Barcelona

Barcelona winter is pretty mild. It is almost like Houston with some days in the 50F range and a few days in the 60F range. So, it is easier to take the kids outdoor, not having to dress them in three or four layers of bulky clothing. Isaac in his stroller outside of La Sagrada Familia, the most famous of Antonio Gaudi's work, a perpetual construction project that started in the 1900s and is still several decades away from completion.

Isaac and Meredith playing outside of Parc de Montjuïc near Catalunya museum of art. Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia region, which pride itself with a distinct culture, language and heritage from the rest of Spain.

Outside of Parc Guell, another one of Gaudi's creation.

Running stroller

I have been wanting to buy a running stroller that can carry both Isaac and Meredith for a long time. Both Boon Hong and I have not run or exercise in any form at all since we moved to New Orleans. Since we returned from Netherland, Isaac has been more and more comfortable staying put in a stroller. Before that, he will burst into tear the minute he sat into a stroller. So for the last few weeks we started running with Meredith and Isaac in two separate umbrella strollers. The umbrella strollers are too short and I had a hard time bending down to push them while running. Last week, I finally made a plunge for the running stroller. I wanted the $550 BOB Revolution stroller which is built like a high end bicycle. However, practicalities and cost consiousness got hold of me and I finally bought the much cheaper $230 Schwinn running stroller. One penny one ounce worth(a chinese expression), the cheaper stroller made a lot of creaking noise and the link arm broke soon after I put it together. However, we started our running routine immediately and we have been running with this stroller with the two kids several times a week.

Isaac can now endure one hour long run. Meredith is the one that always wants to come down from the stroller and run with us.

I found a route that leads to the levee that protect New Orleans. The levee is seen in the background of this pic. It is a constant reminder that we are living below sea level.

There is a playground on our running route. Meredith and Isaac take a break from sitting on the stroller to play on the slide.

The stroller has built in screen which I used when the temperature gets below 60F to block the wind from getting to the kids.

Trick or Treating

Meredith and Isaac went trick or treating on Halloween night last month. We have never gone trick or treating before nor did anything special on Halloween. It was fun to watch Meredith going door to door asking for candy and chocolate. In the first few houses, Meredith was shy and didn't know what to do and just stood still at people's front door. She eventually got the hang of it after going to about 10 houses or so. She started knocking hard on people's door and then she spoke in half chinese english, " tick or tick". Then people dropped a few candies in her candy basket (rather than buying a real Jack o Lantern basket, we let Meredith use a rattan basket- Dayak style- that we brought from Sarawak). Isaac enjoying the candy that big sister worked hard for


His- turtle costume by Children Place, $20. Hers - chicken costume by leftover from last year, $unknown.

Boon hong fought with the kids to take control of the pile of candy

It looks a lot like Christmas in New Orleans

Snow fell on New Orleans today. New Orleans winter is pretty mild and it very rarely snow in New Orleans, maybe once in a ten years.



I heard that when snow fell in New Orleans, it is an omen of big hurricane to come the following year. The last time it snowed in New Orleans was in 2004 and then in 2005 Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans. Anyway, everyone is so happy to see snow in New Orleans today. I can see the rooftop of French Quarter being coated in white from my office in downtown New Orleans.

This is the first time Meredith has seen snow. She was so excited and did not want to go to school. She wanted to remain outside to feel the snowflakes falling on her.
In the end, Boon Hong had to save some snow for her in a ziplock bag (which we then kept in the refrigerator) in order to persuade her to go to school.

Outside our home in New Orleans

The snow that Boon Hong saved for Meredith in a plastic bag in order to persuade her to go to school.

Barcelona

The view of Barcelona from Parc Guell. Barcelona has to be one of the most beautiful city in the world. There's the sea, the mountain, vibrant culture, and the architecture.

Isaac trying to play ball with the big boys

Isaac tried to hang out with the big kids (Meredith and Ian) when they played ball.

Isaac got roughed up and kept falling down despite efforts by parents to keep him in the game.

Isaac fell down again!



Finally, Isaac gave up. He realized he is not ready for that advanced level of ball playing yet. So he resorted to play with his own toys.

A diiferent kind ofThanksgiving....with New Orleans style lion dance

We spent our first Thanksgiving in New Orleans last week. In the years past, we had always spent our Thanksgiving in the warmth of friends and church family in Houston. I was looking back in our blog and the posting from our Thanksgiving in 2007 didn't even feel that long ago. We didn't do much in our Thanksgiving this year in New Orleans. We invited a few people from the chinese baptist church in New Orleans over to our house for lunch. Then at night, we went to see a skit performance. The skit was very well put together considering the resources available to a small church. They even rented lighting instruments for this performance. From what I understand, the chinese church in New Orleans do this every year to reach out to the chinese community here since most people work in restaurant and only get off on Thanksgiving and Christmas day.

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to invest some money in the mall like everyone else in America to help ease the economic crisis. Then we went to Westbank New Orleans to get grocery at Hong Kong market. Westbank has a large vietnamese community. We were delighted to run into a vietnamese thanksgiving celebration with lion dance and vietnamese song performance. The lion dance was fantanstic, the lion came and prance around Meredith and she can even touch the lion's head. In Houston, it will so crowded whenever there's a lion dance and there is no way we could have even got close to the lion.


The baby room at New Orleans chinese church.

Lion Dance in Westbank New Orleans, day after Thanksgiving

Meredith eating cassava (yuca) kuih. We bought this from the Vietnamese lady selling kuih muih at the lion dance performance, it taste just like the a type of kuih that you can find a typical pasar malam in Malaysia.