life and times of the covners family in suzhou, china

Suzhou Night Market

2008-06-30T10:18:00.006+08:00

We are in a long rainy season this year. Every day it is rain. Last weekend was exception. We had a nice clear day. Jesse took us to a night market in west side of SIP on Saturday. We had Chinese style of BBQ skewer (xiaokao). It is actually a restaurant street. They put tables and chairs out. There are some beggars walking around to ask some money. I didn’t want them to disturb our dinner. I choose to sit inside. However Akiva suggested to sit outside. In fact he loved to look around people walking by. He paid 5 Yuan to buy a bag of steamed peanuts. We had a guy to play Chinese guitar and to sing Chinese kid’s song for us (20 Yuan per song). Of course some beggars came by. Aiva told an old beggar “NO!”.Wuhan Famous Roasted Duck NeckI thought BBQ was excellent. There was only a little bit of meat on skewer. So I can eat 20 skewers yet still hungry. I actually like a little meat part. It is quicker to cook and I don’t need to worry about too much if the meat is cooked or not. Kenaz is such a good eater. He grabbed a skewer by his self and enjoyed it (His favorite word now is “by myself” in Japanese). We all loved the taste and atmosphere. Sunday we went back again!

Akiva's first big girlie performance

2008-06-22T15:35:00.002+08:00

Akiva was part of a graduation ceremony yesterday...he graduated from "small small class" to "small class". And to celebrate, the teacher dressed the whole class in traditional Chinese baby clothes called "Du-Bu" and then made them dance. (I have seen adult women in Shanghai wear the same Du-bu on the street BTW...but that is another story)

Note that Akiva's face looks just like his mothers. So when he wear's girly cloths, he really looks girly. I believe that if he hates his parents later in life, this may be one of the singular instances he will point to as evidence concerning how his parents messed him up (just as I point to my father getting frustrated with me when teaching me how to play catch with a baseball)

So Akiva's class-mate Lou Xiao Yu ("Little Rain Lou" ) was supposed to dance with Akiva. Akiva stuck out his tounge out and being silly. The little girl kept pulling on Akiva and grabbing him. And Akiva just shrugged her off. Which tells me he is learning to not let himself be manipulated by the crazy girls who want him dance.

Weekend Activities

2008-06-04T09:38:00.004+08:00

Pick up cucumbers.

Feed ducks

Follow after turkeys

Feed goats

Feed baby goats

Feed himself

DanHua Sister's Wedding 2

2008-05-23T09:17:00.005+08:00

The wedding banquet was held in the wood potable house.
Here our turtle and other scrumptious dishes were made.

Cheers!

Attending a Wedding

2008-05-20T10:42:00.006+08:00

Last Saturday we went to our nanny’s daughter’s wedding banquet. Like our nanny who is from country side of Suzhou usually celebrates for 3 days of wedding feast.I was able to fit into my old pre-pregnant dress.
Our nanny Ms. Zhu told me she will set up a wood house right down at her apartment, but it was really hard to imagine how they will organize their feast, because there is not much space outside. In fact, the wedding banquet had group 1 and group2 on Saturday. We were in group 1 to have a dinner started at 5:30. The 2nd group had a dinner at 7:00. Sunday was the same thing for lunch. the firt and the second group.We had appetizers of pistachios, cold jellyfish, edamames, then new plates stocked on top of other plates every 5 minutes. We had snake, turtle, fish, pig, sweet black beans, and more.

Photographer: Akiva

2008-05-16T13:21:00.003+08:00

Some how he has been very upset to be taken a picture. I have to be very sneaky, other wise he will take away my camera and take a picture of us. He still need to learn how not to put his finger on the lens, but he has taken some OK pictures.

Summer Style Hair Cut

2008-05-08T08:06:00.002+08:00

Hair cut treat is of course “ICE CREAM!”

More Cali

2008-04-20T04:50:00.003+08:00

I spent 45 minutes at REI with Tony trying to buy sneakers. I didn't buy any.

Vietnamese Pho (w/ Tony at restaruant on Convoy St.)

I caught two waves at the La Jolla shores

Tony and I by the pool.

Food in San Diego / Tony's visiting

2008-04-18T15:19:00.004+08:00

Carne asada burrito. Ummm Ummm good. Found in cheap Mexican restaurants all around California.

Bowties and Cottage Cheese. A Covner favorite.

$1.50 Hot dog (with Sourkraut), and diet Coke...from Costco.

My friend Tony came and visited me from Northern California. He is trying to seduce single white men. (I'm married BTW)

We went to eat Sushi with my sister Rachel. I didn't take pictures of the Sushi. Tony said it was not that good. I thought it was OK, but overpriced...just like everything else in San Diego.

We also went to the beach. I look cool. Not surfer cool. But very cool. Tony, on the other hand, bragged about his 6% body fat.

Jeremy's wedding

2008-04-15T11:11:00.003+08:00

I went to Jeremy's wedding on Saturday in San Diego. The wedding was at the same temple where Haga and I got married years ago.

My father officiated the ceremony. He got a license making him the Deputy Commissioner of Marriage (for the day).

The bride Kelly was incredibly beautiful and the groom stylish

All the groom's men wore Scottish kilts. They got big swords as party-favors. I told Jeremy before hand that I did not feel like bringing a sword back to China through customs, and I did not want Akiva to get ahold of said sword and start a life of medieval violence.

The Bride and Groom danced. So did a lot of guys in kilts danced to Irish / Scottish music. Those guys were not wearing underwear

After the wedding, we had a party, catered by Gail (my Aunt). Fresh Chumash, olives, chicken and fish kababs, Greek salad, pink champagne. Very good food. Also a keg of Guinness beer...which I drank a lot of.

I sat with my friend Brad Decker, who I have not seen for about 6 years. I also hung out with Dan Sutherd, who I have not seen in 20 years. Brad runs lighting for theater productions in Switzerland. He also sometimes does choreography. Dan runs a mail-order nursery in Eureka California and likes art photography. His site is: http://www.drsfoto.com/

My sister Rachel and my brother Micah. They say I'm drunk...nuh uh!

My mom looks great!

Later, I took a nap on this bench.

Stories about Akiva

2008-04-08T16:28:00.002+08:00

Last weekend I took Akiva to a playground. There were many local kids about his age. One of boy wanted to climb up a ladder where Akiva was climbing up. He said “You stupid move out my way!” Chinese has many ways to express stupid but “little broken egg” is one of them. Some time grandma use “little broken egg” as “my little bad boy” with affection. Akiva somehow know it is not good meaning and said back to the boy, “I am not a little broken egg. My name is Akiva Covner.”

We had a lunch at restaurant mall that day. Most the people hang around and eat there are foreigners. Recently many beggars with plastic cup are asking changes in front of restaurants. Akiva walked up to one of old beggar and asked him what is inside of his plastic cup. He said “money.” Akiva said back “I want money!”

Just FYI...

2008-04-08T14:17:00.002+08:00

I will be back in the United States between 4/11 and 4/20. On 4/12, my best friend Jeremy Riordan is getting married. On 4/19, I will have Passover with family. My family here - my wife and Children - will not be coming with me. Haga has a job and tends to take jobs more seriously than myself. And its a lot of ...effort...to take the kids on a 30-hour trip. I wish my family and friends in the US can see my children and Haga...but that will have to wait for another time.

Strawberry picking in Peasantville Themepark

2008-03-21T13:31:00.005+08:00

Please be aware of drowning. It would suck if you drowned while un-aware.

Last weekend we went with a group of Japanese families out to XiShan (Sat-view here) to pick strawberries at a farm. We rode out there for about 1.5 hours, then picked not-sweet strawberries for 20 minutes. Akiva and Kenaz had fun.

As I had no friends in this group and everyone spoke Japanese, I was bored to death. After 20 minutes, when people started to leave, I got a little crazy and decided we needed to pick a lot more strawberries to make this trip more worthwhile.

After this, we were to eat at a peasant restaurant. I thought we were going to go to a cheap hole-in-the-wall place and have rice and greens. Instead, we went to “The most beautiful mountain village in Suzhou city.”I'm pretty sure its the only mountain village in Suzhou. A sort of peasant themepark with several restaurants, a dog-training park, and some small fishing ponds. And some local peasants lined up to sell a small selection of fresh greens. It was pretty place though. Located in the hills near Mudu. Those hills are actually covered with graveyards…not a place you are supposed to go hiking in. There was a fair number of rich Chinese people there, whom I guess needed to get more in touch with their peasant roots. A lot of expensive cars in the parking lot. Not really a rural experience, but I guess its nice if you feel like seeing different scenery.

Akiva practices ninja-fighting moves

Kenaz looking for the bridge troll

We ate overpriced rice and greens. OK. They also served eggs with small white Taihu Lake fish, and a raddish stew dish. And some pork thing. And dofu mixed with greens. I was sort of in a bad mood and had a headache so I didn’t take pictures of my rice and greens.

Akiva and Kenaz had fun. Akiva first played a game in which he stood at the edge of a deep, dangerous drainage channel (with swift flowing water) and threw various objects into the channel until I chased him away. Later, he and his friends discovered interesting things that can be done with spare nails and scrap-wood. Just what peasant kids play with I guess.

Kenaz investigated the flowers and tried to do whatever Akiva did.

No Water

2008-03-16T17:03:00.006+08:00

Our nanny called me up at office and told me some kid of big noise and now no water. I didn’t exactly understood what happened but I ordered a delivery food in case she cannot cook for us a dinner. When I came home earlier and saw a whole walk path right next to our building was went down into a canal. There was notice said water main was broken in several parts and the soil got lose then the path was sledded down. No one was injured. We didn’t have water for one day.

To see what it used to look like, click here

A game that has ruined my life (and created my lives)

2008-03-09T13:29:00.004+08:00

This week has been a little eventful. Going back in reverse chronological order, Akiva and I (Jesse) went to see the Space Station movie at the Imax theater on Saturday while Haga took care of Kenaz. Akiva didn’t want to wear the 3D glasses, so most of the movie was blurry to him. He had a good time though. The theater (the Suzhou Culture, Arts, and Science Center) was very pretty. (for local readers, this is the link to the center, in English, and showtimes ).

Earlier in the week I had a good training program on facilitation skills in Shanghai. Since lately I focus on business consulting and development, I do not do training often nowadays. So this training program was a great review course for me. However, I got sick on the first day of the training program and I'm still sick with a really runny nose. At the program, there were GMs of companies (my customers who I invited to take the training with me), Asia-Pac corporate HR Managers from companies like Pepsi, and some competitors (who we invited because we play nice with competitors…sometimes). I know that while I was sick and dizzy and (literally) snotty, I also represented myself and my company very professionally.

While I was sick and in Shanghai I had a job interview for a $100K/year Product Management position with a company based in San Diego. I did not get the job. Email response: “We decided to go in another direction for this position. Good luck in your endeavors.” I hate corporate speak. Anyway, I have said this to my family (in the US) several times already…its difficult for me to get good corporate jobs because it has been a while since I worked in a corporate company. I’m disappointed I didn’t get that job because it would have meant a lot of opportunity to see my family in the US. And it would have been a lot of money. And it may have been a fun job. I don’t feel bad about being rejected though. I used to feel crappy after every time I got rejected from a job. Like being rejected by a girl. Not anymore. I know I would have been great at the job. But I also know that the interviewer had no interviewing skills and had already made up his mind before he met me. Now in interviews I present myself as being only myself; some will not like this style but others will be impressed. Some will be impressed, but not pick me because they are looking for very specific experience and interests and that is OK.

This brings me to the subject of this post...and this subject is not even 50% related to the subjects of the four paragraphs above. I would like to write an obituary of sorts for a man I never met. Gary Gygax, co-inventor of the Dungeons and Dragons roleplaying game, died last week.

The Monster Manual of A.D&D. I never realized just how absolutely amateurish the D&D artwork was.

The first time I saw people playing D&D was at a “Surf Camp” just before the 6th grade.. My camp councilor was playing it on the beach on a cloudy day. I did not ask him if I could play with him…I just sat on the sand and watched him play. I somehow knew what they were doing within 30 seconds of observation. They were playing a game all kids play – shared imagination game – but with codified rules to help them better share their play experience (however, at the time I thought the idea of the game would be better applied to a Star Trek or Star Wars setting…I didn’t think knights and sorcerers were so cool). Of course, I did not know the rules of the game. There are many many rules in D&D and they did not let me see the rulebook. But I understood that they had a common framework of rules that govern” applied imagination”.

I do not know where “I” was when I first played D&D, but I do know I had to have been with Chris Doss, Jeremy Riordan, and Brad Decker sometime in the 6th grade. I also know we were adventuring into a cave to exterminate some creatures called “Kobolds”, “Bugbears”, and a wizard or Ogre or two. The reason for this adventure was because a) the Kobolds had pillaged some farms, and b) Kobolds are Chaotic Evil alignment, therefore should be killed by those having a “Good” alignment. And at the end of the “Dungeon Module”, we discovered some nick-nack or something on a corpse that was a sign of deeper evil (ie. monsters of a slightly higher level) which supported the Kobolds…we would face this new challenge in the next dungeon.

I have played countless hours in the shared virtual reality of role-playing games. I played an Elf Fighter-Magic User (name: Randolf…uggg) in “AD&D™”; a mutant psychic cat in “Gamaworld™”; another Elf in “Runequest™”; a psychic space captain in “Traveler™”; alien superhero in “Villains and Vigilantes™”; ditto in “Champions™”; soon-to-die-from-radiation-poisoning US Army soldier in “Aftermath 2000™”; a soon-to-go-insane detective in “Call of Chathulu™”; a space explorer in “Ringworld™”; another elf Fighter-Thief in “Warhammer: The RPG™”; a time-bending knife-wielding mage in “Mage™.” I have played…myself I guess… when Chris would call and say “OK. You wake up. You are wearing just your underwear….” “But Chris, I sleep in Pajamas!” “But now you are just wearing underwear. Butt-hugger by the way…not boxers. You are in a room with a bunk-bed and a door to the ‘South’. There is a bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. There are no sheets on the bed. There is nothing else in the room. What do you do?”

I have created several role-playing games during my life based on books I have read or just based on day-dreams. I have also Game Mastered my friends in our virtual quests; in fact, I was more often the GM than the player. I created dungeons, worlds, conflicts, and dramas.

Unlike other self-reflections on the internet brought on by the death of Gary Gygax, I will not go into the whole “ultra-nerd” thing. The truth is that outwardly, I never did appear nerd-like; I was on the swim-team and had a great head of blond hair. But D&D and roleplaying games led me to overly develop my “inner world” instead of developing my relationship with that other shared reality known as “Real Life™”. Hence, RPGs contributed to me becoming more self-centered and always dreaming. I should have been focusing on…focusing. I can honestly say that my anti-social extraversion, in part, comes from too much RPGing. I didn’t master the social skills necessary for dealing with lots of people I do not like. (The fact that I do not like many people I blame not on RPGs, but on other influences in my development). Focusing on the pretend made me less practical. Less detail oriented. It is the reason I have not gone into finance, accounting, or engineering.

On the whole though, I think that playing RPGs was a positive influence in my becoming what I am today. Role-playing taught me how to envision things from other viewpoints. It is the skill I use to prepare my business strategy. I use role-playing to prepare for training others and as a tool to learn new things which I have no experience with. Role-playing helps me expand my empathy and more foresight.

And of course, role-playing has taught me how to play roles. Playing roles means that I can show parts of me that ARE STILL ME, but not what I normally show to my friends and family. I have played countless hours in a shared virtual reality in which I played: an exchange student in a post-Totalitarian pre-commercial 1991 Beijing; a conservative newspaper call-center service operator; an MBA student; a sales man at a Taiwanese connector manufacturer, a Notebook Computer Product Manager in a Taiwanese computer manufacturer; a MBA night-school instructor; a Product Manager in a smartphone / PDA software development company; a Japanese restaurant waiter; a China-based Leadership Development Facilitator; and (my current role) Management Consultant / Senior Manager in a small consulting company.

In conclusion… I know I owe many things to many people who I know, and many things to people who I have never met. Gary Gygax falls into that second category. I thank him for his wonderful legacy. My characters thank him too,

Mobile update-weekend activities

2008-03-02T19:55:00.001+08:00

Weekend

2008-03-02T14:54:00.003+08:00

Here is their monthly picture. Akiva is Three years old and one months, and Kenaz is one year and five months.
Sunshine came back to Suzhou, and winter is almost overIt is much more comfortable to go out. We went to a central park to ride a hand row boat. Jesse and Akiva are shooting a water gun.

2008 Thailand Trip, Elephant Ride

2008-02-21T08:09:00.005+08:00

This time of Phuket trip I really wanted to ride an elephant in a forest jungle. I read the good review about it. I thought Akiva would love it. The elephant ride was on the side of the park. It was a newly planted rubber trees land. It was quite different from my idea of forest jungle. We wanted to ride an elephant for one and half hours. But a lady boy (a cross dress boy) told us too long for kids. We chose for 40 minutes. On the top of elephant I felt very strange. It was sitting on a moving mountain. Jesse didn’t feel good. He nearly felt motion sickness. The elephant went down to a stream. He claimed up little hills. Every steps he took our bodies were slowly moved from left to up and right to down. It was amazing. I started thinking about a movie “The Lord of the Rings II”. Akiva really enjoyed the ride. We saw butterflies and dragonflies. Later on the beach we saw a six months old baby boy elephant. Akiva enjoyed petting him. We gave him banana and water. His hair on his back was very hard. Next time I want to try an elephant ride in a real jungle.

Part 1B Food:

2008-02-17T14:27:00.003+08:00

Akiva loves ice cream most!
Muslim Noodle Soup

This is a seafood varient found at the Muslim eatery behind the resort. When we went to the night-market, we had a beef-guts varient that was very good. Also, this comes with either thin rice noodles, thick rice noodles, ramen noodles, or yellow egg noodles.

Hotel Worker Food

We ate at the cafeteria for hotel workers in the area. Rice. Really spicy squid and bean stuff, and mildly spicy chicken and been sprouts. Also tapioca ice tea. How can food so good hurt me so much?

Pinapple Fried Rice

You get this in the States in many Thai restaurants. Tastes about the same in Thailand but the shrimp is better.

Spicy and Sour Thai Soup
We eat this in many places. Great stuff.

Fish Cakes
[picture on other camera] We ate this at the night-market. Greasy but good.

PadThai
Thai style stir-fried noodles with peanuts. Don't know if I will get another picture because I'm a little tired of eating this.

Ice Coffee

Very good. I guess I need a picture.

Papaya Salad

We had this at a road-side eatery today. We have it everywhere in Thailand, although we make ours non-spicy so the kids can eat it.

Apple Shake

Raw Shrimp
We had this at the resort restaurant. I don't think we will have this again, so don't expect a picture. It was very good... a little like ceviche. But its expensive.

Fried Bannana

We have had several variations of this.

Thai Beef Curry

Also too hot to eat. But really good for the first few bites before you get the PAIN. Eaten with rice. We get this at the Muslim eatery behind our hotel.

Mango with condenced milk and sticky rice

Some Indian dishes (Samosa, some bean dip thing, flat bread, etc)

Fried Squid

Deep Fried Squid

Banana Shake

2008 Thailand Trip, Part 2

2008-02-17T14:23:00.002+08:00

We are having a problem with our accomodations. Our hotel is overbooked and they are trying to kick us out...but I have not paid yet and I am demanding they put us in a better place. So in the morning I went scouting for other hotels. Actually, they have been asking us to leave since the first day we got there. Furthermore, several of the bungalows now have leaky roofs. And there is construction behind the resort. So, I sort of feel like moving anyhow. This place is getting too ghetto for the price tag.

Kenaz has been running a high fever...but only at night. So we are now giving him fever medicine and being very dilligent about keeping him out of the sun. He's still having fun, but he is being too much of a Mommy's boy. Akiva is doing great. I hope to get him to take actual swimming strokes by the end of the vacation. Today we are packed up and ready to move to a new hotel... we will see what happens. Phuket is all booked up. Too many decadent rich Europeans comming here. But more on my general observations in part 2.

(Scene from the construction site outside the first bungalow)

2/10/08 Sunday we moved into a new bungalow. We are now paying less than half the rent at the first bungalow, but don't have TV or Airconditioning. We can live without these. The new place is far away from the contruction, so it is better. Still pretty ghetto though. We spend the day on the beach. Kenaz is a little better.

At the beach we created a fortress with car-port, bridge, moat, and lake. Akiva says his cars can jump over the moat if the bridge gets destroyed though.

2/11/08 Monday of this week, we first had brunch, then we went to Phuket Town. For brunch we ate at the hotel worker's cafeteria located in an alleyway.

After brunch, we went to the old China Town in Phuket Town and bought "stuff"... cloths and nick-nacks. We spent the whole day in Phuket Town doing various shopping activities. It was fun.I drove a rental car all the way there. Akiva played in the drivers seat while we parked and turned on the parking lights, which caused the inferior battery to go dead. We then waited for the owner to come and fix the car. Below is a picture of the car. Notice the awsome parrallel parking job. That's right. A left-hand drive parking job.

2/12/08 On Tuesday we got kicked out of the hotel restaurant. Here is what happened. We started the day going to the hotel breakfast buffet. The buffet sucks...just eggs, toast, and coffee. The last time we went there, they just charged for Haga and I. This time, the French restaurant owner...who is an arrogant faggot (and I don't mean he is gay) ... was there. The waiter charged us for three people... 480 bhat, or close to $15. I told him the day before they didn't charge for Akiva, and besides, today Akiva didn't eat anything at all. The waiter asked the manager about this. The manager said that last time was a mistake. I said Akiva didn't eat anything so why should he charge me. He then asked me several times if Akiva really didn't eat anything. Each time Haga and I said Akiva ate and drank nothing (its the truth). Finnally I said, "Well, did you not get a good education? Because you say you speak English yet you ask the same question again and again like you don't understand my answer.". He then gave money back and said don't come back. I said "Fine by me. Your restaurant sucks and you are a dumb ass Fuckhead." This is true by the way...the restaurant was not good...and it's not owned by the hotel too.

In the afternoon we drove out to a Thai national park to ride elephants. We drove around alot and stopped off at a road-side eatery to have a small meal. Akiva and Kenaz played with the cats and watched the chickens walk around the "restaurant".

(Muslim road-side eatery cook)

About the elephant ride, as I was busy making sure that the animal was not aggrevated and that our seats were fastened properly and that the pitch and role of the mount was within international standards, I did not have time to take pictures with my camera-phone, so you will need to wait for those pics. I know I will not look good in those pics because I was preoccupied.

When we returned to the hotel, we kicked the soccer ball and played in the sand. The hotel seems to have lost my laundry with my favorite shorts and all of the kids clean clothes. Don't know what we are going to where tomorrow.

2/13/08 Wednesday. The approaching end of our vacation is nearer. We are all a little sick, but still having fun. Today was a beach and relaxation day. We got our laundry in the morning, so no problems there. It is a great joy to play in the sand and go swimming with the kids. Haga played Sumo wrestling with Akiva. We also made a boat out of empty water bottles and twine. We started teaching Akiva how to buggy board a little. No new pics today with my phone (other than some pics of the food we ate), but we should have some really good pics on the other camera, which we will upload when we get back to Suzhou.

Thats it for now. Will update later.

2008 Thailand Trip, Part 1 [updated 2/13/08]

2008-02-03T23:05:00.004+08:00

(Random outdoor shot of Thailand to show that we made it and it is sunny and pretty here.)

[Note: this was originally "We made it to Phuket". I have decided to edit the post, put pictures in it, and combine all Thailand 2008 trip reports into two posts, each of which will be divided into two sections. The first post is about how we got here, and the first week. The second section of Part 1 is about the food we eat. Part 2, which I will right later, will be about the second week of this vacation, and my general observations about Thailand. The second section of Part 2 will be about the food we eat.]

[Note 2: I am using our cheapo Cannon camera as well as my Nokia 6500s camera phone to take pictures. The cheapo camera has 4.1 Mpix, and the Nokia has 3.2 Mpix with autofocus. Since most of the readers here are not part of the technological elite, I will not bother to explain here why I have done this. However, as I do not have the right cable or card-adapter for the cheapo camera, all pics published today are from the camera-phone. ]

[Note 3: Somehow Akiva does not want his picture taken nowadays. I don't know why. Its crazy. So most of my pictures of him have to be when he is not looking]

2/2/08 Wow...getting to Thailand was hard. Here is what happened.

We left at 9:30 AM to catch a 17:30 PM flight out of Pudong Airport because everyone was saying the highways were clossed. We were going to leave a little earlier but found out that my phone was out of money and the driver was calling us.

12:30 we arrived at Pudong. Normally that trip takes 2 hours. No big deal. But at 12:30, all flights in the morning were cancelled or delayed.

At 15:00 we get on line to check in. We discover that on our flight would be people from two other flights from the previous day: one flight cancelled because weather and another flight cancelled because after taking off one of the engines on the plane failed.

Our flight gets delayed and delayed several times. We take off at 21:00. Fly Thai Airways Business class. Good food. Kenaz poops and it comes out on Haga's clothes. I have airplane fear sweat.

2/3/08 After we arrive in Bangkok, some Thai Air woman tells us to follow other people. We assumed it was for a connecting flight to Phuket...we were told the connecting plane will wait for the plane from Shanghai. We lost sight of the people we were to follow and so went to the gate, which was closed. We ran around the airport till we found the same woman. She said actually they were waiting for us at a bus to take us to a hotel. Gee thanks for telling us. (more observations on this later)

We drive on a bus for an hour to a hotel, arrive at 2:00. Our luggage was checked in through to Phuket, so we did not have a clean set of clothes. They tell us there will be a wakeup call at 5:30. The hotel is nice though.

At 5:30 Haga gets up. There was no wake up call. Turns out that the flights to Phuket are delayed. We go back to sleep. At 8:30 we get on a bus back to the airport. Kenaz throughs up on Haga in the bus.

At 12:00 we get on the plane to Phuket. At 13:00 we get to Phuket. At our hotel, they tell us they don't have our online reservation. We can stay there for two days, then we have to leave. We don't have another place to stay. Oh, and the price per room has gone up from $16 per night to $90 per night. I should have noticed that on the reservation but I only realize that now.

At 15:00, I swim with Akiva and Kenaz. We have fun. But now Akiva has diarrea and pooped next to the pool.

At 20:00 Haga's Mom arrives. Haga and the kids go to sleep. I drink a beer with Mom, then I came here to write this and figure our where we will stay after this.

I guess I should not be upset...and I'm not. Its just that things are not going to plan and I hate that. But on the other hand we are safe. We can relax and be warm. We are not like the poor Chinese migrant workers missing their one chance a year to see family due to this freak snow storm.

2/4/08 On Monday, we spend the day at the beach. As I write this (Thursday) I have difficulty remembering what we did on Monday. We probably ate PadThai noodles and spicy soup at the Muslim restaurant behind the hotel. We did have an argument with the hotel people, but for the time being, they let us stay in the hotel even though it is very over-booked. There is construction going on behind our room too, but that is not a big deal because a)we are used to it in China, and b) we do not stay there in the room anyway. We went to the pool to cool down after being on the beach. I think we ate at the Indian restaurant at night. But I was very tired and did not take pictures of the food...so that will not be in the food section. Oh yeah...we also went to Surin beach, which was nice.

(This is what we look like on the beach. We try to stay out of the sun for the kids. Haga probably will not like this picture...we will replace it later.)

2/5/08 On Tuesday we rent a car. We drove to Kamala beach to check out the seen, then to Patong town, where we first went to the beach, then went shopping all day. BTW, I drove there...Thailand is left-hand drive. But because I'm such a good driver, there was no problem. At Patong, we bought some stuff. And we ate at a night-market (again, I was too tired and hungry to take pictures of the food). Haga and Mom bought fake clogs. We looked around and had fun.

2/6/08 On Wednesday we went on a speed boat to PhiPhi Island, where there are evil communist hippies (if you saw the movie "The Beach"). Akiva threw up on the bus ride to the harbor, and then on the boat. But he is tough big boy and can still have fun with an upset stomach.

Haga and Mom took anti-motion sickness meds which a little bit zonked them out. But otherwise we had a great time. The scenery is beautiful.

We went snorkelling. Haga's Mom went snorkalling for the first time. At first she panicked but I helped her out. We went to Phi Phi, PhiPhi Don, and somewhere else. Everywhere we went Akiva and Kenaz were the star attractions for everyone.

Everyone thinks its so cute when Akiva disobeys me and asks "why?" to everything I say.

2/7/08 On Thursday, (today) besides doing the beach thing, Mom and I went snorkelling. She did much better this time.

Also we went to the night market. We had Muslim beef noodle soup, fried fish cakes, and other stuff. (pictures on my other camera)

2/8/08 On Friday, we went to the beach while Mom got a massage. Then she went home to Japan. She had a great time.

2/9/08 Saturday was primarilly a beach day. We kicked the soccer ball around, built sand fortresses, and went swimming.

Kenaz 16 months old

2008-01-29T22:24:00.000+08:00

Biggest change of Kenaz is he started sleeping through all night long. During New Year’s holiday we stop giving him a bottle after his sleep. He used to wake up every three hours and asked for a bottle. Akiva sleeps next to him. I didn’t want to wake up him so I started giving him a bottle whenever he wants. It became his and my habit and it was really hard to change. For 2 days he cried. I had to tell him no more bottle. He cried and shook his head and asked for a bottle. On the third day he understood there is no bottle. A week after he stopped waking up in the middle of night. He sleeps from 9 pm till 7 am. He is a big boy and good boy now.
Kenaz can saying “bottle”, “qiche” (means a car in Chinese), “bao bao” (means ‘pick me up’ in Chinese), and “bao bao” (when he looks for me).
He loves jumping on a trampoline. He loves to eat broccolis like Akiva used to like when he was a baby. He wants to do everything Akiva does.

Sunday still snowing... (updated on Monday)

2008-01-27T12:38:00.000+08:00

I thought snow would stop over the Saturday night. Yet it is still snowing on Sunday. It is very wet snowflakes stick together and melt instantly when it touches on the ground. We ate a left over birthday cake after breakfast and went out to play snow. Our Korean school mates’ dads were making a big snow man. We tried to make one too. Making a snow man was more difficult than what it looked. The first you have to squat on the slippery ground to roll around a snow ball. The snow ball gets really heavy. We could only make a small snow man. Oh, mighty Korean dads!
Kenaz didn’t want to play yesterday. Today he was more comfortable. He got on the snowy ground and had a good time with us.
It was really unexpected mass snow. Our fridge is empty. We have been ordering in Northern Chinese dumplings and Chinese sour cabbage soups.

[Updated on Monday]

[Jesse] This was part of my path to work. I rode my bike first to the telecom office to pay the phone bill for my company. The roads were part ice, part snow, part slush. I fell several times.

But at least when I took a short-cut through the park, it was very pretty. I wish I could have the time to get over to one of the historical gardens and take pictures there. But all the taxis and many busses have stopped running... so I don't think I will make it accross town to the gardens.

and a lot more snow after the party

2008-01-26T18:03:00.000+08:00

Akiva became 3 years old

2008-01-26T14:52:00.000+08:00

On his birthday I took his favorite chocolate cake to his kindergarten.

He likes to play with blocks and cars at home and kindergarten.He played puzzles with his classmate.Next day on Saturday, we had his birthday party at kids playground in KTV (karaoke). 6 of his classmates, 3 of his neighborhood friends and their brothers and sisters joined to the party and celebrated his 3 years old.