Sunday, June 10

The weather was windy this morning; from our 4^th floor perch, we could see the treetops whipping around.  Later, the wind died completely, and it was overcast, nearly rain.  We had a quiet, homey morning, finishing a movie started last night, working on fairies—from a birthday gift—and writing notes for the classmates.

A cozy, birthday-Playmobile-filled morning!

Considering that we didn’t leave the house until 11, we packed a lot into the afternoon. We took the scooter, the jump rope and Julia’s race car out to the hill.  First, we exercised on the ‘play ‘ equipment—I worked for 15 much needed minutes and Julia played; swinging on these things is fun!  Then we hit the hill proper, where Julia made good use of all her equipment.  Almost immediately I was approached by two giggling 7 year olds who wanted to practice their English on me!  It was so sweet.  One asked me “what’s your favorite color?” and “what’s your favorite sport?”—straight from the English exercise book, no doubt!  Dad helped her out, and we all felt good about ourselves!  They asked about Julia’s provenance—this is going to come up again later today; a sometimes challenging part of the adventure for Julia. 

"Exercise"

...or play!

Scooter

Jump rope 

And little red race car!

Then we were hit upon by the cutest 2 ½ year old girl, in a dear orange and green outfit, with a devoted grandfather in tow—a charming encounter!  She talked and talked to me, with complete aplomb, and then insisted on helping Julia with the jump rope.  Grandfather came to the rescue, and obligingly turned the rope for Julia for 5 minutes!  Julia is bound and determined to master cross jump roping, since Maci and Jessica can already do it.  Not a bad motivation for her.

Our sweet little friend

She watched and watched Julia

And then joined her!

Practicing her jump!

Gathering our game plan for the day, we took two buses to Zhan Shan Temple, a Buddhist site with a number of buildings and courtyards and one central temple.  It was a lovely site, although not at the height of full repair—notice the fire trap of wires running from building to building!  The decoration was striking:  gold, blue, red and green paint in patterns and designs, including many dragons, and roof tiles with creatures, and lotuses.  There were interconnected courtyards, with numerous small ‘chapels’ and incense burners at each location.  Trees—lovely ginkos—were scattered throughout the wide courtyard spaces which I imagined fill with worshippers during celebrations.  And beautiful rounded openings in spots.  There were incense burners in front of every ‘chapel’ and incense for sale everywhere.  Monks in saffron robes were visible at intervals—it is clearly a going concern. There was a service going on in one building, with a constant singing/chanting for the whole time we were there.  We were welcome to peek in, which I thought was accommodating of them!   We of course spent some time in a shop looking at Buddhist religious items—Julia would have bought it all! We did our best to provide a little financial support anyway!

Approaching the temple

One of the tallest structures

There is so much detail in every part of the temple buildings

And what color!

One of the huge buildings

There are just so many colors, and so many decorative pieces, like these lanterns

One element of the experience had a mixed impact:  when we first entered the grounds, we walked up to the tower—is this the temple?—where a small group of people were praying, lighting incense, and walking ritually around the building.  A monk arrived, and entered into the circular walking, engaged in some ritual with a particular woman.  Julia was intrigued, and wanted to join the circuit.  Just as soon as she did, the monk and the woman caught sight of her and stopped to …figure out her story?  There were a lot of questions and only a smattering of English; I said several times that she is my daughter and that she hailed from Hangzhou.  The woman, a richly dressed person, was very intrigued; asked a lot of questions, seemed to keep repeating things, really stared at Julia.  The monk was also very interested but in a broader, less personal way.  After some exchange of information through the now crowd of about 10 people, he moved to the steps of the tower, sat and drew her down beside him, for photos clearly.  She was uncomfortable, as her face shows.  I was torn because I am a sucker for a blessing!  And because one is always polite in these situations, right?  After an encounter of about 8 minutes, everyone dispersed with friendly words, and Julia was freed to tear right up and express her embarrassment and stress.  It’s a challenge—people expect her to speak Chinese, they want to know her relationship to me, and they always mention her birthmark--somewhat remarkable, because it is so less visible now!  My blithe thought that she would love to come to China because she would be one of many rather than one of a minority hasn’t really played out—she is not of them because of the language barrier, and that is brought home to her almost daily.

Julia joining the circle - see the saffron robes of the monk!

A nervous Julia sitting with the monk

 We did continue to walk around the temple area after the experience of the blessing:

One interesting experience today:  on the bus, we were sitting next to a young couple in conversation.  She leaned over and whispered “I’m pretending I can understand them.”  Then she decided to pretend she could speak Chinese—she counted to 7, her main accomplishment thus far, said a sentence in English, and then whispered, “I can speak both languages.”  Then she told me not to talk, so as to give the impression that I am a Chinese speaker.  Then she said “Shur”—Yes—to cement the act.  Since this happened before the more traumatic event at the temple, it seemed sweet and an indicator of accommodation—she wants to have the language, she is gaining comfort in some basic words and phrases, which, indeed, she likes to show off, and she can begin to cast herself in the role of Chinese speaker—all to the good.  What’s the total impact, including both of these experiences?  I guess it will be, in fact, just what I set out to get:  experience in ordinary living in the country of her origin; a foundation from which she will have the free choice opportunity to build further down the road (ok, free choice:  I AM GOING to get her Chinese lessons as soon as possible!). 

We left the grounds of the Temple and moved into the Botanical Gardens, which involved a long trek uphill.  There wasn’t much in bloom, but the trees were spectacular.  Lots of varieties and really good sized specimens.  It was nice for me, boring for Julia. There was a good view, albeit on a gray day, of the center of downtown, showing the old in the foreground and the new skyscrapers in the back.  The payoff was a looooong scooter ride back down that hill; in this photo, you can see Julia midway through about the first half of the ride—it was the perfect scooter hill!  Boy, what a great investment that was!

Lovely flowers in the botanical garden

And Julia halfway down the fabulous hill!

We then walked down the hill to the main street, which put us exactly at the school.  So instead of getting on the bus, we just took our usual route up the boardwalk—since, of course, we were interested in some shopping!  I was pretty proud of myself for knowing how to get myself down off that hill to the main street.  Even though this is an enormous city, I feel like I am getting a beat on it, generally speaking. 

At Music Square, we encountered what must be a regular Sunday activity:  rollerblading by at least 150 teenagers!  They set up cups, do routines, practice tricks, etc.  There were ‘teams’ wearing shirts, and later, up the walk, we spotted some more kids making their way to the location—undoubtedly this is a central activity for a portion of the teen population.  The Sunday population was out in force, including some out-of-towners down in the tiny strip of sand revealed by the lowness of the tide.  They seemed so touristy to those of us who have spent the day at the beach!

I had promised Julia a milkshake to move her past the stress of the event earlier; we realized, though, that since she has a tiny carton of Haagen Daz at home, maybe she should choose a different treat.  She chose not French fries! But another turn in the bouncy house.  She spent a very happy half hour in there, even though there were no friends to play with.  She is such a little person—she didn’t at all dominate the majority of the crowd who were about 4 years old.  Hot from that event, we stopped at the Marina City fountain where she wet her face and then slowly entered the spirit of the place, putting her foot smack down on one jet after another.  It is a happy, happy place—the children in the fountain are in their element, every time we go there.  A great civic addition. 

We took our weekly purchase of bread and Goldfish home on the bus, with a frozen slice of pizza for Julia’s dinner; we brought that upstairs to Richard and Luwan to ask them to heat it for us—Luwan was making veggie eggplant parmesan to share with us!  So, in a half hour, Julia took her Haagen Daz up and I devoured a chunk of delicious home cooking—the first dairy in 6 weeks!  But it was worth it.  They are preparing to move to Beijing in a week, a big undertaking, for a new teaching position.  Richard is a fellow traveler in American politics and an interesting person who’s done so many different things (a youthful stint in the military, Peace Corp, teaching for 15 years, teaching math to the deaf, and more).  I am glad to have met them. 

Every day in China brings us something new to process, even the days that start out quiet and homey.