Tardy Blogger...

Yes, I know, I am a tardy blogger. In my defence, it has been quite busy around here. But, that also means I have lost of news to share. Since I have so much ground to cover, I'll just splash in bits and pieces wherever I see fit!

Thanksgiving Dinner

For many of you who have already read Daniel's journal, this will be a repeat but it really is worth a mention.

This year, for Canadian Thanksgiving, the school here organized a dinner for us at Kingdom of Discovery, the amusement park nearby. It was sold to us (at quite a high price, I might add) as a "...traditional Thanksgiving Dinner with turkey and all of the fixings". Daniel and I spend days drooling while thinking about gravy... stuffing... pumpkin pie!! Upon arrival, however, our salivating quickly ceased. The only thing even remotely North American about this Thanksgiving dinner, aside from the fact that we had forks instead of chopsticks, was that there was, indeed, turkey present (even though it did come with strawberry sauce). The rest of the spread consisted of rice, pizza, chicken nuggets, sushi, and a variety of sub-par Chinese dishes.

Needless to say, the food was disappointing. But it was nothing compared to the rest of what made up our "Traditional Thanksgiving". The venue had decided that it would be a good idea to provide some entertainment for us during our meal. It could not have been less appropriate for Thanksgiving. It ranged from can-can and belly dancers to folks singing in Chinese. The most North American aspect about the entertainment was the German guy singing Eric Clapton's,
"Tears in Heaven" which, for anyone who doesn't know, is actually about the death of his son - not exactly Thanksgiving material! To make matters worse, we later found out that there was another venue in Kaifaqu that also held a Thanksgiving dinner. This one had the gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and even...pumpkin pie... All of this and it was even at a lower price!

Now, we would not have been upset at all with the dinner had the not TOLD us it was a traditional North American Thanksgiving dinner. We would have been perfectly happy to go for a Chinese, or mixed-culture, meal on thanksgiving. We just don't appreciate being lied to.

The positive side to this whole ordeal, however, was that we got to spend Thanksgiving surrounded by friends. Aside from that, I got to eat about 50 olives (Mmmmmm...), and we learned that maybe we should not put so much trust in the school when it comes to food!


Household Woes

As you all know, I have been lamenting since we arrived about the fact that we got stuck in a one bedroom apartment. We have been waiting patiently for someone to move out so we could move into a larger unit - it appeared that was never going to happen. Finally, Daniel sent out a general all-call e-mail asking if anyone would be moving soon or willing to switch and I began pestering the building manager more frequently. Miraculously, a two bedroom apartment suddenly opened up and the two bachelors that were living in the large up-down agreed to give us their apartment and move into the two bedroom! We moved in two weeks ago and are very pleased that things finally worked out (even if there is a huge pile of their stuff still here, waiting to be reclaimed).

Due to being settled in our new place, we were also able to get a few other things happening that we've been putting off. For example, we now have a stroller and crib for Lily! Now our baby won't have to sleep in a dresser drawer! YIPPEE! We also managed to buy and have delivered a freezer and a toaster oven so I can prepare some "freezer meals" for those days just before and just after baby when I would rather chew off my arm than cook a meal from scratch. Everybody is happy this way - Daniel gets fed, and I get to keep my limbs!

Aside from that, I'm still working on getting everything into it's proper place, wherever that might be. My goal is to have the place wonderfully tidy and spotless by the end of next week, which should be feasible since Daniel, as kind and wonderful as he is, has insisted on hiring a maid so I will have someone to mop the floors and clean the bathrooms for me (I can't do those chores involving harsh chemicals).

So, overall, we are pleased as punch that we finally have a place big enough for a family and are working very hard on making this place a home!


Language Learning

I am a little ashamed to report that, for a few weeks, we just stopped learning Chinese entirely. We barely practised, and I didn't even keep up with my reading and writing. We have now remedied that! We are doing a language exchange twice a week with two of the Chinese staff here on campus. That, combined with our "Chinese for Dummies" book, is helping us speed along!

I'm always very excited when I go out shopping and am able to communicate things that I didn't realize I could say. Last weekend, we went shopping for crib, stroller, freezer, etc. and I had the opportunity to use a LOT of Chinese. I was able to ask a vendor what a specific fruit was called, find out if a shop sold spaghetti, tell someone that I couldn't leave because my husband was coming and I had to watch for him...it was a good day. It's very nice to be able to get out and speak and actually have people understand you!

I have also noticed Daniel picking up on things more frequently like when one of the Chinese staff was trying to tell as that someone was sick. She said it in Chinese and Daniel still understood!


Baby Lily

I have been going to the hospital for all of my routine test and an pleased to tell you that all is well! Baby and I are both very healthy and everything is as it should be. I did, however have quite the shock when I went to the hospital last week. It was as if I had stepped into the Twilight Zone...

So, there I was, waiting to be seen by the doctor when, suddenly, she walks out and says in very good English, "Has your glucose test been done?" I stared at her blankly for a moment before answering her question. You see, in Dalian, very few people speak English beyond, "Hello!!!" so it was quite a shock. I went about my appointment with her, all in English, and finally decided that it was not so odd that her English was so good, seeing as she is a doctor and there are a good number of English speakers in the area. I had decided that all was normal afterall, untilll...

I went to get my ultrasound and the tech started speaking English to me, and then her assistant, and then the nurse who had been with me all day speaking Chinese! EVERYONE was speaking English. Very odd...very odd indeed. I did, however, get to almost make them pee their pants when I told them that my father had nine brothers and sisters and that my uncle had seventeen children. They were all VERY shocked. I explained to them that they lived on a very small island (Cape Breton) and there was not much to do there but make babies. They thought that was very funny. As it turns out, I could have shocked them even more - my father tells me that one of my aunts has 21 children - EEEP!


Goals

I have not forgotten about my list of goals! I'm still hard at work and completing them bit by bit. Here's what I've been up to lately:

16. Start a band - COMPLETE

Well, I did start a band at the school, as many students seemed to be interested. Turns out, they actually weren't. I started the band, but nobody came. I still feel that I did my part well enough to say that this goal is complete. I made sign up sheets, I attended the extracurriculars fair, I even held meetings. Oh well...not what I expected, but it is finished.

19. Help someone learn English

As I said earlier, we are now doing a language exchange with two of the Chinese staff here. I make a lesson for each get together and teach them English. YIPPEE!

37. Bargain with someone in Chinese

I have actually had the opportunity to do this more than once now, but I don't get the chance as often as most other people. You see, as I am pregnant, people seem to actually give me fair prices right away!

48. Make sushi

Mmmmm...sushi! I did this just this week and I proud to say that it turned our remarkably well. I think if Daniel hadn't already been in love with me, that would have worked - He's still very happy about our meal two days ago!

For round one of sushi making, I did Spicy Shrimp Rolls & Chicken Teriyaki rolls (both my own recipe) and threw in some vegetable rolls for filler. I think I will make a habit of making sushi quite often!

54. Make lemon chicken

Once I finally found lemon in this bloody place, I was able to comply with Daniel's request of lemon chicken. I didn't do the battered version that you see in most Chinese restaurants, but it will still yummy...and good and lemony!


So, that's the update! I'm sure there is more, as it has been a while since writing, but those are the highlights as I see them today. Thank you to all of my loyal followers who keep asking when the blogging will happen - it makes me feel that I have an actual audience to write to! I will do my best to keep you up to date a little more often!

Overall, things are still going very well here in China. As much as things sometimes aren't what we would expect, we never know what's going to fall apart, or we have to be careful of people adding the "White Tax" to things we are trying to purchase, we are making the best of every moment and still enjoying our time here very much!