The Adventure Continues

For those of you who know the story of Esther, you know who is and WHO isn’t mentioned in the story.
That is our life at the moment. If you watch closely then you will be able to see and feel the wind when
it is blowing strong, just a slight breeze or if it is indiscernible at that particular moment.
I’ve decided to use this blog as a journal of sorts. As you follow our journey you will see the good times,
the bad times and everything in between. A new friend that I met this week called the ups and down
the 2 week/20 year feeling. There are days living in China that you get very frustrated and homesick that
you don’t think would want to be here even 2 more weeks. Other times, life is so wonderful and you feel
totally at ease in the new environment that you want to be here for the next 20 years. We’ll see how
that goes.
Our second week in China began with a visit to the Chinese mall with one of the servers in the
restaurant here in the hotel named Beryl. She took pity on Aiden and me not knowing much and
decided to show us around. She showed up to the hotel wearing 3 inch heels and we were planning
to walk! I couldn’t believe it, but she asked me if I didn’t like to dress up. LOL! That was all I could
do…laugh! I love heels just as much as the next girl, but there is no way that I am going to walk around
China in tall heels! Just one of the many differences between our cultures. I feel so much more
comfortable with the area around us and how to get around after our outing. The fact that we can walk
to most places near us is a great feeling and it’s great to be able to get out and stretch our legs.
Friday afternoon took us to the International School here in Wuxi. Here we were able to meet some
other Americans and just touch base with them! So wonderful!!! We got together with an entire group
of them on Sunday for some good fellowship. (more to come on that…)
Jeffrey, Aiden and I went back on Saturday so we could have a chance to browse the grocery store at our
pace and see what all we could figure out. It was quite the morning. We started out by sleeping in more
than what we thought we could, but apparently all 3 of us needed the rest. Since we missed breakfast
here at the hotel we headed to Starbucks to get a pastry or the like. That was interesting. They have a
mashed potato and bacon pastry in there. It sounds extremely intriguing but I didn’t get up the courage
to try it yet…one day I will just to say that I did!
At Carrefore, the grocery store/department store, we browsed for hours. There is so much that we have
not a clue what it is, but I’m sure over time we’ll figure it out. If you noticed the picture I posted a few
days ago of the dried fish snacks…that just gives you a small taste of what we saw. They were little fish
that were of course dried, but it was the entire fish from head to tail. YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!
One of the things that I’m sad I can’t find is hairspray. I know that sounds totally vain, but my hair blows
around all over the place in the wind over here. O well…maybe that’s for the best, but I can tell you that
when we come back in December, I’m stocking up! Another thing that I really miss is my favored coffee
creamer! If I could figure out a way to bring that with me I totally would!
Sunday morning dawned bright and clear and we went to go introduce ourselves to some other
Americans. The great thing is they are like-minded. There is actually another family here in the same
boat we are that have only been here for 3 weeks. We hit it off immediately with Rob and Julie. Great
family! They have 4 kids…3 girls and a baby boy. Noah is exactly one month older than Aiden! They are
going to be great friends. We are excited to get to know them more as time goes on. Everyone we met
live within walking distance from our apartment and there are a lot of stay at home moms! We are so
excited about that! After our meeting we all headed out to Papa Johns for lunch. It was a beautiful walk.
I learned during this trip over that the Chinese will do anything for a baby. We needed to put air in the
tires of our stroller so we stopped at a local shop. The lady was so sweet and put the air in for us but
wouldn’t let us pay her no matter how hard we tried.
Once at the restaurant I had my eyes opened to another very different aspect of China. One of Rob
and Julie’s girls has to go to the bathroom so Jeffrey volunteered me to take her, which I totally didn’t
mind. These girls are PRECIOUS!!!! But once we made it there I knew J had to be laughing his head off
at me since he knew what we were going to run across and I was CLUELESS! There was only one stall in
the bathroom and in that stall was a rectangular shaped porcelain hole in the ground. This is what they
call a “squatty potty”! The two girls I was with were 5 and 3 respectively and have only been in China 2
weeks longer than I, but they were totally fine with the situation and were explaining to me how to use
it! It was quite comical and I fell soundly in love with these girls! They are true troopers!
Now if we can only get our Air shipment to clear that will be one thing checked off our list. It has arrived
but is still sitting in customs! This doesn’t bode well for our sea shipment!!! We love the hotel we are
staying in, but it is time to move on! I’m not a lover of cooking most of the time, but I’m so ready to get
into the kitchen and make home cooked meals again. We are debating now whether to buy a bed and
mattress and move on in or just wait it out. It will be really nice to have separate rooms for Aiden and us
to sleep in and hopefully that will help him sleep better.
Getting Aiden to take his naps properly at the moment is proving to be a struggle. I’m shocked no one
down the hall from us has called us in for child abuse! LOL The kid has some serious lungs on him and
loves to scream nonstop when he is really tired. Back at home he was great at taking naps and wouldn’t
really fuss so this is a huge adjustment for us all. I know the poor kid is really messed up on his time but
it makes things very tough. We are working through it though and I am learning to keep my seat while
he is crying and not to try and go calm him down every few seconds and he is learning to finally cry
himself to sleep. We’ll get there eventually (or so I hope!!!).
One thing that I really enjoy about living here so far that I didn’t think I would is walking everywhere.
That has been fabulous and great exercise. We went to a friend’s house for dinner last night and after
a wonderful evening of laughter, we walked the mile or so back to our hotel. It felt great and I slept
like a baby (well…except for the times that Aiden woke up!). Great exercise and makes it fun and very
different from living in America.
Well my friends…this is all for now. Continue to join us on our journey as we wait expectantly for our
stuff to arrive and Aiden to sleep properly!!!!!! It will all happen very soon…of that I am sure!