Yellow Belt

 Tyson took his test for his Yellow belt last week and I am very proud to say that he passed. I am so proud of my little Taekwondo kid.

Showing me all of his moves

He looks so grown up

So proud of him!!!

Still Here

I know it has been forever since I last posted a blog, but things around here have been a bit crazy. I can't really get into all of it just yet, but I promise I will soon.  A few things that I can share are some photos from our Spirit week.

Day one of school spirit week, Crazy Hair Day

Tyson's hair isn't very long, so I had to get creative.

Black and Orange Day

The last day, Halloween. Tyson was a ghost doctor.

Look out it's raining cats and dogs!

Even though Tyson didn't get to go Trick or Treating door to door this year, we still had a wonderful Halloween.
Next week we will be celebrating Thanksgiving in our own unique ways while enjoying a much needed break from school. We will also be getting the last few things finished before my family comes for a visit in three short weeks!!

Body Painting Festival 2011

This weekend we decided to go check out the Body Painting Festival after hearing one of our co-workers talking about it. At first there was not much to see, but they had a few activities for kids so Tyson was happy.

The entrance to the festival

Not much going on when we first got there

Tyson getting his "tattoo"

After about an hour, the artists starting working on their human canvases. It was amazing to watch the start of everyone's designs then go back later to see the finished products.

Most of the models were so nice about us taking their pictures. They all waved and smiled at Tyson was so oblivious to the nudity around him.

I don't know how some of them stood up for as long as they did.

The artists were all very good about applying pasties to cover their models as much as possible. 

Unfortunately with the heat and Tyson getting hungry, we could not stay to watch them finish their work. Thankfully, Vicki, another teacher at DIS agreed to go with me to the final performance that night.

There's nothing quite like Korean parking.

As you can see it filled up a LOT in the few hours we were gone.

I wish you could see all of the details that were painted on her.

Very Lady Gaga but without the Kermit puppets.

I still can't believe how close to the stage we were able to get.

I still say I could rock those boots.

IMPRESSIVE

My favorite of the night. The Mad Hatter.

Because of the nudity, to view the rest of my photos, please click on the links below. ENJOY!!!

Part one of the festival

The part two of the festival

If the links above do not work, go to this link and look at the Body Painting Festival 1 and 2. s

Dinosaur Museum and Beijing Zoo (Friday June 17, 2011)

Today was Tyson’s day to choose our destination and he decided on the Dinosaur Museum and the Beijing Zoo. He was so excited about The Dinosaur Museum after spending the last few weeks studying them in school. Sadly it was a bit of a letdown so we did not stay long. There were only a few dinosaurs on display and all of the facts about them were in Chinese. Tyson did a great job pointing out all the dinosaurs he knew, but became frustrated when we could not answer his questions.

Thankfully the zoo, located right across the street, was more English friendly. Tyson’s fell in love with the Giant Panda and is still convinced that we are going to see some wild ones when we go up to the Great Wall. Even though we spent almost 5 hours there, we didn’t even come close to seeing all of the animals.

     .                                                     Tyson with his Panda, China.

                                                    He was so excited to see real Pandas.

                                                                                         Quick potty break. Get what you need!

 I was surprised that Tyson didn’t get more excited about seeing the elephants, but who could blame him when there were giraffes to be fed right next to them. He loved that they ate right out of his hand, even though their tongues were long and slimy.

Before we left we wanted to take a boat ride around the park. Unfortunately the lines were entirely too long so we opted out. Tyson was upset for a minuet but quickly decided that a nice swim in the pool sounded a lot better than standing in that long, hot line. (Swimming really does make everything better.)

Silk Street Market (Thursday June 16 2011)

It looked like it was going to rain today so we decided to do something indoors. Our first stop was the train station to try to get our tickets for Xi’an later in the week. It was packed with people and we had to wait in line for almost 20 minutes to find out that we have to go back because they only book a few days in advance. Next time I might send Jeff by himself, the crowds were a little intimidating. I am use to people in Korea touching Tyson, but here they seem to be a little more physical with him and he doesn’t like it.
When we left there we found out that the cab drivers here do not always use the meter and will instead give you an outrageous price for a very short ride. We knew that the Silk Market was not far, but most of them were asking anywhere from 150RMB to 250RMB. After asking several cab drivers to take us to the Silk Market, we finally settled on the one who asked for 150. Hopefully we get better at working out the price before we spend everything that we brought on taxies.

Before going to the Silk Market, I spent a lot of time reading about the shopping there. I tried to prepare myself for the on slot of “do you want to buy a shirt, how about a nice silk scarf, you need jeans, I have jeans here,” but I was nowhere near prepared enough for the thousands of venders who would not only ask if you wanted a scarf but toss one around your neck and drag you into their stall. We did not even make it to the end of the first isle before Jeff was rangeland into a dress shirt stall where the women went to work finding his size and pulling out every possible color. Before we went there I told him that the prices were going to be really high and it was his job to barter them down. Most articles I read about the market said to offer at least 80% off of their asking price and to stay firm. If they see you hesitating, they will stick to their higher prices. I have never been very strong at bartering, so I was more nervous than Jeff. However I found out very quickly I am REALLY good at it in China. While Jeff was looking at dress shirts, the lady next to him grabbed me to look at shirts for myself. I found one I really like and started working on the price. She started out at 3200 RMB and after staying firm on my price and even walking away a few times, I finally got my shirt for 60 RMB, about 10$ US. Jeff had a bit of a harder time working the price down but still walked away with two really nice dress shirts for about 40$. I was able to find some really nice gifts for our families back home but our best purchase of the day was Jeff’s custom made suit with a shirt for less than 150$. Not bad since the price started at around 700$. Thankfully Jeff waited for me to get there to talk about the price because he was going to offer a lot more than I did. We have to go back again on Saturday for a fitting then again on Sunday to pick it up. Not that I mind having to go back because I am having so much fun shopping. Although having Tyson there both helped and hindered at some places. He was having a hard time understanding the concept of bartering and kept telling everyone that “my Mommy and Daddy have lots of money, they should pay you more because were friends.” Yup, Tyson fell for that “Oh my friend, you’re crazy to ask so low of a price, you hurt my feelings” line. He yelled at me a few times and said I was making them so sad lol. I tried to explain it to him like it was a big game, that they want to sell what they have for a good price, but they want to see how much we will pay for it, if we pay too much we lose money, if we pay too little they do and it is our job to try to figure out the right price for the game to make us both happy. Little did I know that the very next person we went to see, Tyson would yell out “My Mommy is not going to pay you much because she is having fun playing the money game.” Even though we decided not to buy anything from there after that, he made me laugh and there was no way I could get mad at him for being so honest.

               Just a tiny piece of the market.

    
I love her outfit!

           Just a few things I picked up today.

Were in CHINA!!!! (Wednesday June 15, 2011)

After a very long day of traveling we finally made it to China. The actual flight from Inchon to Beijing was only 2 hours, but it seemed much longer due to all of the turbulence. I had to keep reminding myself to play happy because I did not want to upset Tyson. He did great, until we were about 10 minutes from landing. Because we had to ascend then descend a few times quickly to try to get out of the most turbulent areas, our ears could not adjust fast enough. Tyson was crying that his ears hurt and that he was feeling a bit sick. Giving him the barf bag seemed to distract him enough from actually getting sick. He just couldn’t understand the concept of puking in a little bag. Our hotel was about 30 minutes from the airport and as hard as I tried to stay awake to look around, I just couldn’t do it. The stress from flying did me in and I was asleep within minutes. After getting to our hotel, we decided to do some exploring before getting unpacked. As soon as we found the pool Tyson wanted to jump in, but we had to find supper first. We still have not decided exactly what we are going to do tomorrow, but I am sure it will be fun.

Tyson having way to much fun playing with the etiquette button in the bathroom the airport.                             

Mommy and Tyson on our way to China. We had already traveled almost 5 hours so we were a little tired.

View of China from the sky.

Our plane.

Do you notice any floors missing in our hotel?

Tyson was happy with the fruit the hotel left for us.