Sunny Sunday

aside from the two center lanes closest to the middle median, these are all parked cars! None of them are moving nor have a driver present!

Ah this is the life! Sunny Sunday and we spent it well. Ben and I are in our last weeks of school and finishing things up for the year. So exciting to be at this place, yes some struggles, but so much good food, exploring, and bike riding in between, this weekend being no small exception. Waking up early to sun and heat tends to hit us most days now, temperatures are rarely under 32 Celsius though we do keep some air con on, in our room, through the night. Some meandering around the house this morning, puttering, reading then finally we decided to get outside for the day's adventures. One of our favorite things to do is take the 40 min bike ride to a neighboring town called Tanguu (said "tongue-goo). Here we usually spend some time at Starbucks marking student assignments, wandering around local shops and boutiques and chuckling at whatever strangeness we find. These days, couples wearing matching outfits is the in fashion and chuckle of the day (its cute but funny too), boys go as far as to gear up in pink cartooned kiddie style shirts, just to please their ladies and prove their allegiance to her, as she happily parades the other half of the matching set. Some women get completely dolled up, frills, sparkles, heels, and prints, simply to go to the grocery or drug store, only to complete their ensemble with a large full face sun visor and ankle length skin colored stockettes. We have seen so many styles coming out of the woodwork these days, but to top everything off, the color of the season is TRANSLUCENT! Yes folks, see-through clothing is on a rampage these days, and we have caught full views of any and every kind of undergarment in the process. We are not sure why people choose this kind of apparel, nor do we understand their choice to finish off the whole look with the most brightly colored underwear possible, but it is quite utterly amusing for us.
So Ben and I marked assignments and people watched for a while....actually I marked, Ben played Tiger Woods golf on the iPad, nothin keeps him from the game:)
We then headed for a quick pit stop to a foreign food store where some lovely ladies always warmly greet us and help us find all the necessities of a western kitchen. Then we trekked back up the highway on our bikes towards our new and beloved Oasis; the Renaissance Hotel Gym! Yes, true, we have committed ourselves to a full year membership of luxury. A piece of heaven, we are fondly finding it to be, fully equipped with an up to date gym, weights area, TV screens with programs in English, icy grapefruit water and fresh fruit galore, a lovely sky-lit pool, sauna, steam room, hot tubs, showers, massages, and MORE!!! The hotel itself is gorgeous, and we are excited that in the long bitter cold weekends of winter we will be able to simply plant ourselves in the hotel space and feel quite pampered and rejuvenated. So today we took ourselves to the new haven and relaxed for a bit before heading to our favorite Sichuan food restaurant. The owner continues to smile whenever we come in, she welcomes us, chats with Ben, smiles with me, and today, though we enjoy her care, service and smiles, we let her know that we would be taking the food to go for a picnic in the park, she smiled and laughed at such a good idea. The park is one we can see from our apartment, high above most other buildings, the 29th floor gives us a look into the massive green space. This is quite unique for China as green space is usually reserved solely for observing and appreciating from a distance, rather than gallivanting through in direct contact with grass and greenery. But here in TEDA our city is still not quite as congested as some other cities in China, so the park is open and free for people to roam and relax within. Since the weather has turned warm, most days many families will take tents and mats, games and toys, Chinese barbeques and even the family dog, to enjoy the shade, the trees, the fresh air and the long green grass. It was quite nice for us to watch all the interactions tonight. Kids play freely, parents relax, girls casually and oh-so-non-chalantly take glamor pictures of each other, dogs rummage through old food bags for scraps, boyfriends do cart-wheels and flex their muscles for their prized lady and we sit back and try to blend in as best we can:) Finally we decided it was getting late so we made our way home, coming upon the main road that passes in front of our building, it was beginning to become quite chaotic, a soccer game? Yes, and it must be quite a game since, now, looking out from our balcony, the usual 7 lane highway has shrunk to a mere 2 lane street. Cars are parked deep from the already double width curb all the way out past the middle of the road. This cramming of cars is usual but we have never seen it this bad. There are already roars that we can hear erupting from the stadium whenever TEDA makes a goal. The game will end around 9pm and then more chaos will ensue, cars tetris-ing everywhere, with only more amusement for us. A typical weekend in TEDA with the Farnells, food, fun and adventure.

a lovely picture from Tanguu:)