journal of a wacky expat family
We somehow convinced Doug to stay an extra 4 days with us once we got back fromThailand. It was so much fun to have him in Beijing again! The weather was great, the air was not too bad and we did a lot of sightseeing. We flew kites in Olympic Park, ate at Din Tai Fung, and we finally got to see the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square (and this time we actually got out of the car). :) Henry was the photographer, great pictures buddy![gallery orderby="ID"]
I am still in awe...in 3 months we have been in the US, China, Philippines, and Thailand...crazy!! We are so fortunate (and thankful) to be able to travel to exotic places so often. I never thought I would travel to Asia and now we are having a blast doing it. :) During the kids' Spring Break we were lucky enough to have Doug come to China and then travel with us to Khao Lak, Thailand. The weather wasn't fantastic, apparently the earthquake in Japan brought about the rainy season early, but we made the most of it and had a great time. We had delicious food, great conversation, swimming, sight seeing and even rode an elephant! We were also lucky to spend a day in Bangkok on the way back to Beijing. Here are some of the pictures to highlight our trip, if you want to see them bigger just click on the picture.
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Henry and Adeline were sooo excited to give their teachers the pottery that they had painted for them in Iowa. We had to go to school early the first day back to Beijing so they could give them their presents.
Henry painted a lovely picture for Miss Fiona with mountains, flowers and fireworks. She was so touched it brought tears to my eyes!!
Adeline painted a necklace and a pencil holder for Miss Cindy. She thought they were beautiful!
After getting the news about Big J, the kids and I hopped aboard a plane and headed for Iowa. We tried to get on Mitchell's flight (he left the same day for San Jose), but there weren't any seats available. So, with 3 kids in tow I headed to Des Moines via Vancouver and Denver with AirCanada. We were even able to have supper with Leah, Emily and Maraia in the Denver airport because we had such a long layover. That was definitely a highlight! :) Although I do have to note that we flew thousands of miles and the kids picked Panda Express for supper. What dorks!
Maraia, Adeline, Emily and Truman at the Denver Airport.
Leah and Jess at DIA.
It was a hard week trying to come to terms with Big J's death and the kids ended up getting sick too, jet lag and emotions are not a good combination. We had to extend our trip in Iowa an additional week because the kids were not well enough to fly. On the plus side though, we were able to spend more time with our family, the kids painted pottery for Miss Fiona and Miss Cindy, Truman started walking! and we synced up itineraries with Mitchell in Chicago to fly back to Beijing (Mitchell had to return to the US 5 days after he got back to Beijing the first time).
Truman letting Lucy out of her kennel.
He was pretty proud of his new discovery!
Truman getting a massage. :)
Ryen and Adeline, matching princesses.
Truman LOVED playing with Brinley!
Truman and Jess loving up on Avery.
We went over to Grandpa Staecker's today and Truman decided he was just going to start walking. He took 3 steps from the chair to the wall and that was the end of it...he started walking like he had been for weeks. It was crazy! I am working on shrinking the video from that day, but for now here is another short one I took back in Beijing.
It is still unbelievable to have to write this...we got a call this morning that my dad's best friend, Jason Rains, passed away yesterday. He has been in our lives for a very very long time. Jason was always at all of our "big" events; graduations, weddings, birthday parties, kids parties, etc. But, he has been a party of our every day lives hanging out, laughing, playing wii bowling, going to Rod Runs, and working on street rods with my dad for 20 years. Its hard to go "home" and not see his truck in the barn, or having highball, or making faces at my dad. What an incredible person he was. He will be greatly missed by us all...45 years is way too young.
Ok, so I know most of you are really only wanting to see pictures of our perfect, relaxing blissful beach vacation and don't want a bunch of stuff to read...so this post you get your wish. :) Our internet is back (only took almost 2 months) and both Mitchell and I are sick, so this is a much quicker option for me.
All in all, our vacation was amazing. We had a wonderful time with Dan, Nikki, Jake, Cameron and Haylee Esmond. There were no fights, arguments, fit throwing, tantrums, etc with the kids...they spent the entire week loving every second of being together (even asking on the flight back to Beijing when they could get together for a play-date). They built sand castles, played "pretend" in the hammocks around our hotel, swam, met new friends, explored "Pirate Pete's Cave" thanks to Dan and his creative imagination, swam, ate ice cream (every day...a Staecker family tradition that is now passed on to the Esmonds, thank you grandma and grandpa!!) and swam some more. The adults also enjoyed all of these things plus naps, $10 hour massages, cocktail hour on the deck, tons of great conversations and a week long of just enjoying and appreciating our kids. It was darn near perfect I must say!!
I have been debating back and forth about whether or not to write about our day yesterday, but finally decided that most of you would want to know. Mitchell got a call late last night and was informed that Ericsson is stopping it's R&D work in Boulder by March next year. It honestly feels like someone died, that is the only way to describe it. We have been part of the Ericsson family (in Boulder) for 10+ years now and they are truly part of our family in Colorado. It is almost surreal that we can't go home to what was. Mitchell has had such a fantastic journey there and completely fell in love with his job, the atmosphere, the work and especially the people. I can't even begin to tell you how awful we feel for all of our friends who are now losing their jobs. I will be praying for a miracle...a miracle to keep this amazing group of (super productive and dedicated) people together. Mitchell says it was just a business decision, but a huge mistake in my opinion. What does this mean for us? We have no idea. We are still in China for 2 years, but won't have a job to "go home" to when we return. We are trying not to focus on it too much because it is so far off, but our hearts go out to our friends who are dealing with it now.
Here are a few pictures of the playground at ISB, it is pretty impressive. Also one of Addi's lunch menu, nothing like we have at home! Notice 9/17 Chicken stew with Coke, too funny! :) I will be in the kids' classrooms on Friday and will take more pictures then.
Here are a couple of Truman...he is such a messy eater I have to give him a bath in the sink a lot. :)
Things I am missing the most - Our friends. I finally got pictures hung on the wall and I find myself stopping and starring at them every time I pass. We miss you all soooo much.
Things I like about China - The Jonsson family. I don't know what I would do without you guys. Kristin, you have been amazing...thank you so much for making us feel so welcome and not completely alone and clueless. :)
Here are some of our favorite pictures (there are a lot more throughout the house)...
Rugby season is in session! Henry has successfully had two practices and absolutely loves it. He is so excited because everyone who is 7 and up gets to start tackling next week. Should be quite fun! :) Hopefully they will pair them by size and not by age though! I will be sure to take pictures...they got their uniforms on Sunday, so now he won't feel so left out because he doesn't match. Here are a few pictures I took last week though.
Addi has apparently been taking random pictures of herself lately. When I went to upload pictures to add to the last blog post I ran across these. They are absolutely hilarious and I thought you all might enjoy them too. :) What a dork!!
I will be honest...I never in a million years expected to be so busy here. So busy, that I am struggling to find time to write an email, make a phone call and write on the blog. It is seriously ridiculous. I love it, don't get me wrong, I would rather have lots to do instead of nothing...I just never thought it would be the case. I keep saying as soon as this happens (get all of our furniture, for example) I will have time, but then something else comes up too. I will try to make the blog a bigger priority and write more often.
We had our first out of town guest over for dinner this week. Mitchell's colleague, Cash, from Dallas was in town and he was able to fit us into his crazy schedule. :) We had a fantastic evening, but it started (and ended) with an adventure. Not 5 minutes after they walked in the door the power went out. I don't think I have explained the power/utility situation in China yet and it definitely needs mentioning. :) In Beijing you prepay your utilities and if you forget to recharge your cards you run out...no power, no water, no gas. It is interesting. Our garage is currently closed because they are resurfacing it (and have been for 2 weeks now) and we haven't thought to go down and check the meter for the electricity. We can recharge the card at the clubhouse for power though (water and gas have to be done at the bank) thank goodness. Once we had the lights back on we were able to share a nice supper and night of fellowship. Mitchell took Cash to the clubhouse to get a taxi back to his hotel and they were told that you have to call 2-3 hrs in advance to get a taxi. Yikes! Instead one of the workers (Chinese-speaking only) volunteered to drive him back to his hotel because it was near her house. Thankfully it was fine, but what a story for him to tell! :)
Nikki took me to the "secret handbag shop" this week to do a little unnecessary (but needed) shopping! You walk down an alley and knock on a big steel door and wait for someone to come and open it for you. Once inside there are rooms for everything...watches, clothes, purses, wallets, glasses, shoes, etc. It is fabulous. It is said to be better quality knock offs than the touristy markets...either way, it was a fantastic adventure and a must do with visitors!! :) I bought a purple leather purse (channeling my inner diva for you Em!!), a leather briefcase for Mitchell, red converse shoes for Henry, a pink/purple/orange/yellow Coach purse for Addi (hahaha), a North Face coat for me and one for Henry, and pair of traditional silk Chinese pajamas for Addi all for $150!! It was fabulous!
So we (I) broke down and got an ayi this week. Ayi in Chinese means "auntie" and they are hired to be a helper...to clean, do laundry, help with the kids, babysit, etc. I didn't want to have one because I thought I could do it all on my own. Who am I kidding? I don't have time to clean a 4000sq ft house and take care of the kids and be involved in their school...let alone have outings to the secret handbag shop! :) Anyway, our driver recommended her so we decided why not giver her a try. Well she was great...and then she quit on day 3 because the work was too hard. Talk about making me feel mean! Although the only thing I asked her to do differently from what she was doing was to use cleaning solutions...she cleaned (8hrs) on Monday with only water. She did make dumplings with Addi one afternoon though.
Anyway, we interviewed more and found a new ayi who started yesterday and the kids absolutely love her. She is super nice (doesn't speak English), very thorough and does a great job. She starts full time on October 7. They have already been making things to give her the next time she comes.
Our indoor pool at the clubhouse opened this week, so we took the kids there on Saturday. They had a fabulous time and we basically had the whole pool to ourselves. The only down side is that they forgot to build a shallow end to the pool. The hot tub is great, huge and shallow and the pool is big and really nice, but you can't touch. :) Too funny!! Anyway, here are a few pictures from the afternoon...
Henry received the Dragon Award this week in class for sharing his ideas, asking questions and always remembering to raise his hand. Great job buddy!! :)
No I am not sick, haven't fallen off the planet, been eaten by aliens, etc. etc. I just had a long and busy week, but am truly sorry for those of you who have been waiting and checking for an update and were disappointed. :) Mitchell was in San Jose this week, but by golly I survived! :) It was a crazy week and we had a lot happening (and to be quite honest, I was exhausted!). Henry is signed up for rugby, and two ASAs (after school activities) at ISB, Lego building and Sports Medley. Addi is officially in dance class, or "ballerina school", and is loving every minute of it. She has a couple of girls from her class at school in her dance class and that makes it amazingly exciting. :) I had a meeting almost every day last week and poor Truman had to just come along. I am doing my best to be extroverted, get involved and try to make this our home. It has been a struggle, but I am making progress. :)
Some of the highlights of our week - I bought plants!! Kristin took Nikki and I to the Beidong Flower Market and helped us negotiate a fantastic price! Our house has really livened up with color and feels a lot more welcoming. Mr. Ren got rear-ended in our minivan, it is currently at the "factory" getting fixed and we have a loaner car that looks exactly the same as the other one. I met two expat families that live in our neighborhood! Both from Indiana and both super nice. The drain decided to stop working in the master bath room shower this week and flooded the bathroom floor while the kids were in the middle of a shower. Good thing there is also a drain in the floor outside the shower! :)
I somehow convinced Mitchell to take Friday off when he got home from his trip instead of going in to the office. It was only fair since he did travel on the weekend to get to the US, right?! That is how I justified it anyway, but he still took a vacation day...go figure. We met Dan and Nikki for a lunch date (since the kids were in school) in The Village at a Japanese restaurant. I forgot to write down the name, so for now it doesn't matter...however I will be going back to find out because it was a monumental day for me. I had sushi! Seriously, I am not kidding!! Most of you are either laughing at me or not believing me, but I ate real raw fish, sushi and here is the kicker...I liked it. :) I know I can hardly believe it myself!! It was crazy. It was fantastic to go on a date, especially in the middle of the day, and to try something new. After lunch I somehow convinced Mitchell to go with me to IKEA and just grab a couple of things. It turned out to be a nightmare for multiple reasons (one being that we bought a mattress for Addi's bottom bunk, had it delivered and when it got here realized we had ordered the wrong size). Needless to say, Mitchell hates going to IKEA even more now...this is how he got over it...
He was so gross!! :)
Ni hao everyone! I just wanted to pass on the link to Henry's class blog. It is fun to see what they are up to and I thought you might enjoy it as well. :)
http://my.isb.bj.edu.cn/users/fmenichelli/
Ok, so yesterday I told you that I had fantastic news...today totally tops it. Truman went to bed last night at 11pm (long story) and didn't wake up again until 815am!!! He has NEVER slept that long before, it was incredible. It didn't seem to effect him much, he woke up just as happy as he does every other day. But what an accomplishment!! I am sure it was a complete fluke, but for now I am one proud mama! :)
Here is a link of a video I uploaded to flickr. I promise you Truman will make you smile even on your worst day!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30040517@N05/4923164591/
I spent the entire day at home cleaning, organizing and designing Henry's bedroom. It was awesome. I can't believe how wonderful it felt to do laundry and clean. It was almost normal or at least what I think normal used to be. :) We are slowly starting to make this house our home and it feels really good to start to get into a routine.
Tonight we got a babysitter, thank you Lukas!!, for Henry and Adeline and went to back to school night at ISB. We were thinking low key; run in, run out, say hi to the teacher and go home. Not even close. :) It was a 3.5 hr event full of fantastic information about the upcoming year. We were already thinking the school was absolutely phenomenal and now we are even more impressed. I am so glad that Henry and Addi have the chance to go to this school, what an opportunity. I know, most of you have been telling me this for months...I guess it finally sunk in. :)
Alright all, I am going to call it a day. Can't wait to hear all of your comments on the video. :)
Thing I miss the most - hanging out in Iowa watching the news with my parents at the end of the day.
Weird thing about China - ok so not totally about China, but...I am totally addicted to coffee. Not Starbucks, but yes I could still drink it daily, but out of the coffee pot coffee. I know its crazy, I didn't think I would ever be grown up enough for that! :)
Thing I like about China - How friendly and willing to help other expat families are. Everyone wants to help if you are just willing to ask. It is seriously amazing!
Hello long lost friends!! No, I haven't been ignoring you all. :) Our wireless router, for some mysterious reason, wasn't working for a while. Long story short, that means we were without US internet (without it I can't access the blog) and our Vonage phone. We are back in business now though thank goodness! :)
I want to forewarn you all though that this entry is going to be long and very random. I have been taking notes on my iphone and hoping to remember the story that goes along with it. We will see how it goes...
I will start with the biggest news (and one of the most exciting) first...we finally bought some furniture!! We have spent nearly every free moment we have had (on the weekends) at furniture stores/markets/etc. trying to furnish our house and make it feel more like a home. Up to this point we had been pretty much just browsing without any luck. We either found nice furniture and it was way to short for Mitchell or it was too Asian (go figure, I know) or just not what we wanted. After a few days of looking we realized that what we ideally wanted is what we had in our house in the US. Crazy how that works! Anyway, we found a mattress that we wanted (actual pillowtop mattress with a seperate box springs, not too terribly common here), turns out its from California. Oh well, we ordered it anyway. :) We found couches we wanted too and they are from Georgia. To try and curve our "all American" buying spree we decided to take the advice of Kristin and buy from a local lady at Vicky's Classical Furniture. We are having her build our bedroom and office furniture. So very excited!!
School (International School of Beijing - ISB) has started and oh my goodness are we ever impressed!! The kids love it and are eager to go every single day. They have so much to tell us about when they get home and have met lots of new friends. It has been quite a change from our summer routine, or lack there of, and is a lot more demanding than last year. They are gone from 8-4pm every single day. I literally have to keep reminding them to stay awake until Mitchell comes home at 630pm. It is fantastic! :) Adeline's teacher is Miss Cindy, who is from Canada and Henry's is Miss Fiona from Australia. Addi only has 8 kids in her class (4 boys and 4 girls - all of which start with A by the way) and Henry has 15. Henry is also taking a Chinese class and has this 40 minutes each day.
We have met a family from California (Dan and Nikki) who live a couple of neighborhoods away from us, which has been fabulous! They have 3 kids as well and are new to China and ISB. It is so fantastic to have someone to talk to, bounce stories/heartaches off of and to relate to. The kids have taken to each other like glue and with the boys all ecstatic about Legos and the girls having a common bound against the boys, they are in heaven.
We ventured out to Yashow Market last weekend. There are hundreds of stalls that sell everything from tshirts to fake name brand coats to fabric, etc. You are swarmed when you walk buy and they saw sucker written all over our faces. :) We had to go and buy Addi a blanket for school. She has rest time in the afternoon and was a little upset about this. She "was not a baby anymore, she didn't need naps at school". We tried to make this a little more exciting by trying to find a princess or barbie blanket to take. It was an interesting experience at the market...our kids are treated like celebrities. Everyone wants to talk to Truman, touch him, take him from me (literally), take pictures of them or with them...I am not kidding. It is completely bizarre and makes shopping at a place like this unbelievably difficult. After about 40 min we finally found what we were looking for, bargained a little (poorly mind you) bought the blanket and left. Mitchell swears he will never set foot there again...never is a long time. :)
Mr. Ren (our driver) took us to a Fruit/Vegetable and Meat Market that afternoon. It was fantastic for fruits and veggies, meat was another story. You must have a strong stomach to pass by these stalls, which are conveniently placed in the middle of the fruits and veggies. The raw meat is laying on tables (no refrigeration) for you to see, pick up and inspect. No one cares about the cleanliness, the bacteria, etc. they just go for it. It is no big deal for them. I took a picture of a guy sitting directly under a raw rack of ribs. Seriously, gross!!
We bought some shelled peanuts at the fruit market, thinking that would be a good thing to snack on. When we got home Henry started eating them and spit it out. After further investigation, they were raw! I had never seen non-roasted peanuts before. They were gross, but I didn't spit mine on the floor. :) Mitchell tried to roast them himself and ended up throwing them out after two failed attempts. He says he knows how to do it now though, for next time. He has also been experimenting a little more since we have been here. He conquered bread, yogurt, cheese and butter while we were in Colorado so this time he went for a non-dairy creation. He has been making pickles and sauerkraut claiming that we don't eat enough lacto-fermented foods. Gotta love him! :)
A friend of Mitchell's at work eats candied flower petals. He says they taste just like cranberries and are really good.
We have had quite a few big things delivered lately (tvs, washing machine, etc) and had large boxes, which we filled with sacks of garbage, laying around. In our garage we have a small, maybe 10 gallon, garbage can that the compound empties daily. You can't fit a lot of big boxes into that, so they have been stacking up in our house. Anyway, Mr. Ren has decided that he will take care of this for us. He loaded everything up into the van and got rid of it. Mitchell asked him about it on the way to work one day and he said that he throws it into a field, not necessarily a landfill like most of us think of, but a field. Talk about no regulation!!
We have a washing machine in our house now, which is awesome. However, all of the options for cycles are in Chinese and no one has been able to translate them for me. So far nothing I haven't ruined anything, knock on wood. :) We do not have a dryer though and according to our landlord will not be getting one. Our house wasn't built with a vent and he claims we really don't need one because it is so dry here. At first I thought, no problem I can handle this, besides it would save on energy and make the house smell good. After two weeks, I am over that. :) It is humid here and it takes 1-2 days for one load of clothes to dry. I could live with that, but diapers take even longer and I don't have time to wait for those! Although, I could just go the Chinese route and put Truman in clothes with slits so he can pee and poop wherever and whenever he needs to.
I was excited to run across a Yankee Candle Store today. I was trying to figure out which scents I wanted where when I turned over a medium sized jar candle to check on the price. 528 yuan, or $77.65. Oh my goodness!!! I left the store immediately. :)
We are getting our milk delivered now and it is sooo yummy! We found an American owned dairy (Wondermilk) that delivers twice a week. It is rather expensive, but we don't have to worry about bad things being in it.
Mr. Ren told us that people in China, particularly children, eat fish heads (or dishes made with them). Apparently, they make your kids "grow and grow and grow". He said that if you go to the market you can buy the body of the fish for really cheap because all Chinese people just want the head. I don't think I will be partaking i that custom or make my kids either. :)
We got our first piece of mail this week, Gene and Jasmine you guys rock!! They delivered it to our house during supper around 7pm. It was such an incredible feeling to get mail, crazy enough it actually makes you miss getting all that junk mail in Colorado. :) It took about 2 1/2 weeks to get to us (at least according to the date stamp).
We all, I think that is long enough for one day. :)
Things I miss the most - BLC (Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Colorado) and all of our family there.
Things I like about China - ISB, the school is fantastic.
I must start off this entry by letting you all know that I seriously don't have it all together and I may sound like I am positively embracing this life change, but I am at most times just really freaking out inside. I am trying to keep busy (which is quite easy these days with 3 kids and way too many suitcases to still unpack), but if I sit down long enough to breathe I realize I just plain miss home. So thank you to all for your kind words and emails, you keep me going and I miss you too. :)
I have never been one to look forward to time away from my kids, it just really isn't my thing, but I would be lying if I told you that I wasn't eager for school to start on Friday. I have seriously never seen Henry and Addi get on each others nerves as much as they have this week. They have a serious case of cabin fever and without much to do in the house, they pick on each other. We have been unable to venture to the park this week because we have had a delivery scheduled every single day. Monday it was telephones, Tuesday a washing machine (no dryer though), today TVs (yeah!!) and tomorrow Addi's bed. The annoying thing about this is that most people think if you are a stay at home mom, you stay at home. Oddly enough, we don't always do that. :) They don't give you a time slot of when they will be coming, just a day - or two. To top it off there are people who deliver it and then another set of people who come to set it up, both of which rarely speak any English. No big deal, I can figure most things out even if all the buttons are in Chinese. Right? Wrong. :) For example, I have figured out which temperature the clothes are washing on, but have no clue what the other settings are (there are at least 20 or more other options). So far nothing has come out looking odd, except maybe to still have the squash or green beans smeared on them from the previous meal. I will keep experimenting. :)
Back to school...school starts on Friday with an orientation, hopes and fears conference with each teacher and an all school picnic. How cool is that?! After that we go to class with Addi for an hour or so and Henry goes to class by himself for the rest of the day. Henry is thrilled to meet people and see what it is really like, finally. His teacher (Miss Fiona - from Melbourne) sent an email today welcoming them to 1st grade and introducing herself. That really lifted his spirits and now thinks 1st grade is going to be awesome. This summer he had told my mom that 1st grade wasn't going to be very fun because he knew the only thing they did was math and take quizzes, he was sure they didn't even get recess anymore. What a dork! :) Addi is a bit more apprehensive and doesn't want to go because she doesn't know anyone and we won't be there. Thankfully, they deal with kids like her every year and have fantastic ways to ease the transition!
On a positive note, we had visitors today! Kristin and Marta (our friends from Sweden, who have been here for 3 years now) stopped by and gave us a break to our monotonous day. It was fantastic to be able to talk to a friend, get advice and remind us that we are definitely not alone here. It was so great to see (and hear) the kids run around laughing! Wednesdays are kind of a weird day for us because our car (its a minivan actually, I know some of you will think that is hilarious!) is not allowed to drive into the city today. Apparently every car is assigned a day that it isn't allowed to drive in the city to cut down on pollution. I have no idea if this actually helps at all, but Mr Ren (our driver) had the day off today and Mitchell took a taxi.
Yesterday Mr. Ren picked the kids and I up and we went to Mitchell's work and then out for Indian last night. Fantastic restaurant (Ganges) that we would love to take any willing visitors to! :) Anyway, while we were driving to Mitchell's office the radio people were commentating on US superstitions and it was hilarious. They said that black magic is very popular in the US and people are really affected by superstitions; most buildings don't have a 13th floor, rabbits feet are sold at almost any gas station across the entire country and many people actually believe that they will literally die if they don't send on a chain letter email. Seriously, I love how things become a generality for the entire country. Duh! :)
Alright all, I had hoped to write more tonight, but I must head to bed. Truman has been sleeping really poorly lately and I am exhausted. Until next time...
1 thing I miss - hoping in the car and going wherever I want to...Target, Starbucks, etc. :)
1 thing I like about China - Decathalon store...I bought a watch and the kids' backpacks super cheap!
Odd thing about China - You have to negotiate the price down on everything...highly annoying, but that is just he way it is. Mr Ren said most things you can get for less than half of what the price is listed at. I suck at that!!
Hey everyone! We have officially made the move to Beijing...
We finally made it and are in our house. The flight, other than being incredibly long and boring, was uneventful (although Truman did get his first tooth on the airplane though...that was exciting!). The kids did spectacularly and we didn't have any mishaps really. They did fall asleep 2 hours before we landed and had no desire to wake up and carry their own bags, but we finally convinced them that they wanted to get off! :) Mr Ren (our driver) and Mitchell's boss's driver met us at the airport with 2 minivans, everything fit (with room to spare by the way!). :) I know some of you were skeptical about that! We headed straight to our house in the Rose and Gingko neighborhood, which is also called Dragon Lake apparently. The neighborhood is absolutely stunning...there are tress, plants, flowers, etc. everywhere. It is by far the nicest 1st impression I had in China! When we arrived at our house we were met by Sunny (our realtor), Michael (our landlord's son) and Tina (from property management) as well as a few random workers scattered throughout the house. I am not sure if Sunny didn't get our emails/phone calls/etc saying that when we arrived in China we were going to get all of our bags, come straight to the house and live there. Most of you know that we said that repeatedly for weeks now, so I have no idea why she didn't get it. Anyway, everything that we were told would be done (utilities working, ugly furniture moved out, internet on, tv/phone/washer and dryer delivered, etc) was not done...big surprise. According to Sunny :) the landlord has no where to put the super ugly furniture (thankfully it only consists of the dining room and main floor living room) and she recommends we keep it because it is already paid for. Being completely exhausted and not in the mood for a fight, we said we would deal with it for now. I have since completely rearranged the rooms and can't say that I love it by any means, but can at least deal with it now. :) Anyway, 2.5 hrs after getting to the house everyone left. A quick trip to Jenny Lou's (expat grocery store) for the much needed toilet paper and cereal and then we went to bed. Henry and Addi did fantastic, slept almost 14 hours...Truman, not so much. :) Poor thing, he had no idea what had hit him...2am he wanted to be awake! 4 days later, we are slowly getting there, but he still is having a little bit of trouble changing his clock.
Day 2 had us at Ikea for 5 hrs...5 very long, very stressful, very overwhelming hours. :) It is so hard to get used to being the "entertainment" for people. Everyone stares at you, particularly because we have a baby (they are fascinated with "white" babies) and because we have 3 "babies". It is so unheard of here. They also can't stand it if Truman is sleeping and proceed to wake him up so they can make noises at him and touch him. Super hard to get used to!!! I have no idea how Mitchell hasn't gone off the deep end from the germ factor, but he hasn't mentioned it. Truman does have a horrible stuffy nose now, but I am attributing that to teeth (his second one is almost through) and not to the germs. :) Needless to say, it was a difficult experience. We left with an entire cart full of stuff, but no furniture. We did get garbage cans, highchair, dishes, utensils, silverware, cooking stuff, towels, etc. though so it wasn't an entire loss. I had really hoped the kids' rooms would be set up before school started (Aug 12), but don't think that is going to happen. We are all currently sleeping on mattresses on the floor with suitcases for decoration. :)
Mitchell went back to work Wednesday and the kids and I tried to unpack a little and tried to make our house a home instead of a crazy cluttered mess. We only accomplished a little due to lack of storage for anything. :) Our house is pretty nice...super huge, but its hard to love it when its empty and what furniture is here is totally not us and super ugly!! :)
Yesterday we (kids and I) ventured out into the neighborhood. It was a bit overwhelming because I had literally no clue where anything was and no clue how to get back to our house. We were still the spectacle to watch and everyone would turn and point and laugh mostly...doesn't give you that warm fuzzy feeling, but they weren't being mean. The kids enjoyed saying "ni hao" to everyone they passed. They were extremely proud of themselves and got a lot of smiles when they said it. We found the clubhouse and did a little exploring. We discovered that the indoor pool was closed in June for renovation and will reopen again September 1. Kind of weird considering the complex is new! We did find an indoor play place though, so the kids played there for a while. From there we went on a walk (took over an hour) to locate the park. Finally, found that and we were all completely amazed!! It was huge, probably the size of our entire neighborhood in Colorado just for the park!! There was an outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts, outdoor exercise machines, playground and lots of grass to run around/play soccer/etc. One of the most exciting things of the day is that we met some people who live across the street from us (not American, but they have lived in the US for the last 14 yrs...close enough!!) and they have a 15 yr old daughter!!! They were really nice and I am hoping she wants to do some babysitting!!! That would be awesome!
Tonight we are going to venture out again (partially because we have cabin fever and because the kids seriously need bedroom furniture). We are going to try a Danish furniture store (Flexa) and possibly something local too. Everyone says that you can get anything here and its super easy, but I have no idea where that is or how to do it. I am looking forward to Kristin coming back from Sweden on Tuesday...she really helps it not seem so scary and overwhelming. For now, I am just drinking a lot of coffee and missing you all terribly. I will try to get some pictures uploaded this weekend and sent to you. Mitchell will be home, so that will help! I hope you are all doing well, I would love to hear from you when you get time. Our phone line is hooked up, as well as the internet (obviously) but Mitchell hasn't gotten the vonage box to work yet and we don't have a phone. I will be sure to let you know when that happens and then our Colorado number (720-249-4202) will work just like it did before!! I can't wait!!!
Last, but certainly not least, I am going to continue to beg for visitors. We have sooo much room and would absolutely love to have you come explore the city with us. Just get here and we will take care of the rest!!!
Love you guys,
Jess