Heather's B-Day and Thanksgiving

We celebrated Heather's 25th birthday yesterday. The day started off with Heather and Jenny going out for breakfast, on their way to the restaurant they had an interesting experience. As they stepped off the curb to cross the street Heather grabbed Jenny because a man riding a bike was coming towards them. Jenny quickly jumped back, but the man started to swerve and wiped out. China is a shame based culture so it's not always best to run up to someone who has been humiliated and help them, because it will only make them feel worse. So he got up and totally looked shamed and there was nothing Jenny or Heather could do to
That night Heather and I got a babysitter for the girls and went out to dinner. We had a relaxing time at a restaurant here named The Village, which makes Western food. Heather had enchiladas and I had a burger, both were good. Afterwards we did a little shopping and picked up some movies for Heather's birthday present. I also would like to say that Heather is amazing and I hope that she is able to make it through another 25 years. 25 and alive I like to say.

Today we celebrated Thanksgiving, and it was a tough day to say the least. We missed home, family and tradition. Some days here are so good and other days are difficult, today was a really difficult day. It didn't help that my brother and his son have both had the flu lately, and we couldn't be with them. Also, a good friend of ours here had a motorcycle accident recently and has been really banged up. As you know a typical Thanksgiving feast would include; turkey, mashed potatoes, gravey, corn, dinner rolls, sweet potatoes, jello weirdness, and many more wonderful things... our Thanksgiving feast included, pizza and coke. So yeah, it was a little different. It was kinda funny tonight, because we had a couple of our neighbors over for a visit. They are Korean and have been here one month longer then us and only know a few English words. What's funny about this is that we were all communicating in Chinese and none of us are actually chinese! This is our life, and that was a fun little time.

with love,
the petersons

Language And More

First off, I'm sorry that I've been a bit lazy lately by not posting often. I wanted to give a quick update about my (Matt) language. I have a Chinese friend here and his name is Xia Tian, he speaks very little English. And I've really wanted to spend some time with him, but because of the language barrier I haven't. Well after my brother encouraged me to just try it, I gave him a call. We went out a couple of Saturday's ago and hung out for like 2 or 3 hours and had a blast. I can say that we spoke for 2 hours or so all in Chinese! It was awesome for our friendship and from a language stand point. I did bring some of my school books along to help me, but that was it. I look forward to getting better with the language so that we can both understand each other better as we continue to grow our friendship.

Well Heather's Birthday is coming up this week (hint for all of you to write her) and to her delight we got two packages in the past week, which really made her day. First, my mom sent a bunch of stuff for the girls and all of it was super cute, along with that Heather got some birthday lovens in the form of candy and a card. Then a few days ago Heather got a package from her parents that had a bunch of stuff in there for everyone, along with a few Birthday cards. Sydney got a ballerina dress and shoes and hasn't takin them off yet... we're going on her 72nd hour as a ballerina... just kidding, but not that much.

Lastly, we got a Christmas tree and decorations!!! Yeah, the entire time Heather and I have been married, never have we owned a Christmas tree. So it's funny that our first one to own is in China. Either way we got the tree set-up and some lights around the apartment and scattered around as well are Santa's and miniature Christmas trees. This may seem a bit early for decorating your apartment, but in China we are ahead in time zones so it's actually December 18th... just kidding. But it helps us missing home to have our apartment decorated a bit.

Peace,
the petersons

I Can't Believe It...

So you may be wondering why we haven't been posting lately and why I titled this post "I Can't Believe It...", well here is your explanation.

This past Saturday Heather was at the gym and Sydney was napping, so I (Matt) was relaxing a bit. I was playing my PS2, listening to a Podcast and sipping on a Coke. Sydney woke up from her nap and I slyly slide my Coke around where I was sitting, next to my computer so that she wouldn't see it and ask for a drink (I know that it's terrible that I didn't want to share, but hey, at least I'm honest). Soon after Heather arrived home from her trip to the gym and we were all in the living room. Heather told Sydney that it was time to go potty, at which, Sydney began to run away from her. And in slow motion I watched as "someone" who shall remain nameless (but let's call her, ummmm, H. Peterson, no, no, no, that might give it away, we will call her Heather P.) goes to leap over the computer to catch her escaping daughter. As she leaps she tips the Coke over onto the computer and sends me into a mild to extreme panic. I rush to grab some towels to dry off the computer and Heather immediately flips it over to dry it off. It wasn't a TON of Coke, but it covered the lower portion of the keyboard and when if comes to computers it doesn't take much to ruin them, so I was worried to say the least. To our credit (Heather and I) we both stayed pretty calm, considering our computer is our only way to connect with friends/family at home as well as a huge part of our entertainment here in China.

Well after 20 minutes of letting the computer sit I turned it on and it loads fine and then just shuts off.... my heart sinks as I begin to think of how much money that we don't have will have to go to a computer we desperately need. I go to turn it on again, and again, and again, each time the only response I got from the computer was the power light struggling to stay illuminated, and a black screen. And trust me it wasn't because the battery was dead, because I had been charging it. So for two days I randomly try to turn on the computer and to my horror it continually doesn't work. Then today (Monday) I thought I should give it a try and as soon as I pressed the power button I knew something was different... all the lights on the front of the computer came on. But still I wasn't going to let my emotions go there. But after a few more minutes my heart was filled with joy as my computer came back to life. I'm using it for this very post. I seriously can't believe that it works. And I can't believe this story is so long either. Heather doesn't know that the computer is fixed and I'm super happy to tell her when she gets back from the gym, to celebrate I have two large Cokes next to the computer... just kidding.

I have more to write because of the few days away, but I will wait.

with joy and from our fully functional computer,
the petersons

Heather's Chinese and More

So I usually update how my (Matt) language is coming, but have not talked much about Heather's Chinese. For this I'm deeply sorry. Heather as you may or may not know has been being tutored for the past 3 months or so, 2 hours a day for 3 days a week. She has been doing incredibly well. Sometimes we try to speak Chinese around the house, but it usually consists of, "do you like this", "can you give me that", or some random word that will slip out from time to time. Heather's teacher last week told her that she is doing really well, and it means a lot to Heather to have her say that. Her tutor is not one to say something like that if it's not true. And more and more she is able to understand questions that locals will ask when we are out. She is a stud.

Quick story, when we moved here there was an odd plastic bowl in our kitchen. We converted this bowl into our Popcorn bucket, which lets be honest, every home needs. It wasn't until 4 MONTHS LATER that we found out that this particular bowl is for parents to take with them when they are out of the house and let their kids go to the bathroom in it. Wow, that was funny and embarrassing. Since then it has remained our popcorn bucket. Don't worry we've washed it a million times, but we can never wash our memories of its history.

We had a day last week where the power in our apartment went out for the whole day. We took the stairs each time we left our apartment. Also, our apartment was lit only by the soft light of the day and at night we used candles to make our way around. As I sat on the window ledge, in the warm glow of the candle light. I looked down over the crowded hustle and bustle of the street below, and noticing the Chinese neon glowing billboards across the street I thought to myself, "This must have been how the pioneers of America felt."

Another quick side note, this past week I won like 6 or 7 Snickers bars. The wrappers here can instantly win you another candy bar and I won like 5 in a row... It was a crowning achievement of my short life.

Lastly, I added a quick video of the girls and I playing. Here's the link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkZKHPSLJgI.

with joy,
the petersons

P.S. Just to keep you posted, in my last post I mentioned that there would be an opportunity coming up to maybe do some stuff with the orphanage here, but it looks like it's not going to work out.

Orphanage Trip

So today I skipped school to go with some my brother and some friends to an Orphanage here in Xi'an. We spent the morning playing with the children and helping in anyway we could. There are about 20 or so kids that are with this particular home and about 7 workers (that were there when we were). It was a difficult situation to step into to say the least. But it was also very encouraging to see that these children were taken care of very well. All the children in this home have deformities and/or handicaps. When I asked how the children come to the home the lady who was accompanying us told us that all these children had been abandoned by their parents due to their handicap/deformity. Some though had been abandoned because their family could not afford the medical costs that their child needed. The children's deformities ranged from having cleft pallets to issues with their hands or feet. I was so amazed to see the childcare workers there taking care of these kids in such a self-sacrificing way, and the lady with us even told us that the women working there are incredibly devoted to these kids. All of them working there carry a very deep love and are motivated by something greater then them. Another facet of this home is that they work with getting families setup to adopt the kids. Currently they have had over 200 of these kids adopted through them. We got to hold them, play with them and help feed them and I hope to get to go back in the future. I will say this also, it is a very special thing to be able to pick up a child and not only tell them, but show them that they are valuable and that they are loved. I'm going to be putting something together to help this home out in the next couple of weeks, so make sure to drop in if your interested in this issue.

with love,
matt, heather, sydney and little aubrey

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

A Lot To Report! (Part 1)

So, wow a lot has been going on lately. But I will start with what I'm most proud of. My wife has been down for a while when thinking about her birthday, because a lot of friends of ours here are going to be in the States during her birthday. So a few weeks ago I came up with the idea of throwing her a surprise birthday WAYYY before her birthday when her friends were still in town. Well today was the day for the surprise birthday (only about 3 weeks early!). It was setup like this, I had Jeremy and Jenny come over tonight for a couple of hours to watch the girls so that Heather and I could go out for dinner. We went to Pizza Hut and while we were out a dozen or so friends (Chinese and American) went to our apartment. By the time we showed up there were balloons scattered all over, flowers and (my favorite part) chocolate cake, cheese cake and ice cream!!! When we walked into the apartment everyone yelled "SURPRISE!", because that is what you do at surprise birthday's and Heather was in total shock. Her face was a mixture of "is this really happening" and "what is going on". After I explained to her that we were all there to celebrate her birthday I gained tons of points (which I already have tons of and to be honest don't know what to do with all of them). It was a blast and I'm glad it went well. Heather had no idea.

Other then that we also got to watch Levi this morning to give my brother and his wife a free morning, it was a lot of fun to have him here... he is a stud. Yesterday, Jenny (our sister-in-law) ran a half-marathon which was awesome. For those of you who have been reading our blog for a while this was the same marathon Heather was training to run in. But since her back and knee injuries she wasn't able to run it this year (sad face). She was super excited about doing it this year, and I know that if it weren't for injuries she would have done it.

Much love to all of you I'm hoping to post again in the next couple of days with all the other stuff I want to fill you in on... here's a preview, Sydney being Sydney.

until then,
matt, heather, sydney, and little aubrey