets for their deceased relatives. They eat jiaozi (aka, potstickers or dumplings) at midnight. It seems like they stay up all night, blasting off fireworks until you can't see through the gunpowder haze that settles over the city. It sounds, smells, and even looks how I imagine a city under attack might be like.


For some Chinese people, it is the only time of the year that they get to see their spouse and kids. Read this about migrant workers.

2011: Pregnant with Willow
16 Weeks

Every Chinese New Year that we've spent in Shenyang, we've gone to a hotel. Saturday night, China ushered in the year of the snake (yes, our second child will be a snake...) and we went off to the Holiday Inn with a group of friends. Here's a post from our Holiday Inn trip in 2011 when I was pregnant with Willow: War Zone. I especially like the pictures of people shooting fireworks from their high-rise apartment windows.

Chun Jie 2013: Pregnant again--wearing the same maternity shirt at the same hotel.
Because I'm weird like that. 15 Weeks

Well. I'm pregnant again, and I  can't believe it's 2013! How have two years gone by so quickly? It truly leaves me speechless--to think that Willow will complete her second year in five months...it's just craziness!

Here are some pictures from Chun Jie 2013. There aren't any pictures of fireworks yet, but I'm sure there will be eventually. Adam is going to buy some boxes to set off this week. 

There was a little wardrobe in this hotel room. The kids pretended to go to Narnia or Terebithia through it. I think Willow hoped that the Oreos would multiply if she put them in the magical cupboard.

All the girls, minus Kiera and Kaeya who were on their  way over. 

One sad part about Willow's first Chun Jie was that she started to run a high fever some time during the evening. After we checked into the hotel, we walked over to Starbucks to meet some friends. While there, she seemed fine. But by the time we returned to our hotel room, she was very fussy and lethargic. We went out to dinner at Pizza Hut---where she refused to eat and wanted to be cuddled the entire time. During the evening, she seemed to play, but started to look worse. She burned with fever all night. I don't think she fell asleep until 3am--which means that we all had a late night. She was so hot in our stuffy hotel room, she ended up sleeping in just her diaper. She slept until 10:30, and woke up 'happy' enough, but still didn't seem quite herself. By the time we were returned home around 2pm, she took a super long nap. That night, her fever spiked yet again and we were trying our best to keep her comfortable. It's the 4th day of her fever now, but she is feeling much better. She is playing and laughing, and actually eating. We decided that if she refused to eat and drink for yet another day, we would take her into the hospital for an IV. We are turning so Chinese.

Willow, when she woke up the next day.

Adam's hamburger: egg, beef, onions, lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle. No mayonnaise  ketchup, or mustard. This would be considered an awesome find in Shenyang.

Okay, that's all for now--but there are more pictures coming from our Chun Jie break.

Rambling

Every day that slips by brings us closer to opening night for "Treasure Island". I've started having the worst nightmares about "Treasure Island". I think these dreams are made worse because of all these pregnancy hormones. Last night, I dreamed that all of these people from different schools (which are non-existent in reality) kept coming to sit and watch our rehearsal on Saturday--I couldn't get anyone to leave, no matter how much I yelled and screamed into a microphone that wouldn't work. I wouldn't generally mind people watching, but there were over a 100 people and they were being very loud and rude. We couldn't even practice. After two hours, we had only gotten through 2 minutes of the play. I kept trying to kick people out and then resorted to charging them 20 kuai to stay. It felt very real.

Now that I am awake, I have to keep reminding myself that "Treasure Island" will be a great show. There's so many more people helping out this year--some people I haven't even met yet. There is still a lot left to do--but I think it can be accomplished....

Adam has been playing a lot of video games this Chun Jie break. He has borrowed "Mass Effect 2" which is a sci-fi game that allows you to "become" a character and build relationships with other characters. Not a lot of fighting--mostly talking, collecting elements, and trying to solve the mystery. It's like an interactive movie and very addicting. Hopefully he'll get this kind of game out of his system--it is break after all--and once our baby comes the 360 will hopefully become less and less of a priority.

The Green Bay Packers won the Super bowl! I'm such a bad wife--I didn't watch the game (I don't understand the rules). Adam was up bright and early to watch his team. I was happy for him that the Packers won. He wore his Packers jersey all day.

I was just thinking about how fast the school year is slipping by. I will probably stop teaching a few weeks before school is out in order to fly to America before I am too far along in my 3rd trimester. We also have spring break in April....so after Chun Jie break is over, I think that I will only have to teach for 13 more weeks. I have a lot more to do with these kids before they're ready for 4th grade! They are still so cute and small that I can hardly imagine that they are ready for 4th grade! Hopefully the grow taller and more mature over the next few months.

~julie

How to Create Work For Yourself

Be very careful when working with 8 and 9 year olds, because if you're not, you'll end up making promises. Their cheers and nods of approval are very satisfying, but then the reality sets in and you realize that you've just created more work for yourself. However, it's not until after you actually start fulfilling your promises that you realize how much work you're in for.

I generally try to stay far away from project promises. It's not fun to follow through with these little work projects and it is ultimately unnecessary. The only person it pushes is the teacher--and the teacher has no time or sanity for carrying these tasks through. Throughout the whole month of January, we spent approximately 75 minutes working on poetry everyday. You can imagine that a lot of poetry was produced....and you are right.

The vain promise: "I will type all of your poem into a document before Chun Jie for you so that you can have your own poetry collection to keep forever".

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

A high school student who comes to my classroom twice a week to aid started to help the process get going. But after she had worked about 6 hours on typing, the collections were still unfinished. So, I started pitching in as well--after 10 hours of me working on the collections, they were still unfinished. There goes the "before Chun Jie" clause. There was no way that it could be finished!

So. Not only do I have to read all their poem and write feedback on their drafts, I have to put their grades into our online portal AND type them into a document. This is taking forever! Each student has dozens upon dozens of different kinds of poems and responses.

During Chun Jie, I have continued plugging away at this mindless project and now have collections for each student that are over 30 pages long each. I wonder how many hours were spent on this altogether? Who did this directly benefit educationally? Not me. Not my aide. Not my students (even though they can have a fun keepsake now). So, how could it be improved for the future--because I still like the idea of making collections. Third graders can't type fast enough and stapling their drafts together is not the most attractive concept.

At least I will be able to print out their collections, bind them nicely, and hand them out next Monday morning so they can start illustrating.

~julie

Baby Daddy

I think that Adam has always been good with kids, although babies might intimidate him a little bit. Lately, he has been such a good playmate to the babies on our team--preparing for our little baby that's on his/her way!

Such a sweet baby girl! She bounces and "claps" her feet together when she's excited and happy. Lots of excited feet clapping when rolling the basketball with Adam. :)

This little boy is learning how to laugh and smile so readily! Our friends have been taking care of him for the last few months.

~julie

War Zone

Before the post starts, here are some pictures from last year.

Last Year [Chun Jie]
Adam bought several firework boxes and needed to blow them off before they became "illegal". So, we went out to the frozen river and watched them fizzle away. Because it was the last night to blow off fireworks, there was lots of noise that night.

A different night with a different box.

See Mao in the center of that roundabout? He is actually quite a giant statue.

This Year [Chun Jie]

It is somewhat surprising when you come from a State that doesn't allow the average person to buy fire crackers to see what people can get their hands on in the street stalls for Chinese New Year. Last year, Adam bought several fairly large firework boxes. They are "relatively" inexpensive, especially in comparison to their American counterparts. This year, Adam has been good about not buying any fireworks. As his mom said, now is not the time to be blowing up money. Plus, everyone else in our city of several million seems to have bought fireworks of all kinds, so it's not like we have to pitch in order to have a spectacular New Year. This has been really hard for Adam, as he's had to avoid the temptation of many firework stands. These fireworks are special to him because I don't think they would be legal in America. They are much to big and explosive. They are closer to professional grade than anything, and are not your normal 4th of July experience.

Chinese people seem to have a set tradition for celebrating New Year. Some have to work on Lunar New Year's Eve, but usually by mid-afternoon they are all with their families, eating food and celebrating with each other. For some families, this might be the only time in the whole year that they get to see each other. They watch CCTV together for a few hours. I tried watching the variety shows put on by CCTV this year and last year, but I think its an acquired taste. It also helps if you can actually understand what they are singing. It's basically one fantastic musical number with extravagant costumes after another. There's a large audience sitting at tables, watching the spectacle, and I wonder how much you have to pay to be there. Probably hundreds of millions of people are watching this broadcast to celebrate New Year, so I suppose it's the booking to get if you are a performer of some kind. Chinese people might light off smaller displays throughout the day, and lots of noisy firecrackers too. Around 9 or 10 pm, they start lighting off the big guns and then take a break at midnight to eat jaozi which they prepare together that day. Yum!!! Jaozi is another word for pot stickers, which some people in America have eaten before at different Asian restaurants.

During the whole day, lots of noisy fire crackers are lit of on sidewalks and in the streets. They make a lot of noise, and leave a lot of debris and smoke. This Lunar New Year was not a very good year for taking pictures because it was such a smoggy day. Before the fireworks even started, the air was already filled with pollution and a thick layer of clouds.

People shooting firecrackers out their apartment windows. Doesn't seem like the best idea ever--we saw a few fire trucks come our direction.

Can you see how smoggy it was?

As it starts to get dark, the noise making fire crackers are blown off less and less, and the big show starts--lots of fireworks purchased by families, businesses, and everyone else that has a few hundred kuai saved up for New Year. As foreigners, it's our duty to observe in surprise the sheer number of explosions that fill the sky. To be outdoors during Chun Jie means that you are surrounded by loud explosions and thick odors...gunpowder. I suppose that the Chinese deserve to fill their atmosphere with gunpowder--they discovered it after all.

Adam and I stayed in a hotel with some friends and watched the firework display from the 10th story windows of our rooms. We played games and went out for dinner. It was a fun way to celebrate---we also made it to Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. Yum!

Our hotel room--relatively cheap for how nice and large it was!

We had a very nice bathroom in our hotel room and a walk in closet...I wish we had a walk in closet in our apartment! The baby and I--this shirt disguises my bump very nicely.

Eating dinner with our friends in an "irish pub". We had to wait for our food for a while, but we used our time well and played banangrams while we waited. I had a little guacamole with my food--oh so good and hard to come by!

It's hard to explain the smells, the sounds, and the sights of Chun Jie until you've experienced it for yourself. For me, it's like a town's 4th of July show, times several hundred, and it lasts until the wee hours of the morning....and then continues for the next several days. One of the nice things about staying in a hotel is that the walls are a little more soundproof, so I was able to sleep through all the noise. In our apartment complex, if someone lights of a box of fireworks in our courtyard it echoes through our whole building. In the morning, in the afternoon, and especially at night, we hear lots of fireworks. I think at a certain point, fireworks are not allowed to be shot off anymore. There is a deadline to the merriment. Young and old love their fireworks in China!

Our good Shenyang friends.

Starbucks in Shenyang...you can order in English.

Have a cup of prosperity! Happy New Year!

~julie

Week 17

I haven't updated our blog in such a long time. I have some really good excuses this time.

1. Treasure Island is consuming me.
2. Pregnancy is exhausting me.
3. Inflexible parents are preoccupying me.

So, let's talk about these three excuses for a dead blog.

"Treasure Island" is coming so close to production I can hardly believe it! I think that we are in a good place with everything right now. Since our Chun Jie break is now beginning, I feel like I can rest knowing that different facets are being taken care of by others or are already well underway. There are so many details to orchestrate and remember. Right now, the paint is being ordered, props are being searched for, the program is being made, and the costumes are being sewn...while I sit at home! It's so wonderful to have help--I think that it makes for better show and a less frazzled me.

Pregnancy is finally getting to those "enjoyable" stages I've heard about. Morning sickness has all but vanished and I am left with an insatiable appetite for everything. I ate Chinese food at home for the first time in over two months. Adam was very happy about that. Previously, the thought of ordering Chinese made me want to hurl. The baby and I both seem to be fairing well and staying healthy. That is a miracle to me, especially when you work with such germy little kids all day. I'm used to getting sick at least once a month, but since being pregnant, I haven't had any serious colds or sinus infections. I'm hoping that it stays this way! I'm so relieved to not be sick in the morning, the afternoon, or the evening anymore. Besides being hungry all the time, I am really achy in my muscles and joints, especially my back. Usually by the end of the school day I can barely walk home---once I walk through our front door I'm done acting and ready to just die.

Sleeping is all I ever want to do. Waking up feels like being hit by a truck or being heavily drugged. I hate waking up so much. Nine hours isn't enough. Ten hours isn't enough. I'm not sure any amount of sleep would be enough because I'll want a nap later on anyway. It's a good thing that teaching keeps me going non-stop during the day. There's usually no time to think about my back or my drowsiness or my hunger.....never mind on the hunger part, I am always hungry! My students usually drop off little offerings on my desk, "for the baby" they say. I normally would reject the random muffin or oreo, but these days I devour all food in my path. Despite eating frequently throughout the day, I don't seem to be gaining too much weight--in fact, I've lost weight according to the scale. It's so strange to me because my stomach is growing quite large. I feel like I look bigger than other women at this stage of pregnancy. Maybe it's because I've never stuck out this much before, or maybe because I'm short.....I don't know!

Right now we are on break for Lunar New Year. I'm so relieved! Last month we were on break for Christmas--and I was so sick and tired. Now I'm thankful for the break because it eats up time. I only have to teach for another 13 weeks or so, which is such a relief in many ways. I love my students. I love teaching. I love working with their parents. I love reading the funny things my kids say and marveling at their interesting questions that never cease. However, I've had some challenges with a few parents this year. If you could lift that up specifically, this is the are in my life that is causing me the most stress right now. It's so much worse that dealing with teaching and planning a play at the same time. I would rather direct two plays than have to smooth things over with these few individuals. Without giving away any details, my general feeling is that I'm being run ragged. It's like I'm silk that's been rubbed by sand paper too many times.

We're watching Project Runway season 7 right now. I love the creativity and innovation that comes out of these episodes.

So, that's a quick update. We're saving up for a baby! Almost half way until we get to meet him/her. We'll hopefully find out the gender within the next month! :)

~julie