The Zodiac Lives!

The day finally came: the day Milan can wear his Zodiac costume all day, the costume we have been working on for weeks! Today was fake-Halloween day! Since we are in China and there is no neighborhood trick-or-treating, this is as Halloween-y as we get around here. We started the celebration on Thursday by carving some pumpkins.


I only encouraged the vegetable sellers at the market when I bought these pumpkins this week - they still remember me from last October when I came and bought 4 pumpkins. Every week since then someone in the market has tried to sell me pumpkins. I will enjoy another year of pumpkin pushing, as the lady who loooooves pumpkins.

But back to more important things: The Zodiac costume! If you need some background reading on Zodiacs, please see my post last month on Milan's imaginary animal, a kind of antelope-like dinosaur that eats meat and is, of course, yellow with white spots. We found a yellow sweatshirt a couple weeks ago and that was the beginning of the Zodiac costume.

Milan at his classroom Halloween party

The white spots were stragegically placed to cover some printed pictures and words on the shirt. The pants are hand-dyed, thanks to the expert guidance of my fabric-dying friend and neighbor, Lauren. He actually has two pairs of yellow-dyed pants on, he loved them both so much he couldn't choose just one pair.

Milan informed me a few days ago that Zodiacs have pink tails.


Yesterday he tried to tell me that Zodiacs also have wings but I told him, no, Zodiacs do NOT have wings. Sorry. This costume is done! I am not adding wings!

I had to cover up a print on the front pocket so I decided to give people some clue about his costume. I couldn't help including a not-so-subtle allergy message:

One curious thing you should know about Zodiacs: when given an overload of sugar and then deprived of their usual mid-day nap, they are prone to narcolepsy, especially in the middle of school assemblies:

3:01pm Sorting candy before the school assembly

3:21pm completely zonked

Happy Halloween!
More pictures up on Flickr.

Room with a View

Just before the summer break in June we had to move to a new apartment. It was a pain, but we did it with the help of our friends whose apartment we moved into - they made it incredibly easy for us (thanks guys!). We were able to unpack everything and settle in before we left for the summer vacation.

I am finally getting used to the new place. Although it is the exact same layout as our last apartment, it is the mirror image, so not only are all of the rooms flipped, all the light switches are on the opposite side of the doors and the flow of washing dishes in the sink is backwards. But I am used to all that now and actually like this apartment more. We moved from the first floor to the sixth, so the added benefit is the view!

This was our view last year:

From the study window, during the one dusting of snow that we had in March

And here is our new view!

And this!

The neon lights of RT Mart (grocery store) in the distance

And this! We are right next door to Tim's school, and I can look into his classroom window if I stand in the bathtub:

The red buildings in the foreground are school. The white building on the left is where Milan's classroom is.

When I sit on the sofa or in the study I can see this view. Notice the two knobs on top of the highest peak - that's where we went on that bike ride in May, which makes it that much more satisfying.

And then there are days, like the last four days, that look like this:

Rain and fog

Good thing I have lots of pictures to remember what the mountains look like.

Mid-Autumn Visitors

It is Mid-Autumn Festival and National Holiday vacation time here in China. Which means perfect weather, fragrant flowers, and visitors from Colorado! Tim's mom, Carol, and her husband Joe made the trip to China, spending four days in Beijing and four days here in Beilun. They went on a tour of the major sights in Beijing, and we did our best to provide all the tour-guide services here in Ningbo-Beilun.

Carol, Fan Qin (statue), Tim, Sarah and Milan at the Tian Yi Pavillion

Every time I walk outside for the past two weeks this amazing fragrance fills my nose. Combined with the perfect cool weather, it has made a nice holiday week. (Sweet Osmanthus, 桂花 guìhuā, Osmanthus fragrans). We also discovered that this flower is in one of our favorite green teas - no wonder we love the smell so much!

In case you are considering a guided tour of the Ningbo area with the Sarah-Tim-Milan Tour Company (hint hint), here are some of the highlights you can expect:

We started with a trip to the local fruit and vegetable market and lunch at the noodle shop, followed by dinner at our favorite Sichuan restaurant. Most of the daily activities centered around food, where to eat, and when!

We made two trips into Ningbo, first to the Jiangbei Catholic Church (江北) in the Lao Waitan neighborhood, lunch at the Italian restaurant, and a stroll through the beautiful Tian Yi Pavillion Library and Gardens.

Tim, Milan, Carol and Joe at Tian Yi Pavillion

The second Ningbo day was to the Gu Luo shopping area (Pearls! Swords!) and lunch at the Lake House. We were excited to take them to all of our favorite places, finally have a chance to show off all the hard work we have done scoping out places in Beilun and Ningbo and using our Chinese! In-between Ningbo days we went to a Buddhist temple outside Beilun (Āyùwáng Temple 阿育王寺) and a visit to Milan's babysitter's house for an amazing dinner with her family.

Āyùwáng Temple Pagoda

Dinner at Milan's Ayi's house (Ayi is the lady sitting next to Tim at the back of the table)

We finished off the tour with a pot-luck dinner at our house with teacher friends from school. After a busy week of touring, walking, eating, and visiting, I'm sure Carol and Joe are relieved to get on the plane for 14 hours to relax! I hope we didn't wear them out too much, and I hope they had a nice visit to our little corner of China! Many more pictures on Flickr.