Ode to Whirlpool

Have you ever just stood and gazed at your refrigerator? I’m not talking about standing there with the door open as you try to decide what to munch on for an afternoon snack. I’m talking about standing there in admiration of the enormous ice box, the contraption that keeps your ice cream at the perfect temp, the shiny magnetic silver exterior (or in lots of cases creamy ivory…or in rare cases, like the first fridge I can recall my parents owning, mustard yellow). Most people probably don’t take the time to admire the everyday refrigerator, but allow me to just say…you should.
Our refrigerator in China does exactly what your fridge in America does. It keeps stuff cold. Only our fridge is about the size of one of those that college students tote off to their dorm room for storing leftover pizza. (with the exception that it is about double in height of one of those because it also has a handy little freezer section) Don’t get me wrong, we’re not complaining about our cute dorm refrigerator. We realize there are plenty of places around the world without fridges at all. But our adventure yesterday to the Asian equivalent of a Sears was a reminder of the beauty of those good ole, giant, made-in-America Whirlpool refrigerators. The walls were lined with the monstrous “ice boxes.” You could take your pick of color, freezer on top, freezer on bottom, double door, single door, ice maker in the door, ice maker inside, etc… We walked through the maze of refrigerators like kids at Disneyworld; overwhelmed, excited, and not knowing which way to go first.
We opened just about every fridge in that store and each time we gasped in amazement at the amount of space in each one.
“Look! A whole carton of eggs could fit in this egg shelf!”
“Our Gatorade bottles could actually stand UPRIGHT in this one!”
At one point I think I let out one of those giddy Junior High girly giggles as Brandon opened the freezer part of an ice-making giant silver one. I could just picture all the things I could keep frozen! I could imagine myself going to Fu Mart without having to think to myself… “wait a minute, do we have room in the fridge for two cartons of milk today, or just one?”
And then just a few yards away from the fridge section stood a gleaming white Whirlpool washer and dryer set. It was like seeing Romeo & Juliet, peanut butter & jelly, OJ Simpson & an orange jumpsuit. Two things that together mean so much more than apart. To see them sitting there beside each other just seemed like a happy ending to a fairy tale, no washer should ever be left without its counterpart. Yet, our washer in China, while it does as good of a job as any washer in America (only it takes 2 hours instead of quick 30 minutes) is missing its best friend. The other half is no where to be found…at least not in our city anyways. But none the less, our clothes get clean, dry, and do perfectly fine not know the fluffy perfection they are missing out on.
So friends, all this to say… Pat your clothes dryer on the back for doing the job in one hour all the while catching all that pesky lint. Or the next time you slam shut the door of your refrigerator in disgust of the 5 gargantuan shelves of leftovers, think of us and give your Whirlpool a little smile in admiration.

2 babies, and neither one is ours

Apparently Bangkok is a popular place for having babies. Since our arrival we've met two more couples in similar situations as us who are here solely for the purpose of welcoming their first born into the world. We've had a lot of fun hanging out with them in the past few weeks...and here is where I'd post a picture of four pregnant women but our internet isn't complying for the moment. But now I am the only one remaining with a baby still INSIDE my belly. All the others have been born healthily and happily. And it's driving us crazy! :) It has made us even more excited for Eden's arrival!
One of the mothers swears that it was her big chunk of steak at Outback the day before she went into labor...the other swears it was some apple pie & climbing 17 flights of stairs. Of course, climbing 17 flights of stairs might force anyone into labor regardless of being pregnant or not. Not sure I'm willing to go there.
So as Eden's due date approaches, we're considering indulging ourselves even more on steak, apple pie, & what not in order to bring her into this world. Although, at our last ultrasound our doctor estimated that Eden is already at 8 pounds. So maybe I should lay off the apple pie! It was funny...he said, "Wow she's at 3.3 kg." To which I responded, "I have no idea how big that is...Brandon do some quick conversion!" Then the doc said, "That's perfectly normal for a woman your size." I thought to myself, did my doctor just pull a fat joke on me?!! Then he corrected himself and said, "Well, that's really big for a Thai woman, but for a western woman that's perfectly normal." So she may dwarf the Thai babies laying next to her in the nursery but she'll be beautiful anyways.

My parents will be arriving late Sunday night to begin their cross-cultural experience of two weeks and to begin spoiling our first born. :) Brandon's will arrive about one week after that & will get to see us and their first grandbaby for a week or so. Be thinking of them as they travel, eat new foods, and experience all that Bangkok has to offer!

sight seeing...

Saturday we ventured out to downtown Bangkok to check out the Royal Palace and a few other sites. It was a nice outing...a little too hot for a pregnant woman and too much walking, but Eden is still hangin out in there, so I guess I didn't push it too much.

It was neat seeing some of the elaborate buildings, but at the same time a little depressing to see such idolatry. But for a culture so engrained with Buddhism, we shouldn't have expected anything less.

Sorry our blogs have been short lately. Our time on the internet is pretty limited. We'll be sure and make up for it when we're back in Chiner!

Siam Ocean World

We went to the coolest aquarium ever this week. well...the coolest one we've ever been to anyways. Minus Sea World of course. It was on the bottom floor of a mall...shopping and seeing fish, what could be better?!

Here's Brandon petting a big friendly boa in the "rain forrest" section of the aquarium. I was much less brave...

There were fish in this car! I don't know how. I don't know why. But there were fish in the car.

Being very shark-like:

In a little over a month they are supposed to have a hammer head shark display! So maybe if Eden is really late (sheesh we hope not!) we'll get to see some hammer heads as well!

We haven't done a whole lot of site seeing around Bangkok, and I'm not sure we will. Call me a chicken, but I like being a close distance from the hospital at all times. Plus, Buddhist temples & what not aren't high on our list of must-sees. But we're enjoying our time here!

where are we?!

Just a quick post to say that we've made it safe and sound to Bangkok...and no Eden has not arrived! (thankfully!! we'd like her to hang in there just a couple more weeks!)
We're a little confused as to our surroundings though. After finally getting a good foundation in Chinese we've been uprooted and placed into a completely different culture and language...one that we know and understand two words! But we're so grateful to be here and we're enjoying the cultureS of Bangkok so much. And it truly does feel like Bangkok is a collision of cultures. There is definitely the Thai influence but so much of this city feels very western to us that we feel like we're back in America at times. We've visited nicer malls here than any we ever went to in America. We've eaten American, Italian, Indian, & Lebanese food and we're enjoying every bit of it! And currently we're sitting in a coffee house with not one chinese character in sight or any Thai script, with some John Mayer on the stereo.
Truly, we feel like we're in a big city in America...only one with motorcycle taxis, palm branches, & such a collection of cultures that we're a bit overwhelmed!

Check back later for more updates & hopefully some pictures!

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.