We've been back from China for a few weeks now and we are really enjoying the last bit of summer. China was a very interesting experience. We flew into Hong Kong, made it over to Shenzhen when my brother and his new wife picked us up a day later, toured a little of Shenzhen, attended their wedding, flew over to Xi'an for a few days, then flew to Beijing for a handful of days, and made it back to Shenzhen before catching our flight out in Hong Kong all in almost 3 weeks. When we arrived a typhoon had just blown through so turbulence was bad and the rain/wind was so strong that it took a few circles around the airport with aborted landings before we were able to finally touch down. The last aborted landing was too turbulent for Jakob and he vomited all over himself and Paul. So very gross but luckily Jakob had one last change of clothes in our carry on but not Paul. :( We all just didn't smell very good for most of the day. Other than that the flights were very uneventful. Meeting up with lots of family was so great. We really had a good time together on an extended vacation.
In some souvenir China pjs!
The wedding was beautiful and small and pretty much all in Chinese unless my brother was speaking. They waited until most of the guests had arrived (even though it was over an hour later) and said a few vows, fathers gave toasts, they cut the cake and poured some champagne. Then we ate and the cake fighting began. It was the most intense cake fight I have ever been in. Even Jakob got cake smashed all over him and he looked very confused and sad as it was happening. Broke my heart! But when the fight was over everyone left and my parents put Jakob to bed while we went out with Adam and Jun and their friends to celebrate. Conrad and Paul tried ordering Budweisers at the bar and they were served 2 nice hot glasses of water- SO funny! So they then learned the chinese version of Budweiser. Adam and Jun did not travel around with us which was disappointing but we were very happy to have my cousin Richie and his chinese wife, Susan, with us. We ate so many wonderful meals because of them. In Xi'an, some of us biked while the rest of us were driven around the city walls. But because of the split pants (and no diaper) that they use for babies/toddlers, a little girl peed on the seat during our ride around the city walls. I was soooo thankful to not be sitting next to them especially when the mom started wiping it off the seat with her hand. yuck. We visited different towers (bell, drum, etc.), saw the terra-cotta warriors which was unbelievable, visited a few tourist traps, and even saw a theater show with dinner about the different periods of China. Some really yummy dumplings were also consumed a couple times while in Xi'an. Filled with duck = shaped like a duck. Filled with a walnut puree = shaped like a walnut.
Some delicious homemade fruit smoothies
In Beijing, we got to walk along the Great Wall which had beautiful views, ate at the famous duck restaurant where Paul ate duck brains, gizzard, heart, along with some regular meat, saw
Tiananmen Square and some temples, shopped, and tried to order food at Burger King for a change which definitely took a few orders to get close to what we wanted since we didn't have any chinese speakers at that point. :) When we got back to Shenzhen, things were still a little disorganized so Jun took us to a fishing hole (cement holding pits with water and fish) where the boys fished and we sat in the SUPER hot and humid weather, caught a few and then ate at the restaurant on site who had their own 'farm' to the side. You order duck, they go grab one from the pin, slit its throat, clean it, cook it, and bring it to you. Can't get much fresher but man I really didn't like seeing everything get killed and then seeing it on my plate. I understand it has to happen and that's fine but it's a lot to take in. They do the same with chicken, geese, fish, and dogs. Yes, I saw the dogs and it really broke my heart... luckily no one ever ordered one. The next day we gathered our things and eventually made our way back to Hong Kong since Adam and Jun were a bit busy with life and we thought we'd try to tour a little of Hong Kong. Well, no hotel reservations were ever made and there just happened to be a conference at the same time which made finding a room at 6pm a very difficult experience. We ended up at a Conrad Hilton and although $500/night it was so incredibly comfortable and beautiful with a fantastic view. Really could not have asked for more for a good sleep before the long trek home. We had a SUPER fancy dinner that night of delicious italian food and Jakob even got a bib made out of a white cloth napkin with his own plate, cup and silverware. Despite how tired he was, he loved it. Our flight didn't leave the next day until close to midnight so we were able to go to the top of a mountain, take in the view, shop, fill up on food, and by 2am on the flight, Jakob was passed out in the bassinet which he was a little too big for. The flight was surprisingly very easy and we stayed up all day when we got home at 8am doing laundry, a little cleaning, and unpacking. Pretty much no jet lag which was fantastic! And we had the whole weekend to relax.
A little hike we did when we got back home (below is how he escapes from the stroller)
The next Monday I had a second interview with Wärtsila. Still haven't heard back but I'm not nervous. If it's meant to be, it will happen. Otherwise, I will always enjoy staying at home with my little boy. :) I'll just have to think of some challenging things for him to try. We've been hanging out with new friends, enjoying the sunshine, playing at the pool and lake, and even hanging out with our stand-in grandma who lives below us. She loves Jakob and always makes a huge scene when she sees him and gives him capri suns and even chocolate candy that we've mostly been eating. :) She is from Kosovo, but has lived here for almost 20 years so she speaks german. Paul can chat with her but if he's not there she uses a few german words and most of the time I can get what she's saying and reply in english (or german if she's lucky) and she understands a little english. It's very interesting/awkward. This week she was taking her laundry off the drying lines while we were about to start hanging. So she helped hang our laundry, insisted we use her clothes pins, played with Jakob and herded us into her flat for capri suns. Luckily, Jakob has finally warmed up to her and played with her millions of knickknacks, used her remote controls for telephones, and danced to her russian music from the tv. I kept telling her we needed to go eat lunch and it wasn't until I finally remembered a german food word and said 'essen' that she let us leave. Then she walked up the stairs bringing her antique mini stroller filled with knickknacks for Jakob to play with. I didn't understand the 'for how long' part of the conversation though. So we'll have to return it soon. He does love it though.
Anyway, this is the first labor day weekend in a long time I won't be with my friends! Very sad and I really wish it could have happened but we really want to come home for Christmas and plane tickets are not getting any cheaper especially when Jakob will have to get his own seat for Christmas- expensive but totally necessary. So we're going to Stuttgart, Germany for the weekend to meet up with a distant cousin I haven't seen but maybe once in my life. We're excited though to finally spend a couple nights in Germany and tour around. But I guess this post is super long as it is. So as soon as I go through at least 1500 pictures, I'll do a post with just pictures from China. Definitely have some I want to share but the task is just so daunting!
Made his high chair into a big boy chair! So far so good :)
