At Home

A funny thing happened the other day. Scott, the kids and I had been eating breakfast at Epicurious, a place we like to go quite often on the weekends. We had just finished, and we walked over to the 7-11 to get some drinks for Sam and Hannah, and we ran into some friends.

Yes, that's the extent of the funny thing.

You see, although we see people Scott knows from work, running into people I know just isn't something that happens to me here. And it provided a sense of comfort, like finally I'm starting to feel more at home here. Life is feeling more real, while life in Houston is simultaneously feeling more distant. I miss my family and friends like crazy, but homesickness has dissolved for the most part.

I think something that really helped is that, in February, we had our first out of town visitors! First, my dear friend JoAnn was in Singapore on business, and she was able to stop by one evening to have dinner and visit with us. I sure wish she could have stayed longer, but it was a whirlwind trip for her.

The following day, Scott's sister Marisa arrived. She had just flown in from New Zealand, where she'd spent the previous three weeks. She showed us plenty of photos, and I got plenty envious! I'm hoping to make it there someday while we're still living on this side of the world. Marisa stayed through Chinese New Year, so we had lots of opportunity to do fun things. We did more in the week she was here than we have the entire time we've lived here! Nothing like playing hostess and tour guide to get you out of a rut!

Shop in Chinatown offering CNY decor galore:

Some guys hawking a treat called mochi, which are little balls made of rice flour and filled with different flavors. There were at least 15 vendors all selling these things, and all were on loudspeakers yelling to the crowds and throwing individually wrapped mochi treats out to the crowd. Now imagine all 15 of these vendors doing this at the same time. It was madness. I tried a mango one, and Hannah had a taro one. I wasn't going anywhere near the taro, but she seemed to like it:

One night there were fireworks at Clarke Quay, so we decided to head out there. We had a yummy dinner at King Satay, then headed over to the bridge to see the fireworks. They began, beautiful fireworks launched into the air, and 2 minutes later, it was over. Literally, 2 minutes. I've got to ask, why even bother?? But then there was a performance on the bridge which was pretty cool. These were some guys doing tricks on stilts.

On New Year's Day, we decided to go to the zoo, since most everything else in the city was closed for the holiday. It was ridiculously packed, but we were able to have a good time, regardless. In honor of the year of the Tiger, here are the beautiful white tigers.

The kids in their carriage, m'lady:

Sam, after playing in the zoo's splash park. It is a huge park, with all different sorts of areas for kids of different ages to play. Sam stays on the water slides the whole time!

Unfortunately Marisa was flying out to Koh Samui, Thailand, so she had to miss the Chingay Parade. Chingay is an annual parade that takes place the weekend after CNY. What an amazing experience! I know I have photos, but can't seem to find them right now. I'll post them another time though!

So all in all, Chinese New Year was a lot of fun around here. Thanks, Marisa, for coming so far to visit us! We had a great time!