Celebratng My Man

Let me start at the end by saying we have decided to begin planning our next trip!  Yeah…it was that good.  We got to the hotel (I picked the cheaper hotel that was still nice but not attached to a huge casino…but close enough) where we learned that they upgraded our room for free.  I booked the room through the Chinese version of Orbitz (giving us an excellent deal) so the only reason I can think of that they upgraded us was because we were Americans.  Our first night we took it easy and went to one of the big casinos close by. 

After 3 hands of blackjack each and 2 hours on a slot machine we were down 380 Hong Kong Dollars (FYI: I budgeted for 1500 in entertainment gambling which is under $200 US).  Saturday I had tons of plans but we ended up spending the day at the casino…it’s really fun to watch people and to try a little luck yourself.   Last time Adam had luck at the roulette table while I stuck to losing money at the 2c slots (with the exchange rate it comes to like nothing in US).  This time we teamed up and conquered the house at roulette.  Well made a small dent in their large profits. 

When we walked away from each table we made a personal bet with no money on the line...after being up 2000 HKD Adam's personal bet was put everthing on 24...

This is adam's face after the marble landed on 24 with none of our money on it

Adam kept track of numbers and I was in charge of picking the combo’s and saying when to leave the table.  Now with Adam’s good number sense and my instinct and hate of wasting money we made a pretty good team.  We walked away from the first table up 500 HKD (after you count the money we started with and the money we lost the day before).  We went to another table and lost the 500 (mainly because we started getting aggressive).  After being back at 0 we went to the Hard Rock casino and saw a show (YAY FOR FREE SHOWS) and went back to the tables.  This is where we perfected our strategy and won 3525 HKD (after subtracting what we started with).  We started with 500 and played conservatively splitting chips among 4 numbers (4, 14, 24 and a number that hadn’t been played in a while…our 14 and 24 are our birthdays and 4 is our anniversary) once we collected a few times we would split between 2 and pick 1 number to put a chip on.  Once we collected from those we set aside what we started with and started playing more numbers that hadn’t been picked in a while.  Then when we were VERY safe we became more aggressive.  Since it was raining we went to ANOTHER casino after dinner at the Macau Tower (the highest place in the world to bungee jump from…or something like that) and went back to the roulette tables.  We were a lot more aggressive in the beginning and that was our downfall…we lost 1000 of our winnings.  In the end because of what we won we were able to pay for the hotel room and the ferry tickets, all our cab rides and 2 meals…so basically our weekend in Macau cost a trip to Starbucks, a lunch and a small dinner.  On Sunday we decided to do the sightseeing that I planned for the day before but it turned out that it was the same place we went the last time we were there…oh well it’s always nice to see something a second time.  We really didn’t do even half the stuff I planned but we had a good time and hardly knew it rained a lot.  We (control freak Lindsay and Adam who is better at everything then I am, plus with our competitive nature) really learned how to work as a team…I know it’s an odd thing to learn at a casino.  Adam had a great birthday and personally I am much happier giving him a trip rather than a present he doesn’t need.

Macau For Adam’s Birthday

Rather than gifts for birthdays or what not we go on small trips to create memories.  Being in China has put us close to many exciting short trip places.  This weekend we will go back to Macau.  The last time we were in Macau we barely spent 1 day there.  This time we will have a chance to do some sightseeing a little gambling and see the city at night.  Not to mention trying some local cuisine.

It takes moving to China for us to visit NY!

We have booked our hotel room and flight.  So it’s official we are taking a long/short trip back to the land of aisles of cereal, variety of people and food, stores and restaurants that take credit cards, high standards and great expectations.  While at home I plan on restocking our “American Food” pantry and bringing back some necessities for my friends here…baby formula is like GOLD.  Goal number 1 is to complete the paperwork for our resident’s visa and pick up our letter of invitation from the Chinese Government.  Goal number 2 see people we didn’t think we would see for another year or so (this time no good-byes...been there done that…only happy times).  Goal number 3 see as much of NY as we can (Adam hasn’t been before).  Goal number 4 FOOD!  That includes shopping in a proper grocery store and eating at non Chinese Chinese restaurants (I’m talking about the Chinese restaurants in China…not American Chinese food…we will defiantly stop off for some general sou’s chicken or maybe even some PF Changs). 

Here is our itinerary:  Leave Hong Kong at 9:15 Friday morning (our time) take a stop in Detroit and arrive in NY 5:30 EST.  Hang out in NY until Tuesday morning at 8:15 when we fly to Raleigh NC.  We leave Raleigh on Saturday at 12:30 and we will arrive back in Hong Kong at 7:00 pm our time.

Our Favorite Thing

Adam and I like to make bets, winner usually gets a back massage but a lot of the time we just do it for the bragging rights.  We went to a wine bar after our movie on Sat.  We love this place because it feels like our old life a little bit and every once and a while we need that.  We were a little hungry and unfortunately the menu had no English and no pictures.  We picked the item that had a chili and a thumbs up beside it…and made a bet.  I said chicken, Adam said fish.  I think it ended up being Chicken innards, I had one and Adam ate the rest.  I won…kind of.  

R*##&%

Last Saturday we went to the movies to see Iron Man 2.  About halfway through the movie the scene skipped…I thought it was the low quality movie machine.  When it happened again we realized that they deleted a word (I don’t want my blog deleted so I will give you a hint), the name of a country that begins with an R, located to the north of China.  Whenever the language or country was mentioned it turned into Chinese gibberish. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM

Today Adam turns 28 years old!  Since it’s Monday he had to work…but since I’m Lindsay I brought a cake for Adam and his co-workers to have after lunch (I miss kindergarten).  I took pictures! 

Chinese grocery stores don’t allow for much creativity…or too much creativity (depends on how adventurous you are).  Anyway I used some of the valuable ground beef that I bought in Hong Kong last week to make Hamburgers.  I made some Nachos (using tortilla chips and Mexican cheese bought in Hong Kong).  I used the salsa brought from the states.  China does provide some cheap fresh ingredients!  I made guacamole with fresh avocados and corn on the cob.  For desert we had fresh watermelon cantaloupe ice juice and chocolate cake from the hotel.

Enough about the food…back to the Birthday boy…Adam is working hard and loving every minute of it!  His job here requires a lot more leadership and is able to see the factory from before the beginning.  He is still wonderful and patient and my best friend!  I LOVE YOU!

The Rest Of The Story...

We understood that once we had those crazy doctors’ appointments and moved into our place we could get our residence Visa, which would allow the movers to send over our stuff.  Well it turns out we need an invitation letter from the Chinese government; I know it sounds a little overdue but our invitation letter just arrived in NY the other day.  Rather than mailing the letter Adam and I are required to pick up the letter from the Chinese consulate in New York City.  It takes 3 days to process, so that means we get a 3 day vacation in New York!  We didn’t want to spend 20 hours traveling each day to be in The States for only 3 days so Adam has arranged to turn it into a business trip bringing us to Raleigh for a few days.  We don’t have the details of the trip yet but we will most likely be back home in the beginning of June. 

What do you do when mom says “no”? EASY…ASK DAD!

Or you learn and ask Dad first…although after a while (at least in my family) my dad didn’t like getting in trouble and his answer became “ask mom”.  Anyway I got off point.  The point is our stuff is finally on the way (after only 3 ½ months of sitting in a Raleigh storage unit waiting for paperwork to be finished).  We aren’t actually finished with the paperwork (another story).  So…back to our stuff, Guangzhou would not allow our stuff into the area until we finished the paperwork.  The company organizing everything did 1 thing at a time, every time we accomplished requirements another requirement was added to the list.  We found out that although our providence wouldn’t allow our stuff it could be shipped to Shanghai for a fee.  We signed a paper that said because of Adam’s job we were required to live in Shanghai for more than 6 months out of a year.  Guangzhou said no…Shanghai said yes, and that is OK.  The “rules” in china are not written in stone, rules here are meant to be pushed or altered (remember what I said about the driving).  We just laugh when we think we could have had our stuff had we just gone through Shanghai a long time ago.

Adam's POV

Adam is a follower of our blog but (although I have asked) doesn’t want to post anything…so I made him dictate to me what is going on at work.  Thankfully he has had a lot of practice explaining in a way that anyone (me) can understand. 
Although we have had a few issues, we are on track to start production on July 1^st.  When I first moved to the new factory (on April 7^th) they had nothing (no internet, no desk, no food).  Since then things have progressed quickly…construction is almost finished, tools are set up, we are processing wafers and we have built our first LED lamps.  Chinese construction is pretty amazing.  We started construction in January and every day since then there were 500 workers carrying bricks on their backs, and doing the work that Americans do with machines and new equipment, manually.  I have to share an office (that is actually a dorm room) with 6 other guys. By the end of May we will move into the new office building.  On Monday we start our pilot production and hopefully work out any bugs before we start our actual production. 
We have our start up crew (short of one engineer), 178 employees and will be hiring a ton of local people over the next year.  We have a great team of Engineers and we have spent a lot of time outside of work together.  Mostly we do dinner and invite Lindsay but we went to Karaoke one night and did a team building hike.
My wife is wonderful for being supportive of my long hours and allowing me to stay in the dorm one night a week so I can get some extra work done.

2 Cities in 2 Days

On Tuesday Jodie and I took a trip to Shenzhen.  We have been many times to go to LoHu or IKEA but today we went to the art district.  Part of why I enjoyed this trip was I finally got some catch up time with Jodie, we hadn’t talked about our trip to Thailand, her trip to Hong Kong, updates on her move, updates on when we will get our stuff or anything in a LONG time.  My favorite update…there is a chance she will move to Shenzhen for her husband’s next assignment. 
The art district is full of alleys with independent artists selling their work, framers that can frame anything in less than 2 hours, and art supplies.  We went because Jodie needed to get a couple things framed and to get a photographed copied into a large painting.  The artist we went to will copy any photograph (changing colors, eliminating people, or adding things…according to your request).  On her last trip she had some pages out of J.J.’s (her 5 year old son) favorite story book.  They were adorable and are a great idea to decorate his room.  They were pictures of space and she had them use silver matting and a black frame…for 2 paintings framed and matted within an hour it cost about $25 US.  My plan was to be an observer and see what there was to offer…I came home with 5 paintings and a ton of ideas! 
Monday Judi (not Jodie) called me and said she had to go to Hong Kong to pick up a box that customs wouldn’t mail.  It’s crazy but you can carry just about anything across the border but mailing is another issue.   She wanted to know if I wanted to join…I never pass up a trip!  Judi’s husband is the head chef at a hotel that is opening in Huizhou and he previously was the head chef at a luxury hotel in the pricy part of Hong Kong.  So we decided to spend the night and got a great deal on an executive room right on the harbor in Hong Kong.  Our meals ended up being free because everyone loved Judi’s husband and wanted to take care of his wife and her friend from China.  We picked up her box and did some shopping.  If you haven’t noticed from my postings…it’s hard to find a lot of things at the grocery stores here, so we bought lots of meat, cheese and butter.  We also did some shopping for clothes that would fit…well fit me (Judi is Pilipino and smaller then the Chinese women) and clothes that are not frilly and covered in flowers.  It was nice to be in Hong Kong with someone who knows it well, but it was also nice to learn that in my previous trip (on my own) I went to all the right places.
Adam took the opportunity to work long hours. 

ta gai xuexi putong hua le!

I figured I would write an update on our Chinese class.  As a teacher I am going to write this from a teachers point of view.  Adam dropped his classes from two a week to one a week and ends up canceling class every other week for meetings or dinners or what not.  He is the student that has potential but never shows up to class.  I on the other hand only have two classes for two hours each week and have canceled when we have been out of town (I even had class the day we left for Thailand) and I canceled another time because I felt like I had been hit by a bus and didn’t want to open my eyes let alone speak Chinese.  ***Don’t worry I wasn’t actually hit by a bus, although being China it is likelyJ.  However I have reached a plateau.  I am that student that came with nothing and grew quickly, and just when I thought I got it, I have leveled off.  All in all I feel sorry for our teacher because I know how she feels I have had a little Adam and a little Lindsay in my classes, and both are extremely frustrating. 
I had my class this morning and even though I haven’t had class since before we went to Thailand I did very well!   And when I say very well I am a choppy reader and can’t remember without looking at my notes (no retention), but I did much better at pronouncing then I usually do.  Vivienne (the teacher) liked to say…”I think it’s not so difficult.”  In my opinion Putong hua hen fei chang nan.

It's hard to be a good Norwegian in China

Happy syttende mai to all the Norwegians out there (and to the wanna be’s too).  In honor of Norwegian Constitution day I usually cook something Norwegian (usually…well always…meatballs…yumm) however I am here in China and they don’t sell ground beef.  Plus I am unable to find a recipe that doesn’t require an oven or important ingredients that I can’t find here.  Hopefully sometime this week I will make it to IKEA to but the next best thing (Swedish ingredients).   Let me know if you know of any recipes that don’t require flour, an oven, ground beef or anything instant…let me clarify…we have a small apartment so no smelly fish either!

How many Chinese does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

This is one of those entries where I vent a little bit.  It doesn’t mean we love our lives here, it just means that in all aspects of life communication is key…which is a problem for us!  When we moved in we had 4 requests, that someone fix the lights in the bathroom and in the kitchen, that they fix the call box, that we get the better cable with English channels along with an extra cable box for the bedroom, and that someone install internet.  Well we obviously have internet (it only took a month but we have it now).  I guess 1 out of 4 ain’t bad.

Since we can’t talk to anyone who can fix any of these things we depend on the realtor (who dropped off the face of the earth, hasn’t been to the office and is phone has been powered off) and the person in charge of helping us who is based in Shanghai (about a 4 hour plane ride away) and knows nothing about business in Huizhou or the Guangdong providence (apparently different providences have different rules).  So our “helper” depends on the secretaries at Adam’s work…who really have their own job to do. 

The Lights:  Not having a light in the kitchen makes it that much harder to fix dinner and wash dishes.  I know it’s ironic that Adam works for a lighting company and we don’t have working lights.  We did try to fox it ourselves but the light “bulb” is wired into the fixture and screwed into the ceiling.  It isn’t something we wanted to mess with.  Two days ago (a month and a half after moving in) two men came to look at the light, they were not prepared to fix it and from the Chinese I could understand they were going to come the next day to fix it.  The next day they came and took the lights, then explained that they would come back Monday to bring the new ones.  (I wonder if they will actually install the light or if they will need another day for that.)  So now we have holes in the ceiling of the kitchen and bathroom.

The Cable:  The day after we moved in they came to install the cable…YAY!  However the guy showed up without a cable box.  It has taken until this morning for someone to come back.  The issue isn’t with the Chinese workers it is with all the middle men who didn’t communicate what we actually needed.  Today the cable company came with 1 new cable box.  I showed them the cable box that didn’t work and they immediately used the new cable box as a replacement, I in broken Chinese and a little Chingligsh and a whole lot of motioning I explained that we needed the new cable box installed in the bedroom and with a call to Adam at work we had someone translate that we were supposed to have the package with English channels and the cable box in 2 rooms.  They will come back another time.  This is very close to my experience with Time Warner…except I can’t yell at anyone to get us free movie channels. 

The Call Box: Well the camera works, but the button to let people in does not.  This is difficult when you can’t speak the language to tell the guards to let someone in, and when you live on the 24^th floor of the 15^th building.  In order to let people in we have to take the lift down and walk to the gate (which usually takes about 10 min…counting the time needed to wait for the lift to reach the 24^th floor).  On the plus side security here is great, on the downside because the camera works the last time someone came to fix it they thought it wasn’t broken.  So this morning when the cable men came while I was sleeping I had to quick throw on clothes and run out to the gate, hoping that they wouldn’t leave.

Real Housewives of Huizhiou

Today Judi, Zuri and I went to palm Island to meet up with the other girls (the ones I like to go shopping with in Shenzhen).  Jodie unfortunately couldn’t come because Louie was up all night the night before L.  Since the trip is about a 45 min drive we got a chance to get to know each other.  They are both going to be in Huizhou for at least 2 more years which is wonderful for me because Jodie is moving this summer, since her husband’s term is over.  I was really trying not to think about Jodie leaving since I knew I would be alone and she has been such a huge help throughout the adjustment.  Most of the ladies that live in Palm Island are leaving at the end of the month (I think only 4 are staying) so this was our last coffee morning with everyone.  Part of our lives here is dealing with goodbyes, you are forced into fast close friendships then ripped apart.  This is the downside to our lives.  We talked about shopping, baking, traveling and passed around babies.  Not exactly as exciting as the Real Housewives of Orange County but I enjoy it.

The Thailand You Don't Hear About On The News

When we arrived at the Bangkok airport I was a little nervous and again trying to get transportation from the Phuket airport I kept expecting for people to screw us over or something…boy was I wrong!

This is just my overall opinion after just 4 days in Thailand but I have to say that Thai people are some of the nicest, most welcoming, joyful people I have met.  The people in the airport that work behind the counter will bend over backwards to help you, the people in the market will joke around with you while you haggle, the people that you see walking on the street are always smiling.  Either there is something to be said for the sunlight or they are genetically predisposed to happiness.  When we told our cooking school teacher we were living in China her comment was “no one there smiles I asked someone why they don’t smile and it’s because they don’t have a job or money”.  I didn’t see anywhere in Thailand where it looked like the local people had money but they are happy anyway.  Never mind that we were on vacation, but walking the streets of Phuket with the smiling Thai people made me very happy.

I Eat Seafood Now

Bit by bit Adam is helping me learn how to enjoy eating fish.  He is wonderful about starting off easy and hasn’t pushed me into anything too crazy.  Monday our plan was to visit Old Phuket Town and have lunch there.  We asked the taxi driver to take us to a good place for lunch.  He took us to what he said was a cheap seafood restaurant.  It looked like one of those hole in the wall places that have amazing food so we decided to try it out.  I thought if anything we can stop for a snack somewhere else.  We picked out our fish from a pool and waited for them to do what they do to turn a live fish into lunch.  The lunch ended up being more expensive than we thought it was about 400 baht (34 baht = $1 US).  Apparently we picked a heavy fish and prawns.

talk about fresh!

Down town was full of little antique shops and we did our part to support the economy by collecting some treasures to remember our trip forever.

Monday evening we went to the Phuket FantaSea show…google it I can’t explain it very well but in a nutshell it is an awesome experience showing off the history and culture of Thailand.

A Couple of Islands, a Whole Lot of Monkeys and Mexican for Dinner

Saturday was more my thing well Sunday was defiantly more of an Adam thing.  We couldn’t go to Thailand without snorkeling.  We took a day tour of Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee) Island.

This was the town where our boat launched

This was a map of where we went

We saw where part of the movie Beaches was filmed,

we saw where the big Tsunami hit a couple years ago

and stopped at monkey beach where we stood at a safe distance while monkeys grabbed wraps off women and fruit out of hands.

We of course snorkeled and saw some beautiful coral and brightly colored fish.  We had a blast!

I didn;t spend much time in the water...fish kinda freak me out

 

 
The night before we spent hours walking up and down the street looking for a Mexican restaurant that we saw advertised (there is nothing even close in China).  Saturday we decided to ask the people in our hotel and take a taxi there.  We had a pitcher of margaritas and some chips and salsa.  It’s amazing how good something so simple tastes.

LOVE the big hunk of Guacamole

Keep Smilin'

Saturday morning we took a taxi to Putong beach and went to Pum’s Restaurant and Cooking School where we learned to cook some traditional Thai dishes and sauces (we of course got to eat it all as well).

Our instructor was amazing; she was full of life and a wonderful teacher.

The owner of the restaurant and all the staff would cheer for us after each dish and they taught us a song to sing as we make curry paste. 

Adam and I with the restaurant owner

I of course ate it all up and Adam of course thought it was corny.  We made red and green curry paste, a couple soups, a couple chicken dishes and a couple fish dishes.

We also took a tour of the wet market where Nom (our teacher) showed us how to pick the best ingredients.  The most important ingredient according to Pum and Nom is to smile!  After our class we stopped for a couple of cold drinks as we walked the whole area before stopping at an Australian restaurant for dinner.  We took our first Tuk Tuk ride back to the hotel. One of my favorite things in Thailand is the Taxi’s are like pickup trucks with a roof and they are called Tuk Tuk’s. 

A Day At The Beach

Friday we spent the morning sitting by the pool, at lunch at the poolside bar and spent the afternoon on the beach (after getting a Thai massage of course).

Before our trip I researched and researched for hours until I planned our trip activities.  We had dinner at a wonderful Thai restaurant. 

Then I couldn’t have picked a better activity for our first evening in Thailand.  We played mini golf at Dino World.  I know it sounds strange for anyone to spend the time they have in Thailand playing mini golf, but it is one of the little things we miss from living in the states. 

Not necessarily mini golf, but the little dates we used to have with some healthy competition.  I won of course…

however I can’t brag because one of Adam’s shots were ruined by a girl running through our course.  You can’t leave dino world without stopping at the dino bar for some dinosaur themed frozen drinks.

The Journey

We left on the Airport bus from Huizhou at 12:20 on Thursday and got to the airport around 3:30 for our 6:30 flight.  Since we left from the Hong Kong airport mid trip we have to get off at the China border get on a different bus and get off 30 seconds later at the Hong Kong border where we go through immigration again.  At the Hong Kong Airport we had real western food from a sports bar for dinner and left on Shrilankin Airlines to Bangkok.  The service on the airport was wonderful but there was a Chinese tour group that made me feel like we were on a plane with middle schoolers on an unsupervised field trip.
 I have to admit that I was a little nervous with the recent news that the Bangkok airport would be crazy with protestors.  It was exactly the opposite.  Security was extremely tight but other than that it was full of smiling Thai people and tourists.  Our flight from Bangkok to Phuket was simple and quick.

We got to Phuket at midnight and took a airport shuttle to our hotel.  It took us about 2 hours since we were the last ones dropped off.  In the end for a short plane ride we ended up spending a lot of time traveling.

We Packed Our Red Shirts And Headed to Thailand!

Just kidding about the red shirts, we weren’t anywhere near the dangerous area.  We also made sure not to pack any red or yellow shirts.  We didn’t want anyone to worry.  We had a wonderful time!  I have a lot of pictures to post as well as details about what we did and what we saw.  All in all Thailand is my new favorite place and Thai people are my new favorite people. 

Our Anniversary Trip

We leave this afternoon for our top secret anniversary trip!  We will tell you all about it when we come back.  I will tell you this it is tropical and Asian.  We will be back Tuesday at about 9:00 pm (our time…so am your time) and will post all our pictures Wednesday!  We are very excited and will not be able to top this anniversary EVER!  

Lovin' Retirement

Lots of people ask me “So…what do you DO all day?” I like to say I am retired (and after watching my grandparents in retirement to me that means you love life and tend to be more busy then when you worked).  I wake up every morning at 7:30 – 8:00 and have breakfast while I watch a TV episode of something (on the many DVD’s we have collected since we have been here).  I do some exercise we have a beautiful park behind our apartment or I pull out my yoga DVD as I wait for my wii fit.  I do housework (when you have a small washer and do dryer it means doing laundry daily, dishes pile up quickly and when you don’t have hot water in the kitchen you have to boil water to wash).  I make myself a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch most days and have a bowl of fresh fruit.  After lunch I run errands to the food stores, the wet market and wherever else the day takes me.

I come back and clean fruits and veggies and start prep for dinner (if I am cooking) or I spend time on the computer catching up on  my pictures and blog while I wait to meet Adam for dinner or for him to come home.  Two mornings a week I have Chinese Class for 2 hours and I usually go to Shenzhen with the girls 1 day a week.  I have made friends with some women that live about 45 min away but I spend most of my girl time with my friend Jodie and her baby.  Jodie and I like to wonder Huizhou and have afternoon tea.  We are planning on starting to work at a local orphanage 1 day a week or so, but we have to wait for clearance (when the H1N1 virus was big they stopped letting outside people in).  I also like to spend my time planning trips for us to take while we are here.

Around the worlld in about 2 hours

Today is another Chinese Holiday…so that means the majority of people here will have Monday off where they will travel back to their home town to spend time with their families.  It also means everything is even more crowded then it is on a normal weekend.  On our way back from Macau we stopped in Shenzhen and decided to take the metro to Ikea (I had never done it but I heard it took us right there and it was labeled).  Well the map wasn’t labeled but thanks to a customer service rep that spoke English we figured out the stop while Adam searched on his blackberry to double check.  We got out of the Metro at the Window to the World exit and didn’t see Ikea and didn’t feel like getting lost just to find it so we took a cab (we later found out it was across the highway behind the building).  Our metro adventure took us to an interesting site…behind us was a Europeon Style village with tables outside and lots on English signs and next to us was the Window to the World Theme Park.  This takes us to our Saturday date.  After stopping at Ikea to pick up the last piece of furniture that we couldn’t fit the week before, we went to Window to the World.  It was described as having famous landmarks from all over, with international shops and international food.  It was given 4 stars as a tourist area and was given wonderful reviews. 

The monuments were OK but were unlabeled, the Eifel Tower had Chinese characters written all over it, and the dino park had sound effects that were awfully hilarious. 

All the food stands sold nasty looking hot dogs, corn on the cob, Chinese noodles and coconut juice.

The shops each sold jade, Chinese fans, and Chinese figurines.  I think Adam and I were the most insight to anything foreign than anything else at the park…and I say that because we posed for many pictures and even took pictures with locals as if we were Mickey Mouse at Disney World.  We went to the European village at 7:30 (STARVING…and I was getting cranky) for a good meal and they didn’t sell food at any of the places…they were all bars.  We ended up going across the street to the mall to eat at KFC and have Gelato for dissert (how is the mall more international then the park?).   It’s one of those funny stories we will talk about forever and that no one else will understand.