China Update!

Here is an update on some of the adventures we've had since our last post:

*Russians love cheese and sausage..... We followed a Russian to the market where she buys cheese and sausage and came home with a freaking WHEEL of cheese weighing about 6 pounds. We cut it into 5 wedges and stuck them in the freezer...but we are already down to our last wedge of cheese.

*Lance and Sam recovered from a case of the bird poo flu. Expect to see it in the U.S. this winter.

*We had a night time visitor that would leave treats on our balcony. He had whiskers and a long tail and he squeaked when he saw cheese. Lance flung him off our balcony with his lacrosse stick, and our visitor has not returned.

*A bear thought Lance looked like cotton candy in his blue puff ball costume and took a swipe at him. Lance barely escaped from being a mid show snack.

*We like to eat at a pizza restaurant called Tomatoes. One day we had leftovers so we had them box them up to take home. They kindly put them in a 7 Eleven bag along with plastic gloves and chinese soup spoons..... ?? Napkins? Of course not!

*Sam is now babysitting a little Russian girl whose parents are performers in the circus. She is the cutest little girl. She doesn't speak English and all Sam knows in Russian is how to how to say Mickey Mouse. Needless to say, they get along just fine. :D

*Sam had a birthday! She was excited that she got to go swimming in October and on her birthday. She and Lance and some of the other circus monkeys went out to eat at Oggi's Pizzeria. Sam and Lance got a humongous calzone. It was delicious.

*General Conference was on the 2nd and 3rd, but the Guangzhou Branch got to watch Conference on the 9th and 10th! We all met at the church to watch the sessions and ate potluck in between. Thank you technology!

*We went on a lightning vacation. We went to Hong Kong on the earliest bus leaving Guangzhou at 7:00 am. We miraculously made it to the Hong Kong Temple in time to catch the 11:00 session. And....we bought 25 loaves of bread (which we have already completely devoured) and caught the 2:30 bus back to Guangzhou, making it back just in time for the circus.

*Ratattouie is based on a true story. We were eating at a Chinese restaurant when the biggest rat we have ever seen (and we've seen a lot of rats here) walked out of the kitchen and into the pantry. Most restaurants have cats they keep on guard duty to catch any rats, well the cat that was on guard duty at this restaurant took one look at the new "chef" and ran and hid under a chair. Not even kidding, the rat just walked out of the kitchen and into the panty and the cat bolted and cowered under a chair.