Thanksgiving in Qingdao

Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was truly a day to remember.

The day started like any other day would start when you are living in China and everything you own and know is seven thousand five hundred and fifty-two miles away and your father is living in your house!!! Have I mentioned that I am not over the fact that my father is living in my house??

This day did have one big difference - Chris had the day off of work. So any of the best laid plans of mice and men are out the window. It is one of those days. My hair won't come out right, my clothes don't fit right, my eyes are puffy and OMG..I broke another fingernail. I so need to get my nails done, but Chris has the day off.

Here in China, Thanksgiving was just another day...so off we go to the Visa Entry and Exit Building once again to resolve our issues. Once again we leave the office with nothing more than we had when we arrived except for aggravation. The children are off to Tae Kwon Do and then we head home to change and get ready for dinner. After all, it is Thanksgiving.

So, even if I had an oven and could find a turkey to buy, it wasn't happening. We decide on an Indian restaurant. Yes, Indian. Indian food is the only food we unanimously agree upon (except for pizza, but who can afford pizza everyday in China). The kids like it because the Indian restaurant we eat in in Concord has the same food. Can you imagine that? Dinner was great, Jackson loved the shrimp - even with heads on!! I feel a new Smith family tradition has begun - Chicken Tikka Masala and Naan Bread.

The next day we headed out and about to the Qingdao Zoo. It was great. After consulting my 3 maps for about 30 minutes, I narrowed down our route to three possible bus lines: 321, 501 and the 311. I think we ended up on the 321 at rush hour...we made it to the right stop and found the Zoo. No thanks to Chris. He kept his I-pod on the entire time. I should have just gotten off the bus and left him on it. Someone outside the zoo was selling bags of puffy noodles - Cheese Doodles without the cheese. We buy a few bags and munch away. Little did we know that we were eating the animal feed!!! Maybe not, but were the strange looks because we look strange, because we were eating animal food, or was it a combination of the two? Jackson has to pose for hundreds of pictures, because, after all, he is the cutest 'animal" in the zoo.

We head back into town, where Jackson has to stop and get his hair cut. I think I am going to do it next. Seriously though, I need to go get my nails done!! Anyway, it really was a great day.