I have been in Chengdu almost 3 months. Wow it seems both very long and very short. We just received our sea shipment now everything we packed from home is here. As you can imagine what you think you will need and what you do need are not always the same. We are in a very large city so if you hunt long enough you can usually find what you need. In this city of 14 million there is no yellow pages. In fact most shops are small, and family owned so there are no websites. And of course if there were they'd be in Chinese. This means you get things done by word of mouth. When you need a key made for example, either you recall seeing a shop in your travels or you ask everyone you know if they know a key maker. Everything you do is the same. So you may go half way across the city for a service in very bad traffic.
The Chevron Spouses (that is males and females) have a wonderful network and have been so helpful in getting settled. They provide starter kits of dishes and kitchen ware while you are waiting on your shipments and have pages of information on cleaners, hair salons etc. There is also a Chengdu International Women's Club here that functions much like a newcomers club. There are families living here with a number of multinational companies Chevron, Shell Oil, Volvo, Boeing as well as the US Consulate is here. Plus all the University's hire English speaking natives as teachers and there are a lot of people here with various NGO's and religious groups. There are several international school corporations here, Quality Schools International, and Leman are here, I think they are both from Europe. All tolled there are about 8-9,000 westerners in town. But you really don't see them often. And it is still common to run into Chinese who have never seen a westerner. (Laowei, foreigner).
Duane and I went to a Murder Mystery Dinner set in the 1920's. Duane was a gangster, cal you tell. I was a reporter. This was a fundraiser for Hopeful Hearts, an organization that pays for heart operations for children. Healthcare is not free here.There are many many funny attempts at English on signs, I need to start taking pictures. At the same time, I am always so grateful that they have made the effort as the communication issues are really frustrating. If I were in a country using the traditional roman alphabet, I would type the words into google translator and get a close idea of what was intended. Here I cant do that. So my appliances, my tv remote, the heating and air conditioning, everything - has symbols I cant understand. When I go to the grocery, I search for those few items that have more than chinese on the label. I feel very triumphant when I find the things I need. In fact that has kind of been my attitude towards most of the challenges. That I will figure out a way to make it work. I couldn't find teriyaki sauce so I found a recipe, hunted down the ingredients and made my own. I cant find sour cream so Im making my own.
A nasty food experiment.
When a baby is a month old, the family throws a Full Moon Party. Duane's coworker invited us to the party for his new daughter and her cousin. Duane was a happy man holding two little girls. She cried when I held her. Ha!