Thankful....

Today is our first Thanksgiving in China.  I am a bit sad because I am used to being around family.  I for sure will miss the good cooking of my mom and my in-laws.  In all my years, this will be the first away from home.  But never the less I am truly thankful for many things.  Some of the things I am thankful for, in no particular order...
A roof over my head

loving Family        My Faith            snow

faithful Friends             My awesome hubby                    pens                            

heat and air conditioning

         Q-tips

                                     Coco and Willow            my sight                water

my hearing        My Shop/and Times Grocery                                     

Dental floss!              Computer      flowers
                                                                                           Sunshine


clouds                  stars

                                                     my Ayi/my driver                      skype - so I can talk to my friends and family

Christmas

                              paper                  my Bible                         my voice

trees                                    my health                  airplanes                            China

                                                                           sunshine

                              Grass                 education 

Food                                                                              clean air                     medicine  books                          music        

                   cars

                         pictures                                   laughter

camera           electricity          and so much more!!!!!!   I am thankful today for everything that God has blessed us with!!!!

"To move, to breathe, to fly, to float, To gain all while you give, To roam the roads of lands remote: To travel is to live." - Hans Christian Andersen

Random thoughts...

So Michael and I are about 2 months into our Far East Adventures and so far...so good! 

There are definitely people and things I miss...but overall I think we are doing better than expected.

I miss my family and I miss my friends...especially with the holidays rapidly approaching.  It was be our first time not being with family during the holidays and I have already shed a few tears thinking about it.  We feel fortunate though, one of our best friends Brian, will be coming in December to visit us.  That is a nice treat.  I feel blessed that we have friends who are willing and able to come visit us in China.  We will have had 2 friends visit in the first 3 months. 

I miss Christmas music on the radio.  I am not one of those people who gets annoyed at Christmas music coming on the radio way before Christmas.  I really like Christmas music and really don't mind hearing a song or two throughout the year.  Surprisingly some of the malls have decorated for Christmas, so that was a welcome surprise.  But the weather here is still warm and sunny so that is a bit of an adjustment.  It is starting to cool down, but when I look out the window now and see all the green leaves and the sun shining down, it feels more like September than November. 

We will be having a Thanksgiving dinner with our friends.  Turkeys are few and far between in China, but our friends Pete and Angela scored one at the store and have kindly invited us over....for that I am truly thankful!  I think that Thanksgiving dinner is one of my favorite meals of the year. 

I have not driven how for 2 months and I miss the independence of being able to drive myself where I want, when I want.  But I actually don't mind having a driver.  Our driver, Yi, is wonderful.  He is kind and helpful and is a very safe driver, which I appreciate.  It is hard for me though to get used to just calling or texting him to come over because I need to go somewhere, especially on the weekends or "after hours."  During the weekdays it is not so hard because he drops Michael off at work and if I don't need him, he just stays at the office all day until Michael is ready to go home.  They have a special room just for drivers at Michael's office.  But when we have to use him during the weekend or at night I feel bad because I know I am eating into his time with his family.  He does have a wife and 16 year old son.  Everyone says I need to get over that because they are getting paid, it is their job, ya da ya da...but it is hard for me because I feel like I am inconveniencing him, ya know?

I miss Guacamole.  Don't ask me why I miss it so much, I just do.

I miss Parmesan truffle fries from the Town Tavern.  If you have not had them and live in Detroit area, stop what you are doing, do not pass Go, do not collect 200 dollars...just go and get the fries! And ship some to me in China while your at it! ;o)

I DO NOT miss cleaning.  I don't think many people would.  I have not cleaned one thing in the past 6 weeks.  I still do the laundry to try and keep myself a little bit in reality, but Ayi irons it all.  The first thing she does when she she gets here is go and open the curtains in the living room, straighten the pillows on the couch, fold the blanket on the couch, go to the kitchen and wash the dishes and clean the counters and stove top, then she makes our bed, EVERY DAY! She then proceeds to sweep, mop, clean the bathrooms, dust, iron, clean the kitty liter and other things depending on the day.  She will even stay and pet-sit Coco and Willow when we go on trips.  Having an Ayi is a real treat!  

That's all for now folks! 

Good friends...good food...good fun...

Michael and I have been fortunate to meet some great people here in China...people who  have become friends.  And we feel really blessed to live in Nanjing.  It is a really great city.  It is a mix of old and new...it has most of the conveniences of a large metropolitan city but has a rich culture still present as well.  Nanjing used to be the capital of China.  Nanjing literally means South Capital...where as Beijing, which is the current capital means North Capital.  There is lots to do here and lots to see.  I think there is a good mix of city and country.  We have malls and restaurants and all that good stuff, but we also have mountains and lakes.  It is really nice.

Tonight we went out with our friends...Pete and Angela and Carol and Gordon.  We went for pizza and then out to Paulaner Brewhouse for some beer.  It was a good night..with good friends and good food!!!

Mmmm....pizza at Pisa Pizza.  It is awesome, better than some pizza back home!

our friends!

More Pizza!!!

Love this sign...Asian like to have a fun night out drinking, but if you have any Asian friends, you may see that they get the "Asian Red face" and as a result we do not always hold our liquor well...so this sign let's them know exactly where to vomit ;o) when need be.

Carol got pulled out onto the dance floor by a member of the band...GO CAROL!!!

a few things I'm luving in China...

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a handbag kind of girl and they have tons of cute and inexpensive bags here

this bag has a cat hiding behind mushrooms...in the corner it says " Catch me if you can"  Funny!

lots of fun ceramics...I like these with the koi fish on them...I get them at the flower market by my house, only $1.50 a piece...I keep them around the house and throw our loose change in them

another ceramic dish I got at the flower market for $1.50...I use it for loose items as well...

I luv the mugs here..most of them have lids to keep your tea/coffee warm

For some reason a lot of the products in China, that I have come across, have a cat as a "mascot"...I like it because I luv cats and dogs...this is the soap for cleaning dishes...you see the little bottle on the right is in the shape of a cat...and the jug on the right has a cat on the label and a cat head dispenser!  I luv it!

this yogurt is Yum Yum...kind of a cross between greek yogurt and American yogut..but you just stick a straw in it and suck it down

luvin' the faux glasses...I had some back in the States as well, but they have many more here in China and much cheaper

I luv how cutesie everything is...these are on my night stand...a cup with a lid to hold water and a Hello Kitty clock...I pretty much have the taste of a 5 year old! ;o) as it seems most girls in China do, so I fit right in!

Luv the slippers...you can buy them EVERYWHERE...since they pretty much do not have carpet in houses, you need them to keep your tootsies warm

Even the q-tips are Cute!

When in China.... (warning some pics may be disturbing) ☺

Our adventures in China are in full swing now.  Michael's team took us out to dinner last night and personally I think they like testing Michael. ;o) I think they are seeing if he will really eat everything put in front of him and I think they like seeing our reactions to things.  They are young guys who are fun and they like giving us the "real" Nanjing experience.

They took us to a restaurant and they had ordered by the time we got there.  First came out some pork cabbage in a yummy broth.  It was delicious and they said very good for your health.  Then some veggies came and then the main event.   It was a cow skull with the beef just laying on the top of it.  It still had the horn, teeth and all. 

those are teeth

Michael is an adventurous eater.  In the picture above he is eating the cow eyeball!  Gross!  Even the other guys did not want to eat the eyeball, but Michael did!  The guy to Michael's left ended up eating the other eye.  It was an experience to say the least.  I had a little bite and it tasted ok, but it was way too spicy for me. 

The last of my adventures this week was cupping therapy.  I had read about it back in the States.  I heard that actress, Gwyneth Paltrow liked doing it.   I had always wanted to try it, even back home.  I just thought it was interesting.  I talked to a lady here and she said she had done it and liked it.  She said it helped her back and helped her feel more relaxed.  So on Friday I went and got it done and I think it did make my back feel good.  It did hurt a bit at first, just getting used to the feeling of my skin being sucked up into the cup.  They used bamboo cups at the place I went to, as you can see in the pic below.  I think some places use glass cups.  The marks the cups leave is a bit disturbing, but they don't hurt.  They are not supposed to be bruises necessarily, so they should go away faster than a bruise does or so I've read.  I just had the cups applied, they left them on for maybe 10 minutes, if that, then they take them off.  Next time I am going to get the cupping where they suck the cup to your back and then move it around.  That should be interesting.  Sorry if the pics below are disturbing to anyone.  I just wanted to share! ;o) 

the cups stuck all over my back

my back after the cups come off...I know it looks bad but it really is not that bad ;o)

What to do next...

Life here in Nanjing is really great.  I am not going to lie.  I honestly feel like I am in a fairy tale right now.  I know that part of that is because I am probably still in the honeymoon phase.  I also attribute it to my attitude.  I consider myself a positive person.  I know my cup is half full not half empty.  I have control over how I react to what life throws at me.  I also attribute my positive attitude to my faith.  I know that I would not have made it this far in life without God's help. Also I know people who are "Debbie Downers" and it does not seem like a good way to go through life.

My life these days consist of Thai Chi, having lunch with my girls, shopping for groceries and other fun China finds, weekly massage and soon a Bible study that I will be attending on Wednesdays.  I was laying in bed the other night and thinking how great it is to be able to do all these things.  But I know that God did not send me to China so I could spend the next 3 or more years doing the a fore mentioned activities.  But that is where I am stuck right now, wondering what else God wants me to fill my time with.  As I was thinking about the next few years, I thought that as much as I love how my days are filled right now, it will get old after a while.  I could spend the next few years just doing these activities, but it is probably not the best use of my time. ;o)

I worked in non-profit before leaving Michigan and working with the less fortunate, underprivileged or however you may classify that demographic, was and still is my passion.  I do not feel like God has blessed Michael and I so we can just bless ourselves.  I know He gives to us so we can give to others.  So I just emailed a couple of non-profits I found, The Amity Foundation and Hopeful Hearts.  The Amity Foundation seems a little bit more up my alley because of the type of work they do, but Hopeful Hearts helps children with heart defects and one of my best little buddies Luke was born with heart problems, so that is an issue close to my heart as well.   I look forward to hearing back from them to hear how I can get involved.  I will keep you posted.

Thanks for listening to my little rant.  I know it is not that exciting, but I am just trying to share the process I am going through as an expat trying to figure out life in the Far East. ;o)

I will leave you with a few pics of what I have been up to as well.

this is my new friend Izzy ;o) a cutie pie...she and her mom and I went to the flower market in our neighborhood

my friend Mira, Izzy's mom, buying Orchids..these huge orchids are less than 10 dollars a piece

we attended an Italian dinner/Halloween party on Saturday

this is Carms, the cook, the food she made was AMAZING!

Bruschetta and roasted peppers!!! YUMMMY!!!

Michael dressed up as an Italian Stallion!

Tiramasu and Cassata Cake!!!

more yummy desserts

one of the plants I got from the market...the roots are just in water and you can put a fish in the bottom, I guess they just feed off the roots, I am going to get a fish and see how long it lasts!

a couple other cuties...including the shabby chic ceramic pots, they were less than 3 dollars a pop...I do love China prices!