An update on the bean

So Chelsey has entered in her third and final trimester, Monday will be the 29th week.

Chelsey is happy because she is finally looking pregnant rather than 'plump'. Her belly button is becoming an 'outie', soon to pop. If she is laughing or coughing, her belly button pops in and out. It is actually quite funny to see! Bean is also getting stronger, and sometimes Chels asks bean not to sit in some spot - she does not usually listen right away... something we will have to work on later!

Beijing is getting HOT!!!!! We are frequently hitting 40C or more, and stays around 30ish during the night. At least there is a breeze most evenings that cools things off a bit, but our first purchase of next payday is a fan (or two). Other good news is that the buildings we work in all have A/C. We also have it at home, but we are just too cheap to use it very often. Many parts of China use a 'pay as you go' system with electricity, and it is kind of nerve-wracking watching the money go down so fast when you use it. To give you an idea, on average we use about 5 units a day of electricity (I think its 1RMB/unit, or about 0.15USD). If you have the A/C on, you use that in a mater of minutes - and that is having it set about 26C. So if you have it on for a few hours, you can just go watch the numbers move quickly towards 0.

Work has gotten our visa stuff started, and we went up to a clinic up in the north west corner of Beijing to do a health check. They took blood, height, weight, checked eyes, ears and throat, heart (including an EKG) and blood pressure, as well as a chest X-Ray. Chelsey did not have to do the chest X-Ray as she is pregnant. Essentially, there were four or five doors, and you just go to one, then the next - there is no order to the way you have to get it done, as long as you get to all five doors, and takes about 40 minutes total - including filling out the forms, paying, ect. This clinic is the only spot that we are allowed to do it in all of Beijing, which is really stupid because there are about 3 hospitals within spitting distance of our apartment, but to get to this clinic it took over an hour each way to get there. Stupid way to spend a day off, but it is something that we had to do. It was easy, just ate up a lot of the day.

Not much else going on. We hope that everyone had a good Canada Day (or a good July 4 for our American friends!) One thing we miss is BBQ! It's just a little hard to do it when you don't have a balcony. At least there is Chuar! Yummy meat skewers roasted over coals. They are dirt cheap and available all over - usally only costing 1-1.5 RMB/Chuar. Most of it is lamb, so Chels does not eat a lot of them, because she prefers the beef or chicken ones - neither of which are readily available near our home. She does like the Man Tou slices (steamed buns that are skewered, roasted and seasoned). This is making me hungry... I think I'll end there and go get some Chuar!

Mikey

Pay Day and such

So we got our first paychecks last week. I got just over 3600RMB and Chelsey got 700, plus 390 for a voice recording that she did earlier. We had not planned on getting so much, so it is a blessing. However, even this was not without its difficulties...



We had negotiated to pay our rent every month, instead of every third month (ie, pay 3 months rent at one time). The contract said that it is due on the ninth, but we let them know upfront that we would not be able to pay it until the 10th or 11th. We were supposed to be paid on the 10th. Chelsey forgot to get her 700 RMB from the company, but she got it the next day. As well, I spent 2 hours on my day off getting her 390 from the voice recording (this was also on the 11th). Why did it take two hours? Because it was on the other side of Beijing. If you look on the map, we live near Shuangjing Subway station (on line 10, the pinkish line on this map, SE.). I had to






go all the way to HaiDianHuangZhuang (also on line ten, NW). It is about an hour each way.
So Chelsey got here money all on the 11th.

Now, I was supposed to get the money on the 10th. There were going to deposit directly into my bank account. However, there was never any money in there all day on the 10th, and all day on the 11th. You could imagine that I was getting a little worried!!! What happened is that they kept saying that the name on the account was wrong. By the time Saturday rolled around, and the money was still not in there, I went to the bank and got a print out with my name and account information to give to them. They gave Chelsey cash on Sunday (June 14th), and said that the will try to figure it out for next month. I sure hope they get it figured out!!!

So what did we do about rent? We decided that it would be best just to take 2500 RMB out of our account back home so that we can pay the rent on the 11th. We have plenty of money now, and it has all worked out. It was just a little hectic!!

In other news, one of the local Chinese teachers that had just started took two weeks off. I have nothing wrong with people needing time off and such, but when you just start, and don't let people know in advance that you need that time off that soon, it kinds miffs me. Not only is she taking time off, but one of the other teachers had booked time off a long time ago around the same time frame. That means that we have all been a little extra busy, in trying to cover for these. It is a little more organized now, and they got a new Chinese teacher, so it is getting better.

Anyway, that's our latest misadventure!
have fun
Mikey

First thunderstorm of the summer

There was a pretty huge thunderstorm early this morning. Some of the lightning bolts were right in our vicinity because the flash of light and the thunder were practically coinciding. I think that it really scared little bean because she was kicking for probably an hour straight during the storm. Poor little one. I must have been sleeping pretty deeply because I didn't even notice the storm at first. I heard mike tell me "Don't be worried but you are going to see a big flash of light and hear a loud bang." I raised my head to look out the window and it looked like beijing was covered in a thick mist (when I was more conscious I realized that was because it was raining so hard) and almost immediately there was a flash of light and a big bang. I asked Mike, "How did you know that was going to happen>" he was really confused, he said "What, what are you talking about?" I said "you told me their was going to be a flash of light and a loud bang." He said "No I didn't." It is funny the way your subconcious is aware of things even when you aren't. It is almost like having two awarnesses that can talk to each other. Often through a dream in the voice of someone eles.