Dear America

I love America. I love that my kids can play outside while I sit inside and eat corn chips and green chile dip. This is the life! But since I've been gone for a while, I've noticed a few things that really ought to change.
- Use the metric system already!
Seriously, what's the deal with this 12 inches to a foot, 16 ounces to a pound, water freezing at 32 degrees and however-many pints, quarts, gallons, and whatnot? Meters. It's simple. Learn your height, and from there it's pretty simple. Kilograms. It's not that hard, since a half-kilo is about a pound anyway. And how about water freezing at 0 degrees and boiling at 100? Wouldn't that be simpler? Honestly, though, this is the one I had some trouble with at the beginning in China. When the weather said 23 degrees, I had no idea if that meant shorts, coats, or maybe a little of each. But eventually I learned how it felt, not the exact conversion, and it worked well for me. Anything in the 20s is perfect weather. 30 is getting warmer like summer, and 40 is too hot. I need a jacket at 15 degrees, and anything 10 and under, I need a coat. If it says -30, just stay inside.
- Football? Oh please.
Now this may make me un-American, but it's about time we called football football. After all, you use your feet. Soccer? It doesn't even mean anything! American football should come up with another name, since for every SINGLE country in the rest of the world, football is the one that uses your feet. Now, don't get me wrong-- I love American football! It's my absolute favorite sport to watch. But it needs a new name, people!
- Our diet
I can't point fingers at this one, since I eat American food, too. But really, do we have to turn everything into a dessert? There are so many recipes (if you need examples, go check pinterest for about 20 seconds) on how to add sugar to fruit. Caramel-filled apples. Chocolate filled strawberries and raspberries. Chocolate-dipped everything. Banana bread. Why not just eat fruit?!
So yeah. When I first got to China, the sugar annoyed me. They don't have dry granulated sugar by the 5-kilo bag (that would be 10 pounds, basically). The largest bags are these 1-kilo (2.2 pounds. Not hard to remember!) packets, and it's the texture of brown sugar. So when I was in my American habit of scooping out of my huge sugar bin and shoveling sugar into everything I made, I'd have to refill my sugar bin every time I used it. So I got into the habit of using less sugar. That was good!
But now I'm back in America. I love the rich chocolate, the nacho cheese, the general junk food. It's convenient. Once we're settled, though, we'll get back to cooking our own healthier food, and I hope to keep my habit of using less sugar.
- The great outdoors
In Shenyang, there are people everywhere you go. Despite the air pollution (and really because they have no alternative), people are walking, riding their bikes, and being out in the weather. It's not a pretty place to walk, because there is nothing but pavement-- no parks, no trees, no hiking trails. But people are out and about.
In America, there is practically no pollution, everyone's house has both a front AND a back yard. There are hiking trails and footpaths throughout the town, and we still hop into our SUVs and drive to everything we attend.
On a side note, I had this plan that once we got back in the USA, I'd go outside every day. We'd walk, hike, go to the park, and generally enjoy the great outdoors. Yesterday my friend, Heidi, and I took our kids to Rocketship Park. We pushed our kids on the swings, helped them climb on stuff, and then enjoyed sitting on the park bench and chatting. My nose kept running, and my eyes started itching and swelling. Eventually I was sneezing more than talking, even AFTER she'd given me some allergy medicine. It was bad! After Heidi pointed it out, I realized that the park was surrounded on three sides by a forest of juniper trees. With every gust of wind (and it was a fine, breezy spring morning), a huge, yellow cloud of pollen would poof up from each tree and make its way over to my histamine producers. By the time we decided to leave, my eyes were red, swollen, and generally scary looking. We spent the rest of our morning at the library. There wasn't as much pollen, but there also wasn't as much opportunity to chat, since our kids kept bringing us books for us to read them. Ugh! ;)
- In China, they used to have these big communist campaigns to eradicate things like birds, weeds, educated people, etc. I think we should have one in America, specifically in White Rock, to eradicate goatheads. I hate finding them in my shoes, and I hate that they pop my stroller tires. Down with goatheads!
- That's about it. America's really cool.

You know you've been in China too long when...

- You push your way onto the escalator, standing one step behind the next person-- only to realize that you're the only two people ON the thing. Time to regrow that personal bubble!

- Your daughter takes off her shoes before going into the airport playground in San Francisco.

- You throw all your stuff through airport security, get frisked, and as you're picking your things back up again, you start wondering, "Where is the guy that comes by to pick up these empty bins? They're really backing up here on the conveyor belt." You look around and don't see anyone pushing the bin cart around, so after being awake for almost 24 hours already, you decide to just throw your bin on the floor on the other side of the conveyor belt. A crabby TSA employee stops the conveyor belt to snap at you, "We have a place for these bins, you know!" She picks it up and tosses it onto the cart at the end of the security line, right by the exit. Riiiight! No one comes by to pick up your security bin in the United States.

- The first thing you buy in America is a tube of Chapstick. America is a great country!

- You come to a stop while turning right, and you get distracted by how beautiful the stars are. You stay there in the intersection for a while, and no one drives up behind you. For that matter, no one drives by, or even walks by. It's just you and the stars.
- Your toddler walks up to you carrying a small pebble and asks you, "What's this?"
"A rock," you answer.
"Oh, a rock!" She's almost two.

What I'll miss

A few people have asked us what we'll miss after we leave China. That's a really hard question!
There's a lot I won't miss. I won't miss the pollution. I won't miss the loogies all over the ground, and hearing everyone hacking them everywhere I turn. I won't miss the crazy traffic, the noisy stores, or the general overpopulated feeling you get here.
I'll miss my painting class. We have a fantastic teacher who helps us all feel like painting is a reachable pursuit.

The realities of leaving

It's 6:15 PM, and I'm taking a break. I've been sick all week. It started with just a runny-nose sinus party, but now they've all hunkered down in my lungs, and I have this sultry smoky bassoon voice. When I have a voice, that is.
I've only cried a few times today. My best friend, Kumiko, dropped off a letter for me. We usually speak Chinese together, but today as she was leaving, she told me, "I hope I see you again." And then we both cried. Again. It's been a long week. I dropped off a present for her son on Monday, a quilt I'd made and decided to give him for his birthday. She thanked me but said, "This is really a present for me, so I can remember you." I didn't mean to cry then, since I knew I had all week to say goodbye, but there I was. She cried, too, and amidst our blubbering scene, she told me that we'd be sure to see each other again. I haven't been as sad to leave my American friends, because even though we'll all be at the far reaches of the globe, I feel like we'll run into each other again, either in Washington DC or here in China. Once you speak Chinese, you see the same people over and over again. But since Kumiko is Japanese, I felt like I'd probably never see her again. But you know what? Her husband is a diplomat, too. He'll get sent somewhere else for his next tour, too. And maybe it will be Brazil. Maybe it will be America! Or maybe it will be some exotic vacation destination and we'll just HAVE to make a trip over to see them. Whatever happens, we'll keep in touch, and even though we're just two tiny families in a huge world of people, the world's really not as big as it seems.
Which reminds me, I have about 24 hours of travelling to do tomorrow in this "not so big" world of ours. I've been putting off doing my packing all week, since I've been sick. Ostensibly, I've been saying to myself that I'd probably feel better by Thursday and get everything done once I'm well. But the reality of it is that I feel worse today than I have all week, I sound like a frog, and I have to sort through everything I own to send it to the right corner of the globe.
And I'm almost done, I guess.

Hong Kong Women's Conference

I've been looking forward to attending the Associated Sisters in Asia (A.S.I.A) Women's Conference for several months now. So when I decided to change my departure date from Shenyang, a few people asked me if that meant I'd be cancelling my trip to Hong Kong. Um, no! I already bought the tickets, and besides, who says you can't go on a huge international trip a week before moving to a different hemisphere?

We left on Thursday morning, bright and early. I set my alarm clock for 5:15 AM, and then I woke up at 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, and then finally at 4:30, before finally getting out of bed at 5:15. I hate that. I felt groggy and awful, but I was excited to go. Naomi heard me bumbling around in the kitchen, so she woke up to see me off. I put her back in bed with a hug, and it was a sweet way to leave my kids for three days-- which I hadn't done before in their little lives.

We arranged for our Ayi to come watch the girls on Thursday and Friday while Kevin was at work, and then Kevin took care of them in the evenings and all day Saturday. I wasn't worried that they'd have any caloric shortages while I was gone, but I did make a list of healthy-ish snacks and meals that we had all the ingredients for. Otherwise, I didn't do much micro-managing before taking off. 

Four of us LDS ladies from Shenyang got to go: Kim, Cici, Amy, and me. Three of us were on the same flight leaving Shenyang, and because of the pollution/fog/rumoured sand storm, our flight was delayed on the tarmac for 2 1/4 hours. We missed our connecting flight in Shanghai, but they put us on the next one a couple hours later. Amy had worse luck, since she flew through Beijing where the pollution was even worse. And she had brought her baby with her. I don't envy her the horrendous hours in airports! (She also had misfortunes on the way home, including spending a 4-hour night in the airport. I'm not really looking forward to flying through Beijing on our way home.)

So the three of us rushed over to the church building by taxi, and we made it there by 7:05, missing the registration and service project, but only missing 5 minutes of the first meeting. 

The next day was Friday, and I had signed up to play the organ in both the combined meetings. I play the piano quite well, and I have taken 30 minutes of organ lessons at a BYU music camp in high school, making me an expert in all things organic. I knew I'd need to get there early enough to unlock the instrument, play with the stops and volume controls, and hopefully run through my songs and play some prelude music. 

None of that happened.

I didn't sleep well, again, knowing I had an early wake-up call, but I scarfed down my breakfast and made it out the door at 7:30. I didn't see any taxis in the first few minutes of my search, but I found myself at a subway stop, so I took the metro. The only problem was that, once out of the metro, I had no idea where the church building was-- only that I was close enough that any sane taxi driver would laugh at me if I hopped in a cab and asked to be taken right around the corner. 

So I walked.

Hong Kong is lovely this time of year.

The Wan Chai district of Hong Kong. I know it well. Now.

By the time I found the building, it was 8:15. I walked in to find the congregation singing the last verse of my opening song. And that was not me accompanying them, not on the organ, either. During my frantic wanderings, I'd eventually resigned myself to the fact that the meeting would proceed despite my not being there to accompany the singing, but that didn't keep me from plopping down into my seat and crying once I got there.

I loved the conference! I don't gush a lot about my emotions or my spirituality, so when I say that my favorite thing about it was the spiritually uplifting aspect, believe me that it was amazing! The theme of the conference was Proverbs 3:5, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding." I learned a lot about trusting in the Lord, and I found strength and spiritual nourishment from the classes I attended.  

Old friends, new friends; virtual friends becoming real-life friends.

It's challenging to attend our virtual branch of the church. We have a large group here in Shenyang, so we do get to fellowship together. But we often don't hear much of Sacrament meeting, due either to technology issues, or the rodeo of children going on in the middle of the room. Or both. But over the last few years, I've gotten to know some great people, and it was fun to meet many of them in real life at the conference.

Virtual branch members (plus and minus a few)

After the conference ended on Saturday, I ran into some friends on the street who asked me if I was part of the group going to Disneyland afterwards. No, unfortunately! But I was anxious and excited to get back to my family and wake up bright and early to speak in church the next day. 

Honestly, the best way to prepare a talk for church is to go to a 3-day conference and take notes about it. I just rearranged my notes, fleshed it out a little bit, and voila! there was my talk!

I'm so happy I got to go to the conference this year. It wasn't an option last year, with a nursing baby and an older child who was still scared of our Ayi. None of us from Shenyang went, actually. But this year, the four of us who went all had a great, building experience. It was great to have a last big hoorah before we head our separate ways this year. 

I just said goodbye to one of my very best friends.

Souvenirs

Kevin and I have the same philosophy about collecting souvenirs. Instead of buying a ton of trinkety junk (which we've both done in the past), we try to just buy one or two nicer things. We decided to buy a piece of furniture here in China, and we finally did it this week.

Our shelf!

We shopped a few places for it, the "antiques" market by the Consulate and where we finally got it, Bei Shichang (North Market). There are several furniture stores with all sorts of cabinets, cupboards, shelves, and whatnot. Most of them are really beautiful, and it's hard to decide which one to buy-- until you look more closely. We narrowed our selection down to a few, and after we'd eliminated the extremely expensive (and overly ornate, carved, and decorative) furniture, we were left with a few nice ones. But once we started inspecting them, it turned out that the hardware (drawer pulls, etc) were really flimsy and cheap. The joints were kind of hastily thrown together, and finally, the wood itself was really poor quality, though it was painted with thick varnish to make it look decent in the store. Lipstick on a pig.

This one we found was actually in a tea-set shop. They had nice furniture, and like the furniture shops, the furniture pieces had trinkets and tea sets on them. But after a while, we realized there were a few more tea sets than shelves. But the shopkeeper was more than happy to sell us her shelf. 

Not only was her starting price lower than the furniture shops', but the quality was much nicer. She had bought it for her own use, and even after being in her shop for 6 months already, the wood hadn't cracked or warped or anything. The wood has a nice finish, but it's still a natural wood color, instead of heavy red varnish trying to imitate mahogany. And the lines are clean, with minimal frill and fuss. 

Though there is this bit of frill and fuss. Subtle. I like it.

When I originally set out to take a picture of it, I wanted to put something on it to show the scale. I told the girls to just get their toys and stuffed animals and set them all over it. Kevin got home, cleaned it off, and then put our nice pictures and decorations on it.
I'm glad I married someone with an eye for decorating!

Kind of a big deal

So... I've been thinking a lot about pollution lately. It's easy to do in Shenyang.
There's so much light pollution that my 3-year-old, Penny, can easily count all the stars in the sky.  And she can't count past 7. The air is so thick we sometimes can't see the buildings a block away from us. One of Kevin's colleagues was coming back from Beijing last month, but the plane couldn't see the airport to land and had to turn back to Beijing. The water usually comes out yellowish, which is a visual reminder of what is in it, even when it runs clear.
We've adapted. We watch TV instead of the night sky. When the air pollution is off the charts, we keep Penny home from school, and the three of us girls hunker down with the air filters. Kevin takes the shuttle to work instead of walking, because strangely enough, it's healthier NOT to exercise. The bath water is yucky so often that I keep food coloring in the kids' bathtub. If the water's going to be a color, it might as well be blue or green.
But we still breathe the air. We still ingest some of the water. We eat vegetables grown outside in the nastiness, and the meat we eat was raised eating the acid-rain-fed grass. And it takes its toll.
It's one thing if it's just Kevin and me. We chose to come, and we're not growing or developing like our kids. It's sad to hear Penny cough and clear her throat before she sings. And it's worrisome to hear her wheeze after running around in the hallway with her friends. Naomi drinks the bathwater because she thinks it's cute for me to tell her, "No."
Kevin attended a meeting at work about the air quality and the short-term fixes. The Embassy in Beijing is actually bringing in experts from America to see how effective air filters really are, or if they're just to make us feel better about the pollution.
Now, China has always been polluted, and of course we knew it would be when we came. And last winter we left for a couple of the worst months (January and February), which helped a lot. But this year, we didn't leave. Kevin's job ends in April, and it sounded strange at the time to plan a big vacation two months before leaving. But pollution levels this winter were off the charts, worse than ever before. To compare, here is an article from 2007 about the terrible air in the Salt Lake Valley. It was the worst in the nation, and they were warning people to stay inside and reduce their driving. The air quality monitors were reading 47 and 56 in Salt Lake City and Logan. In January, we had a day that almost hit 800. And it was around 400 regularly. It's 216 as I'm writing this. (You can check it right here.) Kevin and I took the girls out on the deck a couple days ago to make a snowman and play in the (brown) snow. We were out for an hour, and my throat was all scratchy and my lungs hurt afterwards.
So after the air quality meeting, Kevin and I talked about it. Long story short, we decided that I'll take Penny and Naomi back to the US as soon we can make arrangements. Kevin will have to stay another month and a half, but we feel like this is the best course of action for our family right now, especially with Penny's wheezing. We have an inhaler for her, and we've seen the doctor about it a few times. They're hesitant to call it asthma because she is so young, and there is a possibility she'll grow out of it. And I think that by getting her to a better climate, we'll be doing the best we can for her. My parents live in New Mexico, which currently has an air quality reading of 3.
And before anyone decides that they could never, ever go to China with its disgusting air, I'd just recommend planning your R&R vacations during the worst times of year. That would be the winter. Thailand is lovely that time of year. We should have gone.

Edit: I just want to add that Shenyang is actually quite lovely all spring, summer, and fall. It's warm, there is wind and weather, and you don't get the same kind of dense smog just sitting and staying. But the winter is rough, and after staying here for the whole thing, we're feeling it.
It feels a little dumb to leave right as the air is clearing up for the spring, but so it goes. It is the best decision for our family right now.