First Weekend

This past weekend was our first real weekend in Suzhou. I don't consider last weekend because I don't remember it. The weekend went like this:

Friday night: When I was 'back in the States', Scott and I would not talk on Friday mornings (his night). This used to bother me because I did not understand what he could possibly be doing all night instead of calling me. Now I understand what he was doing that would not allow him to get home before midnight. Here is what I observed... Friday night he got home around 530, and we headed out to dinner via taxi about 615ish. We arrived at Drunken Chef (to meet up with the other AJ Friday night regulars) at 645 and headed straight to the pool table. 30 minutes or so later, we take our seats, order another round of drinks, and place our orders. Jacob orders the mini cheeseburgers, Warren orders the grilled ham and cheese, I ordered the fish & chips (what do you expect it was an English pub), and Scott orders his regular, Shepherds Pie. Onion rings were ordered by someone else as an appetizer. I'm not much on onions (just ask my Nana, who used to "hide" them in the goulash when I was younger, "they are big enough to pick out" she always used to tell me), but Scott made me try them anyhow. These were pretty good, they had a seasoning on the outer layer that made you forget about the onion inside. The food arrives in a bit, we all eat, and socialize. After dinner, the group decides to walk along Bar Street (or was it Walking Street ~ still not sure which) to a place that sells fireworks. Fireworks in SC or AL are peanuts compared to this! We picked up a round of firecrackers that was bigger than I've ever seen before. This "round" of crackers were just this, a circle of crackers that was about 1.5 feet wide. They (Eric, Scott, Warren, and Jacob) unrolled it down the street and lit the end. It must have gone off for 5 minutes, pop... pop... pow.... pop.. pop... pow, and on and on and on. I wish I would have had my Flip to film it. After the fireworks, we continued walking down the block to the DVD store. Here we picked up Open Season, Surf's Up, Up, The Simpson's Movie, Night at the Museum, and Alvin & the Chipmunks. The cashier told Scott that the UP movie was "so-so" and explained that so-so movies are movies that are recorded in the theatre, thus they are just so-so (LOL). After the DVD store it was almost 1030 and we decided it was best to head back to the apartment because the boys were starting to cross over into silly mode (right before grumpy mode). The rest of the group kept on going, no telling where they ended up.

Saturday: The boys and Scott went to China Mobile to get SIM cards for the boys' phones (when in Rome do as the Romans). Jenny went with them to help with the translations. As a 'gift' for signing up, they received 48 cokes and 4 bottles of shampoo. They didn't take the cokes (didn't want to shlep them back to the CR) but he did take the shampoo ~ when they start complaining that their hair is falling out, they will know why. While they were gone, Eric called and offered to go to U-Town to get my phone "jail-broken". Eric also mentioned that after hanging out with the kids on Friday night, he had a "hankerin'" for some McD's. SO... we went to McDonald's for lunch. Same food, different continent. As with Burger King, it might have even tasted "fresher". After lunch, we proceeded to U-Town to drop off my phone then off to some of the side alleys. Eric took us down where the pets and plants were (ok....). While walking along the very narrow sidewalks we passed a stall where we saw a small dog 'taking care of business' with another dog. Funny, I don't think the boys saw it, if they did that will only add to the therapy that will be needed later in life. Reminds me of how Elliott and Shadow used to play, only Shadow did not know that she was a girl dog! After the plants/pets, we went to the tailor where I found some silk to make some pajama's. I also found a cashmere jacket that was hanging up (guess what I'm having made later this summer??). The pj's will cost 100RMB, which is equivalent to 13US$. The original pj's that they are duplicating cost 20$ on the clearance rack. This is the same tailor where Scott had his pants done a few weeks ago. We eventually made it back to U-Town, but could not pick up the phone until Sunday because they had not completed it yet. This was almost 2 hours after they had 'promised it', but what were we going to do? The man who took the phone said that it was still not put back together and they were still working on it. Imagine the look on my face when I found out that they took apart my phone... what?? why did they take it apart? "Because that is how they do it" it was later explained to me. No worries, mate, everything will be otay! We finally got back to the apartment just in time to take another taxi to Sharon and Steve's for dinner and the laser show on the lake. That was cool, they live on the 25th floor overlooking the lake so the view was quite nice. I took some video with the Flip, but YouTube is still blocked and I'm not sure if I can use the same backdoor website to upload videos as I use to post on this here blog ~ if I told you more, I would have to kill you.... Eventually I'll have the videos up, but you will have to wait!

Sunday: Sleep in! We went to Rainbow Mall in the morning for Scott to show us what the food market is like. Very clean, not bad prices, and it has a western area. We bought a few things, then headed back to the CR. That afternoon we went back to U-Town to pick up my phone. On the way there we saw a very interesting scene. In the scooter lane there was a woman with her dog.... picture this... the dog was on his hind legs with his front legs up on the handlebars. The woman was hitting him on the head, I'm assuming because he was not driving the right way. Only in China, my friend! We made it to U-Town, paid for the services and then headed back to the CR. We ordered Hot Chic for dinner through Sherpa's. Very good! We ordered spring rolls, spicy green beans, sweet & sour chicken, crispy popcorn chicken, chicken over rice, general tsaos chicken, and fried rice. All that food cost about 25$US. Cheapa, Cheapa!

The other day, I was told that my post should have more detail (because he is so detailed!). So I hope that I was able to go into more detail about the things that people (me) do in the Middle Kingdom. The week looks like it will be mostly uneventful ~ shopping at Carrefour, going to the bakery, etc... This weekend is July 4th and we are going back to the Drunken Chef. The owner will be playing cartoons on the big screen, serving NY style hot dogs (and you hear my accent "dawgs"), and Texas chili. He's also having 15RMB Carlsberg pints (that is why we are really going!), and shooting off fireworks (it's BYOF) in the evening. I'll have stories, and maybe even pictures of our 4th celebration. BTW, July 4th is a US holiday, so finding a restaurant that is "celebrating" is quite abnormal.

Have a good week my friends, I'll post again soon!

Holy Cow Batman, We Are Not in Kansas Anymore!

The boys and I have been in Suzhou for almost one full week. It has been very interesting thus far and we have been recuperating from the jet lag. I think we have finally gotten over the flight. When Scott told me that it would take about a week to fully get to "normal" I thought he was kidding. All kidding aside, he was dead serious! The flight is 16 hours long, and yes there is time to sleep it is very difficult. With people all around you that may or may not be practicing good air travel etiquette. Your body gets messed up with food and times ~ so when Delta serves you a full meal at noon local time, your stomach is telling you "why are you eating, you should be sleeping". I think my body has finally gotten to the point where I'm not waking up at 5am absolutely starving for some meat and potatoes!

THE FIRST WEEK
We arrived on Friday afternoon about 130pm local time. The departure off the plane was interesting because of the H1N1 virus. The Chinese officials take this very seriously. The health officials come onboard and take everyones temperature and if you "fail" there is a definite possibility that you will be quarantined in Shanghai. We made it off the plane, however, the fine people who bought business class were not so lucky. I am not sure when they finally got off, but I was not sticking around to find out.

Our driver picked us up and we proceeded to drive thru the thick of rush hour traffic in Shanghai. Atlanta traffic is nothing compared to this. There are approximately 21 million people living in Shanghai and I think all of them got off work at the same time we were leaving the airport. Jacob fell asleep in the back seat of the taxi van ~ those of you who know him know that he does not sleep when there is action going on. He did not sleep at all on the plane, too many movies to watch! We finally arrived in Suzhou at our apartment at almost 6pm, boy was it good to have a bed to sleep on ~ wait, there is no sleepy sleepy until later... your body has to "push itself" to adjust to the time difference. My dear husband is not very nice!
For dinner we went to Mario's, an eatery in the LiGongDi (I hope that is right) area that is within walking distance ~ yes, we did walk, I do not like my husband!! I know he was "helping" but it did not feel like it! We had been promising Mario's on the first night since we made our arrangements so the boys knew what they were in for. They had pizza and we had a pasta dish. The food was awesome just as we had thought and anticipated. We have since been back to see Mario and we will visit his restaurant atleast once a week!

On Saturday we decided it would be good to get out and look at the nearby area. We walked up to SingaPlaza to check out the western market and the bakery. We had not even made it past the first set of lights when the sweat was pouring off us ~ weather.com said it was 95F with the heat index of 111F for the day. Walking to SingaPlaza was interesting because it meant that we got to play Frogger through several different intersections. And when I say frogger, that is what it felt like. You have to watch the lights, the buses, cars, scooters, and bikes because they don't look out for you. It's rather entertaining if you step back and observe the picture. The first couple of times playing frogger you are scared out of your mind, then it becomes old hat. Oh look that taxi is on the wrong side or look there is a car in the scooter lane no big deal. We also went to the dvd store up at SP for the first time. Here we picked up Mall Cop, The Sopranos season 1-6, and Horton hears a Who. We saw Land of the Lost, Night at the Museum, and Up but we couldn't tell if it was in English or not so we decided not to buy. We picked up a taxi for the short ride back to the apartment because it was so incredibly hot outside. For dinner we went to Casa Zoes and had Mexican, yes, that's right Mexican. It was good, another place to put on the list.

On Sunday we went to New Times Square via taxi. This mall is supposed to be one of the largest in China. We ate at Burger King and it tasted like BK "back in the states". Pretty crazy, it almost tasted "fresher" and the fries didn't have that coating on them. I had the stick salad (cucumbers, carrots, melon, and cherry tomatoes). The mall was very expensive, reminded me of what I would expect to see in NYC in Manhatten or on Rodeo Drive in LA. I'm a Tar-get girl so I felt very out of place. I think there were more people working then actual customers and even then no one was shopping. After the mall we took a taxi to Carrefour (the market) to check things out. Very interesting market, we picked up a few things and on the way out Scott looked at me and I said "that was so much fun" while he was looking for a paper bag to help him breathe! For dinner on Sunday night we ordered from Sherpa's. Sherpa's is a local delivery service that delivers about 50 different restaurants. You call their number and they order from whatever restaurant you tell them to. It's a great service and they only charge a nominal fee. We ordered from YangYang, and had dumplings, sweet and sour chicken, kung pau chicken, and bok choi. It was really good, I can only think how good it must be at the actual place. I forgot to mention that both Marios and YangYang are LonelyPlanet recognized eateries. I can see why!

On Monday we had an appointment to go visit the boy's new school. Holy Cow! this place is huge and very impressive. We met with the admissions woman then the Middle School principal, Mr. A. We then proceeded to take a tour of the place. Three floors, two cafeterias, two gyms, outdoor soccer field, basketball courts, tennis court, indoor olympic size pool with a "smaller" pool that has a hydrolic lift on the floor of the pool to raise and lower for those who can't swim. When Cheryl (the admissions person) told us that, we just looked at each other with our jaws on the ground. Now mind you, the entire tour we looked like this, but this piece of info was the straw that broke the proverbial camels back. The school is completely amazing and we (and the boys) cannot wait to be fully enrolled. After our tour, the taxi took Scott to work and us back to the Chateau Regency where we just hung out and vegged for the rest of the day.

On Tuesday, the boys and I ventured out to Carrefour by ourselves. So we fetched a taxi and off we went. We bought two more dvd players (for 219RMB/player = 30US) then came back to the CR to rest. Went to LaRosa for dinner, not bad next time I'm going to order the pork cordon bleu. Doesn't sound too good, but I had a bite of Scott's and it was quite yummy!

Wednesday was moving day for us (again). Our first apartment was ok, but in the master bedroom the ac unit sounded like the toilet when the handle needed to be jiggled. I could not sleep so we decided that moving was our best option and the best way for me to keep my sanity (for whatever is left!). After the move, Cecelia, the kids and I went to the bakery then over to Starbucks (mmm, Starbucks!). For dinner we went to Sharon and Steve's for spaghetti and meatballs. After dinner we watched the practice version of the light show at the lake. We are going back on Saturday night for the real show. I will be sure to have our flip video to take video of the show.

This morning (Thursday) I had my appointment for my physical. The physical was part of the application for my resident permit to be allowed to stay in PRC (Peoples Republic of China). Interesting... Eva, the woman at Scott's office (I'm sure that he has mentioned her in his previous posts) took me and the boys across town via the company driver, Jin. Here she filled in the necessary paperwork and I signed where she told me to. I know Scott has mentioned how you just have trust people, well now I totally know what he is talking about! After she filled out the paperwork and paid the fee we were off down the hallway and around the corner where the 6 small rooms held the series of "health" checkups. A woman drew some blood, another took my blood pressure, another did an xray of my chest (?), another did an ekg (?), another did an ultra-sound of my lower abdomen (??), and then another counted my teeth (???). Like I said it was an interesting morning! Upon completion they gave me a "kit" with meds in it. One of the meds... nitroglycerin tablets ~ don't ask me!

It's been an interesting week! Like the title of the blog says we are so not in Kansas anymore! I'll try to blog much more often so it's not a book when I do post. I hope you made it thru with out sleeping!

Look up in the sky

It’s a bird…..It’s a plane….It’s a Sky Lantern. Walking around the lake every weekend provides some very nice views to see how the area around the lake is lit up with different colored lights, etc. If you watch for it and have a little bit of patience, you’ll also be able to see something else. KhoomFay or Sky Lanterns can be seen around the RainboWalk area nearly every weekend. The photo below is just a picture taken as I was walking home from around the RainboWalk area. I looked up (which can be dangerous because the sidewalks here are not really very level, turning an ankle is very easy, not to mention the flop on your face) and noticed the lanterns flying overhead. These are just dots in the sky in the image, they look better and more prominent on the original photo (which is in the album for the Laser Light Show).

They look like little red dots (as opposed to little green men) floating through the sky, taken on the wind. Some weekends, there will only be a few but on others, there are a lot that will continue to take to the air. In the US, someone would be calling 911 to report a UFO (I called Agents Mulder & Scully but they were out on a case) but here it is a frequent sight. The most prominent time of the year to see these in the sky is during Tombsweeping and of course, the Lantern Festival. People will write a message on the Sky Lantern before releasing it and send those wishes up to the heavens. They say that the Sky Lanterns will be in the air for about 12 minutes and reach up to a mile high. What happens when the fuel cell runs out (if I’m not mistaken, these burn a sterno type gel to make them float on the same principle as a hot air balloon)….well Jimmy Neutron, they come down. But have no fear, they are “biodegradeable” (or so they say). I’ve never actually seen one on the street but I live inside the launch radius so I’m sure that outside of the launch radius someone is constantly finding these things in their yard. I would not be surprised to find out that someone goes around and looks for them to collect them and re-sell them to an unsuspecting tourist. After all, they sell them at night (no, not tire track, ancient Chinese symbols).

And speaking of symbols…..my Chinese name.
杨乐
For my business cards, I decided to add a Chinese name for the Chinese side of the card (double sided cards, one English, the other Chinese). I debated it for a couple of days and spoke to others about it and made the decision to find a Chinese name. There were several reasons to do this, including reaching out to the Chinese and trying to assimilate into their culture. It is seen as a goodwill gesture, much like just saying a few simple words in Chinese. It’s not that I can speak the language but it’s the willingness to try rather than expect them to speak my language. How did I choose my name? Well I started with my Chinese zodiac symbol and placed that as my last name (which when writing in Chinese, is written first). So I choose Yang, which translates to goat (since I was born in the year of the goat, which is also noted as both ram and sheep). And just so you know, this is a good thing (being a goat [insert goat sound here]), if you believe these kinds of things. The first name (which is written second, are you following this?) was more difficult. According to another Chinese site, I am a Fire Goat (which I’m not sure is good or bad) but the word for fire is Yan….I would be Yang Yan. Nope, not gonna do it. So it was kind of a joke from this point forward. How about skinny goat? How about lucky goat (and what is a lucky goat anyhow)? Then as we worked through the words and tried different combinations, it finally fell into place. My first name is Lè (pronounced Luh, not what you would expect). So my Chinese name translates into English as…….(drum roll please)……..Happy Goat. Ta-Dah! (insert laughter here and move on when it subsides). Yang Lè, that’s me. We got a pretty good laugh about it but it stuck so that’s what’s going on my business cards. From a Chinese perspective, the name works and people think it fits so what the heck (it could be worse…I could be Kosmo Kramer), so say hello to Happy Goat (and meet my brothers, Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy, Sleepy, Bashful and Doc). Of course you realize that this makes Tammy, wife of Happy Goat. Somehow I think she'd be happier with wife of Ultra-Rich Goat but that's the breaks.

I'm headed to Shanghai this weekend so look for those photos next week.

Getting ready

Tammy and the boys are less than 2 weeks out from their journey to China. The clock is ticking loudly now. I’ll actually be able to sit in the same room as them and have a discussion instead of just talking to them via Skype. Don’t get me wrong, Skype is a great thing. Being able to converse and see the kids every day makes it much easier to be away. However, there are drawbacks to this as well. As shown in the photo below, it’s clear to me that in some instances that I’m not really a focal point for them (you’re on candid camera).

Jacob is listening to his PSP and playing games while Warren is checking his iTouch for something critical to the survival of the Western world (Jack Bauer just sent him the satellite image of the terrorist’s secret hideout, “Tony, I’ll need backup. Damnit! I can’t wait, I’ll have to go in on my own. Keep this channel open.”).

This doesn’t happen all the time when we’re on Skype…..sometimes I’m competing with Wheel of Fortune (that’s right, Wheel of Freaking Fortune!). I’ll be talking to them and then I’ll hear “wishing well” in the middle of my very interesting story. What!?!? Were you listening to me? Where did you get wishing well from? “It’s on Wheel of Fortune”. Perfect, I’d like to buy a vowel please Pat……A, for I’m going to kick my kid’s a__. (that is correct, please pick your prizes, ooohhh, I’ll take the $500 backpack and the $800 monopoly set). I know it’s difficult and so I really don’t get angry, it’s not personal, they’re kids. They are trying to cram 2 years worth of TV memories into their remaining weeks since there’s no more of the “standard” TV once they arrive. In 3 months, they’ll be walking around like zombies, I’ll choose an “R”….I’d like to buy a vowel….C’mon big money!

Yes, they’ll have Discovery and National Geographic channel in English but not much else. No SpongeBob, no Courage the Cowardly Dog, none of those other goofy Nickelodeon shows that Jacob watches. No Disney channel, No Reality TV channel, No HSN, No MTV, etc. (have I kicked this dead horse enough?). I have somehow managed to make it 3 months without ESPN and PTI (one of my all time favorites, Tammy calls it Big Mouth and Baldy but she still watches it with me), so I think they can manage. There are positive aspects to the situation, for one, I don’t have to watch the Obama-mania love fest and I don’t spend nearly the amount of time per day watching TV as I did before. The negatives, the only news channels we get are the BBC and CNN. However, I choose not to get the daily propaganda from those “news” organizations and I find the news online. There is an English version of the Asian news but I don’t watch that very often. Typically, if I am watching TV it’s an HBO movie (ugh!) or one of my DVDs that I purchased. I have made it through Season 4 of 24 now, so only 3 more seasons to go. Anyhow, we’ll make a trip to the DVD store soon after they arrive and let the kids pick out more of their favorites to watch when they are bored. It’s not perfect but it’s about as good as it can get being on the opposite side of the world. I can only imagine what this place was like 25 years ago when things were much less Western and modern (like a lot of the inner country), now that’s roughing it.

I’m moving into a 3-bedroom apartment in preparation for their arrival. I’m moving in early to try and get everything ready before they arrive (get the Mao posters on the wall, you know...decorating). I’ve been living very sparsely and now I’ll have to really hit the grocery stores to get all that will be needed to stock up for them. I hope the kids like the tofu-flavored Pop Tarts, they’re very popular here.

Weekend June 6 & 7

Saturday we went back to UTown for some things that may or may not be needed. We looked at MP3 players, camera tripods and other things. It was okay but it was just a part of the Saturday plans. Typically, Saturday and Sunday are days to do something, perhaps not a whole lot but at least get out for awhile. If nothing else, it provides the time necessary to get the rooms cleaned by the cleaning crew at the Chateau. So we typically leave the Chateau around 10:30 and return after 2:30. We walk a lot and which helps us become more familiar with the area (without looking lost). Last weekend, we found Suzhou Park so sometimes a routine visit turns into more if you take a turn down a different street and try a slightly different route to go from Point A to Point B.

Anyhow, I brought along a pair of pants that are part of the standard uniform for the employees that work out in the manufacturing plant. I liked the outfit and asked for the clothes and was given them. Unfortunately, the size options for the pants were Small, Medium, Large, XL, etc. (I think you get the idea). I was originally given an XL for both the polo shirt and the pants…think about that for a moment. I haven’t put on any weight since I’ve been here so I’m not sure how the XL choice was given but I had to consider the sizes of the Chinese folks and try and think in their terms. I turned both back in for Large shirt and pants (I know I’m huge but my frame isn’t that much different from the locals). The shirt fits ok but an XL would probably have been better. As for the pants, the length is okay but the waist is too large (I know you’re jealous right). So I could not wear the pants unless I wanted to look very odd with the belt causing the pants to fold around my waist (very flattering). So I decided to take them to a tailor. I’ve heard good things about one specific tailor near UTown and so off we went. I carried the pants with me so I could leave them to be fixed (Earth to Captain Obvious…Come in please). I went into the shop and indicated the problem (waist too big). Now the shop (I know, I should’ve taken photos) was a small front area with yards and yards of fabric on display shelves along the walls. They had some coats hanging and examples of their work on display as well but otherwise, it was a pretty barren place. It seemed somehow different than I imagined. The lady understood my issue with the pants and asked me to put them on to show the issue so she took me to the back hall and closed the door and I changed out of my shorts into the pants. No dressing room, just a hallway to the back of the shop. I felt kind of exposed and somehow I expect a video of the hallway to show up on the web (skinny foreigner trying on pants….that’s it, reach for the belt, no, keep the shoes on, oooohh baby). So I wear the pants out and the guy takes a few quick measurements and I’m done. So then it’s back to changing again (that’ll be another $5 for the next show please). So they ask for my phone number and I pay and I’m outta there until next weekend when I will pick up the pants. 30 RMB to get the waist fixed, not a big deal. No name, address, just a few notes on the slip of paper and that’s it. I’d better not lose that or I’m out of luck.

More interesting is the short discussion I had with the lady before I left. I asked if they made shirts or pants right there in the shop. She indicated that I would just need to bring a sample (actual piece or photo) and they would make whatever I needed. So I can take a photo in of a shirt or pants that I like (even a puffy pirate shirt) and they’ll take the appropriate measurements and make something for me. Not just off the rack purchasing but something tailored to me. I choose the fabric and bingo. Not that it’ll turn me into a movie star or something (how about an Elvis jumpsuit with all the rhinestones) but it seems odd. I know, that’s what a tailor is right (Come in Captain Obvious)? What’s the big deal? Perhaps it’s not a big deal, I’ve been sheltered and never used a tailor much before so I find it interesting (the only timed I can remember is when we would get suits growing up, so it was still find a suit and just have them fit it to you, not make it from the fabric up). I know that other Expats here have used these tailors to make suits, wedding gowns, etc. for a very cheap price so this should not surprise me but it just does. The more I thought about it afterwards, the more it makes sense to get the clothes tailor made versus off the rack, especially if the price is equal. With the differences in sizing for clothes, shoes, etc. it might be more difficult to find clothes that fit so perhaps using the tailor will be the “normal” thing to do.

Sunday, we took a trip to see Shangtang Street; a combination historic street along with a generous amount of shopping built in. Check out the photos for more on this area. There were some excellent shops contained in this area with very good quality merchandise, some very expensive (even by Western standards). The most interesting thing today was the farmer’s market. We saw fresh fish, eels, frogs, snakes, geese, chickens, shrimp, small “lobsters” and pheasants all for sale. These animals were still alive and kicking so it was almost a freak show, how much can you take looking at the ducks knowing that if you give the nod….WHACK…they’re done. You had the power of Tony Soprano without the pressure from the Feds. This was something I wanted to see all along but we never were able to find it but today, we found it. You wonder about the animals and begin to understand how a rogue virus gets a foothold in the population and jumps from species to species. All of the animals (and people) were in very tight quarters so any sneeze from one gets spread amongst the many very rapidly. It’s almost scary to think about while you are walking about snapping photos and looking like the typical Western tourist. Wearing the dumb masks like many do here won’t do anything about the virus but washing your hands is a really good practice here. Carry your own hand sanitizer at all times, along with tissue paper because you never know if you’ll find out when it’s too late in the local restrooms. The Boy Scout “always be prepared” is a good creed to have here. I carry a small backpack everywhere we go just to keep drinks, tissues, insect repellent, etc. It’s the AMEX of China….don’t leave home without it. Enjoy the photos and keep checking back in. Have a good one.