This has been a long week! Boyd has had 4 days off since we moved here. He had the weekend we moved here off and the weekend after we moved here off. He is working at least 12 hour days, sometimes longer, and we are trying to adjust to China without him. He is really trying hard to balance us and work, but work is so demanding right now. They open their first store tomorrow and a second store on Saturday. So, he'll work almost 3 weeks straight with no days off.
Our Ayi has decided she didn't realize how hard it would be to take care of a family of 8 and is asking for more money. (It's really more like a family of 6 because Boyd is never here and Declan eats hardly anything.) We've got to look at the budget and see what we can do. I'm already doing about half of the work around the house because she said it was too hard, and she was getting to tired. She said she doesn't want me to do more work. She said she wants more work and for us to pay her more money. She's a really good Ayi, but it's weird having someone in my house all day long. Especially someone I can't communicate with. We found out everything she wanted when we tried to sign a contract, and she decided not to until we give her more money. We have a translator who came over today and talked us through not signing the contract today.
I've had 2 Chinese lessons now. Boyd taught me how to say "I don't understand". Two older gentlemen stopped the kids and I one day when we were walking in the compound to ask us questions. I had no idea what they were saying. I kept telling them I didn't understand, but they just kept talking. Finally, I told them goodbye and walked away. My Chinese teacher taught me how to say "I speak English". I thought for sure if I tell people "I don't understand. I speak English." my problems would be solved. I decided to try it out on Boyd. Every word has one of five tones. The inflection of your voice indicates which tone you are using and the meaning of the word. Well, I obviously didn't do well with my tones because I said to Boyd "I don't understand. I want to rent a female." I guess I'd better work more on "I don't speak English" before I try it out on Chinese people.
I have learned how to say "6 children" and the hand sign for six (hang loose in America) because it is said so often to me when I'm out and about. In a way, the language barrier is like being deaf. I've gotten so I tune out everyone around me because I don't understand what they're saying anyway. I pretty much just go where ever I want to in stores because no one can tell me any different, and I can't read the signs to know any different.
We are suppose to have a pool to swim in that's in the compound and just a couple of blocks away from us, but we found out there's a crack in it. So, they will not be filling the pool with water this summer. Kind of a bummer because this is what I had planned on as our main source of entertainment this summer. I did find a blow up pool for the kids. It's big enough to fit the 3 boys in it if they stand close together in it. It's better than nothing.
We do get Netflix, Amazon Prime, and a few other TV programs like this through a ROKU box and a VPN. This Sunday our VPN was down, and we couldn't get it working. All of our games and videos are in our air shipment. Our air shipment got to Nanjing last week, but we're still waiting for it to go through customs. Hopefully it makes it through soon because it was a really long Sunday with no VPN and no other entertainment.
Sunday was especially long after sitting with the 6 kids through sacrament while Boyd was on the stand and then 2 hours of running Primary. Since Boyd was working, I wasn't even able to get a nap after church. I also found out on Sunday that I will be the new ward keyboardist starting a week from this Sunday. I told them I need to pick the songs because there's only a few I can play until I can practice. I also told Boyd we'd better hurry and get a piano.
Declan learned how to get out of his crib the week we were packing to move to China. This week he learned that he doesn't have to stay in his bed when we put him down for a nap or bedtime. So, I'm working on that with him because as far as I'm concerned, he does have to stay in bed when I put him to bed.
Some of the kids (the majority) are still having a hard time adjusting to Chinese food. They were so excited to have "Western food" on the weekend when our Ayi was off. I have to admit, I was kind of excited too. Our Ayi is a wonderful cook, but you can only eat so much rice.
Well here's to hoping this week goes a little smoother. Well, maybe not this week because Boyd will still be working crazy hours, but maybe next week when Boyd's schedule slows down a little.?.?.?
Alauna
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
MY TURN
I guess it's my turn to add to the blog, and give the perspective of a non-chinese speaking person in Nanjing. Here are the things that I've found are different.
Very few people speak English. (Which basically means no one.) So, we are learning a few Chinese words here and there and doing a lot of hand gestures and pointing. We are going to have our first Chinese tutoring session today.
There are a minimal number of foreigners. (Which means very very very ........... few. You can go days without seeing a non-Chinese face. Not a bad thing, just different.) Most of the foreigners have gone home for the summer. There are Chinese people everywhere (go figure :)). You never realize what a melting pot America is until you're somewhere like here.
Our Ayi (helper) and our driver do not speak English. Fine for Boyd, not so fine for me. We're figuring it out though. We spend a lot of time on my i-phone trying to translate what each other is saying. I don't know what I'd do without my i-phone.
Not only is not much English spoken, but all of my appliances have Chinese characters on them. So, it can be difficult to know how to work things. My friends, Becca and Naomi, came over on Monday and helped me translate the functions on my appliances so I don't have to guess anymore. Naomi is Japanese and recognizes a lot of the characters, and Becca has an awesome translating app on her phone (which I now have).
The food is completely different. I don't recognize over half the fruits and vegetables at the market. There are tons of different rices and soy sauces to choose from. We didn't pick a good soy sauce the first time we went shopping. Our Ayi let me know and bought a different kind of soy sauce. I still don't know what the difference is. It's hard to find dairy products. We drink milk out of a box. I miss my fresh milk.
It's different having an Ayi in the house. She works from 10-5 Mon.-Fri. She makes lunch and dinner which is a blessing because I don't recognize most of the foods and wouldn't even know where to start preparing a meal with the foods in the store. She also does about 1/3 of the wash which is helpful and she keeps all the floors clean.
All of the labels in the store are in Chinese characters. Sometimes there will be English as well, but not always. So, it's hard to determine even what the box foods are at times. It can be difficult to tell between sugar and salt. It's also hard to determine which beauty supplies are which. (Like if a bottle contains shampoo or conditioner.) Also, a lot of beauty supplies contain whiteners. So, we have to be really careful of what we buy.
When we go to the grocery store we have to carry home what we buy. That can get pretty crazy when you're buying for 8 people. The other day the kids and I all rode our bikes to the market and filled all of our baskets with groceries. We do have a driver. So, I save the big trips for when he's working. He works Tues. - Sat. during the day.
There is a shopping center just a couple of blocks away. There is a McDonald's in this shopping center. McDonald's has little shops everywhere in Nanjing that are devoted just to selling ice cream. So, my kids ride their bikes almost everyday to get an ice cream cone.
The church only has 4 rooms available in the hotel we meet in. There are 2 small multi-purpose rooms, a small classroom, and a small storage/utility closet room. We have sacrament meeting in one of the multi-purpose rooms. Then Sunday School and R.S. and Y.W. meet in this room. (They bring in dividers for R.S. and Y.W.) The men meet in the other small multi-purpose room. The primary gets the small classroom. We have nursery in one corner, class in another corner, and everything else in another corner. (The 4th corner is where the door is.) The utility closet is the bishop's office/storage for all the ward's supplies. We have 2 (maybe 3) small cabinets to store everything for the ward in.
All of the floors in our house are tile or marble, even the stairs, except the upper level bedrooms. The bedrooms have wood floors. I miss the softness of carpet. My legs get really tired and sore after walking on tile all day.
It is much more humid. (That's actually an understatement.) I have no control of my hair and have competely given up.
We are quite an attraction here. I feel like we are animals in a zoo at times. Everyone stops and stares and points. In fact, the other day we passed a guard on the street. He was suppose to be looking straight ahead at all times, but every time we'd pass his eyes would follow us. I actually saw his head turn a bit at one point. Another time, when I took the kids on the subway, I saw people actually change where they were sitting so they could have a better view of us.
Overall, things are going well. I miss all of my friends and family. And I miss being able to speak English and be understood. The family is doing well though. I think we are starting to adjust.
Alauna
Very few people speak English. (Which basically means no one.) So, we are learning a few Chinese words here and there and doing a lot of hand gestures and pointing. We are going to have our first Chinese tutoring session today.
There are a minimal number of foreigners. (Which means very very very ........... few. You can go days without seeing a non-Chinese face. Not a bad thing, just different.) Most of the foreigners have gone home for the summer. There are Chinese people everywhere (go figure :)). You never realize what a melting pot America is until you're somewhere like here.
Our Ayi (helper) and our driver do not speak English. Fine for Boyd, not so fine for me. We're figuring it out though. We spend a lot of time on my i-phone trying to translate what each other is saying. I don't know what I'd do without my i-phone.
Not only is not much English spoken, but all of my appliances have Chinese characters on them. So, it can be difficult to know how to work things. My friends, Becca and Naomi, came over on Monday and helped me translate the functions on my appliances so I don't have to guess anymore. Naomi is Japanese and recognizes a lot of the characters, and Becca has an awesome translating app on her phone (which I now have).
The food is completely different. I don't recognize over half the fruits and vegetables at the market. There are tons of different rices and soy sauces to choose from. We didn't pick a good soy sauce the first time we went shopping. Our Ayi let me know and bought a different kind of soy sauce. I still don't know what the difference is. It's hard to find dairy products. We drink milk out of a box. I miss my fresh milk.
It's different having an Ayi in the house. She works from 10-5 Mon.-Fri. She makes lunch and dinner which is a blessing because I don't recognize most of the foods and wouldn't even know where to start preparing a meal with the foods in the store. She also does about 1/3 of the wash which is helpful and she keeps all the floors clean.
All of the labels in the store are in Chinese characters. Sometimes there will be English as well, but not always. So, it's hard to determine even what the box foods are at times. It can be difficult to tell between sugar and salt. It's also hard to determine which beauty supplies are which. (Like if a bottle contains shampoo or conditioner.) Also, a lot of beauty supplies contain whiteners. So, we have to be really careful of what we buy.
When we go to the grocery store we have to carry home what we buy. That can get pretty crazy when you're buying for 8 people. The other day the kids and I all rode our bikes to the market and filled all of our baskets with groceries. We do have a driver. So, I save the big trips for when he's working. He works Tues. - Sat. during the day.
There is a shopping center just a couple of blocks away. There is a McDonald's in this shopping center. McDonald's has little shops everywhere in Nanjing that are devoted just to selling ice cream. So, my kids ride their bikes almost everyday to get an ice cream cone.
The church only has 4 rooms available in the hotel we meet in. There are 2 small multi-purpose rooms, a small classroom, and a small storage/utility closet room. We have sacrament meeting in one of the multi-purpose rooms. Then Sunday School and R.S. and Y.W. meet in this room. (They bring in dividers for R.S. and Y.W.) The men meet in the other small multi-purpose room. The primary gets the small classroom. We have nursery in one corner, class in another corner, and everything else in another corner. (The 4th corner is where the door is.) The utility closet is the bishop's office/storage for all the ward's supplies. We have 2 (maybe 3) small cabinets to store everything for the ward in.
All of the floors in our house are tile or marble, even the stairs, except the upper level bedrooms. The bedrooms have wood floors. I miss the softness of carpet. My legs get really tired and sore after walking on tile all day.
It is much more humid. (That's actually an understatement.) I have no control of my hair and have competely given up.
We are quite an attraction here. I feel like we are animals in a zoo at times. Everyone stops and stares and points. In fact, the other day we passed a guard on the street. He was suppose to be looking straight ahead at all times, but every time we'd pass his eyes would follow us. I actually saw his head turn a bit at one point. Another time, when I took the kids on the subway, I saw people actually change where they were sitting so they could have a better view of us.
Overall, things are going well. I miss all of my friends and family. And I miss being able to speak English and be understood. The family is doing well though. I think we are starting to adjust.
Alauna
Same and Different
Living here in China we are finding that there are many things that are the same and many things that are different.
Transportation--We bought everyone a bike. We have spent a lot of time riding bikes. The kids will ride to the Suguo grocery store near our house. They also ride to the McDonalds to get ice cream cones. The kids are having a ton a fun riding their bikes around our compound. There is not a lot of traffic so it's pretty safe for them. There is a bike and walking path near our house. On part of the path there is a small guard fence and railing. On our Sunday bike ride Trevon hit into the fence two different times. I'm not sure what he was doing. All of a sudden both times he was riding and I guess got too close to the fence and wham he was on the ground. I think his bike is a little too big for him. He's growing fast though so it will soon be the perfect size.
There are myriad bikes, scooters, buses and taxis in Nanjing. I do think there is a bit of a taxi shortage, however. At times it can be really hard find a cab. The cab drivers here share a cab and they switch drivers at 6pm. So anytime between 5:30-6:00pm it can be really hard to find a cab. The drivers just finishing are heading back to turn in their car and usually don't want to pick up another fare. So you will see lots of empty cabs because they are more anxious to be done driving for the day. As I mentioned previously we are lucky enough to have a driver. It is very different siting in the passengers seat rather than driving. At first it drove me crazy because he was driving differently than I would. I wanted him to drive a bit faster. He is very safe for my family. Now I really enjoy him driving. It is great not to worry about navigating the traffic. I can work, talk to Alauna, get caught up on emails or play a game on my phone instead of worrying about driving.
Food--Food is probably the biggest difference. Because of our Ayi we get Chinese food cooked for us twice each day. She has made some very delicious food each day. Some of the kids have not loved everything she has cooked but they have enjoyed it over all. Today she cooked shrimp. In China they cook shrimp with the heads on. Declan was turning the shrimp so they faced him and then telling the shrimp "hi. Hiya." He is a funny kid. The kids were craving Pizza so last Saturday we went to Pizza Hut at the Confucius temple. It was quite the juxtaposition of ancient history and modern day conveniences. The kids loved the pizza and we ate three large pizzas with no leftovers. Pizza Hut is very popular Western restaurant in China. They have large dine-in areas and there are times where there will be a 20-30 minute wait for pizza hut. Later that day we ended up at Dairy Queen for blizzards and a banana split. This past weekend was our fix to get Western food. On Sunday it was nachos and lasagna.
We typically shop at a grocery store called Suguo. It has most of the basics and is very close to our house. We also go to a store called Metro. It is very similar to Costco lacking the combination pizza (I love that pizza). We can get dairy products including cheese at Metro. Cheese outside of Metro is very limited. We also get our milk in a box now. They do have milk in jugs or cartons but it is about $12-16 a gallon. In the boxes it is about $8 a gallon so that's a pretty good bargain. :). The milk we have been buying is from Germany. We also bought a soybean milk maker. You just add soybeans and water and in a few minutes you have fresh soybean milk. I really enjoy the soybean milk. The kids are still acquiring the taste. There are also quite a few little shops in Nanjing that specialize in Western food. We have one near our house called My Shop. I took the kids there the other day and they loved it. Trevon said that we don't need to move back to Highland because everything from Highland was in this shop. It's amazing how a box of Macaroni and Cheese can change a six year old's perspective.
Nanjing--Nanjing is an amazing Chinese city. There is so much history and culture here. Someone compared Nanjing to Boston. It is not the biggest city like New York or Shanghai, but it is a large city with a lot of history and culture in it. After spending some time in Boston I think that is a pretty fair comparison. Nanjing is a city of 6-8 million (depending on if you count unregistered workers). It has been the capital of China on Multiple occasions. Before Chairman Mao and the Communist Party took over it was the Capital of China and the Nationalist government led by Sun Yet San and then Chaing Kai Shek. Many of the negotiations between the Nationalist party and the Communist Party where held in Nanjing. Sun Yet San is buried in Nanjing and there is a beautiful memorial here for him in Purple Mountain. Nanjing was also the capital of the Ming dynasty. There are also Ming burial tombs here. I am really looking forward to work settling down a bit and taking the opportunity to explore Nanjing and China. There are many places that I want to see, but there are three that are top of my list. One is Beijing and the Great Wall of China. Next is Xian and the terra cotta warriors, and the third is Guilin and the beautiful mountain scenes in the region.
Our house here is very nice. It is four levels. Three above ground and a basement. Every floor in marble tile. Declan does not enjoy the tile when he lays down and throws his temper tantrums. Maybe he will quit them because the floor is so hard. He actually has been pretty good since taking him to the point of exhaustion on the first weekend. (He slept 16 hours straight the first Sunday into Monday). We have a single car garage which is actually a seven bike garage. It's nice having a garage. It is pretty rare in China to have a garage. Our house is decorated very nicely and ornately. This is pretty common in China. Chandeliers seem to be a status symbol here or a sign of luxury. We have two beautiful chandelier in our house, but they are something that we would probably never pick. Our couches at first seemed very formal, but we are actually really enjoying them. They are very large so there is room for the entire family. It's great to have a space where the whole family can be together. We have a personal VPN so we can connect to Netflix, Amazon prime, Hulu plus, pandora etc so we are able to enjoy a lot of movies and TV shows from the US. We have a Roku box. It has been amazing. If you want a lot of content on your TV and don't have a way to get the content now Roku is a great solution. It is simple and easy to use and the quality is great. Roku has a BYU TV app so we will be able to see BYU football and basketball games this fall and winter. I am really looking forward to this. Our beds in China are all very hard. We have mattress pads on most of them which add some softness. Brannon's bed is the most stiff and it is literally like sleeping on a board. He never complains though. He is such a good kid.
I hope you enjoy reading the blog.
Boyd
Transportation--We bought everyone a bike. We have spent a lot of time riding bikes. The kids will ride to the Suguo grocery store near our house. They also ride to the McDonalds to get ice cream cones. The kids are having a ton a fun riding their bikes around our compound. There is not a lot of traffic so it's pretty safe for them. There is a bike and walking path near our house. On part of the path there is a small guard fence and railing. On our Sunday bike ride Trevon hit into the fence two different times. I'm not sure what he was doing. All of a sudden both times he was riding and I guess got too close to the fence and wham he was on the ground. I think his bike is a little too big for him. He's growing fast though so it will soon be the perfect size.
There are myriad bikes, scooters, buses and taxis in Nanjing. I do think there is a bit of a taxi shortage, however. At times it can be really hard find a cab. The cab drivers here share a cab and they switch drivers at 6pm. So anytime between 5:30-6:00pm it can be really hard to find a cab. The drivers just finishing are heading back to turn in their car and usually don't want to pick up another fare. So you will see lots of empty cabs because they are more anxious to be done driving for the day. As I mentioned previously we are lucky enough to have a driver. It is very different siting in the passengers seat rather than driving. At first it drove me crazy because he was driving differently than I would. I wanted him to drive a bit faster. He is very safe for my family. Now I really enjoy him driving. It is great not to worry about navigating the traffic. I can work, talk to Alauna, get caught up on emails or play a game on my phone instead of worrying about driving.
Food--Food is probably the biggest difference. Because of our Ayi we get Chinese food cooked for us twice each day. She has made some very delicious food each day. Some of the kids have not loved everything she has cooked but they have enjoyed it over all. Today she cooked shrimp. In China they cook shrimp with the heads on. Declan was turning the shrimp so they faced him and then telling the shrimp "hi. Hiya." He is a funny kid. The kids were craving Pizza so last Saturday we went to Pizza Hut at the Confucius temple. It was quite the juxtaposition of ancient history and modern day conveniences. The kids loved the pizza and we ate three large pizzas with no leftovers. Pizza Hut is very popular Western restaurant in China. They have large dine-in areas and there are times where there will be a 20-30 minute wait for pizza hut. Later that day we ended up at Dairy Queen for blizzards and a banana split. This past weekend was our fix to get Western food. On Sunday it was nachos and lasagna.
We typically shop at a grocery store called Suguo. It has most of the basics and is very close to our house. We also go to a store called Metro. It is very similar to Costco lacking the combination pizza (I love that pizza). We can get dairy products including cheese at Metro. Cheese outside of Metro is very limited. We also get our milk in a box now. They do have milk in jugs or cartons but it is about $12-16 a gallon. In the boxes it is about $8 a gallon so that's a pretty good bargain. :). The milk we have been buying is from Germany. We also bought a soybean milk maker. You just add soybeans and water and in a few minutes you have fresh soybean milk. I really enjoy the soybean milk. The kids are still acquiring the taste. There are also quite a few little shops in Nanjing that specialize in Western food. We have one near our house called My Shop. I took the kids there the other day and they loved it. Trevon said that we don't need to move back to Highland because everything from Highland was in this shop. It's amazing how a box of Macaroni and Cheese can change a six year old's perspective.
Nanjing--Nanjing is an amazing Chinese city. There is so much history and culture here. Someone compared Nanjing to Boston. It is not the biggest city like New York or Shanghai, but it is a large city with a lot of history and culture in it. After spending some time in Boston I think that is a pretty fair comparison. Nanjing is a city of 6-8 million (depending on if you count unregistered workers). It has been the capital of China on Multiple occasions. Before Chairman Mao and the Communist Party took over it was the Capital of China and the Nationalist government led by Sun Yet San and then Chaing Kai Shek. Many of the negotiations between the Nationalist party and the Communist Party where held in Nanjing. Sun Yet San is buried in Nanjing and there is a beautiful memorial here for him in Purple Mountain. Nanjing was also the capital of the Ming dynasty. There are also Ming burial tombs here. I am really looking forward to work settling down a bit and taking the opportunity to explore Nanjing and China. There are many places that I want to see, but there are three that are top of my list. One is Beijing and the Great Wall of China. Next is Xian and the terra cotta warriors, and the third is Guilin and the beautiful mountain scenes in the region.
Our house here is very nice. It is four levels. Three above ground and a basement. Every floor in marble tile. Declan does not enjoy the tile when he lays down and throws his temper tantrums. Maybe he will quit them because the floor is so hard. He actually has been pretty good since taking him to the point of exhaustion on the first weekend. (He slept 16 hours straight the first Sunday into Monday). We have a single car garage which is actually a seven bike garage. It's nice having a garage. It is pretty rare in China to have a garage. Our house is decorated very nicely and ornately. This is pretty common in China. Chandeliers seem to be a status symbol here or a sign of luxury. We have two beautiful chandelier in our house, but they are something that we would probably never pick. Our couches at first seemed very formal, but we are actually really enjoying them. They are very large so there is room for the entire family. It's great to have a space where the whole family can be together. We have a personal VPN so we can connect to Netflix, Amazon prime, Hulu plus, pandora etc so we are able to enjoy a lot of movies and TV shows from the US. We have a Roku box. It has been amazing. If you want a lot of content on your TV and don't have a way to get the content now Roku is a great solution. It is simple and easy to use and the quality is great. Roku has a BYU TV app so we will be able to see BYU football and basketball games this fall and winter. I am really looking forward to this. Our beds in China are all very hard. We have mattress pads on most of them which add some softness. Brannon's bed is the most stiff and it is literally like sleeping on a board. He never complains though. He is such a good kid.
I hope you enjoy reading the blog.
Boyd
Pictures
Here are some pictures from our trip and our house. I think all are already on Facebook.
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| Backyard |
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| Bikes in Garage |
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| Luggage |
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| More Luggage |
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| China Neighborhood |
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| Dining Room |
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| Family Room |
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| Arrival in Shanghai |
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| Bathroom |
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| SLC |
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| Hampton Inn, Lehi |
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| On the way to SLC airport |
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| Sleeping on the plane |
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| Master Bedroom |
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| Our house. It is a duplex. This is our side. The other side is being remodeled. |
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| SLC before Checking in. |
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| Sunset |
Monday, June 18, 2012
We're here!!!
Well we made it to China. We flew from SLC to LAX to Korea to Shanghai and then a 4 hour car ride to Nanjing. We had a great flight to China. For such a long trip it went pretty smooth. We flew Delta from SLC to LAX and then Korean Air from LAX to Korea. The flight attendants on Korean Air were wonderful. They helped the kids out tremendously. Most of the kids slept for most of the flight. It was really nice to have a video monitor on every seat. The kids loved that. Declan also did really good. He slept quite a bit of it. He fell asleep in Alauna's arms and slept for about 5-6 hours. That was great for Declan but tough for Alauna. He also slept on and off a couple other times. Declan and I also spent a couple hours walking up and down the aisles and hanging out in the back with the flight attendants. For such a long flight he really did awesome.
The entire trip was about 33 hours. We had a great trip for about 31 of the hours. At about hour 31 Declan lost it. He was so exhausted at that point. We were driving from Shanghai to Nanjing and he was just screaming. He was half asleep but so tired that he just couldn't settle down and go to sleep. I think our driver was about to give his resignation on our first trip with him. We made it through the last two hours and finally got to our house. It was an extremely long trip. We had three vans to get us from Shanghai to Nanjing. Two were completely full of luggage and one was completely full of people.
After we got settled in we went to our first Chinese meal together in China. I order and it was all pretty safe. The kids did ok with the food but I think they were all so exhausted that they didn't eat that much. They did try everything though and found some things they liked. We had another Chinese meal with some people from work. Luckily the person that ordered was very thoughtful about what she ordered because of the kids. The kids did try a few things like Thousand Year Old Eggs. I thought Brannon might like them because he loves eggs so much, but they were even a bit much for him. My kids had a great experience with what I call "be careful what you ask for." In the Chinese culture if you ask for something or express interest in something people will work very hard to get it for you. Towards the end of the meal they host asked the kids if they wanted another Sprite. Five of them raised their hands. I told the host that we only needed 2-3 cans and not five cans. The host then ordered five cans. The waiter came back and said that they only had 2 cans left in the restaurant. Immediately the host started taking money out of his pocket for the waiter to run across the street to the convenience store to buy more cans of Sprite. A few minutes later the kids had all the Sprite they could drink. I told them what happened and that they needed to drink the Sprite since the host went through all that effort. The kids were very thankful and didn't mean to cause so much effort. The next morning I saw a can of Sprite in the fridge. The kids had quickly taken one of the cans of Sprite off the table and put it in their bag because they could not drink another drop. I thought that was pretty funny.
I want the kids to be grateful for all the efforts of others on their behalf. We are very blessed with our situation here in China. We have a beautiful house in a very nice compound which is close to the school and shopping. We have an Ayi (housekeeper), Anna, that works five days a week and gives Alauna a ton of help. Alauna still has a ton to do, so it's nice for her to have a little help. We also have a driver, Yang Ning. He works Tuesday-Saturday for us. He also drives us to church on Sunday. It has been incredibly helpful to have these people help us. I don't know how we would get around without the driver. We can take the subway to many places, but with eight people taking a taxi would be very difficult. We would need multiple taxis and lately in Nanjing Taxis are pretty hard to find. Living in China is very difficult, so I'm glad we have a couple of things that make it a bit easier for Alauna and the kids.
I had a great Fathers day here in China. Alauna made Nachos for lunch and Lasagna for dinner. It tasted so good. Those both sound like pretty basic meals, but they are actually very difficult to make here in Nanjing. It took going to 2-3 stores to get everything, so I really appreciate all the effort Alauna put into making those two amazing meals on Fathers Day. Alauna wanted to get me a BBQ grill for Father's day. We went to a couple of stores to look. We found an amazing grill with a built in Smoker. I was pretty excited when I saw the smoker. It ended up being $2000.00 US so we didn't get the grill. We did find another grill that I think I will be able to grill as well as smoke with. I'm looking forward to experimenting with a pulled pork here in China. It was also very nice to talk to my dad and Alauna's dad. It's amazing what you can do with technology. It was awesome to see my mom and dad on Skype. I'm so grateful for my dad and all he does for us. Thank dad.
We have settled into our local church. Our branch (congregation) is very small and very transient. Alauna and I have both been asked to serve in leadership positions in the branch. We are both excited and willing to do this. Nanjing University has a couple of different exchange programs with BYU so there are usually quite a few BYU students here. There are also a lot of young people teaching English. It is great to have the church here and have that network existing when we move in. That is one of the many blessings of the church.
Work is going well but very busy. It should be extremely busy for the next 2-3 weeks and then hopefully will settle into more of a rhythm.
I hope everyone is doing well. Pictures to follow.
Boyd
The entire trip was about 33 hours. We had a great trip for about 31 of the hours. At about hour 31 Declan lost it. He was so exhausted at that point. We were driving from Shanghai to Nanjing and he was just screaming. He was half asleep but so tired that he just couldn't settle down and go to sleep. I think our driver was about to give his resignation on our first trip with him. We made it through the last two hours and finally got to our house. It was an extremely long trip. We had three vans to get us from Shanghai to Nanjing. Two were completely full of luggage and one was completely full of people.
After we got settled in we went to our first Chinese meal together in China. I order and it was all pretty safe. The kids did ok with the food but I think they were all so exhausted that they didn't eat that much. They did try everything though and found some things they liked. We had another Chinese meal with some people from work. Luckily the person that ordered was very thoughtful about what she ordered because of the kids. The kids did try a few things like Thousand Year Old Eggs. I thought Brannon might like them because he loves eggs so much, but they were even a bit much for him. My kids had a great experience with what I call "be careful what you ask for." In the Chinese culture if you ask for something or express interest in something people will work very hard to get it for you. Towards the end of the meal they host asked the kids if they wanted another Sprite. Five of them raised their hands. I told the host that we only needed 2-3 cans and not five cans. The host then ordered five cans. The waiter came back and said that they only had 2 cans left in the restaurant. Immediately the host started taking money out of his pocket for the waiter to run across the street to the convenience store to buy more cans of Sprite. A few minutes later the kids had all the Sprite they could drink. I told them what happened and that they needed to drink the Sprite since the host went through all that effort. The kids were very thankful and didn't mean to cause so much effort. The next morning I saw a can of Sprite in the fridge. The kids had quickly taken one of the cans of Sprite off the table and put it in their bag because they could not drink another drop. I thought that was pretty funny.
I want the kids to be grateful for all the efforts of others on their behalf. We are very blessed with our situation here in China. We have a beautiful house in a very nice compound which is close to the school and shopping. We have an Ayi (housekeeper), Anna, that works five days a week and gives Alauna a ton of help. Alauna still has a ton to do, so it's nice for her to have a little help. We also have a driver, Yang Ning. He works Tuesday-Saturday for us. He also drives us to church on Sunday. It has been incredibly helpful to have these people help us. I don't know how we would get around without the driver. We can take the subway to many places, but with eight people taking a taxi would be very difficult. We would need multiple taxis and lately in Nanjing Taxis are pretty hard to find. Living in China is very difficult, so I'm glad we have a couple of things that make it a bit easier for Alauna and the kids.
I had a great Fathers day here in China. Alauna made Nachos for lunch and Lasagna for dinner. It tasted so good. Those both sound like pretty basic meals, but they are actually very difficult to make here in Nanjing. It took going to 2-3 stores to get everything, so I really appreciate all the effort Alauna put into making those two amazing meals on Fathers Day. Alauna wanted to get me a BBQ grill for Father's day. We went to a couple of stores to look. We found an amazing grill with a built in Smoker. I was pretty excited when I saw the smoker. It ended up being $2000.00 US so we didn't get the grill. We did find another grill that I think I will be able to grill as well as smoke with. I'm looking forward to experimenting with a pulled pork here in China. It was also very nice to talk to my dad and Alauna's dad. It's amazing what you can do with technology. It was awesome to see my mom and dad on Skype. I'm so grateful for my dad and all he does for us. Thank dad.
We have settled into our local church. Our branch (congregation) is very small and very transient. Alauna and I have both been asked to serve in leadership positions in the branch. We are both excited and willing to do this. Nanjing University has a couple of different exchange programs with BYU so there are usually quite a few BYU students here. There are also a lot of young people teaching English. It is great to have the church here and have that network existing when we move in. That is one of the many blessings of the church.
Work is going well but very busy. It should be extremely busy for the next 2-3 weeks and then hopefully will settle into more of a rhythm.
I hope everyone is doing well. Pictures to follow.
Boyd
Friday, June 15, 2012
Packed Up
Things have been very busy the past three weeks with packing, moving and arriving in China. We made it here and are doing well. I started this post in the US but did not finish it. I will post updates to get us caught up to present time. Hopefully we'll be caught up by the end of the weekend. We will also post pictures as well.
Well, everything is packed up and in one of three places; one of 24 suitcases, eight backpacks, our air shipment, or long term storage. I would say 90-95% of our belongings are heading to the long term storage. It was quite the exercise to sort through what was going and what was staying. As we have discussed this journey we have always said that we didn't want to recreate America in China, but that we wanted to experience China. That is easier said than done. So we tried to take things that we needed, but not a lot of what we wanted.
The two weeks of moving were two of the most exhausting weeks we have experienced in a long time. We were so grateful to have movers there to help us pack and load everything. They did a great job. We had to have everything packed in our suitcases the first day the movers came so they could pack everything else. We had a couple of times where we had something packed and we had to dig through boxes to find it. Most days we had Trevon and Declan go to neighbors in the morning while the movers were there. That helped a ton so that they were out of the way of the movers and weren't getting in the way. Thanks Misty and Jill.
We spent the last couple of nights at the Hampton Inn in Lehi since our house was packed up. The kids had a lot of fun there. They loved the swimming pool and the breakfast. It was nice to have the hotel and get a good night sleep. It was also great to see friends and family one last time. We had a neighboorhood party and we were able to see a lot of our neighbors. It was a lot of fun. Thanks Alision for organizing. We know it was a lot of work.
We loaded all our suitcases up at the Hampton Inn in my dad's pickup and the back of our suburban. It was quite the load. Then my dad and Brian drove the luggage to the airport and we followed in the suburban. We made it to the airport on time and without incidents. Once we arrived we had quite the assembly line to get the suitcases from the curb to inside the terminal. Brian, my dad and I were unloading all the suitcases and the kids started taking them into the terminal. Mikayla stayed in the terminal with the suitcases while the other kids made multiple trips from the curb back to the terminal. Delta was great about getting us all checked in. We worked really had to balance all the suitcases and every suitcase came in very close to 50 lbs. That was a huge relief that we didn't have to sort luggage weights out at the airport. With six kids we knew we would be an attraction in China. We quickly realized that we were an attraction in the US with travelling with six kids. Everyone was very helpful and kind to us as we travelled.
Boyd
Well, everything is packed up and in one of three places; one of 24 suitcases, eight backpacks, our air shipment, or long term storage. I would say 90-95% of our belongings are heading to the long term storage. It was quite the exercise to sort through what was going and what was staying. As we have discussed this journey we have always said that we didn't want to recreate America in China, but that we wanted to experience China. That is easier said than done. So we tried to take things that we needed, but not a lot of what we wanted.
The two weeks of moving were two of the most exhausting weeks we have experienced in a long time. We were so grateful to have movers there to help us pack and load everything. They did a great job. We had to have everything packed in our suitcases the first day the movers came so they could pack everything else. We had a couple of times where we had something packed and we had to dig through boxes to find it. Most days we had Trevon and Declan go to neighbors in the morning while the movers were there. That helped a ton so that they were out of the way of the movers and weren't getting in the way. Thanks Misty and Jill.
We spent the last couple of nights at the Hampton Inn in Lehi since our house was packed up. The kids had a lot of fun there. They loved the swimming pool and the breakfast. It was nice to have the hotel and get a good night sleep. It was also great to see friends and family one last time. We had a neighboorhood party and we were able to see a lot of our neighbors. It was a lot of fun. Thanks Alision for organizing. We know it was a lot of work.
We loaded all our suitcases up at the Hampton Inn in my dad's pickup and the back of our suburban. It was quite the load. Then my dad and Brian drove the luggage to the airport and we followed in the suburban. We made it to the airport on time and without incidents. Once we arrived we had quite the assembly line to get the suitcases from the curb to inside the terminal. Brian, my dad and I were unloading all the suitcases and the kids started taking them into the terminal. Mikayla stayed in the terminal with the suitcases while the other kids made multiple trips from the curb back to the terminal. Delta was great about getting us all checked in. We worked really had to balance all the suitcases and every suitcase came in very close to 50 lbs. That was a huge relief that we didn't have to sort luggage weights out at the airport. With six kids we knew we would be an attraction in China. We quickly realized that we were an attraction in the US with travelling with six kids. Everyone was very helpful and kind to us as we travelled.
Boyd
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