Just a little heads-up since I've promised a big post on Beijing and haven't done it yet: Tuesday afternoon I was suddenly hit with a fever and I've been down ever since. Luckily no one else has it at home. I won't go into details, but I'm hoping it is just an early flu and will work its way out soon.
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Hi Arienne,
Pat just sent the link for yours and Dave's blogs. Fun reading. I could relate to the experience of trying to find foods you recognize. When we lived in Samoa there were foods I just couldn't get that I had been used to cooking with. It didn't help that we couldn't read Samoan. I had to learn new recipes. When we returned to the states and went grocery shopping, I had forgotten (after two years) what foods it was that I had not been able to get that we used to buy all the time. That was weird. Prices in Samoa were also very high but I had become accustomed to that as well over time. So when we returned to the states I would see food items advertised and I thought the prices were extraordinary and found myself purchasing several because they were such a great deal. After a while I finally realized that that was just a normal price.
I also remember not being able to pick up basic items easily. We needed an ironing board after arriving there. We went to the various stores on the island that carried that type of thing (three I think). Only one had an ironing board. It had a red cover. I didn't want a red cover because I was afraid it might bleed onto the items being ironed. So we left and drove to the next store. At each store we would ask when they expected to get more ironing boards in and the same answer was given every time no matter what we were inquiring about: "Oh, two-three month." So we went home empty handed. By the end of the day I had decided I could live with a red cover vs. "two-three month" of waiting. So the next day we headed out to the store with the red one and it was gone! We quickly learned to purchase something when we saw it, even if it was a compromise, because it would literally be "two-three month" before another became available.
It was a culture shock also to be in the minority. Although we were not the only foreigners we definitely stood out. We got either one of two reactions: 1) they were intrigued and wanted to touch Katie's blond hair and tell us how cute she was although they routinely thought she was a boy even though she was wearing pink from head to foot, or 2) they treated us with contempt such as salesclerks ignoring us when we obviously wanted some assistance or another shopper cutting in the check-out line in front of us and then laughing with the salesclerk about the stupid foreigner (we learned enough Samoan words to know it was us they were referring to).
Loved hearing about the Great Wall. I don't remember Coleen telling us about the gondola ride up and the toboggan ride down. Brad and I would have enjoyed both. Coleen's photos of the Great Wall made it more real than the history books/travel books and made me want to go even more. Now your photos of the same bring on the same desires again.
I am thrilled for all of you and this opportunity you are getting. Living in another part of the world in another culture is a great experience. Not only getting to see things you've never seen before, but also experiencing life in a third world or "second" world country really opens one's eyes to all that we tend to take for granted living in the United States.
Hope you get this. Give our love to Dave, Samuel and Grace. Love, Sarah and Brad
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