On Vacation!

Chase and I just finished watching Slumdog Millionaire in honor of Chase's departure for India tonight. Yes, we already have the DVD in China. A whole $1.50. The movie was great. And what I really liked about it was the scenes of Indian life and landscapes. I am so jealous he's going to India. I love that country so much. And watching the movie made me fall in love again. Bollywood movies do not do that for me. So if you haven't seen it already, it's a must-see before the Oscars on the 22nd of Feb.

So he'll be in India, mostly New Delhi and Goa and maybe a visit to Varanasi and Agra if he has time. It's nice to be in vacation mode today as well. I am really wound up when it's work time and when I have time off my body really knows how to relax. Which is a good thing, but I wish I could moderate myself a little better during my working days. At any rate, my trip to Austin is going to be great! I can't wait to see my Lola. She's going to get so much cuddling and kisses. And we are going into the greenbelt every morning or the dog park. And then of course, my family. I can't wait to eat my Mom's cooking again. And I can't wait to see my yoga friends at yoga class and my non-yoga friends! Woohoo. It's going to be great.

Anyways, I thought I would share some pictures of our life here. A few weekends ago we went to see the South Rakkas Crew from Miami. Not necessarily my favorite type of music (hip-hop, funk, booty music, etc.) but I was ready to dance. So Fernando and BeiBei came with us. Here we are giving props to the ATX. That's because they put on a song, and I can't remember what the name of this house track is off the top of my head but all the Americans in the crowd started dancing because we all loved it and then they were asking where everyone was from and we reprezented Austin! We got a couple of shout-outs after that because we were shakin' our booteezz so much.


We were figuring it out.


ATX in the Hooouuusseee!


Chase and Mo, who's a Beijinger transplanted from Miami. We love dancing with Mo cuz he's got great moves.

The next thing I wanted to post about was the absurd amounts that we get spoiled here in Beijing. Having an A-yi come to clean every day of the work week is great. And then to have another come and cook twice a week is another. Here's some dumplings we had the other night made from scratch of course. They were filled with eggplant, egg, and mushroom. Me, Chase, and Fernando, who came over for a meal finished all these!



Here's a picture of our wonderful cooking A-yi hard at work in the kitchen. She has won our love through our stomachs. She's on the short list of permanent nanny-style-a-yis if we end up in Asia with babies in a few years. I say that half-jokingly.


But speaking of cooking. I am looking forward to getting to Austin and doing some cooking myself. My Mom's kitchen is huge compared to our kitchenette in China and I'm going to bake, cook, etc. also because I will actually have time! But first, my sister and I are going to buy our parents a good set of knives. They have used the same cheap CostCo set for the last ten years and have never sharpened them! A shopping trip to Williams-Sonoma is in order!