The kids’ national school is of the highest quality care, and we have been very pleased with their language development during the time they were there. Here you can follow them on their way to school and through their morning exercises.

Joshua has been really interested recently in electronics. He took apart his Cars watch and his head phones before we caught on to this interest. Our friend Kathy said she actually bought an old cassette player to teach how to take things apart. Not a bad idea. So the next day I was in a toy store looking for something that had a motor or a light or something and found just about the best thing I could have. An electronics set. It comes with a siren, two lights and multiple switches. Circuits are formed with connecting snaps. It has been a great point of connection for my dad and my son, talking circuits and making plans.

Top Ten Things We See Here
10. Streets full of cars, taxis, buses, bicycles, motorcycles, and pedistrians
9. Fruits and vegetables picked fresh that morning, offered by the farmer him/herself
8. Fresh animals: live fish, chickens, frogs, turtles, crawfish, eel, pigs, (not cat! not mouse! not horse!)
7. Grandmas and Grandpas on buses offering their laps to our children, Hannah accepts, Joshua does not
6. Heated bargaining, over a few cents
5. Town centers crowded with people playing cards on the ground, crouching around it
4. Knitting; as people walk, as storeowners wait for business,
3. Friendly faces, patience with foreigners and gentleness with small children
2. Internet Cafes on every corner
1. Cats on leashes as pets (all pets eat rice)

Top Ten Things We Don't See Here
10. People eating cold food.
9. Car seats, helmets, seatbelts.
8. Lan Lines
7. Name brands spelled correctly
6. Diapers
5. Uneaten fish heads, chicken feet, potato stems, lotus root, bamboo stalks, eggplant flowers, etc.
4. Chlorine in swimming pools
3. Copywritten DVDs
2. An item sold at full price
1. Wasting cardboard, styrofoam, plastic bottles, (glass is ok to waste)

Top Ten Things you might find for breakfast
10. Noodles in a soup with small chunks of meat and vegetables
9. Rice dumplings, steamed with different centers
8. Fruit
7. Porriage: rice soup served plain or with chopped meat
6. Tea, always tea, milk served warm in a bag with a straw.
5. Hard boiled eggs, fried eggs
4. Cooked green, leafy vegetables
3. Dough cooked on a skillet, sweet or salty like pancakes or flatbread.
2. Tortillas with stick doughnuts in the middle, either with sweet or spicy sauce, served by a street vendor (Hannah's favorite)
1. Scrambled egg with hash browns, salad, or chopped up hotdog in a tortilla, served by a street vendor

Ten things I have seen on two wheels
10. Two people, one cycling, the other sitting "side saddle" in the back on the rack. Skilled passengers can even read
9. Styrofoam stacked two times as high as the bicycle, and twice as wide. That was a three wheeled bicycle, though.
8. A half of a pig on the back of a bicycle
7. One motorcycle towing a second one, the one being towed by his foot propped on the lead motorcycle
6. A motorcycle with a stack of crushed boxes on the back as tall as the driver
5. A two wheeled bicycle with a large piece of glass furniture for a bathroom on the back.
4. Enormous flower arrangements (6 feet tall) held by the passenger on a motorcycle
3.
2.
1.

We have visited several zoos in the states,
but I think I visited the most memorable one yet this week.
They had animals touring the zoo grounds willing to climb onto people's arms and heads to pose for photos.
In what other zoo can you go fishing for bears?
No one was able to reel in the bears,
though the carrots on the end of the stick did seem to be the bait of choice.

Where else would you get to see a carnivorous tropical bird?

Or watch out for breeding animals?

See caged squirrels and raccoons as rarities?
See the very expressions on animals faces as you walked past?

Eat corn on the cob, rice stuffed in bamboo shoots, any kind of meat you could want cooked on a stick,
hard boiled eggs, soy beans in the pod, and boiled peanuts?

Who knew we would get this close to real pandas? We had to pay a dollar twenty five per person to go into this restricted area. Nobody was dangling these guys their food. They had tender bamboo leaves, all they could eat. Perched in their tree houses, they looked out on their adoring fans. I have heard that people see themselves as pandas. Strong, respected, and unflustered, these "bear cats" as they are called, have found their way into many people's hearts.

As we were leaving the park, we ran across Minnie and Daisy Duck...

Saw some animals who had not been eating enough...
and Hannah got to add some new crazy faces to her repetoir...

All in all we had a beautiful day! Let's go again soon!!!

All sign languages are not universal. At all.
For example, it took some time to get used to, but the middle finger just doesn't mean the same thing here as it does in America. If you want to describe something as average, you would use your middle finger. If you want to measure something, you use your middle, largest finger. If you are referring to a foreigner, or something "other", you use your middle finger. Tonight, we had our national friends over for dessert and Uno. I broke up laughing, however when we got on the topic of American insults they had seen on the television. They knew the spectrum of vulgar gestures, thanks to the t.v.!
David dreads the day someone from the states asks Hannah what she thinks of an average meal and she flips them off.