Thanksgiving Day

We were planning to go to a restaurant to eat Beijing duck for celebration of Thanksgiving.We heard a famous Beijing duck chain “Quanzheda” Suzhou branch was closed.We had no other plan. It was cold and windy outside. We ordered in very much so so Mexican food.

Akiva, Kenaz and I picked colorful fall leaves and made a ornament for Thanksgiving decoration. When I asked Akiva whom or what you would like to thank for? I was very happy to hear Akiva said “Mommy and Daddy”.
We celebrated the second night of Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. I came home a hour earlier than usual and prepared the dinner. I was very proud of my "Thanksgiving inspired" dishes, although my allrecipets.com stuffing and dressing was too watery. My non-oil tofu brownie was excellent (Akiva and Kenaz helped me to make the desert).
"I am very thankful for Jesse who is always very supportive of me."

Day Trip TianPing Mountain

Aviva’s school had a day trip to a Tianping mountain park on Friday. It was a perfect weather. We rode a bus from his school to Mudu going through SND. Suzhou is very flat with a lot of cannels and lakes. I was excited to see the mountain.
The mountain reminded me a rock mountain in desert in outside of San Diego where Jesse and I climbed to see sun rise in New Year’s Eve.
Most the Chinese moms have been visited to the park during their school life. They weren’t interested in conquer the top of mountain. Akiva was happy to be with his Ultrama best friends. I encouraged them to climb up. When we reached the middle, they all went down. Akiva and other friend kept going up. We saw a couple small caves and accomplished our journey. Form the top we saw a development of Mudu area.
Going down was a lot harder. Akiva slipped a couple time on steps. This dusty rocky mountain was very slippery. However we managed to go down safely.
Akiva and I were very tired. We took a quick nap on the bus. When we get back home, Kenaz just woke up from his nap. He was excited to see me. He had full of energy. I had no time to rest. Instead I ate a Snickers bar.

Dinosaur Land in Changzhou

We went to Dinosaur Land in ChangZhou. Its basically a theme park with some rollercoaster rides and a dinosaur theme



We had a lot of other things to see. Like Chinese pre-historic boat-people dressed up in animal skins.



There was a lot of rock climbing and ropes...stuff...for the kids to play on. Most of the park is for older kids who like roller-coasters. The kids are too small for most of those and they had long lines anyway.



There was also a museum of dinosaurs. In side was quite a few big fossil reproductions. Some animatronix too.



We all had a good time.

Sports Day

Akiva’s sports day came at his kindergarten.

Last year he was a quickest runner. This year he is still fastest one (I think).

Last year Akiva was clinging on me and wanted me around him all the time. This year Akiva did all sports activities by his self (although most the kids still wanted parents to do the activities together). I was very proud of him. He was excellent at all actives.
Akiva is the wildest one. When he got board he run away, and other kids followed him. He came back and check me up occasionally. Most the time he was somewhere.

After the sports day, he grabbed a lunch box and asked me if I have to go to work. I told him "yes". I walked back to his class room with him. He sat with his friend and said good bye to me and started eating. Again I was very proud of Akiva. He was very independent. He had his own world at school. I as mom am no longer a center of his life. I promised myself to be a little bit nicer to him and want to support him whenever he needs.

Things to be proud of and things to be ashamed of

Proud.



Proud.



Proud



Ashamed
California Appears Likely to Ban Gay Marriage

Although the world seems to be gong to hell, my family gives me pride and hope. Whem my country elects a leader like Obama, I am filled with pride and hope.

But the results of this California initiative bring to mind something that I must teach my children every year:

In each generation each Jew must look upon himself or herself as though he or she, personally, was among those who went forth from Egypt. Not our ancestors alone did the Holy One, blessed be He, redeem from suffering, but also us and our families. Each generation is duty bound to contribute to the growth of freedom, else humanity's ideals become stagnant and stationary.

Halloween and a First Comic Book Store

[Jesse] Its not easy to tell from the picture above and below, but I am dressed up as "Melamine Man" for Halloween. My shirt has the chemical formula for Melamine on it, Melamine written in Chinese and English, and parts of a milk carton ("90% fat free", "Pure Milk", "GuangMing brand". The Chinese thought it was interesting; I got to say my costume is really the scariest in all China.[/]



[Jesse] Suzhou has quite a few stores that sell video games, anime collectables, robotech-type models, and new hip-style dolls (I don't know how to describe them...Google "Giant Robot" and you will understand). You can get translated comic-books in a few places...not many though. But yesterday was the openning of a new store which sells the above items, plus WESTERN comics (DC, Marvel, graphic novels, etc) and ROLEPLAYING GAMES. My new friends Syn and Bret openned the store in JiaCheng Gardens Building (the appartment complex behind the Starbucks on JinJi and Xinghai roads).

Currently they don't have a lot of stock, but they say they are filling up the store. They will soon sell board games like monopoly and risk. It seems the video games they sell are actually NOT counterfeit...they may find the 2 or 4 people in China that actually buys non-counterfeit games. Syn is a GM of a factory, but his real passion is RPGs...Syn and Bret are partners in a small company which publishes RPGs and card games. Not well known ones but hey, its still cool.

I have never heard of any story in China selling Western comics nor pen & paper roleplaying games. Half the store is filled with tables for kids to game on. I think in Syn and Bret's vision, this store becomes a nerd-geek development zone. Corrupting the youth of China; I wish them a lot of success in spreading the RPG / gamer culture in China. China needs it. [/]