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.
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