Braving the Chinese Salon

I'm enjoying the sweet smell of salon shampooed hair 

and the lightweight feeling after someone else blow dries it.

I was brave and got my precious locks trimmed
at the same place Andrew went to last time.

Nothing too crazy or noticeable

because I'm trying to grow it longer.

 While my stylist was blow drying my hair

one of the other young guys who worked there came up and 

took some of my hair in his hand and examined it closely.

In Chinese he said, "so beautiful" and

then proceeded to talk to me about dying my hair.

I told him in the little Chinese that I knew that I

didn't want that today and only wanted it cut.

I don't think I'll ever be brave enough to get it 

colored in China. There are not enough diagrams

and translations I could put on paper 

that would make me feel comfortable.

Who knows I might be eating my words if

my roots start looking too whack.

All in all, there was little confusion at the salon. 

I did not go unarmed as you can see.

I typed up all the details I felt were important, 

copy and pasted some photos,

and had my Chinese friend, Judy, translate.

You can never give your hairdresser too much detail and when they don't speak
your language you need to take matters into your own hands.
I'm not a control freak, right?!

BEFORE

AFTER

After washing, blow drying, combing, cutting, 

and blow drying again I left with exactly what I wanted.
And it only cost about $5 USD.

Order Up!

Are you a snake? If so, it's your year! 

The Chinese New Year is just around the corner and 

there is so much to do to get ready 

for our two week vacation that starts Friday. 

Two of Andrew's siblings, Isaac and Rebekah,

 are coming to visit and travel with us.

We are so excited! 

We will be spending time in Shanghai, Yangshuo, Xingping, and Sanya. 

We are planning on seeing a lot of mountains, caves, rice fields, and warm beaches. 

I'm planning on it being the best two weeks of my time here in China! 

I don't know if I'll be able to post while on vacation, if not there 

will be an abundance of posts in two weeks time.

Hopefully this cold I'm fighting off is gone soon.

Okay, enough about my excitement. 

I had a few pictures on my computer of some food we eat here in China. 

We have been going to the restaurant below nearly everyday

and sometimes twice a day. Unfortunately, they received a 

red frowny face on some sort of

health/sanitary code but that doesn't 

stop us because their food is some

of the best we've had in town.

The daughter who is an amazing chef. Her son is really cute too. He's probably 4 years old. 

They are a really nice family. I can tell they really love each other.

There's an elderly mother, 

(she serves the cafeteria food to the construction workers who come on lunch break) 

an elderly father,

(he cleans the tables, serves soup, restocks the rice bowl, and changes the tv channel to the good stuff)

a son and his wife 

(these two take orders and also deliver to-go food on their motorized scooters)

and a daughter 

(who is pictured above, she cooks and others will jump in to help when necessary)

They are always happy to see us and

are patient with our lack of Chinese skills.

They even gave us a menu so we could take it home to translate.

I asked a friend of mine to translate it which saved a lot of time.

But most of the stuff on there didn't sound too good.

At least now we know not to point at the 

pork bone soup, pig intestines, or duck stomach. 

di san xian. I don't know the literal translation but it's a 3 (san) vegetable dish: bell pepper, eggplant, and potato. Andrew's new favorite dish.

Sliced pork and bell peppers. The meat is really good. 

Kung pao chicken. I can't remember if it looks like this in Americanized Chinese restaurants but this stuff is SO good.

Peas, Sheet Jelly, and mystery green stuff. They didn't have what we wanted so they replaced it with this. Only Wayne tried it. The pile looked the same when we left.

Garlic stems and beef. This is from one of the many Chinese Muslim restaurants where they make hand pulled noodles and have picture menus on the walls.

Chao (chow) Mian. Fried Noodles. Fresh hand pulled noodles. It reminds me of spaghetti. I prefer it the way the "meat stick guy" down the street makes it. He uses soy sauce, spinach, and fried eggs and not a red sauce with random vegetables.

My Birthday Suit

I am now a quarter of a century years old. The big TWO.FIVE.

If you read my last post about all the early birthday surprises that I enjoyed then you know that I won a whopping $1000 RMB ($160 USD) at my employee dinner Friday night. Naturally, I decided to spend a little of that to treat myself to some birthday presents.

I told Andrew that all I wanted for my birthday was for him to go shopping with me, not complain, and let me talk to him about the things I was trying to decide on buying (every girls dream, right?). Just like any girl friend of mine would do with me back in the states. I also didn't want to have to choose where we ate because he always says he doesn't care where we eat and it defaults back to me. He delivered on both fronts and it was a fabulous birthday filled with cute clothes and yummy food at Papa John's Pizza (it's like a toned down Olive Garden here and much more tasty if you ask me).

We enjoyed a little of everything because it was my birthday and we decided to live it up! We ordered a supreme and parmesan chicken pizza, pesto pasta, and a slice of blueberry cheesecake. We ended up taking an entire pizza of leftovers home with us and I may or may not be going to eat a cold slice after this post.







I am a bargain shopper through and through. There is just something about finding a good deal that excites me! I'm sure there are quite a few ladies out there that can relate. Shopping in my city can be frustrating because everyone is really wealthy here and the prices are so high that I rarely give in and buy anything. I make most of my purchases online from the Chinese ebay. It's just not the same as looking through racks of clothes, getting to try things on, and letting something catch your eye from across the store. *sigh* I love shopping. Surprisingly enough I was able to find some great deals with some of my birthday money and thought you might be interested in seeing how much things cost in my neck of the woods. Even though the majority of these things were marked down it's how much they should cost when they aren't being overpriced because the general population is loaded. In other words, they're normal Chinese prices. I was able to find all the perfect pieces for a sassy new "birthday suit".

1. Royal blue purse- $12.86 USD

2. Two pairs of skinny jeans- $11.25 USD each

3. Cream wedges- $6.43 USD

4. Pair of earrings and necklace- $5.47 USD 

(this is the rich people price, no sale on jewelry)

5. Black sweater and inifinity scarf combo- $4.82 USD

6. Two royal blue hair bows- $1.29 USD total

7. Black blazer- $6.43 USD

TOTAL- $48.55 USD

Under fifty bucks, amazing! I love China!

HAPPY 25th BIRTHDAY TO ME! 

It was simply perfect and I will never forget turning 25 in China.

The Beginning of Something Great

Those who are near and dear to me probably know that Sunday is a very special day. It marks the 25th anniversary of the day I was born. I am always excited about celebrating holidays and when the holiday honors me it just makes it all the more exciting. I think I will still love my birthday even when I am turning 55. It's an excuse to eat cake and have people shower you with gifts and songs.

Today has been a pretty fantastic start to my birthday weekend- yes I like to milk it for all it's worth and celebrate as much as I can.

I had great lessons in my English class, was surprised by the sweet teachers I work with, and enjoyed a fancy meal with the entire school. No, they didn't have the dinner just for me but I pretended like it. They were celebrating the Chinese New Year that is just around the corner.

It was afternoon play time. The kids were going crazy running around the room screaming. The phone rings and Judy tells me we have to go upstairs to Bella's classroom with all the other English teachers. My first thought was, I hope we're not in trouble but she reassured me that we weren't. I had no clue what was going on.
Then when I walked in to see everyone singing to me and a big cake I was overwhelmed and felt so loved. I was not expecting anything and really appreciated my Chinese friends trying to make my birthday feel special.

TOMATOES!

That evening we set out for our employee dinner at a fancy hotel's restaurant. I drank a lot of orange juice whereas the majority of the Chinese people were chugging wine like it was water. It's the culture to drink a lot at dinner parties and continually have a reason to say, "Cheers" and drink up. The funny thing is none of them even want to drink but it is the boss that pressures them into doing it. Strange. They do this knowing that their faces will turn bight red and they will be throwing up an hour later. I've been told that alcohol poisons them or some say they are allergic to it and that's why they turn red. But it doesn't stop them.

The big bosses were there handing out $1000 RMB left and right as prizes ($160 USD). To my surprise my name was pulled out of the box. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! I jumped up and ran to the front. I gave the stranger a hug and said, "thank you". Then they demanded I sing a song. Apparently to earn the prize you have to perform so I went along with it and sang "Happy Birthday". The entire room sang to me and I was beginning to feel like this was the beginning of a really great birthday.

Pork Ribs

These were me and Andrew's favorite. 

Pumpkin Soup

Bamboo. Very spicy but good.

Fish

They each won a 32 inch flat screen tv. That man is one of the owners-aka "big boss" aka "the tall one".

CHEERS! 

It's not a party without Gangnam Style. Is it crazy popular in America? It's everywhere here.

It was all very exciting! Especially when you hear your name for a prize!

Screaming for the owners of the school to give away more money. Which they did until their wallets were empty. I think they gave out a total of $25,000 RMB!

If your name wasn't called you won a steamer. We now have three...

Patty cake, patty cake, baker's man

We had so much fun learning about 

different jobs this week. 

The majority of my class are boys and they learned the words 

fireman and policeman

 very fast because those are their favorites. 

I wanted to spend a lesson focusing 

on the word baker because 

they could not easily remember it. 

Today we colored baker hats, ate bread, and played with "dough". 

The dough turned out very sticky because there

is no cream of tartar in China which is usually needed

for homemade play-doh. 

In Chinese the word for bread is 

Miànbāo 

(*mee-en bow*- pronounced like "take a bow" not the bow you put in your hair). 

They were so cute and loved making a mess. 

I just had to share it.

A Bruce Lee Birthday

Day two in Hong Kong was all about 5 things:

1. Seeing the Hong Kong cityscape

We took a mile long tram up a mountain side to get the best view. 

It was steep and at one point we were 27 degrees to the horizontal (aka really steep).

Bruce Lee was waiting for us at the top of the peak.

The majority of our attempt for a picture with the city turned out like this...

...finally at a different spot we got a decent picture. It was a beautiful view!

2. Visiting the Bruce Lee Memorial

He's the highlight of the "Avenue of Stars". It's the Hong Kong version of the Hollywood walk of fame.

Andrew and Wayne's dream came true in that very moment. I learned that he could do one handed, two finger push ups.
He was a beast.

3. A leisurely stroll through Kowloon Park 
It was really beautiful and a nice break in the middle of our busy day.
It's too bad we had to witness a poor little kid be pooped on by a bird.

4. More Shopping

Different market. Same things.

One last birthday shot together. I love this handsome man

5. Last but not least--Celebrate Andrew's 26th birthday!!!

It's not every year your birthday will be spent in such a great city.
Thank you to Ray and Chris for such a memorable birthday dinner. 

It was definitely far better than the Indian place I originally planned on going to. We filled our bellies with decadent seafood, lamb, apple pie, and my favorite- pork knuckle. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Here are a few pictures to make you drool. 

I was sad to say good-bye...

to weekends away from work

doritos and other foreign snacks

my new friend, Ray

and Hong Kong.

We had an amazing weekend in Hong Kong. So many memories were made that I will never forget--including 

the sketchy hostel we stayed at.