beijingkids Magazine online

Amanda Falk is an American paleontologist who specializes in the study of ancient and modern bird tracks. She did her undergraduate degree at Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. From 2007 to 2009, she built a working model of Microraptor, a feathered four-winged dinosaur, with her team at KU. Now a PhD candidate at the University of Kansas, Falk is in China on a 10-month Fulbright student grant. She is currently based in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, where she studies bird fossils from the Yixian and Jiufotang Formations. During a recent visit to Beijing, Falk spoke to students at Beijing International Bilingual Academy about her work.

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French expats Marianne Daquet and Gaël Thoreau have been living in Beijing for six and 12 years respectively. Marianne is an artist and Gaël is the general manager of Beijing Sideways, a tourism business that allows visitors to experience Beijing from a motorcycle sidecar. The couple first met at a friend’s wedding in France; ten days later, Marianne was on a plane to join Gaël in Beijing. Now, they have two daughters: Madeleine (21 months) and Ninon (5 months).

Favorite Dessert
Homemade cake and ice cream made with Marianne’s ice cream maker from France

Favorite Place to Play
The family loves Tiantan Park because it’s huge and a bit “wilder” than other parks. Also, Ritan Park has a kids’ playground.

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Gabriella Wortmann is a Hungarian-American who is fluent in Chinese and studied Chinese literature in college. She and her Chinese-American husband Derek Chin reside in Boston and had their hearts set on adopting a Chinese child. After finishing the preliminary adoption paperwork (needed regardless of the country you want to adopt from), the wait time for a Chinese child increased to seven years from the time China-specific paperwork was submitted. Due to the extended wait, the adoption agency they were using has stopped accepting new applications for China. Since then, the couple widened their search to South Korea. Now, within a year of applying, they are finalizing the adoption of a baby from Seoul.

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Living in Beijing, especially as a homeschooling family, we often feel like we could be on a perpetual field trip. I, more than the kids even, would love to abandon the structure of textbooks and worksheets, as well as the confines of our apartment to seize every cultural opportunity this city has to offer. National Art Museum today, Lama Temple tomorrow, Peking opera the next day. I wonder how long we could go on like that before we would finally see all of the important sites in Beijing.

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For many of us waiguoren, the closest we’ve gotten to encountering Chinese culture before setting foot here was a chicken fried rice and chips on a Saturday night (forgive me, I’m British!). Fast forward a few years, after the early onset of middle-aged spread and the addition of a couple of kids. Many of us who’ve stuck around the Middle Kingdom find ourselves embroiled daily in the midst of the much feared culture clash. Flashpoints range from the moment during a meal at which one should be slurping soup (and in fact whether or not said soup should be slurped at all) to heated discussions about to whether a kid is run down or is, in fact, reqi (热气, a TCM term that translates to “inner heat”) - the required course of action for the latter, going far beyond the conventional “lie down and you’ll feel be better in the morning, darling.”

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