I found a cat! My friend Lauren and I were on walking street, that's right-they have to devote whole areas for just walking or scooters and cars would be driving over all the paying customers and China would not continue their meteoric rise to superpowerdom. But I digress... We were on walking street picking up the adorable little Chinese style dress my friend had made for her daughter at Mei Mei's( Mei Mei makes anything you want from silk as well as cashmere, and will always give you "peng you prices"). I noticed a little orange and white kitten sitting on the steps next to some of the shop ladies. Footnote: all cats in China seem to be orange and white- it's a very shallow gene pool, perhaps they are too gamey. Anywho, I bent down to pet the kitty and he was incredibly sweet. The shop ladies were all excited and told me to take him home. Lauren pulled me away, but I vowed-"if he is still there when we head back, I'm taking him home". He was, and I did. Much to the enjoyment of the forming crowd. There's always a crowd.
But not straight home, we detoured to the vet to have him checked out first. The cute little tech at the vet said she would treat him for fleas and "cooties". At which time Lauren and I exchanged intrigued, and a bit creeped out, glances and asked each other, "what is a cootie"? This went beyond her limited English to explain, but I told myself that she probably just meant fleas. But who knows, maybe China is where all the 12 year old boys of the world got infected...
So we now have a kitten, who is home and "cootie" free! Brody has named him "xing yun xing xing" or lucky star. He mostly just gets called kitty. Riley loves him very much, but I'm not sure he feels the same. Especially when he is climbing through the small potted tree in the living room and Riley is has wrapped her chubby little arms around his middle and is pulling for all she's worth- all the while yelling, "nice, nice, nice"! He has shown himself to be a very tolerant kitten and loves a good wrestle. He's ridiculously cute as he stalks Brody from behind the couch, jumps up and bites him on the head.
So the critter count is up to 3, 2 turtles the size of quarters in a tank on the counter, and a kitten we can actually touch!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Things the Chinese don't do so well...
Not that the Reynolds' are jaded already, but in our short time her in the Far East we have made some observations of the people around us. There are a few things that the Chinese could use a few lessons for...
1. Driving! They stink at it. There are seemingly no rules for driving here, it all comes down to how big the vehicle you are driving is. The bigger you are, like a bus, the more you get away with. This could be everything from running over pedestrians, to running through red lights whenever you feel like it. You meerly need to give a few honks, and the other drivers are supposed to cower before yuo and get the heck out of your way!! Unless they seem to think that they are bigger, in which case they will honk ceaselessly at you until you surrender to what they want. Here is the pecking order of the mean streets of Suzhou, China...
~as stated before, buses can do whatever the heck they want, then it's the giant, chugging, smoke belching blue worker trucks. These trucks carry everything from tons of bagged rice tilting at a terrifying angle(of course nothing is held down in any way) to workers wrestling around in the back. We like to call it "gong ren shenanigans"! Unfortunately for me, I don't speak enough Mandarin to yell at Jin to "get away from that truck before that third row of pigs falls onto our hood", so I just sit quietly in my seat and practice talking about the weather. Which does nothing but confuse and distract him, and sometimes appears to cause him physical pain. Demonstrations will be performed later on...
Where was I, that's right, pecking orders...
~after the blue trucks, the vans seem to be next. Yippee! That's us! Lucky for us, our driver is a great guy and is very careful with his cargo. The same cannot be said for the drivers of some of our friends, you need a Dramamine to get to the grocery store with some of these guys. Then the cars get to be in charge, then the scooters, then the electric bikes, then the man powered bikes and last, but most certainly thought of as least, the people.
Picture this if you can... cars driving in no apparent order, honking, swerving, stopping in the middle of the road to text, and all the while the people are crossing the streets from all directions. Here how it works; you don't look around when you cross the street, you just look straight ahead. This way, if someone hits you- it's their fault because you didn't see them. This rule applies to people on scooters and bikes too. I swear to God this is true! It's the craziest damn thing I have ever seen!! Seems like a lose-lose kind of risk, doesn't it? This brings me to the 2nd thing that the Chinese could use a bit of practice with...
2. Thinking ahead. Many, not all mind you-but many that we have seen, really seem to lack the ability to think beyond the next 5 minutes. A wise and eloquent lady once told me, "Chinese people react, they don't pro act." This is evident in their building and plumbing jobs. This is why we have a four story house with 2 strings of cable for a railing. This could also apply to the lovely lady we saw one day, who was shocked and dismayed that she had to get off the golf trolly that took her to the top of Tiger Hill. This instance led to some hilarious videa that will be shared when we come home at Christmas. Stay tuned!
3. Listening. When I tell the workers that have been in my kitchen for the last 3 hours in Mandarin(that anyone else I have talked to seems to understand) that I am putting the baby to bed and to try and be quiet, I get the standard, okay, okay, okay. No more than 3 minutes later the worker that has been on my deck for the last 4 hours gets the go ahead from the kitchen guy to start hammer drilling through the bricks beneath Riley's window. Only when I start screaming at them, do they seem to all of the sudden understand my "pu tong hua". That's right, I was screaming at them. They all though I was insane, but it suddenly got very quiet and the work was done quite quickly.
Enough of this! All these things pale in comparison to the amazing feeling I get when I go into the closet each day to get dressed in clothing I didn't have to wash, dry, fold or put AWAY!!! I love China...
1. Driving! They stink at it. There are seemingly no rules for driving here, it all comes down to how big the vehicle you are driving is. The bigger you are, like a bus, the more you get away with. This could be everything from running over pedestrians, to running through red lights whenever you feel like it. You meerly need to give a few honks, and the other drivers are supposed to cower before yuo and get the heck out of your way!! Unless they seem to think that they are bigger, in which case they will honk ceaselessly at you until you surrender to what they want. Here is the pecking order of the mean streets of Suzhou, China...
~as stated before, buses can do whatever the heck they want, then it's the giant, chugging, smoke belching blue worker trucks. These trucks carry everything from tons of bagged rice tilting at a terrifying angle(of course nothing is held down in any way) to workers wrestling around in the back. We like to call it "gong ren shenanigans"! Unfortunately for me, I don't speak enough Mandarin to yell at Jin to "get away from that truck before that third row of pigs falls onto our hood", so I just sit quietly in my seat and practice talking about the weather. Which does nothing but confuse and distract him, and sometimes appears to cause him physical pain. Demonstrations will be performed later on...
Where was I, that's right, pecking orders...
~after the blue trucks, the vans seem to be next. Yippee! That's us! Lucky for us, our driver is a great guy and is very careful with his cargo. The same cannot be said for the drivers of some of our friends, you need a Dramamine to get to the grocery store with some of these guys. Then the cars get to be in charge, then the scooters, then the electric bikes, then the man powered bikes and last, but most certainly thought of as least, the people.
Picture this if you can... cars driving in no apparent order, honking, swerving, stopping in the middle of the road to text, and all the while the people are crossing the streets from all directions. Here how it works; you don't look around when you cross the street, you just look straight ahead. This way, if someone hits you- it's their fault because you didn't see them. This rule applies to people on scooters and bikes too. I swear to God this is true! It's the craziest damn thing I have ever seen!! Seems like a lose-lose kind of risk, doesn't it? This brings me to the 2nd thing that the Chinese could use a bit of practice with...
2. Thinking ahead. Many, not all mind you-but many that we have seen, really seem to lack the ability to think beyond the next 5 minutes. A wise and eloquent lady once told me, "Chinese people react, they don't pro act." This is evident in their building and plumbing jobs. This is why we have a four story house with 2 strings of cable for a railing. This could also apply to the lovely lady we saw one day, who was shocked and dismayed that she had to get off the golf trolly that took her to the top of Tiger Hill. This instance led to some hilarious videa that will be shared when we come home at Christmas. Stay tuned!
3. Listening. When I tell the workers that have been in my kitchen for the last 3 hours in Mandarin(that anyone else I have talked to seems to understand) that I am putting the baby to bed and to try and be quiet, I get the standard, okay, okay, okay. No more than 3 minutes later the worker that has been on my deck for the last 4 hours gets the go ahead from the kitchen guy to start hammer drilling through the bricks beneath Riley's window. Only when I start screaming at them, do they seem to all of the sudden understand my "pu tong hua". That's right, I was screaming at them. They all though I was insane, but it suddenly got very quiet and the work was done quite quickly.
Enough of this! All these things pale in comparison to the amazing feeling I get when I go into the closet each day to get dressed in clothing I didn't have to wash, dry, fold or put AWAY!!! I love China...
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Things I'm learning about the Chinese...
As the days progress, I learn more and more about the Chinese culture. I have been compiling a mental list for some time now, and today seemed as good as any to start blogging again! I have made myself stay home today... all day! That hasn't happened since we arrived, but it really needed to happen! So Riley and I are sitting in the office, while our boys are busy conquering the world. She's looking at books and crawling all over the big office chair-all the while trying to grab the mouse! Sounds safe doesn't it?!
Here it goes...
Today I will share with you : Things the Chinese do well...
~ Food, the make some awesome food. Dumplings are a particular favorite of ours right now.
~ Service industry! They are the most attentive waiters & waitresses, there are always multiple people ready and waiting to serve. You simply raise your hand and say loudly, "fu yu an!" The louder, the better! And if you can make it unintelligible and sound like one word... then you're really like the Chinese!
~ MASSAGE! Only in China are people cheaper than products. You can get a massage by not 1, BUT 2, ladies at the same time, and its still cheaper than the hair wax they sell at the front of the store. I have to tell you, we take full advantage this as often as we can; even going so far as to get a "Discount card" to a local parlor! You get massages when you get a haircut, massages after you go out for dinner, massages at the airport, massages in the check out lane at the grocery store! Just kidding on the last one! But if they thought it would bring more "foreigners" to their store, I'd just bet they'd do it!
~ Copying all things expensive in the outside world! This is a Stacy Markle paradise when it comes to fancy-smancy purses and pocketbooks! They love bargaining with you and giving you their "peng you" prices on their knock-offs. There are whole areas, know as "copy markets", where you can get everything from a Tiffany's necklace to a Rolex. I'm still searching for the perfect purse, as of yet I carry a messenger bag with everything from raisins to excessive amounts of tissues in case of a Chinese toilet emergency!!!
~ Flowers! You can go to a florist here and get a huge and beautiful bouquet of flowers for about 5-10 US dollars!
That's all I can think of for now! Not a very long list, is it?
Here it goes...
Today I will share with you : Things the Chinese do well...
~ Food, the make some awesome food. Dumplings are a particular favorite of ours right now.
~ Service industry! They are the most attentive waiters & waitresses, there are always multiple people ready and waiting to serve. You simply raise your hand and say loudly, "fu yu an!" The louder, the better! And if you can make it unintelligible and sound like one word... then you're really like the Chinese!
~ MASSAGE! Only in China are people cheaper than products. You can get a massage by not 1, BUT 2, ladies at the same time, and its still cheaper than the hair wax they sell at the front of the store. I have to tell you, we take full advantage this as often as we can; even going so far as to get a "Discount card" to a local parlor! You get massages when you get a haircut, massages after you go out for dinner, massages at the airport, massages in the check out lane at the grocery store! Just kidding on the last one! But if they thought it would bring more "foreigners" to their store, I'd just bet they'd do it!
~ Copying all things expensive in the outside world! This is a Stacy Markle paradise when it comes to fancy-smancy purses and pocketbooks! They love bargaining with you and giving you their "peng you" prices on their knock-offs. There are whole areas, know as "copy markets", where you can get everything from a Tiffany's necklace to a Rolex. I'm still searching for the perfect purse, as of yet I carry a messenger bag with everything from raisins to excessive amounts of tissues in case of a Chinese toilet emergency!!!
~ Flowers! You can go to a florist here and get a huge and beautiful bouquet of flowers for about 5-10 US dollars!
That's all I can think of for now! Not a very long list, is it?
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
As I said before... scooters rock.
Had a great China day yesterday! The weather was beautiful, Mandarin class was great, people were texting me to go out for lunch... all was right withe the world. It was one of those days where I felt so normal that I actually was OK being in China. Not to say that being in China is a bad thing, but after some lengthy discussions on our early morning walks,the other Tai Tais's and I decided that China is..."unsettling". It's tough sometimes to get your bearings here and have a "normal" life. The good thing is that the time seems to go by incredibly fast!
I always knew I was a glass half full kinda girl!
Things are going really well right now. We are back in our home, most of the repair work is done and everything seems to be working well enough. The Ayi makes us some fantastic Chinese food three nights a week and I am eating my weight in Edemame! We are having such a great time with our "dian ping chu's", that's scooter for all you non-Mandarin speaking folks out there! The other night after dinner, we loaded Riley into the REI pack, Brody climbed on behind me and we scooted our way to Cold Stone Creamery. The ambiance there is great! They play American music and the ice cream tastes just like home! For a bit, you can feel like you are just down the road from the KOHLS!! God I miss Kohls, and Target, and Giant Eagle, and Ann Taylor Loft, and shopping with girlfriends for clothes that will fit someone who is not a 2, and Chick-Fil-A, and not having to see the parts of an animal that I would never eat displayed up and down the aisles (think tongues, feet-lots of fricken feet- stomachs, etc). That's all for now, I am scooting over to get a pedicure while the Ayi stays here with the monkey. Did I mention she was making the beds as I wrote this...
I always knew I was a glass half full kinda girl!
Things are going really well right now. We are back in our home, most of the repair work is done and everything seems to be working well enough. The Ayi makes us some fantastic Chinese food three nights a week and I am eating my weight in Edemame! We are having such a great time with our "dian ping chu's", that's scooter for all you non-Mandarin speaking folks out there! The other night after dinner, we loaded Riley into the REI pack, Brody climbed on behind me and we scooted our way to Cold Stone Creamery. The ambiance there is great! They play American music and the ice cream tastes just like home! For a bit, you can feel like you are just down the road from the KOHLS!! God I miss Kohls, and Target, and Giant Eagle, and Ann Taylor Loft, and shopping with girlfriends for clothes that will fit someone who is not a 2, and Chick-Fil-A, and not having to see the parts of an animal that I would never eat displayed up and down the aisles (think tongues, feet-lots of fricken feet- stomachs, etc). That's all for now, I am scooting over to get a pedicure while the Ayi stays here with the monkey. Did I mention she was making the beds as I wrote this...
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Scooter's rock!
I got a scooter yesterday!! Whoohoo! After weeks of negotiations with management (aka Rich), I talked him into heading to the Carrefore (the big grocery chain here) and buying a scooter. He was so into it! He was trying to barter, taking them for test rides and having a total ball! So we bought a red one, Rich drove it home and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing around on it. Today... he went off to get another one! Good thing we have that stash of "emergency cash"!! Can't wait to see what color he gets...
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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