Poll Results: Culinary Delights Part II

And the answer is: DOG MEAT AND CREAM CHEESE



What did you say?
43% A Beijing Roast Duck and Sliced Cheese (While I do like it, you have to go to a fairly nice restaurant to get Beijing Roast Duck, and it's not served with sliced cheese.)
14%PB&J (I was just kidding. Peanut butter is not a delicacy here. We have Skippy brand with the label in characters!)
29%Dog Meat and cream cheese - GOOD GUESSING
7%Fresh fish I watched them kill although that would be an option here.
7%Chicken feet and mayo (This is likely but not the right answer. Chicken feet are extremely popular here. They like them many different ways including fresh and pickled. The chicken feet and chicken head are the most expensive parts at the grocery store. Did you know America exports a lot of chicken feet overseas? The good news for me: breast meat is cheap because it's "boring")

We went with some friends to a local dog meat restaurant. We ordered dog soup, fried dog with peppers and steamed dog. The steamed dog was my favorite although it was all good. Dog meat actually tastes quite a bit like dark turkey meat. The flavor is great! The cream cheese on my leftover sandwich was an "American" innovation because I like cream cheese and I had just made my monthly trip to a store that has imports so I could buy some.

The dog soup is in the bowl with the liquid and the fried dog with peppers are on the white plate towards the back. Below is a close up of the steamed dog. YUM!!!

Assimilation

One of our favorite things about living overseas, is experiencing the cultural differences. (This is true most of the time anyway; sometimes if we come at them from the wrong perspective, we can get a little annoyed.) Most parents here believe that diapers (no matter how frequently changed) are bad for a baby's bottom. Therefore, the kids run around in split pants and do their business wherever they happen to be. I think Archie got our hardwood floors wet twice during the shoot. Although he was embarrassed at first and wouldn't look at the camera :) he turned around and smiled for me after awhile.
When Archie is not posing for pictures, he enjoys such activities as playing with his Olympic Mascot doll, Fuwa Nini.

If you haven't voted in the Culinary Delights poll yet, you only have a few more days. I'll post the correct answer June 30.

Culinary Delights: Part II

OK, here we are! Stop 2 on our Culinary Delights tour. (Check out Stop 1 here.) What's for lunch? Take the poll below. Next week, I'll post the correct answer. (I'll try to post some cute pictures of Archie in the meantime.)

What kind of sandwich am I eating?
	Beijing roast duck with sliced cheese
	Peanut butter and jelly (a real luxury here)
	Dog meat and cream cheese
	Fresh fish that I watched them kill
	Chicken feet and mayo
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Quality Issues

During the first few weeks we were overseas, we went through two mops, one broom and dustpan, a complete silverware set, two vegetable peelers and about a million other home gadgets that were made with exceedingly poor quality. Since then, we've learned some exceedingly helpful tips for shopping in Asia. Number One: Don't buy the cheapest thing you see even if it is only $0.30 at the local $0.30 store - you'll regret it! While in Thailand in February, Hunter and I purchased Archie his first stroller. We figured because we were in a nice department store, we could forgo our number one rule. Oops!

Poor Archie, he was sitting in it on Saturday and it just collapsed in about three places! (He got a surprised look on his face but wasn't hurt at all - no worries!)

Off we set for the local baby store and purchased a Combi brand stroller. I don't know if Combi is really the best brand on the planet, but it sure seems like it after the last stroller. (I did a Google search and couldn't even find the brand name on Stroller #1!) Archie loves the footrest because he strains forward as hard as he can in the harness, leans over the bar, and pushes up with his feet to ride in a standing position. I love the umbrella shade to protect his skin from the sun and the ease with which I can collapse it. Daddy loves it because it has BIG wheels (that hopefully won't break on the rough ground).

When Archie is not riding around in his stroller, he likes to ride on Daddy's shoulders :)

The Real Deal

As promised, here are the best pics from my first outdoor photo shoot of the season.

Photo Shoot Outtakes

I LOVE summertime! I know it'll soon be 80 or 90 all the time in my house because of our rather pathetic room air conditioner that we don't usually even bother running, but for now I don't care. It's staying in the 70s and I'm loving being able to dash outside without a coat! I'm loving being able to take outside pictures of Archie even more!!! During my recent photo shoot, I got some pretty cute pictures, but I wanted to share my funny "outtakes" with you first!

Who's Number One?

Hunter wanted me to compose his thoughts into a little story about this one. Remember how we taught our Computer Baby about the value of hard work? We've decided now that computer skills aren't enough. I think Archie's waiting for his number to be called for a farm job! "Please, please, Boss, pick me today!"

This is what happens to Archie after too many pictures. Don't worry, he recovered quickly!

The real pictures to come soon - Promise!

My wardrobe after pregnancy

The other day I realized my blogs are pretty much always about Archie, and I’m ok with that. However, I do occasionally have thoughts other than of my child and work so I thought I’d share a few of them. Summer has FINALLY arrived! I’ve been saying that for awhile meaning you don’t have to wear 500 layers to step outside your door, but now it’s REALLY here – short sleeves, summer skirts and everything! So, it was time for me to unpack my closet. WOW!!! I found a new wardrobe (kind of)! All my favorite summer clothes from two years ago that I couldn’t wear last year because I was pregnant! It’s like shopping without spending any money! Plus, I even have a few new tops my mother and mother-in-law sent.

In the picture, I’m sporting my favorite pink pants from before pregnancy, the new shirt my mom sent and my favorite Virginia Tech hat. Of course, I don’t have that much fun making a picture of just me so I posed with the real star who seems to always be modeling something new as fast as he is growing!

It's a day for smiles!!!

Last Wednesday was a really great day! Every few minutes, Archie was putting a smile on my face with his silly antics and baby cuteness.

While I was doing morning chores, he decided to help me with laundry by reaching into Daddy's closet (I admit I left the door open), removing the sock basket, and sorting the socks for me (aka dumping them on the floor).


Around lunch time, I took him out to visit a friend. He fell asleep in his stroller on the way back so we carried him up the four flights of stairs to our apartment like he was and let him continue his nap undisturbed.

Me-maw and Papa sent Daddy a present for his first Father's Day. I think Archie gave Daddy his own present when he - while wearing his matching Virginia Tech hat - whispered, "Daddy, I'm already a Hokie!"



I couldn't resist one more shot of cuteness as Daddy carried him up the stairs at the end of the day.

A Day at the Park

Recently, I went with some friends to our local botanical gardens (or plant zoo as we fondly call it). I had a blast although I wasn't successful in accomplishing one of my primary objectives: getting great photos of Archie. He just wasn't in the mood. Here's the best shot I snapped

I mean, why would you want to cooperate for photos when you could just stare at your feet?

This shot is pretty cute, too. Someone gave him a flower, which he loved! I just had to make sure he didn't eat it!

One of the hilarious things about the gardens is watching people take photos. People here use their cell phones to take pictures of everything. Going with my friends can be an exercise in patience when they snap an individual shot of EVERY different color flower they see! I snapped a shot of two folks photographing themselves. Around here, they don't "Say Cheese." They "Say Eggplant!"

There were also some fun things to do. I didn't try out the mini roller coaster, though.

Whoa! These bridges are crazy. They're actually quite difficult to cross to (especially the one with the swings in the second picture). If no one is behind you, the metal can bang into your feet and be painful! I REALLY didn't want to fall in because I didn't have a change of clothes and I had forgotten to take my cell phone out of my pocket. Thankfully, I didn't!


Kids loved the fishing pond, and I was pretty amused watching them catch mini goldfish. Don't think I can fry those for dinner!

Culinary Delights: Part I

One thing I love about living in Asia: the food! Prepare your palate because I will be leading us through a series on the culinary delights available here. Because some of the variety proves a bit shocking for the typical Western taste bud, I thought I'd start with something fairly tame: fruit! I love the varieties of fruit around here, and most of it is SO cheap compared to America. (Of course, in the tropical climate of my favorite place to vacation - Thailand - it's better, more varied and cheaper still!)

Shots from our local market where I buy fruits and veggies on the top floor. I think the fruit vendor was kind of honored when I told her I wanted to take pictures of her fruit to share with my friends and family in America. On the far left are delicious mangoes and a little to the right are some leeches wrapped in plastic. Archie loves the Elizabeth Melon in the basket at the top.

This is a mountain bamboo fruit. As far as I can tell, it has nothing to do with bamboo, though. It's really sweet and really good. The white part is for eating, the rest is skin and shell.

This gui yuan is a winter fruit. In my hand is from left to right is the fruit meat, the seed and the skin. It tastes like a grape only sweeter. Although it's trouble separating the fruit from the skin and seed, it's worth it!

IVs: The answer for everything!

When your nose starts running and the sneezing won't stop, what do you reach for first? The pillow, a glass of orange juice, Tylenol, an IV??? Here, they treat EVERYTHING with IVs from the common cold to diseases we would actually treat with an IV in America. Recently, Hunter had a cyst get infected. The doctor began a week of IV treatments to reduce the infection. They coupled that with a red light laser treatment that docs don't use in America. (Makes you feel comforted, right?) When a week later the cyst was larger, redder, and more painful, it was time to take action. A few days ago, Hunter had it lanced and is now going to the hospital every few days to have the dressing changed. Thankfully, he can get the IV from the nurse at our middle school, which saves a bundle of time from having to go into town to the hospital everyday. More often than not, Hunt's not the only one in the school clinic on an IV. They really like to treat colds with an IV of brown Chinese medicine that's popular throughout Asia. Does it work? Hmmm...Some people are believers, but I must admit I'm still a skeptic and won't be rushing in for one the next time I sniffle.

The front of the hospital where Hunter goes for treatment

Pictures from inside the school clinic