Happy New Year from The Glittenbergs

2012: the Year in Review

Happy New Year to our friends and family!
We have now been in China for a year and half, working at the Western Academy of Beijing. Joergen is enjoying his position as the the High School Curriculum Coordinator.  In addition, Joergen also works with the IBO (International Baccalaureate Organization) and has traveled extensively in the region on accreditation visits and teaching workshops at other international schools in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Islamabad. Jenny teaches High School English and also works as the Enrichment Coordinator, planning projects like a writer in residence program, and supervising the 10th grade Personal Project.  The kids are quickly becoming experts in Mandarin, already speaking much better than Mom and Dad. Anne-Katrine is in the 8th grade, loving middle school, and enjoying soccer and kick-boxing; our family linguist, she takes both Chinese and Spanish.  Lars is in the fifth grade and an all around sportsman, participating in all the intramural sports offered at school: soccer, track, table-tennis, and hand-ball. In addition, he plays baseball and soccer in private, local leagues.

January Chinese New Year:
Jenny's parents came to visit for Chinese New Year. It was mighty cold, but we still had lots of fun seeing the city. We also made a side trip up the northern city of Harbin to see the ice festival.

Strolling through cold Beijing. Thank goodness for Starbucks!

Spring Break:
We travelled south in China to Guilin and Yangshuo, for a week enjoying nature, hiking, biking, and exploring ancient villages.

biking through rice fields in Yanghuo

Summer:

The Glittenbergs take Manhattan

Come summer, we embarked on our annual marathon journey "home" to visit our families in the US and Norway.  While in the US, we took a special side trip to NYC to celebrate Jenny's mother's 70th birthday, along with her brother Mark, and his family.
Then we were off to Norway to be with Joergen's
family. It's been a tough year for his brother Jon, and his
family, as their youngest daughter, TJ, has been
battling leukemia. We are thrilled that she is fighting and
doing better.

The big kids, in front of the King's palace in Oslo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October Holiday: National Day

We had a week off of school in October, to celebrate China's National Day. We went to the mountains and stayed in the weekend home of one of Lars' buddies.  Great hiking on an old section of the Great Wall.


Christmas:
Since it was so cold last year, we decided to escape the Beijing winter and meet Jenny's parents in Bali. Ann and Don Piehl lived in Indonesia in the 90's, and this was their first trip back since they left 14 years ago.  We had a wonderful time exploring Bali together.  It was strange for the kids to have a tropical Christmas, but they had a blast creating our own version of a Christmas tree  in the hotel room with their clever Gramma, using palm fronds and a waste basket!

Balinese Cooking lesson

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                 

snorkeling in the Indian Ocean

 

 

 

 

On December 27, Jenny and Joergen celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Since Mom and Dad were with us, we were able to leave the kids with them at their hotel and head off on a little two day getaway to Ubud, Bali.

We hope you all have had a joyous Christmas season. Our doors is always open in Beijing, and we welcome visitors to come share our China experience.

love from
Jenny, Joergen, Lars, and Anne-Katrine

Hui Jia

" Hui Jia "   回家    

China, year two: returning "home"

We've been in China for one year now, and beginning our second year at the Western Academy of Beijing.  It was wonderful to arrive back after our summer holidays and feel settled in our new life. We have a little Chinese under our belts, we know how to get around Beijing, and, best of all, the kids returned to good groups of friends, ready to start the new school year.  Lars is in fifth grade, actively involved in his sport teams: soccer and baseball. Anne-Katrine is an eighth grader; she seems to have transformed into a teenager overnight!

 

No Wang-Wang!

In September, I attended an IB conference on English Literature Manila.  As I was going through Customs in the airport, I happened upon this sign. As I didn't know what Wang-Wang meant, I was a bit worried: what if I was doing it?  Filipinos speak English, but it is combined with words from Tagalog, as well as remnants from Spanish, making some phrases totally incomprehensible to the English speaker.  After some research, we discovered that Wang-Wang actually means avoiding discourtesies, such as cutting in line in front of other people!

The conference was hosted by the International School of Manila. I had a good workshop, and an added bonus of the trip was discovering that my friend and former counselor from Lincoln School in Buenos Aires, Lisa Ball, is now working at ISM. We had a great time catching up.

Chinese National Day and Autumn Festival

Oct 1 marks the National Day of China.  The holiday is also called Golden Week. All of the factories shut down in order to give the workers a vacation and the chance to return to home provinces.  As a result, two things occur: the pollution clears immediately, leaving blue skies and glorious sunny days, and the roads become jammed with millions of people traveling home.

We enjoyed the holiday at home, and spent some time exploring Beijing.  We rambled through the city hutongs near the Drum tower, and took a pedicab ride to Hohai.  Anne-Katrine negotiated a good deal with the driver.

Lars was invited to go with his friend Harold, to the mountains. Harold is half Swedish and half Chinese. His Chinese mother, Naersu, owns a retreat in the mountains, in a small village just one hour outside of Beijing.  She has converted traditional courtyard style homes to make guesthouses. Check out the website at www.shanliretreats.com 

Lars spent four days on his own with Harald's family, and then Joergen, AK, and I joined him for a night. Just behind the village, we hiked up the mountain, through terraced gardens made by hillside farmers: persimmons, crabapples, apple trees, pumpkins. At the top of the hill was a portion of the Great Wall, and some crumbling ancient watch-towers.  The boys scrambled up to the top to have an amazing view of the valley.

The Summer Palace

Our first trip to the Summer Palace, on the other side of the city.  Massive and impressive. The emperor and his family would come here to escape the summer heat.  This is still a favorite spot for locals to come visit.

Writer In Residence Camp

WAB has a property in the mountains that we use for outdoor education. Miao Liang Environmental Center is a sustainable, solar powered camp where we bring kids for a wide variety of activities: collecting samples and data for the Environmental Systems class, historical investigations and interviews of local villagers about the history of the area (the camp is built on the site of a community that was destroyed during the Japanese invasion of Beijing (Sino-Japanese war 1937-1940), and outdoor experiences through our WAB Wild department: learning rock climbing, repelling, and GPS navigation.

We've been looking for ways to use this property in other creative ways. In October, we decided to launch a new program at WAB: the Writer-in-Residence Camp.  I took a group of 15 tenth graders up to Miao Liang (a three hour drive from Beijing) for a creative writing camp. The aim is to bring along a professional author to lead the students in writing activities.  For our first experience we found Henry Clarke, a Shakespearean actor and author from the US who is currently working in Beijing with Chinese Television.  Over the course of two days, the students crafted, edited, revised, and read their own 2 minute plays.  It was a wonderful way for students to escape the traditional classroom and immerse themselves in the writing process.  You can see my article for WAB's electronic magazine, Lianxi at this link:

http://lianxi.wab.edu/node/1553

We had a beautiful, sunny late summer and autumn in Beijing, with only a few high pollution days. It is now turning cold, and we are getting ready for winter. 

The kids are hoping for some 雪 (Xuě)

Spring Break trip to Guilin and Yangshuo

Yangshuo mountains

Qing Ming

Our Spring Break coincides with two holidays:  the Chinese Qing Ming Festival and the Western calendar's Easter.  Qing Ming, the Tomb Sweeping Festival, is a holiday to commemorate ancestors. It is similar to the Catholic holiday, Toussaint, or All Saint's Day, when families visit grave sites with flowers and candles.  In China, workers get a three day holiday to spend time with family and visit the graves of relatives.  Like many Western religious holidays, it is also a time for family vacations.  Tired of the the cold in Beijing,  we chose to spend our spring break by heading to the warmer, Southern regions of China. Our holiday began with a three hour flight to Guilin. When we arrived in Guilin and saw the mountain terrain, Lars exclaimed: " This is the China I have been waiting to see!"

The misty mountains

After flying to Guilin, a charming "little" city in Southern China, we embarked on a four hour, leisurely boat ride down the Li river. The scenery is other worldy. One can see how the filmakers of Avatar were inspired by these mountains.  The mountain terrain has long been know to inspire artists, as many of the traditional Chinese artwork is based on the landscapes of this region.  Indeed, the mountain vistas are also immortalized on the 20 Yuan note.

20 Yuan note: Yangshuo mountains

We spent three days at the Yangshuo Village Inn, a lovely little eco-friendly boutique hotel. No TV, water heated by solar energy, no plastic usage, excellent food.  Their friendly staff arranged activities in the area for us, from visiting ancient stone villages and cruising down the river on bamboo rafts, to biking through the rice paddies, and watching local fisherman catch fish with their trained cormorants.
Check out their website at www.yangshuoguesthouse.com

One of our favorite villages was an old stone village around which newer, more contemporary abodes have been built. It is very common in China to tear down the old to make room for the new. In this village, the locals have preserved the ancient town center. It was quiet and still, no sign of tourism or commercialization like we saw in other villages.  We meandered through the narrow, cobblestone streets, marveling at the ancient architecture. Lars, who has  a new fascination with photography, followed some free range chickens.

Wo shi sui (I am ten years old)

The highlight of the excursion was encountering a tiny old man wielding a bunch of keys. He invited us in to see the interior of an old house, once the wealthy landowner's home in the village. Though falling apart, we could still see the grandeur in the hand painted tiles, marble columns, and expansive courtyard.  Our new friend was delighted that Lars and Katrine were so willing to converse with him in Mandarin.  Our little ambassadors! 

Bike Ride:

pit stop for some noodles!

Tandem bikes through the rice paddies!  Our guide took us off the beaten path, away from the main roads and tourist buses. It didn't take long to find quiet, but muddy, side roads leading out into the fields and through farms. Next time I eat rice, I will remember these paddies.

Bamboo rafts:

We spent a leisurely afternoon floating down the river on
bamboo rafts--the Chinese version of the Venetian gondala.
It's fun to partake in an activity that is not designed solely for the foreign tourists.  The river was dotted with these rafts, full of local Chinese families on vacation. People called out greetings to us as we floated past, always politely asking where we were from. 

Ladies were selling flower crowns on the bank

                                                                                                                    This is definitely an area of the country to which we will return, and we highly recommend it to anyone who wants to come visit.
We are now back in Beijing, happy to return to spring time weather. We'll spend Easter weekend at home, and attend Easter Sunday at our English speaking Church service.  The gray and dusty Beijing winter has faded away--in it's place budding flowers and baseball games. In this season of re-birth, we feel blessed to be experiencing our new life in China.

Spring Break Trip 2012: Guilin and Yangshuo

2012: The Year of the Dragon

Xin Nian Kuai Le!  Happy New Year! We have experienced our first Chinese New Year, and officially welcomed in the year of the Dragon.  Now I think it's time to update this blog and catch you all up on our Christmas and Chinese New Year adventures.

Cousin Thomas' house, a 100 year old working parsonage

God Jul fra Norge:  Merry Christmas from Norway

Elk burgers this way!

 We spent Christmas in Norway with Joergen's family. It was wonderful to share the Christmas season with his Grandmother, Aunt and Uncle, cousins, and two of his brothers.  We traveled between houses: Grandmother up in Hamar, brother Ruben in Oslo, and cousin Thomas in the little village of Sand. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day in Sand, where Thomas is the pastor of the local church: such a lovely evening and Christmas service, and then dinner with the whole family. And of course, the Julenissen (Santa Claus) found us there on Christmas morning.

Lars and his Oldemor (Great Grandmother)

We spent as much time as we could with brother Jon and his family, as they are dealing with the illness of their littlest daughter, Thorah, aged 2. Thorah has recently been diagnosed with leukemia.  It is really tough, but she is a little trooper with such a sunshiny personality. We visited and played with her in the hospital, and let the big kids play together as much as possible. We are keeping them in our thoughts and prayers as they face the long road to recovery. 

Ski Trip: Happy Birthday Joergen!
We returned to Beijing to enjoy a few days at home before the school year started up again.  On Joergen's birthday, we went skiing with the family of one of Lars' friends. The Nanshan ski resort is just 50 minutes outside of Beijing.  We had a great day!

Chinese New Year

Mom and Dad came to visit for three weeks, including our Chinese New Year vacation. We had one week off school in the middle of January--CNY was early this year (usually it is in February), so we just had two weeks back at school after Christmas holidays before we had another week off.  CNY is the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar.  We discovered that it can be compared to a combination of Western New Year and American Thanksgiving. The fireworks go off for two solid weeks, with an absolute explosion of all night fireworks on the the actual evening of New Year's Eve. Millions of people travel home across China to get back to the their home towns to spend the holiday week with family.  New Year's Day, and week following, is filled with family and food, much like our American Thanksgiving.

Mom and Dad arrived before CNY and got to come up to WAB and see our life at school. Dad gave two of his science talks at school: one to Lars' 4th grade class and one to the high school Chemistry class.
We had so much fun showing them around Beijing, and in our neighborhood, Capital Paradise.  On their first weekend, we rode bikes to our favorite breakfast spot, Mrs. Shanen's, a local restaurant who have an organic farm and make fabulous bagels and other delightful items.  It was a bit cold to be out on bikes, but that's they way we get around!

Harbin Ice Festival

We spent New Year's at home, listening to fireworks all night long.  Then early the next morning, we caught a flight to Harbin, a small city (only 4 million people) up north, close to the border of Russia. This is the site of the famous Harbin Ice Festival.  It was mighty cold: it got down to -30 Celsisus, which is -22 Fahrenheit.  It was so cold that our camera shutters froze while taking pictures.  We were reminded that when Dad and Mom visited us in Vienna 18 years ago and we took them to Prague for a weekend, Dad said "I'm never visiting you in winter ever again...."

Harbin is a town that was populated by Russians during the war between China and Japan in the late 1800's.  There is much Russian influence. It's a lovely city, made even prettier at night with all the buildings lit up with colored lights.  The ice festival was amazing.

We went to the snow sculpture park in the day time, and to the ice festival park at night.
We also visited a tiger preserve, with 400 Siberian tigers.

two peas in a pod

Back in Beijing, we spent the rest of our week off doing a little exploring. Mom, Joergen, and I took went to a tea tasting workshop at The Hutong (www.thehutong.com) an organization that offers Chinese cultural experiences in the heart of the city.  We learned a lot about tea. I never knew that Green Tea, Oolong, Puer, and Black tea all come from the same tea leaves and same plant--just different parts of the process.  And all have caffeine. It was really more like a wine tasting experience than I would have expected--we learned so much about different flavors and nuances of the teas. On my next adventure out into the city, I want to go to the Tea Market, where I can purchase different teas directly from the sellers, as well as any kind of tea paraphernalia, such as the the proper cups for straining the whole tea leaves, a tea set, and a serving tray.


                                           

Tea workshop with a tea merchant

A "hutong" is a traditional Chinese neighborhood, with houses arranged in the courtyard style. Many hutongs are being torn down to make way for newer modern construction. This organization is helping preserve such a wonderful cultural icon.

             

We had such a wonderful time with Mom and Dad, and are so grateful that they were able to spend three weeks with us. We also celebrated Dad's birthday, going to an acrobat show and out to a great Chinese dinner.

Happy Birthday, Grampa!