My article, English version half way through!

平衡的真妳  ▎JO老师：我音乐梦启蒙于荷兰，却跟随我的老公在中国落地生根! 

2015-11-18 多彩社

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JO：乐器老师、没借口妈妈广州负责人

我是一个很快乐的人，两个孩子的生活是很美丽的，当父母也不光是很累的，无论遇到什么事，自己心里想做的，就会坚持去做，这个过程也是很享受的。

我出生在荷兰的一个人口只有1200多人的小镇，7岁那年，镇上来了一个铜管乐队，然后我就跟妈妈说“我要学黑管（单簧管）”，然而那个小镇并没有学习的地方。十岁的时候，我们搬到了大一些的城市，在那里有了管乐队，我执着的要去学黑管，而弟弟喜欢鼓，于是妈妈就把我们送去学校学习。这样我就开始了我的乐器生涯。

17岁的时候就遇到了我的老公，他是一个很优秀的广州小伙子，本来在英国留学，却到荷兰工作。他到荷兰第三天就遇到了我，冥冥之中我们注定要相遇，再后来我们恋爱了。那个时候，我念大学，他工作。毕业之后，我们在荷兰结婚了，一起在荷兰生活了10年。

10年之后一天，我老公和我说，你跟我回中国生活吧！我说“好啊！荷兰很小，我已经看腻了，我们去中国吧！”于是我们开始了新的人生旅程，我很庆幸我是一个喜欢追求新事物的人。我跟着老公到了回到中国广州，开始当一个中国媳妇。

中国媳妇可不是那么好当，首先，我要学会中国话，噢！中国话是真的很难学，刚开始的时候，真的是哭笑不得。可是，经过8年时间，我已经能说一口流利的中国话。然后，我要工作，因为喜欢音乐，所以在广州交响乐团里担任副首席，和他们一起参加演出。还有最重要的，我成为了一名中国妈妈，来到中国后，我们相继迎来了我们的两个小公主。我很爱我的两个宝贝女儿，为了更好的照顾她们，三年前，我辞去了广州交响乐团的工作，开办了自己的音乐学校,这样我的时间就更自由了。

当妈妈后的生活，对我来说变化太大了。生完宝宝后，身材变得很胖的，这让我觉得很不舒服，我不喜欢胖胖的状态。于是，我自己在淘宝上购买了健身器材，自己在家里健身。我们有一群爱好健身的朋友，大家经常会在Facebook上分享我的健身照片和心得。每天早上在家里健身，下午就去学校教课，早上健身的时候，两个小宝贝还会经常闯进来跟我一起玩，虽然她们玩一会儿就又跑出去了，但是对我来说，她们的鼓励很重要。运动健身让我减掉了20多斤肉，我觉得我还会一直坚持下去。

中国很大，我去过北京、上海、香港.........但好多漂亮的地方我还没去过，接下来的，我还想去更多的地方。中国的生活，并没有什么不习惯，反而更加多姿多彩，我喜欢中国的美食，那种辣辣的烤鱼简直美味。想念荷兰家人的时候，就会带着孩子回去看看他们，她们也会来中国玩。今年过年，他们会来一起过中国年。

生活就是这样一步一步走的，每个阶段有每个阶段自己要做的事情。从荷兰来到中国，从乐团到自己的学校，都是自己的选择。我很喜欢现在的状态，因为健身的爱好，与“没借口妈妈”结缘，其实在认识她们之前，我就是一个没借口妈妈，认识她们之后，我多了更多的朋友。在成为“没借口妈妈”广州的leader后，我将我的健身运动分享给了更多的人。来到多彩社，我也将分享更多我自己给其他人。

（I'm generally a happy woman. With two children and a lovely husband life is very beautiful and as a mom also tiring at times. No matter what happens, when my minds has been made up, I do what I've planned and I will stick to do it, enjoying the process.

I was born in the Netherlands in a small town of only 1200 people. When I was 7 years old, I told my parents that I want to play the clarinet. The only problem was that our small town only had a brass band. To start playing music I took recorder lessons at my elementary school. When I was 10 we moved to a bigger town where there were three wind bands. My brother and I signed up for music classes and that was that!

I met my husband when I was only 17 years old. He's a nice guy from Guangzhou and we met on the third day that he was in The Netherlands. How about that for some destiny?

At that time,I attended college while he worked for a big company .We got married in the Netherlands, and lived there together for 10 years.

After 10 years my husband really wanted to move back to China. I thought: "why not?". Our country is very small so I felt it was time to go have a look elsewhere. We started a new journey together. I'm glad we did it because I like pursuing new things.I followed my husband to return to Guangzhou, China and started to be a Chinese daughter-in-law.

The most difficult step was learning how to speak Chinese. In the beginning it was very hard because of all the tones. But I decided I wanted to learn the language so I didn't give up. After living 8 years in China I've become fluent in Mandarin.

I played in the Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra for 5 years as Associate Principal Clarinet. I love music so this was the perfect job for me at the time. After becoming a mom to two gorgeous princesses I felt that I needed to be more in control of my own time so I opened a music school and resigned from the orchestra. I'm happy that I did because I can spend more time with my girls now.

After becoming a mother, life changed a lot for me. I gained a lot of weight and didn't feel comfortable in my own skin anymore. I went on to Taobao for exercise equipment and started my home gym. On Facebook I'm part of a fitness group where we motivate each other. We do this by posting sweaty after work out pictures and sharing work out ideas. I work out in the mornings and teach music at my school in the afternoons. My little ones sometimes join me and cheer me on. This makes me very happy and makes me push even harder. I've lost about 10KG of fat in a slow and controlled way; fitness is the way to go for me.

China is very big, I have been to Beijing, Shanghai, LiJiang, KunMing and Hong Kong...But I haven't been to a lot of beautiful places yet. I'm looking forward to visiting them with my family when my girls will be a bit older.

I like living in China and I feel life is more colourful here than in The Netherlands. I like all kinds of Chinese cuisine from Cantonese to Sichuanese. When I miss my Dutch family I will Skype with them, sometimes we go back home but it is a bit hard with two small children. This Chinese New Year my parents are coming to visit us!

Life is interesting. Every step I've taken so far was by my own choice: moving to China, changing from orchestra to music school..... Because I love fitness so much, the "No ExcuseMoms" started to notice my efforts. It is funny: I was being a No Excuse Mom without realising that I was one! NEM asked me to become the leader of NEM Guangzhou so that I can inspire more mommies to live a happy and healthy life style. With coming to the Colourful Club I want to share a bit of my life with you all. Thank you very much for this opportunity!）

Beastette Mashup - Motivation

Here's a little peek into my non blogging life ;)

Sorry these posts have become so sporadic.

Life is really crazy right now with grandpa in the hospital and those 2 crazy and cute girls running around. I'm also working a lot (a good thing of course).



Enjoy this video that has been put together by Kelsey. Please meet my fitness friends from all over the world!

Yay, a blog!!!

So yet again it has been a while, no worries, we're all still here ;)

Since my last post Izzie, me Haiwen and Qiang have all had our birthdays. Lexie was having some trouble at first but when I told her she could have cake on our birthdays too it got was better. Well, after she came back on her "I hate cake!!"story ;) That went like: "so mommy, I can still have cake, right?". Hahaha, yes sweetie, you sure can!

The girls are at playgroup at school these days. All they have to do is eat, play and have an afternoon nap. They love it and come home smiling and dancing. Normal school will resume from September 1st.

At the end of last school year the kindergarten had a big performance. Izzie was a total show stopper during 'do-re-mi' from the Sound of Music. Everybody was watching her as you could hear the crowd react when she did something cute. Super proud mommy!! Lexie did great with her dance group and later also together with me. We did a performance with her class and I played soprano saxophone besides her. It was fun to be on the stage together. Our last performance was a communistic thing that promoted good values and such. Every grade had a few parents together with their child in that one. All in all a lovely morning :)

Our music school is doing well and I've been getting some new and awesome students. One girl is going to XingHai conservatory middle school in September. Her mom wants her to go study abroad at some point so she wants a Western teacher for her daughter, besides a Chinese one. Smart mommy!! Her other classes are with the head of the clarinet maffia in GZ. She had her normal class with the teacher after mine and he was super impressed with her playing. So cool to hear that!! Needless to say that the mom was pretty happy too :)

The flutist of the GSO invited me to a special flute concert a few weeks ago. I took my flute student Pippa to go and listen. We had a class first, then some dinner, followed by the concert. Afterwards I took her home to have a wine together with her mom and dad. Nice evening, huh?

I'm still working out a lot and I'm becoming stronger! Haiwen got me a door bar so now I'm working towards my first pull up. I can already do one chin up so I'm confident that I'll get there!! Weekly tennis sessions with Haiwen have been reinstated and I also try to play with my friend Becky once a week.

Last Friday I met Wim who was also featured in "Baanbrekers". His episode was filmed in Seoul but now the whole family has moved to Guangzhou.I also met his lovely wife Marjo,who is the new Dutch consul. They'll be here for a few years.

And some pics

Back again.......

Hello, sorry I've been MIA yet again, life gets too crazy to sit down and type!!
Lexie AND Izzie are at school now, my work out is done so I'm taking a moment to write, I've sure missed it :)

Izzie has been at Kindergarten for the last month and she doing great. There were some bye-bye tears in the first week but luckily not for long. The teachers told me she came around quickly after making sure that I was really gone. Izzie does not let just anybody hold her, but she's approved of her teacher. As long as we hand her over to that one teacher there are no tears and we even get a bye-bye and a wave from her. But beware if you try for any other teachers and assistants!!! That's when the drama goes ON. Everybody knows this now so they are dealing with it really well.

Izzie was in a bit of an eating rut even before she went to school. So much to the grandma's and the teachers' worries she was ultra picky with food for a while. Now she's doing great and she wolfs down rice almost every lunch with some meat and sometimes some bread. It was a party at the kindergarten when Izzie ate her first full bowl of rice, I'll tell you that! Of course I was worried a bit too but Izzie was nowhere near skinny so I figured she's get back to eating when she felt like it. She was happy and running around so no worries, right? I am glad though that she's in such amazing care at school, it makes me feel very relaxed.

The first two weeks were not completely relaxed as she got a fever a few times so I went to pick her up. No eating and fever is just Izzie's way of having a growth spurt. It may sounds weird but that's the way it is :)

Another reason I haven't been up here is that my computer has been acting up. Apparently my graphic chart isn't happy so neither am I. I had it replaced but my computer is only starting up about 50% of the time..... annoying!!! My whole hard disk got wiped but luckily I had all my pics stored. Now I have most pics on my phone and an external drive. I'll make a separate post after this one with pics from my phone.

I have still been working out a lot and results are visible now, yay!
OK, time to try to upload some pics and I'll talk to you soon :)

xoxo

J

The art and pleasure of walking

Hello :)

Well, up and at 'm again today!!

The last few days have been busy but nice. In the weekend I was teaching both mornings and hanging out with the girls for the rest of the day. 

I took Lexie to see a Cinderella play on Saturday afternoon. The play was quite good and Lexie liked it. The way home wasn't great as we couldn't get a taxi for ages. I used my app but the stupid driver couldn't find us so in the end we jumped into the first free cab that came along. 

On Monday night we had a crazy thunder storm. Grandma wanted to wade over to our place to give me and Izzie our dinner. That was very sweet of her but I wanted to go over to theirs with Izzie to see Lexie as well......so I put Izzie in the carrier, put on sandals and shorts, got an umbrella and went for it. 

Izzie wasn't happy at first because she prefers to walk everywhere by herself. When she saw all the water and heard the splashing and the raindrops she enjoyed our walk as well. It rained even harder after dinner and I was wading through ceveral cm's of water. 

I've been doing my best to get workouts in but it's been a tad difficult. I got a new step that I'm very happy with and Izzie loves it as well ;) 

On Monday I had to go to the dentist before subbing as my tooth had chipped. Luckily no filling was needed and a little polishing sufficed. Byebye relaxed morning though..... The dentist was really nice and didn't even charge me. I got to school early but without workout gear. I went to the hill opposite the school for some walking and stair work. Since I was a bit bored I counted the steps: 772 in total. Up for about 435 and down for the rest. Some of the "steps" are sloping paths, hence the difference. 

On Tuesday I went to school early especially to get a workout in. It turned out that there was a special schedule that day so I started work by 11.35 instead of 12.00. I did manage to do what I wanted in a shorter time. 

Subbing was fine: Spanish and band. The kids were instructed by their teacher to conduct so I grabbed a flute and later a clarinet to play along in the band :)

Today was an early day yet again as I'm subbing the morning classes and HuangPu with 5 group lessons clarinet is coming up at 12.30! 

On the way home I'll catch up with a friend over dinner. Wednesday night dinner out is now a "thing" as traffic is too bad to get home quicker anyway. I take the subway into town first, then have dinner and catch a cab home afterwards.

Going home all the way on the subway is too messy at rush hour. I have to transfer and that is basically impossible. Well, I don't like to be caught in human underground traffic jams so I rather like my "dinner first" routine. I'm still home around the same time, just with way less stress and a belly full of (mostly) Western food ;)