January...our company has arrived!

 

January...wow how time flies.  We have been very busy in China, our 1st semester of school has ended, half a year over already.  Also, our long anticipated wait for our guests/family to arrive finally came.   We welcomed Luke's Uncle, Val, from New York in mid January.  A week before school was out, as a retired teacher himself, he got to enjoy some teaching at our school.  We did some local sightseeing with him and thoroughly enjoyed his company.  What a great reunion. 

Then Grandma and Grandpa Madsen arrived on January 17th.  Luke and the kids greeted them with open arms and many squeals of excitement, at the airport in Guangzhou.

The next week would prove to be a whirlwind of sightseeing and fun times.  We will forever cherish our memories of their visit.  I think they will be processing their quick trip for a long time :)

This months events...

Our friends/colleagues Katie and John at their traditional Chinese Wedding thrown by their coworkers.  It was quite an event.  To their left, are their "sister/brother", which we would call bridesmaid/groomsman, Erin and Nate.  John and Katie will also be married in the states in August with their U.S. family.

Here you can see Val at Country Garden with the high school English class.  Also, Pippa, our friend/colleague can be seen in white. Val also led a teacher discussion on ESL and his experiences.  It was well received and delight to join in the conversation.

Dinner in Shi Qiao, a 20 minute cab/bus ride from our neighborhood.  We ate at a local vegan restaurant with our friends Joe and Phil.  This was a wonderful globe in a small park area.

Below is a photo of the most Wisconsinites ever seen eating at one of our favorite local restaurants, Hunan.  We had delicious sweet and sour pork (won't be able to go back to the US version, theirs is so good!), tofu, dumplings, bok choy, eggplant and bread.

Here is the vendor where Val bought oranges at least 3 times during his stay.  They are plentiful and delicious here.

Laurel and Larry enjoying the local market.  Behind them you can see the meat portion of the market.  The woman shown below squeezes sugar cane through this machine to make a drink, the cup is below the machine.  It is very sweet and sticky.  People also just buy the sugar canes and she cuts the bark off and they eat it raw.

Here we are eating at one of our favorite places, which we call Muslim Noodle, because the owners are Muslim.

A quick photo taking at our local riverside while we were waiting for the bus.  The walkway behind us is where we often walk/run.  The waterway is used mostly for barge traffic and small local fishing boats.

On our way into Guangzhou via bus we ran into Hattie's Chinese teacher, Ellen.

Ellen, was with her friend and our colleague, Rachel.  Rachel works in the English department and was a big part of Val's experiences at our school. 

Ellen and Rachel snapped a photo of our whole group.

This artist was painting only with his hand and fingers.  We visited the Chen Clan Academy in Guangzhou.

 

This was our first stop in Hong Kong, Ada Snacks, where we had waffles filled with peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk and crushed peanuts.  We were happy to know our hotel was only a block away.

Grandpa and the kids on our Big Bus tours and pictured below is the bus we took.

Eating hot pot (rice and whatever you want...this one is pork) on Temple Street

Larry, Luke, Mason and Uncle Val feeling the wrath of our long day walking along Temple Street Market.

Our view from our double decker bus on the way to Stanley on the southern tip of Hong Kong Island.

We took a cable car/trolley up the side of the hill to the Peak, observation deck, at the top of Hong Kong.  Sun setting on the less developed side of the island.

 The whole crew as the lights come on in Hong Kong, thanks for the great memories :)