TIME MAY FLY BY, BUT MEMORIES DON'T

Okay, okay.... There is so much to say and tell and explain but so little time. I feel like I need to post something like one big run-on sentence of my life here but the practical me is still trying to organize it in my head so I can get it all down in one cohesive blog. But, this crazy, sporadic brain of mine is still trying to grasp the concept that I am actually living here in China so it's not going to be very cohesive. And heck, people just want pictures, right? Pictures of what my new normal is, pictures of my everyday life, information of what I actually do everyday, right? So, here we go -- my life in pictures. (A cohesive and toned-down rant of all things Beijingy will follow, I promise.) I think the easiest way to do this is to describe a typical day here in the outskirts of Beijing.

6:30 am -- I wake up to the sounds of church bells emanating from my brand new iPhone because I have yet to find a store that sells alarm clocks and my iPhone does not get phone reception inside our home and it doesn't get data outside of my home so this fabulous, must-have, 4S, Siri-talking iPhone is only reliable as an alarm clock, oh yeah, and as a camera.

7:00 am -- wake the kids up and dress them in THESE -- I LOVE SCHOOL UNIFORMS!! Makes for an easy morning. (This is Claire's P.E. uniform but on regular days she wears an adorable plaid pinafore dress.)

8:15 am -- head off for school dressed like THIS:

because the high, the HIGH is 35 degrees! And it sounds even worse in Celsius which is just 1 degree!

Leave the kitchen looking like THIS

Because I have someone doing THIS

And THIS
I thought I was going to have a hard time adjusting to a full time maid/cook/nanny but I love our AYI (which means Auntie in Chinese and it's a term of endearment and, boy, am I endeared!)
Load up our Buick minivan driven by THIS guy (sometimes) but sometimes I walk the kids myself but I have to brave a 4 lane highway that looks like THIS


and the picture does not do justice to the danger and pure terror of the Chinese driver loose on the streets with no lights and no kind crossing guard -- I miss you, Aunt Deni!

8:30 am -- Alex and Claire go to school HERE where Claire is not in kindergarten -- she's in Year 1. And Alex is not in 2nd grade -- he's in Year 3. (Those Brits are funny, but the kids were excited to think they were jumping ahead a grade.)

8:40 am -- make it back to our home through THESE gates which are heavily guarded from what, I don't know, but it makes it just a little inconvenient to have visitors.
I walk though THIS
weather-worn gate (which the landlord says he will repair when the weather turns warmer -- but he also said that about the garbage disposal, so I'm a little leery.) And you need a special swipe key to enter these gates which once I forgot and a security guard jumped the wall for me to let me in -- I guess those security guards are good for something besides trying to look intimidating in their Mexican Mafia uniforms. The gate leads to our little sad excuse for a yard which of course will be repaired in the spring and then I enter THIS
Which leads me to THIS

To say good morning to THIS
and THIS.

The morning consists of either hunting for some very useful item such as bandaids or a plunger and visiting one market to get the cheap Chinese food and another one to get American products that I deem necessary or I just WANT, but you pay the price for. (A box of generic cereal like "Fruit Rings" I can get for the equivalent of 5 or 6 US dollars and I haven't deemed the real Fruit Loops to be worth their $12 price tag.) And then I go to another market the size of a small bedroom to get the BEST FRUIT IN THE WORLD! Seriously, the fruit here is awesome. And then there is another stop to get great tasting bread at a bakery aptly named "Tasty's." (The weird tasting Bimbo bread just wasn't cutting it.) And that's just food. We came to China with nothing but our suitcases so it has been a challenge hunting down needed items for the home. One day I will dedicate a whole blog post to the IKEA shopping experience here in Beijing but I don't have the energy to tackle such a task at the moment. And honestly I don't have a sense of humor about it yet.

Or I might visit some new found friends like THIS
Or hang out at the freezing cold park like THIS
(I guess I'm the only one in the whole complex that needs to get a rambunctious two year old some fresh, crisp air.)
Or stop my 2 yr old from literally walking on thin ice like THIS.
My afternoon consists of tracking down beautiful, original, antique, or made just-for-you furniture in rickety buildings that are not heated and are really colder than it is outside. This is usually done without the kids but I just happened to have them all with me when they found this old, antique bed that they thought was a train so they climbed right up in it to the chagrin of the store owner. (But they really love kids here so while this is probably a very expensive piece, she laughed along with me and let me take a picture. THAT wouldn't happen in the states.)

Sometimes if I'm lucky I get a nap (or I pretend to be sleeping while my ayi is hanging up freshly laundered and ironed clothes in my closet -- love her!)

Or if I'm really lucky like today I get my first spa treatment the Chinese way which consisted of an hour long foot and leg massage (with complimentary rubbing out of all tension knots in shoulders and neck -- Awesome!) and lunch out with more new friends at a great Indian restaurant HERE

3:15 pm -- Then I come home right in time to pick up my older kids from school and brave the traffic on foot all the way home.

3:45 pm -- eat the fruit that I bought at the market but my ayi cuts up and has waiting for the kids when they get home. I think she can cut up mangoes and pumelos with her eyes closed.

We work on homework (where the kindergartners are writing in cursive and the second graders are learning fractions), let the kids run around crazy inside, break up fights that occur every nanosecond, let the kids play trains from a borrowed train set, or play hide and seek in the ghost-filled basement until Cory gets home from work and we sit down to a fabulous meal that was not cooked by me which makes it even more delicious. HERE

8:00 pm -- kids are in bed and I am usually soon to follow. Sometimes we flip channels on the TV and get surprised when we find "real" shows like The Voice and American Idol which probably are on a set schedule but one that we can't figure out.

Life is definitely really KOOKY around here but I think I love it. I am constantly saying THINGS SHOULD NOT BE THIS DIFFICULT!! But I read a fortune cookie once that said:

Difficulty at the beginning usually means ease at the end

We are definitely putting in our time. But every night I go to bed, look up at my high-beamed ceiling and feel really blessed and extremely lucky to be on such an adventure.

"Someday everything will all make perfect sense"

~ fortune cookie

We are moving to China! 11 days from today we are moving to China!! We are leaving our newly-built-just-lived-in-for four-months house with beautiful dark hardwood floors and antique white cabinets and moving to China! We are loading up our FOUR children and all our absolute essentials and getting on a 12-hour long plane ride and MOVING TO CHINA!!!! (Please insert a faint trace of hysteria while reading this.)

This whole process stared about 7 months ago. Scratch that. This whole process started when Cory and I were dating and he mentioned that he would love to live and work in China someday. And I married him anyway. He has since mentioned it a little more, dropping hints, and planting subliminal messages in my mind for the past 11 1/2 years. But 7 months ago the idea was reintroduced with a bit more gusto by my very adventurous husband and was quickly dismissed by his equally dull and unadventurous wife. Wasn't our stint in Berkeley enough culture shock to last a lifetime? And bear in mind that 7 months ago I was approximately 8 months pregnant and the idea was scoffed at almost as equally as was the likelihood of having another child. So in the past 7 months that followed I have entered and recycled myself through the 5 stages of grief:

1. 
   
   DENIAL: I refused to believe Cory was serious. He had threatened so many times in the past and nothing had come of it yet. And this was just like the time he had the notion of quitting college to become a professional golfer. (Oh, wouldn't that have been lovely -- he's no Tiger Woods -- thank goodness.) So I went to the seemingly legitimate lunch meetings with his boss and read a few online articles about living abroad with young kids but dismissed the idea as a fleeting fancy.


2. 
   
   ANGER: As time marched on and he had more frequent serious meetings with bosses and mentors at work and he brushed up on his Chinese to interview with someone in Beijing (while I was in the hospital recovering from my 4th c-section) the denial moved on to panic and the panic gave way to anger. How could he do this to us?!? How did he not know that "If you think this is the best thing for our family" really meant "Move us and die!"? How did he not know that "I love your ambition and drive" really meant "Slow down! My apathy and lack of motivation cannot possibly keep up with your ambition and drive!"? I thrive in comfort zones, I long for comfort zones, I HATE, HATE, HATE leaving my comfort zone! And CHINA, really?!? Why not Europe or South America or anywhere where I've dreamed of going?!? China has never been on my Bucket List!


3. 
   
   BARGAINING: This stage came in many forms. I first had the awesome idea that Cory could commute. He had been commuting the first part of the year to California each week, coming home on the weekends, how much different could commuting to China be? I even started thinking of it this way: If I do this for you, what will you give me? (I did, in fact, get my Mercedes after enduring grad school with 3 children in a car equivalent to the ones at Autopia at Disneyland) so moving to China should earn me diamonds, right? But I have moved on from this. This isn't an I versus you scenario, we are a team and there are things that Cory is giving up as well. And the fact that the relocation package will include a driver, a maid and a nanny with the added incentive that, and I quote, "spa treatments are a way of live here in China" I think that a good bargain has been made.


4. 
   
   DEPRESSION: Let's be honest, I keep bouncing back to this one time and again. I have this uncanny ability to put unpleasant ideas and tasks out of my mind when they are too stressful (case in point: we leave in 11 days and I have not packed up one thing in my house) so whenever this sneaky sad feeling comes over me I just push it aside. But every now and then when I think of the friends I'm leaving behind, not to mention the family that I have come to depend on and the everyday things that I take for granted, it could pull me down to the depths of despair.


5. 
   
   ACCEPTANCE: This was a long time in coming, almost as long as it took to get the final approval from Cory's company to go. And I knew I had made it that day when there was a hiccup at work and there was a possibility that all our plans would fall through and instead of being relieved I was disappointed. Crazy!! I am now excited for the adventures that await us and the experiences that will be gained. I am eager to begin this new chapter in our lives and already feel that 2 1/2 years won't be long enough for us. (Although I reserve the right to retract that statement at any time.)

So let the adventures begin! We welcome you to enjoy it with us (both vicariously and in person -- visitors will always be welcome.) But be prepared -- it might get a little KOOKY!!