Oh What a Busy Day

Saturday was a busy day for us. I actually had one of those days where you are so pleased with yourself and all that was accomplished. I love those days and haven't had one in months, because I don't have much to do. We went shopping in Guangzhou to finish all the shopping that we've been meaning to do for the last few months. I always put it off, because, true to their gender, my boys hate shopping. We really have no other option but to take them along. I was nervous, as it was going to be a day of bartering and that drives me crazy after a while. Blasen is really good at it and loves it. A few months ago, he actually went back and forth over a watch for 45 minutes! I told him, we would not be doing that...our kids wouldn't last...I wouldn't last. If the vendor gives in after just a few minutes, he feels he's paid too much.
Amazingly, after about 5 hours, we got everything on my list. I felt so relieved, because I was afraid that I would just give up and say "oh well, I just won't buy that person something." Bliss lasted for about half the time, which I thought was pretty good. It helped that we consolidated our shopping to one street. We went to Beijing Lu, or Beijing Road in Guangzhou. We'd been there before and did a little shopping so we knew where to look. There were SOOOOO many people there. I would say it is the most popular place to shop in Guangzhou. I joked that we had our Black Friday shopping day a week early.

I don't know if this picture does justice to the amount of people that were there.

The first picture, up top, was taken in front of a fountain. They turned it off right when Blasen took the picture. I was surprised it was on since it was a little chilly on Saturday. You can see that Zade had past-out at this point. I had some good finds. I'll share the ones for me, as all the others are gifts and you can just wait.

Here's my Prada bag that is actually leather in and out. I was quite pleased with this find. Blasen actually found it for me. Love it!

A black Louis Vitton clutch/wallet. It has a neat clasp.

I was exhausted when we got home, but I still needed to clean, especially mop and go grocery shopping. I took a quick nap to get the energy I needed. My dear sweet husband, who does not like cleaning, swept and mopped the entire apartment. Granted it is under 900 sq.ft, but who likes to mop? The floors were in desperate need of mopping since I've had the windows open and that allows in large amounts of black dust that is on everything. AKA smog. It's amazing how much can collect in one week. The kids walk around barefoot and their feet were black. Disgusting. Anyway, with our combined efforts, Blasen and I got the apartment cleaned and food bought. This left us for a nice, peaceful, clean Sunday. A big thanks to the hubby.

Chinese BBQ

Peter, Peter's brother, Jason (Scarliet's boyfriend), Scarliet, and Blasen grilling away.

This weekend we had a BBQ with Blasen's employee's and their families. Well, he only has two employees, so a small group. There were 9 of us all together. Peter, the guy who works with Blasen, set it all up and we were to go to this park by a river that had grills. I was thinking along the lines of River Road Park in Tuscaloosa. I was way off. It was by a river in a bamboo forest type place. The grills were in the center of the tables and you would sit around almost like a camp fire to cook your food. It was different, but a really neat place. The fare was a bit different than an American BBQ. We brought chicken breasts to grill just to be on the safe side. There was chicken legs and wings...normal. Then lamb, chicken stomach, and octopus. No thanks. I usually like lamb, but this stuff looked shady. We also had eggplant and corn.
Unfortunately, we had monsoon rains the night before and the ground was still damp, so I had to resign to the fact that the kids were going to get filthy. They had a playground area not far from the grilling area in another bamboo forest. It was a bunch of wooden and rope climbing things. Mostly for older kids, but Bliss really enjoyed it. They had these tree houses that were connected by rope bridges that were really cool. The weather was probably our first enjoyable day of weather since we've been here. It was in the low-70's and windy. I actually had to dress the kids in pants, mainly because people would think I was freezing my kids if I didn't. It's stayed cool since and it's been a nice change. We have the windows open for the cooler air. The only down side is all the street noise that is continuous, as in 24-hours a day. It gets down to the 50's at night and lower 70's during the day. Hoping it doesn't get any cooler, because we don't have a heater here. No one does really, from what I understand, because it doesn't stay cold for too long.

More grilling.

Peter's wife(she doesn't have an American name and I'm not sure how to spell her Chinese name) and Zade.

We finished out our weekend with church. Zade had an accident in nursery. I guess he climbed on a chair before they realized it and then he pulled it over on himself. In the process somehow he hit his chin and split it open. It looks more like it was sliced at an angle. Not too bloody but looked pretty deep. Of course, he wouldn't leave band-aids on it. Blasen went by a pharmacy to look for butterfly band-aids and they lady told him they didn't exist. He assured her they did, but they, obviously, just didn't carry them. It finally sealed up and started scabbing regardless of Zade's efforts to stick his finger in the open wound. It probably could have taken a stitch of two, but I figured he'd likely rip those out too, so we'll just try this first. It looks pretty good today and didn't come open during the night.

Fuzzy picture, I know. I took it without the flash, because it would glare really bad with the flash. The gash doesn't look too bad here.

We were invited to lunch yesterday to a family's home we go to church with. They live in a nice area in Guangzhou where a lot of expat's live. The dad is here with the State Department and just recently moved here with his family from Taiwan. They actually had real salsa and chips! Then with the meal they had homemade whole wheat dinner rolls. Two things I've not had in months and was thrilled to have. They are a neat family that's lived all over the world. They gave us a good perspective on that kind of life...living abroad. There is a lot to think about, as we've debated on whether or not we would want to do something like that with our family. There are definitely pro's and con's. A big con for us being the loss of a sense of a "home" base, since you move around a lot. Anyway, it was nice to spend some time with another family. Thanks to the Obah family for a great afternoon.

Zoo or Freak Show

The waterfall at the entrance.

The main gate to the park.

Saturday we went back to the big park we visited about a month or so ago to visit the zoo there. The only way I got out of it the first time we were there was telling Bliss all the animals were sleeping because it was their nap time. It actually was Bliss's nap time...and it was burning hot. So, we headed over to the gigantic park. We were very surprised to find what we did.
When we first entered there was a monkey habitat, sort-of like monkey island of the old Birmingham Zoo, for all those that remember those days. There are no rules about feeding the monkeys, so some of the monkeys were a little obese. There was one poor monkey that had severely deformed back legs and seemed to use only his front legs. It was sad.
We made our way to the other exhibits and as I saw the housing for the animals, I began to fear for our safety. There were supposed to be lions and tigers and these cages did not look to be the best. In the first set of animals after the monkeys were some mountain goats, miniature horses, camels, deer, and a cow. All the animals seemed to be crowded in the cages. Our favorite, and definitely more a part of the freak show, was the cow. We get over to the cow and we were befuddled. We look again and realize that this poor cow has an extra leg growing out of it's back! It was actually two legs, one growing out of the one attached to his back. It was just weird to see in the zoo.


My other "favorite" area was the peacocks. They had a very large cage with about 40 peacocks. I've never seen so many in my life. The crazy part was that none had their tail feathers. I'm sure they were plucked and sold. I don't put it pass them. I can't think of any other reason 40 male peacocks would not have any tail feathers!


Other bothersome things were the parrots that were chained to their perches, so they wouldn't fly away.


And the poor hippo that had no water in his pool. I'm thinking, the thing lives most of his life in the water and you have no water for him in his pool! Where's PETA when you need them? Blasen and I have never been big fans of PETA. We feel they are more eco-terrorist than anything(please no hate comments), but this is somewhere they could do good. Granted, they are not allowed in China. You aren't allowed to demonstrate in China without the government's permission.
There is a place in the lake that you can feed the fish. Here are Bliss and I feeding the carp. You think they have a few too many? The fish will literally get on top of one another to get the food, even if they are totally out of water. It's crazy to watch them!

Meal time.

Bliss and me feeding the fish.

An entry to the bridge to go feed the fish.

Do you have pancake syrup?

I've meaning to update on our past weekend fun. We went to Guangzhou for the day. Guangzhou is the largest city in our province. Blasen wanted to do some shopping and find an international food store that he thought would have some pancake syrup. Blasen loves him some pancakes and french toast. I'm surprised he's lasted this long. So, off we went to the big city to look for pancake syrup!
The first purchase was a new purse for me. We see these purses every Sunday on our way to church, Blasen and I both like them, and since it was Saturday, we stopped to see them. She told me the ridiculous price she wanted for it right as the police start trying to clear all the vendors out from the sidewalk. So, that was my chance. I knew she would want to sell it fast. I really like this bag too...red, my favorite color.
Then it was on to Beijing Road, a solely pedistrian road in Guangzhou, that has tons of shopping. We found some historic stuff too when we were there. I guess a few years back, when redoing the roads they uncovered the remains of the original Beijing road from the Tang Dynasty from the 7th Century. Cool, huh? They have a couple areas unearthed and you can look down thru some glass to see.

Under the glare, you may see some old stone.

So, the grocery store Blasen wanted to go to was a Carrefour! I couldn't believe they had those here in China. For those of you that don't know, Carrefour is a Swiss grocery store. I used to go to Carrefour all the time in France. I was so hoping to find some yummy treats there. We did find the syrup, but paid about $3-4 for one bottle. They did have granola with chocolate pieces...very Swiss, but I resisted. It was pretty pricey too, for such a small box. I may give in next time though. Unfortunately, they didn't have many international items. We bought some pasta and pasta sauce for Sunday dinner.

The boys enjoyed the spaghetti. Bliss you see is embracing the Chinese culture by throwing a peace sign in for the camera.

We did some other shopping and headed home for the day, because we had to come back the next day for church. The boys were exhausted, as we all were, but we had a fun day. That night we topped off the day with French toast for dinner.

There was a talent/model search going on outside the Carrefour and Zade willingly participated.

This weekend, we're headed to Hong Kong. We will go see the LDS temple there and do some more shopping. We are still deciding on either to go to Disneyland Hong Kong or Ocean Park, another amusement park that has animals too. The boys are excited about that part. It should be lots of fun. The bus ride is about 3-4hours, so that should be interesting, but Bliss likes bus rides.
We'll definitely take lots of pictures and I'll post them next week. Wish us luck. Hong Kong is a lot bigger a city than Foshan, but more English is spoken there, so I'm excited for that.

Typhoon Nuri

No fun outings today, besides the post office. Yesterday I noticed it was overcast all day and then windy in the afternoon. Then, when the pool didn't open I knew something was going on. Blasen had some meeting in Guangzhou last night and called and asked if I knew there was a typhoon headed our way. I hadn't heard, but I don't understand much, if anything, I hear these days. So, I started looking on line to see what I could find. Here's a picture of Typhoon Nuri, before it hit Hong Kong yesterday evening. I guess this was the worst storm in the past 5 years for this part of China. Nothing too dramatic here in Foshan, even though we aren't that far from the coast. It's rained all day and remains windy. We're just enjoying a fun day indoors.
After the post office fiasco, we got something for lunch. Blasen took Bliss down into this outdoor market to look around while Zade and I waited on our food. Bliss returned with tales of chickens, geese, and ducks. He loves seeing all the animals, dead or alive. It doesn't seem to phase him. Here's a picture of us in Wal-Mart once with their fresh duck out to choose from.

Holy Matrimony

As I've said before, Saturday is our fun day. Blasen's co-worker told him about this park that the kids should like and said there was the cheapest shopping in town just across from it. I thought this would be a great Saturday outing. The shopping was a no-go, as it was not on Bliss's agenda, obviously. Excuse me!
The park, however, was loads of fun. I imagine Central Park in NYC being something like this. There were paddle boats on the small lake, a zoo, amusement park rides, vendors, etc. We road the boats. Bliss and Zade both loved this. Our boat actually had a small electric motor, so no peddling for us. Zade sat in the back and steered with Dad, while Bliss used is AK-47 mounted to the front of the boat to take everyone in the surrounding area out. Of course, we didn't want it to end, i.e. Bliss.
Before we went boat riding, we went to a green space and he played soccer with some other boys his age. The two little boys seemed to be close in age and the youngest was Bliss's age. They took off there shoes and shirts, so Bliss wanted to do the same. We went for the shirt only. Next to the green space was an open air building with a Chinese templesque look to it. Blasen went over to check it out and it was small boys doing martial arts with poles, swords and all. Of course Bliss thought they were cool. The boys had loads of fun and of course we had our papparazzi moments when people took pictures and video.


Saturday is a busy day in the park, especially this past weekend. There were tons of couples getting wedding photos made. There are tons of gardens...a really beautiful place to take photos. Of which, I wanted to participate...in the photo-taking that is. Unfortunately, the batteries were dead, as well as the back-up batteries. So, no photos this week, but we'll go back. I thought Rachael and Cheyenne would really have fun taking pictures at this place. I would never do it justice, but next time I'll try. Back to the weddings, I guess there were thousands of couples that got married on 08-08-08, not because of the Olympics(even they started at 8:08 of 8/8/08), but because it was a lucky day. In Beijing alone, over 16,400 couples, not individuals, were married. Nationwide there were 314,224. Can you believe that? Bless those girls' hearts it was so hot out there on Saturday. And there they were in wedding dresses, trapsing around a massive park. Good Luck to them all!
Sorry no pics, but like I said we'll go back to the park to do all the other stuff. This picture is one I found online of the park.