Thanksgiving Memories

Thanksgiving seems like both yesterday and ages ago, but for good reason. Yesterday because the entire day was filled with such wonderful memories; ages ago because the last seven days have been out of this world. But more on that in the next post. Now, to reflect a bit. Thanksgiving was my last day in Shenyang. My first tour of two years, culminating in my favorite holiday with a handful of the people I love. I planned it that way, of course. ;)

When I was scheduling my departure in my TMTWO itinerary, I had the option of leaving 30 days +/- my original arrival date at post. Since I arrived in Shenyang on November 30, 2011, I could leave as early as 11/1 or as late as 12/30. Departure dates are a negotiation between the losing post (Shenyang) and the gaining post (Rome), but because I am not going directly to Rome and instead going to training, my departure was a bit more flexible. My official Italian training starts in February, and I was able to schedule in about a month of other training before that to fill up the month of January. But there was no way that I was going to stay at post an extra month and miss the holidays with my family. Plus, I had to fit in my congressionally-required 20 work days of home leave. So that backs us up a bit to late November. Since I was planning to make a few stops en route to Philadelphia, I was faced with the decision of spending Thanksgiving on the road in an airport or spending it at home in Shenyang with family. Naturally, I chose the latter option.

Having already packed out 99% of my stuff, I felt a bit incapacitated as the day approached. R & P had offered to host an intimate Thanksgiving meal with six of my closest colleagues/friends. But without my pots, pans, and baking ingredients, how was I supposed to contribute to this fabulous meal? Thankfully, everyone opened up their apartments and their hearts to me, allowing me to mix my leftover ingredients with their pantries' and assist with the menu planning. What would I do without these people?

True to form, R & P came up with a fabulous lavender-infused brine and rub for the turkey, and planned out a multi-course meal that absolutely was one of the best. Evenings like this are the essence of living in Shenyang. In a place where luxury is often hard to come by, we have to find our own ways of enjoying the good life. Simple ingredients are often unavailable, and intricate meals take a good deal of planning. I hoarded a can of cream of mushroom soup for 4 months in preparation for the green bean casserole I made for this meal, knowing when I saw it randomly in the supermarket in Beijing that I might not see it in Shenyang in the weeks to come. Can't find your trusty can of French's Fried Onions? Thanks to the internet, I made my own crunchy, pan-fried onions. Grocery store doesn't sell sweet potatoes? How about buying them from that guy on the corner down the street who roasts them from his own garden in the countryside… In Shenyang, you've gotta be creative. That's what I love about this place. I'm proud to have survived and live the sweet life with these people.

Around about noon, I walked over to the Crowne to start cooking with R & P. R greeted me with fresh-squeezed orange juice (because he's an OJ snob and loves pulp) and champagne, with which we toasted the BFF via Skype. Without her here, Shenyang Thanksgiving isn't fully complete. However, by videoconferencing her in, it felt a little better. I'll copy the full menu below, but my contributions were as follows: - green bean casserole with fried onions - rosemary roasted butternut squash with pine nuts - pumpkin spice frosted cupcakes

Thanks to everyone for letting me use their casserole pans, cookie sheets, cupcake tins, and pantry items; it was a great success because I had your help. Cooking my last meal in Shenyang with my best friends was a huge treat for me. Not only was I doing the thing I love best in the house (baking/cooking), but I was doing it with the people love and that made it super special.

Nomming our way through the afternoon, we team-efforted dinner to completion around 5:00pm and ate right on time. Everything, was absolutely delicious. Like I mentioned above that it takes a bit more preparation and planning to put on a great meal, the hard work makes it that much tastier. Whether its the recipes, the chefs, or that extra ingredient of hard work, the meal tasted divine. I had a moment of bliss as I sat there and looked around, the wasabi/pear-apple cranberry sauce dripping over my garlic mashed potatoes, listening to these wonderful people compliment and describe what they were eating in the most genuine of ways. Perfection!

After dinner, we had a dessert intermission with some hooting: guitars and ukeleles were brought out and the classics were sung. "Shenyang, Shenyang" and "Don't Stop Believing," the two local anthems. Although this time, there was a twist. Just as Ms. M had prepared a song for J upon his departure, she fashioned a song for me to that famous Journey song (lyrics below). Almost in tears, I couldn't imagine anything better, but of course that wasn't the end of it. P had one-upped herself in creating a departing scene with Photoshop to help commemorate my first tour and my time in Shenyang (picture below). Needless to say, I was floored. Perhaps the humor doesn't translate over the internet, but these two items mean more to me than words can describe. I'm so happy to have the opportunity to serve here, in this cold town, with these awesome people.

This year, I am thankful for so much. For my family, who is patiently waiting for my return home and with which I will get to spend the holidays. For my friends, old and new, who support me through this crazy life by being there for me in person and digitally. For my career, which has granted me endless opportunities to learn, travel, and explore this grand earth. And for my health, without which none of this is possible.

Photography through Carolyn's Lens

When I joined the Foreign Service, the only camera I owned was my iPhone, which is actually quite decent for capturing spur of the moment shots. However, when I traveled to cool new places like the Great Wall, Taipei, Burma, and New Zealand, an iPhone was not going to cut it. Earlier this year I bought my first "real" camera: a Canon EOS Rebel T3i. I had played around with a friend's T2i and really enjoyed the feel and ease. Most of my photographs from Taipei are from the T2i. I had also played around with my colleague's Nikon D90 a bit too. All of my Burma photographs (Yangon / Bagan) are from the D90. In my opinion, I found the Canon easier to adjust the settings and take stunning photographs that were effortless on my part.

Disclaimer: I am not a camera guru. I have never taken photography courses. I like to read the Instruction Manuals (yes, I am a nerd), and this is a great place to start for people who have never taken photographs with a DSLR camera that has manual settings. The Internet is also a helpful resource for anyone who is willing to read and watch other peoples' advice. That's basically what you're doing right now, ya know?

I encourage you to click on the photos for a larger view so you can see what I'm describing.

• Exposure: Think of exposure as the overall combination of three settings. To help myself remember what each one does, I liken the settings to the functions of my eye:
• Aperture - pupil & lens, shrinking and dilating to focus the light
• Shutter speed - lid, blinking slow or fast to take in more/less information
• ISO - retina, light-sensing film to take in more/less light
• Aperture: You're on the couch reading a book and suddenly someone comes in the door. As you look up, it takes a second for your eyes to adjust to the new distance. Just like in your eye, setting the aperture allows your camera lens to focus the light. It is measured in f-stop increments. An open aperture is a low number (f/2.8) that would blur the immediate foreground and background, setting the focus on the mid-ground, which is good for portraits. A small aperture is a high number (f/20) that would keep everything sharp from the foreground, mid-ground, and distance background, which can be good for landscapes. 

f/5 - blurred foreground and background with a sharp mid-ground 

f/18 - sharp at all points, even the mountains in the distance

• Shutter speed: Let's say if you're in a park, and you have your eyes shut and open them fast, take in info, and then shut them, you get a pretty good idea of what's going on. You might remember someone mid-stance, a ball in mid-air, a bird flying by. That would be a high shutter speed, maybe 1/1000 of a second. In that picture, you would have frozen the action. If you open your eyes, and maybe even turn your head, you get more information and see the movement. That would be a slow shutter speed, maybe 1 whole second, 1/6 of a second. In that picture, you see water moving, and blurred images of people walking by.

1/1000 of a second - caught the wave, and all the spray 

1/3 of a second - blurred to show movement

• ISO: You're walking in from a brightly-light parking lot and you notice right away how dark it is inside the restaurant where you're meeting someone for a romantic dinner. Just as your pupil adjusted earlier to the light to focus it, your retina will also sense you're in a dark room and take in more light so you can see your meal. When your environment is bright, you want a low ISO number, around 200 or 400, to avoid overexposure. When the environment is dark, you should allow for more light sensitivity, about 1600 or higher, to capture as much information as possible. Unfortunately, when it's too dark and a 3200 ISO cannot capture anything, your image will be grainy and blah.

ISO 100 - A lot of natural light from the window at the back

ISO 3200 - This was taken in pitch black darkness without a tripod with a 6 second shutter speed. The slow shutter speed plus no tripod makes it super blurry. I shot this in RAW format to get the highest amount of information so I could take it into Photoshop and potentially edit it. This is the un-edited version. PS: this is the Milky Way :)

• To help you keep track of all of this, most DSLRs have a general exposure meter that runs from -3 -- 0 -- +3, with 0 being the optimal exposure, -3 being underexposed, and +3 being overexposed. All of this is personal preference, so you can be perfectly happy with an overexposed photo if that's what you're going for. 
• Lens & focal length: Your first setting here is your distance to the subject, which is changed by... well, YOU! To help you get virtually closer, you can use a zoom lens to change the focal length. My DSLR kit came with a moderate lens that ranges from 18-55mm with a max aperture f/3.5-5.6. I use this for most of my shots. I also got a telephoto zoom lens that ranges from 55-250mm with a max aperture f/4-5.6. This is good for super zooms and still captures fine detail. Canon does a great job at explaining what the different lenses do on their website: http://www.canonlenses.ca/ Just drag and drop the different lenses into the compare feature and you can see the difference. Lots of fun.

18mm - Taken with a 18-55mm lens, at the lowest zoom
ISO 400, 18mm, f/14, 1/500

55mm - Taken with a 55-250mm lens, at the lowest zoom
ISO 400, 55mm, f/11, 1/800 

109mm - Taken with a 55-250mm lens at mid-zoom
ISO 400, 109mm, f/11, 1/800

• Focus: With cameras these days, auto focus is awesome. For the most part, I let the camera do the work once I've found what to focus on. On my Canon, if you press the shutter button down half-way, the camera will select the focus based on how I've composed the shot. If I want the picture to focus on another object in the frame, I move the camera so the object is in the center, push the button down half-way to focus, and then reframe the shot by moving the object to where I want it to be. For example, in the shot on the left below, the camera had originally auto-focused on the mountains and I didn't know until I took the shot that the foreground would be so dark. In the second shot on the right, I had refocused on one of the cows in the foreground and then moved the camera so they were in the right side of the picture. You can see that both are pretty shots, but for different reasons. 

Original focus: the mountains in the distance.
The camera realized that it needed to shadow the foreground to capture the light and detail from the background.
ISO 100, 65mm, f/10, 1/320

Refocused: the hill and cows in the foreground.
I lost detail in the mountains by focusing on the cows, but the camera is able to make both visible.
ISO 100, 65mm, f/7.1, 1/160

This is certainly not an exclusive tutorial for photography, by any means at all. But for those of you who have asked me about my camera and my photos, here's an insight in how to get started taking the same kind of pictures! I have found the best way to get good shots is to take a lot of them, and then be very critical of yourself... keep changing settings and perspective until you get the shot you want. Branch out of Auto mode and dive into Manual, or Av (aperture-priority) or Tv (shutter-priority) to have some assistance in choosing the right settings. Read your manual and learn the camera menus so you get faster at changing settings on the fly. Bring your camera with you when you go, because you'll never get "that shot" if you don't have your camera. Charge your batteries and bring an extra memory card, because you never want to have to delete a photo you haven't seen on the computer screen. And take some time to compose the shot!

Happy snapping!

Summer in Shenyang and Some 'Merica Lovin'

The city of Shenyang has two major seasons: summer and winter. Most people reading into Shenyang hear a lot about the harsh winter, which lasts about 6-7 months from late October to mid April. You can look back into the archives to hear me go on about the climate during that season, but I can sum it up in one word: frigid. Spring is short, about 6 weeks in May-June, and the weather pleasantly surprises us all, especially after being frozen for so long. I missed part of it this year when I was on R&R, so it seemed even shorter for me.

Compared to the rest of China, summer in Shenyang is mild. Unlike the southern cities of Guangzhou and Shanghai that experience heavy bouts of rain and the oppressive heat & humidity, Shenyang stays fairly dry except for the intermittent thunderstorm. Even Beijing experiences temperatures in the mid-90s and exceptionally high humidity. Out of all the Chinese cities I've visited in the summer, I prefer Shenyang's climate to all of them. I often say that we see more blue-sky days here than any other city in the country (which is not to say we don't see our fair share of smoggy days, but they are interspersed with clear days more often).

The Consulate gets pretty busy during the summertime, having come unfrozen after the deep dark winter. We get more official visitors, more visa applicants, and a slew of incoming/outgoing officers. The turnover is palpable. It's also a season of events, with the annual Independence Day Celebration and this year, the upcoming Liaoning Games (China's own version of the Olympics). Needless to say, in the midst of preparation, hails and farewells, I've been busy.

America the Beautiful
Photo credit: C. Stein 2013

The July 4th Event planning starts very early, back in March, with theme-choosing, vendor solicitation, and invite-sending. Thankfully, we have a lot of hands-on officers who help coordinate different tasks. By the day of the event, almost everyone at the Consulate has contributed to the party in some way. And it truly showed this year -- we had a fabulous event.

We held the party at a recently-opened luxury hotel in Shenyang, and every element was coordinated down to the finest detail. From the food and flowers to the tourism vendors, an extreme amount of attention was paid to perfection. And as one would expect, the result was an event that went off without a hitch. Having experienced two July 4th parties in my tour here, I can say that we took all the lessons learned from last year's party and improved greatly on the outcome. If anything, I hope that we set the bar for next year's pretty high.

Incredible food spreads & flowers
Photo credit: C. Stein 2013

In addition to the official party held by the Consulate (for official contacts), the local AmCham branch held a party down in Dalian for Americans, expats, and local Chinese involved in the AmCham community. A group of us from the Consulate headed down for a night by train to attend. Although there was a good amount of travel involved for just a one-day event, I felt refreshed after heading down there. I felt the same feeling at the family party held by one of the Consulate families in the suburbs. For a few hours, we felt like we weren't in China. We were among other Americans, listening to a live American music, enjoying fresh clean air, and eating hearty American food with our friends. To end the both nights, there were even fireworks. I echo others in saying that this brought a tear to my eye.

Fireworks in Dalian
(iPhone)

I'm normally pretty sentimental about patriotic things, but this specific moment, watching fireworks and celebrating July 4th in China, was super important to me. For some background, last year, I was blessed to be able to spend July 4th with my family at home in the USA. I had the chance to watch amazing fireworks not once, but twice! First with my mom and stepdad at the Midway Fire Station in Doylestown, PA and then again with my dad, sister, brother-in-law, and extended family down at Ocean City, NJ. The whole experience of coming home after a year abroad was emotional, but being back on our nation's holiday as an employee of the US government, that filled me with a sense of pride that I hadn't experienced before.

On a daily basis, I don't actively think of myself as a representative of America abroad. I live my life as I wish, with a subtle subconscious reminder that I am a government employee. Yes, it's obvious to just about everyone in this city that I am not local. They don't know that I'm an American, though. I could just as easily be French, Canadian, German, or Russian. But when I was in America for July 4th last year, I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs: "I AM AN AMERICAN! I LOVE MY COUNTRY!" Whether it was the sense of freedom and liberty I was feeling, or the fact that I could walk into Walmart and choose from 25 different kinds of pasta sauce, I knew I loved the US.

My love of country amplified a hundred times being outside of America for its birthday. Americans can easily forget how great their country is when they live there. The convenience of everything. We truly are lucky as Americans to have what we have and access to so much more (information, goods, opportunity, you name it). I am so thankful to have the chance to come home every two years to "repatriate" and immerse myself in the good ol' American culture. During the time at home, I think we (as Foreign Service folk) come to realize how proud we are of the US and it helps us recommit to our mission to represent/protect this great country abroad. It also gives us a chance to realize what is truly important to us in life, whether it's family, friends, fresh air, or freedom.

So here's to you, America. Happy 237th. You're one classy broad.

Happy Birthday, America
from Cabby

David Does Beijing! Day 6: "Perceptions"

The Forbidden City was the objective of the day. Happily for all of us, the city is no longer "Forbidden."Far from it. Today also marks a Chinese national holiday - "Tomb Sweeping Day."  The closest such observance we have in the U.S. would be our Memorial Day. Here in China, grave sites are decorated by family members. Nice tradition.

This is all by way of saying that more than the usual number of Chinese were able to visit the Forbidden City with us today. Surprisingly, the thousands of additional visitors didn't affect the enjoyment nor the ability to see, touch, photograph and enjoy everything we wanted to see and do.  What a memorable visit!

Tianamen Square serves as the "front yard" of the Forbidden City.  It is as big, and perhaps even bigger than we've all seen on the news or in documentaries. Chairman Mao's mausoleum is the introduction to the Square. We opted not to join the many visitors at his resting place on this particular Tomb Sweeping opportunity.

The Forbidden City is much like the one we all watched in "The Last Emperor" - and so much more. The sights, sounds, the people, the breezes all serve to enhance this memorable day. Thanks to digital cameras, nearly unlimited photo ops were possible. I certainly took more than my share.  Chinese love to visit the City as much as sightseers from around the world. As cosmopolitan as any city with a multi-million population, Westerners are still a treat in The Forbidden City. We learned after a few requests from a few Chinese visitors simply love to have their photos taken - with Americans in the frame! Fun for them. Fun for us.

A hallmark of this entire visit seems to have been: "history in the morning / shopping in the afternoon / unbelievable dinners nightly." Lots of all of this.

We have been more than blessed with Ca's presence, her expertise, her knowledge, her humor, her sense of fun and adventure and her willingness to accommodate the two first-time visitors to The People's Republic.

Tomorrow? History, shopping, eating. (No use in changing a winning scheme!)

Heading into the New Year

I'm normally not one for resolutions in the New Year. In my mind, setting a list of goals for yourself all at once is stressful! Instead, I make commitments to myself all year round, and spend a good part of my time working to achieve them. Every day is a challenge and a potential accomplishment. Baby step resolutions make for daily successes.

Right now, I'm working on worrying less and loving more. It has been my mantra lately and so far, it's been helpful to keep in mind. I have this bad habit of worrying about things beyond my capacity to change, like the weather or other people's opinions of me. Perhaps the first example is not really that great, since the weather in Shenyang is most likely always going to be "cold," in varying degrees of the word. But my overall realization has been that it takes a lot of effort to worry about the future, effort that would be better spent focusing on the now and loving it. And believe me, it feels great to live in the now.

So what's happening now in the 'Yang?

Well, the bid list is out. All 28 locations. And my choices are all AH-MAY-ZING. I couldn't be more fortunate to come out of a high differential post with so many awesome options. The list has places like Madrid, Tokyo, Istanbul, Jakarta, Cairo, Moscow, Panama, all huge hotspots and major cities. Can you believe that out of that fantastic list, I didn't even mention my top three?? In my mind, they're even better... Needless to say, I've been enjoying the research process and I'm looking forward to submitting my list in February and getting my answer in March. Surprisingly, I haven't been worrying too much about the list, probably because it's fantastic. What happens will happen and I'm happy knowing that I'll probably get one of my top 5 bids coming from Shenyang.

In other news: I just came back from an awesome ski trip to Beidahu in Jilin with "Bill" and "Ted" from the CONS section. So many times this weekend I thought about Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and how we were kind of on our own China adventure. Hope to write an entry about that this weekend. Coming up, we have the Chinese New Year (Feb 9-13) and I'm planning a trip to Burma with some consulate folk. I'll write a full post about that as it gets closer (wait, it's only two weeks away!) with more details. Looking WAY down the road, Mom & David are planning on visiting in late March/early April after my birthday, which gives me GREAT excitement to begin to plan. Mom: I'm already lining up the restaurants we're going to eat at! You will LURVE it here. Can't wait to have you <3

December

The holidays have begun.

So has the season of baking, celebrating, and partying. I think in the past two weeks, the group has had a handful of get-togethers. I have made three batches of cookies (chocolate chip, heath bar, and brownie). Last night was R's birthday and I made wonton chicken cups. It's that time.

The holidays can be a hard time to be away from home. I hit my one-year at Post two weeks ago and it is amazing how fast time flies. Today we were decorating the CGR for the Christmas party next week, and I kept saying, "Last year we had the kids do this..." and "When we had the party last year..." I couldn't believe that I was one of the longest-standing people at post when in that group of people. A resident Shenyang expert? Maybe.

As I mentioned last year, the season is a great time to be in a small community like ours. Nothing brings people together like being away from our families. To be honest, I've created a family of sorts here among my friends. I feel such a tight connection with the people here that I can't imagine leaving in one year. True, many of the people here now will already have departed post, but there will be the people who have just recently arrived that I will have to say goodbye to. I can't imagine the tears!

~
Last weekend was completely splendid. Saturday I spent at the gym and around the apartment during the day, putting together some things for Christmas gifts. In the evening, I joined a group of people from the Consulate at a new Indian restaurant opening. Good restaurants in Shenyang are few, and when we find favorites, it's great to give them our business. Pakwaan, an Indian restaurant that we often order from for lunch, opened a new shop across from the consulate district (coincidence? Me thinks not). They had their opening last Saturday night and it was a great success. I guarantee that we'll be heading there for lunch more often now.

Sunday was a day of relaxing. In the morning, A and I went over the BFF's to make breakfast (bacon and pancakes, in that order) and watch the Pacquiao/Marquez fight together with the husband and an out-of-town guest. I'm not a fan of boxing (typically) and I wasn't really looking forward to the fight. But boy -- was it an interesting match!! What athletes!! What muscle structure!! What a knockout!! With a broken nose, Marquez landed a TKO punch against Pacquiao in the 5th Round that ended the match just as Pacquiao was heating up. Certainly brutal and hard to watch, but there was an impressive show of athleticism that I was not expecting.

After a nap and a shower, we headed back over to the BFF's for a cocktail party. The theme was "Elegant." I know how to do elegant. After channeling Holly Golightly, I headed over to enjoy some homemade cocktails, courtesy of their guest from London's mixology skillz. On the menu: ginger-infused martinis, lemongrass gin and tonic, a Chinese-style negroni, and more. It was a brilliant evening. There was brie. There was dancing. It was wonderful.

This weekend, we will have another get-together at the BFF's: a brustilli baking party. I plan on making a batch of my family's traditional People Puppy Chow (that I will try my hardest not to eat in one sitting). Sunday will be a snickerdoodle baking party at my place and then early in the week is the Consulate Christmas party. Time flies! It's 13 days until Christmas and I hope my presents get home in time for everyone to open them. I'm slowly accumulating a pile under my tree to open via Skype with my family. Plans are in the works for Christmas eve and Christmas day parties. What a season to be surrounded by friends who are basically family. In this holiday season, I don't have anything to complain about. My only wish is that I could spend it with my real family too, and then it would be the best of both worlds. <3

Thanksgiving, etc.

One year ago on Thanksgiving (or a week before due to timing), I spent the day with the people I love most. As is annual tradition, Mom-Mom Brosious hosted a gathering at her house in NJ. The difference was that this was the last Thanksgiving I'd have in the US. So I invited all my closest friends to join as well. We celebrated the spirit of the season together, eating good food, cookies, and lots of pie. I remember leaving Mom-Mom's that night with tears in my eyes, knowing that it would be a long time before I saw all of these people again. The night continued late in Willow Grove with the Ninja Crew and before I knew it, midnight had come and it was time to say good-bye. A week later and I was on a plane to China.

Holidays abroad always have the potential to be lonely and depressing. But thankfully, this year was warm and fuzzy like any Thanksgiving ought to be.

The BFF and I had planned to go running by the river on Thanksgiving morning, but unfortunately, when we woke the sky was filled with smog/haze. Instead, I packed a bag and headed over to the Crowne to join her at the gym. We did a solid, easy 5K and headed upstairs to clean up. "Do you want pumpkin muffins?" she asked as I took my shoes off. Um, it's Thanksgiving -- who doesn't want pumpkin muffins? We spent the rest of the morning knitting, chatting, and relaxing, preparing ourselves mentally for the afternoon's activities.

N has an annual bowling tradition in his family, where each year everyone bowls together (or apart) and sends in their scores to see who will win the coveted trophy. We had all bowled in Shenyang before, so we were mostly prepared for the activities ahead. A group of six of us walked over to the alley to lend our support to N's family tradition.

Looks fancy, huh?

The alley is dank and cold, and the decor looks as if it had been plucked out of a bowling alley in Texas from the 1980s. The lanes worked just as well, and we had to switch half-way through because our gates wouldn't work. But, despite all the hardships, N overcame adversity to bowl a 175. My first run was awful (I suck at bowling) and I improved slightly in the second round to finish with a 96.

Eating early is normal on Thanksgiving, so five of us headed over to a Beijing-style restaurant close to Taiyuan Jie, the shopping street where I live. Turkey dinner had been devoured last weekend at the block party, so we decided instead on some traditional Beijing duck 北京烤鸭 Beijing kaoya. For those who have never had this style of duck before, I'm truly sorry for you. You have not had a chance to enjoy the delicious, juicy, fatty goodness of crisp duck skin and succulent duck meat, wrapped in a light and fluffy crepe-like pancake with savory dipping sauce. It's absolutely divine. And certainly a respectable Thanksgiving-dinner meal. To be honest, I actually preferred it to turkey (but don't tell anyone I said that!).

After eating my weight in duck, I headed back to the BFF's to pack up my knitting and clothes, and then hurried my way back to my apartment in the cold. N had asked to check out my movie collection and I suggested we watch a movie in the process. S and B joined us minutes after we started Argo, a recently-released film about the 1980 secret operation to extract six US diplomats out of Iran during the hostage crisis. I promise we don't always watch movies about ourselves, but I had been dying to watch this one because it's been getting good reviews. Rightfully so, the movie was done well and Ben Affleck underacted perfectly (p.s. something about his beard made him super attractive in this movie... or maybe his calm-cool-collectedness). I would suggest the movie to anyone, not just people interested in the Iranian conflict or diplomacy, but it also has a lot of humor and interesting movie-making info in it. 

Needless to say, Thanksgiving day was filled with lots of people, fun, and good food, which in my books is the perfect recipe for happiness. This year, I'm thankful for a few important things:

• The friends who have become my family abroad -- without them, Shenyang would be a boring, cold place to live
• The opportunity to live the FS life -- the opportunities seem endless and the doors keep opening
• The safety of my current location -- especially when looking around at my colleagues serving in the Maghreb region. My prayers go out to all of those who currently live in the hotspots of the world -- may you be safe and sound during this holiday season.

First (Annual?) Shenyang Pre-Thanksgiving Block Party and Pie Contest

Arriving last year around the holidays, I enjoyed the many parties and gatherings at Post that allowed me to interact with my colleagues (soon-to-be friends) on a personal/social level. That season has official begun again.

This weekend, the citizens of the 17th floor hosted the First (Annual?) Pre-Thanksgiving Block Party and Pie Contest. Over 50 people were in attendance, crowding the halls of the shabbily decorated Crowne Plaza apartments. Despite the ugly carpets and grandmothery decor, the mood was lively and wholesome, with tons of food to boot.

I made three dishes, two from recipes of Mom-Mom Brosious (courtesy of the family cookbook): the traditional green bean casserole with French's french fried onions and Cambell's cream of mushroom soup; the Brosious-style sweet potato casserole with marshmallows and (hidden) pineapple flavor; and a from-scratch recipe of pigs in blankets from handmade dough. Since they were based on tried and true classics, I knew they would turn out okay. I mean -- how can you go wrong with brown sugar, sweet potatoes, and butter topped with marshmallows?

Ready for topping and baking

Among the other dishes present were delicious traditional must-haves like stuffing, mashed potatoes, potatoes au gratin, and of course turkey! We had three people brine turkeys for the event and each one of them was divine in its own way. My favorite was the beer brine. Yum!

You can never have enough potatoes

In addition to the dinner feast, the BFF organized an official pie contest. This contest was serious, folks. Not only was their an engraved glass trophy for the winning Pie Master, but on competition day, my boss (one of the 5 judges) unveiled his scoring scheme, complete with pre-printed score cards that rated the pies on density, composition, appearance, and "mouthfeel." These guys meant business.

The contestants:
1. Pecan Pie A
2. Blueberry Pie
3. Pecan Pie B
4. Apple Pie
5. Pumpkin Pie
6. Coconut Creme Pie

The full pie spread, including those not up for competition

 Needless to say, it was a night of epic eating proportions. Shenyang, you did not disappoint!
After eating, some of the musically-inclined participated in what others have referred to as a hootenanny. Someone might have even fashioned together a washtub-bass. I might have lent my vocals to a song or to, but others had much better pitch than I.

"I think I'm turning Japanese" was actually one of the songs we sang

After all was said and done in the hallways, we retired to the BFF's apartment to finished off some of the mulled cider wine and relax in peace. As I said on FB, thanks to all for great memories and a feast-well-done!

Veterans' Day Weekend

It's been eleven months since I arrived in China and yesterday I finally hung my first painting.
Who knew it would take a cancelled trip to the North Korean border to inspire me to hang my stuff? Maybe these things should happen more often.

In an effort to salvage my day, I spent most of the Veterans' Day holiday zooming around the apartment with the utilities guy, telling him where to drill holes. After a few confusing discussions, my Chinese skills paid off and all of my paintings, tapestries, and framed photographs are hung on the walls. Surprisingly, the apartment doesn't seem so sterile anymore -- maybe even a bit like home.

Shenyang does feel more like home every day. I've come to realize that it's the people who make a place a home. To everyone here: you make this place wonderful. <3

In the past year or so, I've done a fair amount of traveling all over Asia. As I come up on my anniversary mark of departing for China, I can do a little bit of looking back. Blogging was supposed to help me chronicle my memories as I went along this journey, to make the "looking back" part easier. But seeing as my last post was from January/February, you can obviously know how that went. Needless to say, it's been a whirlwind. The pictures on Facebook can tell a good chunk of the story.

One thing holds true, though, from the first post to this one. Foreign Service life is a challenge, but it is the right path for me. I can honestly look back, as I was suggested to all those months ago, and know that I'm all the better for the decisions I've made in my life. The Winter Cycle bid list comes out in a month or so, and I'm looking at my future going, "Yeah, I can dig a tour in Barcelona or Sao Paolo." It's nice to say that I've done my duty in China, using my language and getting some cred for being in Shenyang. Thankfully, I spun this the best way possible for moving forward. And after Shenyang?
Well...
The future's everything new.

Happy New Year - Chinese Version

A long overdue post, but one still fresh in my memory.

Chinese New Years in China is almost too much for words. It starts about two weeks before the actual Lunar New Year, with fireworks going off at all hours. The displays are typically noisemakers, but occasionally you get the aerial rockets that make pretty flowers in the sky. Vendors sell large packs of fireworks on street corners, and without any licenses or authorization, you or I can buy professional grade fireworks for cheap. The city doesn't have many regulations regarding when or how you can set them off, so some days the explosions would go on until 2:00am, sounding like a war zone outside my bedroom window.

There were two days of "crazy-go-nuts" fireworks on the actual New Year's Eve and the final day that fireworks were allowed to be burned. I took videos and will upload them sometime soon, but it was nothing like I've ever seen. Everywhere I looked there were beautiful, colorful starbursts all across the city. The horizon glittered as you could hear the firecrakers explode in the streets below. In the mornings, the streets were empty save for the remnants of burnt offerings and casings all over the place. When work resumed at the Consulate, mornings were filled with the sounds of explosions from the surrounding neighborhood. Supposedly the sound of the fireworks is supposed to scare off any remaining spirits from the previous year, thus giving people a reason to set them off whenever they feel like it. All I know is that by the end of it all, I was tired of hearing fireworks at all! Fourth of July will never be the same.

In the past few weeks, I've kept myself pretty occupied between doing activities at home (reading, knitting, cooking, baking bread) and with friends (going out to clubs, parks, massage parlors, restaurants). I've gone to a few events at the CGR that have been fun, including a baby shower for one of the EFMs and a Mexican food night with the Liaoning Basketball athletic trainer. There are plans in the works to visit the local Beiling Park this weekend and in the future, we'd like to do some skiing/snowboarding at one of the nearby parks. I'm registering for the Great Wall Marathon, to be held in May, and I've started back up with my running training for that. Things are going smoothly -- you can assume that the lack of posts means that life is keeping me busy, for sure!

Happy New Year - American Version!

Aside from it being New Year's Eve this weekend, my days have been overall relaxing and uneventful (a good thing). I have gotten into the habit of reading nightly, which helps keep my thoughts from straying to all the people, places, and things I miss from home. I've finished three books in the last five days, a feat even I am proud of. Since I've graduated from Villanova, I have had this love-hate relationship with reading for pleasure. I think now that I'm so far away, I've gotten over that and started to love books again. The ease of the iPad, the Nook app, and the gift certificates for downloading books has increased my desire to read dramatically, along with many good suggestions for titles that have come my way. Oh, and the Shenyang Book Club. That, too, would encourage my reading. :P

I spent New Year's Eve partying with the BFF (my fellow OMS), her husband, and a number of other friends from the Consulate. Everyone brought over a bottle of wine or champagne, and we toasted the New Year in style. After some dancing, Rock Band, and chatting, I called the night as it was and headed back to my apartment to sleep away most of Sunday. The combination of a skimpy pre-party meal and super-sweet Chinese champagne probably wasn't the best, but no one said life lessons stop after you leave college, right?

I had fully recuperated by Monday and spent the early part of the day with BFF and the husband again, walking around town to see some parks and recreation, specifically Zhong Shan Gong Yuan (中山公园 - middle mountain park) and the small but delightful ice sculpture garden they had erected there. Nothing in comparison to Harbin, the home of the internationally-recognized Ice & Snow Festival, but enough to put smiles on our faces. The best decision of the day? To ride the ice luge on inflatable tubes. For about $1.50, we treked up a mini-mountain made of ice cubes and slid our way down. My happiness couldn't have been greater!

As I said before, nothing spectacular happened, no huge fireworks ceremonies, no crazy nights on the town. Really, it's the casual atmosphere that I'm learning to enjoy as I get more comfortable in Shenyang. I remind myself daily that a) it could be colder b) it will get warmer c) the people make all the difference. I won't lie and say that I don't miss everyone from home IMMENSELY, but I'm getting more in tune with my surroundings. Eating enough food is still a challenge, but compared to the last time I was in China, my range of food options has improved dramatically beyond bananas and pb&j. I have a lot of things planned: cooking classes, grocery shopping with locals, walking excursions town, Chinese lessons; that should help me feel more connected to this place I'm calling home. I'm looking forward to it all!

Until next time.

The Busy RSO Shop

My job as an OMS in the RSO Shop can be pretty busy from time to time. Like my other jobs in the past, the busy-ness comes in overwhelming waves and droughts. I enjoy the variety of tasks I do and the opportunities they bring.

Today has been no different, although I'm learning by trial through most of the new assignments. We received a new employee today in the Information Management section, so I'm no longer the newest kid on the block. I feel the most connected with H in terms of experiencing Shenyang with new eyes, ears, and nose; however, that's about as far as our similarities go. I have only been here fewer than 30 days, and already I feel like I have some insight on the things to see, places to go, and stuff to know. I wonder if when I arrived everyone else felt the same, imparting their knowledge through little tidbits of conversation mixed in with the regular introductory greetings and pleasantries.

Another thing I've realized about arriving when I did: although the winter season in Shenyang is harsh, I think it is the perfect time to arrive at post. My reasoning is based on the overwhelming sense of community developed during the holidays. Imagine 25 or so Americans in a cold, sometimes dreary city located on the other side of the globe, all wishing they were back home with family. In a country where Christmas is no more than a shopping holiday, these brave souls come together to celebrate with traditions that remind them of their loved ones and cherished memories. As a new person, I felt so welcome during this time, especially because everyone else is yearning for the sense of community that a new person desires when arriving in a foreign place. Not only that, but the holiday is the time of parties and festivities. The first few weeks I was in Shenyang, I attended a party or two a week and had a great opportunity to meet everyone while they were in jolly spirits.

I've been enjoying post so far, and I'm looking forward to being the tour guide for all the brave souls who come from America to visit this little place I'll be calling home. It's not Philadelphia, the home of all homes, but it will do for the next two years.