Yesterday, I visited a very pregnant friend of mine.  She’s due October 12th with her first baby and is feeling the discomfort of her giant belly.  She text messaged me earlier in the week “I am good, but I want my baby come out now.  I cannot wait.  It is not convenient.”  I love that description of the last month- inconvenience at its best.

So we shared lunch together and then had foot massages.  I was telling her about the theory that certain spots on the feet and ankle can cause labor and she was so excited to go get one and test the theory out!

During our massage, we chatted with the two young massage guys.   At most of the massage places in our city, the workers are from various rural towns and poorer urban areas.  They come to the massage place because they will get housing provided (they live in 8-to-a-room dormitories) and they can save a lot of money to send home to their families.

One of the guys is 29, married, and has a 2 year old son in Liaoning province, a 9 hour train ride away from here followed by a several hour bus ride to his home town.   His wife lives with their son back in Liaoning and he hasn’t seen them since last Chinese New Year (February).  He’s going back at the end of October to spend 10 days with them. I asked him if he misses his wife.  He held up his pinkie finger. “This much,” he said, pointing to the tip of his pinkie fingernail, “This much is how much I miss my wife.”  He ran his finger along the side of his hand “The rest, this much, is all for my son.”

Another guy at the massage place works there alongside his wife (note: they live separately in the men’s and women’s dormitories- can you imagine?).   Their 6 year old daughter is an 18-hour train ride away, with his mother.  They keep in touch by cell phone and by chats over the computer- they both go to internet cafes and chat through video chats.  He gets tears in his eyes every time he talks about his daughter.

Getting to know all of these individuals at our massage place is one of the many reasons I go back so often.  It’s an inexpensive, healthy treat and I love the chance to hear their stories.  There are so many people I walk by and wonder what their story is, but here, I get to sit and listen and hear and share their life stories.    And the foot massage is a great benefit.  Well, they call it a foot massage, but it includes a hand/arm massage, back massage, shoulder massage, and foot massage.  What would you call that?

Since I’ve gotten to know several of them, they have invited me into their dormitories to visit them.  They have 8 beds in a room, 2 bunk beds on each side of the room with just enough room to walk between them.   It reminds me of a (crowded) college dormitory, with each person decorating their 4 foot by 2 foot section of wall space above their bed with posters of pop stars and such.    They share a 2-burner gas stove and take turns cooking for the group.  They tease that the boys can’t cook or clean and the girls have to do all the work.  Because, as they say, the boys can only make meat-on-a-stick (is this the universal food for men to cook? grilled meat??).  I love that some things are the same in any culture.

My friend didn’t go into labor last night, but she’s holding out hope that today could be the day.  We’ll see!  I’m just excited that she asked me to be her baby photographer!

I bet you didn’t know I was mom to the bravest little girl in China, but it’s true!  Okay, it might be a bit of a stretch, but I was so proud of my little Katie yesterday.

She didn’t flinch or cry or whine or squawk in any way during her pre-op work up at the hospital yesterday- the girl even watched them take vials of her blood.  She said “That doesn’t hurt at all, mommy”.  Brave little 4 year old indeed!

She’ll get the royal treatment on Monday, October 6th when we return for the actual surgery.  She’ll have tonsils out, adenoids checked (we think they’re already out, but we’re not sure- how dorky is that??) and they’ll do some stuff in her ears- swapping out the current tubes she has for shiny new ones and sucking out some of the yucko inside her ears.  She’ll basically be a whole new kid after they’re done with her!  She’s actually really excited about it and proudly tells people about when “she’s going to get to eat ice cream for THREE WHOLE DAYS whenever she wants”.  Ha.  Love that kid spirit!

Since we just did Eliza’s this spring at the same hospital, I’ll be going up to Beijing alone with her for this one.   Again, they’ve scheduled us for two nights at the hospital (yes, really, for a tonsillectomy!) but hopefully we will just stay one night.

Oh, and our desire for cooler weather was answered!  Yesterday’s high was 60 degrees!  It is crazy that last week we were wearing capris and t-shirts and it was so hot in our house!   I am loving the fall weather! 

My personal highlight of the day yesterday was eating lunch at Annie’s (the Italian place by the hospital that I anticipate eating for every meal during Katie’s surgery!).   Restaurants in China just don’t do the “free bread on the table” or “free chips and salsa” thing.  But Annie’s gives you two kinds of bread, garlic butter, pesto sauce, and olive oil/vinegar.  Oh, and a giant bowl of parmesan cheese.  Which might not be such a big deal in the west, but parmesan cheese costs more money per pound than gold here, I think!   I am not ashamed to admit that between Katie and I we managed to eat the entire bowl of parmesan cheese.  Katie’s a professional at that place- the girl ate THREE baskets of bread, a small kids pizza (kids get to make their own mini pizza), a plate of spaghetti, and a bowl of ice cream.   I think she got her $3 worth, don’t you?

Yesterday on our way home we had a yucky situation where our driver rear-ended another car (we were all fine) and the other car’s driver and his 2 friends went a bit crazy and it was just quite icky, ending with the other car’s driver threatening to chase us with his car and hit us.   I was so thankful to get home in one piece and get in the door and calm down and see Keith and Eliza.   We’re thankful for our Dad’s protection in that situation.

I’ve had about a dozen emails flying into my inbox from the west this week, making sure we are aware of the dairy/melamine situation here.

As you might imagine, this is a highly discussed topic here at the moment.   We’re thankful (so very thankful!) for Katie’s dairy intolerance at the moment!  When we moved here, Eliza was not loving drinking milk anymore, and Katie can’t drink milk, so we only go through a little bit each week (a quart or so), and it is only for cooking things.

I’m not sure how this will affect us long-term.  For now, it means no yogurt for sure.  And we’ll get some imported milk to keep on hand.  We usually buy imported cheese, so that’s okay.

I am grateful we don’t have a baby who was drinking formula- I can’t imagine what so many formula-feeding moms around this country are struggling with right now- feeding their baby unsafe formula or not feeding their baby formula at all?  It’s not a great choice to have to make!

Honestly, this situation is just another reminder to us of how little control we have over our lives here.  We can’t control the pollution, we can’t control the safety of the food and water we ingest, and we can’t control the traffic that endangers our lives on a daily basis (and really, I don’t think I’m being melodramatic wording it that way!!!).

We know this is where we’re supposed to be in the world right now.  And that means we have to “take the good, take the bad, you take them all and there you have the Facts of Life” (apologies to 1980’s television for theft of that quality theme song).  We don’t get to pick and choose what parts of life here we want to experience!

We are thankful that we have the financial resources to buy the imported versions of foods that we don’t feel comfortable eating.  We avoid seafood here.  We don’t drink water from the faucet.  We wash all produce in acid wash.  We do what we can to keep our bodies healthy here.

But we are not going to freak out over every health scare.  We knew coming into this that there would be health concerns, that there would be things like this situation- and we had to mentally prepare ourselves for the loss of control that comes with living overseas in this type of environment.  If we let fear rule our lives, we won’t get to enjoy the many amazing parts of life here.  We trust that our Dad will be here walking beside us, no matter what things we encounter in our lives.  Note: We don’t trust that He will protect us from all consequences of life here- that’s just not realistic.  There is a true cost to following Him.

Wednesday, Katie and I will go up to Beijing to set up her tonsillectomy.   I’m so completely relieved that the Olympic madness is over!  The flowers that lined our major thoroughfares were gone within days of the end of Tianjin’s flirt with Olympic soccer greatness.   The dvd vendors are slowly creeping back out throughout the city.  Street markets are trickling back into action (these things were all closed down for the Olympics).  Hopefully, “normal” is coming back to our cities.  Well, normal minus milk. And yogurt.  Ever seen a grocery store with no milk and yogurt? It’s kinda weird.

Katie, sitting in the windowsill, people-watching, and eating homemade strawberry melamine-free ice cream.

And Katie again:

I’ve had some worried emails asking where I am…

Just wanted to let you know we’re fine!  They turned our air conditioning off on September 9, and since then, we’ve all been hit hard by allergies (from keeping the windows open all day).  I’ve been going to bed at 7:00!

I’ve also been substitute teaching during the day.   Between subbing, going to the orphanage, and teaching photography, I’m not sure which way is up anymore!

After we’re able to stay awake later than 7:00, I’ll be back :).

Lest you think blogging is the only think we’re neglecting, we’re also have a ban on cooking and baking at the moment (it heats up the house) and of course a ban on anyone touching anyone (i.e. “Sorry, no hugs and kisses before bed or we might stick together from the sweat congealing.”).

It’s all good though.  We know in a few short weeks we’ll be crying for the heat to be turned on!

Katie woke up sick again Sunday morning- which seems to be par for the course for all of her friends who have shared this same sickness this week.   Keith and Eliza headed to fellowship and I made a giant batch of spaghetti sauce to freeze for later use.

After naptime, Eliza and I headed out to the water park (park on the water, not waterslides) to see if we could get any glimpses of “Moon Festival” stuff happening.   The water park is huge (you can see the giant lake looking thing in the photos from the last post- that’s the water park).  Eliza knew that she wanted to go inside the inflatable ball thing on the water.  We walked for 2 hours before finding it- right next to the entrance we’d initially come in.  Ahh, well, we needed the exercise, right?  She ended up getting to play in one for a good 30 minutes with a local Chinese girl.  They were giggling hysterically and the language barrier was not a barrier at all for them.

During our walk, we saw lots of families out for the day, kids tripped up on lots of candy and sugar and balloons, moms looking a bit weary and exhausted,  and dads just looking hot- many guys were doing what we refer to as the “old man tuck” which is when a guy folds his shirt up into his armpits and lets his belly hang out the front.

We also ran into some college-age girls who had dressed up in traditional clothing with fans and umbrellas for a photo shoot with one of the girls’ boyfriend.  They were gracious and let Eliza take her photo with one of the fans:

After the water park, we ate delicious Indian food together and had some “girl” time.   We’d been told that if we waited until 8:30 we could see fireworks in front of the TV tower.  So we walked over and sat for an hour or so before giving up and heading home, exhausted Eliza half-asleep for the taxi ride home.

The Chinese celebrate many of their holidays with their families- as do westerners, of course- we might deck the halls with boughs of holly, but come Christmas morning, we’re all with our families at home, right?   So, we didn’t end up seeing much “Moon Festival” but we had a great evening together!

Eliza, at sunset:

Today, the girls have the day off school for the Moon Festival (side note: Ayi can’t believe we didn’t get a day off for that in the US and also can’t believe we had to go to school during Chinese New Year!).   Hopefully, Katie will be healthy enough to return to school tomorrow And I’m just going to celebrate that I made it through the Moon Festival without eating a single mooncake! That spells success to me!

The moon, on the night of the Moon Festival:

Since moving here, I’ve wanted to go up inside the TV tower.  But well, when the visibility is about 2 inches, it isn’t very exciting to think about going up high in a tower to see the air 2 inches around you.

Today was remarkably mist-free, and with the Paralympics ending next week (which means the factories will start back up), we are sure those mist-free days are coming to a bitter end.  Katie woke up feeling perky and happy and fever-free (I love how kids bounce back from illness, whereas adults drag for days after a simple cough!) so we headed out this evening to see the city from up high.

To get some perspective, the TV tower is 415m high- the Eiffel tower is 320m high, the World Trade Center towers were 417m high.  So we’re talking pretty stinkin’ high.

Standing at the bottom looking up.  I have a bit of a weak stomach with heights, so I was already feeling a bit queasy at this point.

I know it looks like it is growing out of thin air, sorry, I managed to somehow fail to get a photo of the whole thing ;).

Around the base of the tv tower, there is a water area with small pedal-boats and water toys.   For 2 dollars for 15 minutes, the kids got tickets to play in these things which remind me of hamster toys.  Katie ended up completely freaked out, so the guy in charge let Keith go in with Eliza.  It was pretty hilarious to watch them run around like little mice or hamsters.  Keith said it was quite the workout.

After they played, we took the elevator ride up the tv tower, popping our ears along the way.

It was an amazing view.  Our house was on the “sunny side” so it was hard to get a clear photo, but after some serious photoshopping, here’s where we live… don’t laugh, I know it is way oversharpened, I just wanted to find us! :)  The curvy road behind our house in the photo leads to school.

And now I’m going to try to do 360 degrees around our city… to keep perspective of size- our apartment building above is 6 stories high and the vast majority of the buildings that look “short” are 6-8 story apartment buildings.  It is a mind boggling number of people.

The north part of the city…

the northeast…

The southeast part of the city

Southwest part of the city- including our favorite grocery store and the soccer stadium.

Wrapping up the west side of the city… if you look at the water closest to the bottom of the photo, along the road there, we planted all of those trees last year at the tree planting day! We live over past the water on the right side of the photo- the one with the arrow pointing at our apartment building is a zoomed in shot of this angle.  It is such a crazy big city!

And completing the circle…

It was interesting to look down and see the variety of housing options across our city- from sparkling new high rises to the block housing we live in (6-8 story uniform buildings that comprise the vast majority of the city’s current housing) to the “recycling communities”.  I don’t know if all of these communities actually live on recycling plants, but the one closest to us does, so that’s kind of our name for those communities.  Here’s a look down on the top of one of those communities:

And yet, right next to it is a not-yet-completed beautiful tower going up.  (oh, and sorry for the sun flare on the windows, but I was concentrating on not completely hurling from looking straight down!)

They had a little cafe where we could sit and the cafe seating area rotated around very slowly so we could see the whole city pass us by.  It was a very fun way to see the city, although we did pass on the “fired fingers” on the menu.  BTW, if you think the fired fingers was MY typo, you are no longer my friend!  I’m kind of kicking myself for not taking our family here when they visited!  Emily, Dad & Cindy, Jim & Patty, you all need to come back, ok?

We hopped in the taxi, rejuvenated from our fun night seeing the city.  The taxi driver leaned over and thumped her fingers against my arm a few times.  She giggled.  I raised my eyebrows and asked “What?” and she said “You’re not thin.  You’re too fat.”  Ahh yes, I love Tianjin.  It was a hilarious ending to our evening- seeing so many facets of the place we call home.

Tomorrow is the Moon Festival.  It is also my mom’s birthday!  Happy birthday (and moon festival) mom!  I hope you have many delicious mooncakes!  And we will enjoy all of the MANY fireworks in your honor!

A few “recipes” if you will- these were both requested from me- will be at the end.

Katie is still sick- 102-104 temp, hopefully the 2 full days of antibiotics will kick the bug to the curb soon.  She has spent the entire 2 days sleeping, not even wanting to watch tv, which is pretty unheard of for our little tv-loving youngest child.

She woke up this morning, wandered into the kitchen and asked for toast.  I pulled out a loaf of bread and she shrieked “Not THAT kind of bread”  It was normal white bread, so I’m not sure what the issue is.  She dissolved into tears.  “The other bread, other bread, other bread… I just can’t eat that other stuff mommy”   I responded “I don’t know what to tell you, we don’t have any other bread”   I was feeling rather exasperated when Eliza piped up, “Mommy, did you know we’re talking about the fruits of the Spirit at school?  And one of them is patience.  It is good to be patient with people.”   Thank you, Miss Eliza, ever the voice of reason and conscience!

In moments like the above (someone wants something that I don’t have and can’t reasonably get), I flash back to when my mom and I went to visit my college in Hannibal, Missouri the first time.   Mom and I went in the rental car office (she had rented a car for the trip) and they said they didn’t have a car for us, despite her reservations.  Mom insisted that they needed to get a car (patiently, thank you Eliza!).  The woman responded “Well, ma’am, what do you want me to do, poop a car?”  (only she, of course, used a way less polite word than poop)   I have often giggled at the unprofessionalism and the hilariousness of that response.

I’m subsitute teaching today for a few hours and ayi is watching sweet Katie.   Hopefully she will start to perk up a bit soon!

For those who have asked:

Making Ricotta:

Heat up milk in a pot on the stove to just below boiling, when it is starting to froth a bit.  Add some white vinegar (to 2 qts I add 1/4 c vinegar, but the amounts aren’t exact at all- a glug or two will do).   The milk will immediately curd and separate into curds/whey.  If it doesn’t separate, heat a bit more and it will separate.  Let it cool and then strain off the liquid in a cheesecloth lined colander.

At this point, it works great as ricotta.  If you fold the cheesecloth up tight around the cheese and press ALL of the liquid off by putting a towel under it and then setting a heavy book on top for several hours, you can make paneer for Indian recipes.

Uighur Spice Mix:

Spice Mix:
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili flakes
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground Sichuan peppercorns
2 teaspoons ground ginger powder
4 garlic cloves (very finely chopped)
2 teaspoons sea salt

The other day on my way to the orphanage I saw a guy in a yellow polo shirt.  The back of it said, in big letters, “Italy”.  And then it had a US flag.  Not the current US flag even- the old 15-star, 15-stripe flag.  When exactly did that become “Italy” related?   Anyway, it gave me pause.

The girls are almost always up by 6 a.m., eager to run out the door to the school bus at 7:25.   Today, there was no sign of Katie at 7:00, so I went to investigate.  She snuggled deeper into her blanket, pulling it up over her nose.  “It hurts too much to wake up.”  Yeah, she’s got tonsillitis- and of course her ear is still infected (has been since early June).  Since this is something like her 7th round of it in 2008, we’re planning to head up to Beijing after the Paralympics are over to get a day of fun with the ENT and set up her tonsillectomy.

This is probably a poor sign of my mothering skills, but a tiny part of me is a bit excited to stay at the hospital in Beijing for her tonsillectomy so I can get Annie’s Italian delivered to the hospital every day for my meals.  I know, I know, she’s having surgery and I’m happy? That’s wrong!  But Annie’s salads, pastas, and pizzas are really good and we don’t have anything like them here in Tianjin!

I decided to embrace the afternoon at home by making calzones, complete with homemade ricotta cheese.   And I also made these delicious, dense oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.   They’re not light cookies- they’re more of a thick, dense, give-me-some-milk-to-wash-that-down-please cookie.

Have a great week!

Mmm, food. I’ll get to that.

First, let me share a few pictures. I spent Wednesday at the new early childhood center taking some class photos for their open house. Note, these are NOT their official school class photos- I would assume they will have a true backdrop for them!

Eliza’s class:

Katie’s class:

If you remember the bookstore in Beijing that we took the girls to with the rainbow carpets and circular windows for reading, the school has modeled the new library after that.  It is pretty cool!  And, yes, they are awaiting the arrival of new books- I’m sure they will have more than that soon!

I’m always looking for photos for advertising/marketing, so I couldn’t resist Katie and her friend reading together:

Yesterday, I turned 29.  And, no, I’m not saying I’m 29 forever!  I really *did* turn 29!  We celebrated at TGI Friday’s with 2 other families.  The husband of one of the families shares my birthday so it was cool to celebrate together.

As we sat around the dinner table, gorging on western food, we were discussing all of the western foods we miss.  It was one of those “Survivor-like” moments.  Someone would mention a restaurant like “Olive Garden” and everyone would groan and sigh and reminisce their favorite dishes.   I can only dream of sitting down to an entire family-size bowl of their salad and just digging in.    We went through restaurant after restaurant.

Taco Cabana- homemade tortillas, refried beans, queso, and a salsa bar.  Does it get much better than that?

Fuddruckers- giant burgers dripping with cheese sauce, delicious french fries, mmm…

Outback Steakhouse- blooming onions, steak, more steak, more meat, mmm…

Real beef, anywhere.  I think all of us miss having some good quality red meat.

Cracker Barrel- chicken’n'dumplins, biscuits, cornbread, hashbrown casserole

Seriously, should I keep going?

It isn’t that we *don’t* like Chinese food.  Quite the contrary.  But there is a certain joy in the familiar favorites of home.

Ayi can now make chicken fajitas for us, though, and that is a great thing to come home to in the evening!  Bueno!

We’re off to enjoy our last few days of air conditioning before it is turned off for the season!

Nothing like starting off with some PLA (People’s Liberated Army) soldiers, eh? As I continued my drive to the orphanage, I drove next to what I can only guess is something like a PLA training place? I don’t know. A bunch of female cadets/officers (what are they called here? cadres?) were lined up. My goal was to get at least one of them to break rank and stare at the foreigner. On the fifth ladder rung from the right, you can see my super success! I was happy. Hey, it’s the little things in life, right?

Next I reach the used bike market. I have a hate/hate relationship with the place. It is actually where stolen bikes end up. Ask yourself- who sells their bike in China? The answer is NO ONE. They just don’t, okay? Ayi’s 11-year-old bike was stolen recently. I mean, c’mon! Who wants that? Sad sad sad.

So, yeah, all those bikes in the mass stack are stolen bikes that will be re-sold for profit. I looked for our friend Sara’s recently-stolen new Giant bike with the McCain bumper sticker on it. Sorry, Sara, I didn’t find it, so it must be at a different stolen bike heap!

For the following photo, I love the tenderness between these two ladies. But I also LOVE the panties hanging on the tree. Seriously, panties hanging with other clothes on a line- not a big deal. But just a pair of panties on a tree? Seriously?

Speaking of laundry, this was a young mom out doing her family’s laundry in front of their family store. She was sitting on the street in the Chinese-style-squat (everyone, of every age from 1-101, seems to be able to do this with ease) washing their clothes in a bucket and hanging them on the line behind her (out on the street, just a few feet from traffic). I am not a big black and white photo person, but I thought I’d try it here.

Her little boy and mother-in-law sat behind her, eating breakfast together. They sell big sheets of polyfill for stuffing things.

The breakfast rush at this outdoor/indoor restaurant.

This is a road I call “Little Lanesville”. Keith’s parents live in a small town (2005 census says 630 people). So perhaps it seems odd to compare this road to their town. But Lanesville, on top of being a small town, is very hilly and has curvy, tree-lined roads that wind through the town. So when I go on this side street, it feels like I’ve left the urban life and stepped into the countryside and it is a bit curvy on this road. I realize this is a complete stretch. But trust me, it feels “different” on this road. There’s only a few streetside vendors, and way less traffic.

After Lanesville, I hit the public park, which is packed with people all day long. I love seeing so many active adults- from 20-somethings all the way up to senior-senior citizens. They’re so active and vibrant! Here’s a group of guys playing hackysack (actually “qiu” a Chinese game that is played with a badminton-like birdie).

This guy was completely staring me down, so I thought I might as well snap a pic while I was being stared at! When I see someone this age or older, I can’t help but wonder the stories they could share… I can’t imagine what they’ve seen in their lives.

The roller bladers are out in style. Some of them have serious form going on there! I was impressed- they would do this speed skating thing in rows and never run into each other. Of course, this could have more to do with my lack of physical skills, more than their impressiveness.

For the less physically fit, there is always the resident gossip corner. These are pockets of people who sit in clusters and you can completely tell from the tone of their voice and the way they gawk at people that they are the gossip crew. I guarantee that lady in the white pants knows every detail about *everybody* at the park!

After exercising, you can pick up some flowers at the flower guy. he drives up in a cart (see behind him) and sets out flowers to sell. He has a pretty impressive stock and some completely cool flowers that look almost like red bell peppers…

There are also the obligatory ladies dancing (and a few men mixed in!). They do beautiful tai chi dances in the parks all over our city. I passed no less than 4 groups of women out doing them this morning. They often wear matching outfits and have one “teacher” type person who tells everyone what to do and choreographs the whole thing.

All you foot massage lovers of the world. I’ve got a treat for ya! Street-side pedicures. I’m sure it is all sterile- no worries, ok? This didn’t seem to be luxury pedicure work going on, more like “removal of icky things” and “gross things I shall not discuss”. It goes without saying that Keith and I do NOT get streetside pedicures, doesn’t it??

Just down the street from the pedicurists, there are a row of streetside barbers. For no more than 25 cents, you can get a quick haircut.

Here’s a quick breakfast food stop. I love the convenience of these places. I have one that knows me now and I just pull up and I don’t even have to say a word. She knows I want 1 bottle of very cold (preferably half frozen) water. It takes me about 10 seconds and is directly on my path. I don’t even have to get off my scooter!

The street the orphanage is on is lined with intricately woven hutongs. They are like small brick houses that connect and weave in and out. You can wander inside these for a long time and see all sorts of interesting things. You can usually see directly into people’s houses, so it is definitely not for the faint of heart- you will definitely get talked to and stared at and perhaps even yelled at for entering. They are fascinating to me!

And then I arrive at the orphanage! Lots of stuff to look at on the way, don’t you think?