lizzybennet: (ww siruis do)
lizzybennet ([personal profile] lizzybennet) wrote2006-10-06 04:13 am

(no subject)

Downloading lost as we speak! We tried to watch it on the ABC website, but that feature is only available to people in America. Hmmph! I'd venture to say that iTunes makes a killing off Americans living abroad. We've prepaid for both the complete season of The Office and Lost. That's about it for us. We've given up Grey's Anatomy and all our other shows...wait that's not true. We also download Monk and Psyche.

Last night we went to dinner at a neighbor's home again. This neighbor was present at last week's dinner and her hubby is the Communist party member. The other neighbor's were there too, plus some family members. It was a large gathering and the kids (not just our kids, all the kids) were quite rascally. Chris kept fretting about how rambunctious all the kids were being, but I pointed out to him that none of the other parents were saying anything to their kids. All the kids were running, jumping and basically turning the apartment into a rompus-room. No one cared, so we sat there and tried not to care either. We couldn't do it. We kept getting up to try and get our kids to calm down. It's an odd phenomenon when a room full of "spoiled" kids get together. As I've mentioned before, because of the one child policy, many Chinese children are very pampered. Well, what do you do when both of them are fighting over the same toy? Turns out, the child who owns the toy gets it. The other child, whose still crying loudly, is comforted and cajoled until he finally calms down. In the case of last night, he was promised a wrist watch if he'd stop crying. That did the trick. btw, these were not toddlers or even preschoolers. These were 5 and 6 year olds.

Dinner was western food. I appreciate her efforts to make us feel at home and to give us familiar foods. Unfortunately, their idea of what western food is like is quite incorrect. We had fruit salad, which is chopped up pears, apples and bananas covered in mayonnaise. We also had green salad, which is chopped cabbage covered in mayonnaise. They even went out and bought us pizza. Seafood pizza, among some other mysterious types. Do I sound incredibly ungrateful? I hope not. We ate everything we were served and were thankful for their hospitality. It just struck me as funny that if she'd stuck to what she knew we'd have enjoyed it better. Also, they had plastic gloves for us to wear to eat the pizza with. I guess some people consider it unhygienic to hold it with your bare hands. We declined the gloves, and they seemed to think that was ok. Several of them didn't use the gloves either.

After dinner, the conversation focused on two topics, as it usually does: kids and money. Will we have more kids, and how much money do Americans earn? How much does it cost to live in America? Our hostess then proceeded to tell us how much everything in her own home cost. She has an absolutely beautiful home that she designed and decorated herself. Apparently it is not considered inappropriate to discuss money matters. Chris said he is often asked how much money he earns.

As for the question of having more kids...living here has really given us cause to reconsider our thoughts about this. I thought we were done for sure. I gave away all our baby stuff as Connor out grew it. This was my "insurance" to myself that we were done having kids. Now that we live here, and we meet all these people who cannot have any more kids no matter how badly they may want it, it makes me realize what a privilege it is to be able to have children. It seems very ironic, because I know often back in America I was made to feel guilty or even irresponsible for having 3 children before we were finished school and "on our feet". In China, people are always congratulating me and telling what a good job I've done to have three kids (boys at that.) When we tell them we don't know if we want more, they inevitably reply with "Why not?"

That is a thought-provoking question. Why not? (lol, I know, many of you have opinions about what the answer to that question should be!!)

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