Day Two (Thursday 9/1)

In the morning, I remembered having heard something about China having Kaufland or Carefour. We had both of those stores on my mission and they were really good and usually had everything. We looked them up and found that they did not have Kaufland but had Carefour. There was one close-ish to us so we found a metro stop on the map and headed out. No one had slept very well that first night. We were up several times and had been awake since 4 am and we decided to wait until 6:30 am to go out.

You know how it is when you feel like you’ve been walking forever and you’re not sure if you really have, or if it just seems that way because you don’t know where you’re going? Well that’s what the walk to the metro was like. The streets weren’t that busy yet, so that was good. Ali seemed to be enjoying her stroller ride, which was also good because I don’t think either of us wanted to carry her the whole way.

I had wanted to try some street food so as we were walking we scoped out the possibilities… and it was frightening! It was a combination of the filthy streets, men in their underwear brushing their teeth in the alleys over drains, stacks of dirty dishes on the ground filled with brown water, uncooked meat sitting out on tables and the putrid smell that seemed to be coming at us from every direction. There may have been some tasty street food mixed in with all of that but it would have taken a couple more days without food to be that desperate. I decided to just wait for some Carefour groceries.

After what seemed like and hour (but really is more like 20 minutes now that we know where it is) we saw the metro station. It was across a big intersection from where we were standing. At big intersections here you can’t cross the street on ground level, you have to go up a couple flights of stairs, walk across a bridge and down the other side. So we each grabbed a side of the stroller and made our way to the metro. The whole time I was thinking to myself that in a couple weeks I would be doing this by myself. We ended up bringing a jogging stroller and I’m pretty glad we did because Ali is so comfortable in it but it weighs 25 pounds. If you add her to it that’s about 50 pounds and I just couldn’t see how I was going to be able to lift that by myself especially in the coming months. Maybe I could just avoid the main intersection by crossing earlier? But I would still have to go up the same amount of stairs to get into the station. One thing that we noticed right away, and has become even more apparent the longer we are here, is that this place IS NOT stroller or wheelchair friendly- and that is an understatement! For example, we have seen a couple elevators but they don’t go from the bottom to the top, they will start on the second floor and only take you up one floor. So to get to the elevator in the first place, you have to climb a flight of stairs. They do have escalators in some places but there will be big metal polls in front of them so that you have to lift the stroller over them to get on the escalator. It’s so frustrating to be standing right next to a perfectly good escalator that you can’t get on with your stroller. And then sometimes when you want to exit the metro station, like at the metro stop we use to go to church, there are big cement polls as high as your head. They are spaced just enough for a person to slide through.

Anyway, we make it onto the metro and go one stop to Carefour. By this time it is 7:15 and there is a pretty long line of people waiting for 7:30 when the store will open. So we got in line and immediately the people started to SWARM! They wanted to get a better look at our baby. They came closer and closer, people stepping in front of other people, pushing their way to the front to be closest to the baby. They were talking and laughing and pointing and then they just could not restrain themselves! They had to touch her; her arms, hands, legs, face. Poor thing just looked up at me and I didn’t know if she was getting nervous or not but I sure was so I picked her up and tried to keep people from holding her, their arms stretching out towards her.

(Example of some attention that the baby brings. You can see one lady has a hold of Ali's leg.)

There would be a person who would know a couple words in English and they would find out she was a girl (everyone asks us if she is a boy or girl even when she is wearing hot pink and a bow) and pass the word on to the crowd. The crowd would them repeat it to themselves and their neighbor and laugh and clap and touch the baby. Then someone would find out how old she is and the same thing would happen. I was starting to feel really overwhelmed when the store finally opened and the people began making a mad dash for the tiny entrance to the store. Everyone was pushing and shoving their way in and once they got in they would run to their desired destination- the meat aisles or the bok choy. There were two or three aisles of bins filled with unwrapped, raw or frozen meat and peopled swarmed those bins, sifting through them with their bare hands!

(A bin of meat. Really I can't see myself ever buying this stuff. Maybe for Halloween. =))

They would pick up a piece of meat, inspect it, drop it and continue searching through the bin. Some older lady grabbed a piece of meat and evidently the man next to her didn’t like that because he elbowed her and she pushed him in return.

(Here are the people crowding one of the meat aisles. It doesn't look as extreme as it does in person. Mostly because the man in the white shirt is making it so you can't see how many people are on the other side of him.)

People were yelling at each other, the workers, and who knows whom else. I wish I knew what they were saying.

To make a really long story a couple paragraphs shorter, we collected some essentials and headed home.

(These are the carrots they have here. Huge! Luckily they're not that expensive. We might be eating a lot of carrots.)

The peanut butter was not as expensive as we thought it was going to be. It’s only a dollar or two more so we got some. They’re not really into bread here so it’s not as good as at home but better than nothing. We stopped in some alley market to pick up a couple fried patties made of flour and who knows what else. I had a couple bites but Jimmy, and even the baby, ate the rest. By this time of morning the streets and sidewalks were packed and it took a little longer getting home because of the traffic. We did stop off at a park so Ali could get on the grass and play. I’m sure she misses being outside in the woods- poor little thing.

(Nature time in Tianshan Park. This is the new thing that Ali is doing and it is beyong adorable! I can't get enough of it and it makes me laugh every time she does it.)

The rest of the day is a blur. I do know we put the baby down for a nap around 11 am or noon, laid down for a nap ourselves and woke up 5 hours later. Oops. That wasn’t going to help us adjust to the time… oh well, it was our first full day and we were tired. We’re just rolling with it.

A Few Pictures

Above: Ali relaxing during the first leg of our travels! She was this calm the whole time!

Below: Ali sitting next to Daddy playing with some foam blocks. These were and are a big hit!

This is one of the things from the bakery that we DID NOT buy the first night. You can't read the tag very well but it says "spicy floss". It's like dry meat flakes- that's the best way I know how to explain it. It's everywhere! They have it in big bins in the grocery store and in little packages in the aisles. We'll try it some day I'm sure.

(YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY PIC TO ENLARGE IT)

This cool looking thing connects our building to the building next door. To the left is a restaurant at the bottom of our building (story to come on that place) and to the right is a tea house. If Ali looks like she is about to fall asleep it's probably because she is. We were out for a walk so she wouldn't sleep all day.

This is what you see when you walk out of our apartment building. You can see what they call the "elevated road", if you were to look to the left there would be an off ramp. That black car closest to the camera is actually pulling out of the apartment driveway onto the main road. The road and sidewalk are this packed all day.

Below is a restaurant nearby. Once I get brave enough we'll eat out. It will happen soon... I think. But isn't Jimmy just so handsome in his glasses! I love it!

This gives you a little idea of how many bikes and scooters are on the roads. It's pretty amazing! And you should see what happens when the light turns green! Absolute chaos! It's a wonder that people aren't getting hit every two seconds.

Our Apartment is...

There are many adjectives one might use to describe our apartment. Before we got here, we were sent a slide show of our accommodations and the adjectives we used then are probably the opposite of what we use now that we’ve seen it. I’ll use Jimmy’s word because it fits so well- GHETTO. Although ghetto, it’s not awful, just not what we expected. I have already adjusted to the reality of where we live so it’s really not that big of a deal. It reminds me of a lot of apartments I saw on my mission. Same tiled bathroom, same chalky walls and interesting kitchen. Our bedroom has some 70s style carpet that has more of a cheap velvet feel than carpet- fancy! But I am grateful for carpet in at least one room! It’s a perfect place for Ali to play.
An interesting factoid about cleaning in China (at least Shanghai) is that they do not use cleaners. They just wipe or mop with water and you can tell!!! It is obvious that this place has never been cleaned. I became very grateful for the container of Clorox wipes that I felt inspired to bring. I began wiping things down almost immediately. I think my awareness of the dirt and germs added to my aversion to food. But we pretty much have the whole place wiped down by now so we’re doing good. I was just amazed at how dirty every item and surface was that I wiped! Places I didn’t even know could get dirty were disgusting. Almost a week later, it’s starting to feel like home and we’re feeling more comfortable.
(I will add pictures soon. I’m not able to upload them for some reason but we’ll figure it out.)

From the Beginning... Take Two

I knew that we just had to get there. We weren't looking forward to the flight but it was necessary since "beaming" is yet to be invented. Jimmy gave Ali a blessing Tuesday morning before we left and it was amazing to watch the priesthood in action. It was a miracle to see how calm and relaxed Ali was the whole trip.... well, the whole trip meaning after she scremed the whole way to the airport. But really, I've NEVER seen her so calm! She just sat in her little seat eating snacks, playing with games or watching a show. She had her two naps, right on schedule, and when it was bed time she went right to bed and woke up shortly before we landed. It was bettter than I could have imagined and I couldn't keep from giggling to myself at how perfectly things were going.
We arrived in Shanghai on Wednesday evening and after receiving all our bags (YAY!) and a stop in at the restroom (yes, I had to go, but I was also so curious because of the horror stories I had heard about the bathrooms in Shanghai- for the record it was one of the nicest bathrooms I've ever been in.), we walked through customs and met up with out driver. After loading our bads into the van we began our almost 1 hour drive to our apartment. Ali fell asleep quickly and Jimmy and I tried to catch glimpses of the city through the VERY tinted windows. I was surprised at how many "normal" looking houses there were. There were mixed in with a lot of tall, grey-ish apartment buildings. I've never been to a city like this! We weren't even on one edge of the city and after driving an hour to our apartment, which wasn't on the edge of the city either, we never saw a break in the buildings! This city is intense!
As we pulled up to our building I noticed many of the pictures from the slideshow- Family Mart, Bakery, etc. As we were checking in a member of student services met us downstairs and then showed us to our room. She said she had already been in it to make sure everything was ok- nice or weird? Not sure. But she's a nice girl.
After we put our bags in our room we decided that we should probably find some food. Unlike most people, I usually really enjoy airplane food but I just couldn't bring myself to eat the food on our flight- it was weird and it smelt gross. I'm not sure how much of it was baby boy's doing or just werid travel stomach- point being, I was very hungry and so were Jimmy and Ali. We started making the rounds to the places that were nearby since it was getting late and was already pretty dark. The strange things is that it gets light really early here, around 5 or 5:30 am but then gets dark really early, around 6 or 6:30 pm.
The first thing I noticed as we stepped out of our building is how many cars there were on the streets! It was 7 pm and there was nothing but cars! We live on a major road, close to two major intersections, and there is an offramp-type-thing right outside our door so I'm sure these all contribute to the nonstop trafic and honking! Oh boy, they LOVE to honk! I haven't even figured out what they are trying to communitcate with the honking. It's something like, "I have a horn and I am just testing it to see if it works since the last time I tested it 60 seconds ago." Cars are not the only thing, there are a lot of bikes and scooters! And the funny/scary thing is, is that if the person on the bike or scooter decides that there is not enough room on the street they will just go right up onto the sidewalk! Really! And then they start honking at the pedestrians! I've decided I'm going to get a horn on my stroller.
So we stop in at the first "Family Mart" which is actually the equivallent of a small gas station store- only drinks and candy. The second little store consists of two very narrow aisles filled with werid, old-looking, dusty food. This was our last close "store" so I just grabbed some cheesy, crunch things and a package of strawberry wafers. Strange choices for food, especially when one of the people needing to eat is a baby, but they seemed like the safest options. At this point I was pretty turned off to food but we decided to try our last chance for some sort of substance, the bakery around the corner. The selection was very small and very expensive but we ended up each getting some sort of bread to much on. Ali got a mini croissant, I got a baguette and Jimmy braved some roll with meat in it. His "garbage disposal" way of eating has really come in handy for him here. =)
As we got back home, I became very grateful for every snack morsel that I brought for the plane that we hadn’t consumed yet. Ali ate one of the two baby foods that I had brought. We finished up our snacks and went to bed exhausted and still pretty hungry. I was excited to wake up the next day and find a grocery store and maybe eat something cool and from the street vendors.

We made it!!!

Two nights ago, after one of our (Ali's) 2 am wake-ups I put the baby back down to sleep and felt like writing about our experience so far. Two hours later when Ali woke up again I was still typing! It was the longest post in history but was so good for me to have every detail down as it was fresh in my mind. Jimmy got her up, and she crawled into the living room where I was typing put her little fingers on the keys and, as only she can do, erased everything in a split second! Just then the draft autosave activated and it saved her erased version of my two hour journal entry. I couldn't be mad at her. She just loves keyboards. But I did lose motivation to type everything up again. I do want to have it on record so maybe I'll just type a little at a time and hope that I catch all that I wanted to.

It's Monday now and we've been here 5 days. It feels like 5 years. This is such a unique experience! I've never lived in a place where I look different than everyone else. When I served in Czech Republic I still looked like everyone. It wasn't until I opened my mouth that they knew for sure I wasn't from there. Here, everyone just stares. It may not be as bad if we didn't have a baby but they are OBSESSED with Ali! We had a friend tell us about the attention that she would probably get but it's hard to imagine until you've experienced it because there's just nothing like it.

Every day is getting better and better. We are slowly, very slowly adjusting to the time change- a 13 hour difference is hard to explain to a 10 month old but I think she's doing well. I don't have any expectation for when her sleep will be back to awesome so we'll just go with it. She is still wanting to wake up several times in the night but I don't blame her. She thinks she is supposed to be taking naps at that time, not sleeping through the night. So we try to put her back down but if it doesn't look like she wants to, we just bring her into the living room for a couple hours and then she's ready to go back down.

I still haven't learned any Mandarin... I hope I can start picking up on a few words. Jimmy is at a Mandarin class for 3 hours every day so I'm hoping to learn from him. It will be so weird having him gone all day at classes. We'll miss him but I guess it's time to grow up. =)

Brother or Sister?

We are so happy to announce that Ali will be getting a

little brother

in January! How exciting!! We can't wait to see this little guy! I'm so excited to see what it will be like to have a boy and especially to watch Jimmy- he'll be in heaven! He can't help but smile every time he mentions it.

10 months old!!!

Ali has made it to the double digits! What a big day!! We can't believe we have a 10 month-old baby! She is so much fun and keeps us on our toes and laughing EVERY DAY! I love watching her curious mind take her everywhere! I have always felt that she had a wise, old spirit, and the older she gets, the more I can see that in her. When she was just a newborn I would look down into her eyes and feel like I was looking into the eyes of an old friend who knows so much. We have been taking a ton of pictures here and there... we just can't get enough of this girl and her cute faces!

After almost dying in this crazy hot summer we've been having I decided that I need to break out the pool every day if we're going to survive. She LOVES it!

She likes to chase little creatures that are crawling on the ground.

Here she is trying to catch an ant.

Ali thinks the sprinklers are the best thing since sliced bread!

Oh the cuteness! I'm so in love!

Maybe it's strange to have so many pictures of your baby sitting in rocks, but it's her favorite place to sit! She loves to sift through the rocks to find just the right one and then pop it into her mouth like a piece of candy. If she's crawling around and comes across a rock, she'll pop it in her mouth and keep on moving without skipping a beat. I just have to watch to make sure it's not a small one that she could choke on (you're wondering why this is the only thing I'm worried about... hehehe). If it is I just say, "Ali, is that a small rock? Give that to Mommy." and she takes it out, hands it to me and finds another one. Honestly, we're taking a little bag of rocks on the plane- strange, but whatever works.

side note: Ali now has TWO teeth (one on bottom and one on top) and I feel like she's working on another.

I bought this book (Fairytale Castle) while on my mission in Czech Republic in hopes that one day I would have kids and that they would think it was pretty neat.

She does... it's makes me happy.

I love these magnets! I'm able to make dinner so much easier with these to distract her.

Plus she's a genius and she needs some place to practice her addition and fractions.

Ha! JK- that was mommy!

I love how she'll pull every book out of her basket several times a day.

She'll pick one up, look at it, then drop it on the floor... and on to the next one until she finds the one that catches her attention at that moment and sit down to get a better look at it.

I like to call this our airplane training. I know you shouldn't let kids this young watch TV but come on people, a full 24 hr travel from here to Shanghai? There has to be some sort of movie going on or we're just not going to make it! So, for the benefit of all those on board we have been playing movies for Ali to get her used to it. We have found a couple that she likes. Now when we ask her, "Do you want to watch a show?" she points to the TV or points the remote at the TV. Here she is showing that she loves something on the TV. And Jimmy is probably happier than he looks. I can guarantee that it's probably 6 am or something early like that.

Pointing to the TV for a "show".

New favorite pic! I wouldn't go posting this of my loveliness for everyone to see but it makes me smile and we're all friends here.

Feeding the chickens with Grandma.

Yes, this is how we get around 'round these parts.

Grandma helped her discover the grandkids' favorite corner cupboard!

She also brought the kids some rohliks from Czech Republic! Truth be told I ended up eating more of these than anyone. I just love them so much and it's been too long! Why do we not have these here? They are delish!... and perfect for a teething baby.

Chinese Baby!

I have always loved Asians! Could there be a cuter baby than an Asian baby? I think not! Which is why Jimmy and I have decided to have a Chinese baby. I don't think ours will look Chinese but it sure will be born in China! We are expecting our sweet little addition this January! We feel so excited and blessed to be able to welcome a new baby into our family. We can't wait to cuddle the new little one in about 5 months.

I haven't posted as much over at The Baby Ballyhoo because something weird was happening with blogger and it wouldn't let me keep it private- we didn't want to ruin the surprise! So there are only a few thus far.