27 April 2010; Recovering from the Computer crash and Happy Anniversary In China

Greetings all,

I'm writing you from Shenyang, China, on Rod's computer.  The big excitement of the week was Rod's adventure to get my computer fixed.  He got in touch with Apple in the US (we had a full warranty on our MacBook) and got a repair number and found out there was an authorized Apple repair store here in Shenyang...good thing because he found out that he couldn't ship it if had a battery in it...and you can't take the battery out without voiding the warranty...looks like a hole in the system to me!  Rod asked the hotel concierge to find the repair place and write it out in Chinese and off he and the driver went to take the computer for repair.  The repair place diagnosed a crashed hard drive and said it would take about a week to get it fixed...this was on Monday.  By Thursday evening, they called the hotel and said it was ready.  So, Friday morning, Rod and the driver went back to the computer place to get the computer...we have it back now...completely new hard drive...empty!  So, now, we'll work to get the backup that I think is on the Time Capsule backup restored to the computer.  I hope all this works because everything (photos, documents etc) were there!  For now, we are managing just fine with Rod's computer but there are some beautiful pics and important doc's I don't want to be without!  Some of you have told me you're keeping these updates...if I ever get the energy to try to write a book...I'll have to call you to get those lost emails and pictures from our first month in China!

I'll be fling to France tonight staying or 2 weeks.  The volcano ash problem seems to have subsided and all flights are back on going to Europe.  My niece had an extended vacation/school trip in Europe due to that volcano, so hopefully she is back home in FL now!   I'm glad I booked when I did though, because otherwise, I wouldn't have a seat.  I'll fly tonight from Shenyang to Shanghai (1.5 hr) , then overnight to Paris (12 hrs) , then onto Clermont-Ferrand (1 hr) arriving Sunday morning French time.    My next update will likely not come until I get back because I'll only have my work computer with me (which does not have my address book on it!).  It should be a beautiful Spring in France, so if I see anything spectacular I'll get a picture and include it in my next update.

The other big news of the week is that Rod will be moving us to our new apartment just downstairs here in the hotel on Monday morning.  For those of you wondering, our address is:

Crown Plaza Hotel

Rod & Sarah Miller, Room 1211

No. 208 Nanjing North Street

Heping District

Shenyang, China

Here are a couple of pictures of our new digs.  It's a 2 bedroom apartment...not exactly my decorating style, but it will do...when we get settled, we'll buy that recliner!

 Rods' Big kitchen!

Sarah in the "living/Dining" room

We also received notice that our air shipment has been shipped.  Since I'll be gone, they had to do a special deal to get Rodney to be the authorized agent to receive our goods and clear it through customs.  I hope that's not a big deal, but, here you never know!

The BIGGEST news of the week was that Rodney and I celebrated our 27 year anniversary on 23 April 2010.  He surprised me and got me a beautiful jade necklace.  It's a carved little dog.  Very special!  Thank you my dear!  We shared our anniversary with friends Tim & Julie who just arrived in the country...I'm sure we'll be seeing alot of each other!

So that's about all for now. 

Keep those cards and letters coming and thank you for all your well wishes!

Sarah & Rod

11 April 2010: Dirt Market and the Tomb of the Qing Dynasty Emporor

11 April 2010

Hello again,

I realize I just sent out an update, but thought I would go ahead and send one out today while it's fresh on my mind!

This morning, Rod and I went to the dirt market together with another American lady. She lives here in the hotel and is a real God Send for us! I ended up getting a personalized  "chop" which is a stamp that has what ever message you want or your name.  Since I just got my business cards (1 side in English, 1 side in Chinese), I had my Chinese name in characters, so I had the guy carve one out with my name in Chinese characters.  The chop is about 4 inches tall piece of jade with a little dragon carved on the top, then my name carved into the bottom in relief so that when you press the chop into the red ink (the red ink has the consistency of creamy makeup rouge...but is much more permanent!).  Here's some of pictures of the guy carving my name and then a picture of the finished product!

Miller, Sarah in Chinese characters.

After the dirt market, we had lunch at a nice little restaurant behind the hotel, then we went to Beiling Park.  This park is where one of the emperors of China is buried in a huge tomb.  This emperor died in 1647 and his tomb is still preserved and intact an is not open to anyone.  The grounds around the park were opened to the public in 1927.  The tomb itself is underground and is covered by a large dome with a lone elm tree planted on top. There is a large circular wall around the tomb and a large walkway with several intermediate building leading to it.  The emperor was very protected even in his death.  Today, it's a beautiful park with kites flying, people walking and just enjoying the hint of spring!  We were asked to have our picture taken with some Chinese girls...I'm sure WE were their tourist attraction!

The tomb of the Emperor with the entrance to the tomb down on the lower level.  Legend has it that there are holes in the door that can lead to the door being opened, however, if you have the wrong combination, a poison dart will come out and kill you...consequently, not many have dared to open the tomb, and thus, it is still preserved.  Sounds like Indiana Jones to me...maybe that's where they got the storyline!

Some pictures of the Tomb area:

 The tomb itself is under this big dome-shaped mound...never to be opened for human eyes.

 Some pictures of Rod & Sarah visiting the tomb area

Sarah & Rodney Miller at Beiling Park in Shenyang, China, 11 April 2010.

Inside the Tomb area were many lovely traditional Chinese roofs.  I took some detailed pictures below:

No visit to a tourist area would be complete without a trip to the Gift shop!  In this case, I bought a little bobble and the lady painted my name inside the thing with a 1 hair paint brush..amazing to watch her work!

I was born in the Chinese year of the rat (OK, I prefer mouse!), so I bought a bobble for the year of the rat and had my name put inside!

So, we've had a busy weekend!  Tomorrow, back to work and hopefully we'll get our residence permits and get a little better oriented!

That's it for now...more to come with the Adventures of Rod & Sarah Miller in China!

10 April 2010: Orientation, Walmart and the Underground Mall...all in 1 week

10 April 2010

Greetings all!

I hope this note finds you all well.  Rod and I are doing OK here in Shenyang.  We went on the city tour on Monday, (it was a holiday, so not much was open)  We went to the Forbidden City (a smaller version of the one in Beijing as this was the summer home of the 3rd emperor of the Qing dynasty..like I've heard of him!)  and big event of the day, we got a card to join and shop at Metro (similar to Sams Club) and Rod got a cellphone.  We had lunch at a restaurant in Shenyang where they specialized in dumplings (not southern dumplings..it's a pasta like a small ravioli, but instead of pillow shaped, it's more like a little pouch with a drawstring- shaped pasta with various stuffings.  These are then steamed in bamboo steamers, stacked on top of each other and brought to the table on the steamer.   Very tasty.  My chopstick usage has improved significantly...otherwise, I wouldn't be eating anything other than breakfast here at the hotel!  

The other event of the week was that we made a decision on the apartment we're going to live...and in fact, it's not far away..it's just a few floors away here in the Intercontinental hotel.  We decided to get a serviced apartment here in the hotel, meaning that the housekeeping staff does the cleaning and changes the towels and sheets!  It's centrally located so Rod can be autonomous during the day and we can both depend on the hotel staff to help us (or write out cards to tell the driver etc).   I'll send a pic when we move it...that won't be until around the 1st of May.  I still don't have my residence permit yet, and even after that we'll have to wait until the contracts are signed etc.  I'm not sure what takes so long, but I'm not in a strong negotiating position, so I'm just going with the flow!

Some of you have asked about the weather...it's still late Winter here...it snowed on Friday (you'll see in the pictures, we both still have on our winter coats)!  Not a lot of snow, but it was cold and wet all day.  I haven't seen any flowers blooming here yet (unlike some beautiful flowers I saw of KY spring pictures..thank you Jeannine & David!)

Today,  we went to Walmart to buy a camera (we packed our charging station for the other camera in the air shipment, and of course it's not here yet, so when the battery finally went down, it was useless.  The camera was not cheap (around $150.00)...but I wasn't going to miss any photo opportunities...so we had to buy it!).  Walmart is not exactly like home (except everything is made in China here too!) ...but it's not bad, and it's within walking distance of the hotel.  The deli there looked like good food and we'll probably do takeout there some times!   

 Pic of Rod in front of Walmart in Shenyang, China...taken with our new camera!

 The view from the front of Walmart...doesn't quite look like the ones I know in SC or KY...of course neither does the offerings in the store...more about that later!

On the way back from Walmart, we went to the underground market..this place is amazing.  There is an entire shopping mall, to include a food court..under the city streets!  I took a few pictures and then a security guy came up and said that I couldn't take pictures...and I was sure he was going to confiscate my new camera...but thankfully he didn't.  So I put my camera up...then when we were going to another section, he found us, and said he could take a picture of both of us...so we gave him the camera (hoping this wasn't a ploy to get our camera!), and sure enough, he took a picture of the both of us.  You would never know, this was an under-the-street shopping center!

The underground shopping center food court in Shenyang...very clean believe it or not!

Sarah & Rod Miller in the underground shopping center in Shenyang, China

So that's all for this week.  Thanks for all your emails and notes...it makes doing these updates fun...and reminds me of my great friends at home!

3 April 2010: Tomb Sweeping day and the Dirt Market

3 April 2010

Greetings all,

Happy Easter!  This year a Chinese holiday "Tomb Sweeping Day" falls on the same day as  Easter Monday.  Tomb sweeping day (Not the same tomb as Easter for Christians) is when Chinese people go to the graves of their ancestors and clean the grave and leave them an offering of fruit.  It's kind of like Memorial day in the US, but in China, many people worship their ancestors.  Monday the 5th of April is Tomb Sweeping day, so it's a legal holiday here!

Well, I've survived my first week in Shenyang.  Rod comes tomorrow (oh happy day!) It has been a busy, but somewhat overwhelming week!  I have a driver to take me to work..but he doesn't speak any english...not one word...and my Chinese isn't good enough to effectively communicate...so while I like having a driver, (because you couldn't pay me to driver here!), it's frustrating not being able to just say where you want to go...but that will come with time!  I understand that there is also a pretty strong accent here in Shenyang that doesn't sound like anything I heard from my Chinese teacher in the US...so we get by with sign language, queue cards and trial and error!  One evening this week, I wanted to go to a grocery store to just have some snack food in the hotel room...I arrived there, but I wasn't at all sure that I was going to where I hoped I was going...but I finally arrived.  I've mastered to tell him what time to pick me up and come get me...but much past that...I'm digging out of the phrase book and hoping he understands...most of the time he doesn't and he spins something out that I have no idea what he said...and just try again.  

Enough about that (you can tell I'm preoccupied with this!)

At work, It's going OK, although, somewhat disorganized since I wasn't supposed to officially get here until the 4th of April, so I'm "in training", but that is mixed with my orientation to the city and my personal need.   I've got work to do that's been scheduled for awhile so I feel like I'm drinking from the fire hose...that will improve as I learn my way around the site and know who does what, but for the moment, it's a kind of scavenger hunt.  Many people speak english, so at least I can understand most of what they are telling me!  Thank God for small milestones!

Tuesday of this week, I went to the immigration center to apply for my residence permit.  They have my passport, so I couldn't go anywhere if I wanted to!  They tell me I should be able to get the residence permit by the end of the coming week which means that I'll get my passport back and can make multiple entries into China and apply for a business credit card.  I'll be so glad when all of these details that happen when you move are settled so that I can have my personal life stable.  Right now, nothing is stable...living out of a suitcase, new job etc...I'll be glad when we get our permanent apartment and at least our personal life is stable again..with time...with time!

Today at the fitness center (yes, I'm working-out...it was a promise I made myself when we accepted to come to China!)  I met another American lady who invited me to go to the "dirt market".  I said I was game, so at noon, 4 of us crammed into a taxi and they spoke to the taxi driver (and after he didn't understand them either, they gave him a card with written Chinese characters with the destination written on it!...I felt silently content that even when they spoke what sounded like fluent chinese, the driver couldn't understand them either!!)  So, we went to this flea market..what a bazar!  You can see the photo below..a million people milling around looking, sellers looking to sell etc.  New, old, old made to look like new..all there.  The other ladies bought some things, I just looked and observed.  One lady showed me a cricket box..yes crickets...but not just any crickets...these are huge bugs! (probably 3 inch body + legs!)  They have ornate little boxes (much like miniature bird cages) where they keep crickets as pet's/ security.  It seems that crickets chirp when they are in familiar surroundings, specifically smell.  When someone enters the room that has a different smell, they go silent, letting you know that a stranger is in the room.  Some people keep their cricket's with them...they clip them on their pants or shirts.  I thought the cages were cute, but I didn't want to spend 200 RMB (about $30.00 ) for a cage that I'd never be putting a cricket in!  The seller of the cages also had the crickets!

When I got back from the dirt  market, I went down to the downtown pedestrian street..another street with a lot of people walking around and shopping (see picture).  There were lots of familiar names (Mc Donalds, Starbucks, KFC, Cartier, Bulgari etc) and many I had no idea what they sell.  There is a nice Japanese multi-story department store.  I understand there is a complete underground shopping area as well (it's gets cold here in the winter, so there is an underground pedestrian shopping street)..I haven't gone there yet.

Overall, it's been a busy week..I think I'm about over the jet lag and am sleeping through the night OK and have not been sick since leaving Shanghai!

Shenyang "dirt market" on a Saturday afternoon 3 April 2010.  Old, new and a combination of all the above.  

Shenyang pedestrian street on a Saturday afternoon 3 April 2010.

So, that's about it for this week.  I'll write again after Rod arrives safe and sound.  This coming week, we are to do the official orientation and take a city tour and go apartment hunting. 

More to come!!