Who Knew?

 Life is funny. I would have bet my house on Forrest NOT choosing to play rugby in his lifetime. This is my boy who loved organizing the neighborhood in games, but not at his physical expense! I can remember when he dressed Ellis in a life jacket - turned backward so Ellis had full coverage over his chest - and a GT football helmet so that he could be the catcher for a game of baseball played with a TENNIS ball.

But last weekend he boarded a plane from HK to Shanghai to play in the China Cup. All the high school rugby teams, boys and girls, traveled.  They won. Forrest played almost every game - and there were loads of games over a three day weekend.  And he returned injury-free.  He loved the competition, but he also loved Shanghai with it's houses and open spaces. His host family had a proper house with a back yard! The host mom also had recently taken up baking and decided to feed her rugby boys tiramisu and cheesecake for breakfast. No wonder he loves Shanghai.

But I must say, games are typically not injury-free. Those boys wear short rugby shorts and no pads.  There aren't many calls made for rough play. At times it looks like a free-for-all to us. Jeff is there for every game and is doing his best to understand the sport, but we always leave with him saying, "I still don't understand what they're doing out there." 

I would have bet my house on Ellis NOT choosing to play rugby, too. He loved his Playmobil and his stuffed animals and his dog! He was a cross country runner! He loved it, but even there he would always fall on the trails. Once, he fell in a pond at one of the meets, and this seemed normal to the entire team because they knew Ellis just had a tough time staying upright.  

So . . . Ellis drank the Kool-Aid.  Middle school rugby. Now, I have double the first-aid kit supplies.

Finding the joy

I have to admit that I really love living here, but there are times when I miss all things American, like Target, and nice big SUVs, and roads that are forgiving if you don't know the way, and Target, and Target. 

But, then I find myself in a situation where there is just a little comfort from home given to me from above.  Like, the Fonz in the bathroom at dinner! Right in the middle of Mid Levels, Hong Kong above the toilet. It brings a smile to the face of 70s American girl. Right?

And, then there are times like these that allow me to find joy right where I'm standing. You just can't get this out of our middle aged American men.

But, then I have the grocery store (which I can't say because it's a "market' and no one knows what I'm talking about when I say "grocery store"), which is a painful reminder of all things missed in America. 

It's not that I can't get wonderful things in my local market. I can. For instance, I have an entire isle of canned fish, and I have seaweed in lunchbox servings, that my youngest actually likes, so I shouldn't complain. But, I don't really need an entire isle of canned fish. I really want to be able to buy Cherrios that don't cost $10 a box.

Then I have the take-home facial. Seriously, I have to pay $10 USD for Cherrios (actually, I don't pay for the Cherrios, I buy the silly HK version that cost $6), but I can buy these "Flower Face Up Rollers" to tone my aging face for the $2 USD.

But, this is the greatest reason I love living here. It's easy to find joy with him around!

Bringing home the bacon

Between fishing at the oil rigs and Chef class at school, Ellis is starting to give Taylor a run for her money in the food department.

Our Chefs (yes, Ellis' glued tooth his still holding)

Fishing 60 miles off the coast in the South China Sea.  He vomitted only three times! 

From sea to plate. Yes, we made this without our helper (it was her day off)!

Okay, the Chef class in the middle school is amazing. The teacher is a trained chef from Le Cordon Bleu in London - honestly. Ellis made beautiful moon cakes for the mid-autumn festival, but none of us ate them because they had red bean filling. Really? Who eats that stuff? He told me a girl in his class seemed to really love the ones she made, so I sent a note to her mom, and I found out she took in her own filling - Nutella!  

Okay, this picture is not exactly Ellis' mooncake, but his looked exactly like it! I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the moon cakes he made, but took a picture of the half-eaten vegetable dip.  

Forrest says I have issues with my photography. I tell him the gift skipped a generation and he needs to be thankful.

I became inspired from my little chefs and started making my own mayonnaise. I had no idea how easy it is. It's only one egg, 1/2 cup extra light olive oil,  fresh lemon juice, a little dijon mustard and a little salt. You have to use one of these hand held blenders, but it works in about 30 seconds. Crazy. 

 Taylor is always making wonderful things in the kitchen! These are her brownie cupcakes and her very buttery chocolate chip cookies. She even made my giant  birthday cookie from scratch, but I can't find the picture. Claire, on the other hand, runs when people start working in the kitchen. She's going to be hard to repartriate.