Happy Halloween from Ava! No trick or treating this year (we wouldn't have gone at home anyway), but we still had to dress up a little!
Ava had so much fun painting pumpkins over the weekend!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Pumpkins!
My coworkers are too sweet! I told them that Halloween was coming up and I really wanted to carve pumpkins with Ava! Ryan was only able to find small pumpkins at the supermarket, so I was a little sad. My coworkers were on a mission then to find me the perfect pumpkin! One found the 2 bright orange ones. Still a little small for carving :( So another coworker did some research and found a bigger one, however I am not sure that it's big enough for carving either. Oh well, this just reminds me of how lucky we are to have such caring coworkers who are willing to go over and beyond to help us carry on an American tradition! Feeling very blessed ...
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| The biggest pumpkins we can find in Wuxi! |
Loving the weather right now!
As we scanned Facebook last night we saw pictures of snow back home!!!! Hope everyone has warm Halloween costumes this year!
Here in Wuxi, the weather has been fantastic (thank goodness after the summer we had)! We have been enjoying 70-80 degree weather for the past month or two and it is just now starting to dip into the 60s!
We never posted about the heat we experienced our first 2-2.5 months here, so we thought we would share!
Shanghai saw its hottest July in 140 years as temperatures soared to 100ºF or higher for 10 straight days between July 23 and August 1. The coastal city reached 95ºF (35ºC) or higher on 25 days last month, 14 of which exceeded 100ºF (37.8ºC).
If anybody is planning a trip to China in the future, I would avoid July and August (probably June too)!
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
We've got crabs!
We had been told that this region of China - Shanghai and Suzhou - is known for it's Hairy Crab around October! When we saw it for sale at the store where we recently started buying most of our meat (it's located in Shanghai, but they deliver to Wuxi twice/week!), we thought it would be a fun experience to cook some up! So, we purchased enough for us and the other Parker expats that live in Wuxi!
As we started doing some research on how to cook them, we realized that the cooking part was fairly easy - the eating part was going to be tricky though! Therefore, we luckily enlisted one of Bethany's coworkers, Henry, to come over and give us a lesson! It was definitely an interesting experience and we were so glad Henry was available to be our teacher! Otherwise, the crabs would have been steamed and we would have been sitting there dumbfounded trying to figure out how to find any meat!
Anyway, they were delicious and we definitely recommend them to anyone that finds themselves in the Wuxi/Shanghai area this fall! Don't be surprised when you aren't offered butter though; instead, dip the crab meat in vinegar and ginger! It's excellent!
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| A female and male crab waiting to be cleaned and then steamed! |
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| Almost ready to eat! |
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| Our cooked Hairy Crabs! |
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| Yum! Notice the hair on the claw? Hence the name ;) |
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Working Weekends
One thing I do not fully understand here in China is working weekends. Now yes, of course there is a need for overtime every once in a while and working a Saturday or a Sunday may be necessary. However, here in China, the government mandates certain Saturdays and Sundays as working days to make up for days they get off during the week as Holiday. For instance, we have recently had 2 holidays: Mid-Autumn Festival and China National Holiday. The first was technically a 3 day holiday - Thursday, Friday and Saturday - as Sunday was then a working day. I realize that this holiday is very much linked to the moon, so perhaps they cannot help when the holiday falls. Then, the National Holiday was Oct 1 - Oct 7 (started on a Tuesday, ended on a Monday). In order to make up for the 5 working days we had off, everyone was required to work the Sunday prior to the start of the holiday and then the Saturday after the holiday. Even though the government does this so people have time to travel to their hometowns to see their families (and some families live quite far away), it is still hard to understand why the holiday wasn't just a few days shorter so we could still have our weekend ...
Oh well, in order to make up for me working this Saturday, Ryan & Ava went to a park and then visited me at work for lunch! It was so good to see them and I think all of my coworkers enjoyed having Ava run around the cafeteria! We even found some balloons for her!
Friday, October 11, 2013
Australia Day 7 - International Fleet Review
Finally, our last post about Australia!
When we booked our trip to Sydney, we had no idea we would be there during the International Fleet Review - a grand event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Australian Navy! Quite a celebration was planned and we were right there in the middle of all the excitement! At least 20 countries sent warships or tall ships to participate - even Prince Harry came for the review (unfortunately we did not see him)!
After enjoying the morning festivities, we went back to our room to have a quick lunch and found a lovely surprise from the hotel's restaurant supervisor! He thanked us for letting his team serve us breakfast each morning and gave us a bottle of sparkling wine and Ava a Koala! What a delightful surprise it was!
Enjoying our afternoon with beer and playtime!
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| Are you sure about this?! |
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| I LOVE to run!!! |
We had a picnic for dinner as we waited for the fireworks to start! It was a magnificent show, especially with the Opera House as the backdrop! We loved how they used it as a projector to tell their story! Definitely one of the best firework displays we've ever seen!
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Australia Day 6 - Sydney Opera House
This morning we decided to take a tour of the Sydney Opera House! What a magnificent building this is! We really enjoyed hearing the history of the building and seeing the acoustically designed theatres. The grand organ in the concert hall has over 10,000 pipes - AMAZING! It would have been wonderful to see a show, but there is no way Ava would have sat through 3 hours of Romeo and Juliet or South Pacific! Therefore, we unfortunately (for Bethany, perhaps Ryan was relieved) skipped it :(
After our tour, we met a coworker's daughter for lunch! It was great talking to another Michigander and hearing about her experience being an expat in Australia! Once lunch was over, we took a ferry to Manly Beach and walked around for a couple hours. Then we took the ferry to Darling Harbour! The bars and restaurants were hopping here ... if only we didn't have Ava in tow! lol
One of the things we loved most about Sydney was all of the ferry rides. Something different after 3 months of taxis in China! Some view from our Ferry Rides:
When we asked people for a list of things to do while in Sydney, all of the things we did above (plus the zoo) were mentioned, as well as walking the Sydney Harbour Bridge! Thinking of the Brooklyn Bridge or Mackinac Bridge, we thought, "Definitely, that sounds fun!" Then we were told it cost $300! Wait a minute?! $300 to walk across a silly bridge, what gives?! Turns out, you actually climb the bridge and walk across the TOP of it! No joke - check out http://www.bridgeclimb.com/ if you're interested!
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| It's not very clear, but people are actually up there ... CRAZY! |
Needless to say, this was not something we chose to do - we cannot even use Ava as an excuse! Definitely wouldn't have done it either way! Would you do it?!
Monday, October 7, 2013
Australia Day 5 - Taronga Zoo
So every vacation is bound to have at least one day with not so perfect weather, right?! We are VERY grateful that we only had that one rainy day during our entire trip! Of course it was the day we decided to go to the Taronga Zoo in Sydney! We bought rain ponchos at the zoo and tried to cover Ava's stroller the best we could! Not only was it raining, but it was only about 66 degrees and none of us brought jackets! So we were wet and cold, but we survived! We did not take many pictures due to the weather, but here are a few we managed to snap. The zoo really was awesome. We love the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek (especially the giraffes), but this zoo was incredible - and the animals must love the rain because they were all very playful! Of course we saw the typical lions, tigers and bears (oh my), as well as elephants, chimpanzees, seals, etc.
Perhaps we loved this zoo so much because our last zoo experience (a few weeks ago in Beijing was a complete disaster)! First, Ava was not feeling well so she cried a lot. Second, it was a holiday weekend so the zoo was insane and jammed pack with Chinese people - pushing, cutting in line, pictures of Ava, etc. Third, once we finally managed to escape the crowd and find the exit (we stayed for all of 30 minutes, thank goodness it only cost $5 to get in!), the subway was shut down and several taxis refused to take us back to the hotel! We finally found a taxi and got away as fast as we could - never to go back! (To the zoo's defense, another couple we were with enjoyed several hours at the zoo and had a wonderful time - I think our patience was just shot because of lack of sleep and Ava's constant crying)!
Anyway, back to Australia, due to the rain I'm sure, the crowds were very manageable (aside from the store where we bought the ponchos) and the views of the city were spectacular! Hope you agree :) If we end up in Sydney again, we would go back (on a nice day I hope)!
Australia Day 4 - Soaking up the Sun!
For our last day in Port Douglas, we decided to enjoy the resort and lay by the pool until we had to leave for our flight to Sydney. We stayed in such a beautiful resort, it was easy to sit back and relax! First of all, if any of you are considering Australia, Port Douglas is a must-see! It is a great spot to see the Great Barrier Reef or go to the Daintree Rain Forest! We would definitely recommend the Sheraton in Port Douglas for anyone that enjoys sitting by the pool or ocean and soaking up some rays! Plus, it was only about a 20 minute walk to downtown (or you can take the shuttle which costs $9 AUD
roundtrip, per person - a little expensive in our opinion)! If you are one that doesn't like to hang out in a hotel (sitting by the pool/ocean), then I would probably stay somewhere closer to downtown. Either way, I do not think you can go wrong in this city!
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| Our Resort - 320 acres of recreational fun! |
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| Walking to Breakfast |
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| 4 Mile Beach |
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| 4 Mile Beach |
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| Rex Look-Out |
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Australia Day 3 - Great Barrier Reef!
This morning we took a boat ride to the Low Isles - 2 islands on the Great Barrier Reef. We chose to go to the Inner Reef to save time (because of Ava). It was already a 7.5 roundtrip excursion, and going to the Outer Reef would have added approximately 2 more hours. Since we had Ava and knew that snorkling wasn't really going to be an option, at least for us to enjoy together, we opted for the glass bottom boat and then enjoyed the island! We did not see as many fish as we thought we would, but we did manage to see a turtle, some small sharks and a few tropical fish. We were surprised by the lack of color (we were expecting a scene from Finding Nemo). The guide did mention that the Outer Reef has more color - so maybe it would have been worth the extra 2 hours? Not sure ...   |
| Do you see the turtle? |
Either way, we really enjoyed the day and still got to see and learn about the Great Barrier Reef! Plus, we met a lovely couple from Florida! They were great with Ava and even offered to babysit so we could snorkel --- we decided to hang out with Ava and enjoy family time instead.
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| Loving the water! |
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| "Dadda, fish!" |
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| And the sand! |
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| The Island where we spent our afternoon |
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