Cooking

Fresh fruits and veggies are incredibly cheap here, at least if you are willing to walk around and look for the vendors along the streets, down alleys, and in the common Chinese markets.  Fruits and veggies are not as cheap at the Western supermarkets.  I have made it my vow to try to cook like the Chinese people, for one, to save money, and two, to try to glean all I can from living here.  So, two days a week, I have a lady coming over to my apartment to help me shop like a Chinese person and cook like a Chinese person.  Last week she made two wonderful meals for us and I watched and took copious notes as she is the teacher (laoshi) and I am the student (xuesheng). 

This is Miss Holly as we call her, Hong Li Ping is her Chinese name.  She is the sweetest lady!

She took me to this market...



We bought all of this for $21.00.  Pork, Salmon, Shallot, Potato, 2 hot peppers, 4 bell peppers, 2 lemons, 2 carrots, bag of mushrooms, bag of green beans, 4 cucumbers, big bag of bok choy, bag of peanuts, chicken bullion, star spices, chili pepper spices, 4 bananas, and a bag of cherries.  Some of these things will last a long time, the rest will probably fix us a good 4-5 meals coupled with rice or noodles.  AMAZING!

Oh yeah, and she looked through my kitchen and told me I needed a big pan (wok) so we bought that too.  :)

So, here she is making homemade noodles...

Slicing green beans....



And it was great, not to mention, healthy, as she likes to point out. 

Jackson and Grace love the fresh juices.  Watermelon juice (Shigwa-although that is NOT how you spell it) is Jack's favorite.  I think I will be trying to make juice at home too. 

Grace's Birthday

We experienced our first family birthday while being here.  Grace turned three this week and we celebrated in a different kind of way.  Normally, I would have made a cake or bought one, and I would have purchased a balloon with her favorite character on it.  Well…..after searching for balloons at many different stores this week, I gave up.  Then, I stood in line at a very crowded bakery for a Hello Kitty cake only to have the person in front of me buy it.  Maybe I could have made a cake, but we have fried our Kitchen Aid mixer in the outlet.  Ok, I AM in a good mood today, really, I just wanted everyone to know how much I tried to make Grace’s birthday special. 

But listen to all of the special things she DID get to do for her birthday.  First of all, Jeff took off work and we went to Chaoyang Park.  This is a huge park in the middle of the downtown area.  It reminds us of Central Park in NYC.  There, we rented a motorboat for an hour for only $8.00 and did some carnival types of rides/activities.

That night we went to a cultural restaurant with Jeff’s co-workers and when they found out it was Grace’s birthday they brought a huge fruit cheesecake with strawberries on it.  It was so yummy and they all sang Happy Birthday to her.  It was such a fun restaurant with live music and dancing.  It reminded Jeff and I of the cultural restaurant we went to in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  These Chinese people have a heritage from Western China near the Afghanistan border.  Therefore, they have more middle eastern influences in the music and dress.  Jack loved the kung fu show and Grace loved the “princesses” which were the dancers.

Mr. Li (our driver) also surprised Grace with a huge bunny since it's the year of the rabbit in China!!

Jack and Grace have made some new friends.  They are Nate and Noah (4 and 6 year old brothers) and we met them at the Church we are attending.  They are from Arkansas but have lived here for 4 years.  We are so thankful that we have met them so quickly.  Their parents are helping us with a lot of useful information about the area and culture!  We have gone to an indoor play gym and waterpark with them.

Nate and Noah with Jack

A couple of treasures

Today we found a fun way to refresh and cool off. It was so exciting to find, that I immediately let my kids take off shoes and socks and go for it! Normally, my controlling nature would have said, "let’s do it after lunch" or "let’s come back when we have the right clothes or towels". But no, I was so happy for them to do something they loved that we went for it.

These fountains are pretty similar to the ones at Crown Center in KC, but the last time when we did this at Crown Center, my kids didn’t want to go near the fountains. They were scared of them. Not this time!

Yesterday, Jack had an "interview" at his school. His principal just wanted to meet him, sit down with him, and ask him some questions like, "What was your favorite thing to do at school this year?" etc. He loved seeing his school and surprisingly was really pumped about the swimming pool and swim class he will have every week. I hope he stays pumped up about it.

He and Grace were invited to play in the playground area for a while too! They loved that and I love watching Jack drive Grace around in the tricycles. They are two peas in a pod.

Both of these treasures were really nice to find after striking out this week with several shopping areas. I was hoping for kids areas with playgrounds or fun places for them to eat, but no. We struck out several times for the kiddos. Mommy on the other hand, knows several shopping places to venture to when the kids are not around.

Everything is new...

Saturday we actually made it to the Forbidden City with scores of other people due to the holiday. Many Chinese people would be off of work on Monday for the Dragon Boat Festival. I will talk more about that later. We were dropped off at a more Northern entrance and found that we needed to make our way to the South Entrance by Tiananmen Square. After getting some yummy cantaloupe on a stick, (many street vendors were selling this and corn on the cob) we decided to take a rickshaw around to the South Entrance. Many people were trying to sell us a ride and we picked one guy. We got excited about this and followed the guy several blocks to his vehicle. After settling on a price and two vehicles since there were four of us, he took us on a tour of the Hutong people down back alleys and small streets. Jeff and I were admittedly a little nervous about actually reaching our destination, but just decided to trust and not get freaked out. We were trying to go with the flow (or as one of my friends would say, "Be easy breezy") and enjoy the whole experience for what it was. Glad we did, because we ended up where we needed to be and have a story to tell now. :)

　

We passed a lady who was crocheting little animals and figures. It was so neat and I was compelled to support her art form by getting a tiger for Jack and what Grace calls a ballerina.

Jack had a mission during the whole tour of the Forbidden City.....to get a Chinese Flag. He saw some as we were coming in and he was determined that he needed one. Now I know what he wanted it for...to direct traffic. In his mind, a flag is needed to direct traffic and/or directing us pushing Grace's stroller. I love how the Chinese ladies use umbrellas rain or shine. When it is warm, they use them to keep the sun off of their face. They have some beautiful umbrellas too, some very elaborate.

Sunday night we went to see the Flying Acrobatics Show. Jack and Grace were mesmerized, well, we all were. It was great! And yes, we saw some girls who could bring their legs back over their heads and stuff like that.

Monday was a holiday and Jeff had the day off. We walked to the Silk Market and stopped to get some street food for breakfast. It was like an egg pancake with a special spicy sauce, lettuce, and sausage wrapped in it. It was really good and we think the kids might like to try it some other day. We are trying to slowly introduce them to new things so they won't get upset and reject something just because we ask them to try it.

One thing that both kids love is noodles!! That's a good thing because we can always find noodles! They love trying chopsticks too and are doing a great job! They were getting them to their mouth and then sucking them in, just like the Chinese do. Yes, kids, it is not bad manners to slurp your noodles into your mouth, at least when you are in China!

Mr. Li is a man who drives us around which we are so thankful that Jeff's company provides for us. We may not always need him, but in the beginning it is wonderful to tell him where we want to go and he takes us there. We don't have to know exactly where something is. He is a very nice man and speaks some English. His father taught English and taught him which provided him this opportunity. He brought us a wonderful treat on Monday to celebrate the Chinese Dragon Boat Holiday the way they do. The Chinese make these special glutinous rice parcels called "zongzi" which come with a host of things stuffed inside. They could have fruit, beans, or varieties of meat inside. Mr. Li's father made about 20 for us, half with dates inside, and the other with mashed red beans. Then, they are wrapped in lotus leaves and warmed up. After unwrapping them, you sprinkles them with sugar. They were very good and we will be munching on them for quite a few days. We thought it was a wonderful gesture from Mr. Li and his father. We hope to return the generosity in some way too.

Ni Hao

Ni Hao (Hello)!

It has taken me a while to write a blog entry because currently I have to use Jeff’s computer when he’s home until mine is set up to be able to access my blog.  So this entry might be a little long…. :)

We are doing extremely well I would say!  We think the kids are almost adjusted to the time difference after waking anywhere from 3:30-5:00 a.m. for the last week.  This morning they slept till 6:00 a.m.!!  It was pretty humorous seeing our children asleep in the restaurants each night during dinner.  We could not even entice them to wake up for Cold Stone.  If that won’t wake them up, then nothing will.

Ri Tan Park (about a 15 minute walk from our apartment)

Early Sunday morning we explored this park where we saw wonderful things.  Groups of people playing a game like Hacky Sac with a bad-mitten birdie, couples dancing class, Tai Chi classes with fans and various other props, people exercising in the park, and the soft gentle flute being played by a couple different musicians interspersed in the park with those perfect Chinese intervals!!  Oh my goodness, it was a little piece of Heaven.

Fishing

Lilly pads-Can’t wait to go back in the evening sometime and see the frogs!

Children’s play area that opens up daily with play gyms, bounce house, art/painting area, motorized cars, and mini-rides.  Very cheap entertainment!

Our children seem to have a little bit of celebrity status in some places here in Beijing.  Being blonde with blue eyes is a rare gift in their eyes and to rub a child’s blonde head is “good luck” in some of their superstitions.  Yesterday while we were at the zoo we were actually confronted with people wanting to take their picture or their child’s picture with Jack and/or Grace.  It totally caught me off guard, I had not even thought about it.  People were very polite, but there were times when we respectfully declined because Jack and Grace did not feel up to taking a picture. 

The different markets are very fun places and I could spend days just exploring all of the new foods, fresh, and packaged to try.  There are new candies to try, new fruits, new veggies, and new meats/seafood.  There, you pick out the produce you want and take it to one person who weighs it and puts a sticker price on it.  I learned the hard way the first time by not getting my bananas because they were not weighed. 

I don’t really have anything to say about the two pictures above.  There are foods that look wonderful, and some that do not.  J

We have found many American products, but you do pay quite a bit for them.  We have bought some “must haves” like milk, cheddar cheese, yogurt, granola, etc.  What Jeff and I thought was a carton of milk turned out to be a carton of yogurt when I brought it home and tried to use it to make oatmeal.  We laughed.

Last night we found a treasure…in the heart of downtown Beijing where we live.  Tim’s Texas BBQ.  Some co-workers of Jeff’s told him that we needed to try this tex-mex out because it was good.  We did and it made our day.  Awesome BBQ and delicious Mexican food with the atmosphere to boot. (Pun intended)  There were great decorations from Universities around Texas and notice what is above our heads…MIZZOU.  A little piece of home right here in our new home.  It was a comforting place and we will be back to try their breakfast next time. 

Zai Jian (Goodbye)!