Noah's Birthday (Cain's post)

So Noah is turning 10 on Friday and he's half way around the world from his friends. He won't even get much of a celebration on his actual day, as we will be flying from Beijing to Xining in the morning. We did have some Mongolian hotpot on Wednesday with our longstanding Beijing friends and their daughter Hua Dun (who is also 10). If you look closely, you can see that each person has their own cooking pot (with either a salty chicken broth or a spicier soup) in front of them. On the table are various meats, tofu, vegetables, noodles and shrimp. Each person grabs what they want and puts it in their pot to cook. Fish it out when ready and eat; simple as that. I think the kids liked it a lot.

When we came home Wednesday night, the kids got to have a dance with their mom and jump on the bed. (No more monkeys jumping on the...) Then tonight, Thanksgiving night, Noah had a cake and he even wore the pink crown which Char got for him at the bakery. He's a good kid!


Happy Thanksgiving to all of Anna, Rosa and Noah's friends!

Loose Teeth and A Family Picture

Here are two family pictures from the temple of Heaven. It was a bit windy that day so we were buttoned up, but the sun felt nice! It was a great day for sightseeing, as have been most of the days since we've been here. I highly recommend spending a few weeks here in Beijing seeing all of the sights!

The other picture shows that Rosa has now joined Anna in losing both of her front teeth. She was very interested in learning whether there is a Chinese Tooth Fairy and whether she would get Meijin or RMB. (She got five kuai for each tooth this week!)

We are off to Qinghai on Friday of this week. We will try to get back online as soon as possible to let you all know how things are going for us!

Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the holiday season!
Noah, Anna and Rosas' dad

Anna's post #3

I went to the Temple of Heaven. I saw a big red gate and a pathway to the echo wall. But we didn't go that pathway, we went on the main pathway like in this picture. When we got there, I thought that it was a dead end. We also played in a forest of trees around the temple. It was all laid out in rows and diagonals. I did nothing there but my sister and brother played tag.
Rosa, mommy and me sat on the steps below the temple for this picture. The temple was very, very beautiful and had lots and lots of pretty colors. It was a sunny day and I liked going there.


This is a picture of our friend Hua Dun. She is playing her Erhu, a traditional Chinese violin. It has two strings only. She played beautiful songs. We were sitting in the courtyard of our highrise. There is a nice little park there. My daddy says there is more information about the Erhu and a sample of this music at this website: http://www.philmultic.com/home/instruments/erhu.html

This week I am leaving Beijing and going to Rebgong. I am thinking about all of my friends and hope you are doing well.

Anna

Noah's post #3 Temple Of Heaven

THE TEMPLE OF HEAVEN
This is a picture of a firewood stove. It was used for burning ...guesses anybody?...I will answer that with answers to comments, so if you have a guess write comments. ( Hint: something dies ) In the picture I am preparing to "walk-the-dog" on my yoyo. It's the red dot next to my knee. Before we went to the Circular Mound Altar ( where the stove was ) we wandered a giant garden of small pine trees. I tried to lose my sisters. Sometimes it would work and I would hide behind a tree and watch. Then, once or twice, when they would walk past I would jump out and rrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
them.














This, as my dad told me, was for burning the first born son-so we should keep up the tradition hahaha! and tried to put me in one. Later I played the same trick on Rosa but changed it to the second daughter that is to be burned. Really it is for burnt offerings.







This is me doing an "around-the-world." I love to play with my yoyo because it is from my favorite yoyo show called Blazing Teens. It has all these cool special effects like if you can do a trick for a long time a flame dragon will appear etc. etc. Mrs. Reichers I am still doing homework . It's only on Sundays and Saturdays that I escape regular classwork. I know about 5 tricks and thats it for tricks.





For your enjoyment a family picture with the Hall For Good Harvest behind us. That day it was very windy until we got into the small forest.



I hope you enjoyed this blog entry,
goodbye!

Noah's post #2

A few days ago my family and I went to the old Summer Palace. At the gates there were two statues of traditional Chinese lions. In the picture next to this paragraph is me being eaten by a male lion. Inside the palace there were lots of pathways to walk around on. Mainly the paths were next to a lake, a man made giant lake. Me and the girls wanted to (and did for a while) play hide and go seek. Only when we were in the ruins
were we allowed to play hide and go seek.




You see that picture right underneath the other paragraph? That is a picture of the labyrinth. I loved wandering in it because I wanted to lose myself in it. Unfortunately, the walls were only up to my shoulders so if I did get lost in the labyrinth all I had to do was look around. Also I could climb on top of the walls so why bother to get lost? Because I like it. Once we got to the center it was time to go home. Even when I asked and tried to persuade my parents, even pleaded with them, I couldn't get them to let me show them the back garden.


MORE!
RIGHT THERE!

Yesterday we went to the Great Wall. About every 40 feet there were battle towers. To continue walking you have to go through those towers. The girls and I found a way to the top of most of those towers. Some you had to go to the top, others you couldn't go on top. That picture is one of the girls and me standing on top of a tower. Up there there are lots of bits and pieces of the battlements and a part of a wall.






This picture shows part of the great wall. Farther down it starts to slant up hill. That is where stairs start going up to the unrestored part. Only
I-out of my family -was able to walk to the top. My mom couldn't go because of her knee surgery, my dad tried to go up like me (and would have) if mom had not called to him to tell me to come down. My sisters, like my dad, tried but failed. I liked going to the great wall because to go up you had to run the gauntlet*then you could either walk or take a ski- lift- like-thing but closed in a cart.

*the gauntlet as in lots of salesmen and woman

this is Noah,
signing off.

Anna's post #2

On Saturday we went to the Great Wall. The weather was sunny and warm for November. It was fun. The views were great and we had lots and lots of playing tag. The Wall was beautiful. This steep part climbing the mountain was all steps. I went up all the way. I was tired. Then we had to walk carefully down again and all the way back to the cable cars. The cable cars took us a long, long way down the hill. We took a secret passage back to our taxi.
Goodbye!
Anna

Rosa's post #2

This week we found a new park near our home. There are three slides. I like the straight one a lot. It is very fast especially when my brother gives me a push. There is also a bumpy slide. When I hold my brother's feet and my sister holds his shoulders and I am going down backwards it is very fun! I bonked my head on the side of the swirly slide when my brother pushed me too hard. So I went to my parents and hugged them before going back to play more.
When we went home, I was very tired.



This is a camel. I love camels. My family and I went to the Great Wall this past weekend. My mommy said we could get a ticket to ride the camel. The camel's hair was very soft! I was comfortable.

After this picture, we took a cable car up the mountainside to the Great Wall. I ran up and down hills on the Great Wall. We went on top of some of the guard towers on the Wall. I could see very, very far. It was a lot of fun!

Love, Rosa

Rosa's post#1

We have been in China for a week now. We went to the Beijing Zoo this weekend. We saw this Pelican and my mom took this picture. I watched it for a long time. I found its long beak very interesting. I like how it is colored white and has a long neck. It was fun watching it put its beak in the water and try to catch fish. Other birds were checking out the garbage cans and eating orange fruit from the trees. On a bridge I saw two birds which were so loud that I thought they must be mean!

Besides the birds, we saw: Ostriches with pecked tail feathers, wolves, foxes, giraffe's, Rhinos, and several zebras. I think that this Zebra in the picture is cute! It looks like a small striped horse. I saw two zebras fighting each other by biting at legs and yelling: "this is my territory!"

So far, I think China is very fun! Everyone comments on my sister and me being twins and asks if they can take a picture of themselves with us. My mom and dad usually say no--but sometimes we get to. I like Chinese people. I try to speak Chinese sometimes. I haven't met very many kids yet.

Love, Rosa

Anna's post #1

I like China!
The picture on the left is of Noah climbing into an elephant slide made out of concrete. I named her Sally. The other is a larger slide next to the first where Rosa and I were playing.
This park is located next to the Friendship Hotel where we stayed our first two nights in China. We are going back there today to play.
While this park has some fun kids' stuff, it mostly has adult-size exercise equipment. Of the five parks we have seen, all of them have mostly adult equipment. We have fun on those too.
Another kind of park we went to is called Tian An Men square. We played tag in the park and got to go up on top of one of the gates (a really big wall.)
I love all of you classmates and especially miss my teachers.
Zai Jian!
Anna

Going to China--Noah's post

Going to China is fun! On the plane you get to: watch movies, listen to music, watch the plane's progress, etc., etc. You get three meals: lunch, dinner, breakfast in that order. I watched "Cars" and "Chicken Little" for part of the flight. The other parts I read, ate and played Pokemon on my D.S.

When you get to China, watch out for jet lag!! It makes you cranky and tired and so on at the wrong times. There is a lot of new stuff going on and new things to look out for and learn. It can be frustrating for me and my family.

We have been here a week. In that time I have been to a hotel and have moved to an apartment. Next to our apartment there is an exercise playground [for adults and kids.] We go there almost every day. Today we went to Tian An Men square or Gate of Heavenly Peace where Mao Ze Dong is buried. No, check that, mummified. It was amazing how strong it`s defenses are. Six foot thick walls and three different walls!

I don`t use my Chinese as much as I expected. Still, I do get chances to use it and sometimes do, but my mom does most of the talking. Tomorrow,we will start school work.
That's all, folks!
Noah