News from a Busy Bee

After a couple of weeks of Blogger non-function, a couple more of me being lazy, and the last few of me being busy, I've finally decided to update you on those things of greatest import.

Belated Congratulations to Carrie and Derek for the birth of their first child, Gavin Michael. Born October 30th (it took 1.5 days for the news to reach this side of the world)!! Below are photos from the birthday party that I threw for my friends here in Weihai to celebrate the joyous occasion. We are at the Japanese Noodle Restaurant (not the real name, but that's what I will call it to make all things easy). We even cracked open a bottle of red wine and had cookies and ice cream afterwards. It was a nice time. Picture below from top left to bottom left around to bottom right up to top right: Wayne and Lori (Canadians); Lyndon, Rachel, and Zoe (Kiwis); Neal and Roz (Americans). We're not into segregation or anything. In the second picture, Benjamin (Kiwi) has snuck into the photo.



Thanksgiving has come and gone with little consequence. I was talking to my father last week and he informed me that, "the entire western part of the United States has fallen under a terrible storm. Thank goodness this didn't happen last weekend." Somewhat befuddled, I asked him what was so important about last weekend. The answer? Yes, Thanksgiving. Though we had a pleasant celebration here on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the holiday was far enough away from the American animal that it did not quite sink in. Of course, we didn't have the Thursday/Friday holiday off from work. No early morning trips for ad papers. No Christmas shopping or Thanksgiving Day movies. Surprisingly, I didn't find myself missing any of these American "traditions". It is quite nice to be so inept in a language as to not feel desirous/obligated to purchase material goods. Food and warm clothes have been occupying the majority of my shopping excursions as of late. I did, however, miss the family. Last year I celebrated two Thanksgivings: one with my mother's family in Detriot, MI (in October) and one with brother, Carrie, Dad and Carolyn in Midlothian, VA. In the latter, we ended up finishing up the cooking on the grill because the power went out before any of the side dishes were prepared.

This year saw similar ingenuity from all parties involved. I tried my hand at stove-top stuffing with only half of the recommended ingredients. Note to all: Chinese bread is not only sweet, but it turns mushy when added to broth. The result was a nice gluey-paste that tasted a bit like how stuffing should. Not too shabby. Other dishes included roasted veggies, roasted chicken, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, salad, coleslaw, mini pizzas, Chinese dumplings, assorted seafood (shrimp and clamish things), fresh bread, a fruit juice simulating a cider, pumpkin pie, apple cake, and ice cream cake. Oooo, and we had freshly whipped cream. So, I'd say we made out pretty well, eh?

After dinner, we played frisbee between a couple of buildings. The sun quickly disappeared and we ended up drifting towards the warmth of the building until we were quite obviously no longer playing frisbee.

This past Saturday, the girls headed over to Rachel and Lyndon's house and we decorated gingerbread houses. A first for me with real gingerbread. Perhaps Jewel remembers my pitiful attempt at using Betty Crocker icing and the off-brand Honey Grahams last year? These houses actually stuck together. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo, though I should be receiving one in an email and will be sure to post it here sometime next year!! haha.

After the decorating session, we gathered to sing for our dinner at Weihai's Golden Bay Hotel. The dinner was pretty snazzy--turkey, fresh salmon, weird desserts--the whole bit. We will splurge for Christmas dinner and rent out the Western Restaurant at this same hotel (did I mention it was 5 star? yesssssss...). We played a couple rounds of bowling and I was appropriately matched on the loser team. Our highest score in the first round? 90 (me) followed by a close second 89 (Darran), third 87 (Molly). I don't recall Melody's score (sorry, Melody). The second round wasn't much better, though it was DRASTIC improvement in our eyes. I think Darran pulled ahead with a score of 150 or so, Molly and I both scored in the one hundred and some odd teens and Melody pulled up to 80s or 90s. We make a formidable team, don't you think? Well, Melody (the younger) was cheering us on and it was loads of fun. The best part? Seeing the employees scramble around trying to find sizes that would fit our foreign feet--I think they had to resort to the backstock of shoes that looked like they should have been retired a decade ago. But, in a certain sense, all bowling shoes have that feel about them, don't they?

I can't really say that I am progressing on the Chinese language front. I had a good stint (a month or so) where I consistently cancelled all of my lessons. Pretty douche-baggy of me, I know. But, I just plain needed a break. I am now back into the swing of things. I am nearly through with my introductory book on Chinese pinyin (as far as I can gather we could say that pinyin = sound alphabet). After that, I can "begin" to learn Chinese. I've picked up a few characters here and there, but nothing too impressive. To give you an idea about my slow progress--even the students most excited about my desire to learn Chinese have stopped asking me about my progress, as I guess it is non-existent. I have learned plenty of other things from my tutor--how to take the number 12 and 7 bus downtown, how to clean and cook a fish, how to drink a good cup of herbal tea. All very useful =).

I am looking forward to the end of the semester--we are sitting in the middle of week 14 and week 18 are our exams, so you can see how very close it is!!! And, in mid-January my father should be rolling into town with an entire suitcase loaded with goodies from home. I look forward to catching up with him AND to unloading (graciously, of course) that suitcase!

Cheers!

Allyssa