Going To The Market

Markets in China:

Going to the market. Here in China, you better be specific. What kind of a market? An electronics market? A fabric Market? The pet Market? The wet market? It all depends on what you are looking for that day. I have discovered that markets here are divided into categories.


If, for example, you are looking for a blow dryer, then you want to go to the electronics market. It is a place where you will find store after store and shop after shop that sell all kinds of things that are electronic -- like blenders, cameras, phones, blow-dryers, flat irons, vacuums, etc. It can be overwhelming because there is just soooooo much of what you are looking for, but I think it makes it kind of fun too.

Below are pictures of my trip to a "Wet Market" -- which is what they call a market where you can find things fresh. And by "fresh" it could mean still alive. Some Chinese I'm sure would find it gross that we buy our meat already dead and packaged at the grocery store -- just in the same way, that we might find it gross to see our meat being cut up right before our very eyes. That's how you can tell it is really fresh :)







The vegetables I saw looked beautiful for the most part and it seems like the selection in China is much larger than what I've seen in the states. There were so many veggies I could not recognize but they looked very appetizing.







I saw (and smelled) quite a few items like these. They are dried up little creatures and plants(?) -- not sure, but they seem to be very popular because they are all over the place.






This was another shot of a similar shop, probably right next door to the other one, or just a couple of spaces over.









This little place specialized in different types of tofu.








Here you can get your meat as fresh as possible.








Cat got your tongue? Maybe you can borrow these.









Only the largest cucumbers I have ever seen in my life. Or maybe they are squash. The three sitting in the back of the room behind the lady are what I am talking about.











Look closely -- see the tail hanging off the table surface? Do you recognize it? Yes, it really is a crocodile. There was a man chopping away inside, and I literally could not look because I was feeling a little sick at that point.







This was a cool little place where they sold only Lunar New Year decorations and cards, etc.









Live scorpions for sale and, yes for eating. You know the show "Fear Factor?" I think if the local people here saw that show, they would just say, "what's the big deal?"









It,s kind of scary to say any animal is cute, because you are just going to feel bad when you find out they are going to be soup for lunch.









Dragon Fruit. Beautiful isn't it. It's tasty too -- the inside is white with little tiny black seeds in it (kind of like poppy seeds).















An apple with some kind of Lunar New Year greeting on it.






In this picture, I am holding a train ticket to Hong Kong. We are headed there this monday for the Lunar New Year! I will blog about it upon my return.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Walking Around Guangzhou

So, we wanted to go explore immediately after we arrived. I am posting some of the sights for your viewing pleasure.

This is at a place that looked like a 7-11. Inside we saw an array of items that were somehow familiar, but upon close inspection, we were not really sure what they were.








This would typically be the section where you might find chicken tenders, taquitos and hot dogs -- instead there is. . . ??????








A little video so you can hear the sounds.

Greg bought some yogurt, which was one of the few things we actually recognized aside from the candy.









Above is a picture in the downstairs lobby of the building where Greg's main office is located.










Greg and Parker -- guiding the tour.








Greg attempting to read a street sign.









Typical "Christmas" decorations found here in China. Yes, typical here -- all are gaudy and gold and red. . .and hey, why does Santa have a little chain draped across his forehead?











Guangzhou downtown from our car. Sorry, but I have to take these pictures when and where I can get them because we are on the Go!









I have seen these red lantern decorations hanging from trees in quite a few places around the city. They are kind of cool looking in my very humble opinon.









If you look closely, you will see that the statue is of some guy singing karaoke. It's really close to one of Greg's work locations -- lucky him :)










My new favorite restaurant, where they serve up Big Macs that both look and taste like the Big Macs back home, and pineapple turnovers -- which I like better than apple turnovers.









In case some of you people didn't know -- 2012 is the year of the Dragon. Thus, a completely appropriate picture of me, in 2012 in front of a very colorful and lovely dragon.











Mmmmmmmm. . . . .yummy! Well, at least I didn't see anything moving. Of course, I also didn't look too closely or long enough to see. Are those chicken feet in the upper right hand corner???!!!! Ugh!










Typical Lunar New Year Decoration. Now I am fine with this one. It looks colorful and festive to me. Santa just looked a little weird.










Guy on the street painting Chinese characters. People were gathering around and paying money and I'm not sure for what exactly. And even if I had wanted to know, there was no way I could have asked.











Birds eye view of a popular grocery store that is located in the basement of a shopping mall. The store was huge -- the mall was huge.









Land dweller's eye view of the mall as we rode the escalator back up. I love the decorations that scream "hey look at me." Trust me, the decorations everywhere are noisy and loud. But I like it :)










We first purchased our groceries at the cash register. Greg, then stood in a different line for a Fapiao -- which is an "official" receipt for purchased goods or services rendered.

Man it's hard trying to condense all these experiences. Some of you have asked for me to talk about the little day to day experiences, and I promise I will try to include more of those, but there are just soooo many!

COMING NEXT: Shopping at the Market

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Day One

Day 1 in China - Sunday (New Years Day)

4:45 a.m. We woke up and said to each other, "Can you believe we are
China?!". Then we rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

5:34 a.m. Looked at the clock, fell back into bed.

5:50 a.m. "Dang it!". Back into bed.

6:15 a.m. We got out of bed.




This is our kitchen...in China!




We had milk and cereal for breakfast provided by the managers of our apartment complex. Note the Chinese characters on the cereal box.





Walked along busy city streets and across a bridge, into the candy cane forrest and crossed the sea of swirly, twirly gum drops... ( for those of you who haven't seen the movie "Elf", this reference is lost on you)




... and made it to church:


This is the building where we met for church. Met a lot of really friendly people. We were invited for a fabulous lunch pot-luck/buffet at our new friend, Rosie's house. Rosie was a great hostess and provided us with an array of delicious foods. Apparently she has studied culinary arts and the proof is in her cooking. Yum!



This is the view from our living room.

Exhausted and with jet-lag really setting in, we return back to our place and relax a little.

Later we drove to Golden Lake to have dinner with Claire (one of Greg's co-workers) and her family. Claire and her family gave us the grand tour of Golden Lake and served up generous portion of delicious BBQ dinner survival tips for China. These tips were extremely helpful, and just having a connection to people who know how to live in China was priceless.

We were so lucky that we were invited for meals because I had not a clue where to to begin looking for groceries.

We returned home, went to bed and right before we drifted off, we said to each other -- "Can you believe we are in China!?"


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

House Hunting in Guangzhou

Our experience house hunting was an expat experience and I'm sure quite different than someone who searches for a house on their own, and who has to start from square one of even knowing where to look. Call me wimpy, but I was glad we were having the expat experience.

As an expat family everything was arranged (where to go, what houses were available, neighborhood populations) and we looked at different places over the course of 2 days.

Some of these places were quite impressive. We often saw marble or tile floors, which i think help the house stay cool in the extreme heat during the summer. Here are a few pictures from a few of the places that we saw.








Beautiful...this house was super big. Probably around 6 or 7 bedrooms. Not exactly sure how many, since generally I count about up to 3 or 4 for our family.









Another gorgeous view.







Nice place for a barbecue.















The bedrooms were all quite large too.

Action footage.





This picture was of a place in a high rise building. I think this place was at Victory Garden.









Bathroom with a view which you can't really see in the pic.








Dining room area.








View from the top and if you look closely, you might be able to see all the fish in the water.


And finally. . . the place we chose to call home. Golden Lake.







This is one of the streets on Golden Lake.


The houses are not as big, but probably better suited to the size of our family and the housing units are more "western" style. Still the house is great, there are lots of kids, swimming pool, tennis courts, gym, restaurant and store. What more could a person ask for.

I will post pictures of our place once we move there.

Coming Next: Walking the Streets of Guangzhou