I forgot to mention one thing about picking up my brother the other day from the airport. A couple of friends and I we're going to pick him up. The driver was a Chinese man, who spoke no English (or at least very little). Before we got to the airport we explained to him that I was going to ask questions and answer him in Chinese… but since I don't speak much Chinese it wasn't going to make sense, and he would be a part of playing this joke on my brother. He was totally in. So we got Jeremy and his family into the van and my friend says "Matt, could you tell the driver we would like to stop at McDonalds on our way home?", and I said "sure". I started to tell the driver we wanted McDonald's in Chinese and the whole time I was saying stuff like "to go", "dumplings", "Let's go", "park here", "pork"… The driver acted just like what I said made sense and each time he said something back to me, I would say "yeah (or right)" like I understood it, when in reality I had no clue. At one point my friend was talking with the driver (my friend actually speaks good Chinese) and my brother leans over to me and asks "do you understand what they are saying?", "yeah" I said, "they are talking about how there are 2 McDonald's in Xi'an, and how there is one in the north and the other in the south, and that the driver lives by the one in the north" (totally made that up). My brother was astonished at my progress with the language. So young.
I also wanted to give a quick update on our precious daughter Sydney. It's pretty common for girls here to shave their heads, and Heather wanted Sydney's hair to grow in thicker. We have talked about shaving it before, and one thing lead to another, and we shaved her head. It's totally cute. You should check out the pic at the bottom of the page. Now that both Sydney and I (Matt) have our heads shaved, I will say "shaved heads" and rub my head against Sydney's. She loves it! We've also been throwing a week long (maybe longer) "Potty Party" to get her potty trained. Right now our house is littered with signs encouraging Sydney to use the toilet and to dance after she's done. Anyway, never a dull moment here in Xi'an!
Lastly, I've written too many corrections about this, so this will be my last. Both garbage and water spraying trucks play the Happy Birthday song, Bu hao yi si (I'm so embarrassed, in Chinese and real Chinese not the Chinese you use in a van to mess with your little brother).
"Sydney's new hair cut"
"A pretty smile from a pretty girl"
"Just a little encouragment"
"That's right we party none stop here"
"The real deal party of the century"
From the exciting town of Xi'an,
The petersons
