First, it is pretty common in Shenzhen to eat food here that is suspect. So Saturday night, we had a Chinese New Year celebration on my Jingshan campus that offered amazing food, steamed buns (bao), dumplings (jaozi), strawberries coated in caramel on a stick (???Chinese name). Somewhere in there something did not agree with me and Vic and thus it is Monday am and I am writing this blog from a Starbucks at a local mall called Garden City.
Why not home, you ask? Great question: our ayi, read maid, works from 8-12 M-F picking up, cooking and cleaning for the Serio Clan. Amy, our ayi, is a bit of a task master and I was reluctant to tell her not to come in. So I could barricade myself in my bedroom with a bathroom thankfully attached, but it is still kind of weird to have a 90 lb Chinese women swiffering Chinese style, hanging 3 loads of laundry, changing my kids' beds and making dinner for my family while I read and watch yuku in bed. I know that you understand... so here is how today has gone so far and will until Amy leaves and L and R return home.
6:30 Rouse the kids. Both try to also take a "sick day". no doing
7:10 Vic drives Luc on his motorbike to my campus so that Luc can board the bus with his friends there. On most days, Luc walk and yaks me to school. He waits on the soccer field while I turn off for my classroom in building 6.
7:25 Put a load of laundry in -- so Amy does not think I am a total deadbeat --take a shower and find my 14 year old watching "How I Met your Mother" on TV. "Is this how you usually spend your time before you catch the bus?"I ask. "Yup," she responds. I remind her about her teeth and her hair and her homework. She appeals to me once more about a team sick day. DENIED. She kisses my cheek and off she heads down the elevator to catch the Lan Qi Kou school bus to her school-- same as Luc's, but they are loathe to arrive together.
7:35 Vic returns and rushes through the shower so that Amy does not arrive with him unclothed ( I know you get this). He and I make a list of groceries for her to buy and we head out the door before her 8:00 arrival.
8:00 We also enter the elevator where we meet a sweet older Chinese lady who abruptly closes the door on my side. After a flurry of "Dou bu qi"s, (I am sorry) and my polite "mei wen ti" (no problem), she talks to us and tries very hard to be understood--she does the whole repeat in a different way thing...Finally, she spells on her hand "SCHOO" and I say, "Oh, school? Shide, Women shi laoshe!"(yes, we are teachers). She smiles, we smile. She says either you are very loud neighbors or aren't we lucky to have such nice Americans to teach our children English? and Vic and I nod and say,'Xie, xie. Zai jian"(thank you, good bye)
We board our motorbike and traverse the back streets to Garden City. Many folks are walking to work, selling the aforementioned bao on the sidewalk, biking to work in miniskirts and high heels and/or full suits. Of course, there is also a flurry of taxis, buses, and cars. Vic manages to squeeze the bike on the right side of the right lane and my foot rakes the sidewalk. Finally, we cross a major intersection and arrive in the rather large bike parking lot next to Walmart which is all decked out in Chinese New Year red. In front of the Walmart, we walk past a dozen retired Chinese women doing a fan dance to tinny Chinese music emanating from a boom box. This is zumba class, Chinese style. Very cute.
So here we sit, Vic on his laptop and I on mine. Both of us are hopeful that no colleagues see us here and more importantly that the coffee/tea and toast settles our stomachs.
