Shrimp flakes anyone?

Wow, it’s amazing how a week can go by and in that time I’ve managed to do nothing and everything. That’s the best possible description of what it’s like for us in China right now!

Gigi started at the Chinese preschool. When we got in the car to go, she was so excited she said to Daniel (driver) “I go to preschool today!” She ran into her classroom without a backward glance. That is a child that clearly needs friends her own age and more toys/activities than we have in our house right now! But after 2 hours, she had a meltdown and no matter what I did I could not console her, so we called it a day. My guess is that the unknown friends, teachers & ayi, the different language and the different food all finally got to her. (And potentially she finally realized how ugly her uniform is.) She’s just young enough that she can scream and cry when she gets overwhelmed, whereas the rest of us have to just buck up and retreat into our house with a DVD from the corner “store”. ☺

Yesterday I was feeling quite good about myself because I managed to do the weekly grocery shopping in a fairly efficient way. I had to go to two different stores, but I actually got everything on my list. This is a major breakthrough, because up to this point I’ve been going to the grocery about every other day because either I’ve forgotten something, couldn’t find it or they are out of what I need. I learned quickly that if you find what you need, buy at least two of them because stores do not stay stocked of anything except rice and instant noodles.

But my good feelings evaporated today when I decided to try a new recipe and went to the store for a simple jar of honey. I know that there is an entire section of some aisle with honey, I’ve seen it! After 30 minutes of trudging up and down every aisle, I found myself standing in the chips and cookie aisle, trying to figure out who to call to ask where the hell the honey is in Carrefour. And that’s the most frustrating part of being here right now…I do not yet have the language skills to ask the simple question “where is the honey?” So that means I have to figure it out on my own by looking, observing, and playing charades. Thus my comment that I spend the day doing everything and nothing! (By the way, Chinese lessons are actually going fairly well, but my mouth still does not form these sounds accurately! And I haven’t learned any useful phrases yet, basically I can say: hello, my name is, I am American, how much is it, I want, I no want! All things that start a conversation, but then immediately stop when I cannot understand the response!!!)

Anyway, I’m standing in the chips and cookies aisle and my gaze falls on a bag of Shrimp Flakes. Seriously? Yep, Shrimp Flakes. Unless you’ve been here, it’s hard to imagine how many things they flavor with shrimp. Chips, noodles, candies, baked goods!
I wonder what flavor it is that Chinese people who come to the US think is gross? Not that I think shrimp flavor is gross, just that I think it belongs to shrimp, not chips!

So I have two confessions to make. The first is that we are clearly not as tough as the Chinese people. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the Chinese like HARD beds. We have a king size bed which is literally a wood frame with a wood slab on top, covered in cotton. It was a problem for Joe from day one. We got a foam pad to put on top which worked for me, but Joe wasn’t sleeping at all. And then I finally realized that maybe the reason I kept waking up in the middle of the night with one of my arms or hands asleep was because of the wood bed! So we gave in and tracked down a Serta mattress factory and paid a ridiculous amount of money for a “western style” mattress. Our driver, who helped us with the transaction, sat on our bed at the factory and grimaced. For the 20th time we heard “Chinese people like hard beds”. What can I say, we like our creature comforts! Now we have to figure out what the heck to do with an extra king size mattress. We wonder, what is the Chinese equivalent to Goodwill?

My second confession is that we have officially been here for a month and have not eaten out at a “real” Chinese restaurant. Can you believe it? It sounds so pitiful when I write it down! We ate out constantly the first two weeks we were here, but we focused on western style restaurants that had kids menus and baby seats to ease the transition. When we finally got settled into the apartment, we were sick of going to restaurants and have been eating at home ever since, especially since we have ayi to cook for us 3 nights/week. Geez, it seriously sounds like I’m making excuses for this doesn’t it? That doesn’t make it any less pitiful! I am making it my mission for our family to go out for real Chinese food this weekend. Despite the fact that we can’t read anything on the menus, and that if we ask for an English menu it will probably have different prices on it. It will be an adventure. Stay tuned.

By the way, a sincere thanks for all the people who have sent emails and encouragement after reading my blog. We have good days and bad days in China as we continue to settle in, but hearing from friends and family back home really makes my day! And it inspires me to make time to write my blog!
Cheers!