Our Fourth

For the fourth we were invited to our friend’s, The Corl's, house. Todd was super patriotic and decorated everything spectacularly! In all my life, this was probably the most patriotic party I’ve ever been to, and we’re in China! Their house was decorated with tons of flags, red, white and blue and posters of flag scenes. They even had a Constitution hanging on the cabinet.

We sang the National Anthem, said a prayer, and dug into tons of American fare! We had burgers, baked beans, watermelon, potato salad and chicken, Yum!


Zachary and I went up to eat on the roof where all the kids were eating. Most of the adults stayed down stairs, but I can never turn down the opportunity to eat on a roof, with ocean & mountain views. Eating on a roof makes everything better. IMO.

After lunch we had dessert! I made lemon bars and a lemon, blueberry cake and another lady brought monster cookies! Everything was delicious. After lunch we sat around the living room and told stories and laughed. My cheeks hurt when we left from laughing so hard. We had to leave early, but as we were leaving everyone was planning to go outside for a watermelon seed spitting contest and to play kickball! So fun!

Lemon Blueberry Cake-Recipe found here. :)

It was a great afternoon.  I really felt for one of the first times since being in China, like it was a holiday!  Thank you Todd and Sue for a great party!!!

A Qingdao Bay Boat Party

 

The beautiful month of May was filled with birthdays! One of those birthdays was our friend, Sonny! You may remember us mentioning Sonny here. He's a great guy. He's incredibly generous, hilarious and humble. We love any time we get to spend with him! For his 40th birthday he decided to rent a boat and take his friends out for dinner and some Qingdao Bay views. 

The birthday boy and his brother and sister in law. 

 

Once every one was on the boat, we set off for the sea, and the waitors, chef and bartender Sonny brought from the hotel, started shaking, pouring and bbqing things up. There was also lots of fresh fruit and veggies.

 

 

The views were great but the boat was really rocking over each wave! It was hard to hold our plates, drinks and hold conversations. At some points we had to grip the table so as not to fly out of our chair.

People were even falling over! So they decided to turn the boat around and go back to the dock to enjoy our lunch and cake.

Zachary and Ash tried to catch a few fish while we were docked. One guy on the boat actually caught one and immediately stuck in on the barbi down stairs. He was super excited!

The Mosby Man and I

Some of the best birthday cheese cake I've ever tasted. After we ate we headed back out to the sea to enjoy the last hour with the boat.

Our view as we headed back in for the final time-tons of Chinese people taking pictures of us and the Olympic torch.

Happy Birthday Sonny! We had a great time! Thank you so much for having us!

If you lived in China, you'd know...

-that indistinguishable smell walking up to a public bathroom.

-that awkward moment you walk in on someone using the squatty because they don't lock the doors.
-the frustration that comes when your VPN won't connect.
-the excitement that comes when you find that random American food that you never ate at home but are still ridiculously excited to find & purchase at least 3 of.
-the skepticism you have of anything brand named being sold on the street.
-the hope you have that the brand name is real because it's a great price!
-the feeling of being stared at all the time.
-the gratitude you feel from Chinese hospitality.
-that taxi drivers are like free Chinese tutors.
-there are so many places to see and things to do in China, some that you won't find in guide books.
-that moment when your Chinese friend, server, student, coworker, etc. farts really loud in front of you and you try to hold in a laugh, because nobody else seems to care or notice.
-that clausterphobic feeling you get when sardining onto a 8 am or 5 pm bus.
-the heat stroke you try to avoid when waiting in the 20 person check out line at noon, 4:00 to 8:00 pm or anytime on the weekend, at the supermarket.
-the delight that comes when you buy 4+ bags of groceries for less than $50.
-how to cross a street, with a gazillion cars, who do not yield for pedestrians, and not get hit.
-the sound of the knife sharpening guy or electronic repair mans magaphone chant attached to his bike.
-where to buy hard cheese, tortilla chips or avacado in your city.
-that with a bribe you could get anything done.
-with a bribe you could get out of any ticket.
(we don't do either of these, but everyone knows, if you really want something done, you could get it done with money)
-the frustration of renewing your visas.
-the paperwork involved with renewing your visas.
-that lines and who was "here" first don't really count in China.
-you'd sometimes pay an arm and a leg just to get good Western Mexican food.
-pizza is ridiculously overpriced.
-taking toilet paper to the bathroom is optional for your Chinese female coworkers and students.
-you always have to bring your own 'paper' to the bathroom.
-there is never soap in the bathroom.
-Starbucks is the place to use the public bathroom: hello toilet paper, soap AND toilet seat covers.
-that moment where you don't have a 1 yuan for the bus so you just put in the 5 yuan you do have so the bus driver won't yell at you for asking for change.
-that summer time is NOT the time to go to the beach in China, unless you want to be a sardine, in which case, it's the best time.
-clothes are expensive here.
-food is cheap here.
-the daily "eye exercises" song in Primary Schools. "yi, er, san, si!"
-that that sound of an American ice cream truck, that once got you excited, that now annoys you because of the let down.
-that that sound of an American ice cream truck is coming from a street cleaning car.
-there is no season wrong for Christmas music or the wedding march here.
-Maybeline is something fancy, like behind make up counters, here.
- your friends will educate you on the "most famous" singers and bands in America and be baffled that you don't know them. (Here's a little secret: You don't know them because they didn't make it in America.)
-the feeling of getting a taxi after you've waited 20 minutes.

Have you or do you live in China? Anything else to add to the list? 

Hunger Games Capitol Party

Our roomie, Nicole, had a 24th birthday May 26th, so we decided to party it up on May 24th. A 24th birthday on the 24th of May. See what I did there? In honor of Nicole's birthday we had a Hunger Games Capitol party.

 

I was of course excited about this party plan because it meant all the fun things that come with parties; making delicious food, decorating & dressing up crazy. 

 

 

 

Vanilla cake with fudge chocolate chunk frosting covered in Nicole's favorite, Oreos.

For decorations I printed tons of printables offline, pulled out our faux fire lanterns from our Harry Potter Party, used the same table cloth & bunting from Catherine's baby shower, and used a scarf as a table runner.

Dressing up in China is not the easiest. We, as expats, have very limited options. Limited to what's in our closet already. We all ended up looking like we came from the 80's versus the Capitol, but I like to think that we looked as Capitol people in the 80's, so really, it was still on theme. ;) 

The Game Keeper's brother & his Capitol wife.

As always, Chara was excited for the party, too! So many people to pet her!!

We all loved getting crazy with our makeup and hair!

Stan took a different take on the Capitol. He said he thought, "The Capitol is crazy! What's more crazy than me dressing like a girl?!" Too cute. He put his dreads in 3 nice pigtails, too.

The Game Keeper and the Game Keeper's brother.

The Capitol in the 80's. :)

The birthday girl!

Ya'll what's up with my eyes? It freaks me out! I even had a dream about this picture the other day!

We can be super serious in The Capitol when our favorite tribute dies, or be really funny when our favorite tribute wins!

After cake time we played charades! It was quite fun I must say! It's been forever since I played!

Justin and Catherine stopped by later in the night to say hello and watch us play charades! They had a long day so they didn't get a chance to dress up.

We had a great time & always love getting together with a group of friends! Happy Birthday Nicole! Thanks for being born and giving us reason to celebrate!