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Published: January 16th 2010
Dinner Party
Will, Marty, Alex, Samantha, Ivan, Riley, Jamie and PeteHello Everyone, it has been since 2009 since our last blog. I decided it should have a theme, even though we have lived in China over 5 1/2 months there are still times when we have our "First" of something, so here it goes.
First blog of 2010
First time Elyse went to the dentist in China
First time we hosted a Dinner Party for 9
First time Pete ventured to Dapeng Fortress
First time Pete ventured to Buji
First time Jimmy ventured to our apartment for NFL playoffs
First time we are done working for 5 1/2 weeks & GET PAID for it.
First time we went bowling in China
I can't believe it has been 17 days since our last blog entry. We haven't gone that long in between entries since we started this blog back in September. This blog idea was one of the GREATEST ways to remember and share our adventures.
On Friday, January 8th I went to the dentist for the first time in China. I had a filling done in October 2008 in San Diego and the tooth has been bothering for quite some time. I was just putting it off since
Dinner Party
Marty, Alex, Samantha, Ivan, Riley, Jamie, Me and Pete I was scared to go to the dentist in China. I was quite happy with the service and the quality of work done to my tooth. The dentist drilled out my old filling and put a new filling in 150RMB=$21.96, she reassured me it was 3M material made in the USA. She also advised me that if my tooth continues to be sensitive that it maybe the nerve and not the filling, BUMMMER. So far so good but it is still sensitive to the cold, but no longer hurts to eat on the right side of my mouth.
That same evening we hosted 9 people at our apartment for dinner: Samantha, English teacher of my classes 4 and 10; Ivan, her husband; Alex, her brother; Riley, Jamie, Riley's girlfriend visiting from UCLA; Will, Marty, Pete and I. Pete was the Head Chef for the evening as he prepared banana pancakes, strawberry pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs with chopped ham. HMMMMMM good old American Breakfast. Our Chinese guests LOVED it and it was a hit for our American friends also as we don't get this food often in China.
The next few paragraphs are authored by Pete thus freeing him
from the obligation to type for at least another month or two. On Saturday, January 9th I ventured out to find an old fortress in Longgang, our district. It only took them 2 buses and 90 minutes to get there. There would have been no way that I could have found it on my own but my buddy Will is fluent in Chinese. The city wasn't as much of a fortress as it once used to be. The city wall that protected the perimeter was no longer standing.
Most of the homes were still occupied by local residents. They went about their business as the two guys roamed thru their streets. Some of the structures were dedicated to the preservation of the community and held artifacts and literature regarding the opium wars in the late 19th and early 20th century. Of course some of the newer residents felt that the ancient look of the gray on gray bricks was much too outdated. A new modern look of pink, blue, and green tiles would surely class up the joint. This area reminded me slightly of LiJiang, but much dirtier.
The next day I ventured into Buji, an art district
in Shenzhen. Our friend Zak lives in this area and he had came to our place to watch the Ducks play on several occasions. Elyse tutored that morning and then came home to bed since she wasn't feeling well. I called Zak and he meet me near his place. He was accompanied by a Chinese girl that had just moved to Shenzhen from some other city. Its funny to think that Zak was the tour guide. We had some lunch and then explored the streets of Buji. There were several Art Galleries that had places where you could sit and drink tea. We sat in the courtyard for about an hour just talking. Later Zak took us closer to his apartment and we walked around the night market. It was a long day of walking around so we went back to the apartment to take a break. I needed to be back at the bus stop by 9pm to get the last bus back to Long gang. I saw several of my buses pass by without stopping. I didn't really understand why. Eventually it was late enough and I realized that I wasn't getting on a bus. I had to
take a cab home which cost way too much.
This week was a HUGE countdown week for us as it was our last week of teaching classes at Long Cheng High School and A+ English tutoring center for me. We are now done until Feb 22nd= 5 1/2 weeks of PAID VACATION.
On Friday afternoon we were like, OMG, we are done teaching we should do something since we don't leave for our trip until Monday. Most of our friends had already left for their vacations on Thursday and Friday but Riley, Jamie and Will were still in Shenzhen so we went to Louhu district for the night.
The night began with dinner at a favorite restaurant of Pete and Riley's, wandering around with a street beer, then we went bowling. So much fun since we hadn't been since the US. We played 2 games and Pete and I were 4th and 5th place each time, SAD since there were only 5 players. Then around 11pm we decided to go to an alley area near Riley's apartment that serves street food and got more street beers.
Street beers are very popular since you can drink a
beer anywhere in China except on the subway and they only cost 4 kuai=.59 cents for 500ml=32 to 40oz. (online converter won't work now) They don't have dive bars or bars just expensive clubs and KTV=Private Karaoke rooms.
Today we woke up and got Indian food near Dongmen in Louhu. I think Pete and I found a new favorite restaurant in Shenzhen. We get sick of eating Chinese food but don't have much variety of food to eat/choose from. For all of you in the US, we/you take this for granted that you can find pretty much any food from around the world and this is why we LOVE Hong Kong so much.
We are just relaxing this evening as we are now addicted to the TV series LOST. Never watched it in the US but we have plenty of time on our hands in China so we started to watch it. Now I know why everyone RAVED about this show. Tomorrow we will pack, clean the apartment and get ready to head to Hong Kong on Monday for our flight out Tuesday morning to Sydney for our 30 day adventure in Australia and New Zealand.
Our
next blog will be from Down Under.........another continent added to our list and 2 more countries added to our list.
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Mom
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firsts
I wondered when you were going to update the blog...good job...had heard about the adventures but the pictures are neat to see!! Looks like Pete's supper was a hit!!! Neat idea about the pringles...those teachers that brought treats were always a hit at Montmorency!!!!