Am I the only one that sees mosquitoes?

I find myself asking this question quite often here in China ...

Mosquitoes seem to be EVERYWHERE!  Or at least everywhere I am ... and I honestly think I am the only one to notice (well, me and Ryan)!

They are in the locker room/showers at our fitness center

They are in conference rooms at work

They are in taxis

They are in our apartment

And did I mention mosquitoes LOVE me?!  I swear, they are drawn to me!  My mom always said it was because I was so sweet, but you know, I can be pretty fiesty - especially when it comes to mosquitoes!

Let me introduce to you the best invention since sliced bread!  This "tool" has really helped enhance my fiestiness and I LOVE it!  All I have to do is spot the mosquito, turn on the racket, press the button, swing and ZAP!  It's dead!  I have never received so much satisfaction killing a pesty little mosquito! 

Culture Shock - Split Pants

For those of you that saw some of the pictures we posted on Facebook, you may have noticed my comment regarding split pants!  This is something that we still cannot get over - 4 weeks into our adventure! 

Instead of writing my own post on this, I am going to shamelessly steal from my friend's blog!  I know she won't mind :)

http://therealexpathousewivesofwuxi.blogspot.com/2013/03/culture-shock-split-pants.html

Personally, we have only seen a child peeing on the sidewalk twice in the 4 weeks we've been here, however, we have heard stories of a mother holding their child over a trash can (in public) to poop and of a young child going #2 right on the floor inside a shopping mall ... and then someone stepped in it and tracked it all over the mall!!!  Needless to say, we avoid any "puddles" we see when we are out and about as you never know what it might be!!!

As much as we would love to start potty training Ava, we have no plans of trying this Chinese method - no matter how effective it is!  However, if we come home for Christmas with Ava wearing split pants, you will know that we've really embraced the Chinese culture!  LOL

Update on Ava!

Ava is now 14 months old!  She is growing like a weed and learning new things every day!  Ryan is doing an excellent job being her teacher!  She absolutely loves to walk and hardly ever crawls any more!  She is quite the talker as well!  Some of the words we hear the most often include: 
- Mama
- Dada
- nana (sorry Nana, I am pretty sure she is referring to bananas)
- more
- ball
- balloon (she thinks all of the Chinese lanterns are balloons)
- hot (she now knows that oven = hot)! 
-  yes/no (hoping we start hearing yes more than no)!

She will also repeat several words after you, but I am not quite sure she knows the meaning of them yet.  We are currently trying to teach her the meaning of night night, up, down, milk and snack.

Recently she started "singing"!  At least it sounds like she is singing.  It is the most adorable thing in the world and we are hoping to catch it on video soon!  Must be all of the music we listen to day in and day out! 

Our first week in Wuxi, we were invited to an indoor play center with some new friends!  Ava had a great time exploring everything, with the help of mom and dad of course!  Sadly, this particular play center has since closed, but we have been told of another one in the area so we will be checking it out soon!   


One of our new friends!



 

If we could only have 5 things in China ...

what would we want?

In the Junior Achievement class I teach at our local middle school (back in Richland, Michigan), we play this game.   The class has to pretend that their family has to flee their home country and they are immigrating to a country far away.  They can only bring 5 things with them so they have to decide, and agree as a class, which items they will bring!  It is always interesting to see what each kid thinks they need - most say their top 2 items are cell phone and computer.  Others prefer photo albums and a language dictionary!  I decided it would be fun to play this game with Ryan.  So, besides what we will call the necessities (clothes, shelter, food, clean water and money), these are the 5 things that we are so grateful for having with us in China!

5.  Washer and Dryer:  Okay, so yes this is two, but they go together right?!  And we are actually lucky because we have a separate washer and dryer!  It is not uncommon for the washer and dryer to be the same unit - IF you have a dryer (most Chinese hang their clothes to dry). 

4.  Stroller:  We walk so much that it would be very difficult if we didn't have a stroller.  We ended up bringing two with us, our Bob Jogging stroller and a small umbrella stroller.  The Bob has been the easiest to maneuver thus far.
3.  Mosquito Racket:  This thing is AWESOME and we will have a post dedicated just to this incredible invention in the near future! 

2.  iPad:  Yep, I feel like one of the kids in my JA class, but having the iPad has been a blessing.  We really enjoy being able to message and FaceTime with our friends and family!  Some of the apps are helpful too - especially the Unit Converter!  Netflix and ABC help too!  We could actually watch our local news if we wanted!

1.  AC/Heat:  I know back in the States this is probably considered a necessity, but not here in China.  With the triple digit temps, we are so grateful we have AC!  And since our AC and Heat units are the same, we get to count it as one item! :) 

Honorable Mentions:  CAMERA (this should probably be in the top 5, but we could technically use the iPad), Ergobaby carrier (sometimes the stroller is just too big to bring with us), portable high chair (many restaurants here don't have high chairs, so we bring our own!), Ryan's guitar (Ava gets a little music lesson every day) 

So this is our list!  What do we think Ava's list would be?  This is our best guess:

5.  Her new Swing/Slide set:  This was her belated 1st bday gift!  While she enjoys swinging and going down the slide, I think her favorite thing is to climb up the steps and push her toys down the slide.

4.  Stride to Ride Puppy:  This was Ava's "Move to China" gift!  She loves the songs it plays - and maybe it reminds her of Bella!! ;)



3.  Foam ABC Mat:  Perhaps Ryan & I are more thankful for this item than Ava considering we don't have any carpet in the apartment.  However, Ava spends a good portion of her day taking all of the letters and numbers out and playing with them.  She even puts the "U" around her neck like a necklace!

 

Before Ava Wakes up



 

5 Minutes after Ava wakes up!



 2.  Alphabet Train:  This is one of Ava's toys that we shipped because it was a little too big for our suitcases.  We didn't get it until maybe the 10th or 11th day we were here.  Ava was so excited when I brought it home from work!  She played with it all morning the next day!

1.  Magnetic Alphabet Letters:  She loves these things!  Something so small and little ...

We did just join a Fitness Center that has an awesome indoor pool.  So I am guessing the pool will quickly make this list!

So what do you think your top 5 things would be?!

Just because we are in China...

Doesn't mean we have to go without "Western" food!  So we are a little embarrassed to report that, to date (just over 2 weeks here - wow, can you believe it has already been 2 weeks?!), we have only eaten one Chinese meal!  Although Bethany eats the lunch provided at work every day, which is of course Chinese food!  Oh well, we have plenty of time to explore different Chinese dishes. For now, with all of the change we are experiencing, finding Western food at either restaurants or in the grocery store is comforting to us all. 




Saturday Morning Breakfast!
Potatoes are from a local veggie market, eggs from a store in Shanghai that delivers to Wuxi once/week, bacon is from a local store in Wuxi ... and we brought the coffee from the US (although we can get Starbucks and Folgers here, for a small fortune!)

 

Of course it is not always easy to find foods with which we are familiar.  And just because the can says "Taco Sauce" does not mean that it's the taco sauce we are used to.  In fact, the taco sauce we got for our tacos (we failed to take a picture of our awesome tacos) was more of a Salsa.  And the can of black beans was really small kidney beans.  Nevertheless, our tacos were excellent.

As we've mentioned before, the other hard part we have found with grocery shopping and cooking in China is that you have to go to so many different stores to get everything.  There is one store within walking distance (15-20 min) where we can get a few basic things.  There is also a veggie market nearby where we can get all of our vegetables, we just wash them thoroughly before eating.  We can find some basics at local Korean Store and Bakery, both located right outside the gate of our apartment complex, which is perfect if we are in dire need of milk, bread, rice, tortillas, crackers, Special K cereal (yay) or beer! :)  For our meat, we found a store in downtown Wuxi (about a 15 minute taxi ride).  Of course it is primarily in Chinese, so we are grateful for the pictures of the cow, pig or chicken!  It even shows us from what part of the animal the meat is [supposed] to be!  Pretty sure we didn't need the picture for the chicken feet!  For a wider selection of Imported foods, there is Metro - which is about 10 minutes from Bethany's work (maybe 30 min drive from our apartment).

Anyway, we are making do with the foods we find and continue to purchase new cooking supplies.  Ikea is our new favorite store!  Thank goodness it is only 30 minutes away (right across from the Metro)!  We have purchased all of our kitchen supplies there.  The first time we went, we saw a baking dish, but it was so small that we decided not to get it.  We went to several other stores and couldn't find a baking dish.  So, for our first meal (pork chops), we had to use aluminim foil in the oven!  Worked out great until we checked to see if they were done and cut a hole in the foil!  Juice of course went every where!  Now we have a small baking dish for future use! :)



 

Bethany's Golden Birthday!

A Golden birthday is another thing I've recently learned ... I didn't know there was something "significant" about turning 30 when you're birthday is June 30th!  Now I know! :)

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes!  I had a really great day!  To be honest, I was feeling a little homesick Saturday night knowing that my birthday was the next day and PB&J was probably going to be my birthday lunch ... and then Ava didn't help matters by waking up at 3:30 am (thankfully she fell back asleep at 5).  However, Ryan & Ava definitely made my birthday special, with the help of our new friends! 

As planned, we Facetimed with Shawn, Tiffany and the boys and then went to church in the morning.  I was then surprised with a group lunch afterward!  We finally had our first Chinese meal and, let me tell you, it was AWESOME!  If anyone comes to visit, we will be taking you to this restaurant.  We absolutely loved everything that was ordered.  Hopefully we will be able to order the same dishes when we return (menus with pictures are a blessing)!  One of the expats that has been an angel since I met her during my initial trip, made me the most delicious birthday cake!    Ryan told her that I loved ice cream cakes so she made something similar with pudding and whipped cream.  Absolutely mouthwatering!

After lunch, another expat family showed us a fruit and veggie market near our home and we finally bought some fresh veggies.  Now we just need to get to a different store to buy some meat.  We've learned quickly that you need to go to 3-5 different stores to get everything you want/need - at least when you are a picky American looking for safe, imported options. :)  We are actually having a store in Shanghai deliver us food next week - they deliver to Wuxi once/week! 

Thank you again for all of the birthday wishes!  Even though I am 7000+ miles away, I felt all of your love!  Hugs and kisses to you all!

My Birthday Present from my new Wuxi Friends!

Never say "Never"!

While we can walk to many places (grocery store, fruit and veggie market, bakery, restaurants, etc) from our apartment, Wuxi is a large city - from an American perspective - and we cannot walk every where.  Until we hire a driver, our options are to walk, take a taxi or ride with a friend that has a driver.  Here are Ryan & Ava on Day 2 as we take our first taxi ride to meet some coworkers downtown for dinner. 

Car seats are not required in China ... it is actually not uncommon to see young kids riding on a moped with their parents.  They just hang on to their mom or dad like a little monkey!  It's crazy - especially when you see how people drive around here. 

For those of you back at home judging us, I understand.  I came back from my pre-visit and said "Ava WILL be in a car seat - no exceptions!"  And here we are having her on our lap on Day 2! Hopefully Ava won't be without a car seat often, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do - and hope for the best!

At least she's not on the moped with us ... we should at least wait until week 2 for that, right?!