Just Another 美国 Au Pair in Hangzhou

After recreating a significantly darker adaptation to the ending of Super Mario: Odyssey with the kids, in which Princess Peach stabs Mario in the heart and Toad opens fire on her machine guns blazing whilst yelling “YOU’VE BETRAYED THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM!”; plus the added anxiety of watching Hank play the final boss(es) on the actual game over 20 times before beating it... you could say I’m rather tired. But what. A. Week. We went ice skating on Friday, and let me tell you… with my ankles, I really don’t think I was cut out for the stuff. Or I got the wrong shoe size. Either way, it felt like a never-ending cycle of pain and torment on a slippery sheet of ice. The kids enjoyed it, though. Immediately after, the Mom bought us movie tickets and we watched a bizarre, R-rated sci-fi action film with a Chinese protagonist and Sylvester Stallone for some reason, because… why not? The next day Hank and I went out to West Lake for some sightseeing. I saw a 1500 year old Pagoda, tons of koi fish

Although we didn’t watch Shanghai Noon this week, we did watch the horrible trainwreck that is the Percy Jackson movies, and I just about had an aneurysm. Luckily we’ve made up by playing a lot of Super Mario Odyssey, a truly inspired, quality game. Hank and I are getting along pretty well. Me, him and Oscar played a live-action interpretation of Dynasty Warriors for almost 2 hours the other night and there were laughs all around. I was amused to find he knew all of the same characters I knew. Also, apparently there’s a saying here about Cao Cao that roughly translates as “speak of the Devil” and I want to use it all of the time now. We went to a big Safari park about a mile out of town and it was awesome. Lots of wildlife in large open areas. There was also a winter-themed indoor ice park, complete with snow, sledding, and ice sculptures. We played there until our faces were numb and then headed out for 5 rounds of bumper cars. After that, we ate lunch right in front of a window whe