Where I once lived....

Dujiangyan... never thought I would see that name in print. It is a small city in China. Not worth mentioning. Nothing really interesting about it (I believe there is some really old aquaduct there?!?!) And now it is all over the news. That is the "small" city in China where I lived 13 years ago. I would wager money that the school I taught at is one of the schools where buildings collapsed. The building I lived in was only a few years old, but it looked as if it had survived WWII bombing. I lived on the second floor of a five floor building. When the rainy season hit one night, I was awakened to water falling on my bed. Through the light fixture in the center of the room. I rushed around my room, trying to find dry spots to put things I owned (like cd player, pictures, books)... things that would be damaged by water. I never asked how the person above me fared during this storm. I was just astounded that I had a leak in my ceiling on the second floor!

I am a bit worried about people who I knew for only a short period of time in my life. People who I didn't keep in touch with over the years. Are they alright? Did they survive the quake? Most of my students are no longer in school, but some of them lived in the area. Are they alright? This earthquake has really hit me. I keep thinking about Dujiangyan... the city, the way everyone stared at us (being the only westerners in a small city of is it 6 or 8 million people?). Being the tallest person standing on the bus (if you know me, you will know that I am not at all tall!). I remember trying to find postcards to send to friends and family, but there were none to be found. I had to buy my postcards in Chengdu.

This has stirred up a lot of memories; things that I have/had forgotten. The people I worked with were all very kind. I am praying for you, Dujiangyan, from someone who has actually set foot on your streets...

Making yogurt and other things...

I am going to make yogurt today. This recipe is very similar to one I did a few years ago during Holy Week. I got it in my head to make tzatziki completely from scratch, so I made my own yogurt. It worked well but I know now that I need to strain the yogurt for a longer period of time in order to attain that Greek-ness:) And I must start making yogurt because both P's eat Trader Joe's Greek Style yogurt with honey (which happens to also come from Greece) every evening before going to bed! And it's kind of pricey! But I definitely do not want to discourage in any way the eating of this great snack. So, I have saved all of my TJ yogurt containers and will put my new, home made yogurt into those containers. I'm pretty sneaky that way:)

In other news... the downside of having the boys share a room is if one wakes up early, he will wake up his brother. And then, all of a sudden, there are two little boys in our bedroom asking to watch a movie at 4:30am! Which is what happened this morning (little p was cute, though, because he just kept saying over and over in his 2 year old voice, "moowie, moowie"). Of course, they did not get to watch a movie and had to go back to bed but it is now 10am and little p is already down for a nap! Could be an interesting afternoon.

And I couldn't stay mad at them for too long because while I was getting breakfast ready at a more reasonable time (7am in our home because Big P has school) I could here Big P leading his superheroes and star wars figures in the Liturgy (Let us pray to the Lord, Kyrie Eleison, etc.). And then he sang "Christos Anesti" at the top of his lungs. And then there was something about Superman taking one of the knights who was hurt to the church so that we could pray to God to heal him?!?!

Anyway, have to go make some yogurt... Have a wonderful day!

(ps. my parents are in Greece for two weeks and DH is leaving for St. Anthony's tomorrow for 4 days and my sister is coming down this weekend with her two children for Big P's 6th Birthday! whoo. lots going on. Oh, and my sister and I are in the midst of planning a 60th birthday party for dad at the end of May... there really is a lot going on!)