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