This is our new favorite place to eat. They make the noodles when you order them. It's really quite interesting to watch. He kneads the dough, then does this little toss routine and stretches the dough and voila! homemade noodles ready to be thrown in the pot. You must come and try!
Who needs a delivery truck anyways! They will pull just about anything behind them on their bikes...looks like someone in our complex was about to get new sofas :) The weather the past two weeks has been perfect, but now we have had a week of very thick air. The sky is grey and it burns your eyes when you are outside and all the kids are coughing. We hope we get some rain or wind soon to clear the sky!
Earlier this week we had a gas leak in our apartment. This is our little box in the kitchen. Our neighbor came over and helped us turn it off and call the gas company to come fix it. It turns out that the problem was a broken stovetop. Our neighbors insisted that it was not too late to call our landlord, so we did and he came and took the stove and brought a new one back the following day. We also realized that we were almost out of gas (thanks to our neighbors telling us) so we got to figure out how to buy that this week also. Basically, you have to go to the bank to put money on the gas card (looks like a credit card), then to the front office of the complex to activate it, then you take the card and stick it in the very narrow slot (see right above the digital display in the picture above) to put the gas on your meter. I felt like I was going to break the card. Sure am glad we figured it out before we were taking cold showers!
Because our stove was out of commission, our neighbors had us over for dinner the following night. It was all very good food.
I didn't get a picture of all the food, but here is one photo. They fixed 8 different dishes (and we brought dessert...our toaster oven was still working) and yes, that is octopus and green peppers. All the dishes were yummy!
The little girls enjoyed playing drums in the box that the stove came in. A box can provide hours of entertainment.
Here's a little snapshot of some of the characters that we have been working on this week. We focus most of our time on learning to speak the language, but we are starting to learn to read and write a little. I actually took the picture during class so that when I was studying at home I would be able to have the correct answers to check my sentences with (our teacher recorded some sentences and we were supposed to know how to write them).
The kids did some watercolors.
So, this week we added another playdate day with the twins. On Wednesdays, they come to our home, and on Fridays, we go to their home. They actually live quite close. Their mother is a teacher at the high school (which is across the street from us), so they live there. Actually, all the students live there, too. It was a lot of fun because there was a huge track and field to play on and outdoor exercise equipment to "play" on. By the way, I love the way kids hold hands here...it's so sweet!
The long jump pit served as a giant sand box for the kids. They loved it. Some of the students came over and played in the sand with them and some talked to me. They said they had never talked to a foreigner before. I asked what things they like to do and the answer was sing. I was then serenated with the song "I Believe I can Fly" :) I clapped and told them they did a very good job.
Again, these little rides are everywhere! They play the same songs over and over again, but this one was playing Jingle Bells in the local language! I was glad to recognize a song :) Jonathan goes to the bread store alsmost every day and he always sees this same little kid. This week the little kid called him "ye ye" which means grandfather. It was quite funny. Jonathan said that he could not be a ye ye because his oldest kid was only 6 yrs old :)
The kids were invited to a birthday party at McDonald's. While we were there, I got to feed this sweet little guy. He is a foster child. The family that I met at the party said that he has doubled in size from when they brought him home from the orphanage. They think he is around 3-4 months old, but they do not have any papers on him telling his exact age. He has Downs Syndrome and was very sick when they brought him home, but he is doing fine now. I enjoyed holding the little guy. Benjamin wanted to know why I was holding him and Katherine loved touching him and Lauren looked jealous and Regan didn't seemed phased and no we are NOT having another one. I'll just hold other people's babies :)
This is our new favorite place to eat. They make the noodles when you order them. It's really quite interesting to watch. He kneads the dough, then does this little toss routine and stretches the dough and voila! homemade noodles ready to be thrown in the pot. You must come and try!
Who needs a delivery truck anyways! They will pull just about anything behind them on their bikes...looks like someone in our complex was about to get new sofas :) The weather the past two weeks has been perfect, but now we have had a week of very thick air. The sky is grey and it burns your eyes when you are outside and all the kids are coughing. We hope we get some rain or wind soon to clear the sky!
Earlier this week we had a gas leak in our apartment. This is our little box in the kitchen. Our neighbor came over and helped us turn it off and call the gas company to come fix it. It turns out that the problem was a broken stovetop. Our neighbors insisted that it was not too late to call our landlord, so we did and he came and took the stove and brought a new one back the following day. We also realized that we were almost out of gas (thanks to our neighbors telling us) so we got to figure out how to buy that this week also. Basically, you have to go to the bank to put money on the gas card (looks like a credit card), then to the front office of the complex to activate it, then you take the card and stick it in the very narrow slot (see right above the digital display in the picture above) to put the gas on your meter. I felt like I was going to break the card. Sure am glad we figured it out before we were taking cold showers!
Because our stove was out of commission, our neighbors had us over for dinner the following night. It was all very good food.
I didn't get a picture of all the food, but here is one photo. They fixed 8 different dishes (and we brought dessert...our toaster oven was still working) and yes, that is octopus and green peppers. All the dishes were yummy!
The little girls enjoyed playing drums in the box that the stove came in. A box can provide hours of entertainment.
Here's a little snapshot of some of the characters that we have been working on this week. We focus most of our time on learning to speak the language, but we are starting to learn to read and write a little. I actually took the picture during class so that when I was studying at home I would be able to have the correct answers to check my sentences with (our teacher recorded some sentences and we were supposed to know how to write them).
The kids did some watercolors.
So, this week we added another playdate day with the twins. On Wednesdays, they come to our home, and on Fridays, we go to their home. They actually live quite close. Their mother is a teacher at the high school (which is across the street from us), so they live there. Actually, all the students live there, too. It was a lot of fun because there was a huge track and field to play on and outdoor exercise equipment to "play" on. By the way, I love the way kids hold hands here...it's so sweet!
The long jump pit served as a giant sand box for the kids. They loved it. Some of the students came over and played in the sand with them and some talked to me. They said they had never talked to a foreigner before. I asked what things they like to do and the answer was sing. I was then serenated with the song "I Believe I can Fly" :) I clapped and told them they did a very good job.
Again, these little rides are everywhere! They play the same songs over and over again, but this one was playing Jingle Bells in the local language! I was glad to recognize a song :) Jonathan goes to the bread store alsmost every day and he always sees this same little kid. This week the little kid called him "ye ye" which means grandfather. It was quite funny. Jonathan said that he could not be a ye ye because his oldest kid was only 6 yrs old :)
The kids were invited to a birthday party at McDonald's. While we were there, I got to feed this sweet little guy. He is a foster child. The family that I met at the party said that he has doubled in size from when they brought him home from the orphanage. They think he is around 3-4 months old, but they do not have any papers on him telling his exact age. He has Downs Syndrome and was very sick when they brought him home, but he is doing fine now. I enjoyed holding the little guy. Benjamin wanted to know why I was holding him and Katherine loved touching him and Lauren looked jealous and Regan didn't seemed phased and no we are NOT having another one. I'll just hold other people's babies :)
