The Things We Miss...

By being expats and living overseas, we often have to miss things we would rather not. Like, my sister's HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION! I am so proud of her and want to say "CONGRATULATIONS sis"! I wish I could have been there, but she'll have to wait for a congratulatory hug until July.

Truck Overload

This is a COMMON site here in Beijing. This truck was going by our house - and stuff started to fall off the back. I took the picture when they were starting to pile stuff back onto the truck. The end of the truckbed is right at the left side of the gate.

No censoring?

I'm sitting here watching CNN International and they just did 2 stories on China that did not get blacked out. Occassionally, the TV will go black when there is a story on CNN or the Australian Channel (ABC) that the censors don't want to be shown in China. I am quite surprised that one of these 2 stories made it through the censors - as it does not make the government look good. One story was about some rioting that has been going on in rural villages regarding the enforcement of the "one child policy". Apparently, there have been government officials going around trashing peoples houses and belongings if the women don't agree to forced sterilization or birth control, along with fines up to 10 times the annual salary of these villagers.
Guardian Unlimited Story on Riots
The other story was interesting and funny as it was a CNN reporter going into one of the major "designer" markets to buy knock offs (looked like Silk Street Market to me). It was funny to see him haggling and dealing just like we have to everytime we shop at a market. He was able to buy a whole "designer" outfit for around $100, uncluding socks, underwear and a "rolex" watch. One reason I love shopping in the States, even if it is more expensive - I know I'm getting something that is going to last longer than one wash.
Article on Silk Street This is an article I found doing some searching on silk street market. The only reason tourists go there is to buy fake designer labels at a cheap price. I find it hilarious that there are people reporting less fakes being sold. Two years ago, the market was sued by some international brand names. I believe they don't sell those fakes anymore (although if you bring a picture of anything you are looking for, I bet there is someone there who can show you the same "fake" piece either in "the back" or "under the table". I mean this literally.).

Ashley's birthday!

Ashley's birthday is tomorrow - she'll be SIX years old! She is growing up so fast. We had a party for her on Friday, after school. We'd invited her whole class (24 kids!) at her request. Luckily, the clubhouse here is able to cater kids birthday parties, including bouncy castles, so I didn't have a ton of work to do. I got her a cake from a wonderful bakery here called Exquisite. The price was HIGH - but the cake was GORGEOUS. A pink and purple castle. She loved it and it tasted wonderful. Reminded me of the cakes my mom made when I was growing up. The cake was strawberry flavor with buttercream icing. Yummy. We had the party in a small park across the street from our clubhouse - next to a little pond. It was a beautiful sunny day and just perfect for a party. Anthony did some games such as "Simon Says" and "Hot Potato" and "Musical Chairs". I think Musical Chairs was the favorite. The kids really seemed to enjoy that one. It was pretty overwhelming to have 20 kids (I think that's how many showed up) at the party but it turned out well and Ashley was thrilled with her party. We started a new tradition of not opening up gifts at the party - from what I've seen, only Americans do this at parties - it worked out really well. We were able to slow the process down and have Ashley open up a few at a time over the weekend so she could really enjoy them.

I've had a cold, so that hasn't been too fun. Luckly, Anthony was home this weekend for the party and for letting me get some much needed rest. He just left this evening to go back to Shanghai. It sucks when he leaves and we are definitely getting tired of this back and forth thing. I will be so relieved when we are all together in Shanghai.

Cute Video from Thailand

I posted this video yesterday. It's a few months old, from our last trip to Thailand. Whenever I watch it, I am so proud of Ashley. She's such an outgoing brave little girl who isn't afraid of much. She was thrilled to get to go up on the elephant and she was so happy when he did a little trick - turn your volume up and listen closely at around 7 seconds she squealls with delight.

Liz, on other hand, was cowering in fright as close to me as possible - trying to make herself as small as possible. She's not a big fan of animals - big or small! Oh, the differences between siblings!

Ryken loves to dance

Here's a video of Ryken dancing in the car to his favorite music - the soundtrack to Curious George - Jack Johnson & Friends. He makes me smile and giggle everytime he dances.

And on a lighter note...

Liz can now ride her bike WITHOUT training wheels! She decided she wanted to do this last week and she did it. Anthony only had to help her out just a few times and she got the hang of it rather quickly. She's still a little wobbly in her steering so no tours just yet. Maybe another "L Armstrong" in the making :)

Where does it come from?

Where does the product you are using come from?

This is something that has become an important question to me. While in the States, I didn’t really ever think about this. I simply trusted that anything being sold in the States was of good quality. It never occurred to me that it would matter. But here, in China, this is a big question. And in light of the recent event of contaminated pet food across the world, which came from China, I would say it is also a big question all over the world. It is amazing what gets exported here into the States and other countries, with little to no quality control. In China, anything can be faked, forged, replicated, reproduced, changed, etc. If it costs them less or makes them more money, they will do it, no matter what the cost. I do believe that this stems from a lack of education and not that these people really want to harm others.

Click on this to read an article from the NYTimes. This is one extremely sad case where someone decided it would be easier and cheaper to substitute a lethal product for sugar in medications, which was then shipped out over the world.

Being here in China, I hear all sorts of horror stories about China. Some examples of things I’ve read or been told (possibly just gossip) are (this is just from my memory and may or may not be completely true):

The pollution is so bad that metals are sinking in the ground from the air and contaminating farming fields.

Don’t trust your bottled water, even with a name brand on it, it could be fake (one company here has set up a number system on stickers where you can go to a website and check to make sure it is a real bottle that hasn’t been used before).

See that man spraying “water” on the side of the road? It’s not water, it’s “medicine” for the insects or pesticides, which is now all over your car because you drove past him as he was spraying it everywhere.

Be careful of medicines you buy here in China, even from reputable pharmacies, they may be fake or sugar pills.

Name brand liquor sold here is often diluted down with cheaper liquor or water.

The furniture you buy that is made here could be harmful to you and your children as it’s possibly made with toxic paint, toxic wood and toxic glue.

Shrimp farms use antibiotics to treat the shrimp, along with banned pesticides in the water to prevent algae buildup (figures I’ve seen are roughly 70-80% of the WORLDS shrimp comes from China)

Now, it appears that with all the export business going on with China, these sub-standards are going out across the world. Along with my most recent post about challenging yourself to go “greener” and think about your impact on the world, I would also challenge you to think more about the products you use, not just food. Although it is IMPOSSIBLE to know exactly where everything you have is coming from – just being aware of this and trying to buy some things locally is a good idea. I find it a bit ironic that many people with only buy American made cars, claiming that they want to support the local people and not foreign industry, but there is no big push to buy locally made food, grocery products, clothes etc. I do understand that the cost of buying locally made items tends to be higher and in order to save money, people need to buy the cheaper items which are usually imported in from other countries. I am not saying never to buy imported items, just to be aware of what you are buying and where it is coming from.

I also find it quite interesting that all those items you buy in the States that are “made in china” are usually impossible to find in the country itself. And when you do find something that seems like a great product you could find back home, it is often either a forgery or something that doesn’t work right or has problems. So, the government here allows quality control on items that are being exported but if it’s being sold in the country, there is no quality control. For example, I’ve heard that if there is something that doesn’t pass inspections or quality control on the way to export, it just gets turned around and sold here in the country. So, a piece of furniture may have paint used on it that contains lead – this wouldn’t be allowed to be sold in other countries, so they just sell it here. It doesn’t matter what gets sold here. There is so little education here about the quality of things, they have no idea that what they may be using could injure or kill them.

I’m sure this probably just seems like a big ‘ole ramble – at least it seems rambling as I write it. Hopefully, it comes across better than I feel I’ve stated it.

The next question I’m sure to hear is “why do you continue living and working over there then?”! At some point, I’ll try to address that question.

Vacation Week Over

We had a great week with Anthony home on vacation and the girls off of school. I got to go away for some much needed ALONE time for 2 nights! Anthony put me up at the Hyatt downtown for 2 nights. I spent a lot of time reading, walking and window shopping. It was enjoyable, even with the masses of people around due to the May holiday.

Anthony and I also got a night away by ourselves - without the kids! The first time since before Ryken was born (unless you count the night we spent in the hospital while I had surgery on my nose, not exactly romantic, but hey, there were no kids). We left the kids with the ayi and went about 1.5 hours away. It was weird not being right there with them, but we trust the ayi and she loves our kids so much. They did great and had a good time without us. It was also wonderful to have a super happy excited greeting by the kids when we got home.

We stayed the night at a place on the wall - in a little "cabin" made to look like a little cave. Other than lots of bugs in the place, it was a really nice place. To walk about 1 minute and be on the wall was also pretty cool. It was a neat part of the wall, not restored, so harder to climb and but cool to look at. I didn't climb as much as I wanted due to my still sore ankle.

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)!

Subway Collapse

Don't know if this made the news in the US or not...I found it quite disturbing.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-03/30/content_5917218.htm

What to do?

on a bright, sunny, beautiful RARE day here in Beijing, with three children, no husband and no ayi...go to Chaoyang Park! This is a wonderful park which has some great amusement rides for the kids. I wouldn't say that everything is in great condition (I mean, we are in China!), but most of them are rideable. The girls had a blast in the big jumpy castle - they probably ran around for an hour or so, while I tried speaking Chinese to lots of elderly Chinese women who ohed and ahed over our "pong" (Fat) baby boy. He was sitting in the stroller and got lots of attention. One lady was very attentive and kept speaking to me over and over again, but I could not understand anything she was saying. Luckily, a Chinese woman from England who spoke both English and Chinese, was able to tell me that the woman was from Shichuan (not sure about the spelling) and had a very strong accent for that region - so it wasn't just me and my bad understanding of Chinese, it was her strong accent!

The girls had lots of fun going on rides at the park - Ashley even went on her first real roller coaster ride - it lasted about 20 seconds - but it counts in my book. We walked a ton and got to see some cherry blossom trees blooming, which are beautiful. All the kids were exhausted when we got home.

I probably shouldn't have walked so much on my leg, but being cooped up in the house surely would have driven me more insane than I already am. I saw the doc today and was informed that I stretched the ligaments in this last fall and may have even tore some of them - we'll have to wait for 3 more weeks to see how the healing process is going. It still hurts quite a bit and I don't have full range of movement on the ankle. I'm supposed to stay off of it as much as possible, keep it elevated and wrapped for another 3 weeks. Fun, fun, fun. Not so easy to do! Especially now that the weather is finally turning nice - it's sunny and bright and getting warmer.

Funny China Story Time

Dog in hospital after mating(China Daily)Updated: 2007-03-27 09:22

A male dog in Chengdu, Sichuan, had to receive an intravenous drip in hospital after being given Viagra and made to mate with three female dogs on a single day.
Wang, the dog's owner, has been very busy since mating season arrived. Her dog is considered handsome, and many owners of female dogs want her dog to sire puppies with their pets. Wang can earn more than 1,000 yuan ($128) per breeding session, so in order to boost her earnings she fed her dog Viagra and made it mate with three female dogs last Sunday. The effort was apparently strenuous enough that the dog had to be taken to hospital.

(Chengdu Evening News)