Jinsha Site Museum

While my husband K was out of the country for business, the kids and I had to fill our days with adventure to stave off boredom!  We decided to go check out the Jinsha Site Museum.  It was a great little afternoon trip that didn't take more than a couple of hours. (S has a short attention span!)  You can read more about the Jinsha Site here.

The dig site is inside a huge building and you can wander through the walkways to get a good look at everything.

We were a little disappointed when we started seeing all these lumps of dirt with pictures next to them.  The sign explained that everything under the mounds of dirt were too delicate to be left above ground.(At this point we were hoping that this wasn't how the whole museum was going to go!)

Rows and rows of pottery ware that was unearthed in the site.

Gold, bronze and jade were three materials that they found a lot of.  This is a gold mask.  There were blades made from jade, arrowheads of bronze, and plenty of gold leaf decorations.

Outside the museum are beautiful grounds with paths and greenery.  This is called the Ebony Forest where all of these preserved tree trunks were erected to make a forest. 

The National Defense Park

Its a miserable, rainy Sunday here; a perfect day to catch up on my blog posts.  Last weekend we visited Chengdu's National Defense Park.  This is a park that someone put their own money into to display all sorts of war time machinery.  The only problem was that they didn't charge an admission so now years later the place is falling to pieces.  Besides the fact that it was a death trap full of rusty machinery, dark holes into the earth, places to fall off of and rebar to impale on, it was a pretty neat place and the kids had fun climbing on everything.

 Our ride back to Canada ;)

  

 

The park was full of all sorts of trails, stairs and hills to climb so it was a great outing even if a little on the dangerous side.  But we laugh in the face of danger!  Ha ha ha!

12 Things I've Learned

I've learned a few things in my four months here in Chengdu(I can't believe its only been four months!) and I have decided to compile a list for your reading pleasure!

1.  Always carry tissues...you never know when you will be forced to use a public squat toilet and SURPRISE there is NO toilet paper...like ever!

2.  Always carry wipes...there is generally never any soap in bathrooms so you need to clean your hands with something!(By now your purse is more closely resembling a diaper bag)

3.  Learn your numbers!  Due to my lovely white skin, any and every person in this city tries to take advantage of me.  Its always fun to see their shocked looks when you start bargaining in Chinese.

4.  "Bu Yao" means don't want/don't need and works in a variety of instances eg:  when someone is trying to manhandle my kids or take our picture or sell us something.

5.  Some stuff just doesn't make sense!  For example:  "mama huhu" is a common expression meaning so-so(the movie was so-so) but the literal translation is Horse Horse Tiger Tiger...how does that even make any sense?!

6.  Little dogs are mean!  I don't know whether its fear that they could be tonight's dinner or what but don't be sticking your hands anywhere near a little dog!

7.  Eat Chinese!  Real Chinese food can be amazing!  And inexpensive too!  Not like the crap you get in North America.  Though not many restaurants have English on the menu, lots have pictures.

8.  People are impatient...even the cute little 80 year old granny in the line up for the produce scale.  She will budge in front of you if you let your guard down for a second!

9.  Smoking is acceptable...everywhere...I know, gross.  In Canada its become law pretty much everywhere that you can't smoke inside any building.  Come to China and if there isn't a cigarette hanging from your lips you're a minority(amongst men anyway) Restaurants, hotels, taxis, airports, you name it and there are people smoking in it.

10.  Road rules...there are none.  See those lines on the road?  They don't mean anything.  See that cross walk or side walk?  Think you can safely walk on it?  Nope.  Watch out for that bus, scooter, car, mo-ped!  My kids have become pros at weaving through traffic.

11.  She looks like a street walker!  But she's not.  That's just how they dress here.

12.  Plastic bags...are good for many applications including holding soup.  I've seen it.

Well that was fun.  Hope you learned a few things that you didn't already know!

Quote of the Day

Last night at dinner...

Me to S:  I'm sure glad you've decided to like beans.

S:  I like them 'cause they make me fart!

Boys...I'm shaking my head right now.  ;)

New Pets!

I can't live without pets!  I just can't!  I can hear my mom rolling her eyes as I write this.  I had every pet under the sun as a kid.  We adopted cats from neighbors, we had dogs, fish, turtles, gerbils, birds, rabbits, baby birds I rescued from broken nests and a guinea pig.  These weren't all at once, but over the years and my love for animals obviously carried over into my adulthood as I had a small farm back home with nearly every creature under the sun there too!  

In China we live in an apartment so I can't exactly have cows and a pack of big dogs(although my husband has promised me chickens and they have yet to appear.)  Two days ago we bought a fish tank off some friends who are on their way back to the U.S. after four years here in Chengdu.  Yesterday we went to 'Pet Street' and bought oodles of fish to fill the massive tank!  It came with three fancy gold fish and two plecos so we needed fish that can coexist with those guys.  

Two Puffer fish, five Neon Tetras, six fancy Guppies, six Mollies and six Tiger Barbs later we have an aquarium!  Hurray!

 

 And don't forget the Siamese Fighting Fish!  He graces our kitchen table with his presence and we call him 'Rio.'

 

Dinner Menu for Week of May 21-27

Monday:  Treat Day!  Tropical Burgers with fries

Tuesday:  Mulligatawny(Vegan)

Wednesday:  Princess Chicken

Thursday:  Rice Pilau(Vegan)

Friday:  Spaghetti with salad and garlic bread

Saturday:  Potato Pea Curry(Vegan)

Sunday:  Mu shu Chicken

Dinner Menu for Week of May 14-20

I have been meaning to post my dinner menus for a couple of weeks but just haven't gotten around to it.  And as you can see we are halfway through this week but I figured better late than never!  I have downloaded a couple of cook books to my Kindle so that I am never without dinner ideas.  I like planning a menu out on Sunday night for the following week so that I'm not scrambling to think of things for dinner.  I have a hard time finding certain ingredients here in China but that's where the fun comes in with substituting.  Anything calling for chili powder usually gets substituted with some of that delicious Garam Masala or Cumin I got from India!  Mmm yum!  Anyway I thought I would share this and hope that it gives you some ideas for your dinner menu too!

Monday: (Mondays are our 'Treat Day' so we usually have something treat-like.  This week...) Hot Dogs

Tuesday:  Wild Mushroom and Bean Burritos(vegetarian)

Wednesday:  Wonton Soup and tempura vegetables with zucchini from my garden!!

Thursday:  Cincinnati Style Chili Mac with Cornbread (vegetarian)

Friday:  Garlic Chicken with Rice

Saturday:  BBQ Chicken with Sweet Potato

Sunday:  Mango Chicken with rice

Meat is a bit of a concern here as I'm not sure what the hormone/antibiotic rules are so we do two vegetarian meals a week.  Two meals are usually 'comfort' food from home such as spaghetti and then the other three meals are Chinese inspired as the ingredients for that are easy to come by!

If there are any recipes you are interested in, let me know and I can email them to you or direct you to where I found them.

Happy Cooking!