Friday, May 18

Julia received a proposal of marriage at 8:10 am; Alex’s only concern was that he couldn’t marry ‘an older woman,’ as Julia is 9 months older than him.  Later, Julia said to me, “I don’t want to marry Alex!”  whew!  We ride in the school van with Alex and his mother, my go-to person, and Julia has reached out to socialize with him, somewhat uncharacteristically for her; a sign that she needs kid friends!  She taught him how to play ‘thumb wars’ this morning.  Alex is Chinese, but he is bilingual in English and Chinese; I continue to regret not providing my children with a bilingual environment!

From the window of the schoolroom today I watched a constant flow of shipping, visible for the first time.  Some truly enormous tankers moved across the horizon.  One thing that surprised me was that the ocean is deep enough for such huge ships that close to shore.  There were also lots of small, local boats doing work out there.  It was fascinating.  Because of the change in visibility, I also saw a heretofore invisible island out on the horizon’s edge.

We had plumbing issues at the apartment that highlighted the challenges of working in a culture where one doesn’t speak the language.  I couldn’t get assistance on my own, which resulted in changing my plans in order to accommodate the schedule of someone being kind enough to provide help.  This didn’t suit Julia, who had intended to go toy shopping after school today.  Plumbing is a tricky item in China; not very strong, not very functional.  The Chinese make compromises with their plumbing that Americans wouldn’t be happy about.  I am curious if these kinds of problems exist in high-end housing; perhaps new construction, of the last 10 years, is built with better plumbing. 

Instead of shopping downtown, after the repair, we took the scooter out to explore the lake at our doorstep.  There’s a great deal of greenery around the lake—lovely willow trees, wild rose bushes, just coming into bloom, irises all around, and plantings that fill in the spaces.  Lots of pretty pathways, pavilions, and even a stone bridge!  Julia scootered with some children for a bit, who were gathered at a pavilion which was clearly being treated as a playspace.  The kids were there with, primarily, doting grandparents.  We were approached by a charming and voluble 3ish year old, who had much to say to me and couldn’t be put off by my evident lack of Chinese.  We re-met this cute little girl 5 or 6 times in the hour, with grandparents who were deeply amused by this little girl’s sociability with me, nonwithstanding the language barrier.  It was funny to listen to them; I knew generally what they were talking about, but how weird that I simply couldn’t understand their words.  In the classroom today I had a language experience with the TAs:  one of the children said something which made the two TAs laugh heartily.  When I asked them later what he had said, they smoothly lied to me!  It was so clear that they hadn’t told me what he said (I imagine that it was scatological), and then that they exchanged words in Chinese about the dodge.  I played dumb, as the better part of valor under the circumstances.

Here are some photographs from our scooter adventure:

A little stone table right by the lake

Lots of space to scooter - and other children, too!

Trying out the scooter on the planks of the boardwalk

A view across the lake - all of this is right in our "apartment community"

Decoration right in the lake itself

The stone bridge - Julia went across it, too

A perfect place to play!

Lovely irises

We ended our outing on the slope where the community shops are; Julia made extensive use of the scootering opportunity here, while I explored a couple of vegetable shops I hadn’t yet been in.  We purchased pot stickers in one shop (I deliberately bought veggie ones, which turned out to be too green tasting for Julia!), and saw raw bird feet for sale in another!  In the long run, we ended up buying veggies at the same stand where we’ve been getting our bananas, more farmer’s market-like than the shops.  It’s nice to have the same lady there who recognizes me; she can’t speak to me or vice versa, but we’ve got an established relationship now.  I don’t worry about being cheated, and she will reliably select two ‘good’ nectarines for me.

We had a number of experiences of children peeing in seemingly inappropriate places today!  One little boy, in the classroom, whipped down his pants and came within an eyelash of peeing in a potted plant!  We saw a child in the traditional split Chinese pants being held out over a curb to pee.  And various boys peeing on trees, in full view of a busy city sidewalk.  Maybe there’s a connection between weak plumbing and ad hoc peeing!

Julia distributed tiny Dove chocolate bars to the kids at the bus stop this morning.  The boy was pleased to accept.  And then he reached into his backpack pocket and brought out a fist full of little bars of chocolate (Swiss I think).  He gestured that he’d like to give them to Julia; I said, ‘he is thanking you that way.’  I was wrong; he wanted to trade up!  His ok mini chocolate bars for Julia’s great Dove bars!  He took 2 and gave up 3!