Our First Weekend

Well, a lot has happened in the past weekend. It is now 2:00 p.m. Monday. On Saturday, the weather was pretty nice, and we were wanting to get out of our apartment. Friday night we researched the bus schedules, and we planned on heading downtown to do some shopping.

When Saturday rolled around, everyone was up at 5:30 a.m. Dan started out the morning by eating his usual breakfast, rice milk and sugar, and boudzas. Boudzas are steamed buns filled with vegetables and meats; Dan particularly likes the ones filled with meat, which tastes like sausage. A picture of him feasting on a boudza is attached. By the time it was 7:30, Etain was ready to go down for a nap. Then, when she was about to get up, Evelyn was ready for a nap. By the time everyone was rested well enough, we were out the door at 11:30. Because it was getting later, we decided to do lunch first. So, we went to the Monkey King Italian Restaurant. The Monkey King is supposedly a well known children's personality throughout China; we know of him through the DVD "Big Bird Goes to China." We made the three block walk up to the bus station, and headed onto our first bus as a family. The two girls were in their stroller, with Dan walking around independently. The bus was very crowded. Above is a picture of me (in the hat) on the bus. The stroller is right in front of me.

When we got off of the bus, we referred to our primitive map to try to find where the restaurant was. We walked up the street which was lined, nonstop, with shops and restaurants. Basically, the ground level of every building other than apartments are filled with some sort of shop, with everything from food to household goods to tires to cigarettes and liquor. You could walk three blocks, and on one side of the street, you could easily pass 5 storefronts selling cigarettes. It is hard to imagine that any place could ever turn a profit. It is really neat to just stroll around, though. After a few blocks, we made it to the Monkey King Restaurant. It was an interesting place, with one true table with four chairs around it, and there were four other tables that had couches around them.

The waitresses spoke a little English, and the menu was in both Chinese and English (We knew that the place was owned by a non-Chinese person). It was interesting that we went there, because after just one week of eating mostly Chinese food, I had a dream in which I was eating a pizza. So, at the restaurant, we ordered a large meat lovers pizza, a salad, and french fries and a chicken wing for Evelyn. Dan got an apple soda, and I ordered a Tsing Tsao beer. It came in an enormous heavy glass bottle, probably 20 ounces, and it cost about $.70. The food arrived and it was all quite good. When we were eating, a Pakastani guy stopped and introduced himself to us. As it turns out, he was the owner of the restaurant. He lived in Australia for four years and has been here in China for five. He was very happy to meet us, and he seems like he would be a very helpful guy to know. He gave us the impression that all ex-Pats (non-Chinese living in China) stick together. He said that he was late to work that day because he was up playing Texas Hold 'Em all night. We exchanged phone numbers, and he invited us to future card nights.

After a full meal, we decided to head downtown, because we knew that there was a DVD shop. Even though we still only had the portable DVD player, we needed some new DVDs. Jane and I had our fill of Lady and the Tramp and Fox and Hound. We hopped on the bus (an expression only, with the five of us and a big double stroller, we don't hop anywhere) and headed towards what we thought was downtown. After a couple stops and a couple turns onto new streets, we discovered that we were actually heading away from downtown. The bus stopped at an area that we were familiar with, so we got off to reassess. It was starting to get a bit late, so we decided to just walk home rather than try to go downtown that day.

We took a long way home, deciding to take some side streets. Again, everyone stopped and stared at us and the kids. Other than hello, goodbye and thank you, I began getting familiar with another term: sanga. Sanga means "three of them", and everyone that passes us on the street says it. With the one child policy, our traveling basketball team sticks out like a sore thumb. Everyone thinks it is great though. We walked down an alley close to our house and found a small hot pot restaurant which Jane was interested in. But since the girls needed naps, we decided that we would eat there tomorrow. We headed home, watched Lady and the Tramp a few times, and decided to try again tomorrow.

When we woke up Sunday, the weather outside was great, it was nice and cool. We got up and got ready and decided to head out in the morning rather than wait for naps. We again went to our bus stop and waited for the bus going downtown. The bus that heads downtown is a double-bus, in that it is extra long. Well, the first bus came and it was too crowded for us to get on (the stroller is a pretty big inconvenience). We waited a bit longer and got on the next one, which was slightly less crowded. The bus drivers here are not to concerned about easing up to and away from the stops, they are stopped and then they immediately speed up to 10mph, and vice versa. This makes it quite difficult to stand and keep the stroller from flying all over the place, especially when not used to it. We went about 5 stops, and then had to transfer buses, which immediately arrived and was not too packed.

We had 5 more stops on this second bus. The only place for the stroller to fit is right next to the doors. At the second stop, about 25 people got on, making the bus quite crowded. At the third stop, about 30 people got on, making it a bit harder to find oxygen in the traveling sardine can. I was positive no more could fit on, because I could not move any part of my body. At the fourth stop, though, about 30 more people piled on. Everyone was heading downtown. I was starting to get anxious. If we needed to get off, about 50 other people would need to get off before us. Plus, it was at this time that Etain started crying; I think she too was getting a little claustrophobic. The only difference is that when she starts crying, several ladies want to play with her and pick her up; I doubt I would get the same response if I started crying. (Another note about how I think the Chinese perceive me: as a big hairy, smelly oaf. Though the bus was completely packed, with people's armpits in your face, and with plenty of people looking like they just got off work at the coal mines, there is absolutely no foul smell. My understanding is that this is because they have little body hair. I, on the other hand, have plenty of body hair, and when packed among everyone else, I start sweating. This, coupled with the fact that our place does not have a clothes dryer, and that we are trying to get the most of our clothes before we wash them, probably makes me a bit more rank than they're use to.).

Luckily, when our downtown exit arrived, everyone else got off as well, so we were able to de-bus without problems. Immediately, though, after getting off the bus, we were swarmed with people wanting to get a look at our kids. If at first I thought the Mega Mart was crowded and buzzing with activity, downtown was much more chaotic. We heard sanga plenty more times, and many more pictures of the kids were taken. I leaned over to Jane, reminding her to make me a list of phrases, with the first phrase being, "I don't speak Chinese." This is remarkably evident after 2 seconds, but I would feel better if I could tell it to them rather than them coming to that conclusion on their own.

Right off of the bus stop was a Starbucks. Jane said "wait here", because she wanted to run in and see the prices. They were the same as in the U.S., and she said that they did not have all of the frills and flavorings, so she did not get anything. When she was in the store, again a group of people gathered around me and the stagnant stroller, with 15 people all talking rapidly. The only word I ever recognize is sanga, and again I wish I could say that I didn't speak Chinese. When Jane came out, we spotted a familiar sight across the street, McDonalds. It had been a while since we first stepped on the bus, so we headed there to get the kids some food. However, because it was a busy downtown street, you had to cross it by going down two flights of stairs, walking across underground, and then up the other side. We did not know this, however, until we were a third of the way across the street. A traffic cop whistled at us and told us to go back and go under, but I just stood in the middle of the lane and pointed to the stroller. He hung his head down for a few seconds, surely thinking to himself "I don't want to deal with this." Jane, though, explained our situation and asked for mercy, and then he told us to just go. We made it across safely.

At McDonalds, the food was the same as in the U.S. The promotion here is Star Wars as well, which Dan was happy to see. Evie again chowed down on french fries. We then walked around some more, checking out all of the stores that lined the streets. Jane found a little place that sold desserts, so again she said, "Wait here." This was a scary thing to hear, because every time I stop pushing the stroller, a crowd forms, all speaking things that I don't know. Sometimes I can gather what they are talking about, so I will touch each kid on the head, then holding up the corresponding fingers to match their age. They are probably asking if we like living in Changzhou, and I tap Dan's head and hold up a 4.

After a while, we made it to a DVD store. We ended up buying about 15 DVDs, including a four-pack that had 28 cartoon movies, as well as the Simpsons, Ratatouille, Ice Age, Sound of Music, as well as movies for Jane and I. The movies were all 8 quai, which is about $1 each. We then travelled to an electronics store, looking for a DVD player so that we could watch them on our big TV rather than the portable player. I went in alone and found a DVD player for about $45, the cheapest one there. I had no idea how to communicate as far as buying one, so I went and got Jane. She and all of the kids went into the store, with DVD players on the third floor. We had to take the stroller up the escalator, which the girls and several onlookers enjoyed (there are not many strollers that I have seen, and no double strollers). We were going to buy the player, but found out that it was sold out. Instead, we bought one that was slightly more expensive, only about $8 more, but it was much nicer, and we still got it for about half price of the amount marked (I was ready to unwittingly pay full price).

After we got our wares, we headed home. We decided to stop at the hot pot restaurant for a late lunch. I found something that looked like chicken, so that is what I decided. Dan saw octopus, so he wanted that. Jane picked out the rest (tofu, veggies, noodles). The shop was kind enough to set up a table for us out on the sidewalk, because we were not wanting to sit in the glass enclosed room where everyone else was (the hot pot was in there too, and the temperature was way more than I was willing to handle.) The hot pot was quite good, and we all got huge portions for a total of about $3. Dan is pictured eating his octopus, which he actually ate about 5 bites of. I tried to eat the rest, but was unable to finish the entire thing. The store front was at the edge of a parking lot, which was not too crowded because of there being so few cars. When we were eating, as expected, we drew a big crowd. At times, people would come and stand a foot away from us, just watching us eat for a few minutes before being on their way.

Evelyn and Dan got out of the stroller for a while and ran around, and we got this great picture of Evelyn clowning around. I think she is pondering whether or not to go to Beijing for Peking Duck or to Peking for Beijing Duck.

After the meal, we headed home, and we were happy to find that the DVD player and the DVDs all worked perfectly. We made potatoes, sausage and eggs for dinner, and Evelyn scarfed it all up (sans eggs). Dan was so tired, he ate a few bites and headed straight to bed. We then got a call from our contact, who told us that he would arrive at 9:15 Monday morning to begin our orientation, which I will cover in the next post. It was a great weekend, and we are becoming much more familiar and comfortable with the surroundings.

Other pictures above include Dan and I standing downtown, and in the very far distance, you can see one of the largest pagodas in China. Also, there is a picture of Dan and Evelyn standing in front of the very fresh fish section of the Mega Mart.

By the way, I changed the code on the blog, so that the bottom of the page now tells us how many people have visited the site (I was amazed that I was able to do this). It was at 83 when I began writing this. Thanks for visiting. 1,000,000 or bust.

Questions and Answers

Wow! What timing. Jane and I have received quite a few questions in our emails, so I was planning on answering some of those questions tonight. Just before starting this post, PaPa sent an email asking when he was going to see a penguin feeding. It just so happens that we went out for a walk today and Dan fed one of the little guys. Here is Danny with his bad-breathed buddy.

The picture was taken at about 5 p.m. today as we were on our way out for an evening walk after an early dinner. Jane made Thai Peanut Pasta which was quite good. We were given primitive maps of the town from school, and based on our previous walks, I thought there was a park that was in another direction in which we had not yet gone. We headed that way, and we found a lot of new things. Jane was probably the most excited, because at the entrance of the park, there was a huge Starbucks. I am sure she will be a frequent visitor.

The park was really neat. It was very large, with its own lake with small paddle boats, which I assume were rentable. The park consisted of many gardens and stone, brick and wood walkways. It seemed much like a Japanese Tea Garden, though as I write this, I realize I have never been to a Japanese Tea Garden, but I am sure this is what they look like. Also, throughout the park, there were little posts, similar to lightposts, but instead of putting off light, the played soft classical music. We continued along and found a playground, a picture of which is attached above (I still cant figure out how to put pictures alongside the text). The playground was huge, and it cost money, which Jane says was expected of most parks in China. I guess, with all of the people, there would be chaos without the regulation. However, we went after hours, and after it had been raining all day, we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Dan even found a buddy, with whom he did the teeter-totter. The boy's aunt was with him, and she spoke a bit of English. Jane spoke with her and got her phone number, which was 11 digits long, as are they all. No one had a pen, so Jane had to remember the first five numbers and I remembered the last six.

We continued along our park walk and ran into a woman who said, "What country do you come from?" When we said America, she said that her daughter worked in Los Angeles. She was nice, and she said. "We shall become very good friends, yes?" Jane said sure, and the woman began giving us her phone number. We were not quite ready for more memorization, so Jane went with her to a nearby restaurant to get it written down. It started getting dark, so we headed home, but we stopped by a Kedi, much like a 7-11, for some ice cream cones. Not able to eat ice cream, Evelyn got something called Pea Snack (quite a good tradeoff, huh). Actually, the Pea Snack was quite good, it tasted a lot like Funyuns, the puffed onion snack, only with snow peas.

Attached as well is a picture of Evelyn eating spicy potato chips. Overall, Evelyn has been a pretty picky eater, choosing not to eat rice, which she always use to love. She has been getting plenty of shrimp, ham, and sausages, as well as these puffed rice cake snacks. They are little bite sized snacks, and they are actually pretty spicy, but she loves them. If she had her choice, it is safe to say that she would eat 5 bags per day.

Our apartment building has a security gate and a guard shack out front. When we were getting close to the gate, a family with two young kids saw us (when I say family, I do not mean mom/dad/kids; instead it includes grandparents, aunts, cousins, etc.). We got in the gate and there were about 8 people there. The old men, just as in the Mega Mart previously, were the ones most animated towards the kids. An older guy took the child, about 3 years old, and held him up to Dan. He had the two shake hands, and the put their heads together for them to kiss (I guess). Dan did not pucker up, but rather rubbed foreheads with the kid. The guy then did the same thing with Evelyn, who again, tolerated it, to my amazement. We then headed into the apartment, and the girls, Jane included, headed down for bed. I am writing this and Dan is watching cartoons from the 1950s on our portable DVD player. Thankfully we brought the thing, it has been a lifesaver, especially with Evelyn.

Now onto answering some questions in emails:

Q. You mention a water tank. What is this for?

A. Yes, we have a water tank, much like the office water cooler. It is the drinking water. The water that comes out of the faucet is for bathing and cleaning. No one in China, or at least this area, drinks water out of the fountain, not even native Chinese. We have had to keep a close eye on the kids during bath time to make sure they drink no water, but otherwise it has not been an issue.

Q. Are the beds normal size?

A. I would say that the beds are normal size, or if they are smaller, they are only smaller by a bit. There are actually plenty of tall people in China; Jane and I do not stand out as much as many people thought we would have (based on our heights). There are two things that make me feel tall. One are the trees along the sidewalks. Many sidewalks are lined with trees that completely cover the sidewalks overhead, but the limbs are only about 5 feet off the ground. Your really have to slouch to go underneath them. The other difference is our kitchen countertops. They seem to be about 4-6 inches lower than normal. You can really feel it in your back after a half hour of cooking or washing dishes. Above is Jane preparing the Thai Peanut.

One thing about the beds, though, is that they are rock hard; it is nearly impossible to tell the difference between the mattress and the box springs. Evelyn caught a break: when we switched apartments, she got a new mattress, so it is as if she is sleeping on comfy cardboard instead of concrete. (Evelyn is sleeping on a twin mattress directly on the floor, and she is doing well. Etain is in a crib that we bought, but it is more like a tent. A picture of Evelyn and Etain's room is attached.

Q. Do you have any knowledge of things going on in America?

A. No, but that is simply because we are too busy. However, American news is at our disposal. Yahoo.com is our internet homepage, and they had plenty of info on the Democratic Convention the past few days. We just havent had time to read it. The other day, when we were at breakfast at 7 a.m., on a television in the restaurant was a live speech being given at the Convention, roughly 13 hours after us. Newspapers and everything else are also available online. I have not noticed any differences.

Q. How is nanny search going?

A. It is not really going right now. The school is still doing a lot of last minute work on the schedules, as far as when Jane and I will be teaching and on what days. Nanny agencies have been asking how many hours a day they would be needed, which we have not been able to tell them. Without the information from the school, everything has been put on hold. However, everyone knows that we aint leaving our kids with a nanny without getting to know one quite well, and it doesn't seem to be a pressing issue for anyone.

Q. What is on television?

A. How should I know, I don't speak Chinese. We have about 25 channels, and my naive understanding of the shows breaks the programs into three categories: soap operas, infomercials and replays of the Olympics. There is actually a channel called CSPN, which I guess is the Chinese version of ESPN. They have been showing the Olympics non-stop, highlighting all of the Chinese victories. There has been plenty of table tennis and badmitton on the tube. We pretty much have stuck to our portable DVD player, watching Lady and the Tramp, Fox and Hound, and Star Wars.

Q. Is it hard to understand people?

A. Yes, it is impossible (but Jane has been pretty impressive).

Good night.

Mega Mart

We just found our camera cord, so this blog should contain pictures. Here is a picture of the kids getting ready to board the plane.

And here is the picture of Jane and the kids, taken on the sidewalk in Changzhou, right before I stepped in the baby poop.

Unfortunately, we have not been able to take many other pictures, being busy with the kids and with moving into the other apartment. We are now completely moved in, and the apartment is much more suitable. It has a much bigger open living room space, though all of the bedrooms are slightly smaller. This is a welcome tradeoff with the kids. However, the open space is tile floor, which is not that great for Etain. Random picture: Above is Etain taking her first steps. With the space, I mentioned that I wanted to go buy a rug big enough for the kids to play on. Therefore, we decided to go out to eat and to stop by the Mega Mart (actual name) to pick some things up.

We really did not know of places to go, and it is hard to just walk into a Chinese restaraunt, because you never really know what you are going to get, and especially because of the kids' allergies. After a bit of walking around, we settled on KFC, because it was right next door to the Mega Mart. It was packed. Jane ordered the food as I took the kids to a small, two seat table near the front of the restaraunt. I was thinking that Dan would sit on my lap, and the girls would stay in their two-seat stroller. We sat down, and after a minute, a manager came over and told us to get up. The reason, though, was because he made some other people move so that we could have a four top. I guess he thought we were special or something. We sat down next to a family with a girl that was about 4, and a baby that was 6 months. The entire family, grandma included, were constantly doing baby-talk with our kids throughout the meal.

When Jane came back with the meal, it included 5 pieces of chicken, french fries and corn on the cob, just like any other KFC. We also got, however, orange carrot juice and water. Jane asked for two ice waters, so she was given two cups of ice, and two cups of boiling hot water. When the two were combined, the ice melted immediately. The KFC was probably 3/4 of a mile from our house, so the warm water was not all that satisfying. Anyway, we ate the meal and then made our way into the Mega Mart.

Holy cow, the Mega Mart during the evening is a zoo. To describe the Mega Mart, picture a Sams Club combined with a Walmart, combined with a Schnuchs, combined with a farmers' market, all with features of a video game and a carnival, and all multiplied times 100. There are bright lights everywhere, with fast, almost dance music playing loudly. It was the place to hang out, which I guess was a good business move.

We made our way in and went up the cart ramp. The store is 2 levels, and there is a ramp for carts, similar to an escalator, though flat. Once upstairs, we were in the non-food section. I was holding Etain, and Dan and Evelyn were in the stroller. Everyone was looking at us and smiling at the kids. There was one girl, who was a makeup salesperson, who followed us around the entire store, taking multiple pictures of us and the kids, jumping up and down and smiling the whole time.

We were walking and there was a woman who was desperately trying to sell some sort of degreaser. She was demonstrating it on an old greasy stove, which was dear to my heart because I had basically just cleaned two apartments. After she cleaned a portion of the stove, she wanted to show us that it cleaned other things too. She bent down to clean my shoe, but realized that it was clean (brand new shoe which I cleaned thoroughly after the prior mishap). Seeing that Jane's shoes were clean as well, she bent down in front of Evelyn and began scrubbing her shoe. Evelyn didnt move, but she looked at the lady as if to say, "What the hell are you doing." Though the lady did a good demonstration, we apologized and moved on.

We moved over into household goods, and found a bunch of interlocking play mats for the kids. We thought this would be even better than the rug, so we bought about 8 square feet of squares, for a total of about $3. We were there for a bit becuase the pieces had different designs (animals, foods, dinosaurs) and Dan couldnt decide which he wanted more. This was when the craziness began.

A group of about 10 people began to build around the stroller. A man in his 70s or so began saying hi to Evelyn. I think she just sat and stared at him. More people stopped by to look at the kids. After a bit, the man began doing the 'I got your nose' thing to Evelyn. I fully expected her to swat at him or begin crying hysterically, but she just sat and took it all in. The crowd then slowly began building, until it got up to about 30 or so, with me holding Etain and being cornered in an isle with the stroller. Jane was on the side laughing at the sight, and at my increasing feeling of claustrophobia. Before we made out, she decided to snap this picture of the melee. Overall, the trip the the Mega Mart was pretty fun. We made off with the floor mats, some bath toys for the kids, and a few groceries for less than $10.

The kids are doing better sleeping, though they are still getting up at about 5:00 a.m. We are going to shoot for a shorter nap today (Thursday), and maybe try to put them down a bit later. This morning Jane bought a crib for Etain. Dan and I went back to the Mega Mart to buy groceries. It was my first outing alone. I had an empty bag of crackers that Evelyn loved, so I just tried to find that bag and buy more of them. The bags were hard to find, though. I tried to ask for help, holding up the bag and saying, in Chinese, "where". I guess my Chinese is still pretty bad, because no one was able to help. Luckily, we stumbled upon the food later on. As we were leaving, Dan was walking by my side. Out of the blue, one woman took both of her hands and pretty vigorously rubbed Danny's head. To say the least, it suprised him. I explained to him that she did this because she had probably never seen a real person with blond hair, and she wanted to see what it felt like. Realizing that he was the only person in the entire store that had blond hair, he felt pretty special.

That is it for today. Tonight we are going to stay in and use our wok to cook some stir fry. Sorry if the pictures do not really flow with the story, but you should get the point. I am sure I can straighten this out in future posts.

Getting more accustomed

It is 2:00 p.m. So far, day three has been great. Once again, the kids slept from 1:00 p.m. until midnight, then staying up until 5:00 a.m. We all were up again at 6:30 after a short nap. The sun was shining outside (it rained yesterday), so we decided to go for a family walk to the grocery store to get a few things.

On our way out the door, we had to dispose of a few of the dirty diapers that the girls had created. There is no huge dumpster that we know of, so we feed poop to the penguins. There are elaborate trash cans outside that are statues of penguins. They are trash cans and ashtrays, and we were told to put diapers in them. Therefore, feeding poop to the penguins is a daily activity.

At 7:00 a.m., the streets were full of activity. Dan noticed all of the people on bikes and motorbikes. There are tons of them, about 5 motorbikes for every car. We instructed Dan to stay close to us and the stroller, because the driving around here is crazy. For example, the person who picked us up from the airport would be classified as a defensive driver, because he only used his horn 10 times and cut off only 20 people. The others are much worse. You hear a horn in our apartment about every 5-10 seconds. When we were walking, we had to make way for one guy who was driving on the sidewalk, and we saw a few cars that were traveling in the wrong direction, though tons of traffic, on one way streets. No big deal, I guess.

Again on our walk, we got tons of stares. Though we are stared at and pointed at, it is obvious that it is out of interest and is good hearted. Today the girls wore matching outfits, so they looked especially cute. Common things heard (as relayed to me by Jane) are: “she (Etain) is so little”, “they are so cute”, and “wow, they have three kids.”

On our walk, we stopped to take pictures by a garden area. (All of the sidewalks though, are lined with nicely manicured bushes, flowers and trees). Jane took my picture with the kids, and when I was taking a picture of Jane and the kids, I stepped in a big pile of poop. Jane informed me that it was most likely human poop, because none of the babies here use diapers. Instead, the babies have slits in their pants or shorts so that they basically do their business as needed, where needed, such as the sidewalk. (This was the only poop pile I saw on our walk, otherwise it is very clean). So, I walked in a few puddles and shuffled in the grass, and got it all off. (I still cleaned my shoes when I got home as well).

We walked in the direction in which we thought the store was, but Jane forgot where it was because she was in a taxi the first time she went. So, we just decided to walk around. This town, if I had to think of an American counterpart, reminds me a bit like Chicago, but without the neighborhoods or districts. It is very interesting. Just outside of our 17 story apartment building are a park, a Komatsu plant, the Changzhou Environmental Industries Headquarters, several businesses, and many stores and restaurants. If you look out our apartment windows, it is buildings as far as the eye can see. Not finding the store, we just acquainted ourselves with our surroundings, finding a few coffee shops, convenience stores, places that advertised western food, a KFC, bars, etc.

We were all quite hungry after about an hour of walking. Because it was so early, some places were still closed, and we did not yet want to try the street food. Therefore, we went to a very fancy hotel about two blocks from our apartment. There were bellhops everywhere and they all spoke at least introductory English. The inside of the hotel looked amazing, I was curious as to their rates for any visitors, though we didn’t find out. Anyway, inside the hotel was a restaurant, at which we ate. Happily, we found out that it was a breakfast buffet. We all sat down at the fancy place, with white linens and waiters in suits, and ate. There were many other international people there as well. We feasted on eggs, bacon, sausage, French toast, watermelon (especially Evelyn), as well as wontons, fried rice, Chinese soups, etc. Our bill was 202 yuan, which was about $27. Though it was quite expensive for around here, it was well worth it. Jane and I thought that we might have to go there every other Sunday or so for a good filling breakfast.

When we returned to the apartment, the kids hung out with Jane while I cleaned the apartment next door (where we will be moving). It will be nice to move over there: the kitchen is much more functional, and there is more general living space (the family and dining area are noticeably separated).

Other than that, everyone is doing well. The kids are napping, though we are going to wake them in a few hours, trying to get them on track. Evelyn seems to be over her sickness, she ate a ton of noodles at 2:00 a.m. this morning and plenty when we went out to breakfast. She is surprisingly opening up to Chinese people, waving at them constantly. Jane says that she said hello, actually saying ni hao, to someone on her own. Dan is, as expected, doing great. Also, today Etain took her first steps. She has taken about three or four steps in a row, making it about a foot. Jane also says that she can feel a tooth coming through. Jane is out now with someone looking into nannys. She stopped in to say that it was not going as smoothly as she had hoped, but we have made it clear that both Jane and I will not leave without having worked with someone for at least a few days. We have been assured, though, that it will be taken care of. They also said that they will work with Jane’s hours at school to ensure that she can be home as much as possible. She said hopefully a nanny will only be needed for up to four hours per day.

I will keep you informed of updates as we get more and more comfortable.

First few days

We are here. It is 1:15 a.m. here, and everyone is awake due to jet lag. The kids, for the past two days that we have been here, have been going down for naps at about 1:00 p.m. and they have slept until midnight. They (and we) then wake up and are up for six hours or so, only then to take their short nap. Hopefully over the next couple days we can get this on a better schedule.

The night before the 6 a.m. flight, Dan began throwing up. We thought we were in trouble. He went to bed and slept through the night, but then threw up again in the airport parking lot. Thankfully, that was the last time he did so, and he did great on the flight and ever since.

On the airplane to Shanghei, the two girls were designated as lap travelers, meaning that they were to be on our laps for the whole trip. Luckily, the plane was not full, and the five of us were given a total of six seats, two rows of three. Overall, everyone traveled pretty well, but there were definitely crying fits during the scope of the trip. We were very happy when the plane touched down.

Oddly, the airport seemed very quiet at noon when we de-planed. The most noticable thing was that everyone was very interested in our kids. A lot of smiling and waving. Another thing that we were happy to see was our driver holding up a sign saying "Otoole". We were glad to see him because, prior to leaving, we were emailing our contact about when we were arriving. But, because of the extreme time difference, it was already the weekend when we last emailed him on Friday. We were glad to see that he got the email and sent a driver, even though the email arrived when he was not at work.

The driver, Lee, spoke very little English. We were able to load all of our bags into the van (a 10 passenger) and then we made the two hour trip to Changzhou. Dan fell asleep immediately, and he did not wake up until twelve hours later when we were in the apartment. Evelyn sat on my lap, and Etain in her car seat. The last few hours in the car ride probably took the longest, because we felt we were so close.

We arrived at our apartment building, but we had to wait to get the keys to get into our place. We put all of our bags on the sidewalk and sat on the curb for 15 minutes until the keys arrived. Dan remained passed out in the van. There were people passing by with kids, and they all smiled and tried to show their kids to us and talk to our kids. It was pretty neat.

We got into our apartment on the fifth floor of the building. It is not directly on campus, and it is not a school building. I think that it is a general apartment complex in which the school rents rooms. There do not seem to be a lot of tenants, and it has been quite quiet since we have been here. Our place had three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a living/dining room, an outdoor laundry/utility room and a small kitchen. It has the computer I am writing on and a big TV with no channels. It also had what we thought was a DVD player, but it would not recognize our DVDs that we brought. We found out later that it was a VCD player, whatever that is. Our portable DVD player also was not working because the outlets did not fit. The outlets here look like a bunch of circles shaped like a T, rather than the two-prong or three-prong that we are use to.

Our place was quite dirty when we moved in. There is no oven, and our water tank was nearly out. Our fridge, about a third the size of a regular American fridge, was stocked with white bread and milk for our arrival. Our microwave also did not work very well, taking a couple minute to warm a bottle. On top of this, half way through the first day, Evelyn threw up rice noodles and beans all over me. She seems to have had caught what Dan had. Needless to say, the first day was quite hard, with no good way of entertaining the kids. (Evelyn only thew up twice, and has been doing well as of the time of writing this).

Later that day, Jane went with our contact to go to the grocery store. She bought some milk for Evelyn, as well as some groceries, napkins, soap, etc. After we cleaned the place the second day, the apartment was much more livable. The place is actually decent except for bathrooms and kitchen, which we expected to be the same in all apartments. Earlier today (or yesterday actually), we mentioned some of the apartment's shortcomings. Our contact offered us another place, the apartment directly next door. It is also three bedroom/ two bath, but it is much better laid out and much cleaner. We are going to be moving into that place throughout the day today. Jane also went and bought an AC adapter, which the kids are using now to watch Lady and the Tramp. In addition to moving today, we also plan on making the 8 minute walk to the grocery store to buy more food, and we are going to meet with a nanny agency about interviewing nannys.

Each day gets better and promises more interesting things. That is all for now. Feel free to email specific questions to our emails, otoole.tom02@yahoo.com or janieo2le@yahoo.com.