Christmas Card

Maybe it is a good thing that I will be overseas and unable to do Christmas cards this year. How would I ever pick which family picture would go on it?!? This would have to be a top option!

written (9/23)

Layover

Last night walking off the plane and through the Wuhan International Airport Terminal 2 towards baggage claim, I had a rattling flashback. Nine weeks ago in that same place I was such a volcano of emotions and exhaustion, I simply could have crumbled with a wayward glance. Walking with my husband and kids by my side, I exhaled this time with intention. There was such a difference. I felt a sense of dauntless assurance that I was, in fact, back to a place I call home.

There is not much time to relax though. It is necessary for us to go to Hong Kong tomorrow morning to reset our visas. Flight leaves at 8 a.m. giving us (well, let us be honest, me) about 36 hours to wash, line dry, and repack our luggage for our next excursion. It will be a trip that will require a couple days stay and we are adding onto it a couple days vacation. Yes, yes, tragic life I am leading this month with back to back sightseeing adventures.

Don't envy me too much. As I was telling my mama this morning, everything in China comes with a special China filter; almost like everything deserves an asterisk just to let you know that it should be accompanied with a special understanding. "Was that restaurant clean or China* clean?" "Was that a bathroom or a China* bathroom?" "Did you have beef or China* beef?" You get it?

Because I don't have much time, I will just shut up and say that in this quick layover of my life, I had to clean off the camera cards and so I felt you all might want to see some pictures of what I will happily tell you is one lovely gem: the ancient city of Xi'an. (If you are sitting there wondering how the heck you pronounce that word, it is like SHEE-ahn.) The weekend itself deserves an additional blog just about the food, so that will come later, but here is my very brief overview.

Xi'an was protected from the Japanese bombers of WWII because of its
sufficiently interior location. This city wall, a complete square, was magnificent.

 We spent Saturday at the Xi'an city wall.  Then went to into the heart of the city to the Muslim Street area, a fabulous walking street of food and goods, where we visited a mosque. The people were naturally fascinated with our boys, but people were very respectful and patient.

Gorgeous dried fruits and nuts.

Later in the afternoon we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda and to places of Buddist worship. It was very interesting the questions that Hudson asked. I was glad to have the opportunity to talk about how worthless it actually is to worship money and objects. It was unsettling to seeing people praying fervently at the feet of this golden statue (and his 1,000 little buddies).

Hudson has been nothing short of an art enthusiast since we came to China, so the opportunity to do some calligraphy was very exciting for him. He painted a "snake on a tree."

That night we walked to dinner at about 6 p.m. My littlest man was exhausted from our day and became very snuggly in the body wrap I brought. We decided to attack the city without a stroller since Chinese sidewalks are not made for little wheels. He slept through dinner and most of the way back to the hotel. This might be my favorite picture of myself in China. I like how I feel it captures the sense of the city and my life as mama.

Sunday morning we were up early with the other 30,000 daily guests to the Terracotta Soldiers and Horses site. It was beyond words. Very surreal. Very impressive. Dig more of those babies up, I say!

This is pit #1 which is the size of two football fields.

Oh Tucker. You silly goose.

I love this picture. Marked pieces still embedded in the ground.

Our tour guide and driver was an extremely knowledgeable young man who shared so much of Chinese history with us. This sculpture, seen here from our car, was something we were able to appreciate later from below. I think I like the lighting here the best. This is the first emperor of China with his favorite concubine. If I had a quarter for how many times I heard the words "favorite concubine" on Sunday, I could retire. Each time I cringed wondering how long until Hudson quipped, "What's that?"

Okay, I will show you one picture of food. The noodles in Xi'an are different than our hot and dry noodles of Wuhan. This was our lunch Sunday. Jerry took us to a place off the beaten path that was clean (read: China* clean).

Our tour guide, Jerry, and Hudson washing their hands in the hot springs at Winter Palace with the rest of China.

One interesting fruit growing all over, including on both sides of the highway to the Terracotta Soldier,s was pomegranates. About 2,000 people were selling them alongside the road.

Pomegranate tree in foreground.

We finished our day at the Winter Palace and Hot Springs. It was a really great afternoon with more Chinese culture and history.

Hudson was mesmerized by the dancers of the traditional folk art show. He was very grumpy with his father when he was told it was time to leave. I admit that I am so pleased that we had the chance to see those aspects of culture that we did this weekend. It was very different, very educational, and very tiring! But I also feel our trip to China would be remiss without such exposure.

All the things

We are in Xi'an for the weekend--cuddling up with the Terracotta Soldiers, but I did not want to go too long without a post. There are so many new and random things that we want to remember about our time here that Josh and I put together another little random list post. The first set can be found here. We are going on our 58th day in China (or 8 weeks or 1392 hours or 83, 520 minutes if you are into counting those sorts of things).

Everyone smokes in China. It is extremely strange to live in a world where people smoke in elevators, hallways, restaurants, cabs, hair salons (seen here) and every other place you can imagine without a thought. Cigarette butts are every.where. Most hotels will not even give you a "no smoking" room option. Chinese cigarettes cost $1/pack and American Marlboro are a little over $2. (Riiiiight?!?) I heard that there was propaganda as recently as a couple years ago which said, "Real men smoke," so it is kinda like we have stepped back in time with regards to the whole smoking issue. 

Obviously that sign is doing a lot to stop her.

Tucker fell asleep watching the qualifying for the first Formula E race (with electric cars). I think it will be cool that he can look at this one day if this is the future of racing.

This is our closest bridge to cross the Yangtze River. It is really not more than a couple miles from our apartment. The boys like it and call it the A bridge. 

I took this picture on 9/11 but did not realize it was that day until later. I am glad I did. Seeing my flag up there makes me proud.

Oh boy! This was a fun restaurant. I took some pictures of the menu because the translations were just too awesome. 

Nice picture.

This is our nearest intersection. It is a super joy to cross. Watch out for welding above and idiots below. Police drive with their lights flashing all the time. That takes some getting used to.

Snake. It's what's for dinner. (Not my plate!)

 Boys learning how to hail a cab. So proud of how street smart they've become.

Rip off logos of all kinds can be found on Chinese clothing. Figuring out what is "wrong" is a pretty amusing game. While this little boy's "Beatlfs" jacket is obvious, it took me awhile to catch extra "swooshy" Nike symbols or Adias letter transposing. Pama instead of Puma still makes me giggle.

This is wrong. Bananas in sushi covered with...mayo. Mayonnaise is considered a salad dressing here. I finally found a bottle of Ranch at the international store Metro, one hour away. Lettuce is extremely rare here. I have only had it like twice, so that ranch should last me awhile.

I find this amusing because I have never seen a drive through so I don't know what good this is doing this person on the windshield of their car. Now that the Shanghai beef issue is over we have gone to MacDaddy's a couple of times. The only available dipping sauce for the nuggets is ...sweet and sour!

I am not really sure what a statue of Mao is doing on this dash either, but it is not an exaggeration that everyone decorates their rearview mirror with beads, good luck charms, etc. and/or their dash with some gold statue.

Once in awhile I get to a place where I can almost forget I am in China. And then I realize while I might see a couple stores I know, I am still the on Westerner there. For the record, we have seen less than twenty people of African decent since we arrived seven weeks ago.

So the smog is really bad some days, but we have been told to prepare for worse. I guess the winter months have the higher AQI readings. Some days, they say, we won't want to go out at all. It is really common to see someone putting their hand over their nose and mouth as they walk across the street. I am not sure if they think they have some type of filter in their skin or what.

Go, sun, go!

Stinky tofu --in this dish-- is just one of the things we have tried recently. Chinese menus give so many options! However, we have YET to see an eggroll on any. I am starting to think they are something we made up. (No fortune cookies either)

Just about all food at restaurants is served "family style". A single menu is given to (usually) the eldest man as you are seated. 

I took the kids to "Breakfast Street" this week. Just as it sounds, it is an area where there is one food vendor after the other. It was a slice of heaven. We had our coconut juice straight from a coconut drilled (and decorated) right in front of us.

The shape and filling (chocolate or strawberry) of these little fish pancakes were cute, but the process of this guy filling the fish shaped waffle iron/griddle/I don't know what to call it (!) was awesome.

We did not opt for juice from this vendor; however, her stash of cut up fresh fruit cubes was amazing. There is one fruit here (that is spiky) that is illegal to sell whole. It is so SMELLY (like vomit) that you can not take it back into your apartment to cut it up. They cut it up in the alleys in front of fruit stands and sell you the pieces. (All this adds to our China aroma.)

Jaowzi in the biggest steamer I have ever seen (shows you how many people must come through here that one vendor or 200 is cooking this much!)

And check out the size of this wok! This was my breakfast. It is basically the best fried rice you have ever had with a little grilled tofu garnish. It cost $1 for a bowl and was fantastic.

Sometimes you are so perplexed by the fruits and vegetables here! I was walking through the produce section yesterday realizing that literally 50% of the options do not exist in the US-- and not even in those fun places like Jungle Jim's that I love to frequent!!! I wish I had time to try everything.

Meat on a stick. Tucker's favorite.

So we finally have had a break in our weather. It has been in the 70s this week which means we shut off our air conditioner for the FIRST TIME in seven weeks. So while we think it feels great, everyone here is cold. Josh has a coworker who dons an afghan at her desk. Two tenants of the Citadines (and our driver!) told me today that Tucker needed a jacket. Um, its 73 degrees outside?!?!

Look at the size of that cauldron!

While it seems counterintutive to me sometimes, the shopping in Wuhan is arranged in common areas. You buy dishes on dishes street and fabrics on fabric street and electric scooters on electric scooter street. By having your competition next door, it makes it easier to negotiate that you are getting a better deal next door. 

I had a custom dress made (so cheap!) That was an experience! The shop I went to is the one with the red letters/white background here.

Art supply street was a colorful adventure.

We love our carb options. Josh arranged for me to have a jaozi making lesson with his coworker. I can not wait to get back to my kitchen though! We have both made mental blueprints for how we would improve our 20 sq ft kitchen. (Of course, we did!) I want to learn how to make baozi next:

Swimming is our favorite past time.