Week in Review!

This week has been full of fun, and I've gotten behind! I thought the best way to try to capture the events of the week was to do a brief re-cap of some of our highlights, so here goes!

• Tuesday--Rob playing "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain When She Comes" on the guitar for half an hour straight, switching out the "comin'" with different action words that the kids would do while running in circles around the living room coffee table; we're counting this as their homeschool PE credit!
• Sarah and Rob getting to experience their first blueberry Lay's potato chips (oh yes, I did type blueberry)
• Wednesday--Anniversary celebration for Kevin and me--WITHOUT KIDS! Sarah and Rob babysat for us to go to the Sheraton Hotel and eat a fun buffet dinner of mainly western cuisine--such a treat! As we left, the live entertainment was singing "Eternal Flame", even in English!
• Ayi's brutal honesty; after picking up little Ben, Ayi started cracking up and told me that he was light weight; she then looked at me as I was sitting on the couch and said, and I quote (translating to English, of course), "Your son is FAT! This one is much lighter. When I hold yours, my arm hurts!" (Kevin came downstairs in time to hear the last sentence or two and help me translate!!) We all cracked up, and I apologized to Ayi for the workout that lifting Noah gives her!
• Thursday--psycho Chinese toy (the cow in the picture that twirls around with bright lights and creepy music that drives you crazy!) that we got free with our diaper purchase; we decided that if the kids develop epilepsy, we have a reason why!
• Kevin spent several hours with the baseball team, and kept us all up with our sides hurting from laughter because of the stories he told from his time there and the funny conversations that took place. Apparently, one of his new baseball friends loves Tom and Jerry, and went to a lot of trouble to explain to Kevin that their name in Chinese is the same word as "gourd"! He finally was able to clarify by pulling out a gourd from his desk drawer! (Yeah, I know. A gourd?) Anyway, Kevin feels blessed to have relationships continue to develop with this bunch of guys, even if the conversations take some strange turns! (see photo for a visual of a gourd!)
  
• I tried to use my software on my cell phone to look up some vocabulary words while trying to communicate with a taxi driver. The word I came up with when I entered what he said was "pancreas"--pretty sure I missed something in the translation!
• Friday--Sarah and I went to the blind massage parlor. Except for the part where the masseuse had me contorted on the table trying to pop a few spots along my spine, it was quite an enjoyable experience! (photo is of Sarah in the waiting area before massage)
  
• Our friend Jennifer came over for dinner and to hang out with Scooter and Rob. After 5 minutes at the dinner table of Rob trying to pronounce his and Sarah's Chinese names (which both have the letter "r" in them--the most difficult sound to make in Mandarin!) Jennifer announced, "I think maybe you should pick new names!" We all agreed that would be a simpler solution than the practice it would require to introduce themselves.
• Saturday--Ancient Culture Street and some fun shopping! The highlight for me was my "reverse bargaining"! I took Sarah to a store that I have been to two other times. The owner came out and told me the small purse was 15 kuai when I asked. I offered 12 kuai, and the shop owner replied. I kept offering 12, and she kept responding. After about 3 rounds of this, I realized that she was asking for 10! She remembered me from previous visits, and was offering to sell it for even cheaper than I was trying to get it for! I started laughing, as did she, and we got the best price at the market!
• We went out to dinner with my teacher and her boyfriend to a local restaurant. We branched out in our ordering, and ended up with a dish that had a chicken head in the pot! Yikes! (We all passed on that one!)
• We came back to our apartment and played the Wii after putting the kids in bed. We decided to try "American Idol", and it was a hit! The highlight was Kevin and Rob singing the verses of "YMCA" while Victor (my teacher's boyfriend) sang the chorus!
• Sunday--our friends, the Morrises came over to lunch to get to spend some time with Sarah, Rob, and Ben.
• Kevin and Rob got invited to a Chinese basketball game by some of the baseball players. They took off, running late, with a pizza and bottle of Coke to eat in the taxi on the way! We have yet to hear how the game was, as they are still out, but we're sure they will have some stories to tell!
• Sarah and I had a movie night with the kids, watching one of our fav's--"High School Musical"!