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.

Picnic, the real post

So Aaron said I would post about our picnic....so here it goes:

The local people where we live love to picnic.  It's one of their favorite past times.  I can (and did) get behind that.  So when a friend from out of town came to visit, we decided to treat her to an authentic experience.

Aaron already included a few of the pictures from our picnic, so here are a few more you didn't get to see.

this is what a picnic looks like y'all.

guy in the front is filming a hip hop video.  guy on the left is doing the classic "girl at a ____" pose.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDpX1X4uBO0 for the reference

Pretty much our local friends don't like pictures where everyone is smiling -  so this picture and the picture in an earlier post where Aaron is looking awfully girly, are what happened.  Also, Aaron's pose is a classic Chinese pose.

The Climb Up Mt. Fuji

Aaron had never even thought about climbing Mt. Fuji until I surprised him saying that on our way back to China, we were going to stop in Japan to climb it.

Most tourists start the climb up Mt. Fuji more than half way to the top.  There are 10 stations on Mt. Fuji (each station has resting areas and hostels to stay in), and most people start from station 5.

I should have known what I was getting into when I told Aaron we were hiking Fuji....Aaron doesn't consider starting halfway up actually climbing Mt. Fuji. So we started from before station 1, in the town closest to Mt. Fuji.

A non-snow capped Mt. Fuji from the nearest town

The start of the trail for us began at a Buddhist temple

He's ready to go.

We left the town around 10:15, and made it to station 8 where we spent the night (just a few hours) by 7:30pm.  Then we got up at 2:30 to make the last little hike up to the very top to watch the sunrise.

We got to the top around 3:30am and the sun was starting to rise.  We still had about an hour left from this picture.

The line of people hiking up Fuji
all of those lights are the head lamps of the people climbing the volcano

They play the Japanese National Anthem when the sunrises

trying to get a picture with the sunrise in the background

the crater of the volcano behind us

It was a hard hike for me.  We climbed from around 2,000ft to 12,388ft at the summit.  But it was worth it in the end.  And now I completely understand the popular saying about Mt. Fuji: 

"He who climbs Mout Fuji once is a wise man; he who climbs it twice is a fool."

Whoever said that must have started from where we started.

It's the little things...

I love mangos.  LOVE them.

And my love for cereal has exponentially increased since living in China.

So when I discovered I could buy this:

For the price of a box of cereal in America (which is half of what the cost typically is for cereal in China), I was so pumped!  This cereal is so good with bananas sliced into it.  And it leaves my milk a mango-y orange color at the end, which is fun.

Thank you India for bringing mangos to the rest of the world so we can enjoy them.  Thank you Kellogg's of India for putting the two together.  Thank you Nepali import store for selling them at  a price I can afford.  And thank you God for the special treat and the Nepali store being less than a 5 minute walk away!

A Christmas Tradition

As soon as we returned from our honeymoon in Greece,  I was ready to set up our Christmas decorations, and realized as most newlyweds figure out their first Christmas together that:
A) we had no christmas decorations

2) we had no christmas tree

and D) we had no money.  (home alone reference anyone?  and yes I've seen that at least once every year (most years multiple times) since it came out during my childhood)

Thankfully family gave us some of their old decorations and there was a Food Lion right down the street where we bought a $25 tree with our VIP card.

Our first Christmas together, Aaron gave me Home Alone.
It was the longest I went a Christmas season without watching Home Alone.
My previous Home Alone was on VHS and we had upgraded to a Blu-ray at this point.

Our first Christmas tree....also, I look like I'm in 9th grade in this picture.
No seriously, I wish I could post my yearbook picture.  you would agree.

Our first Christmas together.
Notice - no VHS capabilities.  It was a sad season until Christmas morning.

Anyway, that Christmas we decided to start a Christmas tradition of getting a new Christmas ornament every year, so we could slowly add ornaments to our Christmas tree.  So this year - this is what our tree looks like:

this year's tree

Here's a sample of some of our ornaments from the past 5 Christmases.  (the first two are MIA because I left them in America, afraid they would break or get lost over here).

2010's ornament.  I love this little guy.  He always makes me smile.

2011's ornaments, our first Christmas in China....we spent a lot of time on bikes and dodging electric scooters, so it seemed appropriate.

And the cloud ornament below is this year's ornament.  We bought them from a local artisan's guild here.  You see clouds like that in decoration (painted as trim on walls) all around the city.

I look forward every year to picking out a new ornament.

And here are some pictures from our previous Christmases together:

2008, Aaron's parents' house

This happened right after:

2009

I miss this house

2010, first Christmas in China

since we just moved into our house I didn't have much to decorate with
so I made one festive corner

2011

I'll be honest, I don't miss this house.

campfire

On Friday, our camping trip turned into a day trip when we learned of regulations preventing us from spending the night outside of the school.  But we still had a great time.  It's really beautiful up here.  You can find a great camping spot/day spot really easily.

fall colors in the background!  Only yellow, but we'll take them.

We went with a family that owns a few cafes in the city

campfire.  roasting corn on sticks.
i loved the way i smelled after this.

a little embarrassed to be acting macho....or just embarrassed by his company

Summer continued: cookouts & the fourth of july

Uncle Chris and Aaron
Chris is literally grilling every type of meat you can imagine

turns out I only took pictures of Eliza and/or Davis
on the fourth

getting the camera set up

got it working....still an awkward angle
friends from Charlotte!  Thanks for the cookout Graham and Seth!

Meet Davis

Meet our nephew, Davis Jamison Riddle - born June 30, 2012 the same day that his uncle Micah got married.

Just call me tia

spend my days in the sweet sunshine

I've wandered this world far and wide
I've been all around and to the other side, but there's nothing like coming home

We're coming home for the summer and to celebrate coming home, I'm posting the top 5 simple things that I am looking forward to:

1) TAP WATER.

go to the sink, fill up your glass, take a sip.  delicious.  can't wait.

2) DRY HANDS AFTER USING A PUBLIC RESTROOM.

there's a sink.  but there's no soap and no way to dry your hands.  looking forward to walking away from bathrooms without wet pants.

3) STARS!

I think I can count the times on my hands that I have seen stars in the last year and a half...and none of those times were in our city.  this is the city where sometimes it's a challenge to figure out if you're staring directly at the sun or if the moon came out early.

lately i've seen too many city lights,

i want to go somewhere where i can see the stars at night

4)  ICE.

in drinks.  at restaurants.  and you don't have to ask for it.  or really trust the establishment you're at to give you clean ice.  one of American friends here had to tell his visiting dad every time they went to a restaurant that he couldn't get ice water.  and every time they went, his dad still asked for ice water.  it's hard to get used to.

a local friend of mine went to america last summer, and thought it was so strange that she couldn't get hot water at restaurants, but it always came with ice.  i feel your pain.  (only the other way around).

5)  DRIVING.

we don't drive here.  although my husband did just get his chinese driver's license!!

roll down the windows, turn up the country music.

OH and what the heck, one more..... HOT DOGS.  an all beef hot dog. carolina style - coleslaw and chili.  I know. I know.  A lot of girls think hot dogs are gross.  But I like them.  And the chinese hot dogs around here are more like Vienna sausages instead of Hebrew Nationals or Ballparks.  

Coming soon to America

BBC news had an article this week on adult playgrounds (the picture above is from the article).  Apparently the UK, inspired by China, has decided to add adult playgrounds to parks.  Click on adult playgrounds to go to the article.

I hope that one day I can make a similar video in America to the video we posted on an earlier blog about adult playgrounds in China.

虎跳峡 Hu Tiao Xia, Tiger Leaping Gorge

Have you ever mentally thought that you could do more than your body is physically able to, but didn't realize it until your body was forced into one of three things: passing out, pooping your pants, or throwing up?


That's what happened to me last week.  Aaron and I went to Yunnan Province to Tiger Leaping Gorge (the deepest gorge in the world) to do a couple day hike through the high trail.  Aaron had been before 5 years ago and after seeing his pictures I really wanted to go.  So last week during our International Labor Day Holiday Aaron and I did the hike.  When we got to the start of the trail there were a lot of other people joining us, so of course, I wanted to pass them.  I didn't want other people on my quiet, get away from the city and other people, trail.  So I pushed hard (or at least hard for me).  And then about 30 minutes into the trail, I asked Aaron if we could stop for a break.


Then I sat down.
"I think I'm going to pass out....."
"....I may poop my pants...."
"....Can you sit down next to me?"
Lean my head on his shoulder, then immediately bounce my head back up, turn away from him and throw up down the trail.
Twice.


I had to sit there and watch as people I worked so hard to get in front of walked through my vomit.  Whoops.


I'm not sure why I threw up actually.  That part of the trail isn't that hard.  It wasn't too hot.  I was going fast for myself, but not super fast - I mean, Aaron kept up without throwing up.  We were at 7,000ft which is higher than we live at, but we had been at the elevation for a couple of days already and I felt better after I threw up.  I may have drank too much water or not enough....not sure.  But I threw up.  We sat for a minute, then we kept going.


And we still beat everyone we started with to the Halfway Guesthouse.

on the way to the gorge

not too long after the throwing up incident.  feeling better.

at halfway guesthouse
what a hottie.

Our friend Graham came to visit us for a week!  It was a whirlwind of a trip.  In the week he was here he spent only two nights at our apartment, ascended to 17,000+ ft, fled a oncoming blizzard at Everest Base Camp, ate Tibetan, Indian, Nepali, Taiwanese fast food, and Chinese, rode around in a Land Cruiser, picked up a hitch hiking nun.....the list goes on.


Unfortunately I don't have pictures to cover all of the things above - but here are a few pictures to get us started. 

Meet Graham

His album drops soon.

 Locals

The Girls

 The Boys

The Boys with Locals

The Land

Everest

The boys survived a blizzard at Base Camp....only they left before the blizzard started.  They FLED a blizzard at base camp.  Not many people can say that. 

Below is an artist's rendering of what it would have looked like if Everest wasn't being bombarded by snow.  She's a beaut, Clark, a real beaut.

Artist's Rendering

Also, please note - it took me forever to do that. If we had something like photoshop or even paint, that would have taken no time.....but i had to turn the picture into a pdf, then download onto another website, then embed into the blog.  phew.