Welcome our NEW family member!

She's a furry white bundle of energy.  Since we got her at the local bird and flower market the day before Easter we named her Lily.  She's been keeping us on our toes because she is VERY active and curious.  She likes to get into everything.  Currently she is sleeping in Logan's room at night.  That's where her litter box and food are located.

  

She sure adds a little excitement to our lives here.  Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Around Town

Life has settled down into a somewhat predictable schedule recently.  We're all three busy with language classes.  Logan has a home tutor for language and he's picking it up very quickly.  In our spare time we do enjoy exploring around the city and finding new places of interest.  It's a great way to meet people.  I guess you can say we sorta stick out like a sore thumb here.  Everybody wants to talk to Logan (not necessarily to us).  He's a local celebrity, being the only foreign kid in a city of about a million people.  Many days while we're out and about someone will shout out his name and come running over to say hello.  Usually these are people we've never met...but somehow know our son.

We had a good snow a few weeks ago, but the weather has warmed up nicely and everything is just about in full bloom now.  We'll take pictures of all the flowers and post another blog soon.  In the meantime enjoy the pictures below of some places around town we've explored recently...

Driving lessons at the park

 

Making friends at a local airport

Overlooking a small part of the city

Making a snowball

A stroll down by the river

A BIG Birthday Bash

On February 9th a local celebrity here celebrated his birthday.  No one really knows how old he is.  No one seems able to tell us EXACTLY who he is (was), but he's a pretty important fellow around here.  Who is this man below?  Give up?

His name is Fuxi and he is supposedly the first ancestor of the people here...we think.  Sorta like Adam from the garden of Eden.  There is a rather large temple complex in the city that

houses several of his images, some small, some larger than life.  

Fuxi is always depicted wearing leaves as his covering and has a good bit of facial hair.  Several thousand people flock here each year from all over China, Korea and Japan to pay homage to Fuxi (and ask him for blessings for financial prosperity and health in the coming year).  They bring offerings of fruit, assorted drinks and money which are presented before his images along with burning incense.

The folks here take Fuxi very seriously.  He is a local hero and adds to an already ancient history.  The area around our city has a history dating back reportedly over 7,000+ years.  Now that's old!

Finally here!

We've made it!  Been here in our new hometown for three weeks plus now and getting adjusted well.  We've settled into our new apartment on campus and are busy studying language daily on the street (classes don't start until March 16 officially).

We're buying vegetables and meat on the street from local vendors, going out to eat every few days, taking in the sights and clicking a lot of photos, as you can tell.

The sights, smells, sounds and tastes of a new home are always interesting.  The other day Wayne actually ate some donkey meat from a street vendor (brave!)  

Here is a short video you'll enjoy.  YES, we have a KFC in our city!!!  PTL

Here are some pics of Logan with his new friends.