Nihao! Hope this finds you happy and well.
Monday: nothing much happened because we stayed inside unpacking and tried to regain our health most of the day. I drove Todd down to the gate on our scooter. By dinner time kids were ready to get out for a bit. We checked to see when Todd would be coming back on the subway and met him for dinner down as Gypsy's in Seaworld. The kids enjoyed the super nachos that had a doritos base. We also had the turkish platter, a greek salad and a flat spinach calzone type dish that had some kind of cheese and pine nuts with lemon wedges to juice on top. We read Ally's emails as they came throughout dinner and missed her being with us. Ice cream cones on the way home, and a stop by our favorite fruit cart for grapes, another huge mango, apples and peaches. Ill just say, they aren't Utah peaches! (They are crisp and sweet.)
Tuesday: We went to ikea on the shuttle...still trying to get the necessities because I can only bring back what I can carry. It makes for multiple trips to stores because I can only carry a day's supply. Met a lady from our neighborhood, Jordana Bloom. She is a character, and I love her name. Her husband also works for IBM. She has a senior girl, a younger boy and a 5th grade boy. She set up a lunch for next week after kids go back to school. She also warned us to keep our toilet lids down and with something heavy because she saw a rat come up through the toilet and then turn around and swim right back down. Luckily we don't have any toilets on the ground floor. She also said to be careful of snakes at night. Make lots of noise and walk in the middle of the street, never through brush. She made a circle about the size of a melon...they are this big around, and long. An ayi (maid) was taken to the hospital and rumor has it she was bitten by a Chinese cobra. Another thing to add to the list of crazy things to beware. Workers of the neighborhood are busily working on our house. At one point today we had seven Chinese workers checking out the water leak in the basement. We're trying to decide if we should clear up existing mold and keep on top of it, or move across the street. Both will be a pain. I made Coconut lentil curry for dinner and the boys played racquetball at the gym. The three older kids went rock climbing for their mutual activity. They went to bread talk (a bakery of all types of rolls/loaves of bread/pizzas/buns) for refreshments and brooke chose the pork floss (kind of looks like shredded beef jerky) bun, which she says was pretty yummy. Brigs had an eclair type dessert. Brynn still has fever and cold. My favorite sight today was this: An Asian girl in a dress with purple high heeled sandals standing up tall on the back of a bike on the rack over the back tire, holding a pink umbrella while a guy was driving the bike down the sidewalk. Brooke got a picture, I'll have to post it somewhere.
Wednesday: up early. our ayi's first day. She's my new buddy. Her name is Yao Feng. She ironed some of Todd's shirts and is vacuuming. She cleaned up the whole place nicely. I need to finish unpacking and writing my talk to submit later today to the translators. We are headed to mail Ally a few things, take "back to school" photos and get some ice cream and fresh air. It's so smoggy sometimes I wish I could get above the clouds just to take a deep breath. Brooke and Brigham are working on school, Chase is writing his talk. We rode four stops down to the all city mall and found a frozen yogurt place called king berry. Sophie wanted ice cream instead of yogurt so she went next door. McDonald's has those flavored tip swirl cones here. She has tried honeydew, raspberry, taro and yesterday ordered the brown. I thought it was chocolate or rootbeer but nope. It happened to be coffee but she didn't recognize the taste obviously. Let's just say she was well energized for the rest of the day. We stopped for some noodles and then headed back home on the subway. It rained on our walk back up the hill to our house, which we all enjoyed.
Thursday:
Chase told me today that the past three nights he had had ants crawling up his legs while brushing his teeth. Woke up to a fresh new leak. A 1 ft wide by 4 ft section right below the electrical box. Management came and pretty soon there were seven or eight workers trying to find the source. I found them out beside the house on the side hill. There was a broken pipe where I saw a guy working the day before. They placed two banana leaves in the electrical box the funnel the water down into a bucket (!), away from the wall. It completely filled up the bucket more than once and overnight it overflowed the bucket and soaked the floor. We really need to see if we want to stay in this house!
Friday: ayi here again today. She showed me how to work the rice cooker. Brigham went out searching for some friends. He ended up playing soccer on the neighborhood field with a few boys his age. The girls and I passed by the field on our way to get pedicures, and he looked like he was loving it. As we exited the neighborhood, we saw a huge butterfly; almost bird-sized. After the long trek to the nail salon, a pedicure felt nice. Manicures this time too. I think we need to make it a monthly routine. We took a little detour on the way back. Collected some movies for less than a dollar each (downtown abbey seasons 1-3, national treasure & sherlock holmes) stopped at a grocery store, and searched for passion fruit and spray paint. Okay so maybe not such a little detour... the little girls were ready to go home. No luck with the passion fruit or spray paint. Taxied home. Fried rice for dinner (thanks to the ayi)along with the movies we purchased earlier. It skips at chapter 9. Just goes to show that you get what you pay for! Temple trip tomorrow. We all found our recommends, and then hit the sack.
Saturday: today we ventured to Hong Kong. Yes, it's a 30 min ferry ride or 45 min subway ride, but it's 45 min, switching to four different trains, no seats and some completely jam packed. Everyone was nauseous and hungry. We left at 10:45 and arrived at the temple at 2:30pm. The latest session was at one, so we were too late as they were closing at 3pm. They gave us a quick tour and we got to chat with the temple president Aki who is almost finished with his three year assignment. He will be speaking at our stake conference and then heading back home to Hawaii. We went back to the distribution center to get some supplies for the seminary class, use the bathrooms, and enjoy the a/c for a bit. We then searched for someplace to eat lunch. Found a huge modern mall called Festival Walk...had See's chocolates, YES. We ate at a place called Oliver's--pasta, baked potatoes with mounds of cheese whiz, club sandwiches and soda. Nice, clean, delicious restaurant. Todd commented that it felt like stepping into the US, since there wasn't any pee or trash on the ground. There was a great grocery store on the bottom level called "Taste" and it felt a bit more western. They even had lays chips, cheese (although $100 hong kong dollars/kg) and Brynn found "crustless" bread. I also bought tortilla chips and I'm praying they aren't stale. We've found two bags of tortilla chips so far and they have both been stale. Huge bummer. Missing tia rosa's so if you are close, go eat some! Along with Misty Bowlby's salsa if you can get some of that! Hong Kong feels a little more like home. I hope to get back there soon if we can work it out so it doesn't take so long to get there. The key, I guess, is to get there before 7am. The immigration line was nuts, and so filthy...trash all over the floor in the lines. Some lady rolled her pull cart through urine and then proceeded to roll the cart over my foot. There are about 5 ways people suggest to get to Hong Kong and I don't think we will do this way again. On the way home, we took a cab to the ferry station and rode the ferry. Lines were relatively quick, and we walked from the ferry to our house and it didn't take long at all. LONG DAY!
Sunday: Up early and over to the church. Talks are finished! Check. Brigham has to speak next week, we will see when Brooke gets an assignment. They asked Brooke and me to play for sacrament next week too. Brigham taught the lesson today on journal keeping. It's really fun to see the visitor we get at church here. Todd and I decided today to have Sunday dinner ready for guests We made sour cream pancakes (minus the sour cream, plus yogurt, tasted good Grama!)and buttermilk syrup, sort of, we lost the vinegar somewhere. We think it's hanging out with the nutella we lost in the move from the hotel. Calendar session with the family for the week. Trying to plan something for Chase's birthday coming up. School, internship, and Chase is teaching some swimming lessons this week. Keep it moving!
Almost one month down! Everybody feeling better. I can never leave the house without my camera or at least my phone. So much to see, and lots of craziness to capture.
How are YOU doing? Hope all is well with you. Keep in touch-skype works and so does FaceTime. We really missed this week with back to school time and Misty's baptism. Have a great school year! Enjoy where you are~
Love,
Taylors
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