Enjoy the pics and movies!
Chinese music in Temple of Heaven park:
Dancing in Purple Bamboo Park:
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Parks in China
Chinese parks are just wonderful. You get so used to the cement everywhere, that it is nice to go to a park and relax, enjoy the green grass and trees and watch people. :)
Enjoy the pics and movies!
Chinese music in Temple of Heaven park:
Dancing in Purple Bamboo Park:
Enjoy the pics and movies!
Chinese music in Temple of Heaven park:
Dancing in Purple Bamboo Park:
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Samantha pics and movies...
Enjoy these pictures and movies of Samantha...
Samantha chasing pigeons:
Samantha jumping over some stones:
Samantha riding her bicycle:
Samantha chasing pigeons:
Samantha jumping over some stones:
Samantha riding her bicycle:
Easter...
Here are a few pics from Easter weekend.
We colored eggs with some American friends, and then had Easter lunch with some other American friends. They hid eggs in the house for the kids to find. :)
We colored eggs with some American friends, and then had Easter lunch with some other American friends. They hid eggs in the house for the kids to find. :)
Samantha sings praise songs...
Enjoy two of Samantha's versions of praise songs her and Mommy sing together. :)
Update and Great Wall visit
I know....we haven't blogged in awhile. It has been a crazy month.
First a couple updates: Tina's job comes to an end in the next week or two. Nana is visiting the first full week of May. Tina and Samantha will be returning to the States for the summer (May 15th - Aug 7th). It has been a little rough adjusting to expat living and they need a good dose of the good ole USA. :) There probably won't be any blog posts from America though...
Okay, on the pics of the Great Wall! We were there last weekend with one of Rodger's co-workers (shared a car ride there). The climb up to the Wall was the hardest! Walking on the Wall wasn't so bad. Enjoy the pics.
Samantha running around on the Great Wall:
First a couple updates: Tina's job comes to an end in the next week or two. Nana is visiting the first full week of May. Tina and Samantha will be returning to the States for the summer (May 15th - Aug 7th). It has been a little rough adjusting to expat living and they need a good dose of the good ole USA. :) There probably won't be any blog posts from America though...
Okay, on the pics of the Great Wall! We were there last weekend with one of Rodger's co-workers (shared a car ride there). The climb up to the Wall was the hardest! Walking on the Wall wasn't so bad. Enjoy the pics.
Samantha running around on the Great Wall:
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Bedtime with Samantha...
Oh, this is the most precious time with my daughter. We read books, we sing praise songs, we talk to each other, we talk to God, we laugh, we cry, and we snuggle. I just love it!! We have the most wonderful discussions. Some nights we talk about school, some nights we talk about America, some nights we talk about China, etc. Most nights we talk about God b/c I read a lot of Bible stories to her.
When we talk about school, it is about how she wants her teachers to know Jesus (she even asked me what the Chinese word was for God one morning before school so she could tell her teachers), or how Matt doesn't like her and hits her or pushes in front of her, or how bad she is at basketball and doesn't want to play anymore.
When we talk about America, it is about how much she misses living there, how much she misses Mattie (Nana and Pappy's dog), about her friends, how she wants to move back to our old house, or how she can't wait until her Nana comes to visit.
When we talk about China, it is about what she likes here, the food, the play places we go to, the swimming pool we go to, or the friends she has here.
We talk a lot about God and the stories I read to her from the Bible. She is a little sponge and keeps asking for more. (On the subway to church, she always asks me to read a story from the Bible...and she listens intently while I read from the Bible about Esther, Jonah, Job, David, etc.) She is a very smart girl and tells me she wants to be baptized. She is so sincere, it is just beautiful. She wants so much for God to be in her heart. I tell her He already is. :)
Tonight, Samantha told me that she wanted a different heart. I asked her what heart she wanted and she said, "Yours." Wow, what more could a mother want? I cried tears of joy thinking that my daughter would want to be like me. How humbling! But....oh, the responsibility, oh, the power, and, oh, the love. I continually pray that God would work in me, in my heart, to make me the kind of mother I need to be for her. She has been the most precious gift God has given us.
On the flip side, she said that I could have her heart in return. Oh, the beautiful spirit of children. I would take her loving, pure, compassionate, innocent, giving, sweet heart in a heartbeat! :D
To Him be ALL the Glory,
Tina
When we talk about school, it is about how she wants her teachers to know Jesus (she even asked me what the Chinese word was for God one morning before school so she could tell her teachers), or how Matt doesn't like her and hits her or pushes in front of her, or how bad she is at basketball and doesn't want to play anymore.
When we talk about America, it is about how much she misses living there, how much she misses Mattie (Nana and Pappy's dog), about her friends, how she wants to move back to our old house, or how she can't wait until her Nana comes to visit.
When we talk about China, it is about what she likes here, the food, the play places we go to, the swimming pool we go to, or the friends she has here.
We talk a lot about God and the stories I read to her from the Bible. She is a little sponge and keeps asking for more. (On the subway to church, she always asks me to read a story from the Bible...and she listens intently while I read from the Bible about Esther, Jonah, Job, David, etc.) She is a very smart girl and tells me she wants to be baptized. She is so sincere, it is just beautiful. She wants so much for God to be in her heart. I tell her He already is. :)
Tonight, Samantha told me that she wanted a different heart. I asked her what heart she wanted and she said, "Yours." Wow, what more could a mother want? I cried tears of joy thinking that my daughter would want to be like me. How humbling! But....oh, the responsibility, oh, the power, and, oh, the love. I continually pray that God would work in me, in my heart, to make me the kind of mother I need to be for her. She has been the most precious gift God has given us.
On the flip side, she said that I could have her heart in return. Oh, the beautiful spirit of children. I would take her loving, pure, compassionate, innocent, giving, sweet heart in a heartbeat! :D
To Him be ALL the Glory,
Tina
Monday, March 16, 2009
Trains in China!
As you probably read, I spent the weekend in Shanghai. The trains in China are just awesome! For about $60 you can take a sleeper train most anywhere in China. You leave just after dark and you arrive just after sunrise. The rooms in the train are soft and comfortable. The only downside is reservations. You can buy a ticket from "your" town 10 days out. You can buy a ticket from a different town 5 days out. That means in you want to buy a round trip ticket you need to wait until 5 days before you return.
However, if you have a little bit of wu suo wei (无所谓 - Whatever) in your schedule you will be much happier.
While in Shanghai I decided to visit kong long yuan (dinosaur park). To get there I took a bullet train to Changzhou. What was normally a three-hour trip was one hour in length. It was like taking a plane with the convenience of a subway.
On my trip to Shanghai, I didn't buy a return ticket until the day before I left. I don't know if they didn't have any more Z trains or if they just felt like giving me another bullet train. This train cost $100. Talk about fancy ... WOW!
In the end, I love the bullet trains for short distances but overnight is still overnight. Next time I will buy a standard $60 train.
Our three bikes....
It was beautiful weather today!! Samantha got to ride her bike a bit.
Here is a picture of all three of our bikes together. :)
And some pictures of Samantha on her bike.
Here is a picture of all three of our bikes together. :)
And some pictures of Samantha on her bike.
Samantha and Mama's weekend together!!
Rodger went to Shanghai for 3.5 days for a weekend get-a-way, so Samantha and I spent the weekend together. :D
It turned out to be a good and a bad weekend. On Friday night we went shopping and got lots of nai chas (milk teas). :)
On Saturday we got to go to two different parks. We went to Purple Bamboo Park with the family Sam and I get together with on Fridays for Bible study (Tina) and dinner and games sometimes. Sam loves playing with their 7yo daughter. The parks in China are huge!! There aren't playgrounds, per se. There are exercise equipment for the adults that the kids like to play on, though. They have lots of bridges and rocks to climb on. Different areas of the parks are for different things. There were dancers in one section, ribbon dancers in another, singers in another, musical instruments in another. Interesting...
Sam being cute on the bus ride there:
Statues of the 12 animals of the Chinese calendar:
The second park we went to was called the Old Summer Palace. A family who has been in China for 13 years met us here. This park is full of the Imperial Garden ruins that were destroyed by the British and French troops in 1860, then they built a new Summer Palace to the west of this one. There are lots of bridges, ponds/lakes, ruins for the kids to climb on (and I mean tall ones!). There is a maze to find yourself through. Lots of hills and paths to walk on. Samantha just loved it!! We need to go there more often.
Okay, so that was the good part of that day. Here is the bad part. On the way back from the Bamboo Park we took the bus and Samantha lost her balance when the bus stopped and she toppled sideways down off the raised chair and fell head first into the base of the chair in front of her. She cried and cried. She got a pretty good knot on the top of her head. Then, on the way home from the Old Summer Palace we had a wreck on our electric bike. I was driving along and was going to pass some men on bicycles and the one on the left decided to turn left right in front of me. :( I hit him going at a pretty good pace and slammed on the brakes. We veered off to the left and the bike fell over. I knocked my head on the sidewalk curb. I jumped up to see how Samantha was, as she was on the back of the bike. The bike had landed on her left leg and she was crying. We got the bike up and she was okay. Her knee hurt for an hour or two and then it was okay. She has a couple bruises on that knee. But, me on the other hand, my entire body is hurting still today (Monday). I have bruises on my arms and legs. The metal bracelet I was wearing scraped up my arm pretty good and came off. I had scraped up my left knee and put a hole in my jeans. The side of my head hurts where I hit the curb. Wow, were we lucky. God really was watching out for us. We had about 20 Chinese people standing all around us, but they didn't say anything b/c they knew we couldn't speak Chinese. :) I kept telling them she was okay in Chinese. One guy did speak English and I was able to tell him that Sam was okay. Funny thing was in the midst of all this, Samantha was more worried about the two snail shells she found at the park that she had put in the back compartment of the bike....of course they were gone. It made her cry even harder!
We drove home, much slower, and ate some comfort food (orzo and parmesan cheese), had nai chas and watched a movie.
Sunday we went to church, came home and got a nap. Then, we had our friends from close to where we live come over to have chuan and jiaozis with us (lamb meat on a skewer sticks and dumplings). It was a good time, and the girls got to play together.
It was a fun girls weekend, although we missed Daddy a lot.
/Tina
It turned out to be a good and a bad weekend. On Friday night we went shopping and got lots of nai chas (milk teas). :)
On Saturday we got to go to two different parks. We went to Purple Bamboo Park with the family Sam and I get together with on Fridays for Bible study (Tina) and dinner and games sometimes. Sam loves playing with their 7yo daughter. The parks in China are huge!! There aren't playgrounds, per se. There are exercise equipment for the adults that the kids like to play on, though. They have lots of bridges and rocks to climb on. Different areas of the parks are for different things. There were dancers in one section, ribbon dancers in another, singers in another, musical instruments in another. Interesting...
Sam being cute on the bus ride there:
Statues of the 12 animals of the Chinese calendar:
The second park we went to was called the Old Summer Palace. A family who has been in China for 13 years met us here. This park is full of the Imperial Garden ruins that were destroyed by the British and French troops in 1860, then they built a new Summer Palace to the west of this one. There are lots of bridges, ponds/lakes, ruins for the kids to climb on (and I mean tall ones!). There is a maze to find yourself through. Lots of hills and paths to walk on. Samantha just loved it!! We need to go there more often.
Okay, so that was the good part of that day. Here is the bad part. On the way back from the Bamboo Park we took the bus and Samantha lost her balance when the bus stopped and she toppled sideways down off the raised chair and fell head first into the base of the chair in front of her. She cried and cried. She got a pretty good knot on the top of her head. Then, on the way home from the Old Summer Palace we had a wreck on our electric bike. I was driving along and was going to pass some men on bicycles and the one on the left decided to turn left right in front of me. :( I hit him going at a pretty good pace and slammed on the brakes. We veered off to the left and the bike fell over. I knocked my head on the sidewalk curb. I jumped up to see how Samantha was, as she was on the back of the bike. The bike had landed on her left leg and she was crying. We got the bike up and she was okay. Her knee hurt for an hour or two and then it was okay. She has a couple bruises on that knee. But, me on the other hand, my entire body is hurting still today (Monday). I have bruises on my arms and legs. The metal bracelet I was wearing scraped up my arm pretty good and came off. I had scraped up my left knee and put a hole in my jeans. The side of my head hurts where I hit the curb. Wow, were we lucky. God really was watching out for us. We had about 20 Chinese people standing all around us, but they didn't say anything b/c they knew we couldn't speak Chinese. :) I kept telling them she was okay in Chinese. One guy did speak English and I was able to tell him that Sam was okay. Funny thing was in the midst of all this, Samantha was more worried about the two snail shells she found at the park that she had put in the back compartment of the bike....of course they were gone. It made her cry even harder!
We drove home, much slower, and ate some comfort food (orzo and parmesan cheese), had nai chas and watched a movie.
Sunday we went to church, came home and got a nap. Then, we had our friends from close to where we live come over to have chuan and jiaozis with us (lamb meat on a skewer sticks and dumplings). It was a good time, and the girls got to play together.
It was a fun girls weekend, although we missed Daddy a lot.
/Tina
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Xi'An trip last weekend...
We had a great time in Xi'An last weekend. It is so fun to travel around China. :)
We took the night train on Friday night, leaving at 9:30pm and arriving at 8:15am the next morning. Samantha sleeps in the smaller-than-twin-bed with me. ;) Not too bad, actually. We had a top bunk this time, so I just needed to make sure she was on the inside. We always have milk teas to drink on our trips. :)
These caves are sometimes used as homes and sometimes used as kilns for making pottery:
Samantha loves the train:
We met our tour guide, Sissia, and the driver and headed off to the hotel. After checking in and dropping off our bag, we headed to the National Museum. We spent a couple hours here looking at artifacts from the dynasties who had Xi'An as their capital city.
Map of Shaanxi Province:
We then went to a Wild Goose Pagoda which is one of the places where the Chinese also worship Buddha. It was a beautiful place.
Samantha and our tour guide, Sissia:
These are "prayers" people want answered:
Here we are touching Buddha's tummy (suppose to be good luck for those who believe that):
We then went back to the center of town and visited the Muslim market street where there were lots of touristy things to buy:
We had lunch on this street at a famous restaurant:
We then went to a Muslim temple:
This is the bell tower in the center of town:
On Saturday night we went to a dumpling banquet and show. All the dumplings were in the shapes of what was inside them. It was pretty cute. There were ducks, cabbages, pigs, shrimp, fish, chicken, walnuts, etc.
Samantha absolutely loved the show and still talks about these three girls' dance:
Here is an old woman making and selling sandals and purses:
On Sunday morning we went to see the Terracotta Soldiers:
One of them actually still had some paint on it that hadn't faded away. You can see how bright the colors were:
Then, we went to the hot springs and spent a few hours relaxing, getting massages and enjoying the hot water. Samantha loved the pool with the small fish that ate your dead skin. She would scream each time they nibbled at her. The pool was kind of gross b/c of all the fish poo floating around. :( She loved it though!
Some of the old cities have walls around them...you can see how thick this wall was:
Samantha before going to sleep on the train. We got bottom bunks on the way back and this time Samantha slept on one end and I on the other.
We took the night train on Friday night, leaving at 9:30pm and arriving at 8:15am the next morning. Samantha sleeps in the smaller-than-twin-bed with me. ;) Not too bad, actually. We had a top bunk this time, so I just needed to make sure she was on the inside. We always have milk teas to drink on our trips. :)
These caves are sometimes used as homes and sometimes used as kilns for making pottery:
Samantha loves the train:
We met our tour guide, Sissia, and the driver and headed off to the hotel. After checking in and dropping off our bag, we headed to the National Museum. We spent a couple hours here looking at artifacts from the dynasties who had Xi'An as their capital city.
Map of Shaanxi Province:
We then went to a Wild Goose Pagoda which is one of the places where the Chinese also worship Buddha. It was a beautiful place.
Samantha and our tour guide, Sissia:
These are "prayers" people want answered:
Here we are touching Buddha's tummy (suppose to be good luck for those who believe that):
We then went back to the center of town and visited the Muslim market street where there were lots of touristy things to buy:
We had lunch on this street at a famous restaurant:
We then went to a Muslim temple:
This is the bell tower in the center of town:
On Saturday night we went to a dumpling banquet and show. All the dumplings were in the shapes of what was inside them. It was pretty cute. There were ducks, cabbages, pigs, shrimp, fish, chicken, walnuts, etc.
Samantha absolutely loved the show and still talks about these three girls' dance:
Here is an old woman making and selling sandals and purses:
On Sunday morning we went to see the Terracotta Soldiers:
One of them actually still had some paint on it that hadn't faded away. You can see how bright the colors were:
Then, we went to the hot springs and spent a few hours relaxing, getting massages and enjoying the hot water. Samantha loved the pool with the small fish that ate your dead skin. She would scream each time they nibbled at her. The pool was kind of gross b/c of all the fish poo floating around. :( She loved it though!
Some of the old cities have walls around them...you can see how thick this wall was:
Samantha before going to sleep on the train. We got bottom bunks on the way back and this time Samantha slept on one end and I on the other.
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