Our Arrival in Chengdu!

Hello everyone~

After a very long day of travel totaling 21 hours, we finally made it to Chengdu last Saturday evening. Since then, we have been going nonstop trying to get everything set up, including our China bank accounts, our cell phone accounts, our home WI/FI internet service, and admission to little Harley's school, QSI, as well as dealing with a bit of house drama. It's easy to forget just how much setting up a house entails, but let me remind you, it is tremendous.

One of the first places we went to was QSI, (Quality International Schools) where Harley will attend school. We interviewed with the Director of the school, Mrs. Karin Knoll, (who is a WONDERFUL woman!) and had a terrific tour of the grounds. The curriculum for the school is western based, and he will have a sound daily academic structure which includes music class, science class, Chinese history and culture, Mandarin language class, English reading & language class, math class, and PE. We thought he may have been a bit overwhelmed by it all, but by the end of our time at QSI, Harley couldn't wait for school to start, and had already met and made friends with a fellow classmate who popped in for a visit! He's really looking forward to all the school has to offer, including playing basketball for the school as well as ping pong and other sports. Additionally, QSI offers a "Green Group" which both the students and their parents can participate in, because (on the whole) the school itself is extremely ECO-minded! For all of these reasons, we feel very good about our decision regarding the choice of school for Harley, and know that he will have an amazing experience!

Harley Jr. began to work immediately, last Monday, and is settling in nicely. He has already had a scrimmage basketball match one evening after work with some Intel co-workers, and is looking forward to playing Rugby with some friends we've made here. On the whole, he likes his job and his new boss very much. The only thorn in his side is that, although Intel has shipped his "office" from the Chandler site, he decided against shipping things he thought would be common place in Chengdu. As a result, little things like a stapler or a piece of tape, turn out to be valuable commodities here in China and this is bugging him a bit. He will be requesting that those items be shipped to him from Chandler, beginning next week! :P

My class at ASU begins the same time as Harley's school, August 21st. I'm really looking forward to it because the class is "Cities and Civilizations - South East Asia"! I couldn't believe it myself, to be able to study the very region we are currently living in is truly a blessing. I only wish I had signed up for more than one course this semester, but everything for a reason. Besides, there's always next semester.

Among the first experiences for us this week was an outing to a local, ex-pat dinner hangout at a restaurant called Peter's Tex Mex. The menu was rustic, simple and very familiar, and their desserts were fabulous! They have a large, lovely patio in the front of the restaurant, but it began to rain 5 minutes after we sat down. Now, keep in mind that we are used to Arizona rain, which most of the time, and with the exception of monsoon season, pulls in and passes without much of a fuss. This, however, was Chengdu rain, and when it first began to fall we made the wise choice of following the locals initiative and high tailing it indoors... which was a good thing. The rain was so tremendous that we saw paint all over the streets and sidewalks that had been washed off the buildings during our walk back home after dinner. WOW!

To be sure, there are a lot of places to eat in China, and last night we ate at another terrific place (the name escapes me now) which was recommended to us by our driver, Tony. To us, on the outset, it looked like a very upscale Chinese restaurant with valets greeting you upon your arrival and a long white and gold winding staircase that lead us up to the restaurant itself. After being seated at our table, our hostess brought over the menus, which reminded me of a magazine, with full page color photos of all the food they have to offer. All of the items (with the exception of meat, of course) are seasonal, and the variety of items available was vast. We chose our items (6 dishes... we'll learn!) and away our hostess went. The food was quite simply amazing and we ate until we couldn't fit another bite in! When the bill came we were stunned to learn that our meal had only cost $20 U.S.! Yes, I think we will be very happy here!

A little bit about the house:

We are in a lovely, four story house that totals 3000 sq. feet.
The first floor is where both the front and back entry doors are located, as well as the garage, utility room, (with China potty) and maids quarters. The entry way opens up to an expansive living room and small, all-glass sun room. The ceiling of the living room is vaulted, and shoots up 20 feet to the second level where a gigantic chandelier hangs.

A winding staircase that hugs the wall leads you up to the second level, were you find the dining room, the kitchen, “under the stairs” storage closet, and a good sized balcony.

The third floor hosts the master bedroom and master bath, little Harley's bedroom, and a guest room with a full common bath. Our Master bedroom is quite spacious and has a small patio as well as a built in closet and large satellite television. The master bath is very large and holds a walk-in closet, a large whirlpool bathtub, double sinks and a glass encased shower that's twice the size of ours in AZ. Little Harley's bedroom is large as well, and he has a large picture window with a built in bench that sits close to the floor. He also has a built in bookshelf which now display his Bionicles! He loves his new space, and is already finding permanent places for all of his items. The guest bedroom is good size also, and holds a large picture window and built in closet as well.

The fourth floor is my favorite! It has a large guest room with built in closets, an office with built in bookshelves, and personal bath connected to it. There is also a large, 1000 sq. foot patio complete with trees, bushes, flowers and a fish pond! There are five Koi and 4 little black fish... and yes, we have named them all! The pond is lovely and even has a waterfall. We feed the fish about once a week and I water the plants every other week, although our maid will take over the duties of watering when she is hired on.

Apart from the two nights we ate out, I have been learning how to use a new kitchen. Although, I fear I may still need some vital items, such as a can opener! Our landlord was gracious enough to leave us a wok and a rice cooker. The wok has come in handy, but the rice cooker has Chinese instructions and so, I will need further assistance to use it. None of our items that we shipped from home have arrived yet, so we are making due with a skillet bought from IKEA and a medium stock pot, also left to us by our landlord. The kitchen is stocked with a 2 burner gas stove and hood, a microwave, a large and lovely side by side refrigerator, a double-decker oven and a washer/dryer combo unit. I managed to find my way through to use the washer, but enlisted the help of the landlord’s daughter, Vicki, when it came to the dryer setting.

Because we've been on our own during the day this week, little man and I have had the job of "scouting" out the local things during the week. I'm ashamed to say that we haven't really been out and about as much as we'd hoped, we've really only been to IKEA (which after three visits, I am beginning to get a bit sick of!) and two grocery stores, Auchan & Carrefour. Both grocery stores are huge, and Carrefour hosts an import section, complete with Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes @ $6.00 US per box! Both stores offer a few western-recognizable items such as milk, bread, pasta, (also in the import section @ $3.00 US per package) and carry the largest selection of fruits and vegetables we've ever seen. These sections are massive, and there is usually a person up on a foot ladder shouting sale items over a megaphone. It's pretty cool! The meat section is an experience as well, and carries every part of every animal they offer. Some of it is dried and some of it is packaged. So far I have only purchased chicken breasts because I have not had the time to slowly peruse the meat section. However, I found that chicken breasts are among the cheapest priced items offered in either market as the Chinese people prefer the other parts of the chicken and, so, consider the breast meat to be "not so" prime. I think I paid $1.50 US for four breasts... SWEET

Well, it's time for me to close. I hope I answered all of the questions everyone posed to me via email... I tried to cover pretty much everything. If not, I'll get them answered as soon as possible! It is now Saturday morning for us (10:07am) and this is the first day that we all have together so we plan to make the most of it. We hope this post finds all of you well and happy. Talk to you soon!



Love,
Lisa & the Harleys

PS: By the way, the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games was absolutely gorgeous (we watched it on television) and a great source of pride for all Chinese people! We hope you all were able to watch it as well. Cheers!