Frogger

Everyday so far I have walked somewhere and everyday so far I have feared for my life while crossing the road!!! After living in England I thought that China would be easy, however it's not so much the case. The roads here in Suzhou are large. There is a small bike/e-bike lane on the side, then a boulevard with bushes, then the 2 or 3 or sometimes 4 lanes for traffic going in one direction, then a big large boulevard and another 2 or 3 or 4 lanes and another bike/e-bike lane. I like to say crossing the road here is like playing a game of frogger... I get myself to the middle of a boulevard and then wait for the next 30 seconds. Because that's the other tricky part... you only get about 30 seconds to get across this massive road and to make things more complicated, cars that are turning don't have to stop! It's complicated. I'm attaching pictures of a few different roads and intersections for you to see but the pictures certainly don't do the task any justice! This last picture here is the intersection closest to our compound which I go through on average 4 times a day! My head is ALWAYS on a swivel here!

A Muslim/Chinese Restaurant?

Today I had lunch with some ladies who call themselves the "Not Mommies" and we ate at a Muslim/Chinese place. I'm pretty sure that I've never heard of this combination of ethnicity before but let me tell you the food was great! I should've taken pictures of the food and next time I promise I will. I'm certain I will be going back there with Bill as I know he will love the combinations of Chinese flavors with Muslim spices and lamb dishes! Here's a picture of the outside!

First Night in the new Apartment

So we've moved out of the hotel and are here in the apartment. It's been a long week of cleaning and although we made it to Wal-Mart yesterday we somehow didn't manage to get anything that we could cook a meal with. So what did we do? We ordered pizza! Yep, we had to try it when we saw it. We ordered Papa John's pizza and picked up a case of Tsing Tao beer from the local shop near our compound. It was a very tasty pizza and a man even delivered it to our door! China, you're not so bad today.

The Ban on Black Taxi's... For Awhile!

Alright, so I've made it a week in Suzhou on my own and I've managed to get the apartment to a level of cleanliness that I see fit to move in so that means move in day is tomorrow. Which also means we need some food! Which means we actually have to go to a store now to try to collect the staples for a kitchen. I knew it'd be a challenge but didn't think it'd be nearly as hard as it was. After a few expat events throughout the week I was informed of this great store called Metro. "It's just like a Sam's Club or Costco, you can get anything and everything you need there!" I was going! I convinced Bill that we were going to go together, get all the food supplies we need and then no problem we could move into the apartment on Sunday morning and we'd be all set. So we set out from the hotel and the concierge gets us a taxi, the driver nods his head when I show in the taxi card. So off we go, about 2 blocks away from the hotel he stops, looks at my card again then nods and onward. After about 20 to 25 minutes of driving he slows down and starts asking a pedestrian for directions, I got a little bit nervous, Bill told me to calm down, we'd get there. Another stop, another pedestrian, a U-turn, I'm getting more nervous that we are not going to get there. A THIRD stop - at a police hut, ok we are probably going in the right direction now, whew. 5 minutes later a 4th stop...Okay we're done! I've had it and that is when I pulled out my card for the hotel and pointed, the driver was not having it, I kept pointing to the hotel card... "take me back", he doesn't understand a word I'm saying, finally he nods his head but then keeps looking like this store is going to pop out of nowhere! I'm irritated now and show him the hotel card again, FINALLY we get back to the hotel after about an hour in this taxi. The store was 12 KILOMETERS away, it should not have taken an hour! Now that we've reached the hotel I take a deep breath but this is when the fun part starts since the driver wanted us to pay for the entire journey, even though we never reached our destination. I was livid and walked away while Bill and the hotel concierge got into it with the driver. Finally a small amount was paid and we left. We decided we weren't going to be taking a taxi for the rest of the day after that debacle. Eventually we made it to Wal-Mart, yes Wal-Mart and got a few items, even some oatmeal for a relatively reasonable price and picked up some coffee mugs! We even encountered Tron on our walk back to the hotel! Later that evening we found out the black taxi's are new to Suzhou (within the last 3 months) and therefore the drivers do not know the city. LESSON LEARNED: I WILL NOT BE TAKING A BLACK TAXI UNLESS I ABSOLUTELY HAVE NO OTHER OPTION!!! Time for a cold beer!

China - We've Arrived

China... I'm not sure how to actually start this first blog post as there are so many different ways I wanted to begin, however now that I'm sitting here trying to type them up they just don't flow right! In my opinion this first post is going to be boring, our journey started with a long travel day, but we made it to Suzhou! On Thursday the 28th of February I received the keys to our apartment which was suppose to be move in ready. It was anything but that! The place was so dirty, literally covered in a layer of black dirt. I was horrified. I spent Friday and Saturday collecting cleaning supplies and then Sunday through Thursday scrubbing from top to bottom with Mr. Muscle and bleach! Bill left for Wuhu on Tuesday morning so I was alone to clean all week. It was tough, but thank goodness they have cleaning supplies here that I recognized. Oh and of course it took until Thursday when I was finally almost done cleaning for the gas man to come and turn the gas on so I could have hot water. It's China, I guess that's what happens here. The good news is we have a relatively clean apartment, the curtains finally were installed and our mission for this weekend is to find some food supplies so we can move in!