Earth Week

Earth Day was April 22 but our school decided to make it Earth Week. Living here in China has really opened my eyes to our world and how we really need to step up and take care of this beautiful world we have. I've realized how bad I have been in the past. I used to think that because I recycled items that I was doing enough but that is so untrue.

How many times have I left a room with the lights, TV, computer, or stereo on? How many times have I left my house with the A/C on because I wanted to come home to a COLD house? How many times have I used paper plates, cups, plastic utensils, paper napkins, because I was too lazy and didn't want to clean up afterwards. How many times have I used paper towels to clean up a small spill instead of a cloth rag because I didn't want to have to do laundry? How many times have I jumped in my car and ran to the store just for a few items or to run an errand a few blocks away? How many times have I packed my kids lunches using plastic bags and paper sacks so that they could just throw it all away? These are just a few things that I have been guilty of.

I hate to say this but I've realized how wasteful I have been. In America I was living a life of consumption...in all aspects. One thing I have learned here is that I can live without more things than I thought. I'm not saying we need to live in the stone age but I know that I can eliminate or reduce my consumption. I enjoy the many conveniences that the 21st century has provided but we need to be careful and not abuse our Earth. This Earth was created for us to enjoy not to destroy. Let's all do our part and take care of it. Recycle, reuse, do without...we all can make some small change that will make a difference.

Nikki's Birthday

Sunday was Nikki's ninth birthday so we had a little party on Saturday for her. She invited a few friends, McCall and Kate, to go bowling. Yes, they have bowling here. It turned out that Jonny and Rachel both invited a few friends as well and we had a big party at the bowling alley. It was a very rainy day so it was a perfect choice to be inside.

Rachel and her friends joined us at the bowling alley. They ended up playing ping pong for a few minutes until a lane cleared out for them. It's a small bowling alley with only 6 lanes but at least we have one here. Is it any cheaper than the States? Not really, but it is still fun.

Vika enjoyed cleaning the area with the towel for us. She seems to always find something to entertain herself with.

This was Nikki's first time bowling so it took her awhile to get the hang of it all.

Nikki finally got the hang of it and did pretty well.

Vika actually got into the action. One of the workers there found the smallest shoes they had and put them on Vika, so she was ready to bowl. With a little help she was able to get the ball down the lane.

She wasn't sure what it was all about and would get excited regardless of where the ball went. She did pretty good a few times but it was fun to just watch her.

After bowling we walked to McDonalds. It was pouring rain and by the time we got there we were all soaked.

Interesting Choices

Gavin and I tried a new restaurant the other night and found these yummy dishes on the menu...NOT! The food we actually ordered was really good though. I had what I thought was the best Lasagna I've ever tasted and Gavin had a baked spaghetti. It just was funny to see these items on the menu as well.

Who would really eat this stuff??????? I guess somebody does.

Just for Fun!

One day I was playing around with my camera and got some interesting shots. It was kind of fun.




This is what our office looks like after a very rainy day. We opened up all the umbrellas to dry out.

Nicole had gotten two necklaces and these are pictures of the pendant with different backgrounds. The pendant is a clear glass with these flowers inside. They are pretty cool just by themselves but when I put them on different background it turned into more of an art piece then just jewelry.

I've always wanted to get into photography but just don't really have the time to play around with the camera. Maybe someday.

Switch Day

NO THIS IS NOT HOW I DRESS...at least not everyday. A few weeks ago we had spirit week at school and one of the days was switch day. The teachers came dressed as students and the students as teachers. Another teacher and I came dressed as the student standing in between us. He is from Norway and normally comes dressed with the bandanna head band, long curly hair going in every direction, basketball shorts, t-shirt, basketball shoes, and his glasses. I don't have to wear glasses all the time YET so I had to put that in as part of the dress up day. Ottar, the student, also is known for writing and drawing all over his arm, hence the markings on my arm. Obviously he came dressed very conservative as a teacher this day.

It was fun being in their shoes for a day but not really a look I want to keep.

Some of the other days were crazy hair day, twin day, switch day, mismatch day, and then school color day. Lots of fun!!!!!

BUSY

Sorry we haven't posted anything for awhile...it just has been a busy, busy few weeks. Last week grades were due, this week narratives for each student (which adds up as a Middle School and High School teacher) were due, next week is Book Week (displays need to be put up), the week after that is Earth Week (lots of planning), meetings, and on top of school stuff we've had sick kids, basketball games, soccer games, etc...Life has been busy.

So, this is just a quick note that we are still alive.

Funny quick story though...Last Saturday Gavin and I made a trip to IKEA. So glad they have one here. It was just nice to eat a normal meal and walk around and see normal things. Anyway, on our way there we took a taxi. CRAZY. The taxi driver didn't really seem to know where he was going and of course we can't communicate the best with him. He got on the freeway, which was fine, but as we passed IKEA on the left, he realized that he missed the exit. Of course instead of just continuing on to the next exit he stopped on a busy freeway in the middle of a lane to figure out what to do. Finally he pulled to the side of the road but started backing up onto the on ramp behind us. WHAT WAS HE THINKING???? There were a line of cars coming down the on ramp towards us and they all started honking and swerving out of the way. I thought we were going to die. We finally told him, through our broken Chinese, to just keep going straight and get off at the next exit. He looked at us like we were crazy but he finally did. Why was that so hard to figure out?

CRAZY!!!!!!!

Our Chinese Suburban

Sometimes we really miss our Suburban that is parked back in Utah but I had to take a picture of our Chinese Suburban. If our family wants to go anywhere together close, we all jump on our bikes. So instead of having a car parked in our driveway, we have five bikes parked and ready to go. At least we are doing our part in saving the environment...Go Green!!!!!!

Sometimes we have to work for the things we want.

Last week I really wanted some good French bread or just bread in general. It seems the bread here usually is a sweet bread and I was craving for that good buttery flavor. I decided to just make it myself. Of course I've made bread before but that was with my Bosch mixer which makes it so easy. I spent a few hours of my day mixing, kneading, waiting, kneading again, waiting, and then finally baking. This was the result.

As I was making this I thought of how easy it was to get what we wanted back in the States. If I wanted good bread, I could just jump in my car and knew right where to go to buy it. If I wanted my hair cut, I knew exactly where to go and could explain what I wanted. Anything I wanted I knew where to go and it was easy. Here, not so easy anymore. If I want something bad enough here I have to work hard to get it. Whether that means spending an hour on the metro to go shopping for clothes or an hour ride on a bus then another 30 minutes on the subway to get decent Mexican food or taking two hours to make bread.

We've had to give up a lot of modern conveniences and comforts to come here to China. Our nice home, furnishings, car, friends, and our family but I hope that our kids can learn something of more value here. The concept that not everything comes easy...if you really want something you have to work hard to get it.

China has really opened our eyes to how easy people have it back home. There may be hard financial times going on but that will someday pass. What is sad is seeing the poor and hungry on the streets. Seeing how hard these people work here and yet they have so little. The people here are so friendly and willing to help when they themselves don't have much.

So the next time you jump in your car to go get that loaf of French Bread...enjoy it and appreciate the fact that it didn't take you two hours to get.

Sometimes we have to work hard for the things we want.

"Zhong guo ren bu xi huan zhe ge"

On Wednesday's I don't have my AYI cook dinner for us because I like to occasionally have some good ole' Mexican or American food. This also allows me to teach her some new dishes. She always is interested in what I'm making. The problem is that I'm not always home in time to show her before she leaves at 5:00. Well, yesterday I made the point of being there.

I was trying a new recipe that I found online. It was a called "Mexican Sour Cream Rice". Basically it is a version of my Green Enchilada recipe but using rice instead of corn tortillas. I thought this would be a good substitute since rice is so easily found here and corn tortillas are unheard of. It has chopped green chilies, a can of Cream of Chicken soup, sour cream, cilantro, chopped chicken, cheese, seasonings, and rice.

She was so interested and taking notes the whole time. As we were mixing all the ingredients together, she had this semi-disgusted look on her face and said to me "Zhong guo ren bu xi huan zhe ge" meaning Chinese people don't like this...referring to the dish. It was so funny because she was really serious. To us the dish was heaven...everything we love in it but to her it was the most disgusting thing in the world. It was amazing to think that people could actually not like Mexican food. Funny how we all have such different tastes and why? Only because of the environment we live in. There have been many times when we have said the same about their food but I never thought that they wouldn't like my food.

A side story to all this was that when I was grating the cheese, Vika came in and wanted a piece. She loves cheese, as we all do in my family. My AYI then told me that "Vika chi cheesie (that's how she says cheese) pang" meaning Vika eats cheese...Vika will be fat. That just through me for a loop coming from someone who just a few weeks ago allowed Vika to eat 18 chocolate chip cookies in one sitting. So the cookies won't make her fat but the cheese will? hmmmm Cheese or Cookies? What is the better choice? Again, different culture....different thinking.

Jonny's Shoot

We finally got a copy of the catalog that Jonny did a shoot for back in October. He made 1000 RMB for this shoot which is about $150.00. It was fun but I don't think he wants to do it again. I was amazed at how much he has grown in the past 6 months. He looks so young in these pictures. He is one handsome dude.

The other shots our on our web album at http://picasaweb.google.com/rundells6/JonnyPhotoShoot?feat=directlink

Vika's B-Day at Disneyland

For Vika's birthday we took the whole family to Disneyland in Hong Kong. This was to be a princess birthday for Vika with the real princesses. The park didn't open until 10:30 but we weren't sure how long it would take us to get there because we had to take a taxi to the border, cross the border, then either take a bus or taxi to Disneyland. You never know how long it will take to cross so we left at 8:00 in the morning. We decided on taking a taxi to the park and it was way faster than we thought. It only took us about an hour and a half to get there, so we had plenty of time to spare.

Once we got in the park it was almost exactly like Disneyland in Anaheim. The layout was the same which made it easy to get around. The park is much smaller though, they don't have nearly as many rides but it felt like we were back in California.

Of course, the signs in Chinese were a give away that we were actually in Hong Kong.

As soon as we got into the park, Vika took off for Cinderella's castle. This was her first stop on a long day of fun.

We took Vika into a store in Fantasyland and let her pick out a princess dress to wear all day. Of course, she picked Sleeping Beauty. She really looked like a princess in it. Of course this only added to the craziness of people wanting to take her picture. It was like she was one of the real princesses. They would stop and want pictures of her all day long. She hammed it up quite well and was a big hit.

The kids had a lot of fun together. This was in Tomorrowland. Boy aren't they strong.