Happy Dance Here!!

I am doing the Happy Dance here!!

I do have a mop in my hands but that is OK.  It means I am cleaning up the floor where the management company furniture was sitting.  Four guys came at 8:00 am and took away the stuff we didn't want and moved the stuff we needed moved.  An hour and a half later they were gone.

 This is not a large truck, I do not know where they store the furniture but that is surely a crazy loading job!!!  That is a flat screen TV and a large mirror on the back seat...and 2 guys had to sit back there too!!  

I will take pics of the empty house and then pics with our stuff and post them.  Later or tomorrow:)

Riding Chinese style

Using the bicycles to the max!!
or We are Chinese!

As I mentioned before we bought a bicycle and a friend has graciously lent us one.  We have been using them to get all over the place.  It is nerve wracking sometimes.  When approaching a red light, a car turning right treats it like a yield sign, sometimes even like it is green.  It is human powered conveyances beware!  Also people pass on the right into the bike lane and beep at you as if you are in the wrong place, not them! On Saturday a friend called and said we should come over to the school to see the show.   There was going to be a jazz presentation and some dancing by the students. The weekend was a major sports competition weekend with teams coming from as far away as Manila to participate in several sports.  We are part of the APAC sports council among others, which means Asian Pacific....anywhere in the Pacific....In fact Olivia will be going to Hanoi, Vietnam in October for a swim meet and to Phuket, Thailand in the spring!  How's that for getting use out of your passport?  Anyway, back to the bikes.....3 people.....2 bikes....how do we all get to school?  Almost every bike here has a rack on the back for carrying things, quite often it is people.  (I want to do a post on modes of transportation, gotta carry the camera around so I can snap away)  So while I am getting ready to head out Mike and Olivia go out and practice riding together.  They decided they were able to carry it off.  The only issue was most of the Chinese actually strap a pad or pillow on the rack.....Olivia said it was a bit painful:)  As you can see the sidewalks are made of little blocks.  Usually you ride in the road inside that white line you can see, there are bike lanes on both sides of the road.  Of course you should ride with the traffic but sometimes crossing a road is more dangerous.

                                     

Me riding behind them one handed while getting some shots!!  One problem you frequently run into is vehicles just stopped and parked in the bicycle/scooter lane.  This was a huge car carrier...it is not often such big things are even on the roads around here, they tend to use  smaller trucks.  The other day there was a person just pulled over sitting with his feet on the curb eating a meal!  Of course, blocking the lane.  You just accept it as standard practice and ride on.

Love, sincerely, fondly,
zaijian,
Ramona

Squirrels in the grocery store

You read that right.

The other day my friend asked me to show her the Chinese market I have talked about near here.  It is very convenient to ride to and has most of the things I need. Also there is the great veggie market across the street from it.  Going there is down a typical 'Chinese' street.  There are piles of trash along the way.  I cannot tell if the locals do not have or just do not use trash cans.....We have them here in the compound....It does seem that the piles do not grow exponentially so at some point there must be trash collection and they just shovel it into the trucks......haven't seen it, not sure I want to be around when they scoop...a bit ripe just sitting there, disturb the pile and all bets are off!!  We tried to find the meat market another friend told me about but it seems to have closed....people say little markets come and go rapidly.  Also restaurants suffer the same fate. I don't know how the Chinese restaurants even survive, prices are so low.  Last week I ran into some people I knew at school, they were heading out to lunch and invited me along.  We went to a very nice Chinese place.  There were five of us, we ordered six dishes, ate all we wanted/could, four of us took home leftovers and each of us only paid 48rmb.  Remember from my last post it is 6.3 rmb to 1 US dollar.   Back to the title of this post.....it is so easy to get distracted.....Squirrels, adorable little squirrels in a cage in the market we were in.  We thought they were so cute we took pictures.....I forgot all about it until last night when I was showing Olivia some other picture I took for her.  I keep commenting on the fact that they were right there in the meat area.  Why were live animals in the market??  They were so cute.....then Olivia says "They must eat them."  That is the only explanation!  I said..."oh gross, no they don't, who eats squirrels?"  Ha ha ha!  A realization comes into my brain.  My father eats squirrels, my friend in SC eats squirrels!  I used to  hunt with my dad for squirrels...(I do not think I ever ate one.)  It is just a different place to procure them.  The woods with a gun or the market where they probably kill and clean them for you.  Different world!!  (sorry the picture is not so great, used the phone and tried to zoom on the critter)  I did mention this to another friend and she didn't really think they were for eating....if not why were they in the meat section??

Another thing you do not see too often...or would that be not at all?...in American cities is public toilets.  On the street to the market there is a free  standing building with a sign, Public Toilet.  There are two women there all day long to keep it clean.  I have not had occasion to use this facility, however it is nice to know that I could?  Oh yeah, I would imagine it would be using a squat pot!!

Back to the nice restaurant we went to.  In the nicer restaurants they have large round tables with a lazy susan in the middle.  If you come in a group you will be seated at one of these.  Food is brought to the table on serving platters as it is expected that you all share, family style. It is brought out as it is cooked....not all dishes at one time as you expect in America.  You start eating as it is brought out, spinning the lazy susan to bring the dish in front of you.  You just reach for what you want with your chopsticks.  There are no serving utensils unless the dish is very juicy.  If you have an aversion to eating that way I guess you might be able to ask for your own dish of food to keep to yourself........I have not seen this done, everyone just shares:)  You have to pace yourself and not eat too much from the first dishes brought out because you always forget how many were ordered when you are in a group!

Love, sincerely, fondly,
zaijian,
Ramona

Having Fun

Nihao,

A good time was had by all.....
Our compound has a very active social life.  The residents have an association and the management has an association.  Both host/sponsor functions which everyone may attend.  Many of the resident functions cost a small amount of money to rent dishes and buy supplies.  The management ones tend to cost more as they have to have catering.  And then it seems individuals like to throw their own parties as well and you just bring a dish to share just like at home.
So far I have gone to a potluck lunch at someones home.....a RA function, we paid 20 rmb (think 6.3 to one US dollar) to provide dishes and supplies.  I met tons of new people from all over the world......Peru, US, France, Netherlands, England, New Zealand, Australia, and places I cannot remember.  A great picnic in someones yard.
Saturday the residents had a Progressive dinner.  This one is 100 rmb per couple to participate in the dinners.  One person hosts the appetizer course and that is where you pick up your "assignments" for the  rest of dinner.  After that you end up with 8 people at homes for starters, main and dessert.  We ended up roaming all over the compound to get to our houses.  After going from virtually opposite ends of the compound we had the main course up near the house so we stopped in to get bicycles.  It made it so much easier to get around.  Mike is 9 inches taller than me and I think most of that is in his legs.....really makes it hard for my short stumpy legs to keep pace!  We had fun, met lots more people and drank lots of wine!

Sunday we were invited to a Mexican dinner cooked by a German living in China.  Sounds pretty international to me......attended by families from the US, Australia, Germany, UK, Guyana, and NZ!!  Just boggles my mind sometimes.  Ernst even had a refrigerator full of Corona's.  Amazing pork slow cooked on the grill.

I cannot remember if I told you that we bought Olivia a bicycle last weekend.   We decided it was a better choice to use a $100 bike and not worry if it got stuck out in the rain than her $500 one that is coming. It has made such a world of difference in my life!  I can understand how exciting the creation of the wheel must have been.  I can now ride to school in 15 minutes instead of the 40 minute walk....which was causing my hip to hurt again....now it doesn't after a week and a half with the bike. We cannot say as much for a certain other part of my anatomy!!  Also the big basket it came with makes shopping a breeze.  No more wrenched out arms carrying home the bags of food.  Not to mention the shortened time involved.  Yesterday I went out 4 different times on the bike....I don't think I could have ever gotten home if I had to walk all those times!  I know I said it was for Olivia....She doesn't ride it to school.  We also had a friend lend us a bike they had never used....one of those fold up sorts....I had that a few days before we got Olivia's, it is good, but no basket....it does allow two of us to ride around which is so nice.  I can even get O to go to the store with me:)

Long enough for today,
Love, fondly, sincerely,
Zai jian,
Ramona

For my niece

Nihao,

This post is mostly for my niece.  We have noticed since we came here that shoes are a very important part of women's wardrobes.  Some are very interesting.  Some are what I like to call fashion suicide.  Some of the stores are pretty amazing in the sheer volume of styles available.  So the other day while roaming a store I decided to document some of them....in particular turquoise.....one of the colors my niece seems to like....a few pink ones thrown in for good measure!!  I know she likes pink:)  We didn't even document red, orange, green or of course good old brown and any other colors you can think of.

pink boots anyone??

This store is a clothing and shoe store. The shoes seem to go on as far as you can see.  There are almost as many shoes for men as women.  This is a small fraction of the racks in the store, multiply this area by maybe ten or fifteen....we didn't count.

That is it for the shoe show, hope you enjoyed it!!

Zaijian,

Ramona

Dishes, Cats and Quilts!

First off today I must apologize....It is not Ya Show Market in yesterdays post.....Mike and I cannot remember the name so when I find out I will correct it.  It isn't like they have a giant sign out front or anything!!

 For anyone in the family....you know what these are, just like home:)  For the uninitiated these are a family tradition for breadsticks at breakfast.

We were given a set of dishes by Mike's team at work.  It was a welcome to China, house warming gift.  A tradition here as well as in the US.  Blue is supposed to be an important color here and fish are also important, representing plenty, that you may always have plenty to eat.  I am not sure I have the exact meanings as there were 9 people gathered around as we opened the gift and they were all talking at once and very excited.  I don't think they knew just how much I like dishes so, for me anyway, it was the perfect gift.

Another pair from the bad day good day pictures out the second floor balcony.  This is not rain or fog, this is smog.

Just so you don't think it is all bad, below, the next day!

 And below that, sunset, out the same window.

Sparkles likes to get in things.  Her first day here she got into the sink in the tiny bathroom where the litter box is.  We don't actually use this as a bathroom because we have four other full baths in the house.

This looks like a black and white shot.....it's not, just look at her eyes!!

Here she is sitting in the basin I got for soaking laundry!

 This is one of the bihou we keep finding in the house.  I think we are up to six....the cats got to one of them before we did:(
They appear to be a type of gecko, I have tried looking them up but not  finding much information.  These guys are all babies.  they are so cute!!!

Random shot of the living room to show my quilt my Whoo friends made for me before we left.  It keeps them close as I see and use it everyday.  (Ayi folds them up neatly everyday..I prefer the draped look, oh well.) Also, the 2,000 piece puzzle we put together since we got here.  We brought a bunch of puzzles so we wouldn't get bored.....I don't have time to be bored!!  But, we had time to do the puzzle.  Our furniture is here in China but not here in our house:(




Just a regular house in a far away place full of leaky parts!!  Still working on getting Olivia's room done.  I hope they finish before our shipment makes it through customs.
Olivia got back last night from her trip to Harbin.  She seems to have had a good time.  We will post her pictures soon.

Love, fondly, sincerely,
Zaijian,
Ramona

Same Market, still looking

This market was not as big as Mike and I thought it would be the way everyone talked about it.  It did cram a lot of booths into its space, however.  We bought a few things, I mainly went along taking pictures with Mikes phone.  I need to get in the habit of carrying our smaller camera so I can get better shots.  It was fun to come upon this market unexpectedly.  I was supposed to take a trip here with a group from the school but couldn't go.  Got here on our own instead.

 Nuts!  Got a bunch of Walnuts, so good.  Nuts here are expensive no matter where you buy them.

 

 Somebody in their shell.  I definitely don't know what these are and will not be eating them.  I am allergic to bivalves.  Have not tried snails but don;t think I want to risk it..It is not worth the possibility of getting sick.

 This is fresh meat....yep...just sitting out on the boards.  I read somewhere that there are things in the wood that inhibit bacterial growth.  I guess it works, it did not smell like spoiled meat at any of these stalls. It all looked good:)

Pigs feet...need I say more?  They looked maybe like they were boiled, certainly well washed.  They eat chicken feet too.  We promise not to serve these if you come to visit...unless of course you wish to have them.  Maybe I could get Ayi to stay and cook dinner that night!!

 I don't know how new the turkeys are as the sign looks pretty old!  The turkeys did not look much bigger than the largest chicken you can get at the store in America.  Maybe they had better ones in the back....

 Just another sign, interpretation left up to the reader.

This stall was a bit gross.  I guess Ox Tail soup?  Again pigs feet and just on the right side are some chickens....feet and all.  I didn't look to see if the heads were still attached,  they usually are.

 Not a vegetarians delight in the meat area of stalls.  Sheeps head anyone??  And pigs feet on the same tray.

Nuts...mostly peanuts, cooked in different ways.

 These are ready made/fast food in China.  All the grocery stores have them.  Some are sweet some savory.  Some have meat or egg or veggies.  I tried two kinds yesterday.  One was sweet with sesame seeds on top and the other wasn't really worth eating, an acquired taste I would imagine, it wasn't awful just bland.  Next time something different.  A Culinary adventure.

 One of the fruit stalls....they do not seem to mix fruits and veggies.  I got some clementines.  So sweet.  I mentioned this to our teacher and she did not know what I meant so I showed her.  Orange They are all oranges, they do not differentiate between a naval or a tangerine......all orange!  Learning everyday!

To Market we Will Go!

Mike and I went to church on Sunday and wandered around looking for a restaurant afterwards.  We stumbled on this large market called Ya  Show (rhymes with how).  Stall after stall of all sorts of food stuffs, mostly fresh veggies, fruit, seafood and fresh fish and meat.  This is just a few of the pictures.  If I knew how to do a slide show I would.  I will post another blog with more.

Ya Show Market Beijing...seafood

 A close up of the seafood.  That is a pile of squid  the pink just to the left of the post.

This is fresh food, you can choose your fish or turtle or what ever you wish to eat.  They do not recommend you eat river fish due to the pollution.  So, if you don't know your fish.....don't buy it.  

This woman is selling all different types of dried beans.  I think to get out of her booth she has to crawl under the rack on the left of her stall.

 Those are big baskets of eggs, you buy them by the pound.

Mushrooms, so many types and I haven't a clue!!!

Corn....Isn't it pretty?

Tofu, I don't know if any of it is the famous 'stinky tofu' No English spoken here!  They seem to have more than the soft, medium, firm you can get in the states.

 Itty, bitty cucumbers with the flowers still on them.  I have not run across these in any places we have eaten so I do not know what to do with them.

Duck, Quail, Chicken.

Dried mushrooms as opposed to the fresh above.

A little bit of everything from the same shop as above.