Three weeks down, 101 weeks to go...been reading a book called "Decoding China" recommended by Todd's sister Kelly. So much to learn! Loving the opportunity and challenge. Todd and I call it the China WONDERland because we wonder why people do what they do. Just have to smile and roll with it. I have to say the kids have been troopers. So easy to travel with and they appreciate the opportunity to see new things. It has helped make the transition easier for all of us.
Saturday night: The dinner at the Sear's home (our new neighbor two doors down )was so delicious and unique. Egg pancake with some veggies in it over rice with an orange chili not too spicy sauce, fried rice, egg rolls with rice paper wrapper. You break the roll in half and roll it in lettuce. Add cilantro and dip in homemade sweet spicy sauce. I had like 7 of those. Sautéed eggplant. Thai papaya salad with spicy dressing. So good. Pon can cook! Im going to go peek over her shoulder at dinner time. Sticky rice with coconut custard for dessert. I could have eaten the whole meal twice. They have a townhouse in Phuket Thailand they offered for us to use. All we have to do is give them four weeks notice. We played pool for a couple of hours then rode taxis home in the rain.
Sunday: church then veggie chili and baked potatoes, cucumbers and carrots. Naps. President Cox played piano for primary and I led singing time. Primary is WilD and CRAZY! Brooklyn taught the lesson for Yw and a guy from our Cedar Hills Utah ward was sitting in our meeting. Small world. I was cooking some Lipton rice and sauce I found in a box. (Those boxes are full of surprises). Brigham asked if that was dinner. I said no, it's a snack. We are having popcorn for dinner. And we did, while we played catch phrase. Chase was complaining because the game we were passing around was all buttery. We watched a thunderstorm roll in from this 23rd floor and then watched the sun set. We then checked the compass because we are all a little confused about where in the world we really are, geographically. North is where I thought east was, etc. we have water on three sides so it is tricky.
Monday: today Todd and I ventured to Walmart, and decathlon, a sporting good store (with U.S. sizing, yes!) I picked up the Xxl and they were huge. Phew! We also found a blender--we have been missing our daily green smoothies. All the Chinese use a pull cart so today we took a carry on suitcase to the grocery store. Not quite the same. Oh, and it was hot pink. Seriously, who are we? If I saw us I'd be laughing. Finally found some sugar in a tiny pack. It was in the salt/soy sauce/hot chili/MSG aisle. Right where you would not expect it. Now I just need to find baking soda. Thanks for the recipes Grama!
I took chase to get his hair cut and got talked into buying the frequent buyer hair card for 25% off all cuts. He got it super short, but it looks good. He said the lady cutting his hair had hairy armpits and kept him in a Mohawk for a bit too long for his liking.
For family night we were going to take the kids to hot pot- you order items to cook in broth at your table. We sat at the table for a while and no one came while we read the menu. Things like black hairy belly, pig brain. Under vegetarian it said pig blood Todd and I had a good laugh at that. Still no one came (they were looking for an English speaking waiter) so we got up and left. We walked into a pizza place but it smelled so we ended up at McDonald's. blah. Fries and pineapple pies!
We have to take two taxis everywhere. Todd and Brooke and Chase went in the first one and the rest of us in the second. This driver was CRAZY. And I've been in some crazy cabs. He was honking non stop. Passing people on this narrow two lane city street. People would be a third of the way into the street. He would honk and they would back peddle back to the sidewalk. He was making up his own lanes, tailgating delivery bikes etc. he drove about three miles and then stops to drop us off. I look ahead and it's where he picked us up. We did a whole 3 mile wild ride in a circle. Finally he got us to our hotel. Todd is on a call and we are headed to the gym after that. He made us some orange spinach smoothies before bed. Drink up-Yum, yum! Today was the first day we have been here that it hasn't rained.
Phrase of the day: take care. Bao zhong.
Tuesday: kids and I hopped on the hotel shuttle bus to ikea. Sophie and I rode way up in the front so we wouldn't get carsick. Other kids were in the last row. We had a time trying to buy the right kind of sheets. Swedish + chinese = doubly hard to decipher. Thankful for numbers! Still don't know if they will work or if we will have to get some made. We bought bedding, towels, bath mats, dishes and pots and pans. We then lugged all the bags across a huge courtyard and another parking lot.
After a quick break and lunch we headed back out to explore the city. We went to Laojie on the subway. The kids came away with the fanny packs of their dreams and some iPad chargers that don't fit the outlets. Whoops. Todd thinks they might work in Hong Kong. Good thing I bought SEVEN! They also had opi nail polish for $1.50. The top level of this "mall" had salons galore. Haircuts, Manicure and pedicures for $1/$2 , a weird perm machine, massages, barber shops, lots of other services. Can you imagine the germs at these places? Yikes. We got off that level quickly. Subway was packed.
Back home again. We made pasta with tomato sauce, garlic cheese toast, cooked carrots and cucumbers. Todd made smoothies. President Cox came by and asked if I would be the seminary teacher. We are now packing up to leave the hotel tomorrow. Finally!!
Wednesday: Todd had presentations to give at work so I was left with the task of moving into the new house with the kids. Oh what a day. At one point the property manager sits me down with a bag full of keys and I thought it was for the whole development. She hands me a sheet to start marking off what she had given me... At first I didn't quite understand. But yes, all 86 keys were for this house and I was to take them. Glad we didn't go around checking every one. But the two we did test, mail and garden entrance, both didn't work. So not only do I have 86 keys, but 86 keys that might or might not work. Back to the hotel to pack up. The two van drivers came but getting our things from 23rd floor down to front of hotel took a bit and the van driver was not happy. We wanted him to fill the two vans with our stuff and follow them in a cab. He wanted to take one van a couple times and all of us in the other van. And then he wanted to double the price. The hotel concierge had a few words and he started yelling. Finally I said take our stuff out of your van we are not using you, so they did, and the vans drove off. So now we are sitting in the front of the hotel with our 35 pieces of luggage (it's totally beat up now), plus all of our ikea things and some random groceries, fanny packs, etc. hot muggy. Awesome. I called the realtor back, told her what happened. She calls the same angry van driver and he comes back without saying anything and loads up the one van that makes two trips and I put the kids in a cab and we got all our things to the house.
There are lots of stairs, holy moly. And a few spots where we are jamming toes--master bath and entrance to pantry. And entrance to the girls' rooms and Brigham's room. There's like an inch by 4 x width of bathroom tile piece to walk over before you get to our sink and the shower has glass doors on two sides but just normal drywall on faucet wall and opposite wall. We need to point out to maintainance that the wall will probably be getting wet. Then there is a towel rack on the side of the shower with no way out and a random hole in the glass perfectly round, about the size of a nickel. They switched out the tiny gas stove with portable tank and super small oven and brought an old beater electric with a big oven but left the frayed power cord wrapped around and laying on top. Along with the 86 keys there were 15 remotes...most of the rooms have their own a/c unit so we had match those up together. Beds are like hard boards. Waiting for the mattress toppers. The lewis family left us some things that we purchased Including a blender and some baking soda, umbrella, vacuum, toaster, rice cooker, iron.
Todd called around 7-8 to order water. The guy said he would come right then. Service! About 45 min later we had 10 water dispenser bottles delivered. We ordered pizza, did some laundry, made the beds. Mutual was cancelled District president came and brought some of our things from his garage and we headed for bed. Long day.
Thursday:
Kids complaining of sore calves. Not used to all these stairs. Did Nike training in the laundry room. Missing my Nike training buddies! Headed out with Brooke to get some groceries. Took a taxi home with all of our bags. They came and fixed the oven/stove. Enjoyed olive bread, olive oil/basalmic vinegar/fresh tomato lunch. Sophie has a fever. Boys rode scooter down to check out fitness center. When they came back Brooke and Brig went to fitness center. They came home and Chase went back to fitness center.
Todd arrived home and Brooke, Brigham and I went walking to old Shekou for matches (dying to light candles!) hangers, bug zapper, fresh fruits and veggies. We were mostly successful. CAN NOT FIND dishwasher soap. Will keep looking. Stopped to get a tortilla/fried egg cooked in front of us with some ketchup and hopped in a taxi home. Did some dishes, killed a cock roach, kids watched Harry potter and we all went to bed except Todd who had a work call at 10pm.
Friday: Brigham up at the side of our bed at 5am, burning with fever. Went to check Sophie, she's still warm. The medicine syringe came apart while I was filling it so pink medicine went all over my white gunnie sack looking jammies. I go to rinse off in the girls' bathroom and see huge ants crawling all over the toilet. Everywhere. I flush it and they came out from under the rim and all down the sides. I go into Chase's bathroom to rinse off the medicine and he's awake...yep. Fever too-up all night. No ants in his toilet, but outside his door. So there I am, in my medicine spotted jammies smashing ants in flip flops like I'm dancing a jig. We get Chase some medicine and I sprinkle chili powder all over the bathrooms cause I don't have cinnamon. I'll have to get something for ants tomorrow. Meanwhile Todd isn't feeling well, I don't feel great. The other two girls don't have a fever but we are wondering if something in the house making us sick...the water machines, mold, dirty filters, paint they used, pest control. We need to figure it out quickly. I emptied out my clothes from the box at the bottom of my bed onto the mattress, covered it with a sheet and laid down on top of my comfy pile. I finally got some sleep on my homemade mattress topper.
Internet guy just left. All hooked up but only on kids floor. We need it in office upstairs for school. Coming back at 3pm. Hopefully we get the VPN up and running too so we are not blocked out of our U.S. websites. Next Wednesday probably.
Poured rain for a bit. I made a smoothie with special ingredients like spinach, dragon fruit, star fruit and passion fruit. The frozen banana got stuck and pried the blender blade off so I picked up the blender jar and it all came out the bottom. All over the counter.
Wanting to attempt some cookies or rolls but need to find a cookie sheet.
Baked brownies but they weren't so hot. The sugar here is more course. I will have to learn to adjust recipes.
Property manager came by, we cleaned all the dehumidifier filters, got some ant powder and tutorial on all the remotes and appliances that are in Chinese. Necessary but not too exciting. The Chinese people are on time, polite, and get the job done.
Made a big pot of chicken noodle soup minus the chicken and a salad and lemonade slush. Hope the sickies will eat something. Todd just called from the subway stop and is headed up the hill home. Internet guys came back and didn't solve much. Chase went to bed early, sick. Said he has bruises on his hips from the hard bed. Your legs get sore from hip down to knee, I hope the mattress toppers come soon! Sophie was requesting popcorn. I made her some but she was asleep before having any. The rest of us watched a movie. Still raining. Typhoon somewhere I guess. Brynn lost a tooth during the movie.
Saturday: Brynn and Sophie both ended up in our bed. Brynn now has fever and throwing up. That's 4/5 kids sick. Tooth fairy did come to China!
Todd and I ventured out to ikea again for more mattress padding to get us by. While in the bedding section a mom holds up a little girl to pee right on the floor. When we bought as much as we could carry we went to grab a few things at the grocery store. we even found dishwasher soap. The cab ride home was awful...I had a bag on my lap ready to chuck. Smoky and jerky the whole way home. We got asked to speak in church and then went to dinner at a place called gypsy. Eclectic menu-Greek, Thai, Vietnamese, American, Mexican, Italian, Japanese. We went with the Kesters and met president Cox, David Nash and Eric Leonard, some other friends from church whose wives are in the states for summer. Brynn and Sophie still have fevers tonight. Boys are on the mend and Brooke still standing somehow.
Our house in the expat community Jingshan sits on Nanhai mountain. It's beautiful and lush and green. With that comes Mosquitos and spiders and snakes. Lots of rain. We have four dehumidifiers and empty them daily. The a/c runs constantly to try to keep it dry. You open the front door and the stairs are right there. There is a big open basement. Damp and probably super moldy. Trying to dry it up. on the second level there is a laundry room, Chase's room, Sophie's room, Brooke and Brynn share a large room and two bathrooms. Third level has a dining room, kitchen, pantry, another eating area, family room and an office with three desks and sliding glass doors where the kids will study. Upstairs there is Brigham's room and the master and a patio. We have a small front and back yard and a garden patio. Too many bugs to stay out for long but maybe when it's not summer that will change.
Sacrament meeting was good. The other branches travel in on fast Sunday to meet every month. Fun to meet new people and hear all the different languages and accents. Everybody has a story and they are all interesting and fun to hear.
We made homemade tortillas for tostadas and cut a mango that was a big as Sophie's face. It was tasty. Their fruits and veggies are excellent. We shop the street markets about every other day.
Hope things are well with you! Let us know what's new with you. We miss you! Until next week~
Love to all,
Taylors
At the Sear's home
Our house-
All of our things in front of hotel on move day.
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