un, dos, tres Esteisi ("stacy" in spanish)

So, there was one point where I was on track to run a half marathon….then i got hit by a car…..then the winter came and it was so cold i didn't want to run outside….then thailand came and i decided i wanted to sleep in, instead of run….then we came back home and it was still cold….

so what's a girl to do when she lit-rally can only run outside for a few feet, before she says "i don't care if i'll eventually warm up, i am so cold right now."  She goes inside and zumba's her little heart out, that's what she does.  and that's what I did.

Zumba is super fun, but you don't ever really want anyone to watch you do Zumba.  and when you live in a small two bedroom apartment like we do, it's inevitable that someone is going to see you doing Zumba. 

Especially true when you have to do the robot part of this Zumba song:

Okay, I coudn't find a clip, so here's the song and a video of someone doing the robot.  now imagine someone doing these two things together.  in fact. mute the video with someone dancing, and play the song.  you'll see what i'm talking about.

dancing:

the song:

Seriously the robot??? It's shakira's HIPS that don't lie.  Not her stiff arms and head movements.  

The weather is starting to warm up, so I'm back to running outside…and still doing Zumba.  me gusta bailar.

I need to pick up the running though because when we go home Aaron's dad is going to dominate me at running - he's still regularly running 5 & 6 milers.  Maybe to even the playing field I'll invite him to Zumba for 50 minutes.  Then we'll see who can keep up with who.


Domo arigato, mr. roboto.

March

I like March, March is a pretty good month. And traditionally in Chapel Hill, March is a great month. 

Big Game James in '82

The 2009 National Champions - the University of North Carolina

Given that we live on the other side of the world, March means waking up at strange hours in the middle of the night to watch the University of North Carolina Tar Heels continuing a tradition of basketball dominance. Not that I'm complaining. The year has been pretty good so far, and it's not looking down anytime soon!

The Black Falcon and Company. ACC Regular Season Champions and not done yet...

The 2012 NCAA Tournament brackets have been released and the Tar Heels are a number one seed. Next stop, New Orleans.

Goodbye China's rose

Today Josh and Danielle leave China and head back to America.  This is an ode to them.

It seems to me you lived your life 

2005

like a candle in the wind

never fading with the sunset

turns out that I printed all my pictures from China.  and now don't have them on my computer, since I changed computers.  So this one is from senior year - a few months before they all moved to China.  I'm not sure what's going on.

 when the rain came in

Christmas 2010

Harvey! So glad I got to meet this little man.

your footsteps will always fall here along China's greenest hills

Okay...okay - maybe Elton John's Candle in the Wind is a bit much since they're going home, not dying - but we just watched the movie The Queen with Helen Mirren about Princess Diana's death, and that song (though never once played in the movie) has been in my head ever since then.

Josh and Danielle have meant a lot in our lives.  When we first moved to China (when we were not yet "we" and they were not yet "they") Aaron lived with Josh, and Danielle made sure the boys didn't eat just bachelor food.  Since we've been back in China it has been really sweet to visit them, always finding time with them refreshing, as we've been transitioning to being back in China, and encouraging, as we've seen just how God was using them in the city they lived in.


This isn't actually goodbye for us - we have family in the city they are from and the city they are moving to.  But we will miss them over here.


We're really proud of them and excited for their next step - as they are going to Memphis to be a part of Memphis Teacher's Residency.  Check it out:

Now is the Time from Spektical on Vimeo.

And this one is Aaron's brother who graduated from the program in 2011, and is currently teaching in Memphis.  I bet he doesn't even know we've seen this.

Micah O'Hare from Memphis Teacher Residency on Vimeo.

Also - what's up with the font, blogger?  they all say they're the same, but they all look different.  

what?!

This is Thinley.  He was our tour guide while touring the Everest region.  And that is a Duke hoodie.  I don't know who he's been hanging out with, but someone is clearly leading him astray.


We'll be mailing him some Carolina gear, so he can burn that hoodie.

Meet the Hot Box

This is why I'm hot

This is why I'm hot

This is why, this is why...

The Hot Box - my wife's ingenious solution for heating at least one room of our concrete-walls-sans-insulation apartment which lacks central heat. Two curtains to enclose the room and a space heater. The result: a 12x12x12 cube of precious warmth.


 Shear genius, Lloyd.

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.

Thank you, Eliza

Eliza introduced us to this  - both to Robyn and to the SNL version of Robyn.


Hilarious.

Asian Baywatch

We took a boat to a remote Thai island, along with other vacationers. Stacy and I went snorkeling. This is how the other half chose to spend their time on the island. 100 yards from the beach.

Rosenfun

These are our friends James and Laura Rosenberg. Stacy and I have so much fun with them.

A brief pause during a heavily contested card game.

You know people that you meet and immediately feel like you're close friends with? James and Laura. We met them a year and a half ago, but they live in a neighboring province so we only see them once or twice a year. In fact, Stacy and I have only actually hung out with them 3 times, but somehow we feel like we've known each other forever.

On the beach in Thailand in January, just before heading back to our respective provinces.

Over the course of our brief friendship, we have hiked some seriously high mountains and gone camping, played some marathon games of cards late into the night, and most recently, the four of us traveled together in Thailand - our recent snorkeling trip was actually Laura's idea.



Good times, good friends.

Snorkeling

Me and Stace went snorkeling in Thailand. This is how it went down.

Approaching the first island.

Someone's excited. And looking good!

Eager anticipation. Or the realization that snorkeling
is a poor man's scuba diving. Either way.

Floating Beauty

I have no idea what Stacy's grabbing for...

A good time was had by all.

We all live in a yellow submarine.