Four weeks and counting

We only have four weeks left until we leave China. As you can probably imagine, things are getting busy, crazy and stressful as we prepare to get rid of all of our belongings except those we can carry in 9 suitcases on the airplane. Not to mention trying to arrange to see friends before we leave, eat as much good food as we can, go on some last bike rides in the countryside, and go to Shanghai to get our Argentine visas.

So this weekend was a busy one. Saturday was the school/neighborhood yard sale, where we sold everything we could live without for the next month. The apartment seems empty now, and I feel totally unorganized because I don't have our usual front door table where we keep keys, wallets, spare change and sunglasses. Milan did surprisingly well in the face of selling off a bunch of his toys. I was expecting major drama and tears at the sale, but luckily he was busy looking for snails and doodlebugs when the heavy yard sale traffic came through. Later, at home, he really got into the spirit and went around labeling everything that remains with 5RMB price tags. Including my dirty socks, the furniture that came with the apartment, and my favorite wall hanging. I guess that's only fair.

On Sunday we attended the International Family Game Day here in Beilun. We were invited by the neighborhood community center Yulan to be a part of their team in the competition. Actually, the sign at the event described it perfectly:


There were 4 funny games, to be exact. Each game designed for a family of three. Number one I like to call walking the plank:


Unfortunately I don't have pictures of us doing any of these amazing feats for obvious reasons, so you will have to use your imagination and picture the three of us strapped to two wooden boards shuffling down the stadium floor. We did not fall and hurt ourselves in this event, that was our main goal.

Number 2: the four-legged race.

We actually did okay on this one because Milan is small and light enough that he stood with one foot on Tim's foot and one on mine, so we were able to make it down the path carrying him between us.

Number 3 was a sack race and our friends on the team were very worried about Milan's ability to hop all the way across all by himself. Or maybe they were just worried about the team losing all chance of winning. He did it all by himself, but unfortunately we don't have any pictures because we were, well, stuffed in sacks waiting our turn to hop across the stadium for the relay race. I wish I had gotten a picture of his face because he was so proud of himself for doing it all by himself!

Number 4: Straws and rubber bands. This was the least physical and the most interesting. And by interesting I mean there were some really interesting poses of 200 people passing rubber bands to each other with straws in their mouths.


It was a really cute idea, with each team forming a long line across the stadium floor and passing rubber bands from one end of the line to the other. Milan was at the end of the line with Tim assisting and I was stuck in the middle somewhere.

It was fun for the first 4 or 5 rubber bands, but then I started to wonder, are we competing for the most rubber bands in a certain time period, or getting a certain number of rubber bands passed as fast as possible? These are the minor technicalities that are hard to work out when you hardly speak the language. Turns out it was number of rubber bands in about 45 minutes, or at least it felt like we were passing those stupid rubber bands for that long. It was probably closer to 10 mintues which was about 7 minutes too long.

And after all of this we were still smiling! It was really alot of fun and Milan did great! Judging by what he tried to recreate at home today, he loved the straw game and the sack race the most. And despite being the slowest in the rubber bands, the sack race, and probably the plank walk, somehow our team came in fourth place!

It was totally rigged. There is no way we came in fourth.

And Tim was interviewed by at least 4 reporters, one for national news!

We came, we played funny games, we had fun building harmony and teamwork with our family and community!


But really, the best part of the weekend was this:


My favorite berries, yáng méi Chinese red bayberries are back! I found the first of the season on Sunday and made this yáng méi -mulberry cobbler for dessert after dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant. I must eat as many yáng méi as possible in the next four weeks! I think I am up for that challenge.