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