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).