Holiday vacation

We just got back yesterday from a great vacation to Southern China's beautiful mountains and rivers. I can't decide where to start since it seems like we were gone for a decade instead of 10 days, so I'll organize the stories and pictures by mode of transpiration. I think this will work. Bear with me here.

Train: 24.5 hours
We boarded a train in Ningbo and didn't get off until the next day. We thought a long train ride would be fun. For the most part, we were right. It was interesting and comfortable and Milan had a blast and we saw some beautiful countryside. We had a 4-bed compartment to ourselves for most of the day until the train filled up around dinner time. The two men who occupied the top bunks were nice and serious about getting some sleep (instead of sitting in the hall smoking all night), so we did alright.

Inside our compartment, and grateful to be out of the cold train station

Taking a walk through the train

Bicycle: 6 hours
The area where we stayed, outside of Yangshuo, Guangxi Province, is perfect bike riding territory. The guest house provided bikes for rental and we set off into the countryside, through the villages, among the mountains. We lucked out with some great weather for the first 3 or 4 days before the cold rain hit.

On the path between villages

Biking on the back roads

Yulong Qiao, Dragon Bridge, on the Yulong River

Hiking: 6 hours
We did a beautiful hike along the Li River with Milan alternately walking and carried in the backpack. When we got tired and were no longer having fun, we hopped on a boat the rest of the way down the river. We couldn't have made it without the "Elfin" cookies (energy-packed vegan oatmeal raisin chocolate chip cookies that Tim made before we left home).

Waiting for a tractor to cross

Crossing a bridge

Us and the Li River

Amazing beautiful scenery

Milan shed many, many, many tears a few days later on the way to this hike up Moon Hill when there were no more Elfin cookies. Somehow we climbed all 800 steps and made it to the top for some wonderful views. After two days of rain, we were very grateful to have one more day of sunshine to get outside.

Moon Hill

Moon Hill, at the top

View from the top

Boat/raft: ~30 minutes
With all the rivers in the area we were bound to ride one eventually. "Bamboo! Bamboo!" was chanted by the local river guides every time we stepped foot in the vicinity of a river, an invitation to ride one of the thousands of bamboo rafts used to ferry tourists, goods, fishermen, and even bicycles across the rivers.

Taking the bikes across the river

Tim tries his hand at driving the raft

Relaxing on a raft

Tourist boats on the Yulong river. This place must be packed in high season!

Rock Climbing: 2 hours
Tim had a great day climbing at one of the world-class rock climbing sights around Yangshuo on Christmas Day. He was in heaven. A local climbing company provided the guides, equipment, ropes, belayer, and a lead climber to set up the routes. Milan and I played in the dirt a took pictures.

Ready to climb

Starting one of the 5.9 climbs

Tim at the top of a 26 meter (85 foot) climb (he is the red spot, about halfway up the rock)

Airplane: 2 hours
After learning that the train to come back home leaves the Guilin train station at 2:00 am, we opted to fly home, via Shanghai.

Super high speed elevator: 90 seconds
We had a half day in Shanghai before we came home, so we got to go up into one of the super tall buildings on the Pudong side. The elevator to the 88th floor in the Jin Mao Building travels at 9 meters per second, and the views of the city were great.

The Pearl Tower and looking at the Bund

Our cheesy tourist photo with a fake backdrop

Okay so that about sums it up! There will be many more pictures on Flickr.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Merry Christmas!

I am scheduling this to post on Christmas day, so by the time you read this we will be vacationing in Guilin and Yangshuo in southern China. We are trying to finish up the last of the packing for the 24-hour train journey and preparing to be gone for a couple of weeks, but I wanted to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!

We celebrated an early Christmas on Thursday the 18^th so we wouldn’t have to carry all of Santa’s presents with us on vacation. Milan had a blast and expects Santa to return every time he goes to sleep. Check Flickr for some Christmas Day pictures.

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Violin recital, and my first solo performance in about 15 years

I don't think I have mentioned on this blog that I have been teaching violin for the past couple of months. Some of you may not even know that I play violin since I have been somewhat of a closeted player for the past 5-10 years. I played very seriously in high school and some of college, but haven't done much with it for many years. But I did bring my violin to China with the idea that I could teach beginner students if the opportunity presented itself.

My friend, Allyson, has two girls, both who play violin and were looking for a teacher when they moved here. The older daughter, Ruth, is studying with a Chinese teacher at a huge violin school in Ningbo. The younger daughter, Grace, is my student. She is in the first grade and just learning how to read music. Both girls studied Suzuki method in the States and are great players. I didn't start playing until I was 12 or 13 (7th grade, as part of the Ft. Collins public school music program), so the fact that they are 6 and 8 years old and practice regularly and can get a decent sound out of their instruments is amazing. I have no experience with Suzuki method, let alone violin teaching, but I have one student and we have been having fun.

We decided to have a holiday recital for teachers and friends, and even though I am not Ruth's teacher we all wanted to do some Christmas tunes together. The program included Joy to the World, Angels We Have Heard on High, Rockin' Ole Saint Nicholas (Grace's favorite from the holiday music performance at school), and Silent Night. I decided I should prepare a piece as well since it is good for students to hear what their teacher can do, and also so the program would last more than 8 minutes. So I did Ave Maria with accompaniment on the piano by the school music teacher, Ms. Jenkins. She was great and also played accompaniment for the Christmas carols. She is one of those amazing piano players who asks the key and can go right into the appropriate accompaniment, keeping up with beginner and advanced violin performers alike!

Since the recital was at their house and everyone takes their shoes off in homes in China, I think this was the first time I have had a bare-foot performance. We performed the entire program again the next day at school for the first and third grade classes. I have to admit I was really nervous about my solo, but it went well and I am already thinking about doing another one in the spring.

Official Season's Greetings

Last week we attended the local town government holiday party for all the foreigners who live in Beilun.

Foreign expats, foreign experts

The room in the fancy hotel was packed with government officials, military families, and almost every foreigner in town. The evening started out with a traditional Chinese lion dance

There are two dancers in each lion, one sitting on the shoulders the other

drummers for the lion dancers

The lions were followed by speeches, a demonstration of the traditional tea ceremony, live music, a magician, and good food.

helium balloons = hours of entertainment

After the meal, it was time for everyone's favorite holiday entertainment, the beer drinking competition. The Americans made a showing, along with a couple Australians, a German, and someone from Japan. One of the Aussies won, I think. We were too busy chasing helium balloons.

Best of all, we didn't have to cook dinner!

How to buy a Chirstmas tree in China

There is no lack Christmas decorations in our local super-store, including fake plastic Christmas trees. But that is no fun. If you want to have an interesting day, here is how to buy a Christmas tree in China.

We were determined to find an evergreen bonsai-type plant as our tree this year, so we went for a bike ride on Saturday to the area where we had seen many farms and growers with bonsai and shrubs and trees.


But no one was there. We went to about three different farms where we could see potted evergreen bonsais. We were willing to pay good money to bring one into our home, but not a soul in sight to sell them to us. We knew these were not retail growers and knew they probably sell to big distributors. But we thought we could find someone to sell us just one tree.

Milan likes this one

How about we take this one and just leave the money under a rock?

We came close to buying one off the side of the road, but in just two minutes the price went up 300% (and we thought we were good at bargaining!?!?), so we packed it up and went home.

After Milan's nap, Tim went back out on the quest alone, hoping to find someone around at one of the places were we had trespassed earlier in the day. And here, making his blog debut, is Tim to tell his side of the story:

At about 4:30 that afternoon I rode back to one of the same farms we had been to earlier. Luckily, there were people there and it was no longer a ghost farm. I thought this was great! I would get home before dark! But everyone there was very busy loading a huge semi truck with trees. They all looked at me as if I were in the way and no one greeted me. They just walked around me and continued to load the truck. I took a deep breath and realized that I am going to have to wait until the truck is loaded. So I waited (very patiently too - a skill perfected in Africa). I watched the slightly stressed men put these huge 200+ pound trees in the back of the truck. There was also a women who was clearly the buyer of all of the trees. She held the flashlight because the sun had finally gone down. I am not sure how long I waited, but the truck was finally loaded up, the drivers and buyers got in the trucks and headed out. I was finally alone with the two tired and relieved farmers. However, they were not relieved to see me still standing there after almost an hour.

"Ni hao (hello)" I said, with a smile. They smiled back and lit their cigarettes. I told them I wanted to buy a tree. They had just sold 200 trees, and I wanted to buy one. They had to call their boss. I picked out a tree, but it was 250rmb and I only had 200rmb. (Sarah had spent the earmarked Christmas tree money a few hours earlier at the shopping mall). I picked a smaller tree that was 200rmb and paid the men. They balanced the 30 pound tree on my bike and waved goodbye. I finally had a tree!

The only problem: I was about 3 miles from home. It was going to be a long walk with a Christmas bonsai tree balanced on my bike. The first part of my walk was on a major two lane highway, with lots of cars, trucks, and mopeds. Unfortunately, there wasn't a
single unoccupied taxi.

I called Sarah. She told me to call the English speaking taxi guy that everyone in town uses. I was fairly confident I could explain to Mr. Wei where I was. I called, but he didn't pick up, so I continued walking. After about 5 more minutes, a bicycle taxi passed me. I yelled "wait, wait". He stopped. I told him where I wanted to go. He had never heard of it...never mind...follow me. I took the tree off my bike and put it in his taxi, and we were off.

He was a great cheerful old man that tried very hard to keep up with me, and I tried very hard to go slow for him. We spoke a little Chinese, but it wasn't long before I had to say, "I don't understand" twice in a row. We rode the remaining 15 minutes in silence. He worked up a serious sweat by the time we arrived. I had called ahead and told Sarah to meet us outside with some money to pay the guy (I had spent all of mine on the tree). I asked him how much. He said "how much do you want to pay?" I paid him enough to make him smile, and thanked him. Whether he knew it or not, he had helped saved our Christmas. What is Christmas without a tree?

A very merry birthday

Thank you everyone who commented and sent birthday wishes this week! I had a great 35th birthday. Tim, Milan, and our good friends and neighbors Kirsten and Doug surprised me with a home-cooked Mexican meal, fresh lime-juice margaritas, presents, and wonderful company. It is good to be loved.

Is it wrong to promote your own birthday on your blog?

I'm asking all you 7 or 8 blog readers to send me a comment so I know you're really out there reading. And I could really use the birthday wishes. Even if it's weeks from now! Go ahead, make a comment! It won't hurt!

Quick Shanghai trip

Last weekend we made a short trip to Shanghai. Well, it was longer than my last trip there, where I only saw the inside of Ikea and went there and back in one day. This weekend was all about fun and seeing the city and getting away for a couple days. It was also about the Shanghai Marathon on Sunday, where four teachers from our school ran the half marathon with 20,000 of their closest friends!

Since there was a large group of us going to run the race or cheer the race, we hired a private bus for the weekend. After the long ride there Friday night and the even longer bedtime battle once we got to the hotel, we woke up Saturday with a view of the Shanghai skyline.

Milan was very impressed by the view and wanted to know everything about every building in sight. Once we were up and motivated we went for a walk to the Bund, the pedestrian area near the river, with all of the tall fancy buildings on the other side. Unfortunately, this was all we could see:


The whole city is under major construction and renovation in preparation for the World Expo in the Spring/Summer.

After breakfast the bus took us across the river to an area where many Western expatriates live so we could shop and drink Starbucks. The shopping mall was indeed very Western:

This sign covers all the bases

A bit of Kenya in the sports equipment store (Kalenjin is the tribe from Kenya famous for long distance runners)

Shanghai is a really interesting place, and I was torn the whole weekend because I want to see the "China" side of the city. But at the same time Starbucks, Mexican food, microbrewery, and gelato sound really good right about now. This trip turned out to be more about the Western luxuries that we can't find in Beilun or Ningbo, but I know we will be back and promise to see more of the sights and tourist attractions. But I can't promise that I'll stay out of Starbucks.

A reassuring sign in Shanghai Starbucks

In the States I am usually not a coffee addict and don't visit Starbucks on a regular basis, but here it is a beacon of yummy home goodness. I went into three different Starbucks in Shanghai on Saturday (but I only made purchases in two of them, if that makes any difference).

Krispy Kreme is "coming soon"

Spells Milan!

On Sunday we managed to completely miss our friends at the starting line of the marathon because Milan slept until 7am and we certainly weren't waking him up. The plan was to have breakfast and then make it to the finish line, but after a leisurely and delicious breakfast at Element Fresh (fruit smoothies, coffee, smoked salmon and potatoes and bacon) and a trip to the Western grocery store (where vegan chocolate chips and vegan margarine were the exciting purchases of the day), the runners called to tell us they were over the finish line and that we should turn around and go back to the hotel because the stadium was too crazy. So we did. And then we did a little Christmas shopping!

One of the many Christmas decoration stores in the shopping area not far from our hotel

The shopping neighborhood

And, of course, the bus had to make a quick trip to Ikea before heading back home. I am happy to say that we only spent an hour and a half there, including lunch, and didn't break the bank this time.


It was a nice trip and a good introduction to the city. Thanks to all our China veteran friends who showed us the ropes!

Show me the paint!

One of the moms in our playgroup circle told us about an art class/school for toddlers right here in our little corner of China, so on Saturday Milan and 4 other kids ranging in age from 2-and-a-half to 6 ventured to the local Baby Art center. We had signed up for our one free class to check the place out. And here's what we did...

When we arrived, the kids played with some toys in the main area while the staff tried to figure out what to do with a group of foreign kids and moms who don't speak Chinese.

Milan is bored and is already asking "where is the paint?" There he is in the foreground pushing his chair around.

One mom in our group is Chinese and her husband is from New Zealand, so we were all grateful that she was there to help us translate. The rest of us are from the U.S. and Korea.

They finally took us into the paint room, where every surface is either washable or already covered in paint. I hope taking Milan here will absolve me of any responsibility to do painting at home since our trial with black Chinese calligraphy ink this week didn't go so well. Not recommended. Anyway...

The teacher was great, and although they don't advertise or specialize in foreign-language toddlers, she did a great job with our bunch. She clearly had a set script that she was doing, which included many, many steps before the kids got their hands on some paint!

Meet our friend "water"

Squirt bottle fight!

Finally, paint!

The kids learned how to say their colors in Chinese, and so did us non-Chinese-speaking moms who were there for the whole class. Each kid had to repeat the color in Chinese before the teacher put it on their hands.

Unfortunately, she expected them to all wait patiently with paint on their hands before going to their paper to do the finger painting together. Right, that didn't happen.

Painting free-for-all

The squirt bottle makes another appearance

Milan's painting technique was more a smear and rub rather than the hand prints that the teacher was advocating, but, with the help of us moms, they eventually did the painting all together on the count of yi, er, san (one, two, three)!

Bring on the paint! Milan and W. are ready for more!

It was fun and we were sold - we all signed up for 6 months of classes! Starting next week we'll have our regular Thursday morning trip to "Chinese school".