Christmas Gifts 聖誕節的禮物

I am in the midst of fighting at the last minute to buy gifts 最後一分鐘 before Christmas. My wife has let me know, no live gifts this year. Some people just give up and give money, but I have always been a fighter. Or, some would say I am just plain stupid. I let you decide.

I have always tried to get gifts 意義性的禮物 that are interesting, represent something about myself and of course that the recipient would like. Given these complicated and conflicting goals, it is not surprising that I’ve had some spectacular failures 選錯了好幾次. Aside from mailing tropical fruit 後院摘的熱帶水果 from our yard that got smashed and jars of exotic honey that burst in mid-air, there have been some more concrete failures. The most memorable was a fish grill to someone whose taste in fish does not extend past the frozen fried fish sticks. Then, there is always the fear that someone will open up a present and say “uh, thank for the…uh….what is it?” 已經打開了禮物還是不曉得是什麼?

So, we come back full circle to these ease of giving money. That fits into the Chinese tradition of giving red packet 紅包, but I’ll save that for an upcoming holiday.

Dance School Christmas Party 芭蕾舞學校的聖誕晚會

We just had the Christmas Party at my daughter’s dance school and this was the perfect opportunity to try out my new high speed lens 高速廣角鏡頭. It is the equivalent of a 100mm in film cameras, can take photos in low light and also do macro photography as well. Since I found a cheap price on sale, lenses don’t go down in price like the camera bodies, and the place gave me a good trade in value for my almost 3 year old kit lens I never use, I went for it. As you can see, it really gives sharp photos indoors with no flash 室內, 不用閃光 on a blustery rainy day. (with no heat indoors, but that's true everywhere here.)

In the first photo, my daughter is sitting down with the crowd for the endless rounds of introductions. I admit it was interesting to hear some of the stories. I learned that the only ‘foreign’ teacher, who I thought is American, is actually a Cuban 古巴人 who had danced in performance before with the other instructors, not surprising considering the close ties China has had with Cuba over the past half century or so. The second photo could be entitled anticipation 渴望的表情 that can be seen so clearly on the children’s faces as they are waiting for presents to be dispersed.

2 things I learned last weekend 上個禮拜的啟示

Enjoy life as it comes, seize the moment. Life is enjoyable in the living. For someone like me who always plans ahead this has been hard to learn. Up to this time in life, I have always been one to plan ahead and to focus on that goal. I guess I have never ignored the moment, but seeing friends at the Christmas party 聖誕晚會 on Friday night talk about how long they have been in the Ph.D. program 從 1998年起 or how much times have changed, children born or growing bigger, made me realize that time is passing. This is a great time of life right now to enjoy. Our children are still young and enjoy the simple things, so carpe diem 佔領天.

In that spirit, photo 1 is of our daughter’s gingerbread Christmas tree 薑餅的聖誕樹 right before it was eaten by her little brother. The second photo is our little one intensely concentrating 很會集中精神 on his artwork. Quite amazing for a toddler!

Don’t take the blessings of the Lord for granted 不是理所當然, because they are good. Our family has been blessed with good children, a great relationship with my wife, a good house, good health and good stable sources of income that don’t eat up every minute of time. I see so many problems around us and sometimes have near brushes with problems in our own lives and so I am grateful for what we have.

Friendship and Politeness: Chinese, American 友誼與禮貌: 中國,美國

If there is one thing that it is really hard for people to understand about other cultures, it can be found in navigating the shoals of friendship and politeness. In Chinese culture, spouses and friends do not need to be polite 不用客氣. In fact, frankness, arguing and even mild whacking can be seen as a sign of closeness 打情罵俏. Nothing bad is meant by it, in fact it is considered the sign of a healthy relationship. By contrast, politeness is for strangers suggesting distance.

It has for a long time been common to see Chinese women whacking their boyfriends as an expression of affection. This means she likes him. Although there are similarities as well, there are enough real differences 文化不同的地方 between Japanese and Chinese culture in this area that it can create clashes. A Taiwanese wife we know tells us that her Japanese husband always wants her to “be nice and polite” when arguing. A Japanese woman tells us that she when she calls a Chinese man pursuing her “crazy” 精神病!, it encourages him and doesn’t know why (crazy can be a term of endearment when a woman likes a man.) There is even an expression 撒嬌 that is hard to translate, but is a common expression of daughters to fathers.

Guilin Inspired Poetry 桂林带给人家寫作的靈感

In our trip to Guilin we had a wonderful experience, the opportunity to visit the campus of the old Guangxi Teachers University 廣西師範大學. Unlike some areas on the Pacific Rim, with the fault lines, volcanoes and soft new mountains, Guilin has very old and hard granite mountains. They are not really high, but they are high enough and very steep. They can rise up almost anywhere in the city. In fact, mountains rise sharply right out of this campus, sort of a 世外桃園 feeling.

There is a mountain that we climbed up right toward the back of the campus 校園的後面. You can see the view from part of the way up in the photo here. It was very steep 陡峭 but there were steps and as you can see the view was definitely worth it 值得. Naturally, all of this beauty inspired poetry. Scholars from other parts of China have been coming here for more than 1200 years ago in the Tang Dynasty and carved poems into the rock waxing eloquent about their surroundings. Not too different from the writers 作者 and artists 藝術家 that seek out spots of natural beauty today for inspiration to live and work. That is one of the things I really love about China is the combination of a long history and nature together in many spots.

病了 Bing le: Western and Chinese Medicine 中藥與西藥 2

We are taking turns getting sick from a stomach flu 腸胃性流行感冒. First my wife, then my daughter and now our younger son. I haven’t gotten it yet because I’ve been pumping my body with Airborne, which strengthens the immune system 免疫力. This is a Chinese medicinal way of treating illnesses, treating the illness by building up the system. This is a macro shot of a very tiny Chinese pill box that has absolutely nothing to do with stomach flu.

One difference I have noticed is that medicines must be taken. For me, I rarely if ever take medicines, but my wife and her friends will immediately take medicine at the first sign of sickness. (Of course this is also a male-female difference 男女不同的地方 in which it is said that men will only see a doctor when they have passed out or are nearly dead.) But on the other hand, if Chinese take medicines at the first sign of illness it is perhaps because they are not that bad tasting, even though they are supposed to be bad tasting. Chinese medicines also do not have a lot of side effects 不良的副作用.because they are not as concentrated as Western medicines. They are somewhat similar in nature to herbal remedies 草藥 here but much more highly developed.

A Sendoff 歡送

We had a party to send off our good friend in the student fellowship. We have gotten to know her over a period of two years 認識了兩年多 and seen her grow in both her faith and her leadership abilities. Now, since her advisor is leaving for Singapore 新加坡, she will be leaving…at least for a couple of months. Since, as you might have noticed reading here for a while I don’t use real names, let’s call her Ms. Tech Ph.D.

Ms. Tech Ph.D. has touched many peoples’ lives. Various friends got up and told stories of how she met them at the airport or helped them out to get adjusted to life on campus 適應這邊的環境, find places, etc. She was always there to help, from set up to clean up and as an enthusiastic Bible study leader 每一次很樂意的幫忙. Now she will be in the land of really tropical weather, clean streets and fresh durian fruit. We’ll all miss you, especially your boyfriend.

(Note that these photos were taken indoors 室內 with an Olympus E300 and without a flash 沒有閃光. I like the natural colors.)

Ballet Dancing Performance 芭蕾舞表演

Here is the famous ballet star, our daughter relaxing after her performance! She danced with her ballet school, doing a brief dance with a Christmas theme. There were ballet dances, Chinese dances and Spanish dances. Our daughter has always had a talent for jumping 女兒一直都喜歡跳來跳去. As soon as she could stand up she tried to jump. Then she would jump on our bed, jump on the sofa, jump just about anywhere she was so we thought that it would be appropriate to let her jump in ballet class. Fortunately, she does take it fairly seriously and so does really well.

Afterwards, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant 越南餐廳 for a feast of Seven Courses of Beef 七味牛肉. The second photo is of her taken here with my wife’s parents at that restaurant. Sounds like a crude name in English, doesn’t it? But actually Vietnamese food has all sorts of subtle herbs and tropical greens各種各樣的香草that make each course of beef amazingly fragrant and tasty. It was very reasonably priced but food where we live is all reasonably priced. Top that off with tropical fruit and some good discussion, and the evening turned out pretty well.