What is pollution?

I thought you’d never ask!

Does that answer your question?

It’s not always this bad, really. This has been one of the worst days of the year, though it’s only February.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Don’t cross ‘em

Doesn’t he look so proud? So arrogant?

Since I have pretty long legs, I need to to cross my legs every once in a while to stretch them out, especially while I’m teaching, because I sit in a chair in the kindergarten classes for a half hour. This isn’t uncommon, I know, but apparently when you do it while teaching, it’s impolite and makes you seem really prideful. At least that’s what my teacher’s assistant told me… After almost a full year of teaching, this is the first time I’ve heard it. She told me, “I didn’t want to tell you because I was worried you’d get angry.” I laughed and said I’d rather know how to not offend everyone in the room! Who knows, though? Maybe it’s just her opinion and most others don’t feel it’s rude; you get a lot of conflicting stories when it comes to things like this. I just found it funny that she waited so long to tell me something this important!

So if you’re teaching in China, take note!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Our New Apartment

We’ve been looking for a new apartment for the past few weeks. We feel we don’t need the space, and we could cut some costs if we have a smaller place.

In perfect timing, we have found a place with an incredible landlord and a perfect layout for us. Some other foreigners have to go back to America soon so they are leaving their place and are looking for someone to move in pretty quickly.

UPDATE: We are moving in this weekend! We have made all necessary agreements with the landlord, and we are very excited about this very quick change that’s coming our way! We’ll send pictures as soon as we move in!

It’s a two bedroom apartment on the 20th floor of a building and it’s only a two-minute walk from the place we live now!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Jenny at the village

There is a famous restaurant in the area called “The Village”. It’s famous because it serves decent western food; our dining there is not rare. :)

However, this is not the village Jenny went to. She went to an actual village. This was a little while back while I was out of town working at a camp for two weeks. She was crazy/incredible enough to take our two small boys there! It’s an hour-long bus ride each way.

You can see a video of it here! If you are not on our site, you can come watch the video by clicking here.

Hope you got a good idea of what a village looks like here in the Xi’An, China region!

Until next time,

Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

At the market today…

Guess what this is…



In case you are all out of guesses, it’s pig’s nose. Yum! (I haven’t tried it, just for your information.)

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Sunshine International Camp

Hello! I’m sorry it’s been a while to blog about this, but I got back and then just as I was about to blog about the camp I was at for two weeks, our power went out for a full day. Ick!

 

Throughout the camp, we enjoyed some awesome experiences. I had a group of 10 students which I co-coached with a Chinese girl. The students were 30% American, 70% Chinese. We played several games and then discussed the deeper meanings and challenges of those games. We had lectures which focused on several different topics including: leadership, relationships, Chinese & American culture, finding our purpose in life, and several others. I’m sure the students learned a ton.

 

I know that some of their lives will never be the same. Many shared about how they’ve changed for the better throughout those twelve days; I’m very grateful they did. I myself got to have a great opportunity facilitating those life changing moments.

 

My wife was home the whole time with the kids; she’s such a champ! Our kids have a wonderful mommy. :) She was very great at taking some pictures and videos while I was gone. We’ll post some of those soon!

 

Until next time,

Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

But only if it comes with a knife…

So we were out at Ren Ren Le (a local store), I needed to snag some AAA batteries for our air conditioner remote. I saw some pretty cool deals out there, but none like this:

 

“Obviously, if I get AAA batteries, I will also need a Swiss Army knife, so this is perfect!”

 

Until next time,

Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

A good shirt

Sometimes in China you’ll notice that people wear shirts that are in English… Well, kind of. Some really don’t make much sense at all.

 

It’s important to note that I’m sure we Americans are very guilty of this as well when we tattoo some other languages on ourselves or when we wear shirts with other languages on them. With that in mind, I saw a fun shirt on the way to work the other day…

 

“Special Love Adapter.”

 

Hmmm. Profound, isn’t it? I have no clue what they were translating when they came up with that phrase, but I’m sure it makes more sense in Chinese than it does in English!

 

Until next time,

Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Today, the weather will be…

A couple weeks ago, I was teaching at a local kindergarten, when all of a sudden some random guy just just walked in and asked me if I wanted to read the weather for a local news station. I agreed, so after class we went outside. He hands me this sheet full of Chinese Characters which I had to quickly translate into pinyin so I could read it more fluidly. I was very thankful that I could read almost all of it (thank you, Skritter!).

 

Another Chinese teacher was going to read the more difficult stuff and then I was going to read the more simple part (which was still around two or three paragraphs of weather information). I watch her read the weather first and she… just… dominates. I mean, she’s doing hand motions and exaggerating her voice and sounding so excited about the upcoming (extremely hot) weather. Dumbfounded, I was just staring at her, jaw dropped, thinking to myself, “Oh… Em… Gee… They want ME to read like HER!”

 

They turn the camera to me and I read the weather, stumbling through a few parts, and probably seeming incredibly boring. I felt pretty happy with how well I did, but as soon as I finished, the cameraman kinda slowly lowered the camera and said that I had to do more actions. I was thinking to myself, “This is going to be rough.”

 

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do all they needed me to do. I had to go home to meet up with the family, and ran out of time. We don’t have cable so I never saw if I actually made it to the big time, but now every time I go down the street, everyone is like, “There’s the weatherman!” (I’m totally lying, they don’t say that.) I don’t think I actually made it on TV but I know that I read a report to a self-satisfactory degree and I was proud of that. I was being recorded by microphone and camera with around 10 Chinese people around me watching me do it. I was happy with myself hanging in there. (I don’t usually put myself out there like that, believe it or not!)

 

That was super stressful though!

 

Things in Xi’an are going really well! The weather is currently standing strong at around 29 degrees Celsius (84 degrees Fahrenheit). The humidity is around 55% and we have a nice breeze coming in from the southwest at around 14km per hour. We have some scattered clouds which I expect to hang around until sometime 3 years from now. Tonight we might see some scattered showers and the wind will die down a bit, bringing us a nice, sunny day tomorrow. ;)

 

Until next time,

Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

800 and some other updates

Yesterday marked the day where I passed 800 Chinese characters learned. It's been a difficult attempt at 2400 by 2011, but I'm going to press on! (Due to falling behind by our trip to Hong Kong and other factors, I'm behind my goal by 400!!!!!! (I know, I know!) I'm going to continue on, though! Really, four hundred spanned out among six months means I only have to learn an extra 60-70 per week. Not too bad compared to the overall goal.

Levi has been so active! We have gone swimming at a local indoor pool a couple times now. It's really fun! The water is heated (almost to a fault), so it feels like a warm bath. We bought some floaties for the boys here for about $2-$5, so they really enjoy feeling safe and independent in the pool. Even Liam :) Levi also really enjoys helping vacuum, which is ironic because it's actually much more difficult when he's "helping", haha.

Liam has been SO attached to his mommy lately. No matter who plays with him, he will always cry if Jenny walks past him and he remembers she's not holding or playing with him. On the plus side, he's been sleeping and eating a lot! We're thinking he might be hitting a growth spurt.

The Dragon Boat Festival is coming up, so I have a couple days off of work this coming week. It's been great teaching those kids. My largest class is 62 first graders... Can you believe it?! It can get out of hand really easily, haha!

That's all for now... Have a great day!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

The Orphanage

Two days ago I went to my friend's orphanage to hang out with him. He's in his twenties, but still lives there. He recently met my Dad too, which was so great.

The plan was to go there, play some basketball (which seems like China's favorite sport, by the way), then go to an internet cafe to play some computer games together.

The trip out there really put things into perspective for me. We took three separate buses which lasted 30 minutes each. It was a lot of work just to get from my house to that orphanage, which was amazing to me because he comes to our neighborhood at least once a week.

I expected basketball to last about an hour or so. It lasted much longer, and we played WELL beyond my physical capabilities. What I experienced towards the end of that game was the closest thing I've experienced between life and death. Well, okay, I was just really tired.

Afterwards we played some computer games, but I was just too tired. Shortly after we got a ride back and I went straight to bed... It was a good time.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Our New Neighbors

Hello Everyone!

So we have some new neighbors moving in soon. They are going to be married any day now, and while they were working on the apartment the other day, Jenny recommended we go over and introduce ourselves, which we did. We were glad we did! They are a great couple and they also know some decent English! It was great meeting them.

We discussed having dinner together sometime. We're looking forward to it.

Side note, the woman is an accountant at a company which happens to be the same company as one of our close friends. The company only employs around 200 people right now, so it's pretty small. It's a small world, after all.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Chatting with Levi about life in China

We posted a video of an interview between myself and Levi. He's super cute! Enjoy :)





For those reading this from Facebook or Email, click here to see the video at our site.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Old Friends and an English Tutor

We had a great meal with some friends we made from our last trip here to China.

They took us out to a nice restaurant which serves strictly local dishes. It was pretty good! We had a spicy fish soup as well as some garlic cucumber, some pumpkin strips with a sweet breading (Levi ate a TON of those) and some shrimp and octopus soup. We caught up and discussed what's been going on with our families since we've been away.

Their daughter is in her teens and has been learning English since she was five or six years old. She has been doing especially well on her written tests, but not so well on her speaking tests. It just so happens that I specialize in speaking English! :) I offered to tutor her, to which they were wondering how much I charge. Thinking back on our relationship, Jenny and I thought it'd be best to tutor her for one hour per week, free of charge. The father said 我非常感谢 which means, "I'm so incredibly grateful." I was so happy that by helping out some friends for one hour of my week, I was able to bless them in that way.

They'll be stopping by starting this Saturday the 6th, which also happens to be my (Jeremy) birthday :) We'll be keeping you posted on her progress and how that all goes. I'd like to tutor a few more people if I can, but we'll just see which opportunities present themselves.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Workin' Man

Jeremy got a job!

He's working at a nearby English school and will be teaching first to sixth graders along with just a few hours per week of Kinder-gardeners. He can't officially get paid to work a job until he gets the proper work visa, so he can start that as soon as he gets back from a trip to Hong Kong with the family which we'll be taking sometime soon. That will allow us to get this job solidified. :)

He'll be working nine and a half hours per week, which is quite a bit for now. It's either that or full-time, and with studying and the family and all the transition it's most likely not the wisest decision at this point. We'll see how this part-time deal goes, and if we think increasing hours is a good idea, we'll do that. :)

You'll all be kept up to speed on all this: Don't worry :)

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Learning 汉语

Jenny and I have our tutoring schedules set up!

At this point, Jenny is going to be tutored four times per week with two hours per session. (Don't get a calculator, that's eight hours!) Jeremy will be tutored one day per week with three hours for that session. He's still waiting on another tutor to get back from being out of town. As soon as he gets back, we'll get that all solidified. The other tutor speaks no English whatsoever and Jeremy wants to be tutored by him two days per week with two hours per session. (Again, let me do the math for you....... (checking calculator...) Seven hours!

We are very excited! Our Chinese has surprisingly stayed with us for the most part. We need to once again get used to speaking Chinese all the time and hearing it all the time! It's quite a transition, but we are thriving on it! :)

Coming up this week: We have a large carpet to put in our living room for our boys to play on. (Tile isn't as fun!) That should be delivered within two to three days. Jeremy's birthday is this coming Saturday the 6th, and our tutoring begins.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

中国！！！

We've arrived in Xi'an!

Sorry it's been a couple days to write this, but it's been incredibly hectic, as I'm sure you'll all understand. Since this will be a hefty post, I'll separate the paragraphs by topic. Enjoy!

How did all that travelling go? Our flights were as awesome as they could be! Levi and Liam were CHAMPS! Levi happily got on plane after plane, despite the incredible length of time we spent on them. We flew from Minneapolis to Tokyo to Beijing (spent the night) to Xi'an. What was it like seeing your friends and brother's family again? It was amazing! We saw them when we were coming down to the baggage claim and everyone involved was beaming with happiness. Levi was pulling his little luggage along and I showed him Sydney and he ran to her with happiness and was not shy of anyone! In fact, we immediately left him with them while we went and "claimed" our luggage. He was completely okay with it! Seeing everyone again was such a great experience.

Where are you living now? We have taken over a place that our friend had while she was here. She moved back to America for now, so we just moved right in! Jenny and I LOVE it!!! We had the landlord over today and after some bartering and discussion we reached a great deal! We have signed a TWO YEAR lease on this apartment, which we are both very excited about. We can now "officially" move in! Can we see pictures? Definitely! Just please give us some time and we'll get you all the pictures you need! :) Since we didn't officially rent the apartment until today, we haven't focused on unpacking yet. We'll start all that tomorrow, and I'll take some pictures as soon as we get the place looking pretty nice. :)

What is next for you guys? We are going to focus on getting settled in and making our apartment a home. After that, the next task will be Jeremy getting his job teaching English and we'll both get set up with a Chinese tutor/school so we can get our learning going. Things move slowly here though, so we need to be patient and move forward with the progress we are allowed here in China.

How is the family feeling? All the boys are sick with a cold. I blame myself (Jeremy) because I got it in Minnesota and I was not being careful around the boys. Levi has a rough cough going on and Liam has coughs as well. Other than all that, we are really really happy to be here!

I hope that caught most of you up to date on us here in China! We'll be posting more as things progress around here!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

rice and travel

Liam had rice last night? And guess what? He liked it! He also slept through the night that very night, which was a pleasant experience for the whole family. He's growing up so fast. Jenny mentioned how he's been growing like a weed lately. He's quickly filling out his clothes and moving on to bigger and better things. He's been practicing sitting up as well and he's been laughing and smiling lots.



We have a big week coming up! If you refer to our site, you'll notice the countdown timer to China is down to just under FIVE days! We are shocked that time has flown by this fast, but we are also excited to move into our own apartment and get reacquainted with everything "familiar" to us in China. I actually had a dream about it last night. It was quite nice. :)

For those of you who are still foggy on the itinerary, here goes: We are departing from Minnesota at around 12:40pm. We arrive in Tokyo at 7:30pm (Tokyo time) and depart three hours later for Beijing. We'll arrive in Beijing at 11:05pm (Beijing time) and then we'll be spending the night there. The following morning, we depart at 10:30am and arrive in Xi'an at 12:30pm! We are really excited about all this. Hopefully two days of travel is better than one in this case and that spending the night is a nice adjustment for us. Please be thinking of us during this time!

We'll post again soon from Xi'an, China!

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

This time last year

What were the Petersons doing this time last year? Watch this video to find out!



(Those of you reading this via email or Facebook, click HERE to go to our site to see it!)

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam

Safe and Sound

Hey guys,

We arrived in Minnesota! The trip was relatively uneventful. Levi was REALLY tired when we arrived in Minnesota though, because it was four hours past his bed time and he didn't sleep at all! Too much excitement I guess!

Coming up: Jenny's surgery is on Friday! We'll be leaving for China on the 2nd of February.

Until next time,
Jeremy, Jenny, Levi, & Liam