Race Day

Today was race day for the cars the kids made on Monday in Cameron's class.  I showed up at 12:45 to find the kids in the hallway making flags to line the race track (hallway).  They all seemed pretty excited.  Mr. Singer explained how the race was going to work and what he expected of the kids.  Basically it was go to the yellow line, roll your car, and count the flags to see how far your car went.  Pretty easy.  Mr. Singer asked me if I would be the judge.  Of course I said yes.  I just had to write down the distance for each student.  Pretty easy. 

The 4th Graders making the flags.

Mr. Singer is giving last minute instructions.

The kids took turns rolling their car down the hallway (race track).  After their first roll most went into the "pits" to make some adjustments.  Then it was time for race 2.  Then race 3.  Cameron wasn't that happy with his cars performance.  He made a little car and what they found out was the bigger, heavier cars did better.  He still had fun.

This is a reenactment.

I left around 1:30, ran home, and went back to school at 2:30.  Cameron's class was suppose to have an awards ceremony at 2:45.  The kids got back from choir at 2:55.  The video of the races was playing on the white board.  The kids were laughing hysterically.  This would be because some kids were putting their faces in front of the camera and making faces.  Silly kids.  There was no award ceremony and each student just had a certificate on their desk when they returned.  Cameron got 2nd place in his category.  Mind you, this was out of 3.  But hey, it wasn't last and he enjoyed building and racing his car.

The kids were laughing so hard watching the video of the races.
Notice Cameron is the only one is his desk.

Mr. Singer telling the class what a great job they did building
and racing their cars.

Cameron's certificate.

Funny Stories

My driver was suppose to pick me up at 9:45 to take me and the girls to the gym.  However, at 9:20 I got a Chinese text from him.  When I translated it it said "vehicles accidents, are being addressed in the. 9:30 not reach you."  Translations are always funny and have to be deciphered.  I sent a text back asking if he was in an accident.  His response was "minor accidents are being processed".  I still had no idea what was going on.  I sent him another message saying to let me know when he was finished.  His next text said "car no problem, you car?"  I was guessing he was asking if I needed the car.  I told him to pick me up at the gym at 11:00.  I was dying to see the van. 

Stine, Ileana, and I walked out to the van.  I walked around it and didn't see anything.  We all got in and I asked what happened.  Mr. Xue said "bicycle" then made a motion of it hitting the van.  I said "bicycle hit the van".  He laughed and said yes.  Then he said "Yi Bai" which meant 100 rmb (about $15) and made the motion of handing it over.  I said "You gave Yi Bai?"  He laughed and said yes.  He paid the guy 100 rmb and that was it.  We all laughed and he was still laughing. 

China has so many different ways of dealing with things.  When in an accident if you just hand the person money it goes away.  No questions asked.  So for 100 rmb Mr. Bicycle man took the money and rode away.  So weird.  You have to love China.

Another funny story today.  Trine got 2 calls from the school while we were doing aerobics.  She was a little paniced so she called right away.  When she talked to the secretary she had no idea which child (she has 3) they were calling about or who called.  She was going to check and call Trine back.  When they finally called back it was because her second child, who is in first grade, lost his tooth and they were wondering if Trine would want to pick him up and take him to the dentist.  All she could do was laugh.  Go to a dentist because a baby tooth fell out?  Who does that?  Again, Oh China!

Danish Tradition

This is the e-mail I received:

 

Next week, on Tuesday 29^th of January Peter and Christa have been married for 12½ years. And yes, we know it’s crazy! But that is actually something we celebrate in Denmark. We call it at copper wedding anniversary.  In Denmark it’s traditionally celebrated by friends, neighbors and family arranging a surprise breakfast party. And since you are our friends, neighbors and family here, please come help us make this a special morning for Peter and Christa.

 

According to tradition, the celebration will be like this:

 

Monday the Danish families will meet to prepare half an arch (the full arch you make for couples celebration silver anniversary =25 years J). We will go to Peter and Christa’s apartment at put the half arch in front of their door late Monday night.

Tuesday morning 6:15-6:30:We all meet in the hall way in front of the elevator, level 1 in Banjinwan, building 9. At 6:30 we take the elevator to the 9^th floor and try to squeeze together in front of Peter and Christa’s door. Then we will wake them up by making as much noise as possible. For this purpose each family should bring a pair of pot lids!  After Peter and Christa opens the door (we hope they will J) it is custom to sing a few songs. We will try to find appreciate English songs – or maybe we will just sing the Danish ones – let’s see…Hopefully Peter and Christa will then ask all of us to come in.  After that we will all have a quick and simple Danish breakfast: Danish bread, cheese, butter, jam, juice, coffee and of course a few traditional Danish breakfast shots J. If there are other things you really need to have for breakfast, please bring your own…

 

So, at 6:15 a.m. today Ileana and I were jumping in her van with all the kids.  Our husbands decided not to go.  We got to Banjingwan, went up to the 9th floor.  All the Danish started singing while the kids beat lids together and made all kinds of noise.  It took a good 3 minutes until Peter finally opened the door.  We completely woke them up.  It was cool.  We completely invaded their apartment.  Everyone enjoyed a Danish breakfast and some really, really nasty shot.  Thank goodness it was really small because it was horrible.  It is Danish tradition.  They should drop that part.  All the Danish sang another song.  I asked Anna (one of their girls) what they were saying.  She said "I don't even know what they are saying.  They are singing old Danish".  It sounded amazing whatever it was.

 

Everyone was gathered in the hall.  Luckily the other apartment
on that floor was empty.

They finally opened the door.

Peter and Crista looking surprised.

It was very early for a lot of these kids.

Going in for breakfast.

The Danish were singing to Peter and Crista.

Peter was thanking us all for coming.

We found the kids watching Chinese Tom and Jerry cartoons.

Peter and Crista were completely shocked and overwhelmed.  They didn't think the tradition would carry on in China.  Crista said she heard noise and she kept trying to turn the snooze off on the alarm.  She then realized it wasn't the alarm making the noise.  That is when Peter started to investigate and then opened the door with a shocked look on his face.  So cool.

 

By 7:15 we were back in the van heading home.  Off to school at 7:45.  What a crazy morning.  It is so cool that we were able to partake in this Danish tradition.  Love that we now have friends from all over the world and love that they share their traditions with us.

 

 

Building Car and Art Fiasco

I volunteered to work in Cameron's classroom this morning. They were making cars to race on Wednesday. They had to measure, cut, and glue. I had Cameron, Larry, and Jang Liang in my group. Jang Liang had the aide doing most of his work. All he said was "I can't do it". Very annoying for me. I would have made him do it but lucky for him the aide just did it. Cameron's car turned out great. It seems to roll pretty well too. As the kids were working Jang Liang called Larry and Cameron "Bitches" when they used the cutters before him. I told him I did not want to hear that again. About 5 minutes later, Nazomi (in the group next door) spelled out the "F" word loudly. Another mom (June) and I both told her not to do that. Amazing to me how these Asian's talk. They know they are bad words too. Grabbed some new sweatshirts for Cameron and I then headed home.

Making the first cut.

Cameron, Larry, and Jang Liang.  Some were working
harder than others.

Time to glue the frame of the car.

Frame and wheels are complete.

Looking good. 

I went to the gym at 2 so I could run before getting Cameron. I felt like a spectacle today. A lot of Chinese staring at me. The guy to my left looked at me almost the whole time I was running. I could sense the trainer and girl to my right staring. I looked over and the trainer was pointing at me. Then I saw him point to his arm. I finally realized he was trying to get the girl on the treadmill to look at my arm band that holds my Ipod. I held up my arm and they both made the "ahhh" look. He must have been telling her it would be a good idea for her to get one. I'm not sure though. They could have just been talking about me for all I know.

I picked Cameron up at school and he came out 10 minutes later than usual. I asked what the deal was. He said they were all (10 of them) in the principals office. WHAT? He went on to explain that in art class they were lining up but someone decided to click the computer mouse on a very inappropriate art picture. In doing so it put the picture up on the white board. The teacher yelled at them and said "I know who did it but I want that person to confess". Now she either knew or she was bluffing. But all the kids had to go to the principals office. After I had Cameron explaining it to me 3 times and him swearing it was not him (he wouldn't do that I don't think) I sent an email to the principal. I asked for her to explain the incident to me, explain why they are all in trouble if the teacher knows who did it, and to explain why that naughty of a painting is even in sight of the kids let alone in the school at all. I got an immediate response saying we would be getting an email. Still waiting for that.

Cameron explained the picture like this...Mom, there was a couch. On that couch there was a naked lady laying on and then there was a naked man on her. YIKES! He then said "But Mom, be thankful it was just a painting and not real people". Yeah, that makes me feel better...yeah, right. Completely inappropriate painting to be in a school.

Finally received another email from the principal.  It basically said a student, without permission, magnified a nude picture and that the students were unable to shed light on who did it.  Then it asked us to talk to our kids about the need to be respectful within the classroom.  And it asked if we had any information to share it with her.  What a lame email that was. 

Laser Tag

Breakfast at 8, watched the movie Are We There Yet?, then met Carrasco's at 10 to head out. We hit the Fatburger grocery store again, Schindlers for meat, and Jenny Lou's. We then drove to Star Troopers Laser Tag. We had a reservation at 12 to play a couple of games.

Again I did much better shooting the second time than the first. I'm convinced it it the difference in the guns. We had our drivers do this with us too. Leo, Carrasco's driver, was belly laughing a couple different times while playing. Alejandro didn't like it the first game but decided to try again the second game. Him and Ileana basically stood in one spot and then he was fine. It was dark in there. We played our two games and then parted ways. Carrasco's were getting lunch and the Wallace's just headed back to TEDA.

You do not want to mess with this bunch.

A great weekend with great friends. 

Longqing Ice Festival

We went to Beijing Friday night and ordered Uncle Otis' chicken to be delivered. Once it arrived we took it to the room to eat and watch a movie. We watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Still a dumb movie.

Saturday morning we got up and went to breakfast. We left at 9. We stopped by the grocery store by Fatburger to pick a few things up and then we met Carrasco's at Chaoyang Park. We all jumped into the rickety van and they took us back to the snow activities. All the kids jumped on the little toy horses and tried making them move. We paid for tubes and started up the hill. Alejandro sat in the tube while I pulled him to the top. I had to walk up the snow steps pulling him. It was hard. The whole time he was yelling "I'm scared. I'm going to fall out". We made it to the top but I told him he had to walk up the steps for the rest of the day. I sat down and he jumped on my lap. Off we went. He was laughing. At the bottom we hit the "stopping hill" and he immediately yelled "lets go again". Back up. The boys each had their own tube. We were about to get another tube so Ale and I didn't have to share with Marcela but she decided she didn't like it. She said it was scary.

Watching tv and waiting for Alfredo.

The Wallace's and Carrasco's are ready for a fun day.

The boys look happy.

Getting in the rickety van.

Riding the horse again.

Here they go.

This is the stopping hill.  It flings you to the side.

It was hard work pulling Alejandro up the steps.

Marcela, Me, and Ale going down the first time.

Everyone at the bottom.

The boys were running back to the top.

Me and Ale again.

We tied together with the boys.  It was fast.

Cutie.

All the adults took turns going with Ale...except for Todd. Marcela decided she would go with Ileana but when they got to the top, Ileana sat down and Marcela pushed her down the hill. We all started laughing and Ileana was screaming and laughing. When she got to the bottom she hit the stopping hill and when it flung her to the side she wiped out a guy standing there with his big camera. Now that was really funny.  The guy and camera were fine.

Todd said "Get your picture taken next to the ass".
Cameron, standing next to it, said "Hey, nice ass". 
Yep, he got in trouble.

When our half hour was up we went over to little motorized vehicles. It was 100 rmb for 4 laps. Little pricey but we still did it. Cameron took Alejandro with him and Marcela and Alfredo each did two laps. Well, actually, when the boys came in for their last lap we had Alejandro jump off and told Cameron and Alfredo to take a 5th lap. The worker guy stood there looking confused. The boys stopped the next time. Todd said "What are they going to do kick us out?"

These little vehicles were pretty cool.

A snake made out of snow.

We jumped back in the rickety van and went back to the front of the park. As we were walking out Cameron realized he dropped one of his gloves somewhere. We had no idea where. So instead of looking for it Todd said he would just run to Yashow Market and buy a new pair. We all jumped in our vans and went to Annie's for lunch. We ordered while Todd ran to the market. Todd made it back to eat and had a new pair of gloves.

Like how they spelled activities?

At Annie's kids get to make their own mini pizza for free.

Cameron made a smiley face.

After lunch we went to the hotel. Carrasco's needed to check in and we still had plenty of time before we needed to head to Longqing to the ice festival. Up to our rooms to rest for an hour.

In the lobby of our hotel.

Todd's friend William works at the hotel.  He use
to work in the lounge in TEDA when Todd was staying there.

2:30 we were back in the vans making our way to Longqing. The last time we went there it took almost 3 hours. This time it took 1.5 hours. Much less traffic since people weren't visiting any of the Great Wall sections up that way. We jumped out of the vans and started putting on all our winter gear. It wasn't bad because the sun was out but we knew once it got dark it was going to be cold. We asked our drivers to go with us and they were pretty excited. They were taking pictures and videos of us all getting ready. They only had coats. We probably should have told them before leaving TEDA they could go with us. Maybe they would have hats and gloves.

All of a sudden Todd was throwing something at us.  He threw it towards Ileana and said "Dance". It made a huge pop sound. It startled us at first but then realized he bought what I thought was those pop things you throw on the ground. Ileana at first didn't want her kids to throw them and I said "they are just little pop things." Todd said "Actually these are not like those. These are like little sticks of dynamite". They were still harmless...pretty much. They make a huge pop sound but sometimes when you throw it down parts of it shoot back up. The kids had a blast with them. There were plenty of adults to make sure they were safe too.

Nice picture of the kids with the mountains.

Todd passing out the pop things.

We are ready to head to Longqing.

Mr. Xue and Leo joined in with the Wallace's and Carrasco's.

We had to walk a little ways to get to the ticket booth and the bathroom. This is where the big bummer was. We had just put all our snow gear on and now we had to use the bathroom. What a huge pain trying to hold all the snow pants and clothes up while trying to use a squatty potty. We all survived but it was a mini workout that's for sure.

All 10 of us jumped on the golf cart sort of vehicle. It took us up to Longqing. It was a little chilly with the wind but we survived. We bought the entrance tickets and we were finally in the Gorge. It was still light out at this point. There were some ice sculptures as we made our way to the big stuff. Once back by the dam we started seeing bigger ice sculptures and snow sculptures. Then we went inside a huge tent type thing. This is where they had all the lighted ice sculptures that were sort of like Harbin. It was pretty cool. We took lots of pictures while checking it all out.

We were all excited to see a deer made out of snow.  However, it was plastic.

The kids climbing a big, fat snowman.

Cool picture.

We had some Chinese join in our picture.

Another neat picture.

Cameron picks his own nose and others.

Enjoying the ice sculptures.

My family.

I bet there booty's were cold.

Cameron had no idea what sculpture this was.  When he was
done I said "Hey, your head was on her booby".  He stepped
back, looked, and started freaking out.

Ice building.

The snow in the back was neat.

Another picture with our drivers.

The Wallace's with Mr. Xue.

Cameron was posing like this guy.

The Wallace's and Carrasco's minus Todd.

This one of all of us turned out cool.

Once we had seen everything inside we went back out and went to the other side. There they had some ice bumper cars, a little ice slide, and a hill for sliding down. This is where the kids really started to enjoy themselves. When Marcela saw it she said "finally something fun to do". They slid around for at least a half hour until we finally said it was time to go. By this point it was dark and everything was lit up. It was pretty. They had little campfires lit all around to warm up by. We didn't do that but a lot of Chinese people were doing that.

The dam is behind.  In the face is where we walked to go inside
to see the ice/snow festival.

Ice slide.

Everything outside was lit up.

It is almost the Year of The Snake.

Where we were.

We jumped back on the golf cart thing and went back down to the vans. We hit the bathroom again for another mini workout. When we came out Todd had a bag. We asked what it was and found out he bought a whole bag full of the pop things to take back to TEDA with us. He enjoyed throwing them more than the kids I think.

Back to the van, took all our gear off, and headed for the hotel. We had pizza and salads in the van to eat on the way back for dinner. Alfredo was happy he rode with us because his family left their food at the hotel. He shared Cameron's pizza, fruit, and string cheese.

Back at the hotel everyone went to their own rooms because it was 8:30 and they still needed to eat. We watched some tv then went to bed. It was a fun day.