Click the link below:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/24/world/asia/beijing-smog-solutions/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
At the beginning of the video, if you look hard enough you can spot Ella playing 4 square. She is in a red shirt waiting her turn to play.
The DeSmet Family
Kelly, Valerie, Julia, Ella and Tucker
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Let Chinese New Year Begin....................
Hooray, Hooray! The kids are out of school for a week and a half. (Let me clarify....that was typed with extreme sarcasm!) They are pumped though.
This time of year, most of the local Chinese go back to their respective Providence's to visit family, while the expat community usually hauls arse out of here to find somewhere with cleaner air and a bit more sunshine. Unfortunately, we (the DeSmet family) usually has to stay here in Beijing because our beloved Ayi goes down south to visit her home and family for a much deserved holiday. The problem with this is she is the one that usually watches our large fur baby, Tucker. Therefor we are stuck here because I am not going to put him in a Chinese kennel again.........EVER! Like, who could go on some fabulous vacation, and actually enjoy it, when one of their family members has been locked up in a Chinese prison of sorts.
*exiting soap box*
So, here we all are just hanging out and enjoying each others company. All of us, Kelly, the girls, the dog and 4 to 6 of Julia's girlfriends at any given time. They all stayed in the Jing as well so there was a constant stream of kids in and out of our house. My foyer had a huge collection of UGGS in it that would rival any department stores for size, color and selection, but they all had fun.
One day I tagged along with 6 girls for a shopping trip down to Wanfujing. (It is like shopping in Chicago or New York City.) It is always an experience being in the presence of so many teenage girls but to watch them "do their thing", and to watch what a spectacle they all are to the local folk is priceless. We hit some favorite stores and even had a DQ ice cream. It is always interesting to see what flavors of ice cream they have here. Most of the options contained red bean paste, green tea and wasabi. We stuck with the ole traditional Oreo cookie.
The other thing that goes on this week is the never ending fireworks. They start around 10:00 PM and go on all hours of the night. We turn our air purifiers up to drown out some of the noise and some of us sleep with ear plugs. The first few nights no one sleeps because our dog is a nervous wreck and barks non stop. These people sure do know their fireworks though. It is a full on show every night just outside of our bedroom window. It's awesome......kinda.
We may not have gone to some tropical paradise but we did spend ALOT of quality time together, and I for one will be ready for everyone to go back to school and work. I have been playing the part of Ayi this week and let me tell you, these other people that live in this house leave a disaster in their wake everywhere they go and I am tired! I have a whole new level of respect for my Ayi. Xiao Liu......please come back soon!!
This time of year, most of the local Chinese go back to their respective Providence's to visit family, while the expat community usually hauls arse out of here to find somewhere with cleaner air and a bit more sunshine. Unfortunately, we (the DeSmet family) usually has to stay here in Beijing because our beloved Ayi goes down south to visit her home and family for a much deserved holiday. The problem with this is she is the one that usually watches our large fur baby, Tucker. Therefor we are stuck here because I am not going to put him in a Chinese kennel again.........EVER! Like, who could go on some fabulous vacation, and actually enjoy it, when one of their family members has been locked up in a Chinese prison of sorts.
*exiting soap box*
So, here we all are just hanging out and enjoying each others company. All of us, Kelly, the girls, the dog and 4 to 6 of Julia's girlfriends at any given time. They all stayed in the Jing as well so there was a constant stream of kids in and out of our house. My foyer had a huge collection of UGGS in it that would rival any department stores for size, color and selection, but they all had fun.
One day I tagged along with 6 girls for a shopping trip down to Wanfujing. (It is like shopping in Chicago or New York City.) It is always an experience being in the presence of so many teenage girls but to watch them "do their thing", and to watch what a spectacle they all are to the local folk is priceless. We hit some favorite stores and even had a DQ ice cream. It is always interesting to see what flavors of ice cream they have here. Most of the options contained red bean paste, green tea and wasabi. We stuck with the ole traditional Oreo cookie.
The other thing that goes on this week is the never ending fireworks. They start around 10:00 PM and go on all hours of the night. We turn our air purifiers up to drown out some of the noise and some of us sleep with ear plugs. The first few nights no one sleeps because our dog is a nervous wreck and barks non stop. These people sure do know their fireworks though. It is a full on show every night just outside of our bedroom window. It's awesome......kinda.
We may not have gone to some tropical paradise but we did spend ALOT of quality time together, and I for one will be ready for everyone to go back to school and work. I have been playing the part of Ayi this week and let me tell you, these other people that live in this house leave a disaster in their wake everywhere they go and I am tired! I have a whole new level of respect for my Ayi. Xiao Liu......please come back soon!!
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| A group of people came through our neighborhood doing the traditional Chinese Dragon Dance. |
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| You always know when the girls have friends over. You almost break your neck trying to climb over the mountain of UGGs. |
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| Some of Julia's amazingly, silly friends! |
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| My sweet little Ella Bell! |
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| Crazy town around here! |
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| In your dreams Julia.......in your dreams! |
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| Shopping with group......never a dull or quiet moment! Seriously couldn't ask for a nicer group of girls though! |
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| Heading to the mall! |
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| This mall is huge. I think there are 6 levels. |
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| The reason we are not laying on the beach sipping drinks. No hard feeling though!! |
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| Even got a little bit of snow just to cap the week off! |
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Temple Fair at Ditan Park
We are kicking off the "year of the horse" with a little cultural excursion. Along with some friends, we decided to see how the locals celebrate Chinese New Year, so we all jumped on the subway (which is a cultural experience in itself) and headed down to Ditan Park for one of the many Temple Fairs going on in Beijing. It was a rare, beautiful, blue sky day here so it was a perfect time to go exploring.
We rode several subways to get to our destination and finally made it to the fair. It was very much like a fair would be back in the states........minus the rides and creepy carnival workers. There were all kinds of vendors selling everything from crazy looking owls, rainbow colored Mohawk wigs, panda hats (which is a standard here), street meat on a stick, scorpions on a stick and the ever popular ramen noodles. They also had a slew of games designed so that no one could possibly ever win, a magic show and the traditional dragon dance going on.
We played some games, watched some shows, did some people watching, watched some people watching us, posed for some pictures with our admirers and sampled some of the local street meat on a stick. Well, some of them did......as much as I would like to lose a few pounds I really didn't want to spend this break white knuckling the porcelain!
We spent the better part of the day there and then headed out for some lunch. We thought we would go find a traditional Chinese restaurant so that we could enjoy some dumplings.....but......it was the start of Chinese New Year and not very many places were open. Our choices were between KFC and a Thai restaurant.....go figure! After celebrating Chinese New Year with some Thai cuisine we headed back home. We really enjoyed the beautiful day, our good friends and all the crazy things here that make this journey so darn interesting!
We rode several subways to get to our destination and finally made it to the fair. It was very much like a fair would be back in the states........minus the rides and creepy carnival workers. There were all kinds of vendors selling everything from crazy looking owls, rainbow colored Mohawk wigs, panda hats (which is a standard here), street meat on a stick, scorpions on a stick and the ever popular ramen noodles. They also had a slew of games designed so that no one could possibly ever win, a magic show and the traditional dragon dance going on.
We played some games, watched some shows, did some people watching, watched some people watching us, posed for some pictures with our admirers and sampled some of the local street meat on a stick. Well, some of them did......as much as I would like to lose a few pounds I really didn't want to spend this break white knuckling the porcelain!
We spent the better part of the day there and then headed out for some lunch. We thought we would go find a traditional Chinese restaurant so that we could enjoy some dumplings.....but......it was the start of Chinese New Year and not very many places were open. Our choices were between KFC and a Thai restaurant.....go figure! After celebrating Chinese New Year with some Thai cuisine we headed back home. We really enjoyed the beautiful day, our good friends and all the crazy things here that make this journey so darn interesting!
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| Taking the subway. |
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| Julia and Ella at the Temple Fair |
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| Ahhhhh.......the split pants. That looks a bit drafty. Doesn't make you want to rest your purse in the front of a cart here. |
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| Ella checking out the huge suckers......and I'm not talking about the workers with clown hair. |
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| The rainbow rooster Mohawk. Nice! |
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| Our friends taking a corny picture! (terrible joke) |
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| Julia shooting pellets at balloons. |
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| Ella taking her shot. That worker is a brave soul standing so close! |
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| Beautiful day! |
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| I think it is safe to say, this man loves pandas..................and is likely single!! |
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| My friends son testing out the "street meat". Pork???? I dunno. |
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| Epic photo bomb............................... |
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| Let's try that again! |
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| Our friends! |
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| I love walking through the hutongs. |
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| Ferocious guard dogs. |
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