June stuff

School didn't end until the last week of June, but it was already feeling like summer, that's for sure!

We started spending lots of time at the apartment pool. It's fun to have a pool so close (and free) that we can easily visit for 1/2 hour.

This is our babysitter, Lynne, and her daughter Chelsea, with Claire. Lynne has really helped us so I can work each morning. She's great.

Jozie learned to dive in June. She also loves wearing snorkeling goggles - pretty cool.

Our singer friend Summer went back to the States in June. She had been here for several months singing at the Venetian every night. We've missed her!

At church - fuzzy picture though, sorry!

On her last day we took her on a whirlwind tour of Coloane since she hadn't had a chance to get down there before.

Chinese cemeteries are so cool

I'm glad she spent a few minutes inspiring my up-and-coming little pianists:

Haven has started to be an artist. Love it.

The 'D' is for Daddy and the 'H' is for Haven, with a heart in the middle. Haven's hair is long and curly at the end.

Claire thought she'd favor everyone at the park with a photo shoot one day. She's pretty dang cute, but can you believe that crowds gather for photos? It astounds me.

The lotus were blooming that day. Gorgeous.

The lotus leaf is amazing. It has some kind of coating on it that repels water. You can roll a ball of water around on its leaf without friction.

No wonder Macau chose the lotus as its flower.

This is just a random picture of what the bakeries look like here. You get a tray and a pair of tongs, then lift up the front flaps and get the things you want to buy. Also the packs of bread slices above have about 5 slices per pack. The round balls in the middle row are similar to Brazilian cheese bread.

When we were at the fruit stand that same day someone gave Claire a huge slice of yellow watermelon. I'd never tried it before and it tasted just like watermelon - nice that it's less messy though. Claire worked on that huge slice for a long long time.

I want to share this because it's interesting, but I hope it isn't offensive. People (not original to Macau) check each others' heads for lice while sitting at the park. This one was finding stuff to fling on the ground...

This picture is also culturally interesting. This is what Chinese street cleaners usually wear:

And can someone please tell me how they explain these decals, one on each side of a van? I'm baffled.

The girls and I all got haircuts in June. I could do better in the haircut department, since we cut everyone's hair about twice a year. We took over their salon for the night.

We went to the Science Museum and the adjacent McDonald's. McDonald's is pretty much the same here. No big changes I can think of, well, except that McDonald's birthday parties are a huge hit here. Oh, and you can't get cold water in a cup. It's always warm. (That water Chad was drinking? Warm.)

This whole crowd behind us were at a birthday party.

Lots of people drive scooters here, including most policemen.

It's so fun to be in Asia and get to help the missionaries here. We had a dinner and lesson at our house in June:

And I know I'm always posting about the grocery store, but I just can't over how funny it is to line up all of our little carts and check out. Most people eat almost all meals out and shop daily, so I'm sure it's weird to them that we buy so much food.

Just random pictures of streets. Aren't they cool?

I like the mix of Portuguese, Pinyin, and Cantonese/Mandarin here:

Random fact, the red bean (as they call it around here) has fanagled its way into many sweets. People here like it in cakes and ice cream. It's so weird to us! Acquired taste for sure (yes I've tried it many times and am still working on acquiring that taste).

I love posting about our awesome and weird happenings over here! Thanks for reading. :)