I am glad I got on the bus early because I got a seat. All these people had to stand for a long time.

This is the Christmas morning spread. Hao Chi Ma? Yes, it tasted very good. I really wasn't hungry for lunch.

We wish you a merry Christmas.

And this was the road on Christmas Eve.

Like I said, we got a little crazy taking pictures at the bus stop, but it was fun. And aren't you impressed by the recycling bin. My friend had to stand in the middle of the road to take this picture.

While waiting for the bus I smelled a familiar scent wafting through the air. Let me just say, be glad that you cannot smell this photo. This is a Chou Dofu vendor (translated as Stinky Tofu). It does not disappoint its name.

Christmas Eve we went out dancing with Santa Claus. Since Asian children don't believe in him he has do something. If you didn't get any presents from him it may be because we kept him out too late. Sorry about that:) No but really, he really was a dancing Santa. Ta Xia le wo yi tiao.

Not being able to have caffeine kind of takes the fun out of going to a coffee shop, but the vanilla milk shake was good (no it is not an ice cream shake, it is a milk shake).

My roommate and I went to a coffee shop Christmas Eve night and they randomly had a little golf shop set up downstairs. Here I am practicing my putting, but I don't think it every went in.

Fish Tale

I was at my friends house the other day and some people came in and started talking about a fish that their friend had caught. He caught a 60kg river fish. Now that is big! Bigger than me and most Asian females. I just can't imagine a river fish being that big. Well, then I was invited to go dinner to taste the fish. Unfortunately I didn't get to see the fish, but the part that was cut up looked like a lot of fish. It was cooked in hot pot, a big pot of boiling broth that you eat of at the table, and I actually didn't like it very much. A lot of the pieces did not look like fish at all. It seemed to have a pork texture with a fish flavor. It was also very fatty (fish is not supposed to be like that). As normal, people felt the need to keep adding pieces to my bowl, so I got to eat part of the tail. The tail doesn't have any meat so you basically are just sucking the skin off the bone.
The funniest part about this story to me was that everyone kept talking about it. The conversation at dinner kept being, "So how big was the fish again?" "126 jin, wow, that's bigger than. . ." Anytime a new person came in the room the same conversation would pick up. I am really surprised that the fish did not grow during the conversation, but I did find out that it was supposedly 20 years old.

My parent and friends and family from the states sent me a Christmas tree kit. I taped the tree to the wall above my bed and it goes almost to the ceiling. The ornament have pictures of friends and family. It is great! Thanks to those of you who contributed.

I feel sorry for this little baby. Can he breathe? Around here they think a baby cries because he is hungry, but maybe it is because he is hot and wants to move his arms. Well, Keke has a cute little face and I did get to see that he has a full head of hair.

My friends had a baby last month so went to see the baby. The custom here is such that American women probably would not put up with. Mothers are not supposed to leave the home for an entire month after the baby is born. She must stay at home eating only chicken, eggs, and a sweet soup called Sugar Beer that has brown sugar and eggs in it (pretty much nothing else). My friend asked me about the customs in America and she was jealous. She is really tired of staying home and eating chicken. The mother is also not supposed to wash her hair or shower for this month, but my friend was rebellious on that point. Normally the Husband's mother is supposed to come to take care of the baby and the house but Eric's mother passed away so he has to do the household duties, like shopping, that Helen cannot do.

Fruit plates are quite elaborate and decorative out here. This time we had a dragon protecting our apples and oranges. He looks fierce but it is fortunate he doesn't bite cuz it was good fruit. (made out of a watermelon rind if you can't tell)

Without my flash. We went to the Peace Market to buy the white lights and it took forever. I think that sales girl had to go to several different stalls to find enough strands that actually worked. But it sure is pretty.

Here is our finished product (before I went back and spread out the branches and ornaments).

Don't you love Christmastime? It is so much fun to involve my new friends in old traditions that they have never experienced. I must admit though that I redecorated the tree after they left, a few boughs had more than one ornament.

Holiday Traditions

Today was Thanksgiving, a holiday which is not really recognized in Asia because it isn't very commercial and it is country specific. Despite this fact, the Americans in my city went all out and had a good old fashioned pot-luck Dinner. We had cornbread dressing, broccoli rice casserole, sweet potato casserole (my favorite), mashed potatoes, veggies (my other favorite), pumpkin and pecan pies, and Chicken. That's right, a turkey is now alive today because we had chicken for Thanksgiving dinner.
After dinner we played Phase 10 (and I was stuck on phase 5 until the end of the game, but we won't talk about that), and then we took part in a very odd holiday tradition that we started on the 4th of July. The place we have our holiday get togethers is a 10th/top floor apartment. On the fourth of July we went up on the roof and someone started spitting watermelon seeds off. Then it progressed and someone threw their watermelon rind into the bushes, so then we all did it and tried not to hit the protruding air vents on the way down. It was fun so we decided to do it every holiday. So tonight we through dinner rolls off the balocony. Of course these were kind of hard and ball shaped so dropping it into the bushes was not the objective. This time we threw them and tried to get them onto roof tops and in other places. Unfortunately it was dark so we could not see where they landed exactly but we could hear the thud and kind of tell if it landed on a roof or the ground. Now I know this probably sounds very adolescent to you, but I will let you know that all of the participants are fully grown adults and some of them even have grown kids. Don't worry we didn't hit anyone and we have made a point to only throw things that are ok for the environment. So what will the food of choice be for Christmas? I don't know yet, but it will be exciting!

Notice the big water bottles under the desk. The dormitory does not have hot water so the students must go to the cafeteria and pay for hot water if they want to wash their hair. Of course, now the sun has decided to go into hiding, my solar heated shower does not have hot water either, perhaps I can borrow from them.

Just goofin' off and takin' pictures.

Looks fun, I think I will join them!

College students take a break from studies to play in the park. These four are majoring in law.

Aerobics with an Asian Flare

Tuesday I went to a nearby gym to check out a "Dance" class. After about 30 seconds of the dance class I realized that it is really just high impact aerobics on fast forward. I seriously wish that I had video tape of it because I know that I would laugh (oh wait, I did). Not only did the male instructor take normal aerobics moves and put them in double time, he also made them bigger. We spent about an hour and a half flailing our arms and legs in multiple directions and moving our bodies in ways that just don't seem natural. The work out was definitely good for my heart, but don't know how great it is for the rest of your body. Perhaps if I have time I will try the Latin dance class next time.

Weird things about myself

I read someone's blog who had been tagged to share 5 weird things about themselves, so now I am tagged. But how on earth can I just list five? I live in Asia, there are a lot of weird things about me.
1. My 2nd and 3rd toes on my left foot are stuck together
2. I have eaten dog more than once and I like it.
3. Dancing in my kitchen is one of my favorite activities.
4. Coffee, tea, chocolate, dark sodas, and headache medications are off limits because caffeine gives me migraines.
5. I have curly hair (that my not seem weird to you, but it Asia it is very peculiar).

So now you have been tagged. What are five weird things about yourself?

This is our kitchen/dining room that actually flows right into the living room. I am quite thankful for counters, and sink with hot water, and our avocado green refrigerator. The purple pillow is in the chair because I was practicing writing and the table is too tall so I needed more leverage. That is my roommate over in the corner.

If you were to ever come visit us, you would sleep here. It is a small room, but the bed sleeps two and there is an AC.

Here is the rest of my room. The fan that you see is just about to be out of season!! I am finally sleeping under covers with the fan on low. My room opens up onto our balcony which has the wonderful function drying clothing. Last night I stood on the balcony and watched fireworks that were being shot off at a nearby park. It was probably the best display I have seen here so far.

This is my bed. . . My bed is really more than a place to sleep. In college I picked up the habit of studying on my bed, and it continues. Currently on my night stand, or on the floor actually, is the book "1421" by Gaven Menzies. It is good so far. If you are into history then I recommend it.

Turn your head again. This is our extra bathroom with a squatty. It also has a shower and a sink, but the water from the sink flows onto the floor so we don't really use it.

This is a different view of the living room. The shelf and the lamp in the back is a new addition that will be leaving in about 7 months when our friends return, but it looks cute for now.

This is our living room. It is quite spacious so it makes a great place to do exercise videos, I don't even have to move the couch back. We have a rock garden over by the window, but it is currently covered by stuff we are storing. The water cooler on the left is the a necessary item for our hydration. There are two people living in our apartment and we go through one bottle every two days.

You will have to turn your head for this one because I uploaded my pictures wrong and couldn't get it turned around. This is our laundry room. If you think you see two washing machines, you are right. We are storing one for a friend while they are temporarily back in the States. In my old apartment I had to turn the water off and on during the different stages of washing. This one does it on its own and it is so wonderful.

I have been living in my apartment for almost four months now so I figured it was about time to give you a tour. This is the office. My little desk has the black rolly chair, it is quite fun! Out the window is a hospital, though not an hospital that foreigners can go to so it isn't really a convenient neighbor.

All South East Asian languages (and English) say, "Peace, Prosperous, Harmony"

I want to say that this close one is in Malaysia and the far one that is kind of blue is in Indonesia, but I'm really not sure, I got kind of confused.

This is some other building in China, not sure what because didn't read the sign.

This is the Summer Palace in Beijing. It looked more spectacular than this, but the flash kind of messed it up.

This is the gateway to a light tour of most famous buildings in South East Asia. They were actually really pretty and it was a beautiful early fall evening. There was fun, exotic music playing in the background which made it enjoyable for one whose body constantly moves to whatever beat is in the air. In this picture you can also faintly see some of the flags of the various countries.

Here is a closer up view of the roast chicken. Its poor head is a little twisted, but since it is about to be eaten, which is the worse fate? It tasted really good and was nice and moist.

I went with some friends to the ASEAN Expo International Tourism and Food Festival. We were all expecting foods from all the different represented South East Asian countries and were a little disappointed to only find food that we could find in the night food courts of our city. I ate things I had never tried though. We had roast chicken that was wrapped in paper and cooked in clay, a food that kind of resembled corn bread stuffing that was stuffed inside a little woven bag, and some sour tofu (my least favorite).

These are my friends who took me to visit the cave. We had to drive a ways in the mountains and the little boy isn't used to riding in cars. I felt so sorry for him when he got sick. He really didn't want to get back in the car.

This is a picture of the boat infront of us exiting the caves. We sat on benches on little rafts while our driver steered us through the three doors with a long pole. After the ride we stopped and ate the local food. We had some little river fish that you eat whole, head and all. I normally kind of like those, but these were really bitter.

These are the banks where you board the boats and see the beautiful mountains.

During National Day holiday I visited 3 Door Caves with some friends. Here is the first door.

Fashion Blunders

Though the picture is blurry, I think the the blunder is obvious. I saw this riding the bus one day and had to take a picture because I thought my little sister would appreciate it. These open toed stilts are common among the short Asian women. 

This is the tugboat that pulled us across to the other side. Cute huh?

I have become very accustomed to riding countryside buses and I actually really enjoy it. Yesterday I had a new experience. The road that we were driving on suddenly went into the river. Of course the bus stopped before this happened, we all got of the bus and then road a raft to the other side where there was another road. I guess it really isn't that exciting, but it was certainly different.

Standing in front of the school gate with a group of students who lived too far away to go home for the weekend.

Last weekend I visited a school in the countryside. This is one of the girls we got to tell stories to.

close up picture of my partially eaten mooncake

In celebration of Mid-Autumn festival, I was given two boxes of mooncakes(4perbox). I cannot read the packaging so I had no idea what was inside each one. The night of the full moon my roommate and I decided to have a taste testing party. These are the remains after the party. As you can probably tell, we didn't really like them. The varities included; egg yolk, white sesame seed with some kind of fruit and nut, some other kind of fruit and nut with meat I think, chocolate and fig, and honey cream. I will just have to say that though they look pretty, I will pass next year.

Close up view of the mooncakes sold in the market.

September 18th this year is Mid-Autumn Festival centered around the full moon. Because the celebration is about the moon, everything moon-shaped is used to celebrate this occasion. Though the people say it is about the moon, it seems that it is rather about the moon-shaped cake. Every street is lined with people selling boxes of mooncakes (very dense biscuits with a wide assortment of fillings). It is tradition to give mooncakes to people for this holiday and then you give away the ones you get. I really wonder how many billion mooncakes are bought and given during the month of September, and how many are thrown away uneated. This picture is in the market, selling individually wrapped mooncakes.