Ron & Kate plus 8 million

First of all, this trip almost didn’t happen, but I am sooooo glad it did.  Bringing the dogs to China has not only proved difficult on a day to day basis, but it pretty much makes us prisoners to our home.  At home we can hire someone to come by and take care of our dogs, or ask a family member, friend or neighbor to help out…..  Not a option in China.  As I’ve said before the Chinese DO NOT LIKE BIG DOGS.  Come to think of it, I don’t think they really like little dogs either.

Anyway, we didn’t know what we were going to do about the dogs during our trip.  When we started asking around, one of the guys that works with Ron, named Bao (like Bow-Wow) said he would do it.  There is a whole mess of things that need to be done to take care of them here since they can’t let themselves out to potty or run around.  We had him come over and I went through a daily regime with him.  He told me (through an interpreter) that it was going to be more work than he thought, but he would try his best.  UMMMMMM, yeah….. that’s not gonna work for me.  There is no trying in this instance there is only DOING.  I couldn’t live with myself if I came back and one of them had been lost or hurt.  So the day before we were leaving I told Ron I thought we should cancel.  He actually understood my concern, but convinced me that it was going to be fine.

So with much hesitation we left them in the hand of a non-English speaking Chinese guy.  I wish I had a hidden camera to see how things went down while we were gone.  I’m sure it was something to see.  Either way, we came home to happy and healthy dogs.  It looks like they didn’t get as much excercise as normal or that they ate more than normal because Mick and Bella look visably chubbier.

I digress…. back to Bali.  We spent the week at the Holiday Inn Resort in Tuban.  

It was actually SUPER nice for a Holiday Inn.  We relaxed, 

Ron surfed

we saw cultural shows

visited Hindu Temples

and a sacred Monkey Forest were the monkey’s climb all over you for food (Ron was scared of the monkey’s and didn’t want them to climb on him.  Here is a picture of him whining about it.  Hehehe!)

This monkey kept pulling my eye lashes

Bali is extemely crowded.  There are sooooo many people/tourists.  People from all over the world.  We met people from Switzerland, France, Spain and LOTS of Australians.  The Indonesian people rely on tourism for much of their income.  With that said you can’t go anywhere without being hassled.  Even while you are laying on the beach you get harrassed.  In fact, they will sit right down in the sand next to you and keep asking, “Bracelet? Sarong? Necklace? Massage? Pedicure?”  Over and over and over and over and over.  You get up and move, they follow you.  If you’re rude they say, “You so beautiful.  What’s your name?  Make me lucky today.”  They are desparate and have learned that persistance will generally pay off.  I am a prime example of that.  It got to the point that I would just buy something to get them to leave me alone.  Pathetic, I know, but well worth the $2-$5 they wanted.

These 3 ladies bothered me for several hours one day at the beach (shown Addidas and Mary). By the time we left I had $20 in junk jewelry and knew their life stories.

This is Jacky, the third amigo.

Don’t get me wrong….  It was far from hellish.   We had hour long massages that included a foot wash for $20 each.  Twice for Ron and three times for me.

We also visited the Bomb Memorial, which was extremely sad.

A little side note about this.  After visiting the site, Ron and I talked about the whole situation and how horrible it was, pretty much the rest of the night.  (We’d seen a teenage Balinesian kid on the beach a few days before, wearing a shirt that said “F@*k Terrorists”.  Bali is a really small island…. talk about hitting close to home). Well then that night at 4 am this alarm starts sounding in our hotel room, followed by a recording that said, “Ladies and Gentleman, an alarm has been raised.  Please stay calm and wait for further instructions”.  It repeated about 4 times and then stopped.  Ron and I popped out of bed and started packing our things.  (I should mention here that when you leave the resort you must take a resort issued ID card with you in order to re-enter.  Also, if you take a cab they do not allow the cab onto the resort property, without it being fully inspected for bombs.  It seems so out of place in an exotic, tropical place like Bali, but it is the reality of life there.)  Anyway, we waited for 30 min in our room.  Looking out the windows and into the hallway but nothing was happening.  No one was stirring.  And they never sent any additional information over the intercom to tell us what as going on.  We eventually fell back asleep while were was waiting.  In the morning we were informed that it was the fire alarm from the kitchen.  While they were baking for breakfast it went off and they didn’t realize that it had sounded in some of the guest rooms as well.  Thank god it was nothing worse!

Overall, our trip was amazing.  It was soooo hard to come back here to the cold.  If it wasn’t for our dogs we’d probably still be in Indo.  Ha!

Went with my friend Julie and some of the teacher’s at the Yew Wah International School (including my tutor, Susie) on a little field trip to see some sights near the city of Yantai.  First stop: Mou’s (Moo’s) house.  The Mou family held governmental positions in this province for several decades.  The Mou family home and surrounding buildings have been turned into a museum depicting the long history of the area, complete with a restaurant and gift shop.

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It seems to me that one of the main differences between the architecture here and what I saw in Korea, is that most of these building were made of brick.  I don’t know, however, when these buildings were built verses when the one’s I saw in Korea were built.  I noticed many similarities however, with the paint colors, roofing materials, and how it is set up like a compound.

I paid money to the ‘priest’ guy in the picture below, and he told me my fortune and had me burn incense and bow to a picture of some Chinese guy while he struck a gong three times.  According to him my future holds money and happiness, and I will marry late in life and another man besides my husband will be in love with me.  Ironically my friend Julie, will be rich happy and married with a guy on the side in love with her too.  Do you think that’s coincidental?

We ate lunch at the Mou resturant and it was all authentic Chinese food: steamed bread ball, some tofu fishy dish, a celery and meat dish, a chicken feet dish, some corn beard cookie type things, and a fish ‘spread’ that was suppose to be put on the bread.  I tried everything except the chicken feet (I can’t do that, sorry).  I’ll stick with the celery dish… everything else was, not so good.

After the trip to Mou’s house, we jumped back into the bus and headed to Aishan mountain.  I honestly don’t know what this place used to be.  The tour guide didn’t really explain it.  Either way, it was beautiful and it was a fun hike.  Only 4 of us made it all the way to the top.

The first part of the hike they had us take ride a gondola.

After the first trip we were on our own to hike to the peak.

The four of us, myself, Julie, Susie and Nigel were determined to make it to the peak.  We were suppose to be back to the bus at 4 pm but at 3:30 we still hadn’t made it to the top.  We couldn’t turn back at that point since we all felt that we were so close to the summit.  So we trekked on and made it to the by 3:40 pm.  After a quick picture session we hustled back down, and made it back to the bus by 4:10.  Everyone seemed a little irritated at us… oops!  Oh well, it was worth it.

We had our first snow fall on November 2nd.  It was just a light covering, but since that day the weather has been getting progressively colder.

view from our window early November 2nd

The day it snowed, we woke up to a frigid apartment.  No heat, and no way to turn any on.  What’s that you say?  Why no heat?  Well it’s because it’s not up to us to decide when our heat gets turned on.  The government decides for everyone. We learned that the official turn on date was November 15th, until then you just gotta bundle up and deal with it.  Sweet!  So we decided we didn’t want to freeze during the next few weeks and headed out to find ourselves some long underwear, a space heater and coats.  (You might be asking why we don’t have coats being that we are from Utah…. well, that is another story all together.  One I’m not ready to get into).

It was like shopping for the latest big Christmas gadget on Christmas Eve.  Everyone was out buying coats, thermals, and space heaters.  I swear that waiting to turn on the heat is some conspiracy to boost the sale of all these items because every store we went to was stock piled.  It was like they knew there was going to be a huge demand.  Funny thing about this is that everyone kept telling us that it is never this cold, this early.  Odd that the stores were so well equipped.  Anyway…..

Ron and I ended up with two sets of thermals each.  I got a pair of bright red and royal purple in XL.  Yes, XL….. and they are TIGHT!!!  Basically I am a giant, fatty compared to the majority of Chinese women.  And, of course, I couldn’t find a nice pair in a muted gray or slimming black.  No!  I guess all the other giant, fatties got there first and bought them out.  My choices were Red, Hot Pink, and Purple.  Yes, of course I could have bought a pair of men’s in black or gray, but I hate that droopy crotch area in the men’s bottoms.  After all is said and done, it seems I’ve made a most “successful choice” and I feel “harmonious” when I wear them.

In addition to our new warm underwear we bought a ‘heat dish’.  It looks like a fan and rotates like a fan, but it’s a heater.  We’d get dressed up in our thermals and gather around the dish like it was a fireplace.  We’re quite the picture.

One of the box manufacturing plants Ron works with gave us two coats.  They are the same one’s that they give the employees to wear throughout the winter.  They have the companies name of them, but for free….. who cares?  Plus they are actually pretty nice.  Much better than anything we found in the stores.  Ron hates that they are identical, and constantly thinks people are looking at us more now.  Two westerners walking around in matching coats.  Haha!  They probably are staring more…. oh well!

Lastly,  the hot water supplied to the apartment for showering, cooking, etc., comes from a solar heated container on the roof of the apartment complex.  Each apartment unit has their own container and there is a unit in the apartment that tells us the temperature of the water in the container, as well as how high the water level is.  We have to monitor the levels and push a re-fill button when the level gets too low.  The bad thing about this is that the water goes into the container cold, and it can take hours to warm up.  So if you aren’t on top if this all of the time, you might end up taking a cold shower.

When the weather turned cold I watched the thermostat for the water container and the highest it was getting was about 19 celsius (which is approx 50 Fahrenheit).  I don’t exactly know how this device works, but it made sense to me that with the colder, shorter days that the water wouldn’t heat up like it did in the summer when the thermostat was reading 98 Celsius sometimes.  Ron and I assumed that only when the government sent over the hot water for the radiators that we would have hot water again to shower.  We took cold showers, or went to take showers at the gym, for almost a week.  Needless to say, we were miserable.

One day during my Chinese lesson, I mentioned it to Susie and she was shocked.  She asked to see the thermostat because she was certain that the containers could be heated by electricity too.  God Bless Susie Su.  She was right.  Behind the thermostat unit there was a plug.  She plugged it in and showed me the right button to push to warm up the water with electricity (because it’s in Chinese).  It only warms up to about 35-39 celsius, but we’ll take it.  Ahhh, the joy’s of warm water.  It’s the little things that mean so much!

I figured I’d better do a quick Halloween entry before it’s Christmas.  My friend Julie who teaches art at the Cambridge International school decided to do a pumpkin carving class with her students.  The school has a mix of students from Korea, Brazil and China.  Most of them are Chinese, and most had never celebrated Halloween before, let alone carved a pumpkin.  Pumpkin is actually a very popular food item here, so cutting one up to use as a decoration that will only last a fews days, would probably seemed pretty wasteful to some Chinese people.  However, being that the kids are at an International school, Julie decided it wouldn’t hurt them to learn something about another culture.  She invited me and Susie (who had never carved a pumpkin before either) to join the class.

I haven’t carved a pumpkin in years.  Maybe since college…. I can’t remember.  So I had a blast.  I’d forgotten how fun it is.  I couldn’t believe that Julie brought in big old kitchen knives and handed them out to the students for the event.  Would that even fly in the states?  Soooo dangerous.  I am shocked no one got hurt with a bunch of 8th and 9th graders wielding knives, laughing and joking around (just like any kid at that age), but the event went off without a hitch.  Below is my pumpkin creation.  Susie said it looked like a babies head, thus it was named Pumpkin Baby.

Now that it is getting cold outside, we are always finding Mick laying around in a sunny spot.  So Susie gave him the name Yang Guang Xian Sheng-MR. SUNSHINE

Wow, I’ve really been a slacker with updating the blog this month.

First…. Bella!

Dogs, by nature, are scavengers.  That is how they survive in the wild.  None of our dogs are more in tune to this part of their innate senses than Bella.  When we go on walks I call her “the hoover” because she puts her noise to the ground and goes to work, just like a vacuum.  She picks up everything and anything she can get her lips on, and swallows 50% of it.  It goes without saying that our walks are always a battle of wits and strength.  Sometimes I win, and can keep her away from anything she might eat, and sometimes she wins.  One time she jumped into a bush, I thought she needed to use the bathroom, but she jumped out of the bush with what looked like a hotdog bun in her mouth.  I tried to get it away from her but she swallowed it in it’s entirety.  Easy Peasy… down the hatch like she was swallowing a piece of kibble.

It doesn’t help that the Chinese people have a little problem with littering.  I guess they never met Woodsy the Owl.  Remember?  ”Give a Hoot, don’t Pollute.”  It’s pretty disgusting.  In fact, the word ‘littering’ isn’t even strong enough.  It’s more like blatant trash dumping.  I need to go on a tangent here.  At first glance at the landscaping around the city of Yantai looks extremely beautiful. Lots of trees and manicured bushes of varying colors all planted to create fancy patterns.  It’s pretty amazing.  But when you look more closely you see all the garbage.  Not just a candy bar wrapper either.  Sometimes it looks like someone took the trash can out of their kitchen and unloaded it right in the bush.  Anybody watch the show MadMen?  You know the scene where the family is picnicking and after they are done the mom picks up the picnic blanket, shakes it off, leaving the garbage all over the grass?  I was shocked when I saw that.  I still have a hard time believing that people did that and thought it was okay.  Well, back to my point, that scene depicts the Chinese mentality, but then times it by 10.  So basically, for a dog like Bella, China is a candy store.

As big of a pain as it is to deal with Bella’s ‘eating disorder’ when I am walking her, I’m prepared.  I know what I am up against if I give her any leeway.  But nothing could have prepared me for what happened last Sunday.  Mick and Bella decided to play tug-of-war with a pair of Ron’s socks.  I didn’t think much of it, because we’ve actually knotted old socks into a ball before, and given it to the dogs as a toy.  I didn’t want them to ruin the socks so I went over to take it from Bella.  She saw me coming and she swallowed the whole thing!!!!  I ran over and pried open her jaw to see if I could jab it and pull it out, but it was gone.  I panicked and started looking around for the other sock so I could put it away.  It was no where to be found.  She’d eaten them both.

So of course I panic.  #1) There is not a qualified vet in Yantai who can perform surgery to remove a foreign object.  We are lucky to have someone near who can give vaccinations.  #2) The closest qualified vet is in Beijing, which is a 10 hour drive from Yantai.  So I turn to the internet and scour websites about dogs eating socks, toys, jewelry…. you name it and it seems a dog has swallowed it at one time or another.  Most of the advice was “Get your pet to the vet immediately!”  So reassuring based on my options.  Finally I stumbled onto a website called “justanswer”.  I won’t go into a complete explanation of how it works, but it was the answer to my prayers.  For a nominal fee I was able to contact a qualified vet ‘LIVE’ and ask him what I should do.  He said that it was common for dogs to do this (which I already knew at this point) and that I just needed to watch her.  If she stops having bowel movements, starts acting lethargic or won’t eat, then he wanted me to take her to the vet….. even if that meant driving to Beijing.  He said it was possible that she would ‘pass’ them or throw them up, so give it a few days and see what happens.  The main advice he gave was, “Don’t panic….. yet!”

So all week I’m like a mother hen.  Monitoring Bella’s energy level, waiting for a change in her eating habits, taking note on how may times a day she has a bowel movement.  A week passes….. everything is status quo.  I start asking myself if I actually saw her swallow the sock.  Maybe I picked them up and put them in the hamper and forgot.  Am I going crazy?  I’d told Susie about it and so everyday at the beginning of class she’d ask, “Any socks yet?”  I started to think that she thought I was nuts or that Bella was some super-canine breed.  But alas…. Dr JustAnswer.com was right.

During my class on Monday (a week and a day after the swallowing occured), Bella walks over near the dining room table and starts gagging.  A few seconds later she delivers one of the items in question.  It was extremely disgusting, so I won’t go into all the gory details, but I was soooo happy.  I apologized to Susie, because it wasn’t the sort of thing she wanted to witness, I’m certain.  But she said, “That’s okay, I still like her.”  (How cute is Susie?  I’m thinking about adopting her.)  Like I said, though, it was only one sock.  So after I amaze over the fact that she had that sock in her stomach for a week and didn’t show the first signs of feeling poorly as a result, I start thinking…. “I didn’t actually SEE her swallow both socks.  So maybe I did put one of them in the laundry basket and she only swallowed one.”

At 4:33 am, Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009, Bella delivered a second sock onto our bedroom floor.  We couldn’t be more relieved!  Note to self: always pick up your socks.

Last night, during our daily walk with the dogs, Ron asked me if I felt at home in China yet.  I surprised myself when the thought YES came into my head.  I do feel at home here… finally.  Only a little more than two months since our arrival and I have a completely different outlook on this place.  Although China is not HOME (not to say the least) it’s not HELL either (at least, not anymore…. haha!)

So I thought I would share a couple of things about China that I really liked:

1) We walk a lot more.  We walk to the store, to get a haircut, to exercise the dogs.  That has been a healthy and surprisingly relaxing lifestyle change.

2) We cook more at home.  Again, another healthy lifestyle change, AND I am learning to cook something other than the things that come in a box.

3) I am learning another language.  I have always wanted to learn another language, but never had the motivation to get it done.

4) Yantai has a NICE gym within walking distance from my house AND I found a great little book store that actually sells a variety of books in English (and the owner said he can pretty much order anything for me).

5) Ron and I get to spend more time together.  As it was, Ron traveled so much for work that we probably spent 4 nights a week together, if we were lucky.  Now we get to be together every night almost.

And finally, China could never feel like home without my kids.  They seem to be feeling right at home too.

I spent September 29th-October 2nd in Seoul, South Korea.  It was a great time.  I stayed in the Seoul Plaza Hotel which was a perfect location for the sightseeing I wanted to do while I was there.  

Ron wasn’t able to join me because he had to work and stay home to watch the dogs, so I was all on my own to do WHATEVER I pleased.  At first I was a little sad to be by myself, but it turned out fine.  I’m a huge lover of all things “touristy” and “historical”, Ron hates that stuff, so it was truly MY TRIP.

Seoul, South Korea’s capital, is a beautiful and very clean and very western city. There were coffee shops on every corner….. literally.  Starbucks and Dunken Donuts every morning, and frozen coffee drinks…..ummmm coffee.  I have to admit, I had little interest in indulging in the local foods.  I found a great little shop, called the Paris Baguette, that had yummy sandwiches and cookies, and I practically ate there every meal.  

I visited three separate Palace sights that were home to the Joseon Dynasty that ruled the Korean peninsula since around the 1300′s until the early 1900′s.  Lots and lots of history involved in this countries origin.  

It was a very interesting two days.  The whole concept of Kings and Queens and Nobility and Royalty, completely intrigues me.  I spent almost two hours in the National Palace Museum looking at clothing they had to wear and pots that held the placentas of the royal heirs to the throne….. weird stuff.  I have so many pictures.  Too many to share here.  If you are interested in seeing more, let me know.

In the middle of Seoul there is a stream that has just been unearthed after being hidden under concrete since the Korean war.  It was a major undertaking, but it has historical significance for the city.  It was a beautiful area.  I sat and ate my lunch there one day.  It was awesome.

All in all it was a wonderful time and a terrific way to spend my 34th birthday.

Last night Ron and I attended the 4th anniversary party for Yantai-life.com.  Which is the premier expat website for Yantai.  While there, a Chinese woman named “May” made an announcement that she was looking for foreigners to work as extras on a television series.  She walked around and had everyone write their name and email address down for her.  She also took our pictures.  This morning our picture and this email were waiting for me.  I had to share.

“My father is still busy with the TV show and he knows the director — Tang guoqiang who is Top One Male actor in China is shooting the 30 Episodes TV Series named: the Orient now in Yantai. It is said to be the most grand TV series since China was founded.They need some Foreign men and women who r interested in it! Do u know anyone who r in Yantai and interested in doing the show? u will be famous all over China if u can do this! coz this show will be on CCTV1 for sure —China Central Television!

On sixth of Oct. we will be needing 15 foreigners. We will go to Weihai from 8:00 in the morning and come back by evening. It will be on a big luxurious ship. Lots of fun guaranteed!So ask ur friends to come. The more, the merrier!Pay is normal.I will give u a call when i have the details.I forgot where u live. where can we pick u up at ten to eight? Please wear something nice, something formal! just make u look more beautiful! White shirt with tie and dark pants and black leather  shoes.”

I guess I need to go buy a tie.

Susie or Su Lao Shi

Here is a picture of my adorable Chinese tutor, Susie.  Her Chinese name is Su Mao Xiu.

She rides her single speed bicycle to my house every day to give me a Chinese lesson.  And YES she rode her bicycle over in this outfit.  She is always very prepared and even though she is only 24 years old she is very serious about teaching.  The other day I was distracted by Bella getting up on the counter and she snapped at me, “Are you listening to me?”  I felt like I was in 1st grade all over again, and replied, “Yes, of course!”  Even though she totally caught me, and I wasn’t paying attention.

I have to point out her little anklet nylons.  This is a fashion you will see all over China.  I don’t think I’ve seen a woman wearing a full length pair of nylons since I’ve been here, but they don’t go without stocking either.  I am wondering if when it gets cooler, if they will start wearing the full nylons or if they just like the anklets.  I’ll let you know.