Laowai

There have been so many days when I have almost posted on my blog over the last couple months. I need to get over the fact that I called my blog Laowai (a chinese word that means foreigner) and then we didn’t move to China. Also, I’ve been struggling with what I really want to do with my blog.

I read a lot of other blogs mostly by crafty moms and I love them. They don’t post about particularly grand things, but they inspire me with photos of vintage fabrics, descriptions of craft projects, stories about their kids, links to recipes, etc, etc, etc. So I guess I should resolve to do at least one post a week to journal all the little things (like the sign below) or big things (like our baby on the way) that happen in my life this year. So enough standing in the shower thinking of all the great posts I can make and then never doing it – I resolve to just post. And hopefully in the end I’ll have a record that will remind me of this year. Hopefully I can look back through it like my photo albums and remember things that I had forgotten.

So here is a photo I took a while back – the sign was posted along the sidewak in front of our building. I thought it was sad and funny.

It reads: LOST BIRD!! “Pippy” – PLEASE HELP – Pippy is a Starling with a band on his right foot. He will attempt to approach people looking for food. He usually comes if you call him and hold out your forearm for him to land on.

I wonder if Pippy was ever found. Coincidentally, I spotted a dead bird on the sidewalk near this sign a few days after I took this photo. I decided after inspecting the bird that 1). it wasn’t Pippy and 2). I shouldn’t take it’s picture and post it even though It did cross my mind. That would be a bit to creepy huh?

We found out just before we left for China that we are most likely having a baby girl. The ultrasound (my third… I’m spoiled) was fascinating because it lasted much longer than my others. Instead of just checking for the heartbeat and size they went through a big list of things that indicate the health of the baby. The ultrasound lady said everything looked good and she was surprised she could see so many of the things she was looking for on such a young baby. I would have been having that ultrasound around next week but my doctor said we could go ahead and do it earlier since I was going to be gone for two months.

I decided not to tell my mom what kind of baby we are having. Just to delay the enevitable flood of pink merchandise that will no doubt come my way. But I told her over the weekend and I had a great time fabric shopping for bassinet cover fabric with her. We ended up running into Lana and Ashley – they were also picking out nursery fabrics. Ashley chose a gender neutral aqua and brown line of fabrics. I think they’ll look great for a little boy or girl – it will be a very modern look.

We picked up the bassinet from Brian’s mom and dad over the weekend. It was actually Brian’s bassinet when he was a baby. I put it in our bedroom when we got home and I’m still not used to seeing it there. It kind of sends a little shock through me everytime I see it.

Today I got busy and made the liner for the bassinet. I was sewing in slow motion because of a headache, and unfortunatly I had to use Jack the Ripper (Brian’s name for the seam ripper ever since he was young). But I’m happy with the results. After I picked out the fabric I realized that the salmon colored receiving blanket that mom got me a while back matches perfectly. Oh happy day!

This is the kind of bassinet that I DO NOT want

This is the sweet little bassinet that B’s mom saved. The pictures are not great because I was too anxious to wait for the sun to be out in the morning.

My next baby project will be to paint and recover the seat of a little kids rocker that I have.

We’re back in Evanston. And it’s for good this time because we’ve decided we don’t want to live in China. I guess I will need to change the name of my blog. Any ideas? We feel like we owe people an explanation after planning to be in China for two months and then coming home after just two weeks. I could go on and on about all the things that we were feeling and the many things that led to our decision. Mostly we felt we would be giving up too many of the things we love here in Evanston (and Midland). Brian couldn’t have predicted the reaction he had when we actually got to China with a baby in the oven. We decided we didn’t feel comfortable living with a baby in China because of the bad air, bad water, questionable food, etc. We both agree that we are really glad we got to spend the time we did in China. For Brian it’s been over 150 days there working hard on projects that were for the most part really rewarding. For me it was two trips to get a feel for what China is like and see some really interesting stuff. We have always thought that travel is extremely important so we’ll have positive memories of the time we did spend in China.

So Brian will finish up his last China project with two more trips there this year. He’s feeling positive about the work he’ll be doing here in the US.

Enough of that drama and seriousness. Here are a few more photos from China. We could always get a laugh when we read english things in China. Like when Brian saw a guy wearing a t-shirt that said “One needs not many bananas when one has true love.” What does it mean? Coincidentaly Brian bought a package of dried bananas and the lines on the packaging cracked us up. Click on the photo below. Yup, it says “Cool fashion need cool taste. You are the new man banana piece” and “High technology of famous chef for you”.

Here is a photo of Brian and I at a restaurant – they served a melon soup inside a huge steaming melon. We don’t have that kind of melon here but it’s similar to a watermelon. It’s white inside and I think it might be called winter melon. The soup was pretty good.

Here’s a blurry photo of me on our last night in China. We had a pretty good diner at a western pub sort of place called O’Malley’s. Then we had a nice long walk back to our apartment. My belly is just starting to precede me.

Since we’ve returned I am appreciating all the things we love about our home in Evanston. I’ve gotten back to taking walks down along the water. We’ve had some beautiful fresh fall days. I watch the ducks in the little reflecting pool and the happy dogs at the dog park. I look at the skyline of the city which looks different everyday. And I think about next spring when I will be walking along the same path with a stroller and our new little one. It all makes me happy and I feel lucky.

Brian is in Chengdu this weekend visiting another client. I’ve ended up spending a bunch of time reading blogs today. What would I do without blogs to read. Here’s an excerpt from a really pleasant blogger that has a sheep farm in Missouri. Go to http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com to read more.

—During her last visit to the farm, my mother pointed at Chip and Chip and said, “Tell me again why you don’t eat those two.” I reminded her that for one thing, they were much too old and wouldn’t taste very good. And secondly, it would be like eating the dog. “Oh.”

Since sheep are always standing on all four of their feet, they cannot give each other hugs like people can. A mother ewe is unable to hold her lamb; the lamb snuggles up next to her or will sometimes sit right on top of her (which is absolutely adorable). To show affection in general, sheep have their own unique version of a hug, which I learned from Big Chip. What you do is this: Stand right next to the sheep, knees slightly bent to brace yourself. Then you lean your hip and leg into the sheep, pressing with all of your might. At the same time, the sheep presses back. If you stop hugging before the sheep is done, you will end up on the ground. Other than that, it is a very pleasant experience. Every time I get near Big Chip he walks right up to me and demands a hug.—

We’ve started our second week in Shanghai. We have a few routines and everything seems simple when you have two bowls, two plates, 4 pairs of pants, etc. In the morning I mix up two little cups of tang with a chop stick. We usually have a little fruit for breakfast and I have to wash it with a special fruit and veggie soap. Then we have some cereal and Brian sometimes makes a coffee in his French press.

Brian usually goes to meet with his co-worker around 8:00 or 9:00 am and I clean up a bit and do a bunch of reading. Sometimes I put on the TV – we only get a couple english channels: Cinemax, CCTV which is a China sponsored english news station and then anther channel that has old english movies sometimes and the rest of the time it shows Chinese cartoons or sumo wrestling.

I should go out for a walk more often but I don’t really feel like braving the dangerous and dirty streets. We walked to the Fuxing park yesterday which is a nice big park in the old French area. If we were closer to the park I would go there often but it is a long walk through the smelly streets and I get stared at so it’s not something I feel in the mood to do.

Over the weekend we tried to do some homey things. Everywhere we went it was extremely crowded and busy with people. We went to Ikea on Saturday. It’s pretty much the same as in the US. But is was interetsting to walk around anyway and we ate western-style food in their restaurant.

We found a Starbucks near our apartment. Brian likes to work there – just to have a change of pace and get out of our place.

The Ikea was near the Shanghai sports stadium and so we wandered around the stadium for a while. The Shangai Games were starting that day and these people looked like they were practicing for something like an opening ceremony.

Saturday night we ordered pizza and watched a DVD that we had purchased at a little hole-in-the-wall near Ikea. The pizza wasn’t too bad and it felt good to stay in for the evening instead of the usual meal routine that involves finding a restaurant in our little guide book, hoping we can communicate the address to a taxi driver and then taking a 10 to 15 minute taxi ride through the exhaust filled streets.

On Sunday we went to a big grocery store called Carrefour. It’s a French chain and we heard it was supposed to have lots of western-style food. We did find the groceries we were looking for but it was very tiring because of the huge crowd. I thought Meijers in Midland on a weekend was bad. The crowds here in China don’t have the same courtesy that you find in the States. People don’t mind walking right in front of you and then stopping in the middle of and aisle or bumping into you or cutting you off. We decided we don’t really need to go there again – we can get most of the things we found at a local grocery store. Here are a couple pictures. Brian was about to lose it while we were waiting in line. We’ll never complain about our local Evanston grocery being busy again.

I made spaghetti for dinner Sunday night – even though it was a really plain meal it tasted good. We always think that we like to get out and experience the local flavor of places but this weekend we just felt like doing things that were familiar to us. Tomorrow some more ZS people will arrive from the US so we will be eating plenty of Chinese food with them.

Well we’re here for our two months but so far it’s been a bit of a struggle. Brian is having a hard time because his project is not going well and he can’t seem to find any humor in the crazy China ways like he used to. He is very worried about me and number 3 even though I tell him we’re fine. It’s so sweet it breaks my heart and I can’t stand to see him struggle. We’ve had some sleepless nights because of jet lag and because we’re up talking about frustrations. I just keep saying let’s take it one day at a time and see how we feel in a few days.

I feel like I’ve been eating enough and feeling fine (other than the jet lag). I’m able to see some humor and find our surroundings interesting. It makes me appreciate little things about home.

So here are a bunch of photos of our place in Shanghai. You can click on the photos for a bigger view. We’re on the 16th floor of The CELEBRITY SERVICE APARTMENTS (they don’t know we’re not famous celebrities):

Here’s the view from the kitchen. You can see the quilt that I’m working on sitting on the chair.

And a view from the patio.

Our bedroom.

Sleeping.

The washer and dryer are in the kitchen – they have cartoon characters on them and they are tiny like toys. I think maybe I can put one pair of B’s jeans in the dryer at a time.

How do you use this washing machine? No english. I pushed a bunch of buttons this morning and it filled with water and then made and awful loud sound while it swished around. Hmmmm. I’m going to have to figure this out somehow… Maybe I should have some ice cream like the little character on the front of the washer.

Here are a couple views up and down the street. Notice the green roof on a building next door. The street noise is really loud. Lots of honking. It’s been rainy and cool since we got here. It feels much better than the hot and humid weather that we had when I was here in June.

When we first got here we bought a few groceries at the nearby Family Mart. We grabbed up all the brands that we recognized. It’s amazing how those brands can be so reassuring when you’re away from home.

Last photo – It was so nice to see Jenna and Jennifer and Mom right before we left Evanston. Jenna can’t seem to smile without sticking her tongue out now. So she always has a giggly-goofy look on her face. It felt so good to give her a squeeze and Uncle Brian even got to spend some time with her.

Well I gues it’s been long enough since I last posted. I’m not sure why I haven’t posted – it’s not that I haven’t had news to tell the world. The big news is what B and I have been calling #3. We have a baby on the way. I’m in week number 14. According to my baby book the baby has gone from being the size of a large lime to the size of my fist this week. At some point the book will tell me that the baby is the size of a stick of butter – I can’t wait for that day. And with all the ice cream I’ve been eating the baby by that time will not only be the size a a stick of butter but will probably have much the same constitution.

By now B may have purchased our tickets to China. He is there now and will return on Wednesday, September 6th then we’ll scramble getting our stuff packed and head back to Shanghai together on Semptember 11th or 12th. We’ll stay for about two months so we are back in the US for Thanksgiving. Then after the baby is here we can decide if we really want to move to China for a few years or not.

My days are kind of quiet lately. I go to bed late and wake up slowly. I read. I go for walks and watch the ducks lined up on the edge of the pool at the park. I walk downtown for something to eat most days because I get sick of cooking for myself. I look forward to emails from B. I send emails to B and report on baby progress. I watch TV – MASH, David Letterman, Little House on the Prairie (when I can stomach the sweetness of it). I think about our baby about every other second and still have to remind myself it’s real. I look at myself from the side everytime I pass a mirror – just to check to see if I look preggers yet. I keep a list of things to remember to take to China. That’s about it.

I’ve also had some fun days visiting with family this summer. Here are some photos to prove it.

Mom and dad visited and we went to the Chicago Botanic Garden on a beautiful day.

I was lucky to witness Jenna’s first swim when Jennifer invited me to Tawas for a couple days.

I’ve loved every moment that I’ve gotten to hang out with Jenna. Here she is working hard to hold her head up – she’s a pro at this now.

Here’s B and his mom and dad on a visit earlier this summer. Doug was showing us a nice new area of development behind their old house at Dow Gardens.

I hope to be posting lots of interesting photos from China soon. And maybe one of these days when I start to look pregnant I’ll post a picture of my belly.

I love to watch The Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. If you haven’t seen it it’s about crab fishing off the coast of Alaska in the Bering Sea. I just found out that one of the fishermen (Corey Arnold) is also an excellent photographer – who knew. The guys come accross as hard working men with close ties to their families and fellow fishermen – I would have never guessed they could also have a very artistic side. Go see the photos, they’re beautiful – http://www.coreyfishes.com/

For the second time in the last couple months I was attacked by a bird while walking down by the water. I think it was a Red-Wing Black Bird. I could see my shadow with the bird hovering above my head. It’s amazing how the instinct to run wildly while flailing my arms kicks in. Today I even let out a little yelp. After I was through the danger I immediately looked around to see if anyone was around to see me behaving so stupidly. Why does my heart end up pounding after an encounter with a little thing that I’m sure I could smack right out of the air?

It reminds me of the time we were on vacation in British Columbia with my mom. Brian and I encountered a little gang of mountain sheep. Mountain sheep look like goats and moutain goats look like sheep – just to give you a better picture of what we were up against. We came upon them in this park that was totally overrun with them – they were everywhare – like squirrels in Ann Arbor. We met up with them on a trail. It was very reminiscent of that West Side Story scene where the gangs meet up. The lead one, with horns, let out his billy goat bleet. Brian and I ended up fleeing down a little sandy cliff. I think my mom cooly let them pass on their way, but we were frightened out of our wits by this little band of goats.

I took this picture from our hotel window on the first morning after we arrived. I was thinking that Beijing didn’t seem any different than other big cities I’ve seen. We were in a business area and we went to Starbucks to meet some of B’s co-workers. I felt like I could have been in Chicago – if Chicago had a ton of construction going on.

Of course as our days continued I did notice differences. There are lots of people in China. And many of them ride bikes. And crossing the road is a lot more dangerous than in the US. Annie (our wonderful guide) told me to hold Brian’s hand when we crosssed the street. Annie and Songjun kept saying that the weather was very unusual for Beijing. We had two lovely blue-sky days. They said there are only about 20 days a year when it’s sunny and you can see blue sky. On our third or fourth day we experienced more typical Beijing weather – the sky was white with clouds but it was very bright.

This is a photo of me trying on a hat at the famous Silk Market in Beijing. The market sells cheap knock-off stuff and is housed in a big building with each floor dedicated to a different type of merchandise. We went to the jewelry floor first. I was kind of interested in buying something but I was totally overwhelmed by all the people calling out to me. They would say things like “Hello, lady. You like watch?”. One girl even grabbed B’s arm and tried to drag him into her store. All the sensory overload paralysed me and we ended up just getting a teapot for my sister. Annie did the negotiating. It’s a requirement that you do this negotiating dance whenever you buy something at a place like this. It was fun to look at the merchandise and take in the scene. There were lots of Mao trinkets like Mao watches, alarm clocks, posters and t-shirts.

This photo is of a little girl writing with a sponge thingy dipped in water. It was taken at the Summer Palace in Beijing. The Summer Palace is a big area that includes many beautiful old buildings, gardens and a lake – it was where the royalty spent summers. The poem was about looking out the window on a spring morning (I think). In Beijing we saw the big cultural sights – The Great Wall, The Summer Palace, Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City. The architecture is very interesting, every little detail of the buildings means something and the colors were so vivid. The Chinese have such a long and rich history and in Beijing you got the feeling that the Chinese are very interersted in preserving it. The little girl writing on the path was magical. The water would dry up and the poem would disappear after a little while. Annie said she was very good at writting for her age. Twice while we were in the Summer Palace we heard men singing traditional folk songs. We recorded one of them – I’ll have to get it from B’s computer and post it.

This photo is of the Nanjing Road in Shanghai. It was best at night. It’s a pedestrian street with lots of shopping and eating places and lots of neon. On Nanjing Road the shopping malls were pretty much like in the US with all the same brands. Then we would get away from the touristy areas and the streets would be lined with little grungy stores like the next picture. This store was in an area that sold all sorts of fabric and sewing notions. Everywhere we went I noticed the huge contrast between the new built up areas and the poor areas for locals.

I’m gettin a bit long winded but I’ll post one more photo. This photo is of a little kid in his fancy stroller. The little kids and babies we saw were very cute. They wear what I dubbed “drafty pants”, pants with an open crotch and no diaper. Apparently that’s how they potty train their kids but it was a source of puzzlement to B and I. It seems like a bit of a mess – I can’t figure out exactly how it works when the kid has an accident. We lauged whenever we glimpsed a cute little Chinese kid with his private parts in full view.

As I read over my post I seem to have written about completely random stuff. There is so much to see in China and overall I had a great impression. The Chinese were very hospitable and friendly. B and I decided we could handle living in China. I think it would be really exciting and a great time to look back on when we’re old. We still don’t know if we are moving because there are still lots of decisions that need to be made regarding the team and the office. Even if we don’t end up moving – I’m so glad I got to take this trip and see China for myself.