The Afternoon Adventures in China

Well, the one thing that is quite certain about life in China, is that what would just be routine, even mundane in the US almost always turns into quite the adventure (i.e.--pain in the neck). Let's take this afternoon for example--going to the atm and cooking dinner.



These at first glance do not seem like difficult tasks, and I must admit I never gave them much thought back home, but here I am continually surprised.



The ATM


We wanted to sign Danny up for his soccer class today and also mail off some drawings he had done for his cousin. Both of these required me paying in cash. I figured we would just stop into the atm machine near the office and be on our way. Unfortunately, the office staff told me the atm machine was out of order. In addition, she went on to say that the man who came to work on it today could not fix it and that someone with more knowledge needed to look at it. This of course translates into us being lucky to be able to access the machine sometime tomorrow afternoon. While we did not need the cash right away, I thought it would not be too hard to walk to the clubhouse in the community next to ours.

After Josh woke from his nap, we headed out. In hind sight, what I should have done was walk out the front door and return immediately to the air conditioned lobby upon feeling the heat and humidity of the afternoon. However, my determination sometimes translates to stubbornness--I guess Dustin isn't to blame for the sheer amount of this that Josh has after all. (I will eventually learn to not leave the house on these days--apparently it is not today though). So we walked ever so slowly there (mostly because Danny is trying this new no nap thing, and he is incredibly slow--like a turtle). When we finally arrived a nice lady directed us around the corner to the atm. I slid my card in and hit the button to request English. Unfortunately for the first round, the machine chose to ignore me and give everything to me in Chinese. It finally spit my card back out and I tried again. This time it would only give me the choice of checking my balance. I did this and was rewarded with the ability with choosing to continue. I therefore hit this button and for a few seconds (I do not exaggerate here) it flashed the ability to withdraw. Apparently, I did not hit the button fast enough, and it spit my card out. I go through the entire process again, only to be rewarded with a notice that there is some error. So, after the hot walk over, we leave with no cash and head home. You got to love banking in this country--it makes the the crazy idea that we all laugh at in the States of stashing it under your mattress sort of appealing.



Dinner

On the way home we stop into the little market at the clubhouse. Dustin is going to be out tonight (surprise meeting set up this morning--got to love his schedule--look for blog on this in the future). I had decided to do a chicken pot pie--mostly because it is fairly easy to make and Dustin will not eat it. I was looking for my last ingredient--either biscuits, pie crust or something else to make it into a pot pie. I was excited to see there was puff pastry in the small cold section of the market. We headed home and I hooked the boys up with Sesame Street, mostly in an attempt to not have a repeat of Josh sitting in the middle of the dinning room table while I attempted to make dinner (see blog from this morning). This of course only partly worked, so I was still fighting him off in the kitchen from opening cabinets (no such thing as kid safety stuff here in China). I finally got everything set up and in my tiredness forgot two things. First I usually cook the chicken before hand and second, I usually keep the kids chicken out. Tonight, I without even thinking tossed the raw chicken into the cooking sauce and vegetables. I debated ordering pizza, until I remembered I did not have any cash, then I focused on the only place that does not need cash and is close--the clubhouse. Yet, the thought of one leaving the house in this heat did not appeal to me, nor did dragging two tired kids to a restaurant by myself. So, I silently prayed that the dish may turn out in the end.

Thankfully, the chicken did cook in the broth, and I set out to tackle my next problem. No rolling pin. I apparently, in not making many pies, etc yet, did not purchase a rolling pin. The puff pastry I had bought needed to be rolled out. I therefore began looking around for a proxy. I settled on the cover for my candy thermometer. It is a narrow tube and sturdy enough for me to press on it without breaking. Of course, when I opened the puff pastry it was quite clearly imported, because one side was dried out and the other soggy. I cut off the dried out part and patted flour on the other side. I finally got the puff pastry rolled out, and put my pot pie together and into the oven. After not quite the full time the package said had elapsed, I went into the kitchen to check on my pot pie. To my great horror my puff pastry had completely burned. Leaving the kitchen smelling terrible. I was able to peel off the burnt part and fish out chicken for the kids to eat. I did this solely because as I stated before, I could not face dragging the kids (exhausted as they were) to the clubhouse to eat. I can say that my pot pie which is simple and easy in the US is an absolute disaster in China. It came out closer to chicken and dumplings, except for the additional vegetables found in a pot pie. Oh well, at least it was fairly edible. I could not help but think that I hoped Dustin was having a better meal out.



Overall, I am counting the minutes to put the kids to bed. I am exhausted from last week without our ayi and she was not here again today (we believe she said on the phone that she was driving home today and will be there tomorrow). I can only pray this is true, as I am quickly finding out that with this disease, I just do not have the energy to take care of the kids and this house as well. I currently am bordering on being so tired the room is spinning and wanting to throw up. I guess I will read the boys some stories and get them in bed. They currently are running around the room trying to tackle each other--if only they could funnel me some of that energy.

Okay, we are off to story time and all of our bedtimes. Tomorrow is a long day for Danny as he goes until 3:30, I hope it goes well.