Kristin’s homeschool radio interview.
Interview:
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Radio tag:
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Kai and Malia playing outside
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Recently our house helper took all three kids down in front of our building to “play†badminton. I (along with everyone else in the building) heard Kai calling to me for something he had forgotten and wanted me to throw down to him. I can’t believe how my little baby boy has all of a sudden grown up.
Fireworks
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This has not been a holiday week that we know but we’ve heard fireworks every day. The 60th anniversary of this government is October 1st. Maybe that’s it and celebrations have already begun. We’re expecting firework chaos over that holiday, much like Chinese New Year. We’ll see. Chinese claim the fame for inventing gun powder and love the noise and excitement even wee hours of the morning.
Haucking
This is gross, I know. If you’ve been to China you know flem is a part of daily life. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get a sound clip because haucking has little warning and is short lived.
Rain
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Thankfully, August’s weather has been comfortable. Tonight we’re enjoying some rain. It clears the air, the smog, and we’ll most likely see blue skies tomorrow. Blue skies are rare. Rain sounds pretty much the same anywhere, but this is Chinese rain; exotic and mysterious. 
Loud speaker broadcasts from nearby school complex
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School started a couple weeks ago. Xi’an is a university city containing over 100 universities. We live beside one of these many schools (don’t know the name, I’m embarrassed to admit). Every morning and afternoon if we understood enough Mandarin we’d be able to join in song and chants and hear the day’s news. This particular marching song played over and over and over for about 5-6 hours straight.
Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You?
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This needs no explanation. Yay for Dr. Seuss!!
Praying for grandparents
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Nor does this one need explanation. It’s just cute.
Malia helping in the kitchen
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Malia seems to really love the kitchen and I don’t mind at all having her “help”.
Malia saying “funny”
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I was trying to get her to say “ay-ya”. A very Chinese expression meaning “ay ay ay” (for you Spanish speakers). She said it out of the blue right before I turned on the recorder and then wouldn’t say it again. Little stinker!
Dog fight 1 and Dog fight 2
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They’re both hilarious to watch. I wouldn’t want to be in the middle of it, though. Some of these little dogs are spoiled rotten, carried around, treated like children, etc. But what do you do if your dog picks a fight with another person’s dog and your guan xi (relationship) with the human is at stake? We’ve heard one BIG adult fight come after a dog fight. In this clip the one lady you can’t see tries to rescue her poor dog by helplessly flapping her arms to shoo the other dog away.
Happy Birthday truck
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Unfortunately the clip is very hard to hear, but it’s the Happy Birthday tune playing in the background. Believe me, it’s not what you think, but because of this truck we’ve learned the birthday song very well. We hear it every day. Guess what kind of truck? Yup, that’s right, a garbage truck.
Kevin playing guitar & kids giggling
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This is our family time. Every time Kev gets the guitar out the kids get so excited!!!
Lawn mower
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So, lawn mowers sound the same in any culture. Fresh cut grass smells the same in every culture. Our complex hires these guys to cut the grass and trim the bushes about once a month. They take…their…good…old…time, let me tell ya. A bottle of beer close by. Since they don’t cut the grass that often it’s really long. Their mower has one of those bags on the back of the mower that needs to be emptied. So, the mower starts. They mow for about 10 minutes then have to shut off the mower and empty the bag. Oh, so much work. Lets sit and have a few swigs of beer, smoke, chat, OK time to do another 10 minutes. Such a different mentality, if you do all the work today there will be nothing left for tomorrow.