Community Living and Friends from Texas

An introduction to the 'community' in the Community House:
T still gives me rides on her scooter, even though I have a bike.

L napping in the sun. (Note: no pictures and curtains.)

Installing my new mattresses (aka foam).
 I walked in and found K like this, I may or may
not have been scared.

I get to help and appreciate new hair styles.

LM following behind the scooter : )

T cooks a lot of yummy Western food which is very comforting.
I get to help.

She does cool things like turn this...

...into this.

I sometimes make the salad and cut veggies if needed.

But I always get distracted by random beauty. They have the most
beautiful and delicious carrots here. I think I might paint this for art class.

Here is our table, set and colorful.

So happy.

After dinner we usually hang out here, laptop party!
(Note: the new additions)

Filling the kitchen with goodies while welcoming our friends from Texas.

Whole wheat and oat pancake batter, yum!

China has some weird bacon, kind of looks like ham...

...and tastes so good.

Here is a little tutorial: How to make omelets for a crowd (14).
We got really creative with our eggs.

Here is our omelet bar, we precooked everything the night before.

You gather everything you want, along with 2 eggs and some milk, and
put it in a plastic bag. You have to get all the air out and make sure it is
sealed tightly. 

Then you put about 6 at a time in a pot of boiling water for about 1 mins.

If all goes well, you still have the names clearly written on the bags and
are ready to open and taste!

                            

Voilà!

Botaem did all the dishes, bless his heart.

And lastly, one can never overlook a Korean's feet.

I'm enjoying community living, as you may be able to see, we have a lot of good times. More to come: BooBash International, the details of language learning and pictures from the past! Stay tuned.

Linds

My Birthday

LM and I went to brunch at our friends house C&S. 

I broke my diet to devour and delicious omelet with
*wistful sigh* cream cheese

Our technology.

We chilled while they cooked.

They look different, but both were very good.

We left nothing .

C

Hot sauce, cream cheese, coffee and conversation! Thanks girls!!

I had to rush home to go to the market so that T could make my requested
birthday dinner. This picture is not blurry, it is just all the mold growing
on this tofu...yeah.

Family shop at the market. Lots of tofu.

Chickens, hopefully there are no die hard animal activist reading this.
Really, they should just never come to China....

Beautifully arrayed.

My requested dinner of pumpkin soup. YUM!

Our table.

AND last, but oh not least, my friends from TEXAS! 

This was my second birthday in China (sort of, I was on a plane to come here on my 21st). Turning 23 in China was slightly odd. It was a bitter-sweet day for several reasons, some of which are not important enough to say here. Of course, I missed my family, and our traditional Dairy Queen cake. I really, really missed having a cake, My 20th birthday was the first year I didn't have a cake. I think the family was busy and we weren't able to gather, so Lisa gave me a rice cake with a candle (picture below). On my 21st birthday I had a cupcake (picture below), then boarded a plane. On my 22nd birthday I had a glass of wine and beignets in New Orleans (picture below) and on my 23rd I was on a crazy diet because of my digestion and, alas, no cake : ( Cake is my favorite, so when I get the chance to make up this deficit I most assuredly will. Hopefully my 24th will end this Birthday cake fast in my life!! Anyway, after the wonderful dinner of pumpkin soup I joined my friends and then finished off the evening with a good study. Yeah, I studied, ha, so sad. One important thing I learned is that every family celebrates things differently. I believe Birthdays should be celebrated because it is a way of saying, "I am glad you were born, I celebrate you being in my life and what you are doing on this earth". When I have a family one day, birthdays will definitely be a day long festivity, no questions asked ; ) So that, my dear friends, concludes the sumasion of events celebrating my day of birth.

I miss you all dearly!

2009, Rice cake with Lisa.

2010 on my way to China
for the 2nd time!

2011 in New Orleans (sheriff shirt!) with Beth and other dears.

Rainy Day

No, they did not put their plants out to get watered, they are always like this. 

I work here one day a week.

I will be uploading all the pics I've been taking over the past few weeks onto a friends computer and hopefully putting out another update this weekend. Final word on my laptop...total crash : ( But I'm glad L is letting me use his old MacBook, so the updates can keep coming! Well, I best get back to studying so I can get my 3o hours in this week, preferably before the weekend : )