Brother in China!

So this is probably one of the last, if not the last post of this blog. I'm debating whether or not to start a new one, but I probably will. Too many things run through my head that I want to remember, so I'll most likely start a new one. However, it is sad to see how few posts I made this year. My life doesn't seem exciting enough to warrant all the writing I do about it. ;)

With that said, let me take the time to remember and record the excellent winter break we had.

December started without too much excitement, but ten days in, my brother arrived! He had a long travel over, spending the night in Beijing and arriving in Shenzhen in late afternoon. He was a trooper though, and I dragged him out to play soccer that night with the girls I play with every week. It was sort of laughable how much better he was than all of us, but we had a great time and I was happy to show my brother off.

The rest of the last week of school was uneventful, I brought Matt to class with me on Friday to help with some spaghetti towers, but Paul got sick at school, so we had to go home. It was nice to spend the day with him though. And while Paul was resting, I had time to help Amy prep for our Christmas party.



Donnie and I haven't hosted a party since moving to China. We used to host the best parties! (I know, I'm humble, but I always had a great time!) So I convinced Donnie one night to have a Christmas party. We invited mostly school peeps, but I extended the invite to my soccer girls too. We ordered a small keg of beer from the only craft brewery here in Shenzhen, Bionic Brew, and made nachos and hoped for the best! In my personal opinion, the party lived up to our expectations, and we had a great time. There were lots of people, filling our small apartment, and Paul was in pretty good spirits. We had a movie playing for kids, and everybody brought food! So we had an impressive international spread and yummy beer. How could it not be fun? A few of my soccer girls even came! We stayed up to the wee hours of the morning; it was a great way to kick off the winter break. We were supposed to go to another Christmas party the next evening, but we were too tired and not really in the mood.

Sometime during that weekend, Donnie and Matt made it out to Luohu to do some shopping. Matt had expressed the intention of getting a suit made, so after striking out in Old Shekou, they headed out there on a mission. They had success! And Matt was pleased with the experience. He had to go back several times for a fitting and to pick up the suit, but I think the end product was worth the effort.

Futuristic skyline that faces the Bund

On Monday, we headed out to the Shenzhen airport (our first time flying out of Shenzhen!) and took a two hour flight to Shanghai. We arrived relatively fresh and headed to happy hour in the hotel. Unfortunately, whatever had made Paul throw up at school was now in my system, and I had a horrible 6 hours that night. It made me wary the entire time we were in Shanghai. Fortunately, it didn't stop me from seeing a few things.

Matt and I geared up against the cold, blowing wind and headed out on Tuesday to see The Bund and the Yu Yuan Gardens. The skyline across from the Bund is so futuristic, it sort of looks like a painting. It contrasts The Bund in a very unusual way, we were lucky with a clear day, even if it was frigid. The gardens were overwhelming. They were so beautifully constructed, but a little bit crowded. Matt and I did some shopping. We stopped in a little cafe for him to try some dumplings and chicken feet. We headed home shortly after that.

We went back out for some food and yummy beer at Shanghai Brewery, but I turned in after that since I wasn't quite feeling 100%. The next day, Matt and I slept in, then ventured out to find an old city within Shanghai. It was cool, a little bit like the gardens, but more authentic feeling. We were so cold, but we jumped back on the subway and headed to the French Concession.

This area used to be where the expats lived in Shanghai and it's pretty much like walking through Europe. We arrived just as the sun was setting, so after strolling the streets for a while on a self-guided walking tour, we found ourselves in front of the Boxing Cat Brewery. It was actually amazing, because we had wanted to find this place anyway, and the fact that it appeared on our path was so advantageous. Matt and I split the most delicious burger and pitcher of helles beer. It was a really cozy place, and we would've stayed longer, but Donnie was under the weather and we wanted to get back to the hotel. We jumped in a cab for the long ride home and I was happy to see my guys were feeling better.

The last day in Shanghai was spent lounging around in the hotel for as long as possible until our late checkout time. From there, we went to the number one rated Sichuan restaurant in Shanghai. Donnie loves the numbness he gets from the Sichuan peppercorns, so he was most excited about this. We arrived right as it was opening, and ordered so much food. The guys dined on frogs, rabbit, duck and lots of rice and some veggies. It was spicy!

After our bellies were full, we wandered down Nanking road to view the skyline at night. It was worth the cold walk, but it was too chilly to hang around and we had a plane to catch. We hopped in a cab, grabbed our bags from the hotel, and then waited around in the airport for hours because our flight home was delayed. We finally made it home at 3am, and I gratefully crawled into my warm, comfy bed.

My dudes.

Matt tried chicken feet! Yuck!

The Yu Yuan Gardens. It was much colder than it looks.

An old city within Shanghai.

Ever so cool at Boxing Cat.

Our Sichuan spread. It was pretty fantastic.

Skyline at night.

That only left us with one more weekend with Matt. We were all too pooped to do anything on that Friday, so we laid low, but Matt did get his suit fitted. Saturday morning we decided to make a day trip to HK, so we caught a morning ferry over. We made our obligatory Marks and Spencers stop, and used their wifi to find a TX BBQ restaurant up in central. We hiked ourselves up the moving walkway and found it! It is a tiny place, but the BBQ is killer. We had some yummy craft brews, and finished our food, then went to find the Peak Tram. 

Tasted this at the Roundhouse!

Unfortunately, the tram's line was incredibly long, and I gave up trying to do anything else touristy because it was so crowded. So we made our way back down towards the ferry, stopping at HK Brew to pick up some more brewing supplies. 

We headed back to Shenzhen that evening, and then woke up on Sunday for Matt's last day. It was a pretty chill day. I honestly can't remember us doing anything too remarkable. We brewed some beer, and made the trip out to Luohu to pick up Matt's suit. It looked great!! Definitely worth the wait and the effort to get it.

Two good looking dudes.

It was so great to share our life with Matt. Only getting to see him once a year is a terrible shame and I love the moments I have with him. He's such a strong human, physically, mentally and emotionally and I'm lucky to have him as a brother. You're amazing, Matt. We love you.

I will post again about the rest of break...there's too much for this one post. :) Much love to all.

November Events

I've been pondering why I've been such a bad blogger this year, and I've come to the conclusion it's for two reasons. One, that this year seems WAY busier than last year, and that two, things that I may have blogged about last year have become the norm, and no longer novel to me. I think most likely the first reason is the main reason I've been so horrible keeping up this year, but I'll try to highlight the last month so I don't forget the details.

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.

Cracking open Geods with Nana

SOOOOO happy. :)

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. :(

Good vs. Evil

The witches and their page boys.

Beer Brewing

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.

Mash!

More Mash!

Brewing buddies.

Our first batch, ready to ferment.

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.

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. :)

Delicious Thanksgiving meal

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. :)

Haha! Pie!

That pretty much sums up the month of November. Maybe now you can see why I haven't had time to write. :) Now off to pick up my brother Matt!!

Much love to all, we miss and love everybody. Especially this time of year.

An Autumn Trip to Thailand

Coffees and the Hales on Patong Beach

It's official. I'm the worst blogger ever. This fall has been such a crazy hectic time that I've not had a the time, (or motivation) to write down all that we've been up to. Most of it is just normal every day stuff, not too interesting, but we did have a fantastic vacation to Phuket, and I want to record the details.

We left for Phuket very early in the morning on the first Saturday of our October break, and arrived around 7am and took a cab down to Patong Beach. We had arranged to stay there for two nights, but our flight had changed, so we stayed one night. Patong Beach is a pretty lively tourist area. The beach reminded me of Hanalei, but the boulevards were much less relaxed. It was a bustling area and we soaked it up for the day and evening. We walked along the main beach, swam at the hotel pool, went out for some really delicious Thai food and then walked along the famous Bangla street. Paul insisted we take a tuk-tuk home. Tuk-tuks are cars or trucks with open backs and usually have some sort of cover. In the Philippines, they use motorcycles, but in Phuket, they were trucks. It's a fun way to go a short distance. :)We turned in early, with plans to do a little bit more exploring before we relocated to a more isolated hotel. We didn't do much the next day, but we did manage some shopping and then piled into a taxi to go to a resort north of the airport.

Perfect pool day.

Chasing waves on Patong

Selfies on the big screen!

A ride in a fun tuk-tuk!

Transit in Phuket can be pricey, and really the only way to get around is by taxi. The taxi drivers have the upper hand because we have no other choice, so we paid a hefty sum to be transported up to our next hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort Mai Khao. It was gorgeous. A bit isolated, but there was a really nice beach and the pool was amazing. There was even a play room for Paul (which we could have left him there for childcare, but we didn't). It was a really peaceful place, the opposite from being in Patong. We spent our time sleeping, eating, running, swimming and soaking in the sun and beautiful sunsets. After a few days, we geared up and headed south again to catch the ferry to Koh Phi Phi.

A huge stretch of beach, so we had a private beach sunset party. 

Happy Hales

Deep thinking on the beach.

On the way over to Koh Phi Phi

The ride down to the ferry was long, and we almost missed the boat, but we made it! Unfortunately, there were no seats left inside so we hunkered down for the 3 hour ride on the bow of the boat. I did my best to shade Paul, but he fell asleep and it was difficult to keep him in my lap and cover him. We all ended up a little crispy after that ride. Donnie and I chatted and shared some drinks to pass the time, and finally we arrived at Koh Phi Phi. I'd read about this place and it's on all the best beaches list, and it does not disappoint. We were booked to stay at the Holiday Inn Resort on the island, so after making one stop at the town, the ferry dropped us into little long boats to be shuttled to the resort. We had to wait a little bit for our room to be ready, but when it was, it was fun to see. The rooms there are bungalows and really aren't too much nicer than camping cabins. The difference is that they are literally steps from one of the most gorgeous beaches I've ever seen. So we settled in for four days. Making a routine of eating, sleeping and playing on the beach. There were a few restaurants to explore along the beach, but we ate a lot of room service. :) The highlight of our time there was a boat ride we took on one of the days. We left early, right after breakfast and headed out in one of the long boats. The boat took us to the nearby island where the movie The Beach was filmed. That area is called Mya Bay. It was gorgeous, but crowded, so after a few pics and some swimming, we moved on to some other beaches and coves. We had our own boat, so the driver took us to some less crowded spots for swimming and snorkeling. Paul was hesitant at first to get in the water with all the fish, but he put on his goggles and swimmers, and jumped in. He loved watching the fish swim between his toes. :) We also stopped at Monkey Bay. It was cool at first to be so close to these wild monkeys, but they are super aggressive. After one of them charged at Paul, we decided we'd just take pictures of them from the boat. While we watched, another tourist was letting them climb all over her, and one bit her! I was glad we had opted out of close contact with them. :)

The beach a few steps from our door.

My fav view.

Our little bungalow

The only way around the island is on these long boats.

Here we go!

Mya Bay

Fearless snorkellers

The Hales 

Really cool sea caves.

Evil monkeys.

Best viewed from afar.

My snorkeling dudes.

There's only one ferry out of Koh Phi Phi, and it leaves early in the morning, which was good because we had a flight to catch at 11am. The weather wasn't on our side and after a torturous 4 hours on rough seas we made it to Krabi. Our flight left without us and we were left to figure out what to do next. Luckily, there was a room available at the Holiday Inn in Krabi, so we checked in, took naps and played at the super fun water slides. We ventured out in the rain for some really awesome Indian food, and made plans to catch our newly booked flight the next day. :)

The best Indian food ever!

We made our flight to Singapore, but we didn't get to see much of the city once we got there. It's a really nice city, albeit expensive, but Paul was grouchy and we found our happy place at a local brewery, so we just resigned to relaxing. The next day we planned to go on a tour of the city from the airport, but upon arrival at the airport, we found you actually could only do those arranged tour from inside the departure gates. (Transfers only) So we spent the day playing, eating and walking around the Changi Airport. It's one of the best in the world, I would say. Although, I do favor Munich's more. 

We got home late and vegged the next day before getting back into the grind of October. This month has been packed with obligations, work, coaching, playing and also fun. But I'll fill you in on the details in another month or so....

hahaha hopefully sooner than that. Love to all and I miss your faces. :)