Advertisement
Published: November 20th 2006
Edit Blog Post
bread label
...and so on!!! 3 months... and still enjoying it!!!
It's been busy but fun. October 13th, Friday (oups!) was the day to move in our new flat. Local movers brought our household stuff, they were on time, even early, very fast and even taught us how to use the horrid entrance bell, equipped with camera, video screen, lots of buttons with chinese characters but no english and a super loud bell. We have been told we need the landlord's permission and the visit of the company who manufactures them to turn the volume down!!! maybe one day....It was bad luck, but we did not have any hot water the first week, because the hot water pipe on a nearby worksite (which one: the one at the back, at the front, on the left or on the right???!) had been cut in two! But we did have water dripping through the ceiling lights for a few hours: leakage on the 8th floor, we were told...we are on the 2nd floor, so the leakage must have been BIG!!!
Now, everything is in order, the heating has been tuned on, it is confortable in the flat. I say that because a lot of our expat friends complain
of the overheating in their own flats. The government supplies heating to the whole population and decides on a certain temperature. In most buildings, each individual family cannot control the temperature, so they open windows to cool the place!!!!! what a waste of energy, especially in a country suffering from energy shortage. But they are working on it!
People who know me well will know that I try to choose careful the food I give to the children and I tend to buy whole ingredients instead of refined ones, I try to avoid buying stuff with sugar and nasty ingredients, but here I have to admit I have to give up! As a start I can't read much more than 'sugar' in chinese characters, and secondly, it is impossible to avoid chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers and refined food...on top of it, what is in the package is not always written at all. I want to share with you this picture of a label on a loaf of bread. I had a good laugh when I saw this, but in fact it summarizes very well this feeling of 'don't know what I feed my kids on!!!'...
Marc and I have started serious
language classes, Marc 1 hour every morning (really early!!) and myself 3 times a week for 2 hours each time. I can now say 'I want, I like, I know how to, I can, I am hungry , tired, busy etc... that is so useful, after spending 2 months basically saying ' good / Hao' and ' bad/Buhao' and nothing else...and relying on what Marie and Leila were learning at school. Marie has a chinese writing test today: about 50 characters after only 2 months of school! Her favorites are the most difficult ones, she has problems with the easy ones, Can't quite understand that!! Being left handed, she has problems with the stroke order (every character is made of different strokes, and you're supposed to follow an order, basic, left to right and top to bottom)...Marie does it the other way round! But she manages...Leila is still happy with her soccer training, she tends to want to shoot her own team's goal, but she says it does not matter too much! well, I don't know what her team mates (all boys) say about that!
I have started doing acupuncture and its doing me a lot of good, I enjoy
feeling my energies coming back to me, I have some sesame seeds stuck at different points on my ear, and I am supposed to push hard on each of them, 3 times a day, to stimulate certain parts of the body...the big joke is of course: 'is the little seed growing!!! hahaha!'
We visited Beijing Zoo the other day, not many people would enjoy that...pandas look dreadfully dirty and sad, as did the chimpazee and worse of all the gorillas, lying flat on their backs on hard concrete floors, looking totally desperate and lonely...brrrr...a baby gorilla was born a few weeks ago, so they don't feel that bad, but I personnally did not want to see the baby, just wanted to rush out of there!
At the zoo, we also saw something that tells you how the Chinese are trying to deal with recycling...in most parts of Beijing (not that I seen them all yet!), there are garbage bins here and there. The streets are actually clean, I don't see people throwing stuff on the ground, so they must be using these bins. The bins are made off two baskets, for recycling purposes, eventhough we cannot figure out how to
use them! Well, this cleaning lady at the zoo came to empty the bins, she opened the top part and empty both recycling basket in...one same rubbish bag!!! they have the bins, but they don't know why!!! Education is the key I guess.
I thought you would like the picture of the Kaki tree, leaves are gone, fruits are holding on…lovely tasty fruit, if you have a chance, try them!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.093s; Tpl: 0.022s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0497s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb