We had quite a few good laughs earlier this week on Sunday. It started off Sunday morning in the taxi on the way to church. One of the many great things about my brother-in-law Rob is his enthusiasm. He has thrown himself into learning and practicing as much of the Mandarin language as he possibly can during his time here in China. So combine that with a really difficult language where lots of the words sound the same to our western ears and your bound to have a few linguistic blunders. He and Kevin were in the taxi and Rob was attempting to ask the driver, who happened to be a woman, if she had any children. The proper way to ask this would have been, "Ni you haizi ma?" But Rob instead came out with, "Ni wo haizi ma?"--which translates into, "You, me--kids?" Apparently the driver was cracking up more than she was offended, and Sarah thought the story re-told was humorous, too. So no marital conflict to speak of due to the indecent proposal by Rob, only some good laughs about it the rest of the week!
After church we took Sarah, Rob, and Ben to a noodle place we were introduced to several months ago. It is right around the corner from McDonald's, which I think accentuates the contrast in the environment. As we walked in, Rob, who is always up for trying something new a little "out of the box" definitely looked shocked and asked (I think twice!), "So----this is where we're eating lunch? Really?!" His statement was that the entrance looked like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean as we w
alked past a man passed out in a random bed in the entry way and into the hazy restaurant. We watched them make the noodles, which is an amazing process. They string the noodle (that's right--one noodle!) between their fingers on both hands and stretch it out several times. Even after watching it several times I'm still not how it works exactly--but it turns out to make a really good lunch. We all ordered different dishes--with the meat reportedly being lamb--but we've been told that is only a loose translation and that goat meat is more likely. We finished our noodles and headed home after paying about a dollar per person for the lunch (including bottled soft drinks!).Sunday night we had the awesome treat of a double date night! Our friends here who have 4 kids offered to come over to babysit all 5 kids, in spite of it being one of the girl's 11th birthday. The kids had a blast, and Sarah, Rob, Kevin, and I took off to try a new dining experience that is popular here in China--hot pot. It is just like fondue in the States, only you boil everything in water that is in the pot on your table. Oh--and no chocolate or sweets stuff, unfortunately! But we had fun trying to order (and were really thankful Kevin has learned as many Chinese characters as he has in order to do so from a menu with no pictures, English, or even Chinese pinyin!). We discovered that there was an abundance of lamb (for the second time that day!) and seafood, but only one beef dish. We were about to order the beef when Kevin remembered the second word in the description--stomach! We decided against the beef stomach and instead stuck with more vegetables. We went out to eat with money given to Sarah and Rob by my parents specifically for that purpose (thanks Papa!), and had so
me left over after our dinner. So on our way home with money to burn in our pockets, we decided to get brave and experiment with trying out some new foods from a street vendor. I think we made the sweet lady's night with all the goodies we got--dried fruits, squares of chocolate, sweet potato chips, and even gummy Cokes! It was a great way to end a fun evening as we walked the mile and a half back to our apartment. So thankful for sweet time with family making fantastic memories and sharing a little bit of our new world with them!On Monday we went to Trash Mountain, as the weather was finally warm enough to make it out a bit (it was above freezing!). Our plan was to slide down the man made snow hill that is there on inner tubes, but decided against it once we found out the cost! They had it priced for one adult and one child--which was a reasonable rate. But they were going to make us pay triple that price in order for Kevin to use one tube and take turns with the three kids sledding down the hill. Kevin tried to explain to the people running the rentals that it didn't make sense and wasn't fair that he would ha
ve to pay three times the amount, but like so many things here, we could see the result of thinking that doesn't operate outside the box. There is just no category for things that don't fall in line exactly with the norm--like having more than one child per adult (as is the policy here!). Chinese people are really hesitant to make any sort of exception to the rules. It's really interesting to see how often this plays out and how seriously people take their jobs when it comes to issues like this!So we came up with a plan B--to hike up to the mountain and give Sarah, Rob, and Ben a better view of the city. We had a great time getting some fresh air, although the fog was certainly thick which didn't allow for great viewing. We met again with my friend Jennifer on Monday night for dinner, and we had a great time visiting together and having her teach us more about Chinese culture.
We decided to lay low on Tuesday, as we knew we had a big day planned to head to the Great Wall on Wednesday and then into Beijing to spend the night before Sarah, Rob, and Ben flew home on Thursday. The last photo is of Noah and Ben sitting together and bonding as they watch a Praise Baby DVD. And the other one is of all the cousins together on the new floor cushions we had made last week. Kevin was trying to get everyone's attention, and I think Ben was the only one a little unsure of Kevin's flailing to try to get everyone looking the same direction!
