An Update from Pete

I just got this email from Pete. Apparently the internet access is not so "forever blessed" in China. He got a 2 hr pass and that was it.

He's still stuck in an airport.

The email (sorry about the weird spacing):

Hey Baby,

Lost internet access. I don't think I'm going to make it out of
Bejing. No flights have left yet today. Uh oh.

PKT

Here's my blog entries - can you post them for me? China blocks
blogspot and facebook among other things.


June 17, 2010 8:04 AM (5:04PM Pacific)
Location: Bejing International Airport (terminal 2)

Why am I still in Bejing, you might be wondering? Shouldn’t I be
touring a factory in Lianyungang RIGHT NOW?

Well.

Let’s just say I got to see the dull dairy-cow staring en mass
today/yesterday as all my co-passengers and I were herded to and fro
like so many cattle. What started out as a simple little 11 hour
jaunt from Vancouver to Bejing turned into a 23 hour oddessey, 25
hours if you count the delays before we even got on the plane in
Vancouver. I won't go chapter and verse, but I'll hit the most
amusing highlights from a highly unusual plane trip.

1. In Vancouver, our flight was delayed for 2 hours due to
"non-functional water closets on the left of the plane," leading me to
crack wise - "Can the plane lift it's left wing? Maybe it's having a
stroke!" No noticeable chuckles. from my traveling companions, though
in my defense most of them didn't speak English. Turns out that the
movies/audio didn't work on that side either. I kept checking out the
window to see how that side's engine was doing.

2. After a movie-less eleven hour flight, we were relieved to
finally touch down. There was a long announcement in Mandarin, and a
groan which I assumed meant we would have to wait a few minutes on the
Bejing tarmac before offloading. The local time was about 6PM, so I
figured even though I had to change terminals, I could still catch my
connection to Lianyungang at 7:20PM. Even so, I was a little worried,
so I got up to try and plead my case for being let out a little early
leading to the following faux-Chinese Abbot and Costello routine
between me and a very baffled flight attendant (VBFA).

Me: I have a connection to Lianyungang at 7:20 - can you let me out a
little early please?
VBFA: The weather - Bejing is bad.
Me: Uh huh. I have a connection to make at 7:20, can you help me?
VBFA: (baffled) Bejing weather is not good.
Me: But we're already IN Bejing!
VBFA: (even more baffled). WEATHER BAD!
Me: ALREADY IN BEJING!
Me: (staring, baffled)
VBFA: (baffled)
Me: Ok. I'll just go sit down now.

Now, you might think I am an idiot, because you know the end of the
story, but I swear, at the time me and the other non-mandarin fluent
passengers thought we were in Bejing. Finally, a guy a few rows
behind me blew our minds by telling us we were in someplace called
Shen Yang. Hm.

3. Outline of the rest of the time:

• 2h go by. Still on tarmac in Shen Yang
• Instruction to gather our belongs and prepare to de-board, followed
by no less than an hour and a half of us all standing ridiculously
with our bags in the aisles, not moving.
• Instruction to put away our bags and prepare to take off. Wait 2 hours.
• Plane backs up 5 feet. Wait an hour.
• Instruction to stand up.
• Instruction to sit down (I swear I’m not making this up.)
• The plane was out of food by that point, so they brought us some
crackers with three layers – cracker/butter filling/cracker/lemon zest
filling/cracker. Gut-turning. As a more experienced traveler would
later tell me that night – “never eat a ‘filling’ in China.”
• Plane finally deboards, but they won’t let us leave the baggage
area, though they have supposedly arranged a hotel for us. At least
an hour goes by. Turns out there are about 30-40 passengers on the
plane without Chinese Visas, who CAN’T LEGALLY LEAVE THE CUSTOMS
CHECKPOINT. (Ala “The Terminal” with Tom Hanks).
• Finally, since these passengers can’t leave we REBOARD THE PLANE!
• Go back through security, I kid you not. I even got patted down.
• Wait.
• Fly to Bejing!! Arrive at about 5AM local time, vs. expected
arrival of 4PM the previous day.

So what was the weather situation? Never explained. My personal
feeling is that they were having mechanical problems (maybe on the
left side of the plane?), but we’ll never know. Thankfully, upon
landing the flight crew apologized “for any inconvenience.”

And THAT, my friends is why I am still in Bejing.

In case you were wondering.

PS – ticket counter where I modified my flight had a picture of Santa
on the wall, a full size glittery head. I didn’t inquire.


June 17, 2010 12:39PM
Location: Bejing International Airport (terminal 2)

Every flight since 7:30 this morning has been delayed due to
thunderstorms. Odds of things clearing up by 7PM for my flight seem
slim.

I told Rosie before I left that I thought this would be a growing
experience for me, fending for myself in foreign environment, but in
my heart I thought things would go pretty much according to plan.

Suddenly I’m starving for a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Pretty
sure I saw one back at terminal one…

(hurredly packing up stuff and heading for the tram.)

James' 1st Haircut

Hey, buddy, remember why we're here?

Haircut!!

James, remember, you keep telling me, "Mommy, my hair won't leave my ears alone!"

Here we go!

Hair's on the table!

A lollipop for your trouble
Cheeeeese! (through lollipop)
Thanks, Miss Kookie. You were as great as your name!

The Dull Stare of the Dairy Cow

June 15, 2010: 08:51 (pacific standard time)
Location: Portland International Airport

First, a confession: I don’t typically enjoy other people’s travel blogs. I think the reasons are compound, namely:

1. I’m jealous. There I said it
2. Uh…. Well, mostly reason 1.

I guess I could complain that its boring and monotonous to read about how my friends went to an exotic locale, ate “this,” saw “that,” had a “great time” etc, but the simple fact is pretty much just jealousy. So why would I write a blog while traveling in China for the next three weeks?

Maybe just to try and make you jealous!

First a little background. To finish my MBA I still need 12 elective credits. The program at PSU really believes that international experience is a critical piece of an MBA, so they motivate students to complete some of their course work overseas via the following carrots:

1. 8 credits in two weeks instead of three months.
2. Same price as taking the classes in Portland.

Not a lot of downside, other than time away from the family, and abandoning work in the middle of a high pressure situation that I helped create. (hm. I guess that’s a pretty heavy downside, but I digress).

My itinerary – first a little professional business, visiting a vendor in Lianyungong (6h drive N of Shanghai), then two days in Shanghai (hopefully going to visit the worlds fair), followed by a week in Guangzhou (my first class = “Supply Chains in China”), and a week in Bejing (second class = “marketing in China”).
So here we go.

I’m currently sitting in the Portland airport (may their free wifi be forever blessed) working on my “traveler” face. I like to think of it as the “dull stare of the dairy cow” (phrase courtesy of Gary Larson). It’s a look that says, “don’t worry about me. My soul died on the road a long time ago. Let’s all just go about our business. Four hour delay. No problem. I’m just existing through this.”

I perfected this look on a previous trip, a 27h start to finish odyssey to Ireland on business.

What!? My flight to Vancouver BC is delayed 30 minutes already!! ARRGH!

(sound of soul dying)

And… Traveler face locked in!

See you in China.

The End of An Era/Experiment

(from our May "Safety" Unit)

Our homeschool preschool co-op winds down this month. For various reasons, it was actually quite difficult to get the darn thing started last fall, and the group has morphed over time. Eventually it settled into a very small group - 3 little girls (and 2 younger sibs - James being the lone boy in all of this!), and the 3 moms rotated teaching one morning a week. We ran it like a real mini-preschool to the best of our abilities. Looking back, it was a great experience for us all and the girls really bonded. That was my main hope in this process - that Daphne would find close friends, and maybe pick up a few skills along the way. By this standard, I'd say the experiment was a rousing success.

Daphne's got one more year left before kindergarten and we decided to send her to a regular preschool this coming fall. But at least I was able to save hundreds on tuition this year, which makes my frugal heart happy :)

Meanwhile, I know that we will be seeing more of these girls this summer and beyond.

The Joys of Joy Choir

Pete and I have been attending the same church since we graduated from college. So for the first few years before we had kids, we'd see the Joy Choir sing once a month or so. It was back then that Pete nicknamed it "The Pitch Distribution Singers" (you know, picture a bell curve, with the correct pitch at the fat part/top of the curve, and the kids fit at various points on the spectrum, so when you hear the song, you can pretty much make out the melody...if you have even a smidge of nerdiness in you, I'm sure you get the idea). Anyway, it was cute.

Then we had Daphne. And we thought, looking at our tiny infant, "She'll never actually be old enough to sing up there, right?" - half looking forward to it, and half being terrified that she'd someday grow up and stop being our baby.

Ok, and another half terrified that she'd be at one of the the far ends of the pitch distribution. Hey, when you're music snobs, you can't really help worrying about these things.

And, lo and behold, she's now a member of Joy Choir, and she loves it. Time flies.

(And she's solidly in range of the pitch. Whew!)



Looking for Grammy at the piano

Waving to Grammy.


Here's their last song of the year. You'll note that an over-eager youngster starts mimicking the conductor's directions part way through. You can't really blame her too much... there are in fact hand motions to a lot of the songs they've done. Just not this one.

Ballet Class

Ok, I'm afraid I'm going to have to cash in on a Mommy Pass. What's a Mommy Pass? Oh, we're all given a set number upon entering motherhood. This particular card says, "The Freedom to Post an Exorbitant and Repetitive Number of Pictures of Your Offspring on the Same Blog Post Due to the Aggressive Cuteness of Said Offspring and this Situation Being Out of Your Control."

Oh yes, I've played this card before.

But, seriously, 4-year-olds attempting ballet. Out of my control, I tell you.

Proceed at your own risk.

"We have matching leotards!"


Er...Daphne...would you mind rejoining the class, please?

(Daphne's at the end of the line in most of these. You'll notice she favors the "plea"/squat move)

Cycles (Bi and Tri)

Just a quick announcement: James can reach the pedals.

So, we've been out front doing a lot of this lately...