Resort Life

Well, here we are in the People's Republic of China. We are getting settled in our new house; our dear friends picked us up at the Hong Kong Airport, took us through the borders and delivered us to our doorstep. You have to go through a secure border coming out of Hong Kong, and also another one coming into China. We arrived on the first day of Chinese New Year, so the roads were fairly quiet and the border lines were minimal. There have been fireworks every night, all night since we arrived. Many shops are closed for the week because everyone travels, often back to their hometown, for Chinese New Year. It's a really big deal. Public schools are out for a month and a half, and businesses close at least for the week. There are many decorations and flowers everywhere, and downtown Shenzhen had big red balloons lining the streets.

Our house is getting to feel more like home. We've been to Wal-mart and Sam's Club and everywhere we go we make quite a spectacle. Yesterday at Wal-mart people were taking my kids' pictures and pointing at us and staring. Then, of course, Tim's credit card didn't get accepted because he didn't have his passport with him so we had even more of a circus around us, with our four shopping carts full of stuff and our three redhead and blonde kids. We also saw the alligator in the meat section. Big alligator tail, just hanging out there waiting for people to take their chunk of alligator, put it in a baggie and set it in their cart. All kinds of food I had no idea what it was. I tried to find some cleaning products and had to go by the colors on the bottles, hoping it's the stuff I was looking for. You can't buy dishwasher detergent except at the import store because nobody has a dishwasher here - kitchens are very small in most homes.

Our neighborhood is an expat neighborhood, settled around an International School. There's a big playground and all the homes are gated (so is the neighborhood) with stone walls and lots of flowers, trees, shrubs and banana trees. There is a golf cart that takes you anywhere in the neighborhood - you just have to call for it. The weather has been very nice - we've all been comfortable in jeans and t-shirts. There is a little shopping center across the (very busy) street that has lots of restaurants and some import shops. At night it's all lit up with people all over the place just hanging out. I met a woman from Peru the other day who said it's like living in a resort, which I agree with! She's been very helpful to us with information and tips on how to get everyone over jet lag. The jet lag was fun - after a big flight - and the kids did amazingly well. They were so good and slept very well, which was good for the flight but not so good when we arrived at 8 p.m. China time. We were all up most of the night, and I tried to make everyone stay awake all day Monday. Monday night we all slept a bunch, though Ella wanted to play for a while around midnight. We're getting normalized, I think. She's napping right now. At my friend Paty's suggestion (from Peru) I'm thinking of putting her into a Chinese preschool nearby. That way she will get the language as she's developing her English as well. She loved her preschool in Knoxville and I'm starting to think that might be the ticket. Paty says that while Mandarin is taught at the International School, it focuses more on culture and not so much on language. Our next-door neighbor from Kansas also sends his children to Chinese school until first grade. After Chinese New Year I'm going to check that out.

We're going to go to a park nearby this afternoon. Yesterday driving by it, we saw hundreds of kites flying over the park. It was so pretty. I'm hoping there will be more today. Peace out. : )