This has been a good week. I decided to write down a few things that stand out in my memory...
On Monday my friend Julie and I went for a walk on Purple Mountain. It was beautiful! A man on a motor-scooter rode up next to us and asked in very broken English "I take you". (he wanted to take us somewhere and then charge us like a taxi) Well, we said, "No thanks" in our best Chinese. He ignored us. Julie had learned the word for exercise. She tried it (though, I don't think he understood through her thick Australian accent!). But, he definitely knew we weren't interested. Where, we wondered, would he fit the both of us even if we wanted a ride? Of course many Chinese families ride all together on a motor-scooter. But he wasn't your average small Chinese guy, and we definitely aren't Chinese-size women! Anyway, he followed us for fifteen minutes! He just rode along side of us while we walked to the place she wanted to show me, which was a newly built road, built around a large tree. Maybe he figured it out by then, or maybe he just went home for lunch...
I had a life altering thing happen at the end of last week...Our computer broke down! Boy was I unhappy about that! But don't worry, someone came to fix it on Tuesday morning. A man that spoke NO English, and I'm assuming read no English. Anyway, he wasn't able to fix it (surprise), but called our land management man to translate to me that he wanted to take it with him to their shop. Of course, I had no other options... Well, he hoisted the huge thing up, and I walked with him to the front gate so that they wouldn't think he was stealing our computer, expecting him to climb into a taxi. Instead, I watched him lug it to the bus-stop! Not to fear...He apparently made it back into town, cause they dropped it off to Mike's office two days later, and here I am.... They had to replace our hard-drive. The ironic thing about the whole incident is that we have Microsoft Office software on it's way here(with the help of my dad) because we didn't want to be dishonest and get the pirated version. But...There aren't any english versions other than pirated-versions of XP here(so they tell me), so they loaded one on our new hard drive! But don't worry, we'll be legal again in a month when our Office Version gets here!
Wednesday was Rachel's Birthday! Wow...I have a teenager! I think that's supposed to make me old. Well, don't tell Rachel this, but I still feel like a teenager myself at times...So who is the parent here? Surely not Mike! (he's been giving me a hard time today, so I feel no remorse for that comment:-) Anyway, she had a nice day with lots of E-cards. She wanted Hamburgers, which I did my best with. Nothing I make here seems to turn out quite right. But, luckily, we are much less picky these days. I did find some hamburger, yes, scary, but we try not to think about it too much! Mike and I took her out last night to dinner, which was really enjoyable. Then we took her to get a foot massage. It was a double success. Awesome feeling feet, and several Chinese young men who kept commenting on how beautiful she was, and were certain that she was at least 19. That's all ok, as long as her 6'5" father is next to her! Success! She is really growing up into a beautiful young woman inside and out. We are proud of her.
Thursday was the happy day we got our computer back! And...Mike was asked by his Chinese co-workers to be Santa at the work Christmas Party! HO HO HO (he really shouldn't give me a hard time right before I write on the blog)
Friday night Mike and I went out with our friends from the BYU group to a Tibetan restaurant. It was quite the place. The food was great. Our friend was able to speak Chinese, and the owner brought us each a photo of a neat landmark in his home city. While we were eating dinner, I watched a large rat crawl around outside our window. Funny how I wasn't really upset by that. I must really have come a long way! On our walk back to their apartment, we bought some of this huge granola bar cake thing. These men sell them in the street. They are Weigens, apparently from a Muslim tribe in middle-Asia. He just cut off a slab for us. It is surprisingly delicious! Every kind of nut and dried fruits with honey, from what we can tell. Yummy!
On Saturday, it was so beautiful! Apparently here in China, the government will proclaim it is winter when the weather has been down to a certain temperature for five days in a row. Normally the fall is about 35 to 40 days, and this year it is 50 and counting! So...It's still fall. It has been so nice. Saturday afternoon we wanted to enjoy what could be a last nice weekend, so we went to Purple Mountain. We went to a place where an emperor had huge stone animals carved to line the way to his tomb. It was tons of fun. The kids were able to run around, and there were so many beautiful things to see. My children left feeling like world-famous models! Every time we would stop to get a photo, there would be several people stop and take photos of us. I'm talking those big fancy cameras with the huge lenses. Some would ask, others just took. Several times, Mike had to wait cause everyone else taking photos were in his way. I told him to take pix of them taking pix. Pretty hilarious. Wow, we must be gorgeous! (or strange)
