Nothing as Simple as It could be

Today we planned another trip to IKEA. At this point, I love this store in that they have a lot of western dishware and kitchenware, but for the same reason I love it, I also dislike it, for with two kids the sheer size of it makes it nearly an all day event. I use the word event here, because to many Chinese that is what IKEA stands for. One can find them standing in front of tubs filled with such things like a cheese grater, or melon scoop and they are just marveling and talking excitedly to one another about what the tool may be used for in the kitchen. (They do not eat a lot of cheese, if any, and the average Chinese person certainly does not make the melon into cute spheres.) Anyway, it is also an event due to the sheer square footage of the store. It takes one a very long time to move from one department to another picking up the items that you need. (This is even true with my trusty list and a good understanding of where everything is located.)
So, needless to say when Josh decided to take forever to go down for his morning nap, and therefore was still sleeping at 10am, I had to wake him and head out the door for our trip to IKEA. If we did not leave then, we would never make it home in time for afternoon naps. This morning I was absolutely exhausted (no real specific reason here, other than motherhood in general is an all consuming role), so I did what I rarely do and asked Tom, our driver, to stop at Starbucks. I felt like the typical expatriate, because I always see vans or cars pulled up in front of the Starbucks waiting for people that run in to get their coffee fix. As we headed on, I tried to relax about the trip in front of us. It seems that going into the city to any store other than the Carrefour that is closest to us, is a big trip and I have to get myself mentally prepared for it. The first dilemma I always face is scheduling everything around the boys’ naps schedules. This would be fairly easy back in the States, as I know where everything is, can estimate the time it will take and know of restaurants, etc. that I can stop into should the need arise. Here in China, this has proven impossible to do. As I was mostly stressed this morning about getting home for naps and what we were going to do for lunch, I decide the easiest thing to do is eat at IKEA shortly after we get there. I felt hopeful that the trip would be smooth as we were leaving much later and so I thought traffic might be lighter.

Unfortunately, this was not true and we spent the next hour and fifteen minutes in traffic to get to IKEA. To put this in perspective, we did not hit any traffic on the way home and were back at the house in 25 minutes. I begin chiding myself in my mind for not packing for the boys as if we are going to be gone for the entire day. I realize that I only brought Josh’s milk cup and no back up milk for him. It is near to impossible to find milk here in the city outside of the supermarket. Restaurants do not have it to sell, and so I know that if we run out, we will be stuck. I also realize as Josh decides he wants to eat crackers (I give in to this since the only alternative is the high ear piercing screech that he does so well) is that I did not bring a change of clothes for the boys. If you remember our blog about him getting sick in the car, you realize my very real fear. I quickly try and think if there will be a store close to buy clothes should we need to do so. I realize though that I have no clue and so therefore begin praying fervently that neither boy will require a change of clothes.

We arrived at the IKEA at about 11:20. I needed to make a return, so we headed for that department. The clerk spoke fairly good English, and actually I was a little disappointed, as I had looked up words and practiced how to say everything in Chinese, and was looking sort of forward to the challenge of trying out my language skills.) The only problem I ran into was I had a bag of table runners I wanted to get store credit for, as I did not have the receipt with me. (We originally thought these were placemats, and found out when we got home that they were all table runners, thus why I have a whole bag worth of table runners). I was hopeful since they had the tags that clearly said IKEA that I would be given the store credit, but this was not the case. I completely understood that they required the receipt, but now had the bag of table runners and needed to do some shopping. The clerk suggested putting them in the lockers that they had at the front of the store.

As it was past the boys lunch time, we again stopped and ate. While the boys ate, I ran over the lockers and tried to obtain one. (Tom stayed at the table with the boys.) Unfortunately, when I tried to get one, I did not have the appropriate coin. Tom went over instead, and got it open and received a receipt that was suppose to have a code on it to reopen the locker. The problem was that the code was smeared on the receipt, and we could not read it. Tom went over to the security and after about 10 minutes of discussion, he filled out some form.

We started our excursion around the store and tried to be as efficient as possible. It still took well over an hour, but I was pleased that I was able to track down some more elusive items (salad forks—the Chinese do not eat salad, so this must be why the forks are sold in a separate container from the original set). After making our rounds and paying, we headed back to get the bag in the locker. Although we thought we had worked out the problem of the smeared code earlier, this was not the case.

After another 10 minute conversation with security and some sort of manager (Tom not me), Tom came back to where I was standing and asked if I had the receipt for the bag in the locker. This was not good, I thought. As the fact that I did not have the receipt was the main reason we had to put it in the locker. I tried to explain to Tom that I did not have a receipt, but of course he does not understand English and could not understand what I was trying to say. As I was trying to explain to Tom, the security officer came over along with the manager. I began to explain to them, and thankfully the manager either understood me, or took pity on me, but regardless they opened the locker and gave me the bag.
We then headed to get a detailed receipt (this is needed in China, but for whatever reason it is not automatically given to you. You must go to a special counter to get it.) With the special receipt in hand, we headed out and as I said earlier we were blessed with smooth sailing in regards to traffic. Danny was asleep in the car in minutes, and Josh fell asleep two minutes before getting home.

Tom helped us upstairs, and I put Josh down for a nap, set Danny up with a show on my computer (our DVDs from home do not work in DVD players here, so we must route it through the computer), and began putting things away and doing the dishes.
I made dinner, but the oven never got hot enough to cook the chicken (I am still working on trying to figure out the oven and which fan needs to be on at what temperature, to make the food come out at the right time and be done). So we settled on Papa Johns .
We get the boys ready for baths only to find out that the hot water only gets to just barely warm. (This is a small aggravation as they shut the hot water off completely yesterday from 9am to 5:30 pm to work on “a problem with the water heater”.) Obviously, they have a little more fixing to do. We get the baths done with Dustin using our pitchers that boil water that we keep in the upstairs bathrooms. He heated it a little and then would pour it into the bath tub to keep the water lukewarm for the boys. (We typically use the pitchers to boil the water (i.e.—you can not drink the water here in China without boiling it first) for using to brush teeth etc. We are blessed that our kitchen sink has a high powered filter on it and we do not have to boil this water.)

Overall, a good day, it was just a long one. It amazes me how nothing here is quick or as simple as one would think it should be, or at least with how quick and simple it is back in the US. This I find is all part of the adjustment to living here. I really only encounter it when we venture past our little community and go farther into the city, or when things happen with dinner or the water. While I did not need the extra supply of milk, or extra clothes, I must remember next time to pack a little better for the just in case moments. (Especially with traffic like Shanghai’s) I might just leave some clothes in the car.

Tomorrow we are going to go to the flower market in search of flowers to plant in our flower boxes on the patios. This should prove interesting as we will probably be the only foreigners there. Thankfully Dustin is going to help me out and come with us.