Here's some pictures of the party Friday!

This some of the food we had for the feast on Friday...what more could you ask for...good food...food people and good drinks!

Here is a picture of Doug and I on Santa's (our Principal's) lap. We did this because Meg and I every year get our picture taken at the mall with Santa...so here is one with a new Meghan...DOUG! It was fun!

Here are some friends...Robbie, Beth and the guy in the back is Kelly! Shortest to tallest! (Kelly just got engaged and will be married in December in Thailand!)

Yup...I know we are cute!

Yup here we are are again ending with food!

Hope you had a great Holiday..we were thinking of you!

Yi Wu...pronounced..EEEEEE WOOOOO

Two weeks ago Doug and I went to a town, a city...yup a city with 8 million people. This town...the main function is to be the middle man between companies. And yes I mean the whole town. The stores function as the place you walk into and look at the samples and then decide how many you want...1 thousand, 2 thousand or do you want them delivered on a monthly basis. The main place that we went to was a huge...size of ten Denver airports put together...they sold everything. Umbrellas, bags of all sort, tools, flashlights, stuff animals, key chains, things you can buy at pier one, candle, picture frames, crystals, pearls, jewelry, pretty much anything you can buy at Kohls, JC Penny, gas stations, anything. The stalls of stores went on forever. I honestly do not know how to describe it. But this is where you could buy anything.
Doug got a great carry on bag for nothing, I got a bag, we got a few Christmas gifts, but it was just amazing to walk.
You could buy anything there and for a really reasonable price...well you couldn't just buy one thing at many of the stalls...they wanted you to buy 3000. For like nothing...5 cents or less..it was very different.
The cool thing was...there were tons of other people...and yes I do know that sounds rude but there was a diverse amount of people. We ate Lebanese food two times and Pakistan food. Great to have a variety.
We also stayed in pretty decent hotel for the most part...cheap but pretty clean. Smoke everywhere though...the room didn't smell like it until later that night but it was strong. I think two things we will never get use to...the bathrooms and the smoke everywhere...maybe the pollution too but that just comes and goes.
I guess that is all for now.
New adventures coming soon.

Thanksgiving in the Thompson Apartment

So last Thursday was Thanksgiving and yet when I asked the students if they knew what day it was they said...ummm..."I think the 27th". Obviously we don't celebrate it here. Nor did we have the day off.
So what did Doug and I do...well we got home from school...did some errands and then decided what we were going to eat for dinner.
We got to eat whatever we wanted. So we called Hemmy's (the local pizza joint) ordered 2 pizzas, french fries, and two salads. Did we eat all the food? No I don't think so. We drank a rather wonderful bottle of wine and spoke to our families. Stayed up until about 11 or so and then fell fast asleep.
We had a great time.

Friday was when we really celebrated Thanksgiving. Our director had the whole staff come over for dinner...I mean a feast...a huge feat we had two large turkeys, fajitas, Chinese noodles, rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, and of course dessert. Just so you know I did make apple crisp...and it WON.
We had a blast. Hung out with all our friends and then went home...it was great.

Then on Saturday Doug and I hitched a ride into Ningbo to do some Christmas shopping...finally finding our stores at the last three or four hours.
And then for dinner was Mexican...now it wasn't the best Mexican food we had ever had but man it sure tasted like it, and Doug got to have a draft beer which is not a common thing. It tasted amazing. We got home around 8 and only have to pick up a few more things. And then we are done.
Most important thing I guess is we HAVE TWO MORE WEEKS TILL MALAYSIA!!!

A MUST HAVE IN CHINA.

Toilet Paper at all times.

Hand Sanitizer

Water Bottle

Handy Wipes

Cash ONLY

Snacks

Directions written in Chinese

Calculator

Cell Phone with Chinese dictionary

A friend that is Chinese

Patience

TUMS

Pants you can roll up

A menu written in Chinese and translated in English

Eyes in the back of your head

Learn to hold your ground

Umbrella

Hangzhou Basketball

Ok so two weekends ago..at least I think two weekends ago...Coach Doug Thompson took his 9 boy basketball players for a tournament in Hangzhou about two hours north of Ningbo. These games were at the Hangzhou International School. And at the next door Chinese school who also had a gym.
He left at 9 AM in the morning on Friday to play two games.
And they won....BOTH.
He called and you could hear the boys in the background so happy. I think Coach was ecstatic also.
Well I had already decided to go up on Saturday morning to watch the rest of the basketball games they had three more.
Trent and I decided that the best way to get up there was by bus and then stay in the Sheraton that was a few minutes down the road. (Trent's wife Shawn was the girls basketball coach)
Well the bus was not as bad as I thought it was going to be and I definitely drank no water so I wouldn't have to go to the bathroom...in the bus station.....there wasn't any bathroom on the bus...but I am pretty sure it would have been a hole going out to the road.
Anyway the bus ride was about two hours long and then we had to get in a taxi to get to the Sheraton.
Trent and I were on the top floor...awesome views. A little bit more pollution, tons more people, lots more foreigners, people way nicer to foreigners.
We made it to Hangzhou in good time and to the basketball games in good time.
We watched the boys win two games in a row...so they were now four for four.
They played great...I mean they had only been practicing for two weeks...and they were sweeping the floor. I honestly think it was because of the coaching! He did a super job and those boys responded to him so well. It was good to see where he belonged again.
Anyway Trent I watched the girls play and that was almost like magnet ball. UMMMM...not much to say....for Shawn's first time coaching she did a good job.
The whole gang were exited about the final game.
The boys played well but they were exhausted and it was there fifth game in 2 days.
They came back from a ten point deficit to miss the large plastic trophy by three points.
I was so proud of Doug.
Well after those amazing four games Trent and I took off...
We went and ate Thai Food and then went to a winery. It was so great. It was great to eat a different type of food. And buy some wine and drink and hang out.
I really liked Hangzhou and can't wait to go back in few weeks.
There are pictures of the game and stuff on FLICKR please go look at them!
Thanks for tuning in!

Shao Xing pictures continued.....

These photos are out of order...but still pretty cool...
A street in old Shao Xing where we went shopping...my favorite store was the chopstick store...can you believe it? A store just for chopsticks. So cool. This was our favorite part of the trip.

Doug and I at Karaoke. Yup we did sing and had a great time. Seriously the Chines take Karaoke so seriously they have building that have rooms just for this lounging around and singing. Touch screens for songs...lights that best speakers money can buy and the cheesiest videos you could ever imagine!

Food...Shao Xing is also known for their tofu...and this place was famous for their food and tofu. When fresh tofu is cooking it doesn't smell so hot and well some of the taste goes with that smell...but for 9 of us we spent 219 RMB and that was pretty good. Something new everyday. We also were surrounded by people while we ate...no problem you just ignores the stares and laughter and keep going.

Doug and I took our first ride in a carriage pulled by a bicycle. He had calves the size of my head!

On the street we went shopping you could also go on a boat ride...we didn't because it was raining and if that water got on us I knew we would grow a second arm. But beautiful picture none the less.

Shao Xing...just some pictures.

No one should complain about getting old....this person was about 900 and still moving heavy loads. The Chinese are very hard workers. Amazing.

There were over...well I have no idea how many stalls of fabric...and any type of fabric you could imagine. This is one of the biggest export areas for fabric in China. These stalls lined about three city blocks and was three floors. Holy crap...you could buy fabric for anything and then get it made in a matter of days. I love it. Bought some fabric for a dress that I will get made for our Christmas in Malaysia.

One the bike was huge bolts of fabric...he was in the middle of traffic.

Three city blocks with three floors. I had to walk by and touch stuff.

Before we could go off on our own and since this was free trip we had to go to an expo show. Just so they had foreign faces there. And there were a lot of foreign faces....people come from all over the world so they can buy fabric for their factories. It was cool but not what we wanted to do...we wanted to buy fabric. But there was a band that met us at the opening...yup it was a really big deal.

Halloween Pictures

Ok...so we have had a few requests for Halloween pictures...so here we go.

Now the pictures were taken in our apartment. We were the first stop in a progressive party. It started at 6 and everyone was at our house until 730 then they moved on. Doug and I stayed behind to clean and then went to the third house. We left around maybe 1030 and there were people still going strong.


Everyone in these pictures works at our school...from the director, down to the TA's...it was a blast and it was nice to have people over to our house!

Now we just let the pictures speak for themselves.


Yes, we have our director dressed up as the devil and her husband the curriculum coordinator as the ultimate Red Sox fan. They were great. Tons of fun...

So this is me...I went as Peter Pan...kind of..I got sick so I didn't quite finish my costume and next to me is Gloria who was kind of dressed as a cat. Well she had her face painted so that's all that matters.

Next up is Avis who was dressed as a pirate...she had the boots on and they were pretty cool and then there is Robbie who went as the spider lady. She helped me make my outfit and I helped design hers. We had a good time...we bought all the fabric in Shao Xing...very cheap.

Next this is my Captain Hook...up he is a pirate...pretty cool huh?

Here I am again but i do need to tell you about the tights...that are now leggings. You have to remember that Chinese people are not that tall so when they say one size fits all it means that you have to be 4'9". So when I tried on these tights it was like trying to fit into a four year olds outfit and the crotch came to about my knees. Well by then I was so pissed I cut off the feet and hiked them up as far as they would go and called it good.

YUP got to remember this is China!

It was a fun night!

Aida and other adventures...

Let see not sure where to begin since it has been so long since we have really written. I promise to post new pictures soon. We have been busy or just plain old exhausted to write in the blog. Though I do think the last post was funny. Doug and I thought of it after we went to RT mart with 150 RMB and bought the umbrellas and everything....we made it under 150 RMB and had enough to buy 2 small ice cream cones on our way home but not enough for a taxi...so we walked in the rain with our new umbrellas. (THE ICE CREAM WAS WORTH IT)

Alright...on Wednesday we went to Aida. It was a traveling tour company that was spending two days in Ningbo to do this show and then they were traveling Hangzhou and then off to somewhere else and all of that stuff. Usually traveling tour companies...well are not so hot...sorry for all of those people that are in them...and I admire you and really miss the theater and I would pay good money to do it again and even be in a traveling troupe...they still are typically not the most amazing shows. Anyway these guys...these voices were amazing. Yeah they missed some of their ques and the acting didn't make me feel moved to my bones but their voices were AMAZING. Actual goose bumps from just their singing. It felt great.

We started in the balcony but when it was intermission...well we moved down to the front row. It was great. We just had so much fun.

Th theater that the show was in was amazing...I mean they had buckets all over the floor to collect water but it is a beautiful theater and I will go back in a heart beat. I will also drag Doug too. It was nice to see real theater and as I said the cast did a great job!

What else? Basketball has started and Doug is coaching the boys team. He has a tournament next weekend in Hangzhou so he will leave Friday morning and not be back until Sunday...the Principal and I are going to travel up there and watch some of the games..his wife is coaching the girls team. We will take the bus up and stay the night and probably travel back with the team the next day...it will be a good adventure and to see a little more of China. Doug is doing a great job with the team and with not having facilities. It is fun none the less!

Things you can buy for 20 dollars or less.

Group 1:
2 knives
1 gallon of oil
1 cheese grater
3 umbrellas...one I already misplaced

Group 2:
You can take your 5 friends out to dinner and order
Three Beers
Spicy Chicken
Eggplant
Fried Rice
Bok Choy
Tomato and Egg
Spicy Potatoes
and Green Beans and you can eat for a week

Group 3:
A six pack of coke
Tofu (really big bag)
10 apples
And a container of chocolate

Group 4:
A taxi to Ningbo which is 45 minutes away and back

Group 5:
Buy 15 DVD's
and laugh at the translations

Group 6:
Have a maid come to your house for 8 hours.

Group 7:
Buy a wireless router

Group 8:
30 tsingtsaos (Chinese Beer)

Group 9:
2 whole Halloween outfits from scratch

Group 10:
2 large house plants
2 small house plants