This photo of the cherry pit/stem discard bowls pretty much sums up the difference between Andrew (12) and Michael (9). Andrew's bowl is the top one; Michael's is on the bottom. Hm, which kid is random and disorganized and which kid is a little obsessive?

We saw ducklings and bunnies for sale recently. (For pets, not food, I think.)

Michael (8): "OOH, I really want one! I will call him 'Silent Ninja'!"

Only Michael would name a cute yellow duckling "Silent Ninja". Needless to say, we did not buy one.

Michael (8) has decided to move from Guitar Hero to the real thing. So, two weekends ago, I took him down to Gulou Dajie, a street downtown with a bunch of music shops. We went through all of them and quickly found a nice little, locally made acoustic for 400 RMB (about USD $60) at a place called Xanders. I must say that everyone at the shops was very friendly and attentive -- not at all like my instrument shopping experiences in the US where the cooler-than-thou musicians/clerks are too busy screwing around with their buddies to deal with newbies like me.

This weekend, Michael had his first guitar lesson and walked out playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. His instructor asked him for a song he likes and wants to learn so he can start working on it next week; Michael made the ambitious choice of The Ballroom Blitz. It's quite a step up in difficulty from Twinkle, but I think he's up for it.

Watch out world! If you thought Michael was a devastating and dangerous ladies man before, just wait until he's a rockstar.

We went to an Easter party at our neighborhood's club house yesterday. There was a well-intentioned Easter egg hunt plus other activities and booths. While were were there, the boys and I were interviewed by a reporter from the China Daily. Some of our quotes were included in the article in today's edition. The other family in the story lives down the street and have become good friends recently too. Kind of fun...

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2009-04/13/content_7670887.htm

Celebrating a special Easter

By Erik Nilsson (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-13 09:34

Families in Beijing's Shunyi district put all their eggs in one basket to celebrate Easter together yesterday - but they had to find them first.

The egg hunt organized by Beijing Dragon Bay Villa was accompanied by appearances by the Easter Bunny - both in the forms of a villa staff member clad in a giant pink rabbit suit and live baby bunnies - face painting and egg decorating.

"This is a family time, and children love (it)," says the villa's property manager Zheng Min.

Finding the hidden eggs and candy helped alleviate homesickness for 11-year-old Andrew Chor and his 8-year-old brother, whose family moved from the US to Beijing four months ago.

"We used to do this a lot at home, and at first, I thought we wouldn't be doing it in China," Andrew says, holding up his sack of eggs, candy and toothpaste. He proudly announces he found six eggs, and his brother found five.

The boys' father Tony says he's happy the kids were able to join the fun. "The kids were kind of unsure about moving to China overall, and something like this makes the transition easier," he says.

Scot Julie Hansen, whose family moved to China four months ago, believes joining the party helped keep her family's Easter traditions alive.

Hansen brought sons Patrick, 10, and Thomas, 6, to join the fun. "It helps us meet some of our neighbors and bring some European traditions to China," she says.

Last weekend, we took advantage of the boys' short spring break (two days off school -- shorter than normal this year because of the late start due after the Olympics) to take a quick jaunt down to Sanya, a city on the south coast of Hainan Island. Hainan is on the south coast of China in the South China Sea near Vietnam; it's often referred to as the "Hawaii of China." It's a popular resort destination for Chinese and expats, plus it's apparently a big draw for visitors from Taiwan, Japan, and Korea. More interestingly, it's a huge favorite for Russian tourists. On our drive from the airport, we saw a lot of signs with Russian on them.

Contrary to my normal vacation mode where I want to see a lot things at our destination, this time we just wanted to sit around, soak up the warmth, and relax. To that end, we chose to stay at the Banyan Tree Resort in Sanya. The resort is away from the bustle of the more popular hotel areas, in a quiet section on Luhuitou Bay. We spent a lot of our time in and around the private pool in our two bedroom villa, going to the beach to play in the sand and warm water in the mornings when it was a bit cooler. The boys thought the midnight swims were especially cool.

(This is a Photosynth view of our villa. It's a composite image of a few hundred photos. You may need to install Photosynth first. BTW, Photosynth is a super cool technology by the big brain guys at Microsoft Live Labs. Worth checking out.)

 

 

I managed to sneak out to Luhuitou Golf Club for my first round in eighteen months. It turns out that not playing for a while doesn't help your game. Fortunately, I was playing alone save for my caddie, who was polite enough not to laugh, and the course was impeccably maintained with perfect greens (not that I could make a putt to save my life.)

The facilities were undeniably lovely and the service was very good (particularly by Chinese standards). The only real downer (and probably the thing that would encourage us to to try someplace else next time) was the food. It was very inconsistent, ranging from great to fair, and the menu was pretty limited. By the end of our fourth day, we were pretty bored with the selection. (Although I did have a pretty good Hainan Chicken Rice - always good to try a dish in the place of its origin.)

Still, it was great to get away from the dusty grey and brown air and ground of Beijing for warm, humid, clean air and lush tropical environs of Sanya. We all had a very enjoyable and relaxing time.

It's March 1 and spring is in the air (or is that just coal smoke?). One of the surprises for me about Beijing was how cold it really gets, especially since Beijing and San Francisco are roughly at the same latitude. Unlike in SF (or even Seattle), in Beijing, the lakes and rivers freeze over, and Beijingers head out onto the ice.

One popular place to play is Houhai, the lakes behind the Forbidden City. In addition to ice skating, the locals have other ways to enjoy the ice. One popular older form is to sit on ice chairs and propel themselves with sharp poles. According to our driver, they did this originally because many people couldn't afford skates.

A newer toy is the ice bike. I think the back wheel must have studs on it.

Nearby, vendors sold animals (usually ones from the Chinese zodiac) blown from blobs of sugary dough. (The art is called nie1 mian4 捏面 in Chinese, meaning "knead or pinch dough".) These were super cool, but they kind of sagged and melted when brought into the warm house. I've seen some people eat these, but I don't think that's advisable since the dude worked the dough with his hands and then blew into it the blob.

It was definitely a popular place and, like all fun things in Beijing, crowded. (The big tower in behind the lake is the Gulou or Drum Tower.)

We weren't dressed to play that day at Houhai, so I took the boys skating at a rink near our house. Well, Andrew (11) skated and Michael (8) ran around on the ice.

Eventually, Andrew dropped his skates and started ice bowling (with himself as the ball).

I can't remember the last time I skated or even walked on a frozen lake. It's definitely been 25-30 years (crap, I hate the way that sounds). Skating on the bumpy, grooved ice is definitely a different experience than smooth arena ice (go, Zamboni!) but we all had a great time.

While I'm looking forward to spring, I'm sad we didn't enjoy the ice more while we had it. We'll have to play more next winter.

Michael (8) rode a bike by himself today for the first time! This accomplishment was something of a surprise really. Unlike Andrew (11), who has always loved biking and mastered two wheeling at an early age, Michael has demonstrated no interest (negative interest in fact) for quite some time. Yesterday, however, as I was peeking into the new Trek store that opened nearby (I didn't bring my road bike and am thinking I might want one here), Michael suddenly showed interest in a cool new Trek Jet 20. Despite the relatively high price (due to China's import markup), Michelle and I decided to take advantage of this mood swing and bought the bike.

He tried riding yesterday and almost had it, but he couldn't quite get it all working. Then today, while I was getting my bike and Andrew's out for a ride, Michelle and Michael took another swing at things. By the time I came out, Michael was cruising down the street!

He's still working on starting and stopping, but he rode out to the nearby convenience store about five minutes away later this afternoon. Quite a feat! He's very excited and proud of himself. I think we'll be cruising around the 'burbs together before you know it.

(Separately, Andrew completed his longest ride ever today, almost seven miles. It was a good day for biking.)

Andrew (11) and I went ice skating today at the China World mall near our apartment; Michelle and Michael (8) watched (Michael wanted nothing to do with it.)

Andrew has only been ice skating once in his life and that was when he was two, so he struggled a bit, especially at first, falling a lot.

As they watched Andrew falling repeatedly, Michael said to Michelle: "This is better than watching TV!"

Schadenfreude is a bitch.

Up until this move, Michael (8) didn't really speak any Chinese. In his school here, he's started taking Chinese class. It's been fun to hear him start to use a few words here and there.

Today in the car on the way home from school, he lit into Andrew (11) with a set of Chinese insults. He started with some common Chinese insults (like "stupid egg", "silly melon", and such) and then started improvising by combining words he had learned (e.g. "apple head", "butt head", etc.) He then starting improvising sentences with insults (e.g. "You are an apple head.")

I think something like 75% of the Chinese words he knows are insults or can be combined into insults. He's surprisingly fluent for a guy with a week of Chinese class under his belt (although I suspect he is not learning these words in class.) Our driver, normally pretty stoic, almost exploded laughing.

Everyone learns in their own way; I think the "salty seaman" approach is Michael's.