Halloween 2014
Halloween is very different here in China than it is back in the States, but because our expat community is so close, we are able to make it almost the same. There is a slow development of Chinese kids catching on to the 'trick or treating' fun, but it's mostly done at apartment complexes instead of house to house. We met up with the fellow QSI families at the same apartment complex as last year, and Paul was even more excited than last year. He dressed up as Buzz Lightyear in a costume we found on Taobao. It was perfect, except for him being super sweaty because it was very hot that night. We ran around collecting candy from the QSI dads sitting around the courtyard and then headed home.
That night was also special because my mom arrived! It was the beginning of a great week with her.
Mom's Visit
Mom could only come visit us for a week, and the weekend that she arrived, we were hosting the Autumn Fair at school. I was scheduled to work for the whole afternoon, so Donnie, Paul and Mom came to visit me for the last hour. We came home and had Beny's Pizza for dinner after. It was fun to show Mom where I worked and have her meet teachers and students from my school.
The week was rather laid back, we ate out at a few of our favorite places and I took her on a shopping trip in Luohu. We bought way more than we needed, but it was fun to haggle and pick out cool knockoffs and other Chinese gifts. I arranged to have a costume made for a party and then we headed home with all our stuff. :) We could have shopped much more, but we were tired and Paul was asking for us to come home, so we came home to relax instead.
Friday was Mom's birthday, so we baked a cake and gave her presents and it was a fun celebration. I took her for a pedicure too. :) It was so nice to have her in town to sip coffee and chat with. I miss having her nearby. Too soon it was time for her to be off, so on a rainy Saturday we rushed her onto the ferry. Hopefully she comes back to visit soon.
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| Cracking open Geods with Nana |
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| SOOOOO happy. :) |
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| HBD Mom!! |
Costume Party
A couple of weeks after mom left, we were invited to the birthday party of a coworker and friend. He hosted his birthday last year as a murder mystery involving superheroes. He did the same this year, except it was a murder mystery with wizards. This was the party I had a costume made for, so I was super excited. Everybody had amazing costumes, and the party was a blast, just like it was last year. I was actually the murderer this year, so I had to limit my interactions with people, but some one still guessed it was me. :(
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| Good vs. Evil |
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| The witches and their page boys. |
Something Donnie has been wanting to do for some time, is brew his own beer. He says he never really tried it in the States because you could buy really good beer for cheaper than it costs to brew it. This is not true here in Shenzhen, and we have some friends that homebrew quite often. After sitting in on one of their brew sessions, Donnie and I set out to do it ourselves. We picked up some 1 gallon brew kits and supplies, and on our next free night, we tried our first batch.
If you've ever brewed beer, you know that it is a long, hot process. But we did it! You have to brew it, let it sit for 2 weeks to ferment, then bottle it, and let it sit for at least 10 days to carbonate. We just bottled that first batch last weekend, and won't get to taste it until next week. Gah! Such a tedious process. But we've brewed two other batches since then, and will continuously brew as long as we have supplies, so hopefully we will never run out. (not likely, but I'm hoping) I'll let you know how the first batch turns out. We tasted the un-carbonated brew, and it was pretty dang good, so I'm looking forward to next week.
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| Mash! |
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| More Mash! |
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| Brewing buddies. |
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| Our first batch, ready to ferment. |
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| Our gorgeous first batch of India Pale Hales. Can't wait to drink them! |
Half-Marathon
The weekend before Thanksgiving, I persuaded Donnie into running a half-marathon with me. I was pretty dissatisfied with my time from our race in the summer, and I wanted a chance to redeem myself. I had been training (mostly on the treadmill), but Donnie had been doing his biking to get in shape. The race sort of snuck up on us, but I was excited nonetheless.
We had to get to HK very early on that Sunday, so we had Amy spend the night and left at 3:30am to cross the only 24 hour border to HK. It was a quick crossing, and from there we jumped in a cab which took us the the start of the race (HK Disneyland parking lot). We were super early due to my pre-race anxiety, and so we sat around before starting. It was a 6:10 start, and the race was pretty cool. Only a few hills, and mostly around the bay. Donnie ran his heart out and beat me by 6 minutes to finish at 2:06, and I finished at 2:12. I was pleased, although I really wanted to finish in 2:10. I could have pushed a little harder and made it, I guess, but in my defense it was really, really crowded.
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| Run, babe, run! |
Thanksgiving and some other things...
Thanksgiving was sort of anti-climatic this year. Donnie, Paul and I went out to eat at a British pub, and it was really good. It was over in about 30 minutes. I guess Thanksgiving really isn't about the feast, it's about the family. I really miss being with my family on holidays like this. Someday we'll have them all together again. :)
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| Delicious Thanksgiving meal |
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| My little fam. :) |
I've been playing soccer pretty regularly with a group of ladies. We are from all over the world, so it's fun to come out and share soccer and laughs. We all went out a night in November, and I'm glad I have a few people outside of the school circle I can call friends. We'll see them again this weekend. :)
In preparation for the holiday, one weekend, we went out to the Christmas market. It was a crazy adventure, but we found all of our Christmas decorations for less that 75USD, including our Christmas tree. It was like a warehouse for all of the stuff you can buy at Target or Walmart in the US, but much cheaper. We spent the next day decorating and listening to Christmas music, and I baked my very first pumpkin pie! It's been over a year since I had pumpkin pie, and I was pretty dang proud of myself and it was tasty. :)
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| Haha! Pie! |
Much love to all, we miss and love everybody. Especially this time of year.
