CONSON!

Today we are half way through our summer China adventure! I think the 2nd half will go much faster than the first since we are finally used to stuff here and we will do a lot of traveling and have some visitors in August (yay Annie Fifer and her daughter Sophie, and Jeanne & Chuckles!).

To mark our halfway point the heavens have opened and brought us a Tropical Storm called CONSON, which is sort of like a combination of Cosmas and Hanson so we think it is a pretty appropriate name. We are waiting and bracing ourselves for big wind and rains, but you might have seen the typhoon on the news this week because it raced through the Philippines and caused some major damage. It should be weaker when it gets here, we hope.

A few things to highlight in terms of cultural differences with the US:

1. Chinese in sunny climates use umbrellas in the sun every day. Smart.

2. The motorcycles and scooters driving on sidewalks really freaks me out.

3. American kindergarten is called preschool here and our preschool is called kindergarten here. Chinese kindergarteners and preschoolers both go to school 5 days a week, from 8am-5pm. And they survive and only have 1-2 months off in the summer.

4. There is a one-child policy here EXCEPT if both parents are only children themselves, then they can have 2 kids, or if you are a minority ethnic group, or if you want to pay about $1,500 fine per child (which is a lot, considering they make about $5,000 per year).

We took my cousin Debbie's suggestion and I bought art paper and pens today and we have taped up kid's art on our previously white walls, plus we hung plastic "posters" that are sort of like flat picture dictionaries of Chinese & English words. It is a smidgen closer to "home" now - not.