What...I Leave Tomorrow!

The past couple weeks have been so crazy that I didn’t realize that my trip to Singapore was so soon!  I am so excited about the trip, it will be truly relaxing and just fun.  I wish Adam could go with me but I know he is excited about the next week.  Most of the team is back from training in Raleigh and Adam will see some of his coworkers from Durham that are helping with the tool instillation.   The team is very strong and Adam thinks everything is on track. 
Today I bought my bus ticket to the Hong Kong airport and got out some cash to exchange because it really depends on the day and the bank and the mood of the ATM if it will take our ATM card.  It’s a problem I have never had, having money in the account and not being able to use it.  Our China account is all set up and they started depositing our Housing allowance but we can’t get that either…the money gets deposited in US Dollars and you have to go to the bank to change it over, and no one at the bank speaks English.  Haha…we should have no excuse to not save money!  I also had to go look for some shorts because Singapore is tropical and my shorts are still in the US waiting to be shipped.  If you ever want to feel bad about yourself shop for shorts in China…I wear the largest size they carry and am lucky if they have something in that size.  Then the 3 pairs of shorts I found in the city were made for asian bodies (added fabric and big pockets right over the thigh, skinny leg holes and no room in the rear).  I cooked another dinner for us, this one was even better and the total cost for two evening’s worth of dinners (with fresh fruits and vegetables) was less than 50 RMB (about $8 US).  I feel like the meals that I cook here are so much more healthy then anything we can afford or I have time to prepare at home. 
Anyway after today I am all packed and ready to go!  I just need to be able to catch a cab at 4:20 AM so that I can get to the bus in time.

The First Day in OUR First Home!

I say our first home because it’s the first one we found and started together.  It is so strange that we each own a house and we own 2 homes full of furniture and yet we are renting a furnished apartment.  We went to Wal-Mart and picked up a microwave and a hot pot.  We watched a movie on the couch and went to Jodie’s apartment to have dinner with their family.  No rice at that dinner just beef, potato, and veggies and banana cake for dessert.   Adam got to play with J.J. and I got to cuddle with Louie and chat with Jodie.  It was just what normal Americans do on a lazy weekend!

Our First Anniversary...and we will be in seperate countries

I won’t get to post for a while since our internet won’t be in until ? sometime this week ? and I will be in Singapore and Hong Kong from April 1^st – April 7^th.  I know it’s our anniversary weekend but it’s also D-Day #1 at the factory so rather then make Adam feel guilty that I am sitting waiting for him to spend time with me on our first anniversary and rather than me getting annoyed because there is a problem and we have to postpone plans…I thought it best to leave the country.  I will be visiting Andrea (my cousin) and who knows what we will do all weekend.  Then I will make a stop in Hong Kong to extend my Visa (this requires me spending 2 nights there).   Don’t worry we will plan another day to celebrate…it isn’t about when it’s about how…and we are in China…it will be something we never forget!

Our Last Morning Waking Up In A Bed That Someone Else Will Make

Last night we realized that in my frenzied packing I packed the wallet with our credit card in the suitcase that is now in the apartment.  So while I finished gathering our things at the hotel Adam took a taxi to the apartment to get the card so we could pay for the hotel room…can you imagine if we hadn’t realized it until check out time…how embarrassing!

These past 5 weeks I have realized something that I thought was true about me before…I was not meant to be unsettled.  Adam is wonderful he can adapt to living in a hotel for whatever length of time necessary…not me…even at the Kande.  The past couple nights I have been so excited, making lists in my head, not sleeping, thinking how I am going to arrange the living room furniture, thinking of where I am going to hang pictures, picturing having people over for dinner, thinking about which shelf in the kitchen will be the snack shelf or the plate shelf, thinking about the fresh fruit I want to buy at the market now that I have a kitchen and a knife and a plate.  So far I have been extremely happy here, but now I can make a home here.  I want Adam to feel relaxed when he comes home from work, I want us to be able to lay on the sofa in our pajamas and watch movies one Saturday, I want to be able to make some mac and cheese for dinner when Adam works late, and most of all I want to unpack my suitcase and get our things out of those wonderful vacuum bags.

"She did a pretty good job for only having a bottle of tea and an onion"

Adam…of the cleaning girl.

It turned out to be a water bottle full of oil

Before we left yesterday the cleaning girl came…it was us, the landlord, and the owner’s friend, another guy and the cleaning girl.  There was no one to translate so the only way of communicating was to act out.  I pointed out the big things that needed to be cleaned and the other guy motioned to me and said something and they all laughed, it seemed like he said “you are not finished until she says you are finished”.  There were no cleaning supplies at the apartment and all the girl brought was an umbrella and what seemed to be a giant onion in a grocery bag.  The other guy went to get her some supplies but came back with what looked like a water bottle with tea in it and only 1 rag…flashback to restaurants where dishes are cleaned in tea and imagining the toilet and the stove being cleaned with the same rag…I was a little worried so I left Adam there to get my own supplies so that I could spend the next day cleaning.
In the morning we went to Yi Wu the everything market area that Adam has been excited to see for himself.  We got a vase, a Chinese tea set, a wok, some kitchen utensils and we tried to get a doormat but the girl wouldn’t agree to my price.

When we got to the apartment the major things had been cleaned…the bottle of cleaner half gone and a nasty mop sitting in the bathroom.  I got out my rubber gloves, got rid of the tea cleaner (which turned out to be some sort of oil) and scrubbed EVERYTHING!  After one more trip to the store for more supplies, our place is pretty clean.  Remember I mentioned that the Chinese use a lot of oil in there cooking…well that oil was caked on the air vent over the stove, the cabinet doors and handles and the wall.  A brillow pad, 4 rags a bottle of kitchen cleaner and a half a bottle of dish cleaner and some good old fashioned elbow grease later…it’s still oily but not nearly as much!  The shelves and cabinets were ready for our things…not that they are here yet.

SOOOOOO excited to be IN the apartment

ewwwwwwwwwww!

That girl made the apartment worse with her oil...streaks must go!

The refrigerator and the TV were delivered 4 hours late but when I saw the refrigerator it made the waiting worth it (and I hate waiting)!

I got my bling!

"They can't give you fast internet becaus you don't have any internet."

Yeah, we will have to go back to the internet store after they come install the internet in our apartment but at least they can make it faster!
Oh yeah…and we signed the lease to our apartment…and we have the keys!
Thanks to Rolyn the assistant at Adams work, and our favorite realtor, we are now apartment renters.  We signed the lease; they agreed to buy a refrigerator, a desk and a TV.  The desk arrived today and the refrigerator and the TV will be delivered tomorrow.  They also agreed to have a girl come and clean (there were mounds of grease on the stove and the bathrooms were dirty). 

I took our bedding to the cleaners and I spent the rest of the day packing our stuff, I even got a load ready to drop off this evening…how confusing for the Concierge who came to help me down for the bags…No, we are not checking out yet, No we aren’t taking everything.

Driving Miss Lindsay

The rough thing about not knowing the language is that it makes it impossible to speak to cab drivers our even our driver.  That’s right our driver started last Saturday!  He is great!  He knows the English names for all the shopping malls and knows numbers in English so you can tell him what time to pick you up or how long you will be before you need him again.  Now that I mentioned we have a driver just for us who will take us wherever we want to go…let me get back to the rough stuff.  I have been on so many cab rides and our driver likes to go back ways and we pass so many interesting shops or restaurants or streets that I know I will never be able to get to again.  When I went out with Jodie and Eloise we passed a flower market with tons of fresh flowers.  When Adam and I came back from dinner we passed a cool new street and a fabric market.  My new favorite thing is to negotiate deals and that only happens in the little markets that tourists wouldn’t go to. 

Today I decided I was going to direct our driver to where I thought we were the day before.  Yes, he is a great sport, and no, he didn’t quit.  Since I don’t know how to give directions in Chinese, and since I don’t know the word for flower or fabric or shop or cool area in Chinese, it was pretty much just me saying “GO!” and pointing in the direction I wanted him to go.  I dramatically made it look like I was looking for a specific place so he know why I was doing this, it worked and he drove very slowly, which caused all the drivers around us to honk and make illegal (in the US) moves.  I called Adam to see if he remembered anything about the area where we were and he didn’t but he did give the phone to YC (remember him?...our translator/Adam’s coworker) so I had YC tell him to take me in the same direction that he took me yesterday evening so I could find the fabric store. 

The driver drove me around for another 15 min. before I realized it was lunch time and decided to give up.  I asked the driver to take me to Jusco and he did…but guess what I saw on the way!  That’s right folks I yelled and raised my arms.  He pulled over and I went into the fabric market where I was refused service.  At least I found it right!

After lunch I wanted to find the flower market rather then put the driver through “directions by Lindsay” again I had him drop me off at a place near where I thought it was and I walked.  It turned out to be about a 30 min. walk but I was successful and the cute old man who sold flowers there gave me a free lily!  I ended up buying 5 beautiful flowers (don’t know what kind) for 10 RMB (about $1.50 US) and I got his name card.  Maybe I will make flower shopping a regular part of my week.