Waiting for Chinese New Year

January can be a bit dull.  Nothing to do outside.  The sun still goes down before 5 pm so the evenings are dark.  But a cheap set of badminton racquets can solve the boredom.  Especially if you are careful and don't hit the chandelier, or the pictures, or the ceiling...

 It's been nice enough that a Saturday afternoon walk to the Apple man (who replaces screen covers on i-anythings for about 5 dollars with absolutely no bubbles), was not too cold.  We hadn't counted on some guy deciding the sidewalk was the perfect place for his car.

 On the way back... a different car.  A little higher priced.  Kevin knows all about all the expensive cars we see around here (not owned by the expats, I can assure you!); Aston Martin, Porsche, and then there was one the other day that Kevin said had a purchase price of about $200,000.  And it's being driven around here with all the crazy drivers!

 Another way to pass the time, especially when Alice was in Shanghai for Model UN, was to visit the Weihai Pub, and eat our favorites:  Kevin--lasagne, and me, their tender beef stroganoff.  It's a South African-run establishment with a very eclectic menu!

 I also spent one day heating honey to 115 degrees F.  We had begun to notice that the honey we purchased at a farmers market was beginning to taste fermented.  "Impossible!" we said.  "Honey can't go bad"  we said.  Then I read up on it, and yes, honey CAN ferment.  Honey mead, anyone?
So, the fermentation was stopped, the honey saved, but the flavor was affected.  Ten pounds of honey that will mostly be used in bread-making.

 On our walks, we always make a point of NEVER stepping on any manhole covers.  Sometimes the rusting away isn't visible.  But this cover was brand-new only one year ago.  We watched the construction.  Inferior materials????

 And now we're almost up to the Chinese New Year.  The last day of school before the two-week break, there was a celebration all about China.  Alice got to dress in a minority costume and perform a dance with other students.  Dragons came onstage.  Confetti shot out of little canons.  Fun!

  And lastly, I've learned to get all my grocery shopping done well before hand.  Chinese New Year is as big, at least, as Christmas is to Americans.  The stores are crazy!  But there is a festive spirit in the air.  And now, the new year arrives at midnight on the 30th.  Happy New Year!  (again!)

New year

January 12:  About finished with jet lag (I've read it takes the same number of days to recover as the number of hours out-of-sync) so when we travel to the US, and are 15 hours out of sync, it takes 15 days to recover.  Which happens to be longer than we actually stayed.  Then we fly home and the readjustment starts all over again!

Christmas decorations are all put away for another year (except the two that Kevin had to glue because they fell on the tile floor, and are mementos--they look almost as good as new).

Wow, the month is nearly halfway completed!  I think time goes faster on this side of the world. Our two and a half years here have flown by.  When I compare it to the three years we lived in France, those French years crept by and seemed to even stall--especially that first year (culture shock AND pregnancy all combined!).

And I really need to be more consistent with blogging.  I just sat down at the computer (no food needs to be prepared for at least another hour and I'm totally free from any commitments), turned on the VPN to circumvent the Great Firewall of China, opened up Blogger, and then realized I haven't downloaded any of the picture from Christmas.  Sorry!  No pictures to share this time!  That's been the story of my life the past several months.  If I have time, the VPN doesn't work.  Or the pictures aren't ready.  And then I get distracted by Facebook or something (if the VPN is working), and another month goes by without anything posted.