Poppa and Granny

Man, I am so behind in posting on this blog. I have posted on the family blog, but not on the team blog. I will try to catch up. By the way, if you can't get enough of us, you can check out the family blog at www. hardinclan.blogspot.com.

Anyway, in February, my dad and step-mom (a.k.a Poppa and Granny) came to visit us in China.

We took a train to Beijing to meet them. It was a headache to get train tickets at that time of the year. We had originally planned on all of us taking the train to Hangzhou, but we could not get tickets, so we had to fly.

The train trip was pretty nice. We took "soft sleeper" so we had a small compartment all to ourselves. Eryn slept in the bed with me, but everyone else had their own beds.



This is Hallie reading the night time story to the kids. They are already in their pajamas.

Our train arrived in Beijing around 6 am. I was worried that the kids would not want to wake up, but they did great! I guess they were excited about being there.

We were in Beijing about a day and a half before Poppa and Granny arrived.

What did we do before they got there? We ate western food. Beijing has some nice places to get some food that we cannot usually get here in Hangzhou.



While in Beijing we ate Mexican food including crunchy tacos. We also had hot dogs one night. We drank Dr Pepper! I even let the kids have some.


While we were in Beijing we visited.....


The Great Wall,


Tienanmen Square,


and The Forbidden City.

We also introduced my folks to Chinese food and shopping. After 4 days in Beijing we flew home to Hangzhou.

While in Hangzhou we took them to tourist spots like West Lake and Hufeng Street. We watched fireworks on Chinese New Year. And we worshiped with Christians from two continents.

They got lots of hugs from the grandkids....

(We know the real reason they came!)

They also got to make cookies with the kids. Boy that was different! Cooking in our little toaster oven with ingredients that aren't quite the same is an experience.

We tried to show them a glimpse of our everyday life.

Right after we arrived in Hangzhou, I took my dad to the bus stop to meet Jon, Hallie, and Eryn ( we had taken a taxi, but they took the bus). As we stood there waiting, I thought, "woah! I am standing at a bus stop with my dad....in China!" It was a surreal feeling, like two worlds colliding.
I really enjoyed having them here, and the apartment seemed a little empty when they left. We can't wait to see them again this summer.

Clarks: Wai Po Jia （外婆家）

One of the most popular restaurants in Hangzhou, with several locations and expanding all the time, is a place called, in English, "The Grandma's", and in Chinese, "Wai Po Jia" （外婆家）。 The Chinese name, by the way, refers specifically to the maternal grandmother, your mom's mom. There's another word for the granny on your paternal side of the family.
So anyway, this blog post has nothing to do with that restaurant.
But, it does have to do with our little Phoebe's "wai po" (i.e., Cecely's mom) who has been in town now since late February.
Gloria and Don were both supposed to come to China for Phoebe's birth, but as many of you know, Don had some last-minute health problems that kept him at home. So, Gloria made the brave voyage alone. And we're glad she did!
It's been a really great time for her and really big help for us as we've settled in to our new roles as "Mommy & Daddy". Gloria has cooked us several wonderful made-from-scratch American meals, helped to keep things clean and straigt, and often soothed Phoebe (and by extension, us too) with her time-tested (grand-)motherly love.

The weather has been nice enough days that we've been able to go outside and see pretty much all the places we'd wanted her to visit. And she's bought enough souvenirs to open her own Chinese import store when she gets home!

The few pictures I'm including show a little glimpse of what we've done.
If you haven't done so in a while, go give your grandma or your mom a hug. And if yours are gone, at least go find someone and give them that hug.

Government vs. Spontaneous Organization

Professor John of Economics, Zhejiang University lives on the first floor below us. John does not own a car. He and his wife grow their own greens in the garden. Each evening he listens to English while jogging in the neighborhood. When he feels a little down, John sings out traditional Chinese songs very loud to feel happy. He asked me to help him improve his spoken English to prepare for a three month study of city governments in Italy.

John asked, “How did you spend time with your family when you were a child?”
“Well, we went to church a lot.”
John wondered, “Were you interested in this topic?”
“Yes. I remember as a child it was very encouraging to sing songs and pray in a church group of 250 people. We would go to church three times a week Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.”
John doubted, “Just go to the church and pray so much?”
“Yes. Also every summer we would go to Little Prairie Bible Camp. Our church would do a lot of work to prepare for camp. Our whole family would help on Saturdays. Mom would volunteer to be a cook. Dad and us boys helped build cabins and the bathhouse, and we would mow grass. The church worked together to maintain the church camp, which built the spiritual life of young people, which served God.”
John very impressed, “This kind of spontaneous organization is good. We don’t have it in China.”
John shifts to teacher mode, “There are two ways to organize people. First, the government organizes people by force. Second, the people spontaneously organize, because they want to. Our government does not want people to organize spontaneously. Our government says, ‘I will organize you. Why do you want to organize yourselves?’ ”

This conversation explains why my students just sit there when I ask them to form small groups and work on a certain English activity together. Only when I go around the room and say, “You, you, and you please make a group,” do they begin speaking.
There is some spontaneous organization in China. The home worship movement is a great example, and the Lord’s power is all the more evident as Chinese brothers and sisters step up to lead.

Clarks: Baby Shower

We had our first-ever baby shower here at the house around the end of February. It was lots of fun, of course, and we received lots of great gifts for Phoebe. The first picture shows the "diaper cake" and pink cupcakes that Jenn brought over.


Next is a snapshot of the party: you can see (clockwise from bottom left) Gao Yan on the couch, Hallie standing near Cecely's mom, Cecely, Heather, Li Wen (aka "Vanderbilt") and her daughter Grace, and Jenn in the foreground on the right. All the other ladies from church (except Elaine) were also there, and Cathy and Tanner Hendrick. A good crowd!


Finally, I've included a cute picture of Cecely and I snuggling under the streamers in the dining room (decorations by Heather).

ShaoXing

GaoYan and I took an overnight trip to ShaoXing. We explored the stone walks following the canals all through the little city. The willow trees are just starting to sprout bright green leaves. Unlike Hangzhou, ShaoXing has so many remaining old homes with white washed walls and black clay tile roofs. Their living rooms are cleanly swept and kitchens neatly arranged. Unfortunately towering concrete apartment blocks circle around the old quarter, so GaoYan asked a group of ladies, “They are not going to tear down these houses are they?”
One lady answered, “O no! My house is safe next to this bridge. This bridge is 800 years old.”
Continuing to wander the canals, GaoYan and I stumbled on to a lion dance celebrating the lantern festival. Several hundred people had stopped to watch. A group of older men smoking cigarettes were vigorously banging on drums and crashing cymbals, while younger men were dressed in a red lion and yellow lion. A little bridge was covered in shining gold cloth and the alley was lined with ornate lanterns at each home.

Spring Festival Visiting

After Spring Festival day there are two weeks of visiting and eating meals with friends and relatives.
1. Julia and Nieve visited from the English department bringing apples, sweet pears, and a monster bag of WaWa junk food for Caleb. We served them some home made pizza.
2. HaiBin, her husband, little boy, and in-laws invited us to eat lunch at the Hot Fish restaurant in our old neighborhood. They are moving to Beijing so we will miss them.
3. We brought chicken curry over to Cambridge’s house one night. They are also expecting a baby just a week before us. Their five year old boy suffered brain damage at birth. We are always amazed and encouraged by their love and patience. Cambridge shot off Roman candles with us on the way home.
4. A mother and daughter who attend our Friday night study invited us to their home with a big gathering of friends. They served turtle and eel. We watched the Winter Olympics and Caleb tried to run from their big black poodle.
5. DongHong invited us to his new home with a group of his friends. DongHong is the university president’s driver. He is the kind of person who shakes your hand for a long long time like you have been friends since childhood. For the past six years DongHong has been renting in a 4 square meter apartment, no kitchen, no shower for just over 10 dollars a month. DongHong is so proud of his new home.
6. Just after the snow we visited the bee keepers who live in tents at the bottom of our hill. Their teenage children were visiting, so we brought big bags of snacks. We thought we had gotten away with giving a gift, but a few days later they stopped us and gave a free jar of honey. I raced back down the hill with money to try and pay for the honey, but that turned into some polite pushing and “No No No keep your money.”
7. On the Lantern Festival we ate lunch with LiJun, the stem cell researcher, and family. They take us to fancy meals when we eat with them, so GaoYan got an expensive fruit basket and we gave some books to their son Eric. Always wanting to give more, they sent us home with Eric’s old bike for Caleb to ride.