FORE... Oh Yea I'm That Bored!

Bill was a really happy camper today... I agreed to go to the driving range with him and hit balls!!!   Some of you know that I like golfing in social situations... AKA... with family and friends while up north.  The driving range - OH NO!  I think it's one of the most boring things to just hit balls into an empty green space.   The other reason I don't go there before a round is that I don't want to waste any good shots!  

It's been really really boring here in China the past month and that's mainly because of the heat.  Us northern folk can't really handle it - clearly based on my episode last week - check out the post "Chinese Road Rash" if you're not clued in!  Bill suggested the driving range and I agreed.  Why not have my first Chinese golf course experience even if it is only just the range.   An added bonus was that today was only 85 degrees with some semi blue skies and a breeze.  Bill actually said he thought it was "cool" out! 

So you drive up and the guys at the front grab your clubs, bring them around the back, put them in a cart and then drive you up to the range.   You're not allowed to walk on your own around this place.  There is always someone with your or watching you.  

When we got up to the range they bring you out the trays of balls once you pick your spot.  You don't need to do anything.  Pretty fancy service! 

I managed to hit 2 trays for a total of 60 balls. What can I say - it was kind of fun not sitting at home in the AC! 

I was way better than the Chinese guy next to me and 1/2 my shots didn't even make it 100 yards.   I blame that on the fact that Bill let me use his clubs since mine are in the good ol US of A and well Bill's clubs are pretty darn heavy and stiff.  

Bill was about 1/2 way through his 5 trays and 150 balls and one of the 3 the Chinese guys next to us just walked up and pulled the 8 iron out of his bag while rambling away in Chinese.  The other guy came over and started talking about how much heavier Bill's club was compared to the other guys and how their shafts were made in Japan but the heads in China and that because we were from the USA ours were made in US.  Then the guy proceeded to take 3 shots with Bill's club - I'm pretty sure my mouth was just hanging open and Bill turned his back and kept hitting the balls to avoid screaming at the guys for touching his clubs.  Really... who just walks up to a complete random stranger, takes a golf club out of their bag, examines it and then hits some balls with it???   I don't get these Chinese people! 

Thank goodness they didn't stay and play with Bill's clubs long.  We finished the trays in peace and then headed home back to the AC to cool off. 

Fortune Bags

Have you ever heard of Fortune Bags?   Have you ever had Fortune Bags?   

Today I experienced them for my first time!

These fortune bags were a tofu skin filled with sweet potato, water chestnut, mushroom and onion.

They were actually pretty tasty.  Once you got around the look of the bag.  The restaurant was out of dumplings so we needed to try something and these looked similar but had nothing of the same taste or consistency of a dumpling.  Still not a bad substitute choice! 

I experienced my first true all vegetarian, meat what-so-ever restaurant for lunch today.  Sure a lot of restaurants here have vegetarian dishes and we actually do order mostly vegetables when eating, however most of these restaurants often cook the veggies in a sauce with ground pork - eggplant and green beans are 2 common dishes examples that often have meat in the sauce when they're prepared and served to you.  This restaurant is strictly no meat at all.  This means the meat dishes are either made with tofu, mushrooms, soy beans, a gluten mixture or a combination of these vegetarian options.

We ordered a few vegetable dishes - Vietnamese spring rolls, green beans, the fortune bags as well as some "meat" dishes. 

Here is a picture of the sweet and sour pork:

This dish the pork was a combination of tofu and gluten in a sweet and sour sauce with pineapple and cucumbers.  It was actually really tasty and you almost didn't know you weren't eating real pork. 

Another dish we had were spicy chicken balls:

 Here's an up close picture:

These were interesting, they had to be a mixture of mushrooms, tofu and gluten and they were deep fried so almost like the consistency of a chicken nugget at McDonald's.  I thought were kind of gross - mainly because they tasted like the oil they were deep fried in rather than a chicken/spice flavor.  But the other girls liked them! 

It was definitely an interesting eating experience and it's crazy the consistency and likeness to meat that this restaurant can create. 

6 Months Down!

Today it's officially been 6 months since we left the good old US of A and relocated to China and all I can really say is that this Asian adventure has certainly been a roller coaster of a ride.

It's a little bit hard to write this post because there isn't a day that goes by where one of us has a moment where we wish we were "back home".  I often wake up in the morning hoping that when I open my eyes I will actually be in the UK or the USA!  It never seems to happen. :-( 

Both Bill and I know that this is a great experience and our flexibility, adaptability and attitudes are and will be changed forever.  It's just that being in China is really much more challenging than we ever thought it would be.  We know from England that a new country and way of life is hard to adapt to at first, however, England was hard for about the first 3 months, then we settled in and loved it.  The culture, language barrier and our everyday aspects of life are so different than anything we've experienced prior and that's what makes it difficult and gives us the longing for the comforts of home and what we know.  As time goes on things will get easier - as we know we've only just dipped our feet in the water here and while 6 months seems like a long time, it's really not that long at all.  

Today, in the spirit of our homesickness we decided we needed to embrace one of the aspects of the Chinese culture that we really enjoy.... DUMPLINGS! 

Bill had a meeting in Shanghai so I tagged along, while he was in his meeting I made a trip to the flower market with Mr. Fu and then we headed to Din Tai Fung, a world renowned dumpling restaurant.  It's actually Taiwanese, but that's besides the point they make delicious dumplings!

 As you walk up to the restaurant (in a luxury shopping mall) you see all the "dumpling makers" (as I'm going to call them) standing in a front window assembling the dumplings at lightning speed.

Din Tai Fung is actually a Taiwanese restaurant, but that's besides the point they make delicious dumplings!

The signature dumpling is xiaolong bao which is a pork filling wrapped in the dumpling with a soup/broth in the dumpling as well.  The correct way to eat these dumplings is to get everything in your mouth at once, do not let the broth drip out on the plate or in your bowl.   

 We had the signature pork dumplings, vegetable dumplings, assorted mushroom dumplings and steamed pork buns!

 Steamed pork buns:

These buns were delicious with a little pork patty in the middle!

Soy sauce and vinegar to make your own dipping sauce.

Bill's dumpling just hanging out in the sauce.

These were probably some of the best dumplings we have had in China and the service at the restaurant was pretty exceptional as well.  I'm sure we'll be back. 

Adventures in Baking

I caved and am baking again!   I said I wasn't going to bake here in China for many reasons - my oven stinks, it's too expensive to buy baking supplies, baked goods aren't good for us, etc., etc.  However,
having lived in England for 2 and 1/2 years I grew very fond of baked goods and making my own baked goods!  Scones, cakes, muffins, the English definitely loved their baked goods and so do I.  I loved making everything from scratch in England and how delicious things tasted.   Here in China if you buy any type of bakery from a store it's always a let down.  There just isn't much flavor and something isn't right.

The beauty in England was I had a massive kitchen - my oven had a regular oven, a convection oven and a broiler compartment.  While they may have been small - to the extent a 9x13 pan barely fit, having the 3 options was really nice!  I also had 6 gas burners, which was amazing.  The great thing was I was working from home and didn't have to start work until noon so I was able to experiment with a lot of different recipes and I loved that.  

Now, I'm in China and this time I have no job, no responsibilities... what's a girl who just found a love for baking to do.... well you'd think bake but yep, it's not so much fun here.  For starters we have 1 oven compartment and in fairness it's the same size as 1 of the England compartments which is okay, I got used to that, however there are twisty dials for temperature, timing and what setting you need.   Not cool!

The dial on the left is the timer - the oven does not turn on unless the timer is on.  (I don't understand, it just doesn't.)
The middle dial is the temperature - it's a best guess these days, there are degrees in Celsius but they never seem to actually be what temperature you're looking for.   Things are burning up at low temps!
The dial on the right is the setting - do you just want a light, or a fan or the broiler?  This dial needs to go all the way around to actually get some heat in the oven... another thing I don't understand but I just accept.

Okay so now we've got all the equipment basics nailed down we're ready to rock and roll!   The first 3 months here I didn't buy any flour and planned not to bake.  To buy any products I recognized like flour and sugar the price seemed astronomical.  2 weeks ago I caved and bought a bag of flour.
This 5lb bag ran me a little over $10USD.  I cringed but desperate times call for desperate measures and I really needed a chocolate chip cookie!

Ever since I've been on a baking streak - I made chocolate chip cookies, Vegan double chocolate cookies, banana bread and this morning I tried some oatmeal blueberry muffins.  The vegan cookies weren't bad - Bill ate the entire dozen in 2 days and I told him it was okay because they were healthy!  The expat girls here keep telling me about this bakery store that sells flour and pans etc so I need to go exploring and try it out.  We even made homemade pizza dough this weekend and man was it good!  

The only caveat is I currently have to bake in the morning because our kitchen doesn't have AC so if I try to bake in the afternoon/evening the kitchen is like a sweat shop and the dining room/living room heat up as well.  Plus with my heat experiences lately we're not taking any chances so mornings only.  

I really need the gym to open back up so I have a morning hobby instead of baking!  Oh and these muffins were fantastic with a big cuppa coffee! 

Chinese Road Rash - Ouch!

Today was like any other regular Saturday around here... except we actually had somewhere to go tonight!!!  We were suppose to be going to the Kunshan German Beer Festival with 8 other expats.  It's a big beer festival like Oktoberfest in Germany with beer tents and food.  We had a table reserved and they even fly in German musicians!   We thought since we will be eating and drinking tonight and the gym is closed until September 1st we'd do the 10 mile walk around the lake.  An added bonus this morning was that the temperature had dropped to 90 from the 100's it was last week.   So we set out this morning with the idea we'd be back to have lunch, drink loads of water and rest up before leaving at 5:30pm.

We were on pace for a record go around - I estimate that we would've made it in 2 hours and 30 minutes, so far the shortest time we've made is 2 hours 45 minutes.  We hit our second to last intersection and it was a red light, at that moment that we stopped in the sun I felt a little bit dizzy and mentioned to Bill I was really thirsty and a little dizzy.  He told me we were almost home keep trucking!   The light changed and we kept going, about 5 minutes later as we rounded the last corner I had to sit down, I was dripping wet and super dizzy.  Bill was like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING SITTING ON THE GROUND IN CHINA!?!?!   GET UP WE ARE ALMOST HOME."   As I got up I blacked out and fell down.  The rest Bill tells me was pretty ugly - I should let him write this part of the story.  He said I fell about 2 times and was just a wet noodle.  He couldn't hold me up and I wasn't moving so he put me on a tree and told me to sit there while he ran home to get water and money and the ebike to get me back home. (You could see our apartment building, it was a 10 minute walk from where he put me.)  
Side note:  we had been walking with exercise clothing on so neither of us had our phones, money, etc. The only thing I had was a bottle of water that I had drank already.

As I came back to consciousness I realize I am sitting against a tree alone and as I start to look around and get my bearings I immediately cringe - there's dog poo next to me, thanks Bill!  I scoot to the cement, all I want to do is lay down, my eyes are fuzzy and going in and out of black, my knees are burning, I look down - there is blood all over both of them.  I just sit there and wait,  figuring Bill went to get help and knowing I can't lay down.  Bill gets back with the ebike, hands me water and I suck it down.  He gives me another, as I stand to think about getting on the bike with him I realize that isn't going to work.  I told him I needed a taxi - I lay down in the grass, he gets a taxi... I get in the front Bill tells the driver where to take me, away I go, the taxi is cold, he has the AC on and I'm starting to feel like a person - my ears are all plugged up and I'm still feeling dizzy but the cool air feels amazing.  The driver keeps looking at my knees with a terrified look on his face.  I'm sure he's never seen someone so banged up - well at least not a Western girl banged up and covered in dirt from laying on the ground.   I get to the compound and tell the driver to wait 5 minutes for the money.   Yes, I managed that in Chinese - whew.  As I walked up to our building Bill met me with the ebike and we got in the elevator, the next thing I know I'm laying on the living room floor.  I passed out in the elevator.  I eventually made it to the shower and managed to just sit there with the cold water pouring on me, it felt so good.  I think I sat there for about a 1/2 hour then cleaned my wounds and drank another bottle of water.  Bill in the mean time looks up heat stroke and freaks out based on the symptoms, side effects, etc. so he decides he needs to take my temperature - which the thermometer said it was 95.6... clearly we might need to invest in a better thermometer, or the cold shower really cooled my body temperature!  He made sure I drank 2 more bottles of water and ate an apple since my ears and head were still very blurry.  After about an hour rest I was able to move to the living room.
Here's my knees post shower loaded up with bacitracin.

I'm feeling much much much better now, I have some really horrible pain in my knees (rightfully so) and a bit of a headache but I'm feeling like a person now.  Unfortunately we had to cancel going to the beer festival.  I told Bill to go but he didn't want to leave me alone he said.  
Here's the picture 4 hours later:

What a day!  A lot of lessons learned - even when it's 90 and the temperature has dropped 10 degrees from what it was last week, walking 10 miles isn't a good idea.  I even drank a bottle of water before the walk and during the walk, so something just wasn't right with me today!   Bill learned that when I tell him I need a break from now on he'll let me take a break - since he said I probably wouldn't have hurt my knees so bad if he had just let me sit for a bit.   But we're both alive, we made it home, he paid the taxi and now we're resting in the AC.   No outside adventures for at least 24 hours for me!

I'm still really bummed we're missing the German Beer Festival.  Guess there's always next year.

First Day on the Job

Yep, that's right, I got a job!  As of today I became the new Vendor Relations coordinator for the EAS (Expat Association of Suzhou).  It's the perfect little volunteer board member position for me within the expat group.   The job duties include going around to businesses in Suzhou and enquiring as if they'd like to offer a discount to expats who are EAS members that use their business services.  In return we advertise their business and logo on our website.

Today on my first day I signed up 2 new vendors!!!  I'd say it was a good success.  One was a nail salon where they will offer 10% off for any services to EAS members.  I even got a pedicure for $15 while I was at the nail salon.  I'll definitely be going back there!!!  The other was a French wine bar and cafe who will also offer EAS members 10% off on food,(not the wine... bummer).  My Chinese came in handy here as the owner is a super nice lady however, she only speaks Chinese and French... no English!

This is going to be a super fun, exciting way for me to learn my way around Suzhou, practice my Mandarin (as not all owners speak very good English, or any at all as I've experienced today), and try out new places!

The Dirt Line

We've all had tan lines before but have you ever had a dirt line?

I'm not talking worked in the field or was in the outdoors dirt line, I'm talking walking around a city for 3 hours on concrete dirt line!
On Sunday Bill and I walked around the lake- we won't even get into the temperature or how we looked like we went swimming by the end of the 3 hour excursion - we had to get out of the apartment, we were going stir crazy and with the gym being closed we needed exercise.   So around the lake we went!   When we came home - I had a dirt line.

Here's the post shower picture:

So the moral of the story is... it's dirty in China.  
But we'll continue to walk around the lake and go about the daily activities... as long as it starts to cool down!   Last night we were leaving a restaurant at 8:30pm and Bill says to me... it feels much cooler.  It was 89 degrees!!!   It didn't feel cool to me, I think he's adapting to the heat faster than me.

You really can't make this stuff up...

Today as I was coming home from lunch, (GASP... I actually left the apartment today!) the road into our compound was closed to cars, however the nice security man let me through on my ebike.  As it turns out something, somehow struck the fire hydrant causing it to well move/bend (if fire hydrants can bend) and well here comes the water!  
So the fire hydrant is tilted and spraying water, and the Chinese man is just watching me take a picture and watching the water spray all over!

He said something to me... I giggled and drove away! :-)

Also, I have to get something off my chest today.  I've been feeling pretty guilty this week because I've been a bum and haven't been to the gym all week... I was really seriously planning to go this afternoon, seriously!!!  However, as it turns out the gym is closed until August 22nd right now!  Monday I knew they were closed for regular monthly maintenance.  On Tuesday it was open but I went to Shanghai and was tired when I got home so didn't go Tuesday night.  On Wednesday there were some electrical issues so it was suppose to reopen once those were fixed however apparently on Wednesday night someone had a heart attack at the gym and died so now the gym is closed until August 22nd for electrical and health safety reasons!  My oh my....  Like I said - You can't make this stuff up!  
*** Side note:  All this information was told to me today at Crafts by my friend Jean who swims every morning at 7:15 and then goes in the evening with her husband.  She's a reliable source!

Beer Delivery!

Yes, that's right, today we had beer delivered to our door!  And it's from AMERICA!

Since I've been back from the US I've started ordering groceries (and beer) from a company called Fields.  They are an online organic grocer located in Shanghai and they deliver in our area.  Now some of you may ask why I would need to order my groceries online because really what else do I have to do with my time?

Here are 3 reasons:
1.  For my sanity!  It's hot, really hot.  If I had to walk to the market in this heat and then walk in the doors I'd immediately walk back out and we wouldn't eat.  Okay we would eat but it'd be take out and that's not healthy for us.  I mean, I had the gag reflex from March - June walking in the wet markets due to the smell, I can't imagine what it smells like now in the heat with the animals and fish laying around.  Gross!
2.  This Fields website is all organic!  I'm not sure I buy into the totally organic mentality however, in China this seems important because all we read about is pollution and food scandals and heavy metals in the soil and water so knowing that the produce is coming from a field that has to go through 3 years of soil testing before planting and growing and selling products makes me feel better about what we're putting in our bellies.  At least the website tells me the food is safe to eat so that puts my mind at ease.
3.  They give you free gifts when you spend a certain amount of money!  Today our gift was ice cream.  Oh and the case of beer came with pint glasses.  Although, we thought maybe they'd be Acme Pale Ale pint glasses since that's the type of beer we bought - no, they're just random Perrier pint glasses.  (This is China we should've excepted it!)

The ice cream also came wrapped in a bag of dry ice so we had fun playing with that in the sink!  The things that you do for amusement after you've been cooped up in a apartment for 2 days straight due to the heat!

Chinese Valentine's Day

I just thought I should let you all know that yesterday was Chinese Valentines Day... it's August, yes I know!  I had to question that too, but in fact it was Chinese Valentines Day.  Quite a few of the local restaurants had specials they were advertising but since we don't celebrate Valentines Day to begin with we weren't about to celebrate the Chinese one!   I was in Shanghai with my friend Bernadette and we did see some ladies selling flowers, but other than that it wasn't nearly the hub-bub that the US puts on in February.  Whew! 

That's pretty much all that we have going on in China right now - I know boring.  No stories or crazy pictures since we haven't been getting out much.  Bill managed to pick up a summer cold so he's been miserable, coughing, runny nose, head congestion.  We will be laying low for the remainder of the week so that he heals up!  It's a wonder how in 100 degrees one can pick up a cold. :-(   

A piece of pipe two nights

Last night I found a recipe for Buffalo Chickpea Tacos on a food blog I was reading that I wanted to make for dinner tonight.  Unfortunately, I didn't have all the ingredients in the apartment so this morning I needed to run to Euro Mart to get some supplies.  (Euro Mart is a little import store in town that sells all products imported from the US and Europe.  It's great!)  Bill decided to come with me to get out of the apartment and as he parked the ebike and we got off we turned around to face this sign on a pharmacy window. 

I couldn't help but giggle... I guess this is how the Chinese translate what Cialis does!!! 

Melted Chocolate

It's so hot here in China that the chocolate bar I purchased on Monday and hid strategically in the kitchen cabinet out of site has become a soft gooey mess!!!

I decided I need a bit of a chocolate snack and was just going to break a piece off of the Dove candy bar and well it mushed into my hands.   (It's 7:30pm and the candy bar has been no where near sun, just the heat and humidity in the non-airconditioned kitchen.)

Don't worry it still tasted good just a little soft and warm! 

Why do my feet feel wet?

So I'm standing at the kitchen sink washing my dishes from the past few days... Bill's traveling so I've neglected the housework... and all of a sudden my feet are feeling warm and wet and I look down and there I am standing in a puddle of water!!!  Hmm... is this what it feels like when you're pregnant and your water breaks?

I immediately looked at my waist to see if I was spilling over the edge of the counter and realize that no it's coming from under the sink.  Great, of course when Bill is gone something will go wrong with this place!  I slowly open the cabinet doors to a flood of water rushing out onto the floor only to see that the piping has opened up somehow.

I really hadn't planned on washing the floor today!!!  But I did say I was getting bored with reading and surfing the internet so I guess that's what I get.  GRRRR

It's hard to tell on this picture but there is about a 1/4 inch of water all over the bottom - every single thing was wet!

Turns out the PVC piping decided to loosen up and detach itself so that left me with a watered down EVERYTHING, my paper toweling, saran wrap, garbage bags, swifter pads, EVERYTHING is soaked to the core.  So much for a quiet afternoon, I'm now air drying everything out and cleaning up a watered down kitchen floor.   Thanks shotty Chinese construction, I'm sure this won't be the first time it happens here in the kitchen as it's already happened in the bathroom a few times before.  I should've expected it.  Doh! From now on only water reslilent items are going under all sinks in this place!  

KFC Delivers?

Did you know KFC delivers?  I didn't until today!  Not that I'll be eating any KFC - and yes it is Kentucky Fried Chicken like in the states, just with a few Asian twists on the menu!  I was just stunned by the fact that I passed a guy on a bike as a KFC delivery man.   So much so that I slowed down, let him pass me and then sped up again so I could take his picture.  haha

That's all I have for today - it was 105 at 8am, so I went to an expat coffee Meet & Greet and then promptly came home to hide in the AC since it was up to 110 at noon when I took this picture.  Whew, melting is right!

Back to school...

Hi Guys & Gals... Happy Monday from China!   It's been a BRUTAL one here today.  Brutal due to the heat and the fact that went back to Mandarin lessons at 8am this morning!  No AC was turned on in our classroom so it's a good thing we picked morning classes before the heat of the day gets to the rooms.

Bill looking very studious:

Note to self:  Do not go 6 weeks without so much as taking a peek at the book or thinking about uttering a word in Chinese ever again.
My brain hurts and all we did was review what we had learned in Survival 1.

We'll get it back in our brains sooner or later I'm sure, it was just a shocker this morning.  Our teacher Zoey gave me a nice flowered necklace and Bill got a notebook!  I'm not sure if it's Chinese tradition to give students presents... or if we should maybe be giving her gifts in return?   We're not very good at this Chinese gift giving stuff, or understanding it.

And speaking of Chinese gifts yesterday our neighbors (they're German) brought us a gift because they had a baby 7 weeks ago.  So again, not sure on the whole gift giving, they told us that the Chinese co-workers told them to give the gifts to their friends.  It was a nice gesture and we got to speak to them a little more than we have previously so maybe we'll have some new friends!  

The box has 3 items - a sweet pickled egg, a sour pickled egg and some other red bean pastry type treat.  Bill ate them, I took a pass.

Other than that I've been in the AC the rest of the day... cleaning the shower, toilets, floors and doing laundry!  Fun stuff.

Chinese Build Quality

 It's so hot here that at 8:30 am on a Saturday morning people take their dogs swimming in public fountains!

What were we thinking walking 3 miles to Marina Cove to get my dead battery bike?!?!?!   We were thinking we'd get exercise and sweat out all the bad and that we certainly did.   At 8:30am we set out for the ebike.  We made it in about 45 minutes got the bike, and started pushing the 1.5miles to Auchan.    Well Bill started pushing.  I offered but he said no he'd do it. 

I offered water and Kleenex to wipe the dripping sweat but he refused.  

Auchan is a huge Chinese supermarket like Wal-mart but bigger, crazier, cheaper.  It's the place we bought our bike.   On Friday night I called our real estate agent and asked Cici if she'd be willing to come with us to Auchan to help explain to the people what our problem was/is... she agreed thankfully because Bill and I were all too familiar with the ebike shop peoples lack of English from our purchasing experience.   

It's a good thing Cici came with, she was able to explain the situation as the shop kept trying to tell us that the batter was working because the wheel turned when you gave it throttle but we weren't very successful in telling them that it doesn't turn fast enough or strong enough to power a person riding on it!   She succeeded, however we needed a copy of our receipt for the repair shop to give us a new battery and well they don't just have a copy machine where they'd make you a copy you have to go pay to get a copy made at a store on the 2nd floor of the mall building Auchan is located in.  Seriously!  It was a wild goose chase to get a copy made for 1 yuan... that's $0.16.... yep 16 cents!!!  So we got the copy made, went back to the basement garage and then they told us 3 days for a new battery.  Seriously... 3 days, don't you have batteries in stock?!?!  Cici did some talking and all of a sudden now it'd be 20 minutes for a new battery.  Don't ask me how, why, or what... we took Cici's word for it and went and bought her 3 year old son some Dairy Queen ice cream while we waited the 20 minutes.   We told her we'd buy her son some ice cream for coming out to help us - he had a temper tantrum on the way to make a copy and we felt pretty bad that we asked her to help us on a Saturday.  We also told her we'd be okay and she could leave us sit for the 20 minutes and go back but she didn't seem to trust leaving us to go back in 20 minutes on our own. 

Finally, we were back up and running with a new but very low charged battery.  Just enough to make it to the DVD shop (it's right on the way home) and the grocery store (for some beer and sushi for lunch) and we made it home and it's on the charger now! 

Whew, glad that debacle is over.  I hope I don't have to repeat it in another 4 months based on the quality of ebike it seems we bought. 

Dead as a doornail...

Today started out as any normal Friday would (minus the jet lag wake up at 4am), I had coffee, ate breakfast, Bill went to work, I went to the gym, then around 10am I met my friend Marie and we headed to Friday Morning EAS Crafts.  It's basically chatting and crafting some type of small items but since it's summer and not many people are around we play games!  On the way to Crafts Marie says to me "I hope I make it there cuz I haven't charged my bike in a few days."  I told her she'd be fine!  I should eat my words because at the next intersection guess what - my ebike battery goes to LOW on me and I can barely make it across the intersection.  Putt, putt, putt.   I HAS IT PLUGGED IN ALL NIGHT LONG!!!   Damn bike!!!
I knew there would be a day when my battery died, as I often see people pushing their ebikes and I've heard the horror stories, but I seriously wasn't expecting it today.  And only 4 months after we purchased the darn thing!
Marie and I SLOWLY made it to the Marine Cove parking garage and go up to Yen's apartment. (Where crafts is held.)  Yen lets me use her ebike charger to see if we can get it charged so I can make it home when we're done.  Taboo was the game today and Yen made homemade cinnamon rolls... delicious!   After a great fun 2 hours Marie and I go to leave and the charger shows a GREEN light which means the battery is charged!  I breathed a sigh of relief thinking, whew, I'll get home.  That sigh only lasted a few seconds, as I started out of the parking garage my bike puttered out completely.  Wouldn't even move.   So as it starts to rain and I don't have an umbrella with me because didn't need one on the ebike, I leave my ebike in the basement of someone else's compound a couple miles away from home and start my trek home hoping for a taxi.  And oh by the way it's only 105 degrees outside...  Luckily it only took me 3 sweaty blocks before I found a taxi.

Unfortunately, it appears it's not the charger that's the issue, it's the battery not holding a charge and sure this sounds simple just get a whole new battery.  However we have an ebike where the battery doesn't just pop out - it's bolted in down under the seat in some stupid contraption of a compartment!  Yep, we definitely weren't thinking of this situation happening when we purchased it!
Guess we'll be walking the ebike to the shop this weekend and trying to get it fixed.  Wish us luck.  I say US because I'm not going on this trek alone - I'm making Bill come with me for backup support with the language barrier!
Maybe I'll get my mirror fixed too while I'm at it!

I'M BACK... and MELTING!

Well, well, well, I'm back in China now and let me tell you it's HOT here.  Seriously HOT... and it doesn't cool down!  The other night when I landed in Shanghai it was 95 degrees Fahrenheit at 9 at night!  I got out of the car to go into our apartment and my glasses steamed up... at 10:30 at night!!!   Reiteration.... LATE AT NIGHT IT'S THAT HOT!  This place doesn't cool down at all.  The daytime temps the past 2 days have been 105 but feel like 115...  and it's HUMID.  This country is tropical and I'm not loving it one bit.  I have a feeling it's going to be a long month for me!

You're going to need to bear with me here because this Wisconsin-born cold blooded girl is going to take awhile to get used to this heat and humidity.  Actually, to be honest I don't think I'll ever get used to it, but at least give me 1 week to get used to the fact(and complain about) that I'm going to start sweating profusely and my skin is going to turn sticky the minute I leave my apartment.

Also, forewarning:  I'm not sure how many interesting posts I'm going to have in the next month because at the moment I don't foresee myself leaving the apartment these days for more than necessities!   Yesterday, I went to the gym at 7:30 in the morning, I'm pretty sure I lost 5 pounds just walking there...
Like I said... it's going to be a long month!