Entries about twister

Sorry about the lack of blog entries over the last month but with access to Facebook, I've not really needed to use this.... which is a shame, because I like writing!

So the last time we spoke was in October... wow... I am really bad at this whole remember-to-post-a-blog-entry thing!

In my last entry, we'd just been to Xian and cycled around the city wall and had thusly damaged our bums....

Back to life, back to reality:

The Chinese don't really celebrate Halloween, but as it is a personal favourite of mine, Ricky's and Michelle's, we organised an event for the kids. I carved pumpkins and etched a carving into the skin of a watermelon, because apparently, I'm an amazing artist now, we bought candy and pizza and made them watch Halloween whilst they all scared the crap out of each other in their amazing costumes...

The kids had a blast, we got to dress up, even if we had to use ketchup as blood because we couldn't find anything else, and I couldn't find red food colouring or I would have made stage blood like I did for JCS at Clarendon!

There's a really long street round the corner from us, well in between our apartment and school called Poor Street and there are these tiny shops and little food places and there are street vendors elbow to elbow for about half of it selling their various tasty street meat.
There is one little place, no bigger than an average person's bathroom, who sells the BEST dumplings so far.
Naturally she is now called..... Dumpling Lady.

There's also a lovely woman who makes what is essentially a bacon and egg sandwich, so we call her Bel (like Belle).... Bacon and Egg Lady.

They also do these little pancake things with chocolate or bean paste in and they end up like little cylindrical pies.... that are sweet.... it's really hard to describe, but bugger me they're tasty.
We just keep taking pictures of food that looks yummy so that when we go back, we can show them and say "Eega, jerga!" which loosely translates as, "One of those" so you say it whilst pointing!

My kids are teaching me Chinese too which is cool because when you say something correctly in Chinese, they get so excited and proud of you that it makes you feel awesome!
That and they taught me how to say "gay" so when they boys are all piling on top of one another I just shout "gee lau!" and they all laugh and disperse! Ahh, being a teacher!
I am slightly worried though, because the way we talk about the kids in the staffroom makes me wonder what my teachers used to say about me in the staffroom....!?

Anyhoo....!

We got nostalgic and decided to recreate Twister... only, we didn't have any plastic or anything, so Michelle and Ricky cut out coloured circles and cello-taped them to the floor whilst I made the Twister Indicator board thingy (the bit that tells you where to put each hand, foot etc!)
It ended in some very Karma Sutrical positions (and yes, I just made that word up.)

We cannot be trusted to be left alone for too long.... we also brought beer pong to China, and that has been very eventful, as it usually ends in Michelle going all New York on our asses, or Ricky and I go into Aries mode and refuse to back down from a fight, challenge, trick shot, anything that means we could possibly have the potential to lose. Ahh Aries.

We also got bored of the plain, white walls so I cut out what felt like a million pieces of black card and flowers and made a cherry blossom tree on the wall... My arms hurt a lot afterwards. It was totally worth it though

I make my kids do the most ridiculous things in class just to loosen them up a bit and get them out of the Chinese mentality of "You're awake, therefore you MUST be studying" and have some fun! So we played the "Show me this" game where I basically gave them a word that they had to either spell with their bodies or physically embody, I particularly enjoyed this one where I made them do both!

Can you guess what it is yet?! I'll give you a hint...... the word was Chair.
I am now aware that that was not so much a hint, but the answer itself.
My apologies for those of you still trying to guess.

We took the kids to Anyang to the Museum of Chinese Characters and where the writings all originated from.... It was a good day, even if it was pissing down with rain, but the kids were explaining stuff to me - they're such well behaved children. I can't believe it!

Then we went for Hot Pot which was nice, but I'm not a fan of wet-food or soupy food (unless it's just soup) but it was nice nonetheless.

So it was Michelle's birthday at the end of November (she was definitely 25, not 29..... if anyone asks....) and the kids gave her presents and a cake which was so sweet of them and we'd all decided we were going to go away to Zhengzhou which is the nearest big city to us for a long weekend away which was great.

We had to go and get train tickets, not from the train station, but from a little hole in the wall 2 blocks from our apartment, so we went for a jaunty stroll through the autumn leaves.

It was lovely, until the leaves turned on us..... well Ricky....!

We got the train which took under an hour and when we got to Zhengzhou, we found good clubs, nice places to eat including.... Pizza Hut, kitsch bars with a Welsh flag in and an amazing park to walk around. We also found Starbucks!! yay! Christmas cups!

We went to our hotel which was really nice..... we stole a LOT of toiletries... and I say we...... it was mainly me and Ricky....! We had the BEST showers, they were AMAZING! It felt like you were getting pummelled by a masseuse! Lush!

Ricky and I regressed into an almost childlike state when we realised there was a funfair in the park and after going on a Chinese manufactured roller coaster and almost losing my life, I deemed it necessary that I stay on the ground from then on!
Apart from the Carousel and the Haunted House, even though I was clutching onto Matt's arm so tight, I'm surprised he didn't lose blood circulation!
And we found this really creepy pagoda that appeared to be surrounded by ghosts!

Then we found the target game where you had to throw little bean bags at a toy and if you hit the toy off of the shelf, you won said toy......
Well let's just say, Ricky and I got a little carried away and attracted quite a crowd.
We probably also paid off the game owner's mortgage with the amount of times we played!

Michelle and I met some very nice men in Zhengzhou, they're Med-Students from Dubai...
We've also both been speaking to people from a website; her gentlemen caller is in Turkey and mine is in the Philippines! Dammit!
We're going to Zhengzhou next weekend too.... you never know who you'll meet

When we got home, we went to Walmart and bought a Christmas tree and some decorations and Michelle bought a stocking so mine
wouldn't be lonely. [and yes, I bought my stocking from home because it has my name on it in gold and it's spelt properly.]

And we found Jenga :D

Christmas has officially begun in our apartment as we've been watching a Christmas film a day.... We started with Miracle on 34th Street:

So there you go, you're up to date....

Oh and we've booked tickets to go to Shanghai for British New Years which is in lest than 4 weeks!! :D Eep!

Peace out.