Waking up on a beautiful sunny Sunday. The temperature has markedly dropped over the last month requiring sweaters when going outside. Comparatively speaking Mid-October to now has felt like early September-Mid October in Colorado. There is definitely a coolness in the air and on non-polluted days it definitely has a Colorado-like presence.
We continue to hear that the pollution gets horrible in the winter. We've had several days where the AQI level was above 200 which means that no one is allowed to go outside, the air purifiers need to turn on in the classroom and we have to shut all the windows (Colorado usually sits around 20 in the summer and around 40 in the winter, for comparison sake). These days make me long for the beautiful Colorado air AND makes me laugh that we used to complain how bad the air pollution was in Colorado on certain days in the winter. What amazes me is that almost no one wears masks in Chengdu. In Dandong, where the pollution was for the most part better, everyone wore masks. Maybe it's not socially accepted here? Maybe people have accepted the situation and have decided to not take additional cautionary measures???
Wearing my mask, I have to say, is not fun nor is it something I like to do. But I'm forcing myself because I've been rather sick the last month. Allergies & mold led to a sinus infection which led to an ear infection. An unmedicated ear infection led to loss of hearing and eventually a ruptured right eardrum. After about a week of not being able to hear + the pain and pressure that set in I finally broke down and went to the doctor. This is where I found out that my eardrum had ruptured and was prescribed antibiotics and sudafed. The doctor also prescribed (non-medically, of course) dehumidifiers for the house (story in a minute). Nathan lovingly gave me my nightly dose of ear drops for 10 days. I am better now, thank goodness. Not being able to hear 12 eight year olds is very very very difficult! Not only could I not hear what they were saying BUT the thousands upon thousands of words they speak everyday reverberated in my head all day long causing nightly headaches.
I also need to hold myself accountable here because I've had lifelong problems with my ears, including skin grafts to heal ruptured ear drums that wouldn't heal when I was younger. This causes worry because every time one of my ear drums ruptures there's a possibility of damaging its ability to hear. This combined with my genetic disposition of early hearing loss on the Harper side of my family means that I need to do all I can to protect my hearing. Nathan and I were joking last night that it's time for both of us to go back to school so that we can learn ASL. HA! Thankfully, my sickness is all over now and I've learned my lesson. Daily allergy medication + dehumidifiers + occasional sinus medication + a mask on highly polluted days = Yaisa feeling (and hearing) good.
We continue to love our move here to Chengdu. Nathan goes on adventures every Saturday or Sunday to explore a new part of the city. It's one of his favorite things to do. He's almost mapped out the entire city and can tell you where most things are located. Sometimes we all go as a family and sometimes it's dad and 1 or 2 kiddos having some special time together. Chengdu is a great city filled with beautiful parks, streets lined with neat stores, and different themed neighborhoods (Tibetan area, pet street, north market where everything is super cheap...).
We've become quite accustomed to our small cozy apartment. We were able to buy Luka a bed at a garage sale and have made him a bedroom in our living room (Picture below). We have a great patio out front which soon will be converted to a chicken play yard! We've wanted chickens every since we lived in our park hill home and soon it will be a reality for us. Nathan being our research guru has been researching chickens for the past month and has been all over Chengdu looking for the exact breeds he wants.
Inside our apartment, we've had to buy two dehumidifiers due to the high level of moisture in the air here. Two weekends ago while going through our bedroom we found mold everywhere. This wasn't the black spotty kind of mold you happen to see on small patches of clothing of items. This was the light green kind that has grown so much we could have scraped it off with our hands. No wonder I was getting sick! The dehumidifiers are a blessing and we are so thankful we've bought them. We are needing to dump the water twice a day, that's how much water they are pulling out of the air! Being Coloradans who are used to needing humidifiers converting to the idea of dehumidifiers has been an interesting conversion!
Kiddos are doing well. Moving to China has been an adjustment for them in many ways. One way in particular is being American children who have been plucked out of an American school system and dumped into a international private school system surrounded by teacher children, consulate children, and children of high ranking businessmen and government officials. Navigating these relationships, i.e. relationships with children from these types of families has been an up and down experience for them. Understanding the reality that at times these children due to lifestyle have a very different view of the world then they do. Understanding that these children are upheld to different standards and often times have very different consequences than our kiddos has created an opportunity to see the world with different viewpoints. Nathan and I have worked very hard over the last 15 months to make sure that our family is a solid foundation, a pool of love and support, from which they can always come back to. We've instilled game nights, movie nights, family walkabout adventures and more to make sure that our bond stays tight. We constantly fill them up with positive and encouraging messages as they navigate through their experiences and decisions. Our kiddos are amazing and we are so very proud of them.
As we approach the holiday season I am overcome with a myriad of emotions. Happiness because this season is my favorite, Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. Sadness at not being around my family and friends. Excitement to get to travel to different cities. Loneliness with not getting to be around my girlfriends who absolutely fill my soul..... We will be attending two different Thanksgiving dinners this year. One with several teachers on Thanksgiving night (we don't get any days off for Thanksgiving this year) and a second Thanksgiving dinner with a couple we have bonded with. They are from the States but have lived all over the world. They have three boys and our families get along beautifully. For Christmas we will be having a HONG KONG CHRISTMAS! Shhhh, the kids don't know. We will travel to Hong Kong and stay for two weeks. We've rented an apartment and will be taking the kiddos to Disneyland Hong Kong. They are going to freak out as they have never been to Disneyland and have always begged for us to take them. We are so excited to go during the holidays because Hong Kong is VERY westernized and it will very much feel like home.
We'll that's the news from the 86 for now!
Much love from China,
Y.
