February 2014 – Casting A Stone

Since I last wrote, we have traveled by bus, train, plane, boat and rickshaw.

After a long and exhausting day (exhausting, is the nice word I came up with after sitting here and pondering for several moments) of traveling we couldn’t find taxis. Only 4 people are allowed in a taxi, so we need two. We opted to jump in two of these crazy contraptions with our luggage for the last leg of our journey. The kids thought it was hysterical. My husband kissed me and said this is why he married me. Hehehe – I guess it only takes me being a bit crazy to keep him crazy in love with me!

Where did we go that was worth traveling by rickshaw?

We went to a community center in south China to meet up with others who work with our company teaching english in various parts of Asia. In part this was to fulfill the yearly requirement of training, but it wasn’t just training (although there was a good deal of that). We enjoyed getting to know others who live lives similar to our own – we worshiped together, studied together, shared stories and gained encouragement. On top of that, the kids loved the classes and activities that were prepared for them!

I wouldn’t be honest if I didn’t mention that I also enjoyed not cooking, staying in a western guest house that had a washer and dryer! We also enjoyed the english library and playground along with some warmer weather. I am embarrassed at how much pizza, hamburgers, and coffee we consumed. I am not a huge McDonalds fan – but there is something about not having a hamburger for 6 months that makes a Big Mac and a Diet Coke taste super yummy. The drink I got at Starbucks was also heavenly!

While we were there we celebrated Little Monkey’s 7th birthday. Birthdays are a big deal in our family and I have never tried to pull one off while away from home. It stressed me out a bit. But, I should not have worried. All the kids at the conference enjoyed pitching in for a birthday bash for our girl and our sweet leaders planned a special evening of activities – cupcakes, an orbz ball (kinda like a human hamster ball that kinda made me want to be sick but the kids thought it was grand fun) and fireworks! She deemed it the “best birthday ever” as she watched the fireworks and ran around with her new friends spelling her name with sparklers.

After the conference we tacked on a few days of rest at an M guest house. More reading, more western food, more warm weather and new family memories.

The short of it.

We are now trained, rested, fattened up, and ready to begin a new semester!

Day one of Chinese New Year (CNY) a chinese family is at the home of the husband’s family. Day two they are with the wife’s family. Day three is set aside for friends and co-workers. After spending day one with our orphanage “family,” we were thrilled to spend day three with some of Bryan’s fellow teachers at the university.

We went thinking we were prepared for an afternoon of food and celebrations that started with Chinese New Year gifts. For us dried dates and a packaged dried duck. Yes, you read that right. An entire duck, bone and all, pressed, salted dried and shrink wrapped in a package that is now only an inch thick. I have it in hand and still can not really fathom it. Never seen anything like it. We handed out oranges (a common CNY gift) and apple pie (not so common as you can imagine.) They weren’t sure what to do with the sweet gooey dessert that didn’t seem to be chopstick compliant and I sure don’t know what to do with a dried duck. Even.

The photo doesn’t do it justice. I almost had Hubby take it out of the package for a better photo, but then I can’t re-gift it to my neighbor if I bust it open. 🙂 I have since been told I can put the dried duck in a pot of boiling water and it will “pop” back out. Anyone want to come for dinner this week? I will make it!

Back to CNY celebrations….Our hosts out did themselves cooking. The food was amazing and my children ate so much I might have been embarrassed if we were in the States at an American home. Thankful for me, good Chinese hospitality offers you way more food than necessary and eating till you might get sick is expected.

Don’t get me wrong, even if we were good guests in how much we ate….we were still in our high glory. One of our littles dropped and broke a glasss, another spilled an entire tumbler of tea and yet another had a bathroom “incident.” The other families all have one child – mostly teenagers and are in awe of our whole crew. We proved their theory that I am crazy busy and half out of my mind….but our host said, “You are busy but happy.” Points for her looking deeper than our chaos and not getting angry at our crazies!

As I looked around the room as we lounged, chatted and made connections it hit me that it is moments like these (chaos and all) that are the reason we have come.