A Day in the Life of the Arnolds

Our recent adventures into the world of medicine have, like all times of stress, allowed us to appreciate even more what we have. No time is better to look around and appreciate life than in the fall, my favorite season. Not to trot out all the usual platitudes about the seasonal circularity of life—birth, death, and rebirth—there is still something really exciting about this time when plants go into dormancy, when we can look back on a year of change, assess events in the recent past and look forward to weather, cozy days inside, soup, and all the usual things I said I wasn’t going to go into. Fall has been spectacular here so far. Not many leaves have started changing yet, but those that have are in reds and yellows, the sky has been blindingly blue and the air is crisp and scented with “change,” if that makes sense. Our heat has been turned on so we no longer have to experience first hand the great dips in temperature at night; everyone is healthy and we had a great week of balance—lessons, outdoor time, good food, great visiting with friends. And so in my excitement at having returned to our “boring, mundane life,” I thought I’d share with you one of our typical days: yesterday, October 19.

Like all mornings, the first thing I did was two loads of laundry, getting them up on the line as soon as possible in order to take full advantage of the “greenhouse” effect of our balcony. Being on the fourth floor, facing south, has been a terrific asset—with the windows closed, the sun beats onto my little balcony and warms it up wonderfully, drying my laundry before mid-afternoon and providing me with a great afternoon reading spot (think cat in a windowsill, that’s me whenever I can get out there for a little quiet time).

It's not pretty, but there it is: all my laundry.

The kids ate breakfast: croissants, jam, and nutella (the latter is German-made, the jam comes from Spain, and the croissants are made in Hohhot, so at least one item isn’t off the charts in carbon imprint) and Dave and I had our usual yogurt and tea.

Nutella lips and pajamas.

Dave then went off to teach two classes. This week he has had to sit through cooking demonstrations, an exercise in which the students are supposed to describe in English what they are making. This has been a little rough, since the students are generally not very fluent in English, and most of them don’t cook, so they must do two hard things at once. At least he was done with class by lunch.

After a lot of wrangling to get the kids showered, dressed, and teeth brushed (it is amazing that they still contest teeth-brushing; since when was it ever an option?), we settled down to lessons.

Grammar...

...and math.

Shortly after the photo with Samuel and his math book, he had his usual morning meltdown, this time because he realized it was October 19, getting closer to Halloween, and he isn’t going to get to have a homemade costume and go trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. He is also not sleeping very much lately, so these meltdowns are usually helped along by fatigue—he took an hour nap soon after, with his shuffle plugged in his ears, listening yet again to the Beatles. He did eventually finish his lessons, as did Grace, an event that never ceases to make them jubilant.

We are trying to get into a routine of going out after lunch for exercise and fresh air. This is a great time of the day for us because most people are eating and then having a rest at home so there are fewer people out on the streets and in the stores. On this day we all went across the street to Inner Mongolia Normal University (IMNU), the kids and Dave on bikes, me on foot. While I went around and around the track, walking as quickly as I could, they rode around campus a bit, then the kids ran the track, practiced long-jumping, and generally wore themselves out.

The smaller of the two tracks, just right for walking.

Samuel in the "forest" part of IMNU.

We went back home just as the school kids returned to school (i.e. big traffic jam and lots of honking horns), workers returned to work, and students flooded back out of dorms and cafeterias. We had arranged to make our second ever visit to the import warehouse, which I posted about back in August, I think. Dave had never been and we were eager to stock up on some things. We went with Vanetta from upstairs and Abby, a new arrival with her husband Tim and 2 month old son Caleb—these two didn’t go with us, though. Because we were so many, we took two taxis, which made for an interesting time trying to get back, as the warehouse is way out on the fringes of town, not a place of great taxi traffic. Anyway, we did a huge shop for Western goods where among other things we picked up: a gigantic block of mozzarella to split three ways, a big block of white cheddar, pancake syrup, jam, tea, canned beans, mustard, butter, tortillas, cereal, Tabasco sauce, pasta, Vietnamese chili garlic sauce, olive oil, and more nutella. (As I write this I think about Laura and Mary Ingalls, going to town with Pa—obviously we are in a much more modern situation, but going to the warehouse certainly affords us great wonder and delight.)

Vanetta, Grace, me, Samuel, and Abby, going shopping.

Coal for winter heating, in the alleyway at the warehouse--this is a common sight nowadays, with winter cold fast approaching.

Pondering my purchases so far, while waiting for the cheese. Yes, those are tortilla chips, not organic, baked, or salt-free.

And even though the computers were working this time, it still took at least an hour to “check out”, which put us at a three-hour shopping trip and slightly stressed out Abby, whose son back home wasn’t easily taking the bottle she’d pumped, thereby giving Tim a bit of a hard time. It all worked out in the end, though by the time we got home it was well after five and everyone was hungry.

The lady on the left, the man with the hat, and the lady with the orange hat are all helping us look for a taxi. Not much luck at this point.

One thing that I know we will all miss here (I know, it’s too early to talk about missing things, we still have a little more than four months left) is the easy ability to go out to eat cheaply and well, and the company we easily find with whom to share our meal. We went down to the little street by our apartment for dinner with Tad and Marsha and nearly one-year old Carter, and Vanetta, and had a terrific meal, stuffed ourselves, and spent about $9 total on dinner. It was only last night and I’m already starting to salivate, thinking about the food we ate.

Carter's head, Marsha, Tad, and Samuel at one table.

I'm closing my eyes in a fit of food bliss.

We finished out our day with movie night, though without the popcorn as everyone was way too stuffed to fit anything else in.

If you have actually managed to stay with me through this whole day, and haven’t fallen asleep over your keyboard, I hope I have been able to convey the fullness of our days here, the joy we take from friends, the city, the food, and finally and most importantly, the fact that despite small quarters and initially reluctant children, we are thriving in Hohhot and glad for the opportunity to be here.