Day to Chengde

Today, I (Riley) was lucky enough to have the opportunity for a day trip. Laurie gave me her blessing about a week ago to take off and do something that I'd like to do that would not be a taypical family day out. So, I planned a trip to Chengde, and old city about 3.5 hours north of Beijing. Recruited to go along on the trip were fellow teachers Matt, Jim, and Jason.

We set out at 6 a.m. with our cameras, warm clothes, a full tank of gas, and Starbucks. The new Jingmi highway (similar to an interstate toll road), sweved as our chief route of travel. We had to get off of this road for about 35 miles, which was a true circus! Picture yourself playing some sort of driving video game and you'd get the idea of how we drove. It actually was rather fun. Passing on corners and on the right are commonplace. Also, sights such as bikers, roadside fruit stands, 3 wheeled motorbikes (driving the wrong way), and people walking out in the road are not out of the ordinary. With that said, we made it up to Chengde on time to rendezvous with our tour guide, Mrs. Jing.

Over the course of the day, we visited two Buddhist Temples as well as the Summer Palace of a few of the last Chinese emperors. Each place had its own unique allure. I especially liked the final palace that we visited. This huge place was built in the 1700's and has stood the test of time. All the colors and frills were amazingly foreign and different. Also, these temples are nestled within the mountains of Hebei Province, adding to the beauty.

The weather was mild. Sunny, no wind, and cool, but comfortable. In some areas there were some slick spots where remnants of snow exhisted. The air smelled constantly of burning coal, which is the chief means by which the masses of locals heat their homes. This produced a haze that has been common in our time here. It creates an eeringly pretty sunset here.

Mrs. Jing took us to a local restaurant and helped us to order lunch. We had french fry-like pumpkin, some sort of soup with tofu in it, a Hebei venison dish, dumplings, and porridge. All except the tofu was good in my opinion. We washed this all down with some impressive jasmine tea. Although I am not a huge tea drinker, it sure was a welcome addition to the meal. We were all a bit chilled, and this seemed to warm us from the inside out!

We wanted to drive up to a rock structure that looks like a thumb on top of a mountain plateau, but couldn't get to the base of the mountain due to icy roads. Because of this, I think I'd like to travel there again in order to climb this wierd piece of rock that looks as if it belongs somewhere else.

In the course of the day, we crossed paths with only 2 others who looked of European descent. There was definately a time in my life when this would have been an unsettling thought. However, nowadays, I relish the idea of this. Also, I think we all are used to being looked at and watched constantly. For example, as we were walking around the Summer Palace, I noticed a woman who was walking with us and staring at us THE whole time. I asked our guide what she was doing and she said that she's a local who is not used to us. She went on to tell us that many locals will come down to the Summer Palace during the peak tourist season to watch the foreign tourists. Now picture that. You go down to your local park to look at the foreigners who are visiting your homeland! Quite a different concept I think...

This leads me to share some of my thoughts in general on the Chinese people. By and large, they are extremely jovial, nice, and inquisitive... Frequently, upon feeling a curious stare by a local I will smile and say hello ("Ni hau"). To this, the native person will smile a huge smile and answer back warmly. I absolutely love this and try to do this every chance that I get...

Other than my trip today, the family is doing well. Kieran and Kellan are growing up way too fast. Laurie is looking beautifully pregnant. She's slept well the past two nights after a spell of nights when she couldn't seem to get comfortable. She also had a run of morning headaches that seemed to be cured by a massage about a week ago. Last night, she also had a nice foot massage with some friends and enjoyed a relaxing hour away.

Until next time, we send our love...

The DuBois Clan

yet another week:)

Last week was quite interesting in this city. Beijing rarely gets snow-so the fact that it snowed 2 days was quite the talk of the town. Both Wed and Thurs of last week we woke up and checked the school's website to see if the mild dusting of snow was enough to cause a school delay or cancellation. Although we were all put on warning that there was a good chance it would happen-the good-old director from Minnesota could not justify an inch on the ground being reason enough to delay school. Although many of the busses were late arriving to school, once the kids arrived, the kids were in rare form. Nearly all of them had been out to play in the snow or throw snowballs by the time they had seen me at 8:15 in the morning. There were even some miniature snowmen being built-although the dry snow wasn't easily sticking together. Riley and I just smiled at the site of the workers at school using their brooms made of sticks and twigs to sweep the snow from the sidewalks. I forgot my camera both days o i wasn't able to get pictures, but it sounds like there is a chance of snow tomorrow night? i won't miss that opportunity again.
It was beautiful to see the fresh snow cover all the brown grass and bare trees-reminded us of an early snowfall back home!
Last Tuesday night we had good-old Chef Wong reserved again, so i invited 8 people who i work closely with at the middle school over for appetizers, a meal, dessert, and drinks. If you can believe it, we had 3 different a ppetizers, the main course was honeymustard chicken, beef in a red wine sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, steamed asparagus, stir-fried peppers and for dessert we had cheesecake. All of this food fed all 10 of us well and we had a few leftovers-and the cost was 750 RMB which is about $115! We have this chef reserved once a month until summertime which will be super nice! GReat food and great company-you can't beat that!
The rest of the week was pretty typical-Riley started taking guitar lessons with two buddies on wednesday nights and he is thoroughly enjoying that. he has wanted to do that for so long and now it is finally happening. Can't imagine how he would ever have found the time to do that back in the states with all we had going on?!?!
Saturday night Riley and i went out for dinner at an Italian place downtown with a couple that we have gotten to know very well. This was Riley's first experience driving into the city-with Rob navigating-we felt pretty confident all would go well. While on our way to the restaurant, we took the airport expressway (which is like an interstate) so we were going maybe 55-60mph and were travelling in the middle of 3 or 4 lanes. All the sudden we come up on this taxi that is COMPLETELY STOPPED in the middle lane. It was boxed in and we were boxed in as well---we had a car speeding up behind us so riley couldn't veer left-and there was a huge bus to our right-so Riley did the best he could to not lock up the brakes and veer as much as he could around the taxi. I swear we were inches from hitting the taxi! It was very frightening.....that is what the drivers do here----oh there is my exit-i think i will just stop until i can get over to it or else maybe i will back up ON AN INTERSTATE HIGHWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Very frustrating! that is why i only drive around here-i at least feel safe. you really have to see this driving to believe it!
Sunday was nice and relaxing. Riley and Kieran went to church while kellan and i took a morning nap after being up at 4:30 in the morning. We went to a moving sale in a nearby neighborhood where i got the last couple items i wanted to get for the baby-an infant carseat and a pack-n-play with a bassinet attachment. We also picked up a couple items of luggage since kellan will be a paid ticket going back and forth travelling so we will get 2 more suitcases. All of these items we got at unbelievable prices! We have been very lucky to have found so much gently used stuff-all the big bulk items that you need for a baby-but i think we are pretty much set now! Bring on the baby:)
We are looking forward to our college friend, Kathy Erickson, coming out to visit us in march as well as Delano's teachers and students coming to visit their sister school here in China and stopping at our school to see us and where we work. I believe 4 of the 6 students coming i have either taught or coached and the teachers I know fairly well also-so it will be great to see some familiar faces! We can't wait!
I think that is all for now-going to head off to bed. May try to call my dad and wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY before laying down....
We hope all is well for everyone!
Love
The DuBois Family

Latest Updates

Been a while-here are some of the things we have been up to---i will backtrack
Yesterday (Sunday) we went to an indoor waterpark with about 20 other teachers and their children to some resort about 20 minutes away. It was a great way to spend a Sunday morning with the kids-they had various pools and slides for all ages. I didn't get to go to the natural springs hot tubs but i heard they were nice. They boys were worn out and we all took 2-4 hour naps that afternoon.
The night before was Valentine's day. We had our daytime ayi come over around 4:00 to watch the boys and riley and i headed downtown to a Thai place to have dinner. it was great food-turns out our 5:00 reservations were for a different place with the same name (the Bistro not the restaurant)...but since there was only one table being used at the time, they let us in. The food was great and it was a nice relaxing dinner with just the two of us. After dinner-we walked to a newer movie theater in a place called the village. I had been to a movie there a few months ago with a friend-so we were hoping to see one. After struggling to figure out times and which shows were actually in english (there were 3 to choose from), we opted to go get Cold Stone and check out the local DVD shop and get a movie. We ended up getting all three movies that were playing at the theater and about 5 other ones all for 68 RMB (about 10 bucks!) You can't beat that! So we headed home with our new movies and got to play with the boys a little bit before they went to bed. Then we threw in the movie Slumdog Millionaire----fantastic movie! if you haven't seen it yet-i highly recommend it! Great movie to end the night with!
Friday night we took our ayi and her son out to eat at an American Restaurant (he really wanted pizza) and then we went to our school and watched the ISB Jedi Jugglers. Basically 3rd and 4th graders who are jugglig experts. The show started with the lights off and all kids juggling 3 pins with glow-in-the-dark sticks on them (very cool) and it ended with 5 students juggling sticks with fire! Unbelievable! The boys all really enjoyed it!
The week before was pretty typical-school is going well. I joined a local website called Beijing Cafe to get updates/advertisements on baby stuff. i contacted a local lady who actually lives in the compound next to us....and i ended up getting a swing, bouncy seat, and a double stroller-all barely used! Great prices too-everything here is SOOOOOOOOOOOO expensive if you buy it new! i went to a second-hand store with a couple of other pregnant ladies-kind of like a miniature version of Once-Upon-A-Child in the states-but about 1/8 of the size and much more expensive. I am glad i went, but didn't see anything i would buy. Good experience though----in the basement of an apartment building in the middle of nowhere!

That night Riley went out to celebrate a friend's birthday. A taxi-full from our compound carpooled and met up with about 20 other folks at a HotPot restaurant where a bachelor teacher had everyone playing drinking games (Riley had a blast!) and then the whole lot headed out to some Karaoke bar. Riley said the karaoke experience was another one to chalk up as part of the experience here in china. Sounds like music is played and the microphone (or microphones-i think there are 2 of them) are just passed around and if it is in your hands, you have to sing (glad i wasn't there!) Anyway-riley can fill in the details-he just said he had a great time and he had to take a couple naps the next day!

One thing i forgot to mention was Monday night's fireworks warzone. Monday was the official end of the two week long celebration of Chinese New Year. We drove around to a couple villages to see a few of the shows-it was unbelievable! I don't know what was more spectacular the sights or the sounds! it truely sounded like a warzone-constant booming-nonstop from about 7:00-midnight. Riley had a couple people on skype and took the computer outside just to make people listen to the sounds-they couldn't believe it! Riley did spend about 20 american dollars on fireworks and got some dynamite to blow off one of these nights. Back in the states-for one of the things he bought-it would have cost him 20 bucks-and he got about 10-12 different things! Being the pyromaniac that he is----he got two HUGE reels of blackjacks ---the little fireworks that don't light up at all-they just explode loud! i think each reel has 1000 blackjacks connected to it-and i think his plan is to try to set them both off at the same time!?!?!?! let's home we all survive! Seriously though-it is unlike anything we have seen before-and we were even gone for the actually New Year's Eve BIG celebration! Next year........i will see if Riley will take a picture of his fireworks before he shoots them off.
i think that is it for now-this has gotten long-need to update more frequently so there is not so much!
We hope all is going well for you all! We just purchased our plane tickets home for the summer-so we will be home from Saturday June 13 until thursday August 6. We hope to see all of you while we are home!
We love you all-God Bless!
The DuBois Family in China

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