Little Apartment on the Prairie

I'm sure we've all read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. When my HHE arrived, I was happy to unpack my set and start reading them over again. It's been about 20 years since the last time, and my modern, crowded, urban setting made me crave an escape to the idyllic old days. As I read, though, it was amazing how I wasn't so much looking out through a window as looking at myself in a mirror. Shenyang might as well be the prairie out west.

Okay, so when I tried to explain this to a 9-year-old at church this morning, she thought I was completely nuts. I don't draw water from a stream, I didn't have to hew logs for my house, I don't have a dog, and I've never been in a covered wagon, much less forded streams in one. But in almost every other way, I feel like I'm living in a little house on the prairie.

- They pack up their things, leave the home they knew, and head out for the unknown. Their family comes to see them off, and I can only imagine that their family was happy and excited for their upcoming adventures but also upset that their grandchildren would grow up so far away. They probably never saw most of their family again. But I have skype.

- As they crossed the river, they lost their dog and thought he was dead and gone. But then after they'd given up hope, there he came, muddy and exhausted but happy to be back with them. I hope the other half of my blender makes the same exhausting journey.

- When the Ingalls family settles on their homestead, they have to figure out how to make a life for themselves using the tools that they brought and everything (i.e., nothing) that the new land has to offer. I've brought tools (and heaven knows waaayyyy too many of them) to make a life just like the one I had before. I'll never have an identical life to what I had before-- even if I stayed in the US-- life just moves forward and changes. I've made the decision to live here in China and carry on raising my family here. This life is going to be very different to my upbringing, and I'm excited for those differences. But it's awesome to be able to use my tools to recreate some parts of the familiar. For example, just this week I've finally crossed the threshold of being able to cook something (spaghetti and bread, fyi) that tastes like something I would make at home. It was extremely comforting.

- One thing that's uncomfortable as a modern reader of the Little House books is Ma's attitude towards the Indians. She hates them, fears them, and knows nothing of them. If a modern author were to rewrite the story, Ma would be sensitive of and well educated on the cultures around her, and she would probably be apologetic about infringing on the land that was theirs. But she's honest and unfortunately historically accurate. Pa, on the other hand, is more progressive and understanding. He gives people the benefit of a doubt and seems genuinely interested in the Indians, wanting to learn from how they live on the prairie so well. Since I've made the choice to leave my native culture and jump into a very different one, I hope I approach it more like Pa, but unfortunately, I have my Ma moments, too.

- Two words: crazy neighbors. The Ingallses' closest neighbor was a Tennessee wildcat who wore a coonskin cap. Then there were the Scotts and Dr. Tan, the black doctor who came to nurse them when they had malaria. They're such a diverse little group, and when thrown together, the match isn't always perfect. Mr. Scott collapsed in their well, you remember. But they learn from one another and help each other out when they can. That's our little expat community here in a nutshell. Our apartment complex held a BBQ last night, and we got to meet many of our neighbors: Germans, French Canadians, Japanese, English, Indonesians, Americans, and Chinese (of course). Many of us speak English. Some of us speak Chinese. It's fun to meet new people, and it's such a treasure to find someone who speaks your same language! We all don't have that much in common, but we're somehow neighbors and friends.

- After all the time and work invested in their little home, at the end of the book, Laura and her family have to leave. One day they're putting glass in their windows and planting a garden, and the next day they're packing up and moving on. I'm working hard to make my little apartment on the prairie into a home. Our family lives here, and it's where my little girls are going to do some of their growing up. But in the end, we're going to leave. Sure, we'll take our covered wagon full of our things, but we'll leave part of our work behind us. Our crazy neighbors will go their own ways, and life will move on.