Today is a holiday here in China, in English it is the Dragon Boat Festival, from what i have read (China Daily) it is "to commemorate the poet Qu Yuan who committed suicide out of love for his country." There are dragon boat races held and many people eat a particular treat, rice pudding. Here are a few photos of that treat, looks like gelatin surrounding the inside filling shaped in a pyramid, even Starbucks got in on this holiday. The photo is of the actual dragon boat race also borrowed from China Daily. The photo in the middle is of children bathing themselves with ai, an herb; believed that it will help them avoid bad luck.
Life around China has been a little uneventful, so my post is going to contain more of my "what is that and what does it do" in the life photos. I find myself taking photos of things i see and sometimes I forget to post them here to share. There are things on a daily basis I see here that most of you would find peculiar but after two years I think a lot of it is "normal" to me. I am not certain how popular Apple pay is, here in China they ofer Apple Pay (everyone around you has an iPhone), but they also have Alipay which i have found very useful until now. The app allows you to shop on my favorite Chinese site, Taobao (which is now international if you want to check it out!) and pay at the restaurants, stores, etc. Now it is asking foreigners to rescan their passports and stamps for entrance into the country and many people seem to be running into the instance where it won't verify for them against their bank therefore making it obsolete to foreigners. Maybe there is something like this at home that helpssimplify payments and not force you to enter your card number, expiration and address each time you wish to pay for something.
Some photos of this week.......the most popular "stanze" in China, resting your knees as Blake calls it, you basically sit in order to get something from your purse, take a phone call, drink some water, or just rest. This is seen all around China, it looks to me like she needs to use the bathroom, but whatever floats you boat! In Shanghai last weekend I saw an American brand which always strikes my fancy, Harley Davidson.....I see hundreds on e-bikes on a daily basis but I have yet to hear a Harley coming around the corner.....maybe that's next for China (they do like loud noises)! A bit of an unusual site for me, at Metro I went into the meat room, similar to the milk room in Costco at home, and found some lovely meat hanging out for me to see. I also had to put on a Metro blue jacket to enter the room, while its 95 degrees with humidity outside and I have shorts and a tank top on it is freezing in there. Also, a neat find, M&M chopsticks!
It's the rainy season so the Arizona (It's a Dry Heat) Hudsons have purchased rain jackets and rain boots to battle the weather. Blake has a fierce Dinosaur raincoat and matching rain boots, which Grace has the soft Angel raincoat and pink rain boots to match(as much as I love purple, she seems to love pink)! On our trip to Shanghai Blake and I were forced to run through the rain with our umbrella and buy rain coats that is why the sad faces, we were all wet and hopped in a taxi!
This is outside of a mall, the flower/plant sale! There is every kind of plant you could want the only problem is they are all miniature. :)
Along with this fun and exciting lifestyle comes amazing friends, the kind of friends that become family. Given the situation, you spend more time with one another, you rely on each other much more than you would at home and you love them. If you talk to me, you know we have our "French family" as we lovingly refer to them as, and we had to say goodbye to them this month. They have moved on to the next chapter in their lives, in Germany. This was Blake's best friend, Ali, Grace's little buddy Yamin, and my BFF Armelle....with her husband Hussein of course.....and we will miss each and every one of them immensely. In the sandwich of life they were the peanut butter to our jelly and we were the nutella to their bread. We hope to meet up again soon in America, China, Europe or wherever life takes us all.
So this group of pictures is totally random......a normal busy Chinese street with shops, e-bikes, pedestrians, food carts, take it all in! The next one I couldn't believe my eyes, and they stopped at a light so i took a photo. This is a little boy about Blake's age in a moving vehicle, with his body outside of the sunroof while dad drives....no seat belt, no regard for safety. The next is the class schedule at my gym....anyone want to guess what time is yoga??? Next is the bus schedule, only found in Chinese, and a photo of a police station, not something I run across everyday.
Some photos of this week.......the most popular "stanze" in China, resting your knees as Blake calls it, you basically sit in order to get something from your purse, take a phone call, drink some water, or just rest. This is seen all around China, it looks to me like she needs to use the bathroom, but whatever floats you boat! In Shanghai last weekend I saw an American brand which always strikes my fancy, Harley Davidson.....I see hundreds on e-bikes on a daily basis but I have yet to hear a Harley coming around the corner.....maybe that's next for China (they do like loud noises)! A bit of an unusual site for me, at Metro I went into the meat room, similar to the milk room in Costco at home, and found some lovely meat hanging out for me to see. I also had to put on a Metro blue jacket to enter the room, while its 95 degrees with humidity outside and I have shorts and a tank top on it is freezing in there. Also, a neat find, M&M chopsticks!
This is outside of a mall, the flower/plant sale! There is every kind of plant you could want the only problem is they are all miniature. :)
This is a Chinese foot massage, with a mud pack! They let my feet steam in a bucket with a towel over it and that water was HOT! Then i relaxed as they rubbed my feet and spread mud on them, for an hour! This is what life is about! One hour= $15
Before we said goodbye, we went for one last Chinese foot massage, they even did cupping on our feet. We also did one last dinner out without the kids/husbands and some Chinese KTV! This was my first experience at a KTV or Karaoke. My friend best described it as "renting a living room". You get a private room, you can purchase a package of drinks and snacks, and then you can go all night (or until they close at 2am). We had so much fun, there were English songs, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Madonna, to name a few.
So this group of pictures is totally random......a normal busy Chinese street with shops, e-bikes, pedestrians, food carts, take it all in! The next one I couldn't believe my eyes, and they stopped at a light so i took a photo. This is a little boy about Blake's age in a moving vehicle, with his body outside of the sunroof while dad drives....no seat belt, no regard for safety. The next is the class schedule at my gym....anyone want to guess what time is yoga??? Next is the bus schedule, only found in Chinese, and a photo of a police station, not something I run across everyday.
Last ones for this week, the first tip jar I have seen in China was at Starbucks. In china you pay the price on the menu, no tax added in and no tip to the bill. Instruction on how to use a Chinese toilet.....and a very funny business card I found at the print shop I go to :)
Until next time!
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