Fan Dance

One of the first things we learned about Snow was that she was a dancer.  In fact, she has been dancing since she was 3 years old.  She is very flexible due to many hours of practice and stretching exercises over the past 14 years.  When she was back in China over the summer she danced for several hours every day, which is when she lost all her 'American' weight.  She has been deliberating over whether to join the school dance team and was concerned it was not serious enough for her. After talking to her about it she decided to join the team and hopefully she can change some attitudes with her dedication to the sport.

Tonight I was invited to see Snow perform a traditional Chinese dance at the benefactors' reception at school.  Just like the many times before when our own children performed in the music concert and school play, I was looking forward to it all day.  She choreographed the dance and taught the rest of the team the moves.  I was hoping to include the whole video of the dance but I wasn't able to include it here, however I was able to include a couple of stills that show her costume and flexibility.  Seeing Snow perform tonight made me very proud.....

Moon Festival

Today is the Moon festival in China.  Every year on the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, when the moon is at its maximum brightness for the entire year, the Chinese celebrate "zhong qiu jie".  Chinese people celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival with dances, feasting and moon gazing, not to mention mooncakes.  While no-one in the family wanted to partake in dancing, we were all intriged and willing tasters of the mooncakes Snow brought with her from home.

These little cakes have Chinese writing on the top depicting their contents of a combination of sweet and savory, sometimes together.  There were egg yolks in one, 5 kinds of nuts in another and the last was filled with ham and a sweet paste.  I would say the outside is more of a sweet pie crust, but inside it was more like cake.  We enjoyed the nut variety the best.  Thanks for sharing this tradition Snow.  In return we'll introduce her to fruit cake at Christmas, but NOT the kind that contains neon fruit and gets passed around since no-one likes it.  I make a stellar variety steeped in Irish Whisky courtesy of Delia Smith.

Family time

Snow's Mom, Jane, returns to China next week, so we thought it would be nice to bring her to the house to see where we live.  When we first moved out to America we brought my Mom over to help settle us in, so we knew how much it would mean to her.  We enjoyed getting to know each other better over dinner and finding some common ground.  We share the love of tea, so Jane kindly left us some Chinese loose leaf tea - black and green mainly - which is so much better than the bagged variety.

   Snow and her Mom

On Sunday we had our first family outing to King Richards' Faire.  It was a renaissance fair offering various medieval themed shows such as jousting, juggling, fire-eating and freak sideshows.  It's not for everyone and after being there for 20 minutes we realised it wasn't for us either.  If we hadn't invested an hour and a half to get there and a decent entry fee we would have left right after we saw the guy who knocked a four inch nail up his nose and put hooks into his eyes.  It wasn't just the shows that were weird, the people were too, and by that I mean it was hard to distinguish the workers from the guests.  Seriously, there were people of all ages dressed up like Robin Hood and Maid Marian complete with Dr Spock ears and fox tails....I'm not sure what that is about.  On the journey home Molly made me promise never to take her again.  It won't be hard to keep that promise.

   Snow and Molly

Call me Mom

Snow has been with us for a week now but it really does feel like much longer since we have learned so much about her over that time; she has been dancing since she was 3, is left-handed (like me!), dislikes carrots but loves fruit and (so far) my cooking.

Anyone who knows me will agree I am somewhat of a foodie and I love to cook and bake.  I was nervous Snow wouldn't like my food or wouldn't try anything new, but so far she has eaten anything and everything I have given her and even takes leftovers to school.  I like to cook with fresh, healthy ingredients and I know she appreciates it.  Today she said when she is in America she 'gets fat' (for the record she is all of 100lbs) but loses the weight when she goes back to China.  She also said she gets hungry between meals in America but doesn't in China.  I am a strong believer that the processed food here IS addictive due to the sugar content and artificial ingredients; this is a testament to that belief.

I often think about her first two years in America and was curious why she left the previous host family.  She said it was her decision to leave since she wanted a 'whole family' and a bright, sunny bedroom as she had previously had a room in the basement with no windows.  Hmmm, "whole family?" I asked, unsure if we fit the bill.  "Yes" she said, one with both a Mom and Dad.  I guess she just wanted a family unit she was familiar with.  Over the past week she has opened up more as she has got to know us better.  The other day she asked what she should call me.  "Anything but Mrs Teece" I replied.  "Can I call you Mom?" she asked.  I was taken aback but absolutely thrilled she felt comfortable with that.  I am 'Mom' after all, or as Erin calls me, 'super Mom'.

From that moment I knew she would be a great addition to our familly.  She is an absolute delight to have around and I have noticed that Molly and Erin have adapted better than I thought.  Not only are they accepting and accommodating with Snow, but they seem to be more considerate of each other, argue less and keep the bathroom tidier....now if only they kept their rooms tidier!

Sushi and Kielbasa anyone?

Our family loves sushi and Snow had said she likes it too, so last night we went to one of our favorite restaurants - The Fusion House in Methuen.  She was a bit overwhelmed by the menu so we chose a nice selection of food to share; edammame, shrimp shumai, shrimp Tum Yum soup, various sushi and sesame chicken.

The photo isn't the best but I really need to remember to take more photos since I am a blogger newbie :). I stole this one from Molly.

I love eating out at the weekend, not only because someone else does the cooking and cleaning up, but it allows us to have conversations with little distractions.  We are a typical family who are busy with activities during the week and it's hard to get everyone to eat together.  Last night we learned that Snow has a head for numbers and is thinking of majoring in Statistics, just like I did.  And with Paul having an accounting degree she certainly fits  in very nicely.  It turns our her dad also works for a Dutch company.

When the furtune cookies arrived at the end of the meal we all tried to pronounce the Chinese word on the back of the motto and Paul took the opportunity to show off some Chinese he had learned from listening to a language CD in his car.  I'm not sure how impressed Snow was but I certainly was!  Erin then announced that she had learned the word 'Kielbasa' from our recent trip to Mexico.  With puzzled faces we finally figured out she meant 'que pasa' meaning 'what's up' rather than a Polish sausage.....even Snow laughed.  Maybe Erin didn't inherit Paul's aptitude for language after all.

Back to school!

Snow arrived safe and sound, albeit somewhat jet lagged from her trip.  Her Mom stayed in Boston over the summer at their house in Chestnut Hills, so I had the honor to meet her.  She spoke little English but enough to say "take care of my daughter", or something along those lines, and with those parting words we were gone.  I can't imagine how that feels to hand your daughter over a complete stranger after having met them for only a few minutes, but the EduBoston system is thorough and we are quite normal really....whatever that means.

Today all three girls are back to school.  Snow is a senior, which is her third year in high school, so she looked confident as she tootled off, unlike Molly who looked terrified on her first day yesterday.  Molly is off to a retreat at Camp Marist in The White Mountain region today to bond with her fellow freshmen.  Whoever though of that idea was a genius.

The girls are now ready for whatever the day brings.....

Snow in September?

It is the eve of Snow's arrival.  It seems surreal that we have been preparing for her for the past 5 months and tomorrow we will finally meet her.

Back in April the high school Molly will soon attend reached out to families with an opportunity to host a student from China for the whole school year.  I thought it would be a unique experience for the whole family to learn from someone from a very different culture.  When I discussed it with the family I wasn't sure what their reaction would be, but to my surprise everyone was as positive as I was.  Not a "I'm not sharing my bathroom" or "I don't think so" but instead "we can do fun stuff together".  I was blown away!

We finally discovered we would be hosting a 16 year-old girl named Snow, who is known not only for her unique name but for her likable personality and accomplishments.  She was invited to represent Eduboston (the company who arrange the placement of students) at the United Nations on the topic of enpowering women and making sure all girls are given the opportunity to attend school.

So, her room is all ready, complete with a new desk, fresh paint and a closet door that actually works.  I hope she likes it....