August 4, 2013

Another beautiful day of relaxation!!! We went to bed a bit earlier last night, so we slept in only until 8:45 today. After breakfast (pancakes, of course!  It IS PANCAKE DAY!!), Lucas and I colored for a while, though he was really taking up all the space on the pages, then he raced while I caught up on some journaling. Then, it was LEGO TIME!!  We built and played for several hours. Our plan for the day was to go to the market for a few things, then go to the Chaoyang Theater to see the acrobatic show. There was really no rush or pressing matter to our day, so we just went at our own pace. After checking the air pollution for the day, it ranged through the morning from 178-155, so prolonged activity outside was going to be avoided. We’ve been on the go so much though, that was ok. There was plenty to do here and both of us were completely satisfied doing this. We had lunch, Lucas had pancakes and I had some of my leftovers from last night, then played more Legos. We now have many vehicles built and I have my eye on a cool little city block that I saw online. They don’t ship to China though, which could be a problem, but I may be able to have Toys’R’Us order it for me. J

Around 3:30, we finally had enough motivation to head to the store. Now, I knew it was going to be pushing it to try to get to the theater at 5:15, oh well. When we arrived at the mall, there was a crowd in the common area, evidently to see a Chinese superstar, A’Li. They were playing her music and some music videos while we were standing there, she has a nice voice, though all her lyrics were in Chinese, so I have no idea what she was singing about. Lucas was getting restless though, so we headed down to the basement to the market. We got some baskets, then Lucas was saying his little nose was smelling ice cream, and sure enough, there was an ice cream stand!  We were attempting to ask what the flavors were in Chinese, until one of the workers greeted us in English. When my Chinese gets a little better, I will try to speak to people in Chinese, but when you are flipping through a book or dictionary for every word, finding someone who speaks your language is a breath of fresh air!! Lucas ordered a kind that he said was vanilla, though the girl told me was “plain milk flavor” and I had an “orange and cookies” ice cream, which looks like cookies and cream, though has orange flavored ice cream. I tried another kind that was purple, and it had a very interesting flavor, unlike any other I have tasted. If I have learned one thing up to this point, it’s that food tastes dramatically different.

After ice cream, we ventured past a cell phone shop for Lenovo and looked at the price of their phones as compared to others I have seen. At this point I cannot unlock my current phone, so sadly this means that I will have to purchase a new one. Prices are comparable, though I’m really attached to my Samsung Galaxy, so I may just upgrade to the S4 if I have to get a new phone anyways. My phone bill will only be 96RmB (about $16 a month), so I think I can handle paying more for the phone.

Then, it was off to the market. We got a few of the things we needed, though after getting home I realized we forgot PEANUT BUTTER!!!! Luckily we have a little left. The drawback to living in the city and having no car to transport yourself in, is that there is no longer “big shopping” that happens. Otherwise, HOW would you get all that stuff to the taxi, then hike it through the complex up to your apartment without breaking your back?!? Anyways, it has caused me to think more critically about what I’m buying when, and often we stop by the market every few days. I know this will lessen as we get all the things we want to have for the apartment, and then it will just be planning for the shopping trips. We still need to make a trip over to the “Wet Market” which is near the mall and a great place to buy fruits and veggies. I’ve also heard that there may be some fabrics for sale there.  J

We got back home about 5:30 and decided that there was no point in trying to go to the acrobats for the late show, so we will go another day. Lucas had picked out some PlayDoh at the store that was sold in a hamburger tub that he wanted to play with, so he did that for a while and I put the groceries away. We had a snack and watched some of the videos that we had taken before leaving America, while in-flight, and once we were in Beijing. It was nice to see them, but also a little bittersweet. I know it’s only been just over a week now, 10 days to be exact, and there is no guarantee that I would have seen the family in that short of time anyways, but knowing that I won’t see them until Christmas is hard. We got a chance the other day to Skype with my parents, which was great!!  And tomorrow morning will get to Skype with Paul. I sure am going to miss seeing them all the time though.

I got Lucas into bed at our normal early time of 7:30 after books and then was ready to settle down to a nice quiet watching of Tommy Boy…unfortunately though, it will not play on my work computer, OR on my computer. Evidently, the wonderful Windows 8 does not have a media for playing regular DVD’s. I have been trying to download one through CNET, though there is a file that it needs to download to work that has failed twice now….BOO!!  I just want to watch some good ‘ole Tommy Boy before bed! Why don’t you use that nice DVD player you bought from Metro for only 298 quai? You ask. Weeeeellllll, we tried to watch Mater’s Tall Tales on it when we first got it last week, and sure enough, it didn’t work. I mean, the DVD played, but the audio did not.  Bummer!  So, I have to return it. The problem is that I turned in that receipt as part of my settling in allowance proof, so I don’t have the original, only a copy. I’m guessing that will not fly and since I am not fluent in the language, there is NO WAY I’m going to give that a shot!  I refuse to end up in a Chinese prison!!!

Anyways, I sit here in the living room with a beautiful lightning show going on outside my window, with the rain pouring. Pollution levels at 7pm were 219, which is pretty high, into the purple range. The lightning and rain usually work it all out. Just in the last hour, it is down to 197. So, I’m hoping that it continues to work it out overnight so we have a 51-100 day tomorrow. Honestly, I’d like a 0-50 day, but I think I will be back in America again before that happens.

OOOHHH! Hopefully good news!  Looks like the needed app was downloaded. I’m off to restart my computer to see if I can watch Tommy Boy!!  Until tomorrow!!!  (I got it to work!!!)

Things I learned: When in a foreign land, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…and again…and again.

Things I took for granted: Fresh, fresh air. Not having to look up the Air Quality Index to check the PM2.5 Pollution Particles before determining what we are going to do for the day.