Remember I didn’t ASK for this…

Friday was a GREAT day, just as Fridays were always intended to be, I think!

It started out with fun chatting and the normal routine, then off to the gym, then home to chat some more and get ready for the day! Talked to Ash a bit, and my family, Dad was officially in the air to come and see me – YEA – so the morning was awesome!

Then I got ready and headed over to an area down off the lake to meet Lisa for lunch at this place called “Dream Herb.” It was a nice day and pretty looking out over the water, and they have a really decently priced set lunch with a choice of an appetizer, vegetable, rice, meal, and then served with your choice of dessert drink (tea or coffee) and dessert to top it off. We ordered in sharing style (different things so we could just try more stuff) and the meal was *delicious* and I was excited because it was definitely a more Asian meal!

And had another interesting China/Music moment at the restaurant – we’re eating, talking, and all of a sudden my subconscious recognizes the song playing and yet somehow that it’s not quite right, so I hone in on it and realize a Chinese woman singer is singing in a very slow, soft voice a Cajun song I grew up with that is really upbeat and typically performed by a man “Down on the Bayou,” it was crazy and it made me laugh… what was even BETTER is the next song, again by the same lady, was “Almost Heaven (West Virginia),” again done much differently than the original… it cracked me up! Also warmed my heart a bit because I knew Pap was with me, even so far away from home!

Then we headed over to the spa where I got a manicure, and Lisa got a pedi/mani combo… the manicure was nice, and about the same as what you would get at home, and relaxing listening to Jack Johnson and drinking tea in between. I went ahead and went really bold with my nail choice color – they are bright yellow with subtle shiny sparkles. Lisa usually gets the really dark blues and blacks so was shocked at my color choice, but she said she likes it and may venture to get it on her toes next time! Haha… sometimes with manicures, because they don’t last that long, I go a little bolder with my color choice, just to shake things up a bit, you know? Go big or go home, right?

So that was great – I hung out there and waited for Lisa to finish up, enjoyed my tea, and then she had her driver drop me off at the hair washing place… and yes, that’s what I said, hair washing place! Lisa had told me about it a week or so ago (as a places you must see type of thing) and I decided since it was pamper day I might as well go treat myself. So I got in there and told them I wanted a wash and blow dry, so they sat me in the barber’s chair and started off with by getting some shampoo (I have no idea really what is was? It was sudsy and yet kind of like a mousse because it didn’t drip) and starting to rub it in the crown of my head, and then squirting warm water with a small squirter to get it more lathered up! All the while rubbing and massaging the scalp, and bringing in more hair, so that after about 15 minutes or so my head was a ball of soap! The lady in the chair next to me was Chinese and she closed her eyes, so I felt it was safe to do the same, haha!

Then my girl woke me up (practically) and it was time to go wash it out. So then we spent maybe another 15 minutes in the hair washing sink, where she washed out the suds, did some more massaging, rinsing, washing, and then put a couple of other things in and did the same thing (rinse, lather, repeat)! That was equally as nice, and again, eyes closed and Tasha in la-la land. THEN it was time to go back to the chair, and it was time for the official massage part, where it was time to massage my head, neck, shoulders, upper back, and each arm for about 15 minutes. Heaven, once again… and then it was time for the blow dry, and for this part the master stylist guy took over for the girl – I guess he does the hair styling part. So he also took his time lavishing all of his attention (truly undivided, it was such a different service experience!) and for about 20 minutes sectioned off and blew dry the smallest strands of all of my hair separately.

This is what was kind of fun about this experience, but this guy was kind of a younger guy, and you could tell he loved his job. I mean he was not into ME at all, but OMG he was obsessed with my hair – I could just tell by the way he was touching it and running his fingers through it, he was 100% focused (and I’m being totally honest, a girl knows when it’s about her and when it’s not, it wasn’t like that, I *swear*) and it was just kind of funny (and fun as well) to witness. No one there knew a ton of English, but at the end he said to me, “very long, very beautiful hair” which made me smile and of course I said thank you in Chinese… sigh… I’ll be going there once a week, at LEAST, since considering the best part is, is that it’s only about $5 USD!!!! What?! Oh yes, like I said, HEAVEN!

After all of that, my day was pretty much made, but still more fun to come! When I got home, I figured I should earn my keep somewhat and did the dishes, laundry, picked up for Dad to come, made his bed, etc. then Curt got home and we hit the road to the airport!

The trip to Shanghai can take anywhere from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours, depending on traffic, construction, and who knows what else… so this trip took 2.5 hours which was a bummer. Also a bummer, along the way we had it on the international radio station, and I promise in a one hour time block, they only played two English-speaking songs, and 1 Chinese song, and the rest was two Chinese guys talking… annoying. THEN I got even more annoyed because finally one of my current favorite songs that I discovered here (Veronicas, “Untouched”) came on, and not kidding, in the FIRST VERSE they faded it out and started talking again – I was livid. I know it seems small, but after traffic, waiting for good music, and everything else, it was just too much.

Needless to say by the time we got to the airport, I was a tad grumpy because we were late… Dad had landed, and I had Curt make a sign for him to meet him, but I didn’t get to use it – we were minutes from catching him out of the customs gate… sigh… and when we got to the parking garage, there were Chinese men saving spaces out of their cars, and causing a true *cluster* if you catch my drift. By this point I was tired, grumpy, so I told Curt that I would just go get Dad and would call him to find out where he and Han were. I got out quickly, slammed the door apparently (which Curt told me took Han by surprise – he looked back at Curt with big eyes, he said, haha and Curt joked that I was Italian – hot heads, I guess?). Then the men that were causing the cluster were standing there, and a van was backing into the space that they had been trying to maneuver in for the last 5 minutes, and there was nowhere for me to go but right behind it, and he just kept backing up, so I slapped the butt of the car really hard (and they could tell I was pissed) and all of them made “O’s” with their mouths and muttered in Chinese – if I hadn’t been so mad I would have laughed, but geez, they were being ridiculous!

Long story short, I ran up to the terminal, Curt caught up with me, we found Dad which made me instantly SO happy, and got on the long journey back home… on the way since we had Han we stopped at the plant so Curt could show Dad around and give him the tour, and at about 11:30 p.m. we rolled into home… gave him a quick tour of the house, then bed for a fun day Saturday!

All in all, despite the crazy airport part, it was a great day full of fun pampering, and ended awesome with me getting to see my Dad…

I do love Fridays!

Love,

How do I describe "ceramic?"

Tonight as I write this I’m looking at probably one of the clearest nights I am thinking I will see for awhile here – Curt says he has *never* seen it so clear, and it’s all because we got a wicked cold front last night! It’s probably 60 degrees or so during the day, maybe 50’s at night, so I had to bundle up a bit today for my normal routine!

For the most part today was uneventful, but it was a good day! The cold front brought a lot of clouds so it was overcast, but I went to BodyPump again this morning (sans catfighting, thank goodness) and also did some cardio, then it was time to come home and let Ping Me in and talk to Ash & the boys, Vicki (she finally got on Skype – thank goodness), and Mom before it was time for everyone back home to get some shuteye. When I was talking to Vicki, she saw Ping Me on the cam and freaked out for a second that there was someone in my house! I quickly told her it was just Ping Me and all was fine, so it was pretty funny… and then she and Ping Me said hi to each other and Ping Me waved at her – she speaks hardly any English but they both got a big kick out of it, I think! Haha…

Ping Me finished up and then I got some lunch, went on another long walk by the lake and along the way ordered my straightener – ceramic is a hard word to pantomime, by the way, guys. I am usually a charades/pantomime genius but this one has been challenging, though hopefully it will be the winner. This salon that I ordered it from had some people that spoke the best English yet, though, and "Jenny" said she knew what I was talking about, and JUST to be sure she had a very handy-dandy translator gadget so when I typed in ceramic (this is after pantomiming and pointing at the plates on the one she had), it said it back to her in Chinese... so, cross your fingers! I’ll get it in 1 or 2 days so will let you know if I am successful in my quest, haha!

Then I came home and did some reading (trying to finish my current book so Dad can take it home with him) for awhile, Curt got home, we put in a movie before dinner, and then I made another pretty good (and new) dish! Baked chicken with Progresso bread crumbs and garlic, and then some bowtie pasta with red sauce... It was good! Then some chocolate pudding – close my eyes and I am home.

Then we watched part II of American Idol while Curt was getting some work done, and now we’re just hanging out, really and kind of vegging. And while we’re on the subject, I have to admit that my new wardrobe is pretty fun… I basically live in yoga pants and a t-shirt, or running shorts if it’s warmer, and tennis shoes (I brought flip flops with me, and of course my toes are pretty and done, but not brave enough to wear them outside yet). There are days when I don’t wear an ounce of makeup, and so far I’m really liking this… I guess I have a lot of time to make up for too many 12-hour days in heels and wearing skirts and blouses, etc. to be missing dressing up at the moment! At least on a day to day basis… I am, however, on a mission to find an amazing gown in a magazine and go to the fabric market and have them make it for me just for the heck of it, because I will probably always *love* THAT kind of dressing up, so stay tuned (or ladies, be browsing for me and send any ideas my way)!!!

For now, I am excited for the upcoming wedding fever (fever in a very positive way) with all of the activities coming up for Katie’s, Sylvia’s, and Becky’s weddings! I can’t WAIT! I heart weddings… especially those of people I love so much!

Also beyond excited to see Dad tomorrow night – Han, Curt, and I are going to get him in Shanghai tomorrow evening, so it should be a GREAT weekend and I hope he likes it here…

Hope everyone has such a great day!

Love,

I Give You Best Price

Haha – that makes me laugh just typing it! I heard that plus a lot more today...

Today was so fun – got up and instead of just getting into gym clothes got ready to get on the road to Shanghai! Note, however, that I started off the day SO right with a cream puff, because Curt didn't get to it fast enough, haha! So Lisa came and got me (she drives, which isn’t that common for an expat here) at 8:30 a.m. after she dropped her daughter off at school, and we went back to her neighborhood to grab Jana. Jana and Lisa live in an actual house neighborhood – she jokes that it’s like Wisteria Lane, and it kind of is, from the looks of it!

So Charlie, Jana’s driver, took us into Shanghai, and really we were on a mission just to go to the copy market, so we didn’t go deep into the city or anything. We had fun chatting on the way there – it took us awhile to get there as traffic was a little hairy this morning (maybe 1.5 hours) but it flew by pretty quickly, and then we were outside of this 3-story looking mall! It was huge, and they had *everything* - purses, clothes (Ed Hardy, True Religion, Seven, Diesel, etc.), jewelry, rugs, sunglasses, and everything in between!

We spent all morning wandering around – Lisa is going home this weekend for a few weeks so she had a shopping list of things to get for people, so she was busy negotiating and I was watching her learning the Chinese vocabulary for haggling prices, haha! She’s good, too, and we got some great deals! The above picture is her trying on jeans in the store - forget dressing rooms, people, it's called drape the sheet and have some fun, LOL!

For the most part today I was observing and taking it all in – I don’t really NEED anything so I wasn’t going to go crazy… but I did find a cute Le Sport Sack bag to take with me to the gym, a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses – aviators, I love these, and a pearl necklace that is pretty unique, beautiful, and so cheap! I got all three of those things for $15 USD. Nice!!!! For each of the items they originally started out about 4x’s above what I ended up getting them for – I guess they count on foreigners being tourists, so they take what they can get where they can get it?

When we started to get hungry we ventured out to a place close by called the Blue Frog, which has a little bit of everything – soups, sandwiches, salad, ICED TEA! What?! Oh yes – real iced tea… but instead of sugar packets, they brought out this creamer dish with clear liquid, which I assumed was water. I asked the waitress what it was and she said it was sugar syrup, so I dipped my finger in and wow, it was so sweet and delicious! I poured in a little at a time to get the taste right, but oh my gosh I was in heaven with my iced tea. SO good… sigh! Lunch was great, I had a grilled chicken sandwich, and then we headed back into the copy market (there’s another name for it, but I don’t know what it is) to finish up our shopping. We finished by 2 p.m. and got on the road, and breezed home with no traffic in 45 minutes, so it was great! Here are my purchases - not the best light (the bag is way cuter in person) but you get it...

After the gals dropped me off from the fun outing, I ventured out and ended up going on an 1.5 half walk – it was a nice day today, and I’m trying to spend a lot of time outside since apparently the "nice days" are numbered as it does get very hot here, and the mosquitoes will get unbearable very soon… SO had a nice walk, took in the sights, got home, did the dishes, folded the laundry, and at about that time Curt got home and we went out for Italian at a new place he hadn’t tried yet. I had half of my lasagna, which was actually pretty good, and he had a pizza, which he also enjoyed, so another food winner there! Below are pictures I took while out - all within maybe 2 miles or where we live!

THEN we rushed home because American Idol came on tonight, so I watched that while he did some work, and now I’m writing this! Will probably go to bed soon and read – all in all a great day!

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at BodyPump?

Today was a fun day – started out normally with breakfast and such, then also what is now part of my normal routine (yea!), talked to Ashley for a bit, and then got to the gym to meet Lisa for the morning workout! Today I did a new machine that I’ve never seen in the states before, called The Wave. It’s a cardio machine kind of like an elliptical, but instead of going in circles, your legs kind of go back and forth like you’re rollerblading in a side to side motion! I looked silly doing it at first until I got the hang of it, but it really works out your inner thighs, quads, and rear end pretty well! So I waved it up for about 40 minutes before it was time for BodyPump class! As I said (I think), this gym is an American franchise or something, so they have American classes, including all of the “Body X” classes like they have at the YMCA’s at home, and sure enough, it’s the same class! BodyPump is the class that does the weights, squats, lunges, etc. so it’s kind of Crossfit-ish which is good, and it was hard! Once again, the A/C wasn’t on so was drenched by the time had finished cardio AND the class!

What was interesting about the class was the people in it – or rather what happened today. So the class is a mix between Chinese and expat women, and today was taught by Amanda, a Chinese woman who doesn't know much English, but she knows the key motivational phrases, so that's all you need, right? :-) So we walk in, and set up our stuff as normal, Lisa and I are talking to a few of the other expat women, everyone is milling waiting for the class to start, and then everyone starts to notice what’s going on at the front of the class (we were kind of in the middle of the room). Apparently there were two Chinese women at the front of the class who were competing over what was apparently coveted real estate right next to the “stage” area where Amanda was teaching, and it started to escalate into a fight! I mean this one woman (maybe mid thirties) was really aggressively yelling at the other woman (say maybe mid to late twenties) and this poor girl (instead of doing anything) had her hands over her hears like she was five years old, getting pointed and screamed at but not budging an inch. Everyone was staring, and it was so bizarre because no one was doing anything about it?

The teacher Amanda was trying to get them to separate and settle down, with no effect, the manager came in and said something (man, I would have loved to have understand what they were saying!) but didn’t kick them out, which IF anything like that were to ever happen in the states, of *course* they would have been asked to leave, and they kept going at it for a solid 5 minutes despite everything! Finally Amanda just started the music over them and we got going… during the whole class they were jostling for position, crowding each other, and finally when we were switching to abs the fight broke out again, and THIS time the younger girl wasn’t having any of it, so SHE decided to start pointing, so now they were both in each other’s faces, wagging fingers inches away, yelling and screaming, and again all of the expat ladies were just jaw-dropped at what was taking place… it was really shocking because it was just ridiculous?!

There was plenty of room in the studio, so there really wasn’t a need to begin with, let alone to continue throughout the class? Amanda again tried to shut them up to no avail, so we just all started abs and ignored them until they also got into position to join us, and when the class concluded they picked it right back up again, THIS time trying to explain their sides to Amanda. It was the craziest, most bizarre thing I’ve seen here yet. Lisa told me that she once actually saw fists fly between two old ladies in the fruit market over some fruit… I initially thought that the Chinese were a timid people except for their crowd-behavior, but apparently not… stay tuned on my anthropological observations and findings on this! Haha

After all that drama, I then got back home and talked to Ashley again on Skype for a bit… which turned into 2 hours! Haha, poor girl, she had planned to go to bed early but I guess I kind of ruined that… but we had fun talking, and I got to say goodnight to Cody who is learning Chinese from Dora the Explorer’s friend, Kai-lan, including Thank You, Push, and Pull – he officially knows more Chinese than me – such a smart boy! I actually may do a session of Rosetta Stone tonight just so I can feel better about that, hmmm.

By that time it was lunchtime, and I was excited because I had a hard boiled egg that I almost ruined the night before! Last night, I had put a few eggs on the stove inspired by Easter, checked my watch to leave them for 10 minutes, got caught up doing something else, and all through the evening I kept wondering how in the world the washer/dryer was still running… whoops, it wasn’t, it was simmering boiling water that I left on the stove for over an hour! I flipped out when I finally walked into the kitchen again, there was maybe a centimeter of water left and the eggs were *quite hot,* but so exciting, the one I had for lunch was delicious so at least I didn’t ruin them!

Speaking of laundry, it is a pain here… I usually don’t mind laundry at all, in fact out of the list of chores that one is probably my favorite! But here it takes 2.5 hours to wash and “dry” the smallest load of clothes ever. It’s a two-in-one machine (much like they have in Europe), and even if you put the dryer setting on “intensive” it maybe dries whatever is in there 50%, so you still have to hang everything on the drying racks. We have an outdoor room (a patio I guess that the landlord decided to wall off), that has two racks in which to hang things on, so it’s a more involved process, and clothes are wrinkled, etc. But the great news is that the washer does get the clothes really clean, so at least I’m not washing by hand or anything, right?

The maid didn’t end up coming today, or rather we found out later that she did come while I was at the gym, but apparently she lost our key… not good. We asked the real estate lady if she could please inquire as to how we change the locks now as for all we know, keys to apartments in the Horizon go to the highest bidder so we can be robbed blind while we sleep… kind of uncomfortable about that, but Sally (the girl) said she understood and would look into it. Um, yeah she will, and for now the chain will stay on the door at all times while someone is home… ugh.

Good things about today were at least it wasn’t raining, so that was good, and I kept chuckling to myself when I thought of Mom and Dad and our Skype conversation last night… when they called me I could see Mom and less than half of Dad’s face, so I asked him if he could scoot closer to Mom so I could see him, and without missing a beat he said, “Mom’s hogging the camera,” which instantly brought to mind what Kendyl and I used to retort back if we were being scolded or something – it was just so innocent and for whatever reason it made me laugh so hard, even out loud still today! LOL Kendyl claims that I am a ham, and have been since birth (loving cameras, attention, etc. which *might* be true), and she also notes every time she says this, that I obviously get it from Mom, so no doubt Mom was hogging!!!

Later in the afternoon Lisa came and picked me up so she could show me around town for an hour or so before she had to pick up her daughter from school, which was great! She showed me where to get my nails done, a nice Japanese market where I can get sushi, GOLDFISH (Whoop!!), and these delicious cream puffs that I bought two of for dessert tonight for us. And oh my GOSH was it good… heaven in a little pastry! Curt hasn’t even eaten his yet, I have no idea what’s wrong with him but if it’s not gone by the morning that will be my breakfast! Lisa also showed me where the closest Starbucks to my house was, and then we stopped at the neighborhood center (which is like an indoor mini mall), and the fruit market, which had different stalls of many vendors with a fruit side, vegetable side, and meat side. There are so many amazing fruits (I’ll bring my camera next time I go) that I couldn’t identify (and Lisa didn’t know what many were either), and of course many I could, with the same going for the vegetables. The meats were more interesting, with me getting to see things that I would never consider eating (chicken feet, etc.) but I’ll spare you the details there… haha

Then she dropped me off, I read a little, then fell asleep for an hour until Curt got home. When he did, I made us BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes, and spinach which was very yummy, all while watching Jeff Corwin and listening to the echoes of Chinese opera bouncing off the condos as the fountains were on again.

Then we went out to meet Sally to get our pool passes for the indoor pool that’s next to the gym, so that’s fun! Then she told us the reason why the fountains and the music have been on is because it’s the 15th anniversary of SIP (Suzhou Industrial Park, which is the area in which we live). So that’s fun, hopefully when Dad comes they’ll still be doing that so we can walk down there and see the show! The fountains are basically like the Bellagio fountains, complete with laser lights, and even FIRE, all choreographed to music selections, so it’s really quite nice!

Then home again, and tired still from my nap…you know how when you sometimes you wake up from naps and you’re worse off then when you started? That was me today…

Hope everyone else has a great Tuesday!

Tomorrow should be a fun day – going to Shanghai with Lisa and Jana for a quick trip to the copy market, so who knows what we’ll get into… and then SO fun, tomorrow night is American Idol night! I haven’t been into it this season as I think it’s the highest maintenance show EVER, but it’s the ONLY current show that we get, it’s like a day behind of what’s in the states, so by default we have to watch it, right?

Night! :-)

Rainy Monday

Not an overly jam-packed or exciting day, which actually kind of fits the weather in Suzhou... which was mostly rainy and really dark and overcast, which is the first time I’ve seen rain while here. And when I say rain, I mean the drizzly misty kind, not a good solid raindrop to be found anywhere, which I prefer if it’s going to be rainy!

So back to the work week, or for people like me, back to the days where everyone else is working (still feel so weird about this sometimes, and then others, I don’t miss it at all)! Haha

Anyway, today was pretty low key – got Curt off to work, chatted with Ash, went and worked out (Lisa was there, my new friend, so we did stair stepper together and talked the whole time so time flew)! Note that our gym for whatever reason doesn’t turn on the air conditioning until later in the day, so after a few minutes of humid building + stair stepping, we were drenched. We don’t really have towels yet at the house except for a few big ones for the shower, etc., so I ended up taking off my shirt because I couldn’t wipe my sweat with my sleeves fast enough – gross! But at the same time, I guess it’s good for you and I WAS at the gym, so oh well. Had a great workout, and then came back to chat online some more with Ash, the family, and even did a 3-way call on Skype with Ashley and David on Ashley’s phone since he doesn’t have a computer or anything, it was interesting and reminded us of high school days…

Then I did some laundry, did the dishes (the maid does both of these things, and she comes on Tuesdays and Thursdays), but I almost try to do this kind of work for her so she can spend her time on the stuff I don’t like to do as much and so she’s not here all day (sounds weird but I feel like I can’t be as productive, you know?)!

And finally 3 p.m. rolled around, which I was so excited for as it was time for my first cheap, Chinese massage! YES! I shopped around a bit and asked a few of the ladies who was good and reasonably priced, and a couple times a name that was within walking distance came up, so I made an appointment, and for about $20 USD I got an hour massage (you can even find them for cheaper than that, but this was a nicer place that I felt comfortable with, at least to start). I scheduled an appointment for a Japanese style massage (they offer different kinds) vs. a Chinese massage as the Japanese massage tends to be a little harder and more with pressure points I guess, but I’ll try the Chinese massage as well some time to see what it’s all about as well… the massage was great. Very different from a typical Swedish massage that we would get in the states, but so nice… why is it that the time in a massage always goes by ridiculously fast?!

Then off to hunt for a hair straightener – this is turning out to be a challenge, people… I’m looking for a ceramic plated straightener, and am having no luck. I'm normally not so high maintenance when it comes to things like this, but it is humid here so would like for the hair to stay looking nice for at least a few hours at a time - haha! So I had heard that there was a salon not too far away (also within walking distance) that might have some, so trucked it down there and came up empty handed. I may be going to Shanghai on Wednesday with Lisa (new gym friend) and her friend Jana, so maybe if I do I’ll have better luck there. We’ll see… (they’re going to the “copy market” which is where you get copies of virtually everything, so even if I’m not in the market to buy anything, I think it would be interesting to see?

So after all of that, I finally walked home (this was like a 45 min- 1 hour adventure walking all over town, and still in the misting rain, mind you), did a few more things, Curt came home, and instead of wanting the meal I had planned that night we ordered pizza. Haha – totally fine with me, I guess, we’ll have it tomorrow and this time I’ll make it in advance so we don’t fall into the unhealthy, better sounding option trap. My pizza was delicious, though - thin crust cheese! And then of course more brownies from yesterday's Easter treats! Yum!

All in all a low key evening, and kind of tired so maybe to bed early tonight, we’ll see.

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

Love,

Easter Sunday & Bugs Bunny

Yesterday was a great Easter, though of course I’d be lying if I didn’t acknowledge that of course I missed home on this special holiday!

To pick up where I left off, we spent the night at Sarah & John’s place, woke up at 7 a.m., got showered up, put on the same clothes (yuck, I hated this) , and then jetted out the door to rush to the train station as we had 11 a.m. brunch plans with two other expat couples. Because we didn’t have a train reservation, it was too hard to tell how long we’d have to wait, so I was nervous that we’d be cutting it close. Our taxi got us to the metro station, then we metro’ed it to the train station, bought tickets for the 8:55 a.m. train, then found an 8:09 train and chanced it that we’d get on it (since we had standing room only tickets for the later train, figured we’d might as well risk getting caught and standing on the earlier train, right?). This meant we had to book it, so we were literally running through the train station, I crowd-controlled it through all the Chinese people (I can so hang with them on this, watch out!), and we made the train. Curt said we should just sit down and act like we had seats, and then move if someone else had the tickets, so we did, and we moved twice, but we ended up in seats at least, and we made it back to Suzhou with about an hour and half, so we showered again (this time with soap and stuff), got pretty for Easter, and then met our friends to go to the Kempenski Hotel for Easter brunch.

I of course wore a dress (Curt told me I didn’t have to dress up so much, but a girl can wear a dress on Easter if she wants), and I met Mike & Carol (maybe late forties, early fifties), and Hans & Mina (maybe mid-thirties). Mike and Hans both have the motorcycle/ sidecar that Curt will be purchasing soon, so they’ll have a boys bike club here before they know it! The hotel was gorgeous, kind of out on its own island, lake views, and lots of expats and families there celebrating the holiday. Bugs Bunny was also there, of course as the Easter Bunny which I got a big kick out of, and it was so nice because the hotel had dyed Easter eggs and used them to decorate all of the flower arrangements, so it was all very festive (they were blown eggs, don’t worry!) and wonderful.

The food was also delicious and it ended up being a 3 hour meal – just slow to enjoy the buffet, all there was to eat, desserts, etc. and lots of tea and coffee, and of course fun getting-to-know-you conversation! So it was very pleasant… if we had to be away from home, at least it was with good company in a place where the holiday was felt, or acknowledged, I think. Somewhere in the middle of the meal, they had 3 young Chinese kids come in and play the violin for us – they were so talented! Also such a sweet gesture, as we were leaving they gave every guest a bunny-shaped loaf of sweet bread! How fun is that?

When we got home we decided to run a couple of errands, so walked around a lot, bought some groceries, and headed home. Then we watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – good flick – cooked dinner (we went with one of Kendyl’s famous recipes – chicken, rice, cream of chicken soup, and Tony’s), the bunny bread, and Coke (first time I’ve been able to have it as I gave up all sodas for Lent!) so that was a treat. I had also made brownies (was nervous but they turned out great) so we had that as our special Easter dessert and said thanks for how blessed we both are. Then we watched Serendipity, Curt went to sleep, and I talked to my family and Ashley until it was time for me to go to bed! So more low key than Saturday, but it was just what was needed to recover!

Happy Easter everyone! Thanks to God for sending his son to die for our sins, and for showing us life through Him through his resurrection.

Love,

On a Slow Boat to... Shanghai!

So I have a lot to update on even though only 2 days have passed, but this weekend was GREAT!

So as previously stated we decided to venture out to Shanghai on Saturday, so woke up early (don’t worry, not 5:45 a.m. early) on Saturday morning, got out of the house and on our way to the Renaissance Hotel in Suzhou to change some money and have a nice, big American Breakfast (buffet style – so yum), and then we were on our way for my first train experience in China! We purchased first class tickets so I didn’t have to worry about any beggars putting their heads in my lap (that happened to Curt at some point and that weirds me out a bit), and the train ride over was very peaceful and relaxing. We caught the 10:00 a.m. train which put us into Shanghai at about 10:45 a.m., so on the 40ish minute trip I got to see some of in between cities China, which was interesting… lots of gardens, trash, hovels, nice corporate buildings, and just a hodge podge of everything in between or all of it together on one block or in a field… It was a gorgeous day again, so perfect for experiencing a new city.

Once we got to Shanghai Train Station we switched over to their Metro system which, like every other major metropolitan city in the world, is a great way to travel. Even not being able to read the language, it still was fairly easy to get around so we got me a card that I could top-up with instead of worrying about buying single fare tickets all the time, and then we got on our way to the Pearl Tower which is the stop closest to Sarah and John’s place.

We got there around 11:15 a.m. I would say, called them, and while they were on their way we walked around the Pearl Tower, the river, and just started to take in the sights of Shanghai, which is an *amazing* city. It actually reminded me a lot of European cities – a big river running right through the middle of it, lots of corporate high rises on both sides, plenty to see and take in, etc. Sarah and John arrived, and it was SO good to see Sarah and meet John! They didn’t have any plans for the day (thank goodness, because we kind of took it over – keep reading) and we had no agenda really, just a Top 25 Things to See in Shanghai book, so we figured we’d let them kind of show us around and we’d just play things by ear! Such a fun plan to have NO plan…

So we cabbed it over to Yu Yuan Garden first, which is in Old Town. This area is kind of what I pictured China to look like – lots of beautiful temples, fine wooden carvings, and the bridge of 9 turns (not sure if this is the official name or not) which is a beautiful bridge with 9 zig zags across a pond of sorts filled with huge koi… apparently evil spirits can’t make sharp turns, or that many turns, so people would walk across to either get away from them, or for good luck… I’ll find out the history for sure, but it’s something like that. Whatever the full story is, it was beautiful! There are also lots of shops around there, so we just had fun chatting (me with Sarah, Curt and John following behind) and catching up, all the while window shopping in these beautiful little alleyways!

After we’d seen everything there was to see in Yu Yuan Garden, we then ventured to a very trendy area called Tai Kang Lu where a lot of people eat and wander, and shop… this area was more hip with art galleries, and a lot of Westerners hang out here as well. So we wandered a bit and then stopped for lunch. Again, the weather was gorgeous so we sat outside, enjoyed good food, although uncharacteristically for China, the service was not so hot – it was like they didn’t know the order of how to serve customers – sit down, take drink order, give drinks, take food order, give food, let people eat, clear, and bill. Our experience went more like, sit down, take drink order, take food order, give food, let people eat, people ask for drinks for the 7th time, bill, clear plates, bring drinks. Just weird, but we still had laughs and a good time, and again, we had no plans so it was ok. We then continued to explore Tai Kang Lu and the surrounding alleys, shops, etc. – there’s just so much to look at! At Sarah’s suggestion, I was also on the lookout for a business card book… they’re into business cards with maps and English on them which Westerners use to give taxi drivers to get to a place or area, which is a GREAT idea, and I found a cute green one here! Yea!

Then we decided to head to Nanjing Lu and to the People’s Square area which kind of reminded me of like a Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square, or a smaller scale Times Square – lots of people, shopping and major brands, lights (even though it wasn’t dark), lots of people selling fake stuff, and just general energy.

Then onto more sights, and we went to the Bund area which is on the other side of the river from the Pearl Tower, and by this time the sun was setting so we were enjoying the weather, river, sights, talking, and then after a bit we decided it was time to go get dinner!

We opted for Xian Tian Di which is a posh area in the French Concession which was gorgeous and I think a collective group favorite. Newer gray stone buildings, twinkle lights, amazing restaurants with outdoor patios, lots of people milling about, and just amazing atmosphere! We walked around there for a bit, and decided on a place called Luna for dinner. Our train back to Suzhou wasn’t until 9:30 p.m. so we all got drinks, ordered some tapas to start with, and had a slow and leisurely dinner with melt in your mouth ribs (it said this actually on the menu, and we all agreed that they did indeed melt in your mouth – they were so incredible that John and I switched our main course dinner to have more of these, which as Methodists is a no-no J. Haha – don’t worry, that’s a funny joke that was a theme throughout the day as Curt and Sarah are both Lutheran, and John and I Methodist – turns out John and I have a lot in common with being hard core Aggies, football fans, and the fact that we don’t think the other person in the relationship should order the same thing as the other person b/c you should sample and it’s kind of a waste, whereas Sarah and Curt think it’s totally fine to do that, so we concluded it must be a Lutheran/Methodist thing… LOL… not really of course, was just funny.



ANYWAY, the dinner was delicious, wonderful, all of the above, and at around 8:15 p.m. I checked my watch, and then decided to check the train tickets to confirm they were for 9:30 p.m. Looking closely at a mix between English and Chinese writing, and see 17:32… after a couple of glasses of wine am thinking that 12+9 is definitely much higher than 17, but trying to do the math slowly to be sure, and read every English number on there making sure there is nothing else on there that could be 9:30 p.m. and nope – so got out our morning ticket to make sure I was looking in the right place, and yep – sure enough – the lady at the ticket booth who we thought spoke pretty good English gave us 5:30 tickets instead of 9:30 tickets – ugh… so we missed our train by a lot. Curt said there was probably a 10 p.m. train, but I was like, it’s going to be one of those situations where if we part ways and go to the train station, we won’t be able to get on, so Sarah and John said we should just stay with them and we could have more fun that night, SO we did… haha. Then we could be really slow finishing up dinner, enjoyed our drinks, the weather, and the laughs (there were many and a moment where I almost cried I couldn’t breathe). Then we cabbed it back over to their area of town, went to their place to let their lab, Lucy, out, got situated and then went back out to… PARTYWORLD to check out KTV at it’s best on a Saturday night!

So the Chinese love Karaoke (realize this is a huge generalization, so sorry, but humor me) – I’m sure everyone has seen the Rush Hour scenes where Chris Tucker takes over and does his Michael Jackson, which is hilarious, but that is how it is – they love it. So they have these huge karaoke bars with private rooms, which is what PartyWorld is like – it looked like a hotel, and probably had 200 rooms, maybe all 12x12 outfitted with couches, liquor and drinks, nice big flat screen, mics, and a central buffet out in the middle. So we’re walking down this hallway peeking into the room windows watching everyone singing their hearts out, and it was hilarious! We decided we definitely need to get a group together and plan a PartyWorld evening!

Then we headed over to this expat bar near their complex and had fun getting a couple more drinks and watching a Chinese band do American covers – too fun.

Then we stopped in the DVD/CD store for Sarah to buy some DVD’s, then home, watched some of The Changeling, and by 1:40 a.m.ish we were all so exhausted that we called it a night.

And I’m going to do the same – will pick up tomorrow to start with waking up on Sunday (Easter!) morning… (p.s. none of these pics are mine - all Google as the camera battery decided to die - sigh... but these are great substitutes, and I'll have more opportunities to get great ones!!)

Night,

Good Friday!

So there’s the girl I know and love – yesterday I slept SO much… probably starting napping around 3:30 p.m., slept until Curt got home around 6:30 p.m., ate dinner, etc. fell back asleep on the couch until 10 p.m., took a shower to snap out of it, did some stuff online, and slept a full night starting at midnight.

Today I had much more energy, though it’s like 8:30 p.m. right now and I’m pretty beat… so here’s the recap for the day.

Started the day off WAY right with some CoCo Wheats – YES! Have to love my #1 comfort food… and with a tad bit of Chinese milk and sugar, I have to say they were delicious! Yum, yum, yum! Then I chatted online with Ashley and got my butt to the gym – I figured if I started out my day with the workout, that would be better than putting it off and risking it not happening like yesterday with naptime – haha! Got to the gym and kinda had to go pee, and imagine my surprise in a very American looking establishment when I opened the stall door to find my first hole in the ground Chinese potty! LOL… I knew it was coming, but I would pay to see the look of surprise that was quickly replaced by a scrunched nose look on my face… didn’t take but a few seconds to get over it, and popped a squat like any Wilderness pro and was relieved at least that the handle to flush was so low to the ground that it was obviously meant for a shoe to touch it! LOL

Then onto my workout, which was great, and made even better because I officially made my first friend! YEA! I saw this girl on the stair stepper and totally pegged her (rightly) as an American and just walked up after my time on the elliptical and introduced myself! So… Lisa is an expat wife with 2 kids and they’ve been here for 3.5 years – she offered to show me around next week and we had fun chatting and we hit it off! They’re from Ohio! Exciting…

After the workout, came home and chatted online some more with the fam, Uncle Tony, Ashley, and the boys to say goodnight… Cade got me teary eyed as after a bit when Ash asked him if he was ready for bed, he responded in a soft and so sweet voice – “no, I want to talk to Tasha” – it seriously made my heart melt into butter. I love them so much… Cody (& Ash) read me their bedtime story, and they were in great moods in general complete with some fun belly laughs from Cade… I’ll say it again, I love Skype!

Then it was time for my state-side people to go to bed, so onto lunch – Chef Boyardee ravioli! Haha… then did some dishes, picked up a little, did some stretching, showered up, then went outside to read for a bit… today by far was the prettiest day I’ve seen here yet… actually saw blue sky, the sun was gorgeous, and there was a nice cool breeze and the sun was doing its job of warming well… SO nice. Was like paradise, really – the place where we live has many courtyards with plants, statues, etc. that I took some pictures of, hopefully they do it justice!

Then Curt got home and we went out to get train tickets to Shanghai for tomorrow (hopefully will meet up with a girlfriend from high school, Sarah, who’s there also as an expat wife) for some exploring, then to get a Chinese cell phone for me (success), and then walked to Mario’s pizza which is owned by an Italian and known to be the best western cuisine in Suzhou. It was kind of a hike out there but a pretty evening for a stroll, and the beer, dinner, and dessert were well worth it – sigh… now we know where to bring Dad when he comes in for his visit in a couple weeks!

Couple of random notes – so I keep MTV on (or have for the last 2 days) during the day just as some English background noise, and they have mostly English speaking songs on there (American, British, or Australian artists) with Chinese artists in the mix as well… sometimes a song will catch my ear because I *know* it, but it’s not the version I know, so I go in and watch and try to pinpoint where I really know it from… today, one such case was REALLY bugging me – a Chinese guy was singing (in English) a song that I knew the words to, but couldn’t place, and finally figured it out… remember the movie Walk to Remember with Mandy Moore? And remember the song she sings in the play, “Only Hope? “ He was singing that one – google it, it is actually a beautiful song with a nice lilting melody… am liking some other music too, like The Veronicas, Untouched – LOVE it (La la la la, La la la la)!!!

And speaking of music I totally forgot to give a fun highlight from yesterday’s market trip… I guess one way they have to teach the Chinese English is through music lyrics translation, so on the loudspeaker in the market they were playing Mariah Carey’s goodie, but kind of oldie, One Sweet Day (I think that’s with Boyz II Men – anyone?), which is a song that I LOVED when it was popular… go ahead and take a minute to sing it in your head… I *totally* sang it in the shower today, haha “And I know you’re shining down on me from heaven, like so many that we’ve lost along the way…” So that song was playing, and then they would kind of fade the same lyric into the background and a Chinese woman would be playing over it saying the lyric in Chinese, and then more slowly in English, except that literally over *half* the time her version of English was WRONG – I was going into a fit of giggles at her interpretation… a great example, the line where Mariah sings, “Lord I know when I lay me down to sleep, you will always listen as I pray,” SHE says in her very authoritative, I’m teaching English tone, “Lord I know when I PLAY me down to sleep, you will always listen as I PAY,” which of course doesn’t make any sense – just stuff like that… poor them, this lady is botching a great song! LOL Whitney Houston came on next but I didn’t stay to hear her ruin another one…

So anyway, that was our Good Friday – hope everyone has a nice day off and a great Easter weekend, will keep ‘em coming.

Love,

I'm Belle!

So it’s Thursday here, and so far today has been pretty quiet… the sun rises very early here, so at 5:45 a.m. I was awake with the sun… it looked as if it was 8 a.m. already and I thought Curt was going to be late for work, but no – 5:45 a.m.! Who would have thought that after going to bed at midnight I would naturally wake up at 5:45 a.m.? So unlike me and my sleeping habits (adore it, and lots of it), but maybe that means I’ll have another nap today. So I laid in bed for a bit, watched the Chinese people outside on their e-bikes start going to work, made cereal for Curt and it occurred to me that their milk, while good though slightly different tasting, is probably not fat free so I shouldn’t be drinking so much of it – LOL! But had some yummy Cheerios, sent Curt off for another busy day, and decided to start my day off with some MTV! They have lots of popular American songs on, but peppered in are some Chinese artists as well which is totally interesting to watch… good music, too, though you can tell their video budgets are quite a bit under ours which is understandable. The Chinese also have a very different fashion sense – some of the haircuts I’ve seen are incredibly daring (more on the girls) and interesting…

I also met my housekeeper this morning! She’s maybe mid 30’s if I had to guess, very nice, doesn’t know too much English so we’ve been pantomiming some (haha) to communicate… I tried to get Rosetta Stone up and going on my laptop as well this morning but apparently you can only use the activation code once, so I’ll have to use the other computer I think… but am hoping that I can pick up the language somewhat quickly so I can start picking out words here and there. My housekeeper’s name is Ping Me (have no idea how this is spelled as I asked if she could write it and she wrote it in characters – lol, fair enough!), and she comes Tuesdays and Thursdays to do everything except the cooking. Speaking of which, in a bit I’m going to go the store to see what I can’t find for myself for lunch… yesterday I had some goldfish that I had brought as a snack on the plane – going to shoot for something a little healthier than that, I think (or at least balanced?)!

Other than that, today I’ve had fun talking with Mom, Dad, Kendyl, Ashley and the boys (yea for goodnights on Skype!), Sarah (who’s in Shanghai – may venture out to go see her next week), Tiffany, and Uncle Tony. Once again – thank the Lord for technology! While I was talking to Ash, she was talking to Jonathan (her little bro) who asked me through her what the future was like! It made me laugh – so true, I told him it was bright!

Didn’t do a whole lot today after all of that – ended up going to the market as planned and bought some good food to stock the fridge somewhat, did some reading, took a nap (as guessed) and didn’t have a ton of energy so we just hung out here for dinner and ordered take out again.

I DID take a “which Disney Princess are you” quiz and I’m Belle! Whoop! She and Princess Aurora are my favorites, so I was happy – the quiz is out of Ariel (love her, too), Mulan, Belle, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty (aka Princess Aurora), Jasmine, and Pocahontas. Here is a description of me/ Belle:

Belle is as lovely as her name implies but her natural unaffected beauty is far more than skin deep. An intelligent and avid reader Belle yearns for faraway places and exciting adventures. She is a loyal, loving daughter and when the beast finally wins her trust she gives him all her kindness and patience and then realizes she has also given him her heart. With her inner strength and outward beauty, Belle is a young woman who can and does make things happen.

Sweet!

Tomorrow is Good Friday and I’m going to try and find something around here to do to celebrate Easter!

Hope everyone has a great Thursday while I’m sleeping!

Love,

I need to learn more than just "Hi" and "Thank you"

(Day 1, Part 2)

So yesterday was a great first day in China.

In the afternoon I went exploring – just walked around for about 45 minutes checking things out in my immediate proximity, including the lake and boardwalk, a shopping area on the lake called RainboWalk, a nice forested park (where there were birds!) with nice pagodas and benches, and then it was onto the gym!

I had typed in the Crossfit workout for Monday onto my iPhone so I wouldn’t forget it (they are posted on the internet) and got to the gym and did my thing for about an hou... Was a great workout, and by the time I was finished the afternoon was very cool and nice outside – lots of kids were out playing in our resort’s parks, I felt good from the workout, and could see my shadow from the sun… the plants were all very pretty so I felt very upbeat walking back home. Cleaned up, read a bit, then took a nap until Curt got home.

We decided to go out for dinner as he’s been living like a bachelor (read the contents of our fridge include Heinz ketchup, PB&J, 3 eggs, garlic, Brita water pitcher, and Coke). I’ll be making a grocery run soon enough but so far I’m just making lists as stated earlier of things we need. For dinner we decided on Mexican down on the Rainbo Walk, and I had amazing fajitas, and you can tell it’s an expat hang out for sure as nearly everyone that was there was foreign and heard lots of English! Then we went next door to Cold Stone Creamery (they have cake batter – yes!) for a little ice cream… which is really the same as far as the store goes… even down to the sizes, “like it (small), love it (medium), gotta have it (large).” At first the guy was asking us which size in the phrase they use, “like it, love it, gotta have it?” and I had no idea what he was saying, and as I’m not a frequent Cold Stone goer, I said Small as I knew what he was asking even if I didn’t understand… then when he asked Curt I picked out a couple of English words, slowed it down in my mind, and figured it out… I think that probably forever when I go into a Cold Stone I’ll hear his version and accent of “like it, love it, gotta have it?”… maybe you had to be there but I got a big kick out of it!

Then we walked back home where The Sweetest Thing was on a movie channel, which I always laugh hysterically at, so just wrapped up the day!

Have to say that I am loving technology… Skype and the Internet are really serving as my lifeline here so far and I’m not ashamed to say it. There is something to be said about easing a transition and being able to talk to my family and friends all about it via the internet and I am *so* thankful for it… there was a special on the History channel tonight about Alexander Graham Bell and his famous invention, and I was thinking to myself thank the Lord for him, he who started it all and made my comforts so far from home possible.


Interesting things I saw/experienced today:

• A cute dog wearing clothes and shoes (like a nice black sweater, and no, it wasn’t cold outside today – pure accessories, and black and white tennis shoe booty things that it looked perfectly accustomed to). I know for sure that Maverick would have a really hard time if you strapped him in shoes – LOL!
• The wonders of having a labor force where everyone has a job, no matter how menial… saw women sweeping leaves off the street with homemade brooms (workers), and men sitting on small benches in the park with a pick at the ground – have no idea what they were doing but workers are everywhere doing busy work
• As we were walking back from dinner, I heard a rustling nearby and noticed a tent (was startled actually b/c it was dark and camouflaged well) and asked if there was a person in there. Curt informed me that yes, there was, and that was in fact someone’s “home,” and I was like, “a homeless person?” but they’re not really… it’s like a homeless person (by definition, that is their home) that is allowed to sleep there because they’re the people that work in the park doing the meaningless jobs mentioned above. The government provides them a tarp/tent looking thing, and they just carry their stuff with them from job to job.
• A shot of tequila served with my fajitas for dinner (Mexican food, and it was actually quite delicious!), which I ended up giving away to 2 Americans at the table next to us… thought about shooting it but wasn’t in the mood, and since I knew we were getting ice cream after, decided on those calories instead – haha!
• Grandpa, you’d be proud b/c I was overly vigilant today being out on my own… and noticed already the lack of personal space thing… don’t worry, no one has touched me yet, but when I was walking in this wide open space on the boardwalk/wharf thing by the lake, there were a couple of times where I had to side step to avoid someone walking into me… was weird b/c there was SO much room, but like men just deciding on a trajectory that would collide with mine and it looked like they were coming towards me even though when they passed they barely looked at me? It was strange… Other than noticing that, everyone that I’ve spoken with that is Chinese has been very friendly, and they go out of their way to say English if they know it. So cute, too, but yesterday when we were at Baker, the security guard (a really young guy, maybe late teens or very early twenties) was saluting to Curt as if he were in the military, it was comical.

So that's the rest of Day 1! Today will probably be much the same, but I'll post about it later, AND the camera is charged up so be ready for some pics!

Love,

China!

So I’m aware it has been forever since I’ve posted anything, but hopefully now that I’m looking to fill my time there will be plenty more, especially since I’ll have a whole new world (or country, at least) to write about!

So I’m officially in China – the journey itself was pretty uneventful if not extremely long… and I only say extremely long because very uncharacteristically I was unable to sleep on the 14.5 hour flight from Newark to Shanghai and had a particularly chatty older gentleman sitting next to me! Haha… So rewind a little bit...

I took a Leave of Absence from my job starting March 1st, and spent March getting things organized with the house (we have renters from Spain, a family of 4), moving out and coordinating with the packers/Curt’s company/relocation company, etc., seeing people and spending time with family, getting a plan together for Maverick (that one was particularly stressful, but thank goodness a miracle happened and he is with old neighbors in Fort Worth who adore having him), and just getting things in place in general. We also took a family ski trip vacation to Breckenridge which was a fantastic last getaway with the 4 of us full of bluebird skiing days, and lots of laughs!

After getting the house ready, packed, cleaned, and ready for the renters, I had one week at home (parent’s house) to pack and finish things up, and then yesterday it was time to make my way over! The day before was a great last day – finished packing in the morning, went rollerblading, spent time outside and with Kendyl watching her play softball with her company team (it was such a gorgeous day), then got home, went on a motorcycle ride with Kendyl and Dad at dusk to enjoy the last of the sunlight, spring, and trees, and then we had homemade waffles for dinner – SO yum!! When it was time to say goodbye to Kendyl she was a wreck, which caused me to fall apart after she left – thank GOODNESS I’ll be back in May or else it would have been a lot harder… and also so GREAT that Dad will be visiting here in China in a couple of weeks (he’ll be here on business) so I have a lot to look forward to!

So yesterday morning (or Monday morning, but as my day yesterday was very long, still kind of in my “yesterday” category even though I fast forwarded a day), my flight was at 6 a.m. so I woke up at 3:30 a.m., got ready, me and Mom got to the airport by 4:45 a.m., and because we were a little rushed, we were both tired since it was so early, there was no time for a blubbering goodbye… a blessing in disguise, but she stuck around and made sure I was good to go with my luggage and checking in, and then I ran outside to grab a $20 from her as I didn’t have any cash – LOL! She’s such a good mommy…

Got on the flight ok, and promptly went to sleep for pretty much the whole flight… yea for that! Got to Newark, and didn’t have a ton of time on my layover, so made my phone calls, chatted with everybody, and this is where I started to feel the weight that I was moving to China. I did a decent job (for me) of holding it together but I was staring out the windows into the rain and was feeling the same way inside… just going to miss everyone so much and of course the thought of going into the unknown is scary, etc. Got on the plane, got settled, and was *hoping* to have the whole row to myself as up until the night before I did, but turns out an older man had decided to sit in my row as well – fine, whatever, but he was SO CHATTY! Ugh… I just wanted to kind of be by myself to think about things, etc. and instead I had to make small talk for 14.5 hours. Haha – exaggerating, we obviously didn’t talk the whole time, but even when I was watching movies or listening to music he’d motion for me to take my headphones off to talk about the most random things! Sigh… so didn’t really sleep too much on this flight which made time inch by, but watched 4 movies, listened to music, wrote, did take one nap for an hour, read, and went to the bathroom a million times just to have an excuse to get up and walk around. Enjoyed the plane food, though, and was thankful to be on an airline that I loved with the route that I was on versus a million connections, so overall it was a great flight.

When I got to Shanghai I was so tired, but my bags all came quickly, made it through customs without event, and had a laugh (a tired, resigned laugh) maneuvering this weird cart with 4 huge suitcases plus my duffle with one hand (difficult because it has a brake of some sort that if you let up on the lever it just STOPS) and rolling my laptop thingy with the other hand around some serious curves and queues to make it through to where the waiting people were… and then when I got through the doors there were even more twists and turns, and a million people waiting, so I just started looking for Curt, who in the 3rd turn was waiting with a sign for me (like all the other people), haha. I have to say that after over 2 months of not seeing him it was really surreal to see him there – his hair is SO long (he will be seeing JJ when he comes back to the states in a week), but thank goodness he came to get me… was nice to see a familiar face and to just fall into my exhaustion and be led around.

I met our driver, Han (don’t be fooled by the name, he is Chinese), who seems to be very nice. He doesn’t know a lot of English but hopefully we can widen his vocabulary from “home,” “Baker,” and “coffee,” and likewise he can widen our Chinese vocabulary as well. He’s a young guy, maybe about my age, and he got us settled and got us on the road through Shanghai and on our way to Suzhou. Rush hour was beginning so it took us awhile to get through Shanghai, and I didn’t see much of the city itself, just the outskirts and freeways, but it did smell weird there (pollution and cigarette smoke) and there was like an inch of just dust or dirt everywhere it seemed – like a coat of grime? So dirty in that way, but not with a ton of trash… Curt says it rains some, but I guess not enough to just wash everything clean. It was also really hazy when I got in – could see a pale yellow orb that was the sun but it might as well have been overcast… will miss my sun, I think. It was also a little overwhelming as we were going along to see all of these billboards, and writing, and not being able to read a word… I got a little emotional (I think because I was just so tired, and not anything crazy, just weepy) and Curt laughed and said it would be ok, and suggested we turn on the radio – there’s a station that plays English speaking songs, so felt better when a Kelly Clarkson song came on that I could sing to! LOL!

I was trying so hard to stay awake but was doing the head-bob (laughed at myself when I did this, haha), so finally decided to take a small catnap on my VB duffle and woke up about 20 minutes later – Curt was busy working and emailing on his BB, and then we finally got to Suzhou with our first stop being Baker. I got to see the plant and meet a few employees that were still there (they leave at 4:30 p.m. each day on a bus, and it was about 5:15 p.m. by the time we got there so just a couple local people there) and see all of his hard work. You can tell a lot of work has been done, but of course there is still much to do, hence Curt’s very busy schedule. So he dropped off some paperwork, then we got on our way to the apartment. I could tell rolling into Suzhou that it was going to be nice – lots of trees, lots of greenery, NO birds anywhere which when you see that many trees is really strange – their absence is very noticeable! I practically shouted out when I finally did see a bird, so I can say I’ve seen one, haha.

We pulled up to the apartment/resort, and it was so good to know that home was close… or the place that I would call home. Everything looked very nice so I was just excited to get in and see everything! Curt gave me the tour of the place, got a little settled and took a shower (that shower after a really long day/flight is always SO nice), he ordered take out for dinner as he has like 3 things in the fridge/pantry, and then he had a chicken dish and I had a Cajun sea bass dinner with a few fries – it was good! Then we ventured out and he showed me where the market was within the resort, the gym, and just pointed out things in general that I might be interested in exploring today while he’s at work. The market has a lot of familiar brands – even Betty Crocker cake mix and icing! – so I think food wise we’ll be fine. It will just take some time to learn everything, of course, where to find good produce, meats, etc. The gym looks good, too – lots of classes, a million employees running around, good equipment, so that’s exciting. Then we got home and I crawled into bed. Slept mostly all night from 8:30 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., then followed my own jet lag rules and laid awake until I fell back asleep, which was soon, until around 7:30 a.m. when Curt was up and getting ready for work.

So he left for his day, and so far this morning I’ve chatted online with my whole family and a few friends. I chatted online with Ashley for quite awhile on IM and we had fun talking about IM and college, etc. which was fun – she also skyped me and I got to say goodnight to Cody, Cade, TJ, and her… she said that now Cody would want to say goodnight to me every night (my mornings) which I said was great by me as it totally made my morning, haha. I also got to skype with Kendyl, and Mom and Dad which was so nice – I can’t even say how comforting this technology is and will be to me here. Also got all unpacked, and have been making a list of things we’ll need around the house to maintain a normal life here (laundry basket, more trash cans, tissues, magnets, etc.) so am in full list mode. Also have a list going of things that I can do if I should run into a wall of how to fill my time!

Now am off to go exploring now that everyone in the states is asleep, and then to the gym to do my Crossfit workout! Yes! Funny note - Mom said she went to go see Taken today, and I haven't seen it but have heard about it and that it's a good movie, though now she's completely paranoid for me and probably wasn't the smartest movie for her to go see the DAY after I leave for a foreign country! :-)

Will keep everyone posted on how things go, and will take the camera out today to take a few pics of things... Take care...

Love,

Steamboat for the Cowboy Downhill!

Thought I'd take a quick minute to post some pics from the Houston Half Marathon from last Sunday, and give a short update!

So I went skiing this past week which was GREAT - the weather was perfect, very much like spring skiing which of course is my *favorite* and the mountain was pretty empty as far as people go... we went to Steamboat to see the Cowboy Downhill which was comical... a bunch of cowboys on skis and boards (some of which who have never skiied EVER) who are in town for the Denver Livestock Show & Rodeo trying to compete for prizes by going through an obstacle course on the slopes - hilarious and the purpose for our visit as my mom has always wanted to see this "spectacle." It was great - of course a lot of wipeouts by some rough and tumble men that would make most people not want to get back up, but we had to remember these were bull riders and bareback bronc riders, etc. so if they totally ate it they just got right back up and kept on going... it was great! We had an awesome time - it was me, Kendyl, Mom, and Michael and although a really quick trip, good quality family time (Mikey is pretty much like family - probably the closest thing I have to a little brother I would say)!

As far as jury duty goes - man, what a long story... it makes me tired to even think about writing it all down in a blog post, but basically I took it really seriously and it was an interesting experience I won't soon forget. What was scary about it was how many criminal testimonies we had to hear and it really opened my eyes to another world that we all tend to forget about in our respective "bubbles" of daily life... I heard testimonies from criminals that had been in and out of jail so many times from everything to DWI's, to drugs, to burglary of habitation (houses) and commercial (businesses), and apparently there was supposed to be a murderer testify as well that didn't show up (WHEW!) so needless to say it was very interesting. Despite their rap sheets, I listened intently to what they had to say and believed them, for the most part as they didn't really have anything to gain by taking the stand (on the contrary, to the subject they were speaking about they had a lot of pride to lose, and I can only imagine how it was probably difficult for a lot of them, despite their pasts). It revolved around a incident of sexual misconduct, but that's all I'm going to say about it here - if you want to know more I can share with you via conversation. I thought the system was very fair, though, and I enjoyed doing my civic duty!

And here are a few pics of the half marathon - I know I said I'd write more but I'm not really sure what else there is to say, really?? I mean it was totally great and I was so proud of myself, and I'm really going to try and keep up the running thing (like doing a long run on the weekends and shorter ones during the week) so I don't lose it, you know? I did 5 miles yesterday which was the first time I'd run since last Sunday, and it was fine... I can tell a few of my joints are still a little sore in my feet, but I think skiing really helped my muscles stretch some so muscle-wise I was fine!

Hope everyone has had a great week and enjoy the pics!

Love,

Half Marathon Pics

Me and Dad at the gathering point for Wave 2

Me waving at Curt and Dad before the Start Line

A picture of racers in general

(Curt took these pics with my Nikon and I thought this one was so neat!)

Me running before the finish line

Me and Curt after the finish!

(Note my cool signs that Kendyl and Mom contributed to as they couldn't be there - this one says, "They were my magic shoes" from Forrest Gump)

Me and Dad

Me and my shiny medal with the finish line in the background - YEA!

One step closer to the full marathon...

2009 has been eventful thus far!

So today I ran my first half marathon and it was great! I completed all my goals - did it under the time I wanted (no speed records of course), my foot didn't bother me enough to take me out of it (thank goodness), I ran every step of the way, and I finished with a smile and didn't want to totally keel over and die! YEA! So a success all around... I'll write more about it later...

Also had jury duty this week for 3 days which was interesting to say the least, and I'll write more about that later, as well.

On my way out to Steamboat tomorrow, so will have a few days of skiing with the family as a "goodbye" to the slopes for now, so that will be a blast and I'll write more about that later, too...

I'm basically only posting this I think for my own health since it doesn't seem that anyone reads my blog, as I don't get any comments whatsoever even when I say something crazy like oh yeah, we're moving to China... oh well... here's to writing a blog for my own health/record anyway!

Love,

Ni hao!

(Pronounced knee-how, we'll be saying that a lot...)

So yes, after many allusions, rumors, and panicked-looking faces, it is now an open fact that we are moving to China - Suzhou, China to be exact.

Curt received an offer to be plant manager, and as it's a great opportunity that we can't pass up, you will soon be reading of our experiences living in a new country... so here are a few answers to the questions we most commonly receive:

Where will we be? Suzhou, China about 100km outside of Shanghai
How long will we be there? Anywhere from 1-3 years (I'm shooting for 2 or less)
What will I be doing? To be determined - I'm discussing options with my work at the moment but it's up in the air
What are y’all doing with Maverick? To be determined (and yes, this is what keeps me up at night)
Where will we live? A high rise condo where many other expats live with some nice views of a lake, and fireworks all the time - LOL
What are y’all doing with the house? Leasing it out (know anyone?)
When are you leaving? Curt is already back and forth and Tasha will join him in February/March timeframe

We are hoping for as many visitors as possible - we have a guest room begging for friends to come stay with us, so I hope that many of you will splurge and take the opportunity to see China while you have a free place to stay! :-) Our only request if we are blessed to receive you as a guest is that you bring a comfort from home for us (break n' bake chocolate chip cookies, Lucky Charms, CoCo Wheats, or something like that). Seriously, though, anyone is welcome and it is more affordable than you'd think - ticket prices start at $800 roundtrip, which heck, these days you can't even get to New York for that, right?!

The good news is that Curt, who of the two of us is more averse to this sort of thing, has adjusted well enough while he is over there, and we do think it will be easy for us to make friends as there is a large expat community there. And other GREAT news is that we have a gym membership already at a gym that is an American franchise, and they have HIP HOP classes! Yes! That might be interesting, but I'm looking forward to it, and I'm happy enough that we will have a gym complete with normal equipment, it's really nice with a pool, and they have classes that I enjoy taking (along with hip hop they have pilates, yoga, belly-dancing, etc.) so hopefully I will occupy myself having fun there - haha!

So of course things are busy in between daily life activities to try and get us ready and mobilized for this new adventure...

Also, in one week I run the Houston Half Marathon which, with my fasciitis whatever, I'm getting nervous about (no improvements there, I've just been trying to stretch and not tax it so somehow I can run the whole thing on Sunday)...

So that's our big news - stay tuned for more details, and in the meantime here are a few pictures of our new home (they're a little dark as it was night time when Curt was checking it out, but it is furnished, which is nice, though we'll have some work to do to make it "home") - enjoy, and again, we hope you will plan to visit us!

Living Room

Master Bedroom

View

Another View

Dining Area

Kitchen

Love,

Agreed!

Yea! I'm so glad I have friends who share in my obsession! I am still waiting for my hardback copy of New Moon (book 2) to come in and I’m dying of anticipation… (my mom bought the paperback in case I couldn't wait but I'm letting anticipation build b/c I want to read my OWN copy – I’m weird about that sort of thing, I *love* hardbacks and “wearing” them in)…

Elizabeth, I *completely* agree with you about the movie. After much internal debate I decided I wanted to go see it – I’d heard of course it wasn’t as great as the book, etc. but what I was MOST worried about was the movie characters changing the version of who I see them as in my head… I had clicked around on the internet and seen the cast, and while I think K. Stewart is a great fit for Bella, whoever the guy who plays Edward is good looking, but not how I pictured Edward in my head, and I was so worried that for the rest of the books I’d have HIS face in my mind and not MY version of Edward if that makes sense (I think MY version is a cross between Channing Tatum and Henry Cavill - swoon!)?

But curiosity won out – we didn’t have any plans last night so Curt and I made a date of it ( this is him humoring my obsession, such a good sport) and I enjoyed it as well, though I was thinking the same thing (that to non- readers it was terrible and probably on the cheesy side)… I think it's amazing how in your mind everything fits and it's all perfectly normal and when put on film (like him sparkling in the sun or how fast he can run, etc.) that it looks a little silly – I guess I'll stick to my imagination's version, then! p.s. I did love that Stephenie Meyers had a cameo - I would SO do that, too! lol!

Anyway, enough rambling, but as my comment started to become a novel I decided a post would be more suited… sigh!

Love,

Happy Birthday to Curt, and I'm obsessed...

I have a new obsession, and I knew it would be, but was building up the anticipation so it would be even better… I just read Twilight by Stephanie Meyers, and along with the entire population of teenage American girls, I’m in love with this book… I asked for the whole series in hardback for Christmas even though I hadn’t read one of them yet, but as I knew I would love them I went ahead and asked anyway. I finished Pride and Prejudice over the weekend (love that book, too!) and went straight into it and had to refrain from staying up all night to read it… I wanted to *savor* it so forced myself to stretch it over 3 days and it’s all I’ve been able to think about…

I’m going to try and wait a few days to start the second one otherwise I’ll have to be like a couple of our family friends’ girls who keep reading them quickly and over and over (they’re each on their 3rd time already because they’re so good)! I think the thing about it is that I remember high school so well, even if it is getting farther and farther away in years, and how I would have swooned over someone like Edward Cullen – I guess that’s why it’s fun? I don’t know – whatever the draw is, I’m hooked! In the meantime, though, I’m satisfying myself with Stephanie Meyers’ draft of Midnight Sun… it kills me that she’s not going to complete this book, though!

We celebrated Curt’s birthday over the weekend in Giddings, which was a ton of fun as Courtney and Adam were also there! It was more low-key than last year as of course you can’t have huge bashes EVERY year, but we did a lot of celebrating, first with Curt’s Dad and Judy (we also did Christmas with them as well as they were in Illinois with Judy’s family), then on Sunday night Carrie, Don, Courtney, and Greg came up for dinner – Curt’s choice was Saltgrass and I had one of the best steaks I’ve had in awhile (I love filet mignon and their mashed potatoes)! So that was awesome… then my Mom came over Monday night to give Curt his present and enjoy some cake, so it’s been a great New Year, so far!

Also enjoyed The Bachelor Monday night, and holy smokes! DeAnna comes back saying she made a mistake?! Maybe she did, I don’t know, but my heart broke for Jesse – what torture it must be for him to watch something like that! But it looks like Jason’s heart breaks before he gets to the end – should be a great season, interesting, no doubt!

On another note – training for the half marathon has taken a down turn, NOT because I’m breaking resolutions already or anything, but the arch of my foot has been paining me since I ran those 11 miles that day… I had felt it before in a 5-mile run, then the 11 miles went well but walking home felt the pain was more pronounced, and then as my muscles settled, relaxed, and then got sore, it started to hurt! I took it easy, went for a short run and then it was really painful, so took a week off, bought some new shoes with more cushion, have been icing it into a hypothermic state, and trying to do everything right b/c by gosh I will run that 13.1 miles in two weeks!!! Even if I have to hobble and walk it, I’m determined to get a finisher’s medal and t-shirt, so please pray that I can stretch it and ice it into submission (the sports medicine guy at Luke’s Locker think it’s the tendon that runs from your toe, to heel, to achille’s so it’s fasciitis something – most likely due to shortening of my calf muscles from wearing high heels all the time, so that tendon and my calve muscles aren’t as long as they would be or something)… ugh… it’s hard being a girl! I bought Yoga Toes though, so hopefully that will help, too – Judy swears by them!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful 2009 so far – Happy New Year!

Love,