Did I say I was gonna blog again....what day is it?

So I have a lot of really good excuses as to why I haven't even cracked my blog again until tonight, but the most relevant is the fact that every time I sit down to write after working 12 hour days and taking care of the kids, I fall asleep. It is really annoying and I'm starting to get p!ssed about it. I have a lot to do and sleeping is never high on the list in my life, I have too much life to live in a day to bother with sleep....but sleep happens. A note on sleeping though, the Chinese think that their BOX SPRINGS ONLY are a healthy way to get a good night's rest....um NO! Even the cheapo Ikea mattress pad I got to make my hard as a board bed softer...doesn't really make it soft, but since I seem to be able to sleep standing up...anytime I lie down, I pretty much sleep. Which sucks cause this silly sleep thing is ruining my life. :( I wish I wasn't so tired, so exhausted and so overworked ALL OF THE TIME, I may actually enjoy my life here if I had a minute to myself....oh well, hopefully I will get a nanny soon and I can start writing again.

So here are some fun facts about China....

Everything is a mile...EVERYTHING!!! If you walk anywhere it will be at least a mile if not more....upside, I am losing my fat @ss, downside....argh....its a lot of miles. "So where is the only store in Beijing where I can buy cheese and peanut butter again????" oh right....A MILE!!!!! down the road.

Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, you can get cheese and peanut butter in more than one store....but not many more than one.

The Chinese people are mostly really nice, but they slurp their food and blow snot out of their nose and that is just fine. However, on a whole the Chinese we have met have been lovely, kind and accepting of me and the kids. We live in a compound and already my mom and the kids are local celebrities. It's fun to come home and see the kids riding their scooters (or someone elses while theirs are being used by other children) and mom surrounded by local kids using her ipad and playing games together...it is really amazing to see.

The kids really don't wear diapers just pee through slits in their pants. Some people say that kids in China don't wear these pants anymore...but they do in our neck of the woods. Its a little weird to see kids just squatting anywhere, but that's what they do.

The Chinese are SHOCKED the Little Diva is still in diapers...but well, she's almost potty trained. :)



Quippy English sayings abound in China (and Japan) and mean virtually nothing....just sound good.

Everything is dirty, even though people clean everyday, they still use string mops and fallen tree branches to clean toilets and the streets. You also often are only offered "squatty potty" in public restrooms....not fun. There are other things that are different too, you take your trash out every day and they only have tiny thin trash bags for you to use. The area where we are is VERY GREEN (as in eco) and you recycle everything but the kitchen waste (no one has a dishwasher, garbage disposal or a dryer...).

EVERYTHING IS HUGE!!!! Los Angeles seems like a tiny little morsel for the mammoth Chinese cities to munch on. Beijing is enormous and even though our neighborhood is "small" and hip...it is as big as the Las Vegas strip and as loud as a freeway near a construction site during the World Series.


Personal tid bit, every time I live anywhere it is always on the Eastside (even though I didn't know it this time) and is always a little rough and a lot trendy...fun. Same applies to Donsishitiao which is my current hometown, there is an amazing restaurant row all covered in red lanterns and loads of places to eat. The most disturbing are the "live" markets where you pick out your living food, to be cooked/killed before your very eyes. We have a live market right next to our house and we have to pass it on the way to our grocery store that is in the basement of our housing complex (the only thing in Beijing that is not a mile away) and I have to say, it has really sicked the kids and I out, especially when they have a sale on turtles or frogs....sad.

We are loving China as I thought we might and are strarting to find our way around things, which is still pretty hard because we don't speak the language, but if the ladies who sit and smoke near the elevator have anything to say about it, we will be speaking Chinese in no time as we are not allowed to enter the elevator without speaking at least one new Chinese word....okay ladies...this is gonna take some time as Chinese is really hard.

Anyway enough stuff...I have been taking video and will continue to do so...so here is more video about living in Beijing.