As our last few months here are rapidly approaching, we will move from our apartment about one week before we leave China, June 1st. We are trying to get in lots of time with our friends here, many of which have become family and see a few last things while we are here. There is no telling if we will ever be back in China but one thing is for sure, we will never be here again, this time, this place, with these people. Being an expat is a unique experience and had anyone tried to explain it to me before we moved here I probably wouldn't have thought so much about it but it truly is a different way of living. You are a visitor in another country for a semi-permanent time and you have to immerse yourself as you can into the culture; however to some extent you end up living in a bit of a bubble.
We have places we like to go, we have places we are comfortable being with English signs and menus, English speaking people here and there but most of all we end up with other expats on this journey and learning so much about them and their cultures as well. There is a lot I will miss about this experience but by far it will be the people we have met along the way. When we left the USA the thing we said we would miss most was friends and family and that is the case now as we prepare to leave China.
Brian's company had some visitors from Australia and they brought their wives so I became a tour guide for a few days. My friend Camila and I took them to Wuxi to see the Giant Buddha which you have probably seen previously in my photos but we had such a beautiful day weather wise the photo is great of the statue! It was also International Women's Day, as I left my comoud that say they were handing out roses to all female residents and taking photos of them of course! At Blake and Grace's school one parent brought in roses for each of the little girls in the school. All around China there were sales and benefits for women that week. Many companies provide half day of work for women, offer a lunch and some small gifts for them on this day.
Some Spring time fun in Hong Mei park too! Our visitors were happy to see the cherry blossoms blooming! They had Monkey men walking around the front of the park, they were quite friendly for photos, even picked up one of the Australian ladies for a picture!
Another crazy experience at the hair dresser. I asked for two colors this time, while it didn't turn out like the photo I showed them, I did in fact get two colors. They used coupons to paint the second color onto the hair instead of foils or those plastic pieces meant for this. Luckily the color from the coupon didn't transfer to my hair and there are no sales being advertised when I walk around China. Then a conditioning treatment with the alien machine over my head.....when I left everything looked "normal" so I survived one more time at the hair dresser in Changzhou!
Of course one of my favorite things in China is the strawberries and endless entertainment by people decorating their cars with Discovery Channel stickers, flashy paint jobs and bilingual sayings on the bumpers.
Some other fun China things, everyone washes their hair with a special seat and a bucket , right? Who needs a shower??? Ah and fruit delivered fresh and cut up to my door for cheap prices....something I will miss for sure!!! The random lady hanging out of a car top taking pictures in the rain! If you have seen the way they drive here in China you would be sure to never do this, besides the obvious hanging out of a moving vehicle in the rain. And a beer vending machine inside the mall.....now they have everything.
As we get ready to come back, I am making sure to bring a little but of China home with us. This is a Terracotta solider, from Xi'an. We are making a trip there later in April but I wanted to be sure to add this little guy to our family, we named him Xi Guo (Watermelon) and he will go in front of the new house in Arizona!
One more new experience this month was our ladies lunch and go karting. I am not sure this is the safest place to go go karting but we sure had fun!
The orange juice machine, hand painted cherry blossom cake, Starbucks Affogato (gelato and espresso) and "salad donuts" are all part of our China experience.
So that is it for catching you up on Changzhou! Before you know it we will be back at home.
No comments:
Post a Comment