5:30 A.M.

That's what time "our driver" is scheduled to pick us up tomorrow morning. It's gonna be a long day...but it is by far the most long-awaited day ever. We're finally headed to Thailand to welcome our little girl into the world! And that means that by 5:30 p.m. tomorrow evening (when we arrive in Bangkok) it will officially be okay with us if she arrives early. Up until this point, her arriving early was not an option. Not in China. No way Jose. But 12 hours from now, upon pulling into the parking lot of the hospital where we'll be staying, I will officially give Eden permission to enter the world. :) But if she takes her time baking just a little bit longer...that's ok with us too!

So our plans for Bangkok include:
Eating much anticipated American food for just about every meal.
Going to the movies...maybe even seeing the same movies twice just to experience a movie theater again!
Watching the Discovery Channel and National Geographic on cable tv!
and waiting on Eden!

Other than that, we don't have much scheduled. And it's so nice.

Our little hotel that we're staying in though, we've heard, only has dial-up. And since it's been a good minute since we've used dial-up, we're not sure if it will be fast enough to post blogs, send pictures, etc... So if our blog goes a few days or weeks without anything new, blame it on the dial-up. (or us just enjoying our Pizza Hut pizza far too much to take the time to write)
We hope to find some high-speed somewhere to connect to though, so we can post pictures of Eden soon after she arrives. Don't hate on us though if it takes longer than expected...cuz you know, we're gonna be new at the whole parenting thing!

Eeesh! We're gonna be parents! Sure hope God knows what he's doing! :)

A trip to a nearby district

The other day a friend and I (Brandon) went to tour another district in the city that we live in. We took a bus there (5.5 kuai=$0.75) which took an hour. The 5 minute taxi to the bus station actually cost more than going to this other district. On the way there we drove though a closer district that has become more developed. They had a KFC and a McDonald's. The crazy thing about the McDonald's is that there was a drive-up window! I have never seen this in any Asian city, even the extremely large ones! I'm still not sure how many bikes can be in line at the drive-up window at one time. I am wondering if they actually stay in line in the drive-up. If it is anything like going inside to order your food, there will be too many wrecks and traffic jams to count. I tell you it is crazy going to McDonald's here. Many times I just feel like a cow being herded into a feedyard. It stinks, there is a ton of pushing, and of course, there are no lines. This is one thing you must get used to here, THERE ARE NEVER ANY LINES!!!

OK back to the story. So we get to the district and climb this ancient wall (kind of like the great wall, but not as great) Here is a picture of the not so famous great wall and the stone sea in front of the great wall (the pathway is not the great wall, it is in the very back, sorry no up close picture).

Then I played Chinese chess with really old man.

I like my hat better.

Then my friend and I saw a sign that said we could do some "summer skiing" down a grass hill. When we got there we found out it was just sleds so we decided to do it... without thinking how we would get back up.

So then we had to come back up.

We also went to a daoist temple where we were able to share with some people.

It was a very good trip. Hopefully I can take April and Eden with me the next time I go. There was far too much walking involved this time to include a 35 weeks pregnant lady.

A Collision

edit: It seems my title may have freaked some moms out, but don't be alarmed...I'm talking about a completely safe "Seinfeldian Worlds Collide" type collision...
read on.

We had our friends over for lunch the other day and me being a bit too lazy to cook and a bit too pregnant to crave Chinese food, we just grabbed some McDonalds and came back here to eat.

Well, if you remember our friend Phoenix from the ToFu story, you'll recall his table manners aren't quite the "break out the Silver & China" type manners. None the less, he's so fun & relaxed that we always enjoy our time with him. There's never a dull moment when in his presence. He's one of the few Chinese that we've met who is completely resistent to becoming "Westernized." He loves his Chinese roots, and we love that about him. He's not trying to conform to Americanisms like so many Asianese these days, and he loves to flaunt the fact that he prefers everything Chinese to anything American.

So...on with the story. We ordered some McDonalds but he refused to only eat American food for lunch so we stopped at another little fast food joint and ordered him some Chinese food before coming back here. So his girlfriend and Brandon and I are gobbling up our McD's as he's slurping away at his noodle concoction, when he decides that it wouldn't hurt for him to have a few french fries too. But still being a bit too prideful to put away all Chinese-ness to eat the fries, his eastern mannerisms collided with his western cravings...creating this:

So East meets West...in a completely Phoenix fashion.

The rest of our time with them was great. We talked about all kinds of stuff...but it mostly consisted of them telling me things that I should or shouldn't do while pregnant. The Chinese way of Life vs. the American way of Life when it comes to pregnant women is drastically different. I won't bore you with the many many differences, but will suffice it to say that their last instruction to me was to take it easy and listen to peaceful music.

Phoenix: "You should not watch tv, or talk on cell phone, or play on computer. Just listen to peaceful music."
Me: "Oh you mean like Beethoven?"
Phoenix: "No. No. That is still much too...uh...(forgetting the english word he begins to act like he's banging on a piano and makes the "duh duh duh duh!" noise)
Me: "Oh right....ok."
Phoenix: "Yes. I think, hmm....well, do you know Enya?"

At this point Brandon just about spewed his McD's coke all over the table in all out laughter. Not only were we completely shocked that he'd heard of Enya, but that he felt like it was recommended pregnancy music. It was priceless.
I've yet to pick up the most recent Enya cd. But someday if it happens to make it's way into my cd collection I'd be more than happy to let you borrow it during your peaceful music phase of your pregnancy.

A Year Ago Today...

A year has passed since we arrived here.
Sometimes it's hard to believe that we've been here for a year.
It really has gone by quickly.
And other times it's hard to believe we've just been here for one year...
because it's gone by so slowly.
It's a strange thing to describe.

And though we'd like to say that we've changed more than words can describe, that's one of those things that is hard to judge for yourself I think.
But we know we're different. That's to be expected I think. We're proud to be different now...after all, that's what He's called us to be.
When you see us again I hope you notice that we're different.
I hope you think it's a good different, and not just strange different.
I hope you'll tell us that we're different...in a nice way, and not just label us as freaks.

I promise we'll control our differences.
We won't laugh at you when you think that a dollar is a great buy for a Dasani bottle of water.
We won't get frustrated with you when you complain about the "horrendous" traffic.
We won't correct you when you think riding a bike is just a hobby.
We won't judge you for thinking your home is a little dusty.
We won't roll our eyes at you when you get disgusted by the thought of mama's home-made chicken fried steak leftovers.

Things we might do:
--Remind you to be nice to the non-English speaking Asian woman in Wal-Mart who is confused by the vegetable sacking process...been there. done that.
--Punch you in the ribs if you mumble under your breath, "psh, learn the language" at the Hispanic woman in 7-11.
--Force you to try some Chinese food at the local China Dragon you've yet been brave enough to eat at.
--Speak chinese to each other so you can't understand us. :) Hey, we have to some how give you a feel of what we've been experiencing!

And though we're really different in a lot of ways...we're still pretty American too.
We'd give anything for a big Dr. Pepper from Sonic right now.
Accompany that with a Beef n Cheddar melt from Arby's for me (one strange pregnancy craving that has yet to subside)
We can't wait to go shoe shopping at places that have shoes in our sizes.
We can't wait to see previews again and know what movies are "must sees."
and Ok. So riding a bike does seem more like a hobby still to us.

And then there's obvious differences:
We're bi-lingual.
I know...add us to the short list of Americans who are bi-lingual.
Not by anything official really...we're not THAT good. But it's coming along.
It's neat knowing another language and on most occasions being able to communicate just about anything we need to. It seems like a huge accomplishment...that is until our friends remind us that they can speak 2 dialects of Chinese, Korean, & Japanese. Then we're reminded again of just how limited our world view really is.

Every meal we eat out (with the exception of McDonalds & KFC) we eat with chopsticks. They are pretty convenient. And we drink hot tea with our meals instead of sweet iced tea.


and of course...we're expecting another family member. a change we're still not sure we're ready for, but regardless...it's coming.


So all that to say...we're different. But after one year, that shouldn't surprise you.

32 Roses for 32 Weeks

Brandon surprised me on Tuesday with 32 roses to commemorate being 32 weeks pregnant!

I know...what a sweetheart! And remember, that's totally affordable when you live in China and you can get a bouquet of 32 roses for less than 10 bucks!
They were beee-yuuuu-tiful and smelled great too! (despite the strange face I'm making in the next picture)

And now to answer some pressing emails we've gotten concerning our last post on split pants...

Split Pants 101: Making Your Own
Materials Needed:
A perfectly good pair of pants
Scissors/pocket knife/seam ripper/or a strong pair of hands

Steps:
1. Take perfectly good pair of pants and either
a) grab a leg in each hand and begin ripping apart at the crotch seam
b) pull out the seam sewing the crotch area together
c) use a pocket knife or scissors to cut a more straight line on what would be the crotch seam.
2. Wa-la! Your very own pair of split pants!


To answer a few other questions...
Yes Eden in fact does have her very own pair of split pants. We have a few friends here who gave her her first pair! See...

We're holding on to them as a keepsake so that someday she can have a good laugh as well! Never mind that they are blue because remember, when dealing with split pants, gender-appropriate colors don't matter!
One of the pairs that she received actually had the crotch seam all in tact! But attached to the pants were instructions for making them Split-Pants! (refer back to my amended version of Split Pants 101: Making Your Own)

This is Brandon's favorite thing to do with them:

Ok. I promise that's the last post for a long time containing the word crotch.

Bricks, Pork, & Split-Pantology

This post is really a conglomeration of randomness that we wanted to post. The first few items are just little things...and then we'll get to the "meat" of the post. hahahah ok sorry...that was cheesy.

On a recent trip to a nearby village we got the opportunity to see some stuff that we don't often see in our city. That's not to say that our city is that much more developed...trust us, it's not. But the area of the village we visited is still a good couple decades behind our city.

Here's the kitchen of an old home we visited. Though most kitchens here are nicer than this one, this one is still in use! Mr. Zhao eats every meal he cooks straight from this kitchen.
Amazing Race fans might recognize the round bricks of coal sitting on the floor...used for building a fire in the turquoise thingy

I'm not gonna complain about my "coleman stove" in my kitchen anymore.

Outside on the street there was the local butcher:
I'm sure we have this in our city too...but maybe we just don't visit that part of town.

Ok so the next one is something prevalent in all of China...even the big cities. So it wasn't special to this trip but we just realized it was about time to educate you all in Split-Pantology:

This is the most blog-appropriate picture we could find that had a good balance of not totally grossing you out but letting you see enough cheek to understand what we're talking about.
Split-pants are used almost exclusively in this country on children ranging from 1 day old to 4 years old...maybe older. They are basically just pants that aren't sewn up in the crotch area. Lovely thought eh? So the concept is that anytime the kiddo has to go to the bathroom, they just squat wherever they are and do their business. Of course this leads to puddles & what not on sidewalks, in parks, aisles of grocery stores...you name it. And who knows how many times a mother might get all nastified on while holding her baby.
But on the other hand we never mistakenly tell someone that their daughter is lovely when in fact it's a little boy! :) And on the same note, when all that business is on display you don't have to worry about dressing your child in gender appropriate colors so that people know what he/she is. And can you imagine the amount of diaper trash 1.3 billion people could produce?! So actually they are being quite environmentally friendly! ...minus the poop in the grocery store.
(Just as a side note we should clarify that we've actually never seen #2 in a grocery store...#1 is a whole different story)

Consequently though, it's been a complete nightmare to try to find clothing here that is actually sewn together in the crotch for Eden to wear. When we tell people that we don't want the split in the pants they look at us like we're all crazy! Luckily, we've got amazing family and friends back home who are shipping her hoards of cute pink clothes!

Strangely enough, diapers are in abundant supply here. Even pampers and huggies. I'm not sure who buys them...maybe just foreigners & mothers who are sick of being all nastied on.

So now you understand Split-Pantology...or at least know it exists even though you might not quite understand it. And maybe you are a little grossed out. sorry about that. maybe I'll wait till the next post to put a picture of Brandon eating a silk worm.

ok that's enough random thoughts for today...

We Have Fleas...

yeah. I know. Gross. Ewww. Yuck.
And I'm running a huge risk telling you this because I know now you've totally talked yourself out of visiting us. But with little going on these last few days, our flea infestation has consumed my thoughts.
Yesterday morning Brandon left for a quick trip to go pay our electricity bill.
I heard the door shut...and then about 2 minutes later, I heard the door open again and he was screeching: "Ahh...they are everywhere! They're biting! What do I do?!"
I ran in there only to see his ankles and feet covered by little black bugs. I ushered him into the bathroom (which remember is just one big room with a shower in the corner) and started spraying his legs down with water. Those stupid things wouldn't come off!
Finally after pelting them with water for quite a while we thought we got most of them down the drain...that is until we found one or two on our house shoes periodically through out the day. They even popped up in my dreams last night.
So for over 24 hours our apartment has been infested with fleas.
Ok, maybe infested is a strong word. But still...finding a couple here and there is no fun.

But this is when our strong disliking for indoor pets is paying off big time. "They" say that without anything to "feed" on, fleas will die within 2 weeks time. So with no dogs or cats to prey on, those little suckers should be goners (sp?) soon. Perfect timing for our trip out of town next week...get out of here while our house fleas die off.

So as long as you weren't planning a trip to visit us in the next two weeks, I think you'll have a flea-free couch to sleep on in no time!