Preparing for another year

You won't want to know that I've been up all night as we prepare to leave in a few hours to catch our flight at BWI, and I'd probably be better off not having told you - but, truth is I've just about pulled an all-nighter for my last full day in the U.S.

There's a lot of things I'd like to share with you, probably the most important of which is to say that I probably won't be able to post on this blog for the foreseeable future. As near as I can tell, China has continued it's block of blogger and we won't be able to post new entries. For those of you who aren't on our newsletter list, you can send an e-mail to jaybomb2[at]yahoo.com and I'll promptly add you to our list.

The next most important thing I think I could say is that this blog will be outdated, not because I won't be able to post, but because it will still think we're in Hangzhou when this just isn't true any longer. We were able to land a teaching position at Zhejiang Normal University in Jinhua, just an hour south of Hangzhou. We're very excited about it - they're building a fancy new apartment complex that should be finished in about a week, and we'll be able to take Chinese classes for free. It's more than we thought we could get, and actually the situation improved after we signed the contract. When we first decided to go, we didn't know for sure that we'd be able to take the Chinese classes and the apartment complex was on permanent standstill. Another neat opportunity is that Audriana will be able to join a Chinese pre-school and get a lot more exposure to the language. We're thinking to just take her two or three times a week, though we'll be paying for full-time enrollment. We think it will be a great opportunity for her, but are a little concerned about the adjustment into a new environment - it will be a big one!

We've had a great visit this summer and were glad that we were able to see so many friends and family. If we didn't see you, let us know you missed us and we'll do our best to make it happen next year. Also on the periphery - we hope to have a yard sale in Winchester next year as a way to raise funds to help pay for summer expenses. We'll also have one in Mountain Grove, but the Winchester sale will feature imported goods from China. We've already got several neat keepsakes put up in storage and will probably add to the booty over the course of this next year. We still desire to be self-supporting and this is one way to help offset costs. We have considered trying to get help in order to pay for health insurance next year - that $800 every year will be hard to come by on our own.

Life doesn't seem to slow down anymore...I don't know if it is completely related to being a father of two or if I need to learn to practice 'resting.' I could use some encouragement in making sure I take time to consider the important things in life.

Best wishes to you all from the other side of the world...well, at least that's where we should be by the time you read this. We hope to be in better communication by e-mail this year and improve upon the two mass e-mail broadcasts we sent by newsletter last year.

Blessings,

Jay and Victoria
Audriana - Joseph

family time

A portion of a recent e-mail we sent to Jay's sister:

"Joseph is getting so fun. Now he's old enough to really laugh with you. Which is quite possibly the sweetest thing ever...babies laughing with you, I mean. Just earlier, I was changing his diaper and I had to take off his clothes because his diaper exploded in poo. When I took it off over his head, he was ticklish under his armpits and laughed uncontrollably....well I took advantage of that...I just tickled him and 'attacked' him finally kissing and blowing his neck...he laughed so much! I think it's the first we've heard him laugh as much as that. Then I would grab his feet and bring them together and kiss them and munch on them - which he likes...and then get him in his armpit and finally with the neck. . . I did this several times resulting in family fun for all. :)

Joseph also likes to be lifted into the air. You stand him up on his legs - which he likes, and then I'll sometimes let him 'power himself' into the air...when he pushes up I pick him up...that almost always makes him smile.

Yesterday he really liked pulling my hair. I don't know if it was texture or whatever...but he really liked it...I think he laughed then too. If he's upset, he likes to go outside. Seeing the sights, feeling the fresh air, calms him down. I let him touch the grass (when there is grass :), and he likes that too."



I'll have to get some new pics up at the top sometime soon...

Red tape

We've had a lot of red tape to deal with recently...

Let me see if I can remember some of the fun to share with you...

Currently, we're having to deal with getting visas for returning to China in September. Because Jay's passport expires like April 2010, we have to go to Shanghai to renew his passport before Zhejiang Normal can issue us new visas.

Also, ZUCC scheduled our current visa to expire on July 18th, even though all the foreign teachers will be completely done with their duties more than a month earlier. Apparently, there's some rule that stipulates we can't begin the next visa process until two weeks prior to the expiration of the current visa...which means that we get some extra time to tour Hangzhou and move into our new home in Jinhua! We were planning on staying a bit longer, but I don't know if we'd have chosen to stay a whole month. :)

We nearly 'lost' our return tickets home! We bought our tickets from some shady looking website that looks like a fly-by-night deal...not the first time we've taken a bit more of a risk in order to try and get rock-bottom prices on tickets. I think this was the second time in a row we've gone a bit riskier path to get tickets. This particular group (sponsored by some company named Trilix - I have found a couple of other shady looking websites also sponsored by Trilix) appears to no longer be in existence. The parent company, Trilix is seemingly impossible to find contact information for. We discussed when we purchased the tickets how we thought it was possible we might end up getting scammed. Everything seems to be in order now, but because our travel agent didn't exist any longer, it was a bit difficult to get our e-ticket numbers to give to the airline so they could find our reservation. :) We eventually had a tip from one of the airline representatives to call our credit card company, who were able to look up the ticket number in their system! We had the original e-mails from when we purchased the tickets, but they didn't have any of the information we needed....For a while there, it really did look like we were going to have to buy one-way tickets home! We still have to purchase Joseph's ticket, as well as reserve Audriana's - there was a slight hiccup in getting Audriana's ticket reservation as she had a paper ticket. Our flights home are scheduled for July 4th - which means we'll miss the festivities for Independence Day, but that was the earliest the officials at Zhejiang Normal thought they'd have time to get the visa process completed. Actually, we scheduled the tickets for one day earlier than the earliest day mentioned by our new school. They had even mentioned waiting until perhaps the 15th of July!

Fun fun. I wonder why they call it 'red tape' anyway?

口水 kou shui (mouth water)

Yesterday I learned another Chinese word...it's great to be in a place where they speak the language you're trying to learn. It really helps.

Yesterday's word that I learned is slightly interesting, and very appropriate for my everyday life. To repeat the title above, the word is 'kou shui', which literally means 'mouth water.' I get a kick out of how literal Chinese can be sometimes, and while sometimes humorous for the learner, I'm sure Chinese people rarely think about the words they use in the same way a foreigner learning the language would. I'll let you all (Americans and non-Chinese) think about what the meaning of what 'mouth water' might be for a bit before revealing the answer at the bottom of this post.

What's a good word combination set that we use in English...? How about house shoes... or butterfly maybe? This sort of combination occurs much more frequently in Chinese, where one character will be used in conjuction with another character to produce a combined meaning from both of the characters. The word for train, for example...火车 (huo che) literally means 'fire vehicle.' Or consider the characters for 'milk mouth,' (奶嘴) which are used in combination to mean pacifier or the nipple on a bottle. Incidentally, we're approaching the same category of every day use that I have for 'mouth water'...

While 'butterfly' might not be humorous to us as native speakers of English, someone learning the language might seriously wonder why we would call such a beautiful creature a margarine mosquito, for example. Thus is the source of my delight in words such as 'kou shui.'

Now that I've bantered about on one of the finer points of learning Chinese....let me appropriately tell you at this time that we have signed contracts to go to Zhejiang Normal University in Jinhua next year. We're excited, as it seems God is leading us there. We may have mentioned before that the situation to work there next year more or less developed on it's own with very little work on our part...and in many ways it seems that it will be a much more ideal situation. Whether it turns out to be that way or not, we are excited to be following His will, although we aren't sure why we are favored enough to rest in it. His grace and mercy are truly amazing.

Now, to turn back to the appropriateness of our aforementioned topic. The meaning of 'kou shui?' It is drool. A very useful word when you're the parent of a three month old.

where's the time?

well...I have thought of a lot of things to share recently...problem is, if I don't do it soon after I think of it...it disappears into the recesses of my mind...lol

We've been busy recently...a little crazy even. However, in spite of stress it has been very pleasant to see the Lord at work in small ways all around us.

We recently had some friends from Shanghai come to visit for 'May Day' or Labor Day as it's celebrated in China. They took some excellent pictures which are posted on their facebook site. Unfortunately, our camera is pretty much defunct. It has slowly degenerated over the year. Now we are lucky to get even a few pictures on 'fully charged' batteries. We don't really have enough technical prowress to know what to do...stink.

Well - we're off to our favorite supermarket now - no time to write! We go to this place, Auchan - it's a French chain a la Walmart in the States. It is three bus stops away. We usually have KFC for meals there whenever we take a big trip as it helps calm down the nerves after a fun filled day at the Chinese marketplace. :) Plus, Audriana loves the slide.

It would be ideal to share more of our day touring Hangzhou with our friends - we had a fabulous few days with them. Took the water taxi downtown for the first time, and explored the lake by boat, and then an island in the center of the lake shaped like a set of interlinked squares with water in the spaces between the lines...

We love hearing from you - sorry this is all we have to offer at the moment!

Blessings....

Happy Easter!

Greetings! 复活节快乐！ Happy Easter!

Easter in Chinese literally has the meaning of resurrection, I think specifically referring to Jesus, but I'm not exactly sure about that.

We had a very tiring, but very memorable Easter - Audriana's and Joseph's first in China. Jay took care of the kids Saturday night, well he tried to. I think it would have been better had he not tried to warm up Joseph's milk to feed him in the bottle though....that decision may have tired us more than had Jay merely got up to give Joseph to Vikki (which is what we usually do when Jay takes care of the kids). If not for that, we would have had a rare peaceful night's sleep as Audriana actually slept the whole night through (lucky for Jay). Being up with Joseph, though, did allow us to get some chocolates and gummies in Audriana's Easter basket. Audriana was most excited about the gummies in her basket! She squealed with excitement, 'gummies! gummies! gummies!' We wished we had had a chance to get it on camera. Audriana may have liked the gummies, but we were most impressed with the Cadbury eggs sent by Vikki's sister - yum yum!

Friday night we had our friend's three children with us overnight and most of Saturday. Saturday morning we made Easter grass together by coloring paper and then cutting it into small pieces. We had a good time, it was interesting to see what life might be like six years down the road, though mostly we just played and had fun together. We didn't have too much responsibility. If I'm not mistaken, the ages of the children are 4, 5, and 8.

Audriana woke up this morning at about 6:20, which gave us just enough time to get to Chinese church this morning. We went to the adult service today after going to children's church last week. Vikki felt much better about Chinese church the last two weeks. Prior to that, we had spent most of the service with attendants almost constantly trying to hush Audriana. Children's church is quiet, but they don't have the same expectation for silence as they do in the adult service. Today we figured out the trick of staying on the first floor and watching the service on TV and the projecter screen. They hold the service on the second floor and there's also a balcony for a third level. Previously we had tried both the 2nd and 3rd floors, and we will probably continue to do the first floor from now on. There's mostly elderly folks and today there was also a five year old (who was smaller in stature than Audriana) running around and being more of a distraction - so we didn't stick out quite as bad! :)

Jay ran to the supermarket during our 'break.' We get about two hours before having to leave for our other meeting in the afternoon - which is usually just enough time to eat and maybe get Audriana started on a nap. Today we woke her up about thirty minutes into a nap, and to my surprise, she handled it pretty well. I felt bad for our poor kids getting drug all over China today. Hopefully it won't scar them too bad. On a separate note, while at the supermarket we were struck again by the fact that this is the tightest our money has been over the course of the year - we had an 800 yuan electric bill come in, which is a fifth of our salary, and every other month they take out 1400 as a fee for us having a two-bedroom apartment with only one teacher employed by the school. That 'rent' was deducted from our account this month. We also went to Shanghai this month, which took a toll on our finances. We currently have about $3 in our Construction Bank account, and we took out a 400 yuan advance of next month's salary (which is something we've not done previously). Jay had a little trouble convincing the school to do that, but it wasn't as much trouble once they found out that the size of the advance was going to be as small as it was. We do have access to our American bank accounts in China and also have a little bit of cash still in the Bank of China from when we first came over, but we'd prefer not to dip into those accounts if we don't have to...well, I'm getting sidetracked. Back to Easter...

Jay barely got back from the supermarket with enough time to eat before we left right about on time (to my surprise). We had visitors invited to our Easter meeting today and we brought Victoria as well as one of her friends who was visiting from Shanghai. We had a service together, our friend Josh spoke about the meaning of Easter, and then we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Audriana was excited to hunt eggs and gave some of hers to a few of her friends - she's a great sharer. We probably got home around 7:30. It took us a little longer to come back as part of the time we were going at Audriana pace.

Though it was a tiring day, Audriana had a great Easter. She still hasn't seen the Mickey Mouse marshmallow puffs Jay bought for her while at the supermarket. They're waiting for her in her Easter basket!

p.s. It's pretty much official that we will go to Jinhua next year to work at Zhejiang Normal University. We spoke with the university officials at Zhejiang Normal and though we don't have an official contract offer, they spoke as if the offer was withstanding. The school is looking to add several teachers this year, increasing the number of foreign teachers while here at ZUCC, they seem to be contracting the number of teachers they'll need. While we were out, Victoria asked us whether we had made a decision and we informed her about going to Jinhua, which she pretty much knew already, we just hadn't made our decision official. Now we just wait for the contract offer and are going to try to decide by Friday whether Vikki will also be teaching next semester. Incidentally, going to Jinhua should dramatically help with our finances. The salary there will be at least as good as what we make here, perhaps more, and we won't have to pay any utilities or 'rent.' They also will completely re-imburse airfare for teachers, while ZUCC has a cap on the amount they will re-imburse. What's more, the cost of living should be dramatically lower. Many products and services will have the same or similar cost as in Hangzhou, but I'm expecting we'll be able to cut in half the amount of money we spend on transportation. Zhejiang Normal is also going to extend night classes for teachers to study Chinese, which of course, is our purpose for being in China at the moment.

Quite a few things...if only I could remember them.

I've thought of several things to share on the blog recently. It's been a while since we've put a 'meatier' post up, so let me see if I can reveal a bit more of our life in Hangzhou.

We've been trying to go to two church services for a while, but it seems that there's been a lot of interruptions to that plan. Tomorrow will be like our fourth or fifth time to try to go to Chinese church. The idea is that going will be good for the kids and us to learn Chinese, as well as getting to worship with others and get plugged into the local community. Our friend Greg has also considered coming with us from time to time. Last time we went, Vikki was very drained - though a big part of that also came from the fact that we made a trip out to Xiaohe shan which is like two hours away...I think it might have taken us three hours that day for some reason...

Jay did some Christmas shopping today! It's all part of this crazy idea to bring back Christmas gifts to our families in June, and then ask them to keep it in their homes and not open the gifts for half a year. Why do we do this? To save on shipping of course!

Jay is also on a bit of a vacation at the moment. This weekend is the tomb-sweeping festival in China, where families go to the graves of their ancestors and deceased family members and sweep the tombs, also offering a bit of a sacrifice usually as well. Our good friend Victoria told me that for her family, it's a happy time because all her family members will get together and have a good time. This year her brother is coming from Spain and her family is excited about that.

Our school, and I guess most everywhere people will be off work on Monday, which Jay has off every week anyway...his biggest break is coming from the fact that the school in New Zealand for which our school has a joint program with (and Jay teaches 8 of his 14 hours for) is on spring break. No class in New Zealand means no class for Jay in China! It doesn't make much sense, but I like it.

We have offered to keep another American couple's three children for a sleepover one night during the next two weeks if they want to do that. Audriana would love that and I guess we're looking forward to it too.

We could possibly try to go to Jinhua again soon. ZUCC (our school in Hangzhou) wants to know by the 17th whether we intend to stay here again next year. We've been in contact with Zhejiang Normal University in Jinhua and have had some positive developments.

Joseph is getting so big! He coos and smiles for us often. Vikki wants to get family pictures during the next few weeks to have a record of when our boy was two months old.

Many people have a hard time accepting our family in China as we have two children. With the one-child policy in effect, most families in China don't have the option to even consider having more. We're such a spectacle here. The other day, there was a huge parade of students dressed up in different costumes. Some were horses, cats, sheep - there was a guy with a bag on his head...maybe a play? Vikki thought Halloween had come early. It was hard to say who was staring at who more. Us at them or them at us. Jay remarked to Vikki to wonder whether if both the costume party and our family were walking along the street, who would get the most gaggles? I think it might be a toss up. Some of our American friends might find that hard to understand. Typically in China, foreigners still get more attention. You might find some of the same treatment for rural parts of America in the midwest towards foreigners, though Americans in China have more of a 'celebrity' status. People want to take our picture, say hello, it can be overwhelming. This was much more true in Hunan - which is more central and inland, away from the more affluent areas on the coast. Hangzhou is much less like this, though Audriana gets a ton of attention. Many times we are out, people will give her trinkets or candies. She makes out very nicely at the Chinese church we have been going to. I was surprised while in Shanghai recently (which is very cosmopolitan) that we got attention there as well. You can see foreigners everywhere in Shanghai, I did not expect that we'd command much attention there - but we did get some, I guess especially due to our two children.

We have just about two months remaining before heading back to the states. We are already starting to look forward to the summer and hope to see many of our American friends while visiting with family. We have been told that we'll need to reserve our open-return plane tickets soon, otherwise we may not be able to come back until September! That would not be good.

Audriana has been getting 'potty' training ever since Grammy was here. We are slowly learning, I think. Recently though, she's started to take off her diaper by herself in bed, which I'm afraid will lead to an 'accident.' She's such a good girl - we're so blessed! However, recently she's started to test limits and become more independent, as is the norm with her age. We have been looking at pictures of her when we first came in September and from what she looks like now and it was hard for us to accept just how much she's grown. Such a bittersweet thing, parenting.

I wonder how our heavenly Father feels about that?




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