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!