Super Saturday

Today was a pretty busy day for us but it was a fun one.  Since we were almost out of food we decided today would be a good day for Tim to have his first trip to YooHoo.  I haven't been there in quite a while and was happy to go back.  I knew from seeing a sign on a previous visit that there was a Subway restaurant somewhere in the same mall as YooHoo so today we thought we would take the kids there for a little taste of home.  It really does taste and smell exactly the same.

We actually found Subway with very little trouble.  It was on the fourth floor and afterwards we checked out the third or, as we soon discovered, "kid friendly" floor.  There was a large, extremely loud arcarde that even had bumper cars, although they didn't seem to be operating that early in the morning.  There was a store called "Lego" that had, oddly enough, very little Lego in it.  We also discovered two educational centres and a kids gym.  We didn't have time to go into the gym but it looked like a good place to take the kids when the weather is bad or we have another sand storm.  Then we came upon a very nice movie theatre with lots of themed toys in the lobby.  I think I will take the boys sometime to see Kung Fu Panda II (it's in English) if it's not too scary for them and hopefully Cars II will be showing when it comes out this summer.  The mall was a great find!

We made it to Yoohoo and Tim finally got to see why I had been so excited the first time I went.  There were all kinds of foods that he hadn't seen since we left Canada.  Once we got the kids settled into a shopping cart with their iPods and arrived at the meat counter, it was like heaven.  Tim thought it was a really pleasant shopping experience with the nice music, smaller store with bigger aisles and not too many people.  The first time I went by myself I ended up spending about 1100rmb which is about $165, not much by Canadian standards but a lot for here.  Tim was a little shocked that first time I came home at how much I had managed to spend.  Today, with him throwing stuff into the cart, even though we had decided to only buy the stuff we can't get at Carrefour, we managed to spend almost 1500rmb.  Imagine that!  I made sure I pointed out to him the fact that we spent more when he came then when I was by myself and that he didn't think it was too bad this time.  I wonder who will go next time!

We headed home after this as we were expecting company and wanted to get started on supper and clean up a little.  Tim took the kids outside to play while I cleaned.  Oh, how quiet it was.  I was able to catch another episode of the Vinyl Cafe while I worked.  The boys came back and Tim got going on supper and shortly after Cristina and Daniel, originally from Mexico, arrived.  We went outside and had a great time walking around the compound and chatting while the kids played.  Well, it was fun except for some weird Chinese man that decided it would be fun to tease Ryan who had run ahead of us.  He was trying to make his way back when this guy, who was carrying a shovel, turned to face him and wouldn't let him go by.  Every time Ryan went to go around him he would slide over with his shovel to stop him.  Tim managed not to freak out at the guy but ran over and told him to stop and got Ryan.  Some people are so strange.

Anyway, we came back in and the kids played with Cristina and Daniel while we got supper ready.  Tim (mostly) prepared a lovely meal and we had a great chat at the table.  Then the kids wanted Daniel back to play with them so we all had to move to the living room.  Both Nicholas and Ryan took a shining to the couple and really enjoyed having them over, as did we.  We are all looking forward to their next visit.

Tomorrow afternoon we are off again to meet some other expats and their children who may end up babysitting for us.  It's nice to have our weekends full with getting to know people here.  It helps to keep the homesickness at bay.

Have a great day/night!