An Anniversary to Remember

Gone are the days of spontanious surprise weekends at cozy little bed & breakfasts . . . gone are the days of romantic dinners for two at wonderful little out-of-the-way resturants with candlelight and the hushed conversations of other starry-eyed lovers nearby . . .

ahh, you may say, so goes the married life of parents . . . but aye! I tell you it's not the bundle of joy that joined our family nearly three years ago that has caused this monumental shift in our lives, but instead our very new, very interesting change in perspective.

When you are inindated with advertisments of the "ideal" anniversary present and/or celebration (ie: "Every kiss begins with 'k' " "diamonds are a girls best friend" and who can forget those lovely mushy, "i need a kleenex" hallmark commercials?) and you are also surrounded with every culinary option known to man . . . well, creativity seems to be a must to make an anniversary memorable. . .

Not so when you are a foreigner in China with 10 months of "experience" under your belt! A simple 25 yuan taxi ride across the city and viola! You are in the land of wonders . . . the heart-warming, mouth watering aroma hits you as soon as you walk through the door . . .


That's right folks . . . Subway . . . the land of endless sandwich opportunity (well, not exactly endless, you have to cross your fingers and hold your tongue just right to see if they will indeed have the sandwich preparations of your choice, of which they did not have for poor Jerry, no steak and cheese to celebrate this anniversary!)

A morning of exploring a previously unexplored neighborhood where we found loads of beautiful children's clothing and some wonderfully interesting people. . . top that off with an incredibly satisfying terriakyi chicken sub loaded with cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, green peppers, salt, pepper, southwestern sauce (because there was no sweet onion sauce to be had) all beautifully piled onto 6 inches of the most delectable honey oat bread I may have ever tasted . . . now those are the makings of one heck of a memorable 11th anniversary celebration!

The Eighth Wonder of the World

Yep, you guessed it . . . the Joneses will go down in history as THE ones to discover the eighth great wonder of the world! Look out Egyptian Pyramids, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Hanging Gardens of Babylon . . . you are about to meet your match! (no pun intended, but pretty good one if I must say so . . . read on, friends)

No matter where you are in the world, no matter what hemisphere, what country, what people group, what city, what means of laundry you may be accustomed to . . .

SOCKS MYSTICALLY GET LOST IN THE CLEANING PROCESS!

Here we have recorded our research findings in photo form. I know that this is unbelievable, but believe you me . . . this is an honest to goodness real photo, no photoshop editing on this one.



Just a little "Deep Thought" to keep your mind occupied today . . . have a great day! (And keep an eye out for any matches to these socks . . . if they appear in YOUR laundry, well, lets just say we may really be on to something here!)

Good Ole Fashion American BBQ . . . kinda

Jerry ended his semester with his culture class by inviting them all over to our home for a BBQ . . . American-style . . . what's more American than hunks of beef grilled over coals, loaded with ketchup, mustard, onions, tomatoes with chips, coleslaw and some roasted potatoes? Well, the fun began while preparing the burgers for the grill . . . it was then we noticed what we were shaping into burgers . . .


Yep, you read correctly . . . CATTLE STUFFING! Oh if we didn't have a hoot coming up with visuals for that! However . . . when we told our Chinese teacher about this, she looked not surprised at all, after all, this is the meat they use to "stuff" jaozi and baozi (dumplings and steamed buns) with . . . DUH, cattle stuffing.

What WE are learning about culture is that most of the time when something just seems outlandishly strange in English, when it is explained to us by our dear Chinese friends, it makes tons of sense....sometimes more than the English if we think about it . . . that raw mushed up beef is called hamburger, as well as the Big Mac at McDonalds . . . hmmm. . . think how gross that must seem to call raw meat what you think of as a yummy sandwich?!?



Well, Jerry led the way and made the first hamburger into a sandwich to show them what to do with this huge hunk of meat . . . but i guess some were not paying too close attention . . . under all that ketchup, mustard, potatoes and coleslaw there really is a hamburger!



Jackie, the man on the right, had just finished his first hamburger and was excited to go back for more....Jerry was a proud teacher!



Well, the evening of American Culture progressed quite well and all present had fun learning about various aspects of this wonderful culture we are from . . . they even found our wedding album with the much younger version of Jerry and LaWanda . . . of course, Jerry has changed the most, and me, well they say I am a timeless beauty . . . (ok, well, what they said was that time had not changed me much . . . and i corrected their English to say "timeless beauty" . . . what's fun about teaching English if you can't get some free compliments out of the deal?)