First, some random neighborhood happenings. Someone on our street is moving:
Gets me every time!
Anyway- a few months ago I posted about how Ali and I walk to a nearby store to pick up our milk, eggs, etc. Here is the store- Jiadeli
A fellow student tipped Jimmy off to a vegetable market that is just across the street from Jiadeli. I was so excited because we go in one direction for the milk/eggs run and then in the other direction for our fruit and veggies. For the sake of the Ali I split these errands up into two different days, so the opportunity to get them all done in one area was great news. One day, after going to Jiadeli we hopped across the street to check out the new-found market. Oh wow.... I could tell immediately that we would not be shopping here. Below you can see the veggies displayed on the blue bags with a huge pile of garbage piled up behind them.
A fellow student tipped Jimmy off to a vegetable market that is just across the street from Jiadeli. I was so excited because we go in one direction for the milk/eggs run and then in the other direction for our fruit and veggies. For the sake of the Ali I split these errands up into two different days, so the opportunity to get them all done in one area was great news. One day, after going to Jiadeli we hopped across the street to check out the new-found market. Oh wow.... I could tell immediately that we would not be shopping here. Below you can see the veggies displayed on the blue bags with a huge pile of garbage piled up behind them.
Here is a closer look. Those are some green onions or something on the blue bag and then the garbage begins. My jaw just dropped. Seriously there was so much garbage and people were just bagging up their veggies like they were picking them out of the garden! I wouldn't doubt it if the veggies we buy come from a similar situation before they wind up on the table where we shop, but I would have a hard time sifting through garbage to get to them. 
Most things that you want to buy are found at a "market". There are children's markets, art markets, fruit markets, veggie markets, etc. When it is a market that has fruit, veggies and meat/fish you call it a wet market. That's what this market is. We saw many other appetizing things for sale here. Tubs of crabs:
Live chickens:
They take them out, weigh and kill them and even scrap the feathers for you.
There are so many fish and water creatures here that I've never seen before and I guess people are eating them. You see people walking home all the time with bloody fish in plastic bags.
I posted a little about our Thanksgiving but I never mentioned the fact that we went to two other Thanksgiving dinners! Since it's not a holiday here, not everyone was able to celebrate on Thursday because of work. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to a friend's house for our second Thanksgiving dinner. He works for the consulate and I visit teach her and their family is pretty spectacular- such nice people and three very sweet children. Their little boy, Jonah, is two months younger than Ali and the two of them are pretty cute together. Jonah has an older sister who is 8 and she is so great with Ali. She took such good care of her all night and even plays with her on Sundays. She is such a sweet, responsible little person. We love her. 
Our third and final Thanksgiving dinner was the next day, Sunday. The host family is amazing. They have been in China for 18 years! (I cannot imagine!) They have 5 children and Ali loves them!
The young single adults also came to dinner so this is a photo of the family with the YSA.
Her BFF is this little guy, Jed. They are two peas in a pod and we love Jed! I wish we could bring him home with us. She is so entertained by him and he just loves her too. This picture of the two of them is too cute!
He doesn't even care that she is holding a fork and that his life could be in danger.
Staying in this one bedroom apartment would not be possible without the help of one amazing website. It's called Taobao.com and it has been a lifesaver. I have ordered a few (or according to Jimmy, too many... hehehe) toys on here to keep Ali entertained. Before we got here I hadn't bought even one toy for her. She received some from grandparents and other family members but we spent so much time outside so she didn't need a lot. The cool thing about Taobao it is that the toys are SOOOO cheap! Here she is sitting on her inflatable chair. I think it was $3 or something like that. 
The other cool things is that shipping is usually $1 and it get's to you by the next day or two. We just ordered a couple things for her Christmas and one of the items got to us 12 hours after ordering it. Other favorites that we have ordered are a shopping cart with plastic fruit for $5 and 100 plastic balls (like the McDonald's play place) for $3. Even though I'd rather be outside playing with her (and so would she), it's fun seeing what cheap stuff we can get. They have EVERYTHING on there! The only trick is getting the pages to translate, since it's all in Chinese, and trying to put in the right characters to find what you want. On a slight side note, makeup here is very expensive. They keep the cheap brands like Cover Girl and Mabeline behind a counter like it's Mac. The cheap foundation that is usually $5 at home is at least $15 dollars here. I didn't bring any extra makeup because I had no idea how expensive it would be. I found some foundation for about $10 on Taobao and decided to order it since it was the cheapest I had seen. When I got it, it looked fine but when I put it on I almost died. The smell was SOOOO bad! It was a mix between garbage and an old person. Not pleasant and not something you want to put on your face. I can't decide if it is homemade stuff that they put in a bottle or just really expired. Either way, it's gross. So we are staying away from anything besides cheap toys. We just got a few of her Christmas toys that we ordered and I'm SO excited to give them to her. I'm glad we didn't getting them sooner or I wouldn't have been able to keep them from her!
The other cool things is that shipping is usually $1 and it get's to you by the next day or two. We just ordered a couple things for her Christmas and one of the items got to us 12 hours after ordering it. Other favorites that we have ordered are a shopping cart with plastic fruit for $5 and 100 plastic balls (like the McDonald's play place) for $3. Even though I'd rather be outside playing with her (and so would she), it's fun seeing what cheap stuff we can get. They have EVERYTHING on there! The only trick is getting the pages to translate, since it's all in Chinese, and trying to put in the right characters to find what you want. On a slight side note, makeup here is very expensive. They keep the cheap brands like Cover Girl and Mabeline behind a counter like it's Mac. The cheap foundation that is usually $5 at home is at least $15 dollars here. I didn't bring any extra makeup because I had no idea how expensive it would be. I found some foundation for about $10 on Taobao and decided to order it since it was the cheapest I had seen. When I got it, it looked fine but when I put it on I almost died. The smell was SOOOO bad! It was a mix between garbage and an old person. Not pleasant and not something you want to put on your face. I can't decide if it is homemade stuff that they put in a bottle or just really expired. Either way, it's gross. So we are staying away from anything besides cheap toys. We just got a few of her Christmas toys that we ordered and I'm SO excited to give them to her. I'm glad we didn't getting them sooner or I wouldn't have been able to keep them from her!