Kid's first Swim Lesson
Last night, the kids had their first swim lesson here in our compound. It's called Competition swim lessons. It includes basic aerobic swimming with emphasis on efficient strokes under pressure with increased distance and swimming for speed. The goal is to improve their strokes and get some practice time in weekly until we are back next summer for Swim Team at Carlyle. It sounds and looked really hard. The kids did more than 20 laps last night in their first lesson in a 25 M pool. The coach is awesome!! Anna said he was cute. Jackson liked his accent. He is either for the UK or Australia. Jackson came home talking with an accent too, :-). I think he wants to be British. They will have a class of 7 kids and 2 coaches. They really started working on my kid's bad habits that haven't been corrected in the past few years. Since it's just once a week, I don't think it will be too overwhelming with their other after school activities. They were really tired afterwards. Glad I'm not taking this class!!
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
New Parent PSO Meeting
New Parent PSO meeting at Concordia
This morning, I had to get out the door early. I haven't had to get ready to go anywhere early in over 3 weeks. There was a New Parent PSO (PTA) meeting at 8:15am at Concordia. These moms did a great job at laying out a handbook on how to survive your first few months here. I could have really used this week one. I plan to get involved with the kids school a lot this year. Tomorrow night is Middle School Back to School meeting. Greg is planning to go since I don't have anyone to keep the kids. I'm sure I will have a chance to meet her teachers soon.
Next week, we have another meeting at school about Anna's field trip. The 5th grade class is taking a 3-day trip to Nanbeihu. For some info, here's a link http://www.toocle.com/travel-in-china/detail--1131-Nanbei-Hu.html I am really hoping they need some chaperones since it makes me nervous to send my child to another area of China without me for 3 days!!
Did I say yet about how bad the grocery stores here smell? I was thinking it might have been the stinky fruit, Durian, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian) that they cut up and sell each day. I now think it's really from all the horrible meat. I gag when I walk through the meat dept. Other Chinese women are sorting through raw meat with their hands. Most of it's not wrapped up. I could easily become a vegetarian here!
Greg is struggling with lunch each day. He keeps venturing out to find something new and not expensive. On Monday, he ate at some place by himself that was horrible. He didn't even know what he ate. I could not have done that. I asked why he didn't go to Subway. He said that he didn't see it around the corner until after he ate. I told him that he can try all the Chinese that he wants for lunch each day but be prepared to have something besides Chinese on the weekends. In Elementary School, Jackson doesn't have much choice for lunch. He gets to pick from two entrees. Anna gets to go to the High School cafeteria and pick whatever she wants. She has eaten a lot of pizza over the past week. I'm hoping she starts trying something new.
Well, our house has an ant problem. Oh how I wish that I had some Terro ant traps. For the first 2 weeks, I was constantly telling the kids to not drop any crumbs on the floor. the ants would be on it in minutes and carry it away. Even crumbs 20 times bigger than them. Jackson loved giving the ants big things and watch them carry it away. That's entertainment in China! I asked one of the moms if she had this problem before. She said yes and to just call the management company. When she called them, they said "we will send the doctor". The mom said we aren't sick but we do have ants. The Ant doctor came in a white coat and spread out some yellow crystals. She said the ants left. I decided last week that I would call about my ant problem. The ladies that answer the phone don't speak much English. She didn't know what an ant was. She finally determined that I have bugs. She said will send over two packs of "medicine". I figured I can tell Jackson that I'm feeding the ants medicine. The maintenance guy showed up with two tiny packs of yellow crystals. I was thinking that this is a really big house and I have a BIG ant problem. What will two packs do for me but I tried. I put some next to the refrig and by the front door. I watched and the ants just walked around it. I was thinking that this is not going to work. I jumped online and starting looking up ways to kill ants. After a few days, the number of ants are getting less and less. I guess the "medicine" does work, :-).
With the ant problem solved, time to tackle the next issue in the house. From the day we moved in, we had a bad septic smell in the master bath. It's so bad some nights, it's hard to sleep in the master bedroom. We don't have this issue in the other 5 bathrooms. Yes, we have 6 bathrooms. I'm so glad that I have an ayi now! The first week, the management company said to pour boiling water down all the drains in the bathroom for a week. That didn't work. I didn't smell it all the time so I started troubleshooting the problem. The smell comes at night when we are getting ready for bed. It seems that maybe a vent is blocked somewhere. When the kids flush their toilet upstairs, septic smell floods the master. If we cover all the drains and holes in the master and they flush their toilet, the smell floods their bathroom. Now that I think I can explain how it happens, I will send an email to the management company since they will not understand if I call them. All the guys that come to the house to fix things don't speak any English. My ayi is going to really come in handy with communication.
Sorry for the long post. I was feeling a little sad today and missing my family and friends. In the New Parent meeting today, they said that everyone gets really depressed around month 3. Posting notes to you all helps me get through this. Thanks for listening!
This morning, I had to get out the door early. I haven't had to get ready to go anywhere early in over 3 weeks. There was a New Parent PSO (PTA) meeting at 8:15am at Concordia. These moms did a great job at laying out a handbook on how to survive your first few months here. I could have really used this week one. I plan to get involved with the kids school a lot this year. Tomorrow night is Middle School Back to School meeting. Greg is planning to go since I don't have anyone to keep the kids. I'm sure I will have a chance to meet her teachers soon.
Next week, we have another meeting at school about Anna's field trip. The 5th grade class is taking a 3-day trip to Nanbeihu. For some info, here's a link http://www.toocle.com/travel-in-china/detail--1131-Nanbei-Hu.html I am really hoping they need some chaperones since it makes me nervous to send my child to another area of China without me for 3 days!!
Did I say yet about how bad the grocery stores here smell? I was thinking it might have been the stinky fruit, Durian, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian) that they cut up and sell each day. I now think it's really from all the horrible meat. I gag when I walk through the meat dept. Other Chinese women are sorting through raw meat with their hands. Most of it's not wrapped up. I could easily become a vegetarian here!
Greg is struggling with lunch each day. He keeps venturing out to find something new and not expensive. On Monday, he ate at some place by himself that was horrible. He didn't even know what he ate. I could not have done that. I asked why he didn't go to Subway. He said that he didn't see it around the corner until after he ate. I told him that he can try all the Chinese that he wants for lunch each day but be prepared to have something besides Chinese on the weekends. In Elementary School, Jackson doesn't have much choice for lunch. He gets to pick from two entrees. Anna gets to go to the High School cafeteria and pick whatever she wants. She has eaten a lot of pizza over the past week. I'm hoping she starts trying something new.
Well, our house has an ant problem. Oh how I wish that I had some Terro ant traps. For the first 2 weeks, I was constantly telling the kids to not drop any crumbs on the floor. the ants would be on it in minutes and carry it away. Even crumbs 20 times bigger than them. Jackson loved giving the ants big things and watch them carry it away. That's entertainment in China! I asked one of the moms if she had this problem before. She said yes and to just call the management company. When she called them, they said "we will send the doctor". The mom said we aren't sick but we do have ants. The Ant doctor came in a white coat and spread out some yellow crystals. She said the ants left. I decided last week that I would call about my ant problem. The ladies that answer the phone don't speak much English. She didn't know what an ant was. She finally determined that I have bugs. She said will send over two packs of "medicine". I figured I can tell Jackson that I'm feeding the ants medicine. The maintenance guy showed up with two tiny packs of yellow crystals. I was thinking that this is a really big house and I have a BIG ant problem. What will two packs do for me but I tried. I put some next to the refrig and by the front door. I watched and the ants just walked around it. I was thinking that this is not going to work. I jumped online and starting looking up ways to kill ants. After a few days, the number of ants are getting less and less. I guess the "medicine" does work, :-).
With the ant problem solved, time to tackle the next issue in the house. From the day we moved in, we had a bad septic smell in the master bath. It's so bad some nights, it's hard to sleep in the master bedroom. We don't have this issue in the other 5 bathrooms. Yes, we have 6 bathrooms. I'm so glad that I have an ayi now! The first week, the management company said to pour boiling water down all the drains in the bathroom for a week. That didn't work. I didn't smell it all the time so I started troubleshooting the problem. The smell comes at night when we are getting ready for bed. It seems that maybe a vent is blocked somewhere. When the kids flush their toilet upstairs, septic smell floods the master. If we cover all the drains and holes in the master and they flush their toilet, the smell floods their bathroom. Now that I think I can explain how it happens, I will send an email to the management company since they will not understand if I call them. All the guys that come to the house to fix things don't speak any English. My ayi is going to really come in handy with communication.
Sorry for the long post. I was feeling a little sad today and missing my family and friends. In the New Parent meeting today, they said that everyone gets really depressed around month 3. Posting notes to you all helps me get through this. Thanks for listening!
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| During Greg and Anna's ferry ride, Anna wanted some pictures of the pretty lights. |
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| Guess what this is? It's called a Hami mellon. I haven't cut it yet. They say it's really sweet. |
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| Watermelon. Jackson was happy! |
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| This is the Chinese money. It reminds me of monopoly money. You spend it without thinking of it's value. 100 RMB is the largest bill. It's equivalent to about $16, We keep stacks of them. Jackson thinks that's so cool. |
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| Sherpa delivered Mexican to us on Friday night. If we can't go out with the Abbondanzio's to get it in Raleigh, then we will order it in Shanghai. Tastes pretty good too. |
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| I forgot to order chips with the fajitas and Anna remembered that they had some at the little convenient store in our compound. These were only $5 a bag. They are even Made in the USA. What a deal!!! |
Week 3 Update - 49 weeks to go, :-) Who's counting?
On Friday, Greg was finally able to move some US dollars over to our RMB account. Yeah, we have money again. The first time that he tried to use his debit card on that account it was denied! You should have seen the look on his face. Not sure what happened but it does work now. Now to the next challenge. We aren't able to have a joint banking account in China. I have to go to a bank and setup my own account and we have to figure out how to transfer money between two banks. More fun!
When we arrived, we asked about house insurance. Do we need to cover the contents of our house? After some digging, we found out that the owner's don't even have liability insurance on the house. We thought about adding it but it was going to cost a fortune. We decided to cover just our content, our ayi and our bikes. Greg attempted the complete the form online and pay online. They would take all Union pay debit cards except for our bank, :-). So, he had to print it all out and carry cash down to the financial district again to pay. Good news, I think we might have some insurance now.
The kid's first week of school went great. They are really settling into their routine of homework again. They really do miss their NC friends!! I will need to setup lots of playdates for when we are at home for Christmas. On Friday, Jackson was invited to a birthday party. I was thinking it was a week or two out. I took a look at it on Friday night and realized it was the next day. Oh my, now how do I find a gift to buy in Shanghai and get it wrapped. Saturday morning was spent out shopping. We managed to find an outdoor Lego kiosk at the Thumb Plaza. Perfect! Thumb Plaza is a really cool shopping area. They have this strange statue of two thumbs stacked on top of each other. If the taxi driver doesn't under "Thumb Plaza", you can just stack your two thumbs and they know where to take you. Luckily, I had brought some gift bags with me and the Lego box fit. Good to go! Jackson's friend Jackson took him to the party and brought him home. Jackson's mom is awesome. The party was at this Laser Tag place and the boys had a great time. Greg and Anna took the metro over to the river and took the ferry across. Anna enjoyed some 1x1 time with her daddy. Anna has made some friends at school but we haven't setup a playdate yet. I have a meeting at school tomorrow for New Parents. I hope to meet the parents of Anna's friends.
We have started working out the after school activities for the kids. They both will be doing Kung Fu on Tuesday nights in our neighborhood. We also found a competition swim team practice that they will do on Wednesday nights at our pool too. That will be great since we can keep them swimming and not commit to a swim team. On Sundays, they both will play soccer. That's enough for the Fall.
Last week, we gave over our passports again to the China government so that they can work on our residency permit. Good news, we got them back today. Bad news, now we have to give them to customs tomorrow to start clearance of our air crates. I was hopeful that we might have our crates within another week. We learned today that we won't get them for 3 more weeks. arg.....
Greg has learned to take the bus shuttle from our compound to the metro to get to work. That is working out great. I also learned that there are 3 shuttles to various places each day. On Sunday, I decided to venture on my on (no one wanted to go with me) and see where the shuttle would take me. The first stop was Carrefour, grocery shopping. I jumped off the shuttle and ran inside. The next shuttle will be back in one hour to pick me up. I did some quick shopping and was waiting by the curb where I was dropped off. Waited. Waited. No shuttle. I gave up and got a taxi. On Monday, I decided to try it again. There is a Sporting goods store next to Carrefour. I wanted to buy some new work out clothes and shoes. I only have sandals. My shoes are in the air crate. So, I enjoyed a few hrs of shopping and bought new work out clothes, shoes, bagels, raisin bread and more groceries. A lot to carry home in a taxi. Today, I thought I would get on the bus and check out the next stop. It was suppose to be some type of food market. All three times, I was the only non-chinese person on the bus. So, as the bus approached the food market, it didn't look like a place that I should get off. Maybe if I was with someone that spoke Chinese. I stayed on the bus. It had one more stop at the metro so I thought I would just ride it back to our compound. Since I was the only one on the bus and not getting off at the last stop, the driver was really confused. He tried to ask me why I wasn't getting off the bus but he didn't speak any English. I showed him my compound card and hopefully he understood. After a 15 minute wait at the metro, the bus brought me back to compound and I walked home. I enjoyed my 1 1/2 hour bus ride around my area of the city, :-) I wish I had my camera. There was this man on a moped with a basket on the back. It had 2 chickens and 2 ducks just sitting in the basket on the side of the road. It wasn't a cage and they were just sitting there on the back of his moped. He reached over the pet one of them. Very strange. Then, I was sitting at a red light and noticed a guy get in his car with a whole dead chicken, head and feet in a clear bag. I will never buy a whole chicken here!!
I have been enjoying my rice cooker. Why didn't I have one of these before now. I have cooked rice a few times and it always come out perfect. I found on the web that I can make homemade mac and cheese in there too. The kids loved it! I also made my first Chicken Fried rice. It turned out ok too. I have been looking up recipes and gathering all the spices and ingredients during my shopping trips. Ready to try General Tso chicken next!
I have hired an ayi. She is going to work 20 hrs a week. I don't know the correct spelling of her name but it's pronounced Chow-way. She speaks some English. I'm so excited to get some help with this house so I can enjoy myself some during the day. There are some really cool tours that I want to do in the city.
Oh yeah, we had another typhoon (hurricane) brush by Shanghai last night. Lots of wind. Makes us feel at home.
On Friday, Greg was finally able to move some US dollars over to our RMB account. Yeah, we have money again. The first time that he tried to use his debit card on that account it was denied! You should have seen the look on his face. Not sure what happened but it does work now. Now to the next challenge. We aren't able to have a joint banking account in China. I have to go to a bank and setup my own account and we have to figure out how to transfer money between two banks. More fun!
When we arrived, we asked about house insurance. Do we need to cover the contents of our house? After some digging, we found out that the owner's don't even have liability insurance on the house. We thought about adding it but it was going to cost a fortune. We decided to cover just our content, our ayi and our bikes. Greg attempted the complete the form online and pay online. They would take all Union pay debit cards except for our bank, :-). So, he had to print it all out and carry cash down to the financial district again to pay. Good news, I think we might have some insurance now.
The kid's first week of school went great. They are really settling into their routine of homework again. They really do miss their NC friends!! I will need to setup lots of playdates for when we are at home for Christmas. On Friday, Jackson was invited to a birthday party. I was thinking it was a week or two out. I took a look at it on Friday night and realized it was the next day. Oh my, now how do I find a gift to buy in Shanghai and get it wrapped. Saturday morning was spent out shopping. We managed to find an outdoor Lego kiosk at the Thumb Plaza. Perfect! Thumb Plaza is a really cool shopping area. They have this strange statue of two thumbs stacked on top of each other. If the taxi driver doesn't under "Thumb Plaza", you can just stack your two thumbs and they know where to take you. Luckily, I had brought some gift bags with me and the Lego box fit. Good to go! Jackson's friend Jackson took him to the party and brought him home. Jackson's mom is awesome. The party was at this Laser Tag place and the boys had a great time. Greg and Anna took the metro over to the river and took the ferry across. Anna enjoyed some 1x1 time with her daddy. Anna has made some friends at school but we haven't setup a playdate yet. I have a meeting at school tomorrow for New Parents. I hope to meet the parents of Anna's friends.
We have started working out the after school activities for the kids. They both will be doing Kung Fu on Tuesday nights in our neighborhood. We also found a competition swim team practice that they will do on Wednesday nights at our pool too. That will be great since we can keep them swimming and not commit to a swim team. On Sundays, they both will play soccer. That's enough for the Fall.
Last week, we gave over our passports again to the China government so that they can work on our residency permit. Good news, we got them back today. Bad news, now we have to give them to customs tomorrow to start clearance of our air crates. I was hopeful that we might have our crates within another week. We learned today that we won't get them for 3 more weeks. arg.....
Greg has learned to take the bus shuttle from our compound to the metro to get to work. That is working out great. I also learned that there are 3 shuttles to various places each day. On Sunday, I decided to venture on my on (no one wanted to go with me) and see where the shuttle would take me. The first stop was Carrefour, grocery shopping. I jumped off the shuttle and ran inside. The next shuttle will be back in one hour to pick me up. I did some quick shopping and was waiting by the curb where I was dropped off. Waited. Waited. No shuttle. I gave up and got a taxi. On Monday, I decided to try it again. There is a Sporting goods store next to Carrefour. I wanted to buy some new work out clothes and shoes. I only have sandals. My shoes are in the air crate. So, I enjoyed a few hrs of shopping and bought new work out clothes, shoes, bagels, raisin bread and more groceries. A lot to carry home in a taxi. Today, I thought I would get on the bus and check out the next stop. It was suppose to be some type of food market. All three times, I was the only non-chinese person on the bus. So, as the bus approached the food market, it didn't look like a place that I should get off. Maybe if I was with someone that spoke Chinese. I stayed on the bus. It had one more stop at the metro so I thought I would just ride it back to our compound. Since I was the only one on the bus and not getting off at the last stop, the driver was really confused. He tried to ask me why I wasn't getting off the bus but he didn't speak any English. I showed him my compound card and hopefully he understood. After a 15 minute wait at the metro, the bus brought me back to compound and I walked home. I enjoyed my 1 1/2 hour bus ride around my area of the city, :-) I wish I had my camera. There was this man on a moped with a basket on the back. It had 2 chickens and 2 ducks just sitting in the basket on the side of the road. It wasn't a cage and they were just sitting there on the back of his moped. He reached over the pet one of them. Very strange. Then, I was sitting at a red light and noticed a guy get in his car with a whole dead chicken, head and feet in a clear bag. I will never buy a whole chicken here!!
I have been enjoying my rice cooker. Why didn't I have one of these before now. I have cooked rice a few times and it always come out perfect. I found on the web that I can make homemade mac and cheese in there too. The kids loved it! I also made my first Chicken Fried rice. It turned out ok too. I have been looking up recipes and gathering all the spices and ingredients during my shopping trips. Ready to try General Tso chicken next!
I have hired an ayi. She is going to work 20 hrs a week. I don't know the correct spelling of her name but it's pronounced Chow-way. She speaks some English. I'm so excited to get some help with this house so I can enjoy myself some during the day. There are some really cool tours that I want to do in the city.
Oh yeah, we had another typhoon (hurricane) brush by Shanghai last night. Lots of wind. Makes us feel at home.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Update on Banking
Greg got his new password to our online banking yesterday. It took 4 days to email it! Since he had his banking security device and now a password, you would think that he could transfer money between our US dollars account and RMB account. Wrong, you can only transfer money online between the hours of 10am and 4pm, just like at the bank. I would say that the banking system here could use an overall. Maybe IBM should get into the banking business and help them. Did I tell you that they don't have checks either as backup!!! Still living off of cash from our US account via the ATM.
Greg got his new password to our online banking yesterday. It took 4 days to email it! Since he had his banking security device and now a password, you would think that he could transfer money between our US dollars account and RMB account. Wrong, you can only transfer money online between the hours of 10am and 4pm, just like at the bank. I would say that the banking system here could use an overall. Maybe IBM should get into the banking business and help them. Did I tell you that they don't have checks either as backup!!! Still living off of cash from our US account via the ATM.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
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| This statue was outside the dumpling restaurant. It's head is a Chinese dumpling. |
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| We saw this big bridge in the scary taxi ride home. |
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| Enjoying the pool for his Birthday! |
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| Feeding the 5 adopted cats. They have better bowls to eat out of than we do, :-). |
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| Jackson's birthday present. |
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| Building Legos |
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| Jackson's cake had blueberries all around the top. I went into the kitchen to get the candles and matches and all but two of the blueberries were gone when I got back!! |
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| The finished product. |
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| HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY JACKSON !!!!! |
Humidity in Shanghai
Everyone in NC complains about the humidity there. We did too. I don't think any place in the US compares to Shanghai. At 6am in the morning, the temp is already above 90 and the humidity is at 89. Dew point is over 80. The heat index could already be over 110. Instead of sweating, condensation forms all over your body instantly. Your clothes get soaked fast!
Before we left Raleigh, Greg had said that he wanted to move someplace with less humidity when we got home. I told him that when we move back next year, Raleigh will have less humidity than Shanghai, :-).
Everyone in NC complains about the humidity there. We did too. I don't think any place in the US compares to Shanghai. At 6am in the morning, the temp is already above 90 and the humidity is at 89. Dew point is over 80. The heat index could already be over 110. Instead of sweating, condensation forms all over your body instantly. Your clothes get soaked fast!
Before we left Raleigh, Greg had said that he wanted to move someplace with less humidity when we got home. I told him that when we move back next year, Raleigh will have less humidity than Shanghai, :-).
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| Kids waiting to get on the 1st plane to Detroit and then to China. |
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| Jackson on a tennis court on top of a smaller building. |
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| WalMart in China. Same big logo just some extra Chinese characters. They didn't allow cameras inside. |
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| Ropes playground at school. No way would Wake County allow this gym set!! |
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| Kids in their school uniforms |
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| Our 5 cats (haven't gotten pictures of 6 and 7 yet) |
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| Ciaran (Jackson's friend) |
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| Pancakes made in a wok with a wooden spatula |
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| Greg's friend at work got us a lucky bamboo tree. It's really growing. I will be bummed if I can't bring it home in a year. |
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| Just like home, just more expensive. :-) |
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| My kitchen drawer. One knife, one real fork and spoon. The rest is plastic. But, I do have different quality of plastics. |
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| My first big bag of rice. I think it might be 10 lbs. |
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| Cat food. I knew Whiskas was cat food. The other bag had a cat on it so I was hoping it was cat food. |
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| I finally found Caffeine Free Diet Coke. I bought two cases. It's from the UK. |
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| Anything not from China has this big nutritional label put on it. If you are an expat and buying imported stuff, they should let us be able to read our nutritional label and not cover it up. |
Jackson's 9th Birthday Adventure (Part 1)
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| Taxi cab ride to the financial district |
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| Sometimes road signs are hard to read. I guess that's why we can't drive in Shanghai. |
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| The building that looks like a bottle opener is called the Shanghai World Financial Center. |
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| It was HOT |
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| On the 94th floor |
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| On the 100th Floor. The elevator went us so fast. I think it only took us 60 seconds to go up 100 floors. |
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| Portions of the floor on glass. That was scary. Jackson wasn't sure if he wanted to step on it or not. |
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| It's strange to down on a really big high rise building. The Sales Office for IBM is in that tower. |
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| This is normally a view from a plane, not a building. |
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| Jackson decided to stand on the glass floor. |
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| This is a view across Puxi (old part of Shanghai). High rise buildings go as far as you can see in all directions. |
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| Another view out of the floor glass. |
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| Anna wasn't brave enough to stand on the glass. She stood on the metal crossbar, :-) |
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| Apartment complexes way down below. |
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| Another view of Puxi |
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