Wallace's Wonderful Adventure: FINALLY!

We FINALLY got to see the sky today and the air quality was actually in the good zone. We almost forgot there was sky and buildings around us with the smog and fog we have had lately. We haven't been able to see anything lately. Beautiful day today though.

Todd had the day off today so we did some running around. We hit IKEA in Tianjin. We found some dishes we liked to so we bought them to take home. I also got some of the rugs they have to take home because I really like them. We found a couch we might get but we will see. I think it would be perfect though. Hard to believe we are actually buying and planning our move back to the United States. The time has flown by.

Next stop was a vegetable market in Tanggu but I have no idea what the name is. I call it the Mountain Dew Market because when I had Mr. Hu for a driver that is why we went there...to buy Mountain Dew. I have only been there twice so we had to have Leo (Ileana's driver) tell Mr. Xue where we wanted to go. Luckily she went last week. It is definitely different. It is huge. It is where restaurants go to get things in bulk. We only went in one building. We were on a mission to buy more bamboo steamers to take home. We found the shop and found 3 steamers. We wanted 6. After repeating how many we wanted numerous times the man finally understood. He had to go somewhere else to get more. While he was gone Todd and I looked around. Todd found a hot pot cooker...the kind they have in restaurants that you add charcoal too. He was pretty excited. They guy came back and Todd did some nifty negotiating and got all the things for cheaper than he was expecting.

We took all our goods out to the van and then went back in to buy veggies. Todd was excited to buy things to try out the hot pot. The veggies were very cheap. For $3 I had 2 bags with veggies. Back out to the van. There was beer, pop, fireworks, etc everywhere because of the New Year coming up. I mean a ton! We decided to buy beer because it was cheaper than the grocery store. I carried 2 cases and Todd carried 2 to the van. Mr. Xue jumped out to help me then pointed to the beer and said "How much" in English. We told him (80 rmb a piece) and he had a 'hmmm' kind of look on his face. Todd told him it was 100 rmb at the store and then he made a loud 'hmmm' sound. Like Todd said he can probably get it even cheaper but oh well.

Back to the apartment to drop everything off. We then went to the grocery store and Decathlon. We had some extra time so we stopped at Jacky's 2 to have a drink before picking Cameron up at school. Went and grabbed Cameron and went home. Alfredo, Manuel, and Cameron played outside and then came in to play. At 5 we had the boys leave.

Todd started the charcoal inside the hot pot cooker and set it on the stove. The fire alarm kept going off at first until we turned the stove vent to high and pushed it back a little bit. It poured in the water and the stock and let it boil. We then through in some beef. It cooks for about a minute. We pulled it out and tried it...pretty good. Not bad for our first try. Alfredo and Alejandro were here too so they got to try it. They thought it was good too.

Our new hot pot cooker.

Todd threw in the stock and waiting for it to boil.

Adding a little more spices.

Waiting for a taste.

The meat is in.

Plate full of yummy goodness.

Cameron and Alfredo going in for a taste.

Meat...yum.

Ileana came up for about a half hour and then she took Alejandro home. Alfredo stayed because he was spending the night. We had steak and I made a big chocolate cookie so the boys were happy. They played. They tried out the game Hole In The Wall on the Xbox. It was funny watching them and they were dying laughing. That's a good game. They then we watched a movie. Off to bed.