I went to the TX State Fair on Saturday with my sister Lyddane and her family.  We had lots of fun but spent way too much money.   Everything was so expensive but there were a lot of cool things to see and eat.


 The lovely sights of the state fair:  Big Tex, the Cotton Bowl and the big 'ol Ferris Wheel.  One of my goals is to attend the TX/OU game that takes place at the Cotton Bowl, but that will have to be for another year :)

This was the most interesting thing we tried- I don't really like bacon so I didn't enjoy it very much.  I did try the all these food items deep fried:  nutter butters, oreos, smores, grilled cheese sandwich, green tomatoes, pickles and the best corn dog I've ever eaten!  I felt a little sick after all the sampling but it was all so tempting.  We couldn't find the fried snickers or fried coke- I probably would have tried those too!

Things I will miss about China:

• Being able to experience and get to know a culture other than my own
  
•  Eating with chopsticks- I am pretty good now and brought some home to continue to practice though
  
•  Watching local people do Tai Chi or traditional dances in the park
• a $10 hour long foot massage- how can you pass that up?
•  The lazy susan- I got to try a lot of different types of food that I never would have ordered.  It is also really fun to share all the food and just eat small quantities of everything!
• Eating ice cream everyday!
•  Complete strangers walking up to you just to try and practice their English a little bit.  Parents push their young children up just to say hello.
  
•   Seeing the little babies with their split pants
  
• Being able to bargain for cheap, fun souvenirs - after I spend 5 minutes bargaining I realize that I was trying to get them down like fifty cents.  Oh well, its kind of fun. 
  
•   Everything is so cheap here!  It’s so easy to take a taxi, eat dinner and go shopping and realize you’ve spent less than $20 the whole evening!
  
•   Dumplings- yum, I could eat these every day
  
•  Watching Chinese woman do EVERYTHING in crazy high heels- bike, climb rocks, walk up 500 steps at a temple.  It makes me laugh to see them so dressed up everywhere- and sometimes with the knee highs J
• Pocky (and the fact that Christina called it Pokey the whole time!)
•  Being able to see all the cute babies at New Day Foster Home.  I was ready to take little Adam home!

Things I will not miss:

•     The squat- even though it’s not as difficult as it once was.  But you don’t know how much we rejoiced when a place has a Western bathroom!
  
•   The lazy susan- I started to dread seeing this at every meal because who really knew what we were actually eating
  
•   Seeing men pull up their shirts and rub their bellies and all the gross spitting
•  Being stared at like we are aliens
  
•  Seeing the little babies with their split pants using the bathroom on the street where I’m walking.  All those puddles I thought were water from the rain, now I’m not so sure!
  
• The air pollution- some of the cities are so smoggy you can’t see 500 feet in front of you.
  
• Almost being run over by people on bikes
  
• The crazy Chinese driving- just because you honk doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want on the road!
  
• Not understanding the language at all- it's sad that I still only know about 10 words in Chinese
• The hot, humid, sticky weather- oh wait, Texas isn't that much different :(
  

The fuwa- mascots that represent 5 continents playing in the games.

This was in Tiananmen Square.  

Fun figures of all the different sports represented in the Olympics.

then you put them into this bubbling, boiling vat of broth to cook.  
Trying not to burn myself with all the hot oil.  It was kind of like fondue where you cook your own food.  It was good but I was sweating by the end of the meal- that red sauce was very spicy and the boiling liquid makes it a very hot meal!
More fun food from the Wanfujing Snack street.  They had grapes, apples, pineapples and plum kebabs that were drizzled with crystallized sugar.  It was very good!
We also went out for a fancy dinner one night to try the town specialty, Peking Duck.  It was pretty good but I don't know if duck is on the top of my eating list.  I'm ready for a nice big grilled chicken breast!