Back to Learning ABC's!

One of the big things I’ve had to learn while living in China this summer is learning how to relearn things I thought I knew.  It may sound silly but there are so many things and sometimes several steps to getting something done that back home I could have done with my eyes closed. 

Laundry Laughter:  Doing laundry here at Maria’s is very similar to how I did laundry in the dorm. The laundry room has several washing machines, which is perfect for Sarah and I to do all our laundry all at once.   The only challenge is that ALL the buttons on the machine are in Chinese characters.   Our first week here we were showed which buttons to push to make it turn on, and get our clothes clean. We thought we were set! Then one night we walked down to get our clean clothes out to find them still soaking in a washer FULL of water.  We knew what we needed to get the washer to do, the question was how on earth were we supposed to guess which button would do it.  But guess what! There really is an App for everything!! There’s one that you can scan characters and it tries to translate it for you.  This is great, except the translations don’t always come out right or make sense so we spent quite a bit of time laughing and trying to decide which one would make the most sense to pick.  When we finally got it and the water started emptying we were jumping for joy! Mostly because we wouldn’t have to try to communicate in Chinese that we had broken the washer or flooded the room.

  Pizza Hut High Fives!

Pizza Hut would not normally be my first pick when wanting to go out for Pizza.  But it definitely became a favorite this summer.  Pizza Hut in China is actually a really nice sit-down restaurant with lots of other food options to choose from.  Thankfully their menu has lots of pictures however, a plain cheese pizza is not a typical option to order.  So what we thought would be an easy item to order always turned into 5-10 minutes of me and Sarah trying to explain that we want the pepperoni pizza without the pepperoni.  As you can imagine we got a lot of blank stares and laughs but we eventually figured out the right Chinese phrasing so that we could get a plain cheese pizza.  It was always a feeling of success when a cheese pizza actually came to the table!

Day 46: Noodles are one of my favorite dishes! Although, Sarah says, "you have to be in the noodle mood!"

Day 47: Our moms flew all by themselves to come visit and spend 10 days with us!!  

Day 50: Flew to Beijing with our moms and the Renichs and even got to have dinner with Kelsi who was on Sarah and I's first Show Hope trip.  

Day 51: The Great Wall of China! It was a beautiful, clear day and we it made through 5 towers of the wall!

Day 52: The Forbidden City.  A very hot day!!

Day 53: The Pearl Market: A lot of shopping/bargaining was done!

Day 54: Sending our moms back home! Sad they had to leave but so glad they came!!

Day 55: Afternoon running errands and some hot noodles and ice cream for lunch!

Day 56: Going out to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants Shao Kao (Chinese bbq) 

Day 57: We each received a Bottle of Tears from Lindsey! Check out her website: www.bottleoftears.com 

Day 58: We weren't exactly good at keeping plants alive...

Day 59: Our own weekend pool day to try and get some sun! We got a lot of disapproving looks from the nannies because in China it is frowned upon to be tan.

Day 60: Work day in the office planning our project to leave behind at Maria's! And we even did some online shopping on a Chinese website thanks to Google translate for the supplies we needed!

Day 61: Our favorite aisle at the grocery store: the imported products aisle! This is where we found macaroni noodles, pretzels, goldfish, apple sauce, and yes, NUTELLA! It was definitely a life saving aisle! 

Day 62: Starting our project in the team dining room with the projector and some paint!

Day 63: Our days were filled with taking lots of pictures of the kids.. and our selfies of course :) 

Day 65: Saturday morning out for coffee and waffles at a cozy coffee shop and we had time to work on blogs.

Day 66: We did watercolor paintings all day in preschool and are going to incorporate in our project for the dining room!

Day 67: All the paintings from preschool in frames.

Day 68: After lunch at the Pizza Hut we found in the mall we found Menchies frozen yogurt and paid a lot to have a taste of home!

Day 69: The Renich's came back from the states and brought us DIET DR PEPPER in their suitcases for us!!  

Day 70: Our finished project in the team dining room! All the art was made by the preschool kids!

Day 71: BBQ on the roof!! 

Day 72: Getting our nails done!!! 

Day 73: Still working on the art of a jumping picture!

Day 74: The day Sarah had been waiting for... the FINISHED puzzle with only minutes left before the team arrived!

Day 77: Our good-bye party on the roof! Vickie let us finish the chocolate left in the pan!

Day 78: Early morning goodbye to MBHOH and time to catch the train to Beijing!

Day 79: Our last adventure was a trip to the FRIENDS look-a-like coffee shop in Beijing with the Renichs!! 

Hard good-byes at the airport but thankful for a wonderful summer with some amazing people who made it so special! And we efficiently packed our suitcases to be under 50lbs for the second time!