Just another day in the complex...

To the gallows with the gentlemen in the yellow vests!

This morning I was talking to one of our friends on the phone and she said "Jarred can I tell you something?"  I said "sure."  She said "There are like 100 police officers with these guys and they have hoods on their heads like they are about to execute them.  It is right outside of our complex.  I have to tell somebody this."  So I decided to go downstairs where I encountered the above.  There were like 20 people standing around in the rain just watching.  Then the news came to report.  I asked a police officer what happened.  He said "nothing happened."  Oh ok, so I am not supposed to think anything happened when you have bagged the heads of 6 people and are holding them right outside of my house like you are waiting for a scaffold to be built to hang them.  So I decided to ask a security guard who was hanging around watching the action.  He said "They committed a crime."  Ohhhhhhh, so that is what happened.  Thanks for the clarity.  I asked what crime and he said "I don't know, they probably stole some money or something."  I had somewhere to be, otherwise I would have asked the news guy.  The truth is, he probably didn't know and was about to make something up to keep it exciting.  He probably arrived and asked the police officer "why did you call me here?"  The police officer probably said something to the affect of "Oh nothing.  Just take some footage of this and make something up."   

Still have no idea what happened.  A news search for our apartment complex produced nothing.  If anyone is missing money, or a bike, or found someone in a ditch, they have it figure out.  From the looks of it it could be any of the following.  Just another day in East Asia.  Nothing to see here...  

hotel jung

over the last couple weeks we have had a bunch of great friends passing through our neck of the woods which has made life SO much fun! we love visitors and we have gotten to have some great ones. some have been best friends from other cities, old neighbors from a few years ago, new friends from america we barely knew, and even an old friend with his wife we got to meet for the first time! last week one of our neighbor's harrison asked one current guest was staying and when she said with us he told us we should just name our house "hotel jung." tomorrow night we welcome our 7th guest to our apartment in the last 2 weeks. thankfully water times have worked out and our guest sheets have always been clean and ready for new tenants (though they are starting to get holes- woops). we are so thankful for all sorts of reasons that bring all sorts of friends and acquaintances to town!

my mom's chicken salad

of all the things my mom makes, one of jarred's and my favorites is her simply chicken salad. it's so good that my cousin scott requests it every single year that we all go to the beach. but some things are just harder to make on this side of the world. this year, however, a few things new to our world over here have made the process SO much easier and the result is us eating a lot of really good chicken salad sandwiches. 1) for the past 5 years i have only been able to find grapes with massive seeds in the middle, but this spring a store right outside our complex gate has started carrying these delicious, seedless grapes! 2) danielle sold me her nut chopper when she moved home and let me tell you, making sliced almonds out of whole ones is 100 times easier with this thing than with a knife. and 3) though not pictured because who can really pick up those things and a crock pot at the same time is that i learned the best secret of cooking chicken ever is to just throw it in a crockpot on high for 2 hours without even adding water and even if the chicken breasts are still frozen- why didn't i learn this years ago instead of trying to poach chicken. these 3 things plus splurging on some imported mayo has made our favorite spring/summer meal a weekly dinner!

only in asia

saturday afternoon we headed to the old folk's home near us with some of our friends. we love getting to sit and chat with the old people and listen to their stories of how much life has changed for them over the past 70+ years. one man was 92 and it was so fun to talk to him and think about all he has lived through here in his lifetime. my grandpa is 91 this year and it made me think all day about all that he has seen and done in his lifetime on the other side of the world. but, this picture wins for being the craziest of the day- check out this old man with his homemade tobacco bong that he made out of a plastic water bottle- only in asia.

mother's day from afar

we have 2 really awesome moms that we loved getting to talk to and celebrate on mother's day! it's days like sunday that we wish we weren't so far away. we couldn't ask for better moms and mother-in-laws!

a day at the lake

late this morning jarred and i packed a picnic lunch and headed an hour away to a lake near us. it was the best afternoon we have had in a long time! we had 4 hours just to lay in the sand, read our books, listen to music, try to get max to swim again (fail, again) and just hang out in the sun and be together.

a lake here that you can actually swim in!

  

the paddle boats are crazy looking