So this might just be a random post of what's been happening around Changzhou the past few weeks....It has been busy, the kids started school, here are some first day pictures. Blake is in pre-school this year 5 days a week and Grace goes to nursery class twice a week to meet some friends and have some social interaction with other kids her age. They are both loving school, Blake couldn't wait for summer to end to get back to his teachers and friends and Grace is adjusting well and really seems to like coloring and story time!
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| Some photos for Extreme Reading week at school and Grace in my heels! |
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| Some photos from school! |
A few of my random pictures of the week, apparently if you are carying around any oragnisms they go in this trash can. I am pretty sure it is support to say "organic" so that you can put any fruit and veggie peels and cores in it but again another point for the English translations in China....haha. The next is a normal site of a small little "pick up truck" carrying a very heavy load....not sure what was in the bags but the guys stopped to stare at our family standing on the corner waiting for the light to change. The next is a start to Fall, there is pumpkin found very common in China year round for eating, but a Shining Pumpkin Bread is now available in the local bakery we like. The Starbucks has Tiramisu and Lemon Cheese lattes instead of Pumpkin Spice and Salted Caramel like at home. The last is a children's indoor playground we took the kids too, but Brian and I had to both laugh when we saw the translation in English......The Atlantic Naughty City. So if you want to get a little naughty I guess this is the place to go!
A few food pictures....I wandered through our Metro, large grocery store with more import items and since it is an import store a lot of the labels are also in English. Here I found some interesting chips/snack items with very unappealing flavors I thought I would share in case it appeals to anyone :) I will stay away from the bean curd for sure, and I am not sure how you get cucumber flavor into chips......hmmmmm.
Speaking of food, it is a 3-day holiday here in China, Mid-Autumn Festival. I didn't say 3-day weekend though because the government holiday is Thursday to Saturday so Sunday is a work day for Brian but Blake's school is closed until Monday. For the festival, moon cakes are a very common gift, this is a gift box that we received and the bottom right is a photo of what is inside each of the little boxes. I have seen them filled with many things, like, green tea filling, pineapple, red bean, pork, fruits, etc. I borrowed this from Chinahighlights.com but here is some more information on the moon cakes .
Mooncake Symbolizes Family Reunion
"In Chinese culture, roundness symbolizes completeness and togetherness. A full moon symbolizes prosperity and reunion for the whole family. Round mooncakes complement the harvest moon in the night sky at the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The mooncake is not just a food. It's a profound cultural tradition deep in Chinese people's hearts, symbolizing a spiritual feeling. At Mid-Autumn Festival people eat mooncakes together with family, or present mooncakes to relatives or friends, to express love and best wishes."
The bottom left is a gift from a Chinese friend who recently had a baby! As for weddings and babies, in China they give you a gift to celebrate their life change. For a wedding you get a box of candy with the invitation and in China you receive a box of candy and treats(including cooked eggs) after the baby is born to announce while they wait to 100 days to have a celebration and let everyone bring gifts and see the baby.
Out and about the last few weeks our city got a new Burger King and a first...COLDSTONE!!!! You all know my love for ice cream....good ice cream! Yay, we were so excited we had to try both! The flavors are similar at Cold Stone to home, but there are less choices and they freaked out on me when i said i wanted two flavors of ice cream. I had to use my translator to explain and just kept saying in America it is ok(in Chinese) and they finally gave me my chocolate and sweet cream ice cream! I think cake batter is too sweet for China but they also have mint, cheesecake, and of course fruit flavors such as mango and strawberry. BK is the same as others we have in town but sometimes it is nice to get a little taste of home. They gave the kids free neon hats to wear since they had just opened. We did however try to order on our Chinese delivery app which i am still learning to use as it can't be translated easily to English....to order BK....I tried to order whoppers but got some spicy whopper with bad BBQ sauce on it that was hard to wipe off so i ordered again.....this time trying to take a photo of the words in the app and using the translator to find just a whopper......orders......same yucky burger turned up! That is the downfall to not reading Chinese and trying to live in a very technology advanced world of ordering over an app ......I'll try again next time!
I can't recall if i have really written or posted about the movie theaters here. I use a Chinese app that shows me the current movies that have been released, usually a while after it comes out in the USA it is available here in Changzhou and for the first few weeks it is shown in English at least some of the showings. Brian and I had a rare time to go see a movie so we saw the new Star Trek last week. Brian was working nights and the kids had school so we grabbed some breakfast after dropping the kids off and went to the first movie of the day 9:50a.m. The mall wasn't open but we were able to take the elevator straight up to the 5th floor of the mall where the theater is located, we found a few workers there organizing things for the day, some sleeping on chairs in the lobby and a few confused as to why we were there. I opened my app to show them we wanted the 9:50 Star Trek and they took us over to where you would usually buy tickets, told us the price and when we agreed, they said there are only 2 for this movie and proceeded to hand write out the tickets for us. We grabbed some popcorn and went in to a completely empty theater.....put on our 3D glasses and enjoyed the movie! I am not sure they were even going to have a 9:50 showing seeing as the screen wasn't even on when we walked in and we were 5 minutes before the movie(that is when they will take your tickets and let you in the theater...not earlier) so we had a private showing :) There are V.I.P. rooms at every theater i have been to, still haven't figured out what they are for, just waiting for 5 minutes before the movie starts to let you in to your actual theater maybe. There is a snack stand that usually offers drinks, hot dogs and caramel corn, no butter and salt popcorn here. It is one of the few places in China i have seen signs that you can't bring in outside food. There were vending machines for beverages and empty cold cases in the theater....just sitting there on the side, rather odd. But we enjoyed our movie and when it was done the mall was open and we weren't the only ones trying to see a movie any more.
Grace and Blake have been loving wearing their cowboy boots from Nana and Papa in Nevada. They ask to wear them everyday and I have to send tennis shoes with Blake to school to change into for recess.
Today was a boot wearing day for the kids, it is a rainy weekend here and you can't tell too much from my photo but we have had gloomy skies and rain off and on for two days already and a few more ahead of us. I decided to make a batch of grandma soup (chicken noodle soup) and I will never get used to having this poor chicken's head popping out of the pot. Luckily Brian will be home to help me with that soon so I can finish making the soup.
We will be heading to the USA for a few weeks next Thursday and are looking forward to trying to see everyone. Probably no posts until we return in late October so until then.....
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