Happy Birthday, Becca!

Monday was Becca's birthday. I know parents say this all the time, but I can hardly believe that she is 8! For those who have not seen us since our move, you will be amazed at how tall she is! I think that she grows some every day. This year she has changed so much and is not only growing but maturing before our eyes. Our move has been so good for her. She had decided several weeks ago that she wanted to have a cat party. So, last Friday, I went on a mission to find small stuffed animal cats. Wow, I could not believe how hard it was to find stuffed animals, not to mention cats. After searching at several different markets and even the mall near us, I had found ONE cat. Seriously, people. I kept thinking, I really need Target right now. Or the dollar store. Or something. I kept thinking this is China, land of where so many toys are made. Why can I not find one cat? But as I have learned, there are many things that are available here, you just need to know where to look and apparently I was looking in the wrong places. But do you know what animal I found EVERYWHERE? Cows and bulls. Any guesses as to why? Because, this my friends, is the Year of the Bull. :-) But seeing that no little eight-year-old girl wants a COW party, I pressed on and finally found monkeys. While they were not what Becca originally had in mind, we altered some of our ideas and had a great monkey party. We created a:

Monkey Rehabilitation Center (in case you cannot read it)

All the girls (and Josh) were able to rescue a monkey. We talked about various places that monkeys live and then pretended we were in one of those countries. The funny part to me was that the girls had been to many of the places we were talking about (Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand). After rescuing our monkeys, we played several games, ate cake and of course opened presents. Becca and the girls (well, and Josh) had a great time.

All the kids with their monkeys

Monkey cake (though it was more like a cookie)

And as becoming our tradition we had a fire-flower candle.

Buying a Live Chicken

WARNING: This might be gross. It involves blood. I don't think the pictures are that disturbing, but you have been warned.

For our Easter dinner, we decided to roast a couple chickens. Friends took us to the market to assist us buying live chickens. Yes, indeed we picked out our own chickens and had them slaughtered right before our eyes! At the vegetable market in a nearby neighborhood where I buy my veggies and fruit, they also sell chickens. Who knew? We had friends come with us because I do not have the language to tell them exactly what I want. We picked out 2 females (because they are more tender). The chickens are then weighed - feathers and all. And yes, at this point they were still alive and squawking. He then took them into a side room to cut their jugulars. I couldn't watch, but Andy did. They were then put into a bucket with a lid (yep, they were still moving). After a couple minutes, the chickens were dipped into boiling water and then put into this crazy tumbler machine. A minute or two in the tumbler de-feathers them. They plucked out a couple remaining few feathers, chopped off the head and feet (they also took out all the icky things inside) and we were on our way! How crazy is that?!

Those are our chickens!

Weighing in

On the left is the pot of boiling water and on the right is the tumbler. And yes, all over the floor are feathers and well, other stuff.

One of our chickens after the tumbler. Notice that it still has the tail feathers?

Tori in front of the chickens. Before you all think we are horrible parents taking our 3 year old to see a chicken be killed.... she knew we were getting a "live chicken" but she was too busy playing with a little Chinese girl away from the action and so she saw none of the gross stuff. The man did all the icky stuff in another room where Tori was not allowed. Even so, she kept saying, "we are buying a live chicken!" She then asked when we were going to eat the chicken. You forget that my kids routinely see whole pigs hanging up in the meat section of the grocery store! 

Making tortilla chips

I am always on the lookout for ways to do things more inexpensively. Andy calls this aspect of me "my frugal." There are many things in China that are very inexpensive (most fresh fruit and veggies), but other comfort and familiar things that are "import foods" can be really expensive. Tortillas, cheese, salsa, and pretzels are just a few things that can be twice as expensive as in the U.S.! Some things (like cheese), we buy and really eat a lot less of here than back in the States. And others, I make myself. Taco night means making the tortillas, salsa, and sometimes even the refried beans. A friend recently told me a way to make chips using jiaozi pi (dumpling wrappers). So instead of spending 35-40 Yuan on one bag of tortilla chips that are often stale (this converts to about $5-6), I spent 6 Yuan (less than $1) and made the equivalent of 2-3 bags! At the vegetable market, you can easily find the wrappers. I cut them, brushed a little oil on them, sprinkled salt, baked them. Voile! Tortilla chips! I cannot tell you how excited I am by this find.

This was only 1 of 3 stacks that I bought. Originally, I thought that I might need to roll them out a bit but that proved unnecessary.

A batch ready to go in the oven.

Then finished. They reminded me of baked pita chips. Oh, so yummy!

My boy and his maps

I cannot begin to tell you how much Josh loves maps. I really don't know when or how it started, but he will pore over a map and examine each detail. For Christmas last year, Uncle Dave and Aunt Amree gave the kids a shower curtain with a map of the world on it. This was one of the few selected things that made the journey with us to China. When Andy would travel, the kids would all love to find where he was on the map. Shortly after he started school last September, I asked him if he knew where his friends were from and where those countries were. He promptly told me, "I already found them on the map." But his love of maps is not limited to the world map.... when we were at HK Disney, he commandeered a map and couldn't really enjoy a spot until he found it on the map. At the aquarium in Shanghai this weekend, I actually told him at one point, "Josh put down your map and look at the fish." :-D

Josh (beside the canopy walk in Malaysia) showing off his shirt with, you guessed it, a MAP of Sabah, Malaysia on it.

Shanghai

This weekend we had a 3-day weekend, so we decided to go into Shanghai for part of the weekend. Sunday we left after church and took the high speed train (a 35 minute ride to Shanghai). After dropping stuff off at our hotel, we trekked to IKEA and then onto Nanjing Road and the Bund. We have been to Shanghai several times, but each time the weather just didn't cooperate with us to be able to see Pudong lit up at night. Sunday night was clear and beautiful. We wandered the Bund, gazing across the river and Josh's comment summed it up:

"I just can't stop looking at all the buildings."

Standing on the Bund looking at Pudong.

On Monday we visited the Shanghai Aquarium, did a bit of shopping and caught the train back home. I know that I have said this before, but Andy and I were SO impressed with our kiddos. We walked a ton and they didn't complain and just kept bouncing along. The crowds and the extra attention they receive don't seem to bother them as much as when we first got to China. We have been living here for almost a year and I am so thankful for how they each have adjusted to life here. We had such a great (and tiring) time this weekend, but it is great to back home in Suzhou.

No. 1 Silk Factory

This past weekend was cold and rainy so we were on the hunt for things to do indoors. Saturday afternoon we went to the No. 1 Silk Factory. I think that factory tours can be so interesting and this is a great one! I know I will add it to my "tour guide repertoire." So if you come to visit us, I just might take you there. :-)  Anyway, the factory shows how silk is made starting with the silkworms and ending (not surprisingly) in a store where you can buy silk items. The process was fascinating. Did you know that a silkworm's cocoon is one single thread that stretches a mile? How crazy is that? Some cocoons have 2 silkworms. These can't be used to make silk threads because the two strands become tangled, so they are used as filling for silk comforters (which are supposedly super-warm). 

A worker sorting the cocoons by whether they have a double or a single worm.

The cocoons are steamed and then soaked in water to loosen the threads. This woman is finding the start of the single strand of the cocoon. Then she threads it through this machine that unwinds the cocoon. Each one of these wheels is unwinding a single cocoon.

My engineer (Andy) was fascinated by this machine. It is a mechanical loom that is weaving a piece of silk. Can you see the elaborate punch cards that tell the loom what pattern to weave? I think that Andy could have stood here for an hour. 

This women is opening up the cocoons that have 2 silkworms. She then stretches the whole cocoon over the metal loop you see on her workbench. After there are a number of cocoons, they are left to dry and then....

4 workers stretch to make it the size of a quilt. How many of these layers a quilt has determines the quality.

The kids and I taking a turn. Notice how ours is much smaller than theirs?

The girls touching a (dead) silkworm that was removed from a cocoon.

Field Trip to a Chinese Farm

Wednesday I went with Tori's class to a farm. I had no idea what to expect, but this farm really reminded me of a pumpkin farm during October (Stoney Creek, for you Indy folk) - selling tickets to get in, rides, pick your own produce, bouncy castle, and petting zoo. Instead of riding on a haywagon, we rode a golf cart to the greenhouse. There we picked cucumbers and strawberries. The farm was on one of the islands in the middle of Taihu (Lake Tai). This is a beautiful lake about twenty minutes from our house. We had a great time and I think that we will come back here as a family sometime this spring!

Tori was so excited to have picked her own cucumber.