Down Time

When we interns and Sara are not working on the weekends (or last Monday for the Dragon Boat Festival here in China) we come up with lots of fun things to do to relax, spend time together, and experience more of China's amazing culture. Here's the photo-by-photo tour of what we've done so far!

Puzzle-mania!! We've done puzzles several of the nights I've been here so far!

Our masterpiece

Chinese Walmarts are SO cool! :) The one in Langfang has this escalatory-thingy that grabs hold of your cart wheels and takes it and you up to the second floor. The first floor is full of food items and the second has everything else. :) I've been here twice since arriving, the most recent of which was yesterday with Irene, Philemon, and Sara. We got a bunch of dinner supplies and snacks as well as hot Baozi to eat (rolls stuffed with pork and cabbage or chives). I love wandering the aisles looking for new Chinese foods to try! :)

Last Saturday while Irene and Philemon and the other visiting groups were touring the Great Wall (which I will see later!), Sara and I went shopping in the university district of Langfang. This is us stopping for snacks at a little restaurant we passed by...pop in glass bottles, dumplings, SPICY potatoes and clear noodles, and regular noodles that Sara had to add spicy sauce to (Remember she's from Sichuan). :)

A Chinese mall...very different from ours! There were tons of a little tiny square stores that sold one of each item, not like the mega-warehouse stores we have back home where you can get each item in a bajillion colors and styles. The shops were all really cute, though, and I liked looking at all the patterns and textures and imaging that something fit me. :)











A Chinese phenomenon...matching shirts for couples! :) I love the We Just Married one...the guy wears the shirt on the left and the girl the other one. :)

Blueberry and cherry blizzards at DQ (I love Sara because she loves to EAT like me!! Even though she's like half my size and a size zero and I'm...well...we won't go there...) :)



An interesting Chrlst1*an bookstore we found in Langfang. I was so excited to see that, even though they can't sell a lot openly here there is still a place where people can find G0d's W0rd engraved into jewelry and printed on cards. He is building H1s ch*rch in every corner of the world!!



Winsome gave Sara (and some of the boys from a visiting highschool team) cornrows!! She had to use a lot of "hair mayonaisse" to get Sara's silky Asian hair to hold tight into braids, but it looked so cute at the end!

On the Dragon Boat holiday we all "celebrated" :) by going out for real Chinese massages (they are known for them here!). It felt SO wonderful and only cost us 98 yuan, the equivalent of about 13-14 US dollars. Schweet! :)

My masseur :)

Aaaah..... :)

Foot soak!

The area around the massage parlor

Happy clients! :)