On late night snacks and settling in again

I'm sitting here at my computer eating a bag of potato chips, which is something I would scold my husband for doing. I needed something crunchy-salty. You know how at night you either crave crunchy salty snacks, or sweet and smooth ones? I do. I was delighted to find an avacado at the market and was going to make guacamole (my favorite homey snack of the past few years) but it was rock hard. (By the way, my mom's guacamole is the best-- add lemon juice, garlic salt, onion salt and tabasco sauce to taste.) So anyhow, I'll have to wait another day or so.

But we were talking about China, weren't we?

We moved into our home a week ago, and I think we're doing pretty well all things considered. We have electricity, phones, internet, food in our kitchen... All the basic necessities. Oh, and a washer and dryer. I discovered when I went to do our first load of laundry that the washer has no water temperature selection. That's right--every load is cold. I just assumed (that was my problem right there) that when I bought the thing, that one of those buttons with Chinese characters was for water temp. I don't know how clean our clothes will be getting, but no need for sorting!

Jim left this past Sunday, and he will return the 26th. Yikes. I have had those moments when I'm pushing the double stroller up the ramp of a major highway overpass, and I say to myself "Did I really just move to another foreign country, and have we really just been in our home one week, and did my husband really leave 4 days later, and why am I crossing this highway anyhow??"

Language re-acquisition is painful. I just had a 30 minute conversation on the phone with a lady in Chinese. Before you are impressed, know that the only reason it took 30 minutes was because I had to keep saying "qing shuo man yi dian" (please speak slower) and "qing shuo jian dan yi dian" (please speak more simply).

I did take a few pics out our window on a clear day. So far there have been 2 of them (clear days, that is). This may give you a feel for our community:

Not bad, huh? This little "play area" downstairs is full of adult exercise equipment. It's standing room only from about 4-6am when all the grandmas and grandpas are out getting their morning exercise! (The sun rises at 4:30; WHY?? Because China is one big time zone. The same geographic width spans 5 time zones in the US. We are the furthest east, so we get up first!)

OK; I better go. Maybe my avacado is ripe now.