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!