The following conversation took place while Abbie and I played cards at the picnic table on our front porch this morning. It's very foggy here today.

Abbie: Are we in the middle of a cloud, but we just can't tell?

Me: Yes.

Abbie: Huh. It's not as fluffy as I imagined.

Baggage Claim

by Rob

Nate's home. Well, actually, we're not at home, as in our house. But last night he arrived back in the states after 14 days in China. Today, with some help and support from Lynn and Lis, he joined us in Maine. For me, he's with us, and so he's home.

A very cool added bonus of this great place where we vacation each year is the regional airport that's about 5 minutes from the cottage. It cost us $20.00 more to fly him here, rather than to Portland, which is at least an hour drive away.

Is this a small airport? Well, when we parked, we pulled onto a section of lawn. I told Kim that it felt like we were parking at the fairgrounds. But, for me, the feature which best summarizes this airport is the baggage claim. Yes, this is a picture of it. Nate and the other ten passengers disembarked and entered the "terminal building." Then we all walked outside to the baggage claim.

It is so great to have him "home."

Email from Nate and Mrs. Lim

This morning we have received two email messages from China. One is from Nate and the other from Mrs. Lim, his Chinese teacher.

From Nate:

hey guys! so now were in Xi'an. and ill try and recap the whole trip so far.

so, i dont remember what happened when i last emailed you, but ill start from tieniman square.

when we first saw it it just looked like a huge building. but as we got closer, it looked enourmous. and when we went inside, i thought about glutany. there were so many "gates". really, there were just excuses for more buildings. that day was hot. i think it gave elizabeth heat exaustion. but dont worry, shes the only one that was sick.

we saw a chinese actobat show. it was so much better than the one at proctors. but i dont know why.

when we went to see the summer palace, we just really went to go see a huge building. that was nice?

one of my favorite parts of the trip, and i dont know why id tell you this, but the foot massage. and it was really great because the masuse for me zac and joe (so, the 3 masi), didnt, or at least we think didnt, speak a word of chinese. so the whole time, they called me stupid. cute, but stupid. i enjoyed myself.

that was the first thing that made me hate this country. the second was barganing. because, in order to bring moms precious tea set home, i had to get luggage. i didnt want to pay 250 yuan for a bag i thought would be to small, so i TRIED to walk away. this woman grabbed me and dragged me back. 3 times.

i was scared.

pictures dont work, so ill use facebook.

and im tired, so im gonna go. but i love you guys, and miss you a lot! and i promise that when i get home, you"ll still have the same grumpy teenager.

bye guys!

From Mrs. Lim

Dear Parents,

Sorry for not blogging regularly. We have very slow computers and network problems in the hotel. And most days, we came back really late and the kids are tired.

I have problem with the blog too so I will update everyone on what happened the past few days:

The 4 days in Beijing was magical. The kids got to see the tourist spots and of course, many climbed the Great Wall. The heat was unbearable but I got everyone drinking water every few minutes so it was OK. The kids tried all types of Chinese authentic food - I think we have visited a total of 8 restaurants so far. Don't worry - no monkey brains. They were all delicious food and not just simply Sesame Chicken or General Tso's Chicken.

Some of us went for a foot massage. It was so comfortable that the kids felt asleep on the massage bed. I was with them and they had so much fun talking to the locals.

The best part of the trip so far was the shoping at Hong Qiu Shopping district. They get to bargain and some storekeepers gave them really good prices because they speak Chinese. Many kids asked me what they should get for their parents and families. (Aren't they sweet? Thinking about their parents all the time). I hope I have given them good advice. We have a great tour guide which the kids love. In addition, we have 2 other teachers that accompanied us. The hotel was 5 star and everything was very comfortable.

We visited the Hanban on Wednesday and that opened our eyes to many opportunities they offer to American students. One of them was the full scholarship they offered for students to study Chinese in Beijing, all expenses paid. Zach, Kate, Joe are already talking to them on the application procedure. On the whole, we were treated very well by everyone.

At first some students were hesitant to speak Chinese to the locals, worried that they may laugh at them. But now

everyone is talking, even Mally, Isabel and ELizabeht. Oh, I have to tell you about Nate - Chinese just love his ginger hair. He was asked to take photos with many locals. I think he felt like a celebrity.

Halle was our Public Relations officer who made the effort to talk to the kids from other schools. They made a lot of good friends from schools in Buffalo, Montana and Rhode Island.

We arrived Xian last night and everyone was tired because of a 2-hour flight delay. But the school has arranged a welcome dinner for all of us. We went to a really nice restaurant and guess what, they served us dishes after dishes. We counted - there were a total of 18 dishes! I don't know how they expect us to finish all those food. But we appreciate what they have prepared for us.

The Bo-Ai school principal was very nice. He kept asking the students what they want to eat for their meals so that he can change the menu for us. All the staff was very nice to us. Though the dorms are not as grand as the hotel in Beijing but we are thankful for their hosptiality.

All the teachers have a meeting with them this morning and I requested for more sightseeing instead of just swimming because Xian is a very old city with a lot of history. I think the students will enjoy this ancient city.

All the nine kids are in the Intermediate class. You know - I am so proud of them. I may be biased but I think my students have the best manners, they are funny, friendly and have such a strong desire to learn. I just love them!

Ok - talk to you all again.

Everyone is fine and

Diana Lim

Chinese Teacher

Nate's in China

Nate has been required to add himself to a blog related to his trip to China. We just discovered this entry on the blog site:

Packing?

JULY 29, 2010 BY SHORTNATE LEAVE A COMMENT

Well of course the day before I go halfway around the world I would start to pack. And I’m glad I bought so many waterless toothbrushes.

If your reading this, you know how to use this blog a lot better than I do (and I’m not sure how I will re-read this once I’ve written it myself). I think the blog will separate my posts from everyone else? Maybe not.

But anyway, i’m Nate! I’m blogging because I was told that its mandatory. I wouldn’t call myself passionate about blogging. I see blogs as web pages my mother combs through in her spare time about Jesus and raising a family and everyone’s opinion about something or other. Despite that, I think that this blog will be a great thing for me and my friends going on this trip! But, I hope to achieve a few things with this website I have to use.

1. I really, REALLY want my mom to stop freaking out. She can’t believe that I’m going all the way to China. And I think she’s really mostly scared about me going into a communist country.
2. I want to be a writer when I grow up. This gives me a huge excuse to ramble about my day and try to impress people whom I don’t know that are reading my words at the same time!
3. I think that this will in a way be a sort of competition between the people who care enough to be diligent about blogging, or the more refined term, “Prolonged Twittering“.
4. I also think that the blog will maybe make me a little less homesick. Kind of. I mean, its like a text message home.
   Again, kind of.

And if you know me well, you might be wondering, “Wow. How is he being so punctual about something mandatory?” And you’re right. How could Nate do this? The main reason is because I want some credit for using this site before I get to china. And I don’t know how well I’ll do with being on time in China. Why should international travel make a difference in my work habit?

So I think i’ll try and post pictures of china here. At first, I know i’ll think to use Facebook.

And yes mom, you can comment.

Cold and Quiet
by Rob

It's Saturday, 7:24 AM. Abbie and a friend are asleep on the living room floor. The dogs are feed and relieved. The coffee's been made. I've had my bowl of Cinnamon Harvest.

And quite unexpectedly, I suddenly have nothing to do.

It's not that I don't have a list of things that are in need of attention, but rather, I don't know of anything that must be done this morning, or even today for that matter. I'll take Nathan to rehearsal mid-afternoon, but other than that, I can't think of a single scheduled event that I have to participate in today.

I'm almost glad that I was unaware that this down time was coming. Somehow, it feels like a gift.

The "holidays" were very special this year. Mom and Dad's visit was the highlight, for sure. They arrived on December 22. All of us New Yorkers had school on the 23rd, but Kim stayed home that day, still feeling the lingering effects of concussion from the car accident that happened on December 8. Except for an outing to see "Wicked" at Proctors, we didn't do all that much while they were here, but that's part of what made it so enjoyable, no real schedule, just time to be together.

Kim's family all came for the afternoon on Sunday the 27th. Everyone made it here this year, including all of the Scofields, and we had great time. Millie and Zeke didn't even wreck the party. In fact, they didn't seem to react to all of the people and noise. This was a pleasant surprise, and hopefully a forecast for their adult personalities.

Mom and Dad headed home on Tuesday the 29th. We spent the rest of the week, resting and getting some of the simple things on our to do list done. On New Year's eve, Lynn and Dave came over for dinner. Spending time with them that evening has become our tradition.

As we're heading into 2010, I'm struggling to keep from feeling a sense of dread about the next few months. Over the last several years, these winter months have become some of the most hectic of the year for me. March has become the toughest. At work, I'm preparing all 6 grade levels for concerts. One will take place in early February, but the other three all happen in March. In addition, we'll be preparing for the youth group's annual Winter Retreat. This year's event will happen during the final weekend in February. All of this is good stuff, and I enjoy it, but the convergence of all of these events has made it hard to catch my breath. When we toss in guitar lessons, piano lessons, dance lessons, choir rehearsals, youth group meetings, and now play practice... Even as I type all of that, I sense that it will read like whining. That's not really my intention, since, as I said, it's all good stuff, and I'm honestly grateful that our lives are so full of so many good things.

Last night, we had dinner with some friends. Nate was at rehearsal, but Abbie and her friend went with us. It was a simple gathering, but we had a great time. I'm pleased to remember that we have a similar plan with the Scheenstra's next Friday evening, and we're making plans to be with Miriam and Eric on MLK,Jr. day. Perhaps this might be the best way to tone down the pace of the next few months. We want to spend time with people, but often, we just don't plan things well enough to fit in such gatherings. Maybe we need to be more intentional about it.

Abbie seems to be handling seventh grade pretty well. Some time ago, I labeled this school year, "the bottom of life." Not that every thing's been easy for her (or us) this year, but if this is the bottom, things are going to be just fine. She's changing so quickly, and is often eager to be treated as a more mature person. Other times, she's happy to accept "kid status" if it will exempt her from being more responsible. Her grades are fine, and school seems to be going well. We hear about some of her school friends on occasion, but usually, she spends the greatest amount of time away from school focusing on friends from church. It's just dawning on me now that church is probably the social epicenter of her life. One of the best things about that is that it comes with a built in network of caring adults (that we know!) who are also looking out for her. I doubt that she's eager to go to worship or Sunday School, but I know that she doesn't ever want to miss going to church, and once we're there, she disappears into the mass of kids.

Nate is also having a pretty good year at school. His grades early this fall were low enough that we grounded him. In fact, he was grounded for at least a couple of months. Whether that was effective, or it was something else, like natural maturation, I'm not not sure, but he's definitely on a different track now. We are learning that it's very difficult for students to get A's at Tech Valley. A great deal of the grading is based on the group work that takes place for each of the projects. Dead weight in the ranks has been pulling down every one's grades. In spite of that, Nate's doing well, and he doesn't seem to be having difficulty managing his tasks.

At this point, he's halfway through the "13" rehearsal process. The show will run during the mid-February school break. I think that he's less than thrilled about the pace of rehearsals and the temperament of some of the staff, but I believe that this will be valuable for him. Most people have a romantic view of "being in a show." I think this is a pretty good dose of reality. I think that he'll always be interested in doing this sort of thing, and he may even be entertaining thoughts of pursuing a career in performing. Having this sort of experience is certainly going to help him figure that out.

Like Abbie, his physical transformation has be happening quite rapidly. He seems taller every week. Not more than two weeks after auditioning for "13" his voice started to change. The change is now pretty well done. Eric Barnes called this week and Nate answered the phone. It confused Eric so much that he thought he dialed the wrong number. Fortunately, Nate's not experiencing any serious difficulties singing at this stage. I think that the higher parts of his role will require more effort now, but he's added some depth that will really help him sing the role.

One of the best things about Nate's participation in this show is that so many family members are coming to see him. Mom and Dad will be back on the February 17. Uncle Jim and Aunt Susan plan to come on the weekend. Yesterday we got word that Melanie and Aunt Janet may try to come as well. This is great, and since it will be during our vacation week, we'll have so much more time. I'm really looking forward to that week.

It's now, 8:26 and the girls are getting up. So I'll make some breakfast and find some other things to do. I'm still experiencing some real pleasure in the realization that I don't know what I'm going to do today.