There is a big group of people that meet for coffee every Friday at Starbucks.  Afterwards some go out for lunch.  Rachel wanted to take me to a Szechuan Restaurant that they go to at the mall.  I agreed and so did 10 others.  Kung Pow Chicken was good as was the green bean concoction.  Some of the other stuff was odd for me but the others chowed it down.  It was a fun afternoon.

Me, Andrea, Megan, Rachel, Sully, Liz, Annie's mom, Jenny, Annie, Ileana, and Claudia is taking the picture.

More Random Stuff

Walking back from the gym this morning I came across a bunch of people doing yard work on the field in front of our apartment building.  It was 8:30 and roughly 20 degrees out.  I had to walk past a man weeding whacking the heck out of the grass.  And he looked at me like I was the crazy one.  Luckily as I got closer to the big group I saw a man relieving himself on the fence.  They don't care.  They pee wherever and whenever they want.  Very strange.

Spring must be coming.  The yard work has begun.

Hey, man by the fence...what are you doing?

As I walked up to our apartment I see men making cement on the street.  This is the weirdest way to mix it that I have ever seen.  They are redoing a big patch of concrete that they just poured for the parking garage.  They just need to learn to do things right the first time.

Keep on mixing boys.

Today is International Women's Day in China.  Women are free to take the afternoon off of work if they choose.  Todd told me I could take the afternoon off too.  That was so nice of him.  Too bad I have workers coming to look at the electrical issues we are having at 1:00.  I'll have to babysit them. 

They did come.  Serena, our housing agent, came at 1:10 and said the worker would be at my apartment in 10 minutes.  UGH!  So she came in, took her shoes off, gave me the look up and down, and said "What do you call what you are wearing?"  I said "Sweat pants and a sweatshirt."  She gave me the look over again and said "Hmmmm."  Then she sat on my couch looking around at everything in the apartment.  Here come the questions.  "Did you bring that chair from home?  How big is your tv?  How much did you pay to get your hair done?"  The thing I have learned the most since being here is Chinese people are not afraid to ask how much we pay for things or where we get them.  I don't think they mean to be rude but it is.  We continued to make small talk until 1:40 when the worker decided to show up.  30 minutes later we figured out the problem and how to fix it.  Unfortunately that means he has to come back tomorrow with the correct things.  He says it will take 2 hours to fix.  Three days in a row I will have people in my apartment.  People came twice yesterday to look, not have a clue, and say someone will be here on today.  At least this guy seems to know what he is talking about and hopefully it will all get fixed soon.

Random Stuff

The night we went to Jet KTV with all the adults the kids got to spend time together at Carrasco's with a babysitter.  They all looked so cute in their jammies.  They were ready for some serious Wii playing.

Aren't they cute?

Ok America, do not be jealous of this years fashions in China.  This is the display at the mall.  They are showing off all the HOT clothes to wear this Spring.  If you see something you must have let me know and I will go buy it for you.  WOW, those are amazing outfits.

Which one is your favorite outfit?

Cameron is into making dinner.  He helps Todd out a lot in the kitchen and on the grill but on this night he wanted to do it by himself.  Todd was out to dinner with guys from work so I said go ahead.  I was watching him.  He made 2 fried eggs.  He put bacon bits and cheese in the middle and toasted some bread.  It looked and smelled great.  He said it was delicious.  While he was cooking he said "I'm no good at flipping things.  That is why Grandpa doesn't let me flip pancakes."  I told him he just needed to practice.  He is getting better but he holds the spatula weird.  Needs more practice.   We only had one little problem while cooking. He grabbed the pan (not the handle) when he was going to flip the eggs. OUCH!! He was ok. He burned one of his fingers.  It only hurt for a few minutes.

Awesome sandwich.  Burnt finger.

My hair was in desperate need of coloring.  I haven't had it done since Jan. 8th and I usually get it done every 4 weeks.  It was bad.  When we were at the park on Sunday Todd asked if I was ever going to get my hair done again.  He thought he should point out how gray my hair was.  Thanks Todd.  Hadn't noticed.  My friend Rachel and I were going to go to Beijing to get it done but decided to stay in TEDA and give the mall a try.  She only needed a cut so she had less to be worried about.  3 people looked, poked around, looked some more to try and figure out which color to use.  Finally decided and started putting it on.  Geez, they take forever.  30 minutes later I finally had Saran Wrap wrapped around my head...this was a first.  After sitting for 25 minutes they took a look.  Added more color and left me to sit longer.  Finally got my hair washed with a great head massage and back in the chair.  Color looked great.  After a 20 minute hair drying I was finally out the door.  I didn't like the way he styled it though.  A part right down the middle doesn't work buddy.  Way cheaper at the mall and I'm definitely going back.  They were great.

How many Chinese (maybe Koreans, not sure) does it take to color hair?

I picked Cameron up from school.  He put my hand on his head and said "Feel".  He had a huge bump.  When I looked at him you could see the bump.  Another mom said "Wow, that is a bump".  I looked closer and it had a red line where it looked like it wanted to split open but didn't.  Thank goodness.  He said he bumped his head on the medal slide.  OUCH!!  I bet he remembers to duck next time.

Can you spot the red mark?

Can you spot the bump?  It is hard to see in the picture.

Chaoyang Park

We decided we needed to have some fun so we decided to head to Beijing this morning.  We invited the Carrasco's to join us.  We left at 8:00.  We got to Chaoyang Park and paid the 5 RMB a piece to get in.  Wow, less than a buck.  This park is HUGE.  The first thing we noticed is a gigantic Shaquille O'Neil statue out front.  After a few pictures we went in.

This is how Mr. Hu spends his free time.

The Wallace's and Carrasco's with our drivers Mr. Hu and Leo.

This Shaq is HUGE.

As we were walking back to Go Ape I spotted a little boy walking in front of us with snow pants.  I started laughing and reached for my camera.  The snow pants were crotchless.  Seriously...how can that make sense to anyone?  Just as I was about to take the picture his dad picked him up.  Never got the photo.  Bummer.  We continued to Go Ape which is a bunch of trees turned into a rope climbing course.  There were 3 different levels.  Marcela was on the junior, Cameron and Alfredo were on the medium course, and then there is a harder course.  It is based on size.  Alejandro couldn't do any of it so he said "This is not cool."  Marcela went off to do her course while the boys got a safety lesson (in Chinese).  They had to learn to hook up their belts.  This course they do not have adult supervision at each station.  Yikes.  I was a little nervous but the boys did great.  They were very safe and paid close attention to what they needed to do.  There were even a couple zip lines which were pretty cool for them. 

Go Ape Adventure Park.

All geared up and ready to go. 

Alfredo and Cameron are ready.

Cameron on the practice course.

Looking on and a little nervous.

Up on the first obstacle.

Working his way across.

Working his way up to the zip line.  Todd is clear across on the other side waiting.

Here he comes Todd.

Hilarious they crash into a dirt pile.

These two apes sure are having fun.

Waiting their turn.

Tricky, tricky, tricky.

Too bad he isn't Spider man.

Last zip line.

When the boys were done the Carrasco's went to the amusement park part of the park and we left.  We headed to Jenny Lou's for a couple of groceries.  Our next stop was the Schindlers Meat Store.  We bought some meat and headed for lunch.  Our friends, the Hindman's, told us about a BBQ restaurant so we decided to try it out.  It is called Home Plate BBQ.  It smelled wonderful when we stepped out of the van.  It is a little restaurant.  We ordered pulled pork, chopped brisket, beef brisket quesadillas, fried Okra, and rib tips.  Cameron wanted 1/2 rack of ribs but they didn't have any.  The food looked great when they brought it.  After the first bite we knew we would be back.  It was delicious. 

Delicious place to eat.

Our next order of business was trying to find wall art for our living room.  We have a huge wall that has been bare since moving in.  We went to the art district called 798.  It was very confusing and big.  We drove around but never found a spot they were selling art.  We decided to go to the Dirt Market instead.  We have gotten other things there so we thought we would give it a try.  We walked around and found a couple different things.  We had to decide what we wanted.  We ended up getting two huge pictures.  Todd's bargaining skills worked again so we walked away with a great price.  He ran back to one of the other shops where we saw a picture we liked but they were closed already.  I guess we will have to go back.  Loaded up the van with our treasures and headed for TEDA.  Fun day.

Jet KTV

We decided it was time for a night out on the town.  We sent Cameron to Carrasco's with Amanda to babysit all 4 kids.  Adults met at our apartment for drinks and then we headed to Jet KTV.  None of us had been there before so we weren't sure what we were getting ourselves into.  We walked in and found that it was very clean so things were looking good.  Amor brought JoJo who is Chinese. She went to the counter to find out what we do next.  For 268 RMB ($42) we would get the big room for karaoke for one hour.  Perfect, there are 14 of us so I think we can afford that.  Next, they have a little store that you pick out what you want.  They have all different kinds of drinks and snacks.  We filled a little shopping cart with stuff and headed to the fourth floor, room 7.  It was a nice size room with a bar type table and leather couches with a big screen tv and a little tv monitor where you can choose the songs you want.  First song was from Titanic.  It got us in the mood but we needed faster, better songs.  That first hour flew by.  We bought another hour and more drinks.  It was a blast I have to say.  We will definitely be going back.  We sang and danced the night away with a whole lot of laughter.  The only downfall was it was HOT!!  We were all sweating like crazy.  Next time we are wearing tank tops and maybe shorts.  Great night with great friends.  I'm loving this China experience.

Ileana, Me, Luz, Marina, Noga's husband, Noga, and Heather gearing up for a night out.

Todd, Dave, Manuel, Jose Luis, and Alfredo looking thrilled.

Fredy is a born performer.  I think he missed his calling.

A good action shot of the singers...Nadia, Me, Noga, and Amor.

The girls posing for a picture.

Noga, Todd, JoJo, and Manuel searching for good songs.

Aren't we cute?

Still performing.  We all like center stage.

Hector, Alfredo, and Noga are having a sing off I think.

The whole Jet KTV gang.  So much fun.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

TIS celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday.  They told the kids they could dress up as one of the characters if they wanted.  Cameron and I brainstormed some ideas.  He decided to ask Alfredo and Manuel if they wanted to dress up as Thing 1,2, and 3.  Alfredo said yes and Manuel didn't know what he was going to do.  I found a red shirt and pants at the grocery store and then I cut out a white circle from one of Todd's old t-shirts.  Wrote THING 1 on it and then I stitched it on...Yes, I did it!!  Ileana and I went to Walking Street in Tanggu to find wigs.  2 of her kids were going to be Things and the other was going to be Cat in the Hat.  We needed 3 blue wigs.  This was not easy.  We found 2 but they were different and then we found a white fro wig that Ileana dyed with blue food coloring.  They were all different but in the end they all looked awesome.  Such a fun day.

Cameron looks so tall and thin in this picture.

He is thinking "Why me?"

The Cat in the Hat and his Things.

That is one cute Thing.

Cutest Cat in the Hat EVER!!

Cecilia sent me an e-mail today from school.  Cameron is in Melisa's class for reading buddies so she snapped a picture while they were together. 

Cameron, Melisa, and a teacher.  Cute.

After school I was able to get a picture of the 3 boys together.  They looked so cute.

Alfredo, Cameron, and Manuel all dressed up.

Nerds

Cameron reads every night for 30 minutes.  Lately, I have been reading at the same time.  The books I am reading right now are kid books but funny.  I just finished Sweet Farts and am now reading Sweet Farts:  Ripping It Old School.  Cameron is reading The Hunger Games.  I know, quite a difference.  Last night Todd had to go out for a couple drinks with guys from work.  When he came home we were sitting in the Wii room, on the floor, right next to each other, in out pj's.  My Kindle ran out of power so I had to be plugged in and that is the only place it can go.  Cameron had to sit, leaning on me.  Todd walked in and said "Hey Nerds."  Neither of us even looked up.  He had to snap a couple of pictures because he thought it was funny.  Good times with my big baby boy.

Totally into our books.

Nerds!