Johnston's in China

• Nick was one of ten students chosen from his school to attend the first ever ACAMIS (Association of China and Mongolia Internatioinal Schools) Student Leadership Summit in Shanghai on November 7th and 8th.  Secondary students from international schools from across China will be attending.  Nick gets to fly on an airplane and stay in a hotel.  He's very excited. 
• The twins just got back from a 3 day field trip to Cheng De.  I'm still not exactly sure where that is.  They were on a bus for 6 hours.  They did pass through Beijing at one point.  They got to stay in a hotel, too.  The teachers looked really tired at the end of the trip.  But they all came back happy, and that's the main thing.
• We have 2 Australian boys staying at our house this weekend, Ace and Lucien, from the Australian International School of Hong Kong.  They are playing in the ACAMIS volleyball tournament, which our school is hosting this year.  Two of the politest boys we've ever met!  Reminds me of the days when we used to take in hockey billets during tournaments in Canada.
• We're trying to plan our Christmas vacation.  We've never been to Malaysia before, so we might head there.  We're hoping to meet up with our British friends, Matt, Donna and Ellie Newman.  We were so close in Peoria, Illinois many years ago before we all started moving around the world.  The Newman's live in Singapore now.  It'll be great to catch up with them if we're able to coordinate this thing.

• The Olympics!  We have been able to attend several events.
• The high speed train between Tianjin and Beijing has started running.  What used to be a 2 hour drive + one way is now a 30 minute train ride.  This changes everything for us. 
• Friends pouring back into town as the big summer hourglass runs out of sand. 
• Some blue skies, the likes we've never seen in Tianjin.  Sadly, we may never see them again.  It was interesting, watching the pollution control master plan unfurl. We sure missed having a driver at our disposal, though.  Vehicles were only allowed to drive every 2nd day. 

About the Olympics.  We've been amazed by how many Chinese people want to pose with us for pictures.  They think we have just stepped off the airplane, practicing their few English phrases on us.  Imagine their surprise when we respond back in Chinese!  The boys have now turned into attention hounds, they've been asked to pose so much.  I'll say one thing, the Chinese sure love children.  In our almost 2 years here, no Chinese person has ever raised their voice at any of my boys.  We went to quite a few soccer games in Tianjin.  Although no one else seemed interested (it was the lowest attendance for all of the Tianjin soccer games), I found the game between the North Korean and German women very fascinating.  It may be the only time in my life I am in the same vicinity as any North Koreans.  The North Korean women all had their hair cut exactly the same, like there was no time for beauty...they only function to eat, breathe, and sleep soccer.  I felt kind of sorry for them.  I think they played a better game than the Germans, as most of the game took place by the German goalie.  However, the German women got a breakaway near the end of the game and scored the only goal of the night.  The North Korean women were devastated!  They then played dirty.  So dirty, I whispered to Doug that I'd never want a group like that mad at me.  They're the type that would swarm you and rip your ear lobe off.  It truly looked like they were playing for their lives, because they were going to get in some BIG trouble afterwards if they didn't win.  They had so many fans in attendance, too.  One block of the stadium (see photos) had people in red t-shirts and special clapping sticks.  I didn't know they could leave their country???  The next evening, we had front row seats to see 2 games in a row at the same stadium.  We had gotten our tickets via the online lottery for residents of China about a year ago.  So we were sitting smack dab in the middle of a lot of Chinese people.  The photo ops never ended, them asking to pose with the boys throughout the night.  Nick's highlight was starting a wave that went through the whole stadium.  He would turn around, stand up, look at the crowd, and hold his arms up like a maestro, yelling, "Yi!, Er!, San!" (1, 2, 3) and undulating his body in a wave-length motion.  The Chinese fans loved when he did this in their own language, and they were usually pretty accommodating in helping him start a wave.  We're still wondering why the Italian men's team stripped down to their underwar at the end of the game, though.  Maybe they wanted to lure more female fans to future games?  I've just looked up at the tv to see yet another Chinese athlete win a gold medal.  They're sure racking them up.  Our driver told us today that he thinks Canada might have finally won their first medal.  I sure hope that we have finally made it to the podium.