Communications Update

Ok, I've received a few comments about the odd sign in the bathroom. Here is a link to the full picture (big!) so you can read it yourself. We've also seen a few other gems today that badly garble the English language. For example, the sign that apparently wished to express, "Keep off the Grass" read instead, "Observe the life. Keep the joy." Hopefully, we'll pass it again to get a photo.
As a way of introduction, I should point out that MANY Chinese express a strong desire to speak English, and there literally 20-30 people each day which greet us with, "Hello" or "How are you?", and desire to practice their English. Their hunger for knowledge and adding a 3rd or 4th language is certainly admirable. There are also many many folks wearing t-shirts with relatively random English words on them, some of which make some sort of sense, but others are just 10-30 English words strung together as a marketing ploy. So, with this amount of hunger in the marketplace, there is a strong market for tools to learn English. When we went to Wal*Mart today, we got three great packages of language flashcards, obviously designed to teach Chinese children some simple English words. They are awesome, because they have Mandarin pronunciation (pinyin), Simplified Chinese characters, and English, with the reverse in Simplified Chinese. They'll be great for teaching us some simple Chinese. However, 5 of them badly garbled the spelling or meaning, which is pretty bad when you think about someone thinking that the word for "close" is spelled "colse", and that "few" means a single item. (Clockwise from upper left, the English reads, dean, colse, wetermelon, sheep, sheep, and few) The Happy Giraffe split-pants we saw at Wal*Mart had pictures of what appear to be kittens, bears or something else definitely NOT a giraffe, which certainly sends a confusing signal. And the picture of Rachael? Hey, she's a cute kid, so I'm looking to toss her picture in wherever possible.

Rachael's intro to American culture.

Today Rachael got her first taste of America. We went to McDonald's and we bought her a Happy Meal. She was so tired she slept through lunch. That is rare for her as she is quite an eater. She later ate her nuggets and drank her apple juice. After Mc Donald's she got to go shopping at a Wal-Mart Super Store. Her first of many trips there I am sure. She bought a new rattle and two beautiful church dresses. The prices here are amazing. We were able to buy a new shirt for a dollar. Her dresses (nice frilly ones) were four dollars. Dress pants for men are under a dollar. We paid 60 cents for a cute cup for Rachael. Last night we went out to eat with other families. We ate family style with shrimp, beef, veggies, rice, sweet and sour tofu, deep fried pumpkin, fried fish with watermellon, mushroom stir-fry, Kung Pao chicken, congee and drinks. For our family the total cost was $9. Can't beat that!
Dan and I are being very adventurous in eating. At breakfast this morning, there was chicken foot salad on the buffet. And yes we tried it! It was basically chicken feet cooked in soy sauce and served cold. We couldn't figure out how you would eat it, so we just nibbled it a little. It was mostly skin and bones. Needless to say, we did not go back for seconds on that one. Most of the food has been great. We discovered that if you cook tofu correctly, it is really good.

Chinese translations

As you know, anytime that two different cultures try to communicate, there are bound to be problems getting your point across. While Dan and I can kind of mannage using "Spanglish" there is no such thing with Chinese. Many of the hotel staff speak a bit of English, but that doesn't always help. Lots of hand gestures and very simple language is needed, and still doesn't always work. Even the guides we have, who speak very good English, don't always understand what we are trying to say. Dan had to try to describe the term "redneck" to our guide. That was quite fun. -Becca
We had an interesting communication issue just a few hours ago, when the phone rang at 3:04am, and it was the Swimming Pool calling. Now, I quickly surmised that the pool had not gained the ability of cognition, speech, ability to dial and pigeon Chinese-English talk in the few hours since I left the pool, but that was about all I was processing when awakened from a dead sleep. After several questions and answers back and forth, the hotel employee at the pool wanted to let me know that when we visited the pool earlier, my 'guest' was going to be charged to my room. She didn't understand that my visitor was my wife, and asked me to call the assistant manager. Not remembering that inflection and sarcasm with another language might not come through, I said, "Right Nooooow?", and she said, "Yes, thank you, thank you, Good Night," and hung up the phone. Righto, I'll fumble for glasses, find the right key on the overly-complicated computer pad that controls all lights in a relatively random method with instructions in 90% Simplified Chinese, and get a light on to make a phone call at 3:08 in the morning to someone who I know won't understand me. Good plan! So, I called the front desk, several interchanges of words until they understood I was asking for the manager. The manager wants to come on, and wonders what's wrong with my room. I tried to explain, and she said, "You want to go for swim now? Pool is closed. You no swim." No, no, no, the swimming pool (again anthropomorphicising) asked me to call you because my wife joined me at the pool. I could hear the embarrassment come over the phone as she said, "Oh, I know why, no problem, never mind, so sorry, good night," click. So Becca and I are laughing at 3:15 in the morning in our room about how bizarre that was, and I've been wide-awake ever since. Ahh the joys of communications in a foreign country. By the way, in case you can't read the picture, that's a package of "SMIZZLE STICKS". Apparently Snoop Dogg has been here, packaging coffee stir sticks with the full Schmizzle. Peace out.

Rachael's First Swim

In another reminder of what it's like to look so very different in another culture, I went for a swim today. I thought several Chinese were going to drown with their mouths agape. "Look, red bear swim at zoo!" But, I didn't care, since it was a hot day, and I wanted to cool down with a dip. So, after checking in, getting 3 locker keys, being instructed to put flip-flops in outside locker, "I wanted to wear them to the pool." "Put in locker" Hmmm... apparently, they only know those few words in about 10 languages. So flip-flops in one locker, t-shirt in another locker, with glasses, and then I could go to the pool. It was very nice, even though I felt on display, and the kids swimming up to look with their goggles at the parts that were under the water weren't subtle. They weren't rude, but curious. The swim was even better when I was joined 10 minutes later by Momma and Rachael, and she had her first swim. She was very glad to see Daddy (we're trying to introduce brief periods of being with only one caretaker), and she didn't seem to mind the water much at all. After a slow introduction, she loved splashing the water with her hands and playing with Dad in the water. Her grin and giggle are SO CUTE. We had a lot of fun playing underwater peek-a-boo, where Dad would go under then come up with a "Boo!" to make her smile. Just about the time we were done anyway, a big storm system with lightning came in, and we got out (though about 20 Chinese swam the whole way through the lightning storm with rain!). It was quite a fun first swim. Now, if I can only convince her to not pee down my shirt in the elevator lobby.

Visit to Buddhist Temple in Fuzhou

China is a beautiful country, with some astounding architecture. Today, we visited a famous Buddhist temple in Fuzhou, and the beauty of the gardens, buildings, shrines and artwork was amazing. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Rachael slept through the night, and woke up at 7:30. She must have been hungry, because she had a full 8oz bottle with rice, then a whole bowl of congee with hundred-year egg and onion, and some yam noodles and fried egg (Western style). That knocked her out for a good nap, so she slept through the first half of the Buddhist temple, but did wake up and enjoyed the tour and then some Chinese lunch. Though it was very humid and about 88F, but the copious shade in the gardens and some bottled water kept us going, and I'm very glad we went. Not only was it beautiful, but we also had some good times joking and talking as a group. At one point, I rounded one corner to see this panoramic view of 3 temples and pagodas, and two people bowing and offering incense, and thought, "Dorothy, this isn't Kansas anymore". Definitely a place you could spend a whole day to see. After the temple tour we had a good lunch (fried rice, steamed pea pods, chowed broccoli, Kung Pao chicken, pot stickers, congee, and steamed egg), and Rachael made quite a hit with the wait staff at the restaurant. They loved watching me feed her steamed egg, which was part because it's very difficult to do because it's like custard, and they were impressed a Westerner could use chopsticks so well. But, heck, let's be honest here -- they were really goggling our cute baby and all the faces she would make for them. After Rachael hammed it up a bit, the heat of the morning and a big lunch set her up for a power nap. Rachael didn't make it half-way back to the hotel before she was knocked out for a good nap (which she is two hours into right now). We're getting ready to wake her up and take her to the pool, which should be interesting.

Photo Op

Everywhere we go that aren't desensitized to westerners, Dan and Julia (at left) both make an impression, though Dan seems to be the real oddity. "You Christmas Man!" and "Rub Buddha for luck!" are the two most common comments, though most folks want to take their picture with Dan or Julia. It's pretty comical, and you should see some of the expressions as Chinese walk into each other and stare, trying to goggle all they can. It's like being in the zoo. For grins, at the Forbidden City, Dan and Julia walked side-by-side for several minutes, and it was like a double whammy on the locals, seeing that much non-Chinese features together in one place.

Gotcha day!

Today, we met our third daughter, Rachael Anne YuTing Houser. This was a rollercoaster of a day, and was fun, exhausting, and overwhelming. After breakfast, where we had pig ear, black conjee and cold squid for the first time, we took a sweltering walk in the park and watched women exercising with a fan dance. On the way back from the park, we saw several women walking into the hotel with babies in their arms. After several seconds, it occurred to us that 10 women entering the hotel, each with a baby, just 20 minutes before we were to get our babies, meant that one of them was likely our little Yu Ting! (Now that we've seen the pictures, we know one of them was, so it was the first moment we saw our child.) We didn't study the babies too closely, as we knew we would likely pick her out, and the thought of just leaving her in the lobby would have been too much. We made a quick change, and dashed off to the 26th floor lounge, where we spent several hours, on-and-off with the babies, local officials, caregivers, notaries and our guides. Rachael made an absolute fuss when she had to leave her caregiver, and her passport picture (taken 10 minutes after we got her) captured one of the few seconds she didn't cry for the first hour. Once we took her to our hotel room, changed her diaper, got her some food and a nap, she was much better. We took a shopping trip mid-day, and got several supplies like bottled water, bananas, yogurt (both a big hit with Rachael), diapers and a few containers of the same formula she had been using. By the way, golf shirts and dress shirts at the market were 5 Yuan, which is about $0.61. After applying for her passport at the police station, Daddy gave Rachael a bath, and then we went to dinner, then swiftly to bed. What a day!

Split pants

This requires little comment, but thought I'd toss in a few words about why this Daddy is willing to risk a nervous neck in this fashion. Apparently, this is common in China, particularly in the countryside, where diapers are oddities and expensive.

Smoggy Day at Summer Palace

We got to see Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City today, which were regretfully wreathed in smog. Our guide said this is normal for August, due to weather. Tian'anmen wasn't as wide-open as I thought (perhaps due to my perspective being limited by the smog) but impressive nontheless, particularly in the memories it stirred. The Forbidden City was huge, and very impressive. We thought we must be nearly done when we saw a map, and it showed that we had only gotten through 1/4 of it!!

We're safe and in Beijing

We had computer problems yesterday, so weren't able to post, so we're dashing off a quick blog post to let you know we've arrived safe and sound. After a very very very long flight, during which time Dan didn't sleep and Becca catnapped, we arrived in Beijing.

This is an overwhelming city that must give an ulcer to city planners, as it looks like a relatively random development strategy. Top that off with crazy traffic (2000 new cars are added to the road every DAY in Beijing), and you have a very interesting drive from the airport. Our hotel room is very nice, definately 4-stars, though smells odd... we think it's an odd odor in the cleaning supplies. Combine slight hint of skunk, stale unusual cigarettes and 2-3 unknown spices and you have the smell. Not bad, but bearable. The extra hard bed is the same, not bad but bearable. The food, however is fantastic. We've discovered that our local hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant we love, China House, is a pretty good restaurant. Topping the list of delicacies in the last 24 hours are homemade noodles (6 feet long, eaten only with chopsticks!) with chili sauce, eel fried rice, wonderful pork dumplings, coconut milk, plum juice, 100-year-old egg (gelatinous and salty), fermented bean curd (texture of fine cheese, taste like nothing else you've eaten, and WAY salty) in runny canjee, Peking duck (yum!), fried inside-out carp served whole (best thing so far), melons, very weird scrambled eggs, sausage that tasted like a cross between hot dog and kielbasa, fried pancake with shredded pork (yum!), sticky rice and various vegetables.

Today was touring the Great Wall, Chinese lunch served family style with about 12 dishes, visiting the Summer Palace, a dinner of Peking Duck, and then seeing the Beijing Acrobatic Troupe. We were so exhausted by the time we we got to the Acrobats, we feel asleep several times. Now, we're going to pack, and then bed!

And..... they're off!

After months and months of planning, prayer, preparation, more prayer, and paperwork, the day is finally here. In 2 minutes we walk out the door to fly to China, and we are beside ourselves. This is so much bigger than we realized, and it's scary, wonderful and exhilarating at the same time. Like the biggest roller coaster I've ever faced (and I chose that metaphore carefully), the anticipation and rush is incredible. We are going to pick up our daughter, and it rocks! Please remember us, Rachael, Emily and Kayla in your prayers, and keep checking this blogs for our planned daily (?) posts.

Fun Diversion...

We made a search-a-word for Emily that includes lots of fun things we're doing in China. Click here for your own copy.

Detailed Itinerary

(for flight information to/from China, click here)

The Schedule for Fu Jian Group

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Aug 26 (Fri):

• Mable or Susan will pick up the families arriving by UA851 at 14:37pm by the KFC. Then, check into Temple of Heaven Beijing (Zhongcheng Holiday Inn), Tel.: 86+10+67626688; Fax:86+10+67611616).

Aug 27 (Sat.):

• Tour to Jade place, Great Wall, Summer Palace.
• Watch Acrobatic Show at night.

Aug 28 (Sun):

• Go to Tian An Men Square, Forbidden City and pearl place.
• Fly to Fuzhou by HU7195(18:10pm-20:40pm) and check into Golden Resources International Hotel, (Tel: 86-591-87088888; Fax: 86-591-87088999).

Aug 29 (Mon):

• Meet babies - 9am
• In the afternoon, go to the Civil Affairs office to do the registration.

Aug 30 (Tue):

• Visit Yu Mountain and go shopping.

Aug 31 (Wed):

• Go to Fu Zhou City Museum.

Sep 1 (Thu):

• Visit Fuzhou orphanage or Drum Mountain.

Sep 2 (Fri):

• Visit traditional lanes and fill the forms of the consulate in the afternoon.

Sep 3 (Sat):

• Visit Panda’s World.

Sep 4 (Sun):

• 3:30pm: Go to airport and catch flight MF8325 (18:35pm-19:50pm) to Guangzhou and check into White Swan Hotel (Tel: 86+20+81886968; Fax: 86+20+81861188).

Sep 5 (Mon):

• Go to a clinic to have a medical check-up for the child.

Sep 6 (Tue):

• Guide will go to send visa documents to consulate in the morning.
• Have group dinner at Pizza Hut and have a river cruise (two hours).

Sep 7 (Wed):

• In the afternoon, go to US consulate to take the oath.
• Group dinner.

Sep 8 (Thu):

6:30am: Go to airport to catch flight CZ319 (9:40am-10:40am) to fly to Hong Kong. Then, catch flight UA896 at 12:45pm back home.

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Two kids for rent, cheap!

Uh-oh, our plans for Emily and Kayla while we're in China have fallen through, so we are without a place for them for stay for a week! Crickey!!! Please pray for us. (Or rent our kids, cheap!)

Overwhelming Feeling

This phase of the adoption process makes me feel like I'm an overstretched guitar string, being pulled in 20 different directions, trying to keep work, home, family, church, career, and adoption balls all in the air at once (to mix a metaphor). I'm able to look at my watch and say, "We should be boarding a plane in 13 days, and Rachael's first birthday is in 10." Knowing how the last month has flown by, particularly with the loss of my mother and the grieving process, I know those days will evaporate like alcohol in the sun. Before I know it, I'll be kissing my kids goodbye, standing at the United ticket window in Columbus, and feel shock at the journey I'll be starting. How do you prepare for something like this, for the journey of a lifetime? It's overwhelming, and piles that overwhelming sense of something far outside myself on top of my already swamped psyche. 13 little days, just 310 hours from now... tick, tock... -dan

We have travel dates confirmed

Houser Travel Internerary
International Travel to/from China
____________________________________________________
Thursday - 25 August 2005
Flight #: UA6801 Airline: United (UNITED EXPRESS/SKYWEST)
Depart: 09:41 AM Airport: Port Columbus Int'l Arpt
Arrive: 09:59 AM Airport: Chicago O'Hare
Travel 1hr 18min

_________121_minute_layover_at__O'Hare______________

Flight #: UA0851 Airline: United
Depart: 12:00 PM Airport: Chicago O'Hare
Arrive: 26 August Airport: Beijing Capital Arpt
02:30 PM
Aircraft: Boeing 747-400 Mileage: 6572
Travel 13hr 30min
____________________________________________________
Thursday - 8 September
Flight #: UA0896 Airline: United Airlines
Depart: 12:45 PM Airport: Hong Kong Int'l Arpt
Arrive: 02:25 PM Airport: Chicago O'Hare
Aircraft: Boeing 747-300 Mileage: 7791
Travel 14hr 40min
_________4+ hour layover_at__O'Hare______________

Arrive: Thursday evening Airport: Port Columbus Int'l Arpt
Columbus, OH

Sorry -- as much as we love our family and friends, and romantically imagine a huge homecoming in the airport with balloons, banners and cheers, it would overwhelm our travel-worn, tired baby who is used to drab institutional surroundings, is experiencing jet lag, and has cranky parents.

Soooo, please give us a few weeks to settle into a routine, and we'll be glad to pop in and see you with Rachael. We promise.

Very cool info on Fujian province

Just passing on a very cool link on the Fujian province, with TONS of details. I've also pasted in this very cool map of the province, which shows the relation to Taiwan. If you click on the map, find the 'Taiwan Strait' in the middle of the water, then go due West from the 'T' in 'Strait', you'll see Jinjiang on the coast, which is where Rachael is. We've learned it's 150 minutes south of Fuzhou, where we will be, by driving the 'Autobahn' down to Zhangzhou and hanging a left.

Travel Date set: 8/25

Y_E_S_!_!_!_! At last, we have a travel date, so know when we are going to China. We should be leaving for Beijing on 8/25 and get Rachael Anne YuTing around 8/29. We will post our full itinerary once we get it. As a funny aside, friends of ours also adopting from China got their travel date today, and her husband (a cop) was making a traffic stop when she called his cellphone, and said, "Well, hurry up and make that stop, because we're going to China in 10 days. [click]" You can imagine his reaction!!