And we bid good-bye to Ellie's cast...

It will be 6 weeks tomorrow since Ellie broke a couple of bones in her foot.

Six long weeks with a cast;

showering with one leg wrapped and propped up on the side of the tub;

being carried up the 3 flights of stairs at school;

having someone carry her books;

being dependent on others and not liking it one bit!

 We have an SOS International Clinic here, but for the x-rays, we go to the

TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital, which is Chinese.

I'm sorry the following two pictures are not in focus--you'll have

to use your imagination.  I included them to show that the hospital

is very clean, bright and modern.  And at least the signs are in

English as well as Chinese.  

 I wish I had dared film a video as Ellie crutched through the hospital. 

(BTW, we have decided that "to crutch" is a verb.  

If you can google, you can crutch.  What else do you say, hobble along?) 

There were probably 200 people in the waiting rooms, and EVERY head

turned and EVERY eye watched her all the way down the hall.

The Chinese have no problem with staring!

It was like watching a wave go through the crowd.

 Then came the moment of truth and the new x-ray.

 And the bone is still not filled in!

The crack is still visible, and hasn't changed much at all.  What a disappointment!

But the doctor consulted with the orthopedic surgeon in Beijing

and they decided to take the cast off anyway, with a strict injunction to

take it slowly--keep using the crutches for a week or two, gradually putting

weight on the foot.  

(I have since heard from others that movement is required to finish healing.)

 So, goodbye cast!

And hello emaciated calf!

Let this be a lesson to all of you who aspire to be couch potatoes.

Look what happens in only 6 weeks!

You never know what you'll find outside the door...

For awhile now, we have just decided to begin each new day with the thought,

"what new adventure will we have today?"

It certainly cuts down on any stress of meeting unusual experiences!

The other day as I walked into our apartment building,

there by one of the first-floor apartments was a big red box--

almost as tall as the regular-sized bicycle next to it.

 Holy Cow!  Those are fireworks!

I suddenly had a vision of Mary Poppins and her crew dancing on the

rooftops of London with fireworks shooting at them--something

like that could happen if this went off.  Or it could just blow up part of the building.

I am SO grateful that adequate instructions are provided:

 Open the box.  

Don't lean over it while you light it.

Keep your distance--at least 50 meters.  (That's something

I've not seen--usually the people are standing much closer).

Oh, and yes, this box is fragile and should be protected and stored upright.

Other than those precautions

it's good to go!

The Danish family who bought the fireworks invited us to watch

when they set them off out in the courtyard.

We oohed and aahed as they flew into the sky, exploding with all kinds

of color as the sparks bounced off the high-rise apartments next to us.

Yes, the China adventure continues!

When they say rose strawberry cheesecake...

Recently we went to Beijing, combining an educational trip to the pearl market with a

meeting for branch presidency members.

The Beijing branch meets in "The Golden Tower"--the name of the skyscraper--

and the branch meets on the 4th floor.  Of course, unless you know it is there

you will miss it, because there are no signs anywhere giving the name of the Church.

The other building occupants are various businesses. 

On the main level are shops and restaurants--and our favorite has to be Dairy Queen!  

Ice cream isn't common here.  You can find pint containers of Haagen Das for $15.

Or McDonald's has their McFlurry at about $1.50 (not a bad price!)

But not much in-between.

So we look forward to DQ.

While the men were in their meeting, Alice and I indulged.

 Alice went with the safe Oreo Blizzard.

I was more daring, going with the strawberry cheesecake Blizzard.

With the first surprised bite, I knew that I'd never tasted anything like it.

Alice took a taste and exclaimed, "it has roses in it!" 

I had thought when it said rose strawberry cheesecake that it meant a rosy color, 

after all their strawberry yogurt is white and this ice cream was pink.

Now I know that roses can be eaten as well as put in perfumes or

displayed in a bouquet!  

And I'd better believe their signs.

Ellie and the broken foot...

It's been 4 weeks+ since Ellie broke 2 metatarsal bones in her foot, and with a doctor's appointment today, she was really hoping the cast was going to come off.

I have to say the medical care has been good.  

We have a SOS International clinic right here in TEDA (almost within walking distance)

and Dr. Wang who speaks excellent English.  The clinic looks the same as anywhere in the U.S.

However, they don't have the big diagnostic machines, so we have to go to

a Chinese hospital for the x-rays.  

The clinic sends along a nurse to interpret.  The hospital we went to looked modern

and clean.  I especially loved that the nurses wore the little white caps that 

I remember seeing in books from the 1950's.

The technicians were proficient, but last time, they forgot to put a lead apron over Ellie, so

I reminded them this time.  And it was fun to get to watch from the

technician's station as Ellie got her cast x-rayed.

But she wasn't happy with the news.  The bone is healing slower than it should

be, and the cast has to stay on 2 more weeks (at least).  She's been

taking extra calcium, drinking milk, being careful about her activities,

and she is feeling more than ready to have both feet back!

At least they did say there would be physical therapy

to help her regain ankle motion.  

About Soccer...

It's a funny thing about soccer.  Alice is on the varsity team (there is no JV team), and Ellie

really wanted to be, but her foot is still in a cast.  More about that later.

The first game was a week ago, in Beijing.  They lost, but it was against a big school.

On Saturday,  her school, the TIS Eagles (Tianjin Int. School), in blue,

played here in TEDA.  Good, I thought.  I'll go watch the game!

Unfortunately, it was about 34 degrees with a stiff wind.

I ended up watching from inside a building, which was also cold, 

but at least I was out of the wind.  (We won, 1-0).

Many of the fields are astro-turf, so cleated shoes aren't necessary.

While we were in the U.S. at Christmas, we bought some cleats for Ellie, but couldn't find any

for Alice (it was before soccer season there, so not much selection).

Therefore, Alice doesn't have cleats.

 The team then played yesterday after school at IST (International School of Tianjin).  

 The forecast was for partly sunny skies, in the mid-40's.

What we actually got was the first almost-measurable snow fall of the year!

It was raining/sleeting/snowing during the game, and the field was real (dead) grass.

Slippery!  And Alice with no cleats.

 Still, she had a good time, and again, the Eagles won, 1-0.

The girls were warm from running, but with freezing parts. 

I was an icicle on the sidelines, with my umbrella.  

At least I had the foresight to bring a thermos of hot chocolate 

that Alice and I drank on the 50-minute drive home.

 This afternoon, as I walked over to the hotel to swim,

I noticed that the wind was not the cutting, brutal thing 

it has been for the past few days (months!).

Instead, it was warmer, and though a bit boisterous, it felt

more teasing than treacherous.  And almost 50 degrees! 

Why couldn't we have had this yesterday for the game?!?

Lately, I've been... Part 2

The day after our walking tour, a friend came from Cedar Falls on a business trip for

Deere.  Upon seeing our gloomy gray-brown skies, he wondered if we ever see

the real sky.  I was happy to be able to pull up the pictures from just 24 hours earlier,

and he was amazed.  Such a change.  Yes, we do periodically see the real sky.

 Downtown Tianjin is built on both sides of the Haihe (high-huh) River.  The

city has nice walkways (not quite like the San Antonio river walk!), but

still, very interesting.  There are numerous bridges and each one is done in a different style.

In the past, all were draw bridges for the boat traffic.  

Now there is only one draw bridge and it was built by the same firm that built the

Eiffel Tower in Paris.  And it still works!

 One plain building has a small sign outside:

this is where, in 1936, the communist party of China was secretly organized in northern China.

I just finished reading a book, "Things that Must Not be Forgotten;  A Childhood in Wartime China" by Michael David Kwan.

Kwan was born in the 30's of a Chinese father and Swiss mother.  His story tells

of a life of privilege in those early days (his father was wealthy), and he tells of living in 

Tianjin, and having a seaside home in Beidaihe (the seaside resort town we went to last fall).

His was also a life of difficulty as a half-caste, and he encountered hatred 

from Europeans and Chinese alike.  As we walked around town, we saw places mentioned in the book.

Then, the Japanese invaded.  Life became a downward spiral until Kwan was able to leave China

just before the Communists took over.  The book was not sympathetic to them, but

it also didn't paint the Nationalists very well either.  Most were corrupt, enriching themselves

on the aid given by America to fight the communists.  

And in reality, life was just awful for the Chinese.  It is easy to see how they would be happy to 

throw their lot in with the communists.  Life could only get better. 

 Okay!  So!  After thinking about how awful the peasants lived, we walked another

block to their "5th Avenue" area of town.

Upscale shops.  A McDonalds or Pizza Hut every 100 yards.  Interesting!

 Way down at the end of the street was our final destination.

A French Catholic cathedral, built in the late 1800's.  

(With an elephant statue out front--though I don't think it is actually

related to the church...)

 The interior was very beautiful.  I loved the blue!  The church was taken over by the

Chinese during Mao's years, and partially destroyed in the Tangshan earthquake in 1976.

The Tianjin government has helped restore it and it is now the home for the Catholic archdiocese of Tianjin.

Now, when people come to visit, if you want to see some of these areas,

I know where they are.  At first (or second or third!) glance,

Tianjin looks to be a soulless city full of glass and steel and concrete--

nothing very interesting.  You just have to know where to look...