He Played Seven: August 2013

Friday, August 23, 2013

I scheduled a tour of the school a couple weeks before the first day. What a cool school! The tour got the kids very excited, which is good because my kids usually hate the idea of going to school. The kids played on the playground after.

BA got a haircut!

And that's the big monster hand behind her.

Rhon is very upset that middle schoolers don't use the playground.

G was upset he doesn't get to use this playground either.

Conquered.

Apparently smoke comes out of this dragon's mouth.

I should have taken pictures of the inside too.

*****

After we got home a friend took me tuk tuk shopping. I bought one! And after having almost a month with it, I have to say it is one of my favorite things about living here. It's like the Beijing equivalent of cruising down Pacific Coast Highway in a convertible. Not really, but it is still pretty fun. It's more like having your own battery operated bajai - for all my Jakarta friends. Only, there is actually space on the road to drive it.

Michelle ended up taking a few of us tuk tuk shopping that day. I was the only one who ended up buying one. They were all waiting for me, and I felt bad, so we worked it out that the guy who sold it to me would just take me home. (I didn't know the way.)

Riding in the back of my brand new tuk tuk! I don't think he really knew the way either. He stopped to ask for help a couple of times. And I think we went the long way. But once I saw some landmarks, I directed him. I'm not totally useless!

This is the street that my housing complex is on.

*****

And even later that day, we went swimming. The pool is much more crowded here than what we are used to, but it's okay. And there is a lifeguard...

Honestly, "lifeguard" is a bit generous. I don't think he'd even notice if someone was drowning, let alone save them. That sounds mean. I'm joking, of course. But could he save someone? I once saw him eating a meal with his back to the water. It cracked me up.

Ox Patient

When we got here, everyone told us not to take the taxis. I heard stories about not being able to get home, drivers who refuse to take you, etc. And we live in a neighborhood far from downtown and they don't like being out there. So I was intimidated. And since we got here about 7 weeks before school started, we had a L O N G time stuck at the house with nothing to do. One day I decided to try it. We went to IKEA. It worked out fine. I was super stressed the whole time we were there worrying about if we would be able to get home or not. But it was productive, and I especially liked seeing the Chinese people taking naps on the beds and having tea at the tables. And, of course, the karaoke in the restaurant. We made it home fine. The first taxi driver turned us away, but I learned from my mistake and the next one brought us home.

A few days later, I was feeling a bit more confident so we called another taxi to take us out. It was a clear day and we wanted to do something outside. I know nothing about the city except for this little taxi book I got in my welcome packet. We wanted to go to the Olympic park, but that wasn't in my book. We found another "park" in it and decided to give it a try. I had no idea was I was in for. In retrospect, it was probably not great planning on my part. Again, planning. Not my strength.

We made it to Chaoyang Park no trouble!

As soon as we walked through the gate, and woman started gesturing and leading us to the lake area. She wanted us to take a boat ride. Why not! Honestly though, she could have been leading us to a dungeon where they eat children for all I understood. But it turned out to be just a boat ride. Which is good.

Here's the driver.

This is our first true outing in China.

Then we walked around a bit. This park wasn't so much a park like I thought, but more like an amusement park. Or at least the side that we got dropped off on.

Colorful toys.

There were rides. We chose the jungle gym type activity. The kids got harnesses and climbed around the different obstacles.

They were supposed to play for 30 minutes, but because it was so slow (I think) they were able to stay for an hour.

The girls got to go all the way to the top.

BA wasn't feeling well.

The bathroom.

We had sausages for lunch.

The menu had about 20 different options, but the guy came out and showed me what they actually had. Noodles, or sausages. It was funny to me. At least he didn't let me try and order 10 different things before telling me.

And then they tried out the bumper cars.

Walking around some more.

"A riot of colour"

I thought that was funny.

Here the kids are on the way out. I bought the boys a toy snake.

This exit is on a big road so I thought getting a taxi would be easy. It hasn't been that long since I lived in Jakarta when taxis were everywhere, cheap, and they never cared how many people we crammed in. I was feeling pretty confident. A little stressed because of the language thing, but okay. I quickly learned that Beijing is no Jakarta. About 20 taxi drivers turned me away. Mostly because they are only supposed to take 4 passengers. I didn't realize they were strict about the rules because the ones who came to our house had no problem. To say I was panicked is an understatement. I was trying to keep the kids safe on a busy street while chasing down any taxi I saw stopping anywhere in our vicinity. I have virtually no Chinese, and I'm sure I looked like I didn't know what I was doing, which, I'm guessing, didn't help me. The rickshaw (is that what they are?) drivers would not leave me alone. They would follow me and get in my face. I am not taking one of those home! And it was hot. I decided to call Nate. I know there is a subway stop near our house and there was a huge bus stop right across the street. I was willing to try either one. Nate helped me find the subway stop, but it was about a mile away. And the bus system is so complex we couldn't figure it out. His next suggestion was to wait until he got off work. He would meet us there and we could take 2 taxis home. Just as he was getting off work, a taxi let us get in.

This guy was hilarious. After talking for about 10 straight minutes in Chinese, with no responses from me, he serenaded us. Serenaded! And it was loud! Not just loud singing. Loud loud. Like make me jump when he hit the high notes, loud. I like to think that we got turned down by all those other guys because we were supposed to end up with him. Hahah! I was so happy I was in a car on the way to my house, I didn't care what he did.

That day I learned a lot about Beijing. I won't let it intimidate me too much, but I'm not sure how many more outings we'll take without our car.

Monday, August 19, 2013

I Had To Get My Badge

This move has not been easy for me. We had a very busy home leave, with no time in DC. We got here with about 7 weeks until school started with no transportation. We had no stuff. I know no Chinese. It wasn't my favorite time. The kids were frustrated and bored and I felt exhausted. One day I had to go to the embassy for a newcomers welcome thing. I was able to go to lunch with Nate. We went for some noodles. With one taste of that broth, all my troubles melted away. I remember why China is awesome. I forgot about the fact that I couldn't order by myself and just slurped up some more delicious, perfectly cooked noodles.

The restaurant was everything I expected from a noodle shop in China. We could barely walk in it was so crowded. The smell was heavenly. The host saw us walk in, and quickly whisked us to a nearby table. We were alone for the time being, but not for long. He sat two other people at our table. And these are small tables and small chairs. No privacy here! The table was just a tiny bit sticky, and it had a supply of chopsticks and spoons in a little organizer. And of course the lovely vinegar bottle. We wrote down our order, gave it to the waitress, and the noodles came quickly. Nate spoke Chinese to the girls at our table. They tried out some English on me. One told me I was beautiful. Hahah! I wonder if that is all she knew how to say? Well, either way, I was flattered.

Xiaolongbao

Here we are on our first outing to get dumplings. Unfortunately there isn't a dumpling shop on every corner like I was hoping, but there is one at the mall down the street. It's okay. I can't wait until we get our car so we can have dumplings anytime we want.

Then we went to the grocery store in the mall. It is more geared towards western shoppers. No frogs here. But we were able to pick up some tomato caramels. They are not good. We did find something awesome though. Hawthorne berries. Not fresh, dried like fruit leather. It's so good! And pretty cheap. We'll be eating a lot of that.

Bright Stars

On July 4th, we had a bbq outside. It was kind of hot, but it has been a while since we were able to do anything outside unless it was sitting by a pool. And I am so excited to have patio furniture! We tried to have typical Independence Day food. We had cheeseburgers, beans, and potato salad. We even let the kids have a can of soda of their choice.

Sometimes it's hard being overseas during American holidays. It never feels quite the same. But we had a great day, and hopefully the kids will know the importance of what we are celebrating. We sang the Star Spangled Banner. Now I know something we can work on for next year. It was less than impressive. :)

There were no fireworks that night, but we hung out with some friends and had more American food.

On The Very End

Here is our house. I'll take some pictures of the inside when I finally get all my stuff put away.

Auchan

So I'm on to China. I have many more posts to do of our home leave, but I just keep getting more and more behind and I'm ready to write about China. So I'll have to go back someday.

These are some pictures of one of my first outings to a grocery store...

Don't think that I'm not tempted to buy one of these someday. I might even try cooking it! I think someone else would have to kill it for me though.

Turtles too.

And just in case you all were curious how to cook a turtle.

I've learned that most places, at least in Asia, you can always find Oreos. The flavors are sometimes funky, but they are at every store.

Here's what I bought. The chicken feet were a joke for the kids. They are still sitting in my cabinet.

Chinese on nectarines. I don't even want to know what they do to those things to get that character on it. We ate them anyway.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Self Serve Lemonade

We wanted to break in our new car by taking a 10 day road trip. That's not really why, but we did. Both. Take a trip and break in our brand new car. This was just the beginning. It gets worse. By the end of the ten days, the car was worked out.