China wins again

We now have a saying in the Lindsey household whenever something goes amiss due to it being an Only In China type of scenario.  China wins again.  We say it with a laugh, when we ARE able to look back and laugh about it afterwards.

N was invited to a Chinese wedding which was held on Sunday.  We got our ayi (housekeeper/babysitter) to come and stay with the kids so that I could tag along.  We were very excited, as this was our first Chinese wedding, and very likely our only Chinese wedding experience.  We studied the map both on Google maps and Baidu (Chinese version of Google) and memorized 2 routes to get to the hotel where the wedding was to be held.  We got a hold of a hong bao (red envelope) and stuffed it with money to give to the newlyweds. We practiced saying "Happy new marriage!" in Chinese.

To make a long story short, we got lost.  We were SO close to the destination yet we just could NOT find it. Roads that were promised on Google maps disappeared and random overpass highways popped up where you couldn't turn around until 10 miles or so.

We finally got to a big mall and decided to just park and take a cab over to the wedding.  But there were literally no parking spots available.

China wins again.  We missed the wedding.

To salvage the situation, N took me to a very nice lunch at the brand spanking new Shangri-La hotel.  The hotel is absolutely beautiful, even by Western standards and the restaurant was amazing, my favorite here so far.  It is called Cafe Liao and it is a buffet.  Now this ain't no Golden Corral.  I'm taking fancy, upscale.  There is a Chinese side with Peking duck, specials soups, a DIY noodle soup section, various meats and veggies, dumplings.  They also had a sushi section, Indian section, a pasta bar, salad bar, gourmet meats, cheese, and an impressive dessert selection including homemade ice cream and popsicles, etc, etc, etc.

I wish I had 4 stomachs so that I could have eaten more.

They have a special soup of the day that is cooked in humongous urns.  When the soup is ready, the chef there rings a gong and everyone rushes up to get a crock of soup.  A chef also walks around wearing a tray around his neck to deliver around the dining room.  The broth was absolutely delicious, but as I dug to the bottom, I saw that it had black chicken meat in it, and I could not eat it.  Purely a mental thing.  I mean, if you saw these babies in the meat section in the grocery stores here, would you want to eat it?  It is supposed to be a delicacy and good for you, but I'm just not ready for all that yet.

Yes, an amazing lunch an and awesome date with my husband, even if we did miss the wedding.  Maybe China didn't win after all.

First getaway in China- Harbin!

It's technically Ha'erbin...


Nathan had some business in Harbin so we decided to tag along. Harbin is located about 350 miles northeast of Shenyang. In the winter, it is a very popular vacation destination even with international visitors because of the famous ice festival. But it is a nice place to visit in the summer as well. There is a lot of interesting architecture (Russian influence), tons of restaurants, and lots of things to see and do in general. The weather was perfect, about 10 degrees cooler than in Shenyang with no humidity. It was sunny and mid 70s the whole time we were there.


Why the Russian influence? I don't know the entire history so I'll hand it over to Wikipedia for a second here. "Harbin is China's northernmost major city, with a population in excess of 10 million, and over 4 million in the city center alone. Historically, the city has been influenced a lot by neighboring Russia, in particular after the Russian Revolution of 1917, when the White Russians, Russians who supported the czarist state, escaped the newly formed Soviet Union. The influence remains clearly visible in the building styles and foods."


We took a high speed bullet train which took about 2.5 hours to get there. At the Shenyang station, they had a cool little kids' play area so we were grateful to give our kids a chance to run around before having to sit for a few hours.


I had my first squatty potty experience at the train station. AT THE TRAIN STATION, where thousands of people cycle through every day, of all places... but it was either that or wait to go in the train. (I have an irrational fear of public bathrooms, even back in the States. I may even be known to have said that I'd rather pee my pants than use a public bathroom...or wear Depends...) It was not a pleasant experience by any means, but I survived.


Helpful hint: when traveling in China, always carry your own toilet paper and hand soap if you can. At the very least, hand sanitizer.


I was at first nervous about riding a train here. I heard horror stories about Chinese trains being filthy, people spitting everywhere, toddlers in split pants peeing everywhere, food scraps... but this train was very clean and it was a smooth ride. The kids did great, thanks again to the iPod, iPad and art supplies.


We stayed at a Holiday Inn right at the beginning of the walking street. The walking street (Zhongyang Dajie 中央大街) is a pedestrian-only street bursting with shops and restaurants. It was very charming, with cobblestone lined road and all.


The hotel was nice. Great service, and newly renovated. We had a suite but no pull out couch in the living room. I guess Chinese hotels don't really have to cater to families bigger than 3 people much. But the couch was big and both boys slept on it just fine. Nathan and I slept in the king sized bed in the bedroom and we put Karis's crib in the bathroom! Don't worry, it was spacious and clean. Maybe it sounds cruel but it worked out because it was dark and quiet in there. She is used to sleeping with some white noise and the bathroom fan was not loud enough. So I moved the alarm clock with a iPod docking station in there and bought a white noise track on iTunes for $0.99. I put it in repeat and she was good to go.


We got a chance to visit the Tiger park, where supposedly over 1000 tigers and lions live. I don't know about that... we didn't see nearly that much. We got into a caged bus and basically had a mini-safari. We saw a good amount of tigers and lions pretty close up. In the States we'd see tigers and lions at the zoo but they were far away and hard to see. Not so here! After the mini-safari, we walked around a circular building lined with caged windows where tigers lounged in the central courtyard. You could pay money to have the workers throw in live animals to feed to the lions. They had everything from chickens to cows. I guess chickens were a popular choice because the whole courtyard was littered with feathers. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) no one in our group paid money to throw in live food.


Traveling with 3 kids isn't ever easy but we had a lot of fun. I wish Nathan and I would have had a chance to try more of the food but we got our fill of pizza, McDonalds and KFC instead.



Any guesses as to what this is? It's an outdoors Russian bar. I was hoping it was a kids' play area...








People are always intrigued by our kids. Not many hybrids in these here parts.




Nathan's coworkers told him we HAD to try these handmade ice creams. We asked, "How would find the ice cream shop?" They said "You'll know." And so we did. It was the place with a massive crowd out front.




Lots of live musicians at night.






Random Mickey Mouse.




Saint Sophia Cathedral








Pigeons out front, just like in front of any beautiful church. Joshua thought they were turkeys.


In the caged bus.

The gas station loves me

Getting gas here is a little different than in the states.  Here it's full service, no ifs, ands or buts.  (Fine with me!)  When you pull up, you can either give the gas attendant (who walks around a big fanny pack stuffed with cash) the amount of money you'd like to spend or just have him fill it up and give him the amount afterwards.  I keep forgetting how to say "fill it up" in Chinese.  I've had my ayi (helper/housekeeper) with me in the car and she has handled it all for me.  Spoiled, I know.

We now have a gas card which is a discount/debit card of sorts.  We fill it up periodically and just have the gas attendant swipe it and we punch in a pin number.  We end up saving 17-18%, not too shabby.  I'm not sure if it's only for foreign diplomats or available to everyone.

To get a receipt, you have to physically walk in to the gas station and ask for one.  It's very much like the ones in the States- they double as a small convenience store/snack bar.  But instead of hot dogs and breakfast sandwiches that sit in warmers all day, they have things like dumpling soup and noodles!  Awesome.  My ayi has gone in to get the fapiao for me each time and each time she walks out with some sort of a gift.  It's the gas station's way of thanking me for buying so much gas!  They have vans here in Shenyang, but usually not as big as my Honda Odyssey so I guess paying for much as I do to fill up is unusual.

The first time, I got two small towels.  The second time, I got a couple of small packs of laundry detergent.  This last time I got 8 small bottles of Pepsi!

I'm not sure how much gas is.  Nathan told me that it's about 6.5 quai per liter, which comes out to about $1 per liter, which is like $5/gallon?  I'm drawing a blank as to how much gas was the last time I was in the states, but I think $5/gallon is a bit pricey.  But then Nathan's guess may be wrong.  After all, he's never been with me when I went to fill up.

I usually fill up when my tank is 1/4  to 1/8 full.  It has cost me anywhere between 450 quai to 700 quai to fill up, which is around $75-$116.67.

So the next time I fill up, it'll be my first time using the gas card.  I can't wait to see what freebie I get this time!  I feel like they just keep getting better and better.

Speaking Chinese

I've been taking Chinese lessons for about 3 months now and am so grateful for the progress (however little) that I have made.  At first I was skeptical.  A 2 hour lesson once a week?  Like that's ever going to teach me anything.

But it has!  I love my teacher.  She is so well prepared, patient and funny.  She always has a Chinese joke to tell me that relates to the new vocab we are learning.  Yesterday she told me a joke about 2 bananas walking down the street... and I was able to translate.

The best thing about learning Chinese has been the way it has helped me practically.
*I can now go to the grocery store and ask where the spinach is.  No clearly labeled triple washed baby spinach leaves here, remember?  The 菠菜 sits among its other green cousins who look a whole lot like him.  And I don't know my characters so it's not like I can just read the signs.
*I can talk about my kids.  Yes all 3 are mine.  Here are their ages.
*I can talk about myself.  I am American.  (They usually don't believe me, staring at me in disbelief.)  Fine, I'm Korean.  (That usually gets me a nod of satisfaction.)
*I can ask how much something costs.
*I can ask if I can try something on at a clothing store.
*I can throw in a few words to accompany my pointing at a picture menu when ordering at a restaurant.

And today, I asked for directions.  There is some heavy duty road construction going on in front of our neighborhood so we have to be creative in finding other ways home if need be.  Lately we have had to pass our exit and keep going on the main road towards the airport, make a u-turn and take our exit coming from the other direction.  But tonight, my usual u-turn place was no more.  They had come up and put up barriers.  Not flimsy little flattened cones that we had driven over before.

Those jerks.

So I just kept going until I reached the airport.  Then I had no choice but to go to the parking lot.  I started to panic.  There was just no place to turn around.  I couldn't see the exit.  I got to the place where you get the tickets for the parking lot and saw a Chinese police man there.  I said in Chinese, "I want to return there (here I gestured back the way I came from), to 机场路 (airport road).  How do I get there?" He took a moment to look down at the diplomatic plates, saw that I was driving a Honda Odyssey (rare here), and registered my what I imagine to be a gringo accent.  Then got me a ticket in to the parking lot (which turned out to be free) and just pointed to the right direction (which involved lots of loops), didn't even bother with words.

I was so proud of myself!  If I were to ever get lost, I could always find my way back by asking someone for directions.  I can do this!  Bring it, Shenyang!!!

We are getting a GPS with downloadable international maps, just in case.
 

Shenyang driving rules

Yes, yes, I know.  Worst blogger ever.  I will try my best to update more.  Things have been crazy here, but in a good way.  Now that our car is here I've been out and about almost every day and by the time all three munchkins are in bed, I am too exhausted to do anything.

Driving in Shenyang has been... a lot easier than I thought.  I have seen some crazy things here, but things don't seem as bad from the driver's seat.  I feel like I'm already anticipating the local drivers' tendencies.  I've learned to drive both more aggressively than ever AND defensively than ever.  How is that even possible?  Just try driving in Shenyang.

So based on my limited observations from driving here in the last few weeks or so, my version of Shenyang driving rules.

1.  Wearing a seat belt is for losers.  Why do you think half of the cars don't even come installed with seat belts in the back seat?
2.  Don't bother turning on your headlights when it rains, when it's cloudy, or during dusk.
3.  White dashed lines are meant to be straddled, not to be driven in between.
4.  Feel like taking a nap?  Or involved in a really intense conversation?  Please, by all means, stop the car and do what you need to do.  It's OK if you're in the middle lane on the highway.
5.  Do not leave more than 5cm of space between you and the car in front of you, because you WILL be cut off.
6.  If you see 5cm of space in the lane next to you, you must swing on over.
7.  Using a turn signal is a total waste of time and energy.
8.  Having only one left turn lane cramping your style?  Go ahead and pull up in the next lane and create your own.
9.  Sure, it's totally fine to make a u-turn from the far right lane.  (This is actually legal here...)
10.  Oops!  Did you miss your exit?  Or turn on the wrong street?  Go ahead and drive against traffic or backwards, no problemo.
11.  Don't check both ways before turning onto the street.  They'll stop for you or swerve to avoid you.
12.  Do not check your blind spot when switching lanes.
13.  Needless to say, traffic lights and signs are merely suggestions.

I'm exaggerating.  Not everyone drives like this here.  But I have seen everyone single one of those examples listed above, on multiple occasions.

And to think I used to be nervous to drive in downtown DC.

The stash

Since Shenyang is considered a hardship post, we are allowed up to 2500 lbs of consumable goods shipped over for free.  We can even divide that up between 2 shipments.  We lucked out because we had so much weight left in our HHE (household effects- i.e. most of our stuff) that we were able to put in our consumables as part of our HHE.  That means we technically can get 2 consumables shipments still.  (I think)

Consumables can be anything well, consumable.  So tires wouldn't be considered consumables.  But non-perishable foods, hygiene stuff, meds, yes. 

I shipped everything from toilet paper to honey to Advil to sundried tomatoes.  Cereal, Ziploc bags, juice boxes, ranch dressing, shampoo, cookies, bleach.  Toothpaste, brownie mix, detergent, balsamic vinegar, hand sanitizer, canned tomatoes.  I did a lot of my shopping at BJ's but also Target.  Target's prices were sometimes cheaper than buying things in bulk.  I'm sure I annoyed many a customer as I unloaded my cart laden with 25 cans of Rotel (I can already tell that wasn't enough). 

Sure, you can find canned tomatoes here.  But they come out to about $4 to $5 a can.  And a lot of them are dented up and dangerously nearing the expiration date.  I found a can of Swanson's chicken broth here for about $4 and the thing expires on July 3, 2013.  I don't think I ever came closer than 2 years to the expiration date of canned anything in the States.  I used the broth, it smelled fine, no one got sick.

I was expecting the worst in terms of finding stuff here.  I thought they either wouldn't have what we wanted (or only available as shady Chinese brands with questionable ingredients and health standards where they are produced) or that they'd cost an arm and a leg.

But I was pleasantly surprised.  They have very good toilet paper here.  Kleenex brand, much nicer than the ones that we shipped.  There is good bread here, both packaged and fresh from the bakery.  All that worry and stress about having to learn to bake bread for nothing!  The local produce is dirt cheap.  I know I need to be careful.  I douse everything in vinegar solution or a veggie wash and no one has gotten sick yet (who knows about long term effects), but either you eat the local stuff here or eat canned beans for 2 years, which I can't imagine would be good for you either.  A bunch of carrots for about $.50.  I got a HUGE bunch of spinach (no triple washed bagged baby spinach here), 2 big bunches of perilla leaves, a big squash and some lettuce for about $3.00 total.  But avocados?  Sometimes they are $8 each.  I got really lucky the other day and got some for $3 each.  That is considered a steal.

There is actually a surprisingly good amount of imported goods here.  I've found Eggo brand waffles, Newman's Own pasta sauce, kettle cooked chips, Barilla pasta, Gerber puffs, Earth's Best baby food, Goldfish crackers, McCormicks taco seasoning, Duvel beer.  But each one of those items costs at least 4x the amount it would cost in the States.

Things that I have NOT been able to find here?  That is of a good enough quality?  Garbage bags.   The ones I've come across are so thin and flimsy, not even strong enough to hold a poopy diaper.  Hand soap.  The one that I got when I first got here smells like you rubbed your hands in liquid fabric softener.   Those are the only ones that come to mind.  Not too bad.

Since we have DPO and diplomatic pouch privileges, we are able to ship a lot of things online from Amazon and such.  The only exception are liquids- only up to a certain amount.  So I've been ok with dry goods- cereal, baby food, garbage bags, tortillas, things like that.  The only inconvenience is that it takes at least 2 weeks to get here, doesn't matter if you have Amazon Prime or anything.

I am so happy about our stash.  We have a storage area upstairs and it feels like we own a small convenience store.  Anytime I go up there to get something, I joke that I'm going shopping, even take a few totes with me.  I'm already thinking about what I'll include in our first technical consumables shipment.  I'll have to do it in the fall so that nothing melts in the heat and nothing freezes. 

Just another day

I confess my posts have been far and few in between and that they haven't been all that exciting.  Part of the reason is that since we don't have a car, we haven't been able to get out and about much yet.  We are able to get contract drivers and take advantage of the car service that is provided by the Consulate but we reserve those for shopping and church.  Not too thrilling.

We live out in the suburbs, away from it all.  Maybe if we lived in the city I'd have exciting and interesting things to post about, just by walking around outside and seeing what I can see.

But it is nice to live in a place where the kids can run around outside, play with the water (as long as they don't drink it...), ride scooters and bikes, draw with chalk, where we can take daily evening walks as a family after dinner.  I mentioned to a friend who lives in the city that the other day the kids played out front drawing with chalk for almost an hour and she replied, "Yeah, we could NEVER do that where we live."

So here are some scenes from a typical walk around the neighborhood.

 And we're off! 

 Look!  A butterfly!  Resting on some... barbed wire wrapped around a tree!

 NJ usually walks on ahead of us.  Here he comes running back to tell me...

 ...that a ladybug landed on K's head.

 Mommy and K.

 Daddy, daughter and a coon hat.

 The boys working diligently on stripping the bark off.

Can't really see, but there are tons of caterpillars and J loves to trap them, pick them up, play with them...

Scenes from the aquarium

Here are some pictures to go with the previous post.

 

 

 What's with the armored polar bears and scary looking warrior statues at the entrance?

 The boys!

 Poor crocodile... I wonder how many coins he's eaten.  They even had a bell hanging above another crocodile pit serving as a target to encourage people to throw coins.

 Makes perfect sense to me.

 Nothing to see, just a guy walking through a bustling aquarium with a huge door on his back.

 Drool.

 Fruit ninja!

 It was an xbox!

 The jellyfish.  So colorful.  So peaceful.  Apparently one of the Chinese kids was more fascinated by N and J than the jellyfish.

 There were about 10 of these tiki mask things lined up on the wall and NJ just HAD to pick all of their noses.  Such a boy.

 Taking pics of people taking pics of my family.  They never care about me, it's the whitey and the hybrids they care about!

 Protect the seal!

 But then they have these poor seals confined to this rowboat for so that people can pay money to take pictures with them.

Lots of school groups with kids dressed in adorable matching uniforms.