Moving back

We have decided to go back to blogger. Since we now have access, and find blogger easier to navigate (maybe we just know it better…), we are moving back.

See us back at http://braeckelblog.blogspot.com

The Chains Have Been Broken!

We have figured out how to freely access our blog from China. This means more fuzzy, yummy, happy, China fun- and more pics too! Whoopee. Just cause I can now, here’s a random photo or two or three. Yippee! We are free at last.

  Chongqing sunset.

  Grandpa Jim getting a kiss from PB.

  Tate and his girls near Elk Meadow in Evergreen.

   Shuckin’ corn!  Penny was very good at it.

China Update!

We have finally started to settle in here in Chongqing;  Abby has started
teaching and is starting to hit her stride with time management, HD is in
preschool at the school Abby’s at, and Tate and Penny are spending their
days together.  I have been looking for ESL teaching positions and will be
doing a mock lesson sometime this week.  PB and I wander around the
neighborhood, sometimes catch a bus, and go further out to see some of the
city that is close by.  We’ll never see the whole city- it’s too big!

For HD’s birthday we went to a nearby kid’s bookstore, I’d been to a few
days before, to attend a party they were throwing to celebrate the store
itself I suppose.  Parties are very important social events.  Most stores
throw one or two a year at least. They have a back room filled with old
English kid’s books that is very attractive to us in a place where familiar
words are far and few between.  They had a stage, many kids dressed up,
doing dance skits, and singing adorable songs in Chinese.  There were a few
adult dancers.  One guy was hilarious.  Picture Michael Jackson, Chinese,
much more frantic gyrating, one earring, etc.  It was fun.  Later we made
her the last of the Mac and Cheese we’d brought over, for her special
birthday dinner, then cake and gifts.  It was simple, just us, but it was
perfect after the last two hectic weeks.

 A couple days ago I took Penny to a nearby park where there’s a play
structure.  We’d been there before and many of the Grandparents- who watch
the kids during the day- knew Penny and gathered around us.  The kids seem
to be a universal bridge across the language barrier, because they
communicate through play, through movements, through gesture.  All Chinese
people we’ve come in contact with find Penny and Harper irresistible
(sometimes annoyingly so).  One woman we’d met the previous day gestured we
follow her.  She ended up being one of the groundskeepers for the park and
took us to a food/ utility shack next to a pond, where her husband sat
reading the paper, looking wise in his thick glasses.  She sat us down and
ran around the shack.  Two seconds later, she ran back around with a candy
and an Asian pear.  She couldn’t resist grabbing Penny and ogling her,
pinching her cheeks, beaming at her adorableness.  She even picked her up
and ran to some fisherman across from us to show Penny off.  It felt good to
stumble through some horrible Chinese I’ve learned and to be uncomfortable,
yet comforted by how generous and kind she was to us.  That has been the
best part of this move so far- the people.  Once they remember you’re a
human and not just a sideshow, their true kindness shines through.

 Abby is very busy with school.  Her schedule is a bit more challenging than
she thought when she was first hired so she has had and will have some
pretty late nights.  I try and help her whenever I can to relieve one or two
ounces of stress.  She loves it though, has mentioned how sure of things she
is when she’s at school with the kids.  They are lucky to have Abby for a
teacher- she works too hard sometimes.

We have met a few expats- mostly from Sweden, but recently a couple with two
young sons who are Canadian and Australian.  With the language barrier
always ever-present, it is easy to gravitate towards people who can at least
speak your language.  Otherwise many of my days would be filled with noise I
don’t understand for the most part and some jumbled attempts at
Chinese.  However,
I don’t want to shelter myself behind familiarity.

The culture shock is just now hitting us as we try to build our life here,
realizing you’re all back there.  We miss everyone very much, miss the hoppy
beer, the good coffee, the cheese that flows from the sky- it’s so
plentiful, our friends, our family, Blue.  But  we are here and This Is
China (TIC), so we’ll learn to love rice wine, drink more tea, to ration our
precious Land O’ Lakes Cheddar cheese, to still love and miss family and
friends and Blue, and to appreciate this amazing place.

Tate (China Style)

PS- There are amusement park rides everywhere.  Harper has ridden on three
carousels already.  They’re all around 75 cents a ride.  Many of the rides
are fairly run down and questionably safe, but many things in China are that
way.  So what can you do?

Hello world!

Here we are! We can post on a blog – yea!!!

I will do more soon.

Welcome to Braeckel Land!