 |
| Karis at Tianjin International School with former classmates |
 |
| View from my kitchen window in our new city |
We’re finally getting settled in! Now I say that with my living room literally
so filled with boxes that I had to climb over a few to get to the table where
my computer was plugged in, but generally speaking, things are looking good
around here! And believe it or not,
we’re actually in the apartment that friends connected us with before we even
arrived, which is no small thing, believe me.
So here’s a summary of our last two weeks….
 |
| Karis and Hud horsing around at Trash Mountain |
We arrived in Tianjin (our former city) to an incredibly
warm welcome from the kids’ friends and ours.
We had amazingly gracious hospitality, as friends moved out of their
apartment to give us a place to stay and to recover from the jet lag and helped
us by providing food and an incredibly full schedule of running from one place
to the next to visit friends. Thankfully
our car was still there, so it made transportation much easier (once Kevin
found the car in the underground labyrinth of a parking garage where we’d left
it 8 months ago, changed the dead battery, and figured out how to pay for the
previous two months of garage rent that we’d missed). [Now getting the car shipped out to where we
are currently is a whole other story…
We’ve started the process, but it’s going to be long and quite
involved. And it still might end up not
happening. L So far we’re working on getting all the
required documents in our new city and then we’ll mail them back to Tianjin
where a friend will take them and our car to the DMV where they will hopefully
receive our registration being returned, then the car will get shipped here to
us to try to start the paperwork on this end.
Lots of steps in the process, so in the meantime we’re getting lots of
steps by walking! And we’ve figured out
that there are some taxis who are willing to take a family of 6 in one
car. However my kids have grown in the
last 9 months, so having all 4 and myself piled in the back of a taxi makes for
some close moments….]
Kevin spent about 4 days in Tianjin, which was almost enough
time to make the rounds! It was sweet to
see his reunion with the high school students he used to teach. They had voted recently on who the senior
graduation speaker should be this June when the class that we bonded with so
much over the past two years would walk the state, and we were told by the
principal that it was almost unanimous that it should be Mr. Joseph! Which I found quite humorous considering that
we’d told both the students and the staff that we wouldn’t be coming back for
graduation. They changed our minds! Between their powers of persuasion and them
offering to pay for Kevin’s plane ticket, we’ve decided that Kevin will take
that weekend to go back and have good closure with this group of young people
that meant so much to us (who are mainly returning to Korea for college).
 |
| Boys playing amidst some of the boxes in our new home |
 |
| Kids atop Trash Mountain |
The kids got to spend one full day, one additional half-day,
and two lunches at school with their friends, so their tanks were full. They came into their school hallways greeted
by screams and squeal of delight from their buddies. Karis had a stack of letters that her former
classmates had all prepared, and I had my hands full trying to explain to all
the sweet Korean moms that we hadn’t actually returned to the school for good,
but were just visiting as we passed through town. It is so comforting to have a place that
feels like home even on this side of the ocean, especially as we embark on this
new adventure that involves kind of starting over with a new language, culture,
and city.
Some of my favorite cross-cultural adjustment moments during
our first week here include:
 |
| Karis outside some beautiful, but fake, landscaping! |
- ·
Being told I was “pang le” since we’d left (I’ve
gotten fatter!); luckily this was only said by one Chinese friend, which makes
me think there’s not TOO much truth to it, but this is actually considered
polite in Chinese culture; if I had gained weight and a friend HADN’T noticed
and mentioned it, it would be considered rude!
- ·
Being fussed at for my jacket being too thin (so
probably not warm enough); and this was when it was about 60 or 65 degrees
outside; I didn’t bother to explain that it was Columbia’s new Omni-Heat
technology that was actually both light weight and incredibly insulating, but
just smiled and acknowledged the suggestion to wear more clothing
- ·
The parking guy telling me that my Chinese is
bad (I thought about asking him if he preferred using my native tongue of
English instead, but quickly was convicted that my heart would probably not
have been in the best place to make that suggestion in love!)
- ·
Standing on center stage when I am out with my
kids; we stopped at a park bench to grab a snack one day while we were out on
our adventures and within about 2 minutes we were surrounded by Chinese
grandparents out with their little toddlers they are the caretakers of, gawking
at the foreign blonde kids and commenting on everything we were doing and
wearing, leaving the kids and myself all slightly unnerved and ready to
continue on our way as quickly as we could
 |
| With Lief at the restaurant |
- ·
The haze that blocks the sun MOST days, except,
PTL, our first full day in Tianjin! It
was a glorious blue-sky day, and we took it as a warm welcome back to this land
of such diversity (including the weather!)
- ·
The hospitality; Kevin’s best friend from
baseball and his wife invited us to dinner one night and went so far beyond
what we consider “normal” that I’m still astounded; even though we have a car
and a somewhat-working GPS, Leif drove 45 min to come and get us (in his small sports car! Not really designed
for 7 passengers…) and bring us to his home where he and his wife had prepared
a feast, gone to Ikea to get kids’ plates that would be sturdy enough for the
kids to eat off of (rather than using the paper plates that we used), and even
had us come to a super fancy restaurant to pick out MORE food to make sure that
there was enough that everyone liked; he then drove us back home at the end of
the evening (so he spent 3 hours in the car total!); they were so sweet and
admittedly nervous about having us over to their home for a meal (which is
funny because they regularly came to ours before we moved???), and we found that
we were the first guests besides their parents to come over for dinner since
they got married last August; we’ve found with our Chinese friends that it is
really rare for people to open their homes even to their closest friends
 |
| Kids with Ayi |
- ·
Walking; we do it A LOT! My Fit Bit is tracking all new highs as it
tries to keep up with my legs!
One of the biggest highlights of our time in Tianjin was
getting to meet with our former house helper, Ayi. We spent the afternoon with her, playing
chase with her outside, catching up on her family, and having her take the kids
to get ice cream. It was so sweet to see
her reunion with the kids, and we’ll plan on keeping up with her and seeing her
again on our next return visit to TJ.
After the 4 days with Kevin in town, he took off to head west to see
what he could get set up for the family before we arrived, and the kids and I
had another 6 days of meeting with other dear friends and visiting all our
favorite old hang-outs. One of my favorite
moments was when we were climbing up Trash Mountain, just the 4 kids and
myself, tired after walking about 45 minutes just to get there, the trees all
still dead-looking from winter and the ground muddy and poop-ridden, and Karis
exhaling a deep sigh with the words, “I just love being back in China!”
 |
| Hud showing off how dirty our hands get playing outside! |
So while the kids and I were playing in TJ, Kevin was
enduring the stressful end of things on our behalf out west. He had a long trek just to get here (the
direct, four-hour flight he was hoping for was canceled, so instead it took him
about 7 hours with a stop in between), and when he arrived, he didn’t have a
hotel (they wouldn’t let him book a room when he called in advance; still not
sure why???). He managed to get on the
flight with 3 bags, but that almost didn’t happen, as the airline didn’t want
him flying with more than his 1 allotted bag, even if he was willing to pay the
overage fees. He arrived, did get to
check in at a hotel, and met with the landlord the next day to sign the lease
on the apartment that friends had connected us to a month ago. He was amazed how smooth everything was going
until he went to the prescribed office the following day to start the paperwork
on the lease, only to discover that there was a brand new rule that prevented
foreigners from moving into this whole district, which includes about half of
the city! To make a long story short,
we’ve been in limbo for a full week, not knowing if we could actually stay in
this apartment or not, until about 2 days ago.
And all this with our HUGE shipment of furniture and everything else
(including myself and the kids) arriving to our “maybe” apartment. So we’ve been hesitant to go crazy with the
unpacking, not knowing if we would need to return everything to its box and
start over. By PTL, thanks to the
thoughts of many on our behalf I’m sure, we have the required paperwork
(somehow!) to remain here! We’re not
done yet, as we still have quite a few things that are required of us to do and
to submit, but we’re well on the road to nesting in our new home—which is
great, but feels tight as we’re going from about 1900 square feet in our
previous apartment down to less than 1600.
I’m thinking I should have left behind a few pieces of furniture at this
point….
 |
| My new bathroom |
Not totally surprisingly, our apartment’s one bathroom has
proven to be a bit problematic. We’re
not used to sharing one bathroom, so it’s make taking turns, remembering to
make your way to the restroom BEFORE the very last minute, and aiming where you
pee (more for the boys than the girls) that much more crucial! We discovered by Eli getting shocked when he
was washing his hands that there was a problem with electricity being in our
water! I know, didn’t know that was even
possible. But apparently when I plugged
in both the washing machine and the hot water heater into the same socket, it
electrified the water current than ran through the faucet. The electrician was able to correct the
problem (somehow???) after spending a few hours at our apartment, and we will
not have a really long extension cord for the washing machine running out of
the bathroom in order to plug it in elsewhere.
I also found a HUGE jug of water in our very small bathroom upon our
arrival, which I explained to Kevin “just had to go.” And then I talked with our neighbors, who
shared their story of being out of water in the apartment for a full two weeks
last summer, making showering, washing hands, and flushing the toilet
impossible without a huge storage of extra water. Sigh.
Guess my usable bathroom space just diminished a bit! Think I’m going to be taking my creativity in
“creating space” to a whole new level….
 |
| Kids exploring one of their favorite old play places |
My unpacking was on hold yesterday as our morning was spent
with Kevin and me doing a health check that is required at a facility across
town. We discovered that I am NOT
pregnant (haha!), that I do have all my required organs, and that my kids can
be remarkably patient even in those crazy situations, especially if they have
an iPad or two to share and the promise of a special drink as a reward to look
forward to! We waited on the front steps
of the building for half an hour before the place opened and actually decided
to embrace the stares of the others there lingering, turning on music on my
phone and having a sing-along to one of the Annie songs and then to Katy
Perry’s “Roar” (I know, I know; nice standards; but it’s Noah’s favorite and
REALLY cute to hear him belt out the chorus).
 |
| Sharing a meal with our favorite TJ friends |
So overall, we’re acclimating to, yet again, our “new
normal.” Kevin and I feel the tension (I
awakened at 2:45am this morning with my mind racing and thus the extended
length of this post! Couldn’t quite shut
off the mind to fall back asleep…) and are trying to allow the joy of Him to be
our strength, laughing and trying to make some fun memories as a family in the
midst of boxes, uncertainty, and a lot of running around. I feel overwhelmed with the language barrier;
not only has my Chinese gotten worse since our departure (noticeably, but not
horribly; I was encouraged that I was able to finally do enough charades with
the airline attendant at the gate when we were boarding the plane to fly out
west to get Eli’s guitar checked there, on the flight with us, and even find it
when we arrived at the airport out west), but we are living in an area that I
am really hesitant to use my Mandarin for fear of offending other non-Mandarin
speakers. Yesterday I managed to buy two
pieces of nan bread simply by pointing and holding up fingers to indicate how
many pieces and determine how much it should cost. Eesh.
Not sure when my new language study will begin, but man am I thankful
for a husband who can do enough already in this new language to at least get
people around us smiling and laughing as he practices his vocabulary! I’m also super thankful for the friends we have
here and for the relationships that we started this past summer when we came
for a week. Karis got to go to a girls’
craft time yesterday with a group of about 6 other American girls that will
continue to meet weekly and she LOVED it!
We couldn’t get her to stop talking about it the whole walk home. And Eli met with 2 other guys his age to do a
short ch history class, which he also loved and stayed up in his bed reading
last night to get prepared for next weeks’ lesson. We have a birthday party to attend this
afternoon with a group of kids and their families, so our kids are already not
lacking for people to connect with. I’m
a little sad to say that only Hudson seems to be the one in the family (yet
again, as was the situation in Tianjin) who doesn’t have an obvious “buddy” who
is his age and gender and close by.
Still hoping for that for him…
 |
| Lounging with the friends whose house we stayed in for a week |
 |
| Eli with new friends checking out the small amount of snow still left on the ground |
Oh, and last comment regarding the weather. Besides the first day we arrived (which was
rainy and chilly and generally unpleasant), it’s been really nice outside. We’ve had temperatures in the 50s and even
60s, some sunny sky days, and a view of the mountains when it’s clear enough to
get us excited about summer and some outdoor exploring around the area. Now I did just check the weather forecast to
see that we’ve got a drop in the temp and even snow predicted for several days
starting on Tuesday, so I might need to keep digging in our unpacked bags until
I find our snowboots!
