Ashley's Christmas List

This year, Ashley decided to write her own list - she did this on her own without any prompting. Since we are leaving next week for Australia for the holidays, she is desperately trying to get Santa her list so he knows what to leave in our Beijing house for her. We had the discussion with her that we don't have room in our suitcases for Santa to bring us gifts in Australia - so it was her idea that he would leave the presents at our house in Beijing for when we got back from our trip - Brilliant!

This morning, I was greeted with her Christmas list, here it is exactly as she wrote it:

DOg
Gifss
Wumclos
TUWOUYZS
a buol
sthikuzs
sthuftcAt

For those of you who can't read a kindergartener's spelling it means: Dog, Gifts, Warm Clothes, Toys, A Ball, Stickers and a Stuffed Cat - I did clarify with her that a stuffed cat meant a fluffy stuffed animal made with cloth and fabric - not a real stuffed cat!

Winter has come

It is cold now - takes about 10 minutes to bundle everyone up and get out the door to go to Ashley's school. It's been a busy Fall. Anthony's parents came out for 2 weeks and we did a lot of sightseeing. It was a good visit - the weather was nice for the most part - and Anthony and I finally got to see parts of Beijing we'd been waiting to see. We also went to Xian with his parents to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. That was very fun and very neat to see. We visited the Forbidden City, Silk Market and the Hutongs.

My parents just came out last week and visited for one week. It was very good to see them and we had a good visit, despite my falling and breaking my nose and despite the horrible nasty polluted days we had. For some reason, it was really bad while they were here (of course, as I write this, it's a clear day where you can see the sun!).

Ashley is busy in school, preparing for her Winter Performance in December (she'll be a swan in "the Ugly Duckling") and her choir performance. I am excited to see her in her first performances. Anthony will miss them both as he'll be traveling back to the States. She's doing great in school and is reading books on her own now.

Ryken is standing up now - while holding on to things and cruising around while holding on. He's getting into everything he can reach and having fun doing it. He has more teeth coming in, on number 6 now. He's eating lots of different stuff and loving food.

Liz is doing great too - although she's at a hard stage right now. She wants mommy a lot and wants lots of attention - she's started throwing tantrums and fits so we're working on preventing or stopping those right now. When she's in a good mood, she's so happy and such fun to have around.

We are celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday with friends. Anthony doesn't get any time off for Thanksgiving holiday here in Beijing, so we'll wait until the weekend. One of my friends has a full size oven, so she's cooking the turkey and we'll all bring side dishes. Should be fun.

We are not coming home to the States for Christmas this year, as we are doing to Australia!!!! I have dreamt of going to Australia for years and years and years and now we are! We'll spend two full weeks traveling around to four different places. I am so excited and am just hoping that all is healed up with my nose so there won't be any issues with flying or snorkeling!

Surgery in China!!!

Well, I never thought that would happen, but I've had surgery in China! I am ok - so no worries.

But, last Friday, after walking for about 3 hours in the Great Wall, we stopped to have lunch at a restaurant and I tripped going up some stairs - hit the bottom of my nose with full force. I have not broken any bone (thank goodness!) but have broken the cartilage in many places inside and at the end. I was about an hour and a half ride back into Beijing from the restaurant, with me trying to stay alert and keep an ice pack on my nose without causing myself further pain and misery. We just started with a new driver, Simon, and this was only his second day on the job! He did a great job driving as fast as he could and trying to take it slow over big bumps. The ER doc had to call in a specialist (the ENT doctor) and she did some really cool endoscopy up my nose, it was only cool to see on the screen - didn't exactly feel good! I was still bleeding 5 hours after the accident, so they needed to find the bleeding to stop it. They decided I needed to be put under and go into surgery so the ENT doc could examine it properly. I was very nervous, but going to sleep was rather easy. Anthony waited for about 1.5 hours till I was out of surgery. The doctor said there is a lot of damage to the cartilage and the bleeding was from one very large laceration in the nose - through the mucous membrane. She was not able to suture it due to the membrane - not sure why, but that's what she said - so she cauterized it - and another cut on the other side. I now have a badly deviated septum also. She said the surgery went well, but I will have to go back in about 2 months and have more surgery done to repair the cartilage. It was pretty swollen up - not up near my eyes, but the upper lip and nose area.

Fun, fun, fun :) Anthony said I looked like a different person, like a person from Whoville (in the Jim Carrey movie). Anthony, Ken and Carolyn were with me when it happened and were great helping out with the kids at home, along with the ayi. I went back on Monday for a checkup and for them to take out the "packing" they put up my nose. This packing made me feel like I had a sinus infection and was very uncomfortable. The doctor took it out, but there was still some bleeding, so more packing went back in - although not as much as before. I could actually breathe some air on one side of my nose. I go back again next week for another look to see how it's healing. It hurts quit a bit, and I can't really breathe through it yet. The swelling has gone done, I can actually smile now, and the bruising has set in - around my mouth and upper lip.

I saw my GP yesterday and she said I also have neck sprain - the front muscles in my neck along with some of my back muscles. Basically, I got whiplash from the fall. I also need to go to the dentist to have him check my front teeth and jaw. My teeth seem fine, they aren't lose, but the are a bit painful and my jaw hurts. So, I'll need to get that checked out also.

Another Vacation, More Water

We went on vacation to Vietnam and were in the midst of a typhoon. Yes, our vacation luck just hasn't turned out that well. It was a major typhoon, with over 100 mph winds. Pretty crazy. We managed to enjoy a few days at a nice resortcalled the Furama, since we were told the resort we were supposed to be at was closed for repair. I've posted pics up on our Webshots site - of HoiAn, the small town near the beach resort we should have stayed in, of Danang, where the majority of the typhoon damage was and of Hanoi, where we stayed 2 nights and spent some time in the "old quarter" area with lots of shopping! Would have loved to have spent more time in Vietnam, without the bad weather, as there are lots of culture and history to be seen. The people were very friendly and LOVED Ryken, along with the girls. Liz took to just growling at people when they stared too much or got to close. Unfortunately, this just made people laugh and come closer, which then caused Liz to scream. Not fun.

After the vacation, we are settling back into day to day life. I've been to the doctor to get my finger checked out (I swear, I'm just falling apart as I get older) - I have what looks like a small growth on my index joint - but it could just be some sort of swelling of the tendon or ligament, not necessarily bone. I had an xray done today, so we'll see what becomes of that. The girls have had thier last rabies shot (3 in the series!) along with their flu shots, so hopefully we are all done with shots for awhile. That is not an experience I enjoy with those two.

Ryken is now crawling! Yep - not really fast yet, but he's moving. He is able to sit on his own, get into a sitting position from his belly and move all around. He is enjoying his new found mobility. He's also starting to recognize who has him and will cry if he doesn't know the person. He will also reach out his hands to be held by mommy, daddy and ayi! He smiles a lot and is generally a happy baby, unless he's hungry! He enjoys eating - he'll eat 3 meals a day (mainly fruits along with whole grains - oatmeal, millet and brown rice) and he is still nursing. He has started biting me a bit, so we'll see how long the nursing continues with that! I'm trying to find mainly organic things for him to eat here - although that is not an easy task. I'm making all his food right now - the baby food that is imported here is so expensive it just seems a waste. It really is easy to make all his food.

Ashley told me today that she wants to move around to different countries and go to different schools every year. HAHAHA. All this after I've been so worried that we've moved too much in her short life span. I told her that she would have to go to different schools and make new friends everywhere - her response "mommy, I always make friends". True, she is the most social child in her class. She's finally starting to remember everyone's name in her class and if she sees them out and about, she will say hi.

Liz is going to her school 3 days a week and staying home with me 2 days. She seems to like this arrangement so she can get some mommy time. Her teachers told me she is doing well and her Chinese is coming along wonderfully. Apparently, she can speak and understand it very well at school. While we were in Vietnam, she kept speaking Chinese to people, we had to tell her over and over again that they didn't speak Chinese.

Anthony is out tonight - he flew out today for an overnight business trip. He'll be back LATE tomorrow night. The kids haven't all been sleeping well lately - between teething, bad dreams, leg cramps and scary noises, one of them is awake every few hours. I'm hoping they sleep well tonight, I really could use some good sleep. Awww...the joys of children.

Busy School Days

Ashley is only in KINDERGARTEN and she’s so busy! Everyday she brings home a word bag, with words we go over every night – sight words that she should learn to recognize by sight, instead of by phonetically sounding them out. She also brings home a reader, a short book that she should read to us (or us first to her if she has trouble with words). These are very short books, that she easily memorizes after reading one or two times. She is also taking a Chinese class everyday and seems to be doing well. She brought home a Chinese book and read it to me this evening (again, repetitive words on each page, but still, it’s in CHINESE!). She is doing well in school, has lots of new friends and really seems to be thriving in the classroom. I’ve talked with her teacher, Miss Elizabeth, and have been told that Ashley is VERY social and loves helping out in the classroom. On Mondays, she’ll be starting choir next week with her classmates, Wednesday is gymnastics and Friday is ballet. She had her first gymnastics class today and had so much fun running around exercising and jumping. She’s been doing ballet now for a few weeks and enjoys that also. She’s just getting so big and growing up so fast! I can’t imagine how busy my life will be when I have 3 kids in school and am shuttling them all around! I see moms do it here, with 2 or 3 kids in different schools and different activities, they are running around ragged – guess that’s part of being a mom is all about

Mommy, the floor is moving!!!

This is apparently what happens to Liz after being given sedatives in order to put stitches in her chin! We had an exciting morning/afternoon spent at the hospital here. While Anthony was taking her to school this morning, she was running to the steps of the school outside, tripped and fell, and landed straight on the edge of the stairs with her chin. Anthony got back in the car, came to the house, picked me up and off we went to the ER. The cut was not bleeding badly, but it was big and we knew would need stitches. Too deep for the glue kind, so she had to have a sedative to wear her defenses down so she’d stay still. Unfortunately, she had eaten breakfast that morning (who would have thought!?) so we had to wait until 12:30 to give her the sedative. We had to stay there, keeping her occupied and happy until then. She was hungry, thirsty and tired and we couldn’t help her. It sucked. Finally, they gave her the meds and she was fast asleep (well, not really asleep, but out of it – her eyes were open, just not focused the entire time). Anthony and I had problems watching the doctor do the stitches – we both had to stop watching and concentrate on not becoming lightheaded. Usually that type of stuff doesn’t bother me, but when it’s your own kid, maybe it’s different. They had her on a monitor for heart rate and O2 – it was hard seeing her pulse race up to 160 and 170 (apparently quite normal for what she’d been given). It took about an hour for the meds to wear off and we got to see what Liz would be like either drunk or stoned, because that’s what it seemed like as the drugs started to wear off. We laughed quite a bit at her attempts to talk and make sense of things. It was cute and scary at the same time. Then she wanted to walk, but wasn’t ready to walk on her own yet, but didn’t want our help, so she was stumbling all over the place with us grabbing her from behind trying to prevent her from injuring herself all over again, oh the joys! She did a good job, even when getting the needle in her hand for the medicine – she cried, but once it was in, she pretty much forgot it was there. She’ll have the stitches out in four to five days. I’m not looking forward to that as I’m sure she’s gonna freak out when they start messing with it.

As parents, we knew, one day one of our kids was gonna have to get stitches or a cast – it was only a matter of time. We were scared and nervous, it’s not an easy thing to deal with when your child is injured. And this was such a minor injury. David’s son (our driver’s son) was injured last week by breaking his arm when he fell off the back of a bike. And today is Monday and they are finally going into surgery to put pins in to help put the arm back together. I could not imagine what he’s been through as a father for the past week, dealing with the local Chinese hospital doctors (who aren’t very good as they have too many patients to deal with, from what I’ve heard) and worrying about his son and whether his son’s arm will be functional again. As much as our hearts raced today for something so minor, I just can’t imagine what’s he been going through. For us, it’s a bit easier, we go to an international hospital with competent doctors (at least we hope so!) brought in from other countries. He can’t afford that kind of care, so it’s much more difficult for him and he doesn’t have much faith or trust in the local medical system.

Second Day and already called by the Teacher

So much for a great second day at school! I already got a call from Ashley’s teacher! She called to let me know that Ashley wasn’t herself at school today and she refused to eat lunch and kept saying she was tired. So I went and picker her up early, brought her home and she went to sleep. She woke up with a fever, so she’s either sick or the rabies shot she got affected her a bit. I hope she’s not sick as that would be a bummer for a first week at school, to miss out on that from being sick. Liz was also not herself today at school, very quiet and also not eating much, which is completely unlike her. I think for her it was definitely the shot and not getting enough sleep last night. I’m hoping they will sleep good tonight, although it’s not starting out well. Anthony is away tonight at a business dinner, and the girls have finally calmed down enough and are laying quietly in bed. It’s taken me over an hour to get them in bed from the time I first said it was bedtime. Thankfully, Ryken went to sleep fairly easily tonight

Update on kids

School has started – what a relief! Yes, sometimes I feel like a horrible parent for feeling so happy that school is here. Ashley just thrives in social situations and it has been so tough on her being at home without any sort of schedule or consistency to her days. She was so excited yesterday when she went to school, barely giving me a second glance in her rush to go in her classroom. She is wearing a uniform and looks so cute! It helps that the shirt is light blue as it matches her eyes. She told me that she made 3 friends yesterday at school. Of course, when I took her to school this morning, she wasn’t so happy, she did start to cry a bit and I read a page of a book to her while she got comfortable sitting in “circle time” on the floor and then she seemed fine – gave me a hug and kiss goodbye. I was told that while all the kids were excited yesterday, today there have been many more tears as it sets in that they are going to school all day without mom around.

Liz is now in school everyday – ½ days – so she comes home after lunch. I have given up on her taking naps now – she’s been fighting them everyday, screaming and crying to not take one. It was taking too much energy to get her down for one – so she’s got an early bedtime and hopefully it will work. She’s learning Mandarin at her school and seems to be doing well.

We took the girls last night to the doctor for a checkup and to ask some questions about things. They are both caught up on shots (had to have rabies done last night – it was pretty awful as they cry from the fear of the shot – so as soon as the nurse appears). We are going to have to keep an eye on Liz and what she eats – she’s on the heavy side and although it’s not bad right now – if she keeps with the same pace, she’ll be overweight. So, we’ve got to watch what she eats and how much she eats. She also has flat feet and some possible turning in of one leg – so we’ll keep an eye on that also. May explain why we have trouble with her refusing to walk and saying her feet hurt. We have just been assuming it was a phase she was going through, but maybe there is some reason behind it. The doctor said for now, just to get some good shoes for her (not sure how to do that here in China!) and keep an eye on it.

Ashley’s doing good too – we talked with the doctor about bed wetting as Ashley has some issues with that but since it doesn’t bother her at all yet, there’s not really anything to be done with it. He said to wait it out and see what happens over the next 6 months or so. She also apparently has some flat feet issues – not as much as Liz – so same thing – good shoes with good arch support. If it continues or seems to worsen, then we’ll have to get some arch supports made for them both.

Ryken also went in yesterday for his 6 month checkup. He’s going GREAT. His stats: 71 cm long (28 inches), 9.2 kg weight (20.28 lbs), 45 cm head circumference (17.73 inches). All in all, that’s about in the 85%. He got one shot yesterday and didn’t even cry – he started to until the nurse starting talking to him in baby talk, then he smiled! He’s starting to be able to sit on his own, with some support and pushes up on his hands. He can roll over, back to front and front to back, although he doesn’t do that very often. He’s eating oatmeal cereal now – we think he’s allergic or sensitive to rice cereal since he got a rash and threw up after eating it. We’ll start trying some new foods soon also – starting with veggies. He doesn’t seem to like the oatmeal very much so far. When he sleeps good, he’ll sleep 8-9 hour stretches a night – but it’s pretty inconsistent as he does still wake up fairly often to nurse or just to fuss. He loves playing with his toys – more so than I remember the girls ever doing. He likes feeling new things on his toys and grabbing at toys hanging above him.

Sunny Sanya, Hainan, China

We just got back from a 5 day vacation to a wonderful place in Hainan, China – a town called Sanya. This place is touted as China’s “Hawaii” and it’s close. There are definitely some things they could improve on, as far as tourism and stuff, but overall, we had a great time – of course, staying at a five star resort with it’s own private beach probably helped that quite a bit! We stayed at the Marriot and it was gorgeous. Beautiful pools, beach, rooms, gardens, restaurants, etc. We really enjoyed the time and even had some relaxing moments with Ryken asleep in the stroller and the girls playing in the sand. We were unsure how the trip was going to go – as we had a few problems to start with.

I booked the trip through a Chinese travel agency located in Sanya and was asked to bring cash with us to pay for it – now, for those that aren’t familiar with the Chinese RMB (money) system – the largest denomination bill they make is 100 RMB (worth about 12 US dollars) – so we had to pay for a trip using all RMB – that’s a large amount of cash to be carrying around. We decided to wait and get the cash when we got to Sanya so we wouldn’t be carrying around that much money. We also had no tickets, no authorization, no paperwork, basically, just the travel agent info, and the flight numbers we were booked on. When we arrived at the airport and went to check in, we didn’t have e-tickets and didn’t have paper tickets, so we couldn’t check in. UH-OH. We got a hold of the travel agent who quickly fixed the situation, but it was a bit hairy and we weren’t sure what was going on! We did make our flight and Ryken and I even had a whole row to ourselves to stretch out and relax. When we got to Sanya, Anthony tried to get money out of an ATM and it didn’t work with our China account or our international card – oops. Luckily, the travel agency was very accommodating and allowed us to come up with other ways of making payments (eventually we did manage to get money using the ATM at the hotel). So we didn’t end up actually paying for our trip until the very end. Seems like an unusual way to do business as a travel agency. For those who may want the info – we used Caddie at www.sunnysanya.com – we highly recommend her as she was helpful and accommodating for us.

Ryken was very cranky – for a few days before the trip, he’d been sick – he had hand, foot and mouth virus – which causes high fever, painful spots in the mouth, vomiting and spots on the rest of his body. Although he was doing better, no fever, he was still quite fussy. Turns out he was also getting teeth in as his first tooth broke through the first night of vacation. He was much happier after that and slept well in the crib provided by the hotel. He’s got two teeth now. He had fun, enjoyed the pool and the stroller quite a bit. He managed to get a bit too much sun in the first day of being outside – even with sunblock and being kept in the shade for all but about 10 minutes. He didn’t get to enjoy the sand or waves much, due to me being afraid of getting him really sunburned or him eating too much sand, since all he does is put his hands in his mouth.

The girls LOVE, LOVE, LOVE hotels and vacations. They both slept wonderfully sharing a bed and we had no problems getting them to sleep every night. Guess all that running around in the sand and water helps tire them both out. Ashley seems to prefer the beach and sand and waves to play in while Liz prefers the pool. Ashley would be playing at the beach and Liz would go every 5 minutes and wash the sand off her body in the showers they have at the beach. That was her favorite part – not playing in the sand, but washing it off herself.

Unfortunately, the trip ended badly, as our plane was delayed from noon until 6 pm, first due to “mechanical problems” and then due to “weather” – we don’t really think there was bad weather. We had to wait around this itty bitty stinky airport for 6 hours with three kids and then take a 3.75 hour flight back home. Not fun. I heard that the government stipulates that individuals get their money back for flights that are delayed more than 3 hours for mechanical problems – hence the reason it was changed to “weather” – so people wouldn’t get reimbursed.

All in all, we had a great trip and enjoyed some relaxing times. We are now ready for school to start!!!!

Cheap Haircuts

Anthony got his hair cut today - at a local place, outside of our complex. Guess how much it cost him? 8 RMB - that is ONE US DOLLAR!!!! They wash it, cut/shave it and wash it again. He spent about 20 minutes there and they did a pretty good job - a bit short in the top back, but it doesn't look bad. We all walked there this evening - the weather was beautiful. It's about a 15 minute walk away, in some hutongs outside of our complex. There's also a local grocery store and fruit stand and frame shop where I had some cute kid prints framed a few weeks ago. We have a double stroller that we are borrowing from friends here and so we're able to go for walks with Ryken and Liz in the stroller and Ashley on her bike. Works well.

Summer Days

It’s been so long since I’ve written, guess that happens with three kids! We stay quite busy these days. My neck is still a pain, they took Xray’s on Monday to see if it’s bone instead of muscle that causing the pain and I’ll find out today when I go back to the doctor. She’s been doing lots of muscle therapy and has found a big lump that won’t go away with the muscle therapy, so she’s thinking it’s a vertebra that’s twisted. Fun, fun, fun. The pain has gotten better, but I’m still not able to turn my head fully to the right, so I look kinda funny when I’m wandering around looking at things.

I’ve been getting out quite a bit in the mornings, while Ashley and Liz are at summer camp and school. Ryken stays home with Xiaoshu and her daughter, Yao Lan, who is now working for us also. I’ve been checking out different markets here and there – basically any place to shop here is called a market, unless it’s a HIGHEND place, with actual air conditioned stores, then it’s a mall. I’ve been to some pretty cool places and have enjoyed seeing a lot of the local culture. I really enjoy the fruit, veggie and meat markets. You gotta have a strong stomach for the meat market, considering they sell the whole PIG – only cut up – ears, tails and head. It’s quite interesting. Anthony and I went to the computer market last weekend. I really don’t know how they make their money – there seemed to be a zillion of the same shops over and over again, all selling the same things.

We also went to Summer Palace last weekend with the kids. As much as I like for the kids to experience some of the touristy stuff here, it was hard to handle with them. The place is not made for strollers or the handicap – although there are a few ramps here and there. And the Chinese just love to take pictures of our kids – not just from afar, but actually putting their kids next to our kids, having them pose and taking pics. I finally got to the point where I just walked around saying NO, NO, NO (in Chinese of course) to anyone and everyone who was taking pics. It just gets to be too much. Liz is very protective of Ryken and would actually pull the stroller canopy over him when people would get too close. Pretty cute. One lady actually came up behind Liz and scooped her up and held her. That was too much, Liz was scared and freaked out. I don’t really understand what makes someone think they can just pick up a child they don’t know (from behind even) and that it is ok. Just strange. Summer palace was BEAUTIFUL and hopefully we’ll go back someday without the kids and stroller and enjoy the place.

The weather has been off and on – lots of rain lately and even cool temps – record breaking cool temps from what I’ve heard. One day last week, it was absolutely gorgeous and I spent most of the day at the pool with the kids. It was just perfect and only the 2nd blue sky day I’ve seen since we got here (how sad is that?!). But this week,s it’s just been rain, rain and more rain. We no longer have grass in about ½ the yard, from all the rain. It’s just one big mud pit.

18 months ago

I meant to post this awhile ago - just a little insight into what a major traumatic event can seem like to a 5 year old. She talked about this before the most recent tsunami in Java. Sometimes, Anthony and I forget that she was witness to the tsunami, until she says little things like this. It breaks my heart but gives me hope that she doesn't seem afraid or fearful when she talks about it quite matter of factly.

June 29, 2006

Out of the blue – in the car today – Ashley asks “what is an earthquake mommy?” I explain it as best I can and then she asks “but what about the water, remember, the dirty water that was everywhere with the earthquake?”….wow, we hadn’t talked about the tsunami in a long, long time. So, I explained to her best I could what had happened. Then she says “maybe we can take a rocketship to the moon and there won’t be any earthquakes or water”.

Birth Days!

I just wanted to post quick and say a BIG huge THANK YOU to everyone who sent me birthday wishes!!! I loved each and every one. It really does make my day to hear from friends and family back home. Since I know I won't be able to respond to everyone individually, I wanted to say thanks on here. I will try to respond to most, but I can't guarentee it! I haven't been on the computer much lately as I've been experiencing some rather painful neck problems and sitting here doesn't help. I'll be starting some sort of alternative medicine therapy tomorrow - don't really know yet what that will involve, but if it offers me some sort of relief, I will be ESTATIC. Another year older and what happens, I just start to fall apart - seriously - it's so sad.

Everyone is doing great. Liz's birthday is tomorrow - I can not believe she will be 3. She is doing well on her potty training and enjoying school. Ashley is in summer camp this week and LOVES it. They've both been to the pool quite a bit this summer and Liz can now dunk her head underwater, no problem. Ashley can swim across the pool as long as she has lots of flotation devices to keep her head above water. Ryken is doing great - still growing. He's not rolled over yet (just once from his stomach to back) but he's able to sit up for a few seconds on his own. He's wobbly, but it counts. My doctor told me he's all muscle - no fat on him. Although I disagree with her, it sounds good. Her response when she saw him to my neck problems - Well, no wonder!

I'll try to post more often and keep this more up to date, I just get so caught up in things going on around here...I know excuses, excuses!

Movie Night

Husband post:

Movie night! First movie, too!

OK, so it was more than movie night, since girls were both out of school/camp this week, I took a day off to go with everyone to the zoo. I'm sure Kimberly will post on the zoo, but basically it was huge, mediocre (but fun), and quite a few of the animals and/or exhibits deserved much pity. However, our Ayi, Xiaoshu, came along, and that part was wonderful!

You will need to check pictures when kimberly posts them, there's some great bare-assed pics of Liz walking around making a mess of her face with chocolate ice cream.

Any who, afterwards, dropped girls off, and Kimberly and I went to go see Superman Returns. Was showing at a nice movie theatre that also had Imax. Didn't see Imax one, since I don't really like seeing non-Imax movies on Imax theatre. Saw Batman Begins like that and just was kind of annoying.

So we went the opposite route, and got VIP tickets. Oooooooooo. Yes, we are special, thank you for noticing. : )

So what are VIP tickets, you may say. They're tickets for the VIP theatre, any more questions?

We weren't entirely sure, either, but they cost more, and that showing wasn't sold out. You may not think costing more makes it sound good, but when you're in China and haven't seen a movie in a theatre in 5 months, you would...

First went to find a place to eat, was going to go to Pizza Hut, but went outside to scout and make sure that was a good decision. Did I mention, this was opening day for Superman Returns in China? Because, as we were walking outside, not 50 ft from entrance to movie theatre, we got option to buy a DVD of it. HAHAHAHAHA

If you're doing the math, we could've bought DVD for $0.75 (I know this from, uh, friends. Yeah, friends). VIP tickets were $15/each. So could've gone to see one movie, or bought 40 DVDs. We chose the one movie. This time...

So went back to eat dinner at Pizza Hut, being the fancy avant-guard Americans that we are. Kimberly had a drink that tasted bad (I confirmed, being all thorough and stuff) - so we returned it for different one. Meal was OK. At end, got bill, I complained since they still charged us for the original drink! Eventually they brought over an asst. mgr. I explained I didn't want to pay for it, and that if they wanted me to return, they would deduct it off the bill (or similar words, with pointing and grunting). She explained that she had to charge us since we tasted the drink. What the hell!!?? I guess it's our fault, for not realizing the drink was going to taste bad before we irrevocably tasted it. I mean, then they couldn't serve it to someone else, right? What were we thinking, how gauche! She said she couldn't do otherwise because of her manager. I told her (very nicely I might add) that her manager was stupid.

Yep, China may have cheap labor, but they have cheap management, also. Don't panic too much about us falling behind... We've got many years left before they can turn the culture around.

Suffice to say, we are not going back there. If we're going to get bad service, might as well pay cheap prices. I thinking I'm turning Chinese, I think I'm turning Chinese, I really think so...

Anyways, then we went to see our movie. On 5th floor, next to coffee shop and tiny toy store/closet. Went in to the movie lounge.

Our little movie theatre had it's own lounge. Go in, and they have waitress/usher, who will pour you a glass of whatever soda or water you want (coke being ours of choice) and pick from bunch of snack on table while you hang out before your movie. Way cool. Couldn't find any chocolate though, and didn't have popcorn :(. Then it was time, taken in to our seat by usher, who took us to our very large black leather recliner with drink holder. Kick ass. Electric recliner too, very comfy.

I then went looking for chocolate - down to the concession stand on 2nd floor. Very small, not a log of people there, but lots of choices of all kinds of weird ass things to eat and buy, except chocolate. They had ice cream, but didn't want any then (knew Kimberly would hit DQ - yes, Dairy Queen - or Haagen Daaz after movie - which she did, went to Haagen Daaz after DQ service sucked too hard). Went up disappointed, and on whim asked waitress/usher if they had chocolate. didn't understand me, but I repeated myself. Was about to give up and tried one more time when she understood, and took me back to the table with stuff, and discovered one fo the containers did not have some seaweed crackers or similar screwed up attempt at food, instead it had individually wrapped Cadburry or similar milk chocolates. Awesome.

Anyways, we sat down for the movie, and notices the very loud air conditioning. How annoying, we were hopeful it wouldn't be too noticable during the movie itself. The theatre was small - probably only 20 or so people could fit in it, but screen was definitely large enough, and once the movie started, the quality of the film print was excellent. No scratches at all, nice fidelity. Movie was plenty loud enough, and seats were great for watching a movie.

Only negative was sound, there were a couple of times when audio would sound very echoey, like in a tin can or similar. Didn't happy a lot. Also, we didn't notice sound of the air conditioner! About an hour and a half into the movie, we understood why. They had just turned it off. It was getting uncomfortably warm by the end of the movie. That and the small glasses for the cokes were the only complaints I had about the theatre (Kimberly suggested next time we just take the two liter Coke bottle with us - hahaha - and she's serious, I love that woman). Overall, it was quite awesome.

The 3 phone calls I got during the movie weren't awesome, but hopefully that will not be a typical occurence.

That's my movie experience, I got to see Superman Returns in a theatre during opening run! Yay!!! and it was great!

In case you're curious, it was in English with Chinese subtitles. They also show dubbed versions at the theatre, depending on showtime. But we've gotten used to this, since all the movies we saw in Taiwan were done this way. Only difference is China dubs movies more often, but now we know you can find English versions.

Checkup TIme

Ryken had his 4 month checkup yesterday. He’s doing great on growth and development and is a healthy, happy baby. For those who are interested, his weight is 8.1 kilograms, height is 67 cm and head circumference is 43 cm. This is how measurements are done here. The conversion is 17.9 lbs weight, 26.4 inches long and 16.9 inches rounded head. That’s all healthy! He’s not rolling completely over yet, just to his sides. His favorite time of the day is bathtime – he loves splashing in the water and talking. He got 2 shots yesterday and did good. He screamed a lot but that was mainly because the nurses were holding his legs down – not something he likes. They had 3 nurses – one to hold his legs and 2 to give the shots at the same time. He promptly fell asleep after crying for about 2 minutes.

Liz is doing good at her new school. Anthony took her yesterday and for a show, she screamed and cried and yelled “DADDY” not wanting him to leave. Apparently, once daddy was gone, she cried for 3 minutes, then went on to have fun the rest of the day. She was happy and excited when I picked her up although she wouldn’t tell me what she’d done during the morning. But, she did tell Ashley, and I listened in as she described playing with dolls, playing outside, painting her feet, eating lunch and not playing with playdoh. Too cute!

Ashley is in soccer camp this week – in the mornings from 9-12. I’ve been using my bike to take her – it’s about a 15 minute bike ride away. The first day I took her, I found out she is the only girl in the camp! I think there are about 20 kids – all boys. Luckily, they have a female coach and Ashley has befriended her. The coaches say Ashley is doing great – she’s trying hard and having fun. She says she’s enjoying it and likes to play soccer, but she doesn’t like boys.

We are now in mosquito season full swing! We’ve got bug zappers which don’t seem to be working and plug in the wall mosquito repellant and have finally found a mosquito net to put around Ryken’s crib. He’s been getting eaten up by the little buggers, as have Liz and I. It’s been hard for me to sleep at night due to the buzzing going all around my head. If this keeps up, we’ll have to get mosquito nets for everyone else in the house too!

It’s starting to get really hot here everyday. A few nights out of the week, we’ve had lightening and thunder with a little bit of rain. For some reason, when it gets hot out, the Chinese men like to show off their stomachs, usually if they have rather large ones. They tuck their shirts up under their chest and stand outside next to their cars on the side of the street. Nice….not…

Liz's First Day at School

We decided to put Liz into a little preschool for a few mornings a week, just to get some socializing in and some learning of Chinese and English. Today was her first day and she was actually excited about going, especially when talking to Ashley since Ashley has been “going to school” (camp). Liz always wants to be like her big sister! There are a few kids from our complex that go there, so I went to visit it last week and liked it. Run by a German lady, out of an apartment, it’s a bilingual program, English and Chinese. Hopefully, that will encourage Liz to start using some more Chinese. Right now, she will tell me “speak in English” or “Xiaoshu no Chinese, speak English” if we start speaking in Chinese. She can understand what Xiaoshu tells her in Chinese though, she just doesn’t want to hear it or speak it. Maybe if she’s with other kids that are doing it though, she’ll change her mind. When I took her this morning, she didn’t cry or get upset when I left. She was busy playing on the merry go round outside, so she was happy. They said she did great all morning and she ate a lot at lunch (like that’s a surprise!). She didn’t talk much, but she did participate in all the activities, so that’s good. I drop her off around 8 and pick her up at 12:30. She’ll go 2 days this week, 2 days next week, then 3 days a week for most of the summer. Ashley is signed up for summer camp sporadically throughout the summer, so if Ashley stays home for the week, then Liz will stay home too. That way we can venture out and do some sightseeing or kids activities all together.

While Liz was at school, I went shopping at Carrefour (a supermarket) with our driver, David. I like David a lot, much better than our first driver. He is trying to learn English and so we will practice with each other, him English and me Chinese, as we drive around town. It’s a good way to learn. I’m used to doing my shopping on my own, but Xiaoshu needed some cooking oil and I didn’t understand what she needed, so she told David and then David came with me to shop so he could get it. He pushed the cart around and tried out all the items I needed to buy to make sure they were working (apparently that’s common here in China – plugging things in at the store to make sure they work). It was interesting and a bit difficult to get used to – making sure I didn’t lose him in the store. He’s a very helpful addition to shopping though!

I had Xiaoshu come with me to pick up Liz at her school so she would know where it was and the teachers could meet her. She was getting in the car with Ryken and kept saying “I can hold him, I can hold him”. I had to tell her several times that he sits in the car seat when in the car. She seemed really disappointed since she loves holding him. I’m sure she’s not used to the concept of carseats as only the RICH Chinese use them. The whole ride there and back, she would talk to him and coo with him and hold his hand – basically, not leave him alone. He’s getting quite used to all the attention and doesn’t like to be left alone for any period of time. We’re working on getting him to fall asleep on his own, but Xiaoshu has to constantly be told that it’s ok as she would prefer to rock him to sleep. I usually just let her, since it also gives her some downtime to sit and relax, but we’re gonna have to stop it soon. He’s cooing and making lots of sounds now and giggling a bunch. His face really lights up when he smiles and he’s started rolling onto his sides – usually to find his hand which he loves to stick in his mouth. He’s starting sucking on his thumb, when he can find it from his fist. He loves putting EVERYTHING in his mouth – it’s his obsession now. He’s getting big – “pong” – as Xiaoshu says (means fat in Chinese). I believe he weighs about 18 lbs – that’s on our scale here at home. On Tuesday, he goes in for his 4 month checkup, so we’ll find out his official weight then. He’s outgrown all his 6 month clothes and is now in 9 months.

Anthony is away on business again. He left yesterday for Schenzen and then will be in Shanghai Friday and Saturday. He comes home Saturday afternoon. I am so thankful that we have Xiaoshu since she makes it SOOO much easier when Anthony travels. She was supposed to come to the house this morning at 7:30, so I could leave at 7:45 to take Liz to school, but she showed up even earlier – saying “1 person, 3 children, that’s too much”. Awesome. I had already gotten everyone dressed, so she helped with breakfast while I got everyone’s backpacks ready.

Missing Ashley

Today is Ashley’s first day at summer camp – it’s about 1pm and I miss her! Although, I must say, the noise level in the house is considerably lower and quite nice when she’s not here. Not really because of her voice, but because there is no bickering between her and Liz. She was so excited this morning and I took her to the bus stop where she was picked up by a bus. When it appeared, she was so happy and just ran up to the door and hopped on! Without even a hug or kiss goodbye. Note, this is the FIRST time she’s ever ridden a bus by herself to a school or anything. She did wave to me out the window and blow me a kiss – so sweet. The bus will bring her back this afternoon after a full day of playing and having fun. There are 12 kids from our complex that are going, so hopefully she’ll make some great friends today!

We already have a new driver. The first one quit last week for some reason so we have another guy, David. David speaks much more English than the last guy and seems to like the kids better, so I am happier. Hopefully, he doesn’t quit on us. Our friend’s driver in Shanghai is great! We wanted to steal him – he really loved the kids, even Ryken, and would hold them or carry them if needed. That was so nice.

Shanghai - A Ghost Town?!

We went to Shanghai since Anthony had some business meetings to attend and we have friends there, thought it would be good to go visit and say hi. It’s about a 2 hour flight away. We arrived on Wednesday and were told ahead of time that there was some major convention or something going on and parts of the city would be shut down, including the around the Hyatt where we were staying. Sure enough, the roads around the Hyatt were EMPTY – completely empty. Shops, restaurants, businesses, they were all closed. We arrived by a Hyatt shuttle van from the airport and we were not allowed to drive up to the hotel entrance. We had to get out at the street and walk in. Yes, they had luggage porters to carry all our stuff. We entered the building and were greeted by a security checkpoint, just like in an airport. Up went the baggage, the stroller, the carseat, etc. Then we walked through metal detectors and got patted down – even the girls. The Hyatt in Shanghai is a beautiful hotel, with a lobby on the 54th floor.

http://shanghai.grand.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/gallery/photos.jsp

Our hotel room was gorgeous – with 2 walls of the room being windows to view the city. It was a bit foggy so there wasn’t much to see, but I imagine it is spectacular when it’s clear. The bathroom was fantastic – Anthony thinks it’s the best shower he’s ever had. It was pretty nice.

Once we checked in and checked out our room, we decided to go swimming. We went to the pool, which had nice big windows. We were looking out the windows and were told to stand back – there were important people in the hotel and for safety we had to stay away from the windows (our assumption is for snipers) – then they closed the blinds on all the windows. Interesting huh? We found out in the morning’s newspaper that there were several world leaders taking part in meetings in Shanghai, in the area we were and some were most likely staying in the Hyatt, which was the cause for all the security measures.

This taken from the Shanghai daily news “The leaders taking part in the meeting are Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov and Uzbek President Islam Karimov…… The SCO, an intergovernmental organization that comprises the five countries and China, was established in Shanghai and is celebrating its fifth anniversary…… The four observer nations are represented by Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora…... Afghan President Hamid Karzai is attending the summit as a guest.”

That night, they had a big fireworks display put on for the leaders. The fireworks were going off right at about or a little below the 83rd floor of the hotel. How many people can say they’ve seen fireworks from above?! It was pretty cool – although with all the fog, we couldn’t really see them very well. It was very loud and scared Liz – Anthony took her out where you couldn’t see them or hear them so loud.

The girls and I left the next day to stay at our friends house since the security was just a hassle and nothing was open around the hotel. When we left, we had to take a shuttle bus to a designated spot outside the security zone where we could then get a car or taxi to take us elsewhere. It was just amazing to see a city like Shanghai with blocks and blocks where there were no cars or people walking or anything open. I can’t imagine that happens very often in a city of that many people.

We didn’t do much sightseeing this trip –we hung out with our friends and took the girls to the park in the complex they live. We ate out quite a bit, at Western food places, of course. They have some good ones there, we even had barbecue – at a new place that just opened up by a guy from Austin, Texas! It was yummy stuff! We also did karaoke one night, with the kids. Ryken slept through most of it and it took a while, but we got Ashley singing some kids songs. Liz didn’t really enjoy it, maybe she’ll warm up to it eventually.

We had a good time in Shanghai and hope to go back again at some point when the city won’t be deserted and we can do some more sightseeing.

You are free to move about the city

We have a driver and a car now!!!!! Anthony’s been working on it for a while and yesterday, he surprised me by meeting me and the girls for dinner with our car and driver to take us home! It was after one frustrating day of taking cabs and getting lost and trying to find cabs when there weren’t any, so it was a welcome relief to have a ride home. Mr. Wang is our driver and he speaks very little English, but can read and write Chinese, so I can just show him an address and he’ll take me there. I was able to run to three different places today and do things in the span of only two hours – which is something that would have taken me days to do with a taxi. It is also much more relaxing riding around in a minivan, with air conditioning, knowing that the driver knows where you want to go and how to get there, which is not a given when you take a cab. I am just so thrilled to have him and our car. It’s a minivan, forget the name, but everyone has them here – all in a dark blue color – I think it’s a Buick Shanghai or something like that. Seats 7, so big enough for us. We still need to get carseats for Ashley and Liz. We looked at a place this last weekend called Lufthansa Center, and they had Graco carseats – for OUTRAGEOUS PRICES! The booster seat that we have back home for Ashley – I think it costs around $50 US dollars, they are asking $200 US for it here. And a Graco convertible car seat was $500 US! That is just insane. There are lots of people moving, so I’m hoping we might be able to buy a used one off of someone who no longer needs it. It’ll take a bit of getting used to, having to rely on someone to take us everywhere, but he lives nearby, so given enough notice, we won’t have to wait long for a ride.

Last Friday, we all went to the clinic here to get updated on all our shots (minus Ryken, he’s too little!). Anthony got 4, I got 3, Ashley got 2 and Liz got 1. I didn’t realize that doctor clinics are also known as torture chambers for our two kids. The ear piercing screams that could be heard coming from behind closed doors while they got their shots was pretty horrible. I had to hold Liz in my lap so they could give her a shot in her leg. She was trying to pull her pants back up and she’s a strong little thing – almost succeeded in keeping them on so she wouldn’t get the shot. She wanted them to give it to her in her finger – poor thing. She only cried for a few minutes once it was over though, then it was Ashley’s turn. Anthony took her in while I stayed out with Liz. He told me that she actually did really well, although from the sound of it, I would have thought she was being tortured. In reality, he said she sat still for the shots and didn’t move her arms when they did it. So, maybe that means she’s getting a little better when it comes to those things. Luckily, I think it’s the last of the shots she needs for many years (or at least I hope so!).

All the kids are healthy now. I managed to catch the cold they had last week and now have a sore throat that isn’t going away. I don’t know how much of it is pollution or getting used to the pollution here and how much is just a virus or something. Today was an absolutely gorgeous day – a bit breezy, with blue skies and white clouds – no sign of the gray dusty polluted skies that we see so often here. I took Ashley with me while we ran errands – she had fun hanging out with mom. We also had playgroup this morning and I met some other moms with 3 month old sons, one who was born on the same day as Ryken! Isn’t it a small world?!

Date night

This was from a few weeks ago, I'd started writing for the blog, then just didn't have time to post it.

We had a pretty good weekend, although not as energetic as we’d hoped for. Both girls have been sick – Liz with just a fever and Ashley with a cough. Ashley’s started out as allergies, turned into an icky cough and tiredness. So, we had to stay in for most of the weekend. Anthony and I did manage to go out Saturday night for a date – our first time since we’ve been here.

It didn’t start out well since the girls were fussy and cranky and didn’t really want us to leave. We had to stay later at the house than we had anticipated. Our original plan was to go eat dinner here in complex with Ryken and then take Ryken back after girls were in bed and go out to a place where they might have music and drinks or something adult like. But, we didn’t end up getting out of the house until late and the place we were going to go eat here in the complex isn’t there anymore (have no idea what happened to it). So, we ended up leaving Ryken with Xiaoshu and taking a cab somewhere. We were still deciding where (had to be nearby with girls sick and all kids with Xiaoshu) when thought we’d try a place we had read about/seen nearby – called Obelisco. It’s “South American” cuisine. The food was actually really good – we had steaks that were fantastic and a very different salad which was good also. The appetizer we ordered was sausage with bread – and that’s what it was – sausage on bread – we decided they could have done something a bit more fancier that that – but all in all, the meal was great. We enjoyed having a meal with no kids and we actually talked about lots of stuff, not just the kids!

Anthony's brilliant idea for the evening was what the world needs for their salads - RANCH dressing. Yes, he thinks that if all the world had ranch dressing, it would be a much better place. Here, you usually find Thousand Island or Salad Dressing (mayonnaise) for salads. And for chicken or buffalo wings, it's blue cheese - ewww. We did find a bottle of Ranch at the local import grocery store (Jenny Lou's) and have decided when we go out to eat American food, we need to take it with us for salads and wings - ranch just makes it so much better.

Simple Instructions

Assembly Instructions:
First push out each pre-stamped piece.
Before assembly, smooth all rough edges with enclosed sandpaper.
Get general idea of which parts go where
Pick up two pieces which correspond to each other by number and assemble
If connecting joint is loose, use glue.

This is an instruction manual for some miniature wooden furniture that you punch out and put together. I LOVE number 3. These instructions are just so simple that I find it refreshing.

Kicking and Screaming

Went for a taxi ride today (alone!). It went well. Thought is pretty funny that during the drive, the taxi driver pulled his seatbelt across his lap and chest, but never locked it into place, so it was just sitting there. My assumption is that it’s the law to wear a seatbelt in the front (definitely not the back as most taxis don’t have working seatbelts if at all) and he doesn’t like it so to fool the cops, he just lays it in his lap. Great idea, huh?!

I went to a baby consignment shop run by some expats here out of their apartment. It was interesting – lots of good stuff, bought a baby monitor and some other little things. That means I can now lay Ryken down during the day and leave the room to do other things and not keep checking on him. That will be good. Maybe he’ll start taking some good naps in other places besides his swing or someone’s arms.

Ashley threw a monster of all fits this morning. Wednesday is baby playgroup here at the complex. Ashley woke up with very stuffy nose and wasn’t feeling very well, so I decided she should stay home (she’s also way older than all the kids in it). I told her she could watch a movie and that Liz and I were going to playgroup. She freaked out and when I say freaked out, I’m not kidding. I carried her kicking and screaming up to her room to let her settle down and I sat on the bed next to her on the floor, just watching and waiting. She seriously seemed possessed. She was kicking her legs into the bed and flailing her arms and occasionally hitting herself with her arms. It was not a pretty sight to see. I felt bad for her, but knew that any intervention I tried would just hurt either her or myself. After a few minutes, I calmly explained that I would talk to her when she finished screaming. She did manage to calm down eventually and I explained that she was sick and we didn’t want to get anyone else sick and that Liz and I were going regardless of whether she threw a fit or not. I told her that she had gotten to go to IKEA with me and play and have ice cream and Liz didn’t. Of course, she didn’t really care about that. I ended up leaving and she was crying (but not freaking out) and she watched us go – then when we got back, she was asleep on the couch. Poor kid tired herself out completely. It’s rare that she has a fit that big. It’s so hard to see and deal with as a parent. Staying calm is so key, but often very hard to do – when snot and drool is hanging out their mouths as they grunt and cry and scream in frustration and anger. I can only imagine what she’s gonna be like as a teenager! OH MY!

Ryken hasn’t been sleeping very well – he’s been eating a ton – I am seriously beginning to feel like the milk cow. I know that’s normal when nursing – but it seems even worse now that we have a helper – since Xiaoshu seems to get all his good/happy attention and I get the “I WANT FOOD” attention. He has been quite happy lately when he’s not hungry or tired. He smiles, coos, squeals and attempts to talk. It’s so cute. If only he would sleep more, that would be good. I told Anthony it’s all his fault – he was sleeping so good when Anthony was away, but now, no more – maybe because he doesn’t have as much room in the bed to stretch out! He’s been waking up every 2 – 3 hours at night to nurse. Argh.

Oh, I forgot to post about last week when I took ALL the kids in a taxi up to meet Anthony for lunch one day. I had the address of the restaurant (TGIF’s) and told the taxi driver what it was in Chinese. Off we went, girls were in a good mood, Ryken was sleeping. Ah, it was going oh so well. Then, we get to the place and the restaurant is not there anymore, it’s been closed down. Oops! Luckily, Anthony was meeting us there and arrived at the same time and hopped in our cab to tell the driver another place to go.

Also, last week, I met Anthony at work and we headed off to the nearest place to get passport photos taken (nearest according to people at his work). We took a cab to the place and got some photos taken of myself and Ryken for our visas and country club membership (I swear this country has about 20 photos of each one of us for all their documentation!). It took quite a long time, they were trying to be really exact on our photos – touching them up, making them look better. We told them to just print them. I noticed that another lady was getting some pictures done and they were touching up things she asked them to – basically airbrushing the photo so she looked great. I think that is so strange! Anyway, we finally got our pictures and went back to Anthony’s office complex to eat some lunch. On the way back, I saw a Kodak picture place RIGHT ACROSS the street from his office. Argh, we could have just walked over there.

I am using a lot more Chinese than I ever did in Taiwan. It’s weird, I lived there for 18 months, took lessons every week (well, almost every week) and hardly ever actually spoke Chinese. Here, I’m forced to speak it with Xiaoshu everyday and with taxi drivers. Anthony will also speak it and then I’ll have him translate for me. The written Chinese here is so much easier than in Taiwan, because for streets and other things, the English pronunciation of the word is written below the Chinese character, so I can say them using that instead of having to know the Chinese character.

Blog Issues

So, I can't actually view my blog here. I can post to it and edit it, but I can't view it, so I have no idea how it actually looks. I'm trying to figure out if there are any blog sites that I can use, but so far, I can't get any blog sites to come up over here in China. Anyone have any ideas on sites that I may be able to use?

Happy Birthday to Ashley

We had a great weekend. It was Ashley’s 5th birthday on Sunday. I really can’t believe that my baby is five years old already! How time flies. She’s growing up so fast, just like everyone says happens when you have kids.

Saturday afternoon, there was a “picnic” sponsored by Ashley’s school. They had some food and a band and lots of things for the kids to do. The girls got to paint and run around in a tunnel and play on a balance beam and throw some balls and get their faces painted. We all had a fun time being outdoors and spending some time together. It was a bit icky outside as far as the weather was concerned. It was drizzly. We had the stroller with us and noticed that as the rain fell, the stroller got dirtier and dirtier. You’d think that rain would clean things, but not here, guess it’s just so polluted that when it does rain or drizzle, it just drizzles mud. It’s pretty gross.

After naps, I decided we should get out of the house and go somewhere, decided to take the shuttle offered here at our complex to the Lido Area – Holiday Inn Lido. I’d been told that there were some good stores and a market in that area. So, after waiting a LONG time (we had the shuttle times wrong), we finally got on the shuttle. The trip was fairly short, although the bus was stinky and traffic was pretty bad. We made it to the Holiday Inn and started walking around to find a place to eat. There are many places around that area. We ended up eating Peking Duck at a restaurant near there. First time I’d had duck. It was interesting. The girls were in a great mood (and Ryken was very good too!) and ate lots of food. Ashley even picked up the cooked duck head to get a picture taken with it (yes, they serve you the duck head, I’m sure Chinese actually eat it, beak and all, but we weren’t that adventurous!). We then walked around some more, going to a small market where you can buy Tshirts and purses and DVD’s and souvenirs. I got a “Kate Spade” bag, a backpack and a wallet for about $18 US. This was my first try at bargaining/haggling and I thought it went well, since the starting price for one item was the end price for 3 items. After doing a bit of shopping, we went back to the Holiday Inn, where they have a Baskin Robbins! MMMMM, it was delicious! And not completely overpriced like Hagen Daz ice cream is here. We had a great night and were glad that we had gotten out and seen one of the touristy areas here.

Sunday was Ashley’s birthday! I felt like a failure as a mom since we haven’t met any kids her age and I wasn’t able to put together any sort of birthday party for her. With kids her age being in school during the day, it’s been really hard for her meet any friends. I talked to her and explained that we wouldn’t be having a party, but that we would be celebrating her birthday all day with Mommy, Daddy, Liz and Ryken. She seemed to understand, so that’s good. I made a cake for her and so we had cake with candles and sang to her. She got to open her presents from us and from the grandparents. She was so excited! Anthony and I got her a tennis racket along with some other odds n ends (nail polish and a bright pink cowgirl hat for instance).

When we got Ashley’s birthday present, we also bought ourselves tennis rackets. We figured since there is a court within sight of our house, we might consider trying to take up tennis as a way to exercise. We tried it out Sunday night and had lots of fun “playing”. I don’t really know how, so we mainly just volleyed. I was sore the next day, so I know it does work. We’re going to try to do it a few times a week and I’m looking into taking some lessons just to get the basics. I took Ashley out on the court today and I think she’s gonna have to take lessons from someone else since I wasn’t really much help. She has a hard time keeping her eye on the ball and just sort of swings blindly through the air hoping to make contact with the ball – but she looks so cute doing it! She was wearing her hair tied up through a baseball cap (pink of course) with a red shirt and aqua blue shorts. She had on dark pink socks with rainbow hearts and her white tennis shoes. I told her she looked a bit silly since nothing really matched and she said “mom, I want to look like a rainbow!”. Hahahaha. She knew it was all different colors and wanted it that way!

We keep slipping on our stairs and after going to a store similar to Home Depot and being looked at like we were crazy when asking for “stair strips to keep from slipping nd falling on the stairs”, I thought IKEA might have them (I’ve seen there in the Taiwan store). So, today, Ashley and I went to IKEA while Liz was taking a nap. Ashley loved going there since they have a kids play area she can checked into while I shop. It really is quite cool and a neat place for her. So, I ran around IKEA trying to find it, asking many different people and was finally told “we’re out”. When I asked where it would be located once they got some more in, was told “I don’t know, we’re out”. I don’t know if this means they won’t be getting more in or they really don’t even carry it. We’ll see. Our ayi slipped today following Liz down the stairs and she hurt her elbow, so we really need to do something about our stairs!

While at IKEA, my cell phone rings and I answer only to here a screaming crying child on the phone, attempting to say something to me, but I can not understand what. My heart skips a beat thinking that Liz has been hurt or something, but then I realize that had Liz been hurt, Xiaoshu wouldn’t have Liz on the phone talking to me, she would have called me directly. I finally get Liz calmed down enough to understand that she’s saying “I want you” over and over again. I explain that I’m at the store and will be home soon, then put Ashley on the phone who talks to Liz and says the same thing I did – that was pretty cute. It calmed Liz down and when we got home, she was happy and in a good mood.

Anthony left today for his first business trip since we’ve been here, just overnight, he’ll be back tomorrow night. His flight was supposed to leave around 1pm, didn’t end up leaving until around 5pm. Sucks for him, he had to sit at airport that whole time!

Taxis

I do not like the taxis here. It’s hard to communicate with taxi drivers here as none of them speak English (ok, maybe there are some, but it’s RARE) and they don’t understand my Chinese. So, unless I know exactly where we are going and can sort of give directions in Chinese, it’s useless to try and go somewhere. Another really annoying thing, taxi drivers are picky. For instance, the other night, I needed to go to get some passport size photos taken for Ryken and myself. The place I needed to go is about a 15 minute cab ride away. No one would take us – too short of a distance, I was told. I spent about 30 minutes waiting for a cab that would take Ryken and I, getting more and more frustrated by the minute, until I just gave up and went back home. The first cab I had gotten into actually said No and made me get out of the cab. That is so frustrating! The other day, we got in a cab and Liz got in first – climbing from one side to the other (cabs only open on the passenger side, so you have to slide across the backseat if more than one person is sitting) and she put her foot on the seat to push herself across – she promptly got reprimanded by the driver for putting her foot on the seat and he spent a great commotion “wiping” away where her shoe had been. ARGH.

Some interesting things I’ve noticed. People really seem to be money conscious here (SO different than Taipei). The air conditioning isn’t blasting everywhere, including taxis. They keep their windows rolled down in taxis (we’ve requested AC and they’ve turned it on) and I don’t freeze when going into restaurants or stores. When taxis are waiting in a que to take people, they don’t leave their engines running – and they push their car up the line if it needs to be moved.

We had the flooring replaced in the playroom – it was badly warped and the original agreement was to put wall to wall carpet in the room. Their idea of wall to wall carpet though was a rug that fit most of the room (a rug with all vegetables on it, hmmm). We said no to that rug, then decided the flooring was so badly warped and smelly that it should be replaced. What did they do? They just laid the new flooring on top of the old wood flooring. Nice. Took the guys about 2 hours to do the whole floor. I’m quite sure that it’s not supposed to be done that way – especially since they came with some sort of padding to put under the new floor and they didn’t even use it.

The place we live has many activities to help become involved here. They have sports, get togethers, playgroups, meetings, etc. I’ve met MANY people and lots of moms with kids. It’s been good – although hard keeping track of everyone. All the kids Ashley’s age are in school during the day, so it can be quite lonely for her. And many of the kids Liz’s age are also in school, so she hadn’t really made any friends yet. We went to a playgroup this morning, I think there were about 25 kids there – mostly 18 months to 2.5 years. The girls had fun – Ashley was the oldest and helped make the craft example, so she enjoyed that. Liz was a bit intimidated at first by all the kids and noise, but she quickly got over it and played for a while, not with anyone else, but alone.

We went to the playground this afternoon – there is one playground in the complex that a lot of people go to after school. I counted that there were 16 boys and 4 girls (2 of which were mine) – it was craziness seeing that many boys running around in the sand and on the playground equipment. Lots of horseplay and crying. The girls pretty much ignore most of it unless they accidentally get involved some how.

We are still looking into getting a car and driver to avoid the taxi hassle and feel safer taking the kids out and about. There are some yoga classes I’d like to try with Ryken, but haven’t gotten the courage yet to try and venture out on my own in the taxis. There are also a few preschools I’d like to visit for Liz, to find something for her 1-2 days a week, but again, same thing. I’m hoping we can figure the car/driver thing out, it’s just a bit expensive and we aren’t sure how to go about finding one.

Xiaoshu is working out well – she’s doing really well with Ryken, he gives her lots of smiles and some laughs. She seems to enjoy watching him and playing with him. She gets happy when I tell her I’m taking the girls to the park and leaving him with her. She’s doing ok with Ashley and Liz. Unfortunately, we don’t speak enough of the same language that I am able to give her a list of rules or things that girls can or can not do, so it’s all by trial and error right now. Ashley has learned that if I say no, she can go ask Xiaoshu and she’ll get it because she doesn’t know any better. So, that’s a problem we are addressing.

The weather has been pretty nice lately, although the past 2 days, it’s starting to get hot. Last night, we had thunder and lightening, with a little bit of rain. That’s unusual here, I guess, at least the rain is. There’s a guy that’s been here since August and hadn’t seen rain until the week after we arrived. Since then, it’s rained several times. Guess water just follows us everywhere!

Our stuff is here from Taiwan – it is so nice to have it all! To have the girls toys and our clothes and kitchen stuff. We’ve managed to fry a few of our appliances – our expensive air purifier, my bread maker, an alarm clock and a floor fan – all due to the voltage difference and the faulty converters we were using, along with some error on our part – plugging the wrong things in. I’m really hoping we’ll be able to get the purifier and bread maker fixed, but who knows. I also wanted to make some cookies and went to use our oven for the first time, kept turning the knob for temperature and it wasn’t getting hot. Called the service center who had guy come out and he showed me that there are 2 parts to the oven, one is electric to be used to “make things yellowish or brown” (this translated apparently is a crisper) and the other is the gas part to “cook things through”. So, you have to push a button in to get the gas to ignite and turn the oven on to cook. I did manage to figure it out, and Ashley and I made cookies yesterday – they are yummy! I also had to have someone come out to show me how to operate the dishwasher. It’s quite weird and strange, but it works. The washing machine we have is designed to hold 2 kg of clothes – yes, that’s 4.4 lbs of clothing. Um, not a lot for a family of 5. So, we are looking into buying a bigger one, that works better. It’s not really cleaning the clothes very well, especially the kids clothes.

Just Random Stuff

It’s a gorgeous day outside today. I can see blue skies with no clouds, not much pollution today! Took the girls to the park earlier. We bought Ashley a bike over the weekend, so she’s been wanting to ride everywhere. It’s got training wheels and a spot on the back that Liz can sit on and ride. So they ride around with me walking next to them, I sure get my exercise if she starts going fast. Hopefully, soon, she’ll be able to learn how to ride without the training wheels. Everyone here has bikes and rides them all around the complex and to nearby stores, along with all the workers that use bikes to get around town.

Ryken hasn’t been sleeping too well and has started spitting up after almost every feeding, when he burps. He also has been having some severe gas pains (at least that’s what I think they are). It was pretty bad last night, enough that if we have a repeat of it, I’ll be taking him in to the doctor. I haven’t really changed my diet much, so I’m not sure what could be the cause of it.

The sun rises here at 5am! ARGH. The girls were getting up that early, but we’ve been able to remedy that by having a clock in their room and they aren’t allowed to come out u until 7am. The past 2 mornings, it’s worked, so that’s good. Ryken wakes up though around 5, which sucks! We have curtains that block out the light, but there are still some places where it comes in.

Our stuff from Taiwan is supposed to arrive tomorrow! I am SO excited, just to have towels and kitchen ware and toys for the kids. We’ve been using plastic kitchenware and it’s getting old. Xiaoshu bought a wok and she’s been using that one pot to cook all our meals. When she was first cooking, she was using a spice they use here all the time called “5 Spice” – I really don’t like it, so I asked her to not use it and since then, I have LOVED all her meals. She made a beef dish with carrots and potatoes the other night, almost like a beef stew, she didn’t know that’s one of my favorite dishes back home – meat and potatoes – it was delicious. I’m not sure what’s in “5 spice” , but it smells like black licorice to me, and I do not like licorice! Just looked it up and there is an ingredient in it called “star anise” which is licorice flavored.

Yesterday was a very icky day, rainy and nasty outside. It doesn’t rain here very often and apparently, when it’s going to rain, they government “seeds” the clouds so that it rains more. There are many articles online about it, if interested, just google China seed rain – here’s one: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-china-fake-rain,1,1562964.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true

Anyway, I needed to get a physical done in order to apply for my residency visa here, so Anthony, Ryken and I set off for the Chinese Foreigner Travel Office to get this done. It is a VERY efficient process. I believe we were there for around 45 minutes total. During that time I had a picture taken, a quick physical check, blood drawn, an EKG and a chest Xray. For my physical check, it was just BP, pulse, listening to heart and lungs, weight and height (fully clothed with shoes on, so I’m about 1.5 inches taller here in China). We then went up to Anthony’s office where I got my first glimpse of the city of Beijing, downtown. It looks dirty – gray and ugly. Dirt is everywhere, very little grass. Lots of trees though. Anthony’s work is nice and he has an office rather than a cubicle which is a step up from Taiwan. I met most of the people in the office and then we went and had lunch in the basement of his building at a Japanese place. I had sushi, which I have really been enjoying lately for some reason. It was nice to hang out with him and Ryken and have a peaceful meal (Ryken was asleep) without the girls. I love them, but they can be a handful at mealtimes! They enjoy staying home with Xiaoshu now because she takes them to the park to play.

Many of the restaurants here that cater to the foreign crowd have kids play areas in them. Anthony’s favorite, Annies, which is Italian food and very nearby where we live, has a little playhouse with some toys. Lots of families go there, so there’s always other kids for them to play with. Makes for a good time for parents and kids. You can meet other parents and chat and eat while the kids play. I often wonder why more restaurants don’t do this in the States. I guess in Austin, restaurants are busy enough without having to cater more to families than they do.

Delivery, Delivery, Delivery

I could become addicted to this! Everyone delivers here, usually for free, sometimes for a small fee. You can go buy groceries, then have them delivered (thank goodness since I don’t know how I’d get them in and out of a cab with 3 kids and a stroller to boot!), order dinner, have it delivered, buy furniture, have it delivered. And sometimes, there is no wait! The other night, we had to have the delivery boy wait with our groceries so we could catch a cab and make it home before he did. I bought some flowers yesterday around the corner from our complex and the lady hopped on her little bike – put Ashley in the back (it was a little three wheel bike with a platform for carrying the plants) and away she went to our house to deliver the flowers we had purchased. 35 plants for about $7.00 US and she delivered them to us for free! I put the flowers where I wanted them in our yard and this morning, the lady who waters our lawn planted them for me. Sheesh, I could get used to this!

On the other hand, there are some very annoying things. Lots of paperwork for things here. To join the country club here (part of our complex), you have to submit 3 passport photos (I have no idea why) and fill out all this paperwork, have a guarantee letter and pay a deposit. It takes a long time and can be frustrating trying to figure out what is needed and who it goes to.

We also are running out of hot water rather quickly and when we told the service center here at the complex, they sent a guy out who told us to turn up the heat on the water heater. We did that, even though we didn’t want to – due to possibility of scalding the kids – but that didn’t work. We’ll see how long it takes to have them actually understand what we mean and fix it.

The air conditioning in our house isn’t working, so we told the service center and the answer was that they haven’t turned on the AC yet for the buildings. Apparently, all the houses share the same HVAC unit and they don’t turn it on until they do an inspection of every unit in the complex, which they started last week and won’t finish for a few more weeks. So, it’s hot in our house and muggy. I’ll be glad when they can get it turned on.

We finally have cable and two TV’s hooked up. The quality is pretty bad and we only get a few English channels. Not all of the ones they have here, I’m not sure why we only get a select few. We had a guy out to look at the picture and try and fix the quality, but no can do.

Anthony and I did quite a bit of shopping last week. We bought some furniture – first at IKEA – gotta love that store! And then at an antique Chinese furniture store down the street. It’s got some great furniture in it, some insanely pricey, but some rather reasonable. We got an antique piece to put our TV on in the living room. I’ll take a photo and post when I get a chance. IKEA was a madhouse, crazy busy. It’s HUGE too! We also shopped at Carrefour for everyday items and that place was pretty crazy busy too. Don’t know if it was because it was a holiday week or because it is always that busy. Hopefully not always that busy.

We’ve had one unfortunate incident so far, not to us directly, but our ayi – Xiaoshu. Last Thursday, while riding her bike home from our house, she got hit by a car. She is ok, just a little bruised with a very sore arm/shoulder. She worked on Friday and then had Saturday and Sunday off. She’s back today and doing well, although I don’t think her shoulder is ok – she can’t lift it all the way. She doesn’t speak English very well so I haven’t been able to find out if she went to a doctor to have it looked at or not. I hope she has.

San Ge (Three)

This is the phrase we heard over and over again, with hands shoved in our faces, holding out 3 fingers. Their look of utter amazement shows that they are truly stunned that we have 3 children. I am not sure if most Chinese are even aware that you can have more than one child. Our tour guide asked us if our government told us how many children we can have. At first, it’s interesting to get the kind of attention we do, lots of people stopping to stare, trying to talk to us, touching our children on the faces and hair, trying to peek in at Ryken asleep in the sling next to me, taking pictures of us all, but mainly the children. Then, it gets annoying. I just have to keep reminding myself, they aren’t doing it to be mean or annoying, they truly are interested and intrigued. We were told by someone that many of the people have never seen foreigners at all, so to see us along with two childen and an infant, it is really amazing to them. Apparently, most Chinese babies are not taken out in public before 6 months to 1 year, so to have a Western baby out who is only 2 months old is truly a sight to behold. I also had a lot of thumbs up from many of the older generation of Chinese – after I responded that, yes, indeed, all three children are mine. I am not sure why this was, but they gave me a big smile while doing it.

The trip itself to Qingdao was fun. It was on a beach but the weather was a bit chilly for beach fun. We did hang out a bit on the sand and the girls went in the water the first day – it was freezing and I wouldn’t even put my toes in for long! Our hotel was nice, rated 5 stars by the Chinese (I would have given it 3 stars) and they provided a crib for Liz and an extra bed for Ashley. Ryken slept with us. Everyone slept well after getting tired out from walking and playing all day. It really helped out with the jet lag in getting everyone back on track. There were hoards of people everywhere, we were told it is the busiest tourist season in China. Everywhere we went, it was crowded and crazy. We attempted to go to a place called Underwater World, but there were just too many people for us. We also attempted to take a boat tour ride around, but they were jam packing people on the boats like sardines (along with having to stand in line for hours and Chinese people aren’t known for patiently waiting their turn – they fight for one slot ahead) and we just didn’t feel that would be safe for us or our children. We did do quite a bit of walking around the town, seeing some of the architecture. The city was occupied by the Germans in the 1800’s (I think) so there were some interesting types of buildings around town. A lot of them reminded me of chalets and quaint swiss villages. Qingdao is also famous for it’s beer – TsingTao beer – started by the Germans, now Chinese operated. We had some, thought it was ok.

One day, we rented a van and a tour guide to take us around. That was interesting. We had an English speaking tour guide, along with a Chinese tour guide. The Chinese guy pretty much said about 10 words the whole trip and the English guide didn’t know much and for some reason, wouldn’t ask the Chinese guy when we wanted a question answered. It was a bit strange, but oh well. She was the one who wanted to take us out on the overly packed boats. We had to make her go back to the van and move to our next destination, which was the TV tower that you can go up to the top in. We waited about 45 minutes in line to go up for about 1 minute, then needed to go back down, but the line was LONG – Ryken was crying, Ashley was crying and it was very frustrating. Our guide managed to talk to some staff there and get us down the service elevator after some food had been brought up – thank goodness, waiting in that line with crying kids would have driven everyone insane. The tour guide also wanted to take us to some mountain area to see the tea farms and some Buddha temple. The traffic getting there was horrendous and we had some interesting moments on the way up. It was beautiful up there, although we could have skipped seeing the temple – the girls were CRANKY (as was I by that time) and there were many, many stairs to climb in order to see the temple. Not a fun outing at all.

Let’s see, other interesting items to note. The hotel had a little bowling alley (2 lanes) and golf center. We went bowling on the last day as it was too cold to be outside for long. The sign for the bowling center had a picture of a naked lady with very pronounced boobs. It was pretty funny – I guess they equate boobs with bowling balls?!

There was also a big “jumpy castle” out on the beach for the kids. It was named DSNLY (I’m guessing this was supposed to be DISNEY) and had a fake Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck on it. They were both very weird looking, but the kids were having fun jumping all around. One hard thing to get used to here are the open crotch pants on toddlers. They have the nice outfits, with a hold down the middle of their pants, for easy access. So, on the bouncy castle, there’s a kid jumping and playing and bouncing around with everything hanging out for all the world to see. I don’t see how hygienic this is as other kids are playing right where his naked butt was sitting! Ewww….but what can you do?

All in all, we had a good trip and enjoyed seeing a different part of China. Hopefully, we’ll be doing quite a bit of travel and will get to experience many different things here.

The Family has arrived in Beijing

We’re here in Beijing finally! It’s been a LONG four months being off and on separated from Anthony and it’s nice to be together, even though he’s worked everyday we’ve been here.

The flight here was uneventful. The kids did pretty well. We forgot to request a bassinet on the long flight, so they didn’t have one for us. Instead, Ryken spent the majority of the time in the sling with me or in Liz’s carseat, if she would sit in a seat. The flight was not full, so we had an extra seat available for her to use. Ashley complained a lot of stomach pain, but we think it was from not eating. She pretty much refuses to eat anything offered by American Airlines unless it’s cookies or brownies or candy. We stopped in Tokyo for a layover, where the girls enjoyed the foot massager in the JAL lounge. We were told by several people that we had cute girls and that they did well on the flight over. There were definitely some moments of distress, mainly with Liz – as she had several timeouts in the planes bathroom. I’m sure only about ½ the plane had to listen to her screaming for a few minutes at a time. There was one point where all three kids were crying, but we managed to get it under control fairly quickly. I tried to watch some movies, but with American Airlines system of movie playing, it’s too difficult when you have kids. I much prefer other airlines, where you have on demand moves and can stop and start them on your own. On our flight from Tokyo to Beijing, we flew JAL and I was impressed with the service and quality of seats. They did have a bassinet, so I was able to lay Ryken in it and have some time alone for about 2 hours while he slept, that was FANTASTIC! We arrived in Beijing after a bumpy flight at around 9:30 pm and had a minivan waiting to take us home. With 6 people and tons of luggage, it was a feat fitting it all in, but we managed. The drive was short, about 20 minutes. I was very excited to be going to the place where we’ll be living.

We arrived at night, so it was dark coming into the complex – so I didn’t really get a good look around, plus I was EXHAUSTED. Anthony kept pointing stuff out to me, but that was pretty useless since I couldn’t really even focus. We pulled up to the house and Ashley remarked that the place was “GORGEOUS”. And it did look so. It is a very nice house, so much better than the tiny apartment in Taiwan. I am very pleasantly surprised by how nice it is. It is 2 stories, with a kitchen, dining room, living room, playroom and ½ bath downstairs. There are 3 bedrooms each with their own baths and an area at the top of the stairs we’re using for a study. Anthony had the girls room painted purple and Ryken’s room painted baby blue –it really is so nice to have color. There is a LARGE balcony off of the girls room, which they haven’t discovered yet, thank goodness and there is a smaller balcony off of the master bedroom. We have a yard, yes, a yard. It is big compared to what I thought it was going to be. There’s a front yard with rose bushes and some vines climbing over the fence/wall. The whole place is surrounded by a wall for some privacy. The backyard has several trees and a patio area complete with patio furniture. The grass is new and someone comes by to water it. It really is nice and the girls can run around to their hearts content.

I’m extremely happy with our accommodations here. The place we are living is a large community, with many families. Today is Saturday and I’ve seen kids (and adults) out on bikes, rollerblades and walking all day long. There are several playgrounds with sand and swings – that is just heaven for the girls as they both just want to swing and play in the sand. There is a clubhouse with indoor/outdoor swimming pool, some restaurants, a kids playroom and a small grocery store. Such a change from living in Taiwan.

So far the days have been nice. A bit polluted – the sky just continually looks gray. And there are these strange little gnats flying around everywhere. They get in your clothes and hair and eyes, if you aren’t careful. Strange. We are across the street from a park and there are lots of trees nearby so we have a nice view.

We are all suffering from jet lag – the girls are getting up around 3am and not going back to sleep, it’s been pretty miserable for us all!

Our Ayi (helper), Xiaoshu, is working out wonderfully. She has been a great help to us! It’s taking some getting used to, having someone here all day long, and having someone do things that I normally do, but it is so good. I’m able to take the girls to the park or play with them or write this for the blog while she takes care of meals or watches Ryken. Or she’ll take the girls to the park while I am feeding Ryken or when he’s sleeping. It is so nice to be able to spend some quality time with the kids, especially after the months of being alone and not being able to do things with them. She is going to spoil Ryken for sure, as she loves holding him. The girls are getting used to her being here and have started asking for her to do things with them, which is good.

We are off tomorrow for a little vacation (yes, I know, already!) to Qingdao – supposed to be a beach/seafront touristy town. Should be nice, although it’s definitely not going to be beach weather. Hopefully the hotel has an indoor pool that we can hang out at. I’ll write more when we get back from our vacation.

Cinnamon

Yesterday (Sunday), went to XiangShan (Fragrant Mountain) with some co-workers. Walked up to the peak, back down, had lunch at the town at the bottom, then headed back home. Have pics with comments at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/64879399@N00

A few interesting things about that trip:
* A lot of people hiking had on business suits and dress suits (not usually in good shape as you might imagine), I was told when I asked that most of the were probably migrant workers from outside Beijing, so probably only had business suits with them – appropriate for work or play.
* At one point at the top, a guy asked if he could get his picture with me, I was by co-workers because I was Westerner wearing sunglasses, that I looked “cool.” Finally, people who understand me! :)
* Also, the mountain area where we were has military installation under it (some command headquarters or something, protected from bombardment by being under the mountain), and a lot of dignitaries lived nearby.
* The mountain itself, was named because apparently one of the peaks (I think where we climbed up to), looks like an incense holder. Thus, “fragrant.”
* And yesterday, at lunch, I think I had buried duck eggs for first time. That’s where they take duck egg, bury it in mud with herbs for about a month, then dig it up, cook it, and serve it with slabs of white tofu. Wasn’t too bad. Ain’t gonna become my main staple anytime soon, but not as bad as it could be. As it should be.

So this morning(Monday), I’m heading out to go to work (walk to security gate, have them call cab), when opening gate it seems particularly dusty. Thinking I need to ask the Ayi to do something about that. Then say good morning to a lady walking her dogs, and she mentions the dust everywhere, that there must’ve been a sandstorm night before. Sure enough, now that I’m actually paying attention, everything has a light covering of light brown dust. Like everything’s been sprinkled with cinnamon. Car’s driving by have a covering of it across the top. Similar to what you see the morning after a light rain with freezing temps – but instead of ice it’s dust.

It’s to the point when as I’m walking through the grass (and this is not thick grass), there’s a puff of dust that goes up with every step I take. A car driving out through the exit of the complex sends a large poof of dust up around it’s sides just from turbulence as it passes.


Another interesting thing I’ve found out. Apparently, government here charges each taxi car (or driver, not 100% sure) about $4,000-5,000RMB per month for license. Divide by 8 for US equivalent ($500-$625). This probably doesn’t sound like much, but I’ve been in a cab for and hour and a half before in bad traffic going to work, and total bill for cab ride was about $7.50. So if you figure $8/hr very best case (when traffic good, getting lots of riders), working 12 hours/day, 6 days week, 4 weeks/month, that’s $2300/month). Then you have to pay for the cab, gas, maintenance, and money goes to the cab company, I’m sure. Chances are, they probably pulling in about half that or less, so more like 1100-1200 mth.

There’s a lot of ‘illegal’ drivers here, too, usually at airports entrances and touristy locations. They stand around, ask you where you’re going, and offer a fee to get you there, usually more than you’d pay be meter. This way they get out of tax/fees, mostly they’re not even driving cabs, just normal car. Sometimes you can actually save money this way, but you have to know about how much a cab ride would cost. Generally it’s not worth it, just look for a cab. They’re cheap enough.

Stuck in traffic right now. When cars are stopped in traffic, sometimes people will come by and jab business cards and little flyers in the between door and window on side of car. Just jab it in and keep quickly walking to the next car.

HAHAHA… So, I’m actually typing this in the cab (all the really good cabs here are Hyundais, this is one of ‘em). And he asked if he could use a “XiaoLu” – little road. I said OK. Well, too bad I don’t know more Chinese, or he could have been more precise. He could’ve asked if he could drive through a forested bumpy dirt field… It worked through, we passed a significant amount of not stopped traffic…

OK, that’s enough for my random thoughts and experiences for the day.

Less than a week ‘til I’m home! But it’s gonna be a hellacious week. See y’all soon!