All Conference Player

Well we just returned from the Shanghai International schools High School basketball tournament and Stacia's team from Concordia dominated the court. She was chosen by her coach as an all conference player. It has been a fanatastic season with their only loss to a specially arranged game with the Chinese High School basketball national champions. Stacia has played starting point guard this season and has continued to develop her game beautifully. What a joy she is to watch. She provides excellent leadership for her team and is highly respected both on the court and off. Rich and I are very proud of her. In fact, she has been asked, along with another of her teammates to practice (and possibly play some games) with the Chinese national champion team. What an exciting possibility for her to continue to improve both her basketball skills and her Chinese! Next weekend is the season ending tournament with teams from Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. Concordia is anticipated to win once again. Go Lady Phoenix!

Interview of myself - Sue

What I like about living in China

• Meeting people from all over the world


• The great Chinese food - I'm with ya Lance! The sweet and sour pork and Mandarin Fish are at the top of my list.


• Travel both in China and elsewhere in Asia. My next adventures include going on a field trip with the 8th grade to Nanjing to learn about the massacre that happened there in WWII and a trip for all of us to Thailand to work in an orphanage the first week in February.


• Having a full time maid - no, I don't miss scrubbing showers or ironing. Thanks Gui Lin! (see above picture)


• Having a driver - I hope driving is like riding a bike and I won't forget how! I can get a lot of reading done in the car scooting around Shanghai.


• A more toned down family schedule - less running around for sports and more time together. When Rich is here he doesn't have to take care of the honey do list - the service center does that!


• Walking around the incredible gardens here in our complex with my sweetheart.


• Flowers around my trees and flowers on my trees in the middle of winter.


• Hearing the ship horns blow at night instead of the trains in Plymouth


• Speaking Chinese and actually being understood (only a little).


• Speaking English and actually being understood.


• Using sign language and actually being understood.


• Welcoming visitors like Rich's mom, Friend Dawn Hall and Flat Stanley - Come on over!!


• Our church and our wonderful small group.


• Buying the biggest head of nappa cabbage I have ever seen for 25 cents. Fresh fruits and veggies are abundant and cheap! They even have Michigan Gala apples here.

What I don't like about living in China

• Being so far from all of you!!!


• The smoking everywhere you go - I have become a second hand smoker.


• The pollution


• They don't have a Meijer Store. I have to shop a few times a week and at several different stores to get what I want. Do you know they haven't had block cream cheese available anywhere since Thanksgiving? It was readily available before then.


• It is hard to find whole wheat anything - so long Sugar Busters!


• Taxis don't have seat belts in the back seat and the drivers drive like maniacs.


• Everyone else drives like maniacs - hence we have a professsional driver to take us around. Even that didn't prevent the accident I was in on Monday where I was creamed by a large truck in the back. Thank goodness for Ford's safe cars with safety glass and good headrests.


• The incredible crowds in the stores and the rotten carts that I have to push around full of groceries.


• The summer heat and humidity.

Lance Interview

My friend Sybille suggested that I interview everyone in the family about what they like and dislike about living in China. So here goes number one and its Lance!

LIKES

- Using the brand new I-Macs in his classroom

- The Chinese food like the dumplings, sweet and sour pork, fish, and other meat and vegetable dishes with white steamed rice

- Our vacations in China to Beijing and the Yunnan Province

- Being close to other Asian countries to visit like we did to Borneo at Christmas

- My new friends; Cory (Utah), Ryan (American moved from Germany), AJ and Eric (twins from Wisconsin), Timmy (Calif.) and Seth (Illinois)

-Being part of the QiLin Football (Soccer) Academy (competitive play)

-Skating at the largest skate park in the world right here in Shanghai

DISLIKES

-The pollution

-The smoking

-That I can't understand other people

-Weird smells

-That you can't get good ice cream like moose tracks here and that my favorite cereals like Wheaties and Wheat Chex cost $10 a box and my mom won't buy them

More Malaysia Pictures

Christmas in Malaysia

We enjoyed a wonderful time in Borneo over Christmas.

Here are some of the things we did....

Took an evening city/riverboat tour in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei while on a 6 hour layover to Sabah

-Saw a city on stilts in the river complete with school, store, police station

- Had a lovely "steamboat" dinner where you cook everything in a broth fondue style

-Saw the most elaborate Muslim temples ever built and the palace of the Sultan of Brunei

Stayed at the Shangri-la Rasa Ria Resort in Sabah, East Malaysia for a week

-Had lots of good pool time but had to protect the skin from intense sun so close to the equator

-Went jungle trekking in the nature preserve with a ranger so as not to get lost

-Saw young orphan orangutans in their natural habitat in the sanctuary as well as monkeys

-Went to a great Christmas worship service with english speaking locals in Kota Kinabalu

-Rich, Sue, Stacia and Lucas went on an ATV safari in the muddy jungle and on the beach

-Rich, Lucas, Lance and Elise took a banana boat trip

-Took a boat cruise out to an island where the kids had their first snorkeling experience and it was a great one with warm, calm water and lots of coral and colorful fish

-Went boogie boarding in the South China Sea

-Had wonderful family walks along the 3 km long beach

-Ate wonderful international food and decided the Indian was best!

-Took a day trip to Mount Kinabalu Park to hike. Stopped at a hot springs park where locals were having the time of their lives in these little baths where the sanitation was interesting

-Took a lot of pictures of our friend Flat Stanley enjoying Sabah

It was a great experience on our first Asian adventure outside of China. The next trip is in the planning stage and will take place the first week of February for Chinese New Year. It is looking to be either Vietnam or somewhere in the Phlippines. We'll keep you posted!

Thanksgiving in China

We had a very different Thanksgiving this year in China. Sue, Stacia and friend Dawn Hall from Ohio traveled with the varsity basketball teams from Concordia to the Great Wall Tournament in Beijing over the Thanksgiving weekend. They played teams from Thailand, Hong Kong, Korea, Beijing and Shanghai. They played their hearts out and came away the victors! This is one tough team to beat! Stacia is the starting point guard. After the playing was finished the host school put on a Thanksgiving awards banquet where we had turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie and many other dishes to pig out on. While we were there, Rich and the other kids celebrated Thanksgiving with our small group from church. Rich told the Thanksgiving story to the adults and children there. Most of our group are from other countries so they really enjoyed hearing about the history of our Thanksgiving tradition. They also all enjoyed the traditional feast with turkey's closest cousin, chicken (turkey is very expensive here, hard to find and the non american women don't know how to cook one), sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, squash, pumpkin pie and more. It was a wonderful evening of celebration and fellowship for them. It was the first Thanksgiving that we have been apart in 21 years of marriage. I have bought a small turkey costing about $48 and will cook it for our family Christmas. This will also be different this year as we will be staying in Asia and vacationing in Sabah, East Malaysia on the island of Borneo. It will also be the first Christmas that we will not be with our families from home. We will miss everyone greatly. We have gotten a fresh tree purchased from the school holiday bazaar (delivered in a pot and costing $20) and decorated it the best we can with ornaments we brought from home. I don't know what type of evergreen it is, but the branches are not strong so we had to pick out the lightest of all the ornaments to hang on it. Rich bought Christmas lights (very expensive and imported from Germany) and our oversized Charlie Brown tree now stands proudly in our living room. If definately feels different this season as we are not inundated with the commercialism of Christmas in the stores here. We will share more of our family Christmas celebration after our trip to Malaysia. Look for our Christmas letter arriving by email this year (if Rich can get a few moments out of his extremely busy work schedule to put it together).

Lance in Nanbeihu

Just a quick update. Lance went on his first class trip - to Nanbeihu. It was a 3-day, 2-night trip away with his 5th grade classmates (5th grade was not like this when I went!). A blast of activity included the High Pole Climb and Flying Leap, kayaking, climbing, rappelling...you know, just your average every-day stuff for 5th grade in China!