On Seeing the Pandas

Somehow, we have managed to live in China for 9 years without seeing the famous Sichuan Giant Pandas. Thankfully, this summer, we were able to rectify that. The Pandas are great! We got up early so that we could see them before they fall asleep around 10am. They are so cute and funny. We enjoyed seeing the adults play around on their "playground" equipment. We also saw a baby who was still in an incubator. We ended with an incredibly graphic informational movie about how pandas mate and give birth (probably wouldn't take Ellie and Sara to see that again, but we had no idea how much information it was going to give). We also saw the lesser known "red pandas". The poor red pandas - they look more like racoons than bears. I'll post a picture so you can see our family with the Giant Pandas.

Learning another language

We've been here almost 9 years, but I'm still learning Chinese. I am happy to say that I have continued to progress each year that we are here, but sometimes I am overwhelmed by all that I don't know. Today was a good day. I felt very efficient. I was working with a real estate agent on finding an apartment for friends of ours that are coming soon. I actually was able to say all that I needed to say - which almost never happens. The only word that I needed to look up was "mold". Living in this dry climate, we don't have much reason to use the word "mold" often. But, this apartment has some and I wanted it cleaned up before we rent it. So, now the word "mold" - fa mei - is imbedded in my mind. Language is funny like that. The weirder the word, the more chance that you will remember it. So, now the word "mold" can be added to my ever-growing list of strange words that I will remember forever like: gu piao (stock certificate), tang shi (Tang dynasty poetry),zheng rong (to have a face-lift)

Starting again...

We have not been writing on this blog for almost 2 years, but I hope to get it up and running again. Hopefully, you will be able to check back every week or so and see an update!