15 days in Chongqing

It has been way too long since the last post.  Partially because I didn't enjoy this  little part of my life and I am coming to terms with blogging about it.  I didn't want to skip over it completely because what good is a journal if you only post the blissful and happy memories of your life.  So with a little cautiousness on my part, not wanting to whine or complain too much, but in the same sentence not let on that these 15 days of my life were all fun and games...  Here goes nothing.

With that being said, you would think I was going to blog about being left in a torture chamber to fend for myself.   When in all actuality all I was having to do, was come to terms with being stuck in a suite, in Chongqing for 15 days, with no toys, T.V. that only had Chinese channels,  restaurant food, a husband who still went to work most the time, and very little to do, and Me having to come up with ways to entertain my 4 children.

We knew we would be in Chongqing for a while, but didn't have a set amount of time it would take to get the work Visas done.  The first night we had 2 separate rooms, it is hard to accommodate a family of 6 you know.   I was NOT going to spend the next few weeks in separate rooms, so we asked to see some of the suites.  They had  rooms with only one king size bed, but the hotel offered to bring in an extra bed which J slept on and C curled up on a couch, and we put two large soft chairs together for M to sleep on,  R babe occupied the bed with R and I.  These would be our sleeping arrangements for the next few weeks.

The first few days we were there it was getting paper work and my physical done.  That was a crazy story all by itself and I ended up being  sick the next 5 days or so after that.  The hygiene there is not like in the U.S. and I came way too close to passing out when they were getting ready to take my blood and she used the same pair of gloves that were used for all the other patients ahead of me that day.  I still get a little sick to my stomach thinking about it.

We did have a lot of lazy, stir crazy afternoons, filled with watching Psych on Netflix, playing with our McDonald's toys from the many meals we ate there, and trying to keep up on school work.  The unheated swimming pool was freezing (10 C, that's about 50F), but the kids could swim for an hour or so.  We would then head to our suite where they would pile in the regular size bathtub, fill it with warm water , keep their swim suits on, eat apples, and talk and laugh with each other in the tub.  The days seemed to drag on.  Each day I would wake up praying that today was the day we could pack up and go home.

I was anxious to get back, mostly to get the kids in school.  They had missed so much already because of our trip to Hong Kong.  But, we did go on some really cool day trips and made some unforgettable memories.

                             Our first day trip was to the Chongqing Zoo.  It was a great day!

                                                Nice buns huh!  Yes, a typical sight in China.

Monkey or Man?

 Defiantly Monkey

 The funny thing about all these pictures, was the kids drew quite a crowd.  

There were probably another 10 people taking the same picture of our kids.

 Our Zoo paraphernalia.

Taking a leak Chinese style. 

Our next cool adventure was taking a boat ride on the Yangtze river.

 The drunk people following us and yelling the few words they knew in English.

They were taking pictures of us, so we snapped a few of them. 

 Old Town. 

So many interesting foods to see.  Not to taste, just to see.

 Mikey was into Plants Vs. Zombie's on this trip,
 so he was so happy to find this zombie sucker.
We gave them 10 or 20 quay to spend here,
and oh boy did they spend it wisely.

 Doing a little shopping. I think J, even found a scarf here.
She is so good about spending her money.  She gives herself and budget
and sticks to it.

More to come in the next post.