A semimetal reflection on the plane ride to home by Lei

An unexpected business trip takes me back to the US and allows me to spend thanksgiving weekend at home in Boston.

For me, most thanksgivings come and go without a second thought. Thanksgiving is usually filled with great food, TV and perhaps some poker with Diana’s cousins. This thanksgiving is bit different as I sit on a plane flying over the Pacific Ocean reflecting what I am really thankful for.

I am thankful for:
- Chance to be home with my parents. Thankful for my parents who love and care for me regardless how impatient I am with them. Parents who drive me nuts with their 100 phone calls a week but in the end they just want to hear from the only son. I am thankful I get to be by their side this weekend
- Friends who drops everything when they hear I am back in town to host me, to feed me and to laugh with me (or laugh at me)
- Diana who understands me and support me in all that I do; even if it means leaving her home alone on thanksgiving
- A new career, new home and new friends in China; a chance to experience the world and open our eyes to new horizons

I am thankful for all these things that make me who I am and enable me to be who I am. I can’t imagine what my life would be like without each of these things.

Sorry for the lack of blog entries. The access to this site is blocked in our region therefore making entry updates hard. Please check in once in awhile because we appreciate your interest and care in our lives.

Back to School by Diana

So I am a full time 1&2nd grade teacher this year at a local private bilingual school (wow...that's a mouthful!). The school has British influences and therefore we are a subject based school as kids change teachers for each subject. I teach English and Math. This structure is new to me as I'm use to teaching most subjects to the same group of students for an entire day. Nevertheless, I am just as tired at the end of the first day! Here are some things I am thankful for on the
first day of school:

• being escorted to school by my supportive husband
• being formally greeted by a group of middle school students as I entered the gates (our school share a campus with a local public school)
• finding a chocolate treat on my desk when I arrived at school (from our curriculum director)
• morning assembly where I got to exercise with my class (I am linked with a homeroom)
• hearing all about what students did this summer
• lunch provided by the school (this happens everyday!)
• meeting Tiger (a spunky student in my English class)
• an interactive flip chart (Promethean) to do morning calendar routines (no more chart paper)
• reading aloud books and seeing students excited to read
• neon lights of tall buildings as I walk home
• pizza for dinner

Time in the USA by Lei

I loved being back in the U.S. I love seeing our families, friends, and being back in our old stomping grounds. It was such a joy to see people who love us and genuinely care to hear about our experiences in China.

Here is my two parts semi-related blog

PART 1:
When we were back, people always asked us What did you miss about the US? What do you love about China? Well here is goes (not in any particular order)

What did I miss about the U.S. (besides friends and family)
- Being able read and communicate with people without worrying about looking foolish bc lack of vocabulary
- Blue sky and joggling in the fresh air (Storrow Dr)
- Driving a car
- Being in the same time zone as our friends so we can call them without making an appointment
- Shopping w/o bargaining the price or worrying about the return policy
- Food – Who said American food was boring??
o Medium rare steak (Thanks Diana’s Dad)
o Mexican burrito from Anna’s ( Thanks Jessica )
o Great Italian food (il Panino’s in Cambridge)
o Greek food from Queens NY ( Thanks Jeff )
o Indian food (Even the ones found in upstate NY – Indian population <100)
o Bagels with cream cheese

What I love about the China
- The people (okay, most of the people). Hospitability and genuine friendships
- Meeting new people and discovering new things (new friends, new neighborhoods, new foods, new cities, etc.)
- Awesome and inexpensive Chinese food everywhere
o Xinjiang Lamb
o Chinese icy desserts with redbean, mochi, etc
o Hot pot
- Our home
- Seeing a culture and a country transform before your eyes

PART 2:
As I experience more of China and also get to see America from a different angle, I realize just how similar the people are. Yeah, yall probably thinking “Lei, are you crazy? Americans are Chinese are so different”

Many months back I wrote an entry on why people bum rush. (see November 30, 2008)

Before coming back to the U.S., one thing I was looking forward to was the order, the manners, the courteous treatment you expect in an orderly society. I was disappointed to experience just the opposite.

On my way back to Shanghai, I had to fly out of tiny airport in upstate NY. This airport here is probably one of the smallest commercial airports you can find. There are total of TWO check-in counters, ONE security line, and most of the time there is only one flight per hour. The arrival and departure monitor is hand written.

While waiting in line to check in. I was relaxed after my 3 weeks in the U.S. There were 5 people ahead of me and no one behind me in line. Well, you can hardly call it a line. If this was Shanghai, you would jump up and down if you ever found a line with less than 5 people.

Everyone in this line was checking in for the same flight and the plane was not going anywhere without its 30 passengers. As the line moved up, I didn’t feel the urge to move my heavy cart of bags up by 5 feet just so I can continue waiting. This left a gap between me and the guy in front of me.

Next thing I know, a lady and her husband walked right in front of me and stood between me and the line. I was speechless… If this was Shanghai I would have made a fuss and yelled at them to shame them to the back of the line (me). This wasn’t Shanghai and I was totally caught off guard. I was so shocked that I didn’t know what to say or do. I just stood there.

I continued to stand there for the next 10 minutes while the line moved. Many things ran through my head

- “Did this couple just not see me?... I am not an easy guy to miss and I had a chart with 5 big bags.”
- “Where did these people think they were going? We are all going on the same flight. What did they accomplish by cutting me off?”
- “Is this a joke?” I half expected one of those Candid Camera TV crews to jump out and say “got ya”
- “Am I back in Shanghai?” I took another look at the couple who cut me off. I was like “no… they are definitely NOT Chinese. They are as white as you can get!!! I know I am not in Shanghai. Do Americans cut people off?
o My apologies to my Caucasian friends for the “white” comment. I don’t mean to judge you by the actions of those who has the same skin color as you hahaha

Well, after this small airport surprise, I think I am ready to head back to China. Ready to battle and yell at the next person who cut me off in line.

The Great Fire Wall by Diana

So, we've been having some issues accessing this blog. Basically we think it has been blocked by the Great Firewall. Anyhow, we are investigating workarounds so feel free to send us an email if you have any suggestions.

P.S. We've been on the East Coast most of June and loved reuniting with our family and friends. We'll be back on the other side of the pond this weekend.

Home Cooking by Diana

So my days of cooking Italian have dwindled since our move. Imported ingredients are super expensive. Instead, I've been cooking a lot more Chinese since the ingredients are convenient to obtain and very fresh. I took advantage of my mother-in-law's visit to embrace local spices and learn some new northern style dishes. No worries, Cantonese food is still my favorite!

Visitors by Diana

Sorry we have not posted in a while. We've had visitors and/or house guests almost every weekend. Although this might seem draining, Lei & I really enjoy sharing life with others-- especially when folks visit and stay with us. Here's our tally thus far: an English teacher from New York, a university lecturer from Boston, a self-employed businessman from Boston, Lei's cousin from Beijing, my college classmate from Hong Kong, a family of four from Boston/California, Beijing friends

Food we like to feed visitors (aka the best shao long bao)

We are looking forward to Lei's parents visit next week! They will stay for about a month and we'll go on a mini-vacation with them outside of the city.

A funny thing happend on the way to... by Diana

A funny thing happened the other day. There is a huge mall nearby our home that I typically walk through every day to get to another destination (subway, gym, grocery store, etc.) As I made my usual journey through they mall I was approached by a woman from English First. She asked in her native tongue, "Do you want to take one-on-one English lessons?"

I couldn't help but smile. =) It made my day. As some of you know, I have been studying Mandarin and trying to embrace the culture here. So, my optimistic outlook likes to think that it might be that I am "fitting in" with the local folks here....I look like I need to learn English! On the other hand, it could just be that I am an easy target for sales people. Either way, I was thoroughly entertained by the situation.

Valentine's Day Brunch & Glamour Shot by Diana

On Saturday, we invited a few of Lei's friends from work over to our place for an American brunch. I ended up making quiche, deviled eggs, chicken sausage and french toast. Here are some foodie shots...

No crust shall go to waste...so I made a few mini quiches.

Not bad for a glorified toaster oven?
(FYI: Chinese apartments do not have real ovens)


UNO jenga + friends = serious fun

Afterward we went to an event at our local mall called "What is love?" It was organized by some folks that we know here to "spread the love" on Valentine's Day. Two significant things happened: First, Lei got picked to go on stage and bust a move. Then, we celebrated by taking our first ever Valentine's Day glamour shot (below).


After all the festivities, we finished off the evening on a date.
Lei surprised me with pasta & chocolate.

Spinach Gnocci


Tiramisu & Hot Chocolate

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chinese New Year in China by Diana

For Chinese New Year we spent some time in Hong Kong and on the mainland. In Hong Kong the malls and parks were decked out with CNY decor. On the mainland, there were a lot of fireworks (every day for 15 days). Lei was quite excited when he was invited by a friend to light somefirecrakers together. It's totally legal here!

Consequence: one morning Lei woke me up to turn off the alarm clock (oops...I usually don't hear it). When I went to turn it off, I realized it wasn't the alarm rather the fireworks outside!

Hong Kong

Mainland: Lantern Festival in Yu Gardens

Since it's the year of the Ox, many kids walked around the Lantern festival with glow in the dark Ox horns. It reminded me of Halloween.

Imagine having to perform at a company holiday party. Well, apparently that's the culture here. At the company CNY party, Lei put on his emcee skills...

Yes, those are pom poms!

To eat or watch?

Holiday Momentos by Diana

I love Christmas and I don't like taking down our decorations. So here's one last look. This year we got creative with our tree when our US stuff did not arrive. We invited some friends over to make ornaments.






Also, thank you for sending cards through snail mail. They really warmed our home. =)

When working in China...by Lei

Below is a phone conversation with technical support at my company...

Agent: Hi, how may I help you?

LZ: I got a problem… I am a Chinese employee located in China but I CANNOT read Chinese. When I log into our company Intranet, the language setting is in Chinese. Can you change default setting to English for me?

Agent: Well, you'll have to change it yourself.

LZ: How do I do that?

Agent: Click on the My preference link under my account information

LZ thinking to himself: I can’t read Chinese!!!! How am I supposed to find “my preference” link among the many links on this Intranet page?

Eventually I figured out how to change the default setting to English. It wasn’t too bad since I can recognize enough characters to get it done but this is just part of my daily struggles of working here.

Our fellow friend said it best when she said “it is a very humbling experience to go from a very highly educated and independent individual in one society to another in which I can barely read a street sign. Oh the little things in life we take for granted! =)

Ringing in 2009! by Diana

Happy New Year! Since Lei had some time off from work we decided to visit his extended family in Beijing. Basically, we ate our way through BJ. As many of you know I'm a foodie and I love documenting it. Enjoy!

We were invited to spend New Years Eve with Lei's relative who grew up in Switzerland but now lives in BJ. We enjoyed a truly delicious European meal. It was a memorable night of playing Taboo in French & English!

Of course we had more family to meet and ate a lot of Peking Duck...yummy!

To combat all the eating, we got some inspiration from Fido (above) and decided to get some exercise (below).

We're jumping into 2009!