The Latest with the Parkers

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Snow Fungus Drink?!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

This is the first year I've ever celebrated it, and my students helped me do it up right. I took three of them shopping yesterday, and we went to the Asian market to get the goods. Then, they all came over today to cook hot pot, fried rice, and sweet red beans for dessert. I must say that I tried a lot of new foods today.

After we had our fill of Asian food (and after the non-Asian international students filled up on bananas and apples), we walked to town to see the traditional Chinese New Year lion dance. It was cool to see, but I still don't get why it spits lettuce at people.

Enjoy the pictures of the crazy foods. :)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

So Proud of My Graduate

Our dear friend and sister in the Lord, Kristine, graduated with her MBA from Durham last weekend, and we were honored guests at her ceremony at the cathedral.

The graduate

Proud friends with Kristine

We love this girl!

Kristine and her boyfriend, Russell

Gorgeous!

Congrats, girl! Now go get 'em in London! We love you!

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Videos from Christmas

These videos, although short, took about 50 million hours to load. However, I'm sure the amount of pleasure you'll get out of them is seriously disproportional to their lengths.

Peace disrupted

Tidepooling

A star in the making: the product of two very intense Division 1 athletes

And our Georgia neighbor, Charlie (18 months), is gettin' 'er done on the iPad. It really freaked me out. This video doesn't show it, but Charlie climbed on the stool, turned the iPad on, minimized his mom's app, opened up his games, and played a few rounds before I even got my camera out.

Monday, January 23, 2012

Tex-Mexifornian with Friends

Not a whole lot beats great food and friends. Steve and Sarah are from Texas, Nate and Charissa and I are from California, and Cullen and Pamela and Nathan are from Georgia, and we love our go-to American default ethnic food: Mexican.

After confirming a night for us to get together, I suggested a Tex-Mex menu so that Sarah would make her amazing black bean enchiladas again. Charissa said she didn't know how to Tex her Mex, so I told her to go with Mexifornian. We ended up with some enchiladas, nachos, rice, and margaritas. Yum!

"I have no friends, so I think I'll enjoy my Corona by myself in the corner." It's okay, Steve. We still like you.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Georgia Christmas Highlights: Part 2

What did we do in Georgia this Christmas? We ate and talked and ate and talked and ate and talked with friends and family. That's what we did.

Breakfast, lunch, coffee, dinner, breakfast, lunch, coffee, dinner, breakfast, lunch, coffee, dinner... for two straight weeks. It was both tiring and awesome. Chik-fil-A, Starbucks, Willy's, Nuevo Laredo, West Egg, all the usual haunts. Ice cream, barbecue, chili, cornbread, Rigby rolls, loaded mashed potatoes, chicken biscuits, chai lattes, margaritas, guacamole, cheese dip, unlimited chips and salsa. Oh my!

Now Nathan and I are walking 4.3 miles round trip to town every day to make up for our Christmas binge eating.