Late Night Snacks, Beijing-style

When we were in Beijing a few weeks ago we had an opportunity to walk through one of the night markets near our hotel, about 10 minutes walk from Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. There were about 40 food vendors lined up.

Many of them had the same basic fare to offer: some fruit (although they serve it covered in this clear jelly goop that looks so disgusting I could never bring myself to actually buy it), dumplings, a plate of noodles, some steamed buns. I couldn't resist a plate of fried dumplings, even though we had eaten earlier. As we walked on through the stalls, though,  

it definitely got easier to resist. And harder to hold back what I had just eaten... 

Interestingly, I did not see anyone buying from these meticulously ordered displays. The one thing that I did observe someone buy was the scorpions on a stick. I missed getting a picture of that though: For about 1$ US you could buy a stick with 3 or 4 1-inch scorpions on it but the picture wouldn't really have done it justice anyway because in most cases the scorpions were still moving while skewered on the stick, before being plunged into the deep fryer. I saw a couple of what looked to be American college kids daring each other to buy them. I found myself staring as a gutsy girl engaged in her own private Fear Factor episode (although they'd probably still be alive on the real FF). "Crunchy," she said. "Bitter", she said, without so much as a gag! We moved on just as she was daring her male companions to rise to the challenge.

Walking through I couldn't help but wonder: what is the order of this food chain? Does someone go out and look under rocks and in tidal pools to harvest their inventory? Do they have to clean them like vegetables pulled from the earth before they lay them out? Are they farm raised? I can't even begin to imagine how it works. Or what it might be like to eat a deep-fried silkworm pupa. According to Born Survivor: Bear Grylls bugs ARE a great source of protein. Hungry, anyone?

And just for fun, here are some of the other interesting foods seen around Shanghai in our daily travels:

And on the lighter side, a choice for dessert perhaps:

You might notice that they are labeled as an American product. Has anyone seen them on the shelves at Kroger or Meijer lately?

Our Latest Toy

This...

is our new best friend. No, I have not taken up tennis suddenly as a way to shed that last 10 pounds of baby weight (that training for and running 3 half marathons in 18 months has not helped me to shake-how sad is that?? As I have said before: I can find chocolate cookies ANYWHERE in the world; TimTams have conquered the globe!) No, the Bjorn Borg fanship remains solely the territory of my sister Sharon. (Sending you love and hugs in your recovery my dear sister!)

This is an

a handheld, rechargeable electronic bug zapper.

It is mosquito season everywhere in the northern hemisphere, I think. After going from cold directly to hot, the weather here has settled down a bit and is now quite mild, even pleasant, most days. A few of our windows have retractable screens, which is nice, so we were able to enjoy the breezes and the fresh air for a while. It didn't take long however for the mosquitoes to decide that inside our house was the place to be. And they were showing up in droves. Vivi looked like a little leper, she had so many bites. We didn't get a decent night's sleep for about a week, they kept waking us up. Enter the bug zapper: Skeeters, say hello to my little friend! As a kid growing up I was always kind of creeped out by those purple bug lights but now I am of the mind that there is no more satisfying sound than that ZAP! of a mosquito defeated! No more chasing the little 6@$+@rds around the room, trying to clap them between your hands, only to miss and have them fly away in triumph. Simply wave the "EMT" in their vicinity and you are likely to catch them. Pop! And Heavens above, I do not know how we would have survived without this. At first we thought it must be holes in the screens. We couldn't see any but moving parts are always an opportunity for failure: they must be climbing in along the tracks or something, we thought. Then the heat returned and we had a day over 90 degrees with about 90% humidity. (We've started Plum Rain season but more on that later.) So we closed the windows and finally turned on the AC. And I swear, the next 2 nights were the worst of all. We've decided that there must be an air intake somewhere that doesn't have a necessary screen on it or something because it is as if we have a window wide open somewhere and they are just pouring in! Within the space of about an hour one evening we killed about 20 with our little friend. I am the Mosquito Hunter! Around dinner time we "sweep the perimeter". That lasts until about bedtime and then I sweep the bedrooms before I put the kids to bed and close their door. I also found some of those Raid diffusers where you insert the repellent soaked pad and it diffuses repellent into the air but I think it took a day or two for the repellent to saturate the rooms adequately because even with those in place there was always at least one or two-or 12 that would wake you up at night. One night Heinz and I laughed that we were going to have to sleep in shifts to protect each other because we had already killed about 8 but no matter how much we tried to hunt them all down, once we turned off the light and dropped off to sleep another one came buzzing along.

I truly think this could be the greatest invention ever. If it wasn't for the voltage conversion issues (and probably some anti-electronics import regulations), I would bring a suitcaseful home to my family and friends when we head Stateside next month. It must emit a sound because every time we press the activator Barney looks up, twitches his ears and he does that cute little head twist. It bothering him would be the only thing that might make me hesitate to use it but thankfully he doesn't seem to care. After that initial response he simply puts his head back down and goes back to sleep. My Mandarin instructor also has a maid service in which she teaches her Ayis a high level of English to work for Western families. She said one of them asked her what the English name was for this little beauty. She was surprised that we haven't got a word (other than "bug zapper"?) for it and so am I! Where have they been all my life? When we move home I will happily buy a converter specially for my little baby so that I can use it through the Indiana summer!

Wishing you all Mosquito free days~

The Great Wall

I was hoping that my time in Asia would present some really neat opportunities and I think this one is going to be hard to beat! This was definitely one of those where, halfway through you're saying to yourself "Who is the idiot that thought this was a good idea???" and then you actually do it, you cross the finish line, and it's like giving birth: all the pain and agony that led up to that moment is completely washed away by the euphoria and the flood of endorphins! I did it! It was an amazing challenge, impossible to prepare for and possibly the coolest thing I have ever done. (Although the Race through the Jungle at the EFRC in Indiana does come close....roaring lions 20 feet away: very cool!)

I was really worried going into Race Day for a couple of reasons: my legs were still sore from walking the 2 miles of wall on inspection day 2 days prior; the 3:30 bus departure from the hotel on Race Morning meant at least a 3am wake-up call; and knowing that, since this is not a race one does for time, I had let my training slip and was not as fit on race day as I might have wanted to be. But Race Day dawns, regardless, doesn't it?

The bus leaves at way-too-early:30 but a breakfast box provided by the hotel puts a smile on my Sherpa's face! Love you honey!

Pre Race activity in Yin and Yang Square, the heart of the Fortress, where the 1/2 and full both begin and end.

Number's on; if I wasn't so freakin' cold (it was about 50 degrees) I might be ready to go! Thank God the sun came out and it turned out to be a perfect day for running, about 70 degrees.

And at 7:40, we're off! Out through the Fortress main gate

on the road to the wall, to what I affectionately refer to as...

The Hill of Attrition! 5 kilometers straight UP....

...and UP....

...and up. I was really freaked out on inspection day when I realized this part of the course. I learned a lot about reading a course topography map that day!

I was so relieved when we finally hit the 5 km. mark (you can see it propped against the road sign) because that meant we were around the corner from

Just a few more steps up...

And there it is

Now the fun starts!
 

You can see: it was a beautiful day! It was the biggest field ever, 2000 participants (over 500 in the full, over 800 in the half, 350 or so in the 10k and and about 225 in the 5k) so unfortunately there were a lot of bottle necks

But that was alright because it left some time for taking pictures

My motto for the day: "The journey is the reward"

Along the wall the steps vary in height and depth but in many cases it was little more than a stone ledge or ramp with a sheer vertical drop to one side. You couldn't see the bottom here without hanging out over the edge a bit. I chose not to do so.

The last portion of Wall was "The Goat Track": mostly dirt trail, straight down, with the occasional steps thrown in. But it afforded a beautiful aerial view of the Fort and the Square, including the beginning of the 10 k race, starting out under the bridge (see below). The course for the half wound around the fort once (which basically surrounded all of the buildings that you can see in these pictures; about 1 km), went down into and through the square, and back out onto the road for another 7+ miles. The next 1 1/2 miles was on the road, the middle 4 was in the nearby "village" circling back to the road to retrace the 1 1/2 miles back into the square. That middle 4 miles was a real trail run: all dirt, in some cases rocky path, and also full of hills.

 Some views through the village:

Almost there!

And finally, over 3 and a half hours later back in the Square!

It felt so good to be finished! And it really is true, once the endorphins kick in, you forget how miserable you were at mile 9! Am serious about doing it again next year so those of you who want to join me, let's start making some plans! All in all, it was a great race. I'll go into more detail about some of the fun anecdotes from the morning on the course in a next installment. At the moment I am surprised that blogspot has let me put this many pictures in one post so I won't push my luck. I'll wrap this up for now and write a little more soon. Happy running everyone! 

Who's Hungry?

Just a quick note to share some of the more entertaining sights we have come across lately. Naturally we expected to find some really outrageous foods while here...
(This was spotted last fall during our recon mission, but it gave me such a laugh that I have to share it again here:

)

In Malaysia I was entertained to find Cheesecake Slurpees at the 7-11. I thought Black Fungus Juice was the strangest, most unappetizing thing I would come across here, until I found this:

I didn't think it would be possible but I've gotten so used to seeing the cured, whole chicken, cuttlefish, whatever, laid out in heaps in the grocery store for everyone to simply paw through that I don't even notice them anymore but the great cleaver next to the pile in this case did give me pause.

I guess you are supposed to use the big stone chopping block as you hack off your own piece of cured ham. Everyone around me thought nothing of it but they were freaked out by me taking a picture of it. Something else that cracked me up the other day, although I was unable to get a picture of it: I was visiting a school to apply for Conrad to join their Kindergarten. As I dropped the application off at the admin's desk, I noticed that she had her afternoon snack ready to go, sitting next to her stack of paperwork: 2 enormous chicken feet, each individually wrapped in it's own shrink-wrap package, like a Slim Jim. Yum. I didn't think to ask if they provided those to the students. That might be a good detail to know.

But perhaps you'd like something a little lighter. Here, as in Malaysia, we have Soft Shell Crab and Seaweed flavored Pringle's. Lay's has taken a different route: 

If, like me, you are not a tea drinker, there is another choice:

These I have tried. If you're having a sweet craving, they might do the trick. The blueberry is strong, the first flavor to come through, along the lines of a blueberry Poptart. But then the salt and potato catch up, and it just doesn't work.

This sign was seen in the Shanghai Ikea. Perhaps if you take this English phrase and turn it into Chinese, and then back into the Original Swedish, it will make sense to someone. I am not that someone. Are you?

This one falls under the heading "Doesn't work when translated literally":

And this was on a vending machine in the metro station, selling key chains.

I thought it was funny and it made me happy.

Hope they gave you a chuckle. Let me know if you've seen anything you like and I can bring some to you when we come home for a visit this summer. Blueberry Lay's, you know you want 'em!





There IS life on this Planet! (Also titled "Has Spring Sprung?")

Last week we had some truly beautiful weather. I think it is too early for spring to be here but for a few blessed hours it truly felt as though it had already arrived. I was out with the kids because we have finally, drum roll please...gotten Conrad a big boy bike! He made use of the training wheels for about a week because it is quite a bit heavier than the run bike he is used to, but within a week he wanted me to take them off and away he went! He's been doing so well. So we were out in the afternoon and it was as if our neighborhood exploded with people! It was great! I met about 8 neighbors within the space of about 30 minutes! Really neat, interesting, friendly people. Some with kids, some without. Some with kids Conrad's age. Some with kids Conrad's age that actually even speak English! It has been so interesting watching him throughout this process. He is so social; I don't remember being anywhere near that level of social when I was a kid, I remember feeling painfully shy but he will play with anyone, wants to play with everyone! And he now has 2 friends in particular, one that speaks English and one that does not (she understands a little but speaks French and German). And watching them interact has been so fun because they truly can play without the language barrier interfering. It is so neat. But the best part for me is that the Moms are women that I have really connected with and whose company I really enjoy! There is life on this planet and it is becoming a good friend!

At the end of last week, our Ayi started working. I think I am going to really like her. She speaks some English, reads and understand more (as I have always found to be the way when one is learning a language). She has a great smile, seems very hard working and eager to please and is very sweet with the kids, eager also to interact with them. They are warming up to her slowly, Viv is the hard sell, but I think it will not be much longer before they are comfortable with her. I got a good laugh the first day though because in showing her the mountain of laundry that has piled up while I have been trying to unpack the house, she pointed to the washing machine and asked "you teach me how to use?" Are you kidding me? Teach me Chinese and I will teach you how to use that silly machine! But as she has tamed the monster of laundry in 2 days, without anything looking any worse for wear and against the challenge of a seemingly hamstrung dryer, I suspect what she meant was more along the lines of "please tell me how you want the laundry done". Or at least that's what I'm going with. I can be honest, I have a laundry system. And it is framed by too many years spent using coin-op machines during the lean years when quarters were scarce: the load that continues on to the dryer, and the load that does not. Colors? Temperatures? Hah! That was a luxury! Isn't it more ecologically friendly to do all your wash in cold anyway? I can also admit that as time went on and I got my own washer and dryer (at the age of 28 I finally felt like an adult!!!) that system had worked well enough for me that I largely stayed with it. It helps that having been out of the professional realm for so many years my wardrobe has simplified itself immensely (not like I had that much stuff to be dry cleaned even when I was working in an office...) but I'm inclined to think that whatever damage can be done to my clothes has long since been done by me. And as hard as our water was in Indiana, I suspect my clothes feel like they are on vacation here. And Heinz's shirts....hah! I can see me trying to tell her how to wash and iron a man's shirt; I would feel like such a poseur! In Kuala Lumpur we hired a wonderful Filipino woman to do some housework and babysit (Miss Mabel, oh how I have missed you!!!) and, other than a few glorious months of Merry Maids after Conrad was born, it was the only time I have ever been lucky enough to have someone come clean my house. And she was so professional end efficient, she would arrive and just get down to business and it occurred to me that these cleaning people often know the business of cleaning WAY better than I do. I felt downright silly telling her what to do and how to do it. Now I know, you tai-tais out there are going to tell me "Watch out, don't get too trusting." And I know, I have heard the horror stories of the maid who vacuumed all the wood floors with a screw loose on the head of the vacuum, scratched them all mercilessly and didn't seem to notice the noise it was making as she did; or the one who mopped the oriental carpet; or even the one who was stealing toys from the 5 year old boy for her son at home. But for all the horror stories, there are many happy endings, many families that would not trade their ayi for anyone! For the moment we are figuring it all out, and I believe we will all be happy in the end. I'll revisit the laundry situation when I start buying silk shirts again.

Our love to you all, wherever you are in the world: whether you are covered in 20 inches of snow, or headed out to Lembah Kiara park for Mom's group in the 80 degree sunshine. We miss you all and wish we could be with you. Yes, even in the 20 inches of snow. Hugs~

‘Barney Houdini’ does it again~

So Barney “found” a new opening in the fence. Ah Barney, he’s like an octopus: if the hole is the size of his eye, he can get through. It was late on a Saturday, close to 9pm when I realized he was gone. And had no idea how long he had been gone. A dog can get pretty far in an hour, really far in 3. It was 3 days into Chinese New Year, the firecrackers had been going non-stop. If he was trying to run away from them, who knows how far he could go. I was sick to my stomach. How would we get him back? I couldn’t let myself think what might befall him if we did not. We have had to rely too many times in the past on his tag pointing the way home for his rescuers. And his nametag with our Indy address and numbers came off while he was being groomed at the kennel when he last stayed (while we were visiting in KL but more on that in a minute). I was kicking myself: “why hadn’t I had the foresight and organizational skills to get him a tag with our new address before we left the States???” I don’t have the brainpower to find decently priced dog food with trustworthy quality here, let alone find him a new tag locally. As I said, I was sick, that stomach dropping, oh my God, feeling. I have failed him. My “first” child. Heinz, my knight on his white steed, said “Ideally he has not left the compound. There are lots of dogs in the neighborhood; maybe he has just gone visiting.” And he got on a bike and went to canvas the neighborhood. It was cold and late, but luckily a few people were out and they directed him to one house, which directed him to another and although the people had left to have dinner, Heinz could see Barney in their garage, where they apparently had put him for safe keeping until they could figure out what to do with, or for, him. So Heinz left his card on their door and came home. They came home fairly late and called and said “Since it’s so late, rather than you walking over here or us walking over there, why doesn’t he just stay the night? Besides….our kids really like him.” So Barney had the family’s first Chinese sleep over! I got such a laugh out of that. And such a relief: not only was he safe, but well-cared for. It’s a small world. The family who took him in has lived most recently in Michigan for a few years but come originally from Westfield, Indiana, about 40 minutes north of our house downtown. They saw Barney’s Indiana rabies tag and laughed. They were pretty sure he hadn’t swum to Shanghai on his own, so somewhere nearby was another family from Indiana. They are dog-less at the moment because, after having had 2 dogs for years, the older one died a year ago and then the second died a week before they were leaving for Shanghai, in July. So they said having Barney for a night was a treat for them. Spoiled beast, he slept on the daughter’s bed! They brought him back on Sunday morning and stayed for a bit to chat. Since then the daughter has stopped by periodically to walk him. She enjoys it as much as Barney does. And I am as grateful for it as he is. My poor “first” child, he is low-man on our current totem pole, and his walks are quite infrequent. They are a very nice family, I made some biscotti for them to say thank you and stopped by to chat with the Mom. She told me how she had managed, in the short time he was with them, to contact a local rescue group for advice on what to do. I was amazed, and so grateful. “Basically”, she said, “we did what we would want anyone to do if he was our dog and had gotten lost.” What more could we ask for? So he found a new opening in more ways than one: he found us all some new friends. We are working on getting the fence fixed. When I told my sister Vickie the story she said “well, he can’t dig to China, he’s already there!” Ah, my real Chinese Dog.

So here we are, nearly 6 weeks since my last post. I cannot believe how much time has passed. And how quickly. Last time I wrote, it was about the plight of the freezing house. The condition lasted for 10 days. In the meantime, my husband was planning nearly 2 weeks of business travel and I was getting increasingly more annoyed that I would be left in the freezing house with no one but the kids for company. And Conrad, who NEVER gets sick, was sick for 5 whole days; but I guess that was kind of a blessing in disguise because he was more amenable to the lizard-solution: lying for extended periods, inactive, on the warm living room floor. That had certainly become my preferred position. But my knight in shining armor came through for me again. He surprised us with tickets to join him on his business trip to Kuala Lumpur. We stayed with him in his hotel for 4 days and then when he left to continue his journey to Switzerland, to the home office, the kids and I remained in KL for an additional week. Warm weather, friends we love, places we know; it was exactly what my psyche needed. He had arranged for the kids to stay with our friend Valentine and her family, one of my KL guardian angels, (you may remember my mentioning them helping me with my car accident last spring) and for me to stay with my friend Amanda, my other KL guardian angel who did so much to help me feel comfortable getting around on my own while we were living there. So additionally, after weeks of spending too much time on top of each other with no other social outlets, the kids and I had a much needed break from each other as well. I love my children dearly, but it was heaven. And I know I have not thanked my wonderful husband enough for that, so, Honey, here is a very public, probably long over due “Thank You, again!” I love you!

We returned home to a warm, heat-system repaired house late on a Wednesday, picked Barney up from the kennel (separated from his name tag but looking oh so shiny, fluffy and pretty!) and learned that the movers were coming with our stuff on Friday. Heinz would still be away until Monday. I was so excited to be getting my stuff, nothing like your own bed and favorite coffee cups, but this would be fun to manage the kids and the movers all by myself! But the kids were actually really good the first day. They each have an Ikea tent and had missed them while we were away, so they were quite content to spend much of their time in them while the movers unloaded the truck. Since then, I feel like all I have done is unpack, and unpack, and unpack some more. Where did we get all of this stuff? And, outnumbered as I am, it feels as though for every one thing that I get put away, the kids pull out two things. Keeping up with the mess of toddlers is hard enough on a good day…it’s like my old friend the sand hill: running, and running, feeling as though you are getting nowhere. But I think we have finally tamed the monster. I would say we are 90% done. And the organizational system might even make sense to someone other than me! But it’s that last 10% that can be the hardest isn’t it? If it was easy to find places for these things, they would already be home. Oh well. Maybe I just need to lose my emotional attachment to some of these things and say good bye? We’ll see.

An organized, relatively clean house is within my grasp. I feel so much lighter already. And soon we will finally have an Ayi (housekeeper/babysitter). We were unable to secure one before Christmas, decided to wait until after the western new year to continue the search, and were then told that if we had not found one by then, we would not find one until after Chinese New Year, midway through, possibly the end of February. I know, “Wah, poor me! No housekeeper!” But a key description of the position is “babysitter”. As I mentioned before, the kids and I spend too much time together, with no other social outlets. I currently have no social outlets, whatsoever. And I know they need some too. Conrad, especially. We are hoping to get him into a pre-school program, but most already have waiting lists, and are very expensive to boot. All the children we have met his age are already in school, so playdate opportunities are limited to nonexistent. And while trying to get the house in order, I have not had the bandwidth to devote either to a search to remedy that situation, or to keeping him constructively occupied throughout the day. As a result I am constantly at my wits end with him, I feel. Back on that sand hill I go, with the twist of a downward spiral into depression if I am not careful. I know that is a common side effect of the culture shock of a transition such as we have made but understanding it and being able to remedy the situation can be two different things. It is such a luxury, I know but with someone to take care of the regular duties of the house, I can focus on my children without the other baggage, and enjoy their company, rather than screaming at them for trivial things, because as my world has seemingly spiraled out of my control, I need to control the stupid (Conrad would say “Don’t say stupid, Mom!” I’ve made an impression with at least one good thing) tiny things that they do. Never before has the concept of the power struggle with toddlers made so much sense to me. But I still get locked in the cycle even as I tell myself “stop, you know where this is going and why”. So today I resolve to stop screaming at my children (The kids thank you again, Aunt Vickie, for introducing their harpy mother to Love and Logic!). The most shameful thing is when you hear them using your voice and words with each other. Ugh, what have I done? But again, as I have said, I think the better days are on the horizon, finally, and the hardest parts of the transition are nearly over. Soon I will have someone to help. I think it’s a fair trade for all that we have given up. Someone to help me read labels at the grocery store so that I don’t end up with water softener salt when what I needed was dishwasher detergent. The big bag, no less. Someone to watch the kids while I attend a language lesson so I can feel less completely separate from the world around me. Someone to tell me how the washing machine actually works before I ruin something in it. Or maybe once she is here, I won’t have to worry at all about how the washing machine works! Won’t that be nice?

We miss you all. We wish you all joy, love and luck throughout the year of the Rabbit! And hope, as ever, that perhaps the fortune this New Year bestows on you will bring you to our door for a visit. Hugs and love from the Eastern hemisphere~

The politics of cold

First of all let me just say that I fear I jinxed myself with the “un-fun version of camping” comment. At the time I thought that was the worst it could get! Recently, as the weather got consistently colder, the house seemed to as well. We have a fairly typical Asian system, I think. We had a similar one in Malaysia: living, dining, bedrooms each have an air cooling/heating unit; service areas, bathrooms, hallways, kitchens, do not. And each room/unit has its own control. Unfortunately, the system will mutiny as a whole. So after 3 days of having the management company bring one person after another to look at it, shake their heads and walk away, they finally conceded that it was the Landlord’s problem to hire an independent contractor to look at it. With average highs of 44F and a low below freezing, I think you can imagine that 3 days later many regions of my house are uninhabitable. As an architect with a professional’s eye towards efficiency of layout and usage of resources, it struck me immediately as the house cooled down that each of the major living spaces has 3 exterior walls. Not the best way to foster heat retention! Thank goodness for the aforementioned heated living room floor! For the last 2 nights the kids and I have slept in the living room and Heinz joined us there last night as our bedroom is about 50 degrees. But, as we do not expect our container to arrive for at least another 2 weeks, we only have one couch and only dining room-type chairs. So last night my poor husband tried to sleep on pillows on a tile floor while Viv and I were on the couch and Conrad was on a cushion of 3 towels folded in half. And then poor husband had to get up and go to work this morning. This is a level of rustic I did not plan for when I was choosing carefully what to include in my 7-suitcase allotment for the trip over! Thank goodness I did at least include the awesome flannel blankets my dear friend Moe made for each of the kids. Auntie Moe, I was blessing you last night as I curled up with Viv under hers!

So here we are, 3 days later and late Friday afternoon, no less, the Landlord’s contractor has told us (okay, he told me through the Management Office’s translator) that the motherboard and compressor on the system are shot and need to be replaced. Well some things are simply universal and I don’t think much of anything really gets done late on a Friday no matter where you are in the world. We are considering checking into a hotel for the weekend, managed to find one in Shanghai that is pet friendly (Aunt Linda we need you!!!) but the story gets even better: they turned the power off while they were here 2 hours ago to look at the system and for whatever reason could not/would not turn it back on when they left. So the Management Office guy told me he would get one of the handymen on site to come turn it back on (I am a bit baffled that he cannot simply flip the breaker himself? He was part of the team that turned it off originally. But if he’s not willing to do it, I’m sure certainly not!) In the meantime it is nearly dark and I have no lights and now not even my beloved floor heat!! How do you entertain toddlers in the dark? Again, candles aren’t something that I felt the need to make room for in my suitcases! And to top it off, I haven’t got a phone number for the office because there is a closed circuit phone system for tenants to use to call the Office from their houses, but guess what? No power, no phone! Help!!

Thankfully my dear husband has the direct number for one of the head guys and he has called on my behalf: the cavalry is on its way! But this whole endeavor has been so enlightening for me on so many levels. It has sort of been a crash course in Chinese crisis management/customer service and I have formed a lot of impressions. It will be interesting over the course of the next 2 years to see how well this westerner's first impressions stand up. The first, and most significant to me, seems to be a derivative of the Chinese cultural aspect of saving-face. I feel like I am always told what I want to hear, or am simply given no answer at all, so that the people who cannot fix the problem or cannot answer the question are not made to look bad. And it is infuriating and fosters in me a sense of distrust of the people as a whole. It leaves me feeling that honesty is not highly valued. In my head I believe that is probably not a true statement but I cannot reconcile the 2 concepts: saving face through avoidance vs. telling the truth. If you choose not to answer my question at all, how is that not dishonesty? How is there shame in not being able to fix my heat?
The second is the issue of customer service, or lack thereof. I mean, think about it: a communist country really doesn’t need customer service, does it? Recent conversations with a number of different people about the ways in which the Chinese are creeping up in rankings against the countries of the “first world” have left me watching closely how things work here to see if the fears of China taking over the world are as valid as some fear. I truly believe though that as the world gets smaller, more industrialized, and more people have money to spend, customer service will become more important, not less. And although Capitalism IS alive and well and living in Communist China, my recent experiences have drawn me to conclude that the Chinese mindset leaves China with a long way to go before it will be a world player on that stage. Certainly not a scientific study by any means, arguably more opinion than anything else, but it will be interesting to see, as I said, how these first impressions evolve over the rest of our stay here.
At the moment, however, I am more concerned with the impression of my freezing fingers. Heinz is going to stop on his way home and pick up a space heater or two. After being a prisoner of the house for 3 days with 2 rambunctious toddlers, I couldn’t abide the idea of us all being cooped up in one room in a hotel all weekend. Hmm, on second thought maybe I jumped the gun because if I had taken door number one, I would not have had to cook all weekend! Oh well, there is always Sherpas….