China Adventure--the Hotel

Let me fill you in on our living accommodations for the next month—more or less (until our shipment arrives). The hotel (the Renaissance) is one of those kinds of places where you always feel under-dressed unless you are in heels and evening attire.  Even for breakfast.  And you feel like you have to take a shower and get all fixed up in order to go to the workout room.  Lots of marble… with a huge, open lobby and several greeters and bell boys to ask if you need anything or wish you well on your way.  I've never stayed in a 5-star hotel before, and I’d definitely have to say that it has eased any culture shock we may have felt. 

And then there is the breakfast.  The actual price of the breakfast is 170 RMB, or about $28.  Per person. Fortunately, it is part of our rent, but man!  What a layout!  There are two buffet lines (on marble counters), with anything and everything you could ever want.  Fruit juice?  Would you prefer fresh-squeezed orange, grapefruit, watermelon or others I haven’t identified yet.  Or any of a dozen pastries or breads.  Several different breakfast meats—some familiar like bacon and sausage, and some not.  Eggs prepared in any of 5 or 6 ways.  Pancakes, French toast, burritos, eggs benedict.  All kinds of yogurts and sliced fruits, and cheeses. And for of course breakfast cereals—but the milk isn’t fresh milk, it’s the irradiated kind (until opened it doesn’t need refrigeration).  And that’s only the first third of things.  Then comes the variety of stuff that appeals to the Asian hotel guests.  Most of it is stuff I can only guess at—I did recognize dumplings, egg rolls, sushi, rice, all kinds of vegetables, fish.  Did I mention that breakfast is good? Really good?  I am fortunate in that we have a bathroom scale in our room to help me keep my appetite in check.  I just try to remember, we have many days here to try everything we want. 

Then to work off the breakfast, there is the health club—complete with welcoming desk clerk, sauna, swimming pool, massage rooms, and then the room with weights, treadmills, stair-steppers, bikes, etc.  We’ve been taking advantage of it, and the great thing is, our future apartment is just across the street, and the rent includes memberships in the health club, so we can continue to use it even after we move.  Our first afternoon, we were in the dressing room after swimming, and in walked another Caucasian mother and daughter.  We’re all pretty easy to spot!  We said hello, where you from, and they were from Iowa!  Also here with Deere, but from Dubuque.  (The next day, we met a family from Canada).  Just hang out and exercise, and meet all the expats in the area! 

By the way, I’ll probably use the term “expat” a lot, so I might as well define it.  It’s short for expatriate, and at first, I didn’t like it in referring to myself.  I confused it with “ex-patriot”, and thought, Hey, I still love my country!  Instead, it means someone living outside of their home country.  So, indeed, I am an expat.

On the first day, Kevin went to work at his regular time, and the girls and I spent the day just being lazy and catching up on rest. We watched 29 different Chinese channels on TV.  Good thing there is some sort of world games taking place because it doesn’t take a translator to watch swimming, diving, or gymnastic competitions. We take turns on the computer and are so grateful for the internet.  Another Deere wife invited me to go with her to the grocery store, just to get a feel for it.  I was able to purchase some fruit and snacks, and didn’t embarrass myself too much with not speaking any Chinese.  Thank heavens for cash registers which display the amount owed, so I don’t have to understand the cashier!  And the great thing is, with blond hair and obviously a foreigner, they don’t expect me to understand them anyway. (First purchase, seaweed crackers, fruit juice, apples, yogurt, and Skittles!  Is this a great place or what?!)

Another pastime at the hotel is watching the traffic.  Being on the 7^th floor, with an 8-lane street that passes by, we have an excellent view of Chinese traffic.  It is great being able to observe and learn, from a safe vantage point.  We’ve come to the conclusion that you can do just about anything you want, as long as you keep moving.  The cars seem like schools of fish—no one runs into anyone, and if a fish starts swimming against the group, the group just parts around them.  I can’t count how many cars I’ve seen go the wrong way on the one-way street on one side of the hotel.  And the other cars aren’t bothered.  They just part and flow on around.  Pedestrians don’t have the right-of-way, but it is possible to cross all 8 lanes.  And I forgot to mention that bicycles and mopeds are amongst the mix.  It really is amazing to watch!  

China Adventure--the Beginning...

    I’m not a big fan of flying these days, what with the strict security rules to deal with, not to mention having someone look at your body through the scatter-radiation sensor.  At least Ellie and Alice got to go through the regular scanner.  And then there is the hassle of moving a lot of big, bulky luggage.  Why is it that foreign airports have carts for use for free, but American airports charge a fee?  But with all that, after being awake for 28 hours, with four modes of transportation (two flights, two car rides, a bus ride and a couple of airport trains) we arrived in Tianjin.  Well, to be more specific, we are in TEDA, Tianjin Economic Development Area.  A place that used to be salt pools (you know, where the sea water is pooled then allowed to evaporate in order to harvest the salt) but over the last 25 years has become a sea of skyscrapers and industries.  And with the ocean nearby, that leads to a lot of fog.

   For the first 36 hours here, it has been so foggy/smoggy that you couldn’t see over a quarter of a mile away, and the sun was invisible.  Finally, last evening, we got to see the red sun through the haze.  And it has been hot!  Very muggy and sticky.  Not at all enticing for going on exploratory walks and nearly impossible to tell which direction is which.  And that’s hard for me; I love to see the sky.  I HAVE to have my bearings—which way is north, etc.?  I suppose that watching the stars will be an occupation that occurs mostly when we’re back in the States. 

   So, for my first impressions of China.  I didn’t get the luxury of a window seat on the 747 jet, but from brief glimpses, it was mostly cloudy on the way over.  I had hoped for a view of Alaska or Russia as we passed over—just clouds, and as we descended into China, a haze covered the land.  There were mountains to one side.  Everything was green.  Fields are full of maturing corn, bordered by what look to be cottonwood trees.  Young, fast-growing trees are planted everywhere—along the sides of freeways, etc., with not very many older trees. One good thing about a centrally-controlled land is that a good idea can be immediately carried out throughout the whole land—there’s no having to deal with local rules or opinions.  Of course, if that idea is a bad one, like Mao’s rule abolishing schools for 10 years (1966-1976) the results are disastrous. Children during China’s Baby Boom generation didn’t get much of an education.  I would have stopped school at 6^th grade if I had been in China.  The locals have no say in how things are carried out.

   The 2-hour car ride from Beijing to TEDA was instructive.  We now know why we won’t be driving here—we don’t know how to honk the horn!  Apparently, lane changes are never signaled, the driver just honks to let the others know he’s there.  Those honking horns kept interfering with our heavy eyelids that just wanted SLEEP!  And lane markings are suggestions only.  In fact, it seems that there are no firm traffic rules.  At an exit, we had to pass a fender-bender accident, which caused a slow-down in the traffic.  I could not believe the free-for-all method of getting around it.  Instead of moving to a single file, the cars cut in front of one another, jockeying for position, never quite scraping one another but trying to have 4 lanes of cars in the space of one lane.  I had heard, and am finding it out personally, that the Chinese do not queue up--forming a single line is not part of their culture, and they don’t do it in driving either. 

   I'm sure there will be a lot to be learned over the next few days...

As we finish out our Iowa lives...

Elizabeth painted the "princess" for the camp flag (and their's won).  "Appointed by Divinity" was their title.

Last week, in an effort to get rid of stuff, we had a garage giveaway.  I've never been, and probably never will be in the mood to have a garage sale.  The thought of having to price everything, and then sit there while people paw over things just doesn't appeal to me.

But to give things away is different.

 I set everything out, and people just stopped by.

 It really cut down on how much stuff we ended up taking to Goodwill.

And, we finally got the valued inventory done.  Everything enumerated and valued.

That is SUCH a tedious job but everyone helped out.

Last night as we were getting ready to email the inventory back to the insurance company,

all four of us were totaling sheets so we could get the final amount.

 We also took photos of all the items.

 The ward had a going away party for us and another family moving away this month--and to welcome in the 4 new families that have moved in the past month.

We called it a "replacement" party.  

Alice spent part of the time hanging out with her Sunday School class.  For all 12 years in this ward, she has been the lone girl in a class of boys.  Lately, she hasn't minded it.  The boys constantly tease one another about doing things to get her favor--and the funny thing is, they DO!

They're all good kids, and it's been fun to watch.

 And finally, the packers came today.  This is what we've been agonizing, puzzling and sweating about for the past two months.  Which things should we take?  Which should go to storage--and if we don't need it for 3 years, should we just get rid of it?  What should just be thrown away?

Well, judgment day is here and whichever decisions we've made are quickly becoming permanent.

Just for some contrast...

I thought I'd put in some pictures of the yard, back in 2004.  Wow, only 7 years ago, and things had already grown quite a bit.  Some friends planted some apple trees this year, and mentioned their regret at not planting them 30 years ago when they moved here. They thought it would take too long before they actually got apples. We forget that in most cases, we do have time to have things come to fruition.

 And for our comic relief, this picture was taken in 2002.  Don't you just love Kim's expression?  After you get past that, look at the tiny trees in the background.  We've come a LONG way in just 9 years!

Our Iowa Backyard

When we set about landscaping our yard back in the spring on 2000, we wanted to create our own little garden of Eden--lush plants, privacy, and beauty.And I suppose that would mean peaceful animals as well.

We knew that deer occasionally visited--there were tracks and other "sign" left behind, as well as the eaten-off bushes, plants and the missing buds of trees. But we've never seen the deer out in the middle of the day.  The mulberries must be tasty, for this doe keeps coming back.  These pictures were at 3 pm.  And she is unafraid.  

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Sturgis Falls, and other details...

And what do muffins have to do with Sturgis Falls' celebration?

Just time proximity--in trying to use up all the bottled jars downstairs, I've become quite creative.

I've found out that my hummingbird muffin recipe works very nicely with

a jar of Grandma Bailey's apple pie filling. 

The muffins are moist, with chunks of apple--almost like a dessert! 

 The laptop doesn't have anything to do with Sturgis Falls either, but it is a new aquisition to ease the travel time until we are set up in our new home, and with the computer, now I can still do genealogy and email in the meantime!  Finding out which one to buy was confusing.  Too many choices and too much information! It is taking some getting used to, but I'm happy with it.  (It has a very sensitive mousepad!)

Along with the laptop, it was time to get a new printer.  I diligently looked in Consumer Reports for the one that would cost the least in ink usage.  Our last printer cost $65, but the ink cartridges cost $35 each, and we went through 2-3 a year.  (and we never used color ink).  So we ended up with a really BIG printer--gasp!
However, it is also a copier, and we've already used that feature.  The $35 ink cartridge is supposed to do 2200 pages.  I'm sure that is an optimistic number--after all how many cars actually get the listed gas mileage?  Do printers live up to their listed output?  Still, this will be vastly better, and very convenient!  And, it barely fits in the alotted space.  Oh, and it's wireless.  Nice!

And now we get to Sturgis Falls!  Alice and Elley have been clogging since March 1st, (with me!), and their group was selected to perform in the Talent Show, on the stage of the band shell at Overman park.  The talents were so varied--guitar-playing, mini-skirted blonde girls; hip hop dancing guys; a harpist, pianists, and other vocalists.  How would the judges make their decision?  But our clogging group had great music and a good routine.

Well, the harpist won, and the cloggers came in second (and won $100!).  The hip hoppers (who were really good) came in third.  We were so surprised!  2nd was actually the best outcome, as the winner goes to the State Fair to compete--in August--and we wouldn't be here to participate.

And Sturgis Falls is just so much fun.   The smells of the funnel cakes.  Eating a smoked turkey leg (actually, sharing it amongst us because it is so big!).  Watching people.  Sitting in lawn chairs, or on blankets. And this year, we had cool, comfortable weather.  Yeah!

And the move continues...

Today, the missionaries moved out.

They moved in with a woman in the ward whose husband passed away a few months ago,

and who is really happy to have someone else in the home,

especially at night.

We're sorry to see them go, but in a couple of weeks, there won't be a spot for them here.

As you can see, the garage is full of things to give away.

As we continue to sort out and make decisions, we've found that we have a lot more

stuff than we really need.  So we're condensing and discarding.

One thing we had to make sure we had a record of was the bedroom door with

all the family pencil marks for height,

starting at the bottom with Jane, and continuing up through Alastair, Marta, Emma, Brenna, Connor, and our children.  Even Lily has her height marked on that door.

And now it has all been transferred to some computer sheets that are attached.

And for Catherine's benefit, here are some pics of the finished dining room.

With flash...

 ...and without.

Our update:

The contract has been signed; things are finally moving forward--though the formal announcement STILL has not been made.  So really, we still should not be telling anyone--but that's hard to do when we're hoping the truck will be here to pack us in 2 weeks.  This is getting more and more real!

I have a hard time going back to sleep if I wake up in the night

because of the adrenaline surge that comes as I begin to think of all that still needs to happen.

We've decided on a different school for the girls--they won't need uniforms after all.

They also will probably have an hour commute on a nice bus (a dedicated tour-type school bus).

Poor girls--they'll have laptops (Mac books), so they could do homework,

read, sleep, text, etc., while on their commute. 

We found out the other school had lost a lot of high school students, so all that are left (about 7-8 students per grade) are Koreans who ignore the English-only rule and stay together in a group.

That would not be very fun for the girls--especially Elizabeth as a senior!  

Kevin has been looking for a place for us, but so far it's the typical "good location/bad house" or bad location/good house".  There is a nice house with a tiny yard, but it would be a long commute for Kevin, and to do any shopping, I'd have to use the driver (which I am loathe to do, though I know it will be necessary at least some of the time).

Or there is an apartment, close to work and within walking 

distance to all kinds of shopping, but it's a dump.

Literally.

So we're still looking.

I went to the temple this past Friday with some women from the ward, and suddenly realized that I might not see the inside of the Nauvoo Temple for 3 years.  I will REALLY miss it!   I have so enjoyed sessions there, as well as being able to help clean when our ward has the assignment.

Being able to vacuum those rooms when no one else is around is pretty special.

A Fantastic Saturday!

Clogging is taking us places!  Like an audition for the Bill Riley Talent Show associated with the Sturgis Falls celebration.   Fortunately for the audience, the cut-off age was 21--and the moms in our group were happy with that.  We love clogging too, but we're not quite ready for prime time. 

 The audition was at Lincoln school, and the kids were great.  Lots of energy.  And they look like they've been at this a lot longer than 3 months.  (We started on March 1st).

Can't wait to hear if they got in or not!

Then we were off to Nauvoo.  

After taking in one of the shows done by the young performing 

missionaries (and they were very good!),

we performed baptisms.  

It is so nice being in the temple with a good group of youth.

And I had about 25 names to do.  A & E each had 8 females and Jacob Fagersten did the male names.  

 Then it was a picnic supper of hoagies, cookies, chips, etc.  

The weather was superb--dry, 70 degrees.

We finished eating just in time for "Sunset at the Mississippi", 

which is on the stage where "City of Joseph" used to be performed. 

I could seriously see myself as one of those older missionaries! 

I'd be happy to put on some goofy costume for the melodramatic skit,

or dance to a hoe down,

or sing some silly song about mustaches.  And I'm sure I could tell 

all about the bakery or the gun shop or one of the other locations.

Some of the skits were so hilarious--my jaw hurt from laughing.

And it was SO good to laugh.  

I've been taking life too seriously the past couple of weeks.

And to top off the night,

the BYU Folk Dancers performed.

 It was unfortunate that we still had to drive home afterwards, 

because A & E were right in their element.

They got out their clogging shoes and jammed with some of the dancers.

They talked to the band members (who were all really nice).

Elley is really beginning to look forward to college next year!

Now she just has to decide if she wants to be in the band 

or one of the dancers!  

Both girls now have high aspirations.  And that's good.

The day finally had to come to an end,

and we got home about 1:30 a.m. 

It was REALLY nice that we had afternoon church!

We are going to miss Nauvoo...

And it's ALMOST official!

    Yesterday was the last day of school--and still no announcement.  If A & E had agreed to this adventure just so they could have the pleasure of a bit of fame at school, well, that certainly didn't happen.  However, the last two days, other students came up to A & E and asked if we were moving to China.  What?!?  Where did that come from?
    Kevin talked with his boss and remarked about those comments--and that the information didn't come from us!--and his boss said whether people know or not won't affect anything.  The papers still are not signed (but hopefully will be before Kevin leaves for China--otherwise he won't be able to arrange housing), and although it would be nice to have a big announcement and all, it is now alright to tell people that ... 

yes, we might be moving to China!

    There has been at least one nice side-effect of this delay, and that is that we have a few more days before the house will go on the market, so the pace of getting ready isn't quite so frantic.  It is one thing to have the house looking good.  It is another thing to have all the contents inventoried and sorted as to what goes with us, what goes to storage, what goes to Goodwill Industries and what goes in the garbage.  It's rather a cathartic experience, when taken at a decent pace.  I'm afraid my decisions would not be the wisest if made under a time pressure.  And if all goes well, the house will be ready to show AND to pack up.  I really don't want to have to do the one and then go back and do the other.

The A & E Spring Recital

The recital went on as planned on Friday evening, 

even though the girls 

weren't able to announce the REAL reason for it.

They had wanted it to be a farewell party. 

Elley painted a picture of the two of them

to display. (It looks a little different in real life)

 We held it at the church's cultural hall because 

we thought there might 

be too many for our home, and there were.

The only problem was--summer humidity moved in last week, 

and EVERY piano in the building was out of tune.  

The show went on although the piano accompaniment 

sounded a bit like it should have been in a honky-tonk saloon.

Alice's piano teacher had graciously

offered to accompany them.  She has really been a great teacher.

There were ward members and school friends.

It was brief (about a half-hour), enjoyable, and then people stayed 

another 45 minutes having 

refreshments--root beer floats--and chatting.

It was a success!

And "Spring Cleaning" Continues...

All I can say is, good thing we kept a bunch of boxes from past moves!

 We've decluttered,

 reduced and organized,

and removed family pictures.

And now, the hallway is done,  

 as is the living room, the master bathroom,

 and the downstairs TV room.  Four rooms down, 11 to go.

We had a home inspection done, and the guy was pretty picky.  But that's good.

Kevin has been going down the list and fixing every concern or note that he had.

Including replacing some grout.  Unfortunately, the grout has discolored over the years,

so he also had to discolor it!

We did a radon test this week, and have been trying to have everything done that we can do, up to this point.

We've taken the minivan loaded to the landfill twice.

We've taken two full loads to Goodwill.

We took the old typewriter and two bikes to a vintage shop.

And the garage is still half full of stuff to store or give away.

We need to do real spring cleaning more often !!

We're doing updating...

 The last of the wallpaper borders is now gone.  

And that's just ONE of the projects underway this weekend!

 Elley will be repainting segments of her bedroom on Monday.

And we've replaced the bright brass knobs in the kitchen with brushed nickel.  Now that is one update I wish we would have done sooner.  I am amazed at how nice it looks.  And, as Elley pointed out, now it all ties in with the stainless cannisters and appliances.  Why didn't I think of that earlier???

And We're Back!

We replaced the hard drive on our computer this week.  We realized there was a problem last Sunday morning when the computer suddenly couldn't "see" any internet capabilities, nor could it "see" the printer.  Most everything else was okay.  But we found that a computer that works but has no way of communicating is almost worthless.

A phone call to HP tech support took a half hour and got us to the point of, "since your computer is now out of warranty (it is 2 years old), it will cost $150 for 6 months of tech support, and we'll fix your problem."

Then came the call to our home teacher--who just happens to do computer repair as his business, even HP warranty work.  I fully intended to pay him for his service--after all that is his livelihood.  (I've tried to be careful and not ask the doctor in the ward about problems, etc.)

With Bro. Freestone's help, we installed a new hard drive with 1TB of memory.  Actually, he had Elley do all the mechanical stuff--screws, cords, etc.  It was good for her to know that she could do something like this, and in reality, Bob didn't actually DO the repair.  Maybe that is the best way for him to keep his business side separate.   However, he did have the right disk with the HP "tattoo" so the operating system would accept the larger hard drive.  

Since then, it has been a matter of restoring files from the external hard drive back-up, reinstalling soft ware, reconfiguring settings to the way we want.  After 3 days, the computer is now ALMOST back to normal.

Except the printer still won't work.  I have a feeling I need to go find a driver.  

And, as soon as the pictures finish copying,

I'll post some pictures of the updates around the house.

Alice's Birthday

Alice's cake was delicious.  The cards and gifts were fun.  She's been wanting to get some books that she know won't be available in the school library next year.   So that's what she received--a couple of sets of "Warriors" books.  I think I'll have to read them too, if they are that good.

By the way, we love the table cloth Deborah brought back from an eastern European country.

I can't remember which one.

Someone, please refresh my memory!

Decorating Advice, Please!

                                         Today, I just decided to begin.  There are some Relief Society sisters coming on Monday morning to help take off wall paper and paint, but there will still be plenty for them to do.    I wanted to see what a plain color would look like. 

The missionaries had just returned from doing some service, and they WANTED to help out,

so I let them.

I like the light color--which happens to be the paint that was already there before the wallpaper.

But maybe it is too light. And I don't think it goes well with the beige.  What do you think?  Go a tad darker? (This is about the same color as the cross-stitch fabric).                Any input here will be welcome!