Sunday, July 22, 2007

Chen Ayi



As some of you know, we have an Ayi, pronounced I-E, (that's Chinese for Aunt) who the boys really like. An Ayi is a kind of nanny/helper/housekeeper. And Chen (that's her first name) Ayi is really great. I'm really getting spoiled here! But it is good for the boys to have someone else here who cares about them like our family/friends back in Michigan and Alabama do. She plays with them a lot and gives them lots of attention. She's in her late 50's and has a 30-year-old son of her own. She is kind of like a "grandmother" figure to them. Don't worry Nonnie or Grandma Susan, you have not been replaced. :-) In other words she spoils them. Initially we were most worried about Gabe liking/feeling comfortable with her. But, Gabe took to her right away. Maddox, on the other hand, has been going through one of those "I need to be attached to my Mom's leg" stages. But he has come around. He always lets go of my leg though when it comes to mealtimes. As you can see from the picture below, Chen Ayi is always more than willing to share her lunch with him. And he loves it!!! I have no earthly idea what he is eating each lunch, but I feel good knowing he's broadening his horizons. Those of you who know Gabe well won't be surprised when I say that Gabe won't even consider doing any of the lunch sharing.



As great as Chen Ayi is, there is one downside. We don't speak each other’s language. As I am sure you can imagine, that sometimes makes things a little complicated. We actually do amazingly well when she is here. It's unbelievable how much two people can communicate through hand gestures, grunts, and acting out things. For example, when I am going to take a shower and I need her to keep an eye on the boys, I just mimic....well.....taking a shower. Ok, that didn't sound as amazing as it seems to be to me on this end. My point is, while I was really worried about the communication barrier at first, it has been working out much better than I thought it might. One other thing that really helps is my Mac Book. It has this neat little widget that is a language translator. So I just type in what I want to say, it gets translated into Chinese, and then she reads it. I just have to be very careful of the wording I use. Often there is not a literal translation for a word so the computer just picks what it thinks fits best...which is not always best. So I use as few words as possible, no slang, no contractions, etc. When I am careful, this process works really well. All in all, we do ok. A friend back in MI asked if it was weird having someone around all day that you didn't really talk to. It is in some ways. There are so many, many, many things I would like to ask her about. I know she would be able to answer many of my questions about China. But, until my Chinese improves or her English, we are stuck. But, the upside to she and I not speaking the same language is that we are both working really hard to learn. Every time she hands me something, say a shirt to put away, she says that word in Chinese. I repeat it until I get it correct. I do the same for her. So we are both learning. She also does the same for Gabe and Maddox. It's really amazing how much better they are picking up on things than me sometimes. Every time she hands them a toy or a snack she repeats the word over and over. Gabe knows what is going on so he repeats it back. Maddox just mumbles until she gives in (which is usually within 5 seconds) and gives him the object. I think he has her figured out. Anyway, we are all learning. Which is great!



We feel very blessed to have her working for us. She has had a very tough life and I know from what she has told our Chinese-speaking friends who translated for us that she is very happy to be working for us. I already know she is going to be missed. And not just because she helps me (though I won't deny that having help is wonderful) but because she is a good person who truly cares about all of us.

Sunday, July 8, 2007

View From Above

What's going on y'all? I hope things are good. We have had a good week here. As mentioned in previous posts, Gabe started swimming lessons this week. They have been interesting to say the least. The class is with all older kids and one teacher. So Gabe kind of feels out numbered. The teacher is a Chinese guy who's motto is "Throw them in and they'll figure it out." He may not actually throw them in but, that's his mind set about learning to swim. Don't get me wrong, he's really nice. I think it's partly a culture thing. They don't really baby the kids over here. If a kid is scared and crying about swimming....they just drag them on in. Kicking and screaming. And if a kid can swim above water and they are wanting them to learn to swim underwater, they just push them under and hold them down 'til they start swimming. Forced learning I guess you would say. While I always thought it was kind of a cruel thing to do, I'm thinking there must be something to it. Over the past week, the improvment the Chinese kids have made is amazing! Each of them are much more advanced than they were at the begenning of the week. The ones who "sorta swam" are truly swimming. Correctly and everything. The ones who couldn't swim at all are "sorta swimming." By that I just mean they don't have great technique but they are doing it. And the two who were totally terrified are perfectly happy and attempting to swim. Really, maybe there is something to this "suck it up and do it" mentality. Gabe isn't swimming yet, but he has gotten braver. He doesn't really enjoy the classes, too much commotion. But he has learned to kick his feet. I don't know if we will be going next week or not. I think we may just on our own....when there are less people in the pool.

Last weekend we took a family outing to Shanghai's famous Pearl Tower. The Oriental Pearl Tower stands by the bank of the Huangpu River. The tower is 468 meters high. It is the highest TV Tower in Asia and is the third highest one in the world. In the tower, there is a double-decker elevator which can hold fifty people at a time and two high-speed elevators which run at a speed of 7 meters per second. The sight-seeing floor in the upper sphere is 263 meters (about 862 feet) high and 45 meters in diameter. It's one of the best places to get a bird's-eye view of Shanghai. The view was totally amazing. It was not the clearest day when we were there but it was still great. Here are a couple of pictures.







The last picture shows the Jin Mao Tower and the building being built next to it. The Jin Mao tower is 88 stories tall and is currently the fifth tallest building in the world. The building being biult next to it is the Shanghai World Financial Center. When completed, it will be the tallest building in the world with 101 stories. Hopefully we will go up into the Jin Mao tower soon. I'm sure it will provide another great view of this amazing city.

Hope y'all have a great week!