and so concludes september...

I can't believe September is over already, autumn feels different here, not as cold and crisp nor colourful (yet) as I'm used to. It's actually just now that we have stopped using our air conditioning! We had an eventful and fun month, here are some highlights of the latter weeks of September.

Here are Scott and I at the USA vs. England soccer match for the FIFA Women's World Cup. We were able to secure tickets to all five games featured in our city, they were on for half price if you bought tickets for every game! We cheered for the USA since our home country is so closeby, and they won 3-0. My favourite team to watch was Brazil, they played with such flair and passion, they were really able to attack well and keep possession of the ball. I was surprised when they lost to Germany in the finals.

Here is Dana getting her exercise in our spare bedroom/study. She has a more definite "awake-time" now and needs more attention and interaction. I think she is almost ready for a Jolly Jumper but alas, I don't think they have them here, I can't really imagine Chinese parents putting their kids in one, they really baby their babies compared to us.

On my 29th birthday, our school organized a trip to the countryside, about 1 1/2 hour south of our city (it just happened to be my birthday, they didn't do it in my honour or anything!). We saw lots of corn lying on the sides of the streets, drying out to make corn flour later and/or feed for animals. I didn't catch a lot of what our host said about his parent's farm unfortunately, either I just plain did not understand or I was too busy with Eli and Dana.

Here is a scene that captures the countryside I thought: a mule walking along the dirt road, Eli insisted it was a horse and I didn't think it was worthwhile to argue or explain how mules come to be.

So this is how peanuts grow! I had never seen them this way before. Eli in the background of course, he loved meandering along the dirt road and chasing after the little dog that was following us. The dog was equally interested in Eli and we were thankful that he was a friendly dog (no bites, thank you very much!).

It was a tiring but interesting day, I would like to be able to get out to the country more often, maybe even once a month for a change of scenery, air and perspective. It's too easy to start to think that China is just one big concrete jungle when it really isn't.