Full Circle

Looking at a globe today, we traced the route to Kunming from Michigan. So many miles! It's hard to believe, that only one year ago, to us, Kunming was only a small dot on a map. Now, it's a place that represents many memories of good times, friends, and places that are dear. A year ago, we were in the process of stepping into the unknown - a bit nervous, a little scared, but fully excited about the possibilities. And we're glad we took the plunge...

The adjustment to coming home certainly has been much easier than adjusting to life in China! We're in full swing - playdates, grocery shopping, doctor appointments, etc. The biggest adjustments? Where is everybody?! And those we do see are so tall! The stores and streets seem so empty. Traffic is orderly - and omg! - everyone obeys the traffic laws! And the very best - we can now read everything!

Two things I miss most about living in China:

• walking. I love to walk, but I need a specific destination. In China, one walks everywhere, everyday. Up and down and in and out.
• good, cheap food waiting for us at one of the university dining halls, a dumpling dive or at a choice of restaurants.

Thanks to everyone who joined us throughout this journey. It's much appreciated. I tried to show our everyday, nothing fancy life. A goal of ours was to live a simple life on a Chinese teacher salary. We purposefully didn't mega-travel and limited our Western "needs". A main goal was to give the kids a language immersion experience by attending a Chinese school. We are so thankful that C. and E. had a wonderful, fun-filled school year of making friends while becoming quite proficient in Mandarin. That, in itself, was worth any "discomfort" experienced.

Now it's time to end GACE in China, but not an end to blogging. Please join us at our new blog - www.gaceathome.blogspot.com starting soon. It'll be mostly photos (with a small amount of text) updated once or twice a month for family and friends. Please do visit!

4th of July

It's good to see friends Nic and Alex again!


And Jeni and Mike, too!


The kids are on week two (already!)of swimming lessons:


Do come back! I ain't quite done blogging just yet...

Right where we belong

The girls in their kitchens...



and the guys with their tools.

The Long Ride

The day that seemed to have no end: We began traveling around midnight, left for Chicago at 11am, and about 15 hours later, arrived Chicago at 11am the same day, and it was still June 24.


Craft activity at the Incheon, Korea airport:


Our ride home:


At DTW - all luggage (and people) accounted for:

Bye-Bye Kunming...

A tearful good-bye to Li Laoshi:


Our favorite jiaozi makers:


Now this we'll surely miss!


Our last real Chinese meal. Good stuff!


A send-off surprise at the airport: the Dean of the English Department, Dora (left), and our friends Hua, Jin and Xue Xi

Hello USA!

"Jackson, Michigan once again," sighed C. as we entered our home Tuesday night. It's wonderful to be back. Just a quick note to say we have arrived and are still shaking off the effects of jet lag. We're not quite sure if it's day or night yet - seeing the sun or moon isn't helping us!

Today is the first day having the internet back on. I'll be posting again soon about our trip home, the first few days back, and some final happenings in China. Please check back!

Zaijian China!

The journey is the reward - Chinese proverb. Thanks for the memories! China will always have a special place in our hearts.


Enjoying a final cup of delicious Yunnan coffee at Salvador's this morning:


This is it. After nearly eleven months (10 months in Kunming, three weeks plus in Shanghai), we are saying our last goodbyes and will be leaving for the airport in a few hours. We depart Kunming around midnight, get into Seoul about 5am, leave for Chicago at 11am, arrive Chicago 11 am the same day, then arrive Detroit at 4pm. Whew!

Thanks for coming along this crazy ride with us. We enjoyed the company. But please check back. Once we're home and have the internet up and running, I'll be posting some final thoughts. Off to pick up the kids from school and prepare for take off...

Still Stuffed on Sunday

Our final dinner in Kunming was very fitting - Yunnan's specialty - Over the Bridge Noodles at a very popular Bridge Nooodle restaurant.

Here's all the "fixings" that one puts in the broth to cook:


Aileen made sure the right ingredient entered the broth in the correct order:


That stack of little plates and bowls ended up in the big bowls. Delicious and a good deal - total cost for three huge bowls - under $9:


And a bonus - entertainment!


That mural tells the story of the origin of Over the Bridge Noodles:

Stuffed on Saturday...

That's the feeling we have had the last two days. Seems all we have done is eat!

Here we are having lunch on Saturday with friends from the Kindergarten. We also attended a dinner Saturday night for the foreign teachers at KMUST. No photos. We went to thank the directors of the international office for all their help throughout the year. Since the other five (single) foreign teachers are on the other two campuses, we have only seen them at the welcome and holiday dinners this year. Thus, we don't know them! So it was basically a dinner with "strangers"!


Lunch on Sunday with our New Zealand friends Lew and Chris:


This is James and Aileen whom we had dinner with on Sunday. (See next post.) Back in September, it was these two kind souls who helped us through the maze of the Chinese hospital system to obtain the kids' school physicals.


Here's a video of the Saturday lunch gang wishing Li Laoshi a very happy birthday: (Hope it works!) I've been really wanting and trying to get a video of the kids speaking Chinese, but everytime they see the camera, they clam up - arrggh...!

Lookin' Spiffy

I'd like to say we all got haircuts so we'll look neat and trim when we see family and friends soon. But the real motivation, of course, was the low cost of a haircut.

E. loves to have her hair washed:


Snip, snip...


Buzz, buzz...


My nail lady since September - Li Xin:

Too Cute!!

C. brought home school pictures yesterday. Since we can't read anything that is posted in the school, we had no idea a picture day took place. Surprise! At least he was wearing a decent looking shirt that day! E. didn't come home with photos, so we suspect it was only for C.'s age group - the "graduates".

The Kindergardener demonstrating a common Chinese pose:


With teacher and assistants; with best friend (bodyguard?!) Wa Li Hau:


With special subject teachers, directors and forty-nine (!) classmates. Can't spot him? Look on the right side for the short brown skinned boy in the brown shirt. Both C. and E. are small, even by Chinese standards. Their U.S. classmates will be head and shoulders above them come this Fall.

The Final Week

Seven days and we're air bound! So far some of our week will look like this:

• lunch and dinner with various friends
• haircuts for all; manicure and pedicure for one :)
• sorting through the kids' clothes (90% will be given to the kindergarten to have on hand for "accidents" - E. has come home with her share of interesting outfits - or it's so stained it needs to be tossed
• sorting through the kids' toys - things like broken crayons and almost done coloring books will be thrown out, but the building blocks, soccer balls, etc. will be left near the tracks for those families that have so little
  
• last minute shopping - some which will be replacement toys for those above. Little things that will surprise and entertain on the long, long flight home
• and of course, all the final details of ending my university duties.

G. has been ready to jump on a plane (any plane) for a couple of months now. People wise, (soccer teams, tutoring, friends) he likes China. He's just tired of dealing with the "camping" lifestyle (I can relate). Surprisingly, I'm really not that anxious to leave. Yes, I'm looking forward to being home again, but I also am dreading all the work that lies ahead. Doctor appointments, kids' swim lessons and bible camp, registering for school, filing taxes, buying a car, going through nearly a year's worth of mail, driving here, driving there, etc. Plus, since we just moved to a new area and I was just beginning to get a feel for where things are, I have to start all over! But then, I only need to think of the all that I'm looking forward to...

There are some things that I'll miss. Such as, don't feel like cooking? Well, let's just walk down to the dining hall for a bite to eat. I've gotten quite used to that and I like it. However, I do miss having an oven. First real meal I'm serving - baked chicken!

So onward to our last hurrah...!

Between the raindrops,

we managed to get out of the apartment today. Today was one of those rainy days where it rains hard for an hour, stops for thirty minutes, then rains for another hour. The cycle finally broke with the sun coming out around three o'clock. The original plan for today was to make a trip to LuFeng, home to World Dinosaur Valley, about 60km from Kunming. That is an all-day event. Given the weather and that the kids are fighting a summer cold (low energy), we nixed that idea.

C. enjoying some down time-playing yahtzee-while the rest of us were true to form: E. drew, G. watched soccer and A. read.


Mommy and Papi had a yearning for coffee, so we boarded the #98 to McD's:


This might be all that we see of World Dinosaur Valley-this promotional display near McD's-given that we have one final weekend in China. (Photo taken a few weeks ago.)


P.S. A Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dads!! I just realized (and it's late evening here) that today is Father's Day. I think I need to return to the land of mass marketing and commercialism of everything so that I have a clue!

You know you have a six year old in the house

when the Tooth Fairy visits! Earlier this week, C. woke up to a crisp 10 yuan bill under his pillow. Looks like he's happy with the trade. And the next trade is that yuan for ice cream!

Class dismissed!

Another school year down! This was the final week of classes. At least it was for my department. There seems not to be a central calendar, as departments and schools have their own end dates. Some do not finish until mid July.

I had a great group of students and it was nice having the same sections since September. Next week final exams are given. All that remains to be done is the exam grading, posting final grades and writing course evaluations. During the second semester I saw five groups of students-three sections of third year students (Survey of English-Speaking Countries) and two sections of second year students (Writing). As you can see from the photos, "English Major" is certainly more of a "girl thing"!

Survey class - Section 1:


Writing class - Section 1:


Survey class - Section 2:


Survey class - Section 3:


Writing class - Section 2:

Yunnan Nationalities Museum

On Sunday we took the long ride out to the western edge of the city to a museum that is connected to the outdoor Nationalities Village that we visited a couple of weeks ago. It was an impressive space filled with many displays and (too) much information. We stayed as long as the kids' attention spans allowed. Here are some scenes from the day:









The best part - lunch! We love our noodles!

Dragon Boat Festival and Olympic Torch Relay

The Dragon Boat Festival (Duan Wei Jie) is on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar and was officially celebrated June 8. Since this is one of the restored traditional folk holidays, schools and government offices were closed Monday June 9. The origin of the festival has several versions. One of its origins revolve around the use of dragon images in the warring of evil spirits (the 5th month and the 5th day is considered unlucky). Dragon boat racing is the main activity. The much more popular activity is the eating of zongzi - glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves. Another purpose of the festival is to honor the poet Qu Yuan. It's also considered a patriotic festival emphasizing loyalty and commitment to the community. We didn't do any boat racing, but we did enjoy some zongzi.

The rice was sweet and tasted good:


The Olympic Torch relay came through Kunming today. It was originally scheduled for June 5 but was delayed because of the country's three day period of mourning for the earthquake victims last month. So the relay just happened to fall on a holiday. The relay itself was from about 6am to 9am and the route came fairly close to us. But, we had no desire to fight the crowds just to see a torch go by, so we remained happly snug in our beds.

The city was alive this weekend with guys like these two selling flags:


Preparations along the downtown portion of the relay route: