A new business’ Grand Opening always requires lots of fireworks and flowers. This was the opening of a new hotel.

Here is what we saw in the middle of the road in front of the new hotel…cars just keep driving!!

Rachel and Jessie participated in their spring MUN Conference in QingDao, China in early March. Jessie was given a position in the Security Council where she represented the USA – one of the P5 Nations with veto-wielding power. She had a very successful conference, getting lots of opportunity for public speaking and debate. Rachel, as a delegate of Iran, in the General Assembly was the main submitter of a resolution pertaining to counter terrorism and human rights, which passed in her committee! At the closing ceremonies of the conference, I was so proud to see that both Rachel and Jessie were named Best Delegates in their respective committees, along with another one of their classmates.

Last Friday night the high school had their annual lock-in. With Jessie and Rachel busy with Student Council duties, I took the opportunity to take Maddie out for a date. She was in desperate need of a haircut. Afterwards we went out to a small cafe in the E-mart shopping area, called Alice Cafe. It’s a quaint little cafe, one of Maddie’s favorites, that sells mostly drinks. We wish they would expand their main course menu items — currently consisting of about 4 dishes, but that’s life in China. As we walked in the door, Maddie said, “Oh, no there is Mr. Prescott.” He is Maddie’s 7th grade Bible teacher. What I didnt’ know and what Maddie forgot is that Mr. Prescott had told his class that he meets on Friday evenings at Alice Cafe with local friends to share good news. He told the class that if any student ever wanted to join him, that he would buy them a drink. Maddie, of course was very embarrassed when unexpectedly the server brought her a fresh kiwi shake. I think Mr. Prescott got a giggle.

It was Saturday and I was feeling a bit down, knowing that Valentine’s Day was approaching and that I couldn’t just go down to my favorite Target Store to buy my “Sweetheart” a nice card or my little Valentines some chocolate treats and goodies. Besides, Megan’s class is scheduled to have a  Valentine’s Day party this week, so another pressure…how to make cards for her 17 classmates? It’s not like the local markets here in Tianjin will have pre-made Valentine’s Day cards for kids.

The Lord was so good to me. I opened Megan’s backpack to find that her teacher had already prepared Valentine’s Day cards that just needed to be colored and addressed. WoW! Then I came up with the idea of putting a little Chupa Chups lollipop on each one, by cutting small slits in the cards. Megan did the coloring and I did the cutting!

Here’s our creations…

The year Sean is teaching three classes in our high school: Computer Animation, Digital Citizenship and two sections of AP Computer Science. Rachel and Jessie are both taking Computer Science. Although it’s challenging for them, I think they are doing well in his class. This is actually the first time Rachel has had Sean as a teacher. She’s enjoying it. All our other kids have had Sean in previous years. Sean will also be leading the Senior Class spring trip coming up in May. Now that our school has moved into its new campus, Sean has his own classroom. Picture above Sean is teaching AP Comp Sci., Rachel is in the foreground.

The spring semester brings more changes for Megan. We moved her back into our school’s ECC (Early Childhood Center) for the remainder of her kindergarten year. She had an amazing experience in Chinese kindergarten last fall, and it was a bittersweet decision to make. Megan adjusted very well to her Chinese classmates and learned much more of the Mandarin language, which we are so thankful for. However, with the move to our new campus, commuting time has gone from 10 minutes to 45 minutes; so the logistics of getting Megan to and from the Chinese kindergarten, did not work. On Megan’s last day of school before the break for Chinese New Year, the class had a little time to say goodbye. Megan’s big sisters were out of school for their break, so they all came along. We were almost all in tears as we listened to various children say how much they will miss having Megan in their class. Here, Megan’s classmate comes to say goodbye.

Megan’s Kindergarten Class (she has learned early the Asian peace sign)

Megan’s teachers

School gate guard

Rachel sees her little friend from this past summer, when she volunteered as a helper in the class.

Lunch with friends after school dismissed for half-day

Sean was cleaning up his flash drive and asked me if I had copied an album of pictures from last summer. I was so surprised to find this photo of us, taken at the hostel in Beijing where we stayed while site-seeing with Sean’s parents who visited from Sioux Falls, SD. I love my husband! (Thank you, Gail for such a great photo).

Construction makes a lot of mess!! Sean drafted Jessie and Maddie to help clean the high school stair well.

Outing to enjoy some of the festivities on the streets in our neighborhood. Behind us fruit and alcohol sellers which line most street corners. Fruit is the best gift to bring when invited to a friend’s home. See the red lantern and Chinese flag hanging behind us. People also hang red paper cut banners from their windows with good luck blessings. I bought Megan a balloon…this character is named Mei Yang Yang from the popular Chinese children’s show. (The equivalent to our American Sesame Street show with favorite character, Elmo).

Hours of fireworks leave a mess.

Here’s what our courtyard looked like on Monday morning. Paper and Box residue. Each of the large boxes below shoot off enormous fireworks with loud booms. One box can put on its own 1-2 minute show.

Workers Clean up the Mess