It is hard to believe that a week has gone by already. I was sitting this morning and thinking about how much our lives have changed in the past two months. This last week, for me at least, was the first time our new life really hit home. Up until I got here in Shanghai, I was so busy with the relocation details, it just felt like work! Everyone has asked me how I feel now that I am here, and until this morning, it was hard to define anything as very different. But now I know why Tom and I felt this was such a good opportunity for us. I feel like a totally different person in a lot of ways. Most of my daily life is now spent doing things I have never really had to have as a priority. And that feels very refreshing to me. Most of you know that a part of what drove us to this opportunity decision was to help keep me from burning out on my own career. Both Tom and I are driven by our careers, but I sometimes have a harder time separating the job from family. And with Natalie now, that seemed even harder to balance. So for everyone who is interested, after the first week at least, I truly feel this change is going to meet, and possibly exceed my expectations for what we wanted to accomplish as a family.
OK, enough about feelings! What I have really been spending my time doing is CLEANING and SLEEPING. Neither one is a past favorite of mine, but it does seem to be all I do. I also realized that this house is huge. I have only been to the top floor three times in the week I have been here. I noticed on the first day that Natalie's white socks were totally black by the end of the evening. Tom said you have to wear slippers or that is what happens. So, I started by scrubbing (with a brush, on my hands and knees, thank you very much) the kitchen and entry tiles. When you wake up at 2:00 am you have lots of extra time! Natalie was up too, so I figured what the hell, and I gave her a scrub brush too! So together we scrubbed dirt that seemed to have been here since the place was built. On a side note, this place was vacant quite a while, so that explains some of the accumulated dust. Observation #1: Cleaning supplies are not the same quality in China! I found this out pretty quickly trying to clean the floors with the bottle of Mr. Muscle Floor Cleaner. I wish I had a packed a bottle of Mr. Clean (hmmmm... think that Mr. Muscle was an imitation????). As I was on my knees scrubbing around the hand-made island that I love, I realized that they had built and stained the island in the kitchen and there was stain from that effort left all around the tile! Instead of wiping it up, they left it and it permanently colored the floor. That is so typical of some of the workmanship. I believe a lot has to with how fast some of this housing for expatriates (foreigners living and working in Shanghai) is having to go up. I saw in the local paper yesterday that Shanghai is planning on attracting another 20,000 expats over the next five years. Over the next few days, I ended up scrubbing the tile floors of the main rooms we use. But, I still have two bathrooms and the patios to get to. Besides the tile, we have lots of beautiful wooden floors. But let me explain about the dust here, it is everywhere and you cannot keep up! I swear, I can dust and by the end of the day, I see dust. So to be honest, I have been having Natalie use the big duster! She thinks she is helping (well, she is a little) and it keeps her busy. After the floors I have to move on to the baths, counters, drawers, etc. Whew. I know it sounds crazy, but I have always enjoyed that kind of cleaning. the deep cleaning I mean. What I hate is the dusting and toilet cleaning! Guess I better learn to like it or hire an Ayi - that is someone to help! I can see why people hire someone to help them with this stuff.
Besides cleaning, I have been sleeping. At the beginning of the week, I was waking up at 1am, then 2am, now 5am. Hopefully I will get to 7am soon! But, this past Tuesday I took a nap and it was one of those wonderful naps that you wake up and feel totally refreshed! That is when I started to sleeping to 5. Natalie was also waking up at 1 and 2! But now she is taking 4 hour naps and sleeping till 7am. So, I will say she has adjusted!
I went to the grocery story by myself on Wednesday night. So far, our trips to the grocery have resulted in interesting finds! I cannot find any tofu, but found cheddar cheese (that cost $4.50 for half a pound). There are hundreds of soy sauces. I tried to buy some vinegar, and I realized there are as many styles of that as there are soy sauces. China has many different regional cooking styles, just like the US. In Shanghai, the style usually includes lots of fresh seafood. You see a lot of pork but not a lot of chicken. Well, you do see a lot of chicken feet and pickled eggs. I was able to buy chicken breast, but haven't cooked it yet. A part of my goal here is to learn how to cook real Chinese. My plan is to take a class, but in the interim, I am really excited about experimenting with what I find at the market and can cook so that Natalie will at least try it. I plan on writing down some of the recipes and maybe will share with other intrepid expatriates who are hesitant to try to cook. I made my first "meal" on Monday. The pork I bought to prepare, which I think was pork loin, was delicious. I don't have much of a pantry, but that is what is makes it fun. I simply cut into strips and marinated in soy, garlic, and sesame oil. Then quickly stir-fried in a little olive oil. Oh, I forgot to add that the oil situation is interesting. Mostly corn oil is used in the cooking here, and it is sold in huge gallon containers. I opted to go the more healthy olive oil route and had to pay $10 for 16 oz. of a run-of-the-mill brand. And that was all I did. I had cilantro, but wasn't sure how to clean it, so I left it out. I served with plain "sticky rice" (it was actually pearl rice). Both Tom and Natalie liked so I take that as a win. You certainly can eat a lot healthier here. Last night I ventured into the soup realm with pork dumplings in a chicken soup. I added frozen mixed veggies. Again, simple, but pretty filling. Natalie wouldn't eat the dumplings, she said they tasted like spinach! Right. She eats rice and I usually make her a side of half a peanut butter sandwich which she can have AFTER she tries the new stuff. We stick to bananas and oranges for fruit right now. The bananas are imported, but cheap, and the oranges which are Chinese, are actually sweeter than home. They are much riper and juicier. You cannot find berries though. Well, you can buy some sad looking strawberries, but that's it. No frozen fruit either.
Well, I guess that pretty much sums up the first week. Today we are going to get our paperwork for our residence permits. Then we are going to go buy a bike with a child seat on it. Walking the 1/2 mile to the stores is healthy, but Nat's little legs get pretty tired by the time we head back. I have posted a picture of her this morning. I will post more about our other aspects of life later!
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