Culture

A couple of weeks ago Jeff had some engineers visiting Beijing from a city up North in China.  They were here for meetings on a project they are working on.  Part of the culture in China in doing business is to treat clients and fellow businessmen to dinner when they are in town.  In fact, when Jeff has traveled over the past few years to China he is always expected to attend big banquets.  This time Jeff was hosting, so he set up a dinner at an Indian restaurant.  He asked if the kids and I wanted to go, this can be a loaded question.  Yes, I want to go, yes, the kids say they want to go, but you never know quite how their behavior will be at a more formal dinner.  Jeff says that the Chinese LOVE to be around our kids and would really look favorably on us going.  So, we went.  It went pretty good and actually ended up inviting all of them (10 people) over for dinner the next evening.  You might think I'm crazy, but Miss Holly was going to be here the next day and I had told them about my learning how to cook come Chinese dishes.  I told them Holly and I would love to cook dumplings for them.

The next day, Miss Holly and I made 80 dumplings!!  I also made some vegetable dishes and lemon cake.  When our guests arrived, they showed up with chocolate and a big bouquet of flowers.  The Chinese man that spoke the best English, told me that he wanted to give a speech before they even entered our living room.  He said that they were so honored to be invited over and that we would open our home to them.  It was so nice.  He then asked me to play "Amazing Grace" on the piano because we had talked about that song the night before.  It was pretty funny (by American standards) to play the hymn in my home with about 8 co-workers of Jeff's listening.  Jeff actually commented to me later that it reminded him of a funeral.  :)

Anyway, it was a great night, they were so polite and gracious.  Here is a picture of our guests.  It is a hilarious picture because look at my son......what is the expression on his face???  We don't know.  We don't know what it's all about, just that both of our children LOVE to entertain company.

We enjoy learning about the Chinese culture, however there are certain things that are easy for our kids to miss out on from American culture.  Sports is one.  Luckily, there is an organization in Beijing that holds organized sports for children.  Football is not on the list, but baseball and soccer are.  This fall, Jack has been on a t-ball team.  To be a part of the sports season, we are having to drive to the outside of Beijing about 45 minutes there to an expat community called Shunyi.  Many, many expats live out there in American style houses with yards, fences, sidewalks, etc.  There is also a big international school out there.  Although it is a beautiful area and there would be many advantages to living out there, we felt like we would pretty much be cut off from the local Chinese community.  We also did not want Jeff to have to commute.  We are really happy with our decision because it took us about 1 1/2 hours to get home from t-ball last Saturday due to traffic. 

Jack has really enjoyed t-ball though and I must say, he is pretty good at hitting and throwing.  This winter he wants to do football (soccer), so we'll see about that.

Stay tuned for some Halloween fun.  Yes, we will be celebrating.  I actually bought a big orange pumpkin (they had some at the Western grocery store; local farmers grow smaller pumpkins of all colors) and put it oustide my apartment door.  I had two rings at my door that afternoon.  They were concerned employees of the apartment building who thought I had left my pumpkin outside my door by mistake.  I tried to explain in part Chinese, part English the tradition in our culture, but they just laughed and looked at me like I was crazy.  I finally decided to bring it inside because I didn't want someone to take it away!