China Christmas

Recovery week

We have had a good recovery week here, no encounters with the police, no funerals.  The highlights of our week were that I got to visit with Mom and Dad on the phone, Matt and I went on a run (it's our once a month training routine), we found a great market (Chinese dumplings, veggies, boots, toys), a friend took me and a few of the kids to a indoor play place that is amazingly close to us and not very expensive.

Matt and some neighbors took the older girls out for dinner and karaoke,

and at church we had a missionary homecoming (I just love those) with lots of family visiting and then a potluck afterwards.

This week will be full of Christmas festivities.  I will make sure Klora makes a video, that is more fun than reading about it right?  We will be thinking about you all week and thinking about the great Christmas gathering s back home. We will try to be happy that these good things are happening and not sad that we are missing them.

love you,
Julie

A Visit from Friends and a Police Escort

Kind of a lot has happened last week.

On Thursday evening we got a visit at our apartment from Maggie and Geff -- Maggie is our friend from China who was our neighbor in Boise for a while and whose hometown we are in right now--, who were in town visiting family. So fun to have friends from home here!  They left, we put the kids to bed and were just getting ready for bed when we got a message from them saying--do you want to go out?  So we went out with them at 10 o'clock on a school night and got Chinese street barbecue and an hour long Chinese foot massage (that was a revelation)!

Street BBQ with Maggie and Geff

Saturday we went to Maggie's parents house for lunch and to get a few warm clothes and blankets that her mom had for us to use for the winter.  We got to play outside some more too and then walk up the road to where the house that Maggie grew up in used to be and then go to their old neighbor's open house for the new home they had just built.  I guess it is custom to have a few days open house when you build a new house and feed everyone a big meal for those two days--as if building a house wasn't expensive enough!  They even sent everyone home with a goody bag.  Then we said goodbye to Maggie and Geff as they were leaving that evening to head back to the States.  It was really a treat to have them around for a few days.

After they left we packed up to catch the bus to Hangzhou for church.  Our driver couldn't take us this Sunday so we had to go by bus and didn't want to leave Sunday morning by bus and risk being late because it was Christmas program in Sacrament meeting and Klora and Kendra were narrators, our whole family was singing one song, Kendra and Matt singing another, me in a women's quartet, and primary kids singing!  So we packed up and went to our bus stop and waited.  Our bus number passed us twice without stopping!  And it was not full!  We were trying to figure out what was going on but no one around us spoke English.  We decided if it passed us once more we would just go home.  Then a neighbor (who we had met "just by chance" last week because he was playing ping pong with his son when we came in to play and we played together a little) came by and said we had to go to the bus station and get on the bus at the beginning of the route because Chairman Xi Jinping would be visiting the area next week and their is heightened security for 10 days.  So he took us to a bus stop across the street where we could catch a bus to the bus station and then catch our bus there.  So we waited there.  And waited.  Yeah, we were all pretty tired and cold.  After 10 or 15 minutes there our neighbor friend showed up again, this time in uniform in a police SUV.  He said half of you get in here and then he got a taxi for the rest and we were taken to the bus station with lights flashing--a real police escort.  We had to go through a security check at the bus station and then were taken back to a boarding area where they asked for our passports--why would we have our passports?  We never need our passports to ride the bus.  We didn't have them.  Our neighbor/friend talked to them for a few minutes and they let us on the bus.  We sat down relieved and ready to relax for the hour and a half drive.  THEN the manager came on the bus and made us get off.  Most of this time we were mostly guessing at what we were supposed to do as no one spoke much English and our Chinese is lacking.  Our neighbor friend called Jane, our Chinese friend who is our coordinator through the school and had her explain how we needed our passports to take the bus these few days.  So we went back out of the bus station and were loaded in a police SWAT van.  Matt and I in the front and the kids in the back with all the shields and assault gear which Kyle thought was really cool.  And they took us home.  Well, OK we wouldn't get to have McDonald's in Hangzhou but we told the kids we could eat at home and watch a movie.  As we were working on that Jane said our driver could take us that evening instead of the morning.  We thought about it and decided that even though we would be paying more for transportation this week we better do it or we would have to leave at 6 the next morning in order to get to the bus station, go through security, etc. etc.  so we ate and...   Sorry kids no movie at home but we can watch a movie on the iPad on the way!  Then the iPad didn't have the movie...  Sorry kids, again and since we are getting there so late it will be bedtime and no time to play with the Phillips kids either...  Man our kids are adaptable.  It was a little rough but they all did pretty good.  We made it there at bedtime.  And enjoyed the Christmas program on Sunday--everyone did very well.  After church was a reception for a couple who had just gotten married so we were even fed before being driven to the bus (a friend in the ward drove us to make sure there were no problems with us getting on this time) rather than take the taxi and the ride home was pretty calm.  We got home tired.  it really hasn't felt like that very often here, just another adventure to record.

So much more to tell... Next Time

Family trip to Shanghai - A Slide Show

Shanghai Weekend

We had a bit of a busy weekend here visiting the BIGGEST CITY IN THE WORLD!  It took us about two hours to get to Shanghai--a 20 minute bus ride to the train station and then and hour or so on the bullet train and then another half hour on the subway to put us close to our hotel.  We are getting a little smarter and quicker about purchasing the tickets ahead and getting around in the stations so that helps but I still get stressed out trying to keep everyone together and moving. 


Entertaining ourselves while Matt tries to figure out how to tell the Chinese cab driver where we need to go.

After checking in to our nice hotel, 22nd floor rooms, we decided to find the "knockoff market" that we had heard soo much about.  We had to take two taxis and each dropped us off in different places which were actually pretty close to each other but we couldn't see each other and had no way of knowing how close we were, kind of funny, kind of scary.  But we figured it out and headed down into the subway station where the huge market was and found... KFC!  Not exactly the same as the KFC's that we are used to but we were pretty pleased with our lunch.  then we hit the market.  They have little shops for clothes, toys, souvenirs, electronics, shoes, sunglasses and shop owners outside saying "Hey lady, you want a purse?  Come in, I give you best price, come have a look!"  And then you find what you want and say how much and offer them 10% of that (that is what our friend told us he always does, we didn't go quite that low) and haggle back and forth.  Kendra and Kaleb were really needing shoes and we were happy with what we found for both of them and we got Klora and Kendra some nice headphones (for Christmas), Kyle got a laser pen, Klora got a phone case, Krista got a watch and Matt got a shirt that won't show how much he sweats in this crazy humidity.  We were pretty happy with the deals we found but also anxious to get out of there if you know what I mean.  We will definitely go back next time we need shoes and to get souvenirs before coming home!


Awesome shoe finds, now a few days worn

modeling our swimcaps

We found some good Chinese street food for dinner and swam at our hotel (in all the pools in China they require you to wear swim caps!, a new thing for us but we knew about it and had borrowed some from branch members, we had so much fun laughing at each other when we first put them on). 



The next day I headed to the conference center where the Shanghai branches of our church meet for a Women's Conference, so nice and relaxing and uplifting and a nice catered lunch too.  Matt took the kids to the Shanghai Science and Technology museum--not as relaxing, or uplifting, but... Thanks Matt!  It is huge.  They loved the animal exhibits and race car simulation the best.  Then he got them all changed and over to the church place in time for us to all sit and listen to Elder and Sister Gong (Asia area authorities in the church) and President and Sister Nelson (President of the Quorum of the 12 apostles) speak. 


After that we found a "Noodle Bar" for a yummy dinner then caught a couple of taxis back to the hotel for another swim.  Then while Matt put kids to bed, I ran out and found some food for the trip home the next day. 

Sunday morning we enjoyed the amazing hotel breakfast buffet again--fruit, pastries, eggs, bacon, sushi, dumplings, salad bar, potatoes, olives, oatmeal, cereal, fried rice, sausage, yogurt, fish, muffins, toast, and other things that we didn't recognize and can't name and mostly didn't try because there was so much that we knew we liked!  Then we dressed up, packed up, and loaded up in taxis and headed back to the conference center where we attended church with one of the Shanghai branches of our church.  It was so different for us to be in this big conference center (like the conference room of a big fancy hotel) for church with a big group of around 150 members.  We are now used to our cozy group of 40 meeting in a nice home in Hangzhou.  Nice to meet more of the saints in China, Klora and Kendra visited with some of the girls they met at Young Women Camp the weekend before, and the kids all went to their classes (Matt and I did have to go with Kyle, Krista and Kaleb at first).

Then the fun was over and we put on our packs and hiked to the subway station, took our last look at the big city, really pretty impressive.  Can I just add that each time we were lost or unsure on this trip, someone who knows just enough English has been there to help us find our way.  And it happened more that a few times.  We love these bighearted people and know we are being watched over.

Matt maneuvered us through the subway station (thanks to his Chicago mission subway experience), 40 minute subway ride, and to the train station for a few hours wait for our train.  We were all pretty tired by this time and the food that I had found the night before ended up not being too substantial or impressive--wouldn't you know this two hour wait on a SUNDAY would be the one time since we have been in China that we were near a McDonalds AND a Burger King!  KFC was there too but we had done that.  Very tempting but we don't shop on Sunday.  Anyway, you don't want any details of the long wait in the train station, the long train ride back, or the long bus ride home (wasn't really long)--just imagine 6 tired kids, 2 more tired parents and all that sitting and waiting and crowding and people staring at you--everything harder to handle when you are tired.  Enough said.  We made it home and want to go again sometime... but not for a while.

the view from our 22nd floor hotel room

Exciting Announcement

No, we're not expecting. We'll leave that kind of news up to others.

We have known of an upcoming District Women’s Conference happening this month in Shanghai. At first we were all going to go, but we determined later on that our budget is tight enough that perhaps just Julie should go. After further discussion we determined to make the most out of our opportunities while we are here and decided, again, to take the whole family to Shanghai and make a weekend out of it. So we went ahead and booked a hotel, where several other branch families are staying, then we heard that President Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of 12 Apostles will be coming that same weekend and will be holding a Devotional just following the meeting. This is a pretty unique opportunity that might not otherwise have been afforded to our family back in Idaho. The whole district is still a pretty small group; perhaps only 500 people. Here is an interesting article about the LDS Church in China which includes some background history on President Nelson’s connection here.

President Russell M. Nelson
President of the Quorum of 12 Apostles
Of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

 

For the weekend we have a hotel about 10 minutes from the Shanghai Branch Conference Center. We plan to swim, go to a museum, see the ‘knock off’ market, (where copy cat brand name items are sold for cheap), attend District Women’s Conference (Julie) and devotional following the meeting, then attend church with the Shanghai branch on Sunday. I thought I had purchased train tickets correctly online, until I prepared to go pick them up and discovered I had purchased the tickets with the wrong departure date. Luckily our good friend Bonbon, Maggie Hubble’s cousin, helped us get the departure date corrected at the station and we are set to travel. Should be fun.

Shanghai Science and Technology Museum

 

Girls Camp – Klora and Kendra just returned from Girls camp Saturday night. Since their young Women’s leader lives close to the church, they just went home with her after camp and we met them there Sunday morning. The theme of Young Women’s camp this year was “Embark in the Service of God”. Doctrine & Covenants 4:2 . The girls stayed at a hotel and had “camp” at Baiguoyuan outside of Shanghai. They ate S’Mores, roasted Starbursts and drank Hot Chocolate. What a treat. They had a cooking contest, (Won 2^nd place), hiked, had a testimony meeting, etc. On Sunday morning Klora and Kendra were both invited to share their testimonies with the branch and it sounded like a great experience for both of them. Kendra collected email addresses from several girls there and has already emailed them back.

 

Who doesn’t love school? Well, it might just be Kaleb, but who really loves starting school in Kindergarten? He has had a particularly hard adjustment. Not only is school uncomfortable, he barely understands “Hello”, “Good bye” and “Sorry” in Chinese right now, so it has been a bit overwhelming for him (and us). His school is nice and his teacher is great. She has already had us over for an outstanding dinner that was equal or greater to a thanksgiving feast in size and taste. Very, very nice. Hopefully he adjusts better in the coming weeks.

New Teacher – This week Julie’s school got a new English teacher from London named Daniel. He seems like a very nice guy and connects well with the kids. Kyle invited him over for Dinner Saturday and he got a lot of attention from our kids, including walking with Klarese, Ping Pong with Kyle and Chess with Krista, we apologized several times. Nice to hold long conversations in English though.

 

Rose Ice cream? – On Friday evening we took the kids who weren’t at girls camp out for ice cream. We avoided the durian and potato flavors, but Julie couldn’t pass up the Rose flavored ice cream. It was … unique, but good enough to eat.

Other adventures

We recently walked to Ta (Tall) Shan (Mountain) Park near our flat. We have gone there a few times before, but this time we made it to the top. Spectacular view.



Temple half way up Ta Shan Park

View from the top

For Mid-Autumn Festival, we were invited to Maggie's parent's house again for a wonderful traditional Chinese dinner followed the next day by a BBQ with teachers from Julie's school. We went to a hotel owned by one of the teachers families in Mogan Shan, which is a bit more of a resort town outside of Wukang, where we live. Mid-Autumn Festival was a great experience.

Maggie's parent' house

Swimming in the stream



Maggie's Dad

Dinner at Maggie's Parent's house

The BBQ at Mogan Shan

Jane, the teacher at Julie's school in charge of the English program^

 

Well, this blog is getting a bit long in the tooth, we’ll try to update again next week after we return from the devotional and Women’s Conference in Shanghai.

5 Questions; 40 Answers

Public transportation

We are continuing to work out the best and most convenient route to church without a car. Each week is an adventure.

Last Saturday (September 12th) I took the High Speed train into Shanghai for the Shanghai District Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter Day Saints (LDS Church) on Saturday and Sunday. A friend, Bonbon, showed me where the train station was, helped me get tickets ahead of time and then decipher what bus route to take to get there on time Saturday morning. The train ride into Shanghai was scenic and convenient.

Deqing Railway Station



Farms

High Speed Train

The train station in Shanghai is as big as almost any airport I have been in, but luckily I was able to find someone who spoke English to help point me in the right direction to the subway and how to get tickets onto the right one. Once on the subway, I mercifully ran into some members of our Hangzhou Branch and rode a few stops with them before we parted ways and I transferred to another subway line to get to my final destination at the home of some members (The Turners) of the Shanghai Branch of the LDS Church. they graciously housed me and two other members who were from out of town. They own and operate "China's First Cinnamon Roll Bakery" called CinnaSwirl (www.cinnaswirlchina.com) and were wonderful hosts.



Shanghai Subway (Line 7)

Exiting the subway (outer Shanghai - Not much of a view)

On the way home Sunday afternoon, the Turners sent me home with hard to find grocery items (tortillas, taco seasoning and cinnamon rolls (from their bakery - well worth the money if you are ever in Shanghai).
One thing I discovered on my trip to shanghai is that the first stop out of Deqing is Hangzhou, where we normally go to church each Sunday and the train ride there was only 20 minutes as opposed to two hours on the bus... Note to self. Try the train to travel to church next Sunday.


Saturday September 19th
We made the trip from our apartment on Bus 111, a small commuter bus to Deqing Railway Station and from there to Hangzhou East Railway Station the next largest train station I have ever been in, next to Shanghai... Big. I learned how to book my own train tickets online this week and made the ticket reservations several days in advance . We picked them up at the train station Saturday morning and boarded the train without any trouble. The train ride into Hangzhou only took us 13 minutes. NICE!

 

Once in the Hangzhou East train station, I went to the ticket office and sweltered in line for at least 30 minutes until I could get our return tickets for Sunday afternoon. Then we transferred to the subway in Hangzhou and rode it as close to our final destination as possible. From there Julie hailed a large clean Honda Odyssey taxi from the Uber app on her phone to take us to our final destination. Very convenient. We met up with friends from our Hangzhou Branch to let the kids all play soccer together, very fun 

 

Then, after depositing our baggage at the Phillip's house, we headed to the church for "Game Night". Super fun and crazy loud. Pizza was provided and everyone brought junk food. Sucha nice event, with several people inviting friends and associates to join them. Highlights included Klora as the new Hanzhou World Champion RPC (Rock, Paper, Scissors) Champion and the Egg Challenge (From Jimmy Fallon's late night TV show). What a fun evening.

The trip back this Sunday afternoon was really close, but thanks to the expertise of Brother Wood, we boarded the train about 3 minutes before it pulled away from the station and were home quick as a flash. Booking tickets on the train does not leave a lot of flexibility in the schedule for time delays, but no one has been left behind yet...

For next Sunday we are working on hiring a local driver take us to church and bring us home... That may end up being the most convenient, but perhaps we may also try a closer local train station with a shorter bus and subway ride...  so much yet to learn.


FYI: Carnival spot near our home made for a nice outing with the kids last week. Here are a few pictures:

These are water caltrops, not to be confused with water chestnuts, but similar texture. Harvested once a year here in the Zhejiang province of China. An old lady on the side of the street was husking these and gave Klarese a hand full because she said Nǐ hǎo (你好) to her. Chinese people are so nice and generous.

From Klora and Kendra

Klora and Kendra have a home school assignment of providing a post for the blog each week.
Here is their first blog project...

Here is the updated 8 minute video:

Spreading our wings

Well we branched out a little further this week. On Friday Bonbon (Maggie Hubble’s cousin) took us to see Maggie’s parents, who live in Shang Bai Cun, Deqing Xian, Huzhou Shi, Zhejiang Sheng, China (Yes, much smaller village than Shanghai). We first met them when they were visiting Maggie and Geff in Idaho earlier this year and they invited us to come to their home when we got to China. We weren’t absolutely sure then if we were coming to China, but since we are here now, we decided to make good on the invitation to visit. 

On the way, we stopped at the local market where Maggie’s dad works as a butcher. We wandered through the market and looked at all of the local items available to buy.  We will definitely have to return there later to buy lower cost meat and produce, rain boots and some umbrellas.



 After that we stopped by Bonbon’s Dads restaurant to pick up Duck soup, a menu item his father is well known for. While we were there, his mother treated everyone to cold drinks (I might have looked hot and sweaty by then).

 



Bonbon's parents






Duck soup - Includes all of the duck





The restaurant



Then we went on to Maggie’s parent’s home. They have a large beautiful home that was built last year. Maggie's Mom (mama, 妈妈) invited us in, gave the kids treats and brought out the fans (It’s still very hot and humid here).

Maggie's parent's house

While Maggie’s Dad (bàba, 爸爸) was still at the market, we decided to go on a hike/walk. Not far from their home is a walking path (Road, trail, not much distinction here people, bikes, scooters and cars all use the same pathways) that winds through a wooded/bamboo forested area. All along the roadway were attractions like a climbing wall (in the parking lot), an animation studio with a large Optimus Prime at the entrance (Not open yet), a horse stable (designated riding path behind the stable), lots of landscaping, a boat pond and a zip line. Kaleb and I (Matt) were the only ones interested in the Zip line. Everyone else went boating. What a beautiful area. Kaleb said, “Look at the mountain covered in “trees”. It was actually covered in a dense forest of bamboo”. No trees at all on the mountain.


At the stables (This is a Unicorn ;)  )

boating

boating - Notice the "trees"

After our walking, boating, zipping excursion, we returned to Maggie’s parent’s house and they had spread out a feast. It was beyond delicious (we don’t mind a little adventure when it comes to eating). There was enough food there to feed us and two other families and they still had left overs. Maggie’s mom was even thoughtful enough to make hot dog/burgers… Chinese processed meat sticks in bean buns… the kids each tried one and we brought the rest home.

Lunch with family

The river, wash basin, swimming hole

After lunch the kids went down to the river to play while Maggie’s mom and the neighbor washed dishes on the riverside. They also ran around in the bamboo forest behind their house for more than an hour. We think it was especially nice for the kids to get out of the apartment and city and play.



Bamboo forest

Bamboo forest

Washing dishes

Chicken... In the forest

 

It was a really fun day. Exercise, food, friendship. Thanks to Bonbon for taking us everywhere and interpreting everything,

An update on church.
Saturday we made the trip in to Hangzhou. It went even quicker and smoother than the week before. We stayed with the Woods, who treated us to burritos, chips, salsa and quesadillas, followed by a movie. Nice treat.

On Sunday there was a convert baptism for Happiness, who is from Nigeria. It was a wonderful service and her life story is amazing. The trip home was smooth and uneventful. On the taxi ride back to the bus stop, we saw a few weddings taking place around the West Lake Resort area. It is a really pretty area within Hangzhou.

 

That's the update from this side of the earth. For those of you in the states, tomorrow was already a great day.