Suedo Children

Mufasa peed in his crate a few days ago and I would have been a little more sympathetic towards the situation considering he hasn't done anything like that since being in China.....but I just gave him a bath 2 DAYS AGO!! And let me clue you in on something......Mufasa HATES bathing. Aside from looking like the most overgrown drowning rat when wet, he shakes so violently you want to check his vitals half-way through to make sure he's not going to die on you before your finished.

You'll notice the picture above was not taken in shower, where Moof was supposed to be at that moment, but in the bedroom where he managed to squeeze between my legs as I was struggling to put the shampoo back up on the shelf in exchange for the conditioner. He's totally got the guilty look.

The finishing product is FABulous! This is Moo, doing the most masculine pose he's capable of. He is a wonderful dog though, and we love him!

He won't even sing in the car...but...

You ever have that nightmare where you are singing Chinese in front of a thousand screaming Asian fans dancing to one of their hit tunes.......yea me neither.....but Mike does.....

Against all reason Mike agreed to take part in one of our schools 'talent shows'. They asked him to sing.....in Chinese while coordinating moves with the belly-dancer he was going to share the stage with. It was one of those things where you don't realize what you got yourself into until its too late. Like when cliff jumping seemed like such a great idea when you were the one looking up....until you were the one looking down....

Mike and his tutor put hourssss into this while she taught him Pinyin and pronunciation. It was really neat to see him dressed in traditional clothing performing a popular Chinese song. Judging from whistles, screaming, and overall hysteria that erupted from the stage upon Mike approaching the stage......I wasn't alone in thinking he did FANTASTIC!!!!

I know, I thought the same thing when he did this...'what are you doing with your hands?Apparently it's all the rage when posing as an Asian, it's just what you do.
p.s. This is performance

Mike, singing amidst a growing fan base.

THIS, is totally my favorite shot, the dance that he totally rocked!

Mike displaying early signs of post traumatic stress.

I thought I'd include some pictures of other groups that performed that night as well. I thought they reflected some of the more traditional aspects of the Chinese culture.

This is one of my freshman classes performing a rendition of their favorite Communist era song.....nah, just kidding, their costumes would make you think that thought wouldn't they?

The umbrellas were perfectly synchronized.

Mike and I totally have a group of old people who meet everyday in our apartment building to practice this!

Apparently the Americans got it all wrong. Snow White's husband was decided on amidst cigarettes and a heated card game. This performance was sooo freaken hilarious!

It's a beautiful day in the NEIGHborhood!

Yesterday was a great day. The sky was clear, the sun was shining, and you would have never guessed that the month of November was coming to a close. It was the perfect day to get out and ride your bike, which was exactly what we ended up doing. Along the way we stopped and checked out one of the natural springs that Jinan has turned into a nature park. Kind of a rip-off for $40 yuan but it WAS beautiful, and the people were rockin...

Adorable Asians... These were some children we saw dressed in traditional clothing. Bright colors and many many layers. They often wear jackets that tie in the back, much like hospital gowns. If you take a good look at the picture below, you'll notice a white bulge hanging out of drawers. This child has a diaper on, but most of the children where nothing, and everything is bared. They have this hole in the middle of their pants and they simply squat whenever nature calls. There will be the a small child in full winter garb, with his little buns hanging out...so cute!

It was beautiful at the park and we appreciated the last of the fall colors before winter shows up in full force.

Mike, taking it all in...I take FOREVER to take pictures so in this one, Mike is really just being patient with me...what a swell guy!

And of course, the trees.....and me. Everyone has got to travel with at least one piece of flair. Mine, is my Burberry sunglasses, with the obnoxiously large, I just might be a movie-star, but you'll never know look to them.

Mike among the foliage.....A vision in blue and green...Look how long his curls are getting! They build dozens of these houses right along the edges of the spring-fed lakes. Asians are really funny because they will spend a ton of money to build something really extravagant, and then do absolutely no maintenance on the building, just letting the elements take their toll.

Much of the walk-way was inlaid with these stones arranged into various shapes and designs. It's amazing to think of the manual labor that must have been needed to complete that.
I love this picture for several reasons. First, because it is TOTALLY your typical old lady. The traditional clothing, complete with flat soled fabric shoes, and not be forgotten, the walker....Asian style! Most old people have these and they use them to carry their chair (notice hers sticking out of the walker) and other goods they might have purchased throughout the day.
So, as we were getting ready to leave we found this precious girl and we had to take a picture. Presh....reaching out to touch the flower.....yellow rain boots and an eighties skirt...you rock it girl!
I wanted to post this picture, not because it shows the slums of the city, which like any city, Jinan has it's fair share of as well. But because it shows the ever changing skyline of China, the old village style houses abolished for the newer edgier sky-rises. At any given time dozens of sites around the city are being torn down for redevelopment.
Mufasa seems to still be teething and so on the way home we stopped by our local butcher for some bones....Isn't this so neat?! It's how they roll...fifty deep in sheep...

Definitely not USDA approved....Isn't it amazing more people don't die of food poisoning here?
I left out the gross part of the picture where they have the skins of the butchered animals lying on a pile for them to sell. You have to give credit for utilizing the ENTIRE animal though.

Can you guess what this is used for?

This happens to be one of my favorite locals......the fruit lady! Every day we say 'hi' and stop to buy some fruit. She hooks us up on the goods, which is great because we can always trust that she is giving us a fair price. Right now she is weighing our tomatoes.

Just one more reason to love China, because all of this, cost us less than a $1.50! Hooo-raw!

Mike caught this shot as we were pulling around the corner to our house. My sweet ride! Check out the basket with the goods! Every time I ride the bike I feel hear the music from "Wicked Witch of the West" going "danun danun danuuunun danun danun danuuun danuuuuuuunnnn"

I totally kicked Betty Crockers trash today!

Living in China for the holidays means you have to get creative. Especially if you miss certain creature comforts from home. Who can call it Thanksgiving without eating at least one piece of pumpkin pie? I mean, really, even if its not your favorite you tolerate it for traditions sake right?

We searched Jinan over and could find no trace of Thanksgivingy good-ness. So we decided we needed to work from scratch. And so this......

Became this.....

Mike was such a stud and made not one but two separate trips to the store (which is a half hour bike ride away) to find the right size pan for the pie! What a charmer! Mufasa helped out by joining team "SCRAP: search and rescue".

My little toaster, totally the grown up version of an "Easy Bake Oven"....lol.

What started out as a relatively simple project, ended up lasting more than eight hours. Boiling the pumpkin, mashing it down, figuring out how to substitute for the ingredients we didn't have.

The result was decadent! I don't know if I can ever go backed to canned again. It totally made my Thanksgiving. The best part was that it all took place with a single burner and a toaster oven! That's classic.

Another day in the life....

Sorry if these posts seem mundane, but my purpose behind the blog was to document my travels, and it's the simple things you remember that mean the most.

This is such a typical picture, minutes before he needs to be out the door, Mike is planning *cough*borrowing* a lesson for his class.

After school, one of our favorite things to do is ride our bikes. Mufasa needed a jacket, so we went to the fabric section of the market where I discovered these beauties. In China, traditional wedding dresses are red, however some do choose to wear white.
And China, as seen through my lens. Welcome to the candy shop, he'll show you what he's got...Definitely one of my favorite stops. A few weeks ago I came home with my all-time favorite bag of candy, milk-chews (don't be a hater before you try one!) I popped one in my mouth and then handed one to Mike. I said 'Mike, do you like this candy as much as I do?' He responded by saying, 'Kim, I don't think anyone likes candy as much as you do.' Ha! True, true, true.
In China, vendors will set up their wares right on the edge of the street and just wait for the customers. While bird cages are fairly simple to arrange, it gets a little more complex when you haul in the kitchen-ware.

Hahaha....this guy has cornered the market on cardboard, among other things. I think my favorite part about this picture on the massive gloves glued to his handle bars. Brothers going to have some competition if he steps into my hood. There are dozens a guys just like this, they ride down the street yelling for your odds and ends at the top of their lungs.
And on the way home we had to stop to buy some water. Talk about coordination, mans got skill!

Not to be forgotten...Moof, getting some love upon our return.

Ch,ch,ch,check it out!

So I live in a relatively small city, called Jinan. Far away from the major tourist attractions, foreigners obtain rock-star status simply by riding their bikes through the streets. For many, you are the first foreigner they have ever seen. I really love living here and I'd thought I share a few reasons why.

Discovering beautiful things never found on maps.

ASIANS, because they're that much fun!

The completely RANDOM things you find, never imagining their existence. Like this feather-plucker for example.

And of course, the street vendors! LOVE it, definitely one of my favorite things about traveling. Some of the best food I have ever had cost less than a dollar.

This is my life, welcome to it : )

Beijing is....chic, historical, and SO not dog friendly!

When we first arrived in China, after weeks of running around preparing the necessary documents for Mufasa to make to trek with us, we were denied in-home quarantine. Thirty days at a luxury Chinese dog-sitter........I totally bawled at the airport. No, not the graceful tear sliding down your cheek cry, the heaving sobs, people look away cause your such a freak sobs, I mean common....it's a dog. That's what the Chinese don't understand, to us he's part of our family. So here were, at the below pictured facility, thirty days later to pick him up.




It was a total fiasco! At the airport, we didn't have a passports because the Chinese officials needed them to apply our resident permits. No one spoke English and no one knew where we were supposed to go. After walking the entire length of the Beijing airport no less than 6 times we found a nice woman who spoke a little English and helped us through the rest of the airport process. All we had was a piece of paper with a map in Chinese providing directions from the airport to Moof. You can never trust taxis, they drive in circles to charge you more and you never even know if they understand your final destination to begin with. But...we got there....overcharged or not. And we picked up "Moo our poo" as he is affectionately referred to in our house.

They led us to Mufasa and as they said good-bye informed us that we could not travel by bus, subway, or train with the dog so we would need to take a taxi....

Umm.......excuse me?!?! We live Jinan, yea....five hours away, I'm NOT taking a taxi!@#
So ensued the fiasco, dodging security as we snuck Mufasa back to our hotel, keeping in mind the two bus transfers and three subway transfers we took to avoid taking a taxi. We.are.so.cheap....I know. This took much longer than expected, plus Moof was a mess and needed grooming, which in and of itself was a nightmare. But I'm really focusing on all bad things and not filling you in on how cool Beijing really is, despite being over-run with tourists. We did get a chance to see two of the major tourist attractions that Beijing has to offer. Tienanmen square and the Olympic venues. Here are a few pictures of us.

We arrived to Beijing in style on the fastest train in China!

The birds nest is as cool in real life as it was on the news.

Soldiers falling out of line to check out our babe of a dog at Tienanmen Square.

Mike totally got the short end of stick. We had already purchased our return tickets on the D-train (the luxury fast train) only to find out that Mufasa was not allowed. So we agreed that there was no need for both of us to lose our seats and we split up. It was hell as he took a taxi to no-where, traveled to all four of Beijings train terminals trying to find the 'pet-friendly' terminal, hitching a ride in rush-hour traffic, and having to stand on the third class train with a crying dog. Love you VERY much!