There has been a lot of change in the year since I last wrote in this blog. Instead of sitting in a new two-story townhouse, surrounded by dunes of red sand, eating dates or Lebanese foods, I am in an older apartment in a built-up area of Shenzhen, China, eating fried broad beans flavored with crab roe. I would not have imagined last summer visiting China that we would now be living here.
Today we went to Hong Kong on our first trip there (besides the time last week we were driven there to collect our shipment of possessions that came by ship from Dubai via Singapore - interestingly the driver just switched from driving on the right in China to the left in HK). This time, we took a metro in Shenzhen (45 mins) to the border, where we got off, went through the Chinese immigration lines and then the Hong Kong lines. Then took the HK light rail to the city (another hour), transferring out to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha. We took a cable car out there across the sea and the green hills (after a one hour wait). Not a great idea to go during the Mid-Autumn Festival break. But we did it. We figured out two transport systems each with its own travel cards, and two currencies. It was a 13-hour trip.
One of the best parts was eating at a restaurant on the top of the hill where we had shrimp wonton noodle soup and some Hong Kong items - HK milk tea (both hot and iced) (the hot tastes like masala tea from India) and a toasted bun with butter and condensed milk on top. It was sort of British and sort of Chinese, just like HK. I really liked that. But then, sweetened condensed milk is one of my favorite foods.....
Charles was able to get the VPNs for us there with the restaurant wifi and so now I can post things on this Google blog. Otherwise, it is blocked in China. So now we are connected.
We have mostly done all the important things that needed doing in the last month - find an apartment, start jobs, get kids settled at school, buy a few things like mattresses and lamps, get wifi, get VPNs, arrange phones, pay rent deposit, get shipment delivered, learn to cook on two burners and no oven, figure out how to order food online and have it delivered (milk, bread, cheese, jam, chocolate which are hard to find in our neighborhood), find the pizza and Indian food delivery service. All we need now are bank accounts, a toaster oven, some Mandarin lessons, and a cat for Grace.
We are almost up now to going back to HK and seeing another part of the city or maybe going to Macau. Hong Kong seems to be a place that you have to split up - it's too big to see it all. Shenzhen too is unexplored - there are hills to climb, a harbor to see, Korean food to eat, dim sum to find.
It has all taken time and small steps. Some days feel really exciting and good, and other days (or moments) feel really frustrating and hard. Our bathroom often smells of sewage (I am using lots of essential oils in there), we get bugs in the kitchen at night, we can't speak much Chinese (we manage to few things which are victories - like saying 50-50, or how much?, or salt please!), the weather is humid, it can pour with rain. The UAE was easier - we had a car, it was always sunny, our place was new. The good things here are the food, and the jobs are better.
It takes time to settle, so all in all this month has been a success, culture shock and all, taking it one day at a time.
Today we went to Hong Kong on our first trip there (besides the time last week we were driven there to collect our shipment of possessions that came by ship from Dubai via Singapore - interestingly the driver just switched from driving on the right in China to the left in HK). This time, we took a metro in Shenzhen (45 mins) to the border, where we got off, went through the Chinese immigration lines and then the Hong Kong lines. Then took the HK light rail to the city (another hour), transferring out to Lantau Island to see the Big Buddha. We took a cable car out there across the sea and the green hills (after a one hour wait). Not a great idea to go during the Mid-Autumn Festival break. But we did it. We figured out two transport systems each with its own travel cards, and two currencies. It was a 13-hour trip.
One of the best parts was eating at a restaurant on the top of the hill where we had shrimp wonton noodle soup and some Hong Kong items - HK milk tea (both hot and iced) (the hot tastes like masala tea from India) and a toasted bun with butter and condensed milk on top. It was sort of British and sort of Chinese, just like HK. I really liked that. But then, sweetened condensed milk is one of my favorite foods.....
Charles was able to get the VPNs for us there with the restaurant wifi and so now I can post things on this Google blog. Otherwise, it is blocked in China. So now we are connected.
We have mostly done all the important things that needed doing in the last month - find an apartment, start jobs, get kids settled at school, buy a few things like mattresses and lamps, get wifi, get VPNs, arrange phones, pay rent deposit, get shipment delivered, learn to cook on two burners and no oven, figure out how to order food online and have it delivered (milk, bread, cheese, jam, chocolate which are hard to find in our neighborhood), find the pizza and Indian food delivery service. All we need now are bank accounts, a toaster oven, some Mandarin lessons, and a cat for Grace.
We are almost up now to going back to HK and seeing another part of the city or maybe going to Macau. Hong Kong seems to be a place that you have to split up - it's too big to see it all. Shenzhen too is unexplored - there are hills to climb, a harbor to see, Korean food to eat, dim sum to find.
It has all taken time and small steps. Some days feel really exciting and good, and other days (or moments) feel really frustrating and hard. Our bathroom often smells of sewage (I am using lots of essential oils in there), we get bugs in the kitchen at night, we can't speak much Chinese (we manage to few things which are victories - like saying 50-50, or how much?, or salt please!), the weather is humid, it can pour with rain. The UAE was easier - we had a car, it was always sunny, our place was new. The good things here are the food, and the jobs are better.
It takes time to settle, so all in all this month has been a success, culture shock and all, taking it one day at a time.
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