Long Lost Letter

Tuesday, Dec 28th: Well contrary to what we’ve been told about this part of China receiving snow, it’s been snowing all day. It’s 2:20PM and the park across from us is actually white now. I understand it’s not supposed to get above 0 degrees centigrade today. I did venture out briefly with Pukka, another GE wife. I went with her to the clinic to have her ingrown toenail dressed for the 4th time since she had it cut out. It’s been 10 days and I think the reason it won’t get better is because they keep making it bleed every time they clean it. I only told that story to make a point that they do things differently here and sometimes it’s difficult to argue with them, especially when you are using an interpreter who doesn’t always know the right translation going either way. We also went to Auchaun, a department store. Managed to pick up a couple of pillows for the spare bedroom and two more very Asian, but attractive throw pillows for the living room. Our apartment is brand new, so we get to work the bugs out. And there are quite a few bugs. Yesterday was a pretty productive day. Ask the real estate contact, Diane, which is more like a rental management company to try and negotiate the price on a TV satellite dish. Brian and Pukka, a young engineer on the job and his wife from Thailand, got theirs for 1500Yuen or RMB (approx. $183). The company that Diane was trying to go thru was asking Y2500 and dropped to Y2200. I told her I could get it for Y1500. She finally got them to agree, but they said one time and one time only. All this happened yesterday morning and we had it in by 3:30PM. Guess there are some advantages to living here. We also don’t have any monthly charges. We get about 50 channels, about half in English. We have 3 or 4 movie channels, CNN Hong Kong, Fox News, CNBC, Cartoon Network, MTV from the Philippines, ESPN of course they are games that happened several days ago, Disney, then some in Filipino, Japanese, German and French. It’s far better than the cable we had. We only received HBO and Natl. Geographic, BBC and CNN in English. The CNN channel is not what you receive in the states. It’s out of Hong Kong and definitely has an Asian slant on it, but it’s better than no news at all. Hope you all got the word that the tsunamis and earthquakes did not affect us. It is tragic though. Feel for all those families involved. Pukka is still waiting to hear word on a friend of hers from her home land Thailand that got married this week and she, her husband and his family from France were scheduled to go to a resort near the devastation on Sat. for three days. Guess they decided to go despite the devastation. One of the managers at the plant is from India and his home is only 7km from the coast, but it did survive. He didn’t have any family involved either. At last count I heard the death toll was around 22,000 and expected to keep rising. (Jan. 2nd they raised the count to over 155,600 with thousands still missing). Communication on some of the islands is very poor and one in particular does not allow the media in at all, so that will hinder getting any news very fast. Speaking of communication, I am still basically without email. We can use Tom’s work email or preferably send any mail to his direcway account. That address is ToMonaInc@direcway.com. He can access that from his work computer. We have had China Telecom out three times now to get both my laptop and Tom’s work laptop hooked up to the DSL line, but having no luck on mine. The tech told Diane, who told me, that we needed anti-virus software installed because we had a virus. She couldn’t translate what kind of virus because she doesn’t know the word. This is on the computer we had wiped and Microsoft reloaded and anti-virus software on just before we left. It was virus free until we tried to hook up to their DSL line. Tom ran scans, deleted the Trojan virus and then every time he attempted to log on the computer found the virus again. Not sure what the deal is, but we will attempt to get it going still. Not helping my sanity any. So, until then you will be receiving letters typed on the computer, along with my sucky spelling skills, and receiving them the old fashioned way. Tom needs to show me again where the post office is, so I can go during the day on a weekday to get things mailed. My in-laws sent two cards to us from Wichita, KS and the one mailed on Dec. 11th arrived in China Dec. 24th and the one mailed Dec. 18th was marked Dec. 26th. So, who knows how long it might take going the other way. We had a pretty uneventful Christmas day. We did however join in the Chinese Christmas Eve party given by the power company managing the plant. Brian, Pukka, Tom and I ate with the owners and some of the big bosses. We had an interpreter who carefully played politician and only translated each way what would not offend the other party. Some of their jokes were not translated and my comment about Brian stopping smoking because he loved his wife was not either. They had been giving him static about his wife bossing him around because he is trying to stop smoking because Pukka does not like it and because it is not healthy. They looked at him like he was crazy for the latter comment about not being healthy. Apparently Asian men are immune to lung cancer the way they figure it. Like Korea pretty much ALL men smoke and it is fine for them, but heaven forbid a woman smoke. Of course we all have to put up with it. I was really glad that most of the smoking went on in the dining room next to ours. Poor Albert, a replacement engineer had to eat there because he was single. He and Brian switched for a while so Brian could do his duty and smoke a cigarette and make the appropriate toasts with the workers in that room. Also it allowed Albert to sober up for a while. Seems that when a Chinese toasts with you, it’s required to empty the glass. After a while we learned to only let them fill the glass ¼ to ½ full. There was one manager and his Chinese wife and daughter there. It’s embarrasses me that a six year old can eat with chopsticks so well. Decided not to embarrass myself and opted for the fork. I did try some different dishes. Don’t like eel. Tastes like dirt to me. It was helpful to have someone tell us what each dish was. Tom did quite well in keeping his conversation and toasts going as the senior engineer for GE. Afterwards we all went to a party, with a very slim Chinese looking Santa Claus. We, the GE group, had to perform so we opted to read T’was The Night Before Christmas. Didn’t go too bad despite some slightly inebriated changes to the words. Tom & I did karaoke (Take Me Home Country Roads will never be the same again). Of course I did not get too close to the microphone. Brian did one by himself and even though he can’t sing too well, he had fun. Of course some of the Chinese did the same. One guy played the saxophone. One of the Indian manager’s daughters danced, quite well I might add, and the younger one sang 4 very long songs. They had a few bouquets of flowers and every time someone performed they gave them the flowers. Not sure who ended up with them. I won one of the door prices. It’s a framed embroidered picture of birds. Everyone got to pick a stuffed toy out of Santa’s bag. Even got a Christmas tree. It was on top of my piece of cake. Of course it’s only about 1½-inches high. We did have a tree at home over the few presents that I ended up wrapping in plastic grocery sacks. It was a Christmas card with a tree on the front that I had brought from my friend Margaret in Canada. Tom got me a really neat Chinese bottle that has painted on the inside in Chinese “10-0, K2”. K2 is my nickname, stemming from my initials MII that means 1002 in Roman numerals. K is equal to 1000 in computer language, and then add the two. 10-0 is how we always use to say I love you on the CB radio. I know long story, but the bottle is a one of a kind. I think it’s really neat. I had to ask Diane if she could read it and she was confused about the “K” and the meaning, but could read it. Of course we have bought several household things to make our place livable. Had to buy bedding, which consists of a bottom flat sheet and a duvet cover and pillow shams. One of the bottom sheets is sort of fitted and has a dust ruffle around it. That set also has two regular pillow shams; two square pillow shams and one king pillow sham. I used the two square ones as nightstand top covers. We found some cheap plastic plates of substantial size that unlike the blue and white Asian looking china does not etch scratches into our glass top dining table, which we realized may be suppose to be in another engineer’s apartment Still haven’t found any blue plastic handled silverware to match what the owner had purchased only 2 sets of. Got one skillet, one pan, & one slightly leaky teapot, (don’t fill past the bottom of the spigot). The place came with the Asian dishes, a set of glasses, a toaster oven, a microwave oven, a rice cooker that also steams, a refrigerator that has 3 doors (one for fridge, one for crisper, and one for freezer), a drinking water dispenser with hot and room temp water (which has already been replaced), a dish sanitizer (seems to be the rage), and a combo washer dryer, NOTE: no oven. I’ve about figured out how to use the washer/dryer. After the 2½-hour wash/dry I hang the clothes on the provided clothes rods in the enclosed balcony. One rod has detachable hangers and I’ve figured out that if I iron the damp clothes I can get most of the wrinkles out. The washtub is just too small to get the wrinkles out plus with the moisture in there the clothes have a heck of a time getting dry. I can open the balcony slider door to the attached spare bedroom and crank up the heat. Each bedroom, the office and the living area have heaters with remotes for each. Learning about how to operate those still. They cycle on and off, but when the heat cuts off the unit blows cold air until the heat comes back on. When I ask Diane about that she said the company said that is normal operation, because the unit has to rest for a while. That’s kind of a typical type answer. We have 5 more remotes in the apartment. There is one for the DVD player, one for the flat screen TV, one for the satellite dish box, and one for the cable TV. Thought we might pick up a TV for the bedroom and use the cable in there. Oh yes, there is one remote for our huge light in the living room. It has 16 lights with decorative square glass globes (which have had 4 bulbs go out already), surrounded by 12 diamond shaped lights. The remote lets us turn on and off various combinations of those lights. Also in that room there are 12 flouro spots and golden yellow rope lights on a shelf of sorts in the recessed ceiling. We also have the rope lights in part of the hall and one side of our master bedroom. Trust me we are light poor. There are no heaters in either bath or the kitchen, but the baths each have 5 spots above the shower or bath/shower that will dry your hair before you can get dried off. No chance of getting cold with those on. The floors in our apartment are a dark Pergo (fake wood or composite wood) type except for the white marble in the master bath, cream colored tile in the main bath, and dark gray slate tile (minus some of the grout) in the kitchen. We found some foam tiles that fit together sort of like a jigsaw puzzle, like Bill’s car mat for those of you that saw it, that have fake plastic parquet wood laminated on the top. We are putting that in the kitchen, just so we don’t freeze every time we have to cook. We do take our shoes off every time we come in, as do any workers. We each have slippers and extra slippers at the door for guests. It’s kind of the custom plus we prefer to protect the flooring. Friday Jan. 6th: As you can see I haven’t done too well on working on this letter. Sorry, bout that. Not sure where my time goes. Watching too many movies and then doing laundry is time consuming. I have to sweep and/or dust mop everyday. This is a very dusty apartment. I hope it has something to do with the construction around us and improves. The past two days they have been using a hammer drill to make channels and holes in the walls for the wiring and outlet/switch boxes. They drill for a while then chisel by hand. With concrete walls the sound carries right thru to our apartment, regardless of whether it is on one wall of the apartment next to us or the one below. I have to block it out as much as possible. I’m trying to get back at them. I turn on the DVD player and pop in a CD of U2 or Yanni or some other artist they hopefully don’t like and crank it up. If they come and complain I don’t understand them so no big deal. Maybe Shakira from Columbia will be my next pick. There are only 3 apartments per floor so I figure it has to end sometime. The Asian way of construction seems to be to cut corners. Our doors to the office and bedrooms have two hinges per door and places for 8 screws, but they only use 5 or 6 screws. It’s the same with the roll up blinds, only 2 instead of 4 screws used. Some are falling down. Since everything is drilled into concrete or tile I have no way to put in the rest of the screws. We had our pipe from the solar water heater to the apartment freeze up over the New Years weekend. After 3 days it finally thawed out and then the owner agreed to have the installer put heat tape on the pipe. A couple of days later they finally got that done only to figure out to plug it in we have to run the cord thru the slider door on the balcony. We managed to do that and get the door locked and run tape over the gap. Love the way they do things here. Tom worries everyday about the turbines and other equipment the Chinese are installing at his site. I just hope and pray they didn’t skimp on rebar in the concrete buildings, especially since we are on the 21st floor (penthouse!?). Guess it’s no more dangerous than the traffic. I think that since the majority of the drivers have been driving for less than two years, it is just too new an experience for them to handle. Tom describes it as like putting a stick in an ant bed and watching the ants scurry every which way. That is pretty much the same regardless of if they are driving a car, truck, bus, motorcycle, scooter, bike, three wheeled vehicle, or on foot. We saw a bike rider cross the street on a red light and almost got hit by a van and a car. I mean they were probably touching his pants leg when they got stopped. Tom has seen an accident of one kind or another almost every day. There are lots of horns honking and headlights flashing. I think I have it figured out. They honk if they are passing on either side or if someone is running out in front of them. You flash your lights if someone is coming head on in your lane. Guess that puts some sort of force field around you. It’s not necessary to look to the left when turning right or look to the right when turning left. The driver just assumes the other driver or walker will stop for him. I think each of us westerners have cursed, yelled or started climbing for the back window at one point in our taxi rides. We can’t drive here. GE doesn’t allow it, something about our “safety”. Fancy that. You don’t have to mind anyone in wheelchairs as I have only seen one handicap person in the time I’ve been here. I guess they keep those people at home when this society doesn’t have the facilities/ramps for the unfortunate ones. I have decided it’s not a good idea to go shopping at either of the two department stores similar to a Super Wal-Mart here on Sunday. It’s a nightmare. You almost need a valium or a stiff drink to handle it. The aisles are jam packed with no set direction. Then you wait thru 10 to 20 people to pay. If you buy a bit too much it’s lots of fun getting all the bags from the cart to the taxi, can’t take the baskets past a certain point, and then hauling them up to the apartment. You’ve had a good work out after you do it though. It does only cost 10 – 15 RMB ($1.22-$1.82) for a taxi from the two stores or 10 RMB to most of the restaurants we frequent. We’ve figured out some of the city buses that stop by our apartment complex and they only cost 1 RMB (12 cents). Of course we apparently got on one last night that we miscalculated and ended up going the wrong direction. Had to get off at the bus barn and find a taxi. Just one of those foreign adventures, but we did notice a new store we might check out. So, all was not lost. We have gone to several stores that look like a giant department store, but each department is actually a separate store. Still learning about this way of shopping. Brian and Pukka went to Bangkok, Thailand, where she is from, for New Years and to get her toe checked out, check on a kidney stone and why her hepatitis test was abnormal. The last two she was told about when we went for our health exams here. There was no kidney stone and the hep test was abnormal because she has antibodies from having hepatitis when she was young. As for the toe, they took the whole nail off because it was getting infected. We had been told to go to only one hospital in town, not the one she did go to. Also, if it were anything more than a hangnail, head for Shanghai. Guess that judging from Pukka’s experience we should go to Shanghai for that, too. I’m gradually getting use to the environment here. I’m very careful to not consume the water, including ice. Did have one day of being sick, but apparently it was just a 24-hour virus since Tom got it a few days later. I had a skin rash, but after buying soap with a baby’s picture on it and using it I seem to be getting better. We had even originally bought Ariel soap, which we used in Korea. Will try the lotion again that I bought here and make sure I know which one it was that caused the rash. Pukka is starting a job soon here. She doesn’t speak Chinese, but the owner of one of the western restaurants we frequent thinks she can help out with setting up catering for some of the large western companies here. She will get 5000 RMB ($610) plus commission per month. That’s not a lot, but not bad for here and she will get some job experience and get out of the house. Jerry, another engineer, and his wife Sally arrive tonight. This is her first trip to China. Sally has already checked into teaching English at one of the local schools. I would image it will be a volunteer job. I might look into that if it pans out for her. I am looking forward to having someone else closer to my age to hang with occasionally. Actually I have gotten accustom to being by myself. Do wish I had thought out bringing more to keep my busy, but I’m surviving. Getting somewhat inventive with meals with the limited western groceries and produce we can get here and with no oven... We decided that if we buy one we will just give it to Michael, a young Chinese trainee engineer on the job, rather than giving it to the owner when we leave. He was a bit cheap on his choices for the apartment. His idea of an oven was a toaster oven big enough for two pieces of bread. We go out with the group a couple of times a week for dinner. It’s something to do and a chance to socialize. We haven’t had a chance to check out the four movie theatres in town to see if any are in English. We gathered The Incredibles was probably in French since it was titles Les Indestructables. Then it was probably dubbed in Chinese. DVDs are cheap here. Less than a buck each, but are pirated and not sure if we could even bring them home. The movies that have been released on DVD are pretty good quality, but the new ones are just shot in a movie theatre with a home movie camera and the sound and picture are pretty poor quality. I am still working on getting my email working or rather Tom is. It seems to be AOL that I have a problem with. I can get to the Internet to browse or pay bills and can get to Quicken to check our bank acct. I can go in thru Tom’s computer to read my AOL mail. We will continue to work on it. Please don’t hesitate to send news from home. Kathy and Cathi; really enjoyed your letters. It’s nice to feel in touch when we are so far away. Received some sad news this past two weeks. My mother’s brother passed away in Okla. City a day or two after Christmas and then Tom’s best friend, Mike Graves in Wichita lost his mom a few days ago. Mike and Nancy were the couple that came out just before Erin and Daniel’s wedding. My uncle had been pretty ill for some time and Mike’s mom has had Alzheimer’s for some time. I know they aren’t suffering anymore and are in a better place, but I know they are missed never the less. Looking forward to seeing Daniel and Erin in March. Knowing we are going to be back for Erik and Amy’s wedding in April is a big help, too. Breaking it up into segments makes it easier to tolerate. My only worry is the dogs and the birds. I know they are lonely. Hopefully Erik and occasionally Erin and Daniel are giving them the love they need. Guess Erik let the birds out for 2-3 hours the other day and they just sat on him the whole time. Chang-chi doesn’t want to get out of Erin’s lap when she’s there, but he’s kind of been that way even when I’m there. Ghoulie is always rubbing her head under your hand when you are in the utility room and Gadget just paws you to death when he sees you. Well I will make every attempt at writing more often so these letters don’t end up being a short book. Love and miss you all very much! Thinking of you, Mona and Tom