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

in ,

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.

14,615,000 Dong

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Jess has been working exceptionally hard lately to plan and book our Spring Break trip. Until she had a falling-out with the airline last night, we were planning to go to Vietnam and Cambodia (now it looks we're going to visit Abu Dhabi).

During her planning she priced out a hotel stay and it totaled a whopping 14,615,000 Vietnamese Dong (the currency of Vietnam)! We had to do a double-take. After a quick conversion, we discovered it's approximately $700 USD.

I wonder how good a 10,000 Dong can of Coke tastes? :)

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.

Dear Lord ...

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Tonight it was Henry's turn to say prayers at supper. He said:

Dear Lord, Thank you for this day, thank you for our family and friends, and thanks for letting us be in China. And please keep us safe on our next flight and let us not have jet-lag. Amen.

It's interesting how our international living has seeped into all aspects of our children's lives.

Merry Christmas!!!

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Sending our love to all of you!  We are having a wonderful vacation in beautiful Australia, but Christmas is not quite the same.  Mitchell and I are snow/cold weather kind of people, so this is a bit of a change.  We didn't realize how much we would miss it! :)  We enjoyed a lazy day here with a trip to the beach and naps in the afternoon.  Having ice cream in your swimming suit on Christmas Day was a pretty crazy experience for the kids!  We hope you and your family have a wonderful day full of your own adventures as well!! Lots of love, Mitchell, Jess, Henry, Adeline and Truman

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Taronga Zoo, The Rocks, The Ferry

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We had an amazing day at the zoo followed by an evening at The Rocks.  We were a bit nervous heading over on the ferry because the sky was getting darker and darker and it was starting to rain.  We had our adventure hats on and were ready to visit the animals in the rain, but the sun came out and it was a gorgeous day.  I will let the pictures tell the story... [gallery link="file" orderby="title"]

A night in Bangkok and our adventures at Mowbray Park Farm

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I thought it was only fair that I fill you in on the beginning of our adventures since Mitchell started in the middle. We flew out from Beijing on Thursday evening after school and had a 22 hour layover in Bangkok.  We stayed at a super cute boutique hotel, Ariyosoma Villa, right in the heart of the city, but felt like we were a million miles away from everything.  It was a fantastic retreat and a great way to start the trip.  We spent the day eating great food, swimming and Mitchell and I each enjoyed a massage.

From here we flew the red-eye 9 hrs to Sydney (via Thai Airways...fantastic airline by the way) and headed to Picton, NSW Australia.  Getting to the farm was supposed to be a fairly easy trip, two trains from the airport to Picton and we'd be there in 1 hr 20 min.  Well...the train was not running because they were servicing the track, so instead of our easy itinerary we ended up on 2 trains, 2 buses and a car and arrived at Mowbray Park Farm 4 hours after landed in Sydney. :) The kids were wonderful and it was a great way to see local sights along the way.  However, Mitchell and I were quite thankful to enjoy a cold beer once the journey was complete!!

Our stay at Mowbray Park Farm was incredible!  It was like nothing else we had done as a family before and it was a great treat for all of us.  We met some incredible people, enjoyed delicious food, relaxed and enjoyed all the fun the farm had to offer.  Here are some of our favorites...

Henry -riding horses, jumping in the pool with our clothes on, feeding the donkeys and driving Darcy's remote control boat in the lake.

Adeline -meeting new friends, feeding the animals, playing tennis barefoot in the rain and learning how to make a glass of milk tea.

Truman -ping pong, playing on the playground with Lily and Claudia and riding the tractor.

Jess - getting to know great people, feeding the cattle, taking super cute pictures of the kids enjoying their time here.

Mitchell - Damper and tea, reading a good book, enjoying a slow/non-rushed dinner with adults while the kids were in Kids Club.

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Sydney (Manly) - Day 1

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We like the idea of being bloggers; of chronicling our (admittedly rather benign) adventures for our friends and family, and leaving ourselves a record of our thoughts and feeling about our first experiences in new places and new situations. Unfortunately, blogging is a lot of work. It requires a diligence to regularly type up your day’s adventures while they are fresh in your mind, even if you’re too tired or if nothing of interest happened that day. In short, it’s basically a full-time job. And we already have full-time jobs. Which means you only get to read brief snippets of what has happened, when Jess or I has some spare time and spare inspiration. Now is one of those times. I’ll type until either one runs out and post whatever I have. Unfotunately, Jess and I have many unfinished blog posts that will never see the light of day. So I’ll write and publish whatever I wind up with. Enjoy. :)

It’s 8am on our first morning in Manly (across the harbor from Sydney proper). We lingered at Mowbray Park Farms longer than we intended to yesterday but we were in no real hurry to leave and the kids had met some Australian friends and didn’t want to leave.

However, around 5pm the time came for us to catch a ride into Picton (population 3,500) to take a series of trains and boats to our rented apartment in Manly. Our trip from Sydney Airport to Picton was much more of an adventure and took us around four hours (but I’ll save that for a different blog post). We left a bag with our friend Todd (father of the kid’s aforementioned friends) which made man-handling that much luggage on a bit easier.

We took the train from Picton to Macarthur, and then from Macarthur to Circular Quay in downtown Sydney. From there we transferred to a water Ferry to take us across the beautiful Sydney Harbor, or “Harbour” as they spell it here. :)

Our rented apartment is a nice two-bedroom unit on the second floor above a bakery, in the picturesque town of Manly. Manly is on a small peninsula that juts out into the harbor so we’re never far from the beach. We arrived around 8pm last night. The kids (and the adults) had just enough energy to find a nice burger shop down the street for supper, and then hit the local grocery store for some provisions. We were in desperate need of diapers and laundry detergent. It’s amazing how many clothes we went through on the farm!

Jess didn’t get much sleep last night. She was up late getting started on our laundry (most of our clothes were either muddy or smelled like campfire) so she went back to bed after she got Truman down for a nap. Adeline (the best sleeper in our family) is still asleep, and Henry has been up for hours watching cartoons on Australian television.

I just bought a few things from the nice bakery ladies downstairs. They were closing up shop last night just as we arrived at our apartment so we chatted this morning. For the first time in my life, I have currencies from four different countries in my wallet so I paid cash for our bread, croissant and donuts.

The weather is nice, but not as hot as we were hoping. We’ll definitely hit the beach today. We walked to the Manly beach last night on our way to dinner but we couldn’t really appreciate it in the dark.

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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Yay Nate and Laura are here!! :)

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[gallery link="file" order="DESC" orderby="ID"] Helloo! Nate and Laura here, on our fourth day in Beijing. We’re having a ton of fun seeing the city, eating some great food, and spending quality time with Mitch, Jess, and the kiddos. We now see why Mitch and Jess love it here so much; there is so much to do, Mr. Ren and Xiao Guo are awesome, the school is great, and there are many other people in the same situation as them that have become great friends. So far, we’ve seen the Great Wall on what was the nicest day weather-wise in what sounds like a long time, in which we (meaning Mitch and Jess) navigated up the mountain on our own and took an abbreviated tour as the sun set quickly. We also went the Pearl Market where we wheeled and dealed with vendors to score on some shoes, purses, etc. Laura almost got beat up by a vendor for walking away from what this lady thought was a done deal on a purse-funny now, but not at the time.  Nate has also gotten a suit and seven shirts custom-made by John the tailor; the guy makes the perfect shirt! Lastly, today we got to eat lunch with Henry and Addi at their school and read to Addi’s class. It was so cool to be able to experience that with them!  That’s all for now, we assume that most people reading this will hear the finer details of the trip from us or the Coopers.

Signing off-

Nate & Laura

(A lot more pictures to follow...the internet was too slow to get them uploaded tonight)

Happy Halloween!!

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First and foremost dear friends I apologize, it has been months since I last posted something.  I have 100 excuses and basically they all suck. :)  So I am going to start with the most recent and do my best to get caught up in the new few weeks.  I will just list them as I write them and won't back date them.  Be on the lookout for Adeline's birthday (and birthday last year, pathetic I am...I know) :), our trip to Japan, summer awesomeness, school updates, Henry's field trip to the Great Wall and lots more fun I'm sure.

Halloween this year was super fun, but with the ever present hilarious China twist. :)  We joined the Esmonds for a champagne brunch at the Westin hotel in Beijing.  The food was great, the decorations unique (yes they are real organs/spine etc in the pictures!!) and the company was awesome.  We were there for 3.5 hours enjoying delicious food and drinks.  The kids had a great area to play, get tattoos, make crafts and hang out.  They were all told by the parents that after having one plate of healthy food they could eat whatever they wanted.  They were blown away that we let them eat candy, cakes, cookies, milk shakes, popcorn etc all in one sitting.  My kids are already begging to go back.  It was definitely great, but it came with a price tag...most expensive meal we have ever had actually.  :)

One of the highlights at the brunch was that Adeline won the costume contest, as Pippi Longstocking!!  She was thrilled to say the least and was rewarded with a cooking class. Henry went as the cone zombie from Plants vs. Zombies and Truman as Yoda.

Another was Mitchell eating a larva...sooo gross!  Kudos to him for trying though. :)

While at lunch, Nikki and I started receiving texts from friends that we had been wrong about the date of trick or treat night.  We had been told on numerous occasions that it would happen on Monday night because that was Halloween.  Well, it was actually Sunday night.  Go figure. :)  Thankfully the kids were already dressed up from the brunch so we headed from the Westin straight to Cathy's house to enjoy appetizers, more drinks and great friends.  The dads took the kids out trick or treating and the moms stayed back at Cathy's (each with the own bowl of candy) and we enjoyed more great conversation and a bottle of wine.  We had to laugh when the kids got back and we checked out the candy.  They were each given shrimp flavored candy, halls cough drops and saltine crackers (not individually wrapped).  Hilarious, only in China!! :)

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.