Sunday Night: Ate dinner at President Ho's house. He and his wife are from Hong Kong. They speak Cantonese and English. Went to BYU Hawaii and both served missions. They have 2 girls and 4 boys in the picture above. I watched Elsa cook in a long narrow kitchen. Two big woks on gas burners. In one wok was chicken curry with potatoes and carrots and whole chicken legs. In the other she was frying breaded pork. She removed the pork and added peppers and onions to the pan. Then the sauce...ketchup, sugar and vinegar and tapioca starch. I was trying to memorize every step. She said she doesn't write down any recipes. It tasted SOOO GOOD. The curry sauce was made from a seasoning cube in a box from Costco in Taiwan. ($200/1 hr. 15 min flight to Taiwan). I hope my brain can hold all the info I'm taking in here in China. Fascinating. They took a bunch of photos of our two families together. I've tried to attach one with this email. Oh, and earlier today Todd stepped on the hem of his suit pants and slipped down a flight of stairs. He caught himself on the handrail so he wasn't hurt too badly. One other person saw him, wish I would have been there to see this!
Monday: Today Todd and I spent 3 hours getting the lease contract signed...going over repairs and furniture requirements. My favorite was them telling us...the desk won't fit, the bed won't fit etc. When there was an exact table or desk in the room already. The Chinese love to bargain. After we read the whole contract the last line said something like...this is just a translation. The Chinese version prevails. We have no idea what that one said. Hoping it was similar! I took Brooke and Brynn and Brigham exploring.
Side note: one of these letters is going to have a story of somebody getting taken out by a bike, scooter, car or bus.
Side note #2: no diet coke anywhere. Good thing I'm not a diet coke drinker. They do have coke zero at McDonald's.
We bargained for a phone bumper and a really long charging cord, (like yours Alison!) they start ridiculously high. I want to say...you have NO customers anywhere, seriously you want to start THAT high? We learned from a local that the best tactic you have in bargaining is to just walk away. Then the real bargaining begins. It worked like a charm. By the time we left we got both for $5.-and they still probably made 75% profit or more! At a clothing store I was holding up a shirt that looked my size and it was a xxxxxl. Ha! I asked the lady which would fit me...she combs through the rack and finds an Xxl. Brooke and I were laughing. US m = china XXL. I should have known that when Brooke was fitting in a Chinese M, being so tiny. Not good for your ego, Chinese sizing.
We stopped at McDonald's for pineapple pies and orange floats. Brooke's pie had a pineapple package but a purple taro filling. Went to get the pineapple one...another taro. Finally on the third try the pie matched the package. On to our walk..at one point Brooke kept turning back and me and saying "What?" Then we walked by a live chicken in a grocery sack tied up so only its head was poking out in front of the noodle shop. Brooke thought I was saying something to her but it was actually the chicken squawking. So apparently chickens say "Brooke,Brooke,Brooke,Brooke,Brooke" here in China. It wasn't there when Todd and Chase and I went by later. Maybe it was turned into dinner. We went to a different noodle shop for dinner. Todd had ramen with egg and tomato. Chase had pork/cabbage/chili and I had cold sesame noodles with cucumber. All for $7. We will go here again.Side note #3: the restaurants don't give you napkins.
I made potato soup for lunch from ingredients I brought from home + fresh veggies. Tasted like home. We are searching for syrup because we all think pancakes would taste pretty great. Sophie hurt her tailbone by doing a headstand on the couch and landing on the coffee table upon dismount. She's been using the hotel umbrella as a cane. Finished the book The Language of Flowers. Book club anyone? Phrase of the day: cesuo zai nar? Where's the toilet? (my keyboard won't do all the pinyin so it's not quite accurately written out)
TUESDAY: Up early. Todd off to work. Chase is sick of this hotel. There is a smell when you walk in our door. There is also a smell when you walk into the breakfast room. 不是很好 (not good). Todd headed for work and I studied the subway map for a little day trip. We ended up going to the grand theatre stop. Here there is a big fancy new mall that the Chinese are super proud of-it was nice. We found frozen yogurt, hurray!! It tasted so good. We also tried mashed potatoes from KFC. The little serving size was super tiny, like a little Dannon yogurt cup size. (Maybe that's why the Chinese don't need diet coke). We bought a loaf of bread and a piece of curry naan from the bread shop too, and called that mixture lunch. We walked across the street to another Walmart in search of umbrellas, syrup and microwave popcorn. They don't have normal flavours of popcorn here--creamy, peach, banana, kettle corn. The manager said Chinese consider popcorn a sweet snack not a salty one. I did find some sea salt. Before I could only find huge bags of MSG. No syrup, just honey. I think I can scrounge up buttermilk syrup ingredients and all will be well. I have Karo syrup in one of the boxes. Todd got home and took the family bowling while I took Brooke to get foot massages. For dinner we bought passion fruit from a favorite fruit lady (1¥ each = 16 cents each) and pumpkin congee (rice porridge), ramen and vermicelli. It was just OK, but full bellies for $10. We also got a message from the front desk that they signed a year contract on the apt we are in. So yea! We get to switch hotels again! Today marks a full month of hotel living. Counting down the days until August 1st.
Phrases of day: wang yòu (turn right) wang zuo (turn left)
Wednesday: they had fried dough sticks at breakfast. Huge day! The kids enjoyed dipping in honey. We know any new thing that hits the breakfast buffet by now. Croissants only on Sunday. We rejoice in "oats meal" day and I make the kids eat either egg whites, kidney beans or peanut butter every morning for some protein. It's starting to make us gag. Now I know how those at the mtc feel eating the same things day after day. Pouring rain since 9am. We are hunkered down inside watching discovery channel, watching the rain and packing up to switch rooms. We are on the second floor now, having to move to the 23rd floor.
The move didn't happen until around 3 pm. There goes this day! Still pretty rainy anyhow. Todd and I went to the bank, took a receipt to the housing office and then to the international store. We found US produced pancake mix, syrup, Italian olive oil. Walked home in the rain and hurried to make pancakes before Brooke went to prepare the Sunday lesson with a couple of other girls. Pancake mix had a funky been on the shelf too long taste, dang it! Edible but not the sour cream pancakes we are used to. Side note: 5 lbs of sour cream costs $20 but I don't dare buy it for fear of weird aftertaste. The same size we buy at Costco for $5.99. Enjoy your sour cream!
Kids went bowling for mutual and I fell asleep around 8 pm Todd was on a call until midnight. Phrase of the day: nín jiào Shén me Míng zi?(what is your name?)
Thursday:Ate a quick breakfast with Todd,Sophie, and Brynn before Todd headed to work. Oats meal day! Today I took the hotel shuttle to Sam's club. It's about 40 minutes away. I found some whole raw almonds for $10, packaged in California. Carrots, potatoes, cucumber and paper towels and some dole orange juice and stale tortilla chips. Oh, and I found some frosted flakes. Our diet is getting worked here! For a couple of hours today I was ready to fly back home. Got to chat with some friends today...yea for imessage!
Side note: we trip all the time here! The door jams and sidewalks are not level.
I was feeling so sick and had a headache from the smells and shuttle ride home. I went straight to bed for a bit. Todd got home around 230 and we headed 7-11 for umbrellas, then to All City mall, 4 subway stops down from where we are. They have gap, h&m, Nike and a sit down Pizza Hut with the wildest menu. We ordered Caesar salad and cheese pizza. Girls tried out the fancy toilet (NOT) there and Brynn says "it's so much easier". We found some pills for upset stomach...red bamboo and then headed home in the rain. We finally opened some of our boxes. Found popcorn kernels, hooray! Popped some corn in a giant wok. Kids were watching a movie. Todd and I ate ours in our room and shared a can of coke. Hopefully that pop won't keep us awake too late, Todd has a work call at 10pm tonight. Brooke's friend bought the new Disney TV movie on the corner by our grocery store for $1.60. Maybe they will have catching fire before it is released too, and maybe it will even be in badly translated English! Phrase of the day: zài nar (Where?)
Friday: this week has gone more quickly than last week. Woke up to rain tapping the window. Looked outside and it was pouring sheets horizontally. It's stopped now but still cloudy and gray. Todd on an early call and off to work already. Kids still asleep. I'm planning today's activity. For sure we need to buy some bread and look for a blender and mail Syster Ally a letter.
We ended up riding the subway to the Luohu stop. It has a five story gift mall which is hundreds of little booths selling goods...purses, scarves, shoes, clothing, electronics and accessories etc. it also had a dental implant booth, many nail booths, tailors and prescription eyeglass making booth. We bought some things and headed back for dinner. Sophie led us home. She knows what subway line we take home, and where we get off--Seaworld, and also what to do if she gets left behind or if she gets on without us. Subway safety rules. We went to the grocery store and a man out front was selling DVDs for 8RMB---$1.33. They had full seasons of white collar, downton, Etc. for 8rmb also. Sophie found Disney's teen beach movie and couldn't wait to get home and show the kids. We popped more wok popcorn and had family movie night. Word of day: nin ne (what about you?)
Saturday: Today i headed out early to the bank and post office. I got to the post office (China Post) at 8:14am. A guy in just boxers pops out the post office door to plug something in to an extension cord on the sidewalk. He had a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth but told me to come back at 8:30am. He was dressed by then and I got Ally's letter for this week mailed off. (Tell me how long it takes Ally!) We ate breakfast and then we took two taxis to the Safari Park. We were all pretty much carsick when we arrived 45 minutes later. Most of the taxi drivers smoke so their cars all stink really bad. Add that with some other random smells and you get the idea. Hopefully our tummies and senses adapt. We almost got in a wreck too. A car was swerving around a blown tire in the road. I might have let out a little scream. The park was good...we enjoyed the monkeys. There were a few babies playing around and hanging on their mamas. They had a water slide, a pond, some rocks, trees, rings and playground equipment in their habitat. They could climb, jump and swim really well. We also saw camels with saggy humps,llamas, giraffes, snakes, swans, bears, pandas, hyenas, all kinds of birds (with rats running around in their cages, but no informative signs to tell us about the rats). They had a lions and tigers and bears show in a packed stadium that reminded me of the Asian game shows you see on TV. We had kettle corn and cold water and enjoyed the show. I think we get as many looks as the animals. We were walking by the tigers, lions, tigons, etc. there were picnic tables along the other side full of people. Every single table was turned and all people staring at us. I finally just waved at them all like we were in a parade. Ni Hao!! Smile and wave kids, smile and wave. It was super hot and humid and we were spent by around 1pm. Wimps! Oh, and the kids were all picked up by an elephant's trunk for photos. We found a van to bring us home right as it started pouring rain. Todd told him if we were gonna pay him for the ride, he had to put out his cigarette. Home now, resting and doing laundry. Tonight we are going to the Sear's house for dinner. They have a son in St George and a daughter at BYU and a daughter here...seventh or eighth grade. The Mom, Pon, is from Thailand I believe and they have lived here for seven years. Pouring rain again thankfully! It's cleaning all the spit and urine and snot from the sidewalks and bushes.
All is well. Big kids have started school. We move into our China home July 31st. Have a great weekend!
Love,
Taylors
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