Wednesday, June 27

After a night of tossing and turning, Julia awoke with some slight fever—oh great, start and end the adventure sick!  There is very little chance I’ll get her to the hospital again! So let’s hope that this is just a passing thing.  She had hysterics just letting the school nurse take her temperature! 

Bad timing, too, as we have this plan to take the class on a ‘field trip’ to the park.  Julia took a short nap in another room and woke up hungry—a good sign, I hope.  So, we proceeded with the trip (she would not have tolerated me leaving her there).  The photos show what a pretty day it was, and how much fun the kids had simply running and chasing.  They all had on cute hats.  The highlight of the morning was teaching them to play “Duck, Duck, Goose.”  They thought it hilarious! And so did a dozen adults passing through the park; they stopped to watch and laugh!  One group of 5 men stood so close to the circle I was worried the kids would run into them while chasing each other! 

On the other hand, the Chinese staff discouraged us from playing “Leap Frog” on the grassy areas, because the grass was posted “Please don’t trample the grass.”  I am somewhat fed up with some of the ‘rules for living’ that guide the life of citizens, especially children.  For instance, although  it has been warm and very humid, every afternoon when we put the children down for a nap, we close up the windows in that room so that the kids ‘don’t catch cold.’  There’s no point in trying to counter this belief!  Similarly, one aide told me today that “Chinese medicine” councils a new mother not go outside for the first month after giving birth, to prevent, primarily, wind from blowing on their skin and damaging their health.  While I believe that traditional medicine has a lot of good insights, it also has a lot of hookam!

We are on the hunt for a third suitcase; it appears that the gigantic suitcase we inherited from Ms. Alice is technically too large according to airline websites.  I think we can buy a suitcase at about 6 different prices, depending on where we go to make the purchase.  This is somewhat nerve racking!  I hate overpaying; I can be such a cheapskate!  We established a baseline today, at Jusco, where we can get a big suitcase, but not gigantic, for about $100.00.  While at Jusco, we made Julia’s last toy purchase; she read three books this week, and earned a nice sized prize.   I am hoping that she is getting the bug, by reading an entire book on her own, and pretty quickly too. 

We took in the boardwalk on our way to the store.  The waves were crashing in, even though the tide was ebbing.  The watchers were out, including these two in their fine clothes!  Women in Qingdao have a feminine edge (or more) to their dress; it’s not uncommon for grown women to wear bows in their hair, for instance, and they always have on dressy shoes; never sneakers or flip flops, etc.

Fancy dresses!

Julia was gunning for one last ride in a battery-operated car, but when we got there, she was seduced by the mechanical horse.  She is little enough to do these things, even though a bit ‘old’ for them.  She enticed a little guy riding another horse into a short race; she has a competitive streak!  She played Go Fish with Jim (age 4) and two aides today, and she simply had to win, even if she did it by taking advantage of Jim’s careless handling of his cards!

We strolled through the hill at prime hour; there were groups engaged in socialization all up and down.  This group of young kids in the background is being recruited by the Lego Club, I believe! While the bigger kids are milling around.   We put out our broken scooter, on our way to the SPAR to price suitcases (found one for $45.00); when we got back, half an hour later, it was gone!  Hope someone can make good use of it.  The late afternoon sky was clear and bright; the mountain was crystal clear against the sky.  I took this photo because it focuses right on the part that we climbed; looks impressive, doesn’t it?

Busy neighborhood, full of families

So many adults tending each child!

Our old scooter

Aren't we the mountaineers?

I’ve been packing during the last two evenings.  I brought some things I should have left behind; too many clothes, come to find out.  We have shopped in an idiosyncratic way—it’s weird, since everything is made in China.  We can buy it anywhere, although not always in China!  Julia is the perfect mark for the cheap plastic trinket that we stereotypically think of as Chinese.  And I have a weakness for anything with Chinese characters on it—doesn’t matter what it says (since I don’t know any way!), it looks like art to me. 

Julia has placed her Sunday breakfast order:  crepes with maple syrup and nutella.