Day two: Whoo Hoo, I turned 13!! quote by Aiden
Even though we are all exhausted we woke up at 3:00am. Riley and Claire proceeded to make tea and dirty up every dish we have. We don’t have a lot and we don’t have any dish soap or a dish washer. We will be making a trip to the grocery store today. I don’t know where one is, but clearly we have some needs.
Jeff headed off to work and the kids and I ventured down the street to a large mall that has a food court in the bottom. It has probably 20 different vendors all with slightly different variations of Chinese food. We were told it’s not “Chinese food”, its “food”. Duh! What was I thinking? We found a place that served some variation of French toast with eggs and a warm drink. We tried to explain to them that we wanted tea with our breakfast, but instead of telling them we wanted tea Aiden told them we wanted “dissatisfied, falling short of expectations”…no wonder the gal looked at us like we were crazy and didn’t understand we wanted tea. Aiden figured this out when we got home and he looked through his Chinese book. Apparently, he put the intonation in the wrong place. Oh well, live and learn. Then we proceeded to make spectacles of ourselves by dipping our French toast in this liquidy substance and mixed it with a powder substance that they had given us. I had never eaten this sort of thing before, but I was willing to try it. The workers there just stared at us and wondered what the heck we were doing. Then I continued to embarrass us even more by cracking the egg open on the table top (I thought it was hard boiled) and had it seeping all over the table. The lady worker there couldn’t stand it any longer and came over to save me. She cracked the egg into the dish (It was barely cooked…not even what we call soft boiled at home) with the powder and liquid substance and stirred it up. It actually tasted pretty good. I know we are not supposed to eat raw eggs, but when in China do what the Chinese do right? (I may regret that later when I spend a few days in the bathroom doing as the Chinese don’t have to do here). I like this mall. I can point at the food I want, tell them how many and pay with a pre-paid card that I had to buy. Works for me! Going into sit down restaurants with menus has not been as easy.
EVERYONE stares at us, especially Claire. I told the kids I was starting to feel a bit like the elephant man. I couldn’t explain that to them so we came home and looked it up on the internet. Did you know there is a man in Kirkland who has the same condition (or very similar anyway). I found it interesting that I am half way around the world and I found an article related to a town one town away from my own hometown when I did a simple google search about a disorder. Anyway, back to the staring…we have found that less people stare at us when it’s Jeff and I and the kids, but when it’s the kids and myself we turn a lot of heads and get lots of talking about us. Aiden has said they are saying things about how cute Claire is (apparently she looks like a doll to them) and how much the kids look like their momma. They keep talking about us being American. Aiden may not be able to speak the language as much as we need yet, but he is able to understand some of what they say. Not every single word, but the gist of some of it. We walk by windows and people are waving at Claire, they are touching her, pinching her cheeks, putting her on their lap, picking her up and hugging her. Lucky for us, she seems to like the attention and doesn’t get upset.
Walking down the street is an interesting adventure. There are bicycles and scooters everywhere. They drive fast and don’t care if you are in their way. No one is mean; they are just focused and busy. The taxi drivers are very aggressive so trying to cross the street is also risk taking.
It is rainy outside. I guess June is their rainy season. So it’s about 80 degrees and very rainy. Everyone has umbrellas and the workers at every store are there to help you put it in a plastic bag before you come into their establishment. Which brings me to the next interesting observation….there are workers everywhere. We made it to the “super market” today. We bought the necessities we needed; it was very interesting trying to find what we needed when you can’t read any of the labels. What I did notice is that there was a worker on every isle (they’re doing I don’t know what except standing there) and on one isle there were five people opening boxes. I didn’t stop to watch what they were all doing, but it sure takes a lot of people around here to do a little bit of work. I see a lot of people doing nothing. It does seems like everyone has a job here (although we did see two homeless people so far…I’ll write more about that later, they used an interesting ploy to beg), but I’m not sure how satisfying or interesting their jobs are.
Bathrooms outside the hotel are VERY interesting. I had warned the kids that we needed to use the bathroom every time before we leave, but Claire didn’t seem to believe me. She quickly changed her mind when we went out to dinner and she saw where she had to go and what she had to use. It’s sort of hard to explain and I really don’t get why they are like this, but they are basically porcelain bowls in the ground that you flush. You have to squat over them and there’s no toilet paper to use (so you’d better bring your own). They were actually much nicer than I was expecting (I had been warned). I was expecting a small hole in the ground with no flushing device. So this was somewhat of a pleasant surprise. What I don’t understand is if you are going to go the trouble of putting a flushing device in, why not make it a toilet that you can sit on, spread less germs and have more comfort. Oh well, I don’t think I’ll ask about that one.
Aiden celebrated his 13th birthday today.
I think it’s pretty special to be turning into a teenager in a foreign place you’ve never been. Most of the people here are very kind and go out of their way to be helpful. We bought Aiden a cake and candles for his birthday. I actually wasn’t expecting to find a cake because there are no ovens here, so I figured it wasn’t part of their culture, but we did find a bakery type place in a local mall. I didn’t know where to buy matches so I explained our situation to the front desk of our apartment and the bell boy ran somewhere outside (not sure where) and came back with a lighter for us. I offered to pay for it, but he insisted that I not. I thought that was really nice of him and pretty characteristic of how we’ve been treated here so far.
I really hate to complain or be judgmental of other’s cultures or homes, but it stinks here. There is always a fog of some interesting odors, but then every once in a while VERY strong smells come up in the vents in the street. It completely takes your breath away, they are so bad. This makes me wonder what people from other countries think about coming to our area. I do try to keep in mind that this is a big city and probably not completely characteristic of the entire country, but it definitely leaves an impression that’s hard to forget.
A successful day over all, we ate, exchanged money and made it to the super market for some food and other things. What more could I ask for on the first full day?
Even though we are all exhausted we woke up at 3:00am. Riley and Claire proceeded to make tea and dirty up every dish we have. We don’t have a lot and we don’t have any dish soap or a dish washer. We will be making a trip to the grocery store today. I don’t know where one is, but clearly we have some needs.
Jeff headed off to work and the kids and I ventured down the street to a large mall that has a food court in the bottom. It has probably 20 different vendors all with slightly different variations of Chinese food. We were told it’s not “Chinese food”, its “food”. Duh! What was I thinking? We found a place that served some variation of French toast with eggs and a warm drink. We tried to explain to them that we wanted tea with our breakfast, but instead of telling them we wanted tea Aiden told them we wanted “dissatisfied, falling short of expectations”…no wonder the gal looked at us like we were crazy and didn’t understand we wanted tea. Aiden figured this out when we got home and he looked through his Chinese book. Apparently, he put the intonation in the wrong place. Oh well, live and learn. Then we proceeded to make spectacles of ourselves by dipping our French toast in this liquidy substance and mixed it with a powder substance that they had given us. I had never eaten this sort of thing before, but I was willing to try it. The workers there just stared at us and wondered what the heck we were doing. Then I continued to embarrass us even more by cracking the egg open on the table top (I thought it was hard boiled) and had it seeping all over the table. The lady worker there couldn’t stand it any longer and came over to save me. She cracked the egg into the dish (It was barely cooked…not even what we call soft boiled at home) with the powder and liquid substance and stirred it up. It actually tasted pretty good. I know we are not supposed to eat raw eggs, but when in China do what the Chinese do right? (I may regret that later when I spend a few days in the bathroom doing as the Chinese don’t have to do here). I like this mall. I can point at the food I want, tell them how many and pay with a pre-paid card that I had to buy. Works for me! Going into sit down restaurants with menus has not been as easy.
EVERYONE stares at us, especially Claire. I told the kids I was starting to feel a bit like the elephant man. I couldn’t explain that to them so we came home and looked it up on the internet. Did you know there is a man in Kirkland who has the same condition (or very similar anyway). I found it interesting that I am half way around the world and I found an article related to a town one town away from my own hometown when I did a simple google search about a disorder. Anyway, back to the staring…we have found that less people stare at us when it’s Jeff and I and the kids, but when it’s the kids and myself we turn a lot of heads and get lots of talking about us. Aiden has said they are saying things about how cute Claire is (apparently she looks like a doll to them) and how much the kids look like their momma. They keep talking about us being American. Aiden may not be able to speak the language as much as we need yet, but he is able to understand some of what they say. Not every single word, but the gist of some of it. We walk by windows and people are waving at Claire, they are touching her, pinching her cheeks, putting her on their lap, picking her up and hugging her. Lucky for us, she seems to like the attention and doesn’t get upset.
Walking down the street is an interesting adventure. There are bicycles and scooters everywhere. They drive fast and don’t care if you are in their way. No one is mean; they are just focused and busy. The taxi drivers are very aggressive so trying to cross the street is also risk taking.
It is rainy outside. I guess June is their rainy season. So it’s about 80 degrees and very rainy. Everyone has umbrellas and the workers at every store are there to help you put it in a plastic bag before you come into their establishment. Which brings me to the next interesting observation….there are workers everywhere. We made it to the “super market” today. We bought the necessities we needed; it was very interesting trying to find what we needed when you can’t read any of the labels. What I did notice is that there was a worker on every isle (they’re doing I don’t know what except standing there) and on one isle there were five people opening boxes. I didn’t stop to watch what they were all doing, but it sure takes a lot of people around here to do a little bit of work. I see a lot of people doing nothing. It does seems like everyone has a job here (although we did see two homeless people so far…I’ll write more about that later, they used an interesting ploy to beg), but I’m not sure how satisfying or interesting their jobs are.Bathrooms outside the hotel are VERY interesting. I had warned the kids that we needed to use the bathroom every time before we leave, but Claire didn’t seem to believe me. She quickly changed her mind when we went out to dinner and she saw where she had to go and what she had to use. It’s sort of hard to explain and I really don’t get why they are like this, but they are basically porcelain bowls in the ground that you flush. You have to squat over them and there’s no toilet paper to use (so you’d better bring your own). They were actually much nicer than I was expecting (I had been warned). I was expecting a small hole in the ground with no flushing device. So this was somewhat of a pleasant surprise. What I don’t understand is if you are going to go the trouble of putting a flushing device in, why not make it a toilet that you can sit on, spread less germs and have more comfort. Oh well, I don’t think I’ll ask about that one.
Aiden celebrated his 13th birthday today.
I think it’s pretty special to be turning into a teenager in a foreign place you’ve never been. Most of the people here are very kind and go out of their way to be helpful. We bought Aiden a cake and candles for his birthday. I actually wasn’t expecting to find a cake because there are no ovens here, so I figured it wasn’t part of their culture, but we did find a bakery type place in a local mall. I didn’t know where to buy matches so I explained our situation to the front desk of our apartment and the bell boy ran somewhere outside (not sure where) and came back with a lighter for us. I offered to pay for it, but he insisted that I not. I thought that was really nice of him and pretty characteristic of how we’ve been treated here so far.I really hate to complain or be judgmental of other’s cultures or homes, but it stinks here. There is always a fog of some interesting odors, but then every once in a while VERY strong smells come up in the vents in the street. It completely takes your breath away, they are so bad. This makes me wonder what people from other countries think about coming to our area. I do try to keep in mind that this is a big city and probably not completely characteristic of the entire country, but it definitely leaves an impression that’s hard to forget.
A successful day over all, we ate, exchanged money and made it to the super market for some food and other things. What more could I ask for on the first full day?
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