Filling In

Dun ta da dun - I now not only have a little internet access via cable, I have full time www with wireless!! And it is allowing me to post pictures too. I am so happy. BTW - if you email me and don't hear back it means I didn't get it. For some reason lots of emails get lost from here to there. Right now I am about 85 behind, so if you wrote in the last two weeks give me some time to catch up now that I can get online. The issue was having a Mac, which is highly uncommon here due to the expense. We had to buy a special router and they really spent some time getting it all set up. I was also thrilled to get Rosetta Stone from my friend Steve that's here visiting. Now I can start working on my Mandarin. Of course I am already learning words here and there, but I want to pick up the pace as we get settled. Abbey will be starting her Chinese class in a few weeks but in the meantime she is babbling and imitating and is very proud of the few words that she can say like "qing kai men" (please open door) which she says to the security guards over the PA system whenever we enter the building. We share our home with another mom and daughter. Abbey's new little friend Livie (Olivia, but Abbey has renamed her) will be a help to her language acquisition, and vice versa. She attends Abbey's school and her mom works there as well. Of course her mom is a big help to me with translation, explanations, etc.
I want to go back and fill in little since I couldn't post earlier. The first day we arrived here we were brought to the school right after dropping off our luggage at our home. When we walked through the doors a crowd of about 100 parents stood up and applauded us. It was like coming in on the red carpet at an awards ceremony, except it was all a surprise ( and we had been travelling for a couple of days and were not in tip top shape). They were having an end of term celebration and the parents were listening to a power point presentation where Abbey and I had just been introduced, minutes before we walked in. You just never know what's around the corner. After the meeting we were taken to a staff celebration at Brazilian Barbeque restaurant. It was neat because my travel group had gone to one when on my first trip to get Abbey, but we had been gone to Shenzhen and missed it, so now was my chance. They bring skewwers of roasted meats to you and slice them onto your plate and then you go through a buffet for soups, vegetables, etc. It was a fun kick off for our first day here and helped us stay awake.
About the third day I was here I got locked into my apartment and had to crawl out a window into another apartment. We are on the third floor of an eight story building. There are many buildings in our gated complex, which also houses the school. The apartments are very large and come as concrete box. You must put in flooring, bathrooms, kitchen, etc. We were very fortunate that our friends here spent months getting everything ready for us. The construction was getting finished just before we arrived. They divided our apartment into two. A very small portion is for a couple of ayis (nannies, housekeepers) that work at the school, the rest is for us to share a common living area and kitchen with my housemate and her daughter, and then Abbey and I have a seperate suite with our own bedrooms and bathroom. We take an elevator and then there is a big outer door that opens onto the patio that we all share. You then enter the apartment through a sliding glass door that has been split so that one side opens for the ayis and one side for us. Somehow our side got left with an outer handle but not with an inner one. The nanny next door ended up closing our portion of the door from the outside and then I had no way to open it or get out. So I crawled through our kitchen window which opens into their kitchen and came around to get Abbey out. This happened again and then they got us an inside handle. I locked the door from the inside the next night and my housemate came home late and couldn't get in and had to go sleep at her brothers. Then they replaced the whole thing and got us a door and lock we can all use. Then Abbey locked herself in my bedroom with the keys. By the time I got help to arrive she had managed to get it unlocked again from the inside. Locking and unlocking, doors and windows, just all ways to make life more interesting.
Everyday there are people here working on our home at any and all times of the day. Today it's the hot water system. At first we couldn't get any and then we had it so hot Abbey couldn't wash her hands, hopefully today they can work it out. Yesterday it was Ikea bringing our new sofa and chair and the wireless guy. The day before it was someone installing a safe for us. Everyday repairs, installations, deliveries and more. There is a constant flow of people in and out of out place from the school as well, mostly people trying to help set us up with phones, light bulbs, woks, etc. Last night a chocolate cake arrived at our door at about 8 pm and you know who was thrilled.
There is constant and continual construction everywhere at all times. They do take a siesta from 12-2 pm. The first day I put Abbey down for her nap a jack hammer started in overhead. Now she can not only sleep through, but fall asleep during all kinds and saws, pounding hammers, etc. I think all the apartments above and around us are just being put together. It's so funny how quickly you can get used to things. At first she was so afraid of all the noise, and now we don't even notice it.
I have so much more to share but will leave it here for now. I'll take some pics this week of our apartment and the school so that you can see what I am talking about.
A huge thank you for all the wonderful comments and emails. We know we are not alone and that you all are just a click away!