Learning Chinese

Everyone has been asking if we know how to speak Chinese. Our answer........ not yet!!!

We are using Rosetta Stone to learn at home. It uses pictures to teach easy common words. We are also using the Lonely Planet Phrase Book for common phrases.

We also watch fun You Tube videos like this one:



There are also good websites like these that are helping us:

Mistakes-when-learning-chinese

Sinosplice.com

Master-the-tones

Zai Jian (good-bye)

Snow Conditions on Audrey Mountain

The Ski Report:
Snow conditions on the slope of Audrey Mountain are awesome! A 4" base with 2" of fresh powder this morning.

Kiana got in quite a few gnarly runs on a friend's snowboard and perfected the mini halfpipe. It's too bad the lift was broken (non existent), although later in the day we did spot someone using their mom's minivan as a lift.

That's our house at the top of the hill....we are enjoying an unusual 11 days and 8 inches of snow, with more on the way. A white Christmas - hooray!

When we were so disappointed that our China trip was delayed, I told the kids that often something good will come out of waiting. Well, we can count being able to fully enjoy these 11 days of snow as good - no worries about preparing to move, just lots of time to enjoy the snow together!

The Gingerbread Barrs

Mike, Kiana, Debi, Kevin

We "HAD" a Date!

Well, the move to Dalian is being rescheduled......no exact date yet......but we expect it will be in the spring.....you'll know when we know.

We are pretty disappointed - we were ready to go! The kids are disappointed, they were looking forward to starting at their new school after winter break. The bright spot in all of this is that Christmas will be a bit more relaxed, we are enjoying our extended cold and snow in Portland this week without worries of the "to do" list, and we get to spend more time with our beloved Chimay (the dog) before we leave.

Happy Holidays!