LifeInChina-McKinnon's: June 2009

Monday, June 8, 2009

My first visit to China

I was very excited to visit the country that we are now going to be living in. George has been working about 2 weeks and it was time for me to see what in the world we were getting ourselves into. The plane ride was OK. I tried only getting 4 hours of sleep the night before to "ensure" I would be sleeping on the plane but made the rookie mistake of not getting a window seat and getting a seat next to the movie screen so between the screen flashing and the flight attendant almost hitting me with their carts I did not get much sleep.

Shanghai is one of the largest cities (population: 20 million) in the world. Needless to say there are people EVERYWHERE! Of course we live out in the sticks so just adjusting to the city was my first challenge. People are walking, biking, scootering, driving carts, cars, trucks, taxis but I did not see any animal transportation so we can safely say that Shanghai is quite sophisiticated.

So far it seems pretty good- very different but I think we can live here....

Life Changing

Just when you think life is going to be more settled it just keeps changing... George has accepted a new job (Yippee) but it is headquartered where... Shanghai China. Now life is really going to change as we know it. We thought having an exchange student from Germany this year was international enough but "NO" that just wasn't quite enough for the McKinnon's.... We are going Asian... Can't say that I ever I thought I would ever travel to China let alone live there but God has plans that we could not have ever thought possible before so why not.

Weekly Family Update

May 3: It has been SO long ince I have updated this blog. I guess life here has gotten much busier or there just aren't as many things to talk about. Well it is the first. Life has gotten busier with more friends, classes, visitors and so many things o do here in the city. It is still very interesting to see all the sights of the city. Savannah had her invention convention last week. I will write more about it on the blog. Tyler is doing well. He loves to have all the attention at home but misses being with other kids. He is doing well with his spelling and multiplication. George is in the US again for 12 days. Hence I am updating the blog... I guess they go hand in hand! I am taking a Chinese class 2 times a week and an internet class to teach English next fall. We also have my Dad and stepmom here in March, went to Bali in April and then my mom came in mid-April! It has been busy...

Feb. 27: This week was long as George has been in the states for the entire week. It was definitely quieter here with more of the locals going back to work. The first of the Chinese New Year always brings new changes. We let one of our two ayis go this week as we were stepping on each other's feet. I think it will work much better to have one person. We are looking forward to a new year of good things. Savannah was in a swim meet today and did awesome! She was faster in all of her strokes and won all of her heats. She is such a natural swimmer. Now if we can just get her to like competing at the meets :) Tyler has a bug with a fever so he is not doing too well this week.

Feb. 11: Life is good here. Savannah is still on the swim team. There is not too many activities here between the Christmas break and the Chinese New Year. Her next swim meet will not be until March. She dear friend from her class has joined the swim team so she is excited to have a friend to swim next to in the lanes. Her school continues to go well. She was picked as the assistant director of her class play and she will also be a news caster for the performance. She is working on the play lines and scenes. She is also ejoying making a neighborhood club house with her friends. Tyler is doing OK. He is certainly missing his friends from school but is working hard at trying new things. Once a week we have an outing to a new place. Not sure WHY I do this to myself but in the end he will be much better person.. Of course, we have to make it out of the store without scaring these poor Chinsese people who have never seen a disabled 14 year old boy!

George's job continues to grow as the company gets more customers. He is really enjoying the smallness of the leadership team and the diversity of work he has to do. I have been really busy the last 2 weeks as Tyler's tutor left for 2 weeks to attend her sister's wedding and then celebrate an early Chinese New Year. She comes back next week!! :)

Jan. 19: It has been a while since I have written. We enjoyed the holiday is Seattle. It was a fast trip even with 3 weeks but always fun to catch up with friends and family. We were excited to share our experiences and photos with everyone.

We enjoyed American food and of course brought back as much food as we could that is just not as available. Savannah is happy to be back to school with her friends and her routine. Tyler was ready to come back and see all the people who say "Ni hao". People in America just don't get that phrase! We are settling back into our routine and then Chinese ways. Stay tuned for some more exciting Chinese stories.

Dec. 7: Is it winter yet? We are outside with no jacket and LOVIN' it! Sunny warm days, playing tennis and getting hot from the sun. I'm not is Seattle anymore. It has been nice to have some warmer weather. Tyler is enjoying his routine that he has in life here. Homeschool in the morning and then off to Special Needs China school. Savannah did AWESOME in her swim meet last weekend. She just keeps improving every meet... She raced Dad last weekend (She beat him in the backstroke..shhh) and she is getting to be an excellent swimmer. We are praying that her friend from her class will make the team in Jan! I joined a neighborhood cooking club which is So much fun. We had people from 5 different countries all preparing food and then sharing it. TMF... Christmas is only 18 days away.... better get busy.

Nov. 30: Beijing was great. We had some nice sunny days but it was cold. We took the train to Beijing. It was a very comfortable ride but a little long (9.5 hours). I will post some photos soon. We went on a day long tour of many sites. The highlight was the Great Wall. A proud moment when Tyler was able to walk up to the highest point of the wall with Dad helping him up. We were able to connect with my old roommate, Holly for a trip to the zoo to see the Giant Panda and lunch at the favorite American rest. called Blue Frog. We stayed next to the Olympic Village so Savannah, George and I walked there to see the Bird's nest and Aquacube (unfortunately, it was closed). We stopped at McDonald's to thaw out and had some fries and a pineapple pie! We took a taxi home.....:)

More things to come but over all it was a great time and definitely worth taking the weekend to discover!

Nov. 23: We are preparing for our trip to Beijing. We were warned that the dates we picked was NOT a good one but after some prayer God has prepared a beautiful weekend for us to visit the capital city! We are going to be very busy with the Great Wall tour, historical sights and I will have to get my picture taken at the Starbuck's in the Forbidden City! We are taking the train (9 hrs) through the country side of China and then we will be rough it in a hotel near the Olympic Park. It will be fun and Tyler's tutor will be joining us. She has never been on a plane so we will see how she likes it as we return Sunda night on the plane. I will post lots of photos when we return.

Nov. 16: I spoke too soon about the warm weather. Not sure if this is normal but we are now in the 40's and low 50's... Burr. Maybe it was because they made it snow last week in Beijing to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus! Life is going on as it should. Of course President Obama's visit was big news here. He stayed in the park where we run every morning. Funny to be the closest to the US president when you are living in China.. :). Kids are doing well. Savannah's second swim meet is this weekend so that will keep up plenty busy. Oh, by the way the rain has also begun here are well. Cheers.

Nov. 10: We are enjoying a long, warm fall here in Shanghai. It has been in the 70's and no rain so far. I think we are in for a change this next week but George and I are enjoying our morning runs in the perfect fall weather. Everyone is enjoying the great green space out front. We are venturing out into Shanghai with some day trips to the Pearl Tower and Yu Gardens. Savannah and I drove our scooter to the subway then took the underground subway to the closest stop which was still quite some distance (too far to walk) so we took a taxi to the Yu Gardens which turned out to be a huge shopping area with literally THOUSANDS of people. George and Tyler stayed home as George was catching up from his jet lag. George is back from his 11 day trip to the states. Hopefully he will be until we come home for Christmas. We will be home Dec. 21-Jan 7th.

Oct. 26: Life is getting back to "normal" here in China. Savannah is still on swim team and has lots of homework. She and Tyler really enjoying having a park out the front door with all the kids in the neighborhood to play. I guess you are never really too old for a jungle gym play set. Tyler enjoys when the boys come and play soccer. He loves to stand out there and try to not get hit. I made it to the Fabric Market. 4 floors of fabric and they will make ANYTHING you want them to. Just bring a photo and then will sew it up for you in 2-3 days for less than $80 for a men's suit! Crazy stuff but lots of fun. Tyler's helper is being trained and doing well. George is back in the USA for 11 days then hopefully here until Christmas. Fall is wonderful here. Sunny days and cool mornings to run and so far no rain.... Life is good!

Oct. 5: We are headed to Sanya, China for a few days in the sun. (Not that we really need sun since it is still in the 80's here) It is the Hawaii of China so we are looking forward to some relaxation during this Oct. holiday. I will post some photos when we get back.

Sept. 28th: George is in the states for 11 days. Who would have known that we would move to China and a month later he would be back in the states. I guess that is what happens when all of your customers are there. We are surviving. My Chinese is improving well except one day the driver went to the office at 9:30am instead of our house. I was late for my BSF study so I actually had to take a taxi.. TTL for cell phones as I just called George's assistant and handed the phone to the taxi driver (so I guess I cheated but I did make it). Kids are good. Savannah actually has homework this year. She has between and an hour to two hours per day which is challenging when you are on the swim team and you don't home before 6pm. She is learning with some help from her parents on getting organized. We have found a great potential tutor to help me with Tyler. Her name which represents one of my best friends is Shirely. Anyone who is named Shirley must be spunky and adventurous. She looks like a great fit for our family. October Holiday is next week and we will be Sanya China resting and relaxing as long as the tropical storm has passed through by then.

Sept. 14: George is preparing to go back to the states:Virgina, NY, WI, CA. He will be there 10 days so call his cell phone if you want a live version of the stories... Savannah has so much homework. Not sure if this is just 5th grade or her teacher. Either way she is struggling to get it done along with swim team and of course playing with all the kids in the neigbohood. She is a social butterfly! Life is getting settled here. So glad that so many other Westerners have gone before and provided a path for us newbies. We are meeting families in the compound. Very nice. One new family from the Seattle area. What a small world. Savannah's birthday weekend. She is having her new friends from school over for a sleepover. Somethings are the same where ever you are in the world. I think this will be the first time I will not be able to make a cake for my chlid's birthday. I could but it would be a cake without any frosting and what good is that! Luckily there are some fabulous bakeries near by that make some great desserts!

Sept. 7th: George just could not resist the tempation to be "local". He loves to hang out with them, talk with them, eat their street food and of course ride with them. He has gotten his Seattle "rain" bike all set up and is ready to take a terrifying ride through the country side with the Shanghai Tri Club. Read about his "bike ride" on his page. This is not the only item that makes you local. A scooter is a must in this city. Cruising around on a scooter makes you "local" or just some Western on a new, shiney red scooter! What a hoot it is.. Pictures to follow. Tyler is loving school and is doing quite well with it. One of the best parts of Tyler's week is the bowling alley. Every Monday afternoon from 4-5, we go bowling. It is free and we are the ONLY people in the whole place. It has about 12 lanes and we are the only ones there. He just LOVES it. His other favorite thing to do is say "Ne How" to everyone that he sees. Just like in America only the greeting has changed. He is doing quite well with his Chinese. Young, our diver is always teaching him new words. Of course, I am learning them at the same time. Young has been a good teacher for all of us. He only knows about 10 English words so the conversation is interesting sometimes. Thanks to translation books that I can show him. George is doing well. More business on the horizon so that is always good news... I am almost done with my shopping... I am a little tired of it. Also, George and I have been able to take advantage of the beautiful Xiajio Gardens. We LOVE to run there about 4 mornings a week. Loops are getting longer and faster!

Aug. 31: Schedule is continuing to come around. I forgot to mention that we have a driver. He shows up at 8:00 in the morning. He brings George to work, comes back and sits in our diveway until I come out at 11:00 to go shopping after Ty gets on the bus, drives me around, and then picks up George at night. Very strange but a nice strange. His name is Young. Very nice man and already has a fondness for Tyler. Savannah tried out for the swim team and made it!! Hooray (I think). The coach is pretty hard core with 3-5 practices per week at 2500-3300 yds per workout. More than George or I could do right now! She is quite tired and sore this first week but hopefully that will improve. George is really available since him boss is out of town for the next week or so! I wish he would leave more often...

Aug. 24: Things are settling down a little. Sleep schedule would have come much quicker IF they had not been doing road construction right outside our house. The bad part is that they start doing the heavy work at 8:00 pm. Earthquake tremors all night long besides the loud banging and crunching noise.... Savannah loves her new teacher, Mr. Kohler. He is a great replacement for Mr. McKinnon at Eastridge. She has alreday made 2 new friends and is testing out quite well in her academics! Tyler loves his new school as well. He is, of course, testing the teacher to see what kind of discipline they will require of him. I told the teacher you will have to give a time-out or he will just continue to walk all over you... She did and now they are doing quite well. I have started to homeschool him. It is fun to be back teaching him again. He is doing just great. George's job continues to go well and he has even taken me out to lunch a few times. I just continue to shop.... Everyday......Love the IKEA and Carrefour...

Aug. 17th: School is starting for both Tyler and Savannah. Savannah will have to wear a uniform much to her begrude. Mom is happy. Tyler is going 1/2 days 4 days a week to the only Special Needs school in Shanghai. Everyone is stll tired and trying to get use to this heat!! Hot and humid.... George is adjusting to a new home in the suburbs and his family back in tow. Liz is shopping like crazy since we are essentially camping without much to eat or cook with.. Let call for take-out!

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Monday, June 8, 2009

My first visit to China

Life Changing

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