When I moved here I was told, or warned rather, that the emotions of living in China would be cyclical. From the honeymoon period to the what-am-I-doing-here period, and the why-did-we-do-this, and I-just-want-to-go-home, to this-is-so-cool, etc...etc... I've noticed myself going through little mini cycles - nothing too dramatic (yet) as I think we have adjusted fairly well and quickly to our new situation. There have been good days, and there have been "China Days."
Today was a China Day.
It started like this...
First-of-all, Rob has been travelling for work quite a bit the last couple of weeks. So, anytime he is gone is hard. We all miss him. He helps out a lot around here from helping with the kids, to figuring out all this foreign business :) But, today we had some workers in and out of the house installing some kind of cable and modem, or it could have been an ice-maker for all I knew. All I know is that there were a bunch of strange men coming in and out of my house. I have developed the "I'm staring at you but don't understand a word you are saying" glazed-over look in my eyes. AND we realized when Rob left that I may or may not have enough money on our "gas card" to last two days until the new card is ready. Who knew it would take two days? And it's cold for us Southwestern US folk, so no heat would be no fun :)
Then, yesterday, a part of Zak's tooth chipped off while he was flossing. I'm no dentist, and after looking inside his mouth even I could see that he had a giant cavity. Great. So I did some investigative work to find a dentist. I had three friends all recommend the same dentist (coupled with comments like "this is the ONLY dentist I would see in Beijing" as one was getting ready to hop a flight to Bangkok to go have dental work done.) So my confidence in the Chinese dental field is not real high at this point. But the tooth obviously needs to get taken care of pronto. So I call and make an appointment with this dentist, or so I thought I did.
Our driver is great. We really like him which is good because he drives us everywhere. He usually knows where he is going too, which is a bonus :) Today while trying to find the dentist he stopped and told us we were there. It was a bunch of apartment looking buildings with no sign of any businesses. I was not about to get out with two kids in tow and wander around trying to find a building by asking directions to people who couldn't understand me anyway. I offered to call the office so they could give him directions in Chinese, which is a normal thing to do especially when you travel by taxi, but he said "I have GPS." He is very independent. He finally found the place.
This would normally not be a big deal, but today it really made me realize how much I have to depend on other people here to get me where I need to go. I would rather be able to find an address on my own, and I wish I knew where I was going half the time.
So, we walk in to discover that our appointment was not with the dentist we requested, but with another dentist who spoke "conversational English." Uh huh...whatever. If "hello" and "it's okay" is conversational English then I can speak conversational French, Chinese, Spanish, and German. The UCLA trained awesome dentist did offer to come in and check-in on our appointment. It turned out fine. His cavity was taken care of, the equipment was all sterile and everyone was nice. I was only bothered a tiny bit about the 4 dental assistants that stood there and watched the whole time :) At least they had cars to play with so Jake was entertained! And yes, I will even take the other kids back there for their cleanings.
Jake was playing with my phone and took about 20 pictures of this girl. They love him {and his long eyelashes :) }
THEN, on the way home (which takes about 30-40 minutes, because to go anywhere here takes forever), our driver is FALLING ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL! I notice his eyes rolling back, the car slowing down, speeding up, swerving... What-the-what! I start trying to have a conversation with him, but I'm in the back seat with the kids so it's a little awkward. He speaks pretty good English, but not well enough for me to have a random conversation with him about my frustrations at the dentist. So my heart is crying inside as I'm making the realization that this man has the life of my family in his hands. I ask about his son, about the weather, I practice my Chinese with him...have you ever tried to engaged someone in conversation for 30 minutes with a language barrier? Yikes. By the time we got home I was DONE with this day. I ordered pizza for the kids and I may or may not have had a good cry once they were in bed.
Phew! That all seems like not a big deal when I write it all out!
Everything thing takes about 3 times as long to do here. There is no "one-stop-shop" to get basics, food, clothes...(I miss Target! a normal Walmart would even be okay). I was also warned that the move would be the hardest for me - the spouse. The kids have a very similar situation to what they are used to - get up, go to school, do activities, homework etc... Rob gets up, goes to work, very much like a typical day in the US. My day, however, is VERY different to what it was - (I'll leave that for another blog post!). And most of the time, I'm okay with that :) But today, I had a China day. And that's okay, it's all part of the adventure.... :)
