Cynthia's Debut

Well, it did not take long for Cynthia to start impacting the community!  (Not that this will surprise anyone) She has been asked by the Service Center staff to emcee the New Moon Festival celebration on Saturday night.  The service center for Green Court manages all of the apartments in our complex which I guess must number near 500.  From day one, Cynthia set as a goal to make sure she was known by the service center staff so as to be able to get special favors when it comes to maintenance and other things that come up.  She quickly befriended Grace, Mandy and Agnes who work the desk.  When she first called the SC after arriving the response she got to her question "Do you remember me?" was "Ma'am there are so many people it is very hard to remember them all".  Well that was motivation enough for Cynthia to march down to the SC and meet face to face with the team and make a BIG impression in only the way that my wife can do.  She turned on all her "woo - power" and won them all over.  Yesterday, she got a call from Mandy who explained that they were having a community get together to celebrate the first day of the moon festival and that they would like Cynthia to be the emcee along with another Chinese host.  When Cynthia inquired "Why me?" Mandy replied, "Because you are a good talker, you have much talent in this area and you are friendly!"  Cynthia asked if she could have an hour to think about it to which Mandy replied, "No, you only get 30 minutes"  (the Chinese can be very efficient and direct when they want to be.)  Needless to say, Cynthia will be the Expat emcee for the kick off of the New Moon Festival!  (If they only knew what they have done.) It is Saturday morning and Cynthia just left for rehearsal.  I  leave for India today so I will miss the "performance" - which might be okay now that I think about it.  Landon has a sleep over birthday party to attend and Regan has found a good friend who he is spending lots of time with.  Mason went with a college friend to a get together last night and had a good time.  Oh, and our shipment came!  Woo hoo!!  Landon's comment this morning was, "I got to eat with silverware today!"  Oh to be thankful for the small things in life.  Have a great weekend and keep those cards and letters coming.  Until next time.

Visa Trouble

When you move to China you are required by law to let the authorities know where you live at all times,  even when you are travelling every hotel is required to fill out a temporary residence form and file it with the government.  Cynthia took all of our paperwork to the local police station along with our Driver - Mr. Dong to file our new address according to this rule only to find out that her and Mason's visas had expired.  Now this is not a good thing.  The fine for overstaying your visa is 500 RMB per day.  We were 6 days over the limit and therefore 3,000 RMB in debt to China.  Needless to say, all this is taking place as I am travelling.  After lots of phone calls to our HR person in the US, the Immigration Services company in Shanghai and lots of negotiating - yes, even this is negotiable in China - we were able to get everything straightened out. (I think)  The final step is to make sure Cynthia and Mason's names are not black listed with Chinese customs so that they don't show up as "visa scofflaws" when travelling back to China.  The moral of this story is:  ALWAYS know your visa status and DO NOT overstay beyond the indicated period.  We won't be letting that happen again.

Mason is busy with Fudan University and has his first Chinese test today.  He has also been keeping busy with writing Thank You cards for graduation as well as completing his college application for the University of Chicago.  Would appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers for him as he is quite anxious about many of these new experiences here in China and was especially affected by this whole visa ordeal. 

I am at our factory in Qingdao today and we have the Pentair Board of Directors visiting. It has been weeks of daily work on our slide presentations and I will be really happy when this is over.  Enjoy your day today and be glad you don't have to register your every location with the US government - yet.

Meals

Well, one thing that has definitely changed since we have been here is the frequency with which we dine out.  Now that might be due to the fact we are somewhat limited in our kitchen supplies area - one frying pan, a serving spoon, some plates and plastic dinnerware.  It could also be that when we go to the grocery store we can't read or recognize a single package or label.  There is one store that imports alot of European and American brands but it is not exactly the cheapest route.  Despite all this, Cynthia has made an effort to make some nice homemade dinners.  Her first attempt (actually not an attempt - she actually made a very nice dinner) was a rotisserie chicken in our oven.  I came home to a house filled with the aroma of roast chicken.  When I walked into the kitchen Cynthia was busy over the sink and I perused the room looking to see what all was going to accompany the main course.  To my horror, I noticed a pair of my gym socks on the kitchen counter!  I thought I was definitely going to hear about that and couldn't believe that Cynthia had not already scolded me.  I went to reach for the socks trying to discretely get rid of the evidence when I heard "Stop!" (Oh, I am so busted)  I replied, "Honey, I am so sorry. I must have been in a ...."  She interrupted with "Those are my hot pads!"  So you can see why eating out has been more popular than cooking in.  We really are looking forward to the shipment.  By the way, does anyone know how to get roast chicken stains out of cotton socks? 

Sunday night we went to a very nice local Chinese restaurant with a friend of Cynthia's and her two kids ages 15 and 22.  The 22 year old is a classmate of Mason's at Fudan.  The food was great and we all enjoyed everything - even the spicy black mountain snake.  I can't wait to take you all there when you visit.  Have a great day.  I have to run and pack for my trip to Qingdao. 

Rain

Good morning, good evening or good afternoon depending upon where and when you are receiving this message.  The word for this weekend was RAIN.  It put a damper on our weekend activities but it did cool things off quite nicely.  Of course, Landon still had football (in the rain) and got all his pads and gear assigned.  He was very excited and I will try to get a couple of pictures for the blog. 

It sort of feels like we are camping the last few days.  Our sea shipment is in limbo (maybe delivered this Friday, maybe) our supplies are running low, all of our plastic spoons have been thrown away reducing me to eating cold cereal with a spatula - not easy or neat.  I only have three pairs of pants but a plethora of shirts (which is good I guess)  They took our couches in the living room because Cynthia wanted the European style versus the Amercian style and they didn't have any European style couches readily available.  We looked at some handmade persian rugs this weekend but decided that we didn't know enough to make an intelligent decision - not to mention I didn't have an extra $3000 laying around.  So we are now living in an echo chamber with hardwood floors All we need now is a couple of tents and a campfire and we'd be all set.  Okay, so it is not that bad but we would all really like to have our shipment arrive so that we can get life to some sort of normalcy.  Signing off for now.  Take care and cheer for the Minnesota Twins - they are on a roll!