Switching Cities

Crazy news!

Most everyone who reads this blog knows that Adam works for Guilford, a manufacturer of automotive and other specialty fabrics.  About two months ago, Guilford was bought by Lear Corporation.  Lear is a lot like Guilford, only bigger, and with deeper pockets.  And it just so happens that Guilford specializes in everything Lear is not so good at.  So it’s like a nice little puzzle piece fitting right in there.  The only thing that doesn’t fit so nicely is that Lear already has its own plant in China, which happens to be a direct competitor with the joint venture that we’re working at now in Huainan.  And it’s beginning to look like Guilford is going to have to pull out of the Huainan plant and focus its expertise on Lear’s plant, New Trend, which is located in Rui’an, Zhejiang Province.  Even if Guilford ends up keeping the Huainan plant, it's pretty much been decided that Adam, Smudgie, and I will be moving to Rui'an.  We just don't know when yet.

   

We visited Rui’an right before our trip back to America to scope it out.  It was all very “hush hush” back then and even though Chinese people can’t read this blog because of the internet regulation, we still didn’t think we should write about it yet.  Anyways, Rui’an is a lovely city.  It borders the ocean and the other three sides are surrounded by little mountains (or large hills).  The air quality is better and the city seems more affluent.  Here are a couple pictures from the hotel window. 

The plant itself is out in the boonies, though.  So I think we could live quite comfortably in Rui’an and then we’ll just have a 40 minute drive to work every day, which is the same as when we lived in Harrisburg, PA.  I must admit, I’ve grown quite fond of Huainan and I’m sad to think of leaving it.  It’s also annoying that all the work we’ve done thus far at the Huainan plant was essentially for nothing.  But I am up for the adventure.  As long as we can find a nice apartment with heating, cooling, and high speed internet, we’ll be fine!

Originally we were told that they wouldn’t need a designer at this new plant.  So I started thinking about becoming an English teacher.  I don’t have any qualifications or anything… but I speak English, quite well I might add.  But when we visited the plant, the girl who took us on the tour said they want me.  Apparently Lear has a design studio in Shanghai, which is where they would prefer me to work, but I said no because I want to be wherever Adam is.  I didn't move to China with my husband just so I could live in a different city than him.  :)  There’s one designer working in Rui’an but she works in the home textiles division, not the automotive.  So if I’m going to work in Rui’an, I’m not sure whether I’ll be doing automotive or home.  I just hope they don’t have me going to Shanghai all the time, since the train ride is 5 hours instead of the 2 I’m used to.  And the landscape the train runs through is really hilly/mountainous so there are several tunnels and my ears pop in every single one.  It’s quite annoying.  My biggest concern about moving is finding a new housekeeper who makes delicious food and takes good care of Smudgie like our current one does.  We are so spoiled! 

Smudgie is a wonderful little puppy.  When we moved into this apartment, there were two rugs: one by the front door and one by the bathroom door.  Smudgie loved laying on those rugs.  We bought a bathmat and stored the rug that was by the bathroom in the closet for several months.  In May, I took that rug out of the closet to use it as a mat to do crunches on.  I guess they don't sell workout mats for home use in China, 'cause I've never seen one.  Anyways, the rug was still a bit thin so I folded up Smudgie's snuggle towel and put it on top of the rug for extra cushion.  As soon as the towel hit the rug, Smudgie immediately layed down on it.

You put this down for me, right?

In this picture he looks like he's trying to seduce me with that carrot toy.

This one looks like an author photo to me.  If Smudgie wrote a book, this is the picture they'd put on the inside of the flapjacket.

He's such a cutie.  It's a miracle I ever got him to let me use it.  

    

America Trip

We’re back from America!  Here’s a short synopsis of our adventures. 

We saw our niece, Alison:

Planted pineapple plants and found a snake in the garden:

Ate way too much food:

Gigantic portions

Mmmmm Cook Out

Doritos taco

Marveled at all the fat people:

Played games at the beach:

Introduced innocent victims to baijiu:

Cheers

Reactions

Saw clouds like this:

Went to a cool bar:

Missed our puppy!!

We still don't have him back because there was a miscommunication about when we were coming home.  I'll see him after work today!!

As much as I enjoyed the American food, I'm glad to be back in the land of light eating.  I realized that part of enjoying food is actually being hungry for it.  But when you're eating such big meals all the time, it's hard to be hungry for the next one.  It's amazing I only gained 3.5 lbs throughout the trip.  Thanks, muscles!

Here's a picture of the Shanghai skyline down at the Bund:

The last time we were there the moisture in the air fogged up my camera so I couldn't post the picture.  And speaking of light eating, Dreamer and Sophie took us out to dinner last night and one of the dishes was a plate full of Shugua, which is a melon you can only find in the Anhui province.  They told me "shu" means vegetable and "gua" means melon, which is funny because that's exactly what it tastes like.  A sweet vegetable!   

Time to get back into China Mode! 



Wedding Glamour Shots!

Earlier I mentioned that in China, you get wedding photos taken months before the wedding, kind of like an engagement shoot.  But you don’t wear your own outfits, the photography company provides them.  I first heard about this months ago when Mandy got hers back and I immediately started saving my money for it.  I wanted to wait until I’d reached my goal weight, which I have now.  So to celebrate my 26th birthday, we got them done this Saturday! 

Mr. Li’s wife works at one of these places so we were able to get a REALLY good deal.  We chose a package that would have been 6,000RMB but we got a Mrs. Li discount so we only paid 4,000RMB.  I suspect the fact that we’re American may have a lot to do with it too.  I’m sure they’re excited to be able to boast having “international clientele” now.  Anyways, that’s $635, which is NOTHING compared to what something like this would cost in the US.  There’s a reason this kind of thing doesn’t exist in the US, it would be too damn expensive.  Our real wedding photography was $3,000 and we only got one outfit!  (They didn’t provide the clothes, hair, or makeup either.)  The package we chose gave us 8 different outfits, each with its own hairstyle and makeup.  We had come last Saturday to look through their dresses and see which ones I might like so I already had my first dress in mind.  I also came armed with a page full of hairstyles I liked.  So they put me in the dress, sat me down in front of a mirror, and got to work. 

I was loving it!  My hair looks like crap on a regular day to day basis, so it was so nice to finally see it professionally done.  The woman was a wizard.  My hair is thin and has little volume, but she made it look amazing.  The makeup part was funny.  After some foundation and a little eyeshadow I was like, “Wow, that looks perfect just like that.  What a great job!”  Then she put on some mascara and I thought “Ok, that’s more mascara than I’ve ever worn in my life.  But that’s ok , it still looks good.”  Then she put on some fake lashes and I was like, “Cool, never worn fake lashes before.”  Then she put on another set of fake lashes… and then she put mascara on the fake lashes… “Woah, all right, that’s ok.  That’s the style in China, they like to accentuate the eyes, I’ll go with the flow.”  Then she put on bright pink blush and orange lip gloss.  Haha, I have to admit I thought I looked pretty, but maybe a little whorish at that point.  But I’m hoping it’ll be like stage makeup where it looks crazy in daylight but perfect under the bright lights. 

The picture taking was fun.  We had a great photographer who had WAY more energy than we did.  The entire photoshoot took 12 hours.  At halfway through, I was satisfied.  We did not need to do 8 outfits.  The selection of dresses at this place was not that great, so we actually did the 4 best outfits first.  One wedding dress, one formal dress, one traditional Chinese dress, and one surprise outfit I’m not going talk about until we get the pictures back.  So for the last four, not only was I getting tired, but I also wasn’t very excited about them.  Three of the last four were done outside and it was overcast so we didn’t get any awesome sunset lighting or anything.  I also spent the second half worrying about Smudgie, who was sitting in his crate alone all day.  Adam and I started talking about getting McDonald’s for dinner and going home and relaxing.  That sounded like the best idea in the world.  I was really excited about that but then Mr. Li asked us to go to dinner with him.  No actually, he TOLD us to go to dinner with him.  That was the last thing I wanted to do.  We told him we couldn’t because Smudgie had been alone all day and we needed to go home but then he told us to bring Smudgie with us to the restaurant.  I guess there’s no saying no to Mr. Li.  So Smudgie came to dinner.  He didn’t like it at first but then he got some table scraps.  Mr. Li gave me a jar full of paper cranes for my birthday and inside there was also a note that said “wish you like it” and he drew a little smiley face on it.  It’s so darn cute, it totally makes up for making us go to dinner with him.

On Sunday we got Huainan Beef Soup for lunch, which was amazing.

Shao Bing

Also, I've discovered a new fruit that I love.  I've given up on mangosteen, by the way.  I forgot to write about this, but we got the chance to eat mangosteen in Xi Shuang Ban Na and they did taste good but they were incredibly messy and the texture of the fruit is very squishy.  I'd much rather drink mangosteen juice than eat one.  So anyways, the new fruit is called Yangmei or Chinese Bayberry or Yumberry.  It is unlike any fruit in the world as far as looks and taste and texture.  I just love it!  But the gowing season is very short, and its shelflife is very short too.  So I probably won't get to eat any more until this time next year.  The picture I took of it sucked so here's one from the internet:

And here's a cute picture of Smudgie in Adam's arms: