Tag Archives: Chinese mother in law

Crazy Chinese People, Crazy Euopean People, Crazy Family, Travels

The Tang Paradies in Xi’an

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During our first visit to China we went together with MIL and my parents to the Tang Paradies in Xi’an. The Tang Paradies is a huge cultural theme park all about the Tang Dynasty located in the Qujiang Resort in Xi’an with the Big Wild Goose Pagoda very nearby.

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Mother-in-law invited us for a full day program in this cultural theme park so we left in early morning to avoid too long queues at the ticket stands. However the entrance area was already filled with people and while MIL tried to get us into a group for the group ticket discount my parents and I became famous with a deaf school children group. Thanks to them the time flew by pretty quickly taking all kind of group pictures and writing down our names and where we are from.

First things first. If you plan to visit this park really make sure to have the whole day time as just walking the main path around will take already several hours. I would even go as far as saying you won’t even manage to visit each little interesting corner of the park in one day!

After going through the entrance gate it really felt like entering another place entirely as the city and the noise vanished and the Tang Paradies was all around us. You might imagine it is boring to walk around a park which is about such a topic but really it was really nice to go around and see the different sections of the park. The only thing which was bothering us was the heat but there is nothing else to expect when traveling in China during July!

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MIL and her best new friend

 

The Park has many scenic areas with different cultural themes. What made it very enjoyable at least for me was the smell! No bad city smell around as the path has every few meters incense burners to fill the air with a nice fragrance. All around the park you can encounter interesting things such as poetry, song and dance or also the most important thing: Food! Why am I emphasizing this? Well, as mentioned before on that day it was incredibly hot and during midday MIL and my wife got hungry so they got themselves some hot and oily noodle soup. Meanwhile my parents and I were just suffocating by the heat and could only eat some ice cream. Even looking at my wife and MIL eating this warm dish made us sweat even more.

All around the park are places with water. In the middle is a lake in which the main Palace is reflecting like a mirror. There are little rivers near the paths which help to survive the heat at least a bit. You like to see some little fishes? There is a section of the main lake filled with hundreds if not thousands of coloured carp fishes. You can also buy some fish food and feed those greedy monsters which will result that the water appears to be boiling by all the movement the fishes are making. I can’t say what was more amusing for me, those monsters fishes or MIL trying to tease them by throwing very little food at a time into the water and laughing at the same time nearly hysterically.

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Interesting performance

 

In the evening there is another very interesting thing, a water movie. It is a movie screened on the water spray created by several fountains. In the end of the movie when people start to leave the park there is still a nice firework display. I am no expert when it comes to fireworks but I think it is a pretty decent one and also worth filming.

I can just recommend visiting this place when you have enough time in Xi’an. It is a wonderful theme park and most importantly it is also clean (at least in 2011) something I often miss in China. But in case you stay till evening time to see the water movie and the fireworks I have to warn you that it will be pretty impossible to get a taxi. There are just too many people trying to get home that there are no taxis or buses free however if you like some risk you can take one of the many “black taxis”. We took one of them and it was surely a crazy car ride back home as the whole vehicle was basically a three-wheeler transformed into a mini bus without any security measurements…

I got the idea to write this post because I found my old camera again with all kind of nice pictures of our first trip to China. So prepare yourself for some more articles about my first trip to China!

 

Have you ever visited the Tang Paradise before or are you planning to travel to Xi’an someday?

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Crazy Chinese People, Crazy Family, Mom in Law

The Good and the Disturbing

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Today is the continuation of last weeks article. Back then something good and something bad happened. First of all the good thing was that I got a job and the bad thing was that the stupid Internet technician failed to arrive and thus delaying our moving date.

What else should I write about today other than the internet technician. This nice man finally managed to arrive yesterday to set up our internet connection and with it we should be able to move in Soon™. What we did not think about when it comes to our internet connection is that all around the phone line is not a single power outlet for the wi-fi router! Just who designs such things? Really, something like that is driving me crazy and forces me to doWP_20141119_13_52_57_Pro[1] stupid things like drilling a hole into a wall to pull a cable through just to realize when I am nearly through the wall that there is a metal support and the drill won’t go any further…indeed, now we have an ugly hole in the wall which is leading into nowhere.

As you can see I have some mixed feelings when it comes to my families internet luck but yesterday something good happened as well as I signed the job contract. However there is a little issue as every time someone asks me what I do in my job the stabdard answer is ‘I don’t know’. I really have no clue at all what I will do and furthermore the job title is not helping me any further as I am supposedly in the sales management even though I do nothing sales related, crazy & weird world.

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Off Topic: My wife assembled this little chairs

Missing the Crazy Chinese Family part in the article? Do not fear as my mother-in-law is so gracious in providing once again some odd and disturbing things. The odd part is about our TV. I fulfilled my dream and bought a nice 55″ TV which I got for nearly half price (I just search and search and search some more for products I am interested in until I find a real bargain). It is even not too big for a living room as we have plenty of space with about 3.5m between sofa and TV, it actually appears to be perhaps too small…BUT there is MIL. Of course my wife showed via Weixin/ WeChat our living room and MIL got a glimpse on that TV. ‘Too big’, ‘No good for you‘ and ‘It is too close to your sofa, your eyes will get bad’. Normally those would be reasonable concerns but in this case they are so, how to say it, so MIL. My in-laws have a 65″ TV hanging about 1.50m away from their sofa but that seems fine. Apparently MIL didn’t notice this until her daughter mentioned what monstrosity they have hanging on their own wall. What is MIL’s reaction to this? Of course, its FIL’s fault! Whenever something bad happens or something which might look bad on her it is always her husbands fault, even when he is not anywhere close by or even knows what is going on.

You just want to hear the disturbing thing, I know it. Well the thing is that MIL is kind of threatening us. Okay, not threatening us in a way you might imagine but it is dangerous enough for me. She is probably coming next year again to visit us but she does not want to eating8take her husband with, no no, she wants to take her mother with. Grandma might be a nice old lady but her with MIL combined is an explosive mixture, not to mention when my wife is coming into the battlefield. When those three are together it will be war and that war would be in our new apartment, no thanks. I just have to figure out how to escape this life threatening situation when those two people really do come to Germany to visit us! Perhaps I should just go to China and visit father-in-law, nothing crazy there at least except the cleaning.

p.s. Changed some parts as the TV’s were too huge with 55 and 65 feet. Hope it is correct now :p

Crazy Family, European Mom in Law, Mom in Law

Chinese and Finnish Grandmothers

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During the past eight months I was able to see first hand the major differences between a Chinese and a Finnish grandmother. My mother-in-law stayed in the beginning of the year for three months with us to help with our little baby and right now we live already nearly two months in Germany in my parents apartment. Of course here my own mother is also playing a major role when it comes to take care of Nathan.

During all these months I was able to witness many amusing occurrences my both MIL and my mother. Believe it or not but even though both grandmothers couldn’t be more different they still share many similarities.

How to spend the day

WeChatImage635499295127706782While MIL enjoys sleeping into the day, going to dancing class or shopping during midday and leading her dancing group in the evening my mother handles things a bit different. She wakes up sharp 6 am and starts with all kind of housework. When the main work is done it is time for grocery shopping and preparing lunch for the family. Even though this might sound much it is just about 11am by now and you would guess that her productivity would continue as so much of the day is still ahead but no, after lunch and coffee time nothing happens anymore. She loves to watch German soap opera or other useless things on television and thus spends every work day from 2pm till 10pm in her sofa spot to watch TV. On the one hand you have the bit lazy but still sporty Chinese grandmother and on the other hand you have a very work focused but also a TV addicted Finnish grandma.

 

What to eat

When it comes to food my mother is very simple. For breakfast a slice of bread and a cup of coffee, for lunch some quickly prepared German or Finnish food and after that either cake or cookies with coffee. There is no real dinner except perhaps another slice of bread as she stops eating after 6pm. This does not sound like a food lover right? You are right! My mother hates to try out new things, salt and pepper are already exotic spices and going out with her to eat is nearly impossible. My dear mother-in-law is the total opposite. Breakfast is mostly some soup, porridge and whatnot bought from the many vendorseating6 downstairs. Lunch is yet again either bought at one of the street kitchens or eaten in one of the many restaurants in the area. Dinner is the main part of the day and needs much preparation/ calling friends who wants to go out to eat with her. During night-time the occasional instant noodle pack is prepared or some of the leftovers from the eating battles are warmed up again. Yes, she is a food lover. She just loves to try out new things, nothing is too spicy and eating less than three times a day some warm food is a no go. Sometimes I have the feeling that she spends her entire free time with eating and of course she is not gaining any weight…

 

How to take care of Nathan

WP_20141024_045While the one person is overly crazy, wants to carry her grandson non stop and wouldn’t let go, the other person tries to make the child as independent as possible. As so many Chinese grandmas MIL is also totally crazy about her grandson. She would do everything for that little monster (if my wife would let her…). During her three months at our place there were a few fights between her and my wife as she was not allowed to carry the baby around all the time and so on. Here in Germany my mother is the complete opposite. Sure, she enjoys spending time with her grandson and for unknown reasons he has to laugh nearly all the time when he sees her but she also tries that her daughter-in-law is doing most things with the baby. A mix between those two would be perfect!

 

Similarities

You probably wonder now how there can be still any similarities between these two different grannies. It is actually very easy as the main similarities is very plain and simple: They can be so annoying! I can’t really say why but my father has the theory that all women after some certain age become just naturally annoying for their children. My wife is already afraid that Nathan will be as annoyed by her later as she is with her mother and my mother…

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Even though they can be really annoying we still love them. They are both people who lived completely different lives but they also try to help their children whenever they can. In the end it does not matter where someone comes from, what background they have, or what weird things they do, because as long as they love their family, what can be bad about them?