Miss me??

Ok, I guess it is time to write again...especially since everyone is enjoying Mitchell's witty posts so much. :) 

We had our first real emergency yesterday and got a real feel for "expat" health-care in China.  I was having lunch (and coffee) with Nikki and Truman when I got a call from the school nurse.  Henry had collided with another student at recess.  The only description he gave me was that he had gotten Henry to stop crying, but he was pretty sure I needed to take him in to have him looked at.  Nothing more.  When we arrived at school I found poor Henry in the nurses clinic covered blood and looking rather beat up.  He had been running when they collided, as was the other boy, and they both looked worse for wear.  Henry had split a good portion of his lip in two places and was bleeding like crazy. 

We dropped Truman off with our ayi and headed to the Beijing United Clinic (BJU) in Shunyi close to our house.  After being seen by 2 different doctors, both saying that Henry needed quite a few stitches, they sent us to the ER at BJU hospital in the city to have it done.  Henry was totally freaking out...as was I remembering how hard it was to pull him out from under the table in the doctor's office last time he had to get a shot.  We picked up Mitchell from work and headed to the ER.  Same diagnosis here, by 2 more doctors, stitches were needed.  Henry was shaking with fear, literally, and was begging for them not to do anything.  So my darling husband, remembering what it was like when he was 6 to get stitches in his own lip, went and privately discussed the situation with the doctor.  They came to the conclusion that stitches could be avoided if Henry kept it clean, was on antibiotics plus a mouthwash, and he avoided running/etc so he wouldn't injure it more.  It would take a lot longer to heal this way, but would save the poor kid the dramatic experience of getting stitches in his lip. 

I won't lie to you, it looks horrible and I thought avoiding stitches was a bad idea.  It has started to reattach a little bit and the swelling is slightly less.  Mitchell keeps reassuring Henry that he looks very tough and I just keep silently praying that it will heal ok. :)  I will continue to keep you updated on his healing process.  He is one brave kid!!

On our way to the ER.

Day 2, heading to school.

Must've Been Foggy Today ...

Mitchell here.

Jīntiān de tiānqì qíngkuàng fēicháng bù hǎo! That's what I told Mr. Ren (our driver) today as I got back into our Buick GL8 after dropping the kids off at school and starting my commute to work (although since Mr. Ren drives me, does that make it our commute to work?).

I'm not sure if we've mentioned the Buick GL8 before but it's the de facto expat minivan around here. It only comes in two colors: dark blue or silver and it's what all the cool kids are driving these days. When we were looking for cars to lease back in July, we were offered three GL8s (all dark blue) to choose from. You guessed it, we went with the dark blue. I asked the rental agent if it also came in "navy" but she didn't get it. If she spoke English I bet we would've been laughing together instead of just me. Anyway, the GL8 is L.A.M.E. but it's become our home-away-from-home in the world's worst traffic. We'd take it over a taxi any day.

So back to the tiānqì (the weather); it was absolutely rotten today.

Snow? No.

Cold and windy? Not really.

Thunderstorm? Wrong.

Pollution? Yup, and lots of it. It was basically like running around in a slightly smelly cloud all day.

So back to me, Mr. Ren, our kick-ass GL8 on the open road, heading into work this morning. I wanted to take a picture with my new iPhone (thanks Jess!) to show you guys what it's like but the scenery wasn't cooperating at 80kph (I've been here five months and I still have no idea what the k stands for). I took these pictures so you'd get a feel for the pollution.

But then I turned my head and saw the sun rising over the buildings next to the Expressway. Somehow, I was able to stare directly at the sun without eye protection.


I should say, it's not normally like this and most days I have a nice view of many of the tall buildings that make up Beijing's NE skyline (that's only a fraction of Beijing's skyline. Beijing currently has 899 high-rise buildings).  On really nice days I can see the mountains that circle the north and west sides of the city.

P.S. Jīntiān de tiānqì qíngkuàng fēicháng bù hǎo! means today the weather situation is very bad. Or at least that's what I think it means ...


P.P.S. Katie, before you comment, I was only joking about not knowing what the k in kph stands for. It's Chinese for miles, obviously. :)

2010-12-02 Update: Okay, Jess said no one understands my joke. I know kph = kilometers per hour. I was just being witty.

Chinese Inches

Mitchell here.

Jess and I were at the tailor last week when we discovered that China has their own unit of length very similar to the inch, called a cun. When I remarked how odd it was that the Chinese had their own version, he politely reminded me that China had been using this system for thousands of years. The way he said it implied that whatever us new kids are using over in America is simply a fad that will eventually go away when China takes over the world.

And just in case I find myself in the dire situation of trying to order pants in a China controlled world, I made a mental note that mine should be 26 cun long.
For those craving a little more background, you can read about the Chinese cun on wikipedia.

Night Before the Bird

Hey everyone, Mitchell here.

This year we're celebrating our Thanksgiving 2010 here in China on Friday because the kids' schedules work out better. We're having our friends from California come over to help us celebrate and we've been looking forward to our little slice of Americana here in the Eastern Hemisphere for quite a while. We've been preparing for a few days now but unfortunately things haven't gone as smoothly as we'd have liked.

Turkey. Check. Wait, it's still frozen? Hmmm, the turkey is still frozen and it's been 'thawing' in the refrigerator for 3 days now. If it doesn't magically finish thawing tonight we'll need to do so fancy cold-water thawing tomorrow morning. Speaking of turkey, we got ours at the market near the embassy district. It's a frozen 14.5 lb Chinese turkey (or huǒ jī as it's referred to around here. That literally means 'fire chicken'). My chicken people at the market didn't carry any so we had to drive down to Sanlitun to pick one up. And the only reason I know it's 14.5 pounds is because I stood with it on the scale in our bathroom. :) Our tiny oven won't accommodate a roasting pan so we're kicking it old school with a rack and some tin foil. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I finished the pecan pie tonight. It would've been finished earlier but Jess and I had to shell the fricking pecans by hand! Now we know why they're so expensive, they're impossible to shell without completely destroying them. In the end it didn't really matter since my Chinese convection oven burned the pie. Oh well, I'll cover up the burnt taste with Cool Whip when we eat it. Oh wait, they don't have that there either. Sigh. I may be the only one eating my burnt, pecan dust pie with no whipped cream tomorrow although Henry will probably help too.

We're making Mom's cheesy potatoes. No frozen hash browns so we're going to manually grate the potatoes. I have no idea how well that will work. I'm more concerned with the lack of Cream of Celery and Cream of Potato soups. We're going to supplement with Cream of Mushroom (must be internationally loved since they sell it here) and just ignore the mushrooms.

Jess made pumpkin and banana bread. That turned out well. Apparently she's more vigilant with the Chinese convection oven than I am.

She also made a kick-butt cheese ball that we can snack on all day while we're cooking the rest of our meal. We typically eat it with Wheat Thins, but, you guessed it, you can't get those here. Typically in this situation I'd settle for Triscuits, but I think you know where this is going ... In the end, Jess bought 4 brands of foreign crackers; hopefully one will be a hit.

The biggest Thanksgiving issue we seem to be encountering is the complete lack of football on TV. Unfortunately, I won't get to see the Lions lose. I'll catch it late on Sportscenter. Oops, no I won't. They don't have that here either. I need to befriend someone who works at the U.S. Embassy; I bet they have dish.

I know for a fact our cranberries are going to rock. We had Ocean Spray put them in a can especially for us.

We'll be sure to take pictures and get them uploaded. No really, I promise we will.

I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving. We miss you all.

Mr. Ren: the coffee addict

Hey everyone, Mitchell here.

Well it took exactly 90 days but we've managed to corrupt our driver, Mr. Ren. When we first hired him, he announced proudly that he did not drink alcohol, coffee or tea. He has faithfully driven us to Starbucks and Costa Coffee every time we asked. As he dropped us off he would typically make a comment similar to "coffee sleep no good" or "coffee make the body rowdy" (yes, amazingly our driver knows the word "rowdy").

A few weeks ago we were returning home from running errands and I noticed a McDonalds sack in the front seat. I've heard him repeatedly mention that he didn't like McDonalds food so I felt I had to give him a hard time. It turns out that he went there to get a coffee! Apparently, after so many times seeing us get morning coffee, afternoon coffee, and nighttime coffee, he felt like he needed to try it. We asked him how he liked it and he said it wasn't very good.

The next day Jess bought him a Caramel Latte at Costa Coffee and now he's addicted! Each time we pass by he asks me if I want to stop for coffee. Too funny!