"Hello All! This week has gone so slowly for all of us. I hope it picks up. Maybe it seems so long because we packed so much into the week. Hoping! This is just daily notes-our culture shock experiences of the week. This letter is long but I'm sure the more normal things get, the shorter the letters. Feel free to skip or delete!
We are still in a hotel. We made an offer on a home and they accepted and we sign in the morning. Hope it's not too long before we get in after that.
So I wrote a little about last Sunday to a few of you who asked...There were about 40 people there. President Turner asked Brooklyn to play the piano for sacrament meeting about 5 minutes before sacrament started. The boys were busy in the kitchen getting the sacrament ready and helped to bless and pass. I also played one song for sacrament meeting so at one point I looked out and Brynn and Sophie were in different rows by themselves, taking the sacrament. We just have two hours of church through august 18. I played piano for primary downstairs while all the others were on the top floor for priesthood and YW/YM. Primary was wild. One boy picked up a chair and threw it at his mom. It hit one of the sound speakers up in front and knocked it over. We have two other gatherings of members who skype in for sacrament meetings and provide one of the speakers each week. They are about 2 hours away. We met with President Turner after church. The Kesters, Brendon and Alisha and their five children, had us over for potato soup, rolls and lemon freeze for Sunday dinner while we were fighting jet lag. They also sent us home with fresh fruit, lime lays, pasta and spaghetti sauce, two loaves of bread and peanut butter and jelly.
Monday: Todd went to work today. I took the kids exploring the city in Shekou. We get stared at everywhere we go. We had mango smoothies and coconut jello squares at cafe 85 and headed back to the hotel, stopping at a pharmacy to buy band aids for blistering feet. Kathy Black hired her driver to take Chase and me to show us where to shop. It takes about 8 stores (plus a couple in Hong Kong and Sam's Club) to buy things we are used to eating at home. First we went to ole, an international import store in a mall. I bought veggie wash for my first purchase. Next we went to a store called Metro. It's a cross between wal-mart and Costco, but not so large quantities. Ikea is also in this area they call "euroland". Next were three international import stores. Here you can get a bar of cheese for $7 or bag of shredded for $9. Cereal sells for $7-10. 2 sticks of butter for $5. I'm getting nervous at this point. On to our final destination...walmart. You walk into the store front and ride a cart escalator to the top floor and walk through a Disney themed store, athletic clothing store and a bra shop then into the walmart. I've never seen so many workers. There are 2/3 per aisle. They follow you around to see what you put in your cart. The paper goods section is tiny. Packages of 50 are the largest size. Kathy encouraged me to buy those 10 packs of tissue. I also added some small travel wet wipe packs to my cart. On to the appliances. Need a rice cooker? They have about 80 different kinds. Kathy said to wait for some of the Hong Kong members in the ward to show me which is best. Bedding department was full of mosquito netted beds. Back down the escalator. Welcome to the meat department! Four or five different cuts of beef, in your face open air on ice at the bottom of your ride. To the right...all the chicken parts you ever wanted (but no longer want). Lots of fish from the brown, polluted Chinese water that you do NOT want anything to do with. Eels, turtles, crabs, shrimp. To your left, produce, fresh and dirty and buggy. Eggs on a table, stacked high, non-refrigerated. When you choose your produce, you take it to a counter to be ticketed. Tables full of whole grains.People taking handfuls to feel it, kids playing in them. Then onto the deli---fried rice, all sizes of noodles, dumplings, pork buns, full ducks and chickens, cooked and hanging, ready for purchase with beaks and feet intact. Outside walmart, lines of Chinese people eating meat on kabobs. People staring at Chase left and right. Back in the van to head to hotel, never wanting to eat again. 30 minute rest then on to meet the realtor to look at houses. We looked in the Jingshan neighborhood (same neighborhood as the church). Homes smell musty/moldy. It rains everyday so expected. Beautiful views, overgrown and green with bright flowers. We looked at 98 (gross!)39, nice but smaller, 108, 114, and 54,116, and 70. Tired. At hotel we loaded up all kids and headed to see a couple of apartments for FHE. One on the 10th floor, beautiful views, small kitchen. Then to coastal rose garden 2, 18th floor, rooftop terrace with goldfish swimming in back deck pond, view of harbor. We decided we can't do an apartment. Feel trapped and woozy up so high. It felt like house hunters international. Will it be #1, #2, or #3? The Blacks brought us dinner, spaghetti and Caesar salad, bread and oreos.
Tuesday: Today we ventured out on the subway while Todd was at work. A girl was following us snapping pictures. We asked her for help at the ticket booth and then she requested a photo for payment. Smiling and nodding her head at us she said, "thank you, thank you, you from Africa?" Kids got a kick out of that. Subway was so clean! Nothing like NYC. There is a glass wall between the landing and the doors open when it stops. Couldn't get the little kids to quit doing pull ups on the hand bars. Little monkeys. The subway was pretty much empty. At the mall we found an ice skating rink, H & M, sephora, toys r us, huge apple store and a bread shop. We bought an earthquake loaf which has a cheese swirl and some glazed donuts and a coconut danish to share. The subway ride back was when we saw a little boy running around with an "abibas" brand shirt. The english translations here are too funny. Sophie left the hotel umbrella on the subway. Cost us 48 RMB. ($8). When we got back we decided to hike Nanhai mountain. It has a courtyard about 1/3 way up with a pond, statues and pillars, picnic tables under pagodas. Just up a bit is a snack stand and restrooms with the prettiest parking lot I've ever seen, flowers and grass grow through pretty cutout tiles. About a mile up the ramp is the stairway up to the top. There are two pagoda stopping points and a lookout point before you get to the main double decker pagoda on top. The stairs are numbered by 50s but stops around 500--2/3 way up or so. Stairs are plentiful and steep. It was muggy but we were treated with light rain for parts of the hike. Very good workout. Brynn twisted her ankle and a Chinese man picked her up and walked down two huge flights of steep stairs and down the entire ramp. We went to Seaworld to eat Indian food at Bombay while we waited for our visa photos at the photo shop. Spicy but we didn't dare drink the water!
Wednesday: I had a mandatory hospital testing day. Todd and I rode the subway down to the convention center stop on a packed train. We then took a taxi to the hospital. Nurses here wear a pink dress and pink nurse's cap. (I'll skip this part but Insert TMI story here re: Indian food, Chinese toilets-hole in the ground, and toilet paper <lack of>). Testing included: blood test, EKG, chest x-ray, vision, weight, ultra sound, urine. You walk from room to room and each test takes about 30 seconds. We had an appointment with the realtor and all the kids to see the three homes on our final list. It was pouring rain so we checked out 4 umbrellas from the hotel and headed out walking. We were soaked. Back at the hotel we picked our favorite houses to decide on over night. Brigham, Brynn and Sophie wanted McDonald's for dinner. We had to use the help of the front desk at the hotel to speak Chinese to the worker at McDonald's and in about 30 min. they had nuggets and fries on the table. We asked for ranch and BBQ, they sent sweet and sour. Ketchup tastes nothing like ours. I hope I packed a bottle in the boxes somewhere but don't think I did. Chase, Brooklyn, Todd and I walked into the city to meet President Turner at his office. He has offered Brooke and Chase internships at his company which places pilots with airlines. Afterwards he treated us to a sushi dinner. The waitresses stared at Brooklyn the entire dinner. One made a curly hair motion with her two index fingers at Brooke. "You from Americas? You very beautiful; nice to meet you" President Turner served a mission in Japan, lived in Japan 11 years and has lived here for six years. Chase also got a new calling over dinner: he's responsible for the technical aspect of Sunday meetings (setting up the meeting with the two other locations, switching to the other locations when they speak, setting up the nursery monitor and the monitor in the cry room, aka the president's office.) We use a fingerprint system to get into the church and he might help with that setup for new members.
Thursday: Todd meetings. today I took the girls for pedicures. We went out once and couldn't find the place the ward ladies suggested. I sent an email and got the correct location for the place the expats go. It's in a building we try to stay away from in the states...Asian massage with neon lights. We entered and went up to the third floor. It was $30 for 4 pedicures You don't get to pick a polish, you just point to a chart of plastic nails. We also found the China Post to mail our weekly letter to Ally. It cost $1. The lady used a paintbrush to affix the stamp and had me stick it in a box on the wall outside. She said it takes 15-25 days to get to Sweden. For 3-5 days it would cost $40. My back has been killing me since a bad hotel bed in California, and the hike didn't help. Tonight I slipped on the marble floor in the bathroom and went down hard. I would have cried but it was too funny. I was hoping the fall would fix my back. So now I have a sore back and a bruised hip. Dang! The boys went bowling at the hotel next door.
Friday: Today was disturbing. We took Brooke and Brynn in a cab to walmart.It was so stinky I had them hold baby wipes up to their noses the whole way there. We ate lunch first (good call!) at a Japanese noodle place where we ordered veggie ramen and a garden salad. Then onto wal-mart. The first thing we saw was a lady holding a toddler up to pee in the trashcan/on the wall inside. We were in that meat section and I said "hey Brooke, look at the cute turtles." We went and grabbed some yogurt and when walking back by the turtle, the worker was cutting it in half, legs still moving. I almost lost it right there. Then as we were walking to the cell phone place a guy on his bike blows his nose into his hand and wiped it on a light pole and back on his way. Todd saw a mouse in our hotel kitchen and the pest control guys came wearing masks and sprayed stuff in our vents. Outside it was coming up out of the manholes. Who knows what they use. Fell asleep around 7pm. Exhausted from all I'd seen today I guess.
Saturday: Kesters hired their driver to take us to Ikea and Metro, International market and the wet market. Funny thing--in Ikea and Metro you will find Chinese men taking naps on the display beds and cots and couches in the stores. We bought some dishes and trash cans, and laundry disinfectant at Ikea and Metro. As for the wet market... frogs, turtles, snakes, fish, clam, oyster, lobster, shrimp, craw fish, caged birds, pigs, cows, veggies, eggs, grains, dried peppers, dried mushrooms (open air any part of animal you can think of-100% for sale). My oh my. Eyes wide open. Cultural shock. Todd bought some fruit: dragon-eyes, lychee, & bananas. I also found U.S. refried beans, mission tortillas, shredded cheese, Canadian butter. Probably the most expensive bean burritos we've ever made, but necessary at the end of this week. They tasted so good. We ate them with sliced cucumbers and carrots and the ranch dressing I packed in one of the boxes (thank goodness). We went back to the Kester's house for game night. Eric and Crystal Leonard and Gabe Grenada were there also. They had chips, salsa, hummus, pretzels and m&ms. We played phase 10 and scum.
Today: Church was good. They read our records into the branch and Chase was sustained in his calling. Chase taught the YW/YM. I played the piano for sacrament meeting. Supposed to be Brooke, but they changed the songs on her. The Hong Kong temple president and wife will be speaking at our district conference here next month. Primary wild again. The same boy threw a chair again today and then head locked his brother and threw him to the ground. The song leader made a comment about "nice take down" and something about Brazilian jiujitsu and continued on. Brigham made pasta for lunch and Todd sauteed something green. We were looking for spinach and this is the closest looking thing we found. Dinner with the Ho's at 5pm, sweet and sour pork, curry, rice and salad.Another new family joined the branch today too, from St. George. This place is a revolving door. Families coming and leaving constantly.
It rains everyday which I love, thunder/lightening some days. Mosquitoes and chiggers. Bikes and scooters everywhere, lots of saran wrap holding them together. Such crazy drivers. Reminds me of Mexico except they do obey the lights here. And guess the most popular shoe here? CROCS. Ha! And they cost $78-$100+
If you are on instagram, we have been posting pictures: @ejbt, @bjtay, @bttay, @chasedtaylor. We cannot get on any blogs or Facebook until we get into a house and get a VPN to bypass the Government block. Skype: jane.b.taylor or EJ Taylor. Time difference---15 hours ahead of Phoenix. Add three hours and flip am/pm.
Miss you all!
Love,
Jane
Words of the day:
Sunday:Zaochen hao - Good Morning xhixhi ni thank you
Monday: Shì de yes Bùshì no
Tuesday:JieJie big sister, GeGe, big brother, DiDi little brother, MeiMei little sister, mama, baba, wo bu mingbai- I don't understand. ni- you wo-me
Wednesday:Duìbùqi-excuse me, sorry, Bìe kúqí- you are welcome, jiu ming-help!
Thursday:Hau de--OK, Wo míngbái le -I see, duo shao--how much?
Friday:wo jiao...my name is
Saturday:Nín hùi shuō yīng yü ma - Do you speak English? qing-please
Sunday: ting-stop,zai jian-goodbye
Sunday: bu le xiexie ni, no thank you"
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