MSNBC today had an article about why Americans move abroad, specifically China. (click on the word article to get to it).
When you read the article, you might gain a better idea of why Ed and I choose to live abroad. I agree with most of the statements in there made by the other expats.
Granted, it is a choice to live abroad; and no Ed and I don't absolutely have to do it. However, there is the quality of life that living in China allows us. Yes, we have felt the waves of the recession; but not necessarily as badly as we might have if we had stayed in the states.
Plus, we get to eat Chinese food every night. And we don't get fat from it.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Gettin' My Hair Did
Normally, I wouldn't write about getting my hair washed.
But I live in China, and just like everything else here. It is different. But in this case, different is a waaaayyyyy good thing.
You see, when you go to the salon here, like every where else in the world, they wash your hair first. Unlike every where else in the world, you get a full on head massage while they wash your hair. I'm talking 20-30 minutes of head massage.
That's right, 20-30 minutes of some one massaging your head. It is amazing. Oh and you get to lie down too!!!
Ed and I found a salon right down the block from where we live. The salon itself doesn't really look like much, but inside they are hiding the best hair washing guy in the world. They really should have gold medals and signs up all over their front windows announcing it to the world. And they probably should pay him more than 7rmb (1 dollar) an hour.
This guy is a head massaging magician. I've actually fallen asleep while he ismassaging washing my hair. He really should be working in a world class place. But I'm glad he's not.
So when I've told you that I've gone and gotten my hair washed, you really should feel jealous. Really, really jealous.
But I live in China, and just like everything else here. It is different. But in this case, different is a waaaayyyyy good thing.
You see, when you go to the salon here, like every where else in the world, they wash your hair first. Unlike every where else in the world, you get a full on head massage while they wash your hair. I'm talking 20-30 minutes of head massage.
Ed and I found a salon right down the block from where we live. The salon itself doesn't really look like much, but inside they are hiding the best hair washing guy in the world. They really should have gold medals and signs up all over their front windows announcing it to the world. And they probably should pay him more than 7rmb (1 dollar) an hour.
This guy is a head massaging magician. I've actually fallen asleep while he is
So when I've told you that I've gone and gotten my hair washed, you really should feel jealous. Really, really jealous.
Friday, October 7, 2011
The Night We Lost Ed
I'm on vacation this week. Which means Ed is on vacation too.
We've decided to save some money (or at least that is what we are telling ourselves) and stayed in Xiamen for the week. However, that did not mean that we had to sit in our house for the entire time.
So we paid our dollar, hopped on a bus and headed back to Tong'an with our friend Michelle. Tong'an is really still in Xiamen, but it is an hour away by bus. It is the host of several hot spring resorts, awesome fake 'movie city' and motorcycle taxis. We've been a few times just because it is nice to leave Xiamen for a day or two. Plus, did I mention they have hot springs?
So there are a few key points that I'd like you to remember when reading how we (Michelle and I) lost Ed. One: there are no taxis or buses to and from where we were staying in Tong'an. The only way to get into town is to either walk 4km or take a motorcycle taxi. Two: we're in a foreign country and only Michelle is fluent enough in Chinese to speak (but still doesn't know every word--she's good though!).
Okay so here goes the story:
It's 5:00pm. We're all hungry. We try to eat at the hotel restaurant, but due to their doochiness and overall incompetence to help us, we decide to get a motorcycle taxi into town to eat. There is a really good hot pot place (Ed and I ate there before), so we decided to go there. Some guy at the hotel spoke a little English and tried to help us by writing down the name of the restaurant (as best as we could describe it to him in limited Chinese/English) so that we could show the motorcycle taxi driver.
We walk out onto the street and what do you know, there is one motorcycle taxi guy. He's not driving a big bike, but insists we could fit all four of us on there (yes, him, Michelle, Ed and myself--it really isn't all that uncommon to see four people on one of these bikes. Usually though, it is four Chinese people who weigh what one of us weighs total. Imagine the difference). Ed refuses, despite my jumping up and down and pleading of "Come on! We have to try! It would be soo much fun!". He still says no. So Michelle and I hop on, with me riding bitch, and head into town. The ride was uneventful, despite being my first time riding three-sies on a motorcycle. I was happy, however, that I was wearing thick jeans if you catch my drift.
The guy drops Michelle and I off at this really nice looking restaurant, but not where I had in mind, and we wait for Ed to show up.
About two minutes later, our motor-taxi-guy pulls back up and says that he thinks he brought us to the wrong place. He wanted to know where we wanted to go. Of course, we had no idea where we wanted to go, really. We were trusting the paper. He asks us to call Ed to find out where he is.
Enter problem of the night.
None of us had phones. We thought we would be eating at the hotel. So none of us brought our phones with us and we just quickly left the hotel when they wouldn't give us food. So we couldn't call Ed.
Motor-taxi guy tells us that he thinks he might know of where he should have brought us. He tells us to stay where we are and he will go and look for Ed. He leaves and checks out the other restaurant. No Ed. When he comes back, he decides that he didn't look hard enough for Ed at the restaurant, and so he'd go back and look again, just to make sure. So now this man has been in our 'employ' for about a 1/2 hour--20minutes of his own free will. All for a buck fifty.
Meantime, Michelle and I figure out how to say where we think Ed might be, and get those directions written in Chinese. When Motor-taxi guy comes back, he takes us to the new restaurant. We thank him, pay him an extra 1.50 (which is what the first trip cost us) and run into the restaurant. No Ed.
Michelle asks if a foreigner was there, and they told her that he just left. We have no idea where he went, but we decided to sit down and wait to see if he shows up. Plus we were really hungry at this point and kind of really decided to just eat there instead of looking further for Ed; but lets just say that we were waiting too, to be polite. A waitress comes up to us and tells us again that the foreigner just left, but we could call him and he could come back. We (Michelle) explain that we have no phones and that he doesn't have his phone either. We (Michelle) suggest that he might have gone to another restaurant, and they decided to call the restaurant to see if he's there.
The waitress comes back about 5 minutes later and says they found a foreigner and he's on his way.
Twenty minutes later, no Ed. But we're not worried, because I know my husband and knew he was off eating street food somewhere. Well I wasn't worried until the waitress came back and said she was worried that he hadn't shown up and asked if she could call our hotel to see if he was there. Then the panic set in, a bit. Should I have felt guilty for eating good food while Ed's lying on the road somewhere in Tong'an? Should I really stop shoving my face full of hot pot meat, peanut sauce and potatoes????
Well I guess I should have, but in the end why get worked up over something that I knew really okay? We knew he was eating street food some where (Tong'an has some amazing street food). And in all likely hood, he had found some Chinese person to take him in and drink beers with him.
And do you know what. He did.
Michelle and I found him back at the hotel, safe and sound, drinking beer. Oh and for his dinner, he got to eat Pig Part Soup (yup, dried congealed blood, intestine, pork meat, some veggies in what he says was the best broth he's tasted. I'm serious, he really liked it!).
I guess what amazed me the most was the kindness of these people that tried to help us find Ed. I mean, our Motor-taxi guy was definitely not making money off from us. In fact, he wouldn't even take the extra money we tried to give him. I had to shove it in his pocket and run away. The waitress didn't have to call other restaurants to find him. But she did. I'm still wondering what foreigner she did find though....
We've decided to save some money (or at least that is what we are telling ourselves) and stayed in Xiamen for the week. However, that did not mean that we had to sit in our house for the entire time.
So we paid our dollar, hopped on a bus and headed back to Tong'an with our friend Michelle. Tong'an is really still in Xiamen, but it is an hour away by bus. It is the host of several hot spring resorts, awesome fake 'movie city' and motorcycle taxis. We've been a few times just because it is nice to leave Xiamen for a day or two. Plus, did I mention they have hot springs?
So there are a few key points that I'd like you to remember when reading how we (Michelle and I) lost Ed. One: there are no taxis or buses to and from where we were staying in Tong'an. The only way to get into town is to either walk 4km or take a motorcycle taxi. Two: we're in a foreign country and only Michelle is fluent enough in Chinese to speak (but still doesn't know every word--she's good though!).
Okay so here goes the story:
It's 5:00pm. We're all hungry. We try to eat at the hotel restaurant, but due to their doochiness and overall incompetence to help us, we decide to get a motorcycle taxi into town to eat. There is a really good hot pot place (Ed and I ate there before), so we decided to go there. Some guy at the hotel spoke a little English and tried to help us by writing down the name of the restaurant (as best as we could describe it to him in limited Chinese/English) so that we could show the motorcycle taxi driver.
The guy drops Michelle and I off at this really nice looking restaurant, but not where I had in mind, and we wait for Ed to show up.
About two minutes later, our motor-taxi-guy pulls back up and says that he thinks he brought us to the wrong place. He wanted to know where we wanted to go. Of course, we had no idea where we wanted to go, really. We were trusting the paper. He asks us to call Ed to find out where he is.
Enter problem of the night.
None of us had phones. We thought we would be eating at the hotel. So none of us brought our phones with us and we just quickly left the hotel when they wouldn't give us food. So we couldn't call Ed.
Motor-taxi guy tells us that he thinks he might know of where he should have brought us. He tells us to stay where we are and he will go and look for Ed. He leaves and checks out the other restaurant. No Ed. When he comes back, he decides that he didn't look hard enough for Ed at the restaurant, and so he'd go back and look again, just to make sure. So now this man has been in our 'employ' for about a 1/2 hour--20minutes of his own free will. All for a buck fifty.
Meantime, Michelle and I figure out how to say where we think Ed might be, and get those directions written in Chinese. When Motor-taxi guy comes back, he takes us to the new restaurant. We thank him, pay him an extra 1.50 (which is what the first trip cost us) and run into the restaurant. No Ed.
Michelle asks if a foreigner was there, and they told her that he just left. We have no idea where he went, but we decided to sit down and wait to see if he shows up. Plus we were really hungry at this point and kind of really decided to just eat there instead of looking further for Ed; but lets just say that we were waiting too, to be polite. A waitress comes up to us and tells us again that the foreigner just left, but we could call him and he could come back. We (Michelle) explain that we have no phones and that he doesn't have his phone either. We (Michelle) suggest that he might have gone to another restaurant, and they decided to call the restaurant to see if he's there.
The waitress comes back about 5 minutes later and says they found a foreigner and he's on his way.
Twenty minutes later, no Ed. But we're not worried, because I know my husband and knew he was off eating street food somewhere. Well I wasn't worried until the waitress came back and said she was worried that he hadn't shown up and asked if she could call our hotel to see if he was there. Then the panic set in, a bit. Should I have felt guilty for eating good food while Ed's lying on the road somewhere in Tong'an? Should I really stop shoving my face full of hot pot meat, peanut sauce and potatoes????
Well I guess I should have, but in the end why get worked up over something that I knew really okay? We knew he was eating street food some where (Tong'an has some amazing street food). And in all likely hood, he had found some Chinese person to take him in and drink beers with him.
And do you know what. He did.
Michelle and I found him back at the hotel, safe and sound, drinking beer. Oh and for his dinner, he got to eat Pig Part Soup (yup, dried congealed blood, intestine, pork meat, some veggies in what he says was the best broth he's tasted. I'm serious, he really liked it!).
I guess what amazed me the most was the kindness of these people that tried to help us find Ed. I mean, our Motor-taxi guy was definitely not making money off from us. In fact, he wouldn't even take the extra money we tried to give him. I had to shove it in his pocket and run away. The waitress didn't have to call other restaurants to find him. But she did. I'm still wondering what foreigner she did find though....
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