Outings in the city, some good home cookin' and exercise! Nov 15-19

Outings in the City

Mostly on this blog we've featured pictures of Connor in the house and very few pictures of him out and about.  But we do take Connor out almost everyday - we just don't always shoot the pix to prove it! But Nov15-19 are exceptions. On these days, we took a quite a few shots of Connor on his outings, and captured an interesting portrait of the city as well.

Side note: I'm going to try out a new hair style
but to get there I have to first grow my
bangs out a little bit... until then,
excuse my outrageously
long bangs.
Nov 15.

The sun is in the wrong place to keep Kim out of shadow,
but the lake looks great!
Nov 15.

These first two shots are from an exciting day. We walked through downtown's pedestrian street, made a couple of turns, and discovered a huge market for daily goods! (Sorry no photos of the market -yet.) We'd been looking for an area like this since we arrived in Wuhu, so we were both thrilled. You can see some of the packages from the things we purchased that day behind Kim in the photo on the left. At the end of the market we simply took a left and it led us to Mirror Lake, which is directly outside the main gate of our campus.

The following day we went on a short walk to the meat and veggies market, which is about 4 blocks from our apartment, to pick up ingredients for dinner and we saw this batch of sausages (we think they are sausages) drying out. I've never seen anything like this in the states... is this really how sausage is made?

Sausages drying out. Nov 16th

The following day Christian was busy with lessons. Friday is a hard day for him this term as he teaches from 8am until 4pm (though China does "siesta" between 12-2, 12-2:30 or 12-3 depending on the time of year and what part of the country you are in.) So Kim took Connor out on her own. Here's a shot of them together!

Kim and Connor go on a walk. Nov 17

The weekend brought with it an invitation from one of Christian's students and Cathlina. one of the contestants in the speech contest that Christian worked with, who wanted to get together to explore the city. Cathlina brought her boyfriend because he was in town for the weekend and local to Wuhu - so he became our guide.

 

Us with Cathlina, her boyfriend, and Christan's student. Nov 18

A rare photo of Connor
smiling in the carrier.
It's rare because usually
he sleeps in it or he's
biting the straps, haha.
Nov 18

They first wanted to take us to a place they called "snack street" where we had lunch at a noodle shop and met a funny snack vendor. After that we went to the park together.

Snack street! Nov 18

More from snack street. Nov 18

A funny snack vendor. He asked that we take his picture and
show our friends in America so that he could be famous. Nov 18

Side Note: This trip also featured Connor's first bus ride! (No photos though!)

The park. This park is located directly on the Yangtze River.

Kim and Connor in front of a fountain in the park. Nov 18

There were a ton of boats on the river. Nov 18

Christian talking with the students. Nov 18

A shot of the city from the park. Nov 18

An old building in the area. Nov 18
(It will probably be torn down sometime in the next 5 years)

Kim making a strange expression... Nov 18
Check out the background in this photo.
It shows how close the modern buildings are to the older buildings

We haven"t been able to explore very much of the city, but from what we've seen, we can tell that it has a good mix of different types of architecture, varying degrees of development and unique nature to explore.

Christian's Home Cookin'

Since we arrived in Anhui, Christian has spent a lot of time and energy learning to cook different Chinese dishes. He researches and translates recipes for Chinese dishes online, has discovered some great ones and has learned a lot of great cooking tricks. Here's a few shots of some of the nummy goodies he's whipped up.

First up, 青椒肉丝, or shredded peppers and pork. This dish can get pretty spicy depending on the peppers chosen! 

This next dish is potato chicken curry. It isn't really Chinese, but it is darn good! 

This final dish is simply eggs and tomatoes

 It's hard to imagine the flavor of this if you haven't had it before, 

but we can attest that it tastes great!

This dish is a great example of something a family would cook at home.

Your skill in cooking has improved! (37)

Finally, here's a small collection of shots of us preparing something that's not exactly homemade - brownies!

Christian watches with excitement as the brownies bake.

The classic toothpick test.

The finished product!! Nummy! 

Christian's got an onion on his head....
Nov 17

Here Christian poses with a green onion...
You can see the vegetables grow a little differently in China!

Nov 17

Activity Gym! Nov. 19th 

November 19th was a special day for Connor because his long awaited for activity gym arrived! 

Christian is just as excited about getting the gym
as Connor! Nov 19

We looked at a ton of activity gyms online - American and different Asian brands, but eventually chose a Fisher Price product. We chose it because it looked like it had a ton of things to do, it's portable (comes with an easy way to fold it up with all the pieces inside), washable, has extra loops for attaching more toys, and its cute to boot!

Connor's first introduction to the gym.  Nov 19
(Mmm, hand... delicious.)
(Connor's favorite food: Hand sandwich)

Connor checks out a hanging alligator.
That musical bear is his absolute favorite! Nov 19

Connor really did a great job rocking out his first time in the gym!













There is so much going on with this activity gym... if we aren't careful it will turn into an over-stimulation station!
 

Connor takes a toy break to check out the camera. Nov 19

Alligator = cool!
Nov 19

Master Yoda watched over Connor's training. Nov 19
"The Force is with you."

Side Note: This gym is the fourth thing we've bought off the Chinese internet - the other three items were also for Connor. (His bed sheets, mattress pad and mobile are the other three items).