Back from Shanghai

We originally had our fingerprints done in Dec. 2012 for our police background check for California, this is one of the steps for Matthew's adoption. Well in January we found out that they were rejected because - are you ready for this? -  the fingerprints were done on the wrong paper. So now we had to fly back to Shanghai to have them done all over again. The Shanghai office said that they would do them for free, which saved us some money. They are now done and sent off back to the US, please pray that they are accepted this time.

We brought Matthew with us and he did great, he got a little nervous during take-off from Xi'an (it was quite bumpy). A Chinese friend of ours provided a driver for us in Shanghai which was really great. We got to the hotel and Matthew said okay I am ready to go home now. We also forgot to grab the baby stroller when picking up our luggage, so we had to carry or let Matthew walk around which really slowed us down. Well not too much as I had badly sprained my ankle 18 hours before we were to leave, so I guess I slowed us down more then Matthew did.

New England friends might know this place

Chilling out on the plane.

~Rick

Shanghai at night.

Wow really good ice cream.

Bats

The title of this post is "Bats", but I'll have you know, in advance, that this post has little to do with bats. Great, with that note finished, I can begin.

So as not to disappoint you, I will mention bats. With the warmer weather comes bats, their purpose being to eat the mosquitoes that plague spring and summer. It's crazy how it seems everywhere in the United States has mosquitoes but the one place where I lived for seven years didn't have a single one (either that, or they did and I never saw or was bothered by them). THAT made my first summer here in 2010 FUN. Baba said we should keep the windows closed to avoid them entering the house, but last night the windows were wide open.


Tomorrow Baba, Mom, and Matthew are going BACK to Shanghai to do fingerprints, giving Jen, Em, and I a couple of days free of Matthew... and them.
Just kidding. ;D
Unfortunately the last set of fingerprints they did in February (see this post) didn't follow the guidelines, so they have to return. :\ Hope all goes well for them.

Here's a pic of Teddy from Amazon.

Quick Matthew Update: Matthew is still under the impression that there will be fireworks any second. He's cease saying "boom booms" and has resorted to "fy-works". Every day it's "Fy-works, fy-works" from him. He's introduced Teddy, Annika and Jovie (old Barbie dolls of mine), Chloe (Webkinz Chihuahua), and Woody (the Cowboy doll) already, in what Mom says is attempt to get them "on his side". (Speaking of Woody, he's standing hypnotized now watching Toy Story WITH that Woody doll, which is just cute to mention.)



~Abby

P.S. We've reached wear-an-unzipped-sweat-coat stage. I am very happy about that. Next step - no jacket. Following a decrease in shirt arm length we will reach the sudden last step - unbearably hot heat.

Welcome, Spring (seventeen days in advance)!

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of what happened when March came here
Just yesterday, on the first..............

AND, that's where I stop, because I am not good at poetry that rhymes. I apologize, Mr. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but I cannot extend your beautiful poem rhythm any farther. Effort was there at least.... right?

Today is a glorious day!
Today is the end!
The very end!

No, not Judgement Day end. I'm talking about the end of winter! Okay, the actual date for the start of spring is the 20th, but the second is close enough, right? The early bird catches the worm (this is sort of random, but whatever). Today is like the perfect mixture of weather, where hints of winter are still present and delights of spring are inching in. I still have to wear a winter coat, but that's good - it means that it's still cold enough for there to be no mosquitoes. And mosquitoes are my worst enemies. Above snails, which is ironic seeing that when I was in fourth grade I used to poke their antennae and put them in my hand and keep them in Trader Joe's coffee cans.

Ah, what growing up does to a person.

But I'm getting off track. Mosquitoes serve absolutely no purpose, except to feed bats. But seriously, bats can eat other bugs too. We don't really need mosquitoes, do we? Alas, their purpose on Earth shall never be completely revealed, nor will the purpose of the ant's existence.


Here's a conversation I had with Winter. (Only my dialogue is shown - the Seasons are very uncommunicative.)

Out, you Winter, you've overstayed your welcome and your family will be missing you. Oh, please, you can just leave your Romance and Beauty behind, I know how heavy they are. No, I insist, come back for them later, I'll hold on to them for now. Oh, poo-ie it's two weeks early. Spring has been sitting waiting outside that door for far too long. Oh, come on now, I'll take your joys and you can finally get back to Summer and Autumn, they're dying to see you. Well, Autumn is, at least; Summer fancies Spring a bit more. Oh, don't be so sensitive. It was just a joke. Alright, bye-bye! Ah, Spring, nice of you to join, thank for waiting so patiently. Would you like a piece of Winter's Romance and Beauty?


Now that I think about that talk, I should have mentioned to Winter to kill all the mosquitoes before she left so perfect Spring wouldn't be plagued with them
Darn, I always think of the important stuff later. :\

Well, hopefully the weather we've had the first and the second remains.

~Abby

Driver's License

So, I finally got my driver's license in China (it took me five tests to do so). Here is how the test goes: They give you 1500 questions to study and out of those 1500 questions they pick 100. The questions and test were all in English though some of the translations were bad. Out of those 100 questions you need to get 90 correct. Just so people know that China has different laws then America. It is funny about the laws they have. Take, for instance, pedestrians in the crosswalk; the law states that the driver must yield to the people in the crosswalk, but if you have ever been to China you know that is not going to happen. We take our lives into our own hands crossing the street everyday. I got my license but I have still not driven yet - my whole family said that I have to take a practice run first before they will go out on the road with me.

~ Rick

February 28 and Xi'an

Today is the last day of February (as leap year was last year). I now have sufficient time on the computer, so this is a most appropriate time to introduce you to the Xi'an we have been in for two years, six months, and twenty days.

Two years and almost seven months - 935 days - 22,400 hours - 1,346,400 minutes - 80,784,000 seconds. When you put it in seconds, the time actually seems shorter. You know, seconds are so short and 100 seconds doesn't take long to count up to, and I counted a thousand seconds once and it wasn't long either (I waste my time doing useless stuff like that). Of course, you can't count 80,784,000 seconds (you would die of dehydration or boredom by the time you reach 604,800 - that's a week), and I do not suggest you try, but when you think about a second, it's but a sliver of the tiniest sliver of cake divided by ten and cut in half again that can be eaten without being chewed (the cake is a junky representation of a year). A second is not that much, so when you put two years, six months, and twenty days in seconds, it seems like that time could just fly by because a second is usually perceived as being a very fast unit of time.

MOVING ON (because you are not here to learn about math and cake), those two and a half-ish years hold many experiences and memories and changes in a person's life. I mean, really, nothing happening to you in two and a half-ish years is an obvious sign that you either don't have a life or you are a potato. Even if you're cooped up in your house all day, there will be experiences and memories and changes. But, I'm getting off subject (a common occurrence for me).

There is far too much to mention in this one post, so I will limit myself to our apartment complex, which I will prefer to as AC in this post because I am lazy. Please do not mistake those two letters as abbreviation for air-conditioner. Mentioning air-conditioning in the winter is stupid.

Look, I've put pictures for you. Cherish this day. This may be the one time I put more than one picture by my own decision because, my friend, I never put pictures. I am a word-person. However, these pictures are worth a little more than three thousand words here, which saves me two hours of writing.

This is an outside view of our apartments - we're the ones in the back, the brick-red ones, not the pink ones. See the grey-white sky? HUMIDITY. This joy greeted us. And this is not a nice welcome for a family who has been living in Southern California for the seven years (2003-2010). In fact, it was so hot I think I put my hair up in a ponytail eventually. And I hate wearing one ponytail.

This is out the parent's window. NOTE: This is our first apartment on the fifth floor. We now live in another building in the same AC on the sixteenth floor. [END NOTE] I believe those white things back there are for the gas...

Fifth floor: This is out the living room window. Te house to the left is now a preschool. It has a neighbor to the right, but you can't see it. Past the trees you might be able to see the playground... Expand the photo and look for a little blue speck - that's the top of the big toy.

This is the sidewalk out one of our gates. The restaurant to the right used to be a favorite of ours when first arrived. FAVORITE, as in we went at least three times a week. We had some waitress friends there, all whom are now replaced. The sign is also different, today.




We've made a few Chinese friends who work in convenient stores all around our AC, namely the "front store people". We haven't got their names, which is a bit embarrassing, but they don't know ours, either, so it's all cool. (Of course, they know Matthew's name, though - ma tai.) Each time I go on, I say "hi" and as I leave I say "bye", so I think that's a pretty darn good relationship right there. Our biggest purchase from them are big bottles of water, as Mother does not care for the free filtered water in our apartment. Emma and Baba also always go down for drinks and instant soup.

There is also a neighboring vegetable store near the "front store place", excellent for last minute shopping for fresh produce. That's at the gate nearest us, as we have two. The vegetable shop I believe has had three different owners, but stayed relatively the same. I do not share a similar relationship with them as I do the front store people. I do say "thank you", though.

The second gate of the AC, farther back, we have/had "breakfast people" who had a cart they sold hard-boiled eggs on, these odd sandwiches, and meat buns. They've been on break for Chinese New Year for three weeks, and the parents and Jen are beginning to wonder whether or not they're returning...

If you read the Xi'an Q&A, you know I go out mainly to walk about the courtyard. As such, I am very familiar with the AC. I am also very familiar with the apartment, our next subject.

Here are some pictures of our old apartment...

The bathroom...

The [tiny] kitchen....

The living room...

The living room during a black-out...

And one picture of our present apartment (I couldn't find anything more)

The living room, the only one that REALLY matters, right?

The doorway in the back: Go straight, you find the front door. Go right, you find the kitchen (which is MUCH bigger than our last.) I think Jen's at the kitchen table (behind the couch), but I can't tell well from black-and-white photos. Expand for better image. 

There are probably more pictures in our intimidating, unorganized Pictures folder, but I am not going through a  hundred folders to look for the specific pictures I want. Perhaps in a -

~Abby

*******************************************
FROM THE EDITOR OF THIS POST
WARNING!
WARNING!

A view from the 16th floor
apartment posted by the Editor
in hopes you can forgive him/her
for the interruption.

Dear Reader, this post exceeds the maximum length that I (the Editor) have set for today. We apologize for the abrupt ending and hope that the writer (Abby Lindner) would kindly stop wasting her words for the drivel seen in many of her writings, such as paragraph one, two, and four. We sincerely hope that this does not stop you from visiting this blog. Thank you and have a good day ~The Editor

The Last Day of Spring Festival... I think

Well, the Spring Festival ended today. Or it ended yesterday. Maybe it ends tomorrow? In normal circumstances, I would skip over this puzzlement with a simple "Oh, who cares?" However, this is a situation in which it does matter. This is the difference between, for example, Christmas Eve, Christmas, and December 26th, where it is extremely embarrassing when you pat your friend on the back and say, "Merry Christmas Day, buddy!" only to have your friend reply, "Guy, it's Christmas Eve, not day." (Not that any fool could mess that up, he he.... um.... right?) Many internet sources say it ended on the 15th (meaning I am VERY late in wishing you a happy end-of-Spring-Festival), others say it lasts fifteen days (meaning it should be tomorrow), while others say it's today. So, yes, I am a bit mixed up. Assuming I am correct, that the end is indeed today, I say I hope you've had a jolly good Spring Festival and that your family and health is blessed and all those lovely wishes that people usually hear during this holiday. I believe I heard somewhere that kids usually get 100 yuan in a red envelope for this event. Well, let me say that I never saw so much as the envelope, let alone that big red bill. Oh, well, who cares? I got a purple 5 yuan bill and am content. It's probably better for me. I wouldn't know what to do with 100 yuan, apart from stuff it in my wallet never to be seen again, which certainly isn't a proper way to use perfectly good money.

As a side note, that was a much longer paragraph than I would have liked it to be, but I'm too lazy right now to separate it out (gasp! Abby doesn't want to repair a grammatical problem! Gasp!).

Quite a show of fireworks outside our window tonight. Literally, right outside the window of the parents' room. REAL ones, not the little crackers that Baba likes popping out our front window or the small variety of fireworks that sort of sizzle and pop four, five times. These short off from the ground and exploded into bright lights that headed for the road once again. As I write this, those sort of fireworks are blasting out our living room window now (the one Baba throws poppers from). The best part: no huge smoke cloud left behind! Hooray! No[t as much] pollution!

Currently, Baba and Jenna are out enjoying the beauty (and noise, eek) of the fireworks and snapping pictures of both the fireworks and the full moon Baba foretold we would have. I love when the moon is full. It makes everything look more, I don't know, pretty (maybe?). Bedes, all the interesting events in books and movies occur when the moon is full or new, like love and first kisses and epic battle scenes).

For anyone who cares, the 20th was Emma and my 100th day of school! Yay! (I'm going to pretend that there are hundreds of people clapping so this being here doesn't seem totally stupid and random.)

Moving on, the 22nd and 23rd were the most beautiful days - the best of my whole, entire life [in Xi'an]. It wasn't warm - more like cold with little dashes of warmth scattered about. I was thinking of making a separate post for this news, but I decided not to. Who really wants to read a 500-word post about the weather? Seriously, Abby, give me a break!

I'm currently listening to (apart from the fireworks) Karyn Henley's Playsongs, and they are beginning to drive me CRAZY. But, hey, it puts Matthew to sleep, so I have to appreciate them to some extent. I would give you more information on them, but I don't feel like looking up her website. Like I said, I'm feeling lazy. Besides, I researched the last day of Spring Festival for you. :]

~ Abby

UPDATED   I feel bad about not telling you enough about Playsongs. So, here, I pulled up a website, just like I said I wouldn't. Click here.

Very Large Veggies!

Take a look at 2 of the biggest carrot's I have seen. I am not joking when I tell you that just one of these carrot's feed our whole family. It must be the good fertilizer they use here in China (if you only knew).

~Rick

Xi'an Q&A

We decided to form a simple Q&A about China, more specifically geared towards the city of Xi’an, for our family. Here’s what we think.

China Q&A:

Name/age (optional)?

Rick

Cheryl, old enough to have 5 kiddos-ages 2-25

I’m Abby, a thirteen-year-old girl.

Jenna Elizabeth, 22 1/2

Emma G. Lindner, 13

Maffew, 2

Describe China in 3 words…

R:  Beautiful, Big, Amazing.

C:  Interesting, Historic, Modern

A:  In one sentence: A foreign home.In three adjectives: …I can’t think of anything. Sorry. Maybe old and different, but that’s no fun.

J:  Many faceted nation.

E:  Nice, Ancient, Modern

M:  1, China, subway

Favorite means of transportation?

R:  Bike.

C:  Bicycle, although cars/buses/taxis come so close I’m usually “white-knuckling” the handlebars.

  A:  I prefer walking above all. Taxis make me sick. Subways are too noisy. Buses get too crowded.

J:  I like braving the bike.

E:  Taxi

M:  Subway!!!

Favorite take-out food?

R:  Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Kung Pao Chicken.

C:  Hot Noodles, provided to go in a plastic bag. 

A:  My favorite take-out is kung pao chicken, as long as it’s not squishy. I’m picky about textures.

J:  In the summer, dumplings; winter, a dish called SaoZi noodles (noodles in a spicy broth)

E:  Indian food, the restaurant has a name, I can’t remember it, it starts with a K I think.

M:  A yoodles (translated – noodles)

What will you miss most upon departure?

R:  Everything.

Mom with her noodles

C:  The Chinese people. The people I’ve met, interacted with, and the people that I have become friends with.  And also the noodles – so delicious and only cost $1.

A:  I’ll probably miss the convenience of everything the most – the convenience of transportation, shopping, et cetera.

J:  The people. I have met such delightful people here. The smiles. For example, I was on a bike ride the other day with my dad and we were downtown crossing a huge round a bout and there was a woman crossing guard/officer who gave us the largest most genuine smile as we rode. Unforgettable. Oh and the prices are something worth pining over as well.

E:  Real Chinese food.

Least favorite thing about living in China?

R:  Least favorite, I guess the amount of smoking everywhere.

C:  Smoking, spitting, and riding an overcrowded bus (overcrowded meaning about 50 over maximum capacity).  The bus is only full when the door won’t close, seriously?!

A:  My least favorite attribute of China has to be the pollution. And “pollution” isn’t just reserved to the air, but the streets and such too. Which is fun. :\ I hate not being able to see the buildings farther than our complex. It seems like a bubble. And the complex isn’t all that fun to look at from a sixteen-floor height. But, hey, this is the city. It could be worse, right? I’m not complaining… that much…

J:  The amount of times I have had the stomach flu creep up on me. Granted, I probably brought half of the occurrences on by my own gamy eating habits, but still, no one should have to experience the mess that this ‘China flu’ entails.

E:  Let me see, seeing spit on the ground everywhere I go. That’s disturbing.

Favorite place to visit in Xi’an on your free time/ favorite place in China?

R:  In Xi’an, QuJiang district and exploring the city villages. In China, my favorite place has been Shanghai.

Shanghai

C:  Walking around QuJiang, a neighboring district home to a beautiful lake, clean streets, and a quiet atmosphere. If it’s a nice sunny day, I enjoy going up on the city wall and riding a bike. In all of China, I’ve liked all of the places I’ve been for different reasons. The Summer Palace in Beijing was really nice. In Shanghai, the architecture, in Chengdu I loved the Pandas and the food.  Meixian, although a very small town, was fun because we stayed with the family of our friend Lili.  We visited beautiful TaiBai Mountain while we were there.

Our apartment complex

A: I don’t go out much, so during free time I don’t usually go outside. However, when I do, I stay within the apartment complex neighborhood, which is kind of lame. Not that the complex itself is lame… Okay, it might be a little plain, but it’s not lame.

Now, China… I’m not sure. I stink at making decisions, and everyone can justify that fact.

Jen's "fairly desolate location"

J:  In Xi’an I have two favorites, one being this Chinese gazebo thing surrounded by water, it is beautiful and there is never anybody there when I go. Another place my friend and I discovered this past summer, also a fairly desolate location filled with beauty and silence. It’s my first time living in a city, so I tend to like places where I can escape to silence. And I have loved every other place that I’ve visited in China; AnKang, BaoJi, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou…

E:  I enjoy walking around my neighborhood.

Weirdest Most unusual sighting?

R:  Wow, there are lots of those.  In the middle of downtown there was a man in a pajama outfit, slippers included, selling puppies.

C:  The Chinese version of Elvis I saw on the bus one day. I knew it was impolite to stare, but it was impossible not to.

A:  On the same day/week that we arrived, we went to an outdoor market (that is now gone). Here, I got my first sense of what Xi’an was like – I saw a mother with her son leaning over a newspaper. Fill in the rest yourself. It’s awkward to write it out in words.

J:  Hard to pin down just one. I think that things I once thought out of the ordinary have now become scenes of normalcy. There are still some sights that reduce me to out loud laughter and usually followed by me saying, “Only in China…”

E:  Candied tomatoes.

Favorite Chinese phrase to use?

R:  A yaa – Oh man; shoot; dang.

C:  Aaa, shi zhe yang – Oh, I see, which is better than staring blankly when I don’t have a clue what someone just said to me.ß

A:  Ni hao. – Hello. Hi. [That’s about as lame as me staying inside the complex.]

J：百里挑一 bai li tiao yi  - One in a hundred (when I first learned this idiom I thought it was like the ‘one in a million’ quote from Dumb & Dumber meaning no chance; I now know that it means out of a hundred you are the chosen one. It is used as a compliment to tell someone they are outstanding, glad I got that sorted out)

E:  Ni you mei you…? - Do you have…?

M:  Yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi, ba, jiu, shi, and “jia you”. – 1 to 10… add oil (Go! Cheer on!)