Tenth Anniversary

On the day we were married, Brandon's uncle Richard said he bet we would divorce within two years. I'm not sure if he was joking or not, but either way I am glad we proved him wrong and were able to celebrate our tenth anniversary.
On our actual anniversary I surprised Brandon with some Reese's peanut butter cups and Dr. Pepper. These are nearly impossible to find in China, so it was a nice surprise. Brandon surprised me with flowers after work.
We celebrated our family together with the kids and went to dinner at a Muslim restaurant by our house, which had been recommended by Brandon's co-worker. The food was ok, and we had a nice time as a family until a big vermin ran by our table and into a glass food case. There has been much discussion in our family on whether it was a rat or mouse. Brandon and the kids all said the tail wasn't big enough to be a rat, either way it was disgusting and anyone who knows me, knows that I am deathly afraid of mice. I was trying to not freak out and had to take deep breaths but we got out of there as fast as we could.
On Friday night Brandon arranged for a babysitter and he and I went to the Tang Dynasty, Xi'an dinner and theater. It was a fun night out.
During dinner we enjoyed traditional Chinese music. Dinner consisted of a seven course meal: the first course was salad, hash browns and chicken. Second course consisted of a black mushroom consomme, for the third course we had delicious shrimp and  honey cashew nuts. Fourth course was a tender beef and rice dish and fifth course was a cold orange soup. The sixth course was a platter of Chinese desserts. I'm not into green bean and red bean pastries but Brandon liked it. the Seventh course was coffee and tea.
After dinner was served the dancing and music performance started. The dance segment was spectacular. They did four dances: a white ramie cloth costume dance. This is the dancing where the women have long sleeves and they spin the sleeves around in cool designs. They next did a dance that represented the concubines taking a bath, then there was a rainbow costume dance and warrior dance. The warrior dance consisted of a lot of acrobatics. While the people danced, there was an orchestra playing.
The next portion was primarily instrumental. They played a happy spring song and a spring orioles song. The orioles song was played using an instrument that looked like the flute Peter Pan plays. The notes it makes sound exactly like the orioles bird. According to legend, an emperor ascended the the throne and a flock of orioles flew overhead during his coronation. To remember this momentous good omen, the emperor had this song written and performed.
The Tang Dynasty lasted from 618 AD to 907 AD and is distinguished as the post prosperous and progressive era in China's history. The performance really captured the grandeur of this time period and was definitely worth the $83 a person price.

                                                White Ramie Cloth Costume dance

The Tang Emperor graced us with his 

presence 

Xi'an Expo Park

We spent our Saturday at the Xi'an Expo Park. It was unbelievably huge and beautiful. The park includes Guangyan Lake, which was an important ancient Chinese port. In total, the park is about two square miles. It's so big that we paid about $5 a person and rented a golf cart to take us around the park.
The park included a European garden, a bronze garden, traditional Chinese gardens, a modern garden and gardens reminiscent of Thailand and the Philippines.
We saw a lot of couples taking wedding photos at the park, and there were a lot of photography businesses located in the European section.
My kids really liked the maze garden and "the garden of 10,000 bridges" it was a path surrounded by bamboo and it periodically had beautiful red bridges that took you above the tree line. It was a beautiful view, but I almost passed out walking up those stairs!
The park also included some carnival rides. We went on the Ferris Wheel and the girls and I went on a roller coaster. Brandon's back is still bothering him so he had to sit that one out. Middle daughter loved both of the rides and laughed throughout the roller coaster. Oldest daughter had her eyes closed the whole time and told me it was horrible.

Candy Land

Because I am a true blue American I need my sugar fix and I've found a lot of good options. Xi'an has some great candy to buy off the street.

                                                          Cotton Candy in the shape of a flower.
                                                          Youtube how it's made. It's amazing
                                                          to watch. The vendors are artisans.

                                                      Peanut and Sesame Candy. They pound
                                                       the peanuts, then turn it. This process is
                                                       repeated many times. The candy has a
                                                       dry texture but is good.
                                 

Homemade candy cane type candy. The

metal counter top is heated to allow 

the workers to pull and cut the candy. 

These are called 

Fruitips. They

are made out of a 

fruit called 

black currant. They

are addicting!

Oreos come individually wrapped, are a 

soft cookie with frosting and are missing

the cream filling.

法门寺 Famen Temple

We took a day trip to the Famen Temple which was just outside of Xi'an, China. This Buddhist temple has 1, 700 years of history! It is most famous for housing the finger bone of the Sajyamuni Buddha, and is considered a holy Buddhist pilgrimage site for that reason. A world conference of Buddhism was held at the Famen Temple
The temple was built during the Easter Han Dynasty (25-220 BC). The temple was at its peak during the Sui and Tang dynasties when it was an imperial temple.
The temple was rundown  until 1987 when the government fixed it up and built many new statues and the cool futuristic gold building that houses a huge Buddha. During rebuilding of the Famen temple relics such as a tea set from the Tang dynasty were found and are now on display.

Papparrazzi

I always wondered what it would be like to have swarms of people taking my picture, or asking to give me a hug or hand shake. That is my life now. Wherever we go, my kids are the talk of the town. We are constantly stared at, pointed at, said hello to, touched and asked for pictures.
Oldest child loved the attention at first. She said she felt famous. Now she will politely let people take pictures. She had a school mate ask if she could touch her hair. Oldest child replied only if she could touch the other girls hair. She said the Korean girls hair is more corse, while hers is more fine. When I trimmed her hair this week she wanted to save it in a bag to give to"a lucky Chinese person". Thinking this was weird, I threw the hair away.
Child #2 will stand still for pictures but is usually scowling. She will kick and scream when they try to pick her up.
Child #3 will usually wave at people and will smile for pictures.
Brandon has told me people say they want to hug my kids, this has never happened until this week. The girls and I were walking to the market and an old man approached us with his arms open and totally went in for a hug. The kids eyes were as big as 50 cent pieces and they started to back away so I put myself in between them and the man, gave him an awkward hug and talked to him for a minute.
If WeChat ever gets facial recognition, I think we are going to get hundreds of notifications of being tagged in photos. These are a few pictures I snapped of people taking pictures of my kids or gawking at my kids.

                                                              I think this picture is so tender. Both girls

had huge smiles on their faces, like old

friends reuniting. 

Toilets

  

The toilets are definitely different here! This is a typical "squatter toilet". You stand above it, squat and do your business. Some toilets are flush-able,  others are not. This bathroom is actually pretty clean.

After you use the bathroom, you put your toilet paper in a waste basket which is beside the toilet. Toilet paper is not provided so we carry little packages of Kleenex in our back packs. I don't trust the water here, so we always use hand sanitizer after we're done. 

My kids were really freaked out when they first saw the toilets, but they've gotten over it, so we've seen our share of squatters.

Dance Party

The Chinese love to dance. Every morning the park is full of different  groups of people dancing. Whether dancing with fans, as a couple or doing what I call ballet Zumba, there is something for everyone.
Each evening, hundreds of people stand in lines and do coordinated dances. People like to wear white gloves while doing this dance.
I've attached links to my Youtube channel so you can watch the different types of dancing.

Couple Dancing

Chinese Fan dancing

Chanting.

I call this ballet Zumba

Line dancing

Umbrella and fan dancing