Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Harry Potter, Cow Surprise, and a Typhoon.




Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 came out last week, or the week before, I can't remember (ok, it was really a while ago, because I started writing this, then things got busy, and I'm finally getting back to it). Time is blurring here. But we went on opening day, which is a day ahead of the States! Neener Neener. But with the first showing over here being at 1:15PM and the states showing it at midnight over there, I think we all saw it first at about the same time. I think I should mention, however, that we and our friends braved a typhoon to go and see the movie. That should earn us 50 points for Gryffindor don't you think? Now comes some of the sad parts of movie watching comparisons. Though I think Saipan is a fun place, they really can't beat watching a movie on opening day with the States. Our friends and us actually bought tickets on Fandango, thinking it's opening day, surely we'll need to buy tickets ahead of time. Not! We got to the theater about 45 minutes before the show started and there were only two (2) other people in the theater!!! Granted, it was the afternoon on Friday, but c'mon! People in the states probably would have taken work off to go and see it if it was the first showing. The positive, we totally got the best seats in the theater! Score. More people did show up, by the way, so it wasn't totally empty, but it wasn't completely full either! We saw it. We loved it. I totally cried when Harry used the resurrection stone and saw his family and friends! The boys did really well, and at the end when Voldemort died the whole theater was silent and Ravi said, "They won!!!" Hee hee hee. It was pretty cute.

So prior to going to the movie, Jeremy was running some errands and I casually mentioned, "Hey, can you pick up some lunch so the boys aren't hungry when we go to the movie?" He said, "Sure, no problem." I guess I should have been more specific, because if I'm not, I end up with a story like this:

Jeremy comes home with a bag of food and says, "THIS IS SOOOO GOOOD! YOU HAVE TO TRY IT!" so I get all the forks and plates etc. out and he proceeds to tell me about going to this tiny little bakery/restaurant. He told us it was beef, but when he saw the label he thought, "Wow, I didn't know you could eat that part of the cow." *Warning #1* and informs us that we have to guess what it is (he should have said, "boys, you have to guess" because I guessed it too quickly). We start taking a few bites. True, there is some beef in it. But there's also some questionable things. It also was pretty spicy, so I knew the kids wouldn't like it that much. I started guessing, Tail? No. Tongue? No. Intestine? No. I take a few more bites. He tells me it's a muscle. Ding...it all snapped into place. "Jeremy, is this heart???" Jeremy is silent. "JEREMY!?!?!?!?!" "Yes...and a few other things near the heart." "JEREMY?!?!?!?! IS THIS LUNG????" Silence. "The lady also said there might be some arteries and liver in there too." Aaaaaah! Not exactly the lunch I had envisioned right before going to one of the most anticipated movie of the year. Oh well...it at least makes a good story and is quite entertaining to share with all of you. ;)

Yep, that's what it looks like folks! Cow Surprise and rice! If you ask nicely, I *might* try and get the recipe and I'll make it for you the next time I butcher my own cow.



Thursday, July 14, 2011

Engrish

I just love all of the funny things you find while shopping. There are funny pictures, misspelled words, and just different ways of doing things over here. I really do mean that I love it. Diversity is a wonderful thing in the world and it would be boring without it. When it comes to the mistranslations and "Engrish" on all of the signs, I laugh, but I also have to remember that if I had to translate anything into Chinese, I'm sure that I would make some pretty funny mistakes as well.


This is probably the cutest rat I've ever seen! Guinea Pig glue trap, anyone?
There's a Japanese market, Himawari, that makes the best donuts and sushi! And to top it off, they have the coolest carts that Ravi and Beckham had lots of fun with.

My friend Heather (she is 1 of 3 Heather's that lives on the island) took me to this fabric store. It was awesome. Imagine three rows of fabric like this, all in a tiny 15'x20' room and that's the store. He also had jars and jars of buttons! It was so neat!

Third from the top...Smoodie anyone?

This is the outside of Himawari...I love the slogan, "Try our Meals for your Long Life!" They do have excellent food. We also picked up some yummy bento boxes from them...I got a beef and noodle bowl and it was tasty.


This was outside another store...


These sandals cracked me up. Those fuzzy brown things are kush balls! Remember those from growing up? And now they're being used on shoes! Love it!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Ramen Sense

First, I just love how they package things in Asia. I have no idea why a guy in a purple/pink cardigan sweater is on the front, but I love it. It makes me want to buy it more, because back on the mainland, we don't have stuff like this.

Another thing to be xcited about was the shape of the noodles...a circle! How many of you out there have been so annoyed because of that big rectangular brick of noddles that Ramen sells? The other thing I thought was great, though I didn't get a picture, was there were three little packets that came with the noodles...a flavor packet, a little bit of sesame oil, and dried vegetables that actually tasted pretty good when they were in there.