Happy "Sanks"giving!!!!!!!

On Thanksgiving day, we went to dinner with one of the “head honcho” ladies from our school. She’s actually a retired teacher, but works for the local education bureau and comes twice a week to our school. If we need ANYTHING she gets it for us. For instance during the extreme weather change, she hooked us up with a space heater and multiple blankets for our room! A huge help! We meet with her on Tuesday afternoons for about an hour and she gets to practice her English. She has three children, two of which live in the states, so she loves talking about that and comparing lifestyles. She’s been to the states numerous times so at least we have something to talk about. She took us to a great restaurant about thirty minutes from school and we had the ever so delicious Beijing roast duck. It reminded Jordan and me of Christmas 2007 when we had roast duck for dinner in Beijing with Mitzi & Katie. So now, it almost seems normal to have roast duck on special holidays! We ordered a pumpkin dish and a green bean dish to help make it feel a little more like Thanksgiving. It was a great evening, other than the fact that Jordan had been fighting a bad cold and was a little under the weather.

What makes me laugh about the whole night or whenever she takes us anywhere, our school driver drives us in his personal car as opposed to the school van. Apparently he picks her up every Tuesday and Thursday and takes her home too! So if that tells you anything about her “rank”… Her husband accompanied us to dinner along with our driver. Neither the driver nor her husband speaks English which just makes dinner even more interesting. At some point in every conversation, the driver, her husband, or I do not know what’s being said.

Friday night we got together with some others from the group in our area. I mentioned before that there were a lot of couples here and about eight of us got together for a traditional Thanksgiving meal. And when I say traditional, I mean the whole nine yards! EVEN a TURKEY! I know you’re thinking, “Where can you find turkey for Thanksgiving in China?” Well, no other than SAM’S CLUB of course!!! Yes, there’s a Sam’s Club right here in good ‘ol Shenzhen!!!! So our Friday night was complete with mashed potatoes, turkey, cranberry sauce, bread, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, apple pie and even a pumpkin pie! We each brought a dish or two for the festivities! WE WERE STUFFED!!! It only seemed right to have this large meal on Friday since it would have actually been Thanksgiving Day at home! =) One of the guys that came to the dinner is a huge NFL fan and bought some sort of ESPN package that allows him to watch the games overseas. He brought his laptop to the dinner and we all sat around afterwards to watch the Texas vs. Texas A&M game!

Saturday, we had a pot luck style dinner with the whole group at one of the schools were a couple of people from the group teach. Jordan and I decided that we should let our Southern roots show and provided some fried chicken and mac & cheese! Jordan did a great job frying up the chicken in our wok! The chicken was a huge hit at the afternoon dinner and delicious too! =) After eating, Jordan and some of the guys played a game of football on the school field and they loved every minute of it! It was hilarious to watch all the Chinese guys go up to the sideline and just stare!

Sunday, we did our normal Sunday routine which is to take the bus into Nanshan and go to church. It has been such a blessing that we’ve not only found an English church, but the friends we’ve made there too! After church we usually make a quick stop at some Western grocery stores (which when I say grocery store, try to imagine a 1990ish style convenient store food/candy section only…(nothing as large as a QuikTrip) packed with ceiling to floor shelves and over crowded with boxes even on the floor! =) It’s crammed, but a familiar feeling of home goods! After grabbing a bite to eat we get back on the J1 bus and head home so I can tutor in the afternoon.

We love you and hope you’re Thanksgiving was a wonderful time with family and friends.

We so thankful for each one of you! Lots of love,
Tyler & Jordan