The Lama Temple

It is a very rainy spring day and I am stuck here at home -- reluctant to make the 5 minute walk/2 minute tuk-tuk ride to the clubhouse gym just to get there drenched. And I REFUSE to ask my driver who is just waiting at the complex office (probably engrossed in a game of ping-pong with a fellow driver) for my call to take me there. Lately I have been spending my limited free time on the treadmill trying to work off the leftover-from-four-babies weight and the newly acquired Beijing pounds. Whoever said I would lose 10 pounds in 10 days just from being here was sooo wrong. No one factored in the amount of comfort food consumed in the adjustment period and the sheer delight one gets at just seeing anything HOMEmade American. The first time I was offered cinnamon rolls I ate three thinking I would never get the chance to eat them again. And I think I have even surprised myself on just how many OREOS I can eat in one sitting. (Chinese Oreos are widely available, affordable, and taste slightly different than the original -- oh know! I have become an expert!) I had to put myself on a no dessert diet for the whole month of March so I could reduce my dependency on anything overloaded with fattening, carb-filled sweetness. It was somewhat successful but now I'm addicted to dried fruit, which I didn't count as dessert, and I have discovered something that they call "coffee nuts" which is a very bad translation for the homemade slightly sweet and salty version of corn nuts. Delicious! So hence my new dedication to the gym. I haven't seen much of a change in my physique but it is very nice to weigh yourself in kilograms -- I haven't been just 2 digits since elementary school!

So here I am with some free time and thought this blog needed some updating. I haven't even finished our Spring Break trip account and April is almost over!! Okay here we go:

MONDAY:

In an effort to really feel like we were in China we decided to visit one of the many temples around. We went to the LAMA TEMPLE. (My kids were disappointed that there were no llamas thanks to their frequent watching of Go, Diego, Go!) Since it was during the Tomb Sweeping Holiday we had the added treat of seeing this still practicing temple all abuzz with the worship of the locals. Incense was being burned along with fake money and food was being offered up to the big golden statues of Buddha and other idols. Cory, who is a rule follower, obeyed the signs which warned against "filming" inside the temples even though I pointed out the many Westerners who gave no heed, so there are no pictures of the golden statues, the monks that guarded them, or the 26 meter high Buddha carved from one single sandalwood tree. Boooooo!

At the Lama Temple with lions and turtles

Kind of like at a carnival but without the prize, you throw coins and try to get them to land on the roof and you get your wish.  Ever an example of what not to do in a foreign country, Claire threw one rather ambitiously, missing the entire structure and hitting an innocent bystander in the face.

Can't you just smell that incense burning?

You could pay money to go inside the fence and strike the bell with a mallet 3 times for good luck.  We opted to stand really close and hopefully the luck would just hit us in the face!

Cory posing with 3 out of 4 kids on the OUTSIDE of one of the many temples.

The highlight of this trip came as rather an unfortunate accident.  I was standing nonchalantly watching the bell being rung and Alex came over to give me a hug.  He caught me off-guard and off- balance and down I went over a low fence that guarded a very old tree and landed flat on my back at the base of it still clutching Alex. The back of my leg is bruised from the impact of the fence 3 weeks later.  We don't have any documentation of that event but many a Chinese camera was pointed and flashing in my direction and I have a sneaking suspicion that it is a big hit on youku (the Chinese equivalent of youtube). Who wouldn't want to see a foreigner humiliate themselves in public?  I laughed and cried at the same time out of embarrassment and the pure humor of the situation.  At least that trip won't be forgotten.

Fortune Cookie Say:

Humor usually works at the moment of awkwardness

Spring has Sprung!!

Finally the days of bundling up in my down coat and winding my 45 foot wool scarf around my face are over!! Last weekend I went with some friends to an out of the way furniture market and got pelted with dust and fumes and all things that can be thrown around by a mighty wind that sounded like a train and one of the women looked at me and said "Welcome to Spring!" But as I look out my window this morning I see clear blue skies (thanks to the wind, the pollution has retreated for a while) and from my 3rd floor window I can see the magnolias and the cherry blossoms lightly swaying on some nearby trees. Quite fittingly in our backyard we only have dead trees growing along with the dead bushes with the perpetually dusty stone patio and fence that has a mangy, feral, born-white-but-is-now-environmentally-reduced-to-a-pale-gray cat slinking around our property. But at least I can enjoy the spring blossoms from afar. And as I've been told spring doesn't last long around here -- approximately 2 weeks of fair weather and then it turns unbearably, humidly hot. But all the stars have aligned and we are enjoying this weather as the kids are off for Spring Break, Cory has work off due to the Chinese National Tomb Sweeping Holiday, and it just happens to be my birthday week. So we have been using this time to get a little bit more acquainted with our new country.

SATURDAY:

The official Tomb Sweeping Day is Wednesday -- the day that all people should tend to the graves of their dearly departed ancestors -- but the holiday is observed Monday through Wednesday. But the government would never grant a superfluous 3 days off without requiring something in return. So people may have work off for 3 days but they are required to work the Saturday and Sunday prior to the holiday. Yes, ridiculous. So Cory had to work all of Saturday. I thought he was kidding about this until he woke up early on Saturday morning and headed off to work (in our basement, but with a huge, although invisible DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door.) Now what in the heck was I going to do with my 4 kids on a Saturday at the beginning of their Spring Break? My original idea of heading out to the city to enjoy some in-your-face culture was dashed. So what do you do with 4 kids that need to get out of the house? You go to the PARK! And what do you do when the wind is blowing so hard that you think it might lift your 7 month old baby away if you stay outside for too long? You go to the play area at the mall! (I know this from many a hot summer afternoon spent play-area hopping in Arizona.) And what do you do when the Chinese equivalent is an eclectic assortment of rundown toys that would never pass an American safety test? Well, you go of course! Too bad I found out they charged a whopping 60 RMB (the equivalent of about $10) per child after I had raised the hopes of my too-bored-for-home kids. In they went and we had a surprising good time.

Fortune Cookie say:

Spring is sprung. Life is blooming!