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She's excited and ready to go.
I like the wall coming apart in the background. Real nice. Adds a certain charm to the picture, don't you think?
She had a great first day. She came home super-giddy. We're homeschooling her in the mornings, and then she goes to the international school in the afternoon. Her classmates are from places like the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, and Korea. It's an English speaking school. We're hoping this mix will work well for Lia and for us - so we'll see.
It has arrived! We're so thankful. It took a few workmen all day, and they created A LOT of dust. But it's complete! To highlight the transformation, I'll post a before and after picture.
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Actually, this picture above was taken much later - after the lights, refrigerator, sheers, and table came in.
Oh, we had a local carpenter make us that table and chairs. Like the true Americans we are, we couldn't find a table big enough. We could have ordered one from a distant, bigger city, but that would've been quite expensive. So through a series of relationships, we found a carpenter who would make the table and another person to finish it. Explaining that we wanted just a simple [nothing fancy] table was quite a chore. To the locals, it's a fairly boring table. Mid-way through the process, we got a phone call asking us, "Don't you want some nice curves to the back of your chairs? It will look much better." Answer - no, just straight and simple, please. We were pleasantly surprised with the outcome - ie, we didn't have a picture or anything of what we wanted and he certainly didn't have a catalog to choose from. So we didn't quite know exactly what we were getting so it was a surprise when we finally saw it.
Also, you can't tell, but those towels are hanging by door handles. When asked to perform this task, our local handyman inquired, "You want to hang what from these?" He chuckled and moved ahead with the request.
In our apartment, there's a long, narrow balcony-like room with many windows called a 'yangtai' where most locals do their laundry. We followed suit by getting a washing machine to put at the end of it where a water faucet and drain are located. The delivery man/installer arrived, hooked it up, and turned on the water faucet - but no water came out. Uh-oh. We asked the complex "management" and they said last winter the pipes under our yangtai froze and there's no possible way to fix it. Ugh, are you serious?!
Our handyman came in, took a look at the situation, and said, "From your bathroom, I can run a water pipe through this bedroom, and out to the yangtai." "How much?" we asked. He said the equivalent of $45 USD. Without hesistating, we stated, "Do it."
So now we have an operating washing machine - and no longer feeding the economy of the local dry cleaner - and the girls have a lovely water pipe running through their bedroom. Shouldn't every little girl go to sleep with a water pipe 10 inches from her head? We think so too.
In the past week, we've ordered a couch [most couches here are rock-hard, but one store has pillow-top type couches which should work well for us] and a kitchen [ie, cabinets, counters, sink; these can't come too soon; washing dishes in the bathtub is getting VERY old].
In the mean time, we've taken multiple trips to the "old furniture market." It has multiple warehouse-type buildings with old wooden furniture sometimes stacked literally 30 feet high. Crazy. Like the name, the furniture is old and beat up. The price is usually just right. However ...
The furniture is also really, really dirty and some pieces have super-funky smells. Once it's back to our place, we need to give it a very good washing. After they're cleaned up, they look pretty decent.
A couple favorite purchases so far have been a couple trunks to use as a coffee table and a wooden bench.
And finally, this gentleman below has helped us three times to get our purchases back to our apartment. I like his motorized bike cart - which usually takes a few minutes to start. But once the engine's revving, it's ready to roll. He's really kind, and I love this picture.
A few days after we arrived, we decided to get out and take a look around the center of town with the girls. We've been incredibly surprised with really nice weather - sunny and highs in the lower 70s. The girls really enjoyed getting out.
These are pictures of the center of the city; it's developed and busy.
And mingled with the concrete, there are large patches of flowers - which was really nice to see. We took time to wander around, take pictures, and check out the sights.
And we were one of the sights, too! We got A LOT of turned heads and stares. If we kept moving, we were fine. But if we stopped, a crowd quickly gathered. We kept many a camera phone busy that day as the locals freely took pictures at will. They also loved to ask questions about the girls, touch their cheeks, and feel their hair. I didn't take it personally, but my hair was not a source of interest - I suppose they have balding, gray pepper haired men here too. :) The girls were troopers, and we were really pleased with how the girls did with their first time out on the town.
They made it without breaking!
We had these sent ahead of us. They're wooden wardrobes to hold doll clothes; Lori's Dad made them, and they're really special ... and sturdy!
The girls are thrilled to have them here. Lori and I are so glad to have this special slice of home here with us.
As you'll see, our apartment clearly did not come furnished. This wasn't a surprise to us, but actually seeing the lack with our own eyes ... was, oh, a bit overwhelming. We have lots to do - and shop for! Our initial impressions of our apartment are very positive, and we see a lot of potential to make a nice home for our family. Below, Valerie is hanging out in our dining room/kitchen area. I think we need a bigger table.
We don't drink the water from the tap so we have a lovely and very chic [office style I'd say] water dispenser here in the kitchen and another one in the main bathroom. And below is another view of our kitchen. Hmmm, is it the jetlag or is something missing? Oh, I know what's missing in this kitchen - a kitchen!
And don't let that "sink" fool you, it doesn't work. Some cabinets, counter, and a means to actually cook food would be nice. We'll be getting on this asap.
Below is our living room area. After just a few days here, we're already really, really missing a comfortable place to sit. We'll be looking into our couch options. Also, throughout our apartment, we have the hanging bare bulbs. They're actually growing on me - kind of the urban-loft-attic look. We'll see what Lori says. And I'm not expecting to win that argument.
And here is our "yangtai" which is kind of like an enclosed balcony in which most people use to do laundry. Eventually, we're hoping to put a washing machine at the far end of it. And this would be a good place to store some of the girls' toys ... but I'm guessing it'll be too small within a month.
You know what the below is. A problem I have is that I always cut myself while shaving. I need to find a place that sells band-aids ... and mirrors!
We also have some bedrooms, but they're not too exciting. One thing to note about them is that they don't have closets. So we'll need to get some wardrobes to keep our clothes. The adventure continues!
Here's our building from the outside. The girls LOVE that it's yellow with purple on top.
This is our first floor apartment. I know what you're thinking so I'll just say it - those metal bars on the windows are just charming! For the first few days, they seemed really strange, but now we're actually used to them and they're fine.
We can't see the below view from our apartment, but we can from the other end of our complex. It really is nice to look at as we walk out of our complex. I bet they'd look even better with a little snow on them.
Lori surprised the girls with new Littlest Pet Shop toys [way to go hon, they were a hit], we snacked a bunch from our own stash of goodies and the ones provided by the airline, the girls were introduced to the lavatory including the odd, social experience of standing around with strangers while they do the pee-pee dance, and we finally busted out the big guns by turning on the portable dvd player. Everyone was happy.
Overall, the girls did great with getting through the airport, security, boarding, being on the plane, etc. Lori and I were really, really proud of them.
About half an hour into the flight, Lia exclaimed, "I feel great! I'm not tired! I don't have jet lag at all!" Oh, just you wait, sweetie.
Periodically during the flight, each of the girls napped a bit. But with just 45 minutes to go on the flight, each of the girls fell into a deep sleep. Uh-oh. Surely the landing will wake them up. And here below are our three girls demonstrating their excitement at having finally arrived on the other side of the world. Don't they look thrilled?
Another airplane miracle happened, when we woke them up, they perked right up without a fuss! Amazing! Are these my children?!
We had to collect all our checked bags, find the shuttle, and get to the other terminal for our next in-country flight. How do we do that with all these bags and three children?!?! Enter "Super Airline Helper Man." This guy was pushing a very full cart of bags and pulling a very full cart of bags. He got us through the crowds, down an elevator, and onto the shuttle island. I had to get a picture with this superhero - thus the below.
When the shuttle pulled up to take us to the other terminal, all kinds of workers started hoisting our bags onto an already very full shuttle. They got all the bags in, but the bags were blocking the door for us to get on board. We started to climb in and strangers even started to help by lifting our children over the bags into the shuttle. Thankfully they were really woozy from the travel and didn't mind at all being handled by complete, foreign strangers. Before I knew it, we were all on the shuttle. We all let out a "hooray!"
At the other terminal, two more super-helpers got our bags and helped us check in. I didn't get a picture with them, but I did tip them well.
Below are Meg and Val on the domestic flight. This is about 5am for them. They look pretty good, don't you think? The girls were troopers the entire travel day. They did MUCH better than expected. Cheers to my three little ladies!
We arrived at night to our new home -- whew, we made it! Lori and I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and we all slept very, very well that night.
Our journey began in Chicago, and a 13 hour flight was ahead of us. We had 10 bags to check and a bunch of carry-ons filled with essentials and entertainment devices for the girls/for our sanity. Here's what all our bags looked like in Chicago ... and they all remarkably made it to our final destination. Hooray!
Happy September 2008!
Same year but new month and a NEW blog.
This is our first ever post to any type of blog.
History is now happening.
And happenings are certainly a part of the Bockman family.
So welcome.
As we explore the blogging world, we'll go through a lot of trial and error so please be patient with us.
In the end, we hope you'll be more connected to us as a family.
Craig & Lori
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