Random Pictures

Here, as the title indicates, are a few random pictures. We haven't been taking a lot of photos lately, but I promise to take more. Today I carried the camera around in my pocket all day, taking random photos. If I take more photos, I promise that I will do more blog entries. Here are Dan and Evelyn one morning before getting ready for the day. Evelyn, the shoe queen, was modeling a pair of Jane's high heels. Here is a picture of Dan and Evelyn in the morning. It is a pretty dark picture, but in the background you can see our Christmas tree. I will take some more picture of our apartment soon, with better light, to do an entire blog tour. In front is Dan, wearing Jiu Jie's bike helmet. She has a motorized scooter, like many other people. In this colder weather, people cover up a little more, and so Jiu Jie wears the helmet. I have also noticed that a lot of people put their coats on backwards. I see this all the time, and I have no idea why the do this rather than zip the coat up.

Here is Etain, eating her breakfast with the helmet on.

Here is Evelyn, again showing off her banana in the same pose that she did when we were in Qingdao. Gakie sent her this wool hat. As soon as she put it on, Dan said that she looked like my sister Kathleen. I don't know if it is because she actually looks like her, or if it is just because she was wearing a wool hat.

Here is another picture that I took that came out poorly. It is a picture of my AS level class, which is like my junior level class. The class is full of Chinese, Thai and Korean students. Out of 16 students, 1 is Christian. Even though there is a Christmas tree, he had nothing to do with it. Christmas here has nothing to do with religion (as most are concerned). It is only a holiday when Santa comes and gives gifts.

Here is my lunch at school. It is one of the better lunches that they offer. The orange is dessert. A piece of fruit is a good, traditional way to finish off the meal. To the right of the orange are rice noodles with carrot and chicken (I think?) slivers, soaked in oil and soy sauce. To the right of the noodles are vegetables. The vegetables are like spinach leaves, or collared greens. If you order vegetables at a restaurant, this is what you get. Again, they are soaked in oil. In front of the orange is a chicken leg. It is a very good fried chicken leg. The breading is very light. In front is white rice (offered at every meal), this time covered with curried potatoes and chicken. The also offered barbecued fish, with bones still in, which I was not into. Not a bad meal, especially being that it is free.

Here is a shot of the construction that I mentioned. This picture was taken out the window of my office at school. As you may be able to tell, it was a nice day. The weather has been really nice here for the past few days, reaching up to about 70 degrees. I think there are 8 buildings going up, forming one of many new living complexes.

Here are a few picture of where we live. I had to cover detention tonight so I got home a little late; as a result the pictures are a little dark. There are seven buildings in our complex. We are in building one, which is actually the farther building from the entrance. This is a scene from right inside the entrance. There are plenty of little ponds, fountains and walking paths. This is one that Dan likes to run over every day.

Here are the buildings of our complex. We are the very last one on the left. I would be willing to bet that 60% of the places are empty, though they still keep building. Constantly we hear construction going on, both in our building, in neighboring buildings and in other complexes.

As I am writing this I am watching "The Departed", one of the many DVDs that we have acquired since being here. It is right at a good part, and I am through for the day, so I'll end the blog at that. I will make sure, though, that the next entry comes much sooner than the last.