We've got mail!

My sister spoils us. 

This months care package included a whole lot of stoke. 

Sal made out like a bandit with a Tonka set and police badge from uncle Juls, and custom excavator cookies from aunt Stephanie. 

I came in second with all of this elastic for headbands. I've got enough to make a few sizes and will probably make some gifts for friends. 

Carla got some leggings and she and Nick both got some reading material. A few books for her, and a Surfer magazine for him. You know--just to make him miss the ocean more, lol. 

But really, we've loved and appreciated all of the care packages we've been sent over the last few years. It's not cheap, and it's not easy to ship to China. So, the fact that people have gone out of their way to send a slice of home has made us feel remembered while we are away. 

Honey farm

NZ and Sal took a little field trip with friends today. 

They started the morning off with breakfast out, and then drove to a honey farm. Not totally sure about the safety of a honey farm and a five month old's exposure to it, I chickened out on sending Carla with them and kept her home for a girls day. Well, she napped much of the day, and I attempted to sew--but my machine broke-so, I cleaned. Fun stuff, I tell ya. 

NZ said that the honey farm was basically just a little roadside bunch of boxes with a beekeeper tending to them. Sal had fun picking up sticks and rocks and such, while the guys purchased honey from the keeper. 

Perhaps the most impressive thing was that the beekeeper had his netted hood on, but kept the cover opened over his face and didn't wear gloves. That's one tough (or foolish) bee keeper!

Mexican-ish food in China

We had a van this weekend so we spent Saturday doing errands we have been putting off since returning from holiday. 

The morning started off at IKEA looking for office chairs and rugs. Exciting, right?

Halfway through IKEA we looked at each other and agreed that we needed food, quick. We've switched back to eating  non-processed foods again, which is great for our health, but leaves our stomachs growling for more every couple of hours. Our choices at IKEA were hot dogs, meatballs (horse meat anyone? Sal looooves them) or ice cream.

 No. No. And no. 

We made a dash for the checkout register and headed downtown in search of food. We had decided to try out a new (and the only) Mexican restaurant in Nanchansi, which is a nice little area along the canal. It was called Casa Zoe. 

It wasn't California Mexican ( where are my corn tortillas, yo?!), but it was surprisingly decent and the service was excellent. 

Chips, salsa, cheesy fries (did I say we are eating only non processed foods? Pretend I didn't just say cheesy fries then. Mmmmmm, Kay?), and fajitas. 

We will definitely go back--and were excited to see that they even had a breakfast menu! We have NEVER been out to breakfast in China (mcMuffins totally don't count), so I'm chomping at the bit to go back next Saturday to try it out!

Walking weather

The weather and AQI have been good so the kids and I have been walking everywhere. It's a little challenging with two in tow, but we've muddled our way to the supermarket twice (3 miles round trip) and to the produce market every other day. 

We even stopped to play at the pirate ship playground last week where Sal mastered climbing the arced ladder. 

In addition to errands, we've been spending about an hour and a half walking with our friends Neil and Mimi each afternoon. I'm loving the exercise and company. I've always found that walking is enoughcardio for me -- even more so pushing 70lb of kids/stroller weight. 

It's only a matter of weeks until the weather is swamp like, so we have to get out while we can. 

As seen in China

Thought I'd share a few of my recent sightings.

Just another day in the life.....

The local bike repair shop. Got a flat? Fix it fast. My father in law took this photo while visiting. This man sets up shop across from our compound.

NZ and I followed this guy through the potholed side streets of Binhu district last weekend. He had a canister of some pressurized gas just hanging out while his trunk banged up and down on it. (Don't worry mom, we didn't follow that closely. This was taken at a stoplight. Rest easy.) my sister pointed out the license reads "DUM", and I agree..dumb move transporting a gas canister this way..hopefully it was empty.

Split pants and fertilizing potted plants at the mall. This one doesn't even phase me anymore. At least this Nǎinai held her grandson over a plant. We've seen a mother squat with her child on the front steps of KFC to poop before. Like, seriously?! On a positive note, potty training Sal could be easier while out and about. I just can't bring myself to do it. 

Hey Nick, why is that lorrie crooked? 

Oh, that's why. 

Missing an axle. 

It's all good, it's tied up with a rope. 

China's interpretation of a food truck. The food tuktuk. 

This guy pumps out puffed tubes of corn. A whole bag for 2 ¥. 

I've never tried them...because, well...gutter oil. 

So, there you go...some of the stuff we see everyday. There's never a shortage of " what were they thinking?!" moments.

Sunday fun-day

NZ is working this weekend, so the kids and I took up an invite from our neighbor, and good friend, Barbara to go shopping. Normally we would take our driver, but he is already booked, so my options were limited as to how we would get from point A to B with two kids and no car seats. 

We could either walk....

..or take the bus...

We chose the bus. I've walked it before, but it's like 6 miles each way, and takes a while. Plus, at some point, I'd have to stop to nurse my baybee in the middle of the street (which is totally acceptable here) and draw a crowd. I can not stop when I am out with my kids. If I do, I literally have Chinese people with their cameras out snapping pictures & video or hovering over them making silly faces and clicking noises. I'm pretty sure Sal just thinks that everyone does this all over the world, but I can assure him, this is most definitely NOT normal. How do you teach stranger danger to a kid who has grown up with people all up in his business? 

Anyways, back to the bus...

Barbara is more adventurous than I have been, and has ridden the bus before. She made note of which bus numbers go where, along with the number of stops to a particular destination. We decided to give it a go with two kids and my umbrella stroller in tow. 

Sal had a blast. He smiled ear to ear and didn't fuss at all. He was particularly excited about the no smoking sign and no doggies sign he saw above his head. He also proudly paid our fare with his "mun-nee" when we boarded the bus. It cost 2 yuan per adult, which is approximately 32 cents. Kids ride free. 

We got off at the mall we had intended to go to, but learned that our beloved H&M was closed and had moved to a new location--down the road. We set out on foot this time, off roading the umbrella stroller, but ultimately finding our way. 

We did a little retail therapy in H&M (but came out empty handed!) and stopped at Starbucks so I could get a water and nurse Carla before catching the bus home. Sal got treated to a chocolate muffin (hello sugar high!) and was the best bus rider on our way home, hanging on tight to the overhead handles.

The rest of the afternoon he kept reminding me that he "ride da bus" today. To say it was the highlight of his day is an understatement.

I live for this boy's smiles and laughter. 

Hazy shade of...

Pollution level is currently 353 in Wuxi and it's all of 8:00 am. This puts us in the severely polluted classification. 

All I can say is boooooooo!

Add to that the idiots behind us lighting off fireworks this morning...

I'm told it is because people are starting to fire up the coal for heat now that temps have dropped, but I don't know whether to believe it or not. 

This comes just one day after my water was shut off without notice and a load of laundry was ruined by the resulting brown water that ran out our pipes once it was turned back on. Management told us it was "safe" to use the tap after we ran the water through the pipes for a few minutes, but each time we turned it off and back on, it ran brown. 

That can't be good.

Thank goodness for bottled water!

Ahhhh, America (mainly Ventura county), I miss the hell out of you!

Donglin academy, Wuxi

This past Friday, Sal and I joined the Wuxi international club for a guided tour of a historical "famous" academy located in Wuxi. Donglin Academy, built in AD1111, was the place for Yang Shi, a well-known scholar at that time, to give lectures. 

                                          [entering the academy]

                [Pan pool- built for peaceful reflection]

                 [ enamored with the circular doorways]

                 

                 [ sitting in wancui house, a lecture room]

                                [star student]

                  [ playing outside on a beautiful day]

All in all it was a beautiful tour, although, I have to admit, the educational message of the tour was lost on me, as it is impossible to listen to the guide while chasing a toddler away from ancient artifacts and open waterways. 

I've always shied away from doing these types of tours, but I really enjoyed getting to see a little bit of Wuxi's history, and think that we will sign up for more in the future. I'd hate for my time here to be spent holed up in our apartment, or only seeing shopping malls, grocery stores and indoor playgrounds. Sal is so little he won't remember any of this life in China, so it's my duty to get out and take pictures for him to look back on as he grows up. 

Plus, an afternoon with friends?

Can't beat that.

Interested in learning more about the history of the academy? 

Check out this link: http://www.wxdlsy.com/eabout.htm

Whatcha wanna know?

During our recent trip back to the states, NZ and I both fielded a ton of similar questions asked by our friends, family and colleagues about our current lifestyle in Wuxi. I've compiled a list of FAQ's, but if anyone has any questions that aren't listed, go ahead and ask me in the comments section.

     

1- What's Wuxi like?

    This is a pretty general question, but our answer is usually along the lines of "it's a newer, smaller (million people) city about 2.5 hours north west of Shanghai. There is a lake, called Lake Taihu in our city, but it's not the type of lake anyone from the US would every swim or fish in. Like any city in China, we deal with pollution on a regular basis. Although new, Wuxi is quite dirty and offers fewer western familiarities than a bigger city such as BeiJing or Shanghai would. There is a ton of new construction going up, so new shopping malls and apartments open every month. The big news on the block is that we finally got a mall with Claire's (you got that right-Claire's accesories= big news!) Wuxi's hitting the big time now (:

2- What do you eat?

     We cook most of our own food. And by "cook our own food", I'm talking from scratch. We eat very similar to how we would eat back in CA, but with fewer selections. We eat much less meat --not because it isn't available, but because it just isn't that good here. The beef we do buy is imported from Australia and quite spendy. We have bought live chickens a couple of times and been disappointed. The chickens sold at the local market are often old and straight out of someone's yard. The result is stringy, chewy meat.  Our most popular cuisine here happens to be Mexican. We make our own mock refried beans and tortillas and are thankful cilantro and onions are available here. We do miss ourselves some CA avocados though! 

    

When we go out to eat, we have two local favorites. One is a Muslim noodle house which make fresh noodles in the front of the store, and add them to broth with veggies like bok choy. The other is jiaozi, which are usually pork mixed with cabbage, celery or mushrooms folded inside little wonton wrappers and then boiled. We also like their spicy green beans. 

    

 Wuxi has Western fast food joints.  Subway, Mcdonalds, Burger King, Papa John's, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, KFC and Dunkin Donuts are the ones that come to mind. I'm embarrassed to admit that although we don't frequent ANY of those restaraunts in the US, we've been to them all a time or two here. What can I say? Our kid is a chicken nugget fiend. 

                           

                               Sal scored some fruit and jiaozi from our fruit vendor

3-Where do you buy food?

     We make an effort to eat a lot of produce, which I purchase at the local produce market about half a mile away. They sell seasonal fruit and vegetables, as well as spices & meats (both alive and dead) --but as I mentioned above we buy our meat elsewhere. The produce market is not ventilated well, and there is no refrigeration. Just imagine the stench of the meat section during summer....it's bad. As for sanitizing our haul? I have found that an hour long soak in a vinegar water or iodine water solution works well. None of us have gotten sick from eating fresh produce yet.

                            

                                        Vinegar/water soak to remove bacteria

       There are two supermarkets we frequent. One is French owned Auchan supermarket, which has the only decent cheese in town. And by decent cheese, I mean they carry more than just processed cheese slices or tubes o' cheese products.The selection still isn't anything to get excited about. They also carry some tortilla chips that we like, as well as fresh baguette bread. 

   

                                                A typical Saturday at Auchan

       Our main shopping is done at MeTRO, which reminds me of a Chinese version of Food4Less. It's a warehouse style market with forklifts dodging shopping carts during most shopping excursions. We buy most of our grazing food (nuts, popcorn, crackers) here, as well as UHT milk, butter, Australian beef, tortillas and our household items like toilet paper and baby wipes here. 

4- How do you figure out where to find things?

      Word of mouth. Generous fellow expats. My husband's assistant. Whenever one of my friends or I run across something we think the others would like or have mentioned needing, we text one another and buy it for the person-because things are often here one day, gone the next. When I'm out on my own, I use google translate a lot to ask questions or give directions. I managed to find neosporin and iodine on my own at the pharmacy a few weeks ago and high fived myself all the way home. I also use a website called taobao.com for online shopping. The best way to describe it is a cross between amazon and eBay. I need my husband's assistant to help with purchases and some translation, but she is a really good sport about it. I've bought everything from graham crackers to butt paste to toys from taobao sellers.

5- Know any Chinese yet?

     Sadly, very little. Neither NZ or I have put forth the effort to take lessons or do an online program. It's such a complex language. I know a handful of words and phrases and my numbers. Knowing your numbers here is key to survival. 

                          

                              Does he understand what his playmates are saying?

                                                   Only time will tell.

6- Does Sal speak Mandarin?

     We think he understands some words. Our ayi speaks to him every afternoon. The other day I realized he was counting from 1-10 in mandarin with her! He also attempts to say zaijian (bye) when prompted.

7- What do you do during the day?

      The driver usually picks NZ up for work between 7or 8 each day. Sal and I get dressed by 9:00 and head out for some sort of activity a few days each week. We are members of the Wuxi International club, which is growing in size each month. Every month WIC hosts a luncheon, a coffee morning, play groups, BBQ's etc to  partake in. 

Here's our usual week: On Mondays we meet a group of expats in our complex and walk to the local Starbucks for the morning. 

                  At the local produce market having pants hemmed at my tailor

       Tuesdays and Thursdays we usually walk to the vegetable market and then go home to Skype with my sister. Wednesday mornings I try to use the driver to take us grocery shopping or on errands, and on Fridays we often spend the morning at a friend's house playing in her basement.  Lunchtime is between 11:45 and 12:15 followed by a 2-3 hour nap. 

                 

        Our ayi arrives at the end of naptime and works til 5:00p while Sal and I do our best to stay out of her way. Lately we have been taking afternoon walks around the complex, or playing at the playground. NZ usually arrives home around 6:15 for dinner, then it's bath time and bed for the boy while we stay up later watching Netflix shows. 

8- What's the weather like?

     December until the end of March is fuh-reezing cold. Usually just gray skies and rain, but occasionally we get snow. 

                                                         January 2013

April starts to warm up, and May and June are t shirt and shorts weather. 

The only drawback during these months is the higher pollution levels. Puts a damper on outside play some days. 

                      

                        May 2013. Perfect weather for a walk thru Nanchan

By the end of June, and for the entire July and August and beginning of September it is stifling hot and humid. Some days it is so hot that we don't even leave the house. Mid September through November are the best months. Lower pollution levels, clear skies and nice temperate weather. If anyone ever wants to visit us, these are the months to do it. 

9- What does your apartment look like?

                

                                      Our apartment "grounds"

We live in a gated complex along with many other Chinese and expats. By China standards, we live very well. Our apartment has a balcony and is located on the 25th floor of a 27 story building. Minus the garage, it's the same square footage of our house in California. We have three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small kitchen, a large pantry (even by US standards), a laundry room and a nice sized living room with hardwood floors and tile. 

   Our pantry room...Full of food, car seats and surfboards.

The apartment came furnished and we are the first inhabitants, so everything is "new". The furnishings are cheap and Chinese, and everything we have added to the mix has been courtesy of IKEA. Look around any expat home and you're sure to see an IKEA expedit or two. We all shop there.

Our refrigerator is a side by side, just like we might have at home, but we do not have a full size oven or a dishwasher. We have a two burner gas range and a countertop toaster oven that we work magic with. My washing machine doubles as a dryer--most people in China don't use electric dryers, but instead hang clothes to dry. I'm thankful for imported dryer sheets and my dryer to keep shirts, socks and underwear soft. Too bad a full wash and dry load takes four hours! 

10- What do you miss the most?

                        

                              Someday we will smell the salty air again.

         Family, friends, our neighbors, our house, our yard, driving cars, temperate weather, blue skies, the beach, sewing, fabric stores, softball league, authentic Mexican food, avocados, Target, diet sodas, understanding the language, common courtesy, the beach...oh wait, did I already say that? Uhm yeah, we miss the beach. And family. And friends.

Got more questions? Ask away!

Residency renewal day

We spent our afternoon at the police station today.

 It was time to renew our residency in Wuxi.

As you can see, Sal kept an eye on everything to make sure there was no funny business.

Chemistry lesson

Hello all,

Last Thursday, as my ayi and I were tag teaming hanging some laundry to dry, something on the horizon caught my eye.

 I did a double take.

Thick, black, smoke was headed our direction from about two miles away.

I tapped Liu on the back and pointed in the direction of the smoke. "Huǒ", she says, obviously meaning "fire". We stood on the balcony for a good twenty minutes, amazed at this plume of smoke slowly taking over the New District sky. It was eerie. Finally, she cups her ear and motions for me to listen....The sound of fire trucks finally filled the air. Seriously, twenty minutes before we heard a single siren. 

Relieved that the fire would be put out, we went back to our business, occasionally checking on the smokey sky. I texted Nick to tell him about the fire, and he said he was on his way home, and had actually just passed by the factory and it was still burning. 

Through NZ's assistant, we got notifications that the Chinese officials were broadcasting to the public. We were told that we should close all windows, stay inside and turn off our AC units until the smoke cleared. Common sense, right? 

As the evening progressed, we started hearing rumors.

The thick plume of smoke? 

Chemicals as a result of a semiconductor plant explosion.

Semiconductor plants do a lot of etching. The chemical used to do such a job is hydrofluoric acid. Anyone who's seen the tv show "breaking bad" would remember that that's what Jesse poured over the drug distributor's dead body in his bathtub, which ultimately ate through the tub and sent it through the ceiling to the floor below. Yeah, that shhht's nasty. And highly toxic. 60% concentration will kill you. A small burn (5%) can kill you. 

NZ and I paced around our apartment that evening after learning that the smoke was actually Hf. What should we do? Can we get out of dodge? Where would we go? Is the danger of smoke inhalation as dangerous as direct contact? Would we wake Sal and call our driver to take us to SuZhou? Mind you, its about 10:00p and we know our driver is probably half a bottle of baiju deep. He'd be too drunk to drive anywhere. I decide to go to bed and NZ stayed up to wait for morning time to hit in California. He wanted to consult with a few people who may have better knowledge of Hf and the dangers of burning Hf. 

Ultimately, we stayed the night, but everyone agreed that it was dangerous.

We woke up to rain the next day.

Rain is good, right?

Well, when residual Hf is in the air, and rain is brought into the picture, not so much. Supposedly there was a danger of Hf then contacting skin through rainfall, which is super scary. Some people evacuated out of fear, others stayed home and inside, and some went on like there was no danger at all. 

We did leave for Shanghai (I had an appointment) and some safety. I think we both felt better about it. 

We've since returned and life is back to normal. 

I'll be happy if we never have to go through that again. 

Summer weather

I snapped this pic on our walk back from McDonald's today. Morning sickness made a comeback today, and fries sounded soooo good (too bad once Sal and I got home, the bag contained his mc nuggets, but no fries for mama! Oh, china, what would a day without frustration over poor customer service be like?)...anyways, isn't the sky so pretty? We had blue skies all morning but as you can see the thunder clouds are rolling in, and I suspect by 3:00 or 4:00 we will have our daily torrential downpour. This is life as we know it during summertime. This past week has hit consecutively above 100 degrees, with a "real feel" of 111-120 degrees due to humidity. 

Is it fall yet?

I can see clearly now...

...too bad the forecast is for thunderstorms, cause these guys have been washing the windows on our high rise for the last four days. We were lucky enough to be home to catch them rappelling down in front of our kitchen one afternoon and Sal got a kick out of the man outside our window who was smoking a cigarette with one hand while wiping windows clean with the other.

This was an unexpected treat for us. Our windows were looking a little worse for the wear, with all the recent rains and smog filled days literally leaving a thick film of grime between us and our view. 

Keeping my fingers crossed we get at least a week without rain so I can enjoy our view again!

Swag wag

Ch-ch-check it out...

We be Rollin' in our new swag wag.....I mean, scooter.

Hello freedom!

All that's missing is one of those annoying family decals. (But check out the CI surfboards love we already slapped on it thanks to Veronica!).

Sal's pretty jealous that mom and dad get to have all the fun. Thankfully auntie is still here to play with him while we headed out for a Saturday scoot.

Wuxi zoo

Auntie Stephanie is here!

We've been busy showing her around our side of the world the last few days and look forward to a whole 'nother week with her before she has to head back Stateside. I think she will kiss the ground when she lands on US soil. Just kidding. She has acclimated and adjusted better than I would have expected someone who has never been out of the US other than Tijuana. She even mastered chopsticks while eating jiaozi with us tonight! (Go steph!)

Today was May Day, a national holiday.

NZ had today off, so we loaded up the car and headed to the Wuxi zoo, just outside of town.

We weren't sure what to expect of a Chinese zoo. Would conditions leave us feeling sad for the animals? What kind of animals would we see?

Lets just say that PETA would have a conniption fit at the "beast show" we watched at the central stage. Bears on bikes, dancing to Gagnam style, then jumping rope with their trainers...after that came lions and tigers, followed by monkeys riding bikes.

Sal showed some interest in a couple of exhibits, but for the most part, NZ, my sister and I made our way through the crowds ( Sal was quite possibly the most popular exhibit at the zoo), from habitat to habitat trying to get him excited for the lethargic looking rhinos, or the sad looking flamingoes who barely had a puddle to stand in.

Although the habitats could have been kept up better, and the crowds were a bit thick at times, we still had a good time walking the park and will probably go back when Sal gets a bit older.

Yep. A bear on a bike.

Giraffes

Forget the zebra. Check out the laowai.