October

Now that we've been here for over a year I feel like I'm qualified to say that October is officially our favorite month in Beijing. The humidity is over, the cold cold cold hasn't set in yet, and the slight breeze blows the pollution away for repeatedly blessed blue sky days! For us October held classes, work, the Chinese National Holiday, food poisoning, apartment hunting, and a growing baby boy!

A's work and my classes have been going well. A is so happy at his job and really enjoys what he's doing. This month they had an out-of-office day together with the finance department and traveled up to a farm/park/petting zoo/restaurant outside of the city and spent the day just hanging out together. Their end of year party is coming up and although A won't be playing "Chinese Name That Tune" again this year for the company's entertainment, he will be participating in a way that we'll be sure to post a video of later. :) My classes are good and I'm really enjoying my students. I didn't really post about it last year, but if you ever asked me about my classes 6 months ago I would have told you that my students were cheating rascals that infuriated me. Luckily, and surprisingly, I haven't had any problems with cheating so far this year which makes me really happy. I still have to tell at least 1 student every day to stop taking pictures of me on their camera phone...but besides that, it's going well. I only have 7 weeks left of teaching so we're on the downhill slope.

Chinese National Holiday is a lovely week in November that we get a whole week off - Hooray! Last year we were like, "what is this silly holiday?" but this year our attitude was much more, "Awesome! Chinese National Day again! Yes!" It's funny getting used to a new set of holidays, but it's also fabulous to get a break when you're not expecting it.

Beijing Subway

Last Friday I was on my way to some friends' goodbye party, getting off at one station to meet A, and then continuing on to our destination together. Guomao, our meetup point, is arguably the busiest station in the entire Beijing subway system and at 6 pm on a Friday night it's mass chaos. I had already ridden two different lines for an hour to get there and had been pushed to the center of the train - butt to butt and belly to belly with my fellow subway sardines. I usually get offered a seat cause of the baby but in this crowd there was no way. 

Guomao station was coming and after asking around I knew that everyone between me and the door was also getting off. I was the last person in the crowd trying to de-board the train and had my purse, belly, and reusable shopping bag full of fruit salsa and cinnamon chips all in tow. The doors open, middle of rush hour, the crowd is squeezing out of the train like it's a birth canal, and I'm on the very tail end. I get to the doors but not in time to beat the herd of black hair chomping at the bit to board the train. The crowd engulfs me, surrounds me on every side, rips the shopping bag clean off of my arm, all I was left with was the straps, and I was pushed back on to the train. I was forced back to the center, reached through the crowd past 4 people and pulled my bag out of the shoulders it was smushed between - they didn't even notice it was there. I was yelling, my tupperware had been broken open, and the bag was dripping with fruit juice. I sifted it through the people down to my knees and as it was dripping juice on to my foot I looked up at the door - and there was A. He had been on the platform waiting for me and just happened to be at the exact door where I had attempted to get off the train. He saw me get pushed back on and jumped on at the last second. 

My mix of emotions was overwhelming. Anger at all the people around me, frustration at the lack of awareness in these crowds - so much that they didn't even notice they had bowled me over or broke my bag, relief at seeing A, and ticked at my fruit being spilled. It wasn't until after we left the next station that I burst in to tears, it all just really put me over the edge. So that's all. Just thought I should share the latest moment when I thought, "What the hell are we doing here?"

We're happy, healthy, and doing so well, but sometimes this crazy city reminds me how much we need each other, our dear friends here, and a good strong shoulder to push through the crowds. :)

Where to begin...

I feel like I have so much blogging to catch up on I don't even know where to start..Summer is over, home was wonderful, we're back in Beijing - together (hallelujah), my sister Leslie has been here visiting for the last 3 weeks, we visited a million sites, went on 2 vacations with her, baby is growing great, classes started yesterday, A's working full-time and loving it, that's all. Can I be done? No. I know I can't. Best part of being home - friends and family!

I'm just gonna go chronologically, cause the last 3 weeks have been awesome but summer was too wonderful not to mention it. So summer - it was blissful. We so wish that A could have stayed at home for longer, 3 weeks just wasn't long enough! The morning we were flying home we woke up to Neil Diamond, "Coming to America," and I can't even count how many times we said, "God Bless America," while we were there. We arrived in the end of June and I left in the end of August. I cried over the 4th of July parade and Bowman's grocery store, and was an absolute basket case when A left. Literally, I stood outside the check-in and security gates bawling the entire time. In my pregnancy, time at home was week 12 to week 20 which was a great span of time to get over my sickness. It ended up being the perfect timing for lots of different things in our lives and we're so happy that we could spend the time there.

It was so nice to catch up with family and friends and just be in a place where we feel so comfortable. It was surprisingly not-weird to be there, only a couple things caught us off guard and made us say, "Oh man, we really missed this." The first load of laundry we did through the dryer was one of those things, our clothes were so soft! We've been line drying for the last year - literally drying on a line stretched from one wall of our apartment to the other - and totally forgot how glorious it was to have soft clothes! It was really really nice to not be stared at for a second. The grocery store was absolutely glorious - relaxing really. Major highlights from the trip include family, nieces and nephews, dear friends, cousins, 4th of July, Cafe Rio, Olive Garden, a week in Bear Lake with my fam, visiting USU, gender ultrasound, baby shower, Zuppa's...I could go on and on.

Our week in Bear Lake with my family was glorious! My parents rented a house there from Monday to Sunday and we had everyone there but my sister's husband. Big lesson we learned from the week is that Hales love good food, we all like the same food, and we all think we're feeding 30 when we're actually feeding 15! The fridge and every cupboard was STACKED full with goodies and we ate like kings! Perfect weather, great house, family, water - thanks mom and dad for a great vacation!

We're so grateful we were able to spend the time and are looking forward to more fun summers in America to come. Next time we come home to visit, there will be 3 of us!

Made in China

These days everything is made in China - even babies!

Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting Baby Boy Putnam!

A and I could not be more thrilled and are already eagerly anticipating the arrival of our little guy. I wrote an FAQ when we moved to China and it seemed to work fairly well - I mean, according to my blog statistics. Because of all the questions regarding this time in life as well as our current situation I thought I'd do the same here. This is usually what we get asked and I've thrown in a few of my own for information's sake as well. :)

Q: How far along are you?
A: 16 weeks. 4 months. I never understood how pregnant women kept track of weeks...until now.

Q: When are you due?
A:  January 2nd, 2013.

Q: Do you know what you're having?
A: Just found out yesterday actually! The ultrasound was really clear and according to the tech there was NO question that this baby is a boy!

Q: Do you have a name yet?
A: We have a few ideas, but are definitely still working on it. However, in my family this baby is being affectionately referred to as Baby Ping. My niece and nephew figure that the most direct route to Baby Ping is through my mouth so they like to climb on my lap, pull down my jaw, and yell all sorts of things to this baby. It's actually really hilarious. "W, can I say goodnight to Baby Ping?" I bend over to them, put my hands on my knees, and open my mouth, "Goodnight Baby Ping! Love you!"

Q: Have you been sick?
A: In a word, yes. There was a span of about 6 weeks when anything - ANYTHING - I ate before noon would be lost. Whether a saltine and a sip of water or a mentos, I would lose it about 20 minutes later. My poor poor students this last semester. lol. Oh my gosh. I would literally be standing in front of the class talking and say, "Um, let's take a little break," go throw up in the squatter in the bathroom, then come back and continue class. It was not pretty - I was lucky if one of them didn't walk in on the loveliness. I didn't want to tell my students I was pregnant before the semester ended, but many of them were quite suspicious. Here's one of the conversations we had, "W, can I ask you a personal question?" "No." "Okay, great. Me and my friends have noticed that your stomach has gotten fat and we were wondering, are you conceived?" Now can you see why I didn't want to tell them?

Q: How many different places have you thrown up?
A: Thanks for asking. Well I lost count a long time ago but the list includes toilets in our house, friends houses, Beijing Branch meeting house, McDonald's, Yoshinoya, Fat Burger, bunch of other Chinese restaurants, Zuppas, squatters and garbages in my teaching building (countless times), the gutter in front of our building, the gutter at Zhongguancun, the Delta plane we were on as we were landing in Seattle...Should I stop? Oh yea, my parents and my sister's houses.

Q: Oh man, how did you ever survive that???
A: One word - A. There is no way that I could have ever survived the last 4 months without my amazing husband. I always thought that pregnancy (sickness and such) would be more of a solo experience, but I could not have been more wrong. I know he can't even count how many apples he sliced and PBJ's he made while we were in China. I'm always freezing, but for the last 4 months our AC has been pumping and A has been shivering! He has been nothing but absolutely sweet and loving and I can't wait for him to be a dad - neither can he. He is such a sweet man and I know he'll be an amazing father.


Q: So, are you going back to China? Will you have the baby there?
A: Yes, in fact A is there already. I'll be back there in 4 1/2 weeks and we're staying for at least the next year.

Q: Are you nervous about the care you'll get there? Will you be okay?
A:No, and Yes. We feel really confident about our hospital and doctor and feel like it's what we're supposed to do. Our doctor, nurses, and receptionists speak English and the hospital follows American standards. Really I think the only difference we've noticed so far is that in China it's illegal to tell the parents the sex of the baby. They'll sometimes tell foreigners, but we were lucky to get that done this last week in America so won't have to worry about it.

Q: Are you going to keep teaching after the baby?
A: Probably not, but maybe. I'm planning on teaching through the fall, having the baby, and then taking the semester off, but we'll see. Part of the reason I chose to teach is so I could hopefully tutor or teach part time in the future. That day may be sooner than later, but again, we'll see.

Q: Will your parents come?
A: Hopefully! Both Al's parents and my mom are planning on coming at some point, and we'll see my dad in April when he comes for work.

Q: W, enough about you and the baby, where will A be for the next 5-10 months?
A: Working! Good news is that he is finishing his work visa this week and has now officially started at HP China. We are so happy that he's working now and will be there for the near future. He'll hopefully get a little bit of time off for the baby, but we'll see. He really likes it so far and is overjoyed that the visa problems are behind him. We see his visa troubles as a good thing because of what he was able to accomplish while they were going on. I love that man.


We honestly could not be more excited and are so thrilled to be having a baby - a boy nonetheless! We have a lot to do over the next 5 months but can't wait to meet our little guy and be a family of 3. We're so grateful for the love and support we've received from our family and friends. It is such a blessing to know how much love a baby will be welcomed with and we know we have our families to thank for that. We know that being abroad the next year will be a little challenging, but it is a challenge that we are feeling up to. We know we can do this together and with the strength of the Lord. China is where we feel like we're supposed to be right now so we will keep riding this out for as long as we need to and hope that Baby Ping likes it too!

A Beautiful Day

Congratulations to the newest member of the Beijing 1st Branch, our dear friend Armene!

We had a beautiful weekend celebrating Armene's joining the church and I can't let the time pass by without sharing his story. He was baptized this last Saturday and confirmed on Sunday, along with the darling Leah from England. No, we are not allowed to preach to and baptize Chinese nationals, but any foreign passport holder living in China is allowed to practice Mormonism, as well as join the LDS Church. This opportunity for missionary work has truly blessed our lives and Armene has taught us so much.

A met Armene the day he went to register for his Chinese classes - which was Armene's first week here in China. He is from Rwanda and is here studying Chinese with the end goal of earning his Bachelor's degree here at BIT (the school where I teach, we live, and A has been taking classes). We have some other very close friends from Rwanda back at home in SLC so A and Armene clicked maybe quicker than normal and became fast friends.

The next week the three of us went out to lunch together and Armene asked us if we went to church, where, and if he could come with us. This first step was only an indicator of how the rest of his investigation of the church went - always one step ahead of our missionary work! Armene came to church with us that first week and honestly we have been following him to church ever since. He made the decision to be baptized very quickly and hasn't been able to get through the lessons fast enough!

Many of the YSA in our Branch who have been a huge part of Armene's fellowship.

Armene is what he calls a "child of the genocide" in Rwanda, whereas he was only 4 months old when his country was going through that horrific time, but has grown up experiencing the aftermath. He is extremely mature in his thoughts and actions, and as he says his life story has always left him searching for peace, cleansing, and a fresh start. The morning of his baptism, last Saturday, we met up to ride to the church together and I asked him how he was feeling. He just closed his eyes, looked towards the sky, opened his arms, and said, "New."

A had the wonderful opportunity of baptizing Armene, as well as confirming him a member of the church and ordaining him as a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood. Which, by the way, required A to use his full name which - get ready - is Armene Gasagara Rumenearangabo Anastase. With a little practice he got really smooth at it and did a great job! We have truly learned so much from Armene over the last 4 months and that only continued this weekend. He bore beautiful testimony at his baptism of his love for the Savior and the importance of sharing that love with those around us. He is a wonderful example of righteousness and we have been so blessed to know him.

In a city where the members of the church can be spread far, we now have a fellow branch member less than two minutes away and couldn't be happier! We are thrilled to know Armene and are excited to continue to watch him grow and learn in the Gospel. Congratulations Armene!

Long Time.

Wow, where have we been for the last two months. Who even knows. Busy, I guess. I have been on a blogging hiatus and just happen to have a little bit of time tonight that I would like to use to rectify that!

The last two months have been...busy. Let's start with A. As I mentioned in my previous post some visa issues have been preventing him from going in to work for the last couple of months. We decided that one of the best ways he could be spending this time is working to improve his Chinese. A enrolled in the intensive Chinese language program here at our university and has been an international student ever since! Just when we thought we would never be students again... :) Even after one week in class he was a totally different person (language-wise) so just imagine how great 2 months has been for him! He's in classes 4 hours per day, 20 hours per week with other international students from all over the world. He'll be re-submitting his work permit application in a couple weeks and we're hoping for a better response than we've got in the past. We're hoping that his application will be approved and he'll be able to start working as soon as possible - but we'll see. I'm so proud of how hard he's been working on his language. We've done a total 180 and I'm asking him how to say, read, or write things. We're thrilled!

I have been equally busy the last couple months with classes of my own. Last semester I taught 12 hours per week which was a full load...I thought...This semester I've picked up quite a few extra classes and am teaching 26 hours per week - 14 hours of speaking and 12 hours of writing. I hope that my masters program advisor doesn't read this cause she'll freak out...Karin? Am I right? Anyway, I've hated it. lol. I did it purely for the money, which turns out isn't the best motivation. I guess it's good I'm learning that lesson now? It really has been fine, it's just been a lot of time in class on my feet talking, lots of prep, and a butt load of grading. But good news is that the semester's almost over! I only have 6 more weeks of this schedule and then it will be behind me, which is good. I'm still enjoying my students, but I would love to see them a little less often, and I'm sure they feel the same way about me. lol. They still make me laugh though, which is also good.

We're coming home! Oh, I should have prefaced that better. Not for good, just for a summer visit. :) I'm holding myself back from making a paper chain...cause man are we excited! We can't wait to see our family and friends and enjoy all of the comforts of home. And trust me, there are many. I'm not even going to start listing them now, that will be in a post to come, but let's just say it starts with grass, the FDA, Dr. Pepper, clean water, and central air!

This fall we are planning on being in China again for another year of...who knows what. :) I'm planning on teaching another semester/year here at BIT and A will be working full-time and becoming a professional commuter - 1 hr. subway ride each way...But it will be a good year. We really feel like the last 8 months have been amazing for us and we've learned more about ourselves than we ever thought we would. We've laughed, cried, been sick, spoken Chinese, made friends for life, missed home, ate weird things, and loved each other so much. So we'll see what's ahead...we're not totally sure but we're planning on being here in Beijing for at least another year. 加油！

Scooter Rides, Sick, and Classes Starting

Well I'm surrounded by a pile of soggy snotty tissues, my nose is completely raw, I've exhausted all my patience waiting for Hulu and Youtube to load on this slow-boat internet, i don't feel like getting off this couch anytime soon - seems like a perfect time to update the blog.

I don't know why I haven't updated in so long, I guess we have just had a couple of busy weeks full of babysitting, playing, and soaking up the last weeks until classes start again. My sinus congestion is not only clouding my breathing but also my creativity so I'll just keep this straightforward:

- This is a picture of us on our scooter that we love so much. :) It makes us both smile just to ride it together. However, I'm not usually smiling when I'm having anxiety attacks about it being stolen or heaving the 40 lb. battery up and down from our apartment. All that aside, we love that thing.

- Did I mention I'm sick? I have been sick (at least) once a month since we came to Beijing and I don't know what the deal is. Chinese super-germs? I think so. I came down with a cold this last week and it's a beast. Maybe I'm just a wimp, but colds do me in! I have had six healthy weeks of vacation and of course this week, when my classes start again on Tuesday, I'm this sick. Awesome timing. Good news is I am blessed with a wonderfully sweet husband and amazing friends. Today A made food, Jess brought over medicine (cause our in-home-American pharmacy is about out), and tomorrow Ash is bringing soup. I do feel really blessed and am so grateful to have such wonderful people around me.

- Karaoke! Karaoke is huge in China but neither of us have ever gone to do it before. It's different from the typical karaoke atmosphere in the states, in that you are in a private room with your group rather than an open club/stage/area. Going in we were thinking the odds were already against us - white, American, sober, Mormons - but turns out, we were all pretty good and had a riot! Couple of the Putnam's hits from the night: Airplanes - B.O.B., Grillz - Nelly, Halo - Beyonce, and Somewhere Out There - Our Lady Peace. We had a total blast and will definitely go to do it again soon.

- Babysitting. I'm not joking when I say that we really do love it. A and I love being around kids and have enjoyed getting to tend quite a few kids lately. Most recently, we spent the last four days with 5 kids and had a total blast. They are in the other LDS branch here in Beijing so we didn't know them before, but they were looking for sitters and since we were both home last week we decided to do it. We mostly took care of the youngest two girls (5 and 8 years old) and loved every minute of it. They live in an amazing home near the airport in an area that's known for it's foreign accommodations and lifestyle.  Kids were great, home was beautiful, bed was SO comfortable, and the food...oh the food. We've only been home for 24 hours and already miss those two sweet little girls.

- A's work. So due to some foreigner visa restrictions we're dealing with, A is currently not going in to HP for work on a daily basis anymore. Yes, a bummer. There is a law in Beijing that all foreigners must have 2 years working experience after their bachelors degree before they can obtain a working visa here (a law specific to Beijing, not all of China). Well, he graduated with his bachelors in May of 2010 so he still has 2-3 months to go until he meets that requirement. In a way it's our fault for choosing Beijing over other cities, but it's what we decided and we still feel good about it. HP still wants him, the offer is still on the table, but they and we decided that it would be better for all of us if he doesn't come in again until that visa goes through. So we're keeping our fingers crossed and prayers said for May and hoping that it all ends up working out like we want it to. In the meantime A is going to register for some Chinese language courses here at BIT (the university we live at). It'll feel like language boot camp - 20 hours of intensive courses per week - but it will be really good for him.

Well I think that's about all I got. Again, my classes start on Tuesday and A's will begin next Monday. We're just hoping we can make it through these next couple stressful months - and hey, how busy we will be will only make the time go faster until we get to come home to visit in the summer!

With the day on Youtube I've had, just thought I'd share one of my most recent favs. I like Kristen Bell but I love her after watching this. I can totally relate to what she's saying about her emotional scale - anything outside a 3-7 and I'm a basketcase too...

Have a great week!

The Great Firewall of China

I guess China is pretty good at building walls - City Walls, Great Walls, Firewalls...

I can't say that we notice the censorship in China on a daily basis, besides using our VPN to access blocked websites (which we are pretty used to at this point). But last week we went and saw Mission Impossible 4 and were reminded once again of what country we're living in and how much control the government here exercises over their people.

So we went and saw the movie on a Tuesday and totally loved it - besides the fact that Tom Cruise has a really weird-shaped upper-body (*spoiler alert!*). Anyway, loved the movie. Some other friends wanted to go see it on Saturday of the same week (at a different theater) so we said, what the heck, let's go. It wasn't too far in to the movie before we noticed that some of the audio was really jumbled up, like it sounds when your CD is scratched or something. At first we thought nothing of it, until of course we noticed it happening every time someone said Serbia, Croatia, or codes. Because we had seen it uncensored earlier in the week A and I not only noticed the jumbled audio but also knew what the original audio said.

Besides just the audio being messed with, I also started noticing that sometimes the Chinese character subtitles along the bottom were different from the original audio as well. For example, when audio would jumble over "Croatia" the subtitles would say, "that place." Or when she said, "The codes, now!" the subtitles said, "hurry!" A friend of ours who was there and is pretty in the know told us that absolutely, the government will snip out pieces or topics that they don't even want their people talking about. So interesting.

It was a really interesting experience to notice the censorship on that level. I know that if we were paying more attention we would notice it in other places as well - which we do sometimes - but we just didn't expect it in a movie theater. Final thought, so grateful that we are from and have the opportunity and blessing to live in a country that provides us many freedoms which are unavailable to others all over the world. God Bless America.

The Year of the Dragon

新年快乐！Happy New Year!

This week we celebrated Chinese New Year and loved every minute of it. The students left campus and Beijing started shutting down about two weeks ago. The streets and stores have been fairly quiet but things are starting to pick up again now. I'm on my 6 week New Year break and luckily A has had the last week and a half off work so we had plenty of time to enjoy all of the festivities! If I had to sum up our last week in three words I think I'd have to go with fireworks, friends, and fairs. Allow me to explain...

FIREWORKS

The Chinese invented them, right? So it would stand to reason that the fireworks for Chinese New Year are pretty awesome, right? Right. At home the whole town of Kaysville gathers around the Davis High football field on their blankets and watches the city-issue fireworks set-off to patriotic anthems. Over-prices glow sticks, licorice, farm blankets, and couples. That's what fireworks have meant to me my entire life (which I always have and still will love and enjoy) and I would guess that you'd agree. Now, let me paint a picture for you. There is no single unbelievable display or organized event for people in Beijing to enjoy, the fireworks that create the craziness are being set by individuals and families celebrating the new year separately. They started about three days before the New Year and are still going now, a week and a half later - oh, literally right now. I just heard a POW outside our apartment. There's another one...Anyway, the ultimate culmination was on Sunday night at midnight and I think it was one of my favorite China moments to date. At about 11:45 (after getting home from an awesome party at the Morris' house) A and I jumped on our scooter and just cruised. The streets of Beijing were absolutely empty, besides the fireworks being set off everywhere we could see, so our little scoot-scoot could just go. Now of course, we can only see so much, it's too big to see it all, but when we watch that video above it's like we can see ourselves down in the middle of it - which was an awesome place to be. You couldn't hear a thing besides the echo of the fireworks bouncing off the buildings and all you could see at any height was flashes and lots of them. I've never seen anything like it. It was another example of the organized chaos that we see exhibited in so many other aspects of China.

One thing regarding the fireworks that we've been talking about this last week is how little damage the Chinese people use them for. I feel like every 4th of July in America there are mountainsides on fire, mailboxes blown to pieces, and kids shot with Roman Candles. I would think that with this many fireworks there would be more problems, and that's something I'm planning on investigating with my students, cause it's got to happen here. But it's amazing that with this many fireworks being set off, how little of that we saw. So what did we do with the Bassetts the first time we got our hands on some fireworks? Tied them to Bobby's bike and videoed him riding through their neighborhood! Dumb Americans...

FRIENDS

Oh the Bassetts, how we love them. We had such a great time with them this last week and are so grateful they are here. It's hard to be so far from home, but having close friends here makes a world of a difference. The Bassetts are leaving this summer to go back to Salt Lake so we are doing all we can to make the most of the next 4-5 months. Their little girl has become a really dear friend to us and we love how loved she makes us feel. We're always greeted with excitement from her and she often cries when we leave or when she has to leave our Nursery at church - we sure do love that little girl.

FAIRS

Every year, the week after the new year, there are temple fairs at parks and temples around the city. We figured we had to check it out and are glad that we did. Our fair on Monday was really fun, but unbelievably cold (hence the face-mask), and not so entertaining. On Friday we decided to try again and went to a fair on the east side of the city at Chaoyang Park. This was more of an international fair so we got to see some acts from around the world, which was fun. We ate, played some games, watched the entertainers, and enjoyed the nicer weather.

When it was about time to leave the park we were standing in a crowd of people and saw this woman just start dancing. We were right next to her so got to be on the front row of the circle that formed around her. I figured she was trying to earn money but when her song was finished she just bowed to the crowd, picked up her bag, and walked away. Towards the end of the woman's dancing, the Bassett's daughter decided she wanted in on the fun. Next thing we knew, in the middle of this big crowd, she walked into the middle of the circle and just stared up at this woman. The crowd was cheering and laughing (white kids get an amazing amount of attention here) and this sweet lady was nothing but cute to her- I love those pictures.

We had a wonderful time with our first Chinese New Year and like I said - enjoyed every minute of it. However, we never did find what we were ultimately looking for - a dragon dance. Hopefully we'll be able to track down some dragons before we leave but for now...the hunt for the illusive dragon dance continues.

Happy New Year!

Ice-Scooting

Yesterday we had a wonderful day. A had the day off and I'm on the first week of my five week Chinese New Year break from teaching, so we hooked up with the Bassetts and had loads of fun. Question: What would the Putnams do without the Bassetts? Answer: Let's not go there. As far as our Branch goes, we live geographically closer to the Bassetts than anyone else. We're only a few Beijing-blocks from each other (which are huge) but is has been a huge blessing to us over the last 5 months. Brooke is in our Nursery and we just adore her, and Bobby and Ashleigh are absolutely awesome and we're looking forward to being friends with them for a long, long time.

We took a taxi from the Bassetts house down to Houhai Lake which, come to find out, is an ice skating wonderland! I have never been a huge fan of ice skating - there's something about being cold, sore, and uncomfortable that I usually don't enjoy...call me crazy...However, riding on a chair, with my husband, feet off the ice, pushing ourselves forward with two screwdrivers soldered together was nothing less than AWESOME!

Why are we so surprised that they have their own way of moving across the ice? I don't know because by this time, we should have learned that they have different ways of doing lots of things, but somehow we are still surprised! We loved the ice chairs, even complete with a little steering wheel for Brooke, and the Bassetts ice-bike was great too. Bobby and Ashleigh (and Brooke!) are super adventurous - and if you know me, you know that "adventure" is my middle name. Not. A would start us in a donut and I'd be screaming, "slow down! A, you stop that!" Our poor children, I promise I won't swaddle them in bubble-wrap. :)

We had loads of fun on the ice and loved spending the time with the Bassetts. They've been back home for the last three weeks so we were so happy to have the day with them. We had a blast all-together and equally enjoyed watching all of the other people around us. I'll tell you what, while in China there sure is a lot of prime people watching to be done.

After ice-scooting we split for some lunch and met back up at the theatre to see Sherlock Holmes. It just came out in China on Sunday. We LOVED the movie and there is just something about sitting in a movie theatre that makes us feel like we're at home - the Chinese subtitles don't even throw us. After the movie we walked over to this awesome little shopping street and got some delicious-creamy-custardy-outside crunchy-triangles that the Bassetts knew about. It was a perfect treat and a great ending to our fun day!

Lost in Translation...

Speaking a second language is a fine balance between confidence to speak and the humility to sometimes be wrong. I've never really made a mistake in Chinese that kind of makes sense. Don't get me wrong, I make countless mistakes on a daily basis, but never really one like this. 

See the difference between these two words? See how that different is only the "g" at the beginning? ānjìng vs. gānjìng. These words could easily be switched for each other, right? Right?

安静

ānjìng

Quiet

干净

gānjìng

Clean

So we went to the Chinese National Museum yesterday on Tiananmen Square and before entering the museum you of course have to go through a security check station. The girl put my bag through the scanner and then asked me to open it up for her so she could have a look inside. I opened my purse and she grabbed a small Lysol disinfectant spray that my mom sent me for Christmas. (That's right, disinfectant spray for Christmas.) The girl asked me what it was and I told her in Chinese that it's a thing you use in the bathroom to make it more clean. Well...at least...that's what I thought I said. But I actually told her it's a thing you use in the bathroom to make it more quiet. 

The look on her face made me feel like I had said something wrong, but of course that language-learner-confidence kicked in and I just kept repeating it over and over and charading the use of a spray over a toilet seat. She was threatening me with confiscating my disinfectant spray! I had to defend the spray! I can't be without that stuff!

 "Make it quieter when you go to the bathroom! More quiet in the bathroom!" I kept repeating.

Her confusion was frustrating me so I turned to Bouk Goble (Beijing friend of ours who of course has way better Chinese than me) and said, "Do you know how to say germs or bacteria? I don't know how else to explain this to her besides saying that it makes the toilet more  ānjìng ." 

"You said  ānjìng? No, you need to say gānjìng! You just told her your spray makes it more quiet when you use the toilet!"

Awesome.

I'll just end here because all that followed was my correcting myself, their laughter, our laughter, I probably got all splotchy on my neck cause I was embarrassed...Yea, I'll just end here.

Jiǎozi

饺子

jiǎozi

Boiled, steamed, fried, in soup, at home, at a restaurant, on the street, meat, vegetables, eggs, cabbage - doesn't matter, we love them all! This post is dedicated to the new love of our life - jiǎozi. Call them what you want - jiǎozi, dumplings, pot stickers - these little buggers are delicious and incredibly addicting!

I didn't really eat a lot of jiǎozi when I lived in China before, but over the course of the last four (and a half!) months we have eaten more than we can count. Jiǎozi are super common on the street and are pretty easy to pick up anywhere. Near our apartment we'll often stop by and pick up 12 jiǎozi for 5 RMB - about $0.75 - and either stay and eat them out of a steaming tray (like pictured above) or get them to-go out of a plastic bag with a pair of chopsticks. One of our favorite restaurants here is the Bao Yuan Jiaozi House. They serve a variety of fillings in colored wrappers so you can keep track of which filling is which after you've ordered a bunch of different kinds. And then of course, there's the pan-fried. Yeah. You know what I'm talking about. They're yummy at home and delectable here. Oh, and we can't forget, the black vinegar, chopped red peppers, green onions, and/or cilantro to dip them in before devouring. Holy crap. Lately we've been buying jiǎozi in the freezer section at the grocery store and either steaming, boiling, or frying them here at home. Jiǎozi are especially popular right now because they are a traditional food for Chinese New Year, which is fast approaching (January 23rd). Commonly, families will begin making their jiǎozi on New Year's Eve and eat them through the night as the celebrate together.

Given that we love them so much, and that Chinese New Year is coming, I figured that at some point we would need to learn how to make 'em! 5 of our students came over last night and put their mother and grandmother's training to good use - they did them very proud. If you've ever done this with Chinese people before you know that it is such a blast! We all worked together to stuff and fold them and has soon as the finished plate hit the table they disappeared! Wei Xiaozhe, May, Han Liyun, Edward, and Zhang Zijin all came over and showed Alex and I how it was done. Washing, chopping, chopping, chopping, mixing, kneading, waiting, rolling, stuffing, pinching, drying, boiling, straining, and DEVOURING!

One thing (among others) that we learned last night is that different provinces or areas of China have different ways of folding/forming their dumplings. All of our students are from different provinces so they each showed us their special technique - that was really fun. Alex's technique was a little thing we liked to call, "the burrito fold" or the ever-popular "star-ship enterprise." One of our students, Zhang Zijin, is from Hainan province which is one of the southern-most areas of China. He folded his jiǎozi and I was so surprised because it looked exactly like a fortune cookie! Look!

Now I Googled it, and the origin of fortune cookies is unknown - besides the fact that mainland China had virtually nothing to do with it and that they are only an American symbol of Asia. There are a lot of theories on where fortune cookies came from but if I could also submit my theory to the pile...it would have something to do with the jiǎozi from southern China.

When all was said and done we had made a giant, floury mess and had eaten about 130 dumplings! Alex and I are still recovering from the jiǎozi fest, but it was definitely worth it. We're happy we now know how it's done and look forward to perfecting the art when we try them again in the future!

Holidays Recap

We can't get too far in to January without recapping what a wonderful time we had with our first Christmas in China and our first Christmas away from home - we made it!

Our Christmas started on the 23rd with a night here at home to finish preparations and start some new traditions! Our wrapping was super-classy and we thought the home-made snowflakes were a nice touch. One tradition we decided to try is to make Chinese food during the holidays. I think we'll always remember our Christmas(es) in China and will want to celebrate that for years to come. I haven't really tried any Chinese cooking up until this point, so I was really excited to try our first home-made dish - gong bao ji ding! Combined with a you zi and some dumplings it was an awesome Chinese meal and I was really proud of the way it turned out. Alex and I enjoyed getting to spend some quiet time together before all of the activities we had with friends over the next couple days!

On Christmas Eve we got up early and went to Grandma's Kitchen to meet some of our friends for a glorious American breakfast. This restaurant has awesome food (which of course is expensive) but we decided to splurge in honor of the holidays! It's a tradition in the Hales family to get together with family friends on Christmas Eve morning for breakfast so we decided to continue that. We met Bouk and Hailey Goble, Jen, Gavin, and Sam Ryan, and Nick and Dana Wester. Breakfast was lovely, the company was awesome, and Alex loved having a burger, fries, and milkshake for breakfast! After breakfast we went to a bowling alley close by (another Hales family holiday tradition) and had such a blast! It was another one of those times that we forgot we were on the other side of the world for a minute because it felt so much like home. We don't try to create those times, but when they happen they are more than welcome. :)






After bowling and breakfast we jumped on the subway and headed across town to the Hoskin's home for a Christmas Eve party. I've got to add this darling picture of Joe and Katie Hoskin not only because it's adorable, but also because when they're famous I want tangible, internet proof that we are friends of theirs. Cause trust me, it's gonna happen. And when it does, I'll say "Oh yeah, Joe and Katie, we're friends with them - look at our blog, there's proof."



In all seriousness, we absolutely adore the Hoskin family and were so grateful for the invitation to a party with friends that felt like a party with family. It was so cute because between the other three families there, we had 10 kids who all matched up in ages really well. As soon as all the kids got there they paired off with their little buddies and were just giggling all night long. And get this, we got to sit at the big kid table with the adults! We're so old here! We enjoyed the evening with the Hoskin, Quan, and Morris family as well as the cheese ball, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, meat balls, homemade rolls, salsa, cider, ham...oh no, I'm drooling again just thinking about it. Highlight of the evening (even more so than the food and company) was the Christmas play the Hoskins organized. It is a beautiful tradition that we decided will make an appearance at future Putnam Christmases as well. The spirit of Christ and Christmas was so strong and we're grateful to the Hoskins for creating that - even with a goofy Mary and Joseph. (First Nursery Leaders, now this? I think Katie Hoskin (Primary President) is trying to tell us something...)

On Christmas day we had great plans to wake up early and enjoy our first Christmas morning together. Wait. Did I just use "us" and "wake up early" in the same sentence? Well, if you know us well, you know that's never going to happen. So technically our first Christmas morning on our own was an epic fail, but there's nothing wrong with opening presents at 7 pm, right? Right. We enjoyed a short church meeting and then headed to Nick and Dana Wester's for a gorgeous Christmas dinner and gift exchange with the Westers and Gobles. Dinner was delicious, Dana out-did herself as usual, and the gift exchange was so fun. We are so grateful that we have such good friends here that we can spend these times with - don't know what we would do without all of them.

Speaking of presents, Santa was seriously on our side this year in helping our packages from home arrive! We only had one casualty...Jenn... :( But the rest made it safe and sound and for that we are grateful. We appreciate our friends and family thinking of us so much. There is just something about holding a box/envelope/package that your loved ones held and sent across the ocean that makes home feel so close.

On Monday morning, the 26th, we got up and were on Skype for almost 5 hours...such is life...And it was wonderful! We loved getting to talk to our families and are grateful that they're willing to talk to us while we're so far away. It was wonderful getting to chat and share a little bit of their Christmas with them.

While we were in transit to and from our Christmas Eve activities we had our camera handy and snapped a few photos of what Christmas looked like on the streets of Beijing. Nice weather, pretty decorations, people selling Christmas Apples everywhere, and a trip up the Xitucheng escalator - longest ever.



For us it just goes without saying that we missed our families over the holidays - cause that's a given. It wasn't fun to be away from our loved ones, but it was a great experience to feel more established, have a unique Christmas, and make great memories with our friends here. God bless us, every one!