Chun Jie Kuai Le!

Try pronouncing it this way:  (Choon Jia Kwye Luh)

It means... Happy Chinese New Year!

This picture doesn't do this event justice... not at all.  But it's the best I've gotten so far!

And man, I sit here, 5 days after it's started, and this is the biggest celebration I've heard so far!  Fireworks... sun up to sun down.  Non stop.  Right outside my window.  Yep, there goes one now!  No restrictions really.  Throw firecrackers out your window if you want.  I'm not really sure I can paint a picture for you.  Indescribable.  Loud.  Insanely absurd.   But oh so exciting!  Especially when I see Emily's eyes light up the way they do.  She keeps it exciting.  Not sure how.on.earth. she is sleeping through this right now.

Chinese New Year aftermath...
yes, you guessed it, firecracker debris!

I don't like that they sound like gun shots though.  I've had a couple of mini heart-attacks while walking...  definitely not a dull moment during this break!

We started the holiday by going to the Holiday Inn with friends and watching the kick off to the celebration from the 14th floor.  We played games, ate junk food, went swimming, and had a great time!

The Girls...

Watching the fireworks!

Chinese New Year dinner at Pizza Hut... all the Chinese restaurants
were closed.

An attempted shot at the fireworks.

Heading over to the Crowne Plaza for a swim.

A dip in the hot tub... my favorite!

This girl is a little fish in the water!

A city of 8 million... and it was Ghost Town
on Chinese New Year!

Splurging on snacks at the Import Store for break!

Beautiful Cherry Blossom and Kumkwait trees...
(at least that's what I think they are!)

It's the year of the Snake.

After braving her fear of fire, Emily has enjoyed playing with sparklers and watching friends set off fireworks!

My sister, Sarah, the burn nurse... would absolutely have a cow if she experienced this first hand.  I have no doubt they could put her to use here.  A hotel burned down a couple of years ago because of Chinese New Year... no big deal.

I've said it before, but 4th of July will never ever be the same.

Chun Jie Kuai Le!

Liaoning rocked by 5.1-magnitude earthquake

So, this blog post is mainly for my records.... for when I look back at our China journey 20 years from now.

My students were sitting at their tables, using their colorful counters to add their one-digit numbers to figure out the mystery picture.  I was helping a student use her counters when my feet shifted and my legs shaked for a few seconds.  I looked at my students.  Nothing.  I looked at my Teacher Intern.  Nothing.

"Did anyone feel that!?" I asked.
"Feel what?"  Unified response...
For a few seconds, I thought I was crazy.  I was the only one who felt the earthquake.

Less than a minute later, the intercom clarified that I was not crazy when the voice instructed us to get under the tables.

The kids thought it was a drill.  So, I went with it.  That's one way to keep them calm...

Then we were instructed to go outside, and they began to get a little curious. 

I assured them everything was okay and we were just going to "follow directions".

So, we went outside and stood in the freezing temperatures, and extreme pollution, and snow flurries for about 30 minutes.

No aftershock.

Went back inside the classroom.  I finally revealed that "it was not a drill".  We debriefed and then continued another day at SYIS.

All is well.

"We survived our first (and hopefully last) earthquake today!  Things I never thought I'd say...  Actually, what I should say is, I survived a Kindergarten earthquake "not a drill".  That was the hard part.  Good news is, we're fine."  ---Me

                          

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1134565/liaoning-rocked-51-magnitude-earthquake

one hand...

Wow, it's hard to believe that we can count the months remaining of our China journey on ONE HAND!  In a lot of ways, it's gone by in a blink of any eye.  In others, it's been a really long road...  Either way, we have less than 5 months until this journey comes to an end, and I have one major goal in mind:

INTENTIONALITY

I want to live these next few months intentionally.

There's always the choice to be intentional or to "check-out".

And though, I don't find myself tempted to "check-out", I know it's a huge possibility waiting to creep up on me.

You've been there... Senioritis, Your Last Two Weeks of Work, The End of a Sports Season, The Week After Finals...  there's always that creeping temptation waiting around the corner to "just get through".

But I don't want that.  And I gratefully am reminded over and over what a unique experience this is, and am finding myself waking up everyday with a huge desire to live each day intentionally.

So, from here on out, we will be living even more intentionally than we have been.  You will be exploring our favorite places, restaurants, and people with us, as well as the new things we explore!

And you, as our readers, friends, and family... will you be intentional on keeping us intentional? 

Thank you for walking this journey with us... all the way... until the end!

Emily's first sleepover!

Emily has slept over with other people a few times... but this weekend was her first time to have a friend over, and she was sooooooo excited!  We are planning on having one during our upcoming Chinese New Year break, but this one was totally a spur-of-the-moment sleepover, that took her by surprise, and she just could not believe this was actually happening!

I couldn't believe how giddy she was!  Now that I look back, I can see why she was so excited... because I like to plan things in advance, have the house all clean, have food in the fridge... yadda, yadda, yadda...  But not this time.  Not our FIRST time!

No time to discuss "how we treat our guests" or to remind her that "what's ours is theirs".  No time to make a "where's everyone going to sleep" plan.  Just a, "Sure, come on over!"

So, we left our friend, Belle's house, with Belle, and of course, I made a stop by the market on our way home.  Had to have SOMETHING for breakfast!  I plotted how we were all going to sleep... though that was thrown out the window.

We ALL slept in the same bed, had chocolate milk and eggs for breakfast, and Emily treated her guest well and shared her stuff without being told.  It was fun to watch the two girls play so well together and the smiles and laughter encouraged me to live by the "spur-of-the-moment" more often!  Well, in China... you kinda have to learn to, anyway. ;)

Emily is showing Belle last year's yearbook.

Silly Faces!

Playing Barbies and watching Full House.

Good morning.... 6:30 a.m.

Okay, we guess we'll smile...

Chocolate milk and eggs.
Take note---it's 7 a.m. and Emily is already in her Korean dress-
up outfit.  Every weekend--never fails--she loves that thing!

Putting on a "show" they rehearsed for 30 minutes in my bedroom!

Belle's turn!

Emily's turn again.

We found more dress-up gear!

Too cool...

                                                 

Belle

            

Pictured out...!

Okay, fine...

Wait, we really do like this!

Silly girls...

More sleepovers to come!

fun in the snow!

Last year, at this time, we had just gotten back from our service trip in the Philippines.  I will admit, going from the extreme hot climate back to below freezing temperatures was beyond a difficult adjustment for us!  I will never in a million years forget the misery of our first 3 days back.

BUT, on a better note, given that it snowed several times on our trip home for Christmas, we found ourselves playing for hours out in the freezing temperatures the weekend after we returned.  It was a much better "welcome back to China" experience this year!

My good friend and Chinese teacher, Linda, invited us to "go sliding down ice slides".  I was picturing something similar to our Harbin experience.  So, I was a little taken back at first when I saw the tubes, the semi-steep hill, and the many people dragging tubes up the many stairs.

I was taken back for 2 reasons...  I have had a traumatic childhood snow tubing experience that caused my dad to have to take me home after my first try... AND...  my tibia fracture still doesn't feel completely healed...  so I wasn't really sure walking around on ice and dragging a tube up tons of stairs over and over for 2 hours was a great idea...

But, I went with it...  and am glad to say, I faced my fear of ever snow tubing again AND I didn't fall and break my leg... again.

Ready to get in line!

The stairs... of course, I made Emily get out before heading up those!

View from the top--okay, it's not that steep, but it sure felt like it the first time!

Ready to go down!

The line's getting longer...

Feeding the goats

Some wooden seat thing... he's using ski sticks to scoot along.

Ice Skating

Linda's family and Us

Arctic Fox

Bouncy House... China Style!

Joy

Emily

Small 4-wheeler

Giant Ball Thingy...

Lots of room to roll!

Bumper cars... on ice!

Feeding fish to the seals.

Ducks

Hungry goats!  So... I didn't catch this on camera, but Emily tried
feeding the big white goat, and, well... If you give a goat some corn...
he'll want a mitten to go with it!

Emily in the giant ball thingy

We didn't do ALL of these activities, but wanted to show you what our options were!  Lots of choices.  Our package was 80 RMB for 2 activities, plus the "zoo" and the bouncy house were free.  Good times at Nanhu Park!