Chinese Culture Weekend

This past weekend we got a good dose of Chinese culture... and loved every minute of it! On Saturday we went to see our friends Allison and Alex again. Allison is Chinese. Alex is Romanian. They are getting married next year. Allison has become one of our best Chinese tutors.

The agenda for Saturday night included learning how to make dumplings and learning how to play mah-jong. The dumplings were a lot of fun. Allison showed us how to best fold the dough wrappers so that they don't fall apart when you cook them. The best part of the dumplings was getting to eat them! They were delicious. We made so many that Allison sent us home with a plate of dumplings and instructions on how to cook them.

Mah-jong was an adventure. The rules resemble rummy, so I caught on quick enough. I just still don't understand some of the strategy of the game. The different tiles have different catagories, like a deck of cards. One of the categories had the Chinese character for the numbers 1-9. Luckily, I've learned these, so I was able to play okay. Brian and I were on a team. We lost consistently, but we had a great time. Some of Allison and Alex's friends from work joined us. Around the table were three Americans (two of those were us), two Romanians and three Chinese. It was a lot of fun listening as people switched between languages. Brian and I are slowly starting to pick up some of the Chinese.

Sunday night we continued our Chinese culture weekend by watching "The House of Flying Daggers." We watched it in Chinese with English subtitles, so we could test what we knew and learn a few new words. "The House of Flying Daggers" is a Chinese film by the popular Chinese director, Zhang YiMou. The epic story takes place in ancient China. There was a lot of kung fu action as two men battle evil empires, each other and the beautiful kung fu warrior, Mei. Kung fu martial arts are very much a part of Chinese culture and history. A friend once told me that there are stories from hundreds of years ago of kung fu masters who were so well developed that they could fly and run through the trees. This is why you often see this in kung fu fights in the Chinese movies. Brian hates this. During a scene in the movie where all the warriors were running through the tops of bamboo trees Brian said, "I just don't like this stupid crap." To which I replied, "It's not crap, it's culture!" We've learned that in a marriage we both don't always have to like all the same things.

L.A. t.v. c'est loco!

On Sunday evening I was enjoying some downtime flipping through the t.v. stations to see what was on. We recently got a digital convertor box, so we have all of the extra digital channels. For example, NBC4 has three stations: 4-1, 4-2 & 4-4. We don't have cable, so it is extra exciting to have so many new channels.

I watched some of the Chinese station trying to understand a little of what they said. I didn't get very far, so I flipped to PBS (we have about 8 channels of PBS now) where I found the crazy French teacher. I quickly called Brian in. He loves opportunities to test his French skills. I took two semesters in college, but Brian minored in French. The crazy French teacher set up different scenarios where the viewer should watch to learn more French vocabulary. After about 10 minutes I'd only caught about a dozen words I understood, so I retired to the bedroom to read. Brian continued watching and was excited to have learned a few new words.

As I was sitting in bed I reflected in just how many languages I'd watched on t.v. that night. Of course, we have a lot of Spanish language channels. Then, there was the crazy French teacher on PBS. But, I hit the jackpot on the Asian station. There I saw programming in Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Armenian. So, in the end, I watched t.v. in eight different languages! Considering that we are leaving the country next year to move overseas, I giggle at ways that Father is preparing us for living in a different culture... even if that is just watching t.v. and understanding only 5% of what was said.

Merry Thanks-mas! Happy Christ-giving!

Me and Brian at the top of the mountain over Albuquerque.

The city lights of Albuquerque.

We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We were thrilled to leave L.A. for a solid five days to spend time with Brian's family in Albuquerque. We had a lot of fun, adventures and some great time of rest. Here are some of the memorable moments:

-- Thanks-mas! This was our first celebration of Thanks-mas or Christ-giving. Because we will be visiting my family in Missouri for Christmas, we decided to celebrate Christmas on Thanksgiving with Brian's family. His dad enjoyed wishing everyone a happy Christ-giving! It rained on Thanksgiving morning, which was a treat for me and Brian. We stayed cozy in the house. As Brian's mom finished the holiday cooking we all attacked a jigsaw puzzle. Everyone in Brian's family is really smart, so we finished that puzzle in lightening speed! It was really fun! We ate our delicious Thanksgiving meal and shared what we are thankful for. Next we needed time for our bellies to rest. We passed the afternoon with a walk (the rain had stopped) and a movie. Then it was time to open presents! It was so fun to see all of the traditions that Brian's family has and to become a part of them. And, what was the best present I got? A lazy Susan-style spice rack! Brian had become aggravated with my spices diving kamikaze-style at him every time he opened the cabinet, so he was even more excited about this than me.

-- Stranded! The day before Thanksgiving Brian's family and I went to take the tram up to the very top of the mountains above Albuquerque. The tram takes you from an elevation of 6,000 feet up to just over 10,000 feet. From the peak to one side you have a view over all of Albuquerque and to the other side you can see Santa Fe off in the distance. It is quite beautiful. Brian's family made reservations at the restaurant that is at the top of the tramway. We enjoyed eating as we looked out over the city. About halfway through the meal our waiter came over and told us that we should take our time because the tram just got stuck. What?? We ended up waiting at the restaurant for almost six hours! Our waiter brought us free cups of tea, coffee and deserts. In the end, we had a great time just sitting around and talking. But, we were glad to get back down once the tram was fixed. And we were able to tell people that we were "stranded at 10,000 feet!" Sounds like a Lifetime movie, huh?

-- Ni hao! We took the train to Albuquerque. It takes as long as driving, but it's much safer when you fall asleep! On the way out of L.A. an elderly Asian couple was seated behind us. We found out that they were Chinese, and we were able to practice a little of our Chinese skills. We quickly realized how little we know! On our language lesson CDs we've learned how to say things like, "Where would you like to eat dinner?," "Is the shop closed?," and our favorite "Can you buy a lot of beer?" These didn't prove very useful with our new friends.

--Kitty! We enjoyed playing with the two kitties that Brian's family has. One of them, Jasmine, is a huge poof ball who will almost always let you pet her. The other, Jinx, is an actual "'fraidy cat." She only lets you pet her if she really, really wants to be pet... and no one else is free. Brian has a mild allergy to the cats. This doesn't prevent him from gently rubbing his face in Jasmine's soft, fluffy fur. Then, he quickly runs to take a shower before his face swells.

-- Family! It's always a joy to spend time with our families. Sometimes we are sad that we've been called to live so far away. But we realize how fortunate we are to be surrounded with a huge group of supportive friends in California. We often miss our families and greatly look forward to seeing them, yet we are comforted in between by the love of those Father has put in our lives here. Now we only have 3 1/2 weeks until we get to go to Missouri for Christmas!