Beach day!! Woo woo!
It started out foggy and cool, darn it! But by the time we were heading
to the school bus, at 9 am, for the ride to the beach, the sun was making a
valiant effort to appear. And
overall, I’d say the event was a success.
We took 17 children and 13 adults with us, filling the bus! Mothers and nannies were chaperones,
plus the school nurse and Maggie (who intended to get us there and then walk
back to school, but who never did actually leave!). Tide was going out, which I planned, and that meant lots of
wet sand in which to dig. The tide
goes out quickly at this shallow beach, so the water moved away from our
original campsite, but it didn’t seem to bother the children who eagerly ran
down to the water’s edge no matter how far away it was.
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| A part of our big beach-going group! |
What I didn’t plan on was 1. The green algae covering lots
of the beach (more on that later) and 2. The nannies, who weren’t that eager to
cross the algae or to get to the water!
So some children spent most of the time high on the dry sand, digging
futilely in sand that kept slipping back into the hole. One nanny fed her boy (adorable but
‘fat’) constantly in that hour on the sand, this after we had fed them all a
snack at 9:30! The nanny role in
China is unique! To their credit,
of course, some nannies went right down with their darlings to the sea,
gingerly getting feet wet.
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| The very green beach! |
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Some the the dry sand players
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| Brave nannies, down at the water's edge |
We drove from the school—oh yeah, the 15 minute walk from the
school to the beach was scotched, out of concern that it might be too strenuous
for the children—to the beach, stopping first at the courtyard of a restaurant
owned by the family of one of the children. There, the children were given a snack of fresh made yoghurt
and cookies; it was so nice! The
courtyard was lovely, a great place to eat a summer dinner (everyone whispered
that the Café Roland is expensive).
The only downside was the time spent fussing about washing the
children’s hands before the snack.
We had just left the school and ridden on the bus—where did they get
dirty? I had thought the plan to
give them snack before hitting the beach took care of any worries about
dirt. Silly me. You can’t overestimate the Chinese
parent/teacher’s concern about germs:
the children wash 50 times a day, and wear numerous layers of clothes,
and work in a classroom with closed windows more often than not, all because of
this huge worry about germs. So we
came close to dragging to a halt and losing our happy momentum on the need to
1. Wash and 2. Feed them (remember, we were gone for 2 hours, and returning in
time for lunch). Luckily, we got
back in gear faster than expected.
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| Part of our group, heading towards the cafe |
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| So many chaperones for this group of children! |
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| Settling in for our snack |
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| A peek at the lovely courtyard, as we prepare to head for the beach |
So, the beach was covered with the green algae that has been
featured in recent posts. I’d say
that the military boats in the harbor for the last two days are in fact connected—they are helping
to move the algae away. So are the
big construction machines on the beach, and the workers we saw there too. The bulldozer pushed piles of algae
around the beach the whole time we were there. It was fascinating! The children were, generally, unconcerned about it;
the adults were a little more finicky.
Sabrina, on the other hand, went right down to the water’s edge, allowed
some children to take her into the water, and then to explore the bared rocks
for sea stars. She seemed to enjoy
the experience. Mia also shepherded a group down to the water—look how happy she looks. Mia is happy when the children are happy.
And the
children were happy--laughed, and ran, and dug, and splashed, and collected
shells, and fell over in the water getting their clothes soaking wet! I picked that one up, getting my
camera slightly wet and my clothes pretty wet too. That was not so nice at about 2 pm, when my damp clothes
smelled not so sweet! Still, it
was fun if hectic—we tried to squeeze a lot in, given that there is so much
procedure to perform—every child had to be brushed off and desanded before
getting back on the bus, which again added a bit to the process and time! We are supposed to go again next
Tuesday, but I suspect that we will make a change of plans—from the adult
perspective, this trip may have taken a lot out of people!
Julia’s friend Jessica came too, which made the time fun for
Julia. They ran and jumped and
played a lot, took full advantage of the beach in ways the Chinese parents
weren’t prepared to accept (of course, their children are a lot younger). Jessica’s enthusiasm helped Julia
overcome a sudden fear that there might be crabs and/or jellyfish in the sea. For one mad moment I thought she was
going to decline to go in, wasting a great play opportunity. But in fact, she has become a good
playmate (since her preschool years, when that was not her strength!) and she
couldn’t resist Jessica’s total enjoyment of the waves.
One funny occurrence was that several of the nannies asked
me my age. They were suitably and
simultaneously shocked and amazed when I said 52—shocked that I am that old and
amazed that I am so energetic, to use their word. It happened three different times, this question! I should take that as mostly a
compliment to my ‘energy.’
The day concluded, after early and long naps, with 7 rounds
of musical chairs, much to Julia’s pleasure. We then vacated the room so that Mia could get it cleaned
and get out of there (she was tired from a very early rising, and Sabrina
appeared to have some food borne illness, so they were both shot), and Julia
began (and later finished) reading
Henry
and Mudge and the Happy Cat to me.
As soon as we got home, we showered, and then felt much more human. At 5 pm, we went out for some
exercise—first using the leg swings then going to the hill for some scootering. While I took my camera, somehow the
photos didn’t make it back (?? Did I possibly leave the card in the computer? I
have no idea what happened). It’s
too bad, because I took some photos of the cutest kids! Who were intently
chatting me up about my ‘favorites’—practicing their English, which was pretty
good, considering they were between 5-7!
Two boys and a girl asked me successive questions about my favorite
foods, colors and animals, all while laughing uproariously at the whole
experience! “Dad”—or granddad?—was
with them; he clearly recognized us.
Was he with the girls who did this same thing about a week ago? Or is
his boy one of the kids Julia has scootered with before? Clearly he told the boy to scooter with
her tonight; he understood that she was making the rounds trying to scare up a
race!
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| Henry and Mudge reading! |
We had an
energetic conversation among the 4 of us, and then Julia had a great 8 minute race-around. That reminds me that I counted heads in
the hallway today in Chinese (both Julia and I have mastered 1-10 this week,
and once you can count to 10, you can count to 999; a simple and beautiful
numbering system), much to the amusement and pleasure of the
mothers/nannies. They appreciated
my effort and laughed at my terrible Chinese! I did not laugh at the kids tonight. And right in the middle of it, Jen, the
girl who lives across the hall from us, and who has made an effort to say
“Hello” to us in the hall about 3 times, came by with her grandmother, and
called out “Hello”—I reached out to take her hand, and she flushed with
pleasure. It was so sweet! She always says, “Hello, How are you? I
am fine.” --English practice! We felt part of the neighborhood
tonight. Finished it off by
stopping at our vegetable stand for half a watermelon, 6 apples, 4 bananas and
a large handful of cherry tomatoes.
When I walked by last night, the vendor caught my eye and called out,
Hello. What will she think when we don’t show up ever again after June 30th?!
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