The Hale Adventures of 2014: A Serious Case of Summerache

My summerache is contagious. Paul has it too.

My summer-ache has become unbearable. It's all I can think about. Every day is a countdown to my most favorite time of year. It seems especially acute this year because I've been missing everyone at home and I can't wait to experience all the things I've been missing. Usually my summer-ache is focused on getting out of town and going someplace new. It's opposite this year. I'm so anxious and excited to get back to a place that feels familiar. Not that Shenzhen hasn't become familiar, but you know what I mean. ;)

We've been trying to distract ourselves from the everyday routine and make the days go faster. Since we've returned from Beijing, we've tried to keep something on the near horizon to look forward to. A reward for making it another week, so to speak.

The first week we got back was a really special event at school called Week Without Walls (WWW). Basically the whole school packs up and heads out on trips around the city, country and world. It's pretty cool. Donnie and I weren't selected to lead one of the overnight trips, so I worked with the art and music teachers here and we put together a week full of activities for the students who didn't leave. It was basically like planning an art and music camp for five days of school, complete with field trips around the city and activities at school all centered on our theme of art and music. It was a nice break from the normal routine of science everyday, and I enjoyed exploring my artistic side (which is seriously challenged). We popped balloons filled with paint over canvases, we painted pottery, we explored OCT Loft (an art gallery haven), scavenger hunted around Dafen, made bleach-stenciled t-shirts, but the best project was print art. The music teacher here put together a great lesson on how to make gig posters for our favorite band using print art. We spent an entire rainy day designing, carving and printing our posters. I think the teachers had the most fun, but I've never seen the kids so engaged. It was rad. On the last day of WWW, I was recruited to go with the urban adventure group to go on a bike ride down the bay. It was sooooo humid and hot, but we rode about 16 miles down and back. We even got some rain time while we were out. It was fun, but by the end of those five days, I was ready to get back to my routine.

Here are some shots from our week:

T-shirt art

This took forever!!

Messy, but oh so fun.

Mr. Souder enjoying OCT LOFT

Hunting in Dafen

Subways! Yay!

Hard at work

One of my prints, I couldn't get it to center correctly...

The end of a looooonng ride.

In the midst of WWW was Mother's Day. It was a horrible weekend weather-wise, so on Mother's Day, we stayed in and watched the Spurs together as a family and ordered food and relaxed. It was a nice way to spend the day. I got a chance to talk to my mom, and Angie, to wish them a good day. Moms are the best.

Chillin' with the dude.

Red flag rainy day on Mother's Day

The following week was a short week at school because we had one last round of parent conferences, so that night we jumped on a plane to the Philippines, which sounds easy now, but actually took lots of time and stress to make it. We spent the weekend playing in the pool, eating yummy garlic rice, hanging out with really friendly people and soaking up the sun. We traveled home Sunday with so much ease and we were back in our beds ready for another week of work/school.

Since that there's not been too much to speak of. We went to get our visas updated for another year, and we are now passport-less until right before we head home. We now have just about two weeks before we fly back to SA for a couple of weeks. We're planning another distraction this weekend at the Intercontinental here in Shenzhen. It's supposed to have an epic pool with a pirate ship and a beach! It's gotten so hot that being outside is only really bearable if there is a pool nearby. Then there's just one more weekend until the weekend we leave!

I might have mentioned this before, but I've started a list of all the places I want to EAT at when I get to SA. It's more places than I have meals to eat, but it'll be ok. I'll just have to run a TON.

Almost forgot! We've added to our family. I bought a bike from a departing teacher, his name is Morton, and this week I took him down to Decathalon to put on a seat for Paul and a basket on the front. He's a sturdy ride, and I'm gaining confidence in my city riding skills with a 3 year old in tow. Donnie didn't want to miss out on the fun, so he bought a bike too. His is new and spiffy with a super light frame and mountain bike wheels and gears. I think he'll need it for next year since he'll be moving to another campus and the commute is farther. But I've been pleasantly surprised at how easy it really is. I had so much fear watching how people drive on the sidewalks here, but I'm holding my own. Hopefully it just gets easier from here. We've started riding to school a couple of days a week, then riding down to the bay for a run then riding home. It's an intense work out with the humidity and it feels good to accomplish that.

Waiting on Daddy for our first ride together.

MORTON!!

The clearest I've seen. We can see Luohu.

In other news, we got Andie a plane ticket to visit! I am so excited for her to be here, she'll be here when we arrive in August. We are going to take her to Boracay, and HK and show her life in our city. In the meantime, she's coming to visit while we are in SA, so I'm planning a super fun night out with her before a weekend on the coast. I can't wait!

Well that's pretty much all that's going on with us. There was a discussion at lunch the other day about blogs, how so many of the teachers here have stopped writing. They were saying how it felt redundant and that people don't really care to hear about all the stuff we've been up to. But I disagreed. I love getting my sister's AAU every week (her newsletter about life), and I wish more people I love kept some sort of record of what they were up to. I know I've been an intermittent blogger lately, and my posts are super personal, but I like having a record of what's happened. It's like when I journaled, I could go back and read it and re-live moments. That's what this is now. A way for us to remember. Thanks for reading. :)

A few randoms from daily life the past few weeks: