Monday, April 22, 2013

Race for Hope

We are in count down mode to Race for Hope - Gregorio has started running again! No doubt he'll be faster than than the rest of the family. It is a fun day to come together with friends and family to raise awareness for Brain Cancer.

This year more than ever we behind the need to raise funds to support valuable research into this terrible disease. As you know, Isabella is on a new trial and she and the tumor are responding well to the treatment - we are extremely happy and hope that you will find a way to support, however small, this cause to raise much funds into finding a cure for brain tumors. Please sponsor us or join us (walking or running) in a fun 5 k course around the center of DC on Sunday May 5th.

Go to braintumorcommunity.org and find our team. THANK YOU.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Further Shrinkage and China!

The past week has gone by in a haze of jet-lag. We arrived back from an unforgettable adventure to China on Sunday morning at 11 am (a mere 12 hours delayed) and by 1pm, Isabella was in the MRI scanner at Children's for her latest brain and spine scan. I'm assuming you'd like the medical news prior to our traveling tales?! Well, her tumor has shrunk further!!!

We had a lengthy morning at the hospital on Thursday visiting all the specialists (I'm not sure there is a specialist Isabella hasn't seen in the past year - let alone the past 5). Anyway, all is going very well and they are extremely pleased with how this trial drug continues to affect the tumor's pathways and reduce it in size. We reviewed this last MRI with September 2012, just prior to starting the trial. To our untrained eyes, it looked 50% smaller. Astounding. We are extremely happy.

This was just the news we needed to carry on our holiday mood. As many of you know, we had been planning this trip to China for a long time. Gregorio and I had been due to take a trip on our own in 2008, but that never happened. Then when our friends moved to Shanghai a couple of years ago, it became the obvious excuse for a big family adventure. We have been asked how the trip went and the short answer is: it left us with mixed emotions and images that we are still trying to digest.

Read on if you have time for more detailed impressions. At some point I'll add some photos too! In case  you don't make it through the tales of China I wanted you, our dear supporters, to know that we shall be participating in the 5K Race for Hope again on Sunday May 5th. Calling all local friends to join us  - walking or running and as always we are grateful to all for your continued support. Search our team on the DC Race for Hope website.

Chinese Adventures
China is a vast country, the smells, the noise, the people, the choice, the size and scale of everything is overwhelming but also very exciting. The rubbish, the smiles of the local people, it feels very safe, the wonderful food, the chaos, a different concept of service, the constant construction, yes the pollution and the sheer strangeness of it all - rarely have I been in a situation where I don't speak or understand any of the language of the destination. But put it altogether and we had a magical eye-opening tour from ancient Beijing, to the rural landscapes around Yangshuo to ultra modern Shanghai.



We stayed in a local hotel in the hutong in Beijing. The decor and ambiance were very Chinese and the location very tranquil. We enjoyed walking the narrow streets, dodging the bicyclists (unlit at night) or the piles of masonry along the road. Here we copied the locals - enjoying noodles for breakfast in the hotel or buying local sticky buns from the street vendors in the morning. We wandered into the local market and also exercise park. We were the youngest and only non-chinese. We caused many smiles as we jumped on the equipment and wandered around watching the groups performing tai chi, singing, dancing and just playing a game of ping pong. We saw all this activity at many parks around the city. It is such a pleasure to see these public spaces used and visited all day and every day.





There were cars and bikes everywhere going at their own speed and direction. Pedestrians are of the lowest importance on the totem pole, so crossing the street becomes a whole new game - when in doubt stick very closely to a local and don't stop or hesitate, just keep going.

Standing on the Great Wall of China was breathtaking. It is such an iconic image of China, it's a cliche but it really does stretch as far as the eye can see. We had a good work out walking up and down the steep steps and climbing the watch towers. We were the first on our section of the wall that morning and were whisked to the top in the cable car that President Clinton had taken in 1998. By the time we returned to the 'village' below all the street vendors had opened up shop - it was quite an effort to get through the thoroughfare without parting with any yuan, however cheap everything was.

Tiananmen Square is another iconic image of China, it was hard to believe we were standing there. The square is vast, you really feel like a small insignificant fish in the sea of tourists and various groups of military guards marching past. There are security checks to enter the square and large stern institutional buildings all around with Mao's face dominating the space at the end on the gate to the Forbidden City.

Matilde was enraptured with the Forbidden City, running around the courtyards like the child in the Last Emperor, which we had watched just prior to going. She fought with the hordes of Chinese to get to the front of the line to view the various throne rooms. On our arrival in Beijing, Matilde said to the friendly local guide "ok, I have a question for you: why did the Japanese kick the Last Emperor out?!" I am not sure if the guide was more shocked by the question (not strictly correct) or the fact that a girl of 8 could ask such a question.

From ancient Beijing we took the high speed train to Xi'an - new this year. Within 5 hours we were in a different world, previously it would have been an overnight train journey. In Beijing it had been cold and clear and the wind had blown away the pollution, but Xi'an was a different matter. A very dry and dusty place, the air was thick. We visited the Terracotta Warriors. Matilde had expected to see 7, Isabella thought they would be smaller and we were astounded at how many (approx 7,000) and how vast the complex is. They continue to excavate, nearly 40 years since that farmer first came across them. Each piece is so different and full of amazing detail. Construction of endless apartment complexes was very evident on the outskirts of Xi'an, even right next to power plants or "cloud factories" as our friend's son likes to call them. A slightly more poetic image of what those large chimneys are puffing into the sky (and lungs) of the local residents.

Despite a little snafu with our flight booking, we did manage to depart Xi'an as planned and flew south to Guilin. This lush green land is rather surreal with the endless rice fields and sugarloaf mountains. We drove through a number of small towns, each lined with small markets, cafes and repair shops. It seems the Chinese will fix anything and there is a little man and his workshop to do that everywhere. As we drove past, many were sitting around playing cards or chatting with friends waiting for customers. In the fields there was the odd worker, up to their knees in water/mud and the odd water buffalo ploughing the field. I had wanted to see rural china and this was it.

When we arrived in Yanghsuo the driver had a little difficulty finding our hotel, we came to the end of the road  - there was our hotel across the river  - but the road across was flooded! We were directed another way round through the fields. The following day Matilde and Isabella spent hours going back and forth across the river, copying the local farmers who took off their shoes and strode across. From our bedroom window all we could hear was the sound of the flowing river and birds singing and all we could see was the lush fields and limestone karst mountains covered in dense trees and shrubs. It was very picturesque and a complete change from the pace of life of Beijing and Xi'an - just what we needed. We had leisurely breakfasts sitting in the garden (when weather permitted), we read our books and we enjoyed the beautiful scenery sipping ginger tea. We had rather a lot of rain during our stay but we did manage to bike around the paddy fields and through the very small villages. The poverty and smells were quite something for the girls and I to experience. When we hit the main road we were in for another surprise. Being on a bike we were more important than pedestrians but navigating the road with the masses of tourist bikers along with farmers, cars, trucks and buses was entertaining. Especially when any four wheeled vehicle likes to hoot every time it sees another car. Its a noisy experience, not to mention the lack of bike helmet and proper brakes!

In Yanghsuo I learnt the art of haggling to rather good effect. "lucky for you, lucky for me, lady" was a common refrain from the vendors. The girls just kept saying "mummy, give her 5 Yuan more, then you have split it evenly" In the 'silk' clothing shop Gregorio  was furious that I was considering the sum they were asking - still don't know if it was deliberate or not but the result : we walked off paying a third of the price originally asked. And they probably would have gone lower!

On our last day in this lush humid rural setting, we headed north of Guilin to Longsheng to see the terraced rice fields. The drive up was a little hair-raising to say the least. Not long after we set off the guide was spouting various statistics, including the annual number of deaths on the road in China, at about the same time the driver started to speed up and began overtaking - on a bend! "Interesting" I said to Gregorio, not trying to reveal any discomfort to the children. It only got better, as we were climbing the mountain road, dodging the various landslides and piles of rocks caused by the bulldozers widening the road - the driver just kept driving, if he couldn't get over the obstacles easily enough a quick swerve to the left and remarkably close to the cliff's edge.....I was quite relieved to arrive in the village of Pinyan. We were greeted by the local tribes women with amazing long hair bound up in various fashions that indicate their marital status. They were the bearers of large suitcases on their backs or the stall sellers, while the men offered transportation up through the village in sedan chair. We were happy to use our legs after the three hour drive. There was the usual array of stalls and the fixers, the man carving up water buffalo horns into combs and various tools and objects (the Chinese do not waste anything!). At the food stalls, various pieces of meat were hanging to dry or were being smoked. On seeing rat, I turned to Gregorio and said "I don't think I need to eat today!" We made it through all this, winding past the wooden buildings, the odd chicken wandering around the place (bird flu had not been in the news in a big way at this point...) and above the village we were afforded some spectacular views of the terraced rice fields. The visit to this village had felt like we were stepping back in time to another era. Needless to say we did gain an appetite after the hike around the terraces and our guide found us a lovely clean looking restaurant. We enjoyed the local dish of rice cooked in bamboo.  We also ordered a large bowl of plain rice, the girls were amazed that it cost a mere $0.20.

We spent the last four days in Shanghai with our friends. They had a delightful house out of the city and we were pleased to have a decent cup of coffee and a western breakfast. They treated us to some wonderful highlights. Shopping featured quite highly: visiting the food market, the silk market and the pearl market. Luckily our time was limited otherwise we might have needed more suitcases to bring home our loot. Never any prices, it's always a discussion based on how many you are going to buy. We visited the water town of Suzhou with it lovely museum by I. M. Pei and beautiful gardens of the Humble Administrator. Names and titles are so poetic.

The last two days were a national holiday - Qing Ming or commonly translated as "Tomb sweeping day" Basically people pay respect to their ancestors. It was fascinating to see people outside the city temple in Shanghai burning wads of papers and incense as a sign of respect. All shops, monuments and museums were open and were very busy as a result.  Walking down one of the main roads, Nanjing Lou and along the Bund was very busy, we were constantly checking we still had 5 kids with us! As day turned to night along the Bund we enjoyed the Pudong skyline all lit up. Very impressive, as was the Pudong tunnel with its light show as you take the train under the river.

We had gone from ancient to modern in two short weeks. We had had a guide on several occasions otherwise we wandered around everywhere and used local transport. We experienced the metro in Beijing and Shanghai. Very clean and efficient. In Beijing, adverts streaming past the windows in the tunnels, security checks into all the stations. We had resorted to a taxi on a couple of occasions, either because the kids were just too exhausted to go another step or on our last afternoon, Gregorio and I thought we'd hop down to the Bund and see the Pudong skyline in the sunshine one last time. The taxi driver did not understand "hotel" (The Fairmont Peace Hotel was the only landmark we could quickly remember), nor did she understand the name of the street when I said it in Chinese or when I indicated it was near water (perhaps drinking water in Chinese is different to river water...). We had become so relaxed we had gone out without our guide book and phrase book that afternoon. Eventually Gregorio remembered the Chinese characters for The Bund and wrote them down. At which point the driver was obviously saying "where along the Bund, it's a long road!" There was a lot of shoulder shrugging and charades. We did get there finally and told her to stop when we knew where we were. Entertaining but incredible to me, that even the word "hotel" is not understood by a taxi driver in a major international city.

Throughout our trip we had some fantastic food. We didn't try anything too out of the ordinary. We spent a morning in a small kitchen in old Beijing learning various recipes and making more dumplings than we thought we could consume (how wrong we were). They were delicious and we seriously hope we can repeat them back at home. We had peking duck at one of the best restaurants in Beijing - a very westernized and fancy place but at the same time we were astounded at the lack of understanding of English when they obviously cater to foreigners - 40 minutes to bring us mango ice-cream (which was listed on the menu) and between all the delicately carved peking duck and nouvelle-cuisine presented dishes, the little Chinese lady wheeled around her plastic trolley to collect the dirty dishes. We had our best dumplings in Shanghai and enjoyed a banquet there too, in our own private room complete with TV and own loo!

On several occasions we had some most entertaining conversations trying to order food, we pointed to things on the menu and ordered several things. The waitress, who gaggled away in Chinese, kept smiling but she was obviously saying 'you have ordered too much'. Eventually our food came - not sure if she was then laughing because we managed to eat it all and had surprised her or if she had bought less and was laughing as we hadn't realised!! On another occasion, in Xi'an, we were given a menu with pictures and Chinese and we pointed again to what we wanted and she indicated 'no'. At which point we looked around and pointed to the next table and held 4 fingers up. We later realised that everyone was dining on the same thing - a delicious local mutton broth. You are each given a round flat bread (somewhat stale) that you break up and put at the bottom of the bowl, then you give the bowl to your server and they bring it back with a large mutton broth filled with meat, noodles. To which you add handfuls of coriander leaves and take bites of raw garlic between mouthfuls. It was delicious and just what we needed. The only drink we had managed to ask for was chamomile tea - not quite what we needed but water, coke, beer anything else didn't seem to be understood so we gave up and drank tea. Midway through the trip we were dreaming of a bowl of home-cooked pasta but the reality is we loved all the food. Lots of delicious vegetables and fruits that we never see here. I am a bit skeptical at the size of those carrots. And I thought they were leeks but the chef told us they were spring onions, true the leeks were even larger. Dragon fruit and mangosteen. And all so beautifully displayed in the market - anything rotten was cast aside from the display. We enjoyed the variety of mushrooms. Gregorio was amazed at the variety of eggs for sale and did buy a couple of duck's eggs and was planning to knock up a duck egg omelette for himself on the last morning. But even he thought it wasn't worth risking it, given all the talk about bird flu. Eating habits and etiquette are certainly different in China, we have definitely strengthened some previously unused muscles with all that chopstick use and when tired just shovel it in somehow.

Surprising take aways - how many Chinese tourists there are everywhere. I know there are 1.6 billion Chinese but apparently the Chinese are now also major tourists in their country too. Everywhere we went, there were enormous groups and we were pulled aside by the odd person, young and old, to have our photo taken with them. I had wanted to see rural China and we really did, in its basic, poor, vast state. I think many comment that they go to China to see the major monuments and natural scenery but it is daily life that is so fascinating and how friendly everyone was. We were accosted by a lady on the street in Beijing on our first morning. After five minutes we realised the lady (an English teacher) just wanted to talk English with us. We lingered for about 20 minutes chatting with her. And if you have been to China you'll understand why it is hard to forget a Chinese public loo and potty training, Chinese style!! I'll say no more, I have gone on far too long. It was a memorable journey and there are many photos to prove it - just need to download them all and sort them all out.

Lots of love,
The Impavido Family xxx