Time Out For Me ~ Now from Beijing

Longqing Gorge ~ Winter Ice Festival

2012-01-29T00:15:00.000-08:00

The last hurrah of our Spring Festival holiday off from school and work was a trip with our branch from church to Longqing Gorge to see the annual Ice Festival.

We loaded up two buses, around 70 people, and headed an hour and a half outside of Beijing. Nobody had been there before, so expectations were questionable.

We arrived in late afternoon and hopped on a golf cart to get into the gorge. Imagine a long gorge, surrounded by vertical cliffs, leading to a tall dam. This is what it was like.

The first thing we did was a looooooong toboggan ride. It went down the complete hillside and was a blast. You can see part of the track in the picture below.

At the base of the toboggan were some outside ice sculptures. We really thought this was it. Oh how wrong we were.

While we were looking at ice, D and his partner in crime decided to climb the hill and slide down on his bum. They had a blast!

This picture below shows the toboggan track (yes, the bridge-looking thing). You can see the dam far off behind it. At the base you see the entrance to the dragon mouth, which is the entrance to the indoor ice sculptures. Look closely to the mountain on the right and you will see a yellow and green dragon climbing up the mountain. This is an enclosed escalator that takes you to the top of the dam.

I am so glad we went inside! There were three rooms of ice sculptures and each room got better and better. Each sculpture had light from within to illuminate the creations. Something we will not soon forget!

THIS IS ALL ICE!

When you have completed the sculpture "rooms" you are at the base of the dam. Below they have sprayed the wall with water and let it freeze which created the most beautiful ice fall.

Below is one of the sculpture rooms from above.

After we finished looking at the sculptures we headed up the gigantic dragon escalator to the top of the dam. Below is the view.

As night fell, lights clicked on. To our surprise they had lights replicating The Great Wall up the side of the mountain.

Below you will see how the dam is illuminated.

Disneyland has nothing on the lights of this place!

This was one of the best experiences we've had in China so far! We totally recommend that anyone who has the opportunity to go, go! We look forward to going back in the summer when the gorge is filled with water and the mountains are filled with lush green.

An authentic Chinese lunch & MORE fireworks

2012-01-28T17:07:00.000-08:00

One of the blessings about living here is having authentic Chinese experiences. I thought it might be interesting to share.

A koi pond in the entry hall of their apartment

Hubby works with mostly Chinese people and this week we were asked over for lunch at one of his bosses homes.

A courtyard in a typical Chinese apartment complex

Since it is Spring Festival, making dumplings was on the to do list.

Taking a long roll of dough and breaking it off into small pieces.

Roll and flatten with hand.

This is the part that took a lot of experience. Using a small wooden rolling pin with one hand, and turning the dough with the other you flatten it out into circles.

Next you fill the dough. This was a pork and leek mixture. Not too much or you can't close it up.

Pinching it closed was the most difficult part for us "Westerners".

The dumplings were then steamed and served and were yummy!

Below is the dishes that Xia's wife spent all morning preparing. There must've been 18 dishes!

A cute way to hold your chopsticks

A typical Chinese street outside of their apartment complex.

Hubby and a friend went outside of our province to stock up on MORE fireworks. We all got together to light them off.

The boxes above shoot off 100 blossoms into the sky. We spent a couple of hours shooting all of these off.

Will we ever be done with fireworks?

Temple Fair 2012

2012-01-27T18:25:00.000-08:00

Temple Fairs are how Chinese people spend the time off of work during the Spring Festival holiday. Parks decorate and are filled with vendors. The streets of Beijing are empty but the parks are jam packed with people.

We chose to go to LongTan Park for our first (and probably only) Temple Fair.

Millions of people crowd around stalls selling ~~garbage~~ stuff. Blow up 1,000 lb mallets were popular, as were fake plastic apples piled on a stick. Since our kids just received their hongbaos we let them choose some things to buy. Both bought some wooden puzzles.

This park has a lake in the middle, as do many others. You can see the crowd of people over hubby's shoulder.

Another section of the fair is the carnival game section. It cost 20 yuan ($3.50 USD) for 10 tokens. Most games cost 10 tokens for 2-5 chances. Even if you did not "win" you still walked away with a small trinket.

The next section of stalls were the food stalls. Many traditional Chinese street foods were for sale. I was wanting a "treat" but no deep fried Oreo's were to be found!

Baby birds being roasted up to munch on!

Notice the pig hanging at this pork stand.

Our kids could not win the stuffies they wanted so they bought them. E chose a dragon to honor the year of the dragon. Hers cost 70 yuan ($10.50 USD).

I cannot remember how much D's "Planet VS Zombies guy" cost.

This game of chance below was the funniest of all!

You pay for rings to toss around junk! Literally these were dirty, mismatched, sometimes broken things that looked like they were just picked up at a yard sale. There were also boxes of remote control helicopters but the boxes were too big to even hook on the box. That didn't stop people from trying!

Then there is the snow play area. There was a section for snow ball fights, sledding, building snowmen, etc. Looked like a lot of fun!

This display was at the exit of the fair. As we were leaving we saw a fist fight between two men. It escalated quickly. The funny part was that they were fighting right in front of policemen who just stepped out of the way as they punched each other. A man's girlfriend tried to break it up and she got punched in the face. The police finally stepped in when one of the guys was on the ground.

The bottom line...a Chinese temple fair is just like an American street fair (minus the beer). It was fun to do once, but we have crossed that off of our list.

The Summer Palace

2012-01-27T17:32:00.000-08:00

Ever since we arrived back from the US to China, food here has been a little more appealing than before we left. It may be because I ate anything and everything I wanted back home so I am not missing it as much right now. Also, I think I just may have turned a corner (which everyone said I would about now) to stop recreating America and just embrace China. In result, we have been eating a lot more chinese food.

This outing began at one of my favorite restaurants here in Beijing. I had been there twice before, this was the first time for my family. It is Baoyuan and they are the ones that specialize in colorful dumplings. I really cannot eat enough dumplings here, it is one of the things I have come to LOVE, yes LOVE.

E has not yet embraced chinese food. She still only usually eats rice.

Near hubby is an example of orange and purple dumplings.
This restaurant uses fruit and vegetables to dye their skins.

D is a little tired of chinese food, as you can see in the picture above. When we order food at a restaurant we usually order WAY too much. We usually order two vegetable dishes, two or three meat dishes, rice and dumplings. This time we let E order the main dishes and she did great! These dishes were the most like American chinese food that we have anywhere.

A little girl of one of the employees spends all day out in front
just swinging on a swing.

The Summer Palace

Remember when I said I didn't feel like I lived in Beijing until a saw a few things? Well, this is place number two. I had heard how beautiful it is and have been really anxious to check it out. Sadly, we had amazing pictures all around the grounds that were lost :( These iphone snapshots will have to do and we definitely will be going back as it warms up!

The Summer Palace is an enormous park that the Empress Dowager had for her own pleasure. The large lake is completely frozen, but in the summer you can boat around the lake.

These men are flying kites on these contraptions.

Despite signs saying to stay off the ice, you can see many people using the ice for different sorts of entertainment.

This man blows sugar, similar process to glass blowing. He makes the shapes of all the zodiac animals.

As we were walking around the lake, we decided to sit down and take a break. One of the things we have learned is that when Chinese people speak a little bit of English they really like to come up to us to practice. We feel flattered and think it is refreshing. As we were sitting a small boy, about D's age (ten), sat down next to me and said, "what a day, what a day, what a day". It was so cute that this is what he chose to say to let us know he spoke English. Of course, we struck up a conversation for about ten minutes. He was happy.

We made it to the far side of the lake where a monastery sits high upon the hill. By this time we were extremely cold and ready to call it a day. We are looking forward to visiting The Summer Palace many more times.

Chair Skating

2012-01-26T16:14:00.000-08:00

It's cold here in Beijing and that means one thing...chair skating!

The people here in China have a few things figured out and this is one of them! Many parks have lakes or rivers and undoubtedly they freeze solid. Instead of strapping on tight, uncomfortable skates and end up on your rear you sit on a pallet-formed chair and use long screw drivers like ski poles to gain momentum. Genius and fun!

Our neighborhood park, RiTan Park, has this here now for 20 yuan. There is no time limit (unlike the US would be) , you can trade off in your family (also US would not do) and your family can be on the ice to push or take pictures (NEVER in the US!)

RiTan Park in the dead of winter

Chair Skating arena

E & D had a lot of fun speedily scooting around.

Even hubby got in on the adventure.

I did too! I mastered the 360!

Sadly, our brand new expensive camera had a defective memory card and ALL the great pics from our Chinese New Year adventures were lost! Boohoo! So all you get are my phone pics!

Fireworks for Chinese New Year

2012-01-25T04:14:00.000-08:00

Please enjoy this hilarious video of hubby and D shooting fireworks off in front of our apartment building. I was expecting a little "boom", not what actually happened. This was shot from our 11 story window. Please excuse my language in my time of panic.

Tribute to 2008 Beijing Olympics!

2012-01-25T02:41:00.000-08:00

So we have lived here six months and there are a few things we hadn't done as a family. For me, it just doesn't feel like we live in Beijing without seeing these few things. First on the list was

THE BIRD'S NEST

We went on the day before Chinese New Year Eve. It was a perfect time to go because there was nobody there! It was frigid cold though!

The boys discussing the architecture.

Olympic Park is huge! Below is the map for all of the venues and sites. We did not see nearly all of it since it was so cold.

Next to the Bird's Nest is what is now known as The Watercube. It was the venue for all of the swimming events in the Olympics. This is where Michael Phelps won his gold! Now it is an indoor water park.

The Watercube lights up bright blue at night.

The ice was completely solid.

The fan is to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year.

Xin Nian Kaui Le = "Happy New Year"!

2012-01-25T02:05:00.000-08:00

Near our house this restaurant decorated with red
bows and pretend firecracker decorations.

Since this is our first Chinese New Year here in Beijing as a family we decided to stay "home" instead of fleeing the city, as many do. This year the New Year's Eve fell on a Sunday. By Thursday all businesses in our very busy neighborhood were closed up. This was a nice change as the traffic and crowds were significantly lower.

We were warned early about the excess noise during the upcoming week. However, we could not have been warned enough. Luckily our neighborhood stayed rather quiet, but the continuous explosions around the city made it sound like warfare.

Just the first round of pyroctechnics the boys bought.

Our friends invited us over, with a number of others, to view the fireworks from their home. There were about 40 of us and we played games and ate. One of our friends, who is Chinese, told the group about many of the customs and traditions about the holiday and some memories she had as a child.

She is explaining that nian means ghost and year.
The fireworks are to scare away the ghosts.

Lots of friends listening about Chinese New Year.

We brought a bunch of firecrackers and fireworks over. The ~~men~~ kids loved shooting them off. The moms were all saying quiet prayers.

At about 11:40 we headed down to the street in front of our friend's apartment complex. It was CRAZY! As midnight approached every inch of the sky, in every direction, was bursting with color! Also, everywhere around us there were people shooting off their own firecrackers. This was not fun for me. It was complete chaos that quickly could've ended up in tragedy. Miraculously, it did not.

This is what the ground looks like after many snake-like
firecrackers go off!

We left our friend's house about 1:30. The best part about this holiday is that it lasts an entire week! And we can do the firework thing every single night!

Yippee! (a little sarcasm there)

How did our kids spend New Year's day?

The 13 year old girl...

The ten year old boy...

Our kids received their hong bao!

Lucky kids!

Preparing for Chinese New Year

2012-01-20T00:49:00.000-08:00

It is no secret that this weekend marks the Spring Festival here in China. Even though it is called "Spring" it lands right smack in the middle of winter! We often refer to it as Chinese New Year. I have to say, being in China for this will be exciting. I hear it will also be LOUD all night, every night for quite sometime. I am sure this will quickly make the luster for the occasion diminish.

It is nice, so far, that the city is a little more low key. Today many, many businesses are closed and traffic is lighter. This brings a sense of calmness, although the feeling of holiday anticipation is in the air.

This tree is adorned with red envelopes. These envelopes are given to the unmarried family members with money in them on the first day of the new year. Our kids already told us that they are expecting to participate in this tradition.

Above are Spring Couplets written by E. They are good wishes for our family for the upcoming year. Many also put 'door Gods" on their front door to keep ghosts and monsters away.

This festival is similar to our Christmas holiday where gifts are given. The above kiosk has been set up to sell different trinkets and food items to be given as gifts. You can see that RED is the color of choice, as it symbolizes good luck for the new year.

All over the city I have seen window displays of red, including many lingerie displays. I asked my Chinese friend why all the read underwear? She explained that if you are the zodiac sign of the new year, this will be the year of the dragon, you wear red underwear under your clothes.

My children and hubby are off for the entire week to come. This is a treat considering we just had a long break during Christmas. Look forward to many blog posts of our Chinese New Year adventures this week!

Wishing you all a safe, happy and healthy year of the dragon!

This is not your neighborhood WalMart

2012-01-19T05:35:00.000-08:00

WalMart in Beijing

You may think that I should be thrilled that we have a WalMart here in Beijing. But I had been warned to NOT expect anything that even resembles an American WalMart. Therefore, I stayed away. Until this week. The time had finally come for me to go and check it out.

They were right! It was nothing like what we see in America (which can be sort of a good thing since where I live WalMart brings out the most questionable people). Nevertheless, the only thing that is the same is the name, the symbol, some yellow smiley faces here and there and their own off brand. Besides that, it looks completely different than ours, see below.

Does your WalMart have a giant blow-up Dragon greeting you? Probably not. This guy is solely to celebrate the upcoming festivities, as are many of the red decorations in the other pics below.

Does your WalMart have aisles and aisles of fresh food? How about counters that cook your food for you? This one does! Too bad none of the food is anything I would even try.

Does your WalMart have a room-size Dove candy display, including a Dove uniformed salesgirl with a microphone, referring to a tv about Dove? I think not.

Does your WalMart have about 50 billion Chinese people in lines in the middle of a weekday? This store was way too overwhelming for me. I couldn't get out of there quickly enough. I much prefer Carrefour.

I will tell you what our Beijing WalMart DOES NOT have. It does not have ink cartridges for printers. Oh, it has printers...just not the ink! It also does not have swim caps. Now I know this sounds a little random considering it is 22 degrees in Beijing right now. But, you see, we joined a gym with a pool and swim caps are required. So, the two things that we went to WalMart for they did not have. They did have lots and lots of red underwear for the upcoming Chinese New Year.

More about red underwear in my next post....until then.

Settling In...

2012-01-10T17:35:00.000-08:00

We are settling back into China life after our holiday trip California. Each day is getting easier for me.

I am exploring my new Macbook and hubby is exploring his new camera. The kids resumed their very busy schedule back to school with their horrendous commute.

Above is a shot of a moment of down time before dinner last night.

Dusk in Beijing.

The morning of this particular shot was the worst air quality day we have had...over 500 which exceeds the index for air quality. But miraculously by noon the sky was blue...and later that evening this shot was taken.

Coming soon: posts about our wonderful holiday in the states.

(once I figure out how to upload pictures to my new computer)

Starting Over

2012-01-08T10:54:00.000-08:00

In my imagination I write this blog for some person out there who will be experiencing expat life in China soon after my experiences. I record things to help this fictional person get through. In reality I know this person does not exist, but I continue to have this inkling to record things that would help someone exactly like me.

I was not prepared, emotionally, for what going home for the first time would entail.

I just returned after spending three weeks in the United States. This was my first trip back, after spending almost five months in Beijing. I arrived a week earlier than the rest of my family. Of course it was a whirlwind of family, friends, food and fun! More posts about that later.

WARNING: this post is very dramatic (partly because it is 2:49am due to jet lag, partly because I am just dramatic).

When I arrived for my layover in Chicago I was overcome with clarity. Forgive my sappiness but everything was beautiful. Uniformed military soldiers were everywhere and I was overcome with pride and patriotism. People thought I was strange, I am sure, because I was grinning from ear to ear constantly.

Then I arrived in California, the Bay Area, my home. It did not feel like a mere five months has past. It felt like years. I thought of our brave missionaries who go out into foreign land for two years with limited communication back home and how they must feel when they come back. Immediately the roads seemed wider and I felt order as a result of drivers obeying traffic laws. Once again details were clear and abundant.

I continued to have these observations. What I had not predicted was that whenever I made these comparisons a negative feeling about China grew within me. Instead of appreciating the differences, I resented my new home far away and I let it show to anyone who asked. For me, these two homes cannot share a place in my heart for some reason. And so the anxiety began about my return.

I have always been the type of person who does not sugar coat negative emotions. I regret this in many ways, especially now that I am back in China. Looking back I can clearly see the affects of my opinions on my children and others around me. I am sure that I dissuaded several from ever coming to visit China and I could hear my children slowly change their opinion about China based on my negativity. As I said, I regret this. If I were in therapy this is where I would have my "ah-ha" moment of...I am scared to be even remotely positive about anything here because I don't want anyone to think I want to stay.

The anxiety about coming back was almost unbearable. Luckily our flight from SFO to Chicago was cancelled and it resulted in an extra 24 hours in Chicago. The kids and I had not ever been there and we had a lot of fun. However I felt the suffocating feeling build up inside of me. The daily things I had concurred in Beijing were scary once again. I yearned to stay inside my bubble and not go out. These emotions freaked me out because I had come so far once before. Will every trip home set me back like this?

Now that I am home...I am dealing with things one step at a time. Like always, it is not as bad as the anxiety of it. I went to church yesterday...and survived. And now that I am here, the greatness of home is just a memory.

This Week~

2011-12-08T16:13:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow morning at this time I will be on a plane headed home! I have been waiting for this day since the moment we found out we were moving here. Nevermind the fact that the total travel time for me exceeds 30 hours! Hubby and kids will follow in a week, but in the meantime I can't wait to be with my mom and dad. I also look forward to seeing friends, EAT all the comforts from home (click here for my list), and shop for staples to bring back.

Oh yeah, Christmas and New Years are in there too!

But before I go,

here are a couple of cool things that happened this week.

Do you remember this post? If you don't want to click on the link, it was a post about "Being Mormon in China". Well, apparently there is not a lot of info out there on this particular subject because 2 different people, from two different countries have emailed me about it. The first was a Chinese guy who joined the church while studying in Malaysia. He wanted to know if he could serve a mission when he comes back to China. The other was from a member of the church in Saskatchewan, Canada who had two Chinese citizens get baptized in his branch while studying in college there. He wanted to know where to tell them to go when they returned back to China. As a blogger it is rewarding to know that your thoughts and information touch people in positive ways.

We have made the "big time"!

Well, not really, but this is a copy of this month's Beijingkids Magazine. There is an article in it about our recent vacation to Japan and South Korea. But honestly, they didn't contact me because I am a terrific writer. They didn't contact me because I have the most beautiful kids in the world (although I do!). Actually, there was a call out for articles on a yahoo!group that I am on. I emailed them and told them where we went and they asked me to write about it and submit pictures. Fun and one more thing to check off the bucket list before magazines are ~~replaced completely by blogs~~ a thing of the past.

Next post will be from the States!

Zai Jian!

Learning Chinese

2011-12-04T22:07:00.000-08:00

Have you ever done something that you never, ever desired to do?

I took four years of French in high school (as did many of you). I remember a time where my dreams would have phrases en Francais. Then when I traveled to France twice I could not understand or speak anything! That was when I decided that I would be monolingual forever.

When I first found out we were moving to China I actually said, "I am going to live there for two years and not even try to learn the language." I mean Mandarin Chinese? Isn't that like the most difficult language on the planet? Isn't that the language that you say , "at least it's not Chinese" to in reference to ALL other languages?

We have been here four months now. I realized quickly that the above approach kept me feeling very isolated. It stressed me out that I was going to need to learn a language that just sounded like mumbling (sometimes very angry mumbling). Around this time transportation caused me severe panic so I knew someone would have to come to me.

I found Lily! She comes to my house on Monday and Thursday and we laugh A LOT! She is incredibly patient and speaks very good English. I now understand why every expat says that their Chinese teacher is the best AND why they count their Chinese teacher as one of their closest friends here.

Tones? What are tones? We began with 10 lessons (20 hours!) just on the four tones of Mandarin. It has been very interesting dissecting a language and have been very grateful that we learn English while we are toddling around.

Mandarin consists of two forms: characters and Pinyin. In the 50's the Chinese actually took the language and created words with the alphabet to make it more accessible to the world. They were smart because Mandarin is predicted to be "the language of the future world". I am not learning the characters, only the Pinyin.

Doing homework again

At this point I have no desire to become fluent in Mandarin. I only wish to communicate as I live here. The rest of my family is learning both characters and Pinyin. It is great to have something in common, as we are all beginners learning differently. Hubby is fluent in Japanese so he has a leg up though. I hope my children will become fluent. It is a total myth that just living in a foreign country magically makes you fluent! I have heard people who have lived here for two years and can "just get by". I chose to set my goals pretty low.

I have learned that while I would have NEVER chosen to study Mandarin, I am enjoying it. In the four short months that I have been here I can actually decipher words among the "mumbling" and I hear the patterns of the language. I can't wait to be able to go back to San Francisco and talk to the Chinese street vendors!

Wintertime~

2011-12-01T15:31:00.000-08:00

That is the front of our apartment building in the background

It's Winter!

Christmas Is Coming....

2011-11-28T16:37:00.000-08:00

...to Beijing!

We were pleasantly surprised to see Christmas decorations appearing in a country that doesn't even celebrate Christmas. I kind of take it as a hospitable gesture to all of the foreigners that live here in Beijing. Most of the decorations we have seen have been in front of hotels. Here is a little tour of just a few things we have seen in our neighborhood quickly after Thanksgiving.

A full size nativity scene, now this was a shock!

Just another example of how there can never be too many lights at Christmas!

This one changes colors and those pillars next to it look like fireworks. This is in front of the LG Twin Towers (the lipstick shaped buidings you can see from our living room window)

The St. Regis hotel is very traditional and classy.

A cake at Dairy Queen. The chocolate sign says, "Merry S'mas"

And below you will see the extent of our Christmas decorations...a little sad compared to what I am used to doing. We did not bring any decorations and I have not bought much since...

...we are going to America!!!

(just a little excited!)

A Chinese Thanksgiving ~ 2011

2011-11-28T00:03:00.000-08:00

You may ask how "expats" celebrate Thanksgiving in a place where Thanksgiving is a regular, old business day. Here is how we celebrated Thanksgiving here in Beijing. Hubby worked and did a career presentation at one of the international schools. E had a volleyball game at another international school and took the 6:00 bus home, arriving downtown at 7:10. D took the 3:40 bus, arriving downtown at 4:40.

We were actually going to have Mac N' Cheese for dinner as it was Thursday and Thursday is a cooking night. We had already made plans to feast on Saturday with friends. But after seeing all the Facebook posts of my American friends preparing their traditional foods (remember we are a day ahead) I decided to pick up the phone and make reservations at "Grandma's Kitchen" for a traditional Thanksgiving set menu. Besides, E was going to miss our Saturday feast due to a far away volleyball tournament.

We met E at the bus stop and walked to the restaurant. We frequent this particular restaurant often, as it is good Western food and it is close by. It usually costs our family between 150-250 RMB ($21-$37 USD). This special Thanksgiving feast cost us 840 RMB ($126 USD)!! That has been our most expensive meal here in Beijing to date, I guess you do those kinds of things for a bit of tradition....

.....So, do you wanna know what we got for our money?

Soup choice: broccoli and cheese or pumpkin. I chose pumpkin

Appetizer choice: turkey roll-ups (above) or bacon wrapped shrimp (below)

Salad choice: Waldorf (in last picture) or Spinach, bacon and pear (above)

Dinner plate consisted of turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing and veggies and cranberry sauce.

We were very impressed with the taste of the traditional foods. We were missing rolls though!

Thanksgiving feast at "Grandma's Kitchen" in Beijing, China

So grateful that we are an eternal family!

Dessert choice: pumpkin pie (above), apple pie (above) or sweet potato pie

It was a nice night. Although it was odd for the kids to have homework and to have to go to school the very next day.

On Saturday we were invited to our friends' house, along with many other families from church. I was in charge of sweet potatoes! How lucky we are to have a man on the corner of our street who roasts large sweet potatoes in a barrel. I bought 10 large ones for 50 RMB ($7.50 USD). After mashing them up I added cream cheese, butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. They were the best sweet potatoes I've ever made!

Moi doing my best Chinese bartering.
Not really, I was just counting how many I wanted. I have to use my fingers to count in Chinese still

With about thirty five people there we had a ton of food!

It was fabulous!

Those homemade rolls were amazing!

One of the many desserts: mini cheesecakes with kiwi, strawberry and mint.
Yes, you can find those ingredients in China!

But the best part of the day was not about the food. It was about different people, from different places, coming together and making memories.

A great surprise was that the bus transporting E from the train station back to her school was passing through the city and she was able to get off and join us! I was very, very happy to see her!

E and her gal pals

D and a few of the boys

We are so very grateful that we have only been here four months and we have friends who already feel like family! A few families have kids the exact same age as E and D...and the fact that they get along makes it all the better!

The entire Thanksgiving gang! (minus me who was acting as photographer)

We ended the night by writing down one thing we are thankful for and having to guess who wrote what. Then we played a couple of rounds of "Werewolf" (not Twilight related) which is a game like "Mafia".

Our first Chinese Thanksgiving had a few weepy homesick moments,

but it was a blast and a total success!

A picture worth a thousand words

2011-11-27T16:01:00.000-08:00

Photo Credit: Kelsey Fox

What a wonderful world of technology we have!

On the day after Thanksgiving we were able to video Skype with my parents, nieces and brother. It is almost just like being there.

I love this picture because it is in my parent's kitchen. My family has always been "sitters around the kitchen table" meaning the meal is long and we linger after the food is over.

I love this picture because my dad looks so happy! You just don't get that kind of emotion over the phone.

I love this picture because it includes a niece from Michigan (snapping the shot), a niece from Long Beach, a brother from San Diego and parents from the Bay Area all talking to me in Beijing! At one point my brother had a friend from Long Island, NY on speaker and I was talking to him too.

I love this picture because they had just made homemade gnocchi with milanese (which is on my list of "must eats" when I go home in two weeks). I wish Skype had a taste feature. I will never take for granted my mom's ability to cook.

I love this picture because my parents are my two most favorite people in the world! I can't wait to spend a few days with just them, in my childhood home.

I love this picture because it allowed me to see a situation I was in from a different perspective, kind of surreal.

I just hope my niece was able to train my dad on Skype so we can have more opportunities like these. (hint hint Dad)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T20:56:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for many things!

I could make a list here, but you know what they are. They are, most likely, the same things you are thankful for.

But I cannot help but make special note of how thankful I am to be American! Many, many items on the "standard thankful list" are possible because of the fact that I am American. We cannot hide from the daily news about destruction and turmoil around the earth (and America is certainly not exempt) nevertheless, Americans have hope for a better tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving fellow Americans!

(And a Happy Thanksgiving to our Canadian friends too)

...and America rocks because we have a holiday centered solely around food! Posting from a country that does not have aforementioned holiday. Eat up friends and loved ones!

To Market We Go ~ Liangma Flower Market

2011-11-18T21:29:00.000-08:00

This was a fun day! The four of us met up and went to the Liangma Flower Market. It is close to the Laitai Flower Market but smaller, the vendors are nicer and it is not as intimidating.

Terry, Me and Rebecca

The entire first floor is flower stalls. The smell was amazing. I vowed to go back every week for a fresh bouquet!

This beautiful arrangement cost 100 RMB ($15 USD)

I bought some roses and filler. It cost 30 RMB ($4.50 USD)

The boutique-like stalls offered more unique items and things that appealed to me. Below is a stall where you can design your own Bone China pattern. How cool would it be to have an entire set of china from China! It takes about 2-3 weeks and they offer every piece you can imagine. The cost for a dinner plate is 160 RMB ($24 USD) and 110 RMB ($15.50 USD) for salad plates. This is something I will do!

Some ideas of custom china

A great selection of ribbons. Always a favorite of mine.

This market also had a wonderful selection of Christmas trees and decorations! I was in awe and missing all of my trees and decor back home.

A place to buy "American Girl" dolls and clothes

Another favorite of mine! Apothecary jars!

Time for lunch! Dumplings of course!

This was a good China day.

A New Perspective

2011-11-16T17:04:00.000-08:00

I am hesitant as I write this. Part of me wants to tell this story because if I were at home in California, surfing the internet, I would want to read a blog post about a woman volunteering at an orphanage in China. But there are guidelines about us volunteering there and one of them is, "Do not publish any articles on your observation of, or work at the orphanage". Since I am a rule follower, by nature, you see why I am torn. I will keep my comments less specific and try to convey my feelings. I hope the message comes across.

When I came to China it was a goal of mine to volunteer at an orphanage. I don't know why, as I am not particularly someone who searches for opportunities like this. Of course, I try to serve my fellow men but, in the past, that has been people similar to me and those that I know. There has been a piece of me who has felt that the way I spend my spare time, here in China, is a test. I have been compelled to use my spare time in the best ways possible. I am not always successful at this. (see previous post about entertainment)

I began asking around at church if anyone knew how to go about volunteering at an orphanage. A woman told me about a volunteer organization that is "allowed" to go and volunteer at a government run orphanage about thirty minutes away from the city. I contacted the coordinator, that was over a month ago. I was scared, but knew it was something I needed to do. I still did not know why.

Coordinating my first visit was not easy. Since the coordinators are volunteers I was passed back and forth to different people, many times not getting information I needed. Each Wednesday I cleared my schedule, only to find out that I didn't know where to go or what time. I was beginning to get frustrated and thought, more than a few times, that it was just not going to work out. I was being tempted to ditch the plan because it was too hard.

I began to get solid details about where and when to meet this past Wednesday morning. I even had the meeting place in my taxi book (here the taxi drivers do not speak or read English, so having the Chinese characters helps insure your arrival). I made it to the meeting place in perfect time, only to soon find out I was at the wrong lobby and where I needed to be was a 15 minute walk away. I am so grateful I exchanged cell phone numbers with one of the other people I was going with. I still was ready to give in. I even said to the person on the phone, "It seems like it won't work out for today. I don't want to hold you up. Let's try again for next week." Now that I look back, how silly I was to want to give in just because it wasn't going perfectly. I was still scared about the unknown.

But I quickly found my ride and the other two women made me feel very comfortable on the ride out there. It was enjoyable to get to know two women, both from different countries, who just want to give. There are good people everywhere, whether "religious" or not.

This is where I will not give any details about what I saw or did there, talk to me face to face. But some realizations I made are as follows:

It does not take much time at all to touch someone's life. I was only there for two and a half hours and I made a difference in numerous lives.
We do not have to "move mountains". I cannot change the course of life for these children, or even one child there. But I did change those few hours for them.
Likewise, I could not look at the big picture. These children, all with medium to severe disabilities, will most likely not be adopted. I had to focus on the joy I was bringing them at that moment. Otherwise I might've turned and run out the door because I couldn't "rescue" them all.
Basic necessities are; food, warmth and love. Everything else is extra. Period. We can rationalize how we need this or deserve that, but when the day is done we are incredibly blessed to have all of those other extras.
In my ~~thirty-nine~~ many years I have not had one single moment without those basic necessities. Why am I so privileged? Why are others not so privileged? It is easy to slip into feeling guilty. I worked hard to push that away.
Similarly, I felt a Spirit and strength from each one of those children, even the tiniest of babies. I felt that God knows each one of them and comforts them. They were happy and smiling, even giggling at me. Their Spirits are special for the circumstances they are in.
It only takes a smile to communicate. I do not speak their language. Many of them cannot communicate. However, they can smile and laugh and hug. I will continue to think of their eyes that brightened when I talked to them. I can't wait to see that again next week.
I have seen movies and read books about situations like this. That does little to enlighten our lives. Feeling it, smelling it, breathing it, touching it was what changed me as a person. It took me outside of my life, as I have always known it. I was forced to realize that there are situations, both near and far, that are not what we experience every day. This is what forever changed me. The changes may not be visible on the outside, but my heart is broadened and more empathetic to all who have less privileges than I do.
Physical touch is a need.There were moments when my arms were full and both hands were being held. That made them content. I could see the craving of this in them.
I have wondered what in the world I needed to experience here in China. I had literally only thought or spoken about China about five times in my entire life before coming here. Perhaps the growth I had yesterday, and will continue to have when I go, is the reason I came here.
There are many people who give a lot more time and resources to causes like this. I have always admired them, but never thought I had it in me to dedicate my life to others. After yesterday I can imagine how humanitarian giants are rewarded by their generous efforts.
I know that when Christ comes to earth again. Places like where I was yesterday is where He will be. I felt His presence there.

I understand if you think this post is very cliche, sometimes cliches are true. Also, I sincerely hope that it did not come across as boasting or painting myself as some sort of "angel". That is not my intention. My goal was to share the changes that occurred in me throughout this experience. I urge you to go out of your comfort zone, even though it is scary, and give a little of your time to someone who has less than you. You do not need to be in China to do that.

Entertainment

2011-11-13T06:16:00.000-08:00

Before I moved to China I had questions about how I would access my favorite things for entertainment. I remember thinking, "How will we watch Survivor?" Survivor has been the one and only show that all four members of my family enjoy equally. We would weekly gather to watch it together...I cannot emphasize enough how much we all enjoyed it equally as that NEVER happens with any other show or movie.

Here is a breakdown on how we access things to entertain us.

TV Shows~ There are a few ways to watch TV shows here.

First, there is live t.v. We get 5 English speaking stations (AXN-Asia, CNN World, MSNBC world, HBO Asia, Discovery). I cannot emphasize enough that the stations that are common to the US are not the same stations. For example, HBO and CNN are not showing the same shows that the US is. CNN mostly reports world news, but Anderson 360 and Piers Morgan is on in the morning. HBO shows older movies and none of the big HBO series shows. AXN-Asia does show a couple of reality shows (Top Chef and The Amazing Race) but the digital transmission is so messed up you can't see the images. They also have some different shows that are cooky called "Cash Can Asia" and "Kitchen Musical" (which is supposed to be like Glee but in the kitchen of a restaurant). The big bummer about live t.v. is that there is no DVR here. How did we ever watch our shows when they actually aired?

A second way to watch t.v. shows is by buying DVD seasons. DVDs are a way of life here because they are so cheap. It is really great to buy an entire season of a show, but they are always a season or two behind. This works well when you are beginning to watch an older show. For example, we got hooked on Hawaii 5-0. Unfortunately, when you watch all the DVDs and get caught up to the States, it is hard to wait an entire year before the next season comes out on DVD. We are currently waiting patiently for "Modern Family" & "The Middle", so no spoilers please!

When our patience just runs out and we cannot wait for the season to come out on DVD we turn to downloading t.v. episodes onto our Apple TV from iTunes. We have done this with Hawaii 5-0 because a) last season left on such a cliffhanger we could not possibly wait and b) I needed my ~~McGarrett~~ Hawaii fix and c) I wanted to discuss the ongoing story line with fellow watchers from the States instead of after the fact. On iTunes an episode for a show costs $1.99 ($2.99 for HD) or you can buy a season subscription. I have had to really hold back or else I would be racking up an enormous itunes bill.

The funny thing about t.v. shows are the ones I thought I couldn't live without (Survivor and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon) are ones we haven't even watched.

Internet~ Our VPN (virtual private network) allows me to Facebook and blog, but it doesn't help with the speed of the internet. Therefore, YouTube is something that we rarely use. Likewise, watching free episodes of t.v. shows is impossible. I tried watching a 44 minute episode of Hawaii 5-0 one time on CBS. com and it took me three hours and pausing after each line (I couldn't pause it to download in it's entirety). I also uploaded a three minute video to YouTube and it took me two and a half hours. Anything where I am downloading or uploading (even pics to FB) I dread. But I am thankful to be able to access websites that I never thought I would be able to.

Movies~ Going to the movie theater is not something we have done yet. China only allows 20 foreign movie titles a year into their box offices. They are quite expensive and there hasn't been anything released that we just had to see.

As I said earlier, DVDs are really inexpensive here so that is the way we go. We pay 8 RMB ($1.20 USD) per DVD. There are moral questions about purchasing the DVDs, but we quickly learned that if you buy a DVD at Wal-Mart (do not even think this is the same as Wal-Mart in the states) they are the same "type" of DVDs as the market, you just pay 40 RMB for them. It is impossible to find legitimate movies here. The funny thing about the DVDs are they all have Chinese subtitles at the bottom. While watching "The Help" this weekend we noticed the subtitles were for a completely different movie, "Crazy, Stupid Love". We have also heard from friends that while they were watching "Kung Fu Panda 2" in Chinese, with English subtitles, there were racial slurs and profane words...wow! Needless to say, we now own many DVDs of current and recent movies, the quality is always questionable.

Reading Material~ I really miss magazines. I never really appreciated them until I could not get them. But the other day I saw a copy of "Better Homes & Gardens" and squealed with joy, only soon to find out it was all in Chinese. I think I may research if I can get a subscription to a favorite magazine sent to me here...daring!

I brought eight books with me, thinking that would last me until my visit home in December. I was so wrong. I read those books in about three weeks (have I mentioned I have time on my hands?). Foreign bookstores are few a far between here in Beijing. I do have one about a 30 minute walk from my apartment. The prices run about $15-$20 USD for a paperback. Some ways I have been able to get my hands on more books is having E check them out from her school library for me, buying from a foreign bookstore while on vacation in Japan, and downloading them onto my iPhone from iTunes. I always knew a Kindle, Nook or iPad was a great thing but I am the type that likes the actual book. Here, digital books are totally the way to go, for access but also because I can pull out my "book" on the subway, in a waiting room or in a taxi to read. With these digital books I have been reading an average of a book a week. I hope to begin a book swap with friends. Any good recommendations? Currently I am reading the biography of Steve Jobs...I owe a lot to this man since I couldn't function in China without my iPhone and Apple TV.

Podcasts~ Speaking of Apple products...I have come late to the game of podcasts, but am now so grateful for them. First of all, they are FREE! If they are audio podcasts I download them straight to my iphone. I have listened to spiritual podcasts, mandarin language podcasts and comedy podcasts. I am always searching for something interesting to listen to for free! If they are video podcasts we download them to our Apple TV. Each night we all gather around and watch Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News. Funny that US news was not something that I was particularly interested in while in the States, but now I grasp onto it for the connection. I also like podcasts because they don't take as long to download as TV shows.

Games~ I knew that games would be important to us here, so I brought along our favorite board games and Wii. There is nothing like bonding over a round of "Egyptian Rat Slap" or "Dominoes". We try to play together at least three times a week. Puzzles are popular here and readily available to buy, but American board games are something we will always need to bring from the States.

Of course, entertainment is always important to us as humans and I am so grateful that I have access to some of the American entertainment we had at home. I hope that by the time we head back home we will have acquired some forms of Chinese entertainment.

Fall In Beijing ~ baby steps

2011-11-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

RiTan Park

I am not the most optimistic person, usually dwelling on things I have not done. But I came here in Summer and now it is Fall and I've noticed some things have changed for the positive. Here are some of them...

I no longer have panic attacks every time I have to go out of the apartment. You think I am exaggerating?
I can now recognize one in every ten words in Mandarin, instead of one in thirty words. I actually responded to a "wrong number call" on my cell phone by saying, "Wo shuo Yinyu" = "I speak English".
I can count to 10 now pretty quickly. I still struggle matching the Mandarin name to the number though.
I buy raw meat now at the grocery store.
I don't completely get ripped off at the markets anymore.
I can tell a taxi driver where to go to, instead of pointing to a card, to about 4 or 5 places.
I actually told someone else where to get something, instead of someone always telling me.
I successfully can use video Skype on a regular basis.
I consistently cook at least three times a week.
I only have about two meltdowns a month, instead of once a week...baby steps.
I can tell people where I live in Mandarin.
Instead of thinking about home every second of every day, I only think about it a few times a day now.

We have to celebrate our small accomplishments! I can only imagine what the next three months will bring.

A Funny Tale ~ Shelving and Potty Talk

2011-11-05T19:01:00.000-07:00

I have a funny story to share. This story, for the most part, has

nothing to do with living in China. It all began with the monster

closet that our apartment manager bought for us but ran out of money

before buying the guts. The funny story isn't even about this closet being too tall for every single spot in our apartment. The funny story isn't even about us going to

Ikea THREE to times to buy the insides, only to find we bought the

wrong ones, parts out of stock, etc.

Here's where the fun begins. Last Saturday (trip 3 to Ikea) was to

complete the closet. We were told the shelves would take two hours to

bring to the store.Who knew that some items were stored off-site?

Of course they told us this at the END of our much

more than two hour shopping trip. We were exhausted and over loaded so

we agreed I would come back during the week to pick up the shelves.

Today I looked forward to another alone trip to the giant blue and

yellow box store (trip 4). I checked online to make sure the shelves

were in stock. They were, it was going to be a breeze.

I decided to use the restroom before my spree. There was a line for

one stall, another stall was empty. I assumed the line was for the

western toilet. After a few

minutes it was my turn and I soon found it was a "squatter". If you have never seen a squatter it is basically a hole in the ground. Now squatting is not a task I have perfected yet. The last time resulted

in a mess...shhhhhh....don't tell anyone. I decided to try again. I

thought it through back to 8th grade geometry and the perfect angle.

The perfect pressure is also key I quickly learned. But successful I

was, although embarrassed at the particular pose I was in to

accomplish success. Upon completion I balanced to stand and smacked my

head on the toilet paper holder, right at the jagged part that is

supposed to cut the paper but never does. I guess I should be thankful

for the toilet paper holder, as often times there isn't one. Ouch! It

hurt! But I couldn't check to see if it was bleeding for fear I'd lose

my balance. Finally I leave the stall, wash my hands and notice the

other stall (the empty one!) was the western toilet. All in all, that

portion of the trip was a success.

I filled my cart making sure I only stuck to my

list. Of course, the self serve section (where the shelve should be)

is the last section before paying. So after shopping for an hour and a

half I look for Pax . After not finding it myself I go to

the help desk. Without really communicating he prints me out a paper

and indicates that I pay and pick up the shelves. That I do. It's at

Customer Service that I'm told it will be TWO HOURS before I can get

my shelves!!! Apparently I am learning that some items, like above

item, is not stored in the gigantic warehouse known as Ikea. Some

items are stored elsewhere, two hours away!!! I was not leaving this

place without my shelves! So I bought a hot dog and ice cream cone

(for a total of 4 kuai = .60 cents USD) and sat. Nevermind my frozen

cinnamon rolls from the Ikea market melting in my bag!

Moral of the story- look for squatters and prepare to wait!

A Day in the Life of Me!

2011-11-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

I continue to constantly ask myself, "What is my purpose here and now?" It is mostly because there are so many things that I used to do, in my everyday life, that I don't do anymore. I used to feel fulfilled by stocking up on food storage (i.e. filling my minivan with Costco items), taking my kids to their enrichment activities, volunteer in their classes, clean my house, and substitute teach when the day was right. I don't do any of these things here so I have to redefine what I do to feel productive and to feel that I am contributing. It is a continuous process, often times pushing away guilt and the nagging thought of, "am I needed?" As part of this process I decided to jot down what I did today, a pretty normal routine day. This is for you to see what my "new" life in Beijing is like and for me to visually see how it is I spend my time.

6:20- Wake up, throw on exercise clothes, brush teeth, take Jupiter downstairs to go potty, fill water bottles, make snacks, toast bagels.

6:57- "The Ducks Quack" on my iphone to alert us all that we have three minutes to get out the door. Family prayer.

7:00- All four of us ride the elevator down and walk the block to the bus stop. A huge blessing of living here is Dad says goodbye to the kids each morning as they head off to school.

7:08- Wave goodbye to the kids and walk with hubby to the corner. Kiss goodbye and head to RiTan Park for my morning run (or walk since I've had a chest cold). Every other day I go to our building gym to exercise. On the way home from the park I switch from music to a podcast, usually spiritual, right now this (couldn't live without the itunes store!)

8:20- Return to apartment and resist going online to chat with friends in US. Turn on Anderson Cooper 360 (I've become VERY interested in American news since I don't live there anymore, it helps me feel connected). I put away dried dishes from the night before. Fold clothes and put in a new load of laundry. Do breakfast dishes BY HAND.

9:00- On Mondays I often call my parents or skype with friends, but today while Piers Morgan was on (can you tell we only get CNN?) I showered (I try to shower before going on the internet, otherwise I may not shower at all), checked my email, roamed around on FB and thought it was really interesting that Kris Jenner had no idea Kim Kardashian's marriage was over on Piers...we watch it a day behind you.

10:00- Say "Ni Hao" to the housekeeping staff that came to clean the apartment. Then, head out for my "outing for the day". Today I went to the Chinese grocery store and bought stuff for dinner tonight, along with bread and more snacks for the kids. Some days I meet hubby for lunch (my favorite outing), meet friends, go to markets, take Jupiter to vet, etc. It takes a lot of motivation to head out when you don't have to because it is so difficult to get anywhere AND the air quality has been horrid!

12:00- Return home, put away groceries, eat lunch (leftovers from hubby and my lunch date yesterday), read scriptures. I have started to read scriptures at lunchtime. I am awake and more in tune with the Spirit.

12:30- Study Mandarin. I usually squeeze this in right before my lesson...total procrastinator. Once I start I enjoy it, but I dread it beforehand.

1:10- Take Jupiter to the dog park on the corner of our street. It is more like he takes me. There is something about this place that makes him p00p every time we go, no matter what time of day or night. We consider this a complete blessing because he does not have accidents in the apartment. When out, I spend a lot of my time second guessing what I am doing and what the locals think about what I am doing (probably because foreigners get stared at a lot!). Even at the dog park I wonder if I am practicing the right etiquette, but today I threw that right out the window when a MAN went pee on a tree right in front of me without even trying to conceal himself. I am not going to worry about my dog peeing in the right spot anymore.

1:30- Lily, my mandarin teacher, arrives. Today I learn valuable sentences like. "Please say again = Qing zai shuo yi bian" and "I hear you but I don't understand = Wo ting bu dong". We laugh a lot and while it is fun to learn, I almost never speak to anyone and I equally cannot understand what others are saying. I consider my learning mandarin a hobby:)

3:45- Say "zai jian" to Lily and go on the computer to write in my journal. Shhhh, don't tell anyone but I pretend that I am writing the next best seller. Also, don't tell hubby but some days this is my nap time, not today though. I figure if all the Chinese men can nap in their cars on the side of the road, I can catch a few z's in the comfort of my own home. Today both kids have loooooong days at school so I have extra time to myself.

4:30- Go on the apple tv and download your last night's NBC Nightly News (I told you I was obsessed with the news). LOVE our apple tv here, so grateful for Steve Jobs! Do mandarin homework.

5:30- I begin to prepare dinner. Tonight I made a "made-up" recipe that is basically a Mexican lasagna with tortillas. I have set my standards pretty low for cooking. When we first moved here it really overwhelmed me because finding ingredients is a struggle, we didn't have our kitchen tools, etc. So I set out to cook only Tue, Thur and Sun nights. That way I am successful and I don't feel guilty on the nights I don't cook. Time after time, it is proven that eating out here is just so much more cost effective than cooking. While I cook dinner I wait for D to come home and anticipate hearing about his field trip that he went on today (Olympic park to study the systems) and to hear about his after school session of "Great Wall Runners".

5:40- D comes home. We talk about his day, look over his homework that he did on the hour+ long bus ride and he decides to watch some t.v. while I finish dinner. I make the salad.

6:15- D and I eat together, we enjoy our time alone together on Tue and Thur nights because E is at volleyball still and hubby has his mandarin lesson on these nights. We decide to play dominoes, that is our new nighttime activity.

7:15- E comes home. I listen to her tell me about her day. She is excited as she gets to go to TianJin for a volleyball tournament next month. She eats, plays a round of dominoes with us, then goes straight to homework. Tuesday and Thursday nights are so busy for her, but she chooses to continue playing sports and sacrifices free time. Hubby comes home and eats dinner. We all look at D's field trip pictures on the t.v.

7:45- I wash the dinner dishes, fold clothes and make sure nobody has any PE clothes that need to be done by tomorrow.

8:30- Family Scriptures and prayer.

8:50- Say goodnight to D, he falls into bed very tired. Jupiter joins him on his bed. E goes into her room and continues homework. Hubby and I settle in and watch NBC Nightly News.
Tomorrow will be very similar, but I will go to Ikea to finally finish off the guts of a closet (hopefully) and we will go out to dinner since it will be Friday.

When you are feeling like you don't do much, I urge you to write down everything you do in your day. I realized that, despite having free time on my hands, I do a lot for my family and myself. Maybe this foreign feeling is balance. Who knows?

An outing of FIRSTS

2011-10-26T20:41:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to lunch with some friends. In our church we do something called Visiting Teaching, we thought it would be fun to meet for lunch. It was one of the most spiritual conversations I've had in a long time. I took the subway down to their neighborhood and we went to a restaurant called "Lily's American Diner".

Instead of sending a server to the table, there is a tablet-like device where you order from.

Diet Dr. Pepper! It is hard to find here and despite it "being imported" it still tasted like flavored seltzer water. Not good for a $3 USD can of soda! I stick with water now since none of the soda products taste good.

A yummy bean and cheese burrito!

My two friends have these cool electric bikes that run on battery. You can either pedal or cruise along, taking one or two kids on it with you also. You see them all over the city, but riding on the back of one was great! A little scary but totally worth it!

These girls are my heroes!!

That day was a good "China" day!

Multi~Generations

2011-10-25T08:10:00.000-07:00

It is not uncommon, here in China, to see a child walking along (in split pants of course) holding the hand of a Grandmother. All day long I see Grandmothers taking care of little ones, as multi-generation is still very strong here.

When we were on our cruise, E and I happen to meet a Chinese woman who worked on the ship. Her name was Ling Ling. She was kind and excited to speak English to us. She also was pretty bored since she worked at the Ben N' Jerry's Ice Cream counter and it was about $5.00 a scoop. Needless to say there was not too much business there. But E and I found the chairs comfortable while we watched this show on DVD on our laptop. Ling Ling told us her story and it helped me to understand some cultural differences between the US and China.

After talking about how long she had worked on the ship (2 months) and how long she will work before a vacation (6 months) she mentioned that she has a three year old daughter. I felt comfortable enough to ask her if it saddened her to be away from her child. She replied, "Yes, but I do not know how to be a mother. She is with my parents and they know how to take care of her better than I can." Being the ~~nosy~~ journalistic person I am, I asked her if her husband was there with her daughter. Tears quickly filled her eyes and she said, "My husband died six months ago in a car accident. That is why I have to work." My heart broke for her. She shared such a tender thing with us. I told her that I thought she was a very good mother, sacrificing everything to provide for her daughter.

Ling Ling's story touched my heart because of the circumstances. Likewise, we have a woman in our church that works as an ayi (nanny/cook/housekeeper) full-time here in Beijing. She lives with the family she works for while her husband and son are still in the Philippines. She told me that the money she makes here is so much more than she would ever make there and she sends all of it back to her family. Her husband's parents take care of her son while her husband is at work. Her eyes beamed as she told us her husband and son had just been here to visit her, but saying goodbye was extremely difficult.

Last week I went to a friend's house so her ayi could teach us to cook some authentic Chinese recipes (that post in the future). This woman worked harder than I have ever worked in one day. And she does that every single day! She had a smile on her face and truly looked like she enjoyed her work. She gets to my friend's house at 9am after she drops off her child at school, a luxury most ayis do not have. Then she cleans, does laundry, grocery shops and cooks lunch for my friend. After lunch she cleans some more and cooks an elaborate dinner (no opening cans, everything is fresh). She leaves at 5pm and never, ever eats with the family. I wondered how in the world she could go home and cook for her family. She doesn't...her family lives with her parents and her mother cooks for the family. I was happy that she got to be taken care of a little bit.

These situations are as common as sticky rice here. These women make sacrifices to provide for their family. These women have support from their mother or mothers-in-law. The results are children that are being raised by up to six adults!

1 child to six adults, now that is a ratio!

The Great Wall of China ~ HuangYaGuan

2011-10-23T07:58:00.000-07:00

We were so excited to learn when we moved here that the congregation of our church always goes and stays the night at The Great Wall and holds church services at the wall. After much anticipation, the weekend had finally come. It was arranged that our group of about 250 would occupy the entire hotel, while some would camp on or near the wall. This is a tradition that has occurred for a long time here and we knew nothing like this would ever be possible in the United States due to church guidelines (not to mention there is no Great Wall in the US).

I was so excited to go and see The Wall for the first time. Hubby and D had already been there with the Cub Scouts. Unfortunately, our shipment still had not arrived so we were missing crucial items that would have made this weekend trip much more enjoyable and warm. However, with lots of friends offering us warm clothes, sleeping bags and a tent we were able to make it through just fine. Next year we will be more than prepared.

Members of the Beijing 1st branch loading buses.

We met at the church at 9am on Saturday and filled three buses. We headed about two hours to the province of Tianjin to a section of the wall called the Huangyaguan Pass at the Bangalang Mountain. It was neat for me to see something of China outside of Beijing.

The view of the mountain from the hotel.

Sadly it was one of those grey China days...so these pictures will really not do the scenery much justice at all. You will just have to come here and check it out for yourself!

Hubby with a lion among the fall foliage.

We quickly stowed our bags and gathered with a few families to go for a "hike". The families that we were with all had cub scouts and our den leader decided this would be a great opportunity to sign off a three mile hike.

To the left of the hotel is this section of the wall. The group we were with did this section last year.

Our group setting out for our Cub Scout hike.

Since the group we were with had already done the left section, they decided to do the "right section" this year. See below...I thought that we were heading up to that first tower at the top of the hill...piece of cake so off we went!

The beginning of the trail is marked by red flags. The terrain is rocky steps and then a dirt path. Up at the top the wall resumes.

This is the section of the wall that The Great Wall Marathon takes place! Can you imagine running 26.2 miles up this mountain? We were with a guy who did it and actually lived to tell us about it! I had contemplated doing the half marathon in May of 2013...but after seeing it I think not.

Up we go. Here I was full of optimism and energy.

At about one third of the way up the mountain, the grey courtyards below is our hotel.

Still climbing. Still smiling.

You can see we have now surpassed the tower on the top of the mountain that we saw from below. E is starting to frown by now.

Once we hit the top of the mountain the wall turned to dirt path. As we started to go on the backside of the mountain the wall reappeared.

It is so much more fun to have these experiences with friends! This is one of my pals.

When we got to where I thought we were going I saw this....we were not even near the end!!!! UGH!

I decided my time was done. I know that perseverance is not my strongest attribute. I don't have a need to acquire bragging rights and there is no reward at the end, so I decided to head on back down with one of the girls. Everyone else, including many children (of course, D) went on.

Rest time!

The hike back down took about 45 minutes and our knees were sore and our legs were shaky. But I guess we could take pride in the fact that we really did "Climb the Great Wall"! They really should pass out those shirts for free! Maybe I would've endured on if I knew that were the case! Instead our room was now ready and I was able to see our accommodations....oh wow!

Our upgraded room was moldy with dirty wallpaper, filthy bed covers and disgusting carpet! I'd hate to see the basic rooms!

Hubby was very glad that he was not responsible for arranging this room. We just had to grin and bear it!

Our bathroom light fixture had a plethora of dead bugs! YUM!

This was the outside of our room, which was absolutely gorgeous!

Besides being at the Great Wall, the best thing about this trip was being with tons of other friends! We barely even saw our children, they were with friends the entire time! Below is a mini Great Wall and labyrinth the kids hung out with all afternoon after the hike. The boys all bought weapons (crossbows and swords) from a vendor and played war until dinner time. They were in their glory while the teenagers hung out and flirted with each other!

While the kids were occupied with friends, hubby and I decided to walk up the left side of the wall. I made it very clear that I was not climbing up anything for the rest of the day!

The hotel provided dinner for us. It was a Chinese fare that included three meat dishes, five veggie dishes, a fruit salad and rice.

The youth having fun!

Dancing next to the wall in the amphitheater.

Without our backpacking equipment only D arranged to sleep outside in a borrowed tent. A group hiked back up the wall about 30 minutes and camped in one of the towers. D camped out in the courtyard in his own one man tent. He is pretty hardcore as he set it up and took it down all on his own. I think he had the cleaner accommodations...maybe not warmer though.

The great outdoors at The Great Wall.

D was snug as a bug in his own tent.

Breakfast was provided by the hotel at 7:30am. It was a Chinese breakfast with toast, fried bread, baozi (steamed buns), sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, and roasted peanuts. A woman at our table was smart and brought several batches of homemade cinnamon rolls...next year!

The whole purpose of this trip was to hold our worship meeting here next to The Great Wall. Sadly, it started to rain just before 9:00am when church was about ready to start. No problem! Everyone gathered their blankets and jackets and we all lined the courtyard to sing hymns, partake of the sacrament, listen to speakers and pray.

Church services along side The Great Wall.

This was an incredible experience that I am grateful for! It was amazing to be united with so many people that share the same beliefs (and the same language!) at such an extraordinary place! If I have more experiences like this, China just may grow on me.

Good Days & Bad Days

2011-10-20T18:19:00.000-07:00

It is certainly no secret that China has bad air quality!

We knew that before we came, but being from California (hubby from LA), we thought we knew what "poor air quality" looked like. Oh how wrong we were!

Good Day

This is the amazing view from our living room window. Our bedroom has the same view, lucky us! This picture was taken as the sun was setting and it made the buildings sparkle like gold. It had been one of the rare blue sky days.

Bad Day

Here is the exact same view today (and yesterday and the day before). While we knew we would have bad air quality days, what we didn't know was just how many we would have! Sadly for every 5 or 6 yucky days, we have 1 pretty day.

I definitely see that the grey yuckiness takes a toll on my mood. I have less motivation to go out and exercise, shop or explore. On the clear days I have an extra spring in my step. I asked hubby whether he noticed a difference on the two different types of days...he said no. Just another example to chalk up in the record of "differences of men and women".

A friend asked me what the one thing was that would make China a little bit better for me and I said, "it just looks so ugly all the time." I don't really think it is an ugly place...but with all the sludge it makes something pretty look pretty dreary. I won't even go into the health concerns of this air.

So if you are not in China...please do not take for granted the crisp clear fall days that you may be experiencing in your corner of the world.

Dayton's beginning Chinese presentation

2011-10-13T22:22:00.001-07:00

Bon Voyage V~ Busan, South Korea

2011-10-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

Our last stop on our lovely National holiday, therefore my last post in this series, is Busan (formerly known as Pusan) South Korea. It is not one of those places that you hear about a lot so we were very surprised to see how large this city was. The picture below is only a small section with similar landscape spreading far up and down the coast. It looked quaint with the city sprawling up the hills.

One section of Busan from our ship

We were a bit "toured" out, I am not much of a sight seer, so hubby did some research and learned that Busan is known for their natural hot springs. He had experience with Sentos in Japan, but I had no idea what to expect! He assured me it was a family atmosphere AND that we would be NAKED!

After a 20 minute taxi ride through the city we found the Hurshimchung Hot Spring Park, located inside the Hotel Nongshim. It boasts to be the "best spa in the world".

The kids were not traumatized at all about being naked.

After checking in at the front desk E and I separated from the boys. We put our shoes in one locker and our clothes and bag in another. That is when the naked-nude-birthday suit adventure began. As an American, I realized that our culture is just not that comfortable with our bodies and being naked. I did not like it at all. At first E, who is now thirteen, felt awkward but she got over it after a few minutes. We walked up to the women's section of the hot spring park. First we were given a loofah towel and motioned to go shower. There were stand up showers and sit down showers and it was full, although we were the only foreigners. After showering we headed to the pools. I had never been to a hot spring before so I expected it to be in the ground (pretty naive I suppose). They are really just pools with hot spring water pumped into them. There were extremely hot pools all the way to extremely cold pools, and everything in between. There was a salt pool, a medicine pool, pools inside rock caverns, whirlpools and outside pools. There was also a waterfall section and many saunas you could go into. E and I wandered around and two little girls thought it would be fun to hang out with us. At first they were cute speaking the little English they knew and then they decided it would be even more fun to splash us with water and sing "sorry" to us with a grin. After about the fifteenth time we decided it was time to move on.

There was about 10% of me that thought it was freeing being naked with a bunch of other naked woman from a different country. You know, the whole "I'll never see these people again so what the heck" attitude. But the other 90% of me just wanted to get dressed ! So I convinced E to find out what else was around. We headed back to the locker room and checked out some cotton "pajamas" and went downstairs. Now I felt comfortable. Downstairs is co-ed (except for the sleeping rooms). Also, there is an igloo room, a mud room and another sauna. Many people were just hanging out on the heated bamboo floor. My favorite place was the sleeping room. The floor was heated below Japanese tatami mats and the pillows were buckwheat filled. There was soft music and a reddish dim light, the atmosphere was dreamy. I stayed there for quite sometime while E decided to go back to the hot springs. Later we met up with the boys and had massages in those high-tech massage chairs. Massages are offered both upstairs and downstairs for a small fee.

We stayed at the spa for over three hours, an all day pass was $10 USD per person. It was a good deal and I would go back to one that allowed swimsuits. Surprisingly I was the only one out of the four of us who felt awkward about being naked. What an example my kids are to me.

Outdoor foot hot springs. I would've been fine with this!

Getting back to the port area was not as easy as getting away from it. We walked a couple of blocks to find the subway but the streets are confusing in Busan and we felt like we were just going in circles so we decided to hail a taxi. The taxi driver drove around for about ten minutes and we knew he had absolutely no clue what we were trying to tell him, depsite us pointing to the cruise port on a map. So we got out and got another taxi. This guy had no clue either but called his English speaking dispatch to help out. After about 3o minutes we made it back to the port with 45 minutes to spare. We decided to grab a bite to eat at the top of a luxurious shopping mall. The food was good but we scarfed it down in fifteen minutes, afraid we would be late. We made it onto to the ship just in the nick of time!

a typical street in Busan

Our trip quickly drew to a close. It was the perfect vacation as we were able to relax, bond as a family, and see and learn about new places. Now it is back to Beijing for about eleven weeks until we go back to the US for Christmas!!

Bon Voyage IV~ Fukuoka, Japan

2011-10-11T00:21:00.000-07:00

Fukuoka is on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. Since we were not familiar with Fukuoka we decided to use the cruise line expertise and book an English speaking tour. We set out at about 4:00 pm, dawned with our umbrellas and hoodies, as it was sprinkling.

We had a sweet Japanese tour guide who spoke amazing English. She told us that she had never traveled out of Japan and learned all of her English from a radio program.

Why can't I do that with mandarin?

Our first stop was a city park that was built on the remains of the ancient castle. There are still remnants of the rock wall that was to protect the castle.

This Japanese garden was spectacular. Imagine it in the spring in bloom!

D was trying to find his zen.

Just outside the park is a lake. Our guide told us that this lake used to be the ocean. All the land built on the other side is reclaimed land.

Our next stop was the Fukuoka Tower. We went to the top to see the panoramic view.

One side of Fukuoka

Fukuoka Tower

Our next stop was a shrine right in the middle of the city. There were even people walking through it on their way home from work. An interesting thing at this shrine were actual anchors from Mongol ships that were set to attack Fukuoka in the 1200s. A typhoon hit and sunk the ships before the attack. Kamikaze (divine wind) is what this typhoon is referred to.

Throughout history Fukuoka has been called Hakata. The city is divided in two by a river. One side of the river is known as the shogun side and the other is the merchant side.

At the very end of our tour we had about ten minutes to wander through these stalls. We were able to find a 100 yen store ( $1.00 store) which are awesome in Japan! The kids got origami paper and I got a much needed measuring cup. So luxurious!

Happy to be shopping! Lots of Halloween decorations here. That is something we just don't see in China.

An alley way in Fukuoka.

Last stop will be Busan, South Korea!
You will NOT want to miss out on our adventure there!

Bon Voyage III ~ Osaka & Kyoto, Japan

2011-10-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

If you would like to see the prior posts for this trip visit here & here

Part of the allure of taking this particular cruise was the fact that hubby had lived in this area of Japan for two years while serving as a missionary for our church. While we had visited Tokyo as a family he has never before had the opportunity to take us to some of his old stomping grounds. This was a dream come true for all of us.

entering Osaka by boat was really breath taking

We had the cool opportunity to have a full 24 hours at this port. We were able to disembark the ship at about 6:00pm. We walked the very short walk to the subway and headed to the Osaka Castle. This castle was built from 1585~1597.

Osaka Castle at night

up close of the Osaka Castle

The grounds were large and peaceful. There were joggers and walkers scattered throughout. The one kilometer square is surrounded by an outer moat. The inner moat is dry.

After walking around the castle we decided to head back to the ship by subway. Below is a quaint Japanese restaurant next to McDonald's.

Notice the lantern, the garden and painted screens. Very detailed

After having a good nights sleep on the ship, we woke up early and walked to the subway toward the Shinkansen (bullet train) station which was headed for Kyoto. Can't say we didn't use public transportation. Lucky hubby speaks Japanese!

Catching a few zzzzzz's

Of course we HAD to ride the bullet train to Kyoto.

Second time D has ridden on a bullet train. First time was from Zurich to Paris. Lucky kid!!!

Once there we took a taxi to the Golden Pavilion or Kinkaku-ji.

We ran into a group of 8th grade boys. Just had to take this pic for E! They loved it too!

Kinkaku-ji, also known as the Golden Pavilion, is one of the most visited sites in Japan. It is now a Zen Buddhist temple, but was originally a villa belonging to a powerful statesman dating back to 1397.

I really did take this picture! The pavilion is gold leafed and lacquered.

The beautiful Japanese garden and mirror pond.

There are many building surrounding the pavilion among the meandering gardens. This spot housed outdoor food stalls offering yummy samples. It reminded me of Costco.

the Buddhist temple

After leaving Kinkaku-ji we hailed another taxi. The driver was the sweetest, chattiest man! Such a contrast to the taxi drivers in Beijing! He loved speaking English to us and showing us pictures of his beloved Kyoto. He took us to the Kyoto station where we would head back to a section of Osaka we wanted to visit.

a typical street in Kyoto

It is difficult to not compare and contrast Japan to China. Besides the taxi drivers there are many other differences. For one, they drive on the left side of the street. But striking differences are the cleanliness and conduct of the Japanese cities and people. The streets, shops and subways are immaculate and the people act with the utmost politeness. And of course the toilets are SO AMAZING! Click here to see why.

D in front of the famous Kyoto tower. Towers are popular in Asia.

Hubby and D at the modern and sleak Kyoto station.

Despite Japan being friendly and clean, there is one main reason why I would be very apprehensive about living here...navigating the train system! I had difficulty reading and deciphering the subway and JR maps while alone in Tokyo a few years back and it was not much easier now with hubby who speaks the language!!!

We took the train back to Osaka to an area called Umeda that hubby was not able to go to while on his mission. It was known for having too many bars and temptations. Since it was daytime and years later we decided to head there now.

Hubby has always loved an Osaka dish called okonomiaki. He has made it for us several times back home but it was a treat to find an authentic restaurant in the region it is known for. It was very, very good!

Okonomiaki on the 10th floor of a ritsy mall in Umeda, Osaka, Japan

This mall had a few shops that I could have spent a few hours and many dollars in.

A French shop that I still have dreams about.

Beautiful florist and amazing flower arrangements. More exquisite details.

Umeda is a shopping mecca, especially for electronics.

One spot that hubby was allowed to visit, way back when, was a foreign bookstore in the subway station. He wondered if it was still there because this section of town was completely destroyed during the earthquake. After looking for a minute or two, we found the exact bookstore. Amazing since it has been almost twenty years! Foreign books are a treat since they are hard to find in Beijing!

E was so happy to have a book to read! She finished it three days later.

We would've loved to have had more time to visit Kobe and Kakogawa where hubby spent most of his mission. However, we were grateful to have this brief introduction.

Next stop is Fukuoka!

Bon Voyage II~ Shanghai, China

2011-10-09T05:02:00.000-07:00

If you would like to see post one from this trip, click here.

Although our cruise was scheduled to leave on Saturday from Shanghai, we decided to fly from Beijing on Friday night. This caused a little anxiety getting everyone to the airport from school and work, but it all worked out great thanks to Emma's teacher for arranging a driver for the kids to the airport.

Friday night we stayed at a brand new Marriott in Shanghai. It was pretty swanky!

We did not have much time in Shanghai before boarding the ship so we decided to go to the famous Bund to check out the skyline. It did not disappoint! This skyline resembles that of Hong Kong, very impressive!

male bonding at its finest

Besides the skyline across the river, The Bund is also known for the architecture. Each building is significant and represents a different architectural style, much of it is European. Not very Chinese at all.

E fell in love with many Chinese kids. We decided since they take pics of us, we can take pics of them too.

This is not the first time we have seen this, but definitely the first time we caught it on camera!

Our Royal Carribean ship, The Legend of the Seas, was docked right downtown which made for a beautiful backdrop once on deck.

our ships pool with Shanghai in the background

the lights just began to come on as we pulled away

Next stop is Osaka, Japan!

Bon Voyage!

2011-10-09T04:34:00.000-07:00

One of the nice things about living in China is that National Holiday week is in October and that means we all have an entire week off! We were told that many, many come to Beijing since it is the capital so we chose a Royal Caribbean cruise to Japan and South Korea for our holiday travel away.

embarking on the ship in Shanghai

our HUGE cabin

Our ship was the Legend of the Seas. We appreciated it being an American cruise line, there were small amenities from our culture. Most of the cruisers were Chinese and most of the crew spoke English and Chinese. There were 2,500 passengers, 90 Americans and 100 other foreigners (Canada, Australia and Europe). Most of the foreigners were like us who now live in China. It's a small world as we met a family who are family members of my sister's friends...did you get all that?

This is the first cruise for D who turned 10 just days before we left. This is E's second cruise, although she does not remember much about her first cruise. The kids had plenty to do and really loved the independence of being on the ship. They both really loved being able to charge anything to our room, including many trips to the arcade!

mini golf course aboard the ship

rock climbing wall above the waves

indoor pool~ this is where I spent a lot of my time

Of course food is such a HUGE part of a cruise. The food was okay. We have noticed a decrease in the quality of the food since our last cruise ten years ago. Of course the amount is plentiful. I felt the food in the dining room at night was the only food that was above par. It was nice to have real American burgers and pizza though. The boys really loved the self-serve ice cream by the pool. It is definitely a sign of the times when certain things there are an extra charge. Some examples were Ben & Jerry's ice cream, steak dinner, fresh squeezed orange juice, or Seattle's Best coffee.

escargot

D conquered the wall a few times during the week

B~I~N~G~O

we spent a few hours reading in the library too. Great view and comfy chairs!

we each gained at least 10 pounds!

Stay tuned for more posts of our ports in Shanghai, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Busan, South Korea!

A decade old

2011-09-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

He chose remote control tanks that fight eachother
on Saturday. His ripstik is still being shipped from US

Today my youngest turned TEN!

Yikes! That means:

He is a decade old!

He's heading into the "gawky" stage.

I no longer have "little" kids.

Only 9 years until his mission!

My baby weight is also a decade old! Holy crud!

I still remember my 10th birthday. My parents threw me a surprise party after Pop Warner cheerleading practice. I remember I got two t-shirts with rhinestones on them. They were SO cool!

We knew that this birthday would be different since he is just making friends in a new place. I hope he will remember his 10th birthday too!

a rickshaw ride to the restaurant on Monday night

After shopping for his gift of choice on Saturday, we knew we needed to "celebrate" Monday night instead of his real birthday since Dad would be on a business trip to Shanghai for the day. We had heard, from many people, of a pizza place called Kro's Nest. They recently changed their name to Tube Station Pizza. We went to the one in Sanlitun, inside Worker's Stadium North Gate. The outdoor seating was among tall trees and very nice landscape. You would have no idea you were in the middle of a city. I LOVED that they passed out bug spray to every table. The mosquitoes here are heavy duty and adore me!

this place is known for enormous pizzas

We sent in brownies for his class for his birthday.

D with classmates on his birthday with brownies

I made a sign for him while he was at school. He got so many shout-outs on Facebook so I included all of them on the sign. He felt very loved!

thanks to everyone who showed their love

On Tuesday night , when Dad was gone, we went to our favorite place (Peter's Tex Mex) and finally tried their chocolate cake. It was really good!

He is definitely a 10 year old boy!

Happy Birthday D! We are so blessed to have you in our lives!

The Temple of Heaven

2011-09-22T02:22:00.000-07:00

the grounds are enormous (270 acres) with pathways and trees

I have to remind myself that I am SO lucky to be able to do nothing except for explore a historic city whenever I want to.
As a matter of fact when I was home in CA, wondering what I would do all day, I pictured myself with my guidebook, alone, roaming the city and taking in the sights. And that is exactly what I did for the first time on Tuesday! Oh, don't get me wrong, I have been doing my fair share of exploring...but it is usually for things like "where to buy this" and "where to find that".
The sun was shining and I decided to head out to The Temple of Heaven. Some people like to travel alone. I think it is much for fun with others, but I didn't mind the peace and serenity I was able to have on the grounds.

I entered through the East Gate which is steps from the subway line 5, Tiantan Dongmen stop, exit A. I purchased an all inclusive ticket for 35 yuan for both the park and The Temple of Heaven. I heard that entering from the South Gate was how the emperors approached the temple so I turned left at the East Gate. This is the bridge that the emperors took.

Just like The Forbidden City the walls of the buildings here are red. Instead of yellow glazed tiles, there are beautiful blue tiles. The architecture of the surrounding buildings are similar to those of The Forbidden City, completed the same year (1420).

the famous doors with golden knobs in which people would rub for luck

I had pictured it less colorful but that is because I always saw it photographed in black and white

Can't wait to come back with the family! I will then look for the platform that used to house the throne, now an empty marble platform and the whispering wall. I guess I was just too excited to shop at the Pearl Market which is right across the street!

Please don't judge me for being shallow

The Imperial Palace~aka The Forbidden City~ aka The Palace Museum

2011-09-21T01:26:00.000-07:00

If you are starting to notice our clothes looking familiar, keep in mind we have not yet received our shipment.

It was sort of a bummer that a few days after this the skies returned to their normal hazy gray state.

To get to the Forbidden City take line 1 and exit Tian'anmen East, exit A will lead to a walkway under the street. You can either turn left to go to Tian'anmen Square or right to go to the Forbidden City.

When you see the portrait of Mao you may enter the outer courtyards for free. There are many vendors and crowds there. Walk farther and purchase your tickets to enter the palace grounds.

E was serving as photographer for the day

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace for the Ming and Qing Dynasty. It was built in 1406 and has 980 buildings.

yellow glazed roof tiles were only allowed on imperial palaces, temples and tombs

this is how the Bottoms roll

ancient carvings

one of two lions, this one symbolizes female

on the left is the throne

on the exterior courtyards a child chooses a head dress

Imperial gardens- oh the things that happened here

one of many pictures D was asked to pose in. Could this have been his arranged marriage?

Exiting at the back, after the garden, are spectacular views. Just be cautious to walk along the water instead of on the sidewalk. There are beggers that are maimed and disfigured and it is quite disturbing.

If you go to The Forbidden City expecting to see more than buildings that look like these, you may be disappointed. But thinking of the history and events that took place here is what makes it amazing.

To Market We Go ~ Silk, Ladies Street, Laitai, Pearl, Toys

2011-09-20T04:22:00.000-07:00

It is a way of life to shop at markets here in Beijing! Check out here for The Golden Five Star Market. Here are my impressions about a few of the markets I have been able to check out.

Silk Street Market~ Take Subway line 1 and exit at Yong'anli. I am lucky enough to live a 10 minute walk away. This market gets a bad rap, in my opinion. I hear it slammed on blogs and first hand but I really, really like it. As a matter of fact I have come to call it "my Target". When I came on our "fact finding trip" back in February I found this market and went back a few times. There is something about it that makes me feel very comfortable and at home here.

Yes, the vendors are aggressive! Yes, the vendors are grabby! Yes, the vendors like to touch my son's spiky, gelled hair! Yes, the vendors begin at very, very high prices (much higher than the Pearl Market because this is the most touristy market). But first off, they call me "pretty lady" and I LOVE it! Second, I play their game. I don't go when I am grumpy and I joke and full around with them, they love it and I love it!

D buying magic "tops". He's quite the haggler!

You can find EVERYTHING here from underwear, clothes, shoes, bags, toys, jewelry, watches, accessories, coats, home decor, souvenirs, DVDs, electronics, and more! Remember, you get what you pay for!
Tips: do not approach an item unless you for sure want it, they will give you a price on a calculator and you give them a price significantly lower (I usually do not pay over 200 yuan for ANYTHING), take out the cash you want to pay (once they see $ they usually cave), the more you buy, the better deal you get, walk away (don't be afraid, they will chase or call after you). Have a smile and a friendly demeanor and they will LOVE to practically give their stuff away!

Gourmet Alley at entrance of Ladies Street Market

Ladies Street Market~ This market is next door to the impressive United States Embassy. I found a few boutique-type shops right across the street that sold French and European style home decor. Gourmet Alley (pictured left) is a great way to enter the market. Yummy fried rice and noodle shops to give you sustenance for shopping!
This market carries much of what you can find at other markets, but catering to female needs and taste. The vendors are not aggressive at all and prices are not overly inflated. Be sure to check out the chinaware section, which you can enter from the street just past gourmet alley entrance.

view from outside the entrance of Laitai flower market

Laitai Flower Market~ Merely steps away from the Ladies Street Market is this flower market. It has an assortment of silk flower arrangements, outdoor furniture and garden ornaments, indoor trees, cut flowers, candles, and outdoor fish ponds.

I am told that they will even deliver your purchases (including indoor trees) to anywhere in Beijing for a nominal fee. I have seen scooters carrying indoor trees!

I went on a Friday and saw wedding preparations

Pearl Market~ A pleasant surprise to find this market at the same subway stop as The Temple of Heaven. Line 5, Tiantan Dongmen Station, exit A.

Very similar to the Silk Street Market, but brighter lights. I had heard so much about this market being a much friendlier market, although I thought the vendors were similar to those at Silk. The merchandise is similar as well, but I did notice the vendors did start their prices significantly lower than at Silk.

Just next door to Pearl Market are two other markets, one is a shoe market and the other is Toy City. We will definitely be going back to Toy City as it had the best selection of Beyblades and Legos we've seen yet.

Toy City next to Pearl Market

The Great Wall of China ~ Mutianyu

2011-09-18T04:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend Hubby and D were able to travel to The Great Wall for the first time. There are a few sections of the wall in close proximity to Beijing. They were traveling with D's cub scout pack and Mutianyu was the section that was chosen. This is known for the area being surrounded with beautiful greenery.

~In this location of the wall there is a moderate hike to get to the wall~

~This was the cub scout pack meeting. The cubs are all in yellow shirts~

~Dayton's first time at The Wall~

~Many sections of the wall are very, very steep~

~ A great memory for the boys~

~More stairs~

~A section that the boys liked to climb on the outside~

We can't wait to travel to The Great Wall together as a family!

Come visit us and we will be your our guides!

Blessings of living in China

2011-09-16T17:27:00.000-07:00

I realize that I am not always the most positive and grateful person there is...so I feel it is important to count my blessings as much as I can. Here are some blessings that have only come because we are living here.

An awesome education!

I cannot say enough how amazing my kids' international school is! The entire philosophy embraces that life experiences create knowledge. Each and every single day they are experiencing things at school that enhance their learning. Just this week, D began building robots from scratch and E spent two days and one night in the mountains of China!

Learning more about myself

Almost all I thought I knew about myself has had a perspective change. For example, I always felt I was a control freak and that I would control whatever situation I was in. I've learned that there are some situations that I cannot control. Really, I never experienced that before coming here.

Increased faith

It may be getting old to some of you, my constant weaving of my spirituality into each post. I cannot apologize for that because I have had to rely on my faith every minute of every day here so far. When you cannot rely on yourself or the people around you, you must rely on the Lord. I think it is mostly the isolation, caused by proximity and the language barrier, that makes me draw inward and seek Him in all that I do.

Strengthening of family

When it is all said and done, we are still the same people...just in a different setting. Of course moving here does not take away our less-than-desirable personality traits. There is still bickering and hurt feelings, but we have had to turn inward and rely on each other. Without hubby's horrendous commute, we are able to eat dinner more often together. We are also all present at scripture time. Each week we have a family excursion that builds memories and togetherness. I know that when we are done living here we will look back at how close we've become.

More time and more $

Aren't these the two things that everyone wants more of? Well, my life is not as busy as it used to be (for now). I am not able to volunteer at the kids' school due to the distance it is from our house. I am not working part time. My calling at church does not require many hours of preparation. I do not have to clean since we live in a serviced apartment. There is not any t.v. that appeals to me. I find myself having time to do the things that are most important for my family and myself. Some things I do are reading, writing, studying, exercising (so much walking), praying, a little bit of shopping and A LOT of thinking.

Because the cost of living can be cheaper here, I find my budget stretches farther. Of course, there is much opportunity for that not to be the case since I am within walking distance to Tiffany & Co, Gucci and Dolci & Gabbana. Because of our small apartment and knowing that we will have to transport things back to the states when we move back, I am less tempted to buy unnecessary items.

There IS beauty all around

It might take a little bit of searching but beauty is here. Each morning, when I am at Ritan Park my breath is literally taken away by the beauty that surrounds me. I can't remember that happening often in the city I yearn for back home. Also, I can never ever get tired of looking at the view out our windows. By day, the bushy green trees lead right up to interesting buildings. At night, those buildings light up, flicker, chase, blink and twinkle across the sky. Having this view is the epitome of living in a city.

Enhanced relationships abroad

There is something about leaving that makes people express themselves more openly. Also, most of my communication back home is written and people tend to"open up" more while writing. Each contact from back home is special to me. It is sad, but true, that we value things more once they are gone.

Experiencing new things each day

This is the one that can be a blessing, but also brings about a lot of anxiety too. Adventure is fun and exciting for a while, but as humans we crave familiarity and normalcy. Until China is familiar and normal to me I will continue to look at everything through new eyes and be bewildered, intrigued, and sometimes grossed out. The people here are kind, funny and hard workers. The city is populated, loud and busy. The food is flavorful, interesting and abundant. There are different smells with every step you take, some are good while most are not. Hopefully I will learn a new language soon. And how lucky to have historical, iconic, read- about places within our city boundaries and some within walking distance! When all is said and done, it is a huge blessing to say that I see something different, and out of my ordinary, every single day.

I know the blessings are pouring in! I know I can add to this list every day. I am grateful that my family is watched over and protected in this interesting new place we call home.

Being Mormon in China

2011-09-13T00:11:00.000-07:00

There were many things we had heard about practicing religion in the People's Republic of China.

Some of them were truth and some of them were myths.

Nevertheless, being a faithful Saint here has provided spiritual growth for us as a family so far!

Regulations~ Before we arrived we were sent a well-worded PDF file from the clerk of our new district. It gave specific guidelines about what we can and cannot do here in China. Printed in each bulletin, and read at the beginning of every sacrament meeting, is the following statement:

It is important for foreign members of the Church of Jesus

Christ of Latter-day Saints living in or visiting China to be

aware of the unique restrictions on religious activities here.

While China permits freedom of religious belief, it requires all

religious activities in China comply with relevant laws and

regulations.

We would like to remind you of the following:

a) no active or passive proselyting is permitted among local

nationals in China,

b) only individuals who hold foreign passports, and their

spouses, may attend meetings or other activities of this

branch,

c) no foreign nationals are permitted to participate in

activities of any kind with Chinese nationals who are

members of our church, and

d) religious materials may not be disseminated to Chinese

nationals in China.

Your strict observance of these rules enables us to build a

foundation of trust with government authorities and enables us to

continue to meet together as the government permits us to do so.

What does this mean? It means that we cannot speak, answer questions, or share anything about Jesus Christ, our church, His gospel, or God with anyone who does not hold a foreign passport. I do not come in contact with many Chinese Nationals yet, just taxi drivers and those that work at our apartment complex. Others have friends, ayis, drivers, business associates, etc. that they cannot talk to about our beliefs or where they go on Sundays. What this also means is that we can talk about it with anyone holding a foreign passport...that means possible neighbors, teachers and employees at the kids' school, classmates (since the International School only accepts foreign passport holders), etc. So far, this is not a problem for me since I do not talk to anyone:)

We were told not to bring anything religious with us, except for our scriptures. This was told to me by our shipping company. I think they were worried that other items would hold up customs.(Myth) I did not ship any religious books or artwork, which I regret. As long as it is only used for our own purposes we could have brought them. I will miss having a painting of the Savior on our wall, especially knowing that we could. I am grateful that I did send our painting of the Oakland Temple and I look forward to seeing it when our shipment arrives.

Organizations~ You always hear stories of churches and members being in remote areas of the world, meeting in homes or basements. I have to admit in my ignorance I thought we would be in a similar situation. Duh! Beijing has 18 million people, with thousands of foreign visitors weekly. Needless to say, we do not meet in a home. As a matter of fact we have heard that acquiring the office space, on the entire fourth floor of a building, was miraculous and inspiring. We have heard that in earlier days government officials would stand at the entrance of the meeting space and tell the handful of Saints that they could not meet. Sometimes these valiant Saints would go to two or three places before sacrament meeting could start.

The church is established for foreigners very well here! We are members of the Beijing China International District. Our district spans the entire face of China, all the way to Shanghai. Shanghai has a much smaller district. Our district has five branches, many of them do meet in less modern facilities such as homes or one room establishments. One of our branches is a "virtual" branch. This past weekend was our district conference. The Beijing first branch and third branch met together, while the other branches dialed in from teleconference devises. They listened to us and we listened to them (their talks and prayers) over speakers. It was said that over 770 people, most via teleconference, were able to participate in our district conference. What a testimony that the Lord knows us here in China and makes it possible for us to grow!

We have over 300 active members in our branch, much bigger than most of the wards we have been in. Our branch is English speaking, but encompasses foreign Saints from all over the world. That is because we live in downtown Beijing, so any LDS person in the city or visiting the city comes to our branch meetings. It makes for wonderful diversity and visitors each and every week. Some foreigners stay for three months, while studying a semester at the University, others stay for two years or longer. There is great pride (the good pride) in this branch. Many of the past branch presidents are now general authorities. Elder Anthony D. Perkins, of the first quorum of the seventy, is our Asia Area Authority and just came to our district conference. Hubby was able to spend lots of quality time with him and we all felt greatly of his love and Spirit. He was one of the past Branch Presidents.

The other auxiliaries are flourishing, as well. I am a primary teacher for twelve 4-7 year olds. Each primary class has two teachers, although classes cannot be split due to there not being enough rooms. E was just called as the class president for her girls youth group (Beehives). She currently has ten active girls in her class. Seminary is done via teleconference because the youth go to so many different international schools.

In Beijing there are two other branches. The other foreign branch is the Beijing third branch that encompasses the people that live on the outskirts of the city, Shunyi. This is where my kids school is and where there are housing compounds much like America. Our two branches meet overlapping on Sunday mornings. This is due to the fact that there is a Bejing second branch that has Chinese Nationals in it. We are not able to associate with these Saints at all. Hubby was actually in a meeting that had to end early because all foreigners have to be out of the facility before their church starts. You may ask how there are Chinese National Saints under the strict regulations of the government? These are Chinese people who have converted in other countries and have returned to China. Honestly, we do not know much about them at all and when a question was asked to Elder Perkins about these Saints he politely declined. Nevertheless, it strengthens my testimony that ALL people are Heavenly Father's children and He loves us all.

Opportunities~ Before moving to China we dwelt on the things that we were not going to be able to do as Latter-Day Saints. Now that we are here it is confirmed that there is plenty for us to do. Although we cannot speak about it as freely as we would like (come on, how many of you are afraid of sharing the gospel?) we still have much opportunity to spread the gospel in this land. At our recent conference a story was told about an LDS family taking a boat ride down the Yangtze River. The young woman working on the boat noticed something different about this family (besides them being non-Asian). She asked the man what was the secret behind their happiness. He knew he could not tell her. He gave her his business card and told her that if she is ever out of China to email him. She did. She immediately sought out the missionaries and joined the church in a different country.

When the question was asked to our district president, "How do we share the gospel to the wonderful people of China?" He responded, "Just live the gospel". That is what we plan on doing. We know that hubby's work was only part of the reason we were brought to China. Since we have been here we have heard time and time again, "Everyone who comes to live in Beijing, comes for a reason. Heavenly Father has a plan here for each of us." We are so grateful that the government allows us to worship and we look forward to finding out what the Lord's plan for us is here!

The "almost" Forbidden City

2011-09-09T18:49:00.000-07:00

Notice this blue sky! It is incredibly rare.

The kids were out of school for a staff development day so we decided to head to The Forbidden City and Tienenman Square.

We made it inside the main gate but decided not to go into the Forbidden City after all. We thought it would be best if we waited for Dad.

We think we have finally gotten all the uniformed men correctly identified now. These are police, marching in formation.

Across the street from Tienanmen Square.

We decided to have lunch at a very Chinese food stand. It was not the greatest. We ate what we needed to sustain us and left the rest. A drunk young man sat down at our spot and proceeded to finish our leftovers. We were a little creeped out, but glad it did not go to waste.

Tienanmen there are GIANT screens. Behind is the biggest monument in China.

Another funny moment of the day was when my children created a crowd to take pictures with them. This group, all one at a time, posed with E and D. The ladies were giggling, as well as the men.

What's to Eat? - Donghuamen Night Market

2011-09-04T05:32:00.000-07:00

Just at the North entrance of Wangfujing in Beijing, you will find the Donghuamen Night Street Food Market!

I first saw this market on this show. I had never forgotten these "burrito-type" creations out of my mind. So when I saw them I knew that was going to be my dinner.

First they take a very thin pancake (see back of above photo) and slather it with sauce. They ask if you would like fresh green onion, yes! Next they add shredded vegetables like carrots, cucumbers and cabbage (see left of above photo). Last they fill it with the meat concoction, which is chicken here. It was exactly like I was hoping, SO GOOD!

Seasoned lamb on a stick is a staple in Beijing. This is colleague of hubbys from the States that we just happen to run into.

D was not digging the "exotic" smells of the market. He chose to play it safe with one of these beautiful fresh fruit cups. He wouldn't even let them put jello on it.

E had her eye on fried ice cream! It has a sweet, crunchy outer crust and is served on a piece of French toast.

When we came for a visit in February I LOVED these fresh fruit dipped in sugar creations! Of course we all had to try one.

~deep fried bananas~

~lamb legs~

~tea with dry ice~

~very garlicky oysters~

~French fries between two fried eggs~

Some things we did not dare to try!

~lamb heart (left) & silk worms (center)~

~lots and lots of eel~

~drippy squid~

~centipede~

~mini scorpions~

~not so mini scorpions~

~ crickets~

~ I have no clue what these are~

~snake~

~sea horse~

~live, creepy, crawly scorpions~

And if you were wondering if people actually eat these things...well, this guy does!

This, by far, has been our most fun night in Beijing so far!

A Night In Beijing ~ Wangfujing

2011-09-04T05:04:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we decided to head out on the town. Of course our teen was protesting in every way, but by the end of the night she admitted that it was really fun. Success!

We headed just two subway stops away on line 1 to Wangfujing. We had no idea what to expect. When we got there we found it was full of people and lights and was the cleanest part of Beijing we have seen.

Please excuse the quality of these pictures.

When you head north down Wangfujing, there is an alley off to the left side.

You will see these two cute characters greeting you.

The alley is an interesting venue for tourist kiosks. It was fun to bargain and see many trinkets for sale. There were also some creepy critters on sticks for sale to eat. (See next post)

Wangfujing is a wide street where cars are not allowed. This is such a relief and a break to fighting traffic. There are stores and restaurants all along the street. The lights and screens are almost as impressive as Time Square.

Even though many locals prefer to stay away from the tourist spots, I felt so comfortable here. It was nice to see people enjoying the evening leisurely. We will definitely visit here again. It is located right next to Tienanmen Square.

A funny thing happened while we were wandering down the street. A Chinese lady looked at me and said my husband's name. He was walking a few steps ahead of me. I was very, very curious why this stranger knew my husband's name. I soon found out that they were with the same company and had just seen each other in the States. She had just arrived in Beijing for a business trip. We were all baffled that we ran into her among millions of people. She spent the rest of the evening with us, which was great since she spoke Chinese!

Rations

2011-09-04T04:52:00.000-07:00

Since we have been in Beijing we have noticed that some food items are just really expensive, or they just don't taste like home. So when hubby had a business trip back to the states last week he brought an extra suitcase.

He filled it!

chocolate chips

cake mixes

brownie mixes

Crystal Light and Propel

Instant Oatmeal

Sugar-free Jell-o

Sugar-free Pudding

See's candy

gel toothpaste (for 13 year old's retainer)

Fahrenheit oven thermometers

So, of course, we had to make brownies today after church! I forgot that we did not have measuring cups so I had to estimate on the oil and water. Then, I assumed the pictures on the oven wrong and ended up broiling our first batch!

Everything, even the little things, create a story!

What does a 9 (almost 10) year old American boy do in Beijing?

2011-09-02T00:32:00.000-07:00

This guy deserves a blog post all to himself!

He turns 10 this month. I don't think he has struggled any more than any of us in this relocation, I just think he is the most verbal about it. He is a "grass is always greener on the other side" guy. When he's in school he wishes he were out. When he is in China he wishes he were in the USA. Nevertheless, one may ask:

What does a 9 (almost 10) year old American boy do in Beijing?

He plays ping pong with the locals!

The hardest part for him has been not having friends in our building. He is so used to having many buddies who will come out to play at a moments notice.

He goes to Cub Scouts!

For those of you who have been worried about him, he does have friends! Last Saturday he went to his first cub scout activity. Don't feel too bad for him! In two weeks he gets to hike The Great Wall on his next scout activity.

He rock climbs!

The same Saturday as the cub scout activity he was invited to a birthday party by a boy at church. He and this boy clicked since day 1. They went to an indoor rock climbing place and had a blast!

I guess I am glad that I was not there to see him jump from the top.

He gets his haircut!

If you saw our building you would be very surprised to know that we have a full-fledge "salon" on our third floor! They do hair and nails and massages and some other type of things that puff up your lips and unwrinkle your eyes. I even saw a picture of boob lifts and cellulite squeezing. I have no idea what goes on at this place because I don't read Russian. Yes, Russian.

Anyhow, I took Dayton there for his haircut. The guy spoke a little English so his hair turned out great! He even got it washed, which our local Great Clips never did. I paid 30 kuai ($4.50) for his haircut. Oh, and there is no tipping in China. The funny thing was both guys there tried to talk me out of cutting off his sideburns. They told me, "in China a boy is ugly with no sideburns". Sorry guys, we are not yet Chinese. So off went the sideburns.

Will I be getting a massage there anytime soon? Well, the convenience is tempting since there would be no foul taxi driver to belittle me. But, we shall see how brave I really am.

He chills with his dog!

When we get really, really bored we re-watch an episode or two of "Ugly Betty" which we bought on DVD.

He also rides the bus to school an hour each way .

He also crosses a busy street walking home from the bus stop.

He is learning Chinese at school.

He has befriended even the toughest boys in fourth grade.

He will soon be building robots and running after school.

And he does all of this with a smile on his face ~

when he's not complaining.

What's to Eat?- Eating Out Nearby

2011-09-01T19:30:00.000-07:00

I had learned from this blog that eating out is essential to living in China. I have learned this to be true,quickly, due to the fact that it is, many times, cheaper than cooking at home AND it is just a pain in the rear to grocery shop every other day!

I thought I'd share what we have right outside our building.

First you have to walk down Ya Bao Lu, which is the Russian street. It is dirty and lined with Chinese selling furs. Notice the baby on the scooter and his haircut.

Chinese~

This is a dumpling place that we can get to in two minutes. You can buy a dozen fresh dumplings through that window for 10 kuai ($1.50). They are really good. You can also go inside and eat...if I would've known I'd be eating in a place like this a month ago I would've said, "NO way!" When in Rome...

Just behind the dumpling place is hubby's favorite neighborhood place.

This is a picture of the outside.

Check your snobbiness at the door of this place. Well, most places...

The inside.

Notice the cut out holes in the wall that they pass the food through from the kitchen. I try not to imagine what the kitchen looks like.

The view from the inside looking out. In China there is a rating system of restaurants based on cleanliness. A is a high standard, D is poor.

This restaurant is not even rated, which scares me a bit.

Why in the world do we eat here then?

Because here is our dinner for four. It is really good. Emma loves the fried rice.

Total these three dishes cost us 30 kuai ($4.50).

But one can only eat Chinese so many times a week!

Western~

Living in one of the embassy districts, there are plenty of non-Chinese food restaurants nearby. We have eaten at TGIFriday's, Subway, Grandma's Kitchen, Steak N' Eggs. There is also Sizzler. Of course we are within walking distance to McDonald's, Burger King and KFC. Did you know there are more KFC's in Beijing than McDonald's?

By far, my very favorite restaurant that I have eaten at is called "Peter's Tex-Mex".

I cannot even tell you how much I LOVE this place!

First of all, there is real American country music playing. Second, the food is amazing! Third, you can order diet sodas (hard to find elsewhere). Fourth, they deliver!! Fifth, they speak English!

To eat at Peter's Tex-Mex for my family is costs around 200 kuai ($30.00) and that is not ordering a steak. That is just your basic tacos, nachos or wraps. They also have something that I thought about in the states for a while. They have an area right in the main area where kids can play while the parents eat. Where was this when my kids were little?

There are many more restaurants to explore.

I will keep them coming!

IKEA in Beijing- Dress the Nest

2011-08-31T02:34:00.000-07:00

I knew, even before we came, that Ikea would be an important place to me here in Beijing. This has proven to be correct.

When we moved here we knew we would have problems with storage. Our management was so gracious and supplied us with this enormous wardrobe (above) and the food storage seen below. The wardrobe was delivered in pieces in true Ikea fashion and it took a day and a half for our maintenance men to put it together. It was so tall (someone did not measure) that the only place in our apartment it would fit was in D's room. His bedroom has higher ceilings. They had to take the wall mounted t.v. off the wall and reroute the cable line. Then, after all this was done, I opened it up and there was nothing! There were no bars, shelves or drawers. When I asked management about it they said they ran out of money, we have to buy them ourselves. Basically we have a GIANT piece of furniture that we can't even use.

I really tried to make it until our shipment got here! Our shipment will not be to us until October and I was going crazy with all the sterile environment. I have learned that just like men have an innate urge to provide for their family, women have an innate urge to "dress the nest". I thought I would be okay with the apartment dishes and such, but I quickly found that to truly feel at home I needed to pick some things out for myself!

I headed to Ikea! At first the taxi drive did not want to take me, but that is another story.

It was so great to wander through Ikea all by myself, with nowhere to be in the near future. I could have filled three carts with everything I need and wanted to buy. This is already my second trip here and something tells me there will be plenty more. Can you imagine starting from complete scratch after sixteen years of marriage? It is fun, but I wish we could afford more than Ikea.

These are the things I purchased. Mind you I carried it ALL by myself, which was not an easy task. I was very thankful for my trolley on wheels and that nothing was broken on the journey.

Our dining room centerpiece.

New matching glasses. The ones our apartment gave us are all mismatched and used.

Our coffee table is HUGE! This is just something I liked, but will probably not stay there once our shipment comes. Actually, as we buy things that are more our taste we can have management take out pieces of furniture. This coffee table would be the first to go.

This was the other piece that our apartment manager purchased for us. It holds our food. If you know me, you know I love glass canisters. I love to display everyday items such as sugar and flour. Nothing feels more homey to me than baking ingredients.

Decorating is a passion of mine. I love to have beautiful things around me. Living in Asia, it is a challenge, as it is not my taste. But I am learning ways to incorporate my own style.

Stay tuned as I continue to dress our nest!

Golden Five Star Market & Metro Outing

2011-08-26T02:22:00.001-07:00

This is how today began...wet!

This picture is at the bus stop at 7:00am. The streets were completely flooded and our feet were soaked! D doesn't look very happy for a Friday!

I had planned on meeting some ladies and heading to a market, I was contemplating it with the weather. But I decided, "what the heck" and opened my umbrella and made the 15 minute walk to our closest subway. I took the subway for about 30 min and got off on line 13 Dazhongsi. Our meeting place was exit A. Most subway stops have two to four exits that put you out onto different sides of an intersection. If you take the wrong exit, it could mean a headache to get where you want to go. It is common, when learning subway directions, to hear exits also.

At many subway stops there are food vendors, especially at breakfast time. This vendor was making fried pancake-type things with eggs wrapped in them. They looked quite popular.

Here is what the outside of a typical "mall" looks like. Some do have American stores like North Face, Zara, H&M and Gap but they are extremely expensive. Today we are not shopping at the mall, we are hitting the Golden Five Star Market! After a friend and her driver (sigh) picked me up we were on our way. From exit A you could walk by taking the stairs down and going under the subway tracks. Turn right down the dirt road that runs parallel to the tracks, the market will be on your left side.

This is what a typical market looks like. Many markets have specialties like jewelry, clothes, art, etc. This particular market specializes in stationery, home goods, framing, some clothes, etc. Each stall has it's own number and may sell unique things or things you could find at many stalls. I found one stall that just had gift wrapping, gift bags and ribbon. There were not too many like that.

This is where to come for kitchen supplies. I will probably come back after our shipment arrives to fill in the missing pieces. I really could have bought dishes. Our apartment only has four plates, four bowls, etc. Our glasses are all mismatched. I know I did not ship any of my dishes or glasses. For now we will make do.

Some stalls sell sewing items. Other stalls will let you pick out fabric and they will make your throw pillows for 20 yuan a pillow. That is about $3.00 each.

After a quick bite to eat at McDonald's (does yours have this new drink that has mango, sprite and ice cream? They are SOOOOO good!) we headed to a place called Metro. It is similar to Costco (ahhhhh) and the driver we were with has a membership. No Costco hot dogs here though! He so graciously took us and let us go in with his membership. I heard this was the place to get my much-needed crock pot!

And it was! I found a huge crock pot for 289 yuan, which is $45.00.

Yay, now I can cook!

It is very, very similar to our Costco in the states. Bulk items of everything and specialty items like electronics and luggage. A few things you just don't see at Costco are live fish and live frogs you can purchase (not intended to be pets).

I would LOVE to have a membership here but could you imagine shopping and then getting a taxi? Today Bill, the driver, was sweet enough to take me all the way back to my apartment. Quite a luxury indeed!

Taking our Dog to Beijing, China- Part II

2011-08-24T20:54:00.000-07:00

For part I of this post, click here.

As you can see, Jupiter is back home and safe with us! He is healthy, happy and the same little doggy that we left a full month ago.

All along we were told it was a 30 day quarantine. We mapped it out on a calendar and decided that Sunday was his day to be released. Hubby decided to call on Friday to see if we could pick him up on Saturday instead. They informed him that Sunday was NOT his release day. It was not a 30 day count quarantine, it was a full month quarantine -from date to date. So that changed his release day to Tuesday. It was heart wrenching to be so close. We kept ourselves busy all weekend and found a pet store (by chance) and purchased the last few things for him. We got an indoor potty and some puppy pads. A week before I had headed out to a vet and purchased a dog carrier and a dog dish. I also had made a check up appointment and grooming appointment. Both of those had to be canceled with the change of dates.

On Monday hubby had to call again to allow them to prepare the paperwork. At that time they advised him to call back (ugh!) Tuesday morning at 10am to give an exact pick up time. Of course, hubby had an important meeting at that exact time. With all the red tape it is easy to forget he is actually here to work! We had a back up plan for me to call just in case 9:45 was too early.

Finally the day came and we were all as excited like it was Christmas morning! The kids headed off to school and I tried to stay busy. I heard from hubby after his meeting that he was headed to the airport to get Jupiter. He took a train but got there in a reasonable amount of time. He had to go to the airport just to get a piece of paper! Then he had to hop in a taxi and head to some-out-of-the-way place where Jupiter had been for the last month. When he got there they were all on their lunch!! Will this never end? While waiting he walked around and noticed there were rooms for people to be quarantined...can you even imagine?

Finally hubby and Jupiter were reunited! He said that Jupiter jumped right up onto him and he knew that all was well. They jumped in a taxi and headed home. I have not felt such pure joy in such a long time as when I got to give him a love. It was like seeing a baby...ok, I know! Weird!

We gave him a bath. So far, he is not using the indoor potty we bought for him. We are taking him down stairs to go potty and it is okay. Then at 4:30 I walked him out to the bus stop to meet up with D. E would not be getting home until later as she had softball practice. I think D had forgotten that Jupiter would be there to greet him as he got off the bus. I will never forget the look on his face as he saw him. It was the first time, since we've been in Beijing, that I saw utter happiness on D's face.

We have all had a sense of relief since he's been home with us. We all sleep a little sounder. We don't know how he was treated or what went through his mind, we never will know, but we do know that he is the same loving guy!

There will be a part III to this series. We still need to register him with the police and get him a check up at the vet. Getting to the vet will be interesting as we hear that only some taxis will allow dogs.~sidenote~ One more reason to be discriminated against by the taxi drivers! They sometimes don't stop because we are not Chinese. They sometimes don't stop because I have children. They sometimes will kick us out if they don't like where we are going.

For now, we are happy to be all together as a family again!

Chinese Grocery Shopping

2011-08-22T18:29:00.001-07:00

127.00 Yuan = around $20.00

Don't worry! I will not be documenting all of my grocery trips.

Many of you have asked what I buy. This was just a daily "run to the store" and only includes a few things. Pictured above are two umbrellas (they are used as much for the sun as the rain here), cherry tomatoes, hand soap, ice cream cones (after school treat), jelly drops, dried peas, Propel-like drink, four bottles of strawberry yogurt drink. These people are fanatic over their yogurt!

Now I will tell you what I DO NOT buy yet...meat. We have bought frozen meat, but fresh meat sits out in the open on ice and you grab it and wrap it yourself. It scares me a bit.

I am having a really hard time remembering how to cook and feed my family. I know it sounds crazy, but this culture is so far removed from what my normal is, sometimes it is hard to do common tasks like cooking. Plus we do not have our shipment yet. I have many, many essential kitchen items there (like cookbooks).

Do you remember this post? Well, that handy dandy item is in our shipment too. I realized right in the middle of making spaghetti that we had no way to open cans. I ran down to Bonjour and bought the only can opener they had (pictured below). It does not work at all! Emma was so desperate for a home cooked meal that she took the challenge of opening our can of beans with a knife! Eventually it worked!

Speaking of Emma, one of her enrichment classes this semester is called "Scratch Cooking". It is set up a little bit like "Next Food Network Star". They each have had to find recipes for 5 appetizers, 5 savory dishes, 5 sweet dishes. The key is, all ingredients have to be from scratch- no pre-packaged anything. Also, equipment is very, very limited. Each week they are divided into groups. There is a team leader who decides which recipes from the group they are going to prepare. The team has to provide the ingredients (great! I can't even shop for my own family, let alone her class!) Then each team prepares all three recipes in front of the class, enough for everyone to taste. It sounds challenging for us, but great for her! Opportunities like this are the reason her Facebook post yesterday was

"how can i stress it enough? IM LOVIN SCHOOL! :D ((besides all the homework))"