Some oddities in China

We have made it another week living in our hotel room in China!  We are very excited to move into our home for the next 2 years on May 4th.  I have to say that finding a home and setting everything up in a foreign country can be quite the ordeal.  We have learned that there is no Zillow or MLS listing to view open apartments, but rather its who you know.  A little frustrating as an American that wants to see all available options!  I still think we will be very happy where we have selected, but now we have had to ask for a few additions to the apartment, such as an oven!  Most apartments here come with what is referred to as a dish sanitizer, which does exactly what it sounds like, no cleaning just sanitizing....I am not sure the new oven will fit a Thanksgiving turkey come November but maybe a chicken :)  The next step for the apartment is learning how to setup and pay for utilities.  Apparently you can't go online and setup an account for any of these but rather have a card that shows your address and you have to go to a location to pay there monthly, i still haven't gotten all the details.....then for internet and satellite you pay one year at a time, I am sure my American friends will be jealous to hear that satellite is $190 per year in China!  Now to see what channels we receive.

Yesterday we braved the weekend crowds at Ikea to purchase items for our new home.  Having only shipped over all the baby toys and items, and clothing for Brian and I we selected a furnished apartment, however that left us with a need for kitchen items such as plates, cups, silverware, bowls for mixing, pots and pans, and a few pillows and bedspreads.  We were able to get out of Ikea after almost 3 hours (It was HUGE) with almost everything we will need for our new place, plus a desk for Brian's computer, a toy organizer for Blake and a crib for Blake the next few months and then for Baby Hudson #2 who will arrive in November 2014!  The bigger items will be delivered but here is what we lugged back to the hotel with us! 

Some of the strange things i have found around China this week include the coffee maker in my room pours out the side rather than straight across from the handle, not sure if i appreciate this but i seem not to spill any when pouring into a glass.  Decaf coffee is easy to come by but not decaf tea.  Don't eat the rasin bran it is more like oatmeal as soon as you add milk, stick to corn flakes.  Watch all directions when crossing the street, it may be green but that doesn't stop a car or scooter from still going.  There are tons of bakeries nearby and i haven't found a bad one yet, however they like breads and cakes, not really any cookies.  Don't wear flip flops outside of your house/hotel i did and stepped in at least three puddles of what i hoped were water!  It seems to be somewhat common for children Blake's age to wear pants with a slit in the back so they can go potty when and where they need to so you never know when you see puddles on the street.

The weather here has been a little chilly, today a high of 68 F and cloudy.  We are hoping for warmer weather and sunshine next week!  The measurements here i am going to have to get used to for degrees they use celcius, for measuring they use cm or sqm so i have a handy conversion app on my phone, helpful for money to, its about 6 yuan to 1 USD.

Coming up is the National Holiday of Labor Day so Brian should have a few days off with us and hopefully we will make it to the famous Dinosaur Park of Changzhou!  Another neat addition to the city for entertainment i was just reading about from a Changzhou Expat facebook page is the worlds largest spoke-less Ferris wheel.  We drove past it Saturday and it was pretty neat, i think it takes about 40 minutes to get all the way around though.

Everyone i talk to from home has asked about the food, there is a lot of Chinese food, you will see some western style restaurants, Japanese and Korean around as well.  To be honest we haven't been to adventurous the past couple of weeks, mostly because the smells are harder to handle when pregnant.  I have been mostly eating western food.  Once we go to a Chinese restaurant i will post some photos for everyone's curiosity!  Shopping in Tesco, Walmart and Metro grocery stores you can find imports in one and others in another.  I am on the hunt for more hot cocoa i had a box but we drank it and i think i saw it at one of the three!  You can find Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Lays, and candy here same as in the US but most other items are a little different or at home you would have 5 choices of one thing here there is one brand.  Still have yet to find my vanilla coffee creamer, they like the plain powdered stuff here!

Blake is adapting well, he really enjoyed watching the window cleaner outside of the hotel window this week and he stares out the window looking at all the buses that go by!  We took our first cab ride here, they have no seat belts so we held on tight to Blake, and the driver was crazy, they weave in and out of traffic and go into other lanes and if its no big deal.  I was very glad it was only a 5 minute ride to where we needed to be!  We even drove with our driver yesterday, he has seat belts and we can put in Blake's car seat too, but he was picking someone up so he pulled into the furthest right lane, and stopped, put his hazard lights on and waited!

 

We made a trip to Shanghai this week and discovered they have Burger King and Cold Stone Creamery along with what we had already seen for American food chains.  It seems the only real American food is fast food.  I am very excited to have a kitchen come next Sunday and be able to cook the foods we are used to and to not have to take an 18 month old out to eat three times a day!

We finally were able to announce we are expanding our family!  After going through IVF in Phoenix we are happy to come here with another little one!  We are planning to deliver the baby in China, my due date is November 8th and Blake's 2nd Birthday is October 27th so their birthdays will be very close!  I might even get away with only one party for a few years..lol  Brian and I decided we will not be finding out the gender of the baby until the birth, if its a boy we are set, if its a girl i will be shipping pink, purple and girly clothes from the States!  Everything is going well, the baby is healthy and moving around in the ultrasound.  With Blake I had an uneventful pregnancy, this time around i have been ill feeling since the beginning and it hasn't gone away yet.First pregnancy craving was peanut M&Ms so luckily i could find those here!!!

There might be a short break in my posts from moving in the apartment and getting our internet setup but i am sure i will have some interesting things to share from our move!  And for those friends on facebook, i am realizing when i say Happy Birthday its usually a day early for you with the 15 hour time difference, but hey, I wasn't late!