"A Way With Words"

One of my favorite "feels like being back home" things to do is listen to podcasts of my favorite NPR shows and "A Way with Words" is at the top of the list. Some of you may know it. Recently Greg the quiz guy challenged Martha and Grant to play a little game: he had taken the words to a few well-known Nursery Rhymes and "Babel-ed" them. That is to say he put them into the Babelfish.com translator and took them from English to a foreign language, back to English, then to a second foreign language and back again, sometimes adding a third generation of translations, and Martha and Grant had to identify the original rhyme. The result was hilarious and I am proud to say I was able to name each and every one even before Martha and Grant did! My Chinglish exposure has taught me well. 
It is so hard for me to believe a year has passed but today we celebrate the first anniversary of our arrival as a family in Shanghai. As such I thought it would be a good time to share some of the more entertaining Chinglish examples I have come across in the last few months.   


Hanting Hotels are a local chain. We pass one on a certain route that we often take and it has this sign above it:

I was excited when the grocery store where we frequently shop advertised that it would be hosting a wine fair. This is the sign it posted with the schedule:

I've seen the following sign near a few ponds now:

Since it makes no sense to me I decided to play a little game of my own. I put "no dabbling" into Google Translator, took the resulting Chinese and reverse translated it to see if I would get something relative to water or entering or swimming: "Not involved". Maybe not.

I found this one in a menu while lunching with a friend:

Evil, Evian, maybe this translation is actually on target! (But come on, when all you need to do is copy what the label says into your menu, is there really an excuse for being so far off the mark??)

This one is on all of the fire doors in Heinz's office building. 

It makes me giggle because my first thought was that it was like a movie spoiler and my goofy mind imagined a bunch of zombies on the other side of the door waiting to grab us if we went through!

These signs identify which department you have wandered into in our local super store:

In case you are confused about what you will find in this department, (ignoring the stationary vs. stationery issue...) they have conveniently labeled some of the merchandise: 

This sign is posted at a playground where we sometimes play:

Apparently number 3 was so important that they had to list it twice. It didn't make sense the first time so it's not any more helpful the second!

I think my biggest fear is that some day these things are going to start looking normal to me. That will be the point at which I will KNOW we have been here too long... We're off and running into year number two. Will you join us?

Happy 'Harroreen'

In the end the kids had a more traditional experience for Halloween even than we might have gotten on our street back home! (Here Conrad models the mask selection at the local superstore) Our neighborhood really got into it with the previously mentioned pumpkin carving party the weekend before and we organized ourselves to do a Saturday night trick-or-treat. I would estimate that about 60 of the 100 houses in our compound participated, mostly the Americans and Brits but a few of the Europeans also got into it and even one or two of the local Chinese households (as opposed to repatriated Chinese Americans-they get lumped in with the Americans).
We went trick-or-treating with our friends and ironically, completely by accident, the boys were both Spiderman (luckily Conrad let his evil side show by choosing the 'dark' side of Spidey, with his matching rain boots!) and both girls were dragon/dinosaurs! (Although we couldn't get either one to put their "head" on)

It rained a little but at least we didn't have to wear winter coats!

The candy selection was interesting to see. There wasn't a lot of chocolate handed out (better that way, maybe that will keep me out of their stash!) probably because chocolate can be quite expensive over here. Mostly people gave out gummy candies and hard candies or lollipops. We were out for about an hour and then headed home to drop the treat bags and head to the neighborhood block party.

Dark-side Spidey takes a load off, shows us his boots and has a ciggie. (It's just a lollie but doesn't it look like a smoke?)

Then he thanks his guns for helping haul in his major stash!

It wasn't until the following morning that I got a good look at what was in the kids' bags. For the most part since it was almost all westerners participating I found that it was pretty normal stuff. Some of the flavors were a little unexpected, lychee or mango lollies, (but thank goodness no durian!) and then I found this:

Yes, look closely: that is a corn-flavored lollipop. After my initial shock wore off I thought "Hey, maybe it'll taste like Sugar Corn Pops, my all-time favorite cereal!" But no, it simply, amazingly, tastes like an ear of boiled corn. I guess it's not altogether surprising since many Asian desserts consist of a rice base topped with corn and red beans. (I was surprised not to find any red bean or green tea-flavored treats but again, this was the westerners handing it all out.) So I guess it's meant to be paired with this lollipop:

In the end I'm left to wonder:  Candy - trick or treat?



SOME things ARE simpler in China

So I'm at that point where I need to replace my running shoes. I started asking around, "Where do you buy your running shoes here?" Apparently everyone has suitcases that are way bigger than mine because they all looked at me as if I were a complete idiot and said "I stock up when I go back home". Hmmm. There just are not any stores that serve serious runners here. Well, I could go on and on about how difficult it can be to find the simplest things in China, (and truly the irony is that they are all MADE here, so why can't we just buy them here???) but I will spare you the whine-fest. However the challenge remains: find my brand, find my style and find my size.

I'm a Mizuno girl, not the most widely stocked brand even in the States so I was starting to get a little antsy. Lucky for me there is a (as in only one, in a city of 20 million, but hey, that's all I need, right?) Mizuno store and it's even on our side of the river. One down. I managed a Saturday afternoon to myself and headed out to check out what they had. Not my favorite style, but at least they have other acceptable alternatives. Two down, sort of. Probably more like 1 1/2 down. One to go. I wear a 9 running shoe, a very common size in the States. It converts to a 40 or 41 European, depending on the shoe and as a whole, most Chinese stores do not stock above a 39. Sure enough that is the case here. Okay, so I decide that I am willing to try a men's shoe (I'd rather try my luck with a shoe of the brand I love and trust, rather than start experimenting with a different brand, in a situation where it is probably impossible to find a salesperson that can tell me anything at all about the shoes in their store.) In my head I am trying to remember back to my days in the Herman's shoe department: a 9 women's US equals what in men's? I turned to the sales guy (who thankfully spoke pretty good English) and asked him "what is the men's equivalent of a women's 40?" As soon as I asked it, I realized what a silly question that was! And I really had to chuckle both at myself and the look on his face. It said "I understand your words but they are making no sense to me." (I think it is the face that I permanently wear with my mother-in-law these days!) A 40 is a 40 is a 40! How simple!

So maybe I'm taking a pretty big risk by trying a men's shoe, but the sad fact is that I need to replace my shoes 3 training runs ago so I feel like I have no choice. I'm still not enough of a runner to understand when my shoes are dead until they are DEAD and I now only have 4 weeks until my race. It could be worse, last year with our move home from Malaysia I was so out of touch with my equipment that I ended up replacing my shoes one week before the Monumental Half! I was so scared that I had ruined my chances for a good race but then I beat my goal time by over a minute. So maybe my new training strategy will be to use my shoes to the point where using them feels like I am running with boards strapped to my feet, only then buy new ones and fly like the wind! Yeah, you're right: probably not such a good idea! I'm off to give the new ones a try. Wish me luck and Happy Running!

An October Post

I cannot believe October is almost over. Between a non-working computer, a virus threat and a visiting (non-English speaking) mother-in-law, I have been away too long from the blog pages. I have also been trying to "be the model" and keep Conrad away from the computer by staying off of it myself. Good in theory, but not necessarily for my psyche. Or my blog schedule. Am trying to get caught up and stick to my minimum one-blog-a-month goal, so here goes.
Many of you asked how it all turned out so I will start with the follow up on the story of Conrad's day as a professional actor. I laughed last time about how it was turning out to be a full time job, but the craziest part was when Sophie, the Agent, called us the day before to tell us Conrad had to be at the park at 5:30 in the morning for the shoot! I told her that was nuts and if the client had any clue at all about children they should know they would never get anything good out of kids at 5:30 in the morning! Eventually she managed to get them to push it back to 6:30. I have to say that aside from the early hour I was really dreading it because I imagined it was going to be a lot of standing around, waiting for a few minutes here and there of actual shooting. The last audition shoot that we attended Conrad met the 2 other Western boys who would be participating, one German, one Italian, but they managed to speak enough English between the 3 of them to spiral each other totally up out of control. They ran around the production company’s offices at 6:30 in the evening while the other parents and I cooled our heels for over an hour, (and Heinz waited on the other side of town for us to pick him up from work) waiting to see if they had all the footage they needed for all the pre-shoot techno junk. I’m usually one of those parents who is trying to get my kids to sit down and shut up in someplace like an office but I didn’t stop them because my philosophy was that if the boys got rowdy and loud enough, they’d want to get rid of us as soon as possible. It didn’t seem to work, no one seemed to pay any attention to the hooligans, and we still had to wait well over an hour to be released from a 10 minute photo shoot!

So commercial day dawned and Conrad and I headed out to Century Park and, as I said, I was dreading it, expecting it to be a lot of standing around for 3 minutes of filming, and 3 little western boys soon wanting to do nothing more than run around like hooligans. I feared at the end of the day Conrad would be bored out of his gourd and full of energy from having just stood around all day. All I knew was that the client wanted a sunrise shot. Well, when we got there, we saw this big arch set up and soon learned that the shoot entailed the kids standing at the top of the hill and running about 150 yards down through the arch. Over and over. And over. And over. No standing around for these kids! It was brilliant! I jokingly said to Sophie “Can we do this everyday?”

About 45 minutes in, the little Italian boy was dripping sweat, saying “Daddy, can I please go home now?” It was very interesting because naturally most of the instructions were given in Chinese. They would count backwards from 3, then yell “Run!” (San, er, yi, pao!) And the 4 Chinese kids would all take off, and the 3 Western kids would kind of go “Wha, what?” and then take off after the Chinese kids. So the Chinese kids always “won” and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was by design, to some degree. But they were generally very good, taking care of the kids, giving them breaks and lots of water. It was a really hot day.

Conrad and his agent, Sophie

The professional gets into the zone

Action shots!

The talent takes a break

It was a beautiful day in Century Park, with views to downtown Shanghai

We ended up being there until nearly noon. Viv had stayed home with Heinz and when he went to work he dropped her off with me at the park so at least only one whiny kid had to get up really early. 

She does her own version of the commercial...

...and has her own adoring fans

and no trip to a park in Asia is complete until you see a bride and groom getting their picture taken!

Conrad made a few dollars and we’ve put it aside for him and all in all it was fun, and we would consider doing it again. We’ll see if Sophie calls us!
And now we are on to Halloween. Last weekend one of our neighbors hosted a pumpkin carving party.

Halloween is actually quite big here, in the expat bubbles. I think the general rule that, "if we can make money off of it we'll jump on the band wagon" holds very true here in China. As I have said before Commercialism is alive and well in this Communist country. And profitable! You don't want to know what I paid for that silly pumpkin! But it was great fun carving it (Thanks Emi and Tres for having us all!) and it's nice to maintain our own customs alongside the new Chinese ones that we discover. Our neighborhood has planned to trick-or-treat Saturday night and have a big block party afterwards. Conrad is going to be Spiderman, in a borrowed costume and Viv will (maybe...) wear a dinosaur costume that I had bought a few years ago. (Aunt Vickie, we wish we had the M&M and Little Bo Peep!) Funniest part, we will go around with Conrad's best friend Kanon and his little sister, and guess what they are wearing...Spiderman and a dinosaur! Our neighborhood is really getting into it, I'm surprised how many foreigners have also adopted the aspect of Halloween so it's really going to be a lot of fun.
In the meantime we are 3 1/2 weeks into Heinz's mom's 6 week stay. I know she is really enjoying being with the kids but with the language issues, it has had it's awkward moments. Mein Deutsch ist nicht sehr gut in diesen Tagen (my German is not so good these days) and it really gets interesting when I use my limited German with the Ayi and my more limited Chinese with my mother-in-law! I eventually get a good laugh out of it, and really I think the Ayi does too. I think she gets a good laugh at my expense on a regular basis anyway!
We hope you all are well and that you have a safe, fun and Happy Halloween in your part of the world!

The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

Today, Monday September 12th, is the Mid-Autumn Festival. Many businesses are closed and Heinz has the day off. Here is a description of the background of the holiday, taken from Wikipedia {with editorial comments by me added in brackets, in italics}:

The Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節), also known as the Moon Festival is a popular harvest festival celebrated by Chinese, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese people. Dating back over 3,000 years to moon worship in China's Shang Dynasty, it was first called Zhongqiu Jie (literally "Mid-Autumn Festival") in the Zhou Dynasty. In Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar. It is a date that parallels the autumnal equinox of the solar calendar, when the moon is at its fullest and roundest. The traditional food of this festival is the mooncake, of which there are many different varieties. The Chinese festival is very traditional and a great way to celebrate.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the few most important holidays in the Chinese calendar. Farmers celebrate the end of the fall harvesting season on this date. Traditionally on this day, Chinese family members and friends will gather to admire the bright mid-autumn harvest moon, and eat moon cakes under the moon together.

Celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival is strongly associated with the legend of Houyi and Chang’e, the Moon Goddess of Immortality. Tradition places these two figures from Chinese mythology at around 2200 BCE, during the reign of the legendary Emperor Yao, shortly after that of Huangdi. Unlike many lunar deities in other cultures who personify the moon, Chang'e simply lives on the moon but is not the moon per se. Shops selling moon cakes before the festival often display pictures of Chang’e floating to the moon.

{Best I can understand, Houyi and Chang’e are immortals who get on the bad side of the Gods, are banished from Heaven, try to reclaim their immortality through the Elixir of Life (in some versions of the legends this is where the Jade Rabbit comes in, helping Chang'e) and Chang’e ends up stuck between Heaven and Earth, on the Moon . The descriptions of the legend that I have found are rambling, incredible, have so many variants and are quite simply not terribly interesting enough to warrant inclusion here…}

The Hare or The Jade Rabbit {have you ever noticed “the bunny in the moon”?}   According to tradition, the Jade Rabbit pounds the Elixir, together with the lady, Chang'e, for the gods. Others say that the Jade Rabbit is a shape, assumed by Chang'e herself. The dark areas to the top of the full moon may be construed as the figure of a rabbit. The animal's ears point to the upper right, while at the left are two large circular areas, representing its head and body. In Chinese folklore, it is often portrayed as a companion of Chang'e, constantly pounding the elixir of life for her.


Overthrow of Mongol rule    According to a widespread folk tale (not necessarily supported by historical records), the Mid-Autumn Festival commemorates an uprising in China against the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty (1280–1368) in the 14th century. As group gatherings were banned, it was impossible to make plans for a rebellion. Noting that the Mongols did not eat mooncakes, Liu Bowen (劉伯溫) of Zhejiang Province, advisor to the Chinese rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang, came up with the idea of timing the rebellion to coincide with the Mid-Autumn Festival. He sought permission to distribute thousands of moon cakes to the Chinese residents in the city to bless the longevity of the Mongol emperor. Inside each cake, however, was inserted a piece of paper with the message: "Kill the Mongols on the 15th day of the 8th month". On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), under Zhu. Henceforth, the Mid-Autumn Festival was celebrated with moon cakes on a national level.


Mooncake (月饼; yuè bĭng) Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4–5 cm thick. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a relatively thin (2–3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea. Today, it is customary for businessmen and families to present them to their clients or relatives as presents, helping to fuel a demand for high-end mooncake styles. Mooncake energy content can vary with the filling and size; the average moon cake carries 800 to 1200 kcal, mainly from fats and sugar. {Oh my!!!}

• Lotus seed paste (蓮蓉, lían róng): Considered by some to be the original and most luxurious mooncake filling, lotus paste filling is found in all types of mooncakes. Due to the high price of lotus paste, white kidney bean paste is sometimes used as a filler.
• Sweet bean paste (豆沙, dòu shā): A number of pastes are common fillings found in Chinese desserts. Although red bean paste, made from azuki beans, is the most common worldwide, there are regional and original preferences for bean paste made from mung beans, as well as black beans, known throughout history.
• Jujube paste (棗泥, zǎo ní): A sweet paste is made from the ripe fruits of the jujube (date) plant. The paste is dark red in color, a little fruity/smoky in flavor, and slightly sour in taste. Depending on the quality of the paste, jujube paste may be confused with red bean paste, which is sometimes used as a filler.
• Five kernel (五仁, wǔ rén): A filling consisting of 5 types of nuts and seeds, coarsely chopped, is held together with maltose syrup. Recipes differ from region to region, but commonly used nuts and seeds include: walnuts, pumpkin seeds, watermelon seeds, peanuts, sesame seeds, or almonds. In addition, the mixture will usually contain candied winter melon, jinhua ham, or pieces of rock sugar as additional flavoring.


Most mooncakes consist of a thin, tender skin enveloping a sweet, dense filling, and may contain one or more whole salted egg yolks in its center to symbolise the full moon. Very rarely, mooncakes are also served steamed or fried.

Traditional mooncakes have an imprint on top consisting of the Chinese characters for "longevity" or "harmony", as well as the name of the bakery and the filling inside. Imprints of the moon, the Chang'e woman on the moon, flowers, vines, or a rabbit (symbol of the moon) may surround the characters for additional decoration.
{End Wikipedia}

Basically, moon cakes are everywhere, in every store, packaged individually and in decorative boxes of 4 or more, ranging in price from 30 cents a piece to about $15 a piece. And when you are out and about the majority of the people walking around seem to have carrier bags filled with gift boxes. In honor of the holiday, our driver gave us some from Marco Polo, a local high-end, bakery/pastry shop. They were beautifully packaged

and I suspect they were quite expensive. They are very elegantly shaped, and I wish I knew what the characters on them actually said.

But the simple fact is that I find them revolting. (I think I understand why the Mongols didn't eat them either!) They are very dense and have a very heavy brown, earthy flavor. I really don’t know how else to describe it, but try to imagine what lotus seed or bean paste might taste like.

Ick. It coats your tongue and it is difficult to rid your mouth of it, if you are brave enough to try them. I guess if I drank Chinese tea I could wash it down with that. I feel bad because as I said, I suspect Mr. Bian paid a lot for them and we will likely end up giving them away.

He also gave us a nice bottle of Australian Shiraz and a little goodie bag with the following:

I have no idea what these are, perhaps a green tea candy? They seem to be a hard chewy candy, like a toffee or a caramel. (But not like the kind of toffees that I can eat by the handful!) I haven’t had the courage to put one in my mouth, the smell is not very enticing to me. And these:

This in particular cracks me up because on the package it says “dried pineapple” but when I opened it I found these little yogurt cups with these strange, clear, gelatin-like blocks in it, not actually any fruit at all.

So somewhere between Bentonville and here (Yes, we have a WalMart here in Shanghai…, hence the Members Mark brand) the pineapple morphed, I guess? I have to laugh: maybe he thought “It’s an American product, surely they will like it”. Maybe the kids will eat it….Either way, it was a very nice gesture on his part!

So the Fall Harvest is officially ended. Put your feet up with the farmers, take a break and admire the harvest moon with a nice mooncake and some Chinese Tea.        Or not.

Reflections on an Anniversary

Hard to believe that it's been a year since the first time I came to China. Harder still to believe that Vivi, in her 2 years and 5 months has spent more time in Asia than she has in the States. In some ways time has simply flown by (one of the reasons I haven't posted in almost 2 months is that I feel like I can't keep up!) but in so many of the ways mentioned in earlier blogs, it really has been a long year! But it has been a good year in retrospect. (Yesterday Heinz said "You haven't posted a blog in a while; everything must be going too well...") And really it has been going pretty well. We've finally hit a stride. Everyone has found some friends (except poor Barney, but I'm still working on that) and we really love our neighborhood.

Our 4th of July party was a lot of fun. I had to laugh at the irony: all of our American friends had already headed back to the States so it turned out we were the only Americans in attendance and the bulk of the guest list was British! They graciously came anyway. The guest list had a wonderfully international mix along with the Brits: German, French, Ecuadorian, New Zealanders, Fijians, and of course our own Swiss contribution. The ice cream turned out well and dessert was celebrated with one of my favorite gadgets: My Williams Sonoma ice cream sandwich maker.

We all wore our colors, even Barney.

I had bought him this bandana our first summer in Indy, years ago. Along with it came this one, and I thought it was perfect for hanging on the gate to welcome our guests.

On closer inspection I got another big laugh and dose of irony, finding this at the bottom corner:

I have to wonder just how many of my household items I have "brought home" to their place of creation! Have we told you all the story of our dining room chairs? 8 1/2 years ago, when we were moving to Indy, we bought a dining room table, the first piece of furniture purchased together for our new home! Well, at the time there weren't chairs offered with it, and sadly, we still can't really afford the matching chairs...(could only afford the Stickley table because it was a 'scratch and dent'!) Fast forward to the autumn of 2010 and it occurs to us that if we are going to get some chairs, now might be a good time to replace the beat up old ones that have been in my possession for nearly 15 years, the ones the cats scratched and Barney chewed on! So we found some chairs online that we liked and had them shipped to the house. Naturally they arrived unassembled. So now the dilemma...if we leave them in the boxes for the movers to take, will we be charged extra tariffs on arrival in China for importing "new" goods? I'm pretty handy with a wrench so we'll just avoid the issue; I'll put them together before the movers get started. Well, of course we expected they were made in China, but I cracked up when I discovered this on the bottom of the seat:

I have since learned that there is a large furniture production/sales district just down the road from our complex. Wouldn't it be funny if the Brilliant Furniture Co. was just around the corner from us?

So after our 3 weeks in New York last month we are settling back into a routine of sorts back in Shanghai. The kids have started some activities. Conrad is participating in a soccer class and a "multi-sport" class (basically an opportunity to run and jump and throw things while learning to follow directions and be part of a group) and Viv is doing gymnastics. Conrad is also taking part in a pastime that it seems is very common for western kids living in Asia: modelling. He is technically already a professional, having been paid to model clothes for a Japanese children's catalog last spring. That job came through an open casting call made on the ShanghaiMamas website. This next job is, get this, actually an acting job! (Can't say that without a chuckle to myself-it's a television commercial for a bank. Aunt Frannie, he's following in your footsteps!) We got involved with this agency when one of the agents approached us in the shopping center about 2 weeks before we went away for the summer. It's the sort of surreal thing that happens all the time in Asia (you just get so used to everyone wanting to take pictures of your kids) that when it finally happens to you, there's really no surprise. She took pictures of the kids, gave me her card and I thought nothing more about it until she called about 2 weeks ago asking Conrad to come in for an audition. So we did. Why not, right? Turns out he's made the short list but I have to crack up because now it's practically becoming a full time job! He's been called back for a second audition, but also has to go at a different time to be measured for the wardrobe. If he gets it, which they are very careful to say that it is still not a done deal, he will be paid 200RMB an hour, about 30$, maybe half day, maybe whole day. Might as well do it, it's not like we have so many other pressing engagements on our calendar these days! We'll keep you posted on how it turns out.

    

In the meantime, Froggy says:

"enjoy what's left of your summer!"

A year in, we have found our footing here, that's true, but we still miss you all very much. School has started all over the world and for most of our loved ones that means settling into a new routine, some of you even a new country (Love you, Sarah!!). Sending our love and peace to you all as you find your footing~

Shanghai Ice Farm

Some of you may remember the 4th of July debacle of a few years ago when I tried to make red, white and blue ice cream? I thought I was so crafty; I made vanilla ice cream, picked all of the red and blue mini M&M's out of a bag and threw them into the machine. At the end I had purple ice cream with chocolate chips...at least it still tasted good!

We have decided to have a 4th of July barbecue and I will make ice cream. I won't be getting so involved as to try the red, white and blue again because this time my dilemma is a lot more basic: to make ice cream, one needs a key ingredient- ice. I think the American culture is the only one in which ice is sold in such accessible quantities. How many of you will stop at the C-store or gas station, or while at the grocery store pick up a bag or two of ice this weekend? But if you don't, you can rest assured that if you do run out you can just go down the street and get more, right? I don't have that luxury, so a few days ago I started farming ice. I searched all of my drawers and cupboards to find any and every container that could make a cube big enough to be worth it, but small enough to fit in the drum of my ice cream maker, I cleared out as much of the freezer as I could, and started stock-piling ice.

If she didn't before, my Ayi truly thinks I am nuts now! I can just see her shaking her head: "crazy Americans". My next concern is that my maker works alright plugged into the voltage converter. I don't have a lot of rock salt either...Wish me luck- I'll let you know how the ice cream turns out. Stop by and have some if you're in the neighborhood. Happy 4th everyone!