Bonjour Paris!

We have finally arrived in Paris! The beginning of the journey did not start out so optimistically. We found out as we got to the airport that we left Matt's suitcase sitting in front of our house. Granted it was dark, and the suitcase was a dark shade of gray that easily blended with the night. But come on! How could we have not seen it? We all assumed it was loaded into the car and nobody took a final count. Anyway, Matt's making the best of a bad situation. He will have to borrow Ki's clothes until we can buy more. Good thing he's big enough to share now.
The apartment we rented is in the heart of Paris in a very quaint part of the neighborhood. In fact every other store is a jewelry store/bead store with cafes around the corner. What more could a girl ask for? And it's walking distance to all the major monuments. We picked it for it's ideal location.
The apartment itself is not a nice as we expected. First of all, we had to lug our heavy suitcases up four flights of stairs...no elevators. Secondly, it's smaller and older than the pictures indicated. Thirdly, it's right next to an elementary school, which means we can hear the hoard of kids screaming and playing during recess. It's like a mob outside! But right now, someone is either playing opera music or actually singing opera. We can hear it from our place and it's quite nice. So Parisian!
All in all, Paris is what I expected. We took a boat tour on the Seine River and every building is so beautiful, it's hard to take it all in. From the Notre Dame Cathedral to the Eiffel Tower to the Louvre. Weather was a perfect sunny spring day. Food has been awesome.....pastries are tasty, cappuccino the best I ever had, and the people friendly and fun to practice my French. Ki and the kids are completely dependent on me for the little French I remember from high school. But it's been so much fun just trying to speak it!
We did have another incident. As we were walking back to our apartment after the boat tour, I noticed a zipper was open on
Ki's backpack. He checked it and discovered his cash ($100) and his Ironman watch was missing. Thankfully ours passports were still there. He was pick pocketed by a professional....he doesn't even know when it happened!
This vacation has been full of surprises. Some good and some not so good. I hope the rest of our time here will be......normal. No more "uh oh" moments!

A Day At The Nail Salon

The other day, Erin and I went to the nail salon for a mother and daughter outing. Ki and Matthew just left to go to Cambodia for a youth missions trip, so I thought this would be something nice to do together. Getting a pedicure here in China is SO cheap. Compared to getting one in the U.S. for $22-$25, it's ONLY $7! Yeah, I know...crazy cheap. That's why I tell myself to take advantage of it and get a monthly pedicure. Before I left the U.S., I had just started to treat myself to pedicures. A lot of my friends did it, but I had a hard time justifying paying someone to paint my toes. It's something I did myself , though not well. I was convinced it was worth it after my first pedicure. Boy, did my feet look pretty! I have to confess, I have always felt self- conscious about my dry, wide feet. It didn't help that while we were dating, Ki told me I had ugly feet. To this day, he denies ever saying that. But I remember. Despite that insensitive comment, I still married him. Yes ladies, love is blind and deaf! Anyway, back to pedicures. So it's not just about getting your toes painted, it's about scrubbing the dead skin off, softening the skin and beautifying your feet. That kind of pampering is not something I grew up doing or seeing my mom do. In fact, my two sisters still don't go to nail salons unless I'm home visiting and I take them. After I started to get pedicures regularly, I realized it's one of those small indulgences that made me.... happy. I'll be sitting around watching TV and glance at my feet, and just seeing my hot, pink toes will make me smile. Erin has been asking me to take her to get her toes done, too. She's seen her friends get pedicures with flowers decorated on them and she wanted to try that. Of course that costs extra. At first I told her "no." I'm just getting used to the idea of getting pedicures. The idea of getting decoration on them was beyond acceptable to me. She was so insistent, I told her I'll pay for her pedicure, but she'll have to pay for the extra decoration. She agreed, saved her money, and got her toes done. She chose a pale pink base color with some silver in it and black flowers with silver glitter. I have to admit, it came out really pretty. Maybe one day I'll try......no, no, no.....I'm sticking to the plain ol' pedicure. Before you start thinking I'm living large out here, let me tell you the salons here are not like the one's in the U.S . At home, it's like a spa. You sit in nice massage chair, feet in hot bubbling water, and a machine to dry your toes once you're done. All in all, very relaxing. The first nail salon I went to here in China, my friend Pernilla and I walked into a hair salon that also did pedicures. We were both new here and still finding our way around. They took us to a back room with three ordinary looking lounge chairs. So we sat and looked around for the massage chairs with the foot bath. Before long, a girl came with a plastic bowl with lukewarm water to soak our feet. A plastic bowl!!!! Talk about doing it old school. Not only was it not like a spa, it was dirty and uncomfortable. After that experience, I tried a different nail salon recommended by a veteran expat. This place was worse than the first one! It was strictly a nail salon with 10 chairs, but so packed together, it felt like a sweat shop. Finally, I saw a brand new one that had opened. It was clean, airy, and had a relaxing atmosphere. Still no massage chair, but they do massage your hands and arms a little, and the chairs are clean. No foot soaking machine, but they do bring a wood bucket with disposable plastic liner with some kind of hot milk water with flower petals floating on top. Plus a little foot massage. Just like the Three Little Bears, the third one was j-u-s-t right. It's still not as nice as the ones in the U.S., but it is a whole lot cheaper!

Rain, Rain, Go Away....

It's been raining all day in China today. It rained yesterday.....and the day before that. Apparently this is called the rainy season which will last until August! That's 4 months of continuous rain! It's so different from the dry, hot weather in Texas. We used to pray for rain so our flowers wouldn't wither and die. Not here.....the neighborhood is lush and green with flowering trees and shrubs everywhere. And all that green needs the rain. My umbrella has become my best friend.... I can't leave the house without it. I'm surprised that I'm not as bothered by the constant rain like I thought I would. Maybe it's because it's better than the extreme humidity we suffered here recently. I knew something was up when I opened a pack of gum and found it wet inside. I knew it hadn't been dropped in water , so how did it get wet? Then I walk into the bathroom and the tile floor is slick with water. It hadn't been cleaned that day, and there wasn't a leak anywhere, so why was the floor wet? It finally hit me when I found mildew growing on the walls of my bedroom. I panicked and called maintenance to take a look at it. He came and looked at the mildew, got a wet paper towel and just wiped it off. I felt like an idiot....I thought he was going to do something major like re-paint the walls! I'm learning that it's just another thing to adjust to living here in China . Now I keep the A/C on all day, wipe off any signs of mildew immediately, and place a request for several humidifiers. At least the humidity keeps my skin moisturized and youthful looking. I keep telling myself that as I discover more and more things covered in mildew and mold.