In a "nut" shell....

August 1st 2009

Sorry it has taken so long for me to blog, but we really do not have internet and are “freeloading” off a neighbors we think. I have not had a lot of free time to sit and blog anyway so I have a lot to catch you all up on.

We finally made it to Wuhan on Monday morning around 11:00 am. And the biggest miracle is that all 24 of our bags made it too!!! (Airport trick- put “markers” on all your bags to find them quickly and easily at baggage claim- we had orange ribbon on all of ours).
We were greeting by our principal, Doug, and Becky, a teacher at the school. It was so good to see friendly, familiar faces!!
We loaded all the bags on the bus, in the rain, and headed to our apartment. We checked it out and then immediately headed to the school. We were tired, but ready to see what we would be doing and where we were to be working. Bob’s office is actually two doors down from me…..joy. My room was a wreck, but I saw potential there. We ate lunch- real Chinese food, not American version- and then I went back to my room to start setting it up. We were tired, but still just excited to finally have arrived.
Later we went to the apartment, unpacked some, and went to the principal’s house for dinner. By then, the kids were wiped out and the younger 3 crashed on the sofa and never even saw dinner…lol.

We all slept great that night, but since our times were all messed up we were up by 5. But that has slowly moved later and later. Today (Saturday) we all got up between 8 and 9, so we are back to normal and it only took a week!!!

So….as far as going out in the real Chinese world, we have been to various stores to get food and things for our apartment. And let me tell you, we have experienced the real China and how different things are over here.
First of all, there is chocolate in China!!! They have a lot of our brands- Cadbury, a little bit of Hersheys, and Dove. But they also have ice cream!!! And it is good!!! TG!!! A teacher from the school went shopping with us and suggested these ice cream bars called Magnums and they are the best ice cream treats ever!!! So I am very happy with the chocolate situation!!!!

Second, we are a little freak show to the Chinese people. Not only are we white, but we have 4 children. When we go in the stores, all the people stare at us. Not only that, but store workers come and stand on the aisle with us- as many as 3 or 4 of them. It is so funny. We have not been approached very much, only stared at. Oh, and one guy on the street near the school counted our kids (in English) three times looking at me each time like “could it possibly be?”

Third, the meat department in the grocery stores would be a DHEC nightmare in the states. Not only is fresh meat laying out everywhere, unwrapped and ready for purchase, but so are live fish, snake, toads, turtles, and other scary creatures. The area with cooked meats has chickens, feet and heads still attached. And the smell is pretty bad. But we have been able to find western meats too- Hormel ham in packs and steaks. Chicken is really cheap; Chinese do not eat it often and actually think it unhealthy.

Fourth, trying read labels and figure things out is tricky. Madeline and I tried to find salt last night and we never knew for sure if what we were buying was salt until we got home. It was, but not like our salt- not as “salty”. We have been buying a lot of Chinese treats to try- cookies, candies, sweets. Some are great and some not so great. But we have to try and see. And treats are really cheap- like 30 cents for a large pack of cookies.

Fifth, money is really easy to use here. All prices are in RMB. To kinda see in your head how much something is in our prices, divide by 7. So a pillow for 19 RMB is really about $2.70. And yes, that is what I paid for a bed pillow. Prices for things are pretty cheap- 1.70 RMB for a pack of candy ($.28), loaf of fresh bread 5.8 RMB ($.80), 2 liter Sprite 5.8 RMB ($.80)….more to come.


Besides school and shopping, we have been meeting and getting to know the staff. There are a lot of great people here with our school and we have gotten to have dinner with several of them and really enjoyed that- spaghetti, Mexican, even real Chinese food cooked by the principal’s Ayi ( more Ayis later).
Last night was a really interesting evening with school friends. We went to Pizza Hut. It was really good and not any more expensive than in the states. We were eating and noticed a Chinese lady go up to the salad bar. Becky told us to watch her and that she would be up there another 20 minutes. I was like no way, but she said, in China you can share 1 salad with the whole family, but you can only make one trip. So they make it into a piece of art. I took a picture of it, but not sure it can out well enough to show how really hard she worked on this salad. It was huge!! She build stacked up walls of cucumbers all the way around and did giant piles of tomato, cheese,etc. And then added more lettuce. It was amazing!!!

After dinner we went to Carrefour, a French Wal-Mart. And we finally felt like we were really in China. The crowds and noise were amazing. We found lots we needed, checked out, walked out and remembered it was Friday night at 8:00 and it was a party- people everywhere. So we went to the bus stop (in the rain again- rainy season right now). We waited and waited and waited on a bus. Finally it came and it was packed!!! We all stood huddled together right at the door. It was insane. We learned not to take a bus on Friday night any more.

So now it is Saturday about lunch time. We just ate and are getting ready to go to “fellowship” at 4:00. We have it on Saturday, not Sunday. We all go to dinner together afterward, which we are really excited about. So, I need to wrap it up and go shower.
Continue to remember us. We can sense that you are.
Blessings,
Angie