Monday, May 28

Little Valia is leaving QAIS for the summer; going back to Greece.  So we celebrated her birthday in class today, which offered the chance to take some good group photos.  The kids were really into the whole Montessori birthday ritual.

Here are a series of photographs from the birthday celebration process:

Birthday treats

The whole group, with Mia and Subrina!

Birthday girl Valia and friends

Part of the Montessori birthday process

More birthday - and a peek at parts of my classroom

Valia and the class working on her Montessori birthday!

Alas, my battery dried up at this point, so the photographic record was paused.  Too bad, because when we hit the community hill at about 4:45 pm today, the scooter race thing took on another, happy, layer.  Julia scootered past a group of people, one of whom was ‘the boy’, who whipped his scooter around to chase after her on the up stage of the hill.  He got momentarily tangled in grandfather’s legs, as grandfather reached over to tell him ‘the girl’ had arrived.  It was so funny—even grandfather has gotten into the event!  He shouted something at the boy as he raced away, and then caught my eye.  I smiled, “Ni hao, ni hao.” (hello, hello).  And we both recognized that parental urge to provide our child with his/her heart’s delight—in this case, a serial scooter race.

Additional footnote:  after we deposited our stuff and had a drink, we went out again for some exercise for Mama.  As we got to the top of the hill, a 6-7 year old boy was wheeling his plasma car into position for a zip down the hill.  Julia used her best non-verbal techniques to indicate to him that she was ready and willing for a race.  It took a few tries, but communication occurred, and soon, the race was again on!  She was pleased with herself for achieving this successful response to her play needs. 

When that reached its natural end, we continued our walk, encountering, at last, something that resembles an American playground.  No monkey bars, unfortunately, but things to climb and swing on.  Photos tomorrow! As I believe we will visit this spot numerous times!  She was reluctant to leave after an interval, even though it was merely a minor play space compared to, say, the Potawatomie Park at home.  An unmet need gets met?!  Some of what is included in Chinese play spaces is really exercise equipment, used primarily by older people throughout the day who do a lot of public exercising of various sorts.  I was happy to use the leg swing; too much sitting in my life (although, I do climb 4 flights of stairs at least 6 times every day!).

I forgot to mention the Pink parade that went along the boardwalk, past the QAIS soccer field on Saturday, while we were Fun Fairing it.  It has all the trappings of a breast cancer awareness walk.  Lots of great pink balloons to catch one’s attention.  And pink shirts with panda faces—I want one!  Who knew the Chinese government would support breast cancer research?

The pink parade!

We took this photo of many rags hanging out after, presumably, a washing.  They were hanging on the fence line right smack downtown, next to a plush hotel.  The funniest thing!  It points, in part, to the lack of free space—and dryers.  As we walked through the community tonight, we saw sheets and towels draped over bushes on the ground level.  One answer to the question I had about where I’d dry my sheets.

Drying rags

These pink petunias and yellow zinnas are everywhere right now, lined up in orderly rows at gates and entrance ways; they must have been decreed by the authorities.  I envision a cadre of workers, at night, placing row after row of flowers.  Is there some gigantic government run greenhouse where 100s of 1000s of these flowers are being propagated?!

I took this photo of a van driving under an awning to try to give some perspective of the size of this van.  While it ostensibly has three rows of seats—meaning it fits 6?—it looks tiny!  Notice how much room there is on the side of this van as it goes under the second awning!

In our travels, I took a couple of photos of teenage girls—what a lovely and universal thing is a teenage girl!  Don’t you wish you could pull off this purple skirt?  There are scads of uniformed girls (and boys) everywhere one looks.  These two could be anywhere in the world, in their personal style and their deep need to sit talking endlessly with one another.  This hill is really a community center; like an extension of the apartment, a living room.  Stands to reason that the apartments are smallish—everything in a city must be so expensive for the natives.  From my perspective, though, Qingdao seems quite cheap.  The imported food is more expensive than at home—Nutella for $8.00; but then, it’s the jumbo jar.  Sunmaid raisins for $5.00.  So, not outrageously expensive, and very much worth the money!  The Japanese ex-pat I spoke with yesterday agreed that it is quite inexpensive—of course, she noted, she arrived here from Switzerland, via London and Tokyo, none cheap!

Just a fabulous skirt!

Chatting girls

This second pictures is later - still talking away!

As we entered into our nightly contest with the front door of the apartment (keys are not my friends), the door of the apartment across the tiny hall opened and “Jen” stuck her head out of the door.  She is 10, in the 4^th grade, and clearly interested in making our acquaintance.  Mother soon put her head out as well, and definitively offered ‘she can play with Jen’s toys’—so we’ll see where that goes!  There was a decent level of English with both (kids all learn English in school), so I am hopeful.  Of course, who makes the next move?  Do we knock on the door and invite ourselves in to play?  Stayed tuned!