august showers make us wet

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This morning, Emily and I went across the street to get a few groceries. Nathan opted to stay home--his first time being alone in this place. I was a little nervous, but I trust him to stay home in Evanston for short periods, so we gave it a try. All went fine. While shopping, I knocked a small watermelon off the stand and it split open and made a huge mess. I saw a few ladies staring at me and felt compelled to find someone to clean it up. So that of course meant finding someone and pointing them back towards the mess without words. The mute lady routine is getting so old. It's funny a lot of the time, but it's also just plain annoying to not have the use of words when out in the world. Emily and I got caught in this big down pour on our way back home. We were absolutely soaked--had no umbrella and we had our big shopping cart with us. While something like this might have upset either one of us or perhaps both of us in the past, we both laughed and squealed as we tried to cross the street--of course none of the cars stopped to let us cross. I am seeing the kids work hard at adapting to all this change, and the fact that Emily just laughed about getting soaked was awesome to me. We came home and had Nathan take a picture of us before we changed clothes and had lunch.

Our electronics store shopping plans were foiled by that same severe rain...but we managed to kill a few hours at the mall with our friends (until we meet more people, our friends refers to our only friends so far!). I suggested we all get wigs and wear costumes for each other's photos. Jo is doing a blog too and we each moaned about having to write about each other's family's AGAIN. I was really glad we got together, though. The day had the potential for being a bad one with no activities, and by just meeting up for a few hours we turned it into a much better day for all of us. We had fun wandering around the big grocery/everything store and then came back to our apartment for "tea". When we were shopping, and Jo found her beverage of choice (gin) she asked me if I'd ever had gin. I laughed so hard until later that evening when I asked them if they ate meat in England since they have Mad Cow Disease. Ian said that was as silly a question as the gin one. We continue to learn more and more about each other's culture. I know we came here to learn about China but this is just as interesting and we can (usually) understand each other since we (mostly) speak the same language.

The puzzle was the hit of the evening for the grown ups. The kids watched movies and we three adults had drinks and worked on that silly puzzle I bought a few days ago for hours. We made some excellent progress, and now Nathan is interested again. At one point, William came out to coach us through the puzzle process. "Look at the picture!" Sound advice. He also grabbed a piece randomly and found where it went within seconds. We sent him away to watch tv with

We made the kids a simple dinner of rice (that's my second time using my fabulous rice cooker) veggies and ham. After the kids were fed, we had takeout from an Indian place and it was great. I tried the delivery service I had learned about from the Expat group. It was a little more expensive than going to a restaurant, but they brought the food to my door and when I called to order, I pressed 0 for English! Woo hoo. Our phone number was in their computer system which meant they already had our address, so no need to try to explain where I live. It was fantastic. You don't realize how big a deal all of this stuff can be until you spend time talking to someone with limited English and they are totally confused by your poor pronunciation of Chinese street names. It was also a treat to have ethnic food that was not Chinese. Plus, I could not justify ordering Chinese takeout when I have a bunch of Chinese restaurants around our apartment.

Joanna is a teacher and has to start work tomorrow. Poor Jo!! The rest of us are considering going to the zoo. We have tried and failed to make it there over the past week due to the weather. There's a panda bear there and I am anxious to see it.

Mark should be home by dinner time tomorrow. He's bringing back some more stuff we needed/wanted from home.

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Photos

Shanghai Expat Puzzle Club
william took the picture and emphasized the puzzle more than the puzzle doers.

Comments

[Elaine Warick]

Food
I can't tell you how interesting your blog is, Suzzane. It's really the highlight of my day. I love your details about the foods your eating in China. I think we are going to order Chinese food tonight. Aunt Elaine

[Linda]

woo hoo indeed
I'm in for the puzzle and Indian takeout. Thanks for reminding us what a big deal all that stuff is, laughing in the rain, ordering on the phone in English, having adult company, making new friends.