Yesterday (Saturday) was the day China celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival (or Full Moon Festival). And it was a beautiful day! The wind was blowing enough to clear out much of the smog that usually makes a everything a dull gray haze, so we could see not only a clear blue sky during the day but a gorgeous full moon at night as well! We decided to make the most of the holiday and do some shopping in the morning, returning to Ancient Culture Street to look for some local Chinese artwork to hang on our walls, as they are mostly still bare. We had a ton of fun strolling through the crowded streets of the marketplace and bargaining on some really neat pieces of art to hang in our new home. And of course, everywhere we went we drew a crowd! The "sigu haizi" (four kids) with blonde hair and blue eyes don't go anywhere without getting a ton of attention, and this market place was
definitely no different. At one point, we had one man with a large camera gesture to ask if he could take our entire family's picture, so we all gathered together. Within 30 seconds we had a simi-circle of Chinese people around us, numbering at least 40 or 50 and stacked about 3 people deep, all with their cameras out and clicking away! (If they didn't have their regular camera handy, then they just used their camera phones.) After half-smiling as we were a little weirded out, Kevin and I decided it was time to say "xia xia" (Thank you) and move on. What can we say, our rock star status lives on here in China! If discretion is what we are ever looking for, we certainly need to leave the kiddos behind!The photo where you can see Kevin in the middle is him with the kids doing something very exciting--letting the kids pick out a special drink to go with their lunch! :) But as you can see, even this draws a crowd!
While we were leaving the market there were even more modes of transportation available than normal--lots of men with bikes to offer rides to those out and enjoying the fun of the Festival day.
After the market, we came home to host a friend who we met here last summer who has since moved about an hour north to teach at a preschool. We had a great time visiting and then took her with us on the 3 wheeler to Dirt Mountain to see what was going on in honor of the holiday. We saw this beautiful floral arrangement in honor of the 60th Anniversary of the ruling party's takeover that was also celebrated this past week, and a really neat water fountain display in the pond close by. On our way home the full moon was out as Karis and Eli stopped to run up the bridge and check for fish. It was a full and wonderful day, and we're thankful for even another day of blue skies and crisp air here this Sunday morning in Tianjin!
