Chinese New Year

Oh I may never look at 4th of July the same. We can buy professional grade fireworks at the firework stands and shoot them off on our street. I think that the neighbors who stayed for Chinese New Year have their garages packed with explosives right now. Most Expats choose to leave and go on vacation outside of China because of the noise, traffic and the fact that for 3 days the city practically shuts down. Here are pictures from Chinese New Year's eve. We had a family dinner of "Pea Pie". For those of you who don't know that is my kids name for pork chops, mashed potatoes and peas. They then mix them together and call it pea pie. They have not seen pea pie since we left the states but I was able to assemble all the ingredients once our sea shipment arrived. So in Chinese tradition of a big family meal, that is what we had. We then went outside to see our neighbors shoot some fire works and they were amazing. We were invited down to have dumplings a midnight with some neighbors (that is a chinese tradtion) but the girls fell asleep. Mark went to represent the family and I thought I was going to turn in. Then midnight came and I was shocked out of bed by all the noise. It sounded like the biggest baddest thunderstorm you could think of. So I ran out to witness the site and every bit of the sky line was filled with fireworks. They do this to ward off the evil spirits from the year before so they don't follow into the new year. The next night we went to a banquet hall that can seat about 1000 people. We expected to it to be full because many chinese take their whole family out for dinner during this time but the place was empty except for us and another party. So we had the whole restaurant to ourselves. The kids ran, listened to music and danced on the stage. We took a tour of the kitchen and watched our food getting prepared. They would not let us take pictures. One guy did and they asked him to go sit down. But it was surprisingly clean. The woks were huge and they had fish tanks with every sea critter imagineable. So it was really a neat experience. And that is what we have done so far during Chinese New Year.

The Girls

The only thing good I can say about these pictures is that Ella grew hair, finally. Otherwise it just shows how fast they are growing up.

Chinese New Year Celebration at Ava's School

We went to a Chinese New Year celebration at Ava's school. It was supposed to be outside with fireworks included but due to rain was moved inside and no fireworks. It felt like a pep rally until the band began. It was drummers beating loud and then the dragons showed up and put on a show. They were kinda scary looking but the kids seemed to really enjoy it.

Just an update

Ava started back to school today and we are hoping for good things. You never know, sometimes, how they are adjusting and we thought she was doing well, but then found out towards then end that she was having some crying spells at school and a few fits. Hopefully, she has adjusted well enough now that she can start again on the right foot. Ella is starting in February after the Chinese New Year, when the 2nd semester begins. She is the one I worry most about because she is such a mama's girl.

On the food here. I really like it. I've not eaten anything weird, although it is on the menu. I stick mostly to the standards that I would eat at home like kung pao chicken and pork stir fries. But everything is a little fresher tasting and usually more spicy. So far, the only problem I've had in the stomach department is from eating something to spicy but that is better than eating something bad.

Cooking at home is a little different. Most of the ingredients I am used to using like eggs, milk, chicken broth, even salt taste different here. So when I try to make traditional American things they never turn out right. I've decided to let the American dishes be American and not even try to incorporate them here because I always end up disappointed. Oh, the other thing is that some things like taco seasoning and chips (I tried taco night) are imported from home but may sit for some time before hitting the shelves and they have a bit of an old taste. So, I am doing a lot of Chinese style cooking. I would highly recommend to all of ya'll who are adopted parents of Chinese kids that if you want to cook Chinese food to get the "Everything Chinese" cookbook. My mother in law gave it to me before I left and it has really simple recipes in there with ingredients that wont force you to hit the Chinese market and everything so far has turned out good and cooks up fast. Plus I've found that all the chopping relaxes me. And please, please, if you can, try to have traditional sweet and sour pork or chicken. I would never eat the stuff in the States. The sauce scared me. But here they cook the chicken with pineapples and some other syrup type stuff so that the chicken itself has sort of a sweet taste and then you dip in a chili sauce and it is way better than any sweet and sour dish I have ever eaten at home. Also, in a past post I talked about making Chinese Spaghetti and Meatballs from the Rachel Ray web site and they are great. It does not look like spaghetti and meatballs as we know it. The meatballs taste a lot like the filling in dumplings or pot stickers and the noodles and sauce are a soy saucy, noodle mixture similar to what you might find here at a noodle house. It is good and my kids actually eat it. So check that out if you like.

Finally, back to Christmas. It would seem that Santa does not come here by reindeer but must have to scale a wall by rope to get into the house to deliver presents. I didn't think much about it when I first saw it because Santa was in a tree at the Aquarium and the rope seemed appropriate for the scene but now that I have seen Santa hanging from a rope with no reindeer in site on multiple occasions I have concluded that he must leave them at the North Pole and brings his rock climbing gear instead, to China.

I hope all of that was informative. We are still enjoying the ride so far but missing ALOT of the modern conveniences of home. I always thought I would love having a driver but in reality I long to get in my own car and drive myself to the grocery where I could grab just a carton of eggs and some milk and be back home in 30 minutes. Instead I have to wait for a cab or the driver to show up and take me on a 15 minute death defying trip to a grocery that seems to always be full of every person in China who push their shopping carts like they drive. It's not good for the kids either. They've taken to the pushing and shoving quiet well. I caught Ella trying to get thru a crowd the other day by pushing and telling people to "just get out of my way". We had to have a little civility discussion after that.

I'll post again soon!

Our Year In Review

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