Button Mania

Last week I was invited by a friend to come see a private exhibit of "button art." I have to admit that I wasn't immediately overexcited about the idea of spending an afternoon observing buttons...but I was pleasantly surprised.

Upon arrival in the exhibit hall -- a large room on the second floor of an elegant hotel -- I saw rows upon rows of framed buttons. 

The artist, "Sabrina," from Shanghai, had started out years earlier working on qipao's, the traditional Chinese dresses, but over time had gotten more involved with the design of the buttons on the qipao. These are tiny little buttons, consisting of a little dot and a tiny hole--all made out of fabric. 

The buttons then took on a life of their own, and over the last fifteen years she has been creating an incredible amount of beautifully designed buttons. The buttons are all made of silk and are little depictions of Chinese or western objects, animals, flowers, plants, or even buildings. I know they are still buttons, but the colors, patterns, and art work were really quite amazing.

I don't think the pictures below really do them justice. :-)


The artist (on the left) and three happy visitors.

The exhibit area: Button mania!

Flower button

 
More flower buttons.

 
It all started with qipao's. (I wonder what the embroidered silk phoenix is thinking about.)

Shanghai's famous zigzag bridge in Yu Garden, now all in silk.

 
The same bridge.

Cute birdie button.


Bamboo buttons

I don't think you can buy this outfit at Walmart.

 

Don't try this at home. Quite a few hours went into the design and embroidery of this dress.

Building button.

  

More building buttons and mask button. (The dude on the right kind of looks like a "button della verita.")

Outfit button.

 
Warrior and vase buttons.

 
More vase buttons.

 
Cute animal buttons. (I took a picture of the Tigers because--born in 1974--my Chinese sign is Tiger.)

Black and white animal button.

More outfits.

 
  

Last but not least, the sign for "fu" or happiness. You can see the character written by a famous (though to me unknown) artist, with the embroidered version of it below.

In het Nederlands: Ik was laatst uitgenodigd om een kijkje te nemen bij een prive tentoonstelling van...knopen! Het begon allemaal met de vrij eenvoudige knoopjes die op een Chinese qipao jurk zitten. De artieste maakte honderden varianten op dat eeuwenoude concept.

Brave New (Digital) World

As the homework goes digital, Thomas himself
(the third kid in line) turns into paper at the Elementary
School Open House

I still remember the first time I got an email account. It must have been 1995 or 1996 and I was the proud "owner" of a brand new Pegasus email account at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), where I was doing an Internship.

Not my children. Thomas is barely seven and Simon is almost ten, and at school they already have their own email accounts. And not only that: they also have their tiny little hands on the latest MacBook Pro. ("Mom, your computer [a 4-year old Sony Vaio] is sooo slow!") Simon of course already had some digital delights for a few years, but Thomas has now also joined the masses.

The boys' homework now also arrives through the digital world. No more excuses about dogs eating homework - the only possible excuse can be that Internet was down (which happened Monday night) or that the electricity was out (so far so good).

So--dear friends and family--if you want to follow along with the boys' academic activities this year, try this:

• Simon's class Website, with homework and a schedule of events each day. (You can quickly spot Simon in the top banner with his Heerenveen T-shirt.)
• The Grade 5 Website, with information for all the classes in Grade 5 (such as their upcoming 5th Grade Camp.)
• Simon's personal blog, a not-to-be-missed blog with regular updates, videos, and answers to homework assignments.

And, continuing to 2nd Grade:

• Thomas' class Website.
• Grade 2 Website.
• Thomas' personal blog (not that populated yet :-) ) 

Thomas also really enjoys checking the Website of his performing arts class, to listen to his teacher sing the songs they are learning in school.

Finally, even Dutch information is online.

• Grade 5 Dutch
• Grade 2 Dutch
• De Rode Leeuw, school information from the Dutch school, so eloquently named "the Red Lion."

It's a Brave New (Digital) World. If only Aldous Huxley could have blogged about it.

At the Elementary School Open House (where we, the parents, take copious notes on the ever growing number of blogs, "digital desks," and online resources our kids have access to.

At the Open House, an old-fashioned hand-written note by Thomas was waiting for us on his desk. I suppose the computer was not working that day.

In het Nederlands: Op de school van Simon en Thomas nu bijna alles digitaal: huiswerk, rekenen en soms zelfs ook digitale leesboekjes. Je kan op de blog van Simon kijken wat hij elke week (digitaal) uitspookt.

Picture Perfect

A friend sent me the following article:

If it's too smoggy for your tourist photos, Hong Kong has a fake blue-sky backdrop

Tourists didn't pay good money to go to Hong Kong and have their vacation Instagrams ruined by light-impervious smog. That's why the city has set up a backdrop showing a skyline against a clear, blue, entirely fake sky. (Read the full article here.)

Here is how that works:

   
Or like this:




Living in Beijing, I think this is pretty brilliant! How many lovely photos have been perfectly ruined by that nasty old smog. So, determined to at least improve our photo archive, I went outside and took the following picture:



Doesn't that look amazing? This year, this is going to be the backdrop for all our pictures. Birthdays, Sinterklaas, Halloween -- you might get familiar with this sight.

It actually hasn't been so hard to take some good blue-sky images of Beijing the last few weeks. The winds have been blowing and the pollution index has been nicely low:



Here are some other good-weather pictures.


At the bus stop around the corner from our house. The WAB bus already pulled up to pick up Simon and Thomas.

 
Lounging in the backyard...

 
At the school, where a traditional lion dance opened up the new school year. (There are two guys sweating away inside that lion costume!)

 
After the lion dance, the kids work in teams to accomplish some wet and wild assignments. The purple building in the back is part of the WAB Elementary School where Simon and Thomas go to 2nd and 5th Grade.

 

It was mighty hot that day!

In het Nederlands: Het is de laatste weken PRACHTIG weer. Heerlijk warm, maar met een briesje en een prachtige blauwe lucht. We genieten erg, ook omdat we weten dat het dadelijk -- zo rond eind oktober -- allemaal abrupt weer afgelopen is. Het wordt dan snel koud en de lucht ook vaak vervuild vanwege alle kleine kacheltjes en later ook de centrale verwarmingen die weer aan gaan.

Summer in the City II: Tuanjiehu Park

If you are not afraid of germs, one of the best things to do is visit a public pool in the middle of a public park, in the middle of the capital city of a country with 1,344,130,000 inhabitants. So we did. On one of those hot and steamy summer days, the boys and I went down to the water park in Tuanjiehu Park, along the third ring road of Beijing.

Well, even apart from the Russian roulette with a population of germs, this was an adventure. The boys played for hours and checked out all the ins and outs of the wave pool, the many slides, and water buckets.

 
Just like the real thing, right? We can pretty much see the office buildings where Paul is hard at work.

 
"You think you're alone now..."

  
Oops, the beach abruptly ends at the sidewalk.

 
Life guard on duty (?).

 
This picture (on the right) actually looks a bit like the opening scene of Gangnam Style ;-)  If only you could zoom out now...

  
On the way out, I watch these lovely ladies and men stretch their backs. Sometimes this country just seems made for senior citizens!

In het Nederlands: Een paar weken terug gingen we zwemmen in Tuanjiehu park. Misschien niet het schoonste zwembad ter wereld, maar wel een erg leuk park. 

Summer in the City I

Since coming back from the Netherlands in July, we've been nicely settling into the rhythm of things again. The last three weeks of their summer vacation, the boys went to a few soccer camps, jumped in the pool a lot, and (perhaps under some pressure from the parents) caught up with the sights in Beijing.


 
Thomas happy to be back on his own bike. (The tie is fake...). Simon participates in a Club Football Summer Clinic.

 
Blue skies above Beijing! While the kids play soccer I go for a run in the Beijing Olympic Forest Park. (Rio, here I come!)

 
These ladies make sure not to catch any rays of sun. I go from a country of umbrellas (the Netherlands) to a country of parasols. Thomas also gets his Club Football certificate. Football (soccer) was great, but according to Thomas he was "boiling hot."

 
We visit the Confucius Temple in the blistering sun. The only way to cool down is with a gigantic fruit smoothie. Turns out though that Confucius not only greatly influenced thinking and society in China, but also came up with the great, "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself" ("Wat gij niet wilt dat U geschied, doe dat ook een ander niet") golden rule. Not bad for a guy from the 6th century BC.

 
A super cool bike and one happy child.

Dangerous animals in Beijing.

In het Nederlands: We zijn weer "thuis" en het alledaagse leventje begint. De jongens zijn alweer op school en--met deze blog post--blikken we nog even terug op de laatste weekjes van de zomervakantie. De foto's uit Nederland zitten nog op de memory card! :-)

Not Four But Seven Seasons

I may have already alluded to the fact that Beijing doesn't have four regular seasons. Spring barely seems to happen at all here. From a deep cold winter, we plunge straight into a hot summer. One day you are wearing heavy Ugg boots to keep your feet warm; two weeks later you are in flip flops.

What’s more, a year in the international expat community where we live is not really a year. It’s just ten months at most, basically as long as school is in session. Simon and Thomas’ school is closing next week so people are already packing their suitcases to go “back home” or on a long vacation (and then “go home.”) And some of the families won’t even come back at the end of the summer. They might be moving on to a new country, continent, and school.

I love my life in Beijing, but this summer-going-home-saying-goodbye ritual is both fun (lots of parties) but also quite disturbing (does anyone actually live in this place?). Here’s my perspective on the (somewhat overlapping) seven seasons in a year in this odd but lovely place I now call home…

Leaver’s Season—Time to say Goodbye

Mid-May to mid-June
To start out, right now we are in the middle of "leaver's season." As the summer rains are starting to pick up, everyone is preparing to leave Beijing—either just for the summer or forever. From the end of May to early June you may typically spend your Friday and Saturday evenings at “goodbye parties,” sometimes even two on one night. And if you are not busy being at a party, you are probably out shopping for a gift for a dear friend who is leaving, or you might be preparing for the end-of-year parties for your kid's class room. (Presuming of course you don’t actually have a real job!) It’s a time of memories, parties, and sad goodbyes to the friends that are leaving forever.

 

Simon's end-of-year party for his fourth grade class (left). 

Thomas enjoys his end-of-year celebration (right).

Early Summer Calm
Mid-June to early or mid-July
In early summer, you forget Beijing is pretty much a desert. Instead of walking around with cracked skin, you now actively worry about the mold taking over your house. If you didn't leave the very second the school doors closed, this is your time to relax and profess that Beijing really is your home (“See! I didn’t catch the first plane out!”). It’s rainy, but the community pool is open and summer camps are in session.

Deep Summer "Desperation"
Mid-July to early August
From mid-July to early August, it seems only the poor souls who have no other choice remain in the neighborhood. Either they have to work (someone has to pay the bills) or it is winter in their country of origin (think Australia, Argentina). If you choose to stay, you dwell in a community of mostly men. But some families stay put and the few kids and women will often head to the pool to make the most of this time of year.

  
Simon receives a medal for participating in school sports activities. Just one of many celebrations at the end of the academic year. On the right is a piece of fourth grade art by the master himself.

New Arrivals
August
From the beginning of August onward, families are starting to return to Beijing and new families are arriving in time for the new school year. Imagine that a third of your neighborhood is new. New people are everywhere and soon you can’t remember if you already asked them where they are from. Or how many children they have. How long they plan to stay. And where there husband works. It’s a happy social time and great opportunities for new friends await. You still miss your dear friends who left before the summer (in fact, you miss them for the first time now, since in the summer they would have been gone anyway), but a new year has begun and it’s time to reach out...



Simon shows off his art work titled, "Femur" (as in "femur bone"). 

First Half Year
Mid-August through mid-December
Finally, in mid-August the first real half-year of school and life in (expat) Beijing takes off. School is in session and life is returning to normal. This “half year” is really only four months. And if that's too long, you just take a little break around the October 1 National Holiday. It’s a time though of hope and promises. There are new friends, new teachers, and new activities. Sports clubs are in session and the weekends are packed with swimming, soccer, and social happenings.


Balloons at Thomas' end-of-year class party.

Winter Vacation Season
Mid-December to mid-February
As you are just getting the hang of it all (school schedules, activities, work), everything comes to a grinding halt around mid-December. This mid-year vacation season begins with a three-week winter or Christmas holiday, followed by a few weeks of school, then completed with another week of vacation for Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is not always on the same date every year, but typically falls somewhere between mid-January and mid-February. If you think you just got started after Christmas, Chinese New Year will remind you of the fact that you are really in China, as pretty much everyone in the country will travel home for ten days or more.  

Second Half Year--“Are You Still Going To Be Here Next Year?”

Mid-February to mid-June
Mid-February is a good time to pick up the pace again. But all of the sudden you realize it’s just another four months till the end of the school year. Cruise control time is over and you need to start thinking about next year. The most often asked question at this time of year also is: “Are you guys still here next year?”

And that question actually takes you right back into "Leaver's Season"... A year has whisked by. People will be leaving and new friends are bound to arrive. If you are coming to Beijing you can leave your Spring clothes behind. But if you move into an expat community, just be prepared for these other kinds of seasons.




More fourth grade bone art.