Our New House

Here are pictures of our new house; I can't call it "home" just yet. We are anxiously awaiting our shipment of personal stuff from home which will really help us settle in. But even so, now that we have heat, we can hardly complain. :-)

The kids LOVE it-tons of space to play and half the time Mommy and Daddy can't find them!

p.s. I am still trying to figure out the slide show option for this--please be patient! :-) Love you!

TOTO, We are not in Kansas (or Phoenix) anymore and the Rules Have Changed (Temporarily)

Most of you know our parenting style: manners nazis, sanitary/hygiene freaks, healthy food choices, no soda, educational T.V., etc. Clearly Tony and I have gone into survival mode, because we have, to put it mildly, bent the rules a bit this last week. (And I realize some of you are like, “It’s about time they got the sticks out of their butts! :-) To those friends, please know, there has never been any judgement, just different parenting styles and choices. Well, since our choices have been narrowed a bit, let me tell you how some things have changed:

T.V. : I haven’t even let Taylor really watch the older Disney stuff—Hannah Montana, Zach and Cody, etc. I mean, why? when she is just as happy watching Backyardigans or Curious George. However, on the 6th morning of up at 4:30 a.m., DVD players at the other house, after a night of Carter puking, they are watching the Chinese Cartoon Network. One of the Power Puff Girls is saying “Mojojo! Mojojo” over and over again-no idea what this means by the way-- 'til the other character takes a 2X4 to her head and tells her to “Shut the Hell Up!” No exaggeration.

Then the next episode has the Power Puff Girls’ father telling them that for his birthday, their little hand made pictures and clay pots are ok, but he would much rather have the expensive golf clubs. He leaves 2 of the Power Puff girls sad, because he ignores their homemade breakfast and cards to fawn over the golf clubs the third one had stolen for him and says, “It doesn’t matter how she got the money for them-a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.” Again, I’m not kidding. This was followed by an episode of a show named Captain Buttz. Enough said.

Food: Tony eats Kraft Mac and Cheese all the time; I’ve hardly given it to the kids. I usually buy the all natural kind. So for those of you that also read my face book page, you know how absolutely THRILLED I was to provide the kids with Kraft Mac and Cheese for their first meal I could cook for them. (Took me a week to learn how to boil water—couldn’t figure out the stove or microwave.) Literally did a happy dance! Then for breakfast one morning, I sent Taylor off to school having eaten Poptarts and Starbursts. Again, Tony eats Poptarts all the time, but I can count on one hand the number of times they have passed my kids’ lips.
Again, those of you who are thinking, “big deal?” Have you met Carter? The little man needs no more sugar- induced energy than necessary. I took the kids to Subway PRAYING to get a fountain coke for myself—no dice. Yes, I know, we will soon try to experience more of the “culture” which is why we are here, but I’m still in survival mode. I think I order apple juice, which turns out to be a caffeinated, sugared, apple soda that sends Carter bouncing off the walls. Combined with his nebulizer meds/steroids for his asthma,he was a Roid -raging 3 year old on speed with jet lag. LOADS of fun!
The kids now know how to order Sprite for themselves in Chinese with their meals: fyi it’s "Shui Bei". Many places, the milk is not safe, the water is not safe, and the only thing they can drink “safely” is Sprite. At least it’s not caffeinated.

Hygiene: We all can agree the ball pits at playplaces are pretty gross. Chinese ball pit that will keep my children who have been cooped up in a hotel for a week happily entertained? Fantastic! Took them daily-sometimes twice a day. Insider trading tip: buy stock in Purell. Friendly care package plea; please include. Like I said, we have a master suite for anyone who would like to visit. You can pay for it in goods brought over. ;-)

Taylor dropped a cheerio on the floor at the Immmigration Dept. As she reaches down to grab it and put it in her mouth, you see me like I’m in a bad slow motion movie, dive for her screaming, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Scared the poor kid to death. She’s says, “Mommy, what about the 3 second rule?” “Honey-the 3 second rule has been revoked! “ It really shouldn’t exist in the States-many of you saw the state of my floors at home-probably just as bad.
And speaking of dropping Cheerios, Carter dropped some on the floor at home. We had just had a woman in that moring who had mopped all of our floors because we had had so many workmen in and out trying to fix our heat. I tell Carter to pick up his Cheerios and he looks at me and says, “Where’s the lady who cleans the floors? She do it.” (Mind you we have not even gotten our ayi yet. An ayi is like a full time live-in maid/nanny; very common over here, and definitely going to be one of the biggest perks for me.) HOWEVER, little man and I had a serious discussion about him picking up his own flipping Cheerios and that kind of attitude will NOT be one of the things we bend the rules on. I’ll end with an Oprah-like-snap on that note!

WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!

Went to Chinese Walmart—yep, that same Walmart. With both kids. On Sunday. Right before Chinese New Year (think Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s rolled into one.) Why? Because Tony and I have clearly lost all resonable decision making abilities, and thought this would be a good idea. I don’t go to Walmart at home-ever! I don’t go to Target or Costco on Sundays if I can help it. And I avoid grocery stores, Target ,Costco, etc. like the plague the week before holidays. I only wish I could have taken a photo because you have to see it to believe it. I was, however, too busy holding onto my kids, 2 carts with a broom and an ironing board sticking so far out that they kept smacking poor, unsuspecting Chinese in the heads, and trying not to have my purse pickpocketed. Anyone know the Chinese word for Dumb??? How about “Hell on Earth? “ I’ll have to check my translator…

Bloggus Interruptus due to Severe Intestinal Distressus

Taylor, Carter, and I have all had “Welcome to China” tummy bugs this week. We’ve each picked a different night to spend throwing up, then thankfully been done with it as quickly as it comes on. We are hoping Tony is immune already from his many trips over here.

Side note: I’d forgotten how much better a 7 year old is than a 3 year old at hitting the bucket. We actually went out and had to buy a bucket after Taylor’s turn—(see previous post-she completely trashed a hotel room and not in a fun, rock-band-party- kind of way---well, I guess they could have some similarities) :-)

Taylor picked a bright red bucket because it is Chinese New Year, and red is supposed to be the color that will ward off evil spirits. She was hoping it would keep any of us from ever actually needing to use the bucket. Unfortunately it didn’t work. Hopefully our tummies are adjusting and that will be the end of it.
p.s. Seriously-you don't want pictures of this one. I'll try to get more "visual" soon.

Our "First" New House

So, many of you already know that we are basically “squatters” in a 5000 square foot mansion. No we are not that cool, and no Tony didn’t get a huge raise, we are just holding the house until another family with 5 kids moves in. Then we will move (AGAIN) to a house 3 doors down for the remainder of our stay. The house is RIDICULOUSLY big for us. It is SO flipping big that we are not even using the Master Bedroom suite. It’s way too far away from the kids, on a different level and different wing of the house. So guess what, potential guests! Visit before July, and the MB suite is ALL yours! Tony and I are relegated to the second bedroom suite-a master bedroom by any of our standards, so don’t feel too bad for us. I'll add pics as soon as it doesn't look like all 16 suitcases, 4 carryons, etc. exploded all over it.

As I mentioned previously, the housing , while beautiful, has some, ummm, “issues”. Intel and other companies hired a construction firm to build western style homes. They probably would have been better off building higher quality Asian homes like they are more accustomed to doing. There are some definite glitches. For example, the lip on the beautiful marble showers is about ½ inch tall AND the drains don’t drain well. So, let me describe this morning’s shower experience, since as I mentioned, I am trying to improve on my hygiene.

Now, many of you have lived with me, traveled with me, etc. and know that I LOVE a good, long, hot shower—I mean, really, who doesn’t? Well, hot water here at the service apartment-GREAT! Water presssure-high enough to qualify for water torture at Gitmo, but eventually adjustable. By the time I had figured out how to turn on the shower head and adjust the pressure—the ½ inch “tub” was full and about to flood over the rim. So, turn water off, let drain a bit while standing there freezing and washing my hair. Water back on, about 2 minutes to rinse hair—tub is full again. Water off, shiver while lathering up. Water back on, rinse off, tub full. Guess I’m done-clean, but certainly not a satisfied customer. I guess in a country of however many billion people, they either have to create built-in environmental controls to save water or, like I said, it was just not really well thought out. I guess I will now be doing my part to “Go Green” –like it or not.

Goldilocks and the 3 Houses (and counting)

Moving In! (Sort of)
So we officially were supposed to move in on Friday. Mind you, they have known we were coming at this time for several months, at least. Unfortunately, we have no heat in the house (and it is only 20 degrees here) . We have been out at the house working in the days with sweaters and coats on, trying to get stuff unloaded, but have been going back to the Shagri-La each afternoon. Each day since Wednesday, we’ve been told it will be fixed, and each day no luck! We stayed an extra day at the Shangri-la (I know, poor us, an extra day in the 5 star hotel that caters to Westerners, boo-hoo J). The hour drive back and forth was starting to wear and we knew we had to get out here and set up shop for real. Unfortunately, as the sun went down on Saturday night—STILL no heat. There are VERY nice, VERY apologetic people helping us, but unfortunately their maintenance staff is inept and overwhelmed with issues to deal with (more on that later).

SO, for those of you who are keeping track, we have now been in the Ocotillo Holiday Inn/Gilbert house, The Shangri-la, and now we are temporarily staying in the service apartments at the community center (think apartment with maid service), as well as our new Campus Village House. The service apartment is SO warm that we have to leave the patio door open so as not to roast. Everyone catching the irony? Hence the Goldilocks reference...

Our belongings have been scattered here, there and yonder . Of course, I always manage to have clean clothes,jammies, and tooth brushes for the kids, but twice now I’ve had to put on dirty undies for myself and not brushed my teeth. We all know that the standard for hygiene in China is a little different than ours, but I promise I am not going “native”.

Side note: to top things off, Taylor projectile vomited within 5 minutes of walking in the apartment; got the bed, curtains, rug, etc. She was immediately fine afterward-not sure what that was about. Again, the wonderful lady, Helen, who is helping us, had for some unknown reason to us, given us 2 rooms. So we defiled and fouled up the first, then just moved on down the hall. I guess it was just meant to be, because the first room didn’t have a wine/ bottle opener and the second one did. Tony and I were both ready for a drink (or 2) after the day.

Stop Your Whining

So, even with our lack of internet access, I realize most of you are FREEZING your butts off. I truly hope YOUR heat is working! However, I would just like to say, stop your whining! When given lemons make lemonade. When given ice, snow, and sub zero freezing temps, go carve a horse or a large Native American head! Pretty amazing what people can do with the right attitude and a lot of ingenuity.
See link: http://rtoddking.com/chinawin2003_hb_if.htm

(this guy is WAY better at this blogging thing than I am)

The Harbin Ice Festival is this weekend and a group from here all went together. I would love to go next year (we obviously had more pressing issues this weekend.) Apparently it is sub-zero most of the year and gets down to -40F pretty regularly. The group that was going was pleased that the weather was supposed to be “mild” this weekend---only -16F. Can't wait to hear how it went. They took their kiddoes this time so I'm anxious to hear if it is a good family option for next year.

Hopefully in the near future, I can write more about the interesting cultural experiences we are having and less about grocery store runs, household dilemmas, etc.

First Shopping Trip in Dalian

Victory! I found bread! By myself! I have been saying that one of my main landing priorities was to find peanut butter. That was a piece of cake. The pieces of bread however became the challenge. Apparently, you have to go to different stores for different things-one for bread, one for produce, one with the best international food selection, etc. I found peanut butter on my first try—even one my brand-loyal kids would eat. They have always been hesitant to move away from the brands they are used to: ONLY Jif peanut butter, ONLY Hebrew National hot dogs, etc. The hot dogs may be the next quest: there were no brands I recognized at all, and here, hot”dogs” could mean just that! J/L. For the Dagley ski bums reading this, my other happy discovery was Pringles potato chips. Yippee!

Tony just went into Walmart to buy hangars, that’s it. We’ll see how long it takes him. Our driver did give him the Chinese word for hangar, but the clock is ticking. 30 minutes and counting so far. The driver just went to find him because he can’t imagine why this is taking him so long . I am sitting in the car with the kids taking sadistic pleasure that Tony is getting this opportunity to see what my life experience will be like in the Chinese markets while he is at the Intel office with interpreters on hand. Hee Hee…Cackle, Cackle… (BTW: final time elapsed: about 50 minutes)

Our driver, Mr. Wong, by the way is great! The kids love him. He always gives them a boost into the car with an extra toss in the air or tickle. He automatically grabs their hands or picks them up in the parking lot. He is very helpful, friendly, and smiling. He and I have been trading English and Chinese words and helping each other learn—great for both of us! It is very odd having someone working for us in this way though.It’s 20 degrees outside, and yet the drivers are expected to hang around outside by the car and not come into the house. When he took us to lunch yesterday, I asked him to join us, which I later learned was a huge faux pas. You all know me, I become BFFs with my pharmacist, my grocery bagger, etc. I even choked up when I said goodbye to the carpet cleaner! It’s very hard for me to keep that “distance”. He calls me “Madame” and I immediately think of “The Best Little Whorehose in Texas”. Guess, like many things it will just take getting used to.

Life in the Shangri-La (Hotel#2)

Hi All! Check me out!? Those of you who know me know that computers are not my strong suit, and yet I figured out a blog in less than 3 days. I just had to figure out how to translate Blogspot to English. Harder than you think when ALL of it is in Chinese characters and you just click all over the place til it works. It's amazing what one is capable of under extreme circumstances. It's my way of connecting with all of you since Tony packed our Vonage phone in the shipment, and we will have very limited phone access for 4 weeks or longer. :-(

We are still in the hotel downtown while we try to get checked into the house and enough staples/necessities in to make it livable. All of those cleaning supplies, toiletries, and food we dumped on our unsuspecting friends now need to be replenished on the flip side here. We are going to Metro--think Costco-ish-- this afternoon. I don't want to think about the bill!
Bizarre Sidenote: at Metro-yesterday, we were greeted with a BLARING hip-hop rendition of "My Ding-A-Ling" to advertise fireworks for Chinese New Year, which anyone can buy to ward off the evil spirits. I felt like I had slipped into an alternate reality-I guess I kind of have.

Our relocation consultant took us around yesterday to help us sign up for our Metro membership, gym membership, cell phone, etc. Thank God! He made the process incredibly painless. There's a new career idea: be the person that hires the people to deal with all of that paperwork and crap. We just walked in and signed a paper and walked out. Way less hassle than any of those experiences in the U.S.

The kids are loving the hotel. We spend lots of time on elevators and escalators for entertainment. You'd think they were new and exotic, but I guess their entertainment value is just universal. They are also BIG fans of the bidet, or "bottom washer" as they call it. I don't think their rears have ever been so clean. So far they are being amazing troopers about trying all new things, not just the bidet. :-). They are eating fried rice for almost every meal. Tony had fried rice, sushi, and frosted flakes for breakfast this morning--again bizarre other universe. Jet lag is still a problem as both kids crashed hard at 3:00 p.m. yesterday and were ready to rock and roll this morning at 4:00 a.m. It will just take a few days to settle out, I hope.

We are off to Metro for first Chinese shopping experience! There could be fireworks of a different kind! We hope to be settled enough to spend our first night in the new house Friday (tomorrow). We'll see! I'm learning to expect the unexpected and that things will most likely not go quite as planned.

We Made It!

Hi Everyone! Just a quick note to let you know the Balows and ALL 16 checked bags, 4 carryons, 2 backpacks, and 2 car seats made it safely, happily, and relatively glitch-free to Dalian. The kids were amazing troopers and were very patient and well behaved. Fortunately/Unfortuantely they slept about 7 hours of the flight so they may be up in the middle of tonight w/ jet lag. When we got to Seoul, they apparently did not have a ticket for me for the final leg. While I debated just staying in the Seoul terminal and shopping Gucci and Vuitton, Tony decided it would be cheaper to just buy me another ticket right there and let Intel and the travel agency figure it all out. :-) The kids have thought this was great--quite a turn around from when Taylor got up yesterday morning to say that it was the worst day of her life, she was NOT moving to China, and we couldn't make her. Since that little outburst she has been pretty happy--go figure/??!

We were met by our new driver ,Da Li, who does not speak much English, but is very smiley and seems really nice. So many of the drivers don't smile--having one with personality who wants to learn English could work out great! We were also met by 3 relocation consultants and another driver because we could not fit all of our stuff into one car. Dad-you did an amazing job getting us to the airport and off, but let me tell you- this team of 5 had our stuff out the door and in the car in no time flat. They were actually a little too efficient because we didn't have a chance to pull out any of our winter coats and it is about 20 degrees and windy here tonight. That was the second time Taylor declared she hated China, and Carter asked where the snow was and when he was going to ski school. That's been about his only experience with the cold!

I decided to make my grand entrance at the hotel by tripping over the curb and falling flat on my face. The kids had run out of the car to the revolving door, I was trying to keep an eye on them, grab a bag, and talk to Tony and bit it on the curb--hard--with grace and enthusiasm. TADA!!! Welcome to China! I now have a bruised/sprained shoulder, elbow, wrist and two fingers to go along with my foot from last week! Thank God for the Costco size container of Advil I packed. Really I think my pride is the most injured.

Our room is great and we got settled in in no time. We had pasta /pizza for supper. Tony and I thought we were making a good decision for the kids with something we knew they were familiar with, but then Taylor said, "Hey Mom this is dumb! We're in China! Why aren't we eating Chinese food?" So we're happy to see that they're ready to try new things. However, Tony warned the kids they cannot drink the tap water here. Now Taylor thinks the water is poison and tried to refuse to wash her face, take a bath or brush her teeth with it. The kids however are FASCINATED by the bidet, so we may start there and work our way up the hygiene ladder tomorrow! :-)

Time to go to bed. Love you all and thank you all SOOOO much for all of your love and support-emotionally and logisically to get us here. I'll keep you updated! Love you! XOXOXO
Kris