Good morning sheep!

I wake up this morning to head to the bus stop and this is the first thing I saw...

I had to walk around the corner to the front, just to make sure I was seeing correctly

Yep....! I was right. Two sheep tied to the bus stop post. I stood next to them for a few minutes and then just couldn't resist not asking around whose they were. No one knew. Apparently their shepherd had walked away to buy somethings.

Have I mentioned lately that I love where I live and its never a dull day here! :)

Questions I'm asked daily

Literally almost everyday I am asked these questions and almost in this same order, by people on the street, shopkeepers, taxi drivers, everyone:

• What country are you from? (this is usually my favorite question because it can go two different ways)

-I have them guess where I am from, and most of the time they guess Russian
-Or I say I'm Chinese! This is when they take a double look and start to smile and laugh! :)

• "Wow! Your Chinese is so good! Can you really speak Chinese?" (at this point in the conversation I've only said two or three words)
  
• Can you use chopsticks?
• How long have you been here?
• How long will you stay?
  
• How old are you? (where they usually guess I'm between 17-23)
• Do you have a boyfriend? If not, can I help you find one and set you up?
  
• Would you be willing to marry a Chinese guy?
  
• Are you a student here or working?
• Will you be a teacher?
• Do you like Chinese food?
• Do you like/can you eat spicy foods? (the city where I live has very spicy food-which is amazing)!
  
• Do you like living here? and why?
• Can I have your phone number?
• Can I have your QQ number? (a Chinese instant messaging program online)
• How much is your rent a month? (asking about the prices of things is a common conversation topic)
  

Chinese Fire Cupping

Fire cupping is a form of traditional medicine. Its dated back to thousands of years ago. When you get a massage here most people also opt to get fire cupping done too. This is the first time I've seen it done on a street and with wooden cups (instead of glasses).

Light the paper in the cup and decrease the aipressure to create a suction on the skin


The result

Visiting my friend

Went down south to visit my friend and her family!

Cooking jiaozi (饺子） dumplings
!

Her mom also cooked us an amazing lunch!

Her mom teaching me how to make them

her mom makes some of the best jiaozi I've ever had

Fish brought back from their hometown

Playing basketball!

One of the biggest Christmas trees I've ever seen!

Downtown

The street in front of their house and where we stayed

Making Christmas Cookies!

I invited one of my closest friends over to make cookies! We made roughly eight dozen Christmas cookies! It was her first time making cookies, it was a blast!

Imported cookie cutters!

Baking in our very small oven! (which definitely took awhile since we made eight dozen)

Lots and lots of sugar cookies! Also, icing is expensive to get at the import store... so we made it homemade, it turned out great! (Yes... you see pink icing... that was supposed to be red... but for some reason it came out pink) ???

Four hours and eight dozen cookies later, my kitchen and us were completely covered in sugar, flour, and cookie dough!

The disater zone in my kitchen!

The mess! ps thanks Rach for sending the sprinkles! Really appreciated it! It was fun using them!