Update #4

House Elves

Yesterday was our ayi’s first full day with us. For all of you outside of China, an ayi is, for all intents and purposes, a house elf/slave like Harry Potter’s Dobby*. She works at least 40 hours a week for such a lowly pittance that I am embarrassed to broadcast the amount.

In Beijing, I have been told I am paying her too much. This is quite a hot topic among the expats, so we will move forward immediately…

[I will say that $100 a week is considered astronomical!]

The best news concerning our house elf is that she returned to work this morning despite meeting the dogs yesterday.

An aside: ayi means auntie in Chinese; Ma is our ayi's last name. I am not actually sure that I should be calling her Auntie Ma, but I have nothing else to call her beside Dobby. That somehow seems cruel and unusual as well as horrifically non-p.c. Maybe, though, I should call her Comrade Ma. Now’s that’s Chinese! Hell, maybe ayi means Comrade in Mandarin and the government lies to us capitalist foreigners about the “auntie” definition.

Before I go on, you have to remember that the Chinese do not have large pet dogs. They EAT dogs! Lug Nut, our slim 100-pounder, could be skinned and salted down to feed a family of four throughout the winter months with enough left over for the annual summertime barbeque!

So…Ma Ayi silently let herself into the house yesterday morning and was immediately charged by 200 pounds of yellow, slobbering (not slathering) Labrador. They actually cornered her in the empty foyer.

She blindly grasped for the door handle, but it was just out of her reach.

Her fingers tips tickled the shiny brass knob.

She saw her life flash before her eyes, which were rolling back in her head in horror.

There was a light at the end of the tunnel.

She saw that dude Peter (?) (Paul?) at the pearly gates. Oh, no. That was just me rushing forward to save her from the jaws of death.

Ma Ayi did not scream. She did her country proud.

Nor did she need to borrow fresh underpants.

I joyfully felt like we were off to a good start!

Hmmm…at least she did not ask for underpants (not that I could understand her if she did). Nor did I see a puddle. But she did do laundry rather quickly thereafter and mop the floors immediately.

Yes, let’s talk about the laundry and the mopping. Ma Ayi puts the Brady Bunch’s Alice to shame! In quick succession, each and everyday, she will:

1. finish cleaning dinner remnants from the night before. You know, like emptying the dishwasher, taking out the trash…
2. clean the breakfast dishes while my coffee is still hot
3. scrub all 5 bathrooms although we only use 3. She SQUEEGIES the glass shower stalls! EVERYDAY!
4. remake all the beds that I have already made. Clearly, I do not have the artistic touch.
5. start the laundry
6. vacuum and dust the entire house—all 4 stories
7. mop the entire house--all 4 stories.

HOLY CRAP!! It’s only lunch time and she is here for another 5 hours! Ah yes….the next five hours. What on God’s red Earth did she do?

How lucky are we? She made an excellent dinner for us! She is from the famous Sichuan (or Szechuan) Province of China. This is what Wikipedia says:

Main article: Szechuan cuisine

The Sichuanese are proud of their cuisine, known as one of the Four Great Traditions of Chinese cuisine, which now is famous all over the world. Szechuan cuisine is of "one dish, one shape, hundreds of dishes, hundreds of tastes", as the saying goes, to describe its acclaimed diversity. The most prominent traits of Sichuanese cuisine are described by four words: spicy, hot, fresh and fragrant.^[19]Two famous Sichuan chefs are Chen Kenmin and his son Chen Kenichi, who was Iron Chef Chinese on the television series "Iron Chef".

We’ve got to admit: her food is spicy, hot, fresh, and fragrant! Lots of ginger and garlic, red pepper, and maybe some star anise. Delicious. I've got my own Iron Chef in the kitchen! Ma Ayi’s cooking alone is worth her monthly salary.

Speaking of salaries, check this out:

The Sichuan government raised the minimum wage in the province by 12.5 percent at the end of December 2007. The monthly minimum wage went up from 400 to 450 yuan, with a minimum of 4.9 yuan per hour for part-time work, effective Dec. 26 2007. The government also reduced the four-tier minimum wage structure to three. The top tier mandates a minimum of 650 yuan per month, or 7.1 yuan per hour. National law allows each province to set minimum wages independently, but with a floor of 450 yuan per month.

Not to mimic Lucas, but uuuuhhhh….what did I just write? Let me “translate” to us Americans: top minimum wage is $1 per hour. I AM paying Comrade Ma too much! Damn. And her day is not yet over!

Remember how I was so happy that we started off the morning with my friendly dogs and no screaming? I wrote too soon. There was screaming. A lot.

Me screaming.

Really screaming.

Screaming, “Oh my God! What are you doing?!?!?!?”

My New Jersey accent even made a rare appearance.

“Oh my Gawd! No! No! NO!”

What was Ma Ayi doing? What could she be doing?

I still cannot believe it; I am breathless with fear.

Ma Ayi was ironing Brad’s underwear.

She also ironed my underwear, Lucas’s underwear, a bathing suit, 2 pairs of pants, pajamas, a skirt, a dress and a minimum of 20 cotton T-shirts.

She ironed more in one afternoon than I have ironed in 41.5years. In the US, the dry cleaner’s bill would have been approximately $781.37.

What can I say?

I gotta get her a sock.

A handmade cashmere perfect sock**.

With love to you all and Ma Ayi,

Kimbeijingerly

***House-elves are small humanoid creatures who inhabit large houses belonging to wealthy Wizarding families. They are "bound" to the family of the house, which means they do all manner of menial tasks for them until they die. If their owner gives them an article of clothing, it breaks the "enslavement" and the house-elf is free. For most house-elves, this would be the ultimate insult and they would be shamed forever. However, a house-elf named Dobby, who served the Malfoy family, took a more enlightened view. ** He desperately wanted to be free and eventually Harry Potter managed to trick Lucius Malfoy into giving Dobby an old sock.

I really am blogging...

OK! So I’m gonna do a blog.

Despite what some of you think, this was not an easy decision. I really don’t want the world to be all about me, Me, ME. Plus, I am afraid that with a blog I will begin to self-edit and feel the urge to be politically correct.

(For example, I am already wondering if I have offended those of you who do have a blog! Sorry if I have!)

But this is my Chinese experience and to express it fully and honestly, I do not want to be sensitive and touchy-feely. I want to call a Peking Duck a Peking Duck! And I do not want to worry if you are a vegetarian; or if you prefer goose or chicken or Mu Shu Pork; or ifPeking is the offensive colonial term for Beijing (which I think it is)!

Yet, I am so lucky to have such great people in my life with whom I want to stay in touch.I want to share this crazy, absurd, ludicrous experience with all of you. The problem? I have fewer stories than I have friends. (How lucky am I?!)

If I write you all an individual email or phone you each, I repeat myself again and again and again and am bored to tears! And then we run out of telephone time and I have not heard about you. (And with the 12 hour time difference, telephone time is limited.)

Nor do I want to flood your email inbox. Maybe you really are not interested! Or maybe you are and I don’t know it and I have offended you by not sending an update… With this blog you are in control of how much info you receive.

In short, I would rather keep a blog to cover all the bases and keep you up-to-date. That way, when we communicate, we can talk about real things in your life—not my silly ex-pat life. (FYI: I am now officially an expat, short for expatriate, defined as “a person who lives in a foreign country.”) If I were Lucas I would have put a link in here to dictionary.com! But I'm not Lucas!

If my bluntness offends you, please don’t read. I don’t want to lose friends or make enemies! But if you want to know how I am really feeling, how I really deal with this bizarre world of house slaves and drivers, police interviews and weird medical exams, read on.

I promise I will try to make you laugh. A lot. I cannot promise the writing will always be polished, politically correct, or predictable. I am going to post things as they have been written originally in order to give you a real feel for how things play out.

Invite your friends to read if you find something particularly funny or interesting. Ask me questions! That’s the only way I will know what to write. I may forget details or not realize things are not evident when seen from afar. And most importantly, please, please stay in touch.

I want to hear about YOU and feel connected to my wonderful circle of friends, family, and community stateside. If there is one downside to this adventure, it is that I had to leave you behind. But don’t worry! I’ll be back!

Until then, I’ll be in touch.

(Now posting my 3-ish previously written updates…enjoy the absurdity!)

With Love, Laughter, and the occasional headache,

Kimbeijingerly

Oh, and please read them in order, 1, 2,3... Otherwise they might make no sense. I couldn't figure out how to edit that. Oops!

Update #3: a phone conversation

Finally!! A full night’s sleep! Last night, I slept from 5 pm until 8 pm and then 11 pm until 6 am. I am beginning to feel slightly more normal! But unfortunately for you, I slept through my creative-writing time.

(Yes, we obviously made it to Ikea on Friday afternoon to buy the mattress toppers. Best $300 we have spent yet!)

In addition, I haven’t sent an update in a few days because I thought I had nothing interesting to say. It’s just been the daily grind of getting into a groove. And then I spoke with Lizzie of Wilsonia and realized there are tons of details to share.

Because I have not mastered the Chinese phone system, I thought we could have a pretend conversation.

You: How’s the weather?

Me: Crappy. This is the first day I have seen blue sky since I have been here. And it has not been raining. It has been hot and sticky and stinky and gray—a lot like old gym socks. The air pollution has been horrendous—a perpetual grey dusk with the sun an obscured burning white orb. Very post apocalyptic (which, I guess, is apropos since my world has recently ended).

But back to the air pollution:

What causes it, you ask? It could be the gazillion cars, but it is also geographic location.

Beijing is in a valley (like Cinci) and all the air pollution sits in the bowl. Luckily, huge winds came in yesterday afternoon and cleared the air. I could even open the windows this morning! Maybe we will go to the pool today. It is supposed to be 100F for the next few days.

You: How’s the toothpaste?

Me: Well, it says Crest. It looks like Crest. It squeezes out like Crest. But it does NOT taste like Crest. It doesn’t taste like bean paste or seaweed, though, so I guess it is okay.

You: Have you met anyone?

Me: No one I want to be friends with. Before I arrived, I was warned that Asians (of all genders) had a fascination with breasts (an endangered species here). On Friday afternoon, I was waiting for Lucas at the school bus stop. It was me, 10 Ayis (house elves) and an Asian woman who swore she was from Seattle.

Now I know the word Seattle has no “R’s” but neither did this woman’s vocabulary. I am thinking she is maybe from Seattle, Shanghai or Seattle, Singapore. (Kind of like Wyoming, Cincinnati, not Wyoming- Wyoming,). There is no way she is from Seattle- Seattle, Washington! Leally!

So Friday was Lucas’s first day of school and I actually had on a bra and mascara. (And other clothes, too!)

You: [GASP!]

Me: I know; it’s still August! I should have been in a swimsuit and rash guard on my surf board! But no, I was trying to look cute and make a good impression at the parent orientation at school. Hence, I wore the mascara and a real bra beneath the shelf bra of my Athleta yoga tank.

The mom at the bus stop, who also has a second grader, had a lovely conversation with my breasts. I am sure she could not tell you the color of my eyes or hair (which is looking insanely mermaid-y with its crazy length and the high humidity.)

At first I thought she was admiring my surfer tan, but no. It was my breasts. Clearly, I am not particularly boob-a-licios in the US, but here, I am HOT!

So no friends yet. Unless she wants to be breast-friends. Ha Ha Ha.

J

You: How’s the toilet paper?

Me: Weird. There is no cardboard roll. You have just have to jam the sucker onto the dispenser. It takes a lot of brute strength and then it’s hard to unroll. Hmm. Weird.

You: How was Lucas’s first day of school?

Me: Seemed OK. When I asked him at the bus stop, he looked into my eyes (not at my breasts, which was a real relief) and said, “kinda boring.” He also had a scratch on his cheek so I was afraid he got into a fight.

He explained he was rough-housing on some mats (?) and scratched himself. He was proud of himself and said to me, “But I sucked it up like you tell me to. It was burning and bleeding but I didn’t cry. I just pinched it real hard to stop the bleeding. And the pinch hurt worse than the scratch so I told the kid I was fine.”

This was the explanation I got! Whatever!

He also told me the teacher could have a nasty tone of voice when the class didn’t listen.

Despite (or maybe because of) the nasty tone of voice, I liked his teacher a lot. She was very comfortable to talk with and seems to be a good mix of traditional educator and “relaxed.” She is a marathon runner from Wisconsin (or maybe Michigan, I get the 2 confused), who has just built a house in Florida. Her husband is a gym teacher also at the International School of Beijing (referred to as ISB from this point onward). The two have worked abroad for nearly 20 years! Their only child, a son, is in college in the US and will also become an int’l teacher with his girlfriend. You didn’t think you would get all that info, did you?

There are only 14 kids in Lucas’s class plus a teacher’s aid. All instruction is in English except the 1-hr of mandarin daily. It seems like a good mix on nationalities. The bad news is that there is only one other new kid in the class. I’ll keep you posted…

I may get to know the kids soon.

Mrs. Callahan asked if I would like to volunteer in the classroom, and I told her I was HAPPY to but only with the smart kids. At first I tried to be diplomatic, but finally I was just bitchy and honest and explained that I don’t like stupid kids.

I bet I made a great impression!

Not.

But honesty is the best policy.

Right?

You: How’s the coffee?

Me: International.

I could only find an Italian, very finely ground espresso and a French press pot. Luckily I have all my teeth with which to strain the coffee. Plus, Lucas and Brad were sweet enough to buy me Chinese half-and-half, which turned out to be vanilla yogurt. Once the grinds get caught in it, it makes a nice mocha-flavored dessert!

You: Are you ok?

Me: I’m ok!

There is other news to write, but nothing super important. Brad bought a bike, which is a story for another day. I can say it involved a factory tour with our driver, Mr. Duan who is “connected,” and a very long car ride. And it saved Brad $30 US!

As always, I love getting your emails, no matter how long or short. They help me feel connected in a world where I have been cut loose! Please stay in touch!

I don't care if it is 1 line or 1000!

I love and miss you all! Hope you are all enjoying the end of summer.

Feel free to share these updates, too. Because I am writing to you, my friends, I am more honest than I am politically correct. (As I am SURE you have noticed!) If I offend you or others, sorry. The bluntness is not intentionally hurtful, but diplomacy is not always funny or true!

I’m thinking about a blog, but it seems even more self-indulgent than these endless letters. Plus, if I decide to write a book, these emails are fodder and I don’t want to cut down on my sales. I’m going to need the extra cash for the therapy bills when I return to the US!

(Oobviously I am now blogging with your encouragement. Thanks!)

Much love,

Kimbeijingerly

oh, and our phones ARE working finally fyi but texting is not.

to dial from the US:

• call through skype (a US #) but works on any phone; i will not always have reception though; it depends on our wireless internet (which is finally mostly working in our house).YAY Brad! 1.513.252.2767
• my chinese cell phone number; probably expensive? 011.86.186.1115.8723
• house phone; cheap with the right plan: 011 86-10-804-22091

who has a house phone in this day and age? obviously we do!

zai jian!

Update #2

WHoohoo!

After falling asleep once again completely clothed at 8 pm, I managed to actually sleep until 2 am.

That's 2 more hours than last night!!

ANd I didn't even drink before passing out on Lucas's bed while he took a bath in preparation for his first day of school tomorrow. (Well, that's today now.)

That's some good parenting.

We have officially moved into our house.

ANd I have officially discovered that the CHinese mattresses in our house were modeled on the Great Wall of CHina. Actually, they are imported directly from the wall and are very authentic: they are slabs of hard ROCK produced in defense of the CHinese culture. ANy foreigner who sleeps on them will either die of exhaustion or choose to swim home, knowing that death by sharks in the Pacific is preferable to lying in your own Chinese bed!

Holy mother of God. Camping on rocks with your head on a downhill slope is no less uncomfortable.

I'm going to need a hip replacement!

SO....Thursday was less crazy than Wednesday. That's progress.

We accomplished 4 things.

1. Lucas has determined that foreign people and places smell bad-weird. I could not argue but I did talk about tact and diplomacy. He seems to have inherited my werewolf-like acute sense of smell; Brad, on the other hand, smells nothing.

lucky brad.

2. I became the object of countless sympathetic stares at Carrefour, a walmart-y store, where we took our housekeeper to buy cleaning supplies and household items (like the $100 iron and ironing board which sent her right over the moon!) Ma-Ayee very carefully and deliberately spoke with countless Carrefour representatives and clients as she examined each and every product. I stood by silently, smiling in what I thought was an interested, friendly way. I'm now thinking maybe I looked like a deranged mental patient or a simpleton. (That's a less offensive term for retard, which is what I meant!)

Ma-ayee was either very interested in purchasing the best with our money or she was saying. "Holy shit! This American is such a fidiot that she cannot buy dish detergent by herself!"

Many women smiled in sympathy at the Big AMerican while making hand motions that advertised, "This bleach will leave your floors sparkling and your nostril hairs singe-ed!"

By the way, I also discoverd that the CHinese like to shop in loud, carnival environments that sent me close to the edge of Aspergers--hence my "simple" look.

3. Brad, Lucas, and I went grocery shopping at Jenny Lu's, the largest int'l grocery here. We found many products that closely resemembled our favorites like Marshmallow Mateys, advertised to be "Just Like Lucky Charms." The experience psychologically damaged my child and myself. It was "home," but not! It felt wrong, tricky, like the button-eye family in Coraline. Evil. Conniving. Un-trust-worthy.

In defense, Brad and I purchased many kinds of martini olives, tonic, lime and a bottle of vermouth large enough drown all our sorrows in!

(By the way, we cleverly bought gin at duty free on the way into the country. That was Brad's idea and at the time I didn't understand his urgency or why we had to carry 3 liters of gin in addition to our 5 30-inch suitcases, the long skarte board, the guitar and ukulele. Brad, though, KNEW. He KNEW.)

I also discovered the elusive western tampon at jenny Lu's. Am i sorry that I sent 2000 tampons in my sea shipment? Hell, NO! They sell for about $1 each. I can make a serious profit on the black market and fund my surf trip to Bali that I have been dreaming of for 2 years. I'm just sorry I did not send more ;)

(And what is Ma-Ayee going to think when I unpack the endless Cost-co boxes of tampons???)

4. Our little trio successfully navigated Beijing's Ikea. And yes, it is EXACTLY like the Ikeas all over the world. When I happily mentioned this to Lucas, he, who is practicing his sarcasm skills, replied, "Ya, just like Cincinnati. Except here everyone looks CHinese and speaks CHinese."

(But it did not smell bad-weird and there was a live rock band playing Brad's all-time favorite Jimmi Hendrix song in the cafe! Brad was even wearing a Jimmi Hendrix t-shirt. A sign from heaven! Ok, maybe it wasn't exactly like Cinci's Ikea. Have you ever seen a rock band there?)

It was at Ikea that we made the mistake of not purchasing "mattress-toppers." We looked at them! We thought about them! We decided they did not fit in our cart with the 10 lamps, 2 shower caddies, 2 hampers, 6 towel racks, 2 wine glasses (for all that vermouth), 3 pillows, the french-press ('cause they don't sell coffee makers here), the cooking knife...

OH! here's another commie-fact. DId you know you cannot purchase a large kitchen knife without producing your identity card to the police person who stands by the knives in Ikea? I'm thinking, really, they should have just given us the knife when we passed by those mattress toppers. I could have just stabbed myself to death rather than being up all night again!

Well, until the next time jet lag hits, I bid you all a fond zai jian! Obviously, that is "farewell" in ENglish or "adieu" in French. Damn, I'm multi-lingual!

Actually it is good-bye, but my Chinese is still pretty limited! ;)

Keep in touch, please; you guys are keeping me saner than I would be!

Much love,

kimbeijingerly

Update #1: a compilation of emails telling the whole story

ACK!

It's midnight and I have been asleep for 4 hours -- and I am now up!! Damn!

our day was SO long. we left the hotel at 9 am and returned at 6:30, went to happy hour, i had 2 gin and tonics, and fell DEAD asleep in my clothes.

brad never woke me when room service got here with dinner! all i can say is thankfully i was wearing my glasses and not my contacts!

when i got up, i ate cold room service that brad left out for me. i am now worried about food poisoning!! ;)

Everything went smoothly today though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got checked in at the police department, checked in at the new house, checked in at the compound, checked in at the "clubhouse" gym...

Our air shipment arrived with our minimal supplies. Hope our sea shipment arrives mid-week, next week.

I made up our beds for tomorrow night, our first night in the house. Those matresses in the house sure are hard.

ROCK HARD.

The animals leave Los Angeles for Beijing at 9 pm, your time on Wednesday.... we managed to fedex our passports to the appropriate person today so the animals can clear customs on friday am.

Brad managed to go into the bank to convert the hongkong dollars in our chinese account (brad gets paid in hongkong) into Chinese money so he could go buy kilowatt hours (????) at the atm so that we can turn the airconditioning on at the house tomorrow. we were almost out of pre-paid electricity... and it was freakin hot in there!!

if none of that doesn't make much sense to you, welcome to my new crazy life!

Brad is having trouble getting the wireless to work in the house. I may be off line for a bit. He cannot figure out the right codes since they are all in chinese. he had to prepay for that serivce, too, at the atm.

you also buy gas, water, cell phone service...house phone, and something else at that atm. there is actually no banking at that atm though.... you must go to the bank for that.

We brought half our luggage to the new house this afternoon and will bring the other half thursday am when we check out. That's in 8hours. Hope i can get back to sleep soon.

I would call people but I can't make any noise--Brad and Lucas both are sleeping.

Thursday am we are taking the house elf (oh, i mean housekeeper) to the grocery with us so she can buy and choose cleaning supplies and staples in the kitchen. She is going to cook for us, vegetarian Seshuan. She'll pick the spices etc....Weird. But nice for us!

that kitchen is SMALL though. hardly any storage, and what there is, is strange.

Housekeeper is SUPER nice even though she does not speak a word of english. while we were meeting with the landlord, she "chaperoned" lucas in our compound. he skate boarded and she walked. lucas saw EVERYTHING! and now knows his way around the neighborhood better than we do. lucas said they spoke with sign language.

i was really proud of him for being so brave. he actually went skateboarding on his own at first, exploring the neighborhood, but it made the chinese people nervous ;) that's why ma-ayee (that's the housekeeper) walked with him....she just went along with him when he left for the second time.

we think it's funny how nervous it made our landlord. i wrote our house number on a piece of paper and lucas shoved it in his pocket and off he went!! we were impressed with his adventurous spirit. our landlord was HORRIFIED!! but really? what could happen. it's a gated community with guards! he couldn't get out! and there are no street names, just numbers on houses! he just had to follow the numbers if he got lost! he may act like an idiot sometimes, but he's no retard ;) and he was wearing his helmet....

i must say lucas was positive and well behaved all day and it was not a fun one. just tons of business.

I still really like the house and I think that our stuff is going to look good in it.

our meeting at school was moved from th. am to fri. am. who knows why! we have to be at school at 8:15 friday am for orientation and the meeting with lucas's teacher etc..

lucas's eyes nearly bugged out of his head when we passed the campus today. it is HUGE!!!!

i had forgotten how gi-normous it is!! it is so close to our house though that i still think it was our best choice. it is no further than the cinci house to the library. maybe closer?

lucas and brad may actually ride their bikes to school some ams.

thursday afternoon we are going to go to ikea. we made a list of things we need, but now i have forgotten it ;)

(things like baby gates to keep the dogs downstairs, towel racks--there are none in the bathrooms!, ummmmm....damn what else? oh, bed side lamps for reading. we have no lamps here at all.)

it is so strange that we have to arrange this with mr. Duan, our driver. we have no real spontanaeity...you have to call and wait and always give him a time...

brad's chinese pretty much sucks. (not really, just sort of)

he barely gets by, which is hard to understand since he was here for weeks.... but i do appreciate what he DOES know. ;)

i gotta start studying nOW.

like right now!!!!

ok. i think that's the update.

i can't wait until i am in the house and can call you all and not wake up the family.

my chinese cell phone has no voicemail and texting does not seem to be working yet.

i will deal with that next week.

as soon as my wireless is up ,i can call from the house for free!! YAY!

ok!!

see ya later!

love,

kimberly

BUT WAIT: there's more:

i forgot something re: the prepaid electricity that you buy at the non-atm atm with your atm card:

when you get to the machine, first you have to swipe your "electricity" atm card and then push a bunch of chinese buttons with your fingers crossed to load it with the KW hrs.

and then you swipe your bank card to pay.

first off, brad freaked out and thought he bought 10,000US$ worth of electricity!!!!!!!!!!!

but he didn't so it was ok.

and then...

then you have to go home and "load" the meter with that prepaid card (sort of like swiping a credit card but in your own home at your own electric meter). it took brad like an hour to figure that out!

and no one told us any of this!!

wtf??

what kind of commy-ass system it that?

There's still more:

i know! it's so funny!!

i am still laughing about it!

check this out: your meter is in a locked box underneath your mailbox out on the street.

no one told us that either.

it took half an hour to find!!!

and the whole time brad was gallivanting in the neighbor playing with the atm, it was about 100 degrees in the house and i was unpacking, sweating like a chinese steamed pork dumpling!

(very common snack food here by the way)

Much love,

kimbeijingerly