eating in China

6 months ago we left Shanghai and returned to our lives in the US. While we've settled into our new lives in Boston we still often think about our time in China. We miss friends, food, the unpredictability of living in a different culture (well maybe only Jolene appreciated this) and Blue Frog (the girl's favorite restaurant in China - where Gracie would always order a hamburger and Helen could be counted on to request spaghetti). Mom and dad preferred several Chinese, Indian and Thai restaurants.

Shanghai has a pretty wide range of restaurants although we never found great Mexican food there. We ate out quite a bit but usually in Jinqiao, near our home or Xintiandi, near Tony's office. We also enjoyed the different varieties of fresh fruit that I usually picked up at a small fruit "store" about a 10 minute bike ride from our house. As you can imagine, there were some foods that we encountered that seemed very odd to us. Like the stewed donkey we noticed on a menu board...

We also benefited from having two great Ayis to help with cooking, cleaning, childcare and Carrefour (grocery). Our first ayi, Xin Xiang was a pretty good cook and I enjoyed eating her meals of soup (often chicken broth with a variety of mushrooms, or tofu, green onions, sometimes ground meat etc.) and her stir fried greens, eggplant with lots of garlic, chicken with red and yellow peppers and dumplings.

Our second ayi, Chen Yun Xiao was good at introducing us to more traditional foods that we never would have tried on our own, like bags of spicy pickled vegetables including lotus or nian gao which are glutinous rice cakes used in stir fry, popular in Shanghai during Chinese New Year. Here she is making dumplings during Chinese New Year 2007.

The Joy of Snow

The kids are really excited about the 3 feet or so of snow we've gotten this year. The latest snow made it look like we were living in a snowy wonderland with several inches of snow clinging to everything.

The kids have made a snowman and a fort in the yard, done a bit of sledding and skated on Frog pond in Boston.

2007 Holiday letter

Hello, friend. We hope this letter finds you safe and warm, while we endure our second blizzard in four days (total snowfall: just under 20 inches). As you might guess, we no longer live in Shanghai, where today’s weather is 60 degrees and sunny (albeit with toxic levels of air pollution). We now live in Wellesley, Massachusetts (outside Boston), where three out of every four neighbors are lawyers, so we are making an extra effort to keep our driveway and walkways shoveled.

Some brief highlights of a very busy year:

In February, we spent the Chinese New Year in Phuket, Thailand. It was sunny and warm every day; we rode elephants, swam and snorkeled. Jolene even swam within a few feet of a shark. Tony was too busy trying not to drown, and the kids were too busy tossing bread from the boat to attract fish, so they, unfortunately, missed this thrill. Thailand is inexpensive enough that we could spend a whole week at a five star resort for what a family dinner in Manhattan might cost (trust us, we know).

We traveled to Hangzhou, China for the May holiday. Big mistake, since the entire population of China seemed to be there at the same time. Believe it or not, we have friends from Indianapolis who grew up there (perhaps not so surprising, since Hangzhou is a city with about 2 million people). We spent time with them visiting Hangzhou’s West Lake. Once again, the 3 kids attracted much attention and will be appearing in the photo albums of families all across inner China.

Oh, we also celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary in May. Don’t ask either of us how we celebrated, as we were consumed with trying to decide whether we would leave China and come back to the U.S. It was difficult to leave the friends we had made (the kids still miss Erica, Mark, Leanna, Caroline, Vivian) but, in the end, we felt we needed to come back to take care of Tony’s mother and to make sure Tony did not die of work-induced stress (mostly self imposed). Jolene still misses her weekly body massages, having an “ayi” around the house to help cook, clean and take care of David, and having a driver to take her everywhere, but Tony feels this is a small sacrifice in order to have access to DirecTV and the NFL Sunday Ticket.

Once we returned to the U.S. in July, we spent some time visiting friends and relatives in Wisconsin (all 16 cousins together in one place), before spending the rest of the summer trying to find a place to live (by the way, Tony took a job as VP, Corporate Development – we don’t know what that means, either – at a small specialty pharmaceuticals company just outside Boston). We ultimately settled on Wellesley, a lovely community anchored by, yes, Wellesley College (alma mater of Jolene’s hero, Hillary Clinton). We’re renting a house, as we are still trying to get over the shock of seeing $1 million plus price tags on 1,800 square foot homes advertised as “fixer uppers” and “needs TLC”. Those of you living on the coasts are probably used to this, but us humble Midwestern hicks naively thought we should at least get air conditioning and modern plumbing for those prices.

We spent Thanksgiving in New York City. We saw the Macy’s parade, ate several great meals (at jaw dropping expense, as noted previously), rode the Ferris Wheel at the Toys ‘R Us in Times Square, saw “The Nutcracker” at Lincoln Center, and visited the Museum of Natural History with crowds of people that reminded us of China.

So, how are the kids, you ask? They have held up remarkably well, considering the girls are already attending their fourth school. Helen (7) and Grace (6) have been busy with Brownies, swimming, Chinese, piano, and soccer. David (2) is busy arguing with mama about her desire to get him to stop nursing – at 4:30 or 5:00 every morning; he points at mama and announces “I wanna nurse.” You know who wins that argument.

Helen is a budding marine biologist, at least this month. She was very inspired by her class’s study of sea life. Most of the time we have a difficult time getting her to be serious, as she is too busy being popular. She has made lots of friends in her new school and declares it the best ever. She is a very picky eater, with an instinctive sense for avoiding those things that might be good for her, especially green stuff. She will be a regular at the dentist’s office, having already gotten her first cavity.

Grace is now in first grade. She lost her first two teeth, and kicked her first soccer goal this year. She continues to be our model student. She expresses a desire to go to school on Saturday and Sunday, spends her free time at home playing math games and teaching school to her dolls and stuffed animals, did homework during a play date, and was very disappointed when big sister Helen started receiving homework before her. She also loves High School Musical and drives the rest of us crazy with her very loud renditions of the song “Fabulous.”

David is a delightful child. Well, except for his tendency to chew something for 5 minutes and then spit it out and hand it back to mom or dad, and (as noted above) his total lack of interest in giving up mother’s milk. We fear this means that he’ll still be living in our basement at 25, jobless, without a girlfriend, and spending his time playing video games (in other words, just like his dad).

Jolene has kept busy managing the moves and keeping everyone on schedule. She’s happy to have access to a car and multiple grocery stores and good wine. She was excited about using our gas grill again until the first time she tried to light it and singed her hair & eyelashes. Afterwards everyone thought her hair actually looked better with a slight fringe.

All Tony could think of to add to this part of the letter was an “allegory” about farting in the office one night when he thought everyone had left. Jolene vetoed that idea. He works pretty long hours, so it is a bit surprising that when he comes home all he wants to discuss are his bodily functions (that, and the Jets-Patriots point spread that is “out of whack”).

If you are in Boston please let us know. We’d love to see you and our kids have lots of toys “made in China” that they would love to share with your children, if you don’t mind a little lead exposure. Our new contact information is:

Jolene and Tony Watkins

69 Monadnock Rd

Wellesley, MA 02481

Home Phone: (781) 237-0824

Email: watkinsshanghai@yahoo.com or awatkins@oscient.com

Enjoy the holidays, and have a healthy and happy 2008!

If you absolutely can’t wait until next December to keep up with our “exciting” life you can get up to the minute details at http://jolenewatkins.blogspot.com/.

Two big snows

We've gotten two big snowfalls in the past few days, totaling around 20 inches. Helen and Grace were thrilled. Saturday the snow was powdery so we did some sledding in our hilly yard. Yesterday the snow turned very wet (at least the top 10 inches!) so we made a snow fort in our front yard. We're thankful our landlord has a plowing service to handle the steep driveway. We still end up doing some shoveling but it is manageable. David isn't as accustomed to snow (no snow in Shanghai last year) and he's short, so he had problems getting around and needed to be rescued a few times.

2001 Holiday Letter

Happy Holidays

This year we added two baby girls to our family. In June, both of us (along with Tony's mother) traveled to China to pick up little Helen Zi Yi. Of course, Jolene burst into blubbery tears as the moment arrived, but Helen was quite calm. In fact, she was the only little girl in the group (we went with 9 other families to Hubei province) who didn't raise a big fuss over leaving her caretakers. Or, maybe that's just the way we choose to remember it. In any case, Helen is now 17 months old and her curiosity and enthusiasm have required us to put child guards on everything, including the bathroom doors (she's been known to bust in on unsuspecting guests). Tony is very proud of her skills with the remote control - she already knows how to change the channels and adjust the volume.

Grace was born on October 11. Tony was pretty cool in the delivery room, reading the Sporting News in between Jolene's pushes and helping out as best he could (i.e. staying out of the way). After a car accident and ten extra days of pregnancy, Jolene was relieved that the whole process was finally ending. But when Grace popped out, it is safe to say that we were both astonished at how large she was (8 lbs. 6 oz. and 21.25 inches). We immediately went out to get her fitted for some shoulder pads and a helmet. She continues to grow - she even has more chins than Tony - and we've all enjoyed her early attempts at singing. Tony worries somewhat that she looks too much like him and will be "playing singles" well into retirement, but most everyone else agrees she looks just fine.

Jolene has taken time off work to stay home and bond with the girls and plans to do some freelance marketing for her company (in her spare time, somewhere between midnight and 4 a.m.) for at least the next few months. Taking care of three babies full-time has taken a lot out of her, so she is looking forward to eventually returning to work.

After several weekends with the girls, Tony is starting to understand why nothing seems to get done around the house anymore, but he still insists that caps be put back on pens. And he'd rather dry clean his liver than change diapers, but he's managed to change a couple (maybe three) in the last six months - hey he's learning. As for his job, Tony continues to work hard, although (as you well know) this is against his nature. After all, it costs money to send two girls to medical school.

Big thanks to both our moms for chipping in to help get us through the last six months with our sanity intact (that's a judgement call). We're looking forward to 2002 and seeing our babies grow. And even better if the Pack makes the Super Bowl. We would love to hear from all of you. Enjoy the holidays and have a safe, rewarding 2002.

1999 Holiday Letter

Happy Holidays

Greetings from the cornfields of Indiana (that is not hyperbole by the way - we live in an apartment complex that is surrounded by farmland, with the occasional mini-golf course thrown in.) We hope you are happy and healthy as we go into the next century (although if you are a stickler for detail, we are one year away as the monks who developed our calendar pegged the birth of Christ as year one A.D. instead of year zero...clearly not graduates of the University of Chicago...well, anyway, we're not among those who seem to be seriously miffed about this, such as the guy who wrote letters to the editors of the 200 largest newspapers.)

So, what happened to us in 1999, you ask (if you've read this far, presumably you care)? Tony somehow managed to complete his MBA at the University of Chicago in June (graduating without any honors whatsoever, except maybe "Best Performance by a Slacker Who Spent his Two Hours a Week of Homework with One Eye in the Books and the Other on the Spread in the Packers Game"), although he is still waiting for someone to fess us that they made a mistake admitting him in the first place. Regardless, despite highly competitive offers from the Hyde Park Seven Eleven, the Chicago Department of Sanitation and LazyBoy.com (Tony's enthusiasm for the product really came out in the interview), we finally decided to head to Indianapolis, Indiana so Tony could occupy a cubicle at Eli Lilly and Company (think Prozac) and start collecting a much-needed paycheck.

Although at times we feel like veal chops at a vegetarian convention, by and large we are adapting to Hoosier life. Of course, ever sociable Tony spends almost all of his non-working hours completely immersed in continuous 24 hours a day, 7 days a week sports programming on his satellite dish.

Jolene spent much of the first half of 1999 working in a noisy and chilly basement (due to restoration) of Ernest Hemingway's birthplace. However, funding "ran out" for her position and she had to leave that highly paid and prestigious position. Jolene made a career change upon our move to Indianapolis and seems to enjoy her job at Macmillan USA, a publishing, online content and software firm (think Idiot's Guide to everything, including - I kid you not - The Complete Idiot's Guide to Sex on the Net [insert your own joke here]). Jolene works as the Sales Coordinator in International Software Sales and Business Development, allowing her to occasionally swear in several different languages and contribute to the proliferation of books online. Although she believes the sleep-inducing properties of reading books like Pure XML on your computer screen are the real benefits of this technology. Jolene also managed to get her master's thesis on the cranberry harvest in central Wisconsin approved before the end of the century and enjoys volunteering at Conner Prairie living history museum.

Tony is "hard at work" (the definition of this varies greatly between Tony and his boss) doing strategy and business development for Lilly's Diabetes Care business unit. He comes home with lots of stories about the unfortunate side effects of drugs that are offered to Lilly by biotech firms. Especially interesting was the obesity drug with the herpes simplex-inducing side effect. We think the promotional campaign will be "Lose lots of weight, but whoa there, big fella, don't start cruising those singles bars just yet." He is working harden than anticipated, but feels pretty good when he thinks about his fellow business school graduates working 80-hour weeks in consulting, Wall Street and the dot-com world. Of course, when they drop hundred dollar bills out the windows of their limos in a couple of years, we will both be in line to pick them up.

Our plans for Y2K include seeing as many of you as possible, buying a house (Jolene has one picked out but Tony isn't sure the smell from the nearby waste treatment facility is benign) and adopting a baby from China. However, should chaos ensue at the beginning of the new millenium, we've reserved ourselves a small cave in the hills of northern Kentucky; you're welcome to join us. We hope that you have a joyous holiday season, that you will experience great happiness and prosperity in the year ahead, and that you stay in touch with your friends living in cornfields.

1998 Holiday Letter

"At Christmas, play and make good cheer; For Christmas comes but once a year."
-Thomas Tusser (and Jolene)

"Christmas is over, and business is business."
-Franklin Pierce Adams (and Tony)

This is the year that Tony became an unrepentant capitalist. Not that he ever avoided making money, but quite frankly he spent much more time worrying about the Green Bay Packers' offensive line than he did about his career prospects. Until now. A year and a half in the University of Chicago's MBA program has turned Tony into a Mercedes-loving, Brooks Brothers-wearing, Chardonnay-sipping, "only the finest" kind of guy. Now, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration. Tony still doesn't know a Chardonnay from a charred steak, even after he went to a wine tasting workshop. And we're not exactly in a position to replace the '95 Corolla just yet. In any case, being around future CEOs and investment bankers has definitely changed Tony's career outlook. While professional basketball player seems to be out, either finance or management consulting will put bread on the table and provide some degree of satisfaction. At least until Tony decides he wants to be a brussel sprouts farmer instead.

Tony got to do a lot of traveling this year. Besides the annual pilgrimage to Vegas during the NCAA Basketball tournament in March (Tony probably would've skipped getting his MBA if Jolene had given her permission to try professional gambling as a career), he spent his summer traveling as a Summer Associate with Booz Allen & Hamilton, a management consulting firm. Among the numerous fun intern activities was a cruise in the Bahamas, where both Tony and Jolene realized how old they were getting when they'd wake up just as most of Tony's co-workers were going to bed.

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary with a highly romantic weekend in Door County, Wisconsin, along with Jolene's Grandma, Tony's mom, four of Jolene's siblings, a niece and two nephews. The weather and company were great, but the fishing wasn't as good. In fact, the only thing Tony hooked was Jolene's cheek with an errant cast. Actually, the hood didn't go into her cheek, but it sure looked that way for one panicked moment when he saw the worm sitting there on the side of her face!

Jolene found a museum job in June. She's now the Program Coordinator with the Ernest Hemingway Foundation in Oak Park. The Foundation operates a Hemingway museum and Hemingway's birthplace home. Her office is somewhat dusty and noisy as the Foundation completes a restoration of the birthplace. The trickiest part is finding a working bathroom with a door. For awhile, the "throne" was in the basement surrounded by a makeshift drop cloth curtain. She has a bit more privacy now. In any case, Jolene is busy planning for the Foundation's centennial celebration of Ernie's birth next July. The celebration will consist of a literary conference, a couple of galas, arts programming and much more. This year she got to meet Michael Palin, of Monty Python fame, who was filming a documentary on Hemingway's travels. Perhaps more celebrities (Jolene is hoping for Sammy Sosa) will happen by in 1999?

We also spent time with Jolene's family this year. Jolene's brother, Jake, spent much of the summer with us as he started a full-time job with a tree care firm in Chicago. He was a great help with dishes and leftovers and wrestling with Tony on weekends. Jolene's brother and sister-in-law, John and Katie, moved to Michigan City, Indiana to be closer to us, too - although they'll tell you it was for a new job with the Indiana Dept. of Fisheries. They'll also be bringing us a new niece or nephew soon. We are very excited!

Mirroring national events, Jolene briefly started her own impeachment hearings this winter as she attempted to remove Tony from his self-identified role as "King of the Household." In a highly partisan vote, Jolene found Tony guilty of the first three counts - unrelenting laziness with regard to housework, too much ESPN and squandering their hard-earned savings on a Nintendo 64 system - but she relented on the fourth count of procrastinating on homework once she realized how dull financial accounting really can be. In the end, Tony and Jolene agreed that Tony would have his title reduced to "Archduke of the Spare Bedroom." This is now on his business card.

If all goes well, we should get our very first dog and first home in 1999. So this may be your last chance to visit us in Chicago. Please feel free to visit us at any time; Tony spends about half an hour a week on homework, so we have lots of free time. Otherwise, email us at mawatkin@gsbpop.uchicago.edu or call us at 773-643-0961.

We hope that your 1998 was at least as exciting (how can't it be?) and rewarding as ours'. And we wish you all a great holiday season and the very best for 1999!