the chicken (flesh) has landed

Diet update: Desi is no longer a vegetarian. The other day he reported eating chicken flesh at school. Liked it, even. Today he had fish. Mom asked if he meant "fish flesh," and he looked exasperated and said "No, fish BODY."

Beautiful weather here in the SHang. Eagles' first babseball game on Saturday. Go Eagles.

Going out both nights this weekend. Went out twice this week. We are social creatures!

hope all's well wherever on the planet you are...

It's September. Can I talk about the election now?

So I've avoided politics on the blog up to this point. And I'm not a fan of APATT (all politics all the time) like your American capitalist running dog TV channels seem to be. But Labor Day has come and gone, and it's an even-numbered year (Olympic, not World Cup) and that can mean only one thing:
It's time again for Gary to make wildly inaccurate prognostications. Look it up, folks, it means future telling. 

To wit: Yesterday, in a fit of wild glee, I told one of the other baseball coaches that I'd buy him a pizza if McCain wins ten states. I've since looked at a map, and there are way more than 10 fairly backward states. So, OK, I got a bit excited. (Part of me was hoping Sam would say he doesn't like the pizza at our Papa John's here. But no) 

In my defense, though...pregnant veep daughters and the beauty queen mayor's lobbying for earmarks that brought in $1000 for every man, woman, and (non-unborn) child in lil' Wasilla, AK? That's manna from heaven for salivating Obama-ites like me. We can't trust McCain to vet his VP choice, after having 6 months to do little else besides work on it, but we should put his brittle, trembling, possibly cancerous finger on The Button? 

Before you accuse me of being a partisan hack, you should know that I have met John McCain. Twice. Once was in 8th grade, on a field trip to DC. Marc Walker, Peter Ranger, Jenny Van Loo, and one other kid stopped by the Senate. McCain's secretary went in to his office and told him some young Arizonans were here. He came out and chatted us up. Even gave us some Senate swag. Lapel pins for our Izod shirts, dont'cha know. (Marc Walker's Izod was pink, if I remember correctly, and no doubt he was popping his collar.) Is this who we want as President? Someone who fritters away precious work time glad-handing middle schoolers? And spending untold cents of taxpayers' paychecks on lapel pins to try to win (future) votes? Enemy of pork, indeed.

Second time was summer 1990. McCain spoke to us at Boys' State, which that year was held at Northern Arizona University (Go Lumberjacks!). If you haven't heard if it, Boys' State is a 3 or 4 day mock government camp, it brings in boys from all over a state. Sponsored by the American Legion, so it's very traditional and patriotic. (Except that all we wanted to talk about was what BS music censorship was. 2 Live Crew had clearly made an impression on us white boys) There's also Girls' State, and it's sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution sucks. They don't let them do anything fun. It's like a gulag. (a girl-ag?) 

We got to make friends and order Domino's and stay up pretty late and compare notes on what the girls back home were willing/eager to do, or not. Not to repeat adolescent male bragging as historical fact, but ... on second thought, I'll not repeat it at all. 

Anyway, it's 6 am and I need to start my day. So I should get to my point: McCain is a crazy American. He told us this story (which is now standard stump material) about his cellmate in Hanoi. Mike Christian sewed an American flag inside his shirt, then got beaten quite badly when the guards found it, then started sewing a new one that night, even though his eyes were practically swole shut. As I heard it then, and as I reflect on it now, this story has many possible morals: 

1. Never sew.

2. Watch where you're going, especially when bombing North Vietnam.

3. Flags are neato.

4. McCain CRAZY.

I'm going with 1,2 and 4. Keep in mind, the audience is all 16 and 17 year old boys, and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait happens about a month after this speech. And what does McCain want us young men in the flower of our youth to know? That WE'RE NUMBER ONE! Chant with me now, folks, U-S-A! U-S-A! 5 years of torture, and he concludes that allegiance to one's flag is where it's at? Apparently, yours is not to question why we're bombing North Vietnamese civilians who couldn't find the US on a map, yours is to do or die, or, failing those 2, sew.

War hero? Sure. Better than most of the deadbeats in Congress? No doubt. But a thoughtful decision maker he is not. Soon, voters will see this. They will either stay home or Gobama. Mark my words.

On a side note, that scrawny cat is stopping by nightly, meowing thru the door at me. There's actually like 3 of them. I've started a cat-watch, so the next time we see one, we'll get a picture.

check for updates!

Dare I make an entrance?

It's Sarah! I don't have any cute pics to add because all the cute pics are sleeping. I'm watching some awful Wayans family sitcom on Star TV because it's in English and I understand it. And 8:30 is too early to go to bed...

ok, if I can figure it out, I will post a pic of someone cute. We have shuttle buses that leave the compound to the grocery store, downtown, etc. I had Emm in the backpack during a shopping trip last week, and he fell asleep, so I just left him in there.

Chinese Corn Flakes

It's time to make lunch here on Sunday afternoon, but for those faithful readers who love photos, here's one:

coooling off

Shame on me. I realized I haven't really set the scene by describing the basics of our living situation. So, especially for the most of you who have not been to Shanghai, here goes....

We are a couple hours' drive from the beach, at roughly the same latitude (31 N) as famed US metropoli El Paso, San Diego, and Montgomery, Alabama. When we first arrived this month, we had a lot of Montgomery-type days. Swampy. Lately it has been beautiful-- warm, sure, but clear skies and not so humid. A cross between the butt-ass dry heat of El Paso and the "vaguely damp but still pleasant" of San Diego.

Word on the street is that many factories were shut down for the Olympics (we had soccer here in Shanghai Stadium) so maybe we're seeing an artificially nice atmosphere. Oh well. I'll be sure to compare next August's weather and I'll get back to you.

We live in a gated community. (feels weird saying that) We are guarded 24-7, from what I'm not sure. Everyone we have spoken to here (even if only a "ni hao") has seemed very pleasant and not at all interested in jacking my $110 bike. BUT ONE CAN"T BE TOO SURE. So we have uniformed dudes all around who lift the big striped bar-thingy for us to walk under, and who peek into our taxi when we're driving in to confirm we're residents.

So our walk to work involves only 10 seconds of being unguarded as we cross the street that separates home from work, because the school is patrolled also. Better safe than sorry, I guess.

As for the natural enviro: cicadas were buzzing like crazy when we arrived, but maybe they were just crazy from the heat, because it's been days since I've heard them. Or maybe they were just promotional cicadas for the Olympics? The dragonflies have continued unabated, but don't get your hopes up to catch one. They have this amazing ability to stay away from people. I wish the mosquitoes had that. We have to stay indoors around dinnertime, or risk being their dinner. But most times of day, there aren't many out.

Only other wildlife to speak of is this wretchedly scrawny cat who wanders around, foraging. Yesterday he rustled up what (I hope) was his worst meal ever--a used diaper. Ahhhh! Our nanny (feels weird saying that) got in a bus accident, so she's home for a few days. The boys both had some stomach issues yesterday, so I stayed home. Dutiful house-husband that I am, I had been cleaning up and had put a bag of trash on the porch for later transport to the communal trash can. Couple hours later, I walk into the kitchen and the big kid is all agitated, looking through the porch door. "Dad! It's a catandhe'stryingtoeatadiaper!" Trash strewn all over, including one of the little guy's diapers, which (mercifully--see "stomach issues," above) had not come open. Still, gross. So I banged on the glass, but the cat cared not. I pegged him with a peanut, but rather than flee, he seemed grateful. At this point, the 5-year-old is exhorting me to "Kill it!" I talked him down and we put shoes on to go make peace with our emaciated intruder. By then, the poor wretch had lost interest in shelling the peanut and he slinked away. Man Vs. Wild, indeed. That's what passes for high adventure in the Pearlz house these days.

In other news, we found a grocery store that's actually not too overwhelming: Metro. Lots of stares and curiosity about the boys in our shopping cart (who I tamed with some Sesame Street on the iPod--thank you, Steve Jobs) but no touts aggressively demo'ing the latest mop, like at the Carrefour in GuBei. yikes. Metro has stuff in bulk, and when each trip eats up half a day, bulk is niiiice. One of these weekends, we'll actually be tourists, but so far it's been all shopping.

Last Saturday, on our way home from the store, I snapped some photos to give y'all a sense of the changes going on here. Our neighborhood is on the west edge of town, and construction is everywhere. Our friends downtown joke that we're out in the country, and it's kind of true. But not for long. Everywhere there are cranes, piles of demolished walls, trucks and carts full of building materials. And the occasional dude relieving himself on a wall.






I'm excited to hear from more of you. Thanks to all who made me happy by replying to the plea for email. Take care...

Kountdown to Kindergarten ended yesterday

So the big boy began kindergarten yesterday. After a one-day orientation on Thursday, he found out who his actual teacher and classmates are. Mom walked him home at 3 and heard all about it. By the time I got home at 4:30, he wouldn't say boo about it. Oh well. We are excited and will both get to stop by his classroom periodically during the year. It is about 20 yards from Mom's office and about 200 yards from mine. So nice to be so close.

As for little, he started at the Wonderful World of Learning on Friday. He'll go for half-days, then home with ayi (nanny) in the afternoon. His teacher seems very nice, energetic, fun. Soon he'll be hearing nothing but Chinese in class. Only 10 kids in class, and 2 of them are kids of nice people we know from SAS.

We have been quite busy of late, with work, fun and reading/watching Olympics with the boys taking up most of our time. And don't forget shopping! With the generous resettlement allowance school gives us, we have money to set up our kitchen, maybe get some nice beds made, find soy yogurt somewhere in Shanghai (we did!...at Carrefour). So each Saturday so far has seen us hitting one or more stores. We have bikes now, a toaster oven, blender, dishes, towels, you know, stuff a family needs if it is to eat, shower, be healthy, have fun. No luck finding baseball gear though.

Which I mention as a segue into announcing that I am the assistant coach of the SAS Eagles varsity baseball team. I know what you're thinking: Why not head coach? I'm excited, tryouts start tomorrow, and our China Cup tournament this year will be in Beijing. So I'll get to see the capital, the Olympic aftermath/hangover, and the fam is likely going to join us. 

So Go Eagles and check the blog starting in 2 weeks for score updates. I'll try to create a page within the blog just for baseball. We play on Saturdays, and several of our opponents are teams of Chinese men, like 40-year-old guys. How cool is that? The umpires speak only Chinese, I think, so we'll need our players to translate if there's a rhubarb or dustup of any sort.

What else is going on? On yeah, work. I finally got to meet my students. Half of them Thursday, half on Friday. Seem very nice and capable. I have 2 study halls, all ESOL sophomores. And I see those same 18 or so students in other periods, in their history class when I "push in." So I work with 3 other teachers, and see about 5-7 of my kids at a time in a given History course. I've got a US History since Civil War and 2 Modern World Historys, which is basically 20th Century blood and guts, plus le French Revolution (don't ask). I'll also man the high school's Writing Centre for a few periods a week, editing papers, etc. I'm reading The Crucible so that I know what I'm talking about. All 10th graders read it and have to (get to?) write a paper about it. Devils, sex and witches, so far so good in Act One.

I hate to stop, now that I have my blog mojo ("blojo"? mmm...no) working, but it IS 11:11 pm and the USA women are done whuppin' the Aussies, so it's bedtime. I'll be better about updating, and you faithful readers (all 4 of you) would really brighten our day if you'd fire off an email every now and then. My dad gets the prize for writing lately, and Larry wins for Skyping the most. If only that dang camera would work better...

Photo above is from 3 hours ago. 2 sweaty boys after partying at the annual welcome back to SAS barbecue. Lots of fun, best weather day since we've been here. Can't wait for it to cool off.

happy birthday dad

you are a gold medalist in my book.