Good days and bad days

I’m finally back online!! It has taken a little while to get the internet turned on at our house. This is a blog I wrote from last week and will be posting a blog soon with pictures of our apartment.

Yesterday (October 8) was pretty rough! The day started out fine, I had a shopping trip planned to stock my new kitchen with all the necessary items for the culinary masterpieces I have planned. My friend picked me up and we headed off, first to the bulk food store for flour, beans, nuts, and spices. How I LOVE this store! Sacks and bins of everything you could possibly imagine. We made our purchases and made our way to the next store. Here is where the trouble started, Anastasia started fussing. At first I ignored it, but her fussing became more and more insistent until she was crying freely and asking to be held. I picked her up and realized she was quite warm with a fever. Great! I still had so much shopping to do! I limped along, sometimes having Marcus push the cart while I held her and other times just putting her down and praying she’d be ok for a minute so I could get through the rest of my list.

Finally I reached the end with frayed nerves. Just try shopping in a new country, in a store you aren’t quite familiar with and add a sick and crying baby on top and see how you feel. It was exhausting to say the least. Oh, and we were all hungry because shopping had run into lunch time.

It felt so wonderful to finally get back home! “I’ll put her in a warm bath while I get lunch,” I thought. I turned on the faucet but nothing came out! Great, what now?! Turns out each apartment has a water tank on the roof and when you run out you either have to call a water truck to come fill it, or wait till the city water slowly fills it back up again! The system seems quite broken to be honest. I have two faucets in my kitchen sink, one for city water and one for the water tank on the roof. The bathrooms use the water on the roof, but I don’t see why we can’t just have city water to the bathrooms too! I’ll have to talk to somebody about this! Ha I am thankful that at least I had one faucet that had water! Otherwise I have no idea what I would have done. So, no hot bath for the sick baby.

Later I decided to make some soy milk. My machine got half way through the process then quit for no apparent reason! (It’s working fine now, so no big worry!) The power went off at some point also, which is normal. There are generators that kick on when it goes out so it usually isn’t a big problem.

Meanwhile, Anastasia has woken up from her nap feeling quite a bit better, thankfully! However, she takes it upon herself to do all she can to get into trouble. She spilled all 249 Q-tips on the bathroom floor. Found the only lipstick I brought with me and bites off a big chunk of it, apparently it tastes good because she chewed it up and swallowed it as fast as she could so I couldn’t take it from her! Should I be worried? She’s still alive so I guess not!

I’m tripping over suitcases not yet emptied into the dressers, groceries all over the floor, a baby that keeps getting sick, a boy that needs my attention. A new culture and home to adjust too, it all added up and overflowed!

To top it off, Seth had to work late! I’m usually fine with that, but of all days I needed relief!

Another friend stopped by that evening with medicine for Anastasia! I just started crying!

Before you just chalk all this up to womanhood, realize this is just part of adjusting. Yes, it was a stressful day, but all the newness can be extremely taxing on a person, physically, emotionally, and mentally draining. I don’t think we realize even how difficult it can be to adjust. I knew I would have days like this, and though they are hard to take, it’s just part of the process!

I’m so happy to report that today was AWESOME!! Through the night the tank filled on the roof so I was able to shower! And bathe Anastasia! And wash clothes! And flush the toilet! Oh happy day! The electricity did go out a couple times and stayed off for longer than normal, but it was ok, I had plenty to do that didn’t need electricity! Then I made tofu with my super awesome soymilk maker!! Yeah, I’m not in Asia any more, tofu is not being sold on every street corner. (Sad face!) Making my own is fun and so much better anyway! Cooked a yummy Chinese stir-fry with the fresh tofu, everyone claimed it was the best meal so far! Made bread with the kids, but it hasn’t been cooked yet. It can sit in the fridge for days, they say it just tastes better the longer it sits. Honestly though, I haven’t figured out how to light my oven so I hope they are right about the bread  just getting better with age!  And all the suitcases…EMPTIED!!! Except for Seth’s, I think he’s holding out in hopes I’ll unpack it for him! Haha We’ll see…

Sliced tofu

Tofu block

Oh, and Anastasia does seem to be feeling better! I hope whatever she has goes for good! I think she has had the hardest time adjusting. Poor baby. Sickness and then not understanding that we are too far away from grandparents and uncles and auntie and cousin to go see them, has been hard for her. When we were packing up our suitcases to move out of the dorm to our new house, she got all excited because she thought we were getting on the airplane to go home.

Marcus loves it so far! I almost think he is happier here. He misses family and friends of course, we all do, but he was born in another country and has lived half his life as a 3^rd culture kid. Travel and adventure is in his blood!

There are still good days and bad days ahead, but I’ll just take each day as it comes and keep reminding myself that this is normal, I’m not actually going crazy! No smart comments on that now! Haahaa             

Update(October 14)…I finally figured out how to light my oven! Baked the bread and it turned out great!! It is a bit of a challenge to figure out the exact temperature to set the oven at though, it doesn’t have any markings! I haven’t burnt anything yet, so I must be doing something right!       

Anastasia is over whatever she had, FINALLY!

And ALL the suitcases are emptied! Yeah, I finally gave in and helped Seth empty his. Such a good wife! haahaa