Made a Decision

The Tebo family finally made a decision... we'll be staying in China for one more school year (2010-2011), which will make six years total. Crazy. Many people ask if we'll be moving back to the States but that is not in the cards for us right now... it's one of the few life decisions that Travis and I totally agree on. We love America but we've got "the bug," the travel bug that is and international schools are an AMAZING place professionally for us to be in, not to mention for Gabby. People always ask us when we're moving back to the States but there are many reasons to stay overseas... the opportunity for our family to travel the world, understand cultures, learn a new language, and for our kids (yes, plural but don't read into that too much) to have access to a top notch private school education- for free! I like the idea of us being global citizens... is that cheesy to say? We meet really interesting people and have developed close relationships with others who have become our surrogate family. Gabby probably won't have the opportunity to develop into a sports star (that is such a huge American value), but there are plenty of athletic teams here for young kids to participate in, albeit not as competitive but that's fine with me. We also have no house and no plans on building our house, in say... forever, so that makes it easy to stay overseas. We have no where else to live! Of course, that's another long story. Basically, I hate money and I hate the housing market if you want to sell... Stupid land...woulda-coulda-shoulda...

There's always a chance that we go back for a couple of years and then go back out overseas... I like the idea of laying down roots so that Gabby knows she's American. Third Culture kids have a hard time with the question, "Where are you from?" I want her to know that she's American and from Washington State and take her to football games (go Cougs!). However, with the job market nowadays??? Is that smart? Living near our family pulls on our heart strings and there's no denying that it's difficult being so far away... I'm okay with leaving that door open and not having a specific plan. In this day and age, you need to be flexible. Plans don't always go your way and you need to adjust. Anyway, that's where our heads are at. We're staying in China for another year and will continue to stay overseas for awhile... maybe forever, maybe not, we will see...

As for winter break plans... we are coming home! Bremerton, Washington that is... I can smell Spiro's pizza right now... I know I told people we were going to travel around Italy but I love being with family and friends at Christmas time and miss them tons! Are you happy, Beth? Do I hear a woot-woot?!?!

Gabby's New Hairdo

Gymnees

We had two staff development days this week, and since our school is really into wellness (which I like too) we started off the day with a one hour wellness activity (yoga, softball, healthy cooking class, etc). One of the P.E. teachers created a gymnastics area for kids that our Gabby's age and their parents. She LOVED it! One of the ladies in the publication's department took some pictures and here are some of Gabby. When she's old enough, we will definitely put her in gymnastics... this kid loves to move. Something funny... her and Jack were playing on the parrallel bars and were laughing... they put their faces together and Gabby kissed him. It was really cute. Yesterday she took my face in her hands and said, "I love you," in a dreamy voice then kissed me on the lips for about 10 seconds. It was awesome! Maybe she is watching too much TV? Where did she learn that?

Spa Day

Travis and I had an awesome and much deserved spa day... two hour massage (head, neck shoulders, and a foot massage) and we also got manis and pedis. I love China on these days! I came home and Gabby saw my toe nails painted purple and she said, "Oh wow! pretty nails!" She really likes girly stuff like that. In a year or so we'll be able to do that together which will be fun. :)

Beijing Blue Zoo

Making use of the fine weather, we went to the Beijing Blue Zoo today which is an aquarium in the San Litun area of Beijing. This is my favorite area... fun, good restaurants, and kind of an expat place (so lots of western stores, etc. are around). We went with our new Aussie friends that have a daughter Gabby's age and another set of friends who are from Puyallup. They have a five year old daughter who gets along great with Gabby and is kind of a big sister type.  After a yummy lunch at the Kro's Nest (pizza), we headed on over... it was okay. As usual, a tad ghetto. They had a conveyor belt thing so you could stand and watch the fish while it moved. A scuba diver was swimming along with the fish and it FREAKED Gabby out. I mean FREAKED her out. The rest of the day she was asking if the "scuba diver went bye-bye." She really doesn't like people dressed up in things (i.e. Santa Claus and Mickey Mouse). While we were waiting to watch a movie, the girls were giggling and tickeling each other (it was all really cute) and someone took a picture of them... well that got insane as people were trying to pick up the girls to take more pictures. Needlesss to say, we left right away. I realize that blonde-haired kids are a novelty here but it gets weird when people start touching them. That night we had dinner at our house, the girls played, and the adults played some card games. Good times.

Beijing Zoo

The Tebo family took an unexpected trip to the Beijing Zoo today. The weather has been glorious. I mean, seriously amazing, so we decided to drive around and explore after our daily trip to Starbucks and 30 cent Beijing burrito stop. I've been bugging Travis to take us to the zoo, so I guess my female persuasion skills are still working. Hee-hee. I really just wanted to take Gabby to see the pandas, since she's such an animal lover. As with most Chinese tourist attractions, it was a little bit ghetto (i.e. not very clean, modern, and an abundance of gold trim). Gabby peed on the squatty-potty, which I thought was quite impressive. Anyway, the pandas were all mainly sleeping except for one that was eating. Gabby was amazed and loved it. We saw monkeys, giraffes, lions, the usual. The unfortaunate part was the bear exhibit. The bears looked skinny and depressed and the living area was small. The worst part were the people feeding the bears deliberately, even though the signs say "do not feed." It's one of those annoying things about this country... People don't respect rules (and animals).

Happy Birthday China!

It's the 60th anniversary of communism today. Yay! We celebrated it by watching the parade on TV, laughing about how lame it was, and ordering Indian food. Our friends were picked to be in the parade so we were looking for them. When the announcer said, "Here is the foriegn expert float," the camera turned and shot all the major officials sitting and watching the parade, so we didn't see them at all. Are you kidding me? 

I'm still sick, so moving slowly... it's a gorgoeus day, though. Blue skies!