Life in China

Well, for a long time I've been wanting to start writing about our everyday life here in China. Many things that seemed strange at first now seem normal. It's interesting how all the little things you do each day, and the way that you do them, seem really big when they get turned upside down. The first few months here didn't feel like being in a foreign country, it really felt like being on another planet, not even on the same globe anymore. I've had the opportunity to travel and see a lot of the world, but nothing even remotely prepared me for the changes in coming here. We are doing so much better now and I'd love to give you a taste of our lives, as well as record things for our own memories. This will have to be an on going process between events and trips. I will just write what I can when I can and hopefully you will begin to get a feel for what our lives are like as I share in bits and pieces. I'll start with this weekend.
When we first got here it was unbelievably hot (and of course humid). There's no adequate way to describe just how hot it has been. We have little portable air conditioners mounted on the wall in our living room and bedrooms. You use remote controls to turn them on. We kept them on any time we were home and all night as we slept. About a week ago we were able to sleep for the first time without them. It has been so nice to be able to walk in the bathroom and hallway and not have it be just stifling, as it has been. A wind blew in last week as we were in Hong Kong and it is suddenly fall. We made a big trip to Wal Mart to prepare for what's ahead. We bought a heater (and will be buying more), tights, socks, slippers, etc. Since we only brough a few clothes with us we will need to do a lot of shopping. Wal Mart is wild here. I'll throw in a few photos from the meat department.
Those are piles of meat, the big black chunks are really hard for me to figure out or think about.
I think we'll pass on the squid today.
A friend showed me what the dog meat packs look like. There is a little golden retriever on the front of the package. I am sorry, but it is true.
There are sales people everywhere and they are on every aisle to assist you. They demo products like hair dryers, blenders, etc. We bought a DVD player and I had to stop them from taking it all out of the packaging, they wanted to set it up right there for me. DVD's are $2, these are the "real" ones. On the other hand things like mascara from Maybelline or Loreal are $10. As my cart filled to the overflowing I had to walk by faith, having no idea how to get home. Abbey is always awesome when we are out and about, and she makes everything fun. She has now overcome her issues with squatty potties, which makes being at places like WM a lot easier for me. After the checkout we then have to go through another process of getting a fa piao reciept to help with our taxes, and that always takes more time. When we got outside there were no taxi's anywhere. I tried to call a driver, but no luck. They do not let you go very far with their carts so when I reached the line an employee came to intervene. I somehow acted out flagging a taxi and she helped me get to another street corner and waited with us until we finally caught one. When we got to our apt. complex we did our new trick, which I wish I would have known about when we first arrived. Near the gates to our complex a shopping cart is tucked away. You can bring this out to the taxi and then the guards help me drag it all to our building and up to our apt. It's SO nice! My assistant at school lives in an apt on the ninth floor and there are no elevators, the silver lining is that she stays very skinny. Anyway, I always feel a great sense of accomplishment when we finish our shopping on Saturdays, it is just so different than driving your own car to Target and being able to read labels and converse with anyone you need to. But what a fun adventure, and I think it's all so great for us to experience. Oh, and everyone staring at us doesn't bother me, you can't imagine how I stick out in a place like that...no other foreigners anywhere. They are also in awe of Abbey speaking to me in English. We are quite the entertainment.