taking off

Happy Chinese New Year! Chinese New Year in China is like Christmas/New Year's time in the US - which means extended time off of work and a time to travel. Most people will go back to their hometowns to gather with family and eat and eat and eat.
Our hometown is kind of far, so instead we're off to explore and enjoy Hong Kong and Phuket for about 2 weeks. Can't wait to be in warmer climates. Will post more when we return. =)

(note: sweater shown above is, of course, another by Shokay)

dialogue

hannah: wo bu shufu (translate: i don't feel good)
me: really? then maybe we should snuggle. snuggles always make you feel better. (note: this is me half joking, as she actually hates being squeezed and snuggled)
or i could rub your back.

*no feedback*, then...

hannah: i think Little Mermaid make me better.
me: (very loud laugh)
hannah: i think Little Mermaid DVD make better. i think Little Mermaid DVD make better.

we have finally arrived

before we moved, one of the few things that hannah understood about China was that after we got there, she would be able to ride a bike. (we didn't want to purchase a bike for her earlier in the States and then have lug it all the way here) almost everytime we mentioned we would be moving, she would respond that she would then be able to ride a bike... or play with her new toy kitchen (another object we held out on opening until after we moved).
well, on Christmas day, when Luke rolled her new bike through the door, she exclaimed, "Oh! Wo men zhongyu dao Zhongguo le! Wo men zhongyu dao Zhongguo le!" (Translation: We have finally arrived in China!) so yes, I guess our move is now official.



(excuse the blurry, not very professional looking picture =) )


I have another exciting project to share about in the next few days, so stay tuned!

carols, cookies, care packages, and the christmas story

Merry Christmas everyone!!

With Christmas not as widely celebrated around here, we've had to largely depend on our own means and creativity to remember the Christmas season. In some ways, it's not such a bad thing. So our Christmas this year has consisted of...

Carols
lots and lots of singing these past few weeks. there's nothing like christmas carols to warm the heart. hannah's favorite is "gloooooooooooria in excelsis deo"


Cookies
lots and lots of baking going on... literally made hundreds of cookies. homemade cookies are a rare commodity around here, and people were impressed and happy to receive them.


Care Packages
lots of packages have come in, to our pleasant surprise. and thanks to some loving friends, we even got to make our own paper ornaments and hang lights for decoration.


Christmas Story
finally, it's been good reading the Christmas story a lot of times, and being in wonder of the greatest Gift of all.


May your Christmas be filled with joy and wonder, as well.

thanksgiving, part 2

another big thing i was thankful for this Thanksgiving was that our shipment of belongings finally arrived right on Thanksgiving Day!





The move-in process was fast and impressive. Who knew one person could haul so much on their back.



So we've been busy unpacking the past couple weeks (i.e. my excuse for not blogging lately) and making home more "home". It's nice.

thankful

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!



i am thankful:
- for being able to bake pumpkin pies and sweet potato casserole on this side of the world
- for friends who take me to local markets to find pumpkins and sweet potatoes
- for friends who have extra (toaster) ovens* that they generously give to us so we can now bake
- for friends to feast with tonight

*note: most kitchens here don't come with ovens. so the next best thing is basically a big toaster oven. and ours is even a convection oven. ooooh...

mail and bananas

after 1 1/2 months, i am happy to say i know how to send and receive mail here.

i had stocked up on some beautiful stationary and thank you cards from dozi before leaving the States. btw - she's having a giveaway in honor of her blog's one year anniversary, so go check it out!


several stamps and a mandatory (i.e. boring) "standard airmail" envelope later, they were finally mailed off and will hopefully brighten someone's mailbox soon.


we've also received our first postcard in the mail(exciting). And then a couple weeks ago, our first care package arrived, which included this:


um... yes, if you do the math, it arrived a little too late to be filled out and counted.
But we still watched the election results from here that day. And as we watched cnn.com, hannah kept repeating the name of our new president - "Barakobanana! Barakobanana!"

a journey

Ten years ago, I came to this place. And a few days ago, after 10 years, I got to return.





Over these 10 years, she has seen so much change, so much growth, so much faithfulness. I was beyond words to see and reflect on this amazing journey we have both been on these past 10 years.

the city

this past weekend, we took a trip to Shanghai, and soaked up the, um, more modern feel of the big city.

I'll post a few posts about our trip, but of course, our trip would not be complete without FOOD adventures. On Saturday, we went to this crazy big and packed food court. We circled around the whole thing to check out the selections. There must've been 30-40 different stands, selling all sorts of goodness. But perhaps the more impressive point is that all 40 stands were selling some kind of Asian food. Who knew you could have so many choices in just Asian food alone? I guess that's why we Chinese people like to eat. =)

from a child's perspective

So last week, my girl suddenly developed some drawing skills. Instead of random scribbles, she actually drew objects that had some semblance to what she said they were.
You know how you record your kids' first words? Well, here are my daughter's first objects she has learned to draw (in actual order), along with what she called them shown in "quotes" (english translations provided in parenthesis when necessary).

1. "goggles"

she gets very excited when she sees goggles. maybe because she loves swimming. but we haven't found a pool here yet, so maybe the deprivation is making her dream about goggles and swimming.

2. "yu yu" (i.e. fish)



3. "dun de matong" (i.e. squat toilet)


Ah. The beauty of living here, expressed through art. =)

Note: Art shown are not the original first objects drawn, as those got wiped away on the Etch-a-Sketch. However, drawings shown are still by original artist, though proportions and shapes may have changed somewhat since the originals.


By the way, thanks for all your suggestions on creative constructive activities too. I enjoyed reading them, and mostly just hearing from you. I will have to try to implement some soon, as the garlic peeling seems to have lost its appeal.

what do you do when...

you haven't found a playgroup for your kid? or there aren't a wealth of fun programs or storytimes or playgrounds to take her to? and most of her toys and books are still on a boat somewhere on the ocean? and she seems kind of bored and keeps asking what we're going to do?

you put her to work.

...and she actually finds it really fun to peel garlic and it keeps her preoccupied for a while. and mom has one less thing to do too. =)



of course, i'm open to other suggestions for some creative constructive activities... anyone?

weekend outing

last saturday, we decided to explore our local area a little by going to an area that seemed to be more busy and had more shops. i guess it ended up being more of a food outing for us, as that's all we ended up purchasing. but that is not so unusual for our family. =)
we got to experience the extremes of eating out in china...

first, going to a street cart that sells lots of food-on-a-stick, which they cook for you on the spot and slather with yummy sauce. we have been told you have to be careful not to get sick when getting food off of street carts, but it looked so good, we couldn't resist. and none of us (thankfully) got sick either. =)

then, we decided to go for some hard-to-come-by western food. amusingly, pizza hut is a fancy ordeal around these parts and hannah enjoyed finally going somewhere that had high chairs. we soaked up the pristine surroundings and the waitresses wearing witch hats for halloween.

finally, we topped it off with a cup of mango juice from the local milk tea stand. good stuff... hannah definitely agrees.

now i'm getting hungry...

hanging out

so it's been 2+ weeks since we moved.
as expected, life is a little different around here.

example #1:



no dryer.

but i've come to appreciate the wonders of liquid fabric softener, along with a good working washing machine. (our washing machine broke earlier this week and i learned that hand-wringing clothes is not fun nor is it effective. fortunately, service people here come very quickly and repair costs are very inexpensive.)

intricate beauty

Just a little post to say hello, taking a breath in the midst of my craziness.
Was in LA last weekend for a wedding. It was good to see lots of family... and go to my first bridal henna party. =)



Can you find the groom's name hidden within the design?

Congratulations you guys!