journal of a wacky expat family
One of the exciting things about going shopping is never knowing if the store will be open. Jess went to her tailor (Jessie) to check on her order and we found the shop locked, dark and the following sign on the door:
As we're learning here, sometimes you just need a little rest.
It occurred to Jess and I that many of you aren't familiar with the squat-style toilets that are very common here. So this weekend when I was getting take-out I snapped this picture. There is a definite art to it and Addi is by far the best in the family. Balance is the key ...
Hello all!! Doug came and visited us for a week and we had a splendid time! It was fantastic to have company, we really missed him, and it was great to finally get out and see the sights in and around Beijing. We thought for sure our shipment would have arrived before Doug, but since it didn't he also brought us some much needed things from the US. :) He picked a perfect time to come, during National Holiday in China, so the kids and Mitchell were off for the entire week. We did a lot of sight-seeing, but we also did a lot of hanging out and relaxing. It was a wonderful mix, we just hope Doug enjoyed it as much as we did! :)
I think the thing we did the most was eat this week...there were so many places we wanted to take Doug to and so many new places we wanted to try. Since we were basically on vacation too, we figured why not! We only struck out a couple of times, one recommendation from Mr. Ren (hot pot) was disastrous, but all in all it was fabulous.
Eating at Ganges, one of our favorite Indian Restaurants.
Din Tai Fung...yummy dumplings!!
Doug's favorite...with the hot pot. :)
This is one of our absolute favorite restaurants in all of Beijing, Let's Burger. It was so delicious!! Good pick Doug!
Addi was thrilled she finally got to have french onion soup again!
Showing off their Iowa pride. :)
Mitchell's creative photography.
We had an absolutely gorgeous day over the weekend and were able to spend the entire day walking around and hanging out at Chaoyang Park. It is a huge park in the middle of the city, it was beautiful. There were trails for walking/running, kite flying, grass for football games (we actually saw a pretty pitiful attempt at an American flag football game...quite funny), a ropes course in the trees, water activities, Olympic Volleyball court, etc. etc. We even got to observe some pretty bizarre photography in the park. For once we were the ones pointing and taking pictures. It was great! :)
Yes, they are fishing in a swimming pool for gold fish that they take home.
The next day found us at the Beijing Zoo...this was an experience. :) It was packed because of National Day and we were quite the spectacle. There were (literally) more people lined up to take pictures of us, or with the kids than there were people taking pictures of the animals. Every time we would stop to try and see an animal a line would form around us of people wanting a picture. The kids were troopers and at one point Addi actually told Mitchell "it's ok dad, its kind of like being Hannah Montana". People would pose their kids around ours, putting their arms around them, etc. There were also quite a few people who would just come up and want to touch Addi's hair. It was a crazy experience for sure! It was a little overwhelming too and after we saw the Great Panda exhibit we took a quick walk around and then left.
Good thing daddy is tall or she never would have seen the pandas! :)
Truman is such a good sport. He smiles for anyone! :)
This poor girl followed Addi around the zoo for 10 minutes before she got her picture.
We finally made it to the Great Wall!! It was definitely a highlight of the week to visit a portion of the Great Wall at Mutanyu. It was absolutely surreal to be on the wall, amazing history. The kids loved it and actually walked with us for almost 3 hours before complaining they were tired! We took a chair lift up to the wall from the village and then a toboggan sled down when we were done. It was so much fun!! I can't wait to take more visitors when they come. There are so many portions of the wall that are just a short drive from Beijing...we will have to try more, but the slide was great fun! :)
Super excited to be on the chairlift!
Doug and Henry having fun on the toboggan slide on the way down from the Great Wall.
Doug's favorite wall sales lady. :)
The toboggan slide from the chairlift.
If you look really hard you can find Doug and Henry waving in the picture...its a little easier when you click the picture and it gets bigger. :)
Jess and Truman on the slide.
Henry and Addi had so much fun playing with their new Great Wall swords, while daddy did a little negotiating. :)
Mitchell trying to get a better price. :)
Mitchell and Truman on the chairlift.
After that we went to the Ming Tombs, another recommendation from Mr. Ren. :) I can't say it was my favorite thing and don't know that I will revisit it, but it was interesting. We visited Ding Ling tombs which originally housed an emperor and two empresses. Everything in the tomb was a replication, but people were throwing yuan after yuan onto the throne, tombs, etc. I guess maybe I just don't understand it...but I found it quite odd. We did come across a couple of our favorite "Chinglish" signs here though...gotta love it! :)
This is the slope the sign in the next picture is referring to. :)
This is by far my favorite one!! :)
We also took Doug to the Pearl Market and the "secret handbag shop". You can't come to China and not buy something fake! :) On the way we did a drive by of Tianamen Square, next time we will actually get out of the car.
Here are a few more random pictures from the week. We had an amazing time and loved finally getting out to see the city. We can't wait for him to come again!! :)
Mitchell here.
Jīntiān de tiānqì qíngkuàng fēicháng bù hǎo! That's what I told Mr. Ren (our driver) today as I got back into our Buick GL8 after dropping the kids off at school and starting my commute to work (although since Mr. Ren drives me, does that make it our commute to work?).
I'm not sure if we've mentioned the Buick GL8 before but it's the de facto expat minivan around here. It only comes in two colors: dark blue or silver and it's what all the cool kids are driving these days. When we were looking for cars to lease back in July, we were offered three GL8s (all dark blue) to choose from. You guessed it, we went with the dark blue. I asked the rental agent if it also came in "navy" but she didn't get it. If she spoke English I bet we would've been laughing together instead of just me. Anyway, the GL8 is L.A.M.E. but it's become our home-away-from-home in the world's worst traffic. We'd take it over a taxi any day.
So back to the tiānqì (the weather); it was absolutely rotten today.
Snow? No.
Cold and windy? Not really.
Thunderstorm? Wrong.
Pollution? Yup, and lots of it. It was basically like running around in a slightly smelly cloud all day.
So back to me, Mr. Ren, our kick-ass GL8 on the open road, heading into work this morning. I wanted to take a picture with my new iPhone (thanks Jess!) to show you guys what it's like but the scenery wasn't cooperating at 80kph (I've been here five months and I still have no idea what the k stands for). I took these pictures so you'd get a feel for the pollution.
But then I turned my head and saw the sun rising over the buildings next to the Expressway. Somehow, I was able to stare directly at the sun without eye protection.
I should say, it's not normally like this and most days I have a nice view of many of the tall buildings that make up Beijing's NE skyline (that's only a fraction of Beijing's skyline. Beijing currently has 899 high-rise buildings). On really nice days I can see the mountains that circle the north and west sides of the city.
P.S. Jīntiān de tiānqì qíngkuàng fēicháng bù hǎo! means today the weather situation is very bad. Or at least that's what I think it means ...
P.P.S. Katie, before you comment, I was only joking about not knowing what the k in kph stands for. It's Chinese for miles, obviously. :)
2010-12-02 Update: Okay, Jess said no one understands my joke. I know kph = kilometers per hour. I was just being witty.
Mitchell here.
Jess and I were at the tailor last week when we discovered that China has their own unit of length very similar to the inch, called a cun. When I remarked how odd it was that the Chinese had their own version, he politely reminded me that China had been using this system for thousands of years. The way he said it implied that whatever us new kids are using over in America is simply a fad that will eventually go away when China takes over the world.
And just in case I find myself in the dire situation of trying to order pants in a China controlled world, I made a mental note that mine should be 26 cun long.
For those craving a little more background, you can read about the Chinese cun on wikipedia.
Hey everyone, Mitchell here.
This year we're celebrating our Thanksgiving 2010 here in China on Friday because the kids' schedules work out better. We're having our friends from California come over to help us celebrate and we've been looking forward to our little slice of Americana here in the Eastern Hemisphere for quite a while. We've been preparing for a few days now but unfortunately things haven't gone as smoothly as we'd have liked.
Turkey. Check. Wait, it's still frozen? Hmmm, the turkey is still frozen and it's been 'thawing' in the refrigerator for 3 days now. If it doesn't magically finish thawing tonight we'll need to do so fancy cold-water thawing tomorrow morning. Speaking of turkey, we got ours at the market near the embassy district. It's a frozen 14.5 lb Chinese turkey (or huǒ jī as it's referred to around here. That literally means 'fire chicken'). My chicken people at the market didn't carry any so we had to drive down to Sanlitun to pick one up. And the only reason I know it's 14.5 pounds is because I stood with it on the scale in our bathroom. :) Our tiny oven won't accommodate a roasting pan so we're kicking it old school with a rack and some tin foil. I'll let you know how it turns out.
I finished the pecan pie tonight. It would've been finished earlier but Jess and I had to shell the fricking pecans by hand! Now we know why they're so expensive, they're impossible to shell without completely destroying them. In the end it didn't really matter since my Chinese convection oven burned the pie. Oh well, I'll cover up the burnt taste with Cool Whip when we eat it. Oh wait, they don't have that there either. Sigh. I may be the only one eating my burnt, pecan dust pie with no whipped cream tomorrow although Henry will probably help too.
We're making Mom's cheesy potatoes. No frozen hash browns so we're going to manually grate the potatoes. I have no idea how well that will work. I'm more concerned with the lack of Cream of Celery and Cream of Potato soups. We're going to supplement with Cream of Mushroom (must be internationally loved since they sell it here) and just ignore the mushrooms.
Jess made pumpkin and banana bread. That turned out well. Apparently she's more vigilant with the Chinese convection oven than I am.
She also made a kick-butt cheese ball that we can snack on all day while we're cooking the rest of our meal. We typically eat it with Wheat Thins, but, you guessed it, you can't get those here. Typically in this situation I'd settle for Triscuits, but I think you know where this is going ... In the end, Jess bought 4 brands of foreign crackers; hopefully one will be a hit.
The biggest Thanksgiving issue we seem to be encountering is the complete lack of football on TV. Unfortunately, I won't get to see the Lions lose. I'll catch it late on Sportscenter. Oops, no I won't. They don't have that here either. I need to befriend someone who works at the U.S. Embassy; I bet they have dish.
I know for a fact our cranberries are going to rock. We had Ocean Spray put them in a can especially for us.
We'll be sure to take pictures and get them uploaded. No really, I promise we will.
I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving. We miss you all.
Hey everyone, Mitchell here.
Well it took exactly 90 days but we've managed to corrupt our driver, Mr. Ren. When we first hired him, he announced proudly that he did not drink alcohol, coffee or tea. He has faithfully driven us to Starbucks and Costa Coffee every time we asked. As he dropped us off he would typically make a comment similar to "coffee sleep no good" or "coffee make the body rowdy" (yes, amazingly our driver knows the word "rowdy").
A few weeks ago we were returning home from running errands and I noticed a McDonalds sack in the front seat. I've heard him repeatedly mention that he didn't like McDonalds food so I felt I had to give him a hard time. It turns out that he went there to get a coffee! Apparently, after so many times seeing us get morning coffee, afternoon coffee, and nighttime coffee, he felt like he needed to try it. We asked him how he liked it and he said it wasn't very good.
The next day Jess bought him a Caramel Latte at Costa Coffee and now he's addicted! Each time we pass by he asks me if I want to stop for coffee. Too funny!
I suck, plain and simple. I am sorry it took 3 months to get pictures of the inside of our house posted. I guess the only excuse I can come up with is that I wanted to have it look more "homey" in here before you guys saw it. I wanted to put some sort of signature Cooper family mark on it. :) It is still not quite complete, but done enough that I will share. :) We got confirmation this weekend that our shipment is scheduled to arrive today. They are already late, so we will see what happens. We are sooo excited to get our things, blankets especially, our house is freezing!! It is so sad that we are so anxious for the "things", but will help the homesickness a little I am hoping. I promise you more blogs to come this week. It is written in my planner with ALL CAPS!! :) Wish you guys were here...Addi reminds me daily how much she is missing everyone in Colorado and in Iowa and she just doesn't understand why they don't come if she is missing them. Doug did it, so why can't everyone else?! It is a very hard concept for a 5!! year old. Sending our love...
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| Laundry Room in the basement...still no dryer. |
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| The only Chinese piece of furniture I have bought. :) |
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| The office...the desk is so tall my feet don't touch the floor. We were going to have them shorten it (we had it made), but it fits Mitchell perfectly so I am making do. :) |
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| The hallway in the basement leading to the laundry room. |
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| Living room in the basement (my favorite room!!) |
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| Kids' toy room. |
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| Looking into the toy room from the living room. We had the bench and the train table in the picture made. |
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| Our awesome couches that I looked high and low for!! :) |
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| My favorite part about the room are the pictures. You can click on the pictures on this page, the ones that don't have a caption, to see the pictures bigger. |
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| Yes we think it is quite odd as well to have the toilet encased with glass...don't give you much privacy. :) |
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| Master bathroom. |
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| Closet in the master bedroom...its a little lacking. |
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| Master bedroom...we had all of this furniture made. |
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| Master bedroom. |
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| Spiral staircase. I love it!! |
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| Henry's room...he saved up his money to buy his own plant...cost him 20rmb (almost $3). |
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| Henry's room. |
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| We bought Henry a "closet' to try and close off his room because it only had 3 walls and no door. He doesn't mind and loves how his room is turning out. He can't wait for the rest of the Star Wars decorations and bedding to get here! |
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| Addi's room. |
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| Mitchell's $500 grill. We are enjoying it, but the price took a while to get used to! |
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| The little kitchen, yes there are 2. |
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| Living room off the kitchen. |
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| I love this plant...its in the guest bedroom. |
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| Guest bedroom. |
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| Mitchell didn't want to be left out of the picture taking. :) Yes, girls he is drinking | Starbucks! |
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| Dining room. |
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| Living room on the first floor. |
I just realized I didn't take any pictures of the larger kitchen...oops. Will do that in the morning and add those in. I am off to bed now.
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| Henry the gargoyle |
Ok, so I hate to admit how long it took me to get this posted...and it still looks goofy. Oh well, I know you want to see pictures, so here you go. I am almost done furniture shopping and am excited to post pictures of the finished product soon. Check back, I will get more things posted this week for sure!! |
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| The back of our house |
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| Our sidewalk |
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| Our house |
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| Our house with the "garden" below. |
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| Our mailbox that is only for decoration...they hand deliver our mail to our door at night (we have only gotten 2 things...hint hint) :) |
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| Our gate and sidewalk |
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| Heading to the pool |
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| The stairs can be a bit much at times...good thing we opted for the big stroller! :) |
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| The entrance to our garage. |
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| Tree with an IV. |
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| Entrance to the park, we have no idea what it says. :) |
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| The park is gorgeous!! Lots of room to run around! |
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| The pool at the park. |
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| He loves his shirt. :) |
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| All of the parks have areas with exercise equipment. |
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| Ping pong. :) |
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| I thought this was so bizarre...I am pretty sure they cut down more trees to hold up the new ones than they actually planted. |
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| This is exactly why I don't give Mitchell the camera very often. :) |
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| The back of our house. |
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| Add caption |
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| Our front door |
More pictures to follow soon...I will write about Doug's visit next. We had a fantastic week and I have a lot of pictures to post our adventures too!! Will do my best to do it tomorrow. We have a huge week ahead of us (Mitchell and I will be married for 9 yrs on Tuesday and Adeline turns 5 on Wednesday!!). Love to all!!
I apologize, dear friends and loyal readers, about not getting a blog posted for quite some time. I have been under the weather with a common ailment called "homesickness", which can also be described with the symptoms of grumpiness, irritability, self pity and a very negative outlook on all things China. I thought it would pass and was just going to wait it out and then write a nice uplifting post ignoring the last few weeks of my life. However, since this pain of an ailment seems to only disappear and then come back days (or sometimes hours) later, I guess I just need to write about it and be done...maybe then I can have a break from it. :) More to come soon...promise.
