The Move to Huainan

This post is also co-titled "So apparently it's not ok to take a dog on a train in China".

We made our official move to Huainan yesterday. It should have entailed a 2 hour train ride and a 1 hour car ride from the train station to our apartment. But that is not how it went.... Adam said the HR lady at his plant called the train station to make sure it was ok to take a dog on the train. They said it's ok as long as the dog is in a carrier and it stays up by us in our seats. Since Smudgie's crate is too big to be up by our seats, we planned on putting him in Adam's backpack with his head sticking out. Not the most comfortable thing, but it was only going to be for 2 hours. When we got to the train station with Smudgie already in the backpack, the x-ray and metal detector people let us through, but we were immediately ushered to the Train Station Master. After much shaking of heads and Chinese jibber jabber, they told us no dogs allowed on the train. So I said "But, my husband here, he saw a guy taking chickens on the train before." which is true. In a plastic bag, no less! And the guy said, "Yes, 5 chickens in a bag, 5 small chickens. That is ok." But not a small dog... agh!

We called Cynthia, who works for Guilford Shanghai and she saved us, by getting us a ride to the bus station. But Smudgie, who won't pee outside unless it's on grass, didn't get a chance to potty again because there was absolutely no grass available at Guilford Shanghai or the bus station. And with the bus being a 6 hour ride, we were worried about him. Dogs are supposed to be allowed on the bus but to be safe, we decided to put him in a cardboard box to get him through security. But after walking from where the taxi dropped us off, through security, and to the place where we boarded the bus, we saw two other dogs so we opened the box to discover that Smudgie had peed and thrown up inside of it. Poor little guy. Adam cleaned him up in the bathroom while I put together his crate so he could ride under the bus with the luggage.

Side story about the bus station! I had to use the bathroom and I knew it was going to be a squat toilet. What I didn't know, is that there weren't going to be any stall doors. I had heard about these, but only imagined them existing way out in the country. I was wrong. Your nice squat toilets, if you can even call them that, have individual "holes" with foot traction on either side and the stall doors go all the way to the floor for privacy. In this bathroom, there were two rows of stalls with a single trough running through all of them on either side. You straddle the trough, go, and everyone's waste gets flushed down the trough to a single hole at the end. I guess they figure there's no need for privacy because in this configuration, if someone were to see you, all they'd see is the profile of your bare *ss. It took me seeing someone else's "profile" to decide that it wasn't that big of a deal. Before a 6 hour bus ride, you gotta empty. So I bit the bullet and used a stall at the end of the row in hopes that no one would venture down that far. I should also mention another lovely thing about squat toilets. You can't flush toilet paper down them. So there's a nice little bucket in every stall for you to put your used tissue. Just another thing you gotta get used to.

Another side story! While waiting for the bus, I saw a baby about my niece's age, wearing what I can only describe as crotchless pants. I thought to myself, that sounds like the worst idea in the world! What if you're holding your baby and it needs to poop? Here's the best picture I could get, incognito:

And here's the link to a blog I found if anyone wants to know more about these wonder-pants. http://arielleinchina.blogspot.com/2011/01/crotchless-pants-all-chinese-babies-are.html

Anyways, I spent the first 4 hours of the bus ride worrying about how Smudgie was doing under the bus and then we stopped for a break. We got to take him out and what a good little boy, he didn't pee or poop at all. So we let him have a potty break and then we were on our way again. The bus arrives in Hefei, which is about 2 hours from Huainan. So a company driver took us the rest of the way home and we arrived around midnight. What a day. It's good to be home. And Smudgie is so great, he's acting like nothing traumatizing happened. Here's a pic of him with Crotchless Pants Baby:

Pictures of Shanghai

Our Street

As pointed out by my sister, I haven't taken any pictures of the streets in China. She was dying to know more about what it looks like here, but truth be told, it's not that different from America. I'd say the biggest difference, visually, is the residential housing. There are no suburbs. Both in Shanghai and in Huainan, the only housing I've seen is in a high rise building. And the buildings are ugly. There seems to be no value placed on making a dwelling look nice on the outside. I remember our condo in Wilmington and it was adorable. That was one of the reasons we lived there. But forget about that in China.

This is the view from our window in Shanghai

This is an up-close shot of a residential building

And yes, EVERYONE hangs their clothes to dry outside their window or just inside with the window open. Apparently dryers aren't very popular. And in my opinion, the clothes hanging outside the window doesn't help the building's appearance.

But one thing you can't escape about China is the smells. The smells typically change between car exhaust, sewage, and food and you can ususally always smell at least one at any given time. In a taxi with the window open, watch out! Because the smells change every time you turn a corner and sometimes they catch you off guard. :)

Today we went to a restaurant called Hot Pot, where they boil a soup stock in the middle of your table and you order meat, veggies, and noodles to put in it. It was amazing! We put lamb, potato, noodles, mushrooms, and dumplings in ours. Before and after pics are below.

Smudgie put his toy in my shoe. This picture looks staged but it's not!

Smudgie playing with a plastic bag

A bustling street at dusk

Pet Stores

Smudgie and I took a stroll down the street to a couple of pet stores. The first one (very small) had some kitties in a cage, but those were the only animals they had. The rest of the store was just food and toys from floor to ceiling. It was pretty cramped in there. I got Smudgie a toy just to buy something. The second store (also small) was more of a grooming place. There were some things for sale but nothing of interest. We walked in and out quickly without anyone seeing us. Smudgie is enjoying his new toy. He's already chewed off the felt spikes on its head. These pictures were taken before the the spikes got chewed off.

Grocery Store Exploration

Last night, Adam and I went to the Carrefour which is like China's Walmart. And by that I don't mean that it's full of crappy stuff I just mean that they sell pretty much everything. We focused on the grocery part because there's a Carrefour in Huainan and we wanted to see what kind of foods were going to be available to us. Although it might be cheap enough in Huainan to eat out for every meal, we don't want to.

The place was huge. I can only hope the one in Huainan is somewhat close to this size. They had some American brands and also some brands from other countries as well as Chinese brands. There were lot's of weird fruits and veggies that I can't wait to try. There were live fish, crabs, clams, and turtles too. Most of those things were labeled in Chinese and English. But all the bakery items and packaged foods were in Chinese. So you just have to go by looks and pictures. Cereal was, by far, the most surprisingly expensive item. Imported cereal was between 45 and 65 RMB which is about $7-10 per box. And the boxes aren't huge. Looks like we're going to be eating something else for breakfast. There are a lot of mushroom, seaweed, and prawn flavored snacks. Not very excited about that. But in all, I think we'll get along just fine. We'll be eating mostly things that look normal, not too weird. But in order to broaden our horizons, we've decided to try one new "questionable" item per week. You never know what delicious things we'll come across!

I don't have any pictures of the Carrefour because only weirdos take pictures in the grocery store. But here is a sponge with adorable packaging.

And here is a picture of Smudgie laying on my pants. I'll try to post at least one new picture of him per blog from now on.

Smudgie Arrives!!!

Today we ate KFC for lunch. Not because we were jonesing for American food already, but because it's the only restaurant near here that we know we can get food quickly and take it home. Smudgie arrived just before lunch and we didn't want to leave him for an hour all alone in the hotel room right after reuniting. (He went crazy when he saw us) So all three of us went for a walk to KFC and back. Smudgie got lot's of looks and a few pats from some strangers. :) Here is a picture of the "meal" Adam got each of us. I thought it was really cute, as far as food goes. The star is some sort of shrimp/seafood thing. It was really good, actually.

And below are some pictures of Smudgie getting played with in his new surroundings.

Belly Rub

Accidentally too much zoom, but turned out really cute anyway

Playing with the carrot!

I'm a cutie!This picture really shows how fluffy he's gotten

Bumming it in Shanghai

So we've been in Shanghai a few days now. We have to stay here for a bit while we wait for our residence permits. We were supposed to get Smudgie today but the plane that was supposed to take him from Amsterdam to Shanghai had a problem with the temperature control in the cargo area so they wouldn't let any pets on it. He took the next available flight so we'll get him tomorrow. Eeeeeeeee can't wait!

These first few days, our schedule has gone like this:

1. Wake up whatever time we feel like it

2. Venture outside and pick a place to eat

3. Order food that doesn't look too weird and save enough to reheat for dinner

4. Hang out watching movies on HBO or Star Movies all afternoon
5. Sleeeeeeeeeeeep

It's pretty much the life. Too bad it can't stay this way.

Our first full day here, we went walking around, got some currency exchanged, ate lunch, and on our way back to the hotel, we saw (I kid you not) an old Chinese man wearing a UNC Tarheels T-shirt. We couldn't believe it. For those of you reading this blog who don't know Adam, he hates the Tarheels. He refused to let me get a picture of the guy because "There's absolutely no reason for that guy to be wearing that shirt". Which is true, but still, I wanted a picture.

Yesterday we went to the Shanghai zoo because it's walking distance from our hotel. They had all the normal zoo animals, plus pandas, and way too many bird exhibits. Half the zoo was birds and we didn't have time to see the whole zoo so we skipped the bird half. Below are some pictures!!

Yummy grass - This guy was HUGE

Sleeping panda - That's a piece of bamboo leaf stuck to his butt

Adam and elephants

I touched a monkey! He tried to pick my fingernail off.

Along the same lines as touching monkeys, Chinese people do not pay attention to the "Don't feed the animals" signs. I was pretty surprised and saddened by how many people threw popcorn, bread, and other things into the exhibits, including wrappers!

The restaurant we went to for lunch yesterday had ox penis on the menu. Gross. And it was one of those places where you can order meat raw and you cook it yourself in a kind of fon du pot on your table. We didn't do that because we didn't realize it until we looked at the people behind us. I just saw raw meat on the menu and went "Ew, we're not getting raw meat, next page!" We have discovered a few amazing foods already, though. I just wish we knew what they were.

The Probing

Over labor day weekend, instead of grilling out in the backyard or doing something else fun, Adam and I had to go to Shanghai for a medical exam which is one of the many hoops you have to jump through in order to live in China. The funny thing is, they don't make you get an exam just to visit China, even though you could spread the same amount of diseases by visiting as you could by living there. So anyway, my weekend consisted of flying to Shanghai on Friday (arriving there Saturday afternoon), sleeping for the rest of Saturday, hanging out in the hotel room/sleeping all of Sunday, getting the medical exam Monday morning, then flying back home Monday afternoon. Adam was sick the entire time so there was no desire to do anything touristy.

The medical exam was very interesting. Luckily, someone from the relocation company was there to help us with the paperwork. But when it came to the actual exam, we were on our own. After waiting in a waiting room for a short time, we handed our paperwork to a lady at a computer and since I hadn't filled out the "occupation" line, she asked me if I was going to be working. Since I haven't signed anything with the company yet, I said no, so she told me to put "housewife" in that spot. And I laughed to myself because the term is so outdated I don't think I've ever actually used it in real life, except to refer to the Real Housewife shows. I pictured myself as a "Real Housewife of Huainan".... Haha! First, we got weighed, and they told us to take off our shirts and put a robe on. That was the only part of the exam that we did together. After that, we both were bounced around from room to room but we were never in the same room at the same time. My first room was the electrocardiogram. But I didn't know it at the time because the way they hooked me up seemed more like something out of Frankenstein than the way they do it in the US. Instead of using the sticky pads, they used clamps like this:

There was one on both elbows and one on my left ankle. Then they stuck 4 small suction cups under my left boob. I wouldn't be surprised if my graph looked abnormal because I kind of felt like I was on an alien spaceship getting strange tests done on me. But it was over in like 2 seconds and then she sent me to another room. My next room was the eye and ear guy. I could tell he knew only the amount of English he needed to know to do his job. He points to a chart on the desk that has an E, a backwards E, an E on its side, then an E on its side upside down and he goes "Right, Left, Down, Up". And I'm like, "what?" And he repeated it and I got it, but I didn't know what I was supposed to do with that information. Then he pointed to a chart on the wall that had all E's on it, in different orientations. It was just like an American eye chart only instead of different letters, it was just E's. I guess that makes it easier for them than having all the letters. So anyways, my right eye sucks. Maybe it was just out of focus at the wrong time because I feel like I see fine, but I had to guess what he was pointing to. Then I passed the colorblindness test of course. And my ears were fine. I actually don't know the results of any of the tests that were done. I'm just guessing my ears were fine. My next room was the blood drawing room! I was anticipating having to get poked several times because my veins are small. But it was probably only twice. I didn't look. Then I had to go to the ultrasound room. I'm not sure what it's for. Maybe they were looking for tumors, because Adam had to do it too. It was scary because the lady was really focusing on this one particular spot, digging it into my ribs as if she saw something. And when it was over, she didn't give me anything to wipe the goo off with. So I left for the chest x-ray all gooey. The chest x-ray is to search for tuberculosis. And I believe those were all the tests we had to do. At the end, I used my robe to wipe the goo off, then we were on our merry way. The whole thing took less than an hour. And there was no actual probing of orifices or anything.

On a completely different note, I was watching "The Young and the Restless" with my mother-in-law and this little girl is in the hospital with Lukemia and on her hospital bed, is a printed serasoft throw from Berkshire Blanket that I helped create! Here's the picture I took from the TV:

And here's the picture from the Bed Bath and Beyond website (it's the one on the left in the middle):

Yay!