authenticity

(You thought this was going to be about "being your true self" or something, right? Ha).

I bought a DVD on the street tonight, knowing it was a movie that Adam had no interest in seeing ("The Kids Are All Right"). We have acquired several movies/TV shows from various street vendors, and as long as we get what we're expecting, it never really matters what the descriptions say. However, I happened to notice the cover and back of the case that this particular DVD came in. 

1. The title is in both English and Chinese (expected), but the "tag line' is in German. Luckily, I understand enough to know the tag line does fit the film (my fazzer vas an exterminator, my granfazzer vas an exterminator....[thank you, Sam!])

2. The special features include the following: reversible seat, reversible handlebar, 2-wheel position for sand and snow, 5 point safety harness, aerosleep mattress, compact fold, parking brake at hand, etc. etc. etc. You best believe I was sitting comfy watching this movie in my...new car? Bike? Bed? I'm just glad it tells me that the bassinet can be used separately; I was worried!

3. Towards the bottom, where it lists the production company, cast, directors, etc., I learned that "Valentine's Day" is a synonym for "The Kids Are All Right." Appropriate. Also, I must have fallen asleep for the cameos made by Jessica Alba, Kathy Bates, Bradley Cooper, Patrick Dempsey, and a slew of other famous people. Gotta watch it more carefully next time.

In other news, Adam is en route from Portugal at this very moment, and I cannot wait to see him after work tomorrow!!!

Double expat life

I have a moment at the conference with internet so wanted to break radio silence.

Being here has made me excited, melancholy, and reflective, mostly because it's the first time I've left Asia since we arrived mid-August, and it's SO ODD to be in the West again!!!

Lisbon is a beautiful place to have a conference because it is such a relaxing city it's hard not to turn a work event into a semi-vacation. When I get back home (leaving tomorrow but arriving Friday afternoon), I'll start posting the pics and travel stories. For now, some very brief observations:
1) I've spoken constantly in Spanish to people and understood their Portuguese and even Italian (so cool!). It is so wonderful--priceless really--to be in a place where I can understand conversations on the street, communicate what I want, and feel that people aren't staring at me all the time. I also had forgotten (almost) how much I love Spanish--the language, the culture, the people--and it's been an amazing reminder.
2) I have really missed a bright blue sky and clouds. Even on the most clear days, Beijing is still pretty polluted. The first few days, I took about 70 pictures of clouds--sky in background of stuff, etc--because it was so shocking to me.
3) The city has 3 million people and (no joke) feels like a ghosttown--so few people on buses, walking around, etc. My framework for population density has definitely shifted after battling the masses.

Now I have to get back to work preparing for my presentation tomorrow. The learning here has been incredible, and I hope to contribute. And the best part? Tomorrow my presentation ends at 11 and my flight leaves at 2 pm...meaning I'm almost back to Alison!!!!

Botanical Gardens

Last week, we had Monday off to celebrate communism, so naturally we took a subway and bus 2 hours away, to the botanical gardens (still in Beijing, in case you were wondering). 

There were tons of gorgeous flowers in full bloom. The tulips were spectacular, both up close and far away:

(Adam took the photo with the colors; I've taught him well, if I do say so myself!)

Here are a few other favorite flower shots:

(The last one is the of the peony garden. You know, the flowers that bloom on their own and don't need much attention?)

We were lucky to have clear, sunny weather, though that meant we were joined by thousands of others celebrating China's communism and general lack of smog. It made it difficult to get pictures without other people in them, as you can see:

I can't really be sad though because what would I do with a picture of a grass-and-flower rabbit? This picture is much more amusing; thank you random man making a ridiculous face.

This was about the time that we realized that the Chinese have a fondness for taking pictures...anywhere. I mean, we knew the love for photographs and the constant posing, but at the expense of flowers at the botanical gardens? But honestly, we weren't terribly surprised.

Luckily the people who built the gardens anticipated this and made small paths amidst the flowers so that people could literally squat and take pictures inside. So we just took cues from the locals and followed cultural norms...

We enjoyed a picnic lunch overlooking a small lake, and people watched as we ate. While we would ordinarily just bring picnic blankets for the day, people here bring full-on tents like they're camping. There were babies napping, people playing cards, and picnics galore in and around these tents.

We left the gardens and (after 2 hours of public transport) met some friends (we have [4] friends!) for drinks.Thank you, Communist China, for a wonderful day!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

I know I've posted a lot about the little munchkins lately, but I'm getting all sentimental as my time with them winds down. It's weird to know I'll never see them again and that I'll clearly remember them, but (as they are so young) it's unlikely they'll remember me. They're also just so freakin' adorable that I want to use this post for selfish, journal-related reasons--we have had some great moments this year!

The thing about the kids is that they are SO funny. I'm sure they'd be even funnier if I understood half of what they said, but I laugh a lot even without understanding. Some examples:

--When we were doing letter K and I had all of the pictures of my fam, one of the kids asked "Why do you have blue eyes and yellow hair?" The teacher's response: "Because she's a foreigner." Haha!

--In one of those pictures, my hair is straight and I'm all of 13 years old. One girl looked at it and declared "She looks just like my mommy!" (Her mom is Chinese...and at least 20, I hope!)

--When the kids first see me, they always run up and show me their zippers, buttons, dresses, and jeans (all words we've learned this year). It kind of reminds me of how we would see our childhood dentist at temple or the JCC and immediately show him our teeth.

--When singing the ABC song, the older kids like to yell out things that begin with each letter as we get to it (it's not the standard American version of the song; it's much longer). Lately, Billy has been saying "YOGA" for letter Y and then immediately goes into a yoga pose. Apparently he takes classes with his mother in the evenings...

--I showed the older kids a video of Lucy (our family dog) eating peanut butter. They LOVED it for several reasons, including that the Chinese teacher's English name is Lucy. Now they constantly ask to see Lucy and then all make licking motions with their tongues.

--I change clothes every afternoon so I can leave my work stuff at school. When I emerge from the teacher's closet, Billy always exclaims "Alison, you look so bee-you-tee-ful!" and then the other kids follow suit. (Apparently gym clothes are a novelty here, as Adam noted).

--Today I asked the baby class who wants to come to America with me. They all said no at first, but then Simon said he wouldn't want to go because his mom buys him new toys. I told him that we have toys in America, and then he said he'd come. Hannah said she would come if I buy her a butterfly dress. Julie said she would come if there is ice cream. And Dora requested the steep price of 3 dresses.

--The teacher who will be taking my place came to do a demo lesson last week. (They hire early here!) The following day, Clive asked "Where is Rebecca?" When I told him she is a new English teacher and will come when I leave next month, his face fell and said "You go to America?" He then gave me a huuuuuge bear hug. 

(Side note: I made Rebecca promise to bring her computer once and a while so that I could possibly Skype with the kids. Thank goodness for technology!)

I love that I walk into the classroom to screams and shouts of "Alison! Alison!" It's such a bright spot every day and makes me so excited to be at school (and off the subway). In the small class, they always run up and show me their clothes and tell me stories that I don't understand. I usually say "Oh WOW" and act excited because they're excited, and that tactic works just fine. However, 2 kids would always repeat the same thing over and over, and when I finally asked what they were saying, it turned out to be "BIG HUGE FEET!" So random.

Now that we've been doing the same routines for so many months and the kids really do know the days and months, they have started little jokes that make them all dissolve into giggles. The older kids started say "FLyday" because someone slipped up once (big supplies there, huh?) and now we all discuss where we will fly on Flyday. The smaller kids say "Washday" instead of Wednesday because of another slip up and then all make hand-washing motions. It's refreshing and exciting to me because they have to own the original term in order to understand the joke about it. Yay for teaching successes!!

You're probably bored to tears with such a long, picture-less post, so thank you for reading and humoring me :) They make me crazy sometimes, but I love [most of] these babies!

Portugal!

I'm about to go to the airport for my trip to Portugal, and it's very surreal--we've known about this for months with the mindset of "wow, once Adam gets back from Portugal we're like done with China!" And now it's here, and the end of one of the best years of our lives is abruptly heading to a close.

Good thing we miss you guys something terribly and are SO EXCITED to see you or we may get depressed ;)

In terms of Lisbon, I'm less of the mentality that this is a vacation and view it instead as a work trip. So, while I'm definitely excited to sightsee a few days, I am really looking forward to wrapping up a few loose ends with Dr. Smith and presenting in another suit (you'll have to tell me which one looks better!). The best part is that I'm bringing Alison's camera so I can take some high-quality pics.

KTV

Unfortunately, Ben left for America last night (how did this year go by so quickly??), so on Friday night, we got together for a standard Chinese activity--KTV, or as we call it, karaoke! Adam and I have managed to avoid putting our incredible singing talent on display in China (so as not to make anyone feel bad, ya know?), so this was a first for us.

It began with music selections courtesy of Ben's friend (far right), and lots of liquid courage in the form of Korean sake and beer...and pineapple.

Isn't he adorable?!

In most KTV places, you rent a room by the hour so it's not like in American bars where you're singing in front of the whole crowd. This made it much more intimate and comfortable for sure! (There are actually several places like this in NYC, and I went a few years ago with my co-workers and had a blast!) Basically, someone would select several [random] songs and we passed around the microphones.

Someone picked a Justin Bieber number that Adam and I knew as "Blake and Victoria's Study Song" from the amaaaazing video they sent while procrastinating last fall. We just had to imitate their awesome dance moves:

And then we decided to step up and pick a few. One of our favorites from this year was Cee-Lo's "F* You," and apparently nobody else had ever heard of it because they were DYING when the lyrics came on and Adam and I pretty much knew every word. We couldn't stop laughing!

Then came my crowning moment: doing my kids' Christmas number, a wildly popular Korean song called "Nobody But You" (go figure). While I could only sing the chorus (the rest is in Korean), I did as much of the dance as I could remember...

I'll leave you with the original dance, as performed by the Baby International Class of YiXianGuoJi RYB Kindergarten, courtesy of Herman Lewkowitz:

It gets repetitive, so you can fast forward to the last 10 seconds of cuteness :)

YiXianGuoJi Olympics, Part 2

The games resumed Friday morning, after several days' worth of preparation, practice, and decorating:

(these teachers are basically the most skilled craftwomen ever!)

While most of the classes used the pom-poms and noisemakers from Monday, Pink 3 opted for more practical sun-deflecting gear--flower hats!

It began the same way as Monday: lining up, marching out, watching the flag raising, and singing the national anthem. Then Jerry and Jasmaie (pronounced Jess-may) introduced the games; she spoke in Chinese and he "translated." Adorable.

By this point, there were tons of parents gathered around the gates, watching, waving, and taking pictures. It was a little strange for me because I don't know them but they knew me; I heard "Hello Alison!" several times, but just smiled and waved because I had no idea whose parent they were.

We then did the morning exercises (singing and dancing) and then suddenly everyone was lining up to go back inside. Turned out to be a bathroom break...minus the bathroom. Instead of walking our kids up to the 3rd floor, they took out the plastic portable potties, like from our trip to the Military Museum, and kids took turns dropping their pants in the hallway. My job was to tuck their shirts back into their pants as they lined up. I took some pictures because it was that unbelievable, but Adam said they're inappropriate to post. You know, the whole kiddie porn thing and all...

Then the whole school trooped back outside, where chairs had been set up for them. Let the Games begin!!

The teachers decided their class' events, so we had everything from running and crawling,

to feeding radishes to a rabbit,

to crawling and rolling.

They were all pretty similar tasks, but the smaller classes went altogether, while the older kids competed 2 by 2. They all had a blast and the parents took tons and tons of pictures.

Then it was time for a teacher event: Tug of War! A few teachers from each class competed and the kids loved cheering them on. It was hilarious.

At the end, each kid was awarded a "medal," a pack of markers, and a certificate from the principal before taking a group picture:

A very fun morning at YiXianGuoJi kindergarten!