We have been here a month now and received our sea shipment from the states today, affirming the reality of our move. Yep, we are living in China. 1 month down, 20 to go. Our things that were on the slow boat to China have arrived, and I have never been more thankful for our bed than I am now. After sleeping on a table with sheets for the past month, feeling the softness of our bed is probably comparable to recieving life sustaining bread and water, basic nutrients needed to exist. You can only go so long without them before your body gives up. Not an exaggeration in the least (my neighbor got bed sores...true story). The people who unpacked our shipment went to great lengths to get our belongings where we wanted them, risking their very lives. Yes, they climbed over the stair banister, which if you fell from you would end up in the basement, to help get our life sustaining matress to our bedroom. I pray blessings and protection for them, because I just don't see service like that in the states (but I also don't see a lot of things in the states like I see here).
It was like Christmas here, I started going through our boxes, and literally there were our Christmas decorations. I found a clock and pictures, but unfortunately we also have cement walls, and we can't hang anything on them unless we have the management company come and do it, which sounds easy, but is actually a very interesting experience in itself. The kids were thrilled to get their bikes, so now we can bike to the boardwalk by the ocean, which will hopefully become a regular memory making activity.
So here we are and it looks as if we will be staying for a little while. I miss home, but am becoming thankful for the seemingly small things. Right now, in this very moment, I am very thankful that I get to sleep on a soft bed tonight. I will survive.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
language mishap
I think one of the biggest challenges of living in a different country is learning the language. I have prayed and continue to pray, that God would help me hear the different tones and remember words. My vocabulary is increasing daily and so my driver is very fortunate, because I practice my new words in the car with him. I learned how to ask how someones mom and dad are and "if they ate the meal?" (which I guess is like us asking about the weather) So yesterday I asked my driver how his mom and dad were. I asked him if he had a cat. I asked if he had a little white dog. I asked if his dad had a little white dog. I asked if his dad had a cat. (Can you tell I learned animal names?) Our Ayi was in the car with us and since she speaks some English she was doing some translating. When I asked if his dad had a cat, it turns out that his dad had many cats, and cats of different colors. Using my words...I said he must like cats. The driver then explained (and my Ayi translated), that people would move and leave their cats behind, so his dad would take them in. I then thought, using my stellar Chinese, I would exalt his dad and say that he was a good person. I am not sure my Chinese came across exactly right, because both the Ayi and driver started laughing. Later, I found out that I either told my driver that his dad was a "good woman"or what would be equivalent to calling someone a "good catch" or a "hottie" in the states. So begins my speaking of the Chinese language...
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Pictures
Here is the other part of our kitchen that is separate from the kitchen with the shower like doors. The cupboard on the left was a fake one...I didn't realize it and forced it open...and broke it. Only the right side was supposed to open...
The church we have been going to had an Easter egg hunt/picnic after church on Easter Sunday. We got a great picture of the group and then the kids off on the hunt. Yes, it was quite chilly:) Here is a bathroom in our house with security locks...just one of the doors with the 3 keys.
Now a picture of the empty space white room that two windows in our house look into. Eli's bedroom window (which has a hutch in front of it) and a hallway window look into this empty abyss. Maybe a tree would look neat in there...but how to get it through the windows.
Friday, April 9, 2010
An Experiential journey of our new house
We are so blessed and our cup runneth over! We were able to move into our new townhome on Thursday night. Once we got the go ahead to move in, I went shopping all day with a friend and then had our Ayi come over and cook dinner. I guess I wasn't as prepared as I could have been, but nevertheless, we moved in. So about 6pm on a Thursday night we start bringing loads over. Thankfully it was only about a mile away and took only about 4 trips as our neighbors had their 2 drivers help as well. I just need to say, the drivers here are some of the most hardworking and kind people I have ever been able to meet. They would not let us carry anything and if they saw me trying to carry something, they immediately took it away. (again, I am not sure how I am going to acclamate when we return to the U.S.)
Okay, so back to moving in... of course the kids are so excited and bouncing off walls and running all over the house, while Matt and I are trying to find the sheets and blankets that we brought with us. I might mention that the heat wasn't turned on, so the temperature in the house was about -5 degrees F (okay, maybe not that cold, but Matt wouldn't take his jacket off, so it was pretty cold) We turned the heat on and it only took about a day and half to heat up the house. We then had to make the beds, and to give you an idea of what it felt like...here is an illustration so you too can experience a bed in China. Bring your kitchen table into your bedroom, stretch your sheets out and nicely pull them over the corners of the table, put the blankets and pillows on and lay down (remember it is about -3 degrees F). I wouldn't say it was the most comfortable nights sleep, but if you like camping in the winter on the ice, this might be right up your alley. Thankfully we have western toilets in the house, and to let you experience what it like using those, you could go to your freezer and get about 4 frozen icepacks and lay them on your toilet seat. Then try to sit down and relax and do your business, in -12 degree F heat.
I am a "take a hot shower daily" kind of a person, so in the morning after sleeping in -15 degree weather on a table, I was kind of looking forward to a hot shower. I go into the bathroom and to help you really understand what this was like, you could go to your freezer, get a bucketful of ice, put it in the blender and then dump it on your head. I turned the knobs every possible way and it seemed like it only made the water colder and colder. I put my clothes back on, and decided to pass on the shower. I then realized that each water area in the house (sink, shower etc) has its own water tank and you have to turn the heat on each individual tank. So the thermometer said the water was 11 degrees C (which I think translates to -10 degrees F or something like that) So at 6:30amI turn the water heater on for that shower and on in the bathroom by the kids room. By 8pm that night, the temperature was at 68 degrees C... Yes, I will have a hot shower the next morning. :)
The first day in the house was quite fun. They provided BEAUTIFUL new furniture for us. Just so you too can experience what this new furniture is like sitting on, go to your nearest park, put a blanket over the bench so it looks all soft and fluffly, and then plop down on it like your going to be sitting on the softest most plush couch ever. I am really getting used to this new "hardness" factor that seems to be prominent here.
We have a lot of doors throughout the house. Even our kitchen had shower like doors on it (which we had removed)...not quite sure what the purpose for that was...they said to keep the cooking smell only in the kitchen, but if you open the doors to come out, won't the smell come with you? If there is a room, there is a door. If there is a door, there is a lock with 3 keys. So doing the math, just inside our house alone, we have about 15 doors and about 45 keys. Can you imagine our key ring? So each door has it's own key, and if you get the keys mixed up, a different key won't work on a door it wasn't made for. Unfortunately I didn't realize this until I had taken the keys out of about 5 doors and hadn't been keeping track to which doors they were for. (whatever happened to the little key you put above your bathroom door and could be used on any door?) The odd thing is...the door leading to the backyard, outside the house, doesn't have a lock or key. If you go outside into the back yard, the door won't stay closed, because in order to close it all the way you have to turn the handle down on the inside of the house, and that locks it so you can't get in from outside. You can't unlock it from the outside at all. The other odd thing is that the windows don't have locks or screens and one of my concerns was my kids opening a window and falling 3 flights to the ground. Eli already discovered that he can open the kitchen window and crawl through it to the porch outside in the back yard. That looked pretty fun. We also have windows inside the house that look to other rooms inside the house. Two windows actually open up to a little white space inside the house that isn't used for anything, maybe it will be my happy place.
We have a beautiful little kitchen, but not one drawer. Thankfully we still haven't gotten dishes, so we were able to use ALL the storage space we have in the kitchen with the little food we have. We are planning to buy dishes today at IKEA, so perhaps we will pick up a little shelving unit to put them on while we are there.
We have a washer and dryer in the basement and so in keeping with the whole Ayi thing, I thought I would show her how to use it. Since everything is written in Chinese and only a few things are translated, I thought her ability to read Chinese would come in handy. We put some laundry soap in different dishes (since we didn't know which one the soap was supposed to go in, we just put soap in all of them) We guessed on a setting and hit start. We waited and nothing happend, so we pushed some more buttons. Eventually the washer started turning, but there was no water. I then verified that yes indeed we were using the washer and not the dryer. No water. I started looking for the water supply to this area, and couldn't find one. HMM...well, I called the lady that works in the neighborhood office and she came over and then used her walkie talkie and called a maintenance man. He came over and as they were downstairs, my neighbor came over so she could learn how to use the washer as well. We were talking upstairs when we heard a thud. We looked down over the banister and didn't hear or see anything, so we continued our conversation. Up came the lady holding her limp arm. Yes, the poor girl fell on the steps and we later found out, broke her arm. The worker stayed and worked on the washer and then came up and told my Ayi something. She told me that he had to go get something, implying to me that he was coming back. Well I didn't see him the rest of the day, and I still don't know how to get water to the washing machine. Now that the girl is gone because of her broken arm, and I don't have a walkie talkie, I am not sure how to get in touch with the worker.
It may seem like our house is lacking...but we are soo very thankful. I will say, it does have a nice red panic button on the wall in living room right about my 4 year old Eden's height...and we didn't have one of those in Arizona.
I was very thankful yesterday that we had pack two 72 oz bags of chocolate chips. I found myself repeatedly going to the freezer and getting handfuls of choc. chips throughout the day.
We laugh a lot here over different things and I think our mighty God has a great sense of humor. He brought our family over the oceans to a foreign place and I am coming to terms with being an alien in a foreign land. One thing that has been constant is His presence. Although I knew He was here in China, I am so thankful to experience and see His hand at work myself. I told Matt one night that I wanted to go back to Arizona. He asked why and I told him because I didn't know why God brought us here. He laughed and asked me if I had asked Him why. Although I know it is for our growth and His glory, I want to know specifics. I guess if He told me, I might try to "help" Him out and I don't think He needs that kind of help. We want to keep a kingdom perspective and be moldable and useable for HIS purpose. I continue to say "here I am, send me." We love you Jesus, and want to share what you did for us on the cross with the people of China.
Okay, so back to moving in... of course the kids are so excited and bouncing off walls and running all over the house, while Matt and I are trying to find the sheets and blankets that we brought with us. I might mention that the heat wasn't turned on, so the temperature in the house was about -5 degrees F (okay, maybe not that cold, but Matt wouldn't take his jacket off, so it was pretty cold) We turned the heat on and it only took about a day and half to heat up the house. We then had to make the beds, and to give you an idea of what it felt like...here is an illustration so you too can experience a bed in China. Bring your kitchen table into your bedroom, stretch your sheets out and nicely pull them over the corners of the table, put the blankets and pillows on and lay down (remember it is about -3 degrees F). I wouldn't say it was the most comfortable nights sleep, but if you like camping in the winter on the ice, this might be right up your alley. Thankfully we have western toilets in the house, and to let you experience what it like using those, you could go to your freezer and get about 4 frozen icepacks and lay them on your toilet seat. Then try to sit down and relax and do your business, in -12 degree F heat.
I am a "take a hot shower daily" kind of a person, so in the morning after sleeping in -15 degree weather on a table, I was kind of looking forward to a hot shower. I go into the bathroom and to help you really understand what this was like, you could go to your freezer, get a bucketful of ice, put it in the blender and then dump it on your head. I turned the knobs every possible way and it seemed like it only made the water colder and colder. I put my clothes back on, and decided to pass on the shower. I then realized that each water area in the house (sink, shower etc) has its own water tank and you have to turn the heat on each individual tank. So the thermometer said the water was 11 degrees C (which I think translates to -10 degrees F or something like that) So at 6:30amI turn the water heater on for that shower and on in the bathroom by the kids room. By 8pm that night, the temperature was at 68 degrees C... Yes, I will have a hot shower the next morning. :)
The first day in the house was quite fun. They provided BEAUTIFUL new furniture for us. Just so you too can experience what this new furniture is like sitting on, go to your nearest park, put a blanket over the bench so it looks all soft and fluffly, and then plop down on it like your going to be sitting on the softest most plush couch ever. I am really getting used to this new "hardness" factor that seems to be prominent here.
We have a lot of doors throughout the house. Even our kitchen had shower like doors on it (which we had removed)...not quite sure what the purpose for that was...they said to keep the cooking smell only in the kitchen, but if you open the doors to come out, won't the smell come with you? If there is a room, there is a door. If there is a door, there is a lock with 3 keys. So doing the math, just inside our house alone, we have about 15 doors and about 45 keys. Can you imagine our key ring? So each door has it's own key, and if you get the keys mixed up, a different key won't work on a door it wasn't made for. Unfortunately I didn't realize this until I had taken the keys out of about 5 doors and hadn't been keeping track to which doors they were for. (whatever happened to the little key you put above your bathroom door and could be used on any door?) The odd thing is...the door leading to the backyard, outside the house, doesn't have a lock or key. If you go outside into the back yard, the door won't stay closed, because in order to close it all the way you have to turn the handle down on the inside of the house, and that locks it so you can't get in from outside. You can't unlock it from the outside at all. The other odd thing is that the windows don't have locks or screens and one of my concerns was my kids opening a window and falling 3 flights to the ground. Eli already discovered that he can open the kitchen window and crawl through it to the porch outside in the back yard. That looked pretty fun. We also have windows inside the house that look to other rooms inside the house. Two windows actually open up to a little white space inside the house that isn't used for anything, maybe it will be my happy place.
We have a beautiful little kitchen, but not one drawer. Thankfully we still haven't gotten dishes, so we were able to use ALL the storage space we have in the kitchen with the little food we have. We are planning to buy dishes today at IKEA, so perhaps we will pick up a little shelving unit to put them on while we are there.
We have a washer and dryer in the basement and so in keeping with the whole Ayi thing, I thought I would show her how to use it. Since everything is written in Chinese and only a few things are translated, I thought her ability to read Chinese would come in handy. We put some laundry soap in different dishes (since we didn't know which one the soap was supposed to go in, we just put soap in all of them) We guessed on a setting and hit start. We waited and nothing happend, so we pushed some more buttons. Eventually the washer started turning, but there was no water. I then verified that yes indeed we were using the washer and not the dryer. No water. I started looking for the water supply to this area, and couldn't find one. HMM...well, I called the lady that works in the neighborhood office and she came over and then used her walkie talkie and called a maintenance man. He came over and as they were downstairs, my neighbor came over so she could learn how to use the washer as well. We were talking upstairs when we heard a thud. We looked down over the banister and didn't hear or see anything, so we continued our conversation. Up came the lady holding her limp arm. Yes, the poor girl fell on the steps and we later found out, broke her arm. The worker stayed and worked on the washer and then came up and told my Ayi something. She told me that he had to go get something, implying to me that he was coming back. Well I didn't see him the rest of the day, and I still don't know how to get water to the washing machine. Now that the girl is gone because of her broken arm, and I don't have a walkie talkie, I am not sure how to get in touch with the worker.
It may seem like our house is lacking...but we are soo very thankful. I will say, it does have a nice red panic button on the wall in living room right about my 4 year old Eden's height...and we didn't have one of those in Arizona.
I was very thankful yesterday that we had pack two 72 oz bags of chocolate chips. I found myself repeatedly going to the freezer and getting handfuls of choc. chips throughout the day.
We laugh a lot here over different things and I think our mighty God has a great sense of humor. He brought our family over the oceans to a foreign place and I am coming to terms with being an alien in a foreign land. One thing that has been constant is His presence. Although I knew He was here in China, I am so thankful to experience and see His hand at work myself. I told Matt one night that I wanted to go back to Arizona. He asked why and I told him because I didn't know why God brought us here. He laughed and asked me if I had asked Him why. Although I know it is for our growth and His glory, I want to know specifics. I guess if He told me, I might try to "help" Him out and I don't think He needs that kind of help. We want to keep a kingdom perspective and be moldable and useable for HIS purpose. I continue to say "here I am, send me." We love you Jesus, and want to share what you did for us on the cross with the people of China.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
And now for some idiosyncrasies of living in China...
Idiosyncrasy: Peculiarity of constitution; that temperament, or state of constitution, which is peculiar to a person.
Eli and Eden started their kindergarten and are so far enjoying it. They go all day, for about 6 hours. They tell us new things about it every day. So one day after getting picked up they were telling us about naptime. They told us that they have to take their pants off and sleep in their underwear. I started laughing so hard I almost peed my pants. I asked if the other kids had to do that too. They said some do and some wear their jamies underneath their clothes. Eden even said she saw one girl with THREE pairs of pants on. After naptime, they put their pants back on. They also said that if they have to go potty during naptime, Eli has to go in a bucket and Eden has to go in the potty chair. They can't use the restroom. I love China.
Today just Eden came home with a "baby bank card" It looks just like a credit card and has her name written on the back.
Here is what the note that came with it said. "Note of baby bank card"
1. Bank: Dalian Bank
2. Saving Date: Before the 3rd work day
3. Save the enough money according to fee list
4. The first code: 11 11 11
5. The methods of changing the code:A Atm B. Go the bank with the ID and household register
6. to use it the same as other common card.
Now the questions Matt and I have are:
What is and where is the fee list and do we have to pay it?
What is the 3rd work day? Is the code the pin #? and do all the kids with these bank cards have the same pin? If we decide to change the pin and go the Dalian bank, what is a household register and whose ID do we need. What are the other common cards? As far as we can tell, you have to pay cash with everything...
Eden asked if she can use it to buy things. I guess I don't see why not.
Matt started work and since we didn't bring our alarm clocks because they wouldn't work here, I had to go out and buy one for him. I did think how easy this would have been in the states, but the common phrase here is "Everything takes longer in China" and this was no exception. After communicating with our driver what I needed, we were off to "New Market" where there are a ton of little kiosks and individual vendors. After asking someone where they were, our driver led me to a little kiosk which had the circle clocks with bells. I then indicated that we wanted an LED alarm clock. He then took me to another kiosk and showed me my choices. Well, I thought to myself, is Matt more of a Winnie the Pooh kind of a person, or a Mickey Mouse person? Not quite what I was thinking of, but it did meet all the requirements of what I had asked for. Thankfully I saw a very small little silver one with no characters on it and I even negotiated $.75 cents off of the price. I had inadvertently said that $4.47 was "tai gwi" too expensive. So they knocked .$75 off. Yep, even alarm clocks are negotiable. So, after paying about $3.73 for the alarm clock we were off.
I love how they love cartoony kind of characters here and it really doesn't matter what it is, you can find it with a cartoon character on it.
I am learning how to cross the street here. After stepping in front of a vehicle that wanted to move in a parking lot and going deaf in my left ear because of the horn...I didn't think I was going to be able to cross the street. It is in all respects "Frogger" I stayed right by Xia's side and we crossed the first lane and I literally said to myself..."oh my gosh I am going to die"...It was those exact words. But, I did it, I made it across 3-4 lanes of moving traffic without a cross walk. I am alive and I am very thankful!
Traffic infractions here are many or I guess there is no such thing... you can turn left from the right lane or right from the left lane, or do a u turn where ever you want, or go around barracades to get 10 cars up...you name it...here, in a car, you can do it.
A side note about the women's bathroom: after learning their little "game" the next time I had to use a public restroom I was with Mia and Eden, and we walked in, and yes WE went into the next open stall. I will say I got very nauseous at the smell, but never the less, we are acclamating. I just hope I can reacclamate to the U.S. when we return
Eli and Eden started their kindergarten and are so far enjoying it. They go all day, for about 6 hours. They tell us new things about it every day. So one day after getting picked up they were telling us about naptime. They told us that they have to take their pants off and sleep in their underwear. I started laughing so hard I almost peed my pants. I asked if the other kids had to do that too. They said some do and some wear their jamies underneath their clothes. Eden even said she saw one girl with THREE pairs of pants on. After naptime, they put their pants back on. They also said that if they have to go potty during naptime, Eli has to go in a bucket and Eden has to go in the potty chair. They can't use the restroom. I love China.
Today just Eden came home with a "baby bank card" It looks just like a credit card and has her name written on the back.
Here is what the note that came with it said. "Note of baby bank card"
1. Bank: Dalian Bank
2. Saving Date: Before the 3rd work day
3. Save the enough money according to fee list
4. The first code: 11 11 11
5. The methods of changing the code:A Atm B. Go the bank with the ID and household register
6. to use it the same as other common card.
Now the questions Matt and I have are:
What is and where is the fee list and do we have to pay it?
What is the 3rd work day? Is the code the pin #? and do all the kids with these bank cards have the same pin? If we decide to change the pin and go the Dalian bank, what is a household register and whose ID do we need. What are the other common cards? As far as we can tell, you have to pay cash with everything...
Eden asked if she can use it to buy things. I guess I don't see why not.
Matt started work and since we didn't bring our alarm clocks because they wouldn't work here, I had to go out and buy one for him. I did think how easy this would have been in the states, but the common phrase here is "Everything takes longer in China" and this was no exception. After communicating with our driver what I needed, we were off to "New Market" where there are a ton of little kiosks and individual vendors. After asking someone where they were, our driver led me to a little kiosk which had the circle clocks with bells. I then indicated that we wanted an LED alarm clock. He then took me to another kiosk and showed me my choices. Well, I thought to myself, is Matt more of a Winnie the Pooh kind of a person, or a Mickey Mouse person? Not quite what I was thinking of, but it did meet all the requirements of what I had asked for. Thankfully I saw a very small little silver one with no characters on it and I even negotiated $.75 cents off of the price. I had inadvertently said that $4.47 was "tai gwi" too expensive. So they knocked .$75 off. Yep, even alarm clocks are negotiable. So, after paying about $3.73 for the alarm clock we were off.
I love how they love cartoony kind of characters here and it really doesn't matter what it is, you can find it with a cartoon character on it.
I am learning how to cross the street here. After stepping in front of a vehicle that wanted to move in a parking lot and going deaf in my left ear because of the horn...I didn't think I was going to be able to cross the street. It is in all respects "Frogger" I stayed right by Xia's side and we crossed the first lane and I literally said to myself..."oh my gosh I am going to die"...It was those exact words. But, I did it, I made it across 3-4 lanes of moving traffic without a cross walk. I am alive and I am very thankful!
Traffic infractions here are many or I guess there is no such thing... you can turn left from the right lane or right from the left lane, or do a u turn where ever you want, or go around barracades to get 10 cars up...you name it...here, in a car, you can do it.
A side note about the women's bathroom: after learning their little "game" the next time I had to use a public restroom I was with Mia and Eden, and we walked in, and yes WE went into the next open stall. I will say I got very nauseous at the smell, but never the less, we are acclamating. I just hope I can reacclamate to the U.S. when we return
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Pictures
Here are some pictures of our town home. Hopefully we will be able to move in within the next couple of weeks. There is a little kitchen with sliding glass doors, an atrium room that opens up to a skylight (the kids are sitting in that room being silly), and a cool attic area that the kids want to be their bedrooms. The town house will be about 10 minutes to the school, and 10 minutes to the beach. It is interesting because it is a gated community, but there is also a gate just to get onto our street. Matt and the kids and our driver are skipping rocks on the ocean water.
Luxuries of China
One of the high points of moving to China with Intel is that we have our own driver. We are not allowed to drive here, I think for our safety (it is insane the way they drive) so we have our driver. Xia is an amazing driver and is so humble and patient and grateful and single. Another high point of living here is that an Ayi (someone to do the cooking, cleaning, laundry,and grocery shopping) is very inexpensive and it is pretty customary to have one, so, in keeping with custom, we have hired our first (and hopefully our only) Ayi. She starts on Tuesday and I will be teaching her how to clean, do laundry, fold and put away clothes (well at least the way most people in the U. S. fold and put them away) and have her start doing the grocery shopping and cooking for dinner. So far our Ayi is very quiet, and shy, and nice, and single. Our friends had asked our driver Xia if he was married, and he replied that he wasn't yet, implying a future hope of marriage. Now I love the Jane Austen movie Emma, and have become somewhat motivated by the main character. Seeing as I have time on my hands and a driver with a future hope of marriage, I now have an objective, or goal shall I say, in mind. After meeting our Ayi, we brought her to the apartment to show her where we lived and where she should come on Tuesday. Matt and I, at that point, decided we were done with the car for the day and asked if Xia could bring our Ayi home, and told him that we would see him tomorrow. He had a pretty big smile when we said good bye. I may have to inquire of Xia what his thoughts of the new Ayi are.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)