We leave tomorrow to go on a much-needed vacation to Thailand.  First, we go to Hua Hin, Thailand for 9 days:

 

         

 

Then, we go to Bangkok, Thailand for 3 nights:

 

        

 

The children have 3 weeks off of school.  So at the end of our vacation, we will be spending a week here in Tianjin, before they return to school on January 7th, 2008:

        

 

Merry Christmas to everyone and best wishes for 2008!

 

I started a subscription to the China Daily Newspaper at the beginning of November.  I absolutely love reading a regular column that runs every single day, called "China Scene."  It is described as news items "from widely read Chinese media."  These snippets of daily life from all over the country are priceless.  Here's an example from yesterday's paper:

 

 

On Sunday a woman surnamed Chen, in Chongqing Municipality, went home late and forgot to close the door to her apartment.  A guard discovered the door ajar and called but no one answered.  Not wanting to enter for fear of disturbing the occupants and not wanting to leave them exposed, either, Jiang Bo stood guard for seven hours.  Eventually, Chen's husband went out and discovered Jiang standing guard.  Moved by his actions, he wanted to reward the man with cash, but Jiang refused, saying he was just doing his job.

Doug and some of his co-workers went to a Chinese wedding.  Doug is the boss of the groom, so his attendance was mandatory.  The groom's boss speaks before anyone else may speak (even family!).  Another expat friend here had recently attended a wedding, and I asked her how it was.  She said it was, "interesting in a game show kind of way."  When Doug came home from the wedding, I asked him if he felt the same.  He said, "Well, they played the Star Wars theme music when the bride and groom entered."  I asked him how he stopped himself from giggling during that.  He said he had to, because he was up on the stage.  So, Doug was the first to speak.  He had practiced some Chinese and said he carried it off pretty good.  The Masters of Ceremony then asked Doug if he would like to say something in English.  The M.C. said that he could translate anything Doug said.  So Doug tried to say some more nice things about the newly married couple.  But the guests just kept laughing after the M.C. did each translation.  Doug later found out that the M.C. was being funny.  He was making claims that Doug was saying things like, "When you get back from your honeymoon, I will increase your salary by 4 X your current amount." 

 

Everyday is an experience here, isn't it?