Mmm, Fruit!

There are many things that are wonderful about living in China. But one that our family enjoys on a daily basis is the fresh fruits and vegetables. Each day on my way to catch the bus home from the University I walk by a fruit stand. This is what I bought today:

For only 13 Yuan! (which is less than $2!) We have enjoyed trying some fruits that we had never seen before. The large green fruit is a youtzi - similar to a grapefruit, but a little sweeter. The smaller green fruits are juzi - similar to an orange but just a little more sour. And because fall is in the air (and to welcome Andy home from his business trip) I bought apples to make a pie. Who knows what I will buy tomorrow?

Yangshuo - Day 2, the 1st installment

On our second day, we loaded up the troops to see a very old banyan tree. This banyan tree (which is called, "The Big Banyan Tree") is over 1000 years old. 

We then went to Moon Hill. This is a famous small mountain in the area that the top of it looks like the moon. This was an experience. When our van pulled up, it was surrounded by local village woman. As we climbed out, 2 women attached themselves to our family asking us to buy water and other things. Our guide had told us if we tell them "later" and then buy something on the way down, then they will follow up but not really bother us. This proved to be true. Two nainais (a respectful term for a woman of grandmother age) came with us, chatted with us along the way and even helped out with the kids and directions. At the end we bought 2 waters (rather overpriced water) and everyone was happy. Our kids were such troupers up the mountain. They led the way and we often had to tell them to slow down. The view from the top was spectacular. We surprised our guide and hiked up and down the mountain in much less time than she anticipated. Go, super-hiking kiddos!

Can you see why it is called "Moon Hill"?

One of the nainai fanning Tori

The required photo at the top

Andy and Tori jumping down the steps

Yangshuo - Day 1

We arrived in Yangshuo in the evening, got dinner and settled into our hotel. We woke the next morning rested and ready to start a day of touring. We ate breakfast with a familiar friend and then met up with our guide. For those of you who know us, you might be surprised that we hired a guide. We are after all people who took a road trip last year in a country where we could barely string together a sentence of the language. But knowing that it would be incredibly busy and wanting to maximize our time (not having to scramble around figuring out tickets or transportation), we thought this would be a good idea and our guide Lily was wonderful. 

We found a friend to have breakfast with....

We started our morning by taking a bamboo raft ride along the Yulong River. This was such a wonderful way to see the mountains. This is a smaller river that contains several waterfalls. After the first one when Tori got wet, I wondered how this was going to go. She was almost hysterical! I calmed Tori down and the rest of the trip was really enjoyable. We spent almost 2 hours going down the river. Josh was ready for it to be done, but Becca wanted more waterfalls. We then had lunch in a small country restaurant and went to Silver Cave. I have been to several caves in the U.S., but a Chinese cave is an experience! I know that in Mammouth Cave they only use the lights for select periods of time in order to preserve the formations. Much like how the Chinese do other things, the caves are a technicolor explosion. I am not sure how it affects the cave, but seeing it is breathtaking and beautiful. After a quick dinner, we finished our day off by attending the Impressions show in Yangshuo. We had been to the Impressions show in Hangzhou. Both of these shows are choreographed by the same man as the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. The water is the stage in this amazing show. What a great end to a tiring and truly wonderful day!

Ready to go!

Enjoying the scenery

Going down the falls

The spectacular Silver Cave

One tired little tourist

Trip to Guilin

Happy Golden Week! This week commemorates the revolution and when Chinese celebrate the beginning of modern China. This is also a holiday for Andy, the kids and myself and a great time to travel without having to use vacation time. :-) Last year we went to Hangzhou and Huangshan (The Yellow Mountains). This year we decided to travel to the area of Guilin and the Li River (pronounced "Lee"). We stayed in the beautiful city of Yangshuo. The area is known for its unusual mountains. In fact, many people are familiar with the mountains as they are featured often in photos and paintings about China. We left Friday, October 2nd. I am going to go back and detail our trip day by day. Let the blogging begin.....

Settling In

Well, I now have almost one month under my belt of Chinese classes. While the vocabulary words are still mostly review, my knowledge of recognizing and writing characters has grown exponentially. I think that I know how to write and read over 100 characters. I am well on my way to basic (Chinese) literacy! In both my Hanyu (grammar) and Tingshuo (speaking) class, the teachers speak almost entirely in Chinese and even explanations will be in Chinese. I feel that I am getting into a routine of how and what I need to study. Really, the thing that I spend the most time on is writing characters. We usually have around 20 new characters that we need to know (which means that we need to be able to write not just recognize) every 2 or 3 days. I spend HOURS practicing writing. Just to show what I am doing, I scanned a page out of one of my practice books. Doesn't this look like fun? ;-)

Great grilling saga

If you remember, the grill that we inherited had rusted through. Two of the legs had fallen off and the bottom was getting a little shaky. Now, that didn't stop us from using it several times and prompted some red-neck grillin'. Before we left for the summer, we had priced out grills and they were crazy-expensive! It was over $100 for just a basic Weber charcoal grill. Yikes. So Andy took the grill into work and had someone from maintenance fix it. 

Before:

After:

They ended up slicing off the bottom and fixing a new bottom and legs. I think that they did a great job! Probably better quality than the original. ;-)

My baby is 4!

Last week Tori turned 4. So sad, I no longer have a baby anymore! :-(  But at the same time, we are enjoying the added freedoms and ability to travel even more as our kids are getting just a bit older. Tori is really enjoying school. I am amazed at the difference in her Chinese in just one month. The other day she came home from school and was telling me all about a story that her teacher had read to the class. Her descriptions were so vivid that I stopped her and asked if the teacher had read it in English. She gave me a look as to say, "Mom, that is silly" and responded with,  "No, Mom, it was in Chinese." All I can say is that I am envious as I spend a couple hours studying each day and she just absorbs it like a sponge. She is such a character and we are so blessed to have her as part of our family. Just today she asked me, "when does our story end? does it end when we die or does it keep going?" Such deep thoughts. I love the combination of silliness, independence and deep thinking (with a whole lot of feistiness thrown in) that makes up who Tori is. Happy Birthday, 小 T ("xiao" T, which means "little")!

Tori's favorite animals are pigs. So instead of a cake, I made these pig cupcakes. Funny thing.... we went to one of our favorite restaurants in Suzhou with some friends to celebrate (which happens to be a Muslim restaurant). So yes indeed, I did the unthinkable and brought pork (these cute little pigs) into a Muslim restaurant!