New addition to the family

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Things that we've been contemplating for several months now are finally coming together. I don't know if that is because we are getting more proficient at living in Spain and being pseudo-Spaniards, or, if it just took a long time and the fruits of our labors are finally coming.20140216-204531.jpg

One of those things, is to find a Chinese housekeeper here in Madrid. After a lot of searching, and some very awkward 'interviews', our new Ayi started today. Her name is Fang and she is originally from Shandong, China. She spent 5 hours with us today and I really hope it works out. I'm not getting my hopes up too high right now because we went through three ayis in Beijing before we found Xiao Guo.

Olive and I met Fang at the metro station and we walked together to our house so she would know the way. She's very interested to find a bus that will get her near our house but I am completely incompetent about the Madrid bus system. You would think I would've explored the bussing options back when I was walking 6 miles per day (that was pre-car and pre-bicycle) but I never did.

I'm really excited that having Fang in out lives will allow us to have a little more free time to enjoy our lives here in Spain, by liberating us from the drudgery of using the world's smallest washing machine, and ironing our own clothes. It sounds horrible, I know. These are not real problems, but we are definitely hoping to get more free time.

Today went pretty well and we were able to communicate well enough. Our Chinese is definitely rusty! My old Chinese teacher would've been appalled if she heard me interspersing English words, Spanish words, and the occasional pantomime into Chinese sentences. Fang understood mostly. Her mandarin accent is more similar to the Beijing accent that we're familiar with than some of the other people that we interviewed.

Let's hope it works out!

3 Useful China Information Resources

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[Note: I wrote this many months ago while in Beijing.] Living in China has made me interested about China's history and current events, mainly as a way to make sense of the things I see around me and to fit our experiences into a greater China context.

During our short time here, I've been lucky enough to find three fantastic information sources that put out a lot of great China information. There are many resources available, but these three are made by Westerners and are truly top-notch.

1: Learning about the past

The only way to make sense of many Chinese activities and habits is to put them in their proper context. If you view these things through the lens of contemporary American education and American values, China seems like a bizarre world indeed. In fact, much of our first year and many of our early blog posts were triggered by, and talk about, the frustration caused by the disconnect between normal American behavior and normal Chinese behavior.

However, if you view Chinese activities and behaviors within their proper context, they make a lot of sense. But how to bridge this gap of American education and Chinese culture and history? Enter the China History Podcast.

Laszlo Montgomery puts on a truly wonderful podcast that takes 5,000 years of Chinese history, dissects it into bite-sized chunks, and makes it easily understandable for people with zero China experience. Via his podcast I have listened to Laszlo speak for countless hours, and I can only say that the amount I have learned from him is truly mind-blowing.

In my opinion they are all good, but his crème de la crème are:

You can tell that I find the more recent history (approximately 200 years ago and newer) more relevant than ancient Chinese history. However, I'm frequently surprised at how many ancient references and sayings pop up in daily conversation.

The China History Podcast is updated quite regulary, and seems to release a new episode every 10 days on average. Even more convenient, if you subscribe via iTunes, they are automatically downloaded for you whenever a new episode is published.

2: Staying current with the news

One thing I discovered when I first began trying to follow China current events (from within China) is that it's not so easy. Our VPN (the system that allows us to access sites blocked within China) became extremely unreliable and we finally just gave up trying to keep it working.

If you cannot read Chinese characters, and you cannot access English-language China news outlets outside China 1, then your options become extremely limited. Most of the English-language news outlets produced inside China are more propaganda than news, and topics deemed sensitve by the government are often barely mentioned or not covered at all. As a foreigner, the sensitive topics are the ones that I am most interested in reading about.

About a year ago I saw a reference to Bill Bishop's excellent Sinocism newsletter. This email newsletter comes out daily and provides a summary of the day's events in and around China. The resources he uses to pull together his links are quite varied, and covers a mix of Chinese mainland and foreign reporting.

The newsletter is split into several categories (such as Politics and Law, Business and Economy, and Foreign and Defense Affairs), so you can quickly jump to the areas that are most interesting to you.

3: Staying current with the culture

The Sinocism newsletter gives a good summary of daily news, but it doesn't provide insight into how current events impact Chinese society and culture. To do that, you need to talk to many smart, well-connected people within China, or, listen to other people do it. This is where the Sinica podcast comes to the rescue.

The podcast is moderated by two regular hosts: Kaiser Kuo (pronounced "Go-ah" and Jeremy Goldkorn, and features different knowledable guests each show. The pair of hosts have completely different personalities but they complement each other well. One thing I like about the show is that they often dig into taboo or sensitive topics, which are areas that are very difficult to learn about by talking to local Chinese friends.

Similar to the China History Podcast, if you subscribe via iTunes, the shows are automatically downloaded for you whenever a new episode is published. A small annoyance is that Sinica is part of the Popup Chinese group of podcasts. Frankly, I simply delete the other Popup Chinese episodes and only keep the Sinica shows.

  1. To be fair, we can access many international news sites (with limited censoring) and only some of the major ones are blocked completely by the Great Firewall. The problem with the major U.S. news outlets is that there is not much coverage of current affairs that are internal to China. Unless it's a political scandal, environmental catastrophe, or something so bizarre that's it's funny, China news is typically ignored. ↩

Daddy Days

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I made succesfully made it back from Europe to Beijing on Thursday. I'll leave Beijing again for a business trip on Wednesday. Beside spending some quality time in a few Chinese government offices, hospitals, and a notary office to complete some much needed paperwork for our in-progress Spanish visa, the main purpose of coming to Beijing is to hang out with Henry, Addi, and Truman while Jess takes a few much well deserved relaxation days in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She left Friday morning around 4:15am with ten of her friends. Her phone doesn't have service outside of China so I only get sporadic updates from her when she has free wifi coverage. So far, it sounds like they are having a heck of a good time.

The kids and I are doing well. Friday was a pretty typical day, and Saturday we spent most of the day at the Bird's Nest for Henry's baseball tournament. After the tournament we met up at a friend's house with three other dads whose wives are in Thailand so the kids could play. Today we're looking forward to a little down-time around the house to re-coup before the week starts.

Scourge

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Scourge of the earth. If my kids were unable to read this blog, then I'd probably use more profound and colorful adjectives, but alas, they can, so I won't. What am I talking about? Good question. I'm talking about mosquitoes. In our house. Biting me at night.

I don't get raised, itchy mosquito bites (thanks a million Dad), so I don't typically pay much attention to these things. But the past few days I've noticed that I have little red bumps all over me. They don't hurt or itch, but they look freaky and I'd rather not have them.

Although now that I see it, maybe posting a picture of a squashed mosquito on my finger is a bit crass. Oh well, sometimes my compass gets a bit skewed.

Jess and the kids come back tomorrow - thank goodness

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I know you all like to see Jess and the kids. I get it. I totally do. I like to see them too. And luckily, this year's itinerant summer has come to a close and it's finally time to get back to the living in the same continent again. Hell yeah. I couldn't be more excited. But goodbyes suck for everybody; especially the kids. When we leave we envision life standing still and waiting for our return. Funny little thing about life is that it doesn't wait. On the positive side people grow and change in super cool ways, and it's fun to see when you return. On the negative side, bad things can happen to people you love. I know it is a fear that Jess and I constantly have. In talking with our friends here in Beijing, it's a common fear shared among most expats.

So here's the deal everyone: we love you all. So take your vitamins, wear your seat-belts and your bike helmets, look both ways before crossing the street, floss (seriously), smile a lot, and stop eating the damn bread already.

And if anything good (or bad) happens, please tell us; we love hearing that stuff. And don't rely on Facebook. We can't access it and don't check it. You're gonna have to go old-school and send us an old-fashioned email. :)

Is it just me or is there a river in my basement?

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First time I've ever asked myself that question. True. Unfortunately, the answer was yes, there was in fact a river. The water was streaming in from the (now flooded) garage, in from the window in the kids play room, and gurgling up from the floor drains in all the basement rooms. Suck.

To be fair, the house held its own for 12 hours. The rain was incredible and it had been coming down hard all day. By hard I mean it took a tree down on our street. Up until the neighborhood drainage system gave up, the only leaks were in a few windows. However, once the garage filled up, it came over the 4 inch barrier in the doorway and down the stairs into our basement.

I moved what I could up out of harms way but in the end there was so much water that I just stood there dumb-founded for a while.

I have pictures but I probably won't go to the trouble of posting them.

A few key learnings from the entire episode:

  • When water enters your house from the drains, don't stand in it. You don't know where it's been. My rookie mistake cost me a funky little rash on my foot.
  • If it rains for over ten hours straight, hard, get your crap out of the basement and the garage. In retrospect, that just seems like common sense.
  • When there is water in your house, mold will soon follow. And it did.

Good morning

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Quick update for those following along. I still have all three kids with me; haven't lost or injured one yet. :) Last night night all the left-behind spouses and all the kids went to a super kid-friendly restaurant nearby called the Filling Station. We may have blogged about it before. It's decent western food and they have a painting of a late 70s VW bus on the wall. Sweet.

The kids disappear into the massive play area, and the Guinness disappears at the adults table. It's a great combination. We decided that our friend Hilary is an honorary Dad for the weekend. Her husband is in the US right now for the NBA all-star game (he works for the NBA ... and no he doesn't play ... and no, he doesn't know Jeremy Lin). I think that's the reason that she's not in Singapore right now with the other ladies.

Today is great. The pollution is low (currently at 65), the weather should make it into the 40s today. I think we'll head to the park after Truman takes his nap. Doug kik'd me a picture from a recent ski day. White snow and crystal-clear  blue skies. It sort of hit me funny and now I'm missing Colorado.

Other random thoughts:

  • I got my stitches out on Thursday by a doctor named "Oliver". It's like a stage name. "Who do you want to be today, Doctor?" "Umm, give me the 'Oliver' name-tag, nurse. I'm feeling it today."
  • Truman and I fired up the motorcycle last weekend. I never took it in for it's break-in service before it got to cold. So I got off my lazy butt and made an appointment for March. It'll be good to go riding again.
  • It looks like our landlord will pay us the outstanding money she owes us (I'm not sure if we've blogged about this 6 month-long saga. We're still going to move though, but probably not for several more months.
  • Our renters in Colorado decided to rent our house again for another year. That's a nice relief since they are good tenants and take care of the place.
  • I'm on my fifth Chinese lesson with my Lǎo shī (teacher) Clary. She's a rock star.

All I want to do is listen to the Broncos

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The Broncos are playing the Patriots right now. I know they are even though I can't watch it on TV. Yes, they are underdogs. Yes, they probably won't win. Yes, I would like to watch it. Denver has an AM station that has a great football announcer and they stream their broadcast live online. Unfortunately, they'll only stream to you if they think you're in the US. So now I'm trying to keep my VPN to the US up so I can listen to the game. It doesn't want to work with me.

Laura and Nate - The Last Chapter

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Quick update: Laura sent us a text message last night from Hawaii. Yup, they never made it to San Francisco (flight 1 of 3, on their return trip to Des Moines). Apparently, one of their four engines stopped working so they needed to fly at a lower altitude which meant they couldn't make it all the way to SF. I guess if you have to be delayed, Hawaii's not a bad place to do it. They said the weather was nice and the got a chance to check out the beach. Unfortunately, they've been suffering through long lines, long waits, and crappy United customer service. As we speak, they should be in the air on their way to San Francisco where they'll get another night layover.

We do appreciate them coming to visit us. All of the kids cried after they left.

Nate and Laura - Part Two

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Nate's second postHey furry friends! (as Laura would say) I'm unfortunately writing this on the eve of our departure. We have had an awesome week! Since the last post, we have only continued to enjoy each other's company....except Mitch's...just kidding. On Wednesday, Laura, Jess, and I went to get foot and shoulder massages. It was an interesting experience, to say the least, as I've never gotten a message before. But, it was actually very relaxing and we had a great time (minus the random pounding that the masseuses' felt was necessary at certain parts of the massage). We then ate lunch at the Purple Bodhi, which in my opinion may have been the best food we ate the entire trip. Great atmosphere and better food! On Thursday, Laura and I ventured out on our own (obviously we were chauffeured by Mr. Ren) to Tienenmen Square and the Forbidden City. Both sites were really cool to see because like the Great Wall, these were the only other images we had in our heads of China before visiting. Pulling up to Tienenmen Square, there's a huge government-looking building, I asked Mr. Ren what it was, and he told us that it's where they have meetings with Obama. Yep. I think he should stick to his day job and not so much a tour guide. Thursday night, we had a kid-free dinner with Mitch and Jess at a very nice brazilian restaurant called Alameda. We had an awesome time! On our final day, we started out by going to an assembly at the kids' school and Henry shared us with his class for show and share. Henry prefaced the question portion of show and share by alerting his class that Laura and I do not have children, so don't ask. It was pretty funny. We then picked up my completed suit and shirts (which are probably the greatest things I own right now) and headed to the infamous "secret handbag shop". Please note that we were there on Sunday shortly after they were raided by the police, and the place was a shell of itself. The only way I know that is because when we returned on Friday, it was unbelievably different. I'm talkin rooms full of inventory where there used to be a big white wall, different! Needless to say, it was a successful shopping trip. Last but not least, Mitch and Jess prepared an incredible final meal for us at home. Complete with cheesy potatoes, stuffed chicken breasts, and lemon bars that melt in your mouth! We are so glad that we were able to visit. It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip that was made even more special by getting to experience the Coopers' life over here. We are so happy that we got to spend this much time with them, and hope we are fortunate enough to do it again in the future. It's been real, China.

Nate & Laura

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Weekend Recap

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It's Sunday night and I'm heading back to San Jose tomorrow. It's a real downer from a family perspective but it's definitely needed from a professional perspective. Oh well, life is full of trade-offs. We've got a big holiday coming up here in China and Jess has been planning a wonderful Japanese adventure for us. We're all pretty excited. I'll try to recap some of the things we've been up to this weekend. I have a few pictures from my iPhone but hopefully Jess will log on later and update this post with some good photos from her camera.

Weather We've had three days of absolutely gorgeous weather. I really enjoyed (most) of the weather last fall, and this year seems to be heading in the same direction. There are a lot of people hanging out outside soaking up the sun and the clean air. The pollution index has been between 30 and 75 all weekend (for reference, 30 is approximately 'normal' for most of the U.S.). I even managed to get a sunburn today. The sunburn isn't cool but that fact that it was clear enough for the sun to burn me says it was pretty darn nice. I've mentioned before about how my standards for "clear days" have really dropped since moving to Beijing, but it's days like today that make us realize what we've been missing.

Friday After work we got take-out from the new dumpling and noodle place that opened up near our house. Everyone we know that has eaten there raved about the food.It turns out they don't have the take-out process down pat. It took 45 minutes for them to make our food and in the end they forgot to give us half our order. The food was tasty, but they forgot my spicy pig tongue. I'm not a big bread/noodle guy so I was counting on the pig tongue dish for my dinner. We tried calling them to tell them they forgot half of our food but they only speak Chinese so they kept hanging up on us. Annoying. We'll give the place another try but we'll eat in next time.

Saturday

Adeline has gymnastics on Saturday mornings at 8:30am which is a little early for us since Saturday morning is typically our "lounge around and have a big breakfast" morning. Several of the Esmond kids came over to play and both Jess and I hit a charity book sale that was being held at a local school.

Xiao Guo came over to babysit so Jess and I could attend a dinner party at a friends house (yep, we took the motorcycle). The food was catered in by a local Chinese caterer and it was fantastic! The wine was excellent as well. :) We spent several hours chatting about all things Beijing and then headed home. Henry is still doing his "adolescent power-struggle" with Xiao Guo. He wouldn't listen or go to bed and so when we got home at 11:30pm he was sitting there on the couch with Xiao Guo. Jess and I don't really know how to fix it. Addi and Truman aren't having problems so we're not really sure what's going on.

Sunday

On Sunday's Henry has rugby practice at ISB so we all went there to watch him and also to let Addi play on the playground with her friends. Most of the families that were at the dinner party on Saturday night were at the school playgrounds enjoying the nice weather so we continued our conversations from the previous evening.

After rugby practice we had lunch at a western restaurant with the Showalters.  There were so many of us that we took the minivan and the motorcycle. It was nice but by the time we were leaving both family's kids were in need of naps and were starting to meltdown. After lunch we took naps and started preparing for the week ahead.

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I'm Legal

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Finally. I'm a legal driver in China. I no longer need to shotgun while Jess drives or risk being jailed for 15 days for driving without a license. I crammed for several days prior to the test and Jess helped a lot with her tips and tricks of how to remember the crazy Chinese translations. In the end, I got 93% which is good enough to pass (Jess got 98%). I can already feel some of the knowledge flooding out of me post-test. The advice I was given was to study hard for the test so I memorize the questions, then forget about it all since no one follows the driving rules anyway. The key to driving in Beijing is to drive like everyone else.

During the test I was having visions of the 80s movie License to Drive, where Les Anderson is sitting at the DMV in front of the computer taking the written test. There were several questions that I had no idea about and I had mentally prepared myself to not get the required 90% to pass. There are 100 questions in 45 minutes. The study book has over 1300 questions. I had the study book but I found it inconvenient so I mainly relied on the China Drive iPhone app. While preparing for the test, it occurred to me just how long it's been since I've had to take an actual test for anything. I'm pretty sure I haven't done that since Iowa State.