Christmas in England

Hello Friends and and Merry Christmas!

Well, it's the 27th of December and Christmas is over. It was a wonderful time spending it here in England with Mark's family. It has been even better knowing Ben was able to come and spend time with his Brit cousins! They have been having a great time and enjoying taking him out to the local pubs to partake in consuming the local draughts! He has been enjoying that.

The weather has been typical English weather, dreary, overcast, and rainy....but no complaints from me...I'm with my husband and son and having a fabulous holiday! Ben leaves the 29th for Detroit before he heads home to Atlanta. Mark and I leave on the 30th for our return to China. I only have 8 weeks left in China (I leave the 23 rd of February) so I can do my Capstone practicum for the last 15 weeks of school at home. I will probably also work a bit at my job so I don't forget how to be a nurse!! ;) I miss my work family and it will be good to see them. I really can't believe how fast time has flown by! I will be done with school at the end of May/ beginning of June and then I am done! The light at the end of the tunnel is a lot less dim, and getting brighter with each passing week.

Till next time.....

Yowzer...time is flying by! It's December 2nd already?

Hi Again..so it appears we are posting WOO-HOO! So much has been going on over the last few weeks. I will do my best to do a bit of a synopsis. Have gone and done a bit of shopping a couple of times in Shanghai. One trip was with just 5 other ladies. MJ was heading back to the USA and wanted to get a shopping trip in before leaving. We did that on a Thursday, and the following Monday, we had a bus full of expat ladies heading to another shopping area to shop for the holidays before heading back to homelands for the holidays. I have become quite the bargainer!

In fact, my reputation preceded me into the shops! (We call it the "Chopstick Express") Once it's known there are Westerners in the area who are buying...word spreads from shop to shop! One lady said to us, "I will deal with her (pointing to one of my shopping companions) and then YOU (poining at me)...I know you look like tough negotiator!" Seriously? Okay...and bargain I did! I scored 3 bluetooth keyboards for 3 of us who have Ipad 2 for $20 each. I also got quite a few gifts for Christmas and a few other personal bargains! I'll tell you it's a sport to shop here...and I am getting to professional ranking!! :)

Speaking of rankings, my poker club has been busy and fun. It's getting quite professional in as much we have been getting ranked and even have a banquet scheduled on December 8th. I am looking forward to it, and it should be a lot of fun for us degenerate gamblers! I adore these folks who have welcomed me with open arms and make it fun as well as competitive to play poker with folks from all over the world! I always look forward to my weekly poker game at Ollie's. On Thanksgiving, we had Thanksgiving dinner at Ollie's with 2 other couples. It was a lovely traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It made missing it with my family back home a bit easier to deal with. We enjoyed it and our table companions were fun.

Crafting has been busy on Fridays to get things completed for the Craft Bazaar being held tomorrow at a local hotel. It's a charity event that raises money for some local charities here in Suzhou. Mark and I will be volunteering from 12-2. Should be fun, and a productive day. There will be quite a few vendors there as well, so I am sure I can get a few Christmas decorations for the apartment while there. I have NOTHING that even resembles a Christmas feel anywhere! Even though we are going to England to spend the holiday with Mark's family, I need it to feel a bit "Christmasy" while here before we leave on the 22nd. I will miss spending Christmas away from my family in Michigan, but at least Ben will be joining us there! Mark found him a flight from Atlanta to Manchester on the 24th. He will be with us for 5 days and get to spend time with his cousins that he hasn't seen in 8 years! It should be a great time for all of us. The down side is, it will be rough for the family since it's the first Christmas without Mark's mom since her passing in August. It will be nice to see Mark's dad and spend some time with him and see how he is doing.

So that's a bit of what has been going on here. I hope to be more of a regular blogger...let's hope the Internet, Blogspot, and my proxy server cooperate! Ciao my friends!!

Been busy..and frustrated with Blogger!

Hello Friends!

I know...longtime, no postings! Believe me, I am beyond frustrated! I know it has something to do with Blogger and having to use a proxy server to access the internet to publish my musings from this foreign land. If it was something easy to fix...I would but it's hit or miss. The internet over here has been pretty dodgy the last few weeks as it is. So, this is a bit of test(again) to see if this will publish. (Crossing fingers and saying a prayer.....)

Surviving in China...husbandless!

Mark is in the USA, and I am in China. He had to go back for immigration travel document issues. He was supposed to leave on the 10th of November, but we pushed his flight up so he could see a doctor while there. His ankles and feet were still pretty swollen and now he has a horrible rash all over his body! We stopped his meds (antibiotics and diuretic) because obviously he is allergic to something! So, he left on the 4th to head home and I have been solo in China for over a week. It's been a bit lonely at times, but not too bad. I have a lot to keep me occupied between school work and activities with the other expat ladies.

It also made me realize, I have become quite acclimated to living here in China. I can fend for myself (with a little help from Mr. Shen), and I have plenty of things to keep me busy without feeling alone. There is always something I can find to do, even if it's just going for a walk to get a coffee, shopping, whatever. It's a good feeling that I can be in a foreign country and not feel isolated.

I even went and played poker on Tuesday and Thursday. I usually just play on Thursday, but decided to play on Tuesday too. I didn't win, but I had a great time. It's nice to spend time with my poker friends because they are always fun!

The rest of my week...

Tuesday consisted of getting my final paper completed and turned in. That was accomplished. On Wednesday, I had a Tai-Tai outing to Taicang. Taicang City is located in the South Jiangsu Plain and on the southern bank of Yangtze River, close to the mouth of the river. The city borders Baoshan and Jiading Districts of Shanghai on the south, Kunshan City on the west and Changshu City on the north. It was about an hour bus ride for us. We visited 3 different areas of agricultural gardens. A few pictures:

Pretty Finnish Ladies! They have made me an "honary Finn" They even gave me a Finnish name "Key-ah-lou" (that's phonetic spelling because I have NO idea how to spell it in Finnish!) it means lilly of the valley (flower) the national flower of Finland! I love these gals! :)

It was a nice day for it. Not too hot or cold. We had lunch there…here are some pictures of some interesting food choices:

Mark worked late, so I had the evening to just relax and do a bit of leisure reading. Mark got home from work around 8:00PM and we just relaxed the rest of the evening and went to bed early.
On Thursday, Val and I had made plans to take the bus downtown to obtain a bus pass for me. She had gotten one while I was back home and she has become a “semi-expert” on the bus system here and she knew where I needed to go to acquire one for myself. So…we headed out around 10:30am for downtown. We got there and it was very straight forward and no problems. Woo-Hoo! You just never know here…some things are more problematic and you just learn to roll with it. We decided to go down Pingjiang Lu' (Píngjiāng Lù, 平江路) street. We both enjoy just strolling that street and taking in the culture and browsing in a few of the shops. My camera is dead..so no pictures but I have posted pictures of this very picturesque street before. After walking around for a while, it was coming up on lunch time, so we decided to head back on the bus and go to Heidi’s for lunch near home. We hopped the bus back; (using my new bus pass) which proved for an interesting ride. Our bus driver was of the belief that his aggressive driving and using his horn would get us there much quicker! Also, this bus’s suspension was nill! It made for a very comical ride to say the least!

We arrived back to Singha Plaza (about a mile from home). We stopped at Summit which is a market that carries many import items for westerners and picked up a few things here. Then we headed over to Heidi’s for lunch. We enjoyed our lunch of chef salad and ice tea and ate outside. We ran into a few of the other expat ladies we know. It was a nice day. We then headed back to our apartment complex. I made spaghetti for dinner and had picked up some garlic bread at the Franco Papa bakery that was quite tasty! That will be something to get again when having pasta for dinner.
It’s Thursday, so that means poker night! Mark’s feet and ankles are still bothering him, and even though the swelling has subsided, they are nowhere near normal. So, I tuck him in bed with the dvd clicker and one of his tv series to watch and head over to Ollie’s for poker. I enjoy my poker night with my poker buddies; they are a great bunch of people from all over the world. I did not fare as well as last week, and get knocked out of the tournament around 10:00PM. I then catch a cab and head back to the apartment. I get home and Mark is awake and still watching his tv series. Off to dreamland by 11:00PM.
It’s Friday am and it’s crafts at Pam’s from 10:00-12:00 then we usually do lunch after. So Joanna, Val, and I meet up at the gate to walk over to Pam’s. There is quite a big group this week. Ladies are working hard to get things finished for the craft bazaar which is being held on Dec. 3rd. I had to pin quilt squares together for the quilt that is being assembled. As much as I love to craft…I suck at it! So something like pinning is easy for me to do and I really can’t screw it up! J Here’s a picture of the crafters hard at work:




Around noon, we decide to head over to Casa Zoe for lunch. They have a nice lunch buffet. So, 12 of us (some ladies had other obligations) walk over to the restaurant. It was a nice lunch and I had the opportunity to talk with a few ladies I don’t know. It was very enjoyable. Time to pay…where is my little bag with my money and other things? Hmmmm…I empty my HUGE purse contents onto the table…it’s not here. Did I leave it on the dining table at the apartment? My friend Theresa loans me lunch money (thank you Theresa!) and pay. Some of the ladies are heading downtown for some sightseeing and shopping. I pass as now I have to go and find my little silk purse that has not only my money, but my new bus pass, my expat membership card, my address card (I use this for taxi drivers to get me home), and the card that lets me into the apartment building when the doors are locked (they are usually left wide open…but sometimes they are closed, and you just never know when you may need it to get in). Susanna and I head back towards are respective apartment buildings and say goodbye at one of the corners. I head up to the apartment. My little silk purse is NOWHERE TO BE FOUND! I search all over the apartment. NO luck. SERIOUSLY??? I know I had it in the taxi coming home from Ollie’s last night. I am really upset and mad at myself! Where could it be? It must have fallen out in the taxi or out of my bag between getting out of the taxi and walking to the apartment building last night. GREAT…now I have no bus pass, expat membership card, address card, not to mention the money that was in there! Mark calls, and I tell him I lost my little purse and he can tell how upset and distraught I am. He tells me not to worry, everything can be replaced and at least it wasn’t my wallet with my ID or credit cards. True…but I am SOOO mad! I just got my bus pass yesterday and now I have to replace it? Not to mention the other things and the money! I am such an idiot!
So, I figure I’ll turn on the TV and see what might be on…oh and a side note here, to add insult to injury, my Slingbox is not working. No American television for me. It stopped working last week, and after my brother reset it, it worked for a day and is NOT working again. So…Chinese television and DVD’s it is. Mark has to hardwire it to the router when he goes back in November for a week (another long story!) instead of it being wireless. It loses the signal too easily being wireless. So, I turn on the TV to discover it is not working! All the channels say “this channel is not handled by your smartcard” Great! This day is just getting better and better! Mark offered to take me out to dinner but I told him I didn’t feel much like going out and I was probably not fit for human interaction at this point of the day. So, when he got home, we ordered Indian and it got delivered within an hour. Dinner was good and we just hung out at home. I was not good company and that wonderful husband of mine just tried to make me feel better.

I just need to count my blessings and realize that losing replaceable things is really pretty trivial in the big scheme of things isn’t it? Lesson learned… I’m no worse for wear, and I’m still a very blessed and lucky lady to be living the life I have! Hopefully, the weekend will be an uneventful, calm one. I’ve had enough turmoil this week. Till next time…

Monday, October 24th.

Hello friends!

It's been a fun week so far. I did manage to finish my last paper for my class and skipped a couple of things with the ladies early in the week to get it finished. Mark and I had a trip to Metro (like Sam's Club or Costco) on Monday night for some essentials. We decided we needed a wok for cooking so that got purchased along with a few other things. We had a pretty big haul of stuff. Mr. Shen had taken us so he assisted with putting it all in the trunk. Then...we headed over to Zappata's for dinner (burger deal night). Since Malone's has closed...we have been searching for a replacement burger place. While they are okay here...not as good as Malone's! After dinner, we headed home. Mr. Shen dropped us off and we had to get the loot from our shopping trip and Mark's computer bag out of the trunk. What?? Mark's computer bag is there...no shopping purchases! Mr. Shen had taken it upon himself to take it to the apartment for us while we were eating dinner! It was a miserable day/evening too. It had been raining all day. He had taken all our purchases up to the apartment for us in the pouring rain! What a superstar driver we have!
That man is a blessing everyday that we are here! I thank him profusely and let him know that it wasn't necessary, but very much appreciated! Let me tell you, hearing some of the horror stories about drivers over here with some of the other expats...we are extremely lucky to have him in our lives in China. My friends over here love him too! They even realize what a gem he is! Yes...my husband spoils me rotten...and so does Mr. Shen! :)

Saturday, October 22nd

Well it's been a good week in Suzhou. I went to play poker on Thursday and managed to finish 2nd in the tournament from a field of 30. I like it when I can play AND win money! It was great seeing all my poker buddies after being gone for 4 months. I enjoyed myself and I am looking forward to next week and playing again.

Friday I went to Crafts at Pam's apartment. I met a few new people that have arrived while I was gone. We then went (there were 10 of us ) and had a Chinese Szechun lunch. It was delicious lunch and as usual, very inexpensive (3.12) and we had a really nice time. Then it was off to Franks Place. This shop is located down by Humble Administrator's Garden (a very "tourist-y" area. It sells a lot of souvenirs and Chinese trinkets, as well as furniture and tea sets... LOTS of stuff. We (the expat ladies) love going down there. It was the first time I have actually felt uncomfortable while being here in China.

It was very crowded and busy with a lot of people. There were many tourists and I was getting a lot of stares and pictures taken. Ok...fine. I can deal with that. Well ...a few times people came up to me and in my personal space (way too close for my liking) and blantantly stared and touched. I actually began to feel like some sort of freak show! I told some of the others...I need to get outta here! They were sympathetic and understood. The blonde hair and green eyes on this chick just fascinated some of these Asian folks! Thank goodness Mr. Shen was nearby and came to fetch us fairly quickly. It was quite surreal...I never felt uncomfortable like that before. I hope I don't ever again. it was not a good feeling.

Saturday Mark and I got up and decided to head to Casa Zoe for breakfast. Picture on the left. It was very good we stayed a bit longer and had a couple extra cups of coffee while signing up for benefits through Mark's company. We discovered while back home, this year we had NO dental and the international medical insurance pretty much sucks!!! So...we will have decent medical insurance for 2012. Woo-Hoo! We are now off to the medical clinic. Mark's feet have been swollen since he got back home (in the U.S) at the end of September. At first, we thought it was from flying...but it didn't go away...then he had extremely swollen and one ankle was reddened. So, my husband who HATES going to the doctor and/or taking medicine says he needs to go...so off we go. You have to love going to the doctors here. You sign in and you see a MD within 5 minutes. Well, the doctor runs some blood work and figures it's some sort of infection ....so IV Rocephin dose for him...

Well...me being the nosy nurse that I am...I am just sitting there, decide to scope out the room and look and see what kind of medical supplies and "stuff" they have. Mark was truly appalled that I was opening drawers and rifling through things. Hey...they don't want me being nosy...lock the drawers..if it's not locked it's fair game! Here is a few things I found:













After the antibiotic infusion, we got his oral antibiotic (Augmentin) and off we went to Eurofoods across the street to do a bit of grocery shopping. We bought a few things...then it's time for a coffee break at Starbucks where we sat for a bit and enjoyed our little break. it was a lovely day to sit outside and enjoy the day. We got back to the apartment around 3:00. We stopped off at the market to get some produce and chicken for dinner. It's been a good day. Hopefully, the antibiotics will work and Mark's feet will be back to normal soon. He has a follow-up appointment on Tuesday. Let's hope that his feet will be back to normal and he can wear shoes without trying to squeeze his feet into them!
Till next time....