Nihao,
Things keep going on around here....some good, some not so good.
We have had this moldy smell in the hall part of Olivia's room as well as increased humidity also her shower seemed to leak onto the bathroom floor. So...first they caulked the edge of the glass against the wall....no good, still leaked, then they decided the bottom of the shower needed re-grouting along it's perimeter.....no good, still leaked and now, as they have washed the excess, cement like caulk down the drain, the drain is barely functional....All weekend Olivia showered in our bathroom......her bedroom was not longer humid or smelly.....However, when the crew came on Monday to assess the drain they were also looking into the smell, humidity issue....they pulled up a floor board in the hall and it is all wet and moldy under there......Today they had to chip out the tile in the shower and replace the waterproof whatever under the shower.....when that is fixed they have to rip up the floor boards in the hall space of her room and replace the sub-floor and the finished floor........So fun, NOT. At least we have a guest room with a full bath she can move into until all that is done. These houses in the compound are all cement construction and they do not take very good care of them.... maintenance is non-existent....they just repair/patch in a half _____ manner.
Friends say that is not just here in our compound but all of them, so wonderful.
I had my first day working in the school store today. Items are not priced....just a list on the wall, makes it a bit challenging when you aren't even sure what the items are. Oh well, I guess I will learn. I have two co-workers. We will work together every other Tuesday. One is from Italy, one from Finland.....truly and international community at the school. We ended up walking across the street and having coffee together then going to the market where they showed me some Chinese products they have found that work well. And I shared a cab home with the one from Finland. They both live in our compound so now I have more friends in my neighborhood, Yipee!!!!! Cabs are very cheap here and they are like ants....tons of them. I usually walk to and from school but it was nice to have a lift as it had gotten quite warm.
We have has some glorious weather after those horrible days on Thursday and Friday. We got rain Saturday afternoon and evening through a good part of Sunday morning. Brought the air quality index down to 45, I think Olivia said that. Blue and clear....could see all the way to the mountains in the west. I got pictures so when I get it figured out I will show you the difference.....amazing...scary.
Mike was very happy to play hooky from work this morning to watch his Monday night football game. LIVE from Virginia Tech. (our Tuesday morning). I am not sure how it worked out, I left before it was over.
Olivia had her first swim team practice yesterday morning.....It nearly killed her as she is a bit out of shape and today she has very sore muscles. Lots of massaging going on here......That 6:27 bus was early!!
Enough for today, need to practice my Chinese so the teacher will be happy and I can communicate with the cabbie as well as Katja!
Love, fondly, sincerely,
Zaijian,
Ramona
Not necessarily the cats point of view.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Thursday, August 30, 2012
China #4
Hello and welcome to China letter #4,
We have this VPN (Virtual Private Network) now, currently it is on a trial basis but Mike says we will get it. It is the only way I will be able to blog from China, or do Facebook or look at any of my favorite blogs (Quiltville, Shakti Dove:) and some others. The great 'Fire Wall of China' is very strong.....I can't look at video clips anyone emails me and stuff like that. I also don't seem to be able to access my email when I have the VPN on.......things we have to work around/through......I may end up using another email provider if I can't get it to work but it isn't a huge issue so it can ride.
Today is a 350 on the air quality index, almost to hazardous! I have to take some pictures of good and bad days (got the bad) out the window for comparison and as soon as I can do it post them here.....Olivia says she will help her old mother learn the posting process.
It doesn't feel like I live in a huge city because we have trees and green out the front and back windows of the house. The government does a good job of beautifying the city. Flowers and trees are planted everywhere....there are even flower boxes on the railings of some of the expressways full of begonias, marigolds and flowers I don't know. Not sure how they water them but they must! All sorts of trees, roses everywhere too. Dust everywhere too!
I hired an Ayi this week. She comes in five days a week for 4 hours. She has very limited English but we are able to communicate. She cleans, does laundry and yesterday we walked to the market together and the vegetable shop. Many of the veggies are the same, just maybe a different variety and they seem to cost less than in the states. Of course there are many unfamiliar fruits and veggies too. We got a huge bag of veggies at the shop for about $7.00 US. I don't think I could have gotten that at home. Having help here is the norm....my main concern was to have someone in place when we travel......in SC we had friends come feed the kitties....here all our friends will travel when we travel as they want to get out of town when they can too. Everyone I spoke with said it would be hard to find an Ayi who would come just to feed the cats and not work for us. I may change her hours as I don't think I can keep her busy all the time......time will tell.
Olivia has tried out for swim team.and will begin practicing on Monday.....oh yea, practice is at 6:45 am three mornings and 7:00am on Saturdays. Really looking forward to making sure our teenager is up and on the go that early. At least they provide a bus, otherwise she would have to head out 30 minutes earlier to walk there.
We have restarted our Chinese lessons this week. A woman comes to our house two evenings a week for two hours. Since we haven't worked on it much since June we are almost at square one:( She is also having us work on learning characters.....so challenging, the hope is we will be able to recognize some basic words as time goes on. Our Ayi is also helping me and I teach her some English. Basic stuff related to house and home, food, etc.
We have found our fourth bihou lizard in the house. This one still lives here as Olivia was not able to catch it. They have all been babies, we don't know how they get in. Olivia takes them out to the tree in the back yard. I haven't been able to find out much about them, they appear to be a variety of Gecko.
Enough for now,
Zaijian
We have this VPN (Virtual Private Network) now, currently it is on a trial basis but Mike says we will get it. It is the only way I will be able to blog from China, or do Facebook or look at any of my favorite blogs (Quiltville, Shakti Dove:) and some others. The great 'Fire Wall of China' is very strong.....I can't look at video clips anyone emails me and stuff like that. I also don't seem to be able to access my email when I have the VPN on.......things we have to work around/through......I may end up using another email provider if I can't get it to work but it isn't a huge issue so it can ride.
Today is a 350 on the air quality index, almost to hazardous! I have to take some pictures of good and bad days (got the bad) out the window for comparison and as soon as I can do it post them here.....Olivia says she will help her old mother learn the posting process.
It doesn't feel like I live in a huge city because we have trees and green out the front and back windows of the house. The government does a good job of beautifying the city. Flowers and trees are planted everywhere....there are even flower boxes on the railings of some of the expressways full of begonias, marigolds and flowers I don't know. Not sure how they water them but they must! All sorts of trees, roses everywhere too. Dust everywhere too!
I hired an Ayi this week. She comes in five days a week for 4 hours. She has very limited English but we are able to communicate. She cleans, does laundry and yesterday we walked to the market together and the vegetable shop. Many of the veggies are the same, just maybe a different variety and they seem to cost less than in the states. Of course there are many unfamiliar fruits and veggies too. We got a huge bag of veggies at the shop for about $7.00 US. I don't think I could have gotten that at home. Having help here is the norm....my main concern was to have someone in place when we travel......in SC we had friends come feed the kitties....here all our friends will travel when we travel as they want to get out of town when they can too. Everyone I spoke with said it would be hard to find an Ayi who would come just to feed the cats and not work for us. I may change her hours as I don't think I can keep her busy all the time......time will tell.
Olivia has tried out for swim team.and will begin practicing on Monday.....oh yea, practice is at 6:45 am three mornings and 7:00am on Saturdays. Really looking forward to making sure our teenager is up and on the go that early. At least they provide a bus, otherwise she would have to head out 30 minutes earlier to walk there.
We have restarted our Chinese lessons this week. A woman comes to our house two evenings a week for two hours. Since we haven't worked on it much since June we are almost at square one:( She is also having us work on learning characters.....so challenging, the hope is we will be able to recognize some basic words as time goes on. Our Ayi is also helping me and I teach her some English. Basic stuff related to house and home, food, etc.
We have found our fourth bihou lizard in the house. This one still lives here as Olivia was not able to catch it. They have all been babies, we don't know how they get in. Olivia takes them out to the tree in the back yard. I haven't been able to find out much about them, they appear to be a variety of Gecko.
Enough for now,
Zaijian
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Almost time to go
As I sit and write this on our living room floor I am struck by the fact that this is probably the last Saturday I will sit in our living room. We have four more days of living in our home, then one night with friends and we fly out of Florence on Thursday morning at 7:00 am. Our passports came back a couple days ago, that was a process unto itself. They wanted so many additional documents from us and all the documents Mike had not yet gotten in China......finally done!
Packing was crazy...it has been done for nearly a month now. We had a great trip to Indiana to visit my sister and her family.....too short. I have been chief cook, bottle washer and head lawn girl since Mike left....I am not friends with the weed whacker yet, maybe after a few more uses.....Oh, that's right we leave in four days.....no time left to become friends. My to do list is nearly done, I am glad not to have to write 'yard work' on it again. Most of what is left to do cannot be done till the day before we go.
Our tenants have been moving stuff in for a couple weeks now...gives the cats something new to sniff since all our furniture is on a slow boat to China. I want to change the name of my blog.....anyone got any good ideas?
Olivia had friends over last night and she has gone home with one of them today to spend the night there. I am glad she has gotten together with them, it was challenging to find a day that worked for everyone. Another friend is coming from Columbia on Tuesday and she will see her too.
I have been locked out of facebook now due to some pop-up glitch so I cannot even post a goodbye at this point. I am going to have Olivia try to fix it so I might be able to right before we go. She is my own personal IT department. We don't know when we will have internet once we get there. We have to get a VPN........don't know what that is exactly but it is necessary if we want to get past the Great Fire Wall of China.
Sparkles has taken to sleeping in her carrier, little does she know what that carrier will mean to her in the coming days. We are pretty sure after the flight she will want nothing to do with it. The cats have paper work too and I have not heard but can only hope that has gone smoothly as I am running out of steam to handle anymore bumps in the road.
Our house has passed the air quality tests so we are set to move in. Our air shipment has passed through customs, yahoo! It will be delivered to the house on Thursday, the day Mike gets back from Switzerland....We get to China Friday afternoon.......Busy Crazy!!
Enough for today.
Zaijin
Packing was crazy...it has been done for nearly a month now. We had a great trip to Indiana to visit my sister and her family.....too short. I have been chief cook, bottle washer and head lawn girl since Mike left....I am not friends with the weed whacker yet, maybe after a few more uses.....Oh, that's right we leave in four days.....no time left to become friends. My to do list is nearly done, I am glad not to have to write 'yard work' on it again. Most of what is left to do cannot be done till the day before we go.
Our tenants have been moving stuff in for a couple weeks now...gives the cats something new to sniff since all our furniture is on a slow boat to China. I want to change the name of my blog.....anyone got any good ideas?
Olivia had friends over last night and she has gone home with one of them today to spend the night there. I am glad she has gotten together with them, it was challenging to find a day that worked for everyone. Another friend is coming from Columbia on Tuesday and she will see her too.
I have been locked out of facebook now due to some pop-up glitch so I cannot even post a goodbye at this point. I am going to have Olivia try to fix it so I might be able to right before we go. She is my own personal IT department. We don't know when we will have internet once we get there. We have to get a VPN........don't know what that is exactly but it is necessary if we want to get past the Great Fire Wall of China.
Sparkles has taken to sleeping in her carrier, little does she know what that carrier will mean to her in the coming days. We are pretty sure after the flight she will want nothing to do with it. The cats have paper work too and I have not heard but can only hope that has gone smoothly as I am running out of steam to handle anymore bumps in the road.
Our house has passed the air quality tests so we are set to move in. Our air shipment has passed through customs, yahoo! It will be delivered to the house on Thursday, the day Mike gets back from Switzerland....We get to China Friday afternoon.......Busy Crazy!!
Enough for today.
Zaijin
Monday, June 25, 2012
They gave me a two hour window
nǐhǎo,
This is it from this room.
It is highly unlikely that I will live in this house again:(
The packers gave me an estimated arrival of 8:30 to 10:30.....how do they run a business with such vagaries? Besides, as much as I dread the next three days, I really want to get on with them. Dragging it out does not help my stress level.
Perhaps then I might sleep past 5:30 in the morning. Speaking of sleeping, I apologize to anyone who has used our foldout couch in the past few years....Mom and Dad.......I slept on it last night, what am I thinking that I can do that for a month?? Tonight I think the mattress goes on the floor, we will try that. It didn't used to be like this but I guess everything sags with time, haha!
I am so sad about how little of my fabric and other supplies I think I can bring. It is hard to know what they call reasonable amounts....The things I have selected look like such a pitiful amount.....I will have to come back here as often as possible to pick up more!
Mike is going to look at another house today or tomorrow...hard to be sure as they are going to bed as we get up. They have used the day we are just starting. He thinks this will be the better choice. I trust him to get the right one. My bedroom will be on the third floor. My aching knee! I never even came house hunting when we moved back to Florence 6 years ago. The town is small and I knew the location of the neighborhoods he would look in, he did good!
Enough of this. I have a bit more to organize today. I think I did half the work for the movers already. Maybe not, I don't lift furniture anymore:)
zàijiàn!
This is it from this room.
It is highly unlikely that I will live in this house again:(
The packers gave me an estimated arrival of 8:30 to 10:30.....how do they run a business with such vagaries? Besides, as much as I dread the next three days, I really want to get on with them. Dragging it out does not help my stress level.
Perhaps then I might sleep past 5:30 in the morning. Speaking of sleeping, I apologize to anyone who has used our foldout couch in the past few years....Mom and Dad.......I slept on it last night, what am I thinking that I can do that for a month?? Tonight I think the mattress goes on the floor, we will try that. It didn't used to be like this but I guess everything sags with time, haha!
I am so sad about how little of my fabric and other supplies I think I can bring. It is hard to know what they call reasonable amounts....The things I have selected look like such a pitiful amount.....I will have to come back here as often as possible to pick up more!
Mike is going to look at another house today or tomorrow...hard to be sure as they are going to bed as we get up. They have used the day we are just starting. He thinks this will be the better choice. I trust him to get the right one. My bedroom will be on the third floor. My aching knee! I never even came house hunting when we moved back to Florence 6 years ago. The town is small and I knew the location of the neighborhoods he would look in, he did good!
Enough of this. I have a bit more to organize today. I think I did half the work for the movers already. Maybe not, I don't lift furniture anymore:)
zàijiàn!
Friday, June 22, 2012
Pack Day is coming Fast!
Long time no post.
Mike left for China this past Sunday:(
The past month has mostly been spent sorting through the accumulation of our lives. We have purged and purged. I just don't want to come home to tons of stuff that should have been taken care of long ago, ie. if we stay in China five years.
The packers are coming Monday morning, as of this post they have not told me exactly what time. I don't expect it to be the crack of dawn as they are coming from the beach and that takes about an hour and a half. (Of course, I scheduled Olivia to have an eye Dr. appointment at 9:00 Monday morning...that was what they had available. Thank goodness for friends, Martha is coming to my rescue and can take her.) I am trying to figure out what to put in the air shipment....this stuff will arrive first and may be all we have the first month in the house. A box approximately 54" x 54" x 56" , or some such size. These have to be practical items like dishes, blankets, personal items, and a few fun things like books to read and puzzles to do. And of course a bit of sewing. I may include my sewing machine...less time in transit to get injured. And a way to keep my sanity.
I have been loading up my Kindle like crazy with free books. I figure if I don't like it after the first chapter I can go on to the next. I will read most anything except all these vampire things that are out now a days. Not much in the way of a library with English language books in Beijing. They do have an English bookstore though.
And, speaking of our house....Mike went house hunting his first full day in Beijing. He saw nine houses and narrowed it down to 3. One has a giant bowl for the Master bath tub...looks pretty funky! When I figure out how to do pictures......
Then another house became available the next day so he will look at that next week. He thinks that will be the one as the location in the compound is better.
This is a holiday weekend for China so Mike is having a four day weekend.......Not bad for a first week on the job.....I don't think he knew it when he decided on his start date.
Enough to let you know we are still alive and kicking.
Olivia and I leave here on the 26th of July.
Back to organizing. I am so over organizing.......
Mike left for China this past Sunday:(
The past month has mostly been spent sorting through the accumulation of our lives. We have purged and purged. I just don't want to come home to tons of stuff that should have been taken care of long ago, ie. if we stay in China five years.
The packers are coming Monday morning, as of this post they have not told me exactly what time. I don't expect it to be the crack of dawn as they are coming from the beach and that takes about an hour and a half. (Of course, I scheduled Olivia to have an eye Dr. appointment at 9:00 Monday morning...that was what they had available. Thank goodness for friends, Martha is coming to my rescue and can take her.) I am trying to figure out what to put in the air shipment....this stuff will arrive first and may be all we have the first month in the house. A box approximately 54" x 54" x 56" , or some such size. These have to be practical items like dishes, blankets, personal items, and a few fun things like books to read and puzzles to do. And of course a bit of sewing. I may include my sewing machine...less time in transit to get injured. And a way to keep my sanity.
I have been loading up my Kindle like crazy with free books. I figure if I don't like it after the first chapter I can go on to the next. I will read most anything except all these vampire things that are out now a days. Not much in the way of a library with English language books in Beijing. They do have an English bookstore though.
And, speaking of our house....Mike went house hunting his first full day in Beijing. He saw nine houses and narrowed it down to 3. One has a giant bowl for the Master bath tub...looks pretty funky! When I figure out how to do pictures......
Then another house became available the next day so he will look at that next week. He thinks that will be the one as the location in the compound is better.
This is a holiday weekend for China so Mike is having a four day weekend.......Not bad for a first week on the job.....I don't think he knew it when he decided on his start date.
Enough to let you know we are still alive and kicking.
Olivia and I leave here on the 26th of July.
Back to organizing. I am so over organizing.......
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Moving it up a Week!
Now for something completely different.
We got a message from the people handling our Visa's saying I must be in China before July 28th. Why they didn't mention this several months ago when I sent in all my medical information is any one's guess. I'm voting for incompetence, I could be wrong but......
At the beginning of this process they said get stuff done we need these papers filled out as soon as you can. Thus the frenzy to get physicals, x-rays and shots. However, the Chinese government wants your physical dated within 6 months of your arrival. That means since I had my physical in January I have to get there before it expires. Moving it up a week!! The only person making this easy is the guy in charge of the cats. Everything is no problem. I give him a 10 out of 10!
We are now planning to leave on the 26th of July. The cats will get picked up on the 25th (Mikes birthday) and we all fly on the 26th. China has a one pet, one passport rule and they have to arrive the same day. They also recommend you do not arrive on a weekend as the quarantine facility may not be able to accommodate your pets.
On a better note, we have sold both the cars. A very big worry removed from me as I didn't want to be stuck trying to deal with a car at the last minute before we headed off.
Of course this all means we will get there before Mike has the house so we will live in the hotel for a week. Who knows, it might be easier. I won't have to clean things and someone else will be in charge of changing my sheets!! There certainly won't be anything to unpack as our stuff would only be there if a miracle were to occur. It takes a while to get an import permit and only once the permit is granted can your stuff be shipped from the states. The rules go on and on. As Mike says, "It's because they can."
Today is our 20th anniversary! Off to celebrate:)
Enough babble,
Xià cì zài hé nǐ tán
We got a message from the people handling our Visa's saying I must be in China before July 28th. Why they didn't mention this several months ago when I sent in all my medical information is any one's guess. I'm voting for incompetence, I could be wrong but......
At the beginning of this process they said get stuff done we need these papers filled out as soon as you can. Thus the frenzy to get physicals, x-rays and shots. However, the Chinese government wants your physical dated within 6 months of your arrival. That means since I had my physical in January I have to get there before it expires. Moving it up a week!! The only person making this easy is the guy in charge of the cats. Everything is no problem. I give him a 10 out of 10!
We are now planning to leave on the 26th of July. The cats will get picked up on the 25th (Mikes birthday) and we all fly on the 26th. China has a one pet, one passport rule and they have to arrive the same day. They also recommend you do not arrive on a weekend as the quarantine facility may not be able to accommodate your pets.
On a better note, we have sold both the cars. A very big worry removed from me as I didn't want to be stuck trying to deal with a car at the last minute before we headed off.
Of course this all means we will get there before Mike has the house so we will live in the hotel for a week. Who knows, it might be easier. I won't have to clean things and someone else will be in charge of changing my sheets!! There certainly won't be anything to unpack as our stuff would only be there if a miracle were to occur. It takes a while to get an import permit and only once the permit is granted can your stuff be shipped from the states. The rules go on and on. As Mike says, "It's because they can."
Today is our 20th anniversary! Off to celebrate:)
Enough babble,
Xià cì zài hé nǐ tán
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Where have I been
nǐhǎo!
|
We sold the Civic! Yahoo! Mike offered it at work just casually a month ago and several people looked but nobody bit. He put a little sign on his office door and it sold that day. If anyone is interested in an Altima 6 speed V-6 let us know:)
We are purging, if we don't, we have to pack it and cart it to the attic only to face it all again in three to five years. We have filled the huge trashcan the past three weeks running. That doesn't include all the ones we did over the winter and all the stuff going to find 'new homes'. It is amazing how much stuff we have even though we have moved so much and how much of it we really do not need! So much still to do. For those familiar with my sewing room....haven't even been in there yet and when I don't know where to put something it goes in there...uggh!
On a more fun note I went and bought a new sewing machine!! This one will run on universal power, ie. it is different in China and the old one would need a converter which really isn't good for it. So, a new one. I have not actually used it since I packed it up at the store as I really must do all the other stuff first...play later. Although I did dye fabric last week, that was fun. Olivia got some white pants specifically to dye and I had been waiting for the weather to be warm enough...the dyes work better when it is very warm out. They came out great considering it was guess work to get the color she desired.
Enough babble,
zàijiàn!
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