Laugh of the Day

So I'm home sick today, and while not sleeping I've been catching up on what my little 30 1/2 week bun in the oven is up to. Along the way I came across this cartoon and it made me smile :-)



To find more amusing comics the website is here:
http://pregnancy.baby-gaga.com/cartoons/cartoon32

My 厉害 Husband

As anyone who has studied language knows, some words do not easily translate back and forth between languages. Sometimes, though they have similar meanings, societal connotations do not carry the same weight. For instance, when Koreans translate translate "kimchi" they often refer to it as "fermented cabbage". Wow...that makes me want to try it...(note the sarcasm). In English, the word fermented makes us think of something that has gone rotten (except in cases of wine or other alcohols). In Korean, I believe they think of something that has aged or intensified in flavor. (By the way, though Kim Chi is not my favorite, I know many foreigners who greatly enjoy it.)

"厉害", pronounced "li hai", in Chinese is one of those words that just doesn't translate well. Literally, it means "fierce", but can carry many different connotations. Most favorably, it means someone who is clever beyond belief.

Right before Chinese New Year our school staff had a party to celebrate the new year, and a significant portion of the party was a show of entertaining acts for the rest of us to enjoy. My husband, ever the performer, shocked us all by telling us a story completely in Chinese! Even I did not know he could do something like this, and he kept the whole thing a secret until he walked on stage. The story was highly entertaining and contained a bunch of puns that make the Chinese laugh even if we foreigners don't quite understand them all.

If you listen closely to the Chinese people near the camera, you can hear them talking about how "li hai" he is--needless to say his Chinese teachers are bursting with pride-and so am I!

Hope you enjoy. Oh, and by the way, it comes with subtitles. :-)

And now for some pics...

From Philippines!

Sorry these have taken so long-I never can believe how long it takes to upload pictures onto the internet. If you have Facebook you may have already seen most of these, but there are a few more and a few variations. Hope you enjoy!

We have been safely back in Qingdao since Thursday after a few travel issues (and a lot of money!) :-), and today we started back at work. It's good to be home!

Philippines!

We are so incredibly excited to be spending our Chinese New Year in the Philippines! No more freezing weather, endless beaches and ocean, and yummy mango smoothies at every turn. Nathan is becoming scuba certified, and I am relaxing with nothing to do but read and lay in the sun. Ooh, and snorkeling.

Baby Greene is getting stronger, and often tickles me on both sides at the same time. She's getting less shy of people touching my belly, and has even performed for someone other than Nathan and me. It's really wonderful to have a break from work and just relax. I'm ending my second trimester now, so starting to feel the extra weight and a little more tired again, but over all still feeling good.

Well totally exhausted from an entire day on the boat and a couple good swims. Signing off for now. Pictures to come.

A Glimpse of Our Little Angel

Yesterday we had our 25 week appointment, and everything is 正好(zhenghao), as they say in Chinese. She's already in a head down position, the right size, and everything else is great. Apparently she also has a 高的鼻子， or "high nose". The doctor and technicians were very excited about this, and informed us she is very very beautiful. I'm not sure what the exact meaning of a high nose is, but apparently it's good :-)

Here's a few pics and a short video of the sono. The first part of the video isn't that great, but afterwards you can see her open her mouth and move around a little. Amazing how far technology has come.

She played shy most of the 4D sono part and kept hiding her face with her hand.

From Pregnancy

Finally, a glimpse of her sweet face!

From Pregnancy

And look at those long legs!

From Pregnancy

And last but not least, me a week ago at 24 weeks.

From Pregnancy

By the way, yes I said 'she'! :-)

Art Show

So I realized today, that not only had I not blogged in a long while, I had completely forgotten that I had a blog! That's pregnancy brain for you...

Today was the school's Middle School and High School Fine Arts Show, and it is really nice to have it behind me! Actually, it was a great, but busy day, and I had not one, but two pieces of cheesecake! (Cheesecake, especially good cheesecake is particularly rare here.) That alone makes for a good day.

In all seriousness, it was fantastic to have examples of all of my students' work out all together. It gave a nice sense of accomplishment, and the other students were so impressed they told me they're planning on taking art next semester! I took my camera to school, but completely forgot to take even a single picture! (Again, I blame the pregnancy brain.) However, my middle school photojournalism students were assigned to "document" the event, so if I get any good pictures out of them I'll do my best to post them.

On another note, this weekend we are taking Jillian to Xi'an to see the Terracotta soldiers. I'm excited to go on one last trip before she leaves, and of course to stay in a western hotel again! Ah, to have a bath tub...and a soft bed...what more does a pregnant woman want in the world?

Hard to believe there's only three and half more weeks of school before we head home to AMERICA! Hurray! Sorry, Texas friends, for this 10 day trip we'll only be able to make it to Oregon. But we promise to be back this summer! Hope to see you all then.

Baby Bump

From Pregnancy

From Pregnancy

So I finally have a real baby bump! Of course to me my body has felt different for ages, but last week I wore an outfit that happened to highlight the bump and nobody can deny it from these pics. Most days I can still hide it pretty well depending on what I wear (you can see from the pictures how much even angles make a difference), but I'm definitely growing out of most of my clothes! Especially my pants. I can't wait to get back to the US for Christmas to buy some "in between" outfits.

My old work blessed me with quite a few items of maternity clothes when my sister came over in early October, but I think it will be awhile before I fit into either of the pants. And unfortunately almost everyone here has had a summer or fall baby, so no one has winter clothes to lend. I did get a wool skirt tailor made which turned out really well, but is a little big so will be awhile before I can wear it too. However, I was really impressed with it so I can't wait to go back and get some more clothes made! I also want to get a good winter maternity jacket made. The cool thing is that it is so much cheaper here to have it made than to buy it in the States! My skirt came out to about 15 USD, and I looked at equivalent ones for more than 50-100 USD online! Definitely a benefit of living outside the States.

A downside is that Chinese pregnancy clothes look a lot like US pregnancy clothes from the 80's. You know, overalls, huge overshirts, and baggy pants. So I haven't been able to find anything in the stores that I like. Actually, I haven't found any maternity shops since I've been pregnant at all...oh well.

By the way, we now have our tickets and we'll be back in Portland on December 22! Can't wait to see anyone who is around!