Frustrating Days

We have ants in our kitchen – AGAIN. We had a large infestation last summer and now the ants are back. I’ve taped up a hole in the cabinets and that kept them at bay for about a day. But then, this morning, I opened up one of our cabinets and there were many, many ants. I called the local management office to have them come and try and take care of the problem. They came, pulled the dishwasher out, said it was all bad and they needed to do some caulk work. I said ok. They said it costs money and I must pay them. I said no – I am refusing to keep paying for maintenance and upkeep of the house when the landlord should be the one paying for these things. They seemed confused and said ok, they would send a quotation to the landlord to get approval to caulk part of the cabinet. ARGH. Yes, a quotation to put about 2 feet worth of caulk in the kitchen has to be sent to the landlord for approval in order for them to fix anything. This is ridiculous. I am quite frustrated right now about the whole rental thing with a landlord who isn’t accessible and a rental agent who only cares about getting money for herself, not about keeping the client happy.

We also had a rather large heating bill for December, when we weren’t even here for 2 weeks and I have complained and the rental agent just said to me – who cares, isn’t the company paying for it anyway? – Yes, this is the type of service we get. It sucks. That is one thing about China that I get really, really sick of. Customer Service. It just doesn’t exist (unless you are willing to pay for it).

Mortgage your credentials

This is a sign in a local grocery store – the sign says not to take the cart outside the store, but if you have too, you can “mortgage your credentials”. Not quite sure how to go about doing that, but I guess they really care about their grocery carts.

Happy Birthday to RYKEN!!!!

Happy Birthday Ryken! He is ONE YEAR OLD today! I can’t believe it’s already been a year, my baby, no longer a baby. We didn’t really celebrate at all – since Anthony’s out of town for work. We did open a few of the presents from Grandmom and Grandad – he enjoyed the boy toys – the girls actually took the boy toys and put them on their heads as hats and face masks. We will do a cake and simple "party" for him this weekend when Anthony is back in town.

Xin Nian Kuai Le

Happy Chinese New Year!

The fireworks going on here are amazing - it does sound like a warzone! Tonight is the official New Years Eve celebration and it's loud and colorful. We ate at the clubhouse (Tokyo Teppanyaki) - and thought it ironic that we were eating Japanese food on Chinese New Year night - oops. It was good though. The fireworks were going off so we decided to bundle everyone up and take a walk around outside the complex. Even with all the loud noise, Ryken fell asleep and Liz was quiet the entire time. For weeks, she's been saying how scared she is of fireworks, but she was excited to see them tonight and enjoyed looking at them.

Happy Valentine's Day

Ashley had to write on a heart at school for Valentine's Day - she was supposed to write down the names of those she loves. She wrote " I love Kathleen and Ella and Hugo". All her friends. Did she write "I love mommy and daddy"? Nope. And on our fridge that night, did she write "I love you mommy thank you for the chocolate"? Nope. She wrote "I love you Kathleen". Her best friend.

Anniversary means Party?!

That’s what Ashley was hoping earlier this month when Anthony and I celebrated a day that we consider a mini anniversary. It’s not our real anniversary (that’s in August), but it is a day we consider special and unique to us. We mentioned to Ashley that we were celebrating this special day the morning of and Ashley immediately became excited! She asked to take our wedding photo into school and I thought, sure, why not? I thought it was sweet she wanted to show her teacher. So, she took it to school and immediately told her teacher it was our anniversary. Instead of explaining the whole thing to the teacher at drop off time, I just let it go, said thanks and went home. When I went to pick Ashley up from her ballet class, there were parents already there and they congratulated me on my anniversary! I must have looked perplexed and they said that Ashley made an announcement before ballet and told everyone there,all the kids, all the teachers and all the parents! I never imagined that our anniversary would mean so much to Ashley, that she would even recognize what it meant – and I found out later, when we arrived home, that she doesn’t know what it means! She immediately asked when we were having the party and where the cake was. Yep, she was excited because when I said “celebrating” she blocked all else out of her mind and just thought “party, sweets, candy, ice cream, cake”. She was quite disappointed when I explained it all to her. Poor Kid. But, as she pointed out afterwards, Ryken’s birthday is only in a few weeks, so we’ll have a birthday party then, right mom?

Liz is Married!

Ok, so not really, I mean, come on, she's only 3! But, tonight, Anthony had a friend come over from work - he works in Taipei. Liz has never seen this guy before. But, she's all excited that he's coming over for dinner. She's runs outside to greet him when the taxi shows up. Then, she wants to know if he's eating with us. She talks to him and chats. I tell her it's bathtime and she wants to know if he'll (let's call him Tom) still be here when she's done with bath, then asks if Tom can see her pajamas. I tell her yes, he can (thinking she means, can he see me in my pj's?). That's not what she meant, she takes her PJ's downstairs to show him! After her bath, she goes downstairs and asks him to brush her wet hair. This is hilarious since she has never asked anyone to brush her hair and Tom has never brushed a kids head before! She chats to him the whole time (which is so unusual for her) and she decides to marry him. She tells him they are getting married and dances for him in the living room. Ahhh, this is the first sign of trouble I have seen out of this child. As I put her bed, she aks if Tom is staying the night because she wants to see him tomorrow. Too bad her little heart will be broken when I tell her he won't be back becuase he's going to his girlfriend in Taiwan!

Toaster Oven, Iron, Vacuum and Bedding

What do all these things have in common? They were the giveaway gifts for every employee at Anthony's company's party last night for Chinese New Year. Every employee recieved a ticket with a number and a Chinese character on it. There were four characters, one for each prize. So if your ticket had the character that was chosen for the iron, then you got an iron (that was ours). I guess they figure everyone needs household items, so it would be a good gift to give. Most people I talked to said they would give their gifts to their mom, since they didn't do the cooking or cleaning or ironing, but thier moms did!

We had a good time at the party, even though the whole thing was in Chinese. It was also very much like a TV studio - they had high tech video equipment, with one camera on a crane! They were filming the whole thing and then would also show everyone who was speaking or singing on 2 huge screens - this for a roomfull of about 200 people. Anthony did a sort of karoake performance with four other guys. He sang "Country Roads" and pretended to play a guitar. He did a great job. His company had hired a firm to help make the party a success and they came up with ideas for the show and had people practice for their "roles". They originally wanted Anthony to show up at 9am and stay all day to practice for his one song that he was singing with 4 other people. He said no and agreed to show up at 3:30 for a quick 15 minute practice and then to stick around until the party at 5:30. We both thought that was a little crazy for a company party. Before Anthony came out on stage, they brought me a bouquet of flowers and told me I needed to take them up to him while he was singing - and I agreed, but then asked how he was supposed to hold them since he would be "playing" the guitar. "Meiguanxi" was their answer - meaning no problem, it's ok. I get tired of hearing that phrase. So, I did take him the flowers and he did awkwardly hold them and the guitar and sing his heart out.

He finished his song and it was time for a raffle drawing. He's backstage and they call out a number and I'm trying to figure out the number in Chinese to compare to the number on his ticket when the people at our table start pointing to me and hollering! I realize that the number is our ticket! I go up to the stage looking very bewildered and really wanting Anthony to come out and take my place. They are talking to me in Chinese, I have no idea what they are saying. They tell me in English to shake some guys hand, I do, although I have no idea why - the lights are so bright on stage I can't see anyone in the audience, which is a good thing! Anthony shows up so at least I'm not alone now. Everyone is clapping and I don't know why - still. I know we've won something, but have no idea what. Then I break this egg thing to get a character to see what character goes with what appliance they have for the giveaway. We are told to go with this lady to get our prize and as we leave, we realize that we have won the MAJOR prize! The SONY LCD TV!!!! We don't know how big it is or anything, but we won the big prize. The big prizes were a Camcorder, a 5000RMB travel voucher and a TV. It was completely unexpected and a total surpise, especially since we had no idea! I just hope that the audience understood that I didn't understand and if I had of known I would have acted a bit more excited than I did! The TV is getting delivered tomorrow. One big downside is that it's 220 Volt, so no matter how great it is, we'll be leaving it here in China when we come home. No matter, we'll enjoy it while we're here. Thanks AMD!!!

KaPow

Chinese New Year is next week and is the biggest holiday in China. Last week, along the road that I go on almost everyday, red tents were being set up. I had not seen these before and wondered what they were. I asked our driver and his answer was "kapow" - he doesn't speak much English - along with kapow he used hand gestures to insituate something blowing up. Ahhhh...FIREWORKS. The next day, we drove by the red tents and sure enough, they were filled to overflowing with fireworks being sold to celebrate the festival. We aren't talking small little bundles of fireworks, nope, huge packages of LARGE fireworks. I really have to wonder how many firework injuries there are here in China because I know they aren't exactly safe with them! We've been hearing and seeing fireworks going off every night now and every night, there are more and more. We will be leaving on the 19th to go to Koh Samui, Thailand until the 24th - partly to be spared the noise and celebrations of Chinese New Year. We've been told that it sounds like war zone for days during the festival, from evening until 4 in the morning!

New Painted Stripes

On the main road outside our complex, I noticed today that the lane stripes were bright white - they were freshly painted. I am slightly complexed as to why they would paint new stripes, when I think it just confuses drivers. The majority of drivers here have no idea why there are stripes on the road, have no idea what lanes are and just drive whereever they want to. I am thinking that since it was supposed to snow last night and didn't - that maybe there were people hired to street sweep the snow away, but since it didn't snow, they thought it would be a good idea to paint lines on the street, give them something to do.

China here we stay

Anthony's been told he will start work in Shanghai after the Chinese New Year holiday - that's at the end of February. So, although we have yet to officially be signed on for a stint in Shanghai - it looks like it's going to happen. We've been thinking about this move for a few months now, but things haven't been so easy with deciding when and how and the logistics of it all. Schools are very competitive and full in Shanghai, so it is quite difficult to get a child into a good school given a few weeks or even a few months notice. We have decided to stay here in Beijing until Ashley finishes this school year, that way she can finally complete one solid year of school at the same school. So, for now, starting after Chinese New Year, Anthony will fly to Shanghai for 4 days a week and we'll stay here in Beijing. In April, our lease is up on the house, so we'll probably have to stay here in a small serviced apartment until school is over and we can then move onto Shanghai. We are still not sure what our stint will be in Shanghai - 2 or 3 years. We are excited about this - I'm excited about being somewhere for more than 1 year - I'm getting really tired of the moving around so much. Although most expats are used to the making friends and seeing them leave every year or so, it doesn't make it any easier. I've made good friends here in Beijing and it will be difficult leaving all of them, but there are new adventures that await us in Shanghai (and it won't be quite so cold in winter or as polluted!).

Ryken is Bilingual

Ryken is finally starting to speak, a lot of babble mainly, but there are three words or sounds that are worth mentioning. The first and foremost is DADA. Second is MAMA, which he's been saying for a while - but he says it the most when food is involved, so I think he thinks mama means food. We are trying to teach him to say "more" for food - when he wants to eat, but MORE to him doesn't sound much different than MAMA. The last one that I have yet to distinctly hear, but that my ayi swears he says all the time is jiejie - the would be the Chinese word for sister! I have heard him make the j sound before, so she could be right, but I haven't caught him actually saying jiejie to his sisters. So, if he's actually saying all those words, he is truly bilingual, since MaMa is said both in Chinese and English. If we can get him to say BABA (Chinese for father) before he says anything else, then he'll really be speaking another language.

School Cancelled

Today, Anthony took Ashley to school this morning since he had taken the day off. When he took her, they told him that there was no electricity or running water at school and they had no idea why. He could leave her and see if it came back on and they would call us to pick her up shortly if it didn't. Hmmm...definitely not something we'd experience back home, in the absence of any storms, weather phenomenom, etc. So, he left her, hoping the water and electricity would come back on. About an hour later though, I got a text message on my phone (very popular way of communicating here) that we needed to come pick up our children if possible. Anthony went and picked her up and they had no further news as to what caused the problem or when it would fixed. Ashley seemed excited to have another day at home with Daddy until lunch time - then she said she wanted to go back to school because they were having a buffet in her classroom. I learned from her that they were setting up lunch in the classrooms (lunch is catered by our complex clubhouse, which did have electricity) for those kids that had to stay at school. Usually lunch is eaten in the "basement" where the cafeteria is, but due to no electricity, it would be very dark down there. Ashley would have loved to have eaten in her classroom, but we said no, she had to eat at home with the adults - how sad.

Superbowl the China Way

We did get to watch the Superbowl! Anthony even took off the day to stay home and watch it. The game started at 7am and ended around 11:00am. Anthony made breakfast burritos and then later, we had nachos (by this time, the game was already over though). One thing that is seriously missing when watching the Superbowl here - COMMERCIALS! Please let me know which ones I just have to see - and I'll check them out online. The only commercials we get here are ESPN commercials for upcoming games that will be showing on ESPN Asia. BORING! Would much rather see the commercials that companies pay out the wazoo to have aired during the Superbowl.

Mummy Dearest

Ashley has been attending a british school here in Beijing, meaning that it follows a British School Cirriculum. Now, with a classroom full of diversity - I'm not sure how many different countries are represented in her classrom, but I would say at least 10 - you would think she would be able to maintain her own "American" accent. But no...she hasn't. On our trip to Australia, we found out just how prominent Ashley's new accent is. She kept getting asked over and over again if she was British! Since Ashley's 2 best friends both hail from England, Ashley has picked up on their accents. She says lots of words that we don't say coming from the States and I even have a new name - I am now known as "mummy". I wonder what Liz will be talking like in a few years.