Now that's a pair of Asian shoes!

Well, as you may have known or inferred from the title, this blog is not about literal shoes but a play on our name. However, that all changes today.  I was filled with great joy today when my friend called me and asked me to meet her at the library. I love seeing this friend but I could tell by her message there was going to be something special about this meeting.  She told me she had traveled home the previous weekend and while she was there she bought me some shoes....Asian Shoes! Now I really have a pair of Asian Shoes. I was so thrilled about it I knew I just had to tell the blogging world about this day.

So here I am with these cool new shoes. They are a little small but wearable.  So, I haven't updated since our trip to Macau and HK. A lot has been going on but nothing to write about here! :) We had a busy, but great week and now we are getting ready for Thanksgiving, then Christmas is right around the corner!  There will be plenty to post about soon so I will try to post as much as I can.

Macau & Hong Kong

Oh boy, I have no idea where to begin. Well, lets just see where this takes us!

Jared and I recently returned from a trip to Macau and Hong Kong. We went to see some good friends and at the same time got to see some really cool places. I will start us off in Macau. What do you know about Macau? Anything? How about that they are the gambling capital of the world....we are talking way more money than Vegas is spent in this place. Really, my heart just breaks for the people there just throwing their money away, because that is all they are doing. The tourists there are not interested in entertainment, shows, and good food. They are strictly there to gamble. It is quiet at the tables and slot machines, almost too quiet!

The casinos do try to offer entertainment and glamorous buildings, like the Venetian, and so we took them up on that. We went to see a Cirque Du Soleil performance. If you have the chance to see a show take that chance. I am still not quite sure what the plot was but it was entertaining and amazing to see the accrobats!

We also got to see some great landmarks around Macau here are some pictures:

We also took some time to go over to Hong Kong...I mean we were so close that we just couldn't pass up the opportunity!

 In Hong Kong, we went to eat at a restaurant called "Modern Toilet". The whole restaurant has a bathroom theme. You sit on a toilet seat for your chair, eat your food out of a miniature (clean) toilet bowl or bathtub. Let me say again...CLEAN!  We also ate ice cream in the shape of well... you can see the picture.

It was quite an entertaining experience and gave us some hilarious photo opportunities, a plus was that the food was actually pretty tasty.

We also took a tram up to the top of Victoria Peak and saw some amazing views from the top. I hope that at some other time we can make it back there to go up during the daytime also.  After that we grabbed a late dinner at Outback! Mmmmm steak! We don't get to eat that too often here and the beef just isn't as good.

In the morning we went to see Noah's Ark. Different organizations in Hong Kong got together to make a reconstruction of the Ark to the exact dimensions. It was pretty neat to see but definitely focused more towards the children who were there. It was ok though...I still got to see the Ark!

We ventured back to Macau with our friends and headed back to our home. It was a great trip, we literally did as much as we could in the few days we were there and enjoyed every minute of it. Now we are trying to get back to our normal routines and gain back some much needed rest. Sorry this is a little long but I hope you fell well updated on our travels.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is anticipated by children and adults all around the world. Ok, well here maybe just by the expats. Last year we had a great time dressing up, going out to eat, carving watermelons (yes that is correct), eating candy and having a dance party!

This Halloween we went for something a bit different. We were so blessed to be visited by some friends from another city who brought their kids so we headed downtown for a meal and bowling! The place we went has awesome burgers and pizzas...mmmm what a treat!

This year I hand sewed costumes for Jared and I, and thanks to a suggestion from a friend we decided to be pirates!

Here we are at the restaurant being pirates. Jared got the red and black fabric for us from the market and I  sewed his black shorts and our vests. The red we just tied on and we work Jared's white shirts. It took a while to do since we don't have a sewing machine here and it was my first attempt at sewing in a REALLY long time, but it turned out great!  I had been checking out homemade pirate costume ideas on the internet for a while and most of them say...cut up your sweatpants, or make a vest out of a black shirt you have...well you know what, I just can't do that here. If I cut up my sweatpants I can't go to walmart and buy a new pair or go buy a cheap plain black t-shirt... so sewing it was!  I feel very accomplished. Some other friends took pictures of us too so hopefully we an exchange them soon and I can get some better pictures of us and the other friends who were there. We were a wild group! Here are a few others:

Here is Jen P. with Jared. All of the girls dressed up as the guys here. She was lucky enough to be Jared.  I helped to sneak his clothes to her.

We even had Superman and Clark Kent show up at our party!

A beautiful day for a Wedding!

While we were at the park with our teacher and her family there were many, many, many weddings going on. Why so many weddings Jennifer?

Well, let me tell you. Here the number 8 is considered very lucky to have because it is associated with wealth or fortune. Many people and companies will pay a lot of money to have a phone number with a lot of 8's in it. Anyways... Sunday was the 18th of October so there were a lot of weddings happening on that day.

First up: Beautiful couple (even waving to us...we are so cool) It is becoming more common to have a "western" style wedding with a white dress. Many couples even have 2 weddings, on with a white dress and one with more traditional dress.

Here is a scene from a traditional wedding ceremony. 

 

I can't believe the background! Am I still in Asia? It looks so real! (ha!)

Ha! For some reason they thought this was a great idea. I want to see how their pictures turned out! 

Last but not least is the couple between the dancing dragons. When we were there up close and personal the bride didn't seem to happy about this one.

These were all different couples and there were a few more that we didn't get pictures of. It was really a fun expereince and see how a differnt culture celebrates weddings. Talking with our teacher and finding out more about her own wedding was very interesting. There are things that were similar to our own wedding but then again some things were very different. I hope someday to expereince attending a wedding here for real, not just as an onlooker.

Fun with a fun family!

So, we have been asked by one particular teacher, since last year, if we could come to her house. Things happened and we finally got around to going over. At first I was admittedly not so excited about this. I mean it was taking up my Sunday and I really enjoy my Sundays. Plus it was going to be a huge stretch for our language.

She came and picked us up a little after 11 in the morning in her personal car. That was a first, the only vehicles we have been in here were taxis or buses. Taking a ride in a personal car was a different story. People here are not known for their great traffic behaviors so I didn't know what to expect. To sum up the experience was not so bad, I only thought we were going to hit someone just once.

Our teacher is married and has one daughter. Their daughter is so precious! She is only 4 and that worked out just fine because that is about where my language level is....a 4 year old! Ha! My oh my does she have a lot of toys too! Since she is the only child I think she has complete domain over that whole space in their apartment.  It was fun getting to play games with her and our teacher said that she could tell that I was meant to work with children. Her husband knows some English and was wanting to have a chance to practice using English so it was spent 50/50 English and non English. I felt like it was a very sucessful language day for both of us.

The family made us lunch and were the most hospitable people I have ever been with. For lunch we had 2 kinds of jiaozi (dumplings), stringed potatoes, and scrambled egg with peppers. We had a pork dumpling that was probably one of the best I have eaten and they also made some sweet dumplings, which literally were filled with sugar and steamed. They were pretty good but I couldn't eat more than 3 they were pure sugar! I also think I have consumed enough sodium for the entire month, my lips are kind of raw right now.

Here are some of the pictures with them. Enjoy!

This is a picture of one of their walls in the apartment. Yes, those are stickers. Jared called it a Milky-Way of stickers.  That will be a huge pain for someone to clean off someday.

Me and our teacher!

 The food was so delicious! By the time we sat down to eat there was 3 times as much food on that table and I am not even kidding.

This is their daughter. After lunch we went to a nearby park to play. She took her pink bunny and picked some flowers along the way. Here she is pretending she is asleep under a tree.

And, here I am with some of the many toys she kept giving to me to play with.

It was such a fun day and I am so glad we had the opportunity to spend some quality time with them. Not such a bad way to spend a Sunday after all! 

Now for something a little more upbeat!

There is not a lot of Halloween stuff to be found here in Asia; however, it has been found!  On a shopping excursion, totally unrelated to Halloween, we came across some fun costume props and decorations. They are all ridiculously over priced so we just had fun with them in the store and here are some pictures that came from it.

Wow I just turned into a Pretty Pretty Princess! Face to body proportion...a little off!

Pretty Princess turned into evil witch. Maybe not too evil just weird looking. Jared said I looked like the character in The Teacher from the Black Lagoon. Oh my Jared!

Here is Meredith behind the child size Harry Potter cut out. I think it is a great disguise, who would ever know it was not the really Harry!

Last but not least, Jared trying to be little HP. I don't think this is going to work out.

It was a fun excursion and bought some other things besides the over prices cut outs. These ideas won't work for us this Halloween, so give us some help and make some suggestions for home-made costumes. My skills and equipment are limited.  I will be sure to give you an update of what is decided as well as a review of our famous 2nd annual Halloween party here in Asia.

Tragedy Strikes

So, I hope you all cherish those last photos I posted. I have to tell you some sad news. Today...well, now yesterday October 5th, Bunny moved on to a bunny's paradise in the big sky...she died. I was deeply saddened at this and cried for quite a while actually. I know she wasn't even my pet, but I cared and loved that animal. We had 2 great days together.

It made me think, man, I can't even take care of a rabbit for 3 days while my friend is gone! I know there is nothing I did that caused this to happen, and its not like we have a vet to take it or any other animal to go see when it becomes sick. Maybe in the States I will have better luck with animals.  Oh! Another gift a friend gave me is called Mrs. Garden. It is a small pot that came with seeds, you water it and watch it grow..... still has not grown!  I hope this isn't a sign of how well I will care for children in the future! ha!

I just cried so much over this rabbit I took care of for 2 days, I know I will be a wreck when we have a dog that lives a long good life passes away!  Good Bye Bunny, I will miss you!