Madness In The Middle Kingdom

Facebook and Skype have pretty much rendered this little old blog useless in terms of letting those know back home what our life was like here in the Middle Kingdom BUT … as we are returning to Canada this fall I thought it fit to do a farewell series to China. I have no master grand plan for what shape this will take or what I may post on. I suspect the majority of them will be random ramblings of thoughts as they pop into my head.

Why start this up again now? A conversation with Carter and Nathan about when we return to China (which they thought was in the fall as usual) got me thinking .. and it got me depressed. Our apartment in China is all the home the boys have ever known. They were born here, raised here with a Chinese mother and they go to a Chinese school. They speak Chinese about 95% of the time. In short they are and always will be Chinese and it sounds strange to say this but I am taking them away from their home country. Yes .. China is their home country (despite what their passport says). Canada is that place they visit in the summer but China is home.

Carter, bless his dear little heart, said “But we have to come back to China sometime to see Lao lao (his maternal grandmother).” He didn’t know it but he broke my heart. The anticipation of this goodbye seems now more than I am able to fathom.

You’ve been my home for 11 years and for the next 5 weeks I will do my best to say goodbye in the best way I know how.

Last Birthday in China

After playing Wii for far too long I had Nathan and Carter switch activities and try to get them to do something using their brains and hands that wasn’t electronic. They chose drawing and colouring. Below is Carter’s pumpkin.

Halloween was a busy one in this part of China. It began with a school dance on Wednesday evening followed by a party on Saturday night where Alice and I dressed like this

and this

For the record I stayed in character by not talking until midnight. As difficult as you may think it would be for this loudmouth to keep shut .. it actually wasn’t. Turns out I was more annoying being silent than I am when I talk. Go figure!

Sunday we gathered all the Kai Fa Qu kids interested in getting some candy and did our annual parade through the apartment complexes known as “the Songs” and followed that up with a trip to the main downtown part of our lovely little suburb. The Chinese don’t celebrate Halloween (although many now know what the holiday is) so we had fellow staff members hand out candy.

The boys were dressed like this

Carter started as Darth Vader but quickly became Anakin Skywalker when the mask got too uncomfortable. Nathan was a cute little Robin.

They scored a mountain of candy and we were all pretty beat by dinner time but it was smiles all around.

Carter has moved on from Kindergarten to Grade 1 at Maple Leaf. So far things are going well despite the voluminous amounts of homework he gets each night (1 or more hours). He is really showing tons of improvement and maturity that he wasn’t developing at Kindergarten.

At the end of September he had a class performance at school and below are some shots of him in his good uniform getting ready. He did a great job (video to follow) and we are pretty proud of our handsome little guy.

This weekend in Canada marks the 30th anniversary of the original Terry Fox Marathon of Hope. I remember as a young 12 year old seeing the images of this courageous and possibly crazy young man running all of those miles on one leg. I am not sure at the time I understand what his motivation was or even really what cancer was. I do know, however, that I felt pride as he soldiered on through all manner of foul weather. The country became united as never before and the support for his run grew stronger by the day.

On September 1, 1980 his personal Marathon of Hope came to an end. I will never forget the press conference of September 2, 1980 when he announced that he could go no further because the cancer that had started in his leg had spread to his lungs. Each time I watch that video clip in the years since I cannot help but well up with tears.

He had raised $1.7 million for cancer research but his dream of $1 per Canadian (24 million a the time) had not been realized - yet. Since that time, however, the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope runs have raised hundreds of millions for cancer research worldwide.

On June 28, 1981 Terry Fox died with his family at his side. Flags were ordered to be flown at half mast which usually only happens for the death of statesmen. The Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau remarked of his life and his passing

“It occurs very rarely in the life of a nation that the courageous spirit of one person unites all people in the celebration of his life and in the mourning of his death….We do not think of him as one who was defeated by misfortune but as one who inspired us with the example of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity”

September 19, 2010 marks the 30th anniversary of the Marathon of Hope in Canada. Do your part. Go out to your locally organized run, walk etc and above all donate money to cancer research.

Each September for the past 4 years the Dalian Ice Dragon hockey team has travelled to Beijing to play in an ex-pat tourney called the Bethune Cup. This is of course named after the famed Dr. Norman Bethune who worked alongside Mao Zedong’s Communists and was forever immortalized in Chinese culture as a hero. The tourney is organized by fellow Canadian Ray Plummer and is played in China .. the name is a natural.

We won the inaugural cup in 2007 but since that time have failed to recapture it and it has remained in Beijing since that time. The 2010 edition of the Dragons was game for the challenge to recapture the former glory but alas it was to no avail. We’ve taken a very large hit to our roster as several of our key (and excellent) players have returned to Canada. As well 2 of our key players (Shmirler and JJ I am publicly shaming you) didn’t make the trip for less than satisfactory reasons.

The long and short of it is that we went 0 for 4 in the round robin and lost in a shootout in the medal round. After that it was enjoy some cold bevvies in the stands and cheer on the rest of the teams as they sought glory.

We played hockey, drank beer, reunited with old friends, made some new friends, shopped, ate great food (McD’s exception) and overall had a blast.

A special shout out to Yoko Tormanen who is a great Finnish player who has played his last tourney in Beijing. He is leaving for Germany later this month. Also we missed the ever entertaining presence of Greg “Fella” McIsaac who was recovering from surgery. Get well Fella!

The 2010 Ice Dragons

Back Row: Blake, Dave, Jade, Brad, Neil, Charles, Cole, Brownie
Front Row: Seath, Tommy, Trevor

Another school year has started (my 11th in Dalian) and as I am firmly entrenched in the second decade of my teaching career I must admit that finding inspiration and the “joy of teaching” is getting more difficult. Don’t get me wrong for I still maintain that the worst teaching day is still better than anything else I could be doing professionally but let’s call a spade a spade .. not every day is a ray of sunshine.

Planning our lessons is obviously a major component of our job but as I sit prepping for a brand new course I’ve not taught before I can’t help feel like these two fellows below.

Well .. it’s school in the morning kiddies. Gotta get a good night’s sleep.

Today was the last day of swimming lessons and we are proud to announce that Carter has passed Level 2 and can enroll in Level 3 next summer. Nathan did equally as well and has graduated from Shark I. Both of them improved immensely over the last couple of weeks. Carter was proud enough to be allowed off the diving board into the deep end and below is a few vids of his funky moves.

The Savardian Spin O Rama

A Daffy

Head First! .. Well almost.

The annual trip to Canada always coincides with the annual swimming lessons for the boys. We could do lessons in China but they are not terribly convenient to do. In China there is no general swimming lesson program to train young people to swim which is unfortunate but in a generation I am sure that will change. I digress.

We enrolled Nathan in Shy Sharks which seems to be a bit below what he is capable of but the teacher assures us it is a good level for him. Carter we had enrolled in PreLevel 1 but after day one his teacher said he was ready for level 1. After 2 days of in Level 1 that teacher said he would be more challenged in Level 2. He was very proud of his advancement but was probably most happy about now being able do dive off the diving board unassisted and without a life jacket. Both boys are doing excellent and have really enjoyed their time in the water.

Pics

Vids

Carter Side Kick

Carter Diving Board

Floating Nathan

Sliding Nathan

I always refer to Seinfeld’s quip about the movie ads when they say “If you only see one movie this year … ” and Seinfeld replies “then you need to get out more often.” Having said that if you really only go to see one movie this year then see Inception the latest thriller from Christopher Nolan. You may be seeing at least 2 movies this year because to fully appreciate it you might have to see it twice. It is as good as the reviews suggest.

The boys look forward to the Billy Barker Days festivities in Quesnel every third weekend in July. This is now ranked as the largest free family festival in BC but I really dislike the word free. Oh yeah .. it’s free if you want to park your butt in the downtown park and catch some tunes by many great (and some not so great) acts. If you have children, however, it’s far from free. Shooting Star amusements (aka the carnival) is the real main attraction for the kids and the rides are far from cheap. Thankfully for most days you can buy a wristband for $30 which is unlimited rides all day long.

Nathan still limits himself to the little kid rides but Carter is getting far more adventurous and wants to get on ride with exotic names like “The Sizzler” and “The Octopus”. Lucky for me his 11 year old nephew can take him on those rides which saves me some $$ (not buying a wristband) and also keeps me from realizing that I am getting too old to ride those damn things anyway. I look forward to a time when I can send both of them in and I can sit in the park listening to music. That day awaits . . .

We also watched the Saturday morning parade which is always a delight. Stock cars, horses, antique vehicles, mascots and pipe bands entertained us all. The usual routine is to grab coffee and donuts from Robin’s donuts and then park it on a lawn chair for the festivities.

Only one more year for the 2011 BB Days.

The Pics

Video - The Octopus

My nephew is going all out with his hockey training this summer. Two hockey schools and weekly dryland training including some time on the skating treadmill. The treadmill looks hard and the thought of getting up early just to lift weights and run? Come on! I guess that is why an athletic career was never in my cards.

5 months after the holiday ended I have finally done all my posts about our wonderful time in Bali. I desperately want to go back in the worst way but it looks like next year we will be in the sunny confines of Jixi in Heilongjiang province. Meh!

Anyway .. last 2 days in Bali we chilled at a hotel with yet another nice pool. We had a huge mall down the road and spent our air conditioned days there to beat the sweltering heat.

As a wind down here are a couple of vids of the boys just soaking in the pool for the last time.

Over and out.

The second to last post in the months long series of the adventures of the MaBrown clan in Bali, Indonesia.

We booked a van to take us up to see the famed Batur Volcano. It is a beautiful site to see (so I am told - more on this in a moment) as it is a crater peak within an already erupted larger crater that is now a lake. Unfortunately we picked the worst of all possible weather days to head up and our view was that of fog on a mountain. We dressed in shorts and beach attire as it was fairly warm at the bottom of the mountain. When the ice cold rain began pelting us as we gazed at this wondrous peak/fog we knew it was time to get back down the mountain.

The day wasn’t a total loss though as we got to see a rice plantation and a coffee plantation. We were also lucky enough to sample some of the famous Bali coffee and the kids had a great time slurping hot chocolate to warm their cold little bodies.

On a sunny day I can only imagine how cool it would have been. On this foggy rainy day it still had plenty of magic for us all and it at least got us out of the bungalow.

To a great father and grandfather all of the boys of the MaBrown clan are wishing you a Happy Father’s Day!

Just got off Skype with the family back in the good ole town o’ Quesnel and it got me thinking about my roots and the music I grew up with. It comes as no surprise that a Cariboo town upbringing would have its healthy dose of country (or Country and Western to the city folks). There was a time that I shied away from that genre of music as I chased the dream of big city post secondary education. In short I became a snob mainly out of fear of ridicule from my class of acquaintances. I have now come to realize that one can be educated and worldly (well not really but I do live in a Chinese city of 6 million) but still be true to who you are and where you came from.

I’ll say it now.

I like country music.

And for those that look on it with disdain all I have to reply with is a little song by Randy Travis entitled

“A Better Class of Losers”

From Tudou.com (video website in China)
I hope you can see it across the pond.

This Friday (June 25th) we will celebrate Carter’s graduation from preschool/kindergarten (no official kindergarten in China). He has been at Xin Qiao You Er Yuan (Xin Qiao preschool) since he was 3 and now he is moving on to Grade 1.

We appreciate all his teachers have done and tried to do for him as they helped shape him into the young boy he has become. When he was a toddler he was a very shy boy who was easily pushed around by other kids and truthfully we were worried about his school years. His time at preschool really brought him out of his shell and he learned to be assertive and more confident. He has learned how to draw and paint very well for a 6 year old boy as Xin Qiao focuses quite a bit on art.

We are very very proud of you Carter!

Our handsome boy

The slideshow below shows the suit he is going to wear at the festivities

While staying at the Ubud Bungalows Nathan and I stopped to look at this huge spider every morning on our way back from breakfast. He didn’t move in the week we were there. I would have poked him to see if he was dead but .. uhh .. fat chance of that!

It seems as if I am going to be posting about our February 2010 excursion to Bali forever but there are only a couple more left. It’s been a great way to relive the fond memories and soothe the longing for SouthEast Asia.

Some Dalian friends of ours happened to be in Ubud at the same time we were. They also have small children and they graciously offered to look after Carter and Nathan while Alice and I attended a Kechak Dance at a local temple. What an amazing show! I would highly recommend it to anyone who goes to Bali.

The show revolves around a Hindu tale of love, possession and jealousy. I don’t recall the specific tale but it was a great performance. As an aside it was interesting to find out that 90% of Bali residents practice Hinduism.

To begin the performance a group of about 40 or 50 men sat in concentric circles and began chanting and moaning which they kept up the entire 1.5 hours of the performance. They sat around a pyre of burning candles while the main actors in the show carried on the musical performance around the pyre. For days after I was chanting “Kechak kechak kechak chak chak chak”. Alice wanted to kill me but it was so rhythmically hypnotic I couldn’t stop.

At the end of the show they burned a huge pile of coconut husks and shells. One of the temple patrons kicked the burning pile around and then walked on it with his barefeet. At the end of the slideshow below you can see his charred soles.

I nabbed 2 videos shot by tourists but they are not of our particular performance. These videos will give you an idea of the show and keep in mind those guys chanted like that for one and a half hours.

4 years ago today (that’s right .. June 9th NOT June 6th) Nathaniel Zhongjia came into this world. The world has not been the same since.

We love you more and more each day little guy and here’s hoping you have a great day.