November in Review

Here's November in review.

Not much video this month.  Features a "holy walk" around the town, and Thanksgiving/Hanukkah.  Also, there's about 30 seconds of just a black screen.  Sorry.  This video was about to become a November and December in review, since it's already the middle of December, so I just wanted to post it.

October in Review

Here's October's video compilation.

It features:
being extras in a movie
soccer
a trip to Hong Kong
Halloween with the foreign students
"Opening Ceremony" for school
KTV (karaoke)
Canadian Thanksgiving
picnicking with some cows
English corner activities (dancing)
and Snow!

If you missed the other months in review, just click on either the video tag or the months in review tag below to see them.

September in Review

Here's a video compiled from last month's events...or anytime I remembered to bring a camera. Footage includes a trip to a village, Bathing Festival (where all the locals go to the river to bathe or wash their clothes), ultimate frisbee, frisbee golf, soccer, and other random clips. 

A lot of jumpy video this time. Just close your eyes, and the spinning should stop.

Class is in Session.

It's challenging to bake when you live at 12,000ft.

It's also challenging to bake when you grew up in a culture that largely does not eat bread.

But I've found, if you've ever traveled outside of this country or even just outside of this province, you'll love pizza and want to learn how to make it.

So that is why I am currently teaching some local businessmen how to bake.  They said they want to learn how to bake, but after our first meeting together, it sounds like they only want to learn to make pizza - which is just as easy here as it is at sea level.

Getting our game faces on

Teaching him how to roll out the dough

And how to hand toss

Look at that beautiful hand tossed crust.  My oven is only big enough to make personal pan pizzas, so we made a lot of those.

Another pizza going into the oven, this time accompanied by a calzone

One of the guys was so excited he invited his kids and wife to come try the pizza he made.

All done.  Leaving the clean up for someone else....

merry christmas from the rooftop of the world

the grill is always a crowd pleaser

During our recent Oktoberfest party with the foreign students we celebrated by grilling sausages, steaks... and rice.

David and Victoria

Apparently every October the students at our university have a soccer tournament, with a 5,000RMB prize for the winning team. In years past there has not been a team of foreign students.  But this year is different.

They played four games for qualification, but didn't actually make it into the tournament.  But to be fair, there were a number of factors that led to their demise.  Like the average age on our team was about 6 or 7 years older than the other students.  The other students could all speak the same language.  The other students had played together already for a long time.  The other students are from this area, so their bodies have no problem running around for 60 minutes at 12,000ft.  The refs were biased.  Etc.

Aaron hasn't played soccer since he was about 9 years old.  He did a great job though.

intimidating the corner kick

Some of the foreign students kept saying that Aaron looks like Beckham.
They decided I could be Posh (though not because I look like her, just because I'm married to Beckham)
halloween costume idea???

on the soccer field

What the girls were doing during the game

the team

Golden Birthday review

I turned 29 on the 29th of May.


This is the first birthday where I officially feel old - leaving my twenties in just a year.

To kick off the last year in my twenties, we decided to go big.


I woke up on the morning of my birthday to a collapsing tent under the weight of the snow from the storm the night before.  We kicked the snow off, ate breakfast, then set off for climbing a glacier.  It actually wasn't as hardcore as it sounds - I mean I didn't throw up like I did hiking Tiger Leaping Gorge (which according to our friend Jarred whether or not I am throwing up is his new litmus test for if something is hardcore).

We came back to the city a couple of days later, where Aaron and I got caught in a rain storm heading to one of my favorite restaurants to celebrate my birthday.....only to get there and discover it was closed.....so we had McDonald's for dinner instead.


The next night Aaron took me out on a date to the nice Italian restaurant he took me to for our anniversary.

AND then the next night he surprised me by taking me to the previously closed restaurant for a surprise dinner with some local friends.

It was a good birthday.  I think it's going to be a good year.

other holiday festivities

DADDY RICK MOLASSES COOKIES!

There are many reasons to look forward to Christmas.  And molasses cookies at the O'Hare household is one of them.  Aaron's Granddad Jack used to make these cookies, unfortunately I never got to know him. So these cookies bear only Aaron's Dad's name.  Daddy rickies, is also acceptable.

We had friends over tonight for a bonfire in our driveway. I was going to say "courtyard", but really it's the parking lot.  That's okay.  It was still awesome.


We drank wassail and sang carols around the fire.  It was really nice.  I loved the way I smelled when I came back in the house, and how my face stayed warm for a long time after I left the fire.

Megan and Weston

We leave on Thursday night to spend Christmas with the Shelleys and the Jungs!

essentials

at least i'm calling them essentials.

These are the things that have so far made the month of December great:

the milk frother i got from ikea to make coffee
and hot chocolate with frothed milk!

egg nog!  thanks danielle for sharing your recipe

the fireplace in our tv 

the gingko trees turned yellow
fall came at Christmas time this year

homemade pizzas

hanging out with Jackie (Asian Kate's son)

week in review

Really it's the last week+.


Asian Kate took me to Haagen Dazs.  It was unbelievable.  It was my first time actually ever eating Haagen Dazs, and I think it is just as good here as it is in America.  Maybe even better, because it's been quite a while since I had ice cream.

I got some curtains in the mail from my mom & stepdad for aaron and my anniversary!  I have been wanting these curtains for so long (or at least it feels like so long).   and i love them.

Cute babies actually posing for a picture.  That's right, she put her arm around him just for the picture.

We hung out with some friends who are moving out of town soon.  Waah.

We went out for hot pot (cook your own meats and vegetables in boiling water at your table), where Aaron and I ate the intestines of the pig, the cow, and the chicken.  It surprisingly wasn't as disgusting as I thought it was going to be, since intestines are not the kinda things I choose to make at home.

2 different broths to cook the food in - 2 non spicy, two super spicy

one of my teaching assistants and her husband

me & phyllis

And to end the week, tip off weekend started on ESPN with Carolina playing Michigan State in the Carrier Classic.  My husband was literally jumping up and down saying, "it's Carolina and it's America!  This is AMAZING!"

He puts on as much Carolina stuff as he can find

Making dumplings

I feel like every foreigner who lives in China eventually has this experience - making 饺子 jiaozi (dumplings) with your local friends.


You may remember Asian Kate.  She's was our real estate agent, and is currently our neighbor.  She works ALL the time.  The realty office that she works at is right beside the gate of our complex.  She and her husband run the business, so they are literally there 24/7.  Twenty four hours a week, 7 weeks a year.


Actually they're there every day (Monday through Sunday) from 9:00am to 9:00pm.  When her husband's around, Asian Kate works all day long and has no time to hang out.  BUT when her husband goes to Hong Kong (his hometown) to visit his mother, Kate is free to hang out.


For months she has been telling me, "When my husband goes to Hong Kong, we can make dumplings together." "When my husband is gone, we can go shopping!"  But I was never really sure when her husband actually went on these trips.  Then about three weeks ago she knocked on my door to say, "He's going to Hong Kong November 1-5th!"


So Wednesday, Kate and I went to the market to buy fillings for dumplings, then brought them back to my house to stuff the dumplings, steam them and boil them.  It was a lot of fun to finally get some time to hang out with her, and super fun to finally learn how to make dumplings.  Kate kept saying, "I think making jiaozi is fun!"  Her mother apparently is a great jiaozi maker, and it is her family tradition (actually a lot of Chinese families' tradition) to make jiaozi together and eat them at Chinese new year.  Maybe next blog I'll write about this tradition and what I learned about the "legend" of jiaozi from my chinese teacher.


There is a specific way to make jiaozi look pretty when you are closing up the dumplings, and it took practice for me to get them done well, but by the end, Kate told me I could open up an "Jiaozi Made by an American Shop."

steamed jiaozi

making the fillings

teaching me the proper way to wrap them

I am a sport girl.

Football season has started back up, and we are using the slingbox like crazy.
Our teams:
NFL - Green Bay Packers
College - Carolina & Notre Dame

In America on Saturdays we would just have football on all day long.  It was so much fun.  I would make chili, and football would be on while we were doing things around the house, stopping to watch big plays or the games we really wanted to see.  But now, those days are over.  Football comes on in the middle of our Saturday night.  So only when Carolina has a football game, and Notre Dame has one at a different time will be awake for more than one game....and I'm not sure that I'll even be able to stay awake for all that.

But beyond football, this summer we got into the other football...and no, I don't mean soccer.  I mean rugby.  The game that helped start our version of football.  It's strange watching it, because I am so used to the rules of football, that it really throws me off when they don't do things they would do football.....like when they go down in rugby, the guy who hit the ground can push the ball back through his legs to one of his players, who then picks it up off the ground and just keeps playing.  The first time I saw this, I was like what??!  How can that be?  He is DOWN.  But now, I've gotten used to it, and it is pretty amusing to watch the guys with their faces smashed in the ground passing the ball back between their legs.  (Forgive me if there are any rugby fans out there who are dismayed at my lack of rugby knowledge.)

We became All Blacks fans this summer (the New Zealand rugby team) watching the Tri-Nations cup with some Kiwi friends here in the city:

America actually is in the Rugby World Cup.  Our first game is against Ireland.....so Aaron somehow feels conflicted about who to cheer for.  If y'all know my husband, you know why that is confusing to me.  He loves America.  I know he loves his Irish heritage, but not pulling for America?  It cannot be.

New Goal (to be achieved by the end of the World Cup):  Learn the Haka:

God shed His grace on thee

How do you celebrate America's Independence Day while living in China? By having a cookout (or "a barbecue" to apparently every other English speaker, except those of us from the South) at the home of your Kiwi friends, of course.

our gracious hosts

This is Vernon and Gaynor.
Though they are from New Zealand, they hosted a 4th of July party for all their American friends - as well as some Canadian, Australian, British, and Swiss friends. It was a lot of fun. We enjoyed traditional American 4th of July dishes like potato salad and a Kiwi/Australian Pavlova.

all decked out

Making hamburgers

Thanks Aamee & Pop Pop for the flag decor!

I guess the little 5 year old boy in our apartment complex could see that we were patriotic people by the clothes we were wearing, because when he ran up to say "Hello Stacy!" he asked me my Chinese name, and then - "Japan is bad.  Is it or is it not?"  Aaron: "What?  Say that again?"  Kid:  "Japan is bad. Okay, Bye."  I guess he thought we would share his sentiment.


Another classic Chinese moment today - one of our American friends received a text wishing her a "Happy Indecent Day!"  Indecent, independence....tomayto, tomahto.

Support local business (kind of a catch phrase around our neighborhood in America)

In America, Aaron and I were pretty big restaurant snobs, desiring only to eat at local restaurants instead of chains - especially if we were going to a city we had never been before. We love Chick-Fil-A and Bojangles (apparently only fast food chains win our hearts over), but restaurants that are unique to an area will get my vote every time.

Luckily, here in China, we're surrounded by local restaurants here. Chain restaurants for us now have been reserved for fancy, once in a while meals -  like when you're having a bad day and are in need of a treat. We look forward to going to Thailand and going to Outback, Burger King, Swensen's, Tony Roma's, etc., for long awaited treats.

It's nice having many local restaurants, I guess.  But my snobbish ways are quickly dying, as Aaron and I have tried local restaurant after local restaurant to be disappointed, then end up one desperate night at Pizza Hut (the first two months I wasn't able to cook anything at home, because our kitchen wasn't set up.  So there were quite a few days that qualified as "a bad day in need of a treat" after eating the same food for weeks at at time). We haven't found any gems close to our home yet (gems - as in - "I'm tired and don't feel like cooking.  Let's just run right out to _____" type of gems).  BUT we have found a few restaurants that we are willing to walk a mile to get to, and one in particular that we hypothetically would  eat three meals in a row there.....hypothetically, of course:)

This is our friend, Mr. Joe (His last name sounds like Joe in English, so we'll call him Mr. Joe for the ease of remembering).  We stumbled upon his Japanese (he's not Japanese) restaurant one day, ordered his "beef rice" (which we refer to as teriyaki beef), only to fall in love and continuously come back 3 meals in a row (that's 6 miles of walking for that beef rice).  This is by far Aaron's favorite restaurant. 

delighting in the beef teriyaki

Señor Joe makes potato salad that tastes like american potato salad, fried mashed potato cakes (croquettes), asparagus wrapped in bacon, a stir fry beef and onion dish, chicken nuggets, and french fries. This guy is amazing! He also makes sushi, but we don't sully our palettes with that :)

the new creation
yeah, he cut the carrots to look like flowers

Last week, we convinced him to make us a chicken teriyaki - with broccoli and carrots, instead of his usual mushrooms and onions that he uses in the beef. At first he was hesitant, but he tried it for us. Aaron was a big fan. This item is not on his menu, but he told us he will make it for us anytime we like.

Random blog, I know. But I wanted to offer a little glimpse into our lives of the things we're really starting to enjoy about our city.

If they mated.....

       +

Result =

This is Asian Kate. I know you can see it. Don't lie.

This is me with Kate and her son, whose English name is coincidentally Jackie....probably after her father.