July 26, 2013

This morning we woke up fairly early, 7am, even before the alarm. One thing I have noticed was that beds in China, not soft….the mattresses are much firmer than any I have slept on in the past.  After getting up, I started my list of things I wanted to get at the store to start us off in the apartment. The listing agent was going to be here at 9am, which gave me time to dig out the stuff I brought for pancakes, and make breakfast. I was SO thankful that Mom gave me that little frying pan, which was where the pancakes were made. Unfortunately, I did not bring a spatula, so was trying to flip pancakes with a wooden spoon, which brought about a new game “Guess what shape the pancake is.” Luckily they left us some water (and some Oreos and apples). We had breakfast and got dressed for the day. Then we decided to go for a little walk, hoping to see a store nearby, though we ended up in a walk through the nature trails of our apartment community and then around the complex, then headed back to the apartment.

When the agent arrived, we went over the information for the lease and I shared with them the lack of cleaning and if there was someone who could some to clean today. They said it was cleaned only yesterday, so it sounds like it was just done quickly, without much care to the quality. After going over the information, we headed out to the store. We first stopped at the bank to exchange some cash, which I was unable to exchange at the airport due to the offices not being open. After that, they drove us to the “Metro” stopped the car, pointed out the Metro, then said “we not able to park the car there and have some things to do, when you are done, you take taxi home.” I probably looked like a deer in headlights, here we were about to be dropped off and on our own to get back to the apartment (granted only about 6 blocks from our apartment and a straight shot to the apartment). 

We timidly got out of the car and headed on our way to the shopping center, when I saw a familiar sight….STARBUCKS!!!!!  YAY, coffee!!!!! We stopped in and I ordered a Carmel Machiato for me and a Juice for Lucas. Then we headed into the shopping building, where we were met with a MALL! We found a lot of the things we were looking for: bed sheets, towels, cleaning supplies, dishtowels, water, and some more snacks. We even found a little store full of toys where they had none other than….LEGOS!!  This was perfect, because I had told Lucas that when we got to Beijing he could get a “big set” to start his Lego City (“just like Uncle Pauly’s” he says). He chose a Police set that had a car, a shutdown gold mine and a criminal transport vehicle. Then it was back to the apartment in our first attempt to take a taxi back home. Luckily, all I needed to do was make sure we went straight from where we were. We made it back without incident!!  Woohoo! Once back in our apartment, I went to work cleaning things up and putting our things away in their place. Lucas was working busily and contently on his Lego project while I was unpacking.

I made pancakes for lunch, yes again. But this time, I had a plastic noodle spoon to use (I forgot to get a spatula). Again, another game of “Guess what shape the pancake is.” As we were eating, I got a call from our agent, who was in the management office to get what we needed for our temporary residency certificate that we would have to get from the police. We rushed through lunch to get down to meet her. It took about 10 minutes to get what we needed from management, then it was taxi time to the police station to get the residency certificate. This took a little longer, because it was lunchtime when we got there, and it is like the DMV…so we got our ticket and waited…about a half hour later, we had our certificate and back to the apartment. I had asked about laundry detergent and when the agent called management, they said there was a little store in Building 10. (score!!) When the taxi dropped us off, we headed to Building 10 to get some laundry detergent so I could wash the couch pillow covers. Once we finally found the entrance (it was in what looked like an alley) we found a STORE!!!  This was the first actual store we had come across that sold food. (We had yet to find a supermarket, which I was told the Metro was a supermarket, but all we found were mall stores). This was a WONDERFUL surprise!!!! We spent quite a while here looking through all of the items to find some snacks and other things to add to our current pancake diet. The best find was the watermelon and the kiwi! There were several fruits and veggies, but this looked by far in the best condition and was a warm addition to our current stock of food. We found the detergent (of course), apple juice, popsicles, peanuts, crackers, soymilk, soda and Lucas even found a little toy sword. With our newfound treasures, we were off back to the apartment, Lucas walking behind, and I was carrying everything, and of course NOW he decides is the time to walk slow as a turtle….but we did finally make it back to the apartment, without any bags ripping (bonus!). And it was time to make dinner. Pancakes and Watermelon.

By bedtime, I had everything disinfected, our things put away from the store, and had unpacked all of our tubs (except the school supplies).  The only thing left was the clothing, which I was going to need hangers for and decide how I was going to get it all into the one closet (!!!), which was in my room. After a very long day, we went to bed at 7:30pm (on our new sheets, but still without pillows).

Things I realized today that I took for granted: tap water, my car, common language, non-humid air

Things I learned: There is a different standard of clean here.