Book Week & Golf

This week at Yew Chung International School has been Book Week. It is a whole week focused on literacy and week is capped off with all the students dressing up as a literary figure. Gabriel, of course, wanted to be someone from The Lord of the Rings so Tammy worked with a local tailor in town here to put together an appropriate "hobbit" like guise. Complete with "ring" necklace and hairy feet, Gabriel spent the day as Frodo Baggins. He then went on to win various contests including trivia questions on Star Wars. :)



After the school day, a number of teachers got together to take advantage of an offer to go and hit some golf balls and have a lesson at a local 9 hole golf course. It was a fun opportunity for all of us and they even had some left handed golf clubs for Tammy. After an hour of hitting golf balls we headed into the club lounge to have a beer. We ordered 4 beers and the waitress informed us they only had one beer. This was strange as we were looking at the fairly diverse beverage list. We said if they only had one beer (not one type, but literally 1 bottle of beer) left, then maybe we could get some coke or soda. She said they were out and had only water.


















You have to live in China to appreciate the moment. No apology, no explanation. Just matter of fact, "Do you want the one beer or water?" Well, we took the one beer, split it among 4 glasses and had a good laugh.


Hey, the golf was good!

"The Embassy" otherwise known as Starbucks

There was a time when I used to avoid Starbucks. Partly because I didn't like the coffee, partly to avoid the bandwagon everyone was jumping on, but mostly I was fundementally opposed to an organization that seemed to have three franchises in site from any rooftop.

Over the last couple years as I regularly met at Starbucks in Boulder with friends for prayer and worked at a business that had its own Starbuck, my stance softened until I too capitulated to the love the rest of humanity seems to have for Starbucks.



Living in Huangdao China, my love for Starbucks has grown even stronger. In previous posts we explained how Huangdao is an "up and coming" development area across the bay from Qingdao proper. Its beautiful here but there is a sense of being "cut off" from some of the amenteties of the city across the bay.



Fortunantly there is a "Starbucks" here or as westerners refer to it, "The Embassy".

Starbucks is the one place where you can almost feel like you are back in the West.
The artwork, decor, and product is all exactly like we would have in the States.



Huge comfy chairs, relaxing music, and overpriced java create a "we're home" feel. Now, don't get me wrong, we love living in China, but sometimes...you just need to take a break and Starbucks offers a relaxing calm from the cultural storm that swirls around it. Recently a local man came in talking loudly on his cell. He sat near us and talked at a decibal that seemed to have the cups rattling. Tammy leaned over and got his attention and then motioned for him to "zip it". I was surprised by her boldness and that the guy really did quickly get off the phone. Tammy simply said, "He can talk as loud as he wants anywhere else, but he can't disturb the peace of The Embassy."



Huangdao does not have a huge foreign population so you end up seeing everyone in there at some point. I like nothing more than getting a large mug of black coffee and curling up with my video ipod to watch a downloaded episode of Meet the Press or This Week with George Stephanopoulos

Of course, they play Christmas music in March which is a little weird. And I can almost imagine the conversation that goes on behind that decision, "The White people like Christmas...give 'em Christmas."

Anyhow, Starbucks has become our place to chill and where everyone does seem to know your name.

Chinese Lessons

I'm a college student again and its keeping me pretty busy.

Both Tammy and I want have been wanting to learn Chinese and Gabriel is learning it everyday as a part of his curriculum. Well, one of the teachers who I work with here has a daughter that enrolled at the local university to study Chinese and mentioned that I may be interested in it.

Now studying Chinese as a college student is a lot more intensive than hiring a tutor or attending a Chinese lesson a couple times a week. As a student now of China Shiyou University I attend class Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM - 12:00 noon. The classes include not only spoken Mandarin (Putonghua) but reading and writing as well.



The university has over 20,000 students and the campus is not unlike what you would see back in the USA. On the first day after class I wandered around to get my bearings and discovered a bank, post office, cafeterias, barbershops and salons,as well as all types of shops and stores. The students who live on campus would never need to leave if they didn't want to.

I'm in the beginning "A ban" class and students proceed up through B ban, C ban etc. as they progress in their proficiency.

I may be in A ban a while...

...Academic studies have always come fairly easy to me but not so with Chinese. The teacher will often say to me, "Mingbai ma?" (Do you understand?) and I reply, "Wo mingbai." (I understand) but when I am asked to speak, my mind freezes up as it tries to translate concepts to Chinese from the English going on inside my head. What adds to the frustration is the teachers are teaching Chinese, in Chinese. That can expedite the immersion experience but can be very frustrating when trying to ask a question.

My class is pretty diverse too. There is one other American, three Koreans, a couple guys from Nepal, a guy from Somalia, and another from Kenya as well as a few guys from Pakistan and Kazakhstan. The guys from Kazakhstan are pretty funny. They are nice kids and always come up to shake my hand but studying Chinese is not their priority. They arrive late, leave early...and are not always entirely sober :)



They remind me of students I had in my class when I took a similar program in Beijing in 1991. The children of the Venezuelan ambassador were in my class and I would on occasion go out with them in the evenings. They were nice guys but were in a whole different league of "party" than I so I would insist on being dropped off back at the dormitory around 9 or 10 in the evening. They would then go out all night and sometimes arrive the next morning not even having gone to bed yet. As they slipped into classroom slightly glassy-eyed, I would nod at them and they would smile back and whisper that I missed a good time. Being a Christian and attempting to honor God I'm pretty convinced I hadn't missed a good time, but I would smile and nod nevertheless :)



Anyhow, I am really blessed to have this opportunity. This term I am doing a lot less teaching and that allows me to be able to go to classes in the morning. Undoubtedly I will be teaching much more in the fall and will not be able to continue but I'm hoping to lay a foundation in the language that I can build on in the future.

Weekend Away!

One of the yearly events the expatriate community living in Qingdao look forward to is the annual Pantomime or "Panto". It is a traditional British stage play with an emphasis on farce, song, dance, audience participation...and cross dressing???

In a city where one is hard pressed to find English language culture, a local play like this takes on far bigger appreciation. Being on the "other side" of the bay most of teachers at our school rode over on the school bus together and spent the night in a hotel in Qingdao.




The panto itself was a much larger production that I anticipated with elaborately designed sets and costumes. The acting was a little hit or miss but most of the performers were surprisingly good. My main complaint was that the show was performed in the auditorium of a large Chinese Middle School which lacked heat. At the end of three hours I was literally freezing. Thankfully the shows refreshments served hot "mulled" wine to keep the blood circulating.



After that we had a pizza night with some of the other families and then, when our wives were distracted with chit chat, the husbands snuck off to the DVD store around the corner. Seems I am not the only husband who gets in trouble for buying DVDs by the armful from the store. I scored on this visit walking out with the complete collection of the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles .



Another reason we like to occasionally spend the night in Qingdao is to be able to arrive to church early on Sunday morning. (Which was kind of important since we had volunteered to be "greeters".) This week was our first week in our new location at the Intercontinental Hotel. The hotel is 5-star and really rolled out the red carpet for us. They even offered a highly discounted special lunch in their restaurant after the service. Even with the discount though it was pretty expensive, BUT, it sure tasted Gooooood!! :)



Anyhow, it was a fun weekend...too bad its Monday again!

International Maths Day

Every year in an attempt to bring focus to maths (only in America do we use the term "math" which makes the plural "mathmatics" singular) schools around the world celebrate World Maths Day.







At our school the school split up into teams by age and grade and convened on the field outside. Stations were set up around the campus and the "teams" all had to move as a team by holding on to a single hocky stick and then run as quickly as they could from check point to check point.



At each station there were fun problems or situations set up for the groups to solve or play as a team. They then get their team passport signed and they then move to another station trying to complete all of the math challenges before the others.



I watched Gabriel have a blast as he joined in. Enjoy the pics!

Baseball 2009

When Gabriel had his final baseball game with the South Boulder Little League "Lugnuts" last year, the coach asked by show of hands who wanted to play with the same team again next year. Gabriel didn't raise his hand explaining that he'd like to but that we were moving to China. I must admit, I was a little depressed when I heard that. Most people know I'm a pretty big baseball fan and Gabriel was really enjoying playing Little League in Boulder. Here I was, coming face to face again with the fact that I was pulling my son away from the anchors of his childhood.

Fast forward to Christmas time. We are in China and working at Yew Chung International School. The head of our Extra Curricular Activities asked me if I would be willing to run an after school program in the spring.

I smiled and said, "Yes...baseball"

Rather than a full on varsity program, we are starting as a 10 week after school activity. Because the school is still quite small we opened baseball up to everyone from Age 10 through high school ( so Gabriel could play ) and I was pleased to see 12students signed up.

We had our first practice today and it was a lot of fun. We don't have a proper baseball field so we walked to some open park space near the school. The plus is that its right near the ocean as you can see from some of the pictures.

Most of the kids were pretty new to baseball so to compare them to the Bad News Bears would be to disparage the Bad News Bears but they played with a lot of enthusiasm and I saw some diamonds in the rough. I just wished we could delay for another couple weeks as the middle of February is still pretty cold here.

We're in the process of ordering some baseball jerseys from the States and my goal is to contact a couple other International schools in Qingdao to see if they are up for a little inter school competition. This may be just a extracurricular activity for now, but my hope is to lay the foundation for a future varsity program

It won't be easy to develop baseball in the middle of China, but we'll have some fun trying.

Chinese New Year

Well, Chinese New Year is just wrapping up and it has been good...and loud!! Fireworks are pretty much legal in China so there is an incredible amount of high octane explosives that go off next to and over our house on a regular basis. The official reason given is that the fireworks ward off the evil spirits.

But I have another theory...

When I see all the young guys setting them off, I figure they are no different than any other guys on the planet...they like to light things on fire and watch them explode:) And like the 4th of July in the States, Chinese New Year is a great excuse to do it!

At the school here we had a Chinese New Year celebration at a local banquet hall. The various classes did different Chinese performances including a dragon dance, songs, and Tai Chi.



Gabriel has a Chinese name now and we are calling him by that name more frequently these days. He is Ao Fei which literally means Flying Proud.

Tammy and I were very proud of our little Ao Fei as he performed Tai Chi with his class. As I watched all of the kids performances I was reminded how blessed we are to be in China at this time and how faithful God has been to us.

So from the Hackmans in Qingdao...Happy New Year!!