A Week in Instagram

We actually saw the sun this week!

Dex and the City ;)

A new box of Lego for an excellent first Report Card!

The Jinjiang River

The best thing about China right now- the most delicious mandarin oranges and pink pomelo

Eggs!

Yup, the power even goes out in a city of 12M.  The kids eating cold pancakes for dinner by tea light ;)

Look what we found!

After two and a half months of feeding the chickens expensive human-grade food (because I can't find nor do I trust the chicken food here) my husband K found two teeny weeny itsy bitsy eggs hiding inside a gardenia plant on the roof top!  Now, who wants an omelet?

A Week in Instagram

The cat that stalks the dog

 

We needed a treat

Petting Garbage Dog for the first time

 

Spooky kids all done up for the Fall Festival at school

The Zombie and the Mad Hatter

The Vampire and The Queen of Hearts

A package from Gramma <3

Tea from friends <3

Sunday morning snuggles with Dexter

Out with the old, in with the new

I fired our driver last Friday and as much as I'd love to post his picture on here with a big goofy mustache drawn on his face, I won't.  Because I'm better than that.  Ha!

So anyway.  We had put up with so much crap from him that last week I just kinda...snapped.  The last straw was Friday morning dropping the kids off at school.  He was told to wait(may I remind you that he speaks perfectly good English so there's no reason why he mistook "Wait" for "Drive. Now!") but while I was getting the kids' back packs out of the trunk, he threw it in drive and took off with the trunk lid up and everything.  He's lucky the lid didn't come down on my head.  Oh so lucky. I did, however scream in his face, "you're a f*cking idiot" which probably wasn't the best idea outside an elementary school.   Anyway that was the last straw.  Earlier in the week I had asked him to take me to the school at 10 am.  He went to the school without me at 10 am.  Then that very same day I asked him to take me somewhere to buy black fabric but he took me home instead.  Sigh.

Today we got a temporary replacement driver.  He doesn't speak a word of English except hello but maybe that's a good thing?  So far so good.  He got us to the school and home again all in one piece so that's a bonus.  We shall see but you can be sure I will keep you posted!

10 things I've learned(since the last 12 things)

I can't believe we've almost been here for nine months!  Well if you don't count the two months we were in Canada for the summer!  Since I wrote my 12 things I've learned list a while back, I have been slowly compiling a new list of things that I've learned since then.  While walking home from dropping the kids at school I realized it was high time to post it!

1.  Trees are not for oxygenation.  They are for using as leverage to puke on.  That's right, put one hand on the tree, try not to think about how much Bai Jiu you just consumed and toss your dinner on the trees roots. 

2.  One Way.  What does that mean?  When you can't find a route around why not just drive the wrong way on the highway?  That makes sense right?

3.  Chihuahuas are terrifying.  Or at least mine is anyway.  He makes people scream on a daily basis.  This makes me laugh.

4.  Anything can be made into tea.  I mean, literally anything!  Flowers, plants, buckwheat, squash...If it is green they will make tea out of it.

5.  Tissues are for wiping with, not blowing your nose.  I've gotten over the gross stuff at the grocery store but loogey hocking still does me in every time. *Full on body shiver combined with gagging*.  And the worst is when you are walking and your shoe flicks up someone else's nasty yellow snot gob onto the back of your leg.  I know from experience.

6.  Some just don't like white people.  For example, the lady on the first floor.  I don't know what I ever did to her(maybe its just my existence) but she seriously hates my guts!  And she wants her dog to hate me too!  Good luck lady.  Dogs love me.

7.  Goofy hair means you're a hairdresser.  Like really goofy hair.  We refer to them as 'Roosters.'  It's hard not to call them something.  I couldn't imagine how much money they spend in a month on hair spray to get their hair to stay like that! 

8.  Green tea tastes best in a clay cup.  It really does.  Maybe I should send a clay cup to someone so they can try it.  Hmmmm...

9.  Jiao za(dumplings) are delicious.  My mouth just watered.  I buy a pack of fresh dumplings at the store for about $1 then bring them home and steam them before frying them in a bit of sesame oil to make them crispy.  Dip them in some sweet chili sauce and yum!

10.  Turkey?  What's that?  They don't have turkeys here!  This makes me sad as most of my friends and family are gorging themselves on turkey for Thanksgiving right now!  Sacrifices right?  Oh well, on the next turkey holiday I'll be lounging on a beach in Malaysia and the big bird with all the trimmings will be the furthest thing from my mind!

Hope you enjoyed this list and you learned another thing or two about China...or you're just laughing at my expense. 

Mt. Qingcheng

Yesterday we drove two and a half hours to Qingcheng Mountain which is one of the most famous Taoist mountains in China.  Our driver informed us that the back side of the mountain was the best place to go but unfortunately after a bit more research today I think it was the front side that we should have gone on. 

We wanted to hike to the top so we headed up the path that meandered alongside a small river with numerous waterfalls and lush vegetation everywhere.  The path is made almost entirely of cement with most of it being stairs and in some spots the stairs were nearly vertical.  As we are finding more and more in our time in China, there is no place that you can go to 'get away from it all.'  Or at least we have found no such place so far!

 Although beautiful, it was the furthest thing from peaceful!

We arrived at the top of the first cable car entry and we carried on to a little rest place where we bought coke, yes coke!  We had our driver ask how far to the top from there and were informed it was another three hours hiking.  We'd already been hiking almost straight up for two hours!  Since it was already 3:00 we decided that that will be a hike for another day!  We opted to take the cable car back down.

Let me tell you, cable cars and I don't mix.  I don't like the idea one bit!  But the thought of having to hike back down through throngs of people was enough to get me in the door!

 The mountainside on our descent.

 And what's a trip out to the China countryside without seeing a Holstein in the back of a truck?