Little Leo

It's been awhile since I wrote something meaningful in my blog. Lately I've been caught up with settling down in Beijing and getting to know the city. I feel like I don't have anything meaningful or insightful to blog about, except for the fact that I've been going out a lot, trying new restaurants and of course, sampling different massage places (not a bad life!). Trust me, I'm not complaining about this - in fact, after all of the traveling I did in October, November feels like a nice break to me.



Anyway, today I finally remembered I had set-up a hotmail account last year for my students/parents to contact me. I just logged in tonight to see if anyone had emailed me recently, and found an email from one of my former student's parents last year. The mother wrote a book about her son, Leo, and she sent it to me, Jamie and Kevin Lester to read. Unfortunately, most of it was written in Chinese, but the prologue was translated into English. It made me smile and think of little Leo. I wonder what is he up to now?



Here's an excerpt from her prologue:



Chan’s family moved to Shanghai from Singapore autumn 2006, Leo is in a good environment for his Chinese study, Leo’s English writing is better than his mom as he went to British school since year 3. However, it’s quite a challenge for him to be interested in Chinese still. As a mother I always try things first before I asked Leo to try. I tried to write some enjoyable moments in our daily life in Chinese and Leo is my first reader, the purpose is to let him felt Chinese Writing is a fun and not that difficult. Subsequently other member of the family and friends allover the world showed great interest in my short paragraphs and become my fans and I never expect I can write Chinese words after 15 years without using the Language. I really feel good to have so many fans all over the world.

Every mother has a book of his child’s upbringing, 10 year old Leo brought endless happiness to our family, we treasure every minute to be with him, I talked to Leo in the morning and evening everyday and I felt that I have to pay more attention to this little boy who have traveled 15 countries with us. Raising a child is an enjoyable thing and observing and learning from your child can be super enjoyable.

Thanks my husband who gives me the time and space as a ‘free house wife’ and thanks for him to be such a loving father of Leo. The following writing is a special reward for him at the end of year 2007.

Liying Xu, December 2007, Shanghai



Picture of Leo, courtesy of Ms. Xu. I will never forget little Leo, who gave me a card addressed to the wrong teacher, completed his homework using yellow highlighter, was only in 5th grade but had the IQ of an 8th grader (this is true), and always answered my questions without having to memorize the textbook. Oh yes, and he named a pet frog Jacky CHONG, after my last name.

What's in a name?

I just found out the meaning of my Chinese name 钟子茵.

子 = small
茵 = an evergreen shrub with waxy flowers.

No wonder why my Chinese teacher bursted out laughing when I told her my name last year.

I'm a little shrub.

Chonger Little Shrub. Has a nice ring to it.

Such a fierce name.

The US Elections From This Side of the World

By now everybody knows the outcome of the US election, so I'm not going to delve into the results. I have to say though, given this is my first time away from home during the elections, I've had just as much of an eye-opening experience simply by being an overseas observer.

Earlier this year, I remember Sharon commenting (while we were relaxing by the pool in Siem Reap) about how amazing it was that the run-ups to the primary elections were broadcasted all over the world. It didn't matter whether we were in a third world country like Cambodia, or riding thru the remote areas of Southern Thailand, the US presidential race was indeed blasted in each area and sometimes in the destination's local language.

I met a French man this weekend who told me he had been religiously following the presidential race for the past two years, and he watched every debate. In fact, he was so enthusiastic about the elections, that he invited me to a 5 am "party" to watch the results. I politely declined and admitted I was much more excited to watch the race from the comforts of my own home. But when I returned home that night, I found an email from the local Beijing Hash Harrier Group, and there it was, the official invitation to the 5 am party at the Goose and Duck bar, with promises full of beer, air hockey, basketball, and many other assorted games for relief.

According to today's China Journal, hundreds of young Chinese and Americans attended an event sponsored by the US Embassy and the American Chamber of Commerce. At the event, the organizers created mock ballots and brought in kiosks to educate the Chinese about the intracacies of America's voting system. One of the attendees at the event even commented that although he wasn't sure an American-style election could be held in China, elections do take place in his village in Hunan Province, and he hopes to become a diplomat in the future.

Finally, when I came into work today, I casually asked one of my Chinese coworkers whether he was following the election. He looked up, peered at me through his glasses and blanky asked, "What election?"

Hmm...go figure.

My Inner Circle

Hello,

Unfortunately, a couple of unwanted visitors were perusing my blog recently (and asking me too many questions about my posts).

Hence, I decided to restrict the viewership to my personal friends/family (after all, this is the reason why I kept one in the first place).

So if you ended up here, consider yourself part of my inner circle.

Hahaha.