Tuesday, April 20, 2010

TGIF!

Again with no photos to prove it, you'll just have to take our word for it that we worked like some politicians today (i.e. We took a six-hour lunch) and went to TGIFriday's for a nice lunch and we chased down some canned green beans. These wily beans can only be obtained at a great price from one store in our town of over a million people.

So after nabbing the beans, we went to a few more stores and then showed Mom one of our favorite ways to pass time around here. We sat in traffic on the highway for an hour. In the rain.
You can get a feel for what an awesome time we've shown her. No other guest has had so few photos taken or eaten so little curry. We'll see if we can't do a bit better tomorrow.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Out and About

We got an invitation to hang out with some new friends on Sunday and crammed about 3 days worth of experience into 5 hours or so. We had fish chips (not to be confused with "fish and chips" these are chips made of fish). Looked at fruit trees (including mangosteen, rambutan, mango, durian, lime, pulasan, water apple, and banana. We also saw some pineapple growing (they don't grow on trees). And were swarmed by mosquitos. All this in about an hour!
After that we went to this "green area" and met a lot more people, sat around in a small building, and ate a bit. Here are the ladies all gathered together.
The interesting thing was that this small building was built sticking out over a pond. Every time a new person joined us, I wondered how many people the fire marshall had rated that place to hold. Someone would walk in and I would wait for us all to collapse into the water but we never did. You can see the edge of the building in the photo below. Sorry we didn't get a better outside shot of it.
Here is Mom enjoying all the excitement. She appreciates that we try to have all our conversations in the local language but also knows most of these people speak English, too, and so probably feels a bit bored and left out a lot.
If you normally see her in KY, you may not recognize that dark circle around her hair. We're not really sure what it is but its been there since she arrived...

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Freedom

We've no photographic evidence to prove it but we did finally take Mom out of the house today. So far we'd only fed her take out, peanut butter, and pinto beans with cornbread. She has been a trooper, though.

Sunday was a tough call since we didn't know if we should go to church ... but we heard we're good to go out, only to get another invitation. This way she will get to see what life can be like. You meet a person on Saturday and then they invite you to their town the next day. Of course you accept and off you go. To where? To do what? To eat what? HA! Until you get there, no one knows.

That is our plan with her tomorrow. Take her on an adventure with people we don't know and the only promise that we can make is that if they give us food, Craig will eat most of it. All she has to do is take some and leave it on her plate.

This is excitement! Be a trooper around here, will you? Well, then we'll take it to the next level!!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Quarantine

So with some sickness floating around, Grandma is getting in plenty of time with the kids. She was pressed into duty to watch over Bethany and Hudson while we were at the hospital with Caleb. Then she was alone with them most of the day today. She seems to be hanging in there, though. What a trooper!!

Monday, April 12, 2010

When its Normal its Not So Fun...

In the past we've documented some excitement with Mountain Dew here. (I thought we had some more and poured over most of the old titles but didn't see any more, maybe there are others buried in these hundreds of blog posts.) Just last week we told you about finding Mountain Dew in local supermarket.

Then on Friday we found these cans in a cooler at a restaurant near our house. Just 50 cents each! Notice its right next to the RUT BIR (aka root beer) and near the Kick-A-Poo Joy Juice off to the left.
Now we're not even surprised to find bottles at the gas station. Seems the Mountain Dew floodgates have been opened.
This would be much more exciting for us if Angie and/or I actually liked Mountain Dew. At least the kids are excited. Now if someone would start carrying Big Red, I might never go home.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Overheard while playing LIFE


Early on its always like, "You have to get married before you have kids." Or something like, "I'm a two-thousand-aire."

But before you know it people are saying, "Hurry up I'm sick of playing this game." Then someone starts crying because Dad has $3 million and a PhD. But, really, who is keeping track??

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Monkeys are DANGEROUS (and Cute)

Not too long ago we stayed at a hotel and this sticker was on our balcony door. A few days later we saw why ... coming back from the pool we saw some monkeys attacking a hotel maid's cart and they stole a bunch of sugar packets and ran off while the maids screamed at them.
It wasn't this kind of monkey. This monkey is a sweet, flower-eating monkey.
This sweet, leaf-eating monkey is called a Dusky leaf-monkey. The rascal kind of monkey is the one below. They steal eggs, sugar packets, soft drinks, and other junk if you are not careful. Local folks look at them like many people would look at a raccoon. How cute they are depending on whether or not they are stealing your stuff or not.
It was this kind of monkey, a Long-tailed-macaque that came after us at the zoo one time. We were just walking along, trying to finish our zoo day when we came upon a troop of them raiding some trash cans. Our party was divided: Do we go way back around or Do we just walk coolly through?

Our friend decided to try to push on. Their alpha male decided we shouldn't. Wow! A stand-off! We waited and watched, too tense to take any pictures of the ensuing chaos.
Not it was a Proboscis Monkey like this. But a macaque like the one above. Well, this monkey has chosen the wrong dude. We had us a good 'ole fashioned Barren County alpha male competition (between an Asian dude and a monkey)! The monkey made the first mistake when he lunged but didn't attack! You know like a middle school kid will do.
It certainly wasn't an orangutan. They are friendly and not living in trees near the zoo. So, anyway, the story ...

Any good guy from Park City knows if you're gonna jump, you better land on the dude. This monkey lunged but didn't commit. My friend held his ground. The monkey lunged again! This time our friend had enough, he went crazy and kicked the trash can they were raiding. Then he grabbed the can lid and threw it at the monkey. It reminded me of being back at Fairdale!
Listen, it wasn't a white-handed gibbon. Focus! It was a macaque. And when that trash can lid went flying, so did that troop of monkeys. What a bunch of losers!! **Spoken by the guy who wanted to turn back and go around the long way.**
So remember, if you see a macaque trailing you to your car or eyeing your trash can. There are some things you can do. First, avoid eye contact. Second, back away if you can. Third, if you are determined to go forward, just start going ballistic and throw a trash can lid like you haven't ever been out of Temple Hill. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to take him. Special note, if you are from Tompkinsville, just go ahead and bite him. He is much more likely to get rabies from you than you are from him.




Special note to people from "Town" (i.e. T-ville), Temple Hill, or Park City. I'm just kidding. Please don't kill me. If you are from Fairdale or you are a middle school kid, you know its true...

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Mountain Dew

If you've followed us at all, you know that Mountain Dew is basically impossible to find where we live. So imagine our surprise when we went to the grocery and found this:
We were so lucky only Bethany was with us. Had her reaction been multiplied by three, surely security would have insisted we leave. It was wild enough when we got home.
So an amazing find and less than $1 each. I initially told Bethany with the exchange rate, each bottle cost around $8 and so the three were just about $25. "Is it a good deal?" I asked. "Yeah," she answered "Get them." A good deal always depends on whose money is being spent...

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Unlucky

This from an elevator at a friends house where cultures seem to collide. Why you ask? Just look:
You see the number 4 is unlucky in Chinese culture since it sounds like the word for death. So its not uncommon to find a building that goes from 2 to 3 to 3A to 5.

But this building must have enough Western exposure that people also feel 13 is unlucky also. Hence you have 12 then 12A then 12B. YIKES!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Easter Eggs

Thanks to Maria we had some Easter egg dye stored up and the kids got to color some eggs on Saturday. Easter around here isn't a holiday (though, oddly, in some places Good Friday is and everyone knows that holiday). In that environment its kind of easy for Easter to sneak right up on you.
One limiting factor is that our eggs here are brown and not white. Don't feel bad for us, recently one of the kids saw eggs on some American TV show and commented how the eggs were obviously fake since they were white. Brown ones are a bit harder to color, though.
So many choices. So many ideas. You could almost hear the creativity.
The finished products. They all kind of came out with a reddish tint.
On Sunday afternoon we took the opportunity to hide the eggs around the house since it had been raining most of the day Saturday and Sunday.
Bethany is a great hunter. The first to catch her limit for the hunt.
H-man was pretty proud, too. Caleb is getting so old it was harder for him to find any eggs but he got his share, too.
After all the eggs were recovered, Bethany hid them again for Mom and Dad to find. And guess who the winner was ... MOM! Just like last year.
The closest we got to an Easter Bunny was this guy at the mall but we think it was just a coincidence. Holidays here have alot of the Western culture stripped away and you can make all kinds of new traditions.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Can you say YUMMY?!?

Need some help with this one? Well, we'd be happy to interpret. Its for the "Eat Local Goat (Meat) Promotion" and its very exciting!
We say Goat (Meat) because here we don't have words like beef but instead say cow meat. Isn't that nice? Well, its really only true in a technical sense. That is how the rules work but its not how people talk. You should say, "I'd like some chicken meat." But really you just say "chicken" and people get the "meat" from the context (since you're standing in front of a ton of dead chickens).

Same can go for fish meat but not for pig meat since none of my neighbors would dare touch it! Its kind of bad that we have extra words added into English. Think of it: beef, pork, mutton. All extra vocabulary words you needed to learn. You'd never say you wanted to eat cow, pig, or goat (but I know you would just say lamb, fish, or chicken). Language is a tricky thing!

At any rate, all this is just to say that eating GOAT MEAT is the healthy choice. Especially if its local goat meat, right? No green house gases from trucking in goats from Canada or somewhere. And goats just eat things like tin cans and garbage (I learned this from Bugs Bunny cartoons).

Go back up and notice the fact breakdown above: Goat has only 2.6 grams of fat, whereas lamb (bebiri) has 8.1, beef (lembu) has 7.9, and ayam (chicken) 6.3. Nothing is healthier than good, local goat. And just so you know ... I am not even kidding. Tender goat in a spicy curry is worth a long wait. And find a big ole goat laid out on a spit and slow roasted over charcoal, you won't be in the steak line that is for sure.

In conclusion, you should eat more local goat. Its tasty and low in fat. Also, I am happy that around here we just take the word 'meat' and then say what kind it is. Not so much vocab to memorize.