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