Coming home

10 months have gone by so fast, and we feel so fortunate to have had this experience together as a family. We say goodbye to Beijing and its smog, unsafe food, the Great Firewall, and pervasive sewer smells, but also to its wonderful citizens, great schools, the amazing public transport system of subways and buslines, jianbing and jiaozi, popsicles on every street corner, the Great Wall and Summer Palaces.

It's been an amazing time of learning, making new friends, seeing wondrous sites and eating new spicy and also not so spicy foods.

Thank you China and we hope you find a way forward to care for your people, respect their voices, and make their dreams your Chinese dream.

the plane taking us home

the impressive Beijing Capital Airport

Yes Joshua, we're not in economy today

12 pieces of luggage 

homecoming meal at In & Out

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Sample Joshua's 1st grade class

This is the poem Joshua is learning today:

蜻蜓半空展翅飞，蝴蝶花间捉迷藏。

蚯蚓土里造宫殿，蚂蚁地上运食粮。

蝌蚪池中游得欢，蜘蛛房前结网忙。

Out of the 42 characters, 25 of them are new to him.

He's expected to learn this in 1 day.  (He only needs to be able to write 6 of them, but should be able to recognize the others and write the pinyin for them).

It's hard. I've been trying to learn it all morning, and I'm getting a headache.

I add words to a flashcard app to study for his tests. Over these past 7 months, we've already added over 1000!

Crazy Chinese school.  The great thing is Joshua loves school.

It would drive me crazy.  

After an exam, the teacher takes a picture of the students who got 100, and posts it on Wechat, and says that the "other students" should copy their example.  Yish.

Smog Out

As the smog in Beijing was off the charts this week, and the WHO warned everyone to stay inside, we kept the boys home from school.  Here are some photos are what it looked like from our street, and then the day after the smog finally cleared.

When we are stuck indoors, the boys enjoy just being around each other, whether it's reading, playing with legos, or pillow fights on the bed.

Sometimes, Joshua will run laps around our living room coffee table while listening to his ipod.

Merry Christmas

Christmas is just another regular work/school in China,  but Annette managed to buy this floor sample Christmas tree from Ikea, we had the boys play hooky from school, and we found a cafe that served turkey and ham for our Christmas feast.

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Bumper cars with guns

The boys had a wonderful time discovering a local park that had a bunch of amusement rides, all with guns on them--even the bumper cars! #onlyinchina

Tourpocalypse

Annette said that they were some one of the most beautiful nature spots she had ever been to, and that would have to sum it up.  Though we did run into the crowds of the 700 million strong Chinese tourpocalypse, and almost got stampeded at times, we still had a very lovely time.  I wouldn't recommend traveling during Chinese National Holiday week ever again though!

The water was so clear in Jiuzhaigou that you could see the fish swimming along the beautiful clear blue and green waters.

This was called Pearl Shoals Falls, to describe the pearly appearance of the water tumbling down the mountain.

Joshua spent a good time admiring this waterfall, and we did so as well.  This was the last part of our hike and he said, that it was great we saved the best for last!

Nourilang waterfalls

The stream behind our house seemed so idyllic.

On the drive back to the airport, we ran into more horses than cars.  We were surprised to find that we were pretty much in Tibet.  China is so expansive.

At Zhangzhaijie, the boys really liked this stream and the rocks they could throw into it.

Hiking along the stream, we could see the moutains towering above.

Zhangjiajie's mountains were incredibly tall, beautiful, and out of this world.

We took our time trekking around, stopping here for a lunch break on top of the mountain.

In Chengdu, we stopped at the People's Park for some tea with the locals.

And saw adorable baby pandas at the vey successful breeding center.

Our cross country trip took us to 3 cities, and on 4 flights over the course of just 7 days.  It was a great introduction to the natural wonders of China!

Fall at the Old Summer Palace

One of our favorite places to go in Beijing to escape the urban jungle, is the Old Summer Palace, which is a park/garden built around the ruins of the old palace, that was twice destroyed by foreign invaders.  I actually prefer it to the regular Summer Palace--something so beautiful arising from old ruins is really charming.
And the boys love the hiking paths up and down the hills all over the park.
This weekend, was a smogfree, autumn smorgasbord of a day and we drank it in.

cruising around the lakes at sunset