Wow! What a New Year's Eve!

We wish all of our Chinese friends in China, the U.S. and Canada, a very HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

Today is New Year's Eve in China. Since only Archer and Wendy from our Chinese group were in town, we had our family meeting at our apartment early. They had a train to catch at noon to go visit Wendy's family for New Year's holidays.

Kee Willis, a young university student from Texas, has been staying with us this week. He went with us to a restaurant next door to our apartment for lunch. The menu had pictures but no English so selection was a bit of a guess. We had fried corn, which I've had somewhere before. It's battered and fried and sliced into pizza size wedges. Kee selected a pork and celery dish. Ron chose a green vegetable (they have many kinds of greens in China), some fried patties that ended up to be thin slices of beef that was battered and fried. Ron also ordered some finger shaped pastries that had a cream filling. This meal cost about $23 but we brought the left-overs home and there was plenty for our dinner tonight. It was not quite as good heated in the microwave, but still better than my cooking.

Since I have not been outside the apartment in three weeks, except to go to the family meeting last Sunday, I wanted to go shopping this afternoon. After some research on the computer, I located several shopping centers that might carry Northface jackets.

We got off the subway and went immediately into a huge shopping center underground. We literally walked from floor to floor in and around shops for the next three hours without locating any Northface jackets. We found everything else but looking for something specific was like looking for a needle in a hay stack. We went to two large department stores in the same area where they carry every brand of clothing imaginable (that is, except Northface jackets)! These were very expensive stores but were still crowded with shoppers. It seems that the economy has not hurt people in Beijing. They were out shopping in droves.

We checked out a large bookstore because I wanted to buy a book to read on the plane going home. I refused to buy any because the prices were almost twice as high as in the U.S. Ron said it's because books in English are exported and they have to pay duty on them.

Stores will be closed for the next couple of days because of the holidays, but we will try another area about middle of the week and see if we have any better luck finding specific things we were looking for today. We may have to go to the Silk Road Market, where we found the jackets last time. The Silk Road is an outside market with booths lined up down an alleyway. I was not certain they are open this week with the extremely cold weather and strong wind. It was still cold and windy today, although it has moderated a little since earlier in the week when it was 10 degrees F. and winds were from the North at 25-35 mph. Today, it was about 35 F. with winds 5-10 mph.

When we got off the subway, we stopped at a bakery that Ron has threatened to go in ever since we arrived in Beijing. We bought a loaf of bread for making toast and he selected some small tarts that had a custard filling. Kee and I made ourselves a cup of coffee and we enjoyed them as soon as we got home.

Once it got dark tonight, fireworks started. We have been standing at our bedroom windows looking out at fireworks for the past two hours. It is unbelievable but it's like a panoramic view of continuous fireworks. We are on the 12th floor overlooking a main street and the fireworks are being shot from the street below us and from rooftops of other buildings all around us. You can't get much closer than our window view because we could almost reach out and touch them. It is hard to do anything else when you can stand by the window and have them bursting at our window level right in front of our eyes. It's been non-stop all around us so anywhere you look, you see beautiful fireworks. It's been a fabulous sight. Ron said it makes our 4th of July celebrations look sick. These are not more beautiful. In fact, they may not be quiet as pretty, but the fact that they are so close to us and the explosions are continuous had made it spectacular. There are also just noisy firecrackers going off all the time. It is such a loud noise, it is setting off burglar alarms of parked cars all around us. They are setting fireworks off in the middle of our street right in front of Happy Inn International Hotel. Cars have to drive very cautiously in and around them in the street. They are braver than I would be to be out driving tonight. We don't know if the fireworks will continue on past midnight and beyond or not. They have not slowed down for the past three hours. This is probably going on all over the city and if you could only know how large Beijing is, you would realize that they have spent a very large amount of money for fireworks this evening. If they go all night, we will not get to sleep.

Tonight, Ron has received computer New Year cards, phone calls and text messages from nearly everyone in our Chinese group. People have been so accepting and appreciative of us making the trip to China for them. They can't believe someone our age can do so much traveling and continually work like we do, but they see our compassion for helping others and for saving souls.

Since I have no important news to report, I'll tell you a little about my cooking in China. We have no problem finding every kind of vegetable you can imagine (except yellow squash, maybe). The vegetables are fresher and larger than what we find in the U.S. Leaks are slender but about two feet tall. I've never seen them grow so tall. Celery is the same way. I have to cut the bunches in half to get them in the vegetable bin. Many kinds of fresh mushrooms are available in all markets. Ron said they grow more mushrooms in China than in any country of the world. We have gotten good fish, pork and chicken. The Japanese food market has every kind of seafood (fresh and frozen). Everything is displayed to look good and there is no odor whatsoever in the market. I don't know how they manage that with all of the fresh seafood. None of the food is as expensive as in the U.S. but we buy only a little at a time because we have a small refridgerator and we have to carry everything, including the water we drink.

I boil water to wash vegetable and cook with because the water from the faucet is probably not safe for drinking. We have not gotten sick the entire time we've been here so most restaurants are safe. We warned Kee not to eat food cooked and sold on the streets. Some of it looks and smells delicious but not safe (bacteria-wise) for Americans.

It's been a challenge to cook with so few kitchen items. I would have bought more, but we have traveled so often, we have had little time to eat here. I asked Ya Ning how she cooks with so few pans. I found out she doesn't cook much. They sleep late each morning, get showers and go eat an early lunch out. They bring the leftovers home for their dinner. It's just as cheap to do this as it is to cook in, but probably not as healthy. Ron thinks he has blown his healthy diet while in China. We have had so many government dinners and eating out during our many travels, so we try to cook here as much as we can. I have one wok, one two-quart boiler with cover, a tea pot, a chopping cleaver and chopsticks. And a microwave, which I would definitely be lost without. I bought a small fry pan so I can cook a few pieces of fish or use to toast bread for breakfast (Texas style toast, literally). I bought a small boiler for Ron to use to cook his oats. We have three cups, a few plates, a few bowls and that's it! It's been a challenge to say the least, but we have had some very good meals.