Second day in China...Suonllen is at work and it's our first day exploring with for me and the kids. First, we went to the kids school and met a few teachers, both the deans of the secondary and jr. high...Asia was pretty psyched about seeing it, she is so obsessive compulsive about some things. Seeing the school has been on her to do list since we first showed her pictures in Nov. 2008! We also went to the SOS clinic so they knew where to go if they felt ill (Intel opended this clinic for only Intel people and their families, all the other expats are pretty jealous! LOL). Worked on learning some words from our driver, Sun Wei. Super nice guy and just as eager to learn English...I am not sure if any of those words are going to sink in...
I did some damage today at Ikea with the kids, 2,218RMB was spent or about $325.94...to be exact if you are thinking Dollars. I went to pay with the Amex and of course they did not take that and I did not have a Visa or MC with me, only my debit cards and I was not willing to go there! So thank God Suonllen had given me 3,100 RMB in case, because "in case" happened, I called him to let him know so he would pull more cash for going out tonight. So the majority of it was spent on the kids but I got a bench with Cubbies for the entry way for all the shoes, solid wood 549RMB or $80.43, not bad and it's something I think will be of use in the US. At least I do not have to look at all of those damn shoes when we come in, and we'll have to make room for the rest of the families shoes when we get here...Got both kids what ever Duvets they wanted so they could decorate their own rooms, Asia did black and while and Javi(my little man) did RED and BLACK! even got a faux red rug to throw by his bed, Asia my money saver got a White one that was on sale!
I think I am going to have something made of our room, wasn't feeling anything there. I really want to do an Asian styled in RED - you know like the satin fabric with the dragons and cherry blossoms on it? going to find fabric and have it made and I bet it will be less than Ikea which is pretty cheap most of the time, right? Tomorrow is a another day we will be on our own until Suonllen is off on Friday...Will be neat to see what adventure will come tomorrow...
I did some damage today at Ikea with the kids, 2,218RMB was spent or about $325.94...to be exact if you are thinking Dollars. I went to pay with the Amex and of course they did not take that and I did not have a Visa or MC with me, only my debit cards and I was not willing to go there! So thank God Suonllen had given me 3,100 RMB in case, because "in case" happened, I called him to let him know so he would pull more cash for going out tonight. So the majority of it was spent on the kids but I got a bench with Cubbies for the entry way for all the shoes, solid wood 549RMB or $80.43, not bad and it's something I think will be of use in the US. At least I do not have to look at all of those damn shoes when we come in, and we'll have to make room for the rest of the families shoes when we get here...Got both kids what ever Duvets they wanted so they could decorate their own rooms, Asia did black and while and Javi(my little man) did RED and BLACK! even got a faux red rug to throw by his bed, Asia my money saver got a White one that was on sale!
I think I am going to have something made of our room, wasn't feeling anything there. I really want to do an Asian styled in RED - you know like the satin fabric with the dragons and cherry blossoms on it? going to find fabric and have it made and I bet it will be less than Ikea which is pretty cheap most of the time, right? Tomorrow is a another day we will be on our own until Suonllen is off on Friday...Will be neat to see what adventure will come tomorrow...
Today is Wednesday and it's St Patricks Day...I am on day two of doing Zumba to a video and have decided I need to get more footage of my favorite Zumba instructor, just in case I can't teach at the Inn Fine Gym as I plan. So tonight we planning on going out to see what St.Pats day is like in China...
Another Intel Wife, Linda, offered to take us out and show us where things were at so when we get here, I will have head start on shopping. We went to Jin Ma and were amazed at all that could be found in one place. From an entire floor of their "Home Depot" selection to the bottom basement level of meats, fish (unrefrigerated-ugh no way will I buy there!) to snacks and staples. Clothes, although in Asia's sizes, but an ample amount of them. I was so overwhelmed, I ended up not getting the few things I wanted to! Next trip there I guess.
We decided to have lunch, were going to go to the "Pig" but then we realized we had already eaten there last night for our frist dinner. It's not really called the "Pig" but has one in it's logo and since we can't read the symbols, "pig" it is...the other day I called it "the Dog" but was reminded it was not a dog but a pig! HAHAHA glad, since I know there are places that serve Dog, Koreans love it I guess..eewwwwww! Anyways, we went to a dumpling house. Poor Javi, he doesn't eat dumplings but I made him at least try one since I am worried he is going to melt away to nothing over here since he is so picky. We did order him sweet and sour pork, which he liked. The dumplings were amazing! We got two orders of fried, shrimp and pork and then one order of steamed pork. And yes we had dumplings to take home and they will probably get eaten for dinner. After lunch, we decided we had had enough...we had all been up since 4A.
We went home and all took a nap. Suonllen was going to pick up food from the Real Eddies (can get western style food) for the kids on the way home since we were going out. Well we ordered it, but I did not pick up the phone when they called to confirm the order so the kids got Subway sandwiches instead.
Out for the night. we went to the Brooklyn bar and met with Sheree and Chris. Other Intel employees who are together. We had a great time, they informed me they had name for the Intel Wives who did not work, which was most if not almost all of them. They call them CATS, not because of what you might think if thinking about the term "cougar" but because the wives LIVE THE LIFE OF A CAT! They get up when they want to, do what they want to, take naps, hang out, go for lunch and work out. Notice I left out, take care of the kids, clean the house, do the laundry or shopping! The Ayi takes care of all of that and basically the CATS just chill! I asked them if they had heard the term yet, "LADY OF LEISURE"? they had and I informed them that I was responsible for that one because that's what I though my life at China would be like without having to work but now I like the CATS label much more!!
So after the Brooklyn Bar, we went to the BOBO bar, uuuhhhhh! Way to smokey! I really do not want to die of lung cancer and we were out of there! We went to a third Bar, but I can not remember the name. That night was fun! We had Baby Guiness and other Green drinks...Over all, St. Pats Day was like it was in the US except every once in awhile, we didn't understand what was being said...one more day and Big Dady will be off with us....
Another Intel Wife, Linda, offered to take us out and show us where things were at so when we get here, I will have head start on shopping. We went to Jin Ma and were amazed at all that could be found in one place. From an entire floor of their "Home Depot" selection to the bottom basement level of meats, fish (unrefrigerated-ugh no way will I buy there!) to snacks and staples. Clothes, although in Asia's sizes, but an ample amount of them. I was so overwhelmed, I ended up not getting the few things I wanted to! Next trip there I guess.
We decided to have lunch, were going to go to the "Pig" but then we realized we had already eaten there last night for our frist dinner. It's not really called the "Pig" but has one in it's logo and since we can't read the symbols, "pig" it is...the other day I called it "the Dog" but was reminded it was not a dog but a pig! HAHAHA glad, since I know there are places that serve Dog, Koreans love it I guess..eewwwwww! Anyways, we went to a dumpling house. Poor Javi, he doesn't eat dumplings but I made him at least try one since I am worried he is going to melt away to nothing over here since he is so picky. We did order him sweet and sour pork, which he liked. The dumplings were amazing! We got two orders of fried, shrimp and pork and then one order of steamed pork. And yes we had dumplings to take home and they will probably get eaten for dinner. After lunch, we decided we had had enough...we had all been up since 4A.
We went home and all took a nap. Suonllen was going to pick up food from the Real Eddies (can get western style food) for the kids on the way home since we were going out. Well we ordered it, but I did not pick up the phone when they called to confirm the order so the kids got Subway sandwiches instead.
Out for the night. we went to the Brooklyn bar and met with Sheree and Chris. Other Intel employees who are together. We had a great time, they informed me they had name for the Intel Wives who did not work, which was most if not almost all of them. They call them CATS, not because of what you might think if thinking about the term "cougar" but because the wives LIVE THE LIFE OF A CAT! They get up when they want to, do what they want to, take naps, hang out, go for lunch and work out. Notice I left out, take care of the kids, clean the house, do the laundry or shopping! The Ayi takes care of all of that and basically the CATS just chill! I asked them if they had heard the term yet, "LADY OF LEISURE"? they had and I informed them that I was responsible for that one because that's what I though my life at China would be like without having to work but now I like the CATS label much more!!
So after the Brooklyn Bar, we went to the BOBO bar, uuuhhhhh! Way to smokey! I really do not want to die of lung cancer and we were out of there! We went to a third Bar, but I can not remember the name. That night was fun! We had Baby Guiness and other Green drinks...Over all, St. Pats Day was like it was in the US except every once in awhile, we didn't understand what was being said...one more day and Big Dady will be off with us....
I am pretty sure I either mixed up the day's of day time activities. We got here on a Tuesday, so techinically that was day one, right? St. Pat.s day was Wednesday day two, Thursday was Day three and now day 4 is Friday....whew! not that that is straight!
Suonllen is off today and we took our time getting up and out the door. We decided to go to the Zoo to show the kids a little of the city. We arrived at the Zoo after eating lunch and guess what? yep it was Chinese food! Javi is starting to hate it I think!
The Zoo looked DEAD! there was no one there! Suonllen took the Driver and went to see if they were open, they told him they were so we got tickets and in we went. WELL, they may have been open but they forgot to tell the animals to show up...except for the babies! That's all we saw! Some baby tigers, a baby leopard, some lemers and some flamingos oh and don't forget the Chipmonks! What a waste of money...
We then decided to show them Olympic Square and then on to the Wal-Mart so we could go to the electronics place for some converters and DVDs to record the videos I made of Zumba class before I left. The kids got to see how different things are here!
We called it an early day and went home. Suonllen took a little nap and we then headed out for a different dinner, we told Javi more Chinese food but Surprised him with the Real Eddies. He had a cheese pizza and was probably the best thing he had here in china and was the most expensive too! I have to find a way to get Chedder cheese here, you can buy things at the real Eddies in the downstairs market but the Cheese was rediculas, 68RMB for a small and I mean small block of Cheese...Yikes! We were ALL tired so we went home and decided to forego another night out on the town...there is always tomorrow right?
Suonllen is off today and we took our time getting up and out the door. We decided to go to the Zoo to show the kids a little of the city. We arrived at the Zoo after eating lunch and guess what? yep it was Chinese food! Javi is starting to hate it I think!
The Zoo looked DEAD! there was no one there! Suonllen took the Driver and went to see if they were open, they told him they were so we got tickets and in we went. WELL, they may have been open but they forgot to tell the animals to show up...except for the babies! That's all we saw! Some baby tigers, a baby leopard, some lemers and some flamingos oh and don't forget the Chipmonks! What a waste of money...
We then decided to show them Olympic Square and then on to the Wal-Mart so we could go to the electronics place for some converters and DVDs to record the videos I made of Zumba class before I left. The kids got to see how different things are here!
We called it an early day and went home. Suonllen took a little nap and we then headed out for a different dinner, we told Javi more Chinese food but Surprised him with the Real Eddies. He had a cheese pizza and was probably the best thing he had here in china and was the most expensive too! I have to find a way to get Chedder cheese here, you can buy things at the real Eddies in the downstairs market but the Cheese was rediculas, 68RMB for a small and I mean small block of Cheese...Yikes! We were ALL tired so we went home and decided to forego another night out on the town...there is always tomorrow right?
Here we go, it's Saturday. We were so tired from going out on Wednesday and Thursday night, we could not do it last night, we went to bed at 9:30p on a Friday! I, of course, woke up this morning at 5a because of that...So here is it Saturday and we planned a late start. Started out a Rainy Day schedule, changed to a Snowy Day schedule and then within the next few hours was just plan Cold Day schedule. We had the driver be here to pick us up at 11a but of course being on Dominican Time in China, we got downstairs around 11:30a. So we were off to get our massages, we were going to be brave and try a new place in the area where we live instead of driving down town. It was recommended to us by some other Intel people so we trusted it would be safe and there would be no chance of a "Happy Ending" we had the kids with us after all. The plan was to have Javi play his DS while we were getting massages. We thought he would be too young to get a massage. Well, appearently no! We were all given clothes to change into after being led into a back room...uuht oh? So we all changed and picked our places amoungst the five massage tables and drank the tea we were given and assumed the possitions. REMEMBER, none of the people who were going to be massaging us speak english and none of us know more than a hello and a few choice words in Manadrin. They bring a book over to Suonllen and show him options available to us, all in Manadrin, which we do not read. But they do show him by motioning, head to two. We say yes and then Suonllen also says, by motioning around his face I want a facial. They say, "ok".
Well as you may now, my back is REALLY messed up from High School cheerleading. The pain of a massage begins for me. Javi is constantly giggling and the first thing he says to me, "MOM, this feels REALLY GOOD!" aaahhhh crap! I am going to have to watch him when he gets older from talking girls into massaging him! Asia is laying there quietly until I ask her about her shoulder(she has a constant knot in it from softball) and she squeeks out, "THere WoRkinG on it nooooW!" little bit of pain in her voice too! But she says she's ok...Not a sound coming from Big Daddy and of course I am dying and moans and groans are coming from me bacause there is no words I know to say pain! Of course I endure the same thing I have the last two times I have had massages in China, They lift up my leg to the sky to show my tattoo on my ankle to everyone in the room(only this time I had on some clothes :-) yeah!) and then when they get to see my back and see the Chinese letters on it, they look at me like, you have this on your back but don't speak Manadrin? then they proceed to all talk and laugh for at least 30 minutes! This was the first time I had ever had a male do my massage and of course I was worried about the kids and did not want anything finding it's way to being even close to my happy ending spot or my kids, so I was not relaxing that much and he was going to town on my back! Yikes was I in pain! All the man kept saying was, "bu hao." He said this over and over many times. There was a time, I think that it was a little to close to my va-jay-jay and I stopped the massage around that part of my leg. When the massage appeared to be done, the man who was massaging me went over to my husband and told him, my back was "bu hao" showed him several areas and then proceeded to show him another picture in the book asking him if Suonllen wanted me to have a specific service(all the while I am still facing head down and have no idea what is going on!) Suonllen being the smart husband of 14yrs, askes me not just agrees for them to do it to me. I was shown the book and said what the hell? If it is going to make me feel better, right? What was it???? CUPPING! They placed 13 yes 13 glass jars on my back! after working it with some type of tool, kinda a scraping feeling all over all my aching areas of my back...This is the stuff I never thought I would do! See pictures!....it did not hurt, it was just uncomfortable, wierd feeling. Suonllen and the kids said my skin rose up about an inch and a half into the cups when they put them on! Now I have 13 circle bruises and I am sure they will be there for awhile! We went shopping and to an arcade after that and I am sure people could see bits of the top bruise by my neck and thought, "WOW American husbands are tough on their wifes! or maybe she deserved it, I'm sure! " LOL then we went to dinner and saw some of our American friends who were like, "WOW what kinds of hicky is that?? too funny! We later went dancing at a club in a hotel and yes we found a spot that did not play a lick of Chinese music! HIP HOP and R&B, great tunes and it was a great time. I am sure my bruises showed but I did not care, had to take a shower from all the smoke even though they told me to wait to shower until the next day at the massage place but I figured, 2a is the next day right? Oh the adventures to have in China...
Well as you may now, my back is REALLY messed up from High School cheerleading. The pain of a massage begins for me. Javi is constantly giggling and the first thing he says to me, "MOM, this feels REALLY GOOD!" aaahhhh crap! I am going to have to watch him when he gets older from talking girls into massaging him! Asia is laying there quietly until I ask her about her shoulder(she has a constant knot in it from softball) and she squeeks out, "THere WoRkinG on it nooooW!" little bit of pain in her voice too! But she says she's ok...Not a sound coming from Big Daddy and of course I am dying and moans and groans are coming from me bacause there is no words I know to say pain! Of course I endure the same thing I have the last two times I have had massages in China, They lift up my leg to the sky to show my tattoo on my ankle to everyone in the room(only this time I had on some clothes :-) yeah!) and then when they get to see my back and see the Chinese letters on it, they look at me like, you have this on your back but don't speak Manadrin? then they proceed to all talk and laugh for at least 30 minutes! This was the first time I had ever had a male do my massage and of course I was worried about the kids and did not want anything finding it's way to being even close to my happy ending spot or my kids, so I was not relaxing that much and he was going to town on my back! Yikes was I in pain! All the man kept saying was, "bu hao." He said this over and over many times. There was a time, I think that it was a little to close to my va-jay-jay and I stopped the massage around that part of my leg. When the massage appeared to be done, the man who was massaging me went over to my husband and told him, my back was "bu hao" showed him several areas and then proceeded to show him another picture in the book asking him if Suonllen wanted me to have a specific service(all the while I am still facing head down and have no idea what is going on!) Suonllen being the smart husband of 14yrs, askes me not just agrees for them to do it to me. I was shown the book and said what the hell? If it is going to make me feel better, right? What was it???? CUPPING! They placed 13 yes 13 glass jars on my back! after working it with some type of tool, kinda a scraping feeling all over all my aching areas of my back...This is the stuff I never thought I would do! See pictures!....it did not hurt, it was just uncomfortable, wierd feeling. Suonllen and the kids said my skin rose up about an inch and a half into the cups when they put them on! Now I have 13 circle bruises and I am sure they will be there for awhile! We went shopping and to an arcade after that and I am sure people could see bits of the top bruise by my neck and thought, "WOW American husbands are tough on their wifes! or maybe she deserved it, I'm sure! " LOL then we went to dinner and saw some of our American friends who were like, "WOW what kinds of hicky is that?? too funny! We later went dancing at a club in a hotel and yes we found a spot that did not play a lick of Chinese music! HIP HOP and R&B, great tunes and it was a great time. I am sure my bruises showed but I did not care, had to take a shower from all the smoke even though they told me to wait to shower until the next day at the massage place but I figured, 2a is the next day right? Oh the adventures to have in China...
So it's Sunday and Suonllen decided he wanted us to go to the Real Eddies for Sunday Brunch with a Linda and her husband(he works at Intel but I can't remember his name right now?) She is the one who took us to JinMa Market and showed us around before we went to the dumpling house. We arrive at Eddies and meet another Expat who is friends with Linda and her husband. He has been in China for 2 years already and is teaching English to kids at a school. So we order and I am pretty excited because I am going to have a waffle and crepes, french blood coming out at breakfast time I guess! The bacon here is AMAZING! not fatty at all or at least if there is fat, it is way out weighed but the meat part of the bacon. Had some of that while I was waiting for my food. Javi was having some pancakes and he was grinning from ear to ear because he knows he's going to enjoy this meal! Asia tried some of the pancakes and also ordered a omlette, ham and cheese...gobbled that up. I was told that the waffle iron was broke so I continued to wait for the crepes and had some fresh orange juice, the fruits by the way are so good! They are naturally sweet and so fresh! Then after waiting quite awhile I was told the crepes could not be made either for some reason. I order some eggs over medium, gamble I know but we'll see. When my eggs arrive, they looked great! BUT they were over HARD! I knew it was a gamble but at least they were cooked, so I ate what I could. I guess one of the biggest lessons to learn in China is, WE ARE IN A DIFFERENT COUNTRY! and you can not expect all the comforts of home! The Chinese people are very very nice and try to accomidate you to make you happy because they are so service oriented. That is something Americans are not always aware of, I think. Make the customer happy, or do the best you can to do that. In talking with the other Expat, he said he always has a story of the day from teaching. He told us he asked all of his students, "what were five things you should not waste?" and can you guess what the number one answer was?
RICE.....I realized then after thinking back to what I had seen the day before as we were being driven downtown and we passed construction workers on lunch break, all of them had big bowls of Rice as their lunch. Can you imagine eating rice ALL the time? I am so spoiled that I do not like to eat left overs from a dinner the very next day maybe even two days later! and here they are eating rice every day, not just because of the culture but because it is cheap and sometimes all they can afford....gave me a new perspective on how lucky we are to be able to have a variety.. the other four things that should not be wasted were: WATER, PAPER TIME, and MONEY. WATER is a universal answer I think, Asia said the same thing when we asked her the same question before we heard what he said the Chinese students said. PAPER, you know how much paper towels are here? $7 for like 1500 tri fold sheets...I know I use paper towels at home like crazy, but unless I bring them here, not going to happen! $7 WOW!! I wonder if we put that kind of price on them in the USA would we waste as much as we do? TIME...hmmmm I think that is a hard one to judge. I happen to like my time to be my time and what I may think is a good thing to do may be viewed as wasting? I like to take naps for instance, would they consider that wasting time? I dunno, but I am not going to budge on that one! Maybe just be more aware of what I am doing with my time so they do not consider me a wasteful American. The last one, MONEY...I think I am definitely guilty of that! How many times have I bought a new outfit because? Here it is not uncommon for them to wear the same clothes several days in a row! Not even trying to hide it by spacing them out to every other day but same day after day....and I am thinking I need to go shopping for a few more pairs of jeans because I have only like 6 I really like? This goes back the the question I hear in my head of Big Tom's voice saying, "Do you NEED it or WANT it, Michelle?" and am I teaching my children right by not saying the same things to them each time they ask for something? Javi was telling me he NEEDED a new toy, REALLY??? so now after reflecting on all of what I experienced on Sunday, I am going to try and make a few changes....however, rest assured, wearing the same outfit three days in a row will not be one of them! LOL...
BTW- Asia's answers were: Water/Paper ie. Resources, Food, Animals, Fuel and Money. not in that order but kind of interesting to see differences. And to be fair to her, she was placed on the spot in front of strangers to represent her age group...GOOD JOB BABYGIRL!
RICE.....I realized then after thinking back to what I had seen the day before as we were being driven downtown and we passed construction workers on lunch break, all of them had big bowls of Rice as their lunch. Can you imagine eating rice ALL the time? I am so spoiled that I do not like to eat left overs from a dinner the very next day maybe even two days later! and here they are eating rice every day, not just because of the culture but because it is cheap and sometimes all they can afford....gave me a new perspective on how lucky we are to be able to have a variety.. the other four things that should not be wasted were: WATER, PAPER TIME, and MONEY. WATER is a universal answer I think, Asia said the same thing when we asked her the same question before we heard what he said the Chinese students said. PAPER, you know how much paper towels are here? $7 for like 1500 tri fold sheets...I know I use paper towels at home like crazy, but unless I bring them here, not going to happen! $7 WOW!! I wonder if we put that kind of price on them in the USA would we waste as much as we do? TIME...hmmmm I think that is a hard one to judge. I happen to like my time to be my time and what I may think is a good thing to do may be viewed as wasting? I like to take naps for instance, would they consider that wasting time? I dunno, but I am not going to budge on that one! Maybe just be more aware of what I am doing with my time so they do not consider me a wasteful American. The last one, MONEY...I think I am definitely guilty of that! How many times have I bought a new outfit because? Here it is not uncommon for them to wear the same clothes several days in a row! Not even trying to hide it by spacing them out to every other day but same day after day....and I am thinking I need to go shopping for a few more pairs of jeans because I have only like 6 I really like? This goes back the the question I hear in my head of Big Tom's voice saying, "Do you NEED it or WANT it, Michelle?" and am I teaching my children right by not saying the same things to them each time they ask for something? Javi was telling me he NEEDED a new toy, REALLY??? so now after reflecting on all of what I experienced on Sunday, I am going to try and make a few changes....however, rest assured, wearing the same outfit three days in a row will not be one of them! LOL...
BTW- Asia's answers were: Water/Paper ie. Resources, Food, Animals, Fuel and Money. not in that order but kind of interesting to see differences. And to be fair to her, she was placed on the spot in front of strangers to represent her age group...GOOD JOB BABYGIRL!
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