Here's my blog about Nick now.  I've seen a lot of maturity in him this summer.  He can handle our scooter/moped all on his own, and he takes his new cell phone with him in case there is any sort of emergency.  Yes, kids get cell phones at a young age here.  It's a wise idea, in case of an emergency, like getting separated from your parents in large crowds and then you're unable to speak to anyone around you to get help.  Word of mouth amongst the expat crowd is that you should get a cell phone for your child here when they're about 12 years old.  I can't believe how good Nick is at navigating around on his cell phone.  It has a small camera on it, so he takes pictures once in awhile, then downloads those as his opening picture on his phone.  He played around with it the first day he got it, and had everything all figured out....the games on it, the camera, how to make calls, how to text message, etc. 

 

Nick has two new passions this summer.  One of them is his electric guitar.  He really likes his lessons a lot.  He comes home and practices, with no nagging from his parents.  He's just drawn to it all on his own.  His other new passion is cooking.  It all started kind of small since we moved here.  He wanted to make package mixes that had easy directions to follow....like jello and Betty Crocker cake mixes.  Now it's gotten a bit more complicated.  His favorite soup is Campbell's Cream of Potato soup.  We can't always find it here.  He got figuring that he could make it from scratch.  So this morning he got on the internet and searched out a few recipes.  He finally found one he liked, but he simplified it, by taking out the onions and some of the spices it called for (which I didn't have).  He assembled all of his ingredients, then got cooking over a big saucepan.  Doug and I are blown away by how good his soup is.  Maybe we have a future chef?  Nick wanted to share his recipe with everyone, so here it is:

 

 Nick’s Cream of Potato Soup

 

 

 

I love all of my children equally.  But I had to take a moment to write a bit about Philip's behavior this summer (I will write about Tom and Nick at a later date).  Philip is our social butterfly.  So living here this summer has been the most difficult for him.  Tom and Nick are happy to read their books, watch DVD's, and play their video games.  But Philip needs other people to be okay.  I just "get" that about him.  He sees social things that other kids just don't see.  Prior teachers have talked about his social skills.  He worries about the left out kid in his classroom, making sure to include them.  That threw him for a loop this year, being one of the younger kids in a split grade.  But somehow he did his best to keep up with the social standings.  I knew this summer would be hard for him, with his deep need to socialize.  Yet all of the western kids that speak English are gone.  I did what I could.  Whenever I went grocery shopping, I would ask all of my sons who wanted to go with me.  Tom and Nick never did, saying that they'd be happy staying home with Ayi.  And they were happy staying home with her and doing their own things.  Those two are homebodies.  Philip would jump at the chance to go out and about with me, practicing his Chinese and giving all of the locals a good giggle.  Not only is he social, that boy is a charmer.  He'll need a flyswatter some day to keep those girls away.  When I socialized with some of my western friends, Philip sat right beside me.  Almost like a sweet lapdog.  He'd rather socialize than hang out with his brothers.  He's all about meeting new people and coming across new experiences.  I've had a lot of socializing in the past couple of weeks with adults only.  That's because the only other 2 western families that have stayed in our community don't have young children.  Again, Nick and Tom are off doing their own thing (tv, DVD's, video games, etc.).  But there is Philip right beside me.  People are charmed by him.  He's sitting and watching all of the adult social skills, and then trying them out on everyone else.  I told him tonight, "I'm sorry that you miss your friends in the U.S., but it's really neat how you've become like my best buddy and constant companion.  I just adore you."  He's even charmed his mama.  He even charms Chinese people that can barely understand what he is saying.  After the magazine interview, the sweet lady who interviewed us e-mailed us afterwards and reported how charmed she was with Philip.  The whole article kind of took on a "Philip" slant.  Something he said during the interview caught her attention and became the title of the article.  Also, the last paragraph is devoted to Philip.  How he ended up sitting there beside me during the interview is something that you'd have to ask Philip some day.  Again, the other two brothers were off doing their own thing.  When Philip goes rollerblading (he took it up 4 nights ago, and is now bound and determined to be the best rollerblader ever.....man, that kid is driven).....but, whenever he puts on those rollerblades, 2 little Chinese girls across the street run and get theirs on even though the 3 kids can't talk to each other very well.  I believe that their mother is in Canada for the summer studying.  I met her awhile back, and she told me that she would be in Canada studying for the summer, but couldn't tell me where.  It appears that the grandparents are watching the 2 girls for the summer, and the dad comes home very late.  The grandmother has held her arms out to Philip, in hopes that she can hug him.  But he's a little freaked out by that.  He says that he doesn't know her that well.  I explained to him that she thinks he's pretty cute, and that she's watched him a lot when he's been playing with her grand-daughters.  Had they spoke the same language, more of a bond would have been built by now.  But there is a language barrier.  So it slows the progress down of a friendship a little bit for Phil.  But it doesn't slow it down for the grandma.  She has watched Phil, and likes what she sees.  In fact, the Chinese grandma is charmed by Phil, too.  Who wouldn't be? 

I guess since the O.C. heard that Airbus was coming, they hired many extra workers to get this community in tip-top shape.  Almost all empty houses are being worked on internally, to set up electricity, plumbing, and to decorate.  Partially constructed shells of houses and apartment buildings are hastily being finished.  Workermen are busily planting many trees and flowers.  The kids went for a bike ride today and came back all excited, telling me that there was not just one new playground in our community set up, but two!  Night was starting to fall when I got the kids to bring me to the playground, but I took a look around at all of the new improvements, smiled and said, "this place is going to be better than I thought it would be."

Well, we sure hope that Doug's co-worker hasn't been reading the headlines in North American newspapers lately.  Media baron Conrad Black has just gotten into a lot of trouble.  Kind of smears the illustriousness of the name Conrad, don't you think?  How did I not see that one coming?  I didn't even know that he had been charged with fraud.  I turned the tv on to CNN a couple of days ago, and was surprised to hear the news about him.  I was so surprised...he used to epitomize "high society" in Canada, appearing in Chatelaine magazine with his beautiful wife at big shindigs, then getting the title of "Lord" in England.  What a strange coincidence that we should choose the name Conrad during the week a famous Conrad (there are so few) is getting sent to jail.  Even stranger that we didn't even think of him when we chose the name.  Here's a sampling of some of the headlines that I've been reading:

 

 Convicted Conrad Black no longer welcome in Canada

 

Fall of an arrogant fraud: What really brought down the empire of Conrad Black?

Not that many years ago, Conrad Black seemed to have everything he ever wanted: a major right-wing newspaper, a beautiful wife, and homes on two continents. But it wasn't enough. He and Barbara Amiel were millionaires who wanted to live like billionaires. Christopher Silvester tells how Black's scorn for shareholders, regulators, and the law led to the humbling of a newspaper tycoon

Tycoon Black awaits sentence

 

Okay, I spoke too soon.  This morning I got a phone call from Susan, the owner of the relocation company that helped us have such a smooth transition here.  It's Susan's employee, Rebecca, that helps us out with everything here.  The expat community has been in quite a buzz for awhile, with the knowledge that Airbus was building a plant in Tianjin to build their airplanes.  We have heard that many Europeans will be moved here to work in the facility....people from England, Germany, and France.  So we've all been trading stories of what we've heard, speculating on what school and what community they will choose to live in.  We think now from what we've heard, that they've chosen our school.  Susan told me this morning that they have chosen our community.  We will have more neighbors...hopefully with children that will be playmates for our children.  Funny how much can change in a few days.  They aren't slated to come for the beginning of this school year, though.  Some of them will arrive in January, and others next summer.  But at least we have something to look forward to. 

 

When Susan told me this news, she pointed out that now many of the local landlords and media's eyes are on Original County.  She asked if I would mind being interviewed by a local Chinese language only magazine, called "Hi Class."  They wanted to know what challenges expats face when moving here.  She said that they wanted an honest first-hand account.  I agreed to the interview, but then I was a bit nervous afterwards about how to word everything diplomatically.  We set up a time for this afternoon.  Ayi and I were running around making sure the house was clean, because we weren't sure if they were going to bring cameras or not.  At the last minute, I was changing my clothes and fixing my hair. 

 

At 2 o'clock, Rebecca arrived with two women from the magazine.  Rebecca came to act as the interpreter.  The one woman explained that she was the editor-in-chief of the magazine, and that she just learned that I used to work as a freelance writer.  She then asked if I would be interested in writing some articles for her magazine, as they have been wanting to expand their magazine to include some English articles as well.  We discussed some prices, then I suggested that we could all give it a go once with one article, and make sure that both the magazine and I were pleased before we committed to anymore articles.  They have a deadline looming, so I'm going to write an article for them for next Friday.  Then the editor-in-chief had to leave, so the interview with the second woman began.  As the interview progressed, she mentioned that maybe I could write all I was saying to her better than she could, and that this may be the material for the first article.  That seemed like a good solution.  They have given me a copy of the magazine, and it is all in Chinese, so I can't read it.  But what I do gather from flipping through it is that it is a local real estate magazine, with articles and advertisements about the various neighborhoods in Tianjin.  My hunch is that they wanted to interview me because we've been fairly happy here.  This is due to the fine work of a lot of wonderful Chinese people in our lives....Susan's relocation company, her employee Rebecca, Ayi, Mike, and our landlady.  But some expats have a completely different experience than we do.  I talked about the difficulties of moving somewhere, suddenly becoming illiterate and having to depend on other people.  That's hard if everyone's not doing what they are supposed to be doing.  I think that we were especially lucky in that our Ayi speaks some English, and our landlady speaks excellent English.  When I contact my landlady and tell her something isn't working right, she's on top of it and gets someone here immediately.  That doesn't always happen with other expats.  They sometimes get a runaround story that goes on for a few weeks and frustrates them immensely. 

 

I wasn't expecting to work again, but sometimes opportunities just come your way that seem so interesting.  The vibes I got today from all of the women involved was that the local landlords not only want to lure us to their houses, but they want us to stay and have a good experience while we're here.  They want to know what pleases us about a house.  They're just not sure who to ask.  What sort of furniture and decorations do we like?  How many elements do we want on a cooktop?  Sure, the landlords probably got into this for the monetary gains, but maybe I can make some small changes with an open discussion on both viewpoints.  Please don't buy us a large, jade cabbage that takes up half of our living room.  First of all, it costs way too much money, and it may not be to our taste.  Wait and ask us what we like.  Get some design magazines out and pour through them together.  Through communication, every party can be happier.  Both sides need to be easy to work with.  The expat has to remember that they're not going to recreate their own country here.  We are in China, and things are done differently.  Enjoy some of the differences.  It's a once in a lifetime experience.

Doug came home from work the other day, and I asked him if Edmund and his wife were pleased with the English name Elliott for their son.  Doug told me that Edmund went home to his wife with our email about the name Elliott, with all of the research we had done.  She looked at it, then said something along the lines that a son should be before his father, so she thought that the child's name should begin with the letters C or D.  I joked to Doug that this probably meant that a future grandson could have a name that started with A or B, so we should try to stick to the letter D, so that the grandson will have more options.  We joked about the name "Doug."  Probably she just didn't like the sound of Elliott.  But they were going to let Doug take another stab at the name, so off we went on the net, researching again.  I pulled up a few baby name sites, and clicked on "boy", then the letters "C" and "D."  We shortlisted about 20 names that we liked the sound of.  Then we looked up their meanings.  So many of them had horrible meanings....crooked nose, a black/brown color, son of marsh-dwellers, etc.  But then we looked up the name Conrad, and it had a wonderful meaning and a lot of illustrious historical figures named this.  It means "brave counsel," many German kings were named this during medieval times, 9 saints were named this, the founder of the Hilton hotels was named this, and author Joseph Conrad penned "Heart of Darkness," a classic, almost a century ago.  So we compiled an e-mail about why this was our choice.  Doug printed it off for Edmund, who brought it home to his wife.  Today Doug phoned me and said that they were very pleased with his choice, and that their child's English name will be Conrad.  They still haven't given him a Chinese name yet.  I think that's a long process, because extended family members get involved.  So, in the future, if you ever come across a Conrad Zhang, you'll know that he was named by Doug.  A big honor indeed.

 

Nick went to his first electric guitar lesson.  His teacher is a very young, hip Chinese guy.  The teacher doesn't speak much English, but he's somehow able to still teach Nick.  The two of them plug their guitars into the same big amplifier, and the teacher sits beside him and shows him where to put his hands and fingers.  Once in awhile the teacher says yes to encourage him, then other times he says no, then places Nick's hands and fingers in the right spots.  Nick came out of there looking pretty happy.  I went out grocery shopping with Phil today.  Tom and Nick opted to stay home with Ayi.  I came home and saw Nick's guitar out of its case.  He told me that he had practiced while I was out.  I thought that this is a good sign that he likes it.  I didn't even have to remind him to practice, it was something that he did all on his own.  Funny side story here....the day we bought the guitar, our driver was really chatting up some of the girls in the store.  Of course, we couldn't catch what they were chatting about.  My driver grabbed a couple of fliers in Chinese.  He's a young, cool guy.  I could tell that he was pretty impressed with Nick's guitar.  So on the day of Nick's lesson, Driver Mike goes up to the 5th floor with us.  I had told him to pick us up an hour later, so I couldn't figure out why he was following us.  Again, my Chinese is pretty limited, and his English is pretty limited.  We wish that we could converse with him more.  But there are still gaps.  So I get Nick all settled into the lessons, and come out to find Mike giving some money to the girls at the counter.  Through charades, I asked him if he was taking music lessons too.  He told me yes.  I now joke with Nick that he will be forming a rock band with our driver someday. 

 

I was grumbling to Doug a few days ago that we still don't have any new neighbors.  Moving into a new community was a bit of a risk.  Risk of isolation, that is.  I was worried that we would feel all alone out here.  It's been a pretty quiet summer.  There are 3 Kiwi families here, and two of them went back to New Zealand for the summer.  One of the families has stayed, but they are pretty busy right now with their three university aged children visiting for a few weeks.  So there I was grumbling to Doug...."All of these empty houses.  I thought for sure we'd be seeing other people looking at them in the summer to move in for the next school year.  We're right beside the school.  If you build it, they will come."  And I mean a lot of empty houses.  There must be over a hundred of them here.  Well, imagine my surprise when my doorbell rang tonight and there were two westerners at the door.  The wife is from the U.S. and the husband is from Finland.  They just moved here from Finland.  I had met them in the spring when they were house-hunting, and talked the place up, but kind of forgot about them.  So when they appeared at my door, I was like, "Oh, good!  You decided to move in!" I had them in for awhile, a very lovely couple.  I don't think they have any children, though.  That's what my kids want.....more kids in the neighborhood.  Oh well, as I said before, "If you build it......"

Doug has a Chinese co-worker who he admires very much.  His English name is Edmund.  Almost everyone here who works with westerners chooses an English name, probably because we'll be more apt to remember the name and pronounce it properly.  Edmund and his wife just welcomed their first child, a son, to their family.  Doug asked around at work, and learned that they still needed a stroller for their baby.  So he went out shopping, and picked out a dandy looking stroller.  He took up a collection around the office, and they all presented Edmund with the stroller at work.  Edmund was very pleased by this gesture.  A little time went by, then he approached Doug and asked him to choose an English name for his son.  When Doug told me, I was like, "Wow, that's a huge honor.  Choose wisely."  Doug was just kind of throwing out names.  So I asked him what Edmund's biggest strength is at work, because often the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  His son may be a lot like him someday.  Doug said that everyone knows that Edmund is very good with the English language.  So I suggested that Doug look through historical figures that are known for literary achievements.  Obviously, Shakespeare was out of the question.  Too long a moniker.  I also suggested that he look for names that start with an "E", like his father.  I heard once that Chinese people often choose their English name while at public school.  Their teachers will go around the room and give everyone a different letter from the alphabet.  Then the student must research and choose an English name starting with that letter.  My guess is that Edmund was given the letter E.  Doug then thought of the name "Elliott."  He was thinking about the author, T.S. Eliot.  So we did a search on the internet, and sure enough, T.S. Eliot had won the Nobel Prize for literature in the 1940's.  I then mentioned that Pierre Elliott Trudeau was probably the most charismatic Canadian Prime Minister in history.  So we did a search on him.  He was named by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as one of the top ten most influential Canadians of all time in a recent poll.  We compiled all of our research, and put it into an e-mail to Doug.  He printed it off yesterday, and gave all of the information to Edmund.  He told him that if him or his wife weren't pleased with the name, that they could choose one themselves and he wouldn't be offended at all.  Edmund thanked Doug.  I guess we'll have to wait and see if him and his wife like the sound of Elliott Zhang (Zhang is pronounced as Jang). 

 

We're starting to get excited at the prospects of visitors this fall.  One of my dearest friends in Alberta, Joanne Crook, is coming to Beijing on a girl's shopping trip in September.  I told her that I'd love to meet up with her.  I haven't seen her in over 6 years.  Doug's parents are looking into flights for a visit in November.  It will be nice to have company, and show them all of the sites, since we've had time to pick through what's worth going to and what really isn't. 

 

I have to go now.  I'm off to bring Thomas to the doctor (lingering cold that won't go away), and then Nick to his first electric guitar lesson.  Philip has opted to stay home with Ayi.  She's making chicken fingers, rice, and veggies for the whole family tonight.  Her chicken fingers are delicious.  She keeps telling me that she likes to cook for our family, so I usually ask her to cook about once a week when I have a crazy day.  Today's one of those days.  I don't expect that I'll get home with the two boys until around 5 p.m. 

Our much anticipated trip to Hong Kong started out kind of shaky.  Doug came down with what we now think was a bout of food poisoning a couple of days before we left.  Poor guy was in the washroom the whole night before we flew out.  Then on the day we flew out, typically dry Tianjin was raining cats and dogs.  We sat in the airplane on the runway for 4 hours before we got clearance to take off.  That kind of defeated the whole reason for us choosing Hong Kong as a quick getaway.  We had liked the idea that it was only a 3 hour flight.  So our 3 hours flight turned into 7 hours.  Good thing we packed the Racko game!  Thanks again, Parker Brothers.  When we arrived in Hong Kong much later than usual, it was too late to do anything.  Our kids were hungry because they didn't like any of the food served on the AirChina flight (I don't blame them), so we got the bags in our room and we were off to the crowded streets of Hong Kong looking for a bank machine and a McDonald's at 11 at night in heavy rain.  After we ate, we went to sleep at midnight.  We had to crowd 3 in one bed, because the staff neglected to leave bedding for the pull-out couch.  The hotel was a bit more traditionally Chinese than we would have liked with 3 kids....lack of western food outlets and hard mattresses.  Doug and I could eat more exotic fare, but the kids balk at it a bit.  So off we went to explore Hong Kong.  We went shopping and stocked up on much-needed amenities that we can't find in Tianjin.  I was able to buy hairspray (the hairsprays here don't work on my hair....just make it greasy), and facial creams (no bleach!).  We got shoes for the entire family, and a lot of clothes.  I even found a woman who made beautiful linen outfits in my size at the Stanley Market.  Doug then brought the kids to the Fantastic 4 movie while I did some more shopping.  I really enjoyed picking through everything at Marks & Spencers.  Sadly, their sizes were a bit on the small size.  England must ship all of their teensy weensy sizes to Hong Kong.  On one of the days we went to a large amusement park and seaworld show called "Ocean Park."  It was gorgeous there, but far too hot.  As our day neared to a close, all of the boys decided to go on the river ride that promised them a cool splash at the end.  They waited in the hot line-up forever.  Just as they were about to step on the ride, a dark cloud swooped in off the sea and opened up over them.  It was like a monsoon!  The park ended up closing just as we made a mad dash for a taxi back to the hotel.  We would visit Hong Kong again in a heart beat.  What a beautiful city, with lots of fun things to do.  By far, our most favorite things about Hong Kong were....people use garbage cans, no one spits in public there, blue skies (when it wasn't raining), fresh milk, and food we can trust not to give us a tummy upset.  I think we had our funnest day at the top of Victoria Peak, viewing the Harbour below.  We visited Madame Tussaud's wax museum up there, and had one of the best meals in ages at The Peak Restaurant.  We then watched the celebratory fireworks marking the 10th anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong back to China.  The day before we left Hong Kong, I decided to get a good haircut in a big city.  I walked into a hip-looking shop, and tried to communicate to the hairdresser as best I could.  But here's the problem....the Hong Kong people speak Cantonese, and I only know limited Mandarin.  I came out with a typically Asian haircut....too short and spiky.  I was devastated at first, but now that I've gotten home and have had a chance to style it myself, I'm thinking, "Wow, this is a really good haircut for the summer, with the intense heat here."  Doug thinks it makes my face look slimmer.