Mid-Autumn Greetings...

We've consumed them...we've celebrated the festival...tomorrow it's back to school.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Though we missed out on Labor Day this year we were delighted to gain Mid-Autumn Festival. A National holiday here where many schools and businesses close (yeah! ours did!)to gather with families, eat little morsels called Moon Cakes, drink tea and gaze at the full moon.

Rather a delightful little holiday. Though I was not much for the Moon Cakes I'm sad to say. There are seemingly endless varieties of the treats. I ate a robust, corn-flavored, gel laden one that put me off my tea for a bit. Then I failed to appreciate the splendor of one with the yoke of a duck egg concealed in it's center.

Being a foreigner here is fun, daily. Everyone delights in sharing the details of such a holiday with you and we've been blessed beyond measure with invitations to celebrate with neighbors and colleagues! On Friday we gathered with another family with three children, students of ours, and several other neighbors from building #5 here...we feasted on lotus root soup, fried noodles, dumplings, little silver fried fish, pomelos and moon cakes. What a great evening it was to be welcomed into their home and to enjoy the holiday with new friends!

Saturday there were more invitations but we declined to go out, citing fatigue. We instead extemporaneously welcomed in our dear local friend here who brought various, copious amounts of fresh fruit and of course, moon cakes. We invited others in and sat around the table drinking tea and enjoying each other's company. The conversation turned to deep matters and we had an incredible time of sharing the story.

Sunday we ventured out early, took two buses...which took us 1.5 hours to get to our destination further into the city. I am FAR TOO LIMITED in this medium to share the wild and woolly time we had travelling by bus on that day...but suffice it to say that the bus we finally got onto had people hanging out the doors...as had the other two buses we'd let pass us by hoping for a less crowded one on which to foist our sizable family. No luck. So...when in Rome...

We took children by the arms and as soon as the bus stopped, we pressed ourselves into the mass of people...shouting at the children to "find a hole where (you) can stand!"

Some kindly folks vacated two precious seats and allowed me and Magpie to sit down. (Keep in mind the seats are for people approximately one-fourth the seat size of your author.) Gladly we swooped down on the seats then preceded to pack Bub and Potato on my lap (should you ever forget the nicknames for the kids...refer to the first post back in July for the magic decoder ring)...then Brownie, sweating and complaining about her personal space, was pressed down into the mix on Magpie's lap. FIVE souls in the space allotted for two tiny ones...and 1 hour to go!

The Bug, ever the congenial one...acquiesced to the request of some elderly riders who offered her a seat on the grandma's lap...I kept smiling at a wary Bug saying "you're doing so well...I'm so proud of you...you're delighting that lovely lady."

The only way I could secure Bub and Potato was to encircle them with my arms and lock my fingers together in a death grip about them. This was suitable to keep them from falling into the dozens of riders pressed into our faces...but an unfortunate by-product of the hold meant that when the bus bumped and jerked their heads knocked together like bowling balls arriving together again on the ball return at the old bowling alley.

Did I mention that it was about 88 degrees and so humid?

Water was repeatedly requested and so I would regularly have to break the death grip on the babies, wrench my arm around to get into my bag that was sandwiched between my back and the upright support next to me. Teeth were rattled while the bus found uneven pavement during desperate attempts for hydration. Some water covered the church-going dresses...

some of the campers were beginning to get very cranky.

Dad, for his part, was pressed closer than a man should be to anyone else outside of wedlock for the majority of the trip. Standing...albeit, clinging to the dangling support-like handle from the ceiling.

I declare...I think his lips landed on the back of some guy's head more than a few times.

Then the concern is...we can't see...we can't see where we are. All we can see is the belt buckles and shirt buttons of our too close for any comfort fellow-riders...and we HAVE TO GET OFF THE BUS...which means we have to spring from our seats at just the right moment and get ourselves to a door before the bus lurches away from it's 10 millisecond stop...

With the help of a kindly, semi-English speaking man who told me..."You stop...GO!"
We swam like hearty salmon upstream and launched ourselves unceremoniously out the bus's front door (a violation, by the way...one should exit the rear door...not a chance with our troop and the population of bus 702 yesterday!)

Upon arriving on the pavement, in front of our desired location...we high-fived like maniacs...probably nearly caused a few accidents for passerby motorists and felt like we were really rolling with the big dogs, now!

I told Doug..."taxis, from now on."

I told the kids..."see, we can do it...nothing we can't handle here."

I told myself..."I think I know what it feels like to be buried alive."

We made it to our friend's house for a beautiful dinner. SKYPE'd with some friends back in the states and then ventured out to our foreigner's fellowship. Loved it, loved it, loved it, once again! This week they had a special class for our kids...two Indian ladies taught it...the kids were higher than kites after the experience. The passionate and moving music encouraged us and filled our tanks for this next week! WOW...you got to come visit our Sunday meeting!

Today was a day off of school. Mind you, we almost missed it. The notice came first in the form of the school calendar which is in the local language...so we were unable to read it. Then apparently we received an email from the school administrator reminding students and parents of the day off school...again in the local dialect...again we missed the message.

If our children had not caught wind of it, quite by accident, we would have been there with brushed teeth and backpacks loaded at 7:15 am this morning...

We savored the day with some school clothes shopping...and Mexican food tonight! (We can bring together MOST elements of our favorite Mexican dishes...with the exception of sour cream...can't find it yet.)

We've had some very powerful discussions this weekend with special people and have extended some invitations for a weekly time together...our enthusiasm is building.

I'll try to be a bit more faithful with the postings...time...just keeps slippin' into the future...

Love to all.