Where in the World are the Richardsons?: Jackson Fever

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Jackson Fever

One of the very popular U.S. singers here in China is Michael Jackson. Everywhere you go you hear the Moonwalker's greatest hits playing incessantly. The grocery store, the mall, and most restaurants have MJ's 20 greatest songs on CD. There's nothing like a little "Thriller" or "Bad" to take you straight back to 1984, but this week Scott noticed a downside to this little fact.

As he was riding in the car over the weekend, he noticed Juliet was singing under her breath, "Billie Jean is not my lover, she's just the girl that says that I am one ... but the kid is not my son." And who thinks the music of "today" is corrupting our children?

1 comments:

Julie said...: I have been checking on you so make sure all was well after the Earthquake. I guess that I think of the entire country being effected. I know what you mean about how our children are influence by what we enjoyed growing up. Have you watched the Smurfs lately? I never thought I'd be the mom who was too prudish for the Smurfs, but I am!! Go figure... So glad you're safe.; May 26, 2008 at 11:10 AM

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And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter... My hope is your story will be about changing...about learning to love a child...about learning to love others more than we love ourselves... We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?... And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.

-Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts

Juliet's Quotes (Seeing China through the eyes of a 5 Year Old)

“You have to sit up front and you CANNOT talk to me.” – Instructing Annie the other day when she had to ride the school bus with Juliet because she had a meeting at the school.
"Huh, yea, we have rice every day." - responding to Annie's foolish question, "Did you have rice with your hotdog today?"
"Well, you didn't tell her you were my mom, so I think she thought you were the cleaner ... you know ... of our house." - when talking with Annie after she had met one of Juliet's new friends at school.
"It's hotter than Hell here, Gigi!" - when explaining the extreme heat and humidity of Shanghai to her grandmother (we don't know where she hears these things...)
"We just need to end all this nonsense and stop going out at night." - referring to our latest shopping excursion (see "Searching for a Princess Bike")
"What's a bidet?" - questioning the other toilet-looking contraption in the bathroom
"Ahhh that feels good" - said in a deep rumbling voice as she was referring to our massage chair the landlord left for us.
"Man, it's like these people have never seen a girl before" - referring to the hundreds of people gawking at her during an IKEA outing.
"This guy drives really slow" - referring to our driver, Mr. Chen, after 3 minutes in the car with him on day one.

By the Numbers

3 - number of stays in a Chinese children's hospital
2 - Number of Typhoons we've weathered
1 - Number of lightning strikes in our front yard
41 - Number of stoplights between our house and Scott's office
10 - Number of thermostats in our house - one for about every 380 square feet
3 - Number of English words our driver speaks (Hello, OK, Bye-Bye)
8 - Gallons of sweat secreted by the three of us during the first five minutes of arriving in steamy Shanghai
96 - Number of keys we have to our home