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| just in case you forgot, auntie thought she'd remind you where we are.
if you can't tell by the picture and don't know already, we're sad you haven't been keeping tabs on us. please do. :)
in other news, we begin with a sad farewell to the beloved children smartie & blink taught for the past 6 months.
ldawg laughing with her little ones.
only love for their laoshi. :D
hokey-pokey with h-block!
harlem's students vying for his attention.
(notice the concentrated booger picker on the right, who minutes later grabbed blink's hand.)
guess who decided to stop by our neck of the woods...
p.a! :) (in study mode)
(we miss you, pal!)
ogrely thumbs up for our new friend!
gangsta, gangsta.
biking our way back from a shichang run.
you never get a normal picture with these two.
us ladies.
it's nice to see a familiar face.
girl's day out.
group picture.
the boys tryin' be all hardcore.
mr. choi imitating his little friend. (can you see him?)
b.kid's little friend, left on the window for the next passenger to enjoy.
joi's ol' roomie stopped by before going back home. time truly does fly.
next up: FIREWORKS! from chinese new year!
gwadl, clearly fascinated by her sparkler. :)
the rest, twirling their own in glee.
(inej was taking pictures of the others while her own sparkler was lit and forgot to realize she was standing on a stretch of dead, dried-up grass.
naturally, it caught on fire, but was saved by mongol's quick thinking, and stomping, feet. haha, oops.)
shots of our fireworks display.
this is what it looks like being shot out of the box.
funny story: rich accidentally tipped over a box of fireworks after lighting it and it blew out in rapid fire towards our unknowing crowd.
all we heard was r and xela suddenly screaming, "RUN!" at the top of their lungs, followed by numerous blasts of fire and light zipping past us.
it consequently hit a stroller on standby, various people in different parts of the body (i.e. face, back, legs), and burnt little holes in our clothing and accessories.
crazi & p.line.
the boys, trying to figure out which box to light first.
we couldn't find the fuse to one of them, so one of the apartment complex guards came over and flipped open his phone to help us. haha; awesome.
later on towards midnight, we were watching fireworks go off outside a panoramic window
and a cop car started to blare its siren towards a group down the street that was going buckwild with their set.
at first we were like, "oOoOOo! they're gonna get in trouble!" but no; what happened?
they put on their headlights to help them, even coming out of the car to hold the box steady so that it would shoot out correctly towards the sky.
that's when we realized, ah yes, we're still in china.
the morning after: scraps of red paper, empty boxes, charred marks, and debris from the fireworks littered the streets of beijing.
go here to read about the fireworks in beijing.
china sold 380,000 boxes of fireworks this year! INSANE! WHO DOES THAT?!
here we are, celebrating the new year and going crazy about their pyromaniacal insanity.
(ogre was sincerely excited about the new year, just tired from his little nap.)
in case y'all didn't know, we currently have 3 turtles in our possession; one in each apartment.
there's bot, doing his infamous superman pose atop his rock.
(r's turtle, affectionately titled "bob of the turtles"; hence the name "b.o.t.")
buddy smartie mr. turtle kim.
(guess who it belongs to, as well as who would give it such an, ahem, unique name? yes; it's lpup's.
honestly though, who puts "mr." in the middle of a name?)
and of course, our little (but now becoming very-fat-because-he-eats-so-much-fish) toby. (blink's friend)
please note: only the mangnehs (the youngest of their families) bought and take care of the turtles. hmm; curious.
getting ready to hit the slopes.
look at how empty it is. glorious!
t in repose.
j, h, r, respectively; taking their turn at the jump.
we leave you with joi's last jump.
crazy shot/trick huh? uh, no; not really.
this was right before she got her brain jostled in the landing.
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| p.a & u-team update to come.
'til then, our last entry of 2006 is finally done.
xela and inej were invited by "official" friends at a local school to a performance by the national ballet of china.
although the two were sincerely hesitant at first because, uhm, it's ballet, they both agreed to attend and found it surprisingly entertaining.
in other news, guess who's birthday had just passed on the last day of the year?
yes. this "excited" one. joy asked him to give his BEST birthday expression and this was all he came up with. how sad.
naturally, joi was unsatisfied, and she made the mongol do it again. only this time, he looked like he was going to happily attack her. fine.
we volunteered to teach english and our "students" thoughtfully threw da xiong a surprise birthday party during one of our last sessions together. so nice.
xela getting ready to dive into his free dinner, courtesy of the restaurant.
a with his two presents.
yes, ladies and gentlemen, he still wears his beloved lord of the rings shirt: loud and proud. :)
hblock sprinkled with snow.
morning powder on a nearby tree.
beijing blanketed.
harlem enjoying the scenery.
lpup's first snow angel in china. too bad it was only half an inch deep and on tile.
before snow...
and after; absolutely covered and absolutely beautiful.
random xiao pang pang snow man and woman in the snow; lovely detail with the twigs, leaves, and choice berries.
a, h, and j out for a stroll.
smartie trying to taste the acidic goodness.
the innocence hblock attempts to display as mongolia looks on.
but eventually, his true colors are revealed. such vengeance.
crazi and ogre doing the jig next to a dirty pole.
though the author will not be revealed, here's an example of how difficult it can be to teach chinese grammar. confused? yes, us too.
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| my goodness me. the internet connection is mighty slow in our neck of the woods.
my apologies for the delay.
by the way, p.a & the u-crew are here safe and sound.
so, some didn't believe us, but i thought we might as well show the proof ourselves. here is the forecast as shown on google for the city of beijing.
please note folks, the word is "smoke" - no, not sunny. no, not even cloudy. just "smoke," good ol' SMOKE. cough.
the ladies got together one fine morning, and as they were talking, they noticed that many clouds were quickly flying past their window and blocking out the sunlight.
"why?" one thought to herself as she looked out the window (because honestly, there are NO clouds in beijing. no kidding, pengyou. NO clouds!)
so out they look, and at first, they exclaimed in excitement that it in fact WAS a cloud! however, a wise one spoke knowingly,
"no, guys, it's the pipe behind the apartment building, blowing smoke into a cloud to cover the sun."
sick.
the picture below is what the scene REALLY looks like if anyone of you had x-ray vision.
it's absolutely true, i promise.
jl's Christmas lights that filled their entire living room with light; then, suddenly stopped working within two weeks.
lj katsu chicken.
a "rich" beef & potato stew created with auntie.
"lazer" red beef, tomato, & onion soup.
another scrumptious meat creation by r&t.
the ever-popular, "harlem" fried rice.
"crazi" vegetable medley.
"hblock" bok choy.
"mongolian" salad, served fresh.
sugar cookies, "joyfully" eaten.
our Christmas family, gathering to pile wonderful goodness onto their plates.
only three boys were at the party. haha.
acsirp on top of uncle ogee.
lazer crazi.
the tender side of blink.
time for our white elephant gift exchange.
now the deal with the exchange was that we all could only spend 10 quai (approximately $1.25). here was the result.
l, a fun-filled apron bought by h.
j, a super-bright flashlight from r.
r, fuzzy brown bear slippers found by j.
t, a gangster set of stationary put together by l.
the picture sadly not taken was a's flashy red fanny pack bought thoughtfully by t.
but we end with this beauty.
h, ski masks from a.
they're seriously weird.
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| as promised, "fragrant hill" and wangfujing.
the entrance into xiang shan (in red), affectionately named "fragrant hill" (but it just smelled like trees.)
gorgeous yellow trees.
inej in a backdrop of red and yellow.
ogre revealing the yellow forest.
brkly, tawn, and rich looking at our destination along the path the emperor once walked (or had been carried up) to the top of fragrant hill.
where was hblock and gwadl? =/ both were sick in bed.
here's our little lpup (affectionately called "sickie") enjoying her morning cup of hot tea (yoo-jah-cha).
r & t's 26th birthday! anyone up for some wangfujing action?
joi caught a thug pose of the three; mongolia and hblock look pretty baller, but take a close look at lpup. :D
presenting, the birthday couple.
our first "spectacular six" photo together.
our curious little mongol peeking in a photo of wangfujing at night.
lost in the crowd.
walking the wangfujing night market.
us buying normal food.
aynat snacking on a candy-coated kiwi stick.
scrumdiddlyumptious.
drahcir with his candy-coated strawberry stick; the most fantastic dessert there! crazy delicious!
harlem and his softshell crab on a stick.
and then, there was the stuff that made you go "what?!"
sea urchins, anyone?
yes. please. i greatly desire to put a porcupine ball in my mouth.
who wants to feast on some fatty beetle-looking locusts?
this tray just screamed, "hey! come eat me! i was a plague!"
sea dogs and sea horses.
just plain wrong; poor things belong in the sea.
da xiong was seriously contemplating these ginormously obese scorpions but they were tai gui le (too expensive); fi'ty kuai a stick.
ogre eventually settled upon and devoured these little beauties (fi'teen kuai)
he said they tasted like "french fries"; nasty.
scorpion on a stick, close up.
one picture mattie wanted: the last scorpion resting between mongolia's front teeth.
(can you see the tail of the insect sticking out on the left side of his mouth?)
ogre eating the grasshoppers shown above. no bueno.
(eventually finished off by hblock, uncle, & tawn after the former two lost in "rock, paper, scissors" to lpup and joi.)
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