Sunday, March 30, 2008

Lunch at Hong's

Robb and I went to one of his classmate's house this last week for lunch. Hong is married and just had a baby girl. She is so cute, and it just confirmed my desires to adopt even more. Hong and his wife are only children, so they can have one more child. (They both hope it is a boy) We took a taxi to his place and Hong met us at his gate. Hong also has a beautiful Yellow Lab. Her name is Go Goa and their daughter's name is Do Doa. (Do Doa's English name is Juli) We visited while Hong's sweet wife made us lunch. When it was ready we all sat down and I previewed the table. I was grateful that there was rice. I can eat rice and feel good about it. There was a bowl to me left and as I glanced at a few times while eating, I noticed something...a chicken foot with one finger nail still attached. As I searched for more treasures I found a beak in there! Any one hungry? There were other dishes that were good, but I was still careful. Here in China, I guess it isn't impolite to burp or slurp at lunch, and so we had quite the show from Hong. He talked to us with his mouth full, spewing rice all over and as he ate his chicken he slurped the meat off and spit the bones out on the table. There were moments of almost silence(when we weren't talking and all that could be heard was chewing and chomping)not from Robb and I, but I had to try and not look at Robb or else I would laugh. Towards the end of the meal, Hong let out the loudest burp...I held my breath and felt some awkwardness between Robb and I. I felt a little more at home(since my brothers and sister in law burp up a storm). Robb and I asked Hong if he could ever live in America and he said he couldn't because of the food. He doesn't like the food, and as he said that I kept thinking to myself, are you kidding me? I am sitting here two inches from chicken claws, beaks and innards and would KILL for some good ol' American food. It was quite entertaining. Robb later asked me at our dorm why I didn't try the chicken dish? (He had seen what I had seen floating around in the bowl.) It was so much fun and Hong and his wife are so nice. We can't wait to go visit them again. The people here are beautiful....not just on the outside, but most definitely on the inside. We met Hong on Sunday and he invited us just a few days later to eat at his house. Wow.

Host unlimited photos at slide.com for FREE!

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!(Part 2)

I am frustrated! Therefore I am using red for my text color. I have been working for an hour now to post our Karaoke video, but because of all the darned Government blocks here in China, I cannot open up blogger for a video post. Kika, your email totally helped, but it is a dead end here in China...so I am ticked cuz I may have to wait until I get home....Sorry! I will keep working at it though.

On Easter Sunday, Robb had his first class....9am-9pm with some 10 minute breaks and one hour break for lunch. There are 7 people in his class(including him), 5 girls and 2 boys. They invited him to lunch and he came and got me from the dorm room. We ate at an interesting shop on the side of the walkway off of Donghua campus. As we walked in the door, we looked to our left and there were dead(fully cooked) chickens hanging in the window. And then there were bowls with chicken heads, chicken feet, duck heads.....(okay I am grossing myself out). We ate at a table that has a lazy susan type of holder in the middle of the table and the food is placed on that and when you want something, you just spin it. You don't really scoop food onto a plate, but pick at the plates that everyone is eating off of. I didn't eat too much because I was a bit grossed out. I did eat the rice! Robb is much more brave...and he is way better at chopsticks than I am. They all laughed at us! One funny thing...Robb told his classmates at lunch that I danced, and one of the girls(Helen) told me that if we moved here there are lots of gentlemen clubs here to dance at and get paid...(what?!?!) Um, it turns out she meant like sports clubs like a gym that I could teach classes at. It gave us all a good laugh. I am going to figure this picture posting thing out and put some pictures of his classmates on here! Tzi Jen for now!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Easter Weekend

What a fun Easter! Friday night Robb and I went to dinner with three other couples from our Branch and we ate at a place called Tex Mex. It has western style food. I got sandwich and Robb got the Fajitas and it was delicious! We then ventured to meet up with a single guy from our Branch and did some Karaoke! Oh my heck, it was so much fun, and the guy's name is Benji and he is really big over here and especially in Taiwan. He is American and went to BYU and was on Young Ambassadors. He served his mission in Australia but it was Chinese speaking. He loves China and Chinese! He has moved here to pursue becoming a pop star and has been in some contests and is signing with someone in Taiwan. Any way, Karaoke is huge here and it isn't a bar, but there are private rooms for your own group of people. There is wrap around seating and a table and they brought us a big plate of fruit and this delicious kiwi drink. I was super shy at first, but I picked some songs and let loose! We recorded some it, so once we figure out how to add video to our blog we will share the fun night with all of you! Benji brought a friend who is an amazing singer as well. Her name is Yen and she dances here with the Shanghai Ballet. We stayed for about 2 hours and around 11:30pm we were going to go to an American Hip Hop club to dance...but Robb and Cameron were not up for it. So, we told Benji that another not he can take Char, Yen and I out to dance! That would be sooooo fun! Any who, I had to share my fun night in Shanghai with you! Video and pictures to come....but anyone have advice or instructions on how to post video and slide shows of pictures? (I am new to this...totally clueless) Help!

Friday, March 21, 2008

AHHHHHH!

Long time, no post....I must apologize about no posts or pictures, but it is not because I am a slacker. The government over here blocks EVERYTHING! We can't access Wikipedia, or blog spots. I guess it is because the Government doesn't want any information just being shared, for fear that their evil doings will be brought to light.
I have a lot to post, so this one may be a little long. We found out how to use our blog by using an anonymous proxy. So let's hope this works for 3 months.

Our first week here was culture shock for sure! I was warned that I would be stared at, but I didn't know I would be getting crusty glares and daggers my way. Old grandmas would literally stop in their tracks and turn around as I walked past. I always gave the biggest cheeser, but the return response made me want to flee the country. The other thing that made me want to flee the country is that fact that EVERYONE spits! I am talking about literally summoning this dark, dirty, hairy beast from the bowels of hell and then unleash it onto the sidewalk...where ever they want! It is disgusting. It is a million times worse than a loogie. It is funny cuz Robb and I will see a cute little grandma or grandpa and then they summon the beast and release it and they are no longer cute. People pick their nose with their pinky fingers here. (so sorry for posting such disgusting stories, but my sister in law thought others would enjoy them). I am not sure if they eat them like some people I've seen in the states, but one guy I saw was sitting at the subway and people were all around and he was digging for some serious gold. I mean, he must of hit his brain in the process and this went on for a good 5 minutes, and maybe longer because our subway left the station. Makes you hungry doesn't it? I have now seen about 4 kids pooping and 1 guy peeing. Sometimes the kids here have a slit in their pants and when it is time, their mom picks 'em up and squats them right on the side of the street! They do have dogs here, but I am pretty sure that when we are walking down the street or sidewalk, it isn't doggy poop we nearly step in. The guy that we saw peeing was on a bike, and we were on a daily adventure walking around Shanghai, and we see this guy standing really close to this wall...and it is broad daylight, cars are passing along with other motorists and as we get closer we realize he is peeing...as we approached him he quickly zipped up and hopped on his bike and as he passed us he yelled at us in Chinese...I just stared straight ahead wondering what he could possibly be saying. You also have to be careful here with breathing. if you don't breathe through your noise at all times, you are almost guaranteed to get some nasty smell/taste in your mouth. Robb and I walk along and at times hold our breath at the spots we have memorized are unpleasant to the nose. It is funny because I almost pass out...I don't know if it is from me holding my breath or from the stench.
Robb and I made our dorm more homey. We went to IKEA (what a blessing) and bought some rugs, bedding, towels, and a cute plant to do the job. I will post pictures with this so you can get a taste of what it is like. I have more stories to come...but I will wrap this post up and fill you in some more tomorrow. We love it here!