Rug Day

We bought some new rugs. I've been wanting a good rug for the living room for a LONG time now and we finally broke down and got one. There are so many places to buy rugs here - and at a large variety of prices. You can buy pure silk, pure wool and fake stuff too. It's quite overwhelming, which is one reason I hesitated buying one. When I had some curtains made here, the lady told me she knew a warehouse she could take me to look at carpets. So I called Brenda, the curtain lady, and asked if we could go look at carpets. She had us meet here there - a warehouse for a Beijing carpet company. We checked out all the carpets and there were many that we liked. Some were quite expensive (around 1000 US) and some not too bad. I also asked if they had kids rugs and they had the most adorable kids dinosaur rug - I just had to get it for Ryken's room. So there they are, the two rugs we ended up with:

Wool and Silk Carpet - changes color with light

Ryken's Room - wool rug

The Environment and Me

I live in a country where the environment is of little concern to the majority of it’s people. I think one of the reasons for this is that most people here are just trying to survive, on the littlest amount of money possible – so if something is cheap, that’s what they will use, no matter how bad for the environment it is. Or if they can make more money by using certain products, no matter what cost to the environment, they will. There are so many examples of this across China, it’s utterly amazing to me. Illegal factories, overuse of pesticides and fertilizers, the use of banned products in production of wood are just a few small examples. Seeing the horrible Beijing pollution firsthand and hearing all of the horrible stories of how the pollution across China has affected people here, has made me very aware of what we, as people, are doing to the environment.

In light of this, I am making a conscious effort to help our planet, to contribute to being more “green”. This can be quite hard and often overwhelming here in China, where I can’t read or speak the language fluently. Here are a few ways I have started trying to make a dent:

1. Use cloth diapers for the kids – Ryken is in cloth about 90% of the time and the girls both are using cloth “pull-ups” for night time.

2. Air-drying as many clothes as possible. With the pollution and the amount of sand blowing around in Beijing, this can be quite difficult to do – so often I hang wet clothes up inside to air dry them. When it is clear and sunny out, it’s a nice day to do laundry and have clothes air dry.

3. Use fewer paper towels – when we first arrived in Beijing, I often wished for a Costco or Sams Club, where I could buy things in bulk, like paper towels. We would go through a roll of paper towels in just a few days. I eventually realized that we don’t NEED paper towels.

4. Look for environmentally friendly products – this is the most difficult part to do here. The government has started to “certify” certain products with a little green label when they decide something is environmentally good. The problem with this is that everything is in Chinese and I often don’t trust this little label – things here are often fake in order to make more money, so it’s difficult for me to trust if something is truly what it is intended to be. So, for now, although this costs me more money, I buy things imported from other countries that are labeled in English, with ingredients I can read. These include cleaning products, laundry detergent and food.

5. Eat organic food – This is also quite difficult here. Luckily, it is becoming easier. There is a company that has started delivering organic vegetables, fruits and grains – I can place orders 2 times a week and it is delivered to the house. Yes, it is more expensive, but in a country where in ground pollution is rampant, it is so important to me to have a reliable source of produce that is organic. I attended a seminar on the “organic movement” here in China. The difficulty of going organic is the amount of time involved and that little money is made by farmers who do go organic. I’ve heard stories of farmers who have certified their land as organic – then at night, when no one is looking, they go out and spray fertilizer and pesticide on their land in order to ensure a good crop, with good looking fruit/vegetables. Farmers and distributors will get fake organic labels made up and stick them on their produce so that people think it’s organic when really it isn’t. I completely understand the whole idea of “knowing your local farmers”.

I am definitely not someone who can say they do everything they can to help the environment. I am trying to do my best for now and research things and continue to improve how I live everyday and how I impact the rest of the world. I still use a vehicle more often than I would like. One of the things I am looking forward to in Shanghai is living within walking distance of stores and schools, at least that is our goal.

I would challenge each of you to think more about the environment, think more about your impact on the world.

For those interested in China

Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting on China's Naked Capitalism

Read the articles on conditions ranging from inequality to pollution that earned the Wall Street Journal a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting.

These are very interesting reading for those who have an interest in China.

It's broken mommy

That's what I heard at 6:30 in the morning. Anthony read somewhere about putting an alarm clock in the kids room to go off when they are allowed to get up. So I set the alarm clock for 7, told the girls that when it went off in the am they could get up and come wake me. I hear them talking and playing around 6 this morning and at 6:30, Ashley comes in my room and tells me "the alarm clock, it's broken mommy, it hasn't gone off". Well, that's because it is set for 7 and it is only 6:30, so you have another half hour. "but mommy, that's too long!" ARGH! So much for the alarm clock theory.

5 am - Early?

Who thinks 5 am is early?! I certainly do, but not my 3 year old! The sun rises around then here and it seems as soon as there is a bit of light peeking through the curtain, she thinks it's time to get up. She woke up Ashley, who was not happy to be woken up early. And of course, after pleading with her for 2 hours to go back to sleep, at 7:00, when I needed her to start getting ready for the day, she complains she's tired and wants to go back to sleep. I know that kids have shared rooms all throughout the years, but I don't know how parents survive it. My kids just can not share a room without being completely exhausted and grumpy from each other. I am about to put the baby in my room (ARGH!) so that Ashley can have a room to get some good sleep in and Liz can have a room to get up with the sun.

But I'm NOT Tired

I've been having lots of issues getting Liz to sleep everynight. I really have no idea how each night is going to go and am quite surprised when it goes well. Given that the girls share a room and Ashley is usually keen to go to sleep, it is difficult to do any sort of bedtime enforcement for Liz - who will cry and scream for hours. The other night, I actually had Ashley tell me, with tears building up, to just be nice to Liz - that I should just let her have baby and go to sleep (Liz was refusing to lay down and I said she couldn't have her baby until she laid down). Poor Ashley doesn't enjoy dealing with Liz at bedtime and neither do I. I finally have just given up the fight. I get both girls ready for bed, do the whole routine, read stories, lay down and then just leave the room. If Liz gets up and follows me, I don't say anything, just go about my business and pretend she's not there. Sometimes, like tonight, this works GREAT! After 5 minutes of me doing other stuff, here is where I found Liz in the living room - and she said she wasn't tired...

Sleeping

What is our driver doing right now? Sleeping...with his head on the steering wheel. Good thing we aren't driving anywhere! We have a sub driver, as Simon is out for the day and I asked him to come at 12:30, but I wasn't feeling well and feel asleep (guess it's a sleepy day here). I went out to him at 1:30 to let him know I didn't need the car until 2:30 and I had to shake him to wake him up. I am now eating lunch inside and looking out my window he's asleep again. It's quite a funny sight to see in front of my house.

Mahjong

I've decided to learn how to play mahjong. Every other week, I get together with a group of women here who are also learning to play and we learn new rules and play together. I think it's a pretty complex game, so far, I've only learned the basics. I have heard there are many different variations to the game, including a "western style" for foreigners. Not sure why the foreigners need their own style. You can buy different sets, with the numbers written in English (1,2,3...) on them or with the Chinese Characters for the numbers. Today, I played with the English tiles and last time, I played with the Chinese characters. Makes one learn the number characters quite fast. I find it a fun game and it feels good to "use my brain" every once in a while! So, look out my friends! When I'm back home in the States, we'll have to set up a Mahjong night (the guys get poker, we can do Mahjong)!