Cooking and Gardening

Everyone in the world knows that Chinese are good at cooking. Chinese not only cook super delicious food, but also combine their arts with the food. Our meeting with relatives, friends and classmates means diner after diner and banquet after banquet. I’ve gained five pounds in a month!

China has several cooking styles. In Dongying most of the dishes belong to “Lu Style” that was originated in Shandong province.

My dad has some fruit trees in his yard, and I wish I could grow them Kuwait.

The hills and the birds were made of arrow roots and carrots

Sushi dish

Fish fried like swallows

Scallops

Dad's fig tree

Dad’s pomegranate tree

Baby red pomegranate

White pomegranate flower

Red pomegranate flower

Lotus Pond

We’ve been traveling in China for a month from Beijing to Dongying, Weihai, Qingdao, Yangzhou, Suzhou and back to Beijing (see maps below). Phew! The boys were sick several times (fever, cough, allergies and etc.), and my elder son even went to an emergency once in a middle of the night. However we are back to our home in Kuwait safe and sound. We had a SUPER trip and I am happy to share the pictures with you! Enjoy!

The flight from Dubai to Beijing was eight hours. Our friend’s driver from Beijing drove us to Dongying the next day where the China Petroleum University and China’s second largest oil field is located. Also China's second largest river, Yellow River, runs into Yellow Sea from here.  I was raised in this campus and lived here for seventeen years. Dongying is about 500 km southeast of Beijing and the ride was four hours on the highways (see dark purple line on the second map). In the past five years, China has constructed thousands of miles and miles of highways and high speed railways. Travelling became more convenient.

One cool morning after an overnight rain, I walked to the lotus pond that is five minutes’ walk from dad’s apartment. I was so joyful to see the rain drops on the huge lotus flowers and leaves!  I like the weeping willow by the pond too.

Map of China

Places (red dots) we visited on this trip

Beijing -> (drive) Dongying -> (bus) Weihai -> (bus) Qingdao -> (regular train 120km/hr) Yangzhou -> (fast train 200km/hr) Suzhou -> (high-speed train 336km/hr) Yangzhou -> (overnight express train) Beijing

No Checked-in

When we went to an orphanage in China in March this year, we had troubles with our checked-in luggage not at the airport, but at the subway satiations in Beijing. There are no escalators at most of the stations! You would hate your luggage when you look up the never ending stairs!

ExploreMan has decided that four carry-on luggage and four backpacks should be sufficient for our upcoming four weeks family traveling in China. He was graceful enough to let me put two extra dress skirts in his bag! Our new friends in Kuwait shook their heads last night at the board game gathering and would like to know how we were going to survive in China! Well, hopefully we do not have to end up like real “Survivors”.  We will travel to six places in China by cars, trains, long distance buses and boats, so literally we will live in our suitcases, no, backpacks.

Well, there are no Goggles, Facebook and blogspots in China, so you will enjoy the peace and quietness for four solid weeks, my friends! Will post pictures and stories after we come back to Kuwait.

Good bye and have a super summer.

Less is More

We were invited to the game gathering again last Friday afternoon. We would’ve gone for hiking, camping or biking in the Rocky Mountains if we were in Calgary. We have less activity options here in Kuwait. Excited, I took out the “Lazy Daisy Cake” recipe my long time friend sent to me and started the baking therapy. Knowing that this is the very first time I bake a cake, Doudou comforted me, “Mom, if the cake turns out bad, don’t get discouraged. This is very common.” When I was in Calgary, I had too many things to do and I never take time to bake. Baking became a task too. Now I have less work and more time! How thankful I am!

We arrived at D&M’s villa at 2:30 pm. Their villa was so beautifully decorated with all kinds of art work from all over the world they’ve traveled. What an amazing multi-culture museum! Later I knew that D is a freelance movie director. No wonder! We chatted until all the five couples and four teenage kids have arrived. We played three board games till 8:30 pm! When we were in Calgary, we’ve been always packed with many activities and never had enough time to sit down for board games. Now we can’t get out to the humid heat and have more time, we love the close friendships. Isn’t that a wonderful thing that God has revealed to us?

One of the neat things I found in D&M’s villa is the unique bed or couch (see the picture) that they bought in Indonesia. That reminded me my father in-law’s bed in southern China.

Another interesting thing I found is that playing board games tells one’s personality and characteristics very well. Also his /her profession influences the skills too.

We had a various snacks in the middle, and everyone likes my lazy daisy cake, but unfortunately I forgot to take a photo for it! Ah, that must be a success then!

I am truly thankful for these new friends I have in Kuwait. Because we are new, they have given us lots of advices. Thank you Lord for answering my prayers.

Lazy Morning

ExploreMan and I had a morning walk last Friday on the beach five minutes away from our home. It was 9:30 am and it was already 45 degree. The sky was clean and blue and the water was light green and calm; I put on sun block cream and sun glasses. A guy was sitting by the water sun tanning; and two others were fishing with simple strings. We only stayed for fifteen minutes before we felt the burning air penetrating through our clothing. September would be nice…

Friends

Last Saturday afternoon our family was invited to a board game gathering in a Canadian expat’s home. After we parked our car outside the apartment, I was totally stunned by the architecture of the apartment building! The hallways were full of framed black and white pictures of Kuwait and antique decorations. I could tell that rich culture and history were imbedded into each inch of the architect and I had sudden rush of desire to learn all about these! Don't you want to live in this apartment? I do.

There were thirteen of us playing two kinds of board games. It was such a nice afternoon just being with new friends, chatting, playing games, laughing and nibbling snacks. I’ve never played board games with friends in Canada, as we were busy with all kinds of outdoor activities. Isn’t this nice to sit and be with your friends? I love it!

Endurance Training

July 21st, 2010

The boys and I decided to take the bus to Fahaheel. There were numerous buses stopping in front of our apartment building, but we were still not sure about the schedule and route of the buses. “Fine, we’ll take it no matter what,” I said.

Having packed two bottles of water into our backpack, we got out at 10:00 am when the heat was still comfortable. In ten minutes, we got on bus 106. The ticket cost 200 fils (72 cents) per person, and Niuniu (my younger son) was considered as a child (he was taller than me) and the bus fare was free for him. Women sit in the front part of the bus and men sit at the back – that was the rule I heard. The bus driver did not speak good English, so it took a while for him to know where exactly we wanted to get off. Another lady sitting at the front smiled to me and insured us that we were on the right bus. Thirty minutes later the bus arrived at Fahaheel terminal after zigzagging through Abu Halifa and Mangaf. We crossed the road into Al Manshar Mall! Success! First time taking the bus without relying on ExploreMan! We went to the music instrument store and bought a guitar stand for Doudou (my elder son).

At noon, we headed out to the bus station we arrived from. A nice Egyptian guy told us with his not-so-good English to take 102 (not 102) or 999 or 106 to go back to Mahboula. Meanwhile there were lots of taxis and truck taxis stopping to ask if we wanted to take a ride. We were determined to take bus, so we let them go. Finally the bus 106 driver told us we should go to the terminal on the other side of the street. Fifteen minutes passed and we were thirsty under the blazing sun. After ensuring everyone had drunk some water, we walked another five minutes to get to the bus stop. It felt like FIFTY minutes to us. Doudou said, “This is endurance training!” after Niuniu’s face turned hot red and he started to whine. The taxi was only 1KD to get to our home, but we wanted to the experience the bus again. On the way to the bus stop, we passed the stores that poured out the cold air from the doors, I started to encourage Niuniu that he will be rewarded with a scoop of ice-cream. I was imagining it too!

Bus 999 (sea side) has Chinese and English instruction signs everywhere. What a small world! It took only twenty minutes to get to our apartment! A beautiful Pilipino girl (my guessing) asked me where we wanted to get off; and she translated my answer into Arabic to the driver. How nice she was!

What a nice adventure! We love the clean and air-conditioned bus system in Kuwait.

From bus stop to the mall

Nice souvenir shop in Al Manshar Mall

How valuable these water fountains are! They may save your lives.

Bus terminal in Fahaheel

Bus 999 (made in China 宇通客车)

Cute little thing found in our basement garage (2 inches long)

Honey Moon Mode

My new friend and upper floor neighbour Dive-Cowgirl (DiveCG) had a day off and did not teach diving yesterday. She called me over to her home in the morning for coffee and showed her home the first time to me. Expats often show their all rooms of their homes each other to exchange ideas of decorating and storage. Privacy is a new definition and it’s much smaller scale compare to North America.

Later DiveCG suggested us to go out for coffee with her long time friend. I was so excited as this would be the first trip with my own girlfriends here in Kuwait. Three of us went to the Al Marina Mall (never been there before) and sat in the Starbucks by the sea for almost three hours talking about everything – Calgary, Montreal, five essentials to convert to Muslims, niqab, hijab, abaya, traveling, Beijing, orphanage, Sypris, cruise, schools, Christian evangelism, vacation, “white power vs. reverse white power”, friendship, work, parenting, accent, language, Kuwaiti home, Muslim certificates and etc. . Both of them have been expats for more than ten years, so they were giving me many advices and explanations to my questions. I truly thank Lord to know these two kind Canadian women (one is Catholic and one is a Muslim) in Kuwait. DiveCG’s friend actually had invited our family over to her home for a game afternoon even before meeting me! How nice! She asked me if I liked Kuwait; I answered without a hesitation, “I love everything here!” The two ladies exchanged with their eyes, “She is in a honey moon mode.”

Fascinated with the decorations of the malls, palm trees and yachts by the harbour, steam fans in the court yard of Starbucks, plus-15 (only Calgarians know this) type tunnels, I kept on taking pictures here and there and expressed myself with lots of “Ahs” and “Ohs”; the two ladies looked each other, “She is still in a honey mood.”

Hearing that, I started to worry, “So what would happen after the honey moon? I do not see there is an end to it…” DiveCG told me that there are three groups of expats in general – one group brought their problems and negative attitudes to overseas; and they see problems all the time, hate to be expats and complain constantly. This group coffees every morning only with Expats. The second group settles into the society, lives among the locals and leads a normal life like the locals. The third group is the adventurous group that is always positive and fascinated with new things in overseas. They make friends with locals and enjoy all the challenges and people. I can tell that DiveCG is the third type and her friend is the second type.

On the way back, I even self taught my first two Arabic words by reading the signs. They are “block” (a sleeping 6 with a dot on top) and “street” (a sleeping 3 with its long tail on the left side and 3 dots on top). Wow, that is so interesting! Three of us want to take serious Arabic lessons together after the summer holidays.

When we window shopped around the mall, I always convert price in Kuwait Dinar into Canadian dollar, they laughed, “She is a newbie and still in a homey moon mode”

Dear Lord, I pray that this honey moon mode lasts for ten years.

Nice apartment building

Plus 15 from the mall to the food court

Marina by the mall

Marina by Starbucks

Cold steam fan in the court yard of Starbucks

Cute Arabic scripts on the entrance door of Starbucks

There is no honey and real cream (or half and half) in the store, although the staffs are extremely friendly. Regular brewed coffee (tall) is 1.5 KD a cup ($5 CAN. In Calgary it is only $1.60 for tall) and the varieties are limited. Sorry I am not trying to complain. Just a comparison.