Natural History Museum

We've been on the hunt for things to occupy our weekends until we leave for Christmas, and last week Chelsie discovered that the natural history museum was pretty close to our apartment! That's one nice thing about living in the country's capital - there's always lots to do! We took the subway to the designated stop, but really weren't sure which way to go from there. We had the name of the streets and tried to ask a security officer on the street, but he had no idea what we were saying. Then this random guy came up and asked us (in English) if we needed help. We told him where we wanted to go and he told us to follow him. We pretty much had no other choice and he seemed pretty nice so we followed him and his friend to a bus stop, they got on with us, and then told us where to get off. He pointed us in the direction of the museum and sure enough, we found it! How awesome is that?! Sometimes I forget how nice Chinese people really are. As if I needed another reminder, when we got to the museum a lady was coming out of the museum with her husband and kid and just walked up and gave me her ticket! How often does that happen? Not very, I'd say. So Chelsie and I just split the cost of one ticket and headed in for our adventure! Our first encounter was a camouflaged dino hiding just outside the entrance....

We walked in and headed right in to (what we thought) was the dinosaur exhibit. We found a fun game that compared your weight to that of several different prehistoric animals....

Chelsie kept wanting to touch the fossils.....apparently the museum had encountered tourists like her before, because they had these signs all over the place (hahahahahaha):

We learned all about the evolution of several animals, as well as which specific dinosaurs were in China!

I've never seen a baby dinosaur fossil before! 

AND THEN.........we stumbled across THE DINOSAUR PARK!!!!!!!

How do you not notice when your kid leaves the museum without their shoes?

How T-Rex sees it

Something that I really appreciated about this museum was how they were committed to being realistic about their depictions of the animals. There were no lions laying with lambs here, no T-Rex's kickin' it with the little dinky dinos. Nope. Reality abounded......

My personal favorite. This guy had his stuffing guts coming out and everything.

Just like life on the African Savannah.

Baboons stealing ostrich eggs? Sure.

I think I've also mentioned before how there is always a little arcade or some area to entertain the children.....? Yep, this museum was no exception. I thought the point of going to a museum was to get the kids AWAY from video games and this kind of nonsense?

One of the things that Chelsie was most excited about in this museum was the human body exhibit. We were expecting to see cool partially dissected bodies and....whatever else. We had a whole different experience. Walking down the stairs, I thought I was seeing things and had to blink and make sure that yes, in fact, the path is marked by little sperms. Not a joke. I found myself wanting to sing a rendition of "follow the yellow brick road".....

There were many graphic and astonishing displays down here.....from preserved body parts to a partially dissected toddler. A lot of the things seemed like they should have been in a "Body Worlds" exhibit. I had the special opportunity to experience what it is supposed to be like in a womb....

I learned some nifty things about the human body, and was feeling fairly well-educated as I was leaving the exhibit. Then the spermies led me to this final picture:

Yes. That is what you think it is.

Well, that ends our adventure of the natural history museum. We were feeling hungry so we headed to McDonald's for lunch. It was so delicious and American-ly greasy. I can't wait to eat real American food again.
LESS THAN 3 WEEKS UNTIL I GET HOME!

Giving Thanks

Sometimes living in the future means I get to eat delicious Thanksgiving food before everyone back home :)  Chelsie and I took the day off work, slept in, went to the gym (I decided to do my own Gobble Wobble 5k run....on a treadmill....it still counts right?), watched a movie, and then headed out to the Renaissance Hotel/Restaurant for our Thanksgiving feast. Sometimes it feels like we're the only Americans in China and it was wonderful to sit in a dining room with 50+ other Americans and enjoy a delicious Thanksgiving feast. It wasn't quite like being home, but it was the closest we've gotten since being here....

Pumpkin Soup yummmmmmmm

We decided we needed at least 1 photo of the two of us together on Thanksgiving :) Notice the plate overflowing with desserts ready to be consumed!

Fact: calories don't count on holidays.

The feast was delectable, the desserts were scrumptious, and overall we had a rather quite American day. Success. This morning (Friday morning for me, REAL Thanksgiving day in America), I got to talk to my family via skype. It was hilarious to see all the kiddos doing "brain suckers" and "face suckers". Sometimes skype freezes the picture during the conversation and we were lucky enough to catch this image (Prior to this photo, Jakob had been bugging Grant and Grant gave the warning "be careful, I know karate".....and we think that perhaps here he is practicing said karate on little Ellie. I'm sure she wasn't doing anything to bug him......):

I also got to talk Mr. Buntz at his Thanksgiving in California with his family. Skype truly is an incredible technological tool.

In the spirit of the holiday, I am thankful for: an awesome family that has supported me through all my adventures in life and can always make me laugh, the most incredible boyfriend a girl could ask for and who I love with all my heart, friends who pick me up when I'm down and tell me I'm cool even when I'm not (haha), a faith that hasn't always been so strong but is growing and helping me be patient with all the little (and big) things in life, a hilarious, fantastic, supportive, creative, awesome roommate who has made my life in China so much brighter and better, my opportunity to travel the world and learn new cultures and meet new people, the education that got me this far, and last (but certainly not least) I'm grateful to be an American and all the freedoms and privileges and luxuries that comes with.

In other news, 24 days until I leave China and head home for Christmas!!!!

I am in LOVE....

with the love that I'm getting from my babies! Now that I've been working at the Wangjing center for several months, most of the kiddos are used to me and will even give me some love.
Jocelyn
We have a really awesome family that is from Australia but the mom got a few months of maternity leave so they brought their baby girl, Jocelyn, to visit family here in China. This little baby is the most adorable, happy, smiley girl and I just love her. Yesterday I was holding her and she kept leaning her head towards mine. I thought this was cute and started leaning my head in so we bumped heads a couple times.....and then she decided my nose looked like a chew toy. She put her whole mouth over my nose several times and was laughing and grabbing my face. 
DouDou
I am also a big fan of my older kiddos, the 2-year-olds. By this age they're usually done being scared of me and will actively play with me. One of our first members is a little wild boy, DouDou (pronounced doe doe) who likes to run around the gym, shoot basketballs into the miniature basketball hoop, and who can throw the most amazing tantrum when he doesn't want to leave Romp n' Roll. Today when he was leaving I just happened to be walking by the door and when I asked for a hug, instead of pretending to be shy like he usually does, he practically ran up to me and gave me a great big bàobào. Then I even got a cheek-to-cheek kiss.....I think his dad told him to give me a kiss on the cheek, but who really knows. It was pretty cute and melted my heart a little.
XiaoXiao
There is another boy who wiggled his way into my heart - XiaoXiao (pronounced shaow shaow). He is absolutely adorable. At the beginning of class we ask the kiddos if they know where Rompy (our "special puppy-dog friend" stuffed animal) is hiding, and of course XiaoXiao always knows. Both of his parents speak English and he always comes to our book club that we have on Thursday afternoons. His favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and he knows that book by heart - in English! His mom told me that one night he didn't want to brush his teeth and she threatened that she was going to tell "Miss Theresa" (yep that's me) and he brushed them right away! Now he always comes up to me and shows me his teeth so I can check that they're beautiful and white! Haha. This week at book club I also learned that he can say my name! His dad kept asking XiaoXiao who I was and he finally said "Theresa Lǎoshī".....or something that sounded like my name haha. It was the most precious thing I've ever heard come out of a little Chinese baby's mouth! 
QiQi
There is one little boy who has stolen the heart of every girl in the office: QiQi (pronounced chee chee). He has the cutest little face and chubby little belly and is always happy and smiley and will laugh and giggle with anyone who stops to adore him. He is very well-loved at our center, but up until recently he has been very pretend-shy with me. I've been working my way into his heart though, and today I decided to take a chance and ask for a hug. He threw his arms around me and squeezed reeeeeeeeeeeally tight. Later he was pretending to chase me into the office so I hid behind a door and he came looking for me. I picked him up (heavy little booger) and he leaned his head on my shoulder and did that cute thing babies do where they play with your hair. I was pretty much in love.

I love love love that my favorite little ones are learning my name and giving me big hugs and loving Romp n' Roll. They are such precious little people and I'm having such an amazing opportunity to watch them grow and learn each week! Sorry about the lack of pictures in this post, I promise I will get pictures with all my kiddos soon!   

Lama Temple (no, not llama)

Last weekend Chelsie and I ventured to the Lama Temple. We've been going to get our nails done in a little hutong the whole time we've been here and the Lama Temple is right across the street from that hutong...but somehow we've never gone in! So we decided it was time. Malinda even went with us so it was lots of fun to finally know what was going on!

This is what I like about China - in all the touristy places, even the trash cans are fancy!

Thanks for coming Malinda!!

 There were lots and lots of different places for people to pray. They burn incense at the outside prayer locations. Malinda informed us that the more smoke the incense produces, the more likely your wish (prayer) will come true.

Chinese people are very superstitious - they believe that if you turn these prayer wheels it'll bring good things to your life. I figured I should get in on this.

Also, they're big on weird animals. Turtle shell, lion feet, and a dragon head. Nifty.

We also caught a glimpse of some of the lamas.

Then, unexpectedly, we stumbled across this fun fact:

The picture doesn't do it justice....this thing was at least 3 stories high.

This is where the lamas study

The seat where the Dali Lama sat to teach sutra

On our way out we saw lots of people looking into this big basin. Malinda told us that in old China they would keep water in the basin and use it to put out fires.









We also kept seeing signs on the trees and finally read one. It said "please detour during thunder storms". Are we supposed to get closer to the trees or go further away from them? Who knows....









We've also discovered a delicious fruit called persimmons. Do you know what a persimmon is? Let me tell you. It's a little fruit that looks like a tomato but is rather quite sweet and strangely mushy and slimy. Unlike tomatoes, persimmons grow on trees....nifty, eh?

 
One last note...I love love love how many couples things China has. Not seen until today: couples balloons.

798, round 2

This past weekend, Chelsie and I decided to head back to the art district, 798, once again since we haven't been since summer and they change the galleries frequently. It was like we saw a whole new place! The beautiful fall day was a perfect setting for some awesome pictures, and the weather was great! I have been very homesick for the past month or so, especially with the holidays rapidly approaching. I was feeling sad that I was missing all the Thanksgiving decorations and I was also thinking that I wouldn't see a Santa Claus until I got back to the states in December. BUT. I was wrong! There were several Santa statues around and I got very excited to see the big guy!

I love love

The art district is a very happenin' place. There is always something cool going on, and the day we went was a day full of couples taking engagement/wedding pictures. I briefly entertained the idea of coming back to China when it comes time for me to take such pictures. Or maybe I could just find a place like this somewhere in the states.....

There's always lots and lots of random statues to be found.

You say "no climb", my brain says "go climb it!"

I love the fat man

What, exactly, is this statue about?

 Aside from statues, there are also lots of interesting paintings to be seen in the ever-changing exhibits, as well as new graffiti on every graffiti-able surface...

The couple that poops together....stays together.......?

Penguin soccer! 

In a nutshell, the art district is just a place full of cool spaces and very unique things.

It's like a cartoon wall!

Chair tunnel

I love the blue window frames with the red building, then the little gazebo....it was just too much for me

It's FALL!!!!!!

I want this to be my future mailbox. How precious.

I think that this is one of the top recommended places to come in Beijing for tourists, and it was fun to see other foreigners appreciating the coolness of this place.







Plus, anybody who knows me knows that I have a slight obsession with dogs. I just love them. I love my own dogs, I love my friends' dogs, and I love to pet the dogs of willing strangers. One of the few full sentences I know in Chinese is "can I pet your dog?" Like I said....just a slight obsession. Sadly, these Chinese dogs are trained since infancy to ignore everybody except their owner and thus I haven't met very many curious dogs wanting to be pet by me. This trip to the art district must have been fate then, because as we were walking back in an area that was under construction we saw a little puppy and from the moment we locked eyes, I just knew this little guy wanted me to pet him. He came bounding over, not shy at all, and was running in between my feet and licking my hands and just all sorts of happy to see me. This is what a dog should be like. I was in Heaven.

 (The size of this picture should clue you in to how excited I was in this moment.)