The Chair

So I was given money over a year ago (when I was pregnant) to purchase a rocking chair. I've been looking all over town for one, but haven't had any luck yet. Being practical, I settled on getting a nice office chair, as baby's nursery shares a room with my office. I found an extremely comfortable office chair that both rocks and swivels.

Today I took Ben to the store where the office chair was at. I bargained for a good price and even asked for a new chair from the back store room. The shop keeper gladly gave me a new chair and assembled it right there in front of me, then let me test it out.

Next challenge was getting it home. The sales lady said no problem this chair will fit in a taxi. So Ben rolled the chair out of the store, carried it down the stairs, and out of the building. We had to walk, about a block, and cross a busy street before finding a taxi. First, we tried the trunk but the chair didn't fit, so then we tried the back seat, which it barely fit. The taxi dropped us off at the door of our apartment. Ben and I stood there for a minute cracking up that we were carrying this assembled chair all the way home. Then proceed to carry it up four flights of stairs to our apartment.

Now my new chair the most comfortable seat in the house! Ben even considered using it at the dinner table and in the living room to watch a movie.

Candy

I have a few interesting candy stories for today...

1. I wanted to make a popcorn cake, as I was told that popcorn and marshmallows were available in town. Ben texted me the characters for marshmallow on my phone and I showed them to a lady in the big supermarket. The lady took me the bulk candy section and pointed to a big tub of marshmallows where each marshmallow was individually wrapped! Plus each marshmallow was flavored differently. These ladies don't mess around, so I had about 10 seconds to make up my mind as to which flavors and how many marshmallows I wanted. I got a 1/2 pound of pineapple flavored marshmallows. Turns out that inside the marshmallow was soft and gooey pineapple candy. It was so good and worked well for my pineapple flavored popcorn cake.

2. I walked into my American friend's house. She had a big smile on her face as she asked me if I wanted to try some candy. The box said 'Colon' in big English letters. I gave her a look, trying to figure out if she was serious. She handed me a piece of 'colon'. It was a small cylinder, about the size of my thumb. I hesitantly put it in my mouth and chewed; all I could think of was the word 'colon'. It had a dark brown shell and soft chocolate inside, with a nice smooth chocolaty taste. To my surprise it was good, it just needs a new English name!

3. The same friend handed me a small packet. It felt like powder inside. The wrapper was brightly colored and appeared to be some sort of candy. The only English word on the wrapper said "Poison". No idea what this was and I didn't want to try it to find out.

Small Change

On my way home from the big supermarket, I stopped by the green-grocer to buy some vegetables. My vegetables cost me 10Y, but I only had a big 50Y bill and the vegetable seller didn't have any small change to give me. So I told him I'll go buy something else from the store next door and come back with smaller bills.

So I went to the noodle seller as I figured I could just eat a bowl of fresh noodles for lunch. I bought my usual 1Y bag of noodles, as it's more than enough to feed two people. I apologized to the noodle seller because I didn't have small change, while secretly being glad to break my big bill. BUT my plan backfired because the noodle seller decided to give me my noodles for free! I tried to argue with him and insist on paying but he refused my money.

So I had to go to the next store, which was like a mini 7-11. I had been sick all week, so I thought some peach juice would be nice. I had to get the big 3 liter bottle in order for the shop keeper to break my big bill.

Finally, I had my small change, so I went back to the vegetable seller and paid my 10Y for my vegetables. All that trouble just for a few vegetables!

I had to call Ben to help me get home, as my supermarket groceries, my 17 lbs baby, 3 liters of juice, noodles, and vegetables was way too much to carry!

Snow

It snowed the other day. I woke up to a good amount of snow falling from the sky and an inch stuck to the ground. But by noon all of the snow was melted and the weather outside was warm. Nothing says "April" like a good snowfall.

Yushu Earthquake Relief

Check out: http://yushuearthquakerelief.com

Earthquake

Earthquake hit this morning. We are fine, but many are not.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010vbaf.php#details

The Shower

Which one would you choose if you could only have one in your shower:
a) Hot Water b) Shower Curtain c)Shower head?

For the past year we haven't had hot water to shower with. Last week, we finally got our hot water heater fixed and can now take hot showers. It was too good to be true because shortly thereafter the shower curtain rod broke. I tried to buy a new rod, but it was too short by 20 cm. Then a few days after that, the shower hose sprung a leak and the shower head fell off. Tonight, Ben bought a new hose and fixed the shower head. Now all I need is a curtain. I guess two out of three is pretty good.

Parenthood

We have been baptized into parenthood with baby throw up. Baby caught a stomach virus and threw up just about every time she ate for about 48 hrs. Baby feels much better today and is eating well again.

New Toys

Baby has adjusted to her new home. I'm sure she was delighted to find lots of new toys waiting for her here at the apartment.

Lunch

It was a sunny beautiful day this morning. Baby and I went for a short walk to buy some vegetables for lunch. Ben was cooking lunch today. This past week we received gifts of bags of potatoes and apples, from three different people. So the goal of lunch was to use as many potatoes and apples as possible. Ben made a delicious lunch of garlic mashed potatoes, fried apples, squash w/ onions, and carrot salad w/ raisins. A nice southern style lunch.

Around 2pm, a huge wind and dust storm blew through. The dust was so thick that we could hardly see outside of our window. It blew for a good two hours. Rumor has it that at the end of winter, but right before spring, wind & dust storms occur every afternoon. I guess I'll plan to go out in the mornings.

Grocery Shopping

Today we went grocery shopping at the "big" super market. I put baby in my hip sling where she wouldn't miss all of the new sights. She sure did make LOTS of new friends. On the bus ride over, the lady next to me was tucking baby's jacket down, ensuring she could breath well, as well as gently touching her hands and feet commenting on how tiny they were. At the grocery store, at every aisle ladies and grandfathers stared and smiled at baby. One lady even went as far as taking picture of baby with her camera phone, as this was the first 'foreign' baby she had ever seen. I often hear people commenting how pretty baby is and what big eyes she has.

We're Back

I would post some pictures from our trip, but I seem to have misplaced my camera. It's some where around the apartment, just not sure which pile of stuff it is in. It's been a week since we got back to our apartment. This week has been filled with visiting old friends, meeting new friends, unpacking, cleaning, grocery shopping, and getting over jet lag. It feels really good to be back. I forgot how alive I feel out here.

Music Video

It was late, the buses stopped running, so we took a taxi home. You just never know what it will be like inside the taxi. This time the driver was young and hip. His rear view mirror was replaced with a good size video screen on which he was playing music videos. We came in on a Destiny's Child music video, but the song didn't go with the video.... Either way it was pretty cool entertainment for the ride home.

Annoyed

It was one of those days today where everything seemed to annoy me....

.....My freezer is so cold (without any way to turn it down) that if I want to eat my Ice Cream, then the night before I have to put it in the refrigerator in order to 'defrost' it.

.....My teacher continues to use an empty dry erase marker to write on the board. She brought a spare marker and ink refill bottles, but it only lasts for a few minutes. No ink does not stop her from "writing" on the board. I try hard to use my imagination, but really I have no clue what she is pretending to write on the board. (She has been "writing" with no ink for weeks!)

.....The road outside of my apartment has been dug up so many times that it's this long dusty, bumpy road. Last night it rained, so it was about a half mile walk in the mud.

Meat Market

I ventured to my least favorite place...the meat market! But today I brought along Ben and some friends to help me overcome my aversion to raw meat. There were tons of meat stands to choose from, all looking the same - big dead carcasses hung all round and big chunks of meat spread out on the tables. You point to the piece you want and the shop keeper weighs it and bags it for you.


I couldn't even think about food, but I guess the shop keepers are used to it, as this lady seemed to be enjoying her lunch.

Classmates

When I first met my korean classmates, they were pretty excited that I was half korean, half mexican. One of them eagerly told me she LOVED mexican food, especially burritos. So we made a deal that I would cook mexican food in exchange for korean food.

The other day I had my whole class over for lunch, even my teacher came (the one in the green shirt)! I made a big spread of chicken fajitas, beans, rice, tortillas, and salsas. Those korean girls can eat, we cleaned up the table!

In exchange my classmates brought kimbop to class the other week, she cooked duk-bo-gee at my house, and today she brought me a package of instant ja-jung-mein! I think I got the good end of the deal because these girls can cook!

Did you know they eat cheese in korea?!? They melted cheese on top of the duk-bo-gee....they said it was good for my health....that's a new one to me, but it actually tasted pretty good!

Dish Market

I wish I had my camera when I stumbled upon the dish market! There is a big vegetable whole sale market next to my school...it's on the walk home. Usually I only stop when I need to buy a lot of veggies. But this day I decided to walk around and explore only to discover this was the dish whole sale market too. There were plenty of shops with hundreds of ceramic bowls, plates, cups, and spoons. Despite my heavy grocery bags I couldn't resist wandering around the isles of colorful dishes. Upon entering a shop, my eyes could hardly taken in all the different shapes and patterns. It was even more beautiful as none of the shops had shelves, but rather they were all in tall stacks on the ground! The best part was the price ranged from a few cents (for spoons & cups) to a few dollars (for large serving bowls & plates). Beautiful and cheap, how do you beat that?!?

(This picture is one I found on the Crate&Barrel website because it looks similar to the dishes at the market -- only difference is this dish costs $33 and the market's dish costs $2.)

Dancing

Today a friend called me and told me to come outside because there were dancers performing in my apartment complex's courtyard. I never figured out the reason these people were dancing or if it was some sort of holiday. But it was fun sitting around with my neighbors watching. They wore colorful robes with all sorts of jewelry. Their sleeves were extra long such that they flapped gracefully when they were waved their arms.

Rain, Rain...

It's hard to say 'go away' to the rain, as it rarely rains here. But tonight as we were walking home from dinner it started to rain. It's such a dry and dusty town, we could use a lot of rain to wash things down.

Not much is going on these days.....

My New Class

I switched school classes last week. My new class is a pure conversation and listening class, which is exactly what I needed. Now I'm with the Korean class (the university usually separates the Western students from the Korean students, as different text books and learning styles are used). It's extra challenging, as the teacher and the text books do not use any English. Reading characters is stressed and used over the phonetic alphabet. It will be a work out, but should be good. And today they added two more students, so now there are two Koreans, two Japanese, one Mongolian, one Hungarian, and me. We chit chat in Chinese because it's our only common language!