Part 2

Also, I wanted to mention (in the 2 part series) that we had a great time this past Friday at my brother’s house. Jeremy and Jenny put on a Halloween party and baked tons of treats. We actually got Sydney; some wings, a crown and a wand…. Sounded good to do, unfortunately the wings were too big, the crown was too small and the wand…. Well to be honest I don’t remember what even happened to the wand. We tried, we failed, but there’s always next year.

A couple of days before Halloween we got to experience a cultural ceremony here in China. There are, from what I can tell, a couple days a year where people will burn things to give to their ancestors. It is pretty crazy to see. As I was walking by an intersection near our home there were a hundred or so piles of ash and others still gathered around their fire. Definitely an experience you wouldn’t see in the States, I attached some pictures for you to get an idea of what it looked like. Don’t worry my flash was turned off for most of the pictures I took (I didn’t want to invade anyone’s space).

Sydney pooped on the potty twice last week!!! Heather and I have been patently training our young princess to go on the toilet. Peeing is not as much of an issue, pooping however is terrible. She just doesn’t go on the toilet. Anyways, last week she went twice on the toilet which instantly sent Heather and I into a mild panic. But don’t worry the trend was soon broken and hasn’t returned this week. At this rate I’m thinking we will be training her right up until her wedding, ok that’s a bit dramatic, but you get the picture.

Lastly (of this 2 part series), Heather and I have needed to get jackets for the past few weeks and recently we went and picked some out. They have tons of North Face jackets here, or as the foreigners here like to call them “North Fakes”. We call them this because 90% of the North Face stuff sold here is fake and/or a defective item. But that is ok with Heather and I because the jackets we got are sweet. I hate to brag (but I do it as much as I can), but I talked Heather’s jacket down to 140 RMB (one guy was selling it for 540 RMB) from 340 or so RMB. And I talked my jacket down from 380 RMB to 185 RMB. So both jackets were roughly $24 USD a piece. NOT BAD! And seriously, even though I started this story saying that the jackets are fake, they are really nice.

filled with joy,

the petersons

Here are some Chinese people burning some things to offer them to there Ancestors

There were a hundred or so of these piles in one area