Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thanksgiving in China...
Hi Everyone!
Sorry we haven't added anything new to the blog lately... not much exciting as happened! I hope everyone had a fun and safe Thanksgiving break. We had a little Thanksgiving celebration here in China as well...
A bunch of foreign teachers at our school decided to host a Thanksgiving potluck dinner at our dormitory. Each person (or couple) offered to make some kind of dish for dinner. We had homemade pumpkin and apple pie, biscuits, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, broccoli casserole, apple sauce, cranberry sauce, and corn on the cob. Our oven wasn't big enough to actually cook a turkey so we ordered buckets of KFC chicken and a few foot long turkey sandwiches from Subway. Many people contributed bottles of wine for dinner as well. Needless to say, we had a KFC Thanksgiving feast. Everything turned out really well (surprisingly) and we had a blast. There were roughly 16 people at dinner with a few Thanksgiving new-bees. Our friends from the UK and a few Chinese friends joined us and it was their first time celebrating Thanksgiving... we showed them how it was done!
Hope everyone is getting excited for the holiday season, I know I am. Love and miss you all! We will post more updates soon!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Family Farm Pictures:
Hi Everyone!
Here are the pictures we promised of the family farm... enjoy!
http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=1b65286440bd8b4d2a944dfefaeb216b&sid=0AZs2jlo3cNGL9o
Here are the pictures we promised of the family farm... enjoy!
http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=1b65286440bd8b4d2a944dfefaeb216b&sid=0AZs2jlo3cNGL9o
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Our first overnight at the farm...
This last weekend (5th and 6th) Cassie and I went on our first weekend trip to the farm (See earlier blog). Dinner, which consisted of several organic Taiwanese dishes, was ready shortly after we arrived. Conversation during was mostly about the shipment of baby chickens that would be arriving later that night.
The farm is being converted to raise free range chickens. The initial shipment consisted of a thousand “naked-neck” baby chickens from France. Over the course of the next few months more chicken houses will be completed to accommodate the growing numbers. After dinner we had sweet-osmanthus tea and watched the promotional DVD from Sasso, the French company that sent the chickens.
As the evening winded down we were shown to one of the guest bedrooms. It felt like a luxury sweet compared to the dorms. A walk in shower with heat lamps, leather couch, and an extremely comfortable bed with down comforter and tempur-pedic pillows were the best features.
Saturday was pretty relaxed. After having breakfast we went for a walk around the grounds. It was much bigger than I had originally anticipated (around 300 acres). After lunch we got to go and pay the chickens a visit, though from afar. Apparently they’re under strict care for the first month.
We spent the rest of the afternoon reading and watching Vampire Diaries…..well, Cassie and Aerial did anyway. I finished a few National Geographic articles. All around the weekend was a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the city. We’re excited to go again sometime and spend the whole weekend.
Sasso Chicken Website: http://www.sasso.fr/index.php?produit=home&lg=en
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Halloween: Finding the Bear Within...
Hi Everyone! We’ve got quite the exciting Halloween story to tell you all…
You might be asking yourself, “Does China celebrate Halloween?” Technically speaking no, China does not celebrate Halloween. BUT there are enough foreigners and expats to muster up a party or two. I was originally going to go as Wando, Where’s Waldo’s girlfriend (or possibly sister??) but I was out voted by my friends. I went instead dressed as a giant bear. And when I say giant I mean HUGE. In the markets here in China they sell HUGE stuffed toy bears. Naturally as we walked by them my friends all said “Hey, I bet Cassie could fit in one of those.” And that is how the idea was born. We bought the biggest stuffed bear we could find, decapitated it, and de-stuffed it. We safety pinned a top hat into the bear’s head which I wore as a hat and then I crawled into the bear body. We also added stuffing to the belly and bottom. It was pretty hilarious. My date, Thomas, went as the Unabomber. He wore a hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses, a fake mustache, and carried around a package with him all night. He always picks the most appropriate costumes, haha!
I was a pretty popular bear to say the least. By the end of the night my costume was covered in make-up and lipstick from people kissing my bear face and taking pictures with me all night long. We had heard that there was a bar in town hosting a costume contest with a pretty big prize so we decided to check it out. We all figured my costume had a pretty good chance of winning something. We arrived at this bar maybe 20 minutes before the contest began. Everyone was given yellow heart shaped stickers that they then used to vote for whatever costume they thought was the best. When it came time to tally up the votes I only had 11 heart stickers. A girl dressed as Salor Moon had about 19. It was pretty clear that technically speaking she had won the contest but then the crowd (meaning my friends and the fellow lovers of the bear) suddenly began to chant “BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! BEAR!” and they had no choice but to give the prize to me. I felt a little bad for Salor Moon but it was true that my costume was far superior and she was a good sport. The prize was a 1,000 yuan voucher for that bar/restaurant. That’s a lot of kuai! My other friend Iain won the male vote for best costume as well. He went as a marionette puppet. So our group walked away with 2,000 yuan for that place. It was pretty exciting.
This past Thursday we invited all of our friends who supported the bear and the puppet costumes to that same bar/restaurant and spent most of the vouchers we had on food and drinks for everyone. The restaurant serves Mexican food so we ordered Mexican pizzas and nachos all night long. I even got a band to come and play for us for free! The bear has a way with making connections and friends, what can I say?! It was a pretty awesome Halloween over all.
At school this past week Thomas and I both did Halloween lessons too. That is always fun for the kids. My parents sent me some American candy to give to my students and they LOVED it. I hope everyone else had a fun Halloween as well! Thomas and I are heading up to the family farm this weekend with Ariel and her parents. It should be a quiet and relaxing weekend. We will try to take a lot of pictures and add them soon. Some Halloween pictures will be coming soon as well! Love and miss you all!
You might be asking yourself, “Does China celebrate Halloween?” Technically speaking no, China does not celebrate Halloween. BUT there are enough foreigners and expats to muster up a party or two. I was originally going to go as Wando, Where’s Waldo’s girlfriend (or possibly sister??) but I was out voted by my friends. I went instead dressed as a giant bear. And when I say giant I mean HUGE. In the markets here in China they sell HUGE stuffed toy bears. Naturally as we walked by them my friends all said “Hey, I bet Cassie could fit in one of those.” And that is how the idea was born. We bought the biggest stuffed bear we could find, decapitated it, and de-stuffed it. We safety pinned a top hat into the bear’s head which I wore as a hat and then I crawled into the bear body. We also added stuffing to the belly and bottom. It was pretty hilarious. My date, Thomas, went as the Unabomber. He wore a hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses, a fake mustache, and carried around a package with him all night. He always picks the most appropriate costumes, haha!
I was a pretty popular bear to say the least. By the end of the night my costume was covered in make-up and lipstick from people kissing my bear face and taking pictures with me all night long. We had heard that there was a bar in town hosting a costume contest with a pretty big prize so we decided to check it out. We all figured my costume had a pretty good chance of winning something. We arrived at this bar maybe 20 minutes before the contest began. Everyone was given yellow heart shaped stickers that they then used to vote for whatever costume they thought was the best. When it came time to tally up the votes I only had 11 heart stickers. A girl dressed as Salor Moon had about 19. It was pretty clear that technically speaking she had won the contest but then the crowd (meaning my friends and the fellow lovers of the bear) suddenly began to chant “BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! BEAR!” and they had no choice but to give the prize to me. I felt a little bad for Salor Moon but it was true that my costume was far superior and she was a good sport. The prize was a 1,000 yuan voucher for that bar/restaurant. That’s a lot of kuai! My other friend Iain won the male vote for best costume as well. He went as a marionette puppet. So our group walked away with 2,000 yuan for that place. It was pretty exciting.
This past Thursday we invited all of our friends who supported the bear and the puppet costumes to that same bar/restaurant and spent most of the vouchers we had on food and drinks for everyone. The restaurant serves Mexican food so we ordered Mexican pizzas and nachos all night long. I even got a band to come and play for us for free! The bear has a way with making connections and friends, what can I say?! It was a pretty awesome Halloween over all.
At school this past week Thomas and I both did Halloween lessons too. That is always fun for the kids. My parents sent me some American candy to give to my students and they LOVED it. I hope everyone else had a fun Halloween as well! Thomas and I are heading up to the family farm this weekend with Ariel and her parents. It should be a quiet and relaxing weekend. We will try to take a lot of pictures and add them soon. Some Halloween pictures will be coming soon as well! Love and miss you all!
Monday, November 1, 2010
A Rainy Weekend in Shanghai
Two weekends ago Thomas and I decided to make a last minute trip to Shanghai with another couple here to go see the World Expo before it closed down. We only had a few days to prepare for the trip but Shanghai is only an hour away by train so we weren't traveling too far.
Shanghai was extremely big and busy! But so beautiful. It didn't really seem like China. It seemed more like a European city or New York. We arrived Friday night and went straight to the Bund which is the main drag right along the river down town. We grabbed a few drinks at a restaurant located on the top of a building so we could see the entire skyline of the city. It was pretty amazing.
The next day we headed out to the World Expo in the remnants of a typhoon. It rained all day long and our pants were soaked up to our knees in water. But we braved the weather anyway. The expo is so ridiculously big; there really are no words to describe it. The pavilions were so cool. The lines were way too long and we only managed to go inside three of them but the architecture alone was worth it. After a long day of walking around in the rain, we were completely beat. Our train left early Sunday morning so Saturday night wasn't too exciting. We all went to bed pretty early. We didn't get to see hardly of the other sights in Shanghai but we live so close I have a feeling that we will be back.
Here are the few pictures we took from the weekend:
http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=ff2f100073cb3d496cdd16a80fdf8c46&sid=0AZs2jlo3cNGL7w
Enjoy! We will write soon with some more exciting stories...
Shanghai was extremely big and busy! But so beautiful. It didn't really seem like China. It seemed more like a European city or New York. We arrived Friday night and went straight to the Bund which is the main drag right along the river down town. We grabbed a few drinks at a restaurant located on the top of a building so we could see the entire skyline of the city. It was pretty amazing.
The next day we headed out to the World Expo in the remnants of a typhoon. It rained all day long and our pants were soaked up to our knees in water. But we braved the weather anyway. The expo is so ridiculously big; there really are no words to describe it. The pavilions were so cool. The lines were way too long and we only managed to go inside three of them but the architecture alone was worth it. After a long day of walking around in the rain, we were completely beat. Our train left early Sunday morning so Saturday night wasn't too exciting. We all went to bed pretty early. We didn't get to see hardly of the other sights in Shanghai but we live so close I have a feeling that we will be back.
Here are the few pictures we took from the weekend:
http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=ff2f100073cb3d496cdd16a80fdf8c46&sid=0AZs2jlo3cNGL7w
Enjoy! We will write soon with some more exciting stories...
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