Chase and Asher - Best Buds

Chase and Asher (the son of our friend's Sarah and Micah) have been hanging out a lot lately and are really having a great time together! Here is a collage of some of their adventures together:

1. Throwing balls off the deck 2. Visiting the Zoo, and seeing the lions 3. Wondering how to get all those balls they just threw off the deck! 4. Chase in his Chinese outfit for International Festival at Tepper 5. Chase and Asher wanting to sit together in their PJs :) 6. Watching the Elephants together at the Zoo 7. Fitting under the table together, just because it seemed like a fun thing to do! 8. Asher in his Chinese outfit for Int'l Festival at Tepper 9. The boys again sitting together in the chair 10. Before crawling under the table, they were picking at leaves stuck between the deck boards :)

Forbidden City and Engrish :)

So in our excursions around Beijing so far, we have encountered a few signs, advertisements and products that don't quite get the same message across in English... here is one (just for you Micah and Sarah!). It also looked a bit more runny and had some bubbles in the bottom, needless to say, Jeff and I stayed away from the 'tomato sauce' when eating our fries that night:

Also that night, at the American themed Steakhouse:

Could you read it? In talking about the steak preparation: "...We have developed our very own foolproof way of cooking a steak perfectly every time, using a thermometer to measure the temperature inside the steak is 'just-right.' The result... a nutritious, scrumptious steak to die for!" REALLY? This steakhouse developed a meat thermometer! WOW! They should get a prize for that one.... I think Jeff said that night that their meat thermometer is probably patient pending ;)

On to some more of the cultural sites... the FORBIDDEN CITY (or the not-so-forbidden city anymore, as you can see by the crowds that are still in attendance on a freezing winter day).

That day, Sunday, we walked to the subway and took the metro a few stops over to the station south of Tian' Anmen Square. Stepping out above ground we saw to the south of us a newly renovated (since Jeff had been here 5 years ago) historical looking street with newer shops on the lower levels. This is pretty much what every 'China Town' in the USA strives to look like... and it had a Hagen Daas ;)
To the north of the subway station was Tian' Anmen Square, which is absolutely the biggest flat paved square of land I have ever seen. The square houses the tomb of Mao Zedong and a few other monuments, as well as a huge Chinese flag that is guarded by at least 6 guards facing North, South, East and West, a 500+ ft perimeter that is roped off and also has guards stationed. To enter the square, they also had guards posted with metal detectors and wands. Jeff didn't remember this from his last trip here, but I remembered in a conversation with one of the resident professors that he had mentioned that Congress is in session here in Beijing. I guess it only happens once a year, so I am figuring they are doing some extra security measures to their important monuments.

We walked north across Tian' Anmen Square to the Gates of the Forbidden City, paid for tickets and an audio guide (I would definitely recommend it to anyone visiting), and headed with the masses of tour groups into the main square.

One of the guardian dogs, the female - notice the cub under her paw, in front of the Gate of Supreme Harmony. You wouldn't believe how long it took me, standing there, to get a photo with no one walking through!

Notice the crowds? Here I am in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony... as Jeff mentioned, this place has a lot of harmony going on. I have my audio guide and my 'North Face' hat that was purchased at the Great Wall, best purchase of the trip so far since it has been one of the coldest winters in Beijing, like EVER.

Forbidden City 2

Less info, more photos... Here is the Hall of Supreme Harmony where the Emperor would hold court. This building had the most decoration of any of the surrounding buildings, specifically the number of sculptures on the corner of each of the roofs number 11, any of the surrounding buildings would have less than that number or incur the wrath of the Emperor, or some such thing.

A gold bas relief of dragons on one of the doors of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
The throne in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
The outer doors toward the back of the Hall of Supreme Harmony
The Nine Dragon Screen Wall, is one of the most famous sights in the Forbidden City. It is an extremely detailed large-piece mosaic of hand carved ceramic tiles. Each Dragon is unique in its features and each tile is an original. There is one portion of the white dragon (shown in this photo) that is made of wood, there are various legends surrounding the 'why' and 'how' of the carved wood tile... all on the audio guide :) Here is a tree in the Imperial Garden. Most of the trees are supposed to be 300-400 years old, and are really pretty amazing to look at. I think Jeff and I both agreed that this was our favorite part of the Imperial Palace.
The emperor's personal rock climbing wall! No, seriously, it was. The only way you could get to the top was to climb, so once a year on a certain holiday, the Emperor and his concubines would climb to the top. There was no water pipes at that time, so they rigged some type of gravitational water device so the dragon fountains would spew water. There were other 'rockeries' around the garden, but none as massive as this one.
As we were exiting the city by the north gate, this was a detailed corner on one of the 20+ foot doors.
I have TONS more photos of things inside the City, but I thought I should keep it to a minimum, especially since we are paying for internet per minute here in the hotel. I might have to do a recap of our trip once I am home featuring photos I haven't shown yet... since I just realized I didn't upload any with Jeff from that day! Whoops, sorry Hubby!

Planning to make it to the Temple of Heaven today, by myself, if it is not too cold outside... if it is too cold, I might just take another nap :)

The Great Wall, and a Few Great Naps!

Yesterday, instead of going to that bookstore I mentioned, I ended up going back to the room and crashing. I think I slept for around 3 hours, just in time to wake up and meet up with Jeff, Sylvia (Jeff's boss) and Professor Bao Hung Sun. Professor Sun took us to a wholesale Market that most of the locals go to for purses, trinkets, jewelry, clothes and TONS of other things. Jeff and I found a couple of things there, but nothing really unique. Then we took a cab to the Silk and Pearl Markets, which are both indoor at the same place. An interesting thing about most of the markets now is that for the Olympic Games the city tried to ‘clean up’ a lot of the street vendors, and so built buildings on the site of the original markets to create more of a mall type experience (if you think going through narrow aisles and getting grabbed or having clothing pushed into your view is a ‘mall experience’). We got a few things at this market though because it was more geared toward tourists and had more of the ‘Chinese’ style things. I actually was able to purchase 100% silk brocade fabrics, a yard of each, so I might have some sewing projects up my sleeve in the future.

Today (Saturday) we took an excursion to the Great Wall of China with a guide (her name was Lotus), driver, Sylvia, Jeff and myself. We went to the less touristy spot of the wall that was an hour and a half outside of Beijing by car. We arrived at the wall very early, about 10:15am, before most of the crowds started funneling in. They built a gondola lift so that you can go to the top of the wall, saving your energy for hiking the actual wall, and not wasting yourself on the steep climb up. It was pretty tricky footing in parts, but since this section has been restored, it is in very good shape otherwise. I took a lot of photos and took it easy, I was getting easily winded by the altitude, my asthma and the fact that I am pregnant. Jeff and Sylvia decided to hike up to the highest watch tower on our section of the wall, there was one part that was about 5 stories (Sylvia lost count around 500 stairs) straight up of stairs… needless to say, I stayed at the lower part! I took photos of their little ant sized bodies as they climbed up and away from me… I will see if I can zoom in on some of those to see them more clearly.

Here we go, this is the same photo as above, Jeff is in the black coat and khaki pants, and Sylvia is in green. They went up the the second guard tower from the top, the wall above the guard tower with the 'rails' along the stairs is in disrepair, so you can't go higher than that.

Jeff and I at the wall, Lotus took our photo.

After the wall, we went to lunch at a greenhouse-like restaurant. There were plants all around with a water fountain, and we were served at a table with wicker chairs. There were some interesting, and tasty, vegetable dishes, that my stomach is telling me may not have been ALL vegetarian. It is difficult to find vegetarian things here, and some places think that ‘vegetarian’ means just vegetables, but might have a beef or chicken stock or sauce base. Those are the dishes that I figure out a few hours later that something was not quite right :(

After lunch we went to a tea house and had a tea demonstration. It was very much like how I imagine a wine tasting to be like (since I have never been to one, I really have no idea, but I think it was similar). We were able to taste about 5 teas, see some ‘tricks’ that the hosts would do with color changing mugs and whatnot, and of course the entire time they are marketing their products that they conveniently walk you to after the ‘tea ceremony.’ I must say though, loving tea, this was some of the best tea I have had in a long time. Probably because it is so fresh, and they know at which temperatures each tea should be steeped at and how long. We ended up buying a few things of course ;)

After all that, Sylvia and I came back to the hotel, while Jeff ran out to do an errand for work. I started downloading photos, but since it said it would take about 15 or so minutes to upload I laid down a promptly fell asleep again. I woke up an hour or so later and Jeff and I went out to the connected upscale mall to grab something to eat. We walked around, then went outside, but didn’t stay out for long, as most of the stores were closing up and it was getting fairly windy and cold.

At 11pm our time, 9am Chicago time, I was finally able to video chat with my parents and Chase! It was so wonderful to be able to see my little buddy again, even through a screen! He didn’t know what to make of it at first, but then got to kissing the screen and playing peek-a-boo. It was the best thing I think I could have had before going to bed tonight.

I love this adventure in China, but I miss my little guy so much, I wish I could have the best of both worlds, but a 17 month old on an international flight with jet lag and everything would have been stressful for EVERYONE involved. Thank you mom and dad for watching Chase, it means so much that I know he is in loving hands while we are away.

Jeff, Chase and I at O'Hare before we left.

First Days in China

It has been a bit of a whirlwind trip so far, with a 14 hour plane ride, and a 14 hour time difference (from Chicago). It was cramped in Economy Class and Jeff and I are seriously considering upgrading to business class if the price is not too steep. Jeff can barely fit into those seats with his 6' frame.

About hour 6 I started asking Jeff when we would get there :). It was nice that the plane had personal tvs in the headrests so we could watch movies, listen to music or track the plane as it moved across the globe. Flying over the mountains in Syberia was kind of cool. We had middle seats, and so only got to look out the window when going to the bathroom. I felt fine during the flight, thirsty and got a foot cramp, but other than that felt fine (Baby Ginkgo was moving a lot during the flight, maybe it was the engine noises).

After landing and going through customs, we met up with Jeff's boss who was on the same flight (but in Business Class) and had a hired driver take us an hour to the hotel through the outskirts and then the inner city of Beijing. It was pretty surreal while we were arriving, there was a dense fog (smog? it smelled like I was inhaling plastic fumes, thanks super sensitive pregnancy nose!) over the city, and the sever industrial architecture of some of the city made it feel dominating and opressive. But then we saw more structures that were clearly designed to awe and show what a powerhouse China is becoming.

Our hotel is, in short, Amazing! The Grand Hyatt Beijing http://www.beijing.grand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp our room overlooks the water fountain that is in the main circular pull-around. The room, though small (Asian size!) is delux everything, I really REALLY wish I could have this bathroom... I will have to take photos for future renovations ;) HA!

We only had about 30min after arriving at the airport to quickly shower and change before we had to head out to go to dinner. Dinner ended up being VERY nice. With traditional Chinese food, Peking duck, vegetarian options and the best home made noodles I have ever tasted (seriously!). We had our own private room for the Bosch people, the professors and research people that are putting this thing on here (about 14 were there, including me). I had to wear jeans, because I didn't bring any other pants (can't fit in nice regular pants anymore, and pregnancy pants are too big for me yet, so I have this one pair of jeans that fit right now!) but it was alright, especially since I was a spouse, and sitting at dinner, you can't see my pants anyway! At least that is what I told myself! :)

I have not seen or heard or held by baby boy since Wednesday at 11am, and it is 9am here on Friday. I am missing his little noises and hugs. I miss his way of yelling 'Mama! Mama! Mama!' until I asking him what's up, and he just looks at me strangely, runs on his way and starts yelling 'Mama, Mama!' again :). I think it is just his catch all word for 'hey cool, look at this' and 'Yay, I am having fun' and 'Mama, look at me!'

Right now I am at the business center in the hotel and being charged by the minute, so I should wrap this up, but when I get some time on Jeff's computer where I can upload photos and put them up here I will.

Our tentative plan right now is to go to the Great Wall tomorrow (Saturday) and the Forbidden City on Sunday. Also a great thing about this hotel is that it is literally two or so blocks away from the Forbidden City, some great parks, a night market, a SUPER upscale mall (think Burbury and Rolex and a Astin Martin (sp?) dealership and more along with a McDonalds, HA!). There is an international bookstore somewhere around here that I might try to find this morning while Jeff is working... but we will see, it is cold outside, and I kind of want a nap ;)

The Creative part of me just needs to DO something... and so I search blogs and find all this fun stuff that is PRACTICAL!?! I mean, me, a fine art student doing something that is functional? Who would have thought!

Here are some recent 'finds'... aka: what I want to make!

Should be fun now that I have some Amy Butler fabric on the way! YAY!

Teaching myself how to sew!

So, even though I kind of knew how to sew before this year, it was mainly only hemming my pants of taking shirt straps up... This year I became a bit more adventurous :)

I decided that I didn't want to spend $40+ on a nursing cover when it look SOOO easy to make! So I did a bit of research, found a free pattern (tweaked it of course, because I just can't leave anything as it... gotta put my own stamp of creativity on it, or something) and 'whipped' this puppy out in about 2 weeks...

I know, two weeks doesn't sound fast, but when your baby boy is crawling and attempting to ingest pins, needles, fabric straps and chew on scissors... the sewing time is limited to nap times and after bed time (which half of the times I either needed to do household chores, or wanted to veg out).

So long story short, this probably only took me a total of 3-5 hours TOPS... and that is mainly because I am super slow with everything creative and would stop mid process to research a better hem, or a better way to turn a corner... here is what I did :)

Fabric is cut, strap is sewn and ready to be attached to the main swatch of fabric, pins EVERYWHERE!

Detail of the pockets (not on all nursing covers, thought it might be handy, kind of is sometimes). I also added a bit of burp rag to the corners, cause Chase always seemed to detach himself more when we were in public and a burp rag would have been useful at those times.

close up of the neck strap

After sewing! YAY it actually worked! Sometimes I really do surprise myself! :)

Detail of the finished pocket and improved finished corner

Detail of the Over-all clasp, I thought it would be an easier feature than having to thread two D rings every time I needed to nurse... and I was right :) Super easy to use. You can also see the insert of boning in the front area.

Finished product with my funky pattern! You can see here how the boning is used to keep the fabric away from the neck so Mama can see her baby :)

Used it SOOOO much during the summer months, and wish I would have made it sooner to get more use of it... Oh well, I will just have to wait for our next kid to get full use of it :)