Looks like we made it

According to my VPN, I am in Los Angeles. Ahhhh, a girl can dream. I spent an insane amount of time during quiet time today setting up the computer, but I am actually typing with all the proper keystrokes now and not with one finger on my iPhone. Whoop!

Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to write me encouraging email notes. It has meant the world to me. I guess if nothing else China will teach me about who are the supportive ones in my life and who are merely just in it. I know my last blog was quite the downer, but I am trying to be legitimate  as to what this experience is like. I also want to publicly apologize to my baby brother who got to see the full on ugly cry when he Skyped with me yesterday. I could not help it. Sometimes the person you need to talk to calls at the very moment when you need them most. Hopefully our internet connection continues to work like it has today (up to now it has been spotty).

I am sitting in the window desk of our apartment wistfully feeling like Carrie Bradshaw character gone awry. The heat index has reached 100 and I don't think it is the hottest part of the day yet. I am drinking a Coke zero. Tucker is napping in our room and Hudson is reading books in their room. The boys are slowly working their way towards proper sleeping times. As always my biggest concern is how little Tucker is eating, but he is drinking like it is his job. At our breakfast we have a Tang-like juice and he chugs it. I think he drank 5 mini glasses this morning alone. Between that bananas and popcorn, he will be okay for awhile. Breakfast is nothing like the American breakfasts you dream about. There are 3 cereal options. Fruits. Custard. Random breads. Then porridge. The hot dishes are green beans or mixed vegetable, fried rice, pan fried noodles, and hard boiled eggs. And they have bacon. But it does not smell, taste, or even really resemble bacon, so I think that is false advertising. Yesterday they had "chicken colonel" (crazy overdone chicken nuggets) and today they had french fries.

So, it is Monday afternoon and my first full day alone. I felt it would be best that I get out and make myself go somewhere easy, so I went back to the local supermarket. It is two stories tall. The downstairs is the food and the upstairs is the housewares, clothes, etc. They don't accept our credit cards, so it is cash only. Kind of nerve wracking as I am not very good at adding up everything we are buying as I hold on to two kids. It is really crowded inside. Aisles are small and I had to keep Tucker in the stroller because he refused to sit in a shopping cart.

Our nearest grocery store. About a 10 minute walk. Spotted a "SlugBug" outside. 

The thing that is key here is: we are starred at all the time. And not like celebrity status staring. More like we have three heads kind of staring. So, when your youngest has his typical shitfit about getting into the shopping cart you are not quick to employ the same threatening tactics that you might use back home at Walnasty. Why not? Because everyone. is. watching. you. EVERYONE. We were coming down the escalator (no steps, rather a huge ramp like one...that was fun with a stroller) and this guy was staring at us and knocked over a whole display of watermelons.

Outside the store are women selling food as well. There are these green strangely shaped fruits we have seen around and one woman had those. Just like my friend, and former expat, Gwen, said, the woman was totally interested in giving Hudson and Tucker a sample. Hudson played along and they patted him on the head. So we bought those after she weighed a bag on a scale that was a stick and a metal plate. They cost 10 RMB and I was pretty happy I understood her sign language for 10.

Headed home from market. Stroller is loaded with drinks and food. Hudson even is carrying some on his back. No real sidewalks. And notice how the cars are parked on the curb.

Back home we have continued to unpack since all of our suitcases are now here. I did my first load of laundry. Wowza. I will miss my dryer! Right now, you should go and kiss yours. Our washer also has a drying feature, but it seems to steam the clothes. No one has a dryer here. Even those who have dedicated ones. They just do not work. Drying clothes for the next 5 months will be just another drop in the adventure bucket.

Crunchy clothes.

Alrighty, that is enough for now. We have made it to being able to publish updates more regularly. A computer and a Coke makes me feel more normal. The kids and I do lots of cuddling. We have played tons of games and decorated their room. These plastic flags (from Tucker's birthday celebration) weigh as much as a feather and have made their room much more like a home. The bed is as hard as a boxspring alone, but they have done really well sleeping together.

We do a lot of coloring because it adds some life to their sterile room.