The Real Mandarin Oranges

These are absolutely the best oranges ever. I saw these in the store and wasn't sure what exactly they were. A friend had them so I tried one and they are the sweetest little oranges ever. I've only had mandarin oranges out of a can and never really thought they came from a real tree.

They are really tiny. This is Vika's hand holding the orange so you can see how small they are. They peel easily like tangerine and you can just pop the whole thing in your mouth. The kids just love them.

This week has been pretty busy. We had parent teacher conferences Wednesday and Thursday night. It was just like back home. Most of the parents spoke a little English and if they didn't they had an interpreter with them. They were late nights but we had Friday off to compensate for the time. I went with some friends to a Stationary Mall. It was huge and I didn't get through the whole thing. They had everything from office supplies to toys. I got some cool Chinese Christmas cards. I hope I can get them sent out to people back home. We'll see. I also found Christmas decorations and even a Christmas tree. I was told to get the Christmas things early because they won't last. We went to a shop that was starting to set their Christmas things out and asked the guy what else he had. He took as a few blocks away and to his warehouse and let us go through what he had. It was so cool. We spent about two hours there and I came home with some actual Christmas decorations and a fake tree. I'm excited to get them up even though it doesn't really feel like winter here. It finally got down below 70 degrees last night. I actually felt cold for the first time since we have been here. It's been a nice day the last few days and hopefully it will last.

Saturday Nicole had her last Soccer game. She'll sign up for Basketball next. Near the soccer field is a park with these people doing this thing above. I have to find out more about it because it was so cool to watch them. They had two sticks with a string that they would throw and catch this spinning top like thing in the air and then catch them on the string. It was really fun to watch but looks really hard.

After soccer we walked back home through Old Shekou and did a little shopping. All along the street they have food vendors. There are certain things we like to get every time we go. They have a pizza type bread that they cook right there on a large grill. They are really good. We got some more DVD's to add to our collection. By the time we get back to the States we could probably open a rental store with all the movies we have. They are all pirated so you have to be careful because some of the copies aren't very good. We got Get Smart about a month ago and you can hear people laughing in the background because it was copied from a theatre. I actually saw the new Bond movie on DVD. We've learned to wait until they actually are released because it will be a better copy.

Later in the afternoon Gavin and I went to see the new James Bond movie. Yes, they have movies here in English but they are pretty expensive. We decided to splurge for this one. It was great to be sitting in a movie theatre again. The only thing I missed was the popcorn. They have caramel popcorn which is good but I really miss my buttery, salty movie popcorn. The movie was great.

Last week I was feeling pretty domestic and decided to put my oven to use. I finally found baking pans at Ikea. I had gotten two bread pans so I made bread. I was really missing my wheat grinder and Bosch mixer. I had to resort to the old fashion way of kneading the bread by hand. I gained a new appreciation for the modern conveniences we have. I really got an arm workout. It turned out really good though. The family loved it.