Chinese Christmas Cantata

This will be a test to see whether I can figure out how to post videos to the blog using YouTube... Hopefully it will work. Please leave some comments to say whether or not you were able to view it. Our internet connection here in China is not good enough to ever make YouTube work very well.

This video was taken at the annual international school Christmas program on the 16th. Sorry that you are not really able to see Ellie, because she did a great job this year. If you have good eyes you can spot her in the row of angels. She is the 2nd from the right just to the left of the shepherd with the big dark hat. And Aaron was in it this year as well because the director was looking for some people to be in an adult choir. Look for a bald head on the back row in the middle...

A Christmas Story by Ellie

Just a Note...

We hear through the grapevine that some of our friends and family are starting to read these posts. In case you aren't familiar with blogging - you can leave comments about any or all of these musings simply by clicking on the "comments" link at the end of each post. That way this page will start to be 2 way communication, and a lot more interesting for everybody. I know that some of you can write a whole lot better than I can... The comment section is also a place where you can ask questions or suggest future topics to post about. You can also leave me a note saying that you visited my Amazon wish list and purchased such and such an item...

And don't worry - I moderate the comments and can edit them if needed before they actually get posted on the web. So you won't be able to get us in trouble accidently... Happy posting!

We like taxis...

The word has come officially... our request to purchase a vehicle was denied "for many diverse reasons..." Since we are now business people and making many trips out of town to research possible business ventures, we had come to the conclusion that it might be more convenient, economical, and professional to have our own little van. Taking the bus when I'm traveling by myself is not really a problem and you sometimes get to have some good conversations. It's just that I have been traveling almost once a week which gets pretty tiring. Plus, the bus is just not good with the kids. It's a long trip, there are numerous unexpected delays, it's freezing cold, it's crowded, there are people getting sick in the aisles, etc.

Since I've already done the research on the vans, I thought I would post a pic for you all... These little minivans are everywhere in China. You can buy a brand new, top of the line one for about $5000. You can get a used one for pennies. They get about 42mpg and you can get them fixed everywhere. This particular brand, Wuling, is a GM subsidiary and supposed to be one of the best. The negatives were that they have a tiny engine and that there are no safety features in an accident. Of course there is a new highway all the way out to where we usually go, so you don't have to go up and over the pass anymore. So I wasn't worried about the small engine. And I figured that my defensive driving instead of placing our trust in the hands of strangers that may or may not have ever driven before would nullify the lack of air bags.

In the grand scheme of things it's no big deal. We debated back and forth whether having our own transport was a need or an extravagance. I never really knew for sure... Plan B will be just to rent one whenever the whole family is going out of town. Of course on Tuesday morning when I'm putting on all of my long underwear and gearing myself up for the long bus ride I might be more bitter about it.......

Winter in Xining

It got cold today.

Before it was kind of chilly. You needed your heavy coat and a hat - especially in the morning. But if you were out in the afternoon you might not even need to zip up. Today was definitely a long underwear day. That's how I know whether it is cold or not. Since I am not a weather/temperature junky like so many people seem to be these days (meaning I don't check the forecast twice a day or have an outside thermometer or a digital thermometer for every room in the house) the way I know if it's cold is by sticking my head out the window. If I think to myself that there is no way I'm going out there without long johns, then it's officially cold in my book.

Chinese people, on the other hand, will wear between 3 to 5 pairs of long underwear every day from October to May. So obviously they have a different system than I do. Must be like the Fahrenheit/Celsius difference. Or is it Fahrenheit/Centigrade? What exactly is the difference between Celsius and Centigrade? I think I need to stop now and Google that...

BTW... I found out that one reason that it has seemed colder lately is that Laurel has been secretly turning down the thermostat in our flat. If you know her at all, you have to be wondering what she's worrying about... And if you said money, you would be wrong. One of her greatest fears in life is that we will all die during our sleep from poisonous gas. Even though there is a built in gas detector on the heating unit and a separate gas detector plugged into the wall, this is still a great fear. I think something along this story line would have made a great Raymond episode... (Which is what we have been watching lately... since we have been missing Amazing Race Asia).

Don't worry... I will let Laurel make fun of me a little bit on the next post...

Thanksgiving 2006

We had a small group for Thanksgiving this year, but we still had a good time. And I think most all of us were thankful... The girls would have been more thankful if there were other kids there to play with - our group these days just has two other children, both baby boys. There was no football to watch, but somehow we all managed to hang out together for about 7 hours just chatting and enjoying each other's company. The turkey was deep-fried Chinese/Cajun style. Meaning in a rigged-up Chinese pot with Cajun seasoning. And boy, it was delicious! Laurel was very kind and even made an extra pumpkin pie just for me to keep and eat for myself at home.

Our Cats

We have talked about getting a cat for the last few years, but it never seemed like a convenient time. The talk starting getting serious about a year ago, and we decided that maybe after we returned from the States in July that we could look into it. At first we thought that we would buy a cat in Beijing from a reputable vet there to make sure that it was healthy and received all the shots that it needed. But we couldn't quite figure out the logistics of such a purchase - too much 麻烦 - ma fan (troublesome). So on our return we decided to risk the local pet market, which can sometimes be a scary place. Since I had made it known from the beginning that I wanted nothing to do with it - Laurel and the girls went looking on their own. By that time we had talked ourselves into getting two cats since we were already going to the trouble of getting one. How much more work could two be? We wanted to get females since apparently they are less of a problem for people with cat allergies (like me), but that was a problem as well. Apparently the local vets don't do very well spading females - usually botching the entire operation. So we were going to have them fixed for sure, we decided to get males.

Anyway, to make a long, boring story short (the purpose of this post was just so you could see a picture) we now have two cats in the house. Laurel and I wanted to name them Beijing and Bangkok, but the girls wanted Speedy and Spider. Somehow we ended up with the names BJ and Spider (the black one). For a while Laurel would sit with the cats in her lap every night and go on and on about how she loved having them. Lately they have been pretty wild, though, and there's not as much love going around. But she says that we should always have pets of some kind, that we are a pet family. Even I, who have never had a cat and never liked them very much, have grown to enjoy our two cats. Especially BJ, because he acts more like a dog then a cat. If you come and visit us he will probably jump right up in your lap, flip over on his back, and want you to rub his tummy.

Normal Life

One of my favorite movies is Tombstone, and there are many lines that I really like in the movie. But my favorite and one that has stuck in my head since I first saw the film is a line that Doc Holliday says to Wyatt before he dies in the sanitarium at the end of the movie. After listening to Wyatt whine about his life he says, "There is no normal life, Wyatt. There's just life." Most people think that we live some adventurous, exotic life overseas, but to us it seems pretty normal, and hence the title of this blog. Our lives are a lot different than the average American family - speaking a different language, eating different foods, never driving a vehicle, traveling to other countries a lot... but this is the normal expat life. The life of a home owner, a commuter, an aristocrat, a public figure, a cancer patient, etc.... these are the kind of lives that to me would seem foreign and exotic. But I guess that everyone's life seems pretty normal to themselves when they are wrapped up in it. This is why the questions that people ask us about living overseas are sometimes so hard to answer, though. Because they address what to us is normal as if it were exotic. It would be like asking the average American why they drive to work everyday. As if there might be any other way that one could get to work...

And you probably thought that I got the title from Watchman Nee...

Amazing Race... Asia Style

Every January during Chinese New Year you would think that either a plague, a coup, or a financial crisis was hitting most of China. Because almost every waiguoren (foreigner) in the country is trying to get out at the same time. I don't know why this is - perhaps tradition and perhaps just because everybody else is doing it. But it's amazing to see the flights leaving the country in those preceding days - they are full of expats like us. It is not uncommon to see other expats from Xining in Thailand, Cambodia, or Singapore or another SE Asia country - everybody enjoying some vacation and sun and western food at the same time. This year we will be heading to Thailand for a conference and then to a few other cities in Thailand for vacation. Maybe next year we will go back to Singapore because it was one of Laurel's favorite places. We met up with Singaporean friends a couple of weeks ago that said they could maybe find us a place to say. That would be great.

And if you didn't know... there really is an Amazing Race Asia. We watched the 2nd episode just tonight on the may/may not be illegal (but don't tell us) over the internet TV. Amazing Race is one of our favorite shows and this version is just like the US one, but all of the contestants are from a SE Asian country. And the budget is a little smaller so it's not quite a worldwide contest. They must be required to have a homosexual couple on the show, but it's interesting that at least in the Asia version they are being labeled as "best friends". We're pulling for the Indonesian brothers that every time they show on screen are eating.

Today's pic is of the KC cousins in a pumpkin patch. I wish we had big pumpkins around here. Carving jack-o-lanterns is one part of Halloween that I miss.

Breaking the fast

Every year at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan there is a large celebration for a few days. There are many minority groups in this area of China, but one of the largest in Xining is the Muslims, mainly Hui people and also a few Salar. The first morning of the celebration almost all Muslim men in the area will go downtown to the largest mosque for their worship service. The city closes the main street for many blocks as the crowds spill out of the mosque and onto the streets. I thought I would share a picture of this year's crowd taken a few weeks ago. They say that every year over 100,000 men gather for this service just here in Xining.

Welcome and Introductions

This will be about the 4th blog that I have started in the past 2 years. We'll have to see if this one gets more than a post or two before I lose interest. Since blogger routinely changes my password and steals my accounts, I will not spend much time posting now in case it all disappears. Just wanted to say howdy to the world from China.