Nǐ hǎo

We are trying our hardest to learn Chinese....I bought each of the kids a little note book and everytime they learn a word they write it down. So soon they will have their own little Chinese dictionary. Luke loves using Google Translate and Emma likes listening to the Chinese podcasts I have downloaded. And Gavin could care less and mixes up hello with thank you.

Tonight we had my neighbors over who are from China. When I invited them last week I only knew how to say hello and tonight she was excited and impressed with the progress we have made. Matt and I were asking them a million questions. Here are some of the things we learned from Lu and Martin:

• This weekend is the Chinese Dragon Boat Celebration - a very big deal in China, in fact they are celebrating with their Chinese friends on Saturday and they invited us! So we get to practice our Chinese even more :)
• Never give a Chinese person a clock as a gift...this some how signifies death
• We each learned our Chinese names: Matt is Mǎ xiū (Pronounced Ma-shoe), Luke is Lú kè (Pronounced Lu-ka), Emma is Ài mǎ (Pronounced I-ma), Gavin is Jiā wén (Pronounced Jow-when) Eva is Yī wá (Pronounced Ee-wa) and Sara is Sà lā. (Luke had already looked them up on Google Translate and they were correct!)
• We learned that they do use chopsticks for everything except soup so we need to brush up on our chopstick skills
• We learned that they don't typically hug...a hand shake or a little wave is sufficient :) (I learned this after I hugged Lu when she came in - OOOops :)
• We ate a Chinese soup that Lu brought that is supposed to help with beauty
• We learned that one big difference between China and the U.S. is that they are so much more social with one another. There you come home from work and then meet up with friends at a restaurant or out in the city. They get together every 2-3 days, not just the weekends. Here they say people just come home and shut their doors. We are the first Americans to have them over for dinner here in FL. I feel so bad we have waited this long!

We had a great visit. They were so sweet, besides the awesome Chinese soup, they also brought the kids a cute little Chinese toy. They made me even more excited to get over there to China! So we are slowly, but surely, getting all set. We have decided to leave the house without renters. I think this is making me feel better that we don't have to completely move out of the house and then move back in. We have sent in for our passports, Luke and Gavin have been vaccinated, I have bought Matt more dress shirts and ties since he will be in a suit EVERYDAY for the next year, and I have already talked to our Branch President and his wife over there. And today Matt had a going away party at work, this is definitely feeling more real! So there you go, I'm sure my posts from now on are probably going to be containing a lot of Chinese references because that is all that is on my mind! I am very excited!