Haven't ridden a bike in 20+ years

Today was the day for everybody in the family to go get bikes. Our friend Dwayne took us over to Giant Bike. We had no idea how far it was, but Dwayne took off walking so we assumed it wasn't too far. About 4 blocks later, Joe and I are sweating profusely, Gigi is crying and Olivia is whining. The heat is killing us...it's obviously going to take longer to acclimate to the heat and humidity than it is the new sleeping cycle!
Olivia was the first to pick out her shiny new bike, purple with a basket on the front and training wheels on the back. She tested it out and the hand breaks are going to take getting used too, but I imagine after she stops by running into a few things she'll get the hang of it.

I was next in line for a shiny new bike. Dwayne pointed out the "cruiser" bike that seems to be the signature bike for all the ex-pat wives. We pulled it out and as I was getting on the bike to take a test ride, I tried to recollect the last time I had ridden a bike. All I could picture was my ten-speed and the cul-de-sac we lived on in St.Louis, which means that I was 12 years old the last time. I swung into the saddle and sighed with relief that the saying is true, you never forget how to ride a bike. But no one ever says that if you have a 20+ year hiatus between riding bikes, you will wobble all around and let out little shrieks that cause Chinese people to look at you like you're an idiot. I had to get off the bike to turn it around on the sidewalk and come back to the shop, and then Joe asked "how did it feel?" I was truly stumped. Did the bike not feel right because it wasn't a good fit or because I hadn't ridden in so long? We decided it was both and I tried out a bike with an aluminum frame that is lighter and a little bigger. That seemed a better fit and I was in business. I asked them to install the basket on the front and the baby seat on the back and felt like I'd truly stepped into being a stay-at-home mom.

Joe was the last to pick out his shiny new bike, but he's a lot more stable on the bike and had no trouble with the test drive. His issue, when he got back from the test ride, was that the shocks were giving too much. This caused a conversation with the shop owner about how big Joe is and what a bike could handle. Always a fun conversation with a 90 pound Chinese woman. Eventually they switched out the shocks for him and he ordered the bigger baby seat for Olivia to be installed on the back.
We are now officially a family of bikers. The whole ordeal took about 2 hours, and this, we are learning, is standard for China. Nothing happens quickly when you are making a purchase. As a result, our kids touched or knocked over every darn little thing in the bike shop and made me want to literally pull out my hair. B y the time we were done arranging payment and delivery of the bikes, we were so hot, sweaty and short-tempered that we decided to head straight for lunch in an air-conditioned restaurant. But when we got to the corner we realized we had no idea which streets we had walked to get to the bike shop. We hopped in a passing taxi and gave him our address. He drove one block, turned left and drove one more block and dropped us off. Oh. Guess we could have managed that ourselves, but we swore it was more streets and turns when we were following Dwayne.

Because the purchase of bikes wasn't enough fun for us in one day, after the kids napped we headed over to Carrefour (a french grocery store chain that is like a Fred Meyer on steriods) to stock the house. Our list was long, including food items and household items. We had been to Carrefour on Friday, but got overwhelmed and cut the trip short with about 1/2 th stuff on our list. This time I was determined to get everything on the list. That was before we got into the store. Shopping on Sunday afternoon is officially going on my list of things to avoid. The store was so crammed full of people that we could hardly move in the aisles. On top of that, people were openly stopping and staring at Olivia and Gigi. We were only in the store for about 3 minutes when a Chinese family with a daughter of their own came right up to us and put their daughter next to Gigi. The father spoke a little English and asked how old she was, and then took out his camera to get a picture of his daughter next to Gigi. That was the point at which Olivia reached out and took her sister's hand. For me, it was actually a very proud moment because it's one of the few times that I've seen Olivia act in a very protective, sisterly fashion and I was proud of her. We made it down about 10 more aisles of mildly curious staring before an older gentleman stopped in the aisle and just stood right in front of Gigi staring. When we moved down the aisle he came right along with us, and stalked us for two more aisles. Gigi seemed oblivious, but this clearly unnerves Olivia. Between the stares and the noise and heat in Carrefour, she just puts her head down on her arms and endures the ride in the shopping cart. I know exactly how she feels, I wanted to do the same thing.
Despite the staring, this trip to Carrefour was better, we were more dogged about finding and getting what we wanted. And we played more charades than last time to ask our questions. At one point, we were looking for stain remover and Joe and I are trying to figure out how to pantomine that when he says "here, just let me take Gigi with me, she's got stains all over her". Obviously there is no prop we won't use to get our point across. It worked, by the way.

We made it through the household goods and the food aisles, all the way over to the fruits and vegetables and meat section. I was doing pretty well until we came upon the big open bins of chicken parts (drumsticks, wings, etc). People just reaching their hands into the bins and grabbing raw chicken out. I'm no germ-a-phone, but even that made me cringe...and I know there are some people reading this blog right now who are actually gagging at the thought and screaming "what about salmonella?" at their computer. The sight and smell of those bins were my undoing. We grabbed two packaged chicken breasts and 2 packages of hamburger and got out of there.

We were in Carrefour for 2 1/2 hours for one shopping cart full of stuff! No wonder we were all exhausted. And as we stepped outside we saw that we were having another thunder-storm. The original plan to walk back to the apartment with the (metal) shopping cart was scrapped and we hailed a taxi. Even though the rain felt heavenly with all this heat, we decided that we will be using our driver on Saturdays AND Sundays until we are a bit more settled in.

We did, however, manage to accomplish cooking our first meal in our new home. For those of you who wondered what we would do without 2 years of mexican food, never fear, our first home-cooked meal in China was burritos. But without any $3 refried beans. Not because we didn't buy the beans, but because we failed to also buy a can-opener... Can't win 'em all.