Chinese Take-out

Tuesday afternoon I was at work preparing for my evening class [I teach a "How to Give Effective Presentations" class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.] when a delivery guy came in with some food and handed it to one of my co-workers. After the guy left James, my co-worker, asked me what I was doing for supper. To which I responded "Nothing, I ate a big lunch. So where did you get your meal from?" He told me the name of this Chinese take-out restaurant, which is humorous in and of itself [not the name of the restaurant, but the fact that we're in China and eating Chinese Take-out. I guess technically anything we get to go in China, even McDonalds, is Chinese Take-out!] But then things go from humorous to downright funny. I asked him very simple question, one which would usually have a very easy, non-humorous response. But then again, were in China....the land of funny stuff!!! So I asked him what he had ordered. His response: "I don't know" [What are you kidding me? How can you NOT know what you ordered?]. "I just asked them if they had anything for 15 kuai, and they said yes. So I told them to bring it to me." Chinese are so stinking funny. I can not even imagine ordering something without knowing what I am getting [knowing my luck they'd bring me onion soup or something like that]! What really amazes me, is that most Chinese people HATE Western food. Yet, they are willing to eat ANYTHING Chinese, as long as it is at a resonable price. You just have to laugh.

Christmas and Chicken Wings

Christmas in in full swing at the Johnson house. The tree is up, presents have been wrapped and placed under the tree, Christmas decorations have been put up around the house and yesterday afternoon we even received some Christmas goodies from our good friend Trace. You should have seen the condition the box was in; I'm actually surprised that nothing fell out of it [well I assume nothing fell out of it].

In a couple of weeks we'll be having some Christmas parties for Jenni's English Clubs. We're planning on watching "The Nativity" while eating some "traditional Christmas snacks" [Chinese joke - if you've been to China before you get it, if not, sorry....]. I'm working on a Johnson Family Christmas video that I will put up on the site some time after Christmas...all I have so far is us putting up the tree and some bonus "Festivus" footage.

So I'll leave you with a story a friend of my told me Monday night during tutoring. Apparently he has this friend who grew up in a Chinese village. One day this boy had an important test that he was studying for. The mother really wanted him to do good, especially since it was such an important test. So she decided to cook him something special, something that he hadn't eaten in a long time. But being poor, she didn't know what exactly that something would be. And then it dawned on her, the family owned a chicken, she could cook him some chicken. But that would be a big sacrifice. That chicken provided the family with eggs, so if she killed it that would mean that there would be no more eggs. So.....she took the chicken, cut off a wing, sewed up the wound and then cooked a chicken wing for her son. The boy got to eat chicken and the family was still able to eat eggs every day.

.....That's China!......

nic

Oh, I almost forgot to apologize to Nicci....I wasn't even aware that she knew my blog existed. So now I know there are at least two people who can read Chinese that frequent my blog.....So what's up Nic?

Chinese Dora

We bought this video last night for Nate....At first I thought it was a bit expensive [25 kuai], but when I started watching it I realized that it was worth every Fen!

I mean come on, Dora speaking Chinese and teaching English; how much better can it get???? My favorite part, besides the crazy Chinese lady at the beginning and end, is when the map makes his appearance. The words just flow so wonderfully, don't you think! Oh, by the way, did you catch how boots pronounced "map"?

I think the funniest part to me was just watching Nate sing along; he was very excited about his new Da Da Da Da Da Dora DVD. It has been a while since he's seen some Dora and he has SO missed it!

Chinese insults

Ok, so a friend of mine gave me this list of Chinese insults yesterday and I just couldn't wait to post them on the blog. We'll I'm not posting ALL of them, if you know what I mean! By the way, if you use these phrases and get physically injured [though it is highly doubtful that a Chinese person could actually inflict bodily injury upon you] then I am by no means to be held responsible. But I assume I'm pretty safe seeing how only one of my blog followers can read Chinese.

you make me sick: 你真让我恶心。
You're a jerk: 你是个废物。
Dont' bother me: 别烦我。
Get out of my face: 从我面前消失。
Leave me alone: 走开。
It's none of your business: 关你屁事。
That's what you think: 那才是你脑子里想的。
Drop dead: 去死了。
Look at this mess: 看看这烂摊子。
What a stupid idiot: 真是百病一个。
I never want to see your face again: 我再也不要见到你。
You're a disgrace: 你真丢人。
Mind your own business: 管好你自己的事。
I'm telling you for the last time: 我最后再告诉你一次！
That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard: 那是我听到的最愚蠢的事。
What do you think you're doing: 你知道你在做什么吗？
You asked for it: 你自找的。

The Chinese language never ceases to make me laugh....some of these phrases are pretty funny when translated literally.

On another note, things have been going pretty good for us. A lot of students had to miss last week's lesson, but we still ended up with around ten people at our house [all freshman]. We are finally ALL moved in and, as far as I know, have no other dealings with our old home. Yesterday we received a care package from Gran, in it being one pair of Batman pajamas that Noah has yet to take off. There were also lots of other things that the boys enjoyed playing with, one thing in particular that they enjoyed playing with that I did NOT enjoy them playing with would be a very loud glow in the dark recorder. Yeah, that got "lost" real quick!!!!

I'll leave you with one last Johnson adventure for today. Today at noon I received a phone call from our Ayi informing us that she had gone to take out the trash and when she returned Noah and Nate had locked her out of the apartment. Fortunately, it was the outer door they shut and not the inner door [which has no way to be opened from the outside] so I rushed home and unlocked the door.

Well, that's all for now.

TJ ><>

Well, we are FINALLY in our new home! Most of the stuff from our old home has been moved over, only a small pile of assorted things remain. But by the end of the week that too will be gone. Yesterday we got our internet hooked up, that's why we haven't been online in a while. When we finish decorating and stuff we'll take some video and show you guys. We are really happy about the move. It could not have come at a better time in our lives. Amidst all the sorrows it was nice to have something good to think about.

When I first went to look at this apartment Jenni was not able to come with me. So we actually signed the contract BEFORE Jenni even stepped foot inside the place [talk about having faith in a husband]. On the phone I described the apartment to Jenni as "it sort of looks like a Baptist parsonage". When you get the video, you'll see what I'm talking about. It is so NOT Chinese, so it really feels like home to us.

Tonight some of my students are coming over. Last week we cooked some pizzas for the students. This week we're going to try our hand at Mexican Salad. Oh, by the way, last Sunday's lesson [The BIG Ten] went REALLY good. Lots of students commented on how much it impacted them, one girl in particular had a lot of encouraging things to say.

Halloween 2008

Yesterday some of Jenni's students came over and enjoyed a meal with us [sandwiches and chips]. One of the boys was very disappointed that there was no rice with the meal!!! Tonight we are having some of my students over for dinner. I think I am going to cook them some fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. Chinese really don't like western food, but most of them can tolerate chicken [after all they do have KFC here]. After that I imagine we'll chat with the students a bit and then they'll go home. This will be the first time these students have come over to our house, so we are very excited about getting to know them better.

Oh, by the way, I found out that I made an 80 on my kou yu test. The teacher told me it would have been better but I didn't prepare for it, which was totally true! There were a lot of phrases that we had learned this semester that I was supposed to include in my dialogue with the teacher that I just didn't use. It's not that I don't know how to use those phrases, but I wasn't in class the day our teacher gave us the test requirements. But I was very pleased with an 80. Tomorrow is my Zong He class, there's no way I'll be making an 80 on it!

I know I will pass this semester, but I think I have decided to retake these classes anyway. I'm not interested in a diploma; I want to learn the language. And when you're out for two weeks, there's a lot you miss. So on a bright side, next semester should be a breeze. Oh, I almost forgot, I wanted to include a joke I read on my coffee mug today: 你知道怎样把一头大象放进冰箱吗？

Sorry, there was no punch line on the mug.....But I think I've heard this one in English before, and if it's the same one I’m thinking of then the answer is:
第一，打开冰箱
第二，把大象装进冰箱
第三，把冰箱门关上

I know I'm way overdue for a post....I guess I have just been avoiding getting on and talking. Life has been very rough the past few weeks.

But we did have a meeting this past week and it was very productive, lots of new faces. I took a midterm today [pretty sure I did bad on it]; with all that has been going on I just couldn't make myself study. So I'm pretty sure that there will be no scholarship this semester. I have three other midterms later this week, though sad to say that I don't even know when they are. We've been apartment shopping lately and we found the perfect one. We put down a deposit and everything, really thought that this was OUR apartment, only to have the real estate guy call us the next day and tell us that it had already been sold by the owner through another agency!!! So that stinks.....we've found some other apartments that we like, but we just can't get that first one out of our mind. Jenni has been really sick lately and so has Nate.

We have been attacked on every side and are just ready for the battle to let up a little.

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

Because sometimes we just need some cake, even if it's not anyone's birthday!

Wow....what a crazy week! There's been joy and sorrow, highs and lows, exuberance and discouragement. Lots of refining has happened this week.

We're all ready for the weekend to arrive, particularly Sunday afternoon. I've been doing lots of writing this week [poems in particular]. Sorry, but I am not going to post them on the blog. They are more therapeutic in nature....never really meant to be read.

But God is good! Even in the midst of culture stress we see the light of the one who has all power, wisdom and ability. I've been listening to Andrew Peterson's new cd online, it's really good. you ought to check it out.

We are leading worship this Sunday, we're really looking forward to that. We'll that's all right now. I'll keep you updated.

I just found an excellent website for Chinese learners. It is a dictionary which also gives you examples of the word being used in sentences. I highly recommend this website to anyone who is learning Chinese. So I guess this post is just for Trace, unless another language learner happens upon my little blog.

We've had a pretty busy week so I haven't really had time to get on and blog any, sorry about that. Tonight we are starting back with our Sunday study group. We're all looking forward to getting back into our regular meetings. Tonight I think I am going to try cooking a little Gong Bao Ji Ding for them. Which is pretty intimidating to say the least, seeing how they are Chinese and I am cooking a dish that they are very familiar with! Whenever I cook something American I don't really worry about the taste all that much. They've never had it before so they don't know what it is supposed to taste like. But tonight will be a true tell of my abilities as a cook. I just hope I don't Americanize it too much.

Today at Church I picked up the worship DVD that was recorded at BICF. All in all I think it turned out pretty good. I'll share a couple of my favorite moments from the video with you guys, hopefully if Mark ever accidentally navigates onto this page he won't be too mad. And no, the first video isn't one of my favorites because you can vaguely see Jenni, Noah and I in the background!

”东西“给我坚持

We all started back to school today and I don't know which of us hated going back most, me or Noah. It's not that I hate Chinese, I love it. It's not that I hate my teachers, I love them. But Chinese is SO STINKING HARD!!! I suppose the challenge is good for me. After all if we are content to do that which does not stretch or challenge us intellectually then we are settling for a life of mediocrity. And I don't feel like a mediocre life is a God centered life. I am not saying that we must all be intellectuals, but I am saying that we must constantly strive to reach the full potential of our abilities that God has granted to us.

So I guess this means that even if our mediocrity is far superior to our colleague's best efforts, to US it is still mediocrity. Therefore, for us it is sin. Ephesians 6:7 - “Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.” Col. 3:17 - "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Somehow I don't think mediocrity can be done to the Glory of God. So I will persevere. I will continue in my studies, even though there are days when I just want to drop out and go to work full time. I know that acquiring the language is very important, I just wish that it wasn't so hard.

Oh how I look forward to the day that I can pick up a Chinese Bible and just start reading, without dictionaries, without thinking about the sentence structure, without wondering if that character is a person's name or an actual Chinese word. Right now, it seems as if that day willl never come, But I know it will.

I am reminded of the first Chinese book I purchased in Beijing. I can remember when we first arrived in Beijing I went to Wal-Mart, yes we have Wal-Mart in Beijing, and found a children's book with characters and pinyin. Being a book lover and having a desire to be able to read in Chinese, I immediately bought this book. Now remember I had been studying Chinese for less than a month, so I didn't expect to be able to read the whole thing, but I thought to myself: this is a CHILDREN'S book, how hard can it be. Then I started reading it and found out just how hard it was. I came upon so many unfamiliar words, I came upon grammatical structures that I didn't have a clue about, heck I even came upon familiar words that, in the context, just didn't make sense to me. For example, in this book it talked about a wolf who hadn't eaten east or west for several days. Or, at least that was how I translated it in my head. The sentence actually read: 在大森林里， 有一只狼几天没吃东西了。东西 [dong xi] was where I was having problems at. I knew I knew those words. I knew for sure that [dong] was east and [xi] was west. BUT, what I didn't know was that when those two words were combined they formed a completely different word which didn't mean east or west or anything like that at all. The actual definition of 东西 [dong xi] is thing. So the sentence actually meant that the wolf hadn't eaten anyTHING in several days! Now that makes a lot more sense. But at the time, I had no way of figuring that out. So a year ago I was in the same place I am today, frustrated over the language and my inability to read it. But I have progressed. Today I can sit down and read that story from start to finish without any problems.

So I know that the day will come when I will be able to sit down with my Chinese Bible and just understand it, but the question remains: how much longer........

By the way, if you're interested in learning Greek I came across a website the other day when I was trying to freshen up on what little Greek I know. You might want to give it a try. Koine Greek really is a beautiful language, and it's a fairly simple language to learn as far as vocabulary is concerned. Besides, there is no equivilent to studying in the actual language. So check it out here. You also might want to go to Bill Mounce's site.

Motorcycle Disease? What's that?

Nate refusing to take medicine:

If you remember on one of my last posts I mentioned that Nate had fever. Well on Saturday, he again broke out with a fever. But this time his fever was accompanied with a rash on his hands and cold sores in his mouth. So I carried him to the doctor just to make sure it wasn't anything serious. It was the first time that I had been to Beijing United Family Hospital. Overall I was very impressed with the service. There are many insurance companies with which they are able to do direct billing through, IMG being one of them. Aside from the ease of pay I also like the fact that they had a children's movie playing in the main waiting room and also in the doctor's office itself. This was especially helpful seeing how we had to wait an excessively long time. Really, I'm serious, it was a LONGGGG time. Let's just say that Nate and I were able to watch Toy Story 2 in its entirety, and then were able to watch about half of Buzz Lightyear Star Command. Although the wait was a little on the long side it sure beats going to a Chinese hospital. The Insider's Guide to Beijing once again proved to be an invaluable guide to just about everything you need to know in Beijing. If you're thinking about moving to Beijing I would definitely recommend you buy this book!

Anyway, enough with the commercials. After drawing blood the doctor concluded that it was either a viral infection or something called Kawasaki Disease. No, Kawasaki disease isn't an over-obsessed passion for motorcycles, it is a rare disease that if left untreated affects the heart. The doctor informed me that this disease can't really be diagnosed until after the fifth day of sickness, this was Nate's fourth day. So he instructed us to return home and give Nate Tylenol for his fever. If he still had a fever on Monday then we were told to return and they would do some more testing on his blood and proceed from there. Fortunately, he seemed to be doing much better on Sunday. And I think by Monday he was back to normal, I say this because by Monday he and Noah were back to fighting as usual! So I don't guess Nate had that motorcycle disease after all.

Jenni finally sold her keyboard that was in the states; so right now she's off looking for one to buy here in Beijing so that she can practice for BICF services, which by the way we are leading this coming Sunday. The boys are both sleeping right now, apparently exhausted from drawing on the ceiling earlier this morning! I was able to get away this morning to do some studying and hopefully the boys will stay asleep long enough for me to get a little more in this afternoon! It looks like our week is filling up. So I'll try to post when I have a little spare time. But I can't promise anything.



明天见，托马斯

Oh yeah, in case you missed it, here are all the video from the DGM conference

• Sinclair Ferguson - “The Tongue, the Bridle, and the Blessing”
• Driscoll, Ferguson, Piper - Friday Panel Discussion
• Bob Kauflin - “Words of Wonder: What Happens When We Sing?”
• Mark Driscoll - “How Sharp the Edge: Christ, Controversy, and Cutting Words”
• Daniel Taylor - “The Life-Shaping Power of Story: God’s and Ours”
  
• Kauflin, Piper, Taylor, Tripp - Saturday Panel Discussion
• Paul Tripp - “War of Words: Getting to the Heart for God’s Sake”
• John Piper - “Is There Christian Eloquence? Clear Words and the Wonder of the Cross”

THUMP....THUMP....THUMP...

I've recently been working on a Chinese children's book to help Noah with the language....nothing complicated just some common words and phrases taken from the 现代汉语单字频率列表 (Modern Chinese Character Frequency List). Anyway, in the process of writing the book I realized that I didn't know what THUMP, THUMP, THUMP sounded like to the average Chinese. By the way, for those of you who don't know, onomatopoeia is NOT the same world-wide! I discovered this little bit of information out in the Philippines. During one of my TESOL teaching lessons I was informed by some of my students that frogs in the Philippines didn't say Ribbit, Ribbit...it's more of a krakeek, krakeek sound. Not very helpful since I was teaching on the phonics of [l] vs [r]. Anyway, back to my story, in my quest for the Chinese equivalent of THUMP I came across this site. I found it somewhat entertaining and definitely interesting for a language learner. Who knew a dog went wàngwàng, or the creak of the floor was really a gāzhī.

On another note, today we began celebrating Golden Week. Well it doesn't actually start until October 1st, but seeing that today was the last day of school until October 6th, I'm celebrating early! The downside of the holiday is that Jenni has to teach Saturday (8-3) and Sunday (8-11). At least that gives her just enough time to get to the BICF 11:30 service. I'm playing bass this weekend, it's been a while since I've even picked up a bass, so I'm nervous and excited at the same time! Even though it's a holiday I'm planning on spending my week getting ahead in my classes. We're about to start our Sunday study groups back up, so that will take away from some of my Chinese study time. Hopefully this week will keep me afloat until the next break.

Uh oh, I just heard a 咕咚 (gūdōng) in the bedroom, who knows what Nate has broken now.....I better go check it out!!!

homework

Ok, so I've been debating on whether or not I should post this and have decided to just go ahead and do it. I hope to turn this blog into a Chinese and English blog at some point in the future, definately not near future though! So here is my first Chinese post. It's nothing great, nothing that I have written especially, or as the british say specially, for this blog; it's only my homework for my zonghe class that I have to turn in tomorrow. I am sure that it is riddled with grammatical errors; my English grammer is horrible so you KNOW that my Chinese grammer is definately bad! Anyway here it is, not that many of you even care about it, but I thought that it might bring back some good memories for Trace. If any Chinese people happen to fall upon this blog, feel free to correct me....but remember I'm STILL learning Chinese.

为什么我选这所大学

我去年八月的时候来了北京。我的妻子教了英文在北京中加商学院 (CIBT School of Business）. 这是一所加拿大的公司。如果学生把高 考考得不好， 他们能在这所大学学习英文。二年后，他们在国际大学学习。比如说：他们能去了加拿大，美国，澳洲， 法国， 什么的。我们的房子被我妻子的公司租地。离他的工作我们的房子很近。来北京得时候我们都不会说中文。这是很大的问题。所以我要学习汉语。一天我问我妻子的老板 “我在什么地方可以学习汉语？”他回答“北京工业大学是很好的大学，离你的房子不远。 我为你给他们打电话， 然后我告诉你，你能不能在这个大学学习汉语。”两个天以后，我妻子的老板说了 “今天你需要去了北京工业大学留学生的办公室。在这儿你能对汉语的课报名。” 我一听他的话就感到很高兴。我立刻去了汽车站。我把34路车上车。然后在北京工业大学站下车。在留学生办公室我问老师“在这所大学一个学期是多少钱呢？”回答的时候我不相信他们的话。因为一个学期是便宜的。在办公室我想一想。我认为对我自己：这所大学又便宜又很方便。所以，我快付钱， 然后 去了买三本书。一本书是听力的书，一本书是口语的书， 和一本书是综合的书。第一课的时候我知道我的认为是对的。每位老师又聪明又友好。

发烧了

School has been really hard this semester, but a couple of days ago it dawned on me that my study habits changed near the end of last year. Due to the fact that last semester's teacher never gave us any 停学 (ting xue) I stopped memorizing how to write the characters. Instead, I just learned how to read them. So when I began school this year I merely continued in my old study habits, not memorizing how to write characters. My justification was that if I needed to write something I could always do it on the computer. And if there was no computer around, no problem; I always have my cell phone with me, I'll just use that. It made sense to me at the time, and it still does; except for the fact that I am a visual learner and the best way, for me, to learn characters is to write them over and over and over again until I finally can write them perfectly.

One of the other things that I did at the very beginning of my studies was to break down each character in order to really understand why a character was written the way it was. For example: 妊 (ren)means to be pregnant. This character is composed of 女 (nu), meaning female and 壬 (ren). The right side of the character gives you the meaning (duh....only women get pregnant), and the left side give you the pronunciation. Or take 好 (hao) for example, meaning good. Again, 女 means female and 子 means child. The idea is that a woman with her child is a good thing. By the way if you'd like to know more about this then you can click on this link. I'm sure there are better sites out there but this was the first one I came upon that looks to be accurate. I, rather than from a website, learned this valuable information in a book I bought from Amazon.com before I left for China in 2007. I am sad to say that since that move Reading and Writing Chinese: Traditional Character Edition has been lost; I was sure I left it in Taylor, but I couldn't find it anywhere this summer! On a side note, the fact that I bought this particular book shows you how much I knew about the Chinese language before leaving the States, notice that it is the Traditional Character Edition and not the Simplified Character Edition, which is the one I should have bought. This method of studying was very time consuming, but tremendously helpful. So over the past couple of days I went back to this type of studying and it has really paid off.

But enough about me. When I got home today our 阿姨 (ayi) told me that Nate had a fever. So I gave him some Tylenol and now he seems to be doing better, which means I probably won't be able to blog for much longer! We've had a sudden change in weather which I am sure is the cause of Nate's fever (the boy's healthy is weak like his momma's - by the way if you think healthy was a typo then you probably haven't lived in China). Aside from Nate getting sick, I am really glad the weather has changed. I love winter, and although it is by no means winter yet, 54 degrees is a lot better than the high 80's we had a couple of days ago.

Noah is doing good in school, although he did get into a fight yesterday. Apparently we need to trim his fingernails, the boy Noah fought with looks like Freddy Kruger got ahold of him! Today when I dropped him off he when right to his seat and sat down, patiently waiting for class to start. Friday they have a field trip to a park, I'm not for sure which one, so we'll see how that goes.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, yesterday I started teaching. I teach two times a week (Tuesday and Friday). I teach the art class, which consists of only ten students. Jenni's classes are going well, today she had a meeting with a teacher from one of the other campuses to give him some pointers on teaching in China. Well Nate just pooped in the floor so I better sign off.....like I said earlier " I probably won't be able to blog for much longer!"

One last thing though: tonight we are eating Quesadillas. I stopped at Carrefour on the way home and bought some cheese (something that is not easily obtained in China), sour cream (even harder to find than cheese), and some Tostitos tortilla chips. BecauseI haven't seen our tortilla lady outside of BICF since we've been back, I stopped by a Chinese market and bought some 大饼 (da bing). I've not tried it before, but I think this will make a nice Quesadilla. I'll let you know how it turns out!

Is there more to life than this?

I saw this video at church yesterday and thought it was hilarious. Enjoy:

The weekend has arrived, but rest and relaxation has not come with it! Yesterday some of the students came over and we cooked them a Mexican themed meal. All in all I think it went over really good. They liked it better than Thursday night's group liked Spaghetti. After supper we played Uno and then Catch Phrase, which by the way is a really fun game to play with ESL speakers. When they left we had a HUGE mess to clean up. Not only did I make a mess cooking, and then we had all the plates and cups to clean, but because we played Uno with the students Noah and Nate entertained themselves. And they don't know how NOT to make a mess. So the living room was extrememly messy. But we were too exhausted and had to be up early the next morning so we straightened up the living room a little and then just shut the door to the kitchen and prentended it wasn't there.

Jenni and I are leading worship at BICF this weekend, so that means we had practice today which took place from 8:30 - 11:00. Right now Jenni has a couple of students over practicing for their IELTS test. I should be studying but I'm being lazy - which I am justifying by telling myself I am keeping you guys updated on our life in Beijing. Tomorrow we have to be at BICF for set-up by 8:30 a.m. I know that probably doesn't seem early to you, but we are used to going to the 11:30 a.m. service. We are leading in both services so we will be at church from 8:30 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. After the service I think we are going to lunch with a couple from Texas. We should have time to eat, and chat a little, but then we have to rush home because we have some other students coming over to the house mid-afternoon. Sometime between now and Monday I have to find time to write a 作文 (Chinese essay). But it only has to be only 500 characters, so it won't be that bad. My teacher gave us lots of homework this weekend, but I was able to get most of it done Friday, which means NO I didn't get to go for that run. I also have a 听写 (writing test) for my 综合 (zong he) class that I need to study for. Lately I have been getting up at 5:30 a.m, yeah I know I'm officially old now, so I plan on studying for my test then.

On the up side, while we were at practice the Chen's, from downstairs, watched the boys for us. After practice Jenni and I took a little time out of our day to go to 日坛公园 - Ritan Park. We carried our baseball gloves with us and played some catch. Every time a Chinese person walked by they all stopped and watched for a couple of minutes, it was probably the first time they ever saw a baseball. I don't if it is still America's favorite passtime, but it is definately not China's! Which makes me wonder who actually goes to watch the Beijing Tigers play. The coming week doesn't seem to be any slower than our weekend, but after that we have a week long break! We'll I'm off to go eat Korean with some students, so until next time.

坚持着，

托吗斯

Wet Shoes

Ok, so I was sitting in the library studying my 综合 when all of a sudden a little message flashed upon my translator screen: low battery, please charge. And then I remember, I had forgotten to charge it last night. I know what you're thinking, "big deal, certainly not blog worthy". Well you're right, but stick with me here.

Because my translator's battery was dead I couldn't finish studying, or as I learned how to say today: 学不下去。I guess I could have used one of them books with words and definitions in them, I think they're called dictionaries. But come on, you know me, I'm a tech guy. Besides, using a REAL dictionary would take all day. Or at least it would me anyway, I don't know how my Russian classmates do it. Anyways, there I was, it was only 12:45 which meant I still had two good hours of studing at my disposal. But unfortunately I didn't have the necessary tools to actually complete my studies. So I decided to go for a run.

I love to run. But life gets so busy in Beijing that my runs are few and far between. So I was really excited about this "unfortunate" turn of events. So much so that, while riding my bike home I could just feel my Brooks Glycerin's hitting the pavement, the sweat rolling off my brow, and the occasional breeze springing up out of the north, cooling down an otherwise exhausted body. I could hear the thudding of my heart after about fifteen good minutes of running. Why, I could even smell the fresh air as I sucked in deep gulps of.......oh wait a minute, I'm in Beijing, there is no clean air. Anyways, you get the picture. I was long overdue for a run!

When I arrived home I drank a glass of water and ate a slim jim (we brought them over as presents for Chinese students, but it turns out that Chinese folks don't like slim jims so they somehow got "left" at our house - Oh, well their loss.). I quickly changed into my running clothes, took out my bus card from my money clip and put that along with four Kuai into my shorts pockets; just in case I needed water or needed to take the bus home. I looked at my watch, I didn't have to be home until 3:00 p.m. (that's when our nanny eaves). So I went over to our shoe rack to grab my Brooks, and that's when I noticed they weren't there. My first thought was that our nanny had washed them. But that thought was quickly supressed from my mind due to the fact that she had just washed them last week. So I searched in the living room, and then the bedroom. Remember, we live in a little apartment, so things are pretty easily found. around here. When I couldn't find my shoes in either the living room or the bed room that initial thought once again arose in my mind. So I slowly walked to the bathroom and, sure enough, there they were.......sopping wet!

So I can't study, nor can I go for a run.....what is a man to do? Well, the only think you can do - blog! As of now, I have set my shoes outside our window so that they will dry faster; who knows what tomorrow holds, maybe I can get that run in........maybe. I'm sure by now my translator is semi-charged, so it's off to study for me. But it will only be for an hour or so, because we have some Chinese students coming over for supper tonight (spaghetti).

But I do what to leave you guys with one little treat, a picture of Noah at his very first day of school! Seeing how he hasn't made it home yet, I'll have to blog later on whether or not he actually liked it.

双龙实验幼二园 shuang long shi yan you er yuan

Well it looks like I will no longer be the only one in the family going to school learning Chinese. Today we went to a Chinese/English School and signed Noah up for classes. Over the past few months he has been begging us to go to school, what can I say my son is weird. Tomorrow he has to go to the hospital for a TB test, and if all goes as planned he will start classes Thursday morning.

The classes are predominately in Chinese, and seeing how Noah speaks almost NO Chinese at all I'm sure it will be a little problematic.....at first. We have been told that he will be able to pick up the language fairly quickly. If the truth be told, I'm sure his Chinese will be better than mine in a couple of months.

Today when we went to the school we carried Noah along with us; just so we could get his take on it. He seemed to love the fact that they had lots of toys to play with: slides, swings, jungle gyms, and more. But we kept reminding him that school isn't all play, you also have to sit down and do whatever it is your teacher tells you to do. We have no idea if he will really like it or not, maybe it's just the idea of playing with other kids all day that he loves and when expectation doesn't meet reality he may decide that playing with his brother all day isn't so bad after all. Who knows, if he does stick with it, rather than going to Ma Bin or Yang Yi Fan, I might just be going to him for help with my homework.

7:30 - 800 入园 - Arrival
8:00-8:30 早餐 - Breakfast
8:30-:900 活动 - Exercises
9:00-10:20 教学活动 - Class Time
10:20-11:20 户外 - Recess
11:20-11:30 餐前准备 - Prepare for Lunch
11:30-12:15 午餐 - Lunch
12:15-14:15 午休 - Nap Time
14:15-14:40 起床， 午点 - Wake up, Snacks
14:40-15:20 教学活动 - Class Time
15:20-16:20 户外活动 - Recess

The schedule we received actually has the children eating supper at the school from 5:00-5:30, but we will be picking him up probably around 3:00 since this is when Jenni gets off of work, and we want to see him for more than a couple of hours each day.

Beef and Biscuits in Beijing

OK, so maybe we didn't find a Beef and Biscuits in Beijing, but we did find a place that sure knows how to cook the beef: 拉丁餐厅。

This place is Brazilian barbecue at it's best! All the meat you could ever desire to eat in one sitting: top sirloin, bottom sirloin, lamb, chicken, and lots of things that Americans would never willingly put into their mouths.

Aside from the meat feast they offer a large food bar filled with potatoes, rice, soups, pasta, bread and more. And if that wasn't enough there is even a sushi bar. But don't eat too much because you want to save room for the desert: ice cream, cakes, pies, pastries, etc. So how much did this set our family back today? For a family of four were we able to eat for $23.38. Did I mention that this included the drinks and live Latin entertainment?

I don't know which is better, the price, the food or the fact that this restaurant is just a block away from the church we attend on Sundays. After a meal like that we are planning on spending the rest of the day inside. We've just bought a couple of movies, Batman: the Dark Knight; Transformers; and Wall-E . All three of these movies cost a total $2.63. Yeah, I know, there are some great benefits to living in Beijing. It sure is great to be home! All in all we've had a great weekend. But Monday is back to school - well actually it's a national holiday so I won't be at school, instead I'll be at my favorite studying place: 星吧克咖啡 (Starbucks). Don't worry, I'm not going to be spending a lot of money; I'll just get my regular - 中被咖啡。Talk to you soon！

再见，

托吗斯

First Post

Chlale (Chinese Language Learner) is a blog about living in Beijing, China. A blog which seeks to describe, not life in Beijing, but rather OUR life in Beijing. One in which our everyday living presents a new adventure, a different perspective on life, and a challenge to conform or be transformed. When Chinese culture collides with American culture, do we listen to the inner man speak words of ignorance: "This isn't how we do it in America", "Why are they so backwards", "Is that person really trying to break in front of ME", etc, etc, etc. Or, as the Dr. said in "Spiritual Depression", do we decide - through the spirit - to speak to ourselves. Sometimes we win the battle, sometimes we lose; but with Christ's help we are always going forward, striving to reach the goal. This is a description of our voyage, not our destination. We are Christian, who on his journey, has left the City of Destruction and has set his gaze toward the Celestial City. You are welcome to join us in our journey. Learn from our failures. Be encouraged by our successes. Laugh when we laugh. Rejoice when we rejoice. And when we are broken, sit a while and mourn with us (Rom12:15).