Orphanage Visit

Well, it's been a busy few weeks. Here's a little video of how we spent our Saturday this week.



April helped organize a trip to an orphanage for mentally and physically disabled children. She managed to talk Rob into coming along and bringing his guitar. In all, we had about 30 volunteers, East Asian as well as American, which was good because some of these children need two people with them just to help them move.



We spent much of our time with this little girl who was born without an anus. She was about a year and a half old now and is doing well after her surgery. We were ready to take her home that day! It was hard to say good-bye to those precious little ones. We hope to be able to visit them often this year, bringing more friends who are ready to learn about and love those in need.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Ladies and Gentlemen, aprilandrob productions is pleased to present:
"Proof that Rob is finally doing something about all the video and pictures saved on our computer"!!!!

Seriously, though, I'm trying to learn how to combine our videos and pictures into nifty videos like this, so we can save space on our computer. Not to mention it makes for much better reminiscing than sorting through file after file.

So here you have (I hope, this internet video thing still baffles me) a 15-minute presentation of our trip to Xi'an this past spring, including a visit to the famed Terracotta Soldiers. My favorite part is the slo-mo yo-yo guy at the park. (and yes, that was a shameless teaser to make you watch the whole thing).

Please leave us comments telling us what you think of it!

Rob's Update

Some of you know that I'm in a different city this week, taking a class. Unfortunately, the prof got sick and spent Monday night (warning: gross phrase ahead) puking up his guts. So we watched videos of the class material Tuesday, then had half a day off. It's Wednesday afternoon, and we're watching videos again. Normally, two days off isn't a big deal, but when they cram a 4 credit Master's program class into 5 full days of lecture, missing 2 days is like missing...a month. I'm hoping this won't affect our ability to get credit!

Meanwhile, April is back in our apartment and has her own classes this week. Email her and try to get her blogging! Let's get an April update!!!

Funny things I saw yesterday and wish I had a camera for:
-East Asian security guards- in cowboy hats
-a sign at the front of a bus saying "No chat with driver"
-a giant sign saying in English "ent hospital". Until I saw the East Asian translation, which was "Ear Nose Throat Hospital", I was on the lookout for giant walking trees.

Local Art (by Rob)

Here is a picture from our dining room window, looking down on the water pond in our neighborhood. I don't think I need to comment on this, it pretty much speaks for itself.

Meditations on a Haircut (by Rob)

I cut my hair today. Well, 'cut' is probably rather generous and implies more skill than I possess. I shaved my head, which requires no more skill than is needed to continually rub my scalp with electric clippers.


About every 6 weeks, have this twinge of guilt that maybe I shouldn't shave my own head. Seriously, I'm trying to live economically, trying to save money wherever I can, but by shaving my own head every 6 weeks, I'm only saving about 6 dollars...a year. And that's assuming I keep sporting this super-slick peach fuzz. Yeah, I know, 6 dollars a year is not a lot. But every little bit helps, and maybe it's more the principle than the bottom line, in this case.


Now here's where the guilt comes in: supporting small local businesses. When I hear the term "small local business", I usually think of the mom-and-pop coffee shop that my wife dreams of working at some day. Here in my corner of East Asia, small local business in the hair cutting business is this:


















Yep, that's me getting a haircut sitting under 60 tons of concrete highways. Very high ways. These guys (and gals) come out in good weather, prop up a chair, hang a mirror, and throw a towel around the neck of anyone willing to spend 80 cents on a trim. No paying rent, no utilities, even the clean-up is left to the street sweepers.


It's not Vidal Sassoon. It's not even the Hair Cuttery. But for a guy like me, it gets the job done.


Some of these folks are amazing. You see the 80 year old man who has been doing this for 65 years, the middle-aged woman who did it for a career change, or the young guy just starting out. The young guy down the road from my old apartment is my favorite. I saw him give an eyebrow trim (yes, you read that right) to a VERY old man, then walk him back to his apartment. Then while my hair was getting cut (and boy is it fun watching them try to figure out what to do with curly hair!), he was setting up a weekly house call with an elderly lady who wanted him to give a haircut to her 90+ year-old father. I want to keep these people in business.


So what do I do? I think what I'm leaning towards is doing my own buzz cuts in the summer, and letting them wrestle with the curls the rest of the year. So what if I only save $4 a year? There's a bigger principle at stake.

You Found Us!!! (a welcome from Rob)

OK, so we probably gave you the address and urged you to check it out, so you did not technically "find" us, but whatever.
Welcome to our little space where you'll get (hopefully) frequent updates on our daily life. For security reasons, we can't talk about our job, but we can give you a glimpse into our life here. Nothing too serious (usually), just whatever is on our minds. We'll try to make sure you know who is writing each entry so that the voice you read it with in your head can be gender-accurate.
We're going to work on getting a comments section soon, so you can say hi back at us. Or tell us how crazy you think we are (you know who you are!).
That's it for now- good job on finding us! :)