Technical Difficulties

I am SO excited to be able to access our blog from a computer using a VPN, but I can't figure out how to insert photos without messing up the HTML code beyond repair. Grrrr. I hate it when technology wins.

Back to old faithful - the cell phone method - for now.

On another note, today is my Grandma Adgate's birthday (Dean's Great Grandma). Wanted to give a quick shout-out to her to have a very happy day!

9/13 update to this post: Matt, the technical guru that he is, figured out how to copy and paste photos into previous posts. Hooray!

Lazy Saturday

It’s a very rainy and dreary Saturday morning here in Shenzhen. I just put Dean down for a nap after a Skype call with mom and dad and I’m catching up on doing a few odds and ends, like transferring photos from our camera to our computer and learning how to use the VPN Matt set up. It should allow me to be able to post pictures and videos to this blog.

Up to this point, all blog entries had to be typed on my cell phone keypad and posted through the internet, or I emailed them to myself and then copied and pasted into a tiny web browser window. It’s a pain, a bit tedious and takes a lot of time, but my cell phone routes through a U.S. server and therefore gives us open web access.

The great firewall of China monitors very closely what we can and cannot view, and blogs are on the DO NOT VIEW list along with Youtube videos, Facebook and many news sites.

When we first moved here it was so frustrating to receive an error message from Google saying we could not view material on the topic we searched. Even subjects like “Hong Kong” are often blocked. Somehow Matt stumbled on a way to search using Google’s Canadian version and that worked for a while, but I guess someone (or something?) caught on to us and blocked us from accessing that as well. I’ve learned a few ways to get around, like using other search engines or trying many, many different words for the topic I’m searching, but it’s still not the same as having full web freedom.

The VPN (Virtual Private Network) is like a tunnel to a U.S. server. Matt could tell you all about how and why it works, but the way I understand it is we’re redirecting our internet connection to bounce off of satellites in the U.S. instead of China via a paid subscription.

OK, so here goes – a few of my favorite pics from the first week in September:

9/3/10 Kim and Dean look out from our living room. I imagine Dean is telling her in baby talk all about the boats he watches go by every day.

9/4/10 Matt and Dean on the balcony of the room we stayed in at the Dameisha Beach Sheraton. Thanks Kim for hooking us up!

9/5/10 Dean and his buddy Anson, my coworker Mavis’s son.

Welcoming my coworker Euan’s baby Zack Ma into the Plaid family. These are all of my coworkers, plus a few significant others and Kim, who was in town visiting from Atlanta.

The Chinese don’t do baby showers before the baby is born, but it’s a tradition to gather friends to welcome him into the world after turning 1 month old. We met for lunch at a delicious Chinese restaurant and gave red envelopes with money in them as gifts. I also passed along some of Dean’s clothes that are now too small for him. The style is very different from what babies here wear, but Euan’s wife Joyce seemed very excited about them.

We have no plans for today or tomorrow other than relaxing and enjoying our time together as a family. I love lazy weekends.

Lunch with Strangers

Today I went to lunch with Simon, who is Chinese and head manager of the Plaid “ Far East ” office. I told him lunch was my treat, and he went to find a table where we could sit and enjoy a meal of pork, eggplant, rice, and bok choy.   

When I finished paying, I looked and saw him sitting at a small round table with another Chinese man eating his lunch. Think fast food table – perfectly sized to fit 4 friends or family members. I wondered if they knew each other since they were sitting so close. When I walked up and raised my eyebrows and smiled for an introduction, Simon mentioned that the man was almost finished, and we could have his table when he was done. The guy looked like he still had a lot to go before finishing, and I’m certain Simon did not consult with him first, but I sat down as instructed. 

Within 2 minutes, a new guy sat down across from me. He did not know Simon or the 1st gentleman either. Our food came and we started eating. The 1st guy got up to leave and within another minute, another stranger was in his place, close enough to me to bump elbows.

I laughed out loud and told Simon that I doubt something like this scene would happen in the U.S. , except in unusual circumstances. As an American, I’m used to enjoying a much larger amount of personal space around myself. I would probably eat my food standing up or walk away and find a bench to sit on instead of sitting down in a mall food court at a small table next to a complete stranger. In China, personal space is practically nonexistent.

Time Flies

I just looked at the date for the last post on our blog and realized it has almost been a month. Wow! 

We were fortunate to have two dear friends visit us in August – Diana and Kim. Both came to Hong Kong for work at two different conferences set one week apart, and then stayed with us for a few days afterwards. Matt helped them explore the town, take a scooter ride to visit me in the office, eat good Chinese food (there are a few restaurants around ;), experience “Seaworld” (a local place with restaurants serving food from around the world), and shop ‘til they dropped. We even squeezed in a trip with Kim to Dameisha Beach last weekend – a nice sandy beach about an hour from our house. 

It was wonderful to share the experiences and places we’ve discovered in Shenzhen with friends from Atlanta. We’ve lived here for almost 5 months now, and time just keeps ticking by. Some days seem to take forever, while others fly so fast I wonder why I am crawling into bed so soon after waking up. 

August was an exciting time in Dean’s life, as he learned to walk on his own 1 week after turning 13 months old. I was fortunate to be home the day he stood up and took 5 steps in a row without holding on to anything. Matt and I cheered him on together, and he grinned from ear to ear. It was a great day to be a mom. 

Now he’s getting around pretty well on his own two feet, and even carrying things when he walks. Matt made me laugh the other day when he said “you’re not supposed to be carrying things yet, it’s too soon according to the Parents magazine article.” He swears he just skimmed one page of the magazine I left in the bathroom last week.

Walking opened up a new social world for Dean outside the house. In the complex where we live there is a “circle” of bricks on the ground outside where many Ayis (Aunties) gather with both Chinese and foreigner babies in the evenings. The kids are usually under the age of 3, and they play together with various ride-on toys or balls. If it’s nice outside, I love to grab Dean as soon as I get home in the evening and go outside to socialize. There isn’t always an adult around who speaks English, as most of the women are Chinese, but we find ways to communicate through hand gestures and my limited Mandarin vocabulary. For the kids, language doesn’t matter. It’s all about exploring who has the coolest toy(s). 

Monday evening I took Dean out in his red wagon that we got for his 1st birthday. It always causes quite a scene, as most of the other kids haven’t seen something like this before. One little Chinese boy, much to the dismay of his mother, held onto the side of the wagon and walked with us all the way to the park next door. It sounded like she was scolding him in Mandarin the whole time, but she didn’t make him let go until we were in the park – 10 minutes travel the opposite direction of where she wanted to go. 

Once there, I let Dean get out of the wagon and toddle around on the grass. We never liked the idea of him crawling all over the place, especially since he puts his hands in his mouth so frequently, so this was a new experience for him. We were only in the park a few minutes when I heard someone call my name. I’ve met very few people since we’ve been here, and I was excited to see it was a woman named Jesse and her daughter Tamar, who is 2 months older than Dean. They are from Columbia and have lived in Shenzhen for three years due to her husband’s business. 

Tamar and Dean played with 2 balls we’d brought along. At one point, she took a ball from Dean and turned away. Jesse scolded her in Spanish and she threw the ball down. I’m not sure what was said next, but that sweet little girl toddled over to Dean and kissed him right on the lips! She then turned and ran away. Dean got the biggest grin on his face and started chasing after her. His feet got tangled up and he tumbled to the ground, ending a Kodak moment that made my heart melt. Jesse and I laughed about the innocence and how much we wished we had a camera in hand. 

So life is good for the Langford clan in this part of the world. We are heading into fall and hopefully cooler weather, though I don’t know yet what that means. Will we need winter jackets? Scarves? Or just a switch to jeans and long pants instead of shorts? Only time will tell.

Mysterious red bumps

Last Wednesday Dean received his 12-month vaccines at an international hospital in Shenzhen. He was given the "5-in-1" which covers stuff like polio, Hepatitus A, and Varicella, aka the Chicken Pox shot. Even though it seemed like the nurse was slow as molasses, he took them like a champ and was soon charming the ladies at the front desk of the hospital.

On Thursday night Dean woke up in around 2 am running a fever of 101. A few little red bumps were appearing on his mouth and hands. After a very restless, little sleep night, Matt called the Dr. at the international health clinic where we are members and he made an appointment. Little D was clearly upset and drooling non-stop.

The Dr told us he believes Dean has the chicken pox, either due to the vaccine (like a flu shot, it is a "live" vaccine and contains a bit of a weakened form of the virus) or he was unlucky enough to be exposed to another kid with the pox around the same time he was getting the vaccine. Both seem unlikely to me, but by Saturday morning Dean's hands, feet, and several places on his head were covered in red bumps. He even had one on the top of his head!

We went back to the clinic on Saturday and the Dr. looked him over again, still sticking with his original diagnosis of the pox. We then had a very lengthy discussion about what we would do if Dean were to have a spike in fever or need medical assistance over the weekend.

What we would end of doing is having a car arranged to transport D to a hospital in Hong Kong where they practice western style medicine. The Dr. Told us that hospitals in Shenzhen that admit patients immediately start them on IV's, no matter what the problem might be. This in and of itself is not terrible, but seems unnecessary. He then told us that sometimes Mainland hospitals will refuse visitation rights, even by parents. That thought is terrifying to me.

Fortunately for us, by Sunday the little guy was already doing better and he hasn't seemed to notice the red bumps at all. It's nice to know we have the option of it, but I really hope we never have to experience an emergency commute to a Hong Kong hospital.

Are there seasons in southern China?

Today I spent the afternoon at a factory we work with, reviewing new items in production and approving a few things on-site to speed the production process along. I was amazed at how busy the factory is, with all production lines going full force.

A ton of the products being made in this factory right now are items you'll see on shelves in about a month and a half - goods for Halloween! I would love to go into more detail, but I'm afraid it would be borderline unethical, so I'll leave it to your imagination.

It did get me thinking though about how different our fall will be this year. It's hot as hades outside right now, kind of like Atlanta - in the 90's - but with higher humidity. I'm not really sure when it will cool down or what the fall and winter seasons will be like here.

I've been receiving a lot of emails lately from my favorite brands about "Back to School" shopping, which is funny because the kids here in China are still in full blown summer mode. They will start back to school in mid September.

I'm told that the next big holiday we'll celebrate here is Mooncake Festival in September (no Labor Day here). I saw a pretty red box in a hotel adjacent to our building (we often walk through a type of shared lobby to get to restaurants for lunch) and I asked my coworker about it. Turns out it contains a mooncake, and the hotel is already offering them for sale. I have no idea what a mooncake is, and all I can picture right now is a bunch of Asians enjoying marshmellowy moonpies together.

Hopefully between now and the Mooncake Festival I can figure out how to post pictures to this blog so we can share our mooncake celebration with friends and family across the states.

Homesick

With the passing of Grandpa A, a wave of homesickness came over me last weekend and it's still lingering.

Fortunately, we met another family recently with a young daughter Dean's age (they are only 2 days apart), and they invited us to dinner at their place last Sunday evening. They are not only from the U.S., but from near the Atlanta area. Sometimes it is amazing how small the world is.

We indulged in a wonderful meal of lasagna cooked from scratch. This was a real treat, especially since it was covered in cheese. We don't have an oven in our apartment, so we can't bake things like this at our place unless we make a small portion that can cook in a toaster oven.

Dean enjoyed playing with all of the new toys belonging to Claire, while we had a great time talking with her parents. They've lived in Shenzhen for just over 2 and a half yrs, so they have much more experience than we do. We talked about the things we miss from home, especially doing things outside. We all laughed about how our Chinese friends talk about climbing a mountain. I would describe the "mountains" here as small hills with paved pathways. No need for a walking stick or even a pair of tennis shoes.

Our new friends made a comment about how they find themselves telling friends back home so many of the negative things about China because a lot of those things are the most interesting. I had to wonder if we will end up doing the same thing?

I find it's very easy to criticize the things that are different here, but I try to remember that different is not necessarily bad or wrong. Some days the differences are just too much, and I long to be back in the U.S., where I know what to expect and I can understand what the people around me are saying 99.9% of the time. I've come to realize that we're not going to learn and absorb Mandarin Chinese just by being here. If I want to be able to communicate with the people I encounter every day, from a cabbie to the grocery store clerk, I need to start studying.

I guess the newness of living in Shenzhen has just plain worn off.

Always an optimist, I have to close by mentioning I am not entirely unhappy here, and I have confidence that this homesickness won't last. I just hope it passes sooner rather than later.