Having Fun

Nihao,

A good time was had by all.....
Our compound has a very active social life.  The residents have an association and the management has an association.  Both host/sponsor functions which everyone may attend.  Many of the resident functions cost a small amount of money to rent dishes and buy supplies.  The management ones tend to cost more as they have to have catering.  And then it seems individuals like to throw their own parties as well and you just bring a dish to share just like at home.
So far I have gone to a potluck lunch at someones home.....a RA function, we paid 20 rmb (think 6.3 to one US dollar) to provide dishes and supplies.  I met tons of new people from all over the world......Peru, US, France, Netherlands, England, New Zealand, Australia, and places I cannot remember.  A great picnic in someones yard.
Saturday the residents had a Progressive dinner.  This one is 100 rmb per couple to participate in the dinners.  One person hosts the appetizer course and that is where you pick up your "assignments" for the  rest of dinner.  After that you end up with 8 people at homes for starters, main and dessert.  We ended up roaming all over the compound to get to our houses.  After going from virtually opposite ends of the compound we had the main course up near the house so we stopped in to get bicycles.  It made it so much easier to get around.  Mike is 9 inches taller than me and I think most of that is in his legs.....really makes it hard for my short stumpy legs to keep pace!  We had fun, met lots more people and drank lots of wine!

Sunday we were invited to a Mexican dinner cooked by a German living in China.  Sounds pretty international to me......attended by families from the US, Australia, Germany, UK, Guyana, and NZ!!  Just boggles my mind sometimes.  Ernst even had a refrigerator full of Corona's.  Amazing pork slow cooked on the grill.

I cannot remember if I told you that we bought Olivia a bicycle last weekend.   We decided it was a better choice to use a $100 bike and not worry if it got stuck out in the rain than her $500 one that is coming. It has made such a world of difference in my life!  I can understand how exciting the creation of the wheel must have been.  I can now ride to school in 15 minutes instead of the 40 minute walk....which was causing my hip to hurt again....now it doesn't after a week and a half with the bike. We cannot say as much for a certain other part of my anatomy!!  Also the big basket it came with makes shopping a breeze.  No more wrenched out arms carrying home the bags of food.  Not to mention the shortened time involved.  Yesterday I went out 4 different times on the bike....I don't think I could have ever gotten home if I had to walk all those times!  I know I said it was for Olivia....She doesn't ride it to school.  We also had a friend lend us a bike they had never used....one of those fold up sorts....I had that a few days before we got Olivia's, it is good, but no basket....it does allow two of us to ride around which is so nice.  I can even get O to go to the store with me:)

Long enough for today,
Love, fondly, sincerely,
Zai jian,
Ramona