Back to Routine

Home.

Things have gotten back to normal this week except for it was Donnie's birthday week! He is officially one year older, and of course wiser, so we celebrated that all week.

The beginning of last week was sort of a blur because we were getting so little sleep, because of jet lag and sleeplessness of a certain 3 year old. We took turns staying up in the middle of the night with him, which took its toll. But it didn't stop us from enjoying some birthday festivities on Thursday for Donnie's birthday.

Matching on Quiz Night

Donnie wanted to celebrate by going to quiz night, so we set off after school for a fun evening with Zack and Honey. We wandered around Sea World for awhile, marveling at how much had changed in such a short time. It went from dirt to magnificent walking mall in just 3 months. Crazy. We stopped for some snacks at a new beer garden, and it was actually cold enough for them to turn on the heater by our table. From there we headed to quiz night, where we capped it off in 2nd place. Not too shabby, except I lost the prize :(

goofy kid. love him.

We ate before sharing with Daddy.

By Friday the lack of sleep was overwhelming, and I was in bed by 7pm, and didn't wake until Saturday at 7am. I felt refreshed for another day of birthday festivities. I let Donnie stay asleep while I got up with Paul to make breakfast. He helped me make pancakes and coffee with our awesome new coffee machine, and we brought Donnie breakfast in bed. From there we donned our running clothes and headed out to Shenzhen Bay to have a walk before meeting up with Zach and Honey for an early dinner.

Beautiful walk

We have been searching for the fastest/easiest path to get to Shenzhen Bay, but we just took our normal route with the plan of backtracking to our apartment in a new way. It's about 3k down to the promenade, and after walking towards Sea World along the Bay for another 4k we realized we probably wouldn't make it home before we met up with Z and H. So we resolved just to walk straight down the water as far as we could until we ended up in Sea World (which ended up being a 10k walk). Again, there had been so much construction while we were away, that parts that had been walled off when we left, were now open and filled with people. It was an especially clear day, you could see all of Shenzhen across the water, and you could see across the bridge to HK, which is rare. Usually visibility is about halfway across the bridge, and on bad days you can't see past the first third of it. It was sunny and warm, and Paul fell asleep, so we enjoyed the walk and ended up at a large grassy area where we bought a kite for Paul. We weren't really able to communicate well with the kite seller, so he sold us the one he was actually flying. It seemed like it was at least a quarter mile up in the air, so it took a while to get it down, then we were on our way again.

Happy Birthday, Donnie!

Honey wasn't feeling well, so we had a great meal with Zack. The German restaurant here is so authentic and we were able to eat on the patio and blow bubbles to entertain Paul. It was a great day, but Donnie and I were tired, so we ended up back home and in bed early.

Over the next few days, Paul, then Donnie, now I have become sick with whatever is floating in the hallways at school. It's no fun, including extreme fatigue and a vicious head cold. Hopefully we won't suffer into the weekend because it's our school's winter party, and I'm really looking forward to it.

I'm not sure if you've noticed from the tone of this post, but despite the fact that I'm sick, I'm actually happy to be back in China. Before the break, I was missing Western culture so much I couldn't stand another minute, but I seem to have fallen back into the Honeymoon phase of culture shock. Maybe I'll skip the depressing second step this time, but if not, I think at least I'll be prepared. We have Chinese New Year holiday in a short two weeks and we're headed to the Philippines. After that will be the true test, three and a half long months of teaching with no break longer than two days. Yikes. And I'm already looking forward to summer.