New Snacks

One of the things I love about living in China is all the different foods we get to try. I miss many snacks and foods from the US, but there are some great snacks here.

We ate all our Chinese snacks before we left for the US so we needed to replenish our pantry. I saw these cracker/ cookie things and thought I would give them a try. There were a couple of different varieties. I chose these because I thought they were grape flavor from the picture.



I tried one. They are a little sweet, but those are not grapes on the package. They are green peas! The kids won't even eat these! I admit they are pretty gross. I won't buy this again! Oh well! It is a learning experience.

Public Bathing

Man, it is HOT! It is strange though, no one really knows how hot it is. You see, in China when it gets above a certain temperature ( I think it is 40 degrees C. or 104 F) then people don't have to work because of the heat. But it NEVER gets above 40 degrees. It is amazing how hot that 40 degrees can feel! We are VERY glad that we have air conditioners. However, to go anywhere you have to get out in the heat. It is not the same as in America. In the US, you have to walk in the heat to your overheated car and then blast the AC until you feel better, then when you get out, you have to walk a minute or two and enter an air conditioned building. Here, we have to walk to the bus stop or at least to the gate of the apartment complex to get a taxi. Then the air in the bus or taxi may or may not work. Then we get out in the heat again and walk some more to the store or where ever you are going. The AC here is not as cold as in the US. Also it does not really cool down that much at night here. I think it is because we live in a big city. All the buildings and stuff just hang on to the heat.



Our apartment complex has two swimming pools. We heard that they did not open until 4 in the afternoon, but when Jon and I were out the other morning we saw that the gate was open and there were people swimming. So we decided that we would go swimming after lunch. The kids were really excited.



I smeared them all with sunscreen, we grabbed towels and floaties and were off. When we got to the pool, the gate was closed and locked. But there were people swimming. So a little locked gate didn't slow us down much ( it was only two feet high).



The people swimming were really just three little boys, and when we got closer we realized that the boys were naked as jaybirds!



Their clothes and house keys were strewn about on the steps of the kiddie pool. They were also using the lifesaving rings as their personal floaties. They were having a great time.



After we were there for a little while a couple of guys showed up and then 3 teenage girls. Then one boy about 9 or so yelled something at Jon and he answered. Jon thought he asked us if we paid and then when Jon told him, "no" the kid jumped the gate and started to strip out of his clothes. I wondered if he really asked if Jon was wearing clothes or not....



That kid jumped in naked and started having a conversation with us. He wasn't shy at all, on any level. We only stayed about an hour. The water was really very warm. Then we came home, took showers, and had a long nap! We will go swimming again, soon, but probably in the morning when the pool is really open. Maybe everyone will have their clothes on then.



P.S. Just for the record, all of the Hardins were wearing bathing suits.

MSYC

Hallie went to MSYC for the first time this past summer. She was a little nervous, but she had a great time! She really wants to go back again next year!

This is what 9 year old girls look like after a week of camp!






She really had a GREAT time and I know that she made some great Christian friendships that will continue for the rest of her life.

hair cut

Two years ago, Hallie decided to cut 11 inches off her super long hair and donate it to Locks of Love.

She decided to do it again this summer.

Before....

Then Mrs. Brenda measured her braid just to make sure....

Snip, snip, snip

Ta Dah! She loves her shorter hair too!

And mom is very proud!

Eryn's first study

This is Jane. She is a young single professional girl that used to live very near us. She is super sweet. We only met her two weeks before we went back to the US for the summer. We did manage to study with her a few times. Over the summer she hooked up with the downtown group and really plugged in. We are excited about that.

While she was at our house in June, Eryn got out her picture Bible story book...

She started telling Jane the Bible stories that go with the pictures.

It was super cute, so I just had to take pictures of Eryn's first Bible study!

First Meal in th US

As soon as we booked our plane tickets to the US, we started doing some research. We flew into the the Detroit airport, so I looked online to see the restaurants available at the airport. So what was the first meal we ate in the US?



Taco Bell! And even in Detroit, they had Dr. Pepper! Yum Yum!

This was also the last thing we ate before boarding the plane to come back to China. We really miss Mexican food while we are here.

Dragon Boat Festival

Dragon Boat Festival is held in June. It is a strange holiday. It can be fun because there are usually boat races and they are fun to watch. Like most holidays, there is special food. Zongzi is sticky rice that is wrapped in bamboo leaves. The rice is often mixed with different things, like meat, or sometimes fruit or nuts. zongzi has a triangular shape. Jon really likes this food, but it is not my favorite. You can find zongzi all year round, but it is even more popular near Dragon Boat Festival.


Dragon Boat Festival, also called DuanWu remembers a great poet and scholar called Qu Yuan. When he was 37, he drowned himself in a river. The local people searched and searched for him in their boats. (That's where the boats come in). Then they were afraid that the fish would eat his body (ewww) so they threw zongzi in to feed the fish so they would not eat Qu Yuan. I told you it was a strange holiday.

There is a river that runs right in front of our apartment complex, so we went out to watch some of the boats.



See the dragon on the front of the boat?

After the "race" This guy was hot, so he jumped in to cool off. I really don't think I would have jumped in that water!

They let this boy take a ride in the boat. Look at his grin!

Busicut Night

I am so behind on my blog. These pictures have been uploaded to the blog since May, but I have just not written about them or posted. I have lots of other things to post soon. I hope to get to that in the next few days.



We are in America now and have been for about 4 weeks. We are enjoying ourselves, spending time with loved ones, and eating lots of yummy "American" food. We are also anxious to get back to China in about two weeks.



This post is about a party that we hosted at our house. Jon had been talking to his English corner group about biscuits. He told them he would teach them to make them. One Saturday before school was finished they all came over.

Shirley is greasing the pan with a butter wrapper.

Then she cut out the biscuits.

After they were all cooked, they ate the biscuits. They were all gone in five minutes.

Carol liked them.

They also brought stuff for jaozi (dumplings)

Eryn loves to make jaozi



They eventually got enough to eat.

After we ate, Eve picked up a Bible.



I just Love, love, love to see people reading the Bible. I think this was the first time she had ever read any from the Bible.

This summer

Well, we ended up buying all the Dr Pepper that Wal-Mart had! A manager told Jon that they would have more next week. So far none. However, I found some more at Trust Mart. Trust Mart is another hyper market in town. It is some kind of branch of Wal-mart. I bought some more and we had pizza and Dr Pepper for supper last night. It was great! Maybe Trust Mart will continue to carry it. We will see.

In other news, we will be flying home in 3 weeks! We fly out of Shanghai Saturday June 19. We arrive in Detroit a mere 2 hours after we left! Funny, it sure seems longer than that! (Actually the flight is about 14 hours!) We have a 3or 4 hour layover but that is ok, because we have to clear customs and try to get lunch. I have already looked up to see what kind of things are available in the Detroit airport. There is a Taco Bell and Chilis, plus hot dogs and Subs. Yummm, I can't wait.

We will be in the US until August 3. We will spend time mostly in Henderson and Hixon, TN. The last two weeks in July we will be in Hixon. The kids are excited to be able to attend VBS at Henderson and Summer Jam at Clear Creek. As well, Hallie will go to Mid-South camp. She is really excited.

Hallie has a list of some things that she wants to do this summer:

My Summer:
1) Swimming
2) Play with my cousin
3) Eat hot dogs, Dr Pepper, tacos and cereal with family and friends.

We can't wait to see you all.

Look what I found!

I was just going to get a couple of bottles of water...and all of a sudden Hallie yelled out "Dr Pepper!!"

I stood there with my mouth open staring in disbelief, then I did a little happy dance. I bought 5 cans that day, and then we bought 7 a few days later. We asked and the store said that they would get some more next week. We will see... For now I am happy.