Chengdu Can Do

Andrew and I traveled to Chengdu, a city of 10 million in southern China, last week. Intel has a site there and Andrew had a week of meetings and I, having plenty of time on my hands, joined him for half of the week and the weekend. 


The area's top two tourist attractions are the world's largest Buddha and a panda park (pandas being the favorite animal of the Chinese). Although for us, it had much more to offer... legit Mexican food @ Peter's Tex-Mex. For us, that was definitely the highlight of the trip. It also has a larger array of Western restaurants including a chic place owned by an American couple called the Lazy Pug, where we enjoyed a delicious pulled pork and buffalo chicken sandwich. It was a fun trip.

Sewing 101

My dear friend Di is a master of everything crafty; knitting, sewing, crocheting, card making, quilting, cross stitch. You name it she can do it and do it well. This winter she's taught me how to knit, and a scarf and hat later I'm a knitter (maybe not a great knitter, but a knitter nonetheless.) Since I've learned how to crochet and knit I was thinking it may be neat to also learn how to sew. Then, when I was last in Minnesota, my sister had my mom's old sewing machine out on the dinning room table and was sewing my nieces skirts to wear for Christmas. It reminded me of how each winter my Grandma sewed all of her granddaughters a dress to wear for Christmas and how much we loved those dresses made especially for us from Grandma. I was inspired. I was inspired for the sentimental reasons and probably because I'm thrifty (why pay $10 to hem a pair of pants when I can do it myself for free) and, I'm continuously looking for things to do to occupy my time and challenge me while in China being a stay-at-home wife.


Since my time in Minnesota, I've spent some quality time reading online sewing blogs and I've become more inspired. There are some very talented sewers who thankfully blog about it. As a result, I've decided sewing is a life skill I'd like to learn and thanks to the magnificent Di it's a skill I can learn while I'm in China and have a lot of time on my hands.  


So this past week we visited Er Qi, which is an enormous sewing warehouse. Mostly consisting of stalls and stalls of material and tailors which can make anything from curtains to winter jackets. This is where I found a small stall to purchase a sewing machine and material to make my first projects. 

Me & the Chinese man who sold me my first sewing machine.

Hopefully more photos to come with my finished sewing projects...

Company Holiday Party... Sort Of

In China, it is expected that employers will have an annual party around Chinese New Year. I was thinking the annual party was similar to an American holiday party, which it is, but I found out that there are several major differences:

• Spouses aren't usually invited to annual parties
• Extravagance is key in planning an annual party, i.e. lights, music, an MC and involved
• A sort of non-competitive talent show/performance where employees display their artistic talents, dancing or singing, is part of the event
• Management is expected to participate in the talent show
• Some of the outfits worn by participants may be deemed inappropriate for a strip club company event by our modest American standards

As an Intel manager, Andrew was strongly encouraged to participate in a performance. Needless to say, he was less than elated. Many of you may know Andrew isn't much of a dancer. Usually if I see him dancing, it's a sign that he's had too much to drink. But, he's a trooper and he put a smile on his face and participated. After the event he was told by a number of co-workers that he was given the title of the worst dancer. I don't think that's possible... 

Because I'm Married

Andrew wore this on the way to and the way home from the Philippines:

When I questioned this suspect fashion decision he said "I'm married. I can wear whatever I want." So I guess the honeymoon stage is over.

CNY in the Philippines

Andrew and I decided some months ago that we'd like to take a vacation/ our "official" honeymoon over Chinese New Year. First, and most importantly, Intel gives three days holiday to their employees for Chinese New Year, so Andrew wouldn't have to take as much time off of work to see another beautiful Asia destination. Secondly, we've discovered that it isn't very fun for westerns to be in China over Chinese New Year. Think of Christmas for most westerners, except with lots and lots of fireworks and a continuous 15 day celebration versus 2 or 3. Translation, it isn't easy to sleep because fireworks are going off all hours of the night and you can't shop or go out to dinner because everything is closed for two weeks, plus the busy Chinese streets are even busier. 

Based on our friends' recommendations we decided to go to the Philippines. We decided on a five day eco-friendly tour where we'd be island hoping, camping and on a boat with 7 strangers for five days, www.taophilippines.com, and a five day stay at a lovely resort located on a secluded island where there are a maximum of 16 guests at any given time, www.mangenguey.com. Needless to say we had a fabulous time and hope to return at some point in our future, maybe our 20th wedding anniversary...

Paradise

The boat

Caught from the sea and on the plate in 15 minutes. The best tuna sashimi we've ever had & probably ever will.
A highlight of the trip for both of us.

Beautiful Philipina we met in a very small fishing village.

Andrew the fish

Beautiful sunset

Accommodations

A trip to the tropics wouldn't be complete without Andrew climbing a coconut tree

Five days hanging out on a secluded beach isn't bad...

Our suite in the "big house" on the secluded island