H1N1

Kimberley returned to kinder after 2 weeks segragation due to a classmate contracting 'foot and mouth'.

Parents are still not allowed into the kinder. The front gate acts as the natural barrier. The gate and the fence have a fresh layer of paint so at least they look cleaner.

Attached a WHO chart comparing fatality rate of various contagious deseases. While H1N1 is 5 times more potent than seasonal flus, SARS is 19 times more deadly than H1N1, and Bird Flu is 120 times above.

Hot Water Supply

Utility supplies in Beijing, at least in our apartment have been good (consistent). There was never a power trip or any supply interuption, until yesterday.

As Kristine went to take a shower yesterday evening, she screamed out there was no hot water supply. She then tried to wash her hair with cold water in the basin which I told her not to and then I rushed down to the management office to recharge our hot water supply card.

Gas, electricity, hot water, and recycled water for toilets are prepaid onto smart cards, to be loaded into utility meters at home. When the prepayment runs out, the meters stop the flow. Twice we ran out of recycled water, and once we ran out of electricity. Hot and Recycled Water credits are purchased from our local property mgt office, cold water is billed monthly by local water board, electricty can be purchased from our local milkbar or banks, but gas can only be purchased from Bank of Beijing. Sounds fun? It is!

Upon reaching the property management office, the guy at front desk asked if it was hot water I came for. I replied yes but how do you know? He said the entire complex is affected due to major hot water piping repair, not because our meter has ran out of credit. It would last three days.

So until tomorrow, our usual hot showers come from boiling water in soup pots on stove and then mix with cold in big bucket. Though a bit inconvenient, I think we use less water this way.....

Kristine's View of MuTianYu Great Wall

When Adele visited beijing last week and went to the Great wall, kristine and Kimberley skipped schools to tag along.

Attached a photo of the Great Wall sandwiched by autumn foliage taken by Kristine.

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Kristine's 1st Earning

Kristine earned RMb100 today for a 6-min recording of English reading to form a part of English teaching material for local students.

She was selected by her English teacher as 1 of 4 students from her school for the task. The recording was done at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

After lunch near the Uni, the kids got a treat to the Beijing Planetarium. The show we chose was a documentary on how the Sun will eventually 'die'. I fell asleep in my reclining seat.

Kristine School

On way to her school bus pick up point this morning, I asked Kristine what she got to do for those 30 minutes between her arrival at school and class begins. She said the students all have to stay inside their classes in their seats. They can leave their classrooms only to toilets, or to the drinking water fountain.

They dont get to play in the compaound. The teachers do not want them to run around. It sounds so regimented compared to her Melbourne school, where school is FUN!!!! I asked her if she liked her Beijing school. To my surprise, she said yes. I asked her why. She said she gets to learn different things.

Thats the spirit!

Back to School

The National Day break of 8 days ended on October 9, but not for Kimberley.
Kristine did a mandatory 7 count of home quarantine after returning from MDJ. She stayed home until October 12. Kimberley should have started her kinder on the same day. Her kinder teacher called on October 9 saying two of Kimberley's classmates have contracted 'Mouth and Foot' desease and her class has been closed for 2 weeks.

Her days with me at home vacillates from LeapPad to computer games (www.51mole.com is her fav now) to drawing to Cartoon Network. Early on she would go with me to pick Kristine from her school bus stop and proceeeded to piano practice. The latter part of the week she decided to just stay at home by herself. Her first!

Siberian Tigers

Greetings from North East China.

On day of arrival in Mudanjiang, Kristine scared us with a 37.4degC temp. She is now back to her bubbly self so we took her, Kimmie and their cousin to visit a Siberian Tiger sanctuary in Heng Dao He Zi (横道河子)，about 44km from Mudanjiang toward Haerbin direction.

The Sanctuary is the largest of its kind with about 100 Siberian Tigers for public viewing, and another 300 behind the scene.
Basic daily sustenance for each tiger costs Y200, consisting of 8.5kg of beef and a duck, plus whatever they get from tourists feeding them through fences (duck fillets for Y10), or in open safari (live ducks for Y40, or live cows for Y1500). Kristine, Kimmie and their cousin each fed a tiger a piece of duck fillet held on a bamboo stick. We saw a pack of tigers chasing after two ducks in the safari. Rather cruel, but how else to maintain their hunting instinct in captivity. The option of releasing them into the 'wild' will just hasten their extinction, just like the more affadable pandas.

Autumn foliage along the way is beautiful, rivalling the New England states in the US.

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Train Station Mad Rush

On the day of departure by train to MDJ to visit the grandparents, both Kristine and Kimberley insisted on attending schools for just 2 hours. Tight schedule to meet for train departing at 1138am.

The scheduled timeline for the morning was

0950am Pick Kimberley from kinder
(1000am actual)
1000am taxi to Kristine school
(1025am actual (no taxi outside main gate)
1025am arrive Kristine school,
(1048am actual)
1030am head for train station
(1055am actual)

Taxi driver did an Indy500 race from Kristine school to train station, dropping us just outside train station to save us some long walk from the normal dropoff point across a busy road linked by a long pedestrian overpass.

25mins to train departure time. 100m walk to the main entrance. We should be able to make it. Not wanting to miss the train after all the trouble HT went through to get us those precious tickets.

10 steps off the taxi, stopped by armed police by roadside, wanting to check ID. Off came my backpack onto ground, unzip back pocket, took out folder, unzip folder to retrive 4 passports. Passport photos, other ID fell off folder.

Armed police saw the passport covers, and waved us on.

5 more quickened steps and another armed police stopped me, wanting to check my backpack.

Found my fruit knife on side pocket. Armed police was beaming with delight. He had picked the right target for further search. He tried explain why that knife couldnt be brought onto train. I cut him short and replied 'keep it!' and we rushed off.

A rush to the main entrance. What else to expect other than a long queue in front of security xrays. Luckily the line moved well, and we were lucky not to have our bags searched again.

Reached waiting hall inside at 1118am. Gambled I could afford 5 minutes to get two McDonalds Happy Meals. No hassle there. I returned with the treasured lunch at 1123am. Just 15 minutes to spare. Hopefully our train car is not far off the ticket checkpoint. Still no call for boarding.

Then we saw the MDJ train sign saying departure at 1238am. Grace thought was train was delayed. That would be a first. Service attitude on train is bad compared to airplanes, but train service is not known for delays.

Looked at the tickets again.

Deprature time printed 1238am........................

Kristine and Kimberley had time for their HAPPY MEALS!!!!!!