Monday, April 19, 2010

Beijing, China April 14-18, 2010


Forbidden City

We flew to Beijing, China on Wednesday, April 14th. Our flight didn't leave until 7:15 pm, so we had a little time to eat at the airport, prior to getting on our flight. It was at this point that we had our first, and really only, Kid breakdown....Maya, seeing all the Japanese food- noodles, fish, etc., started BAWLING, saying she just couldn't eat this stuff...we thought for sure, this trip would be a big struggle. Our kids are not one bit food adventurous (yes, like me- I struggle with weird looking food, so I can sympathize..though I have learned to try things first before saying I don't like it!), so instead of planning Peking Duck and Chinese Restaurant visits, we went to TGI Fridays, Hard Rock Cafe, McDonald's, Dairy Queen...we did get to go to one Chinese Restaurant, and ate at the hotel restaurant, which served a little bit of everything. Aside from the eating issues, we had a fantastic time. We arrived late Wednesday night, and were greeted by Oliver, from the travel agency that we used in Beijing. Oliver and our driver brought us to the Grand Hyatt Beijing, where we had booked a Club King room- which was supposed to be a room with a King sized bed, and we payed for an extra roll away. It also included a full Buffet breakfast, as well as free happy hour, and complimentary Non Alcoholic drinks all day. While checking in, they asked if we would like a room with two queen sized beds, which of course, we said yes to. To our delight, they ended up giving us a two bedroom suite- two king beds, kitchen, living room, 3 TVs, and 2 full baths...we weren't sure we actually wanted to leave the hotel room!! It was a very pleasant surprise, and got our trip off quite well.

We had hired Oliver's travel agency to set us up a trip itinerary, which included a private guide and a van just for us (we figured that the girls would need some flexibility, especially if any of us wanted to enjoy the trip!). Our guide, Grace, was a younger woman, who spoke fantastic English, and who the girls ended up loving. She came everywhere with us, helped us get tickets, order food, and really, was a weekend Nanny for us as well- walking with the girls, taking them to the bathroom, and keeping people away from them (more on that in a bit). She was fantastic, and if anyone ever goes to Beijing, I would recommend her without question!

Day 1- Thursday, April 15th
We visited the Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square and the Beijing Zoo. The Forbidden City was where the Emperor and his royal family lived, and where no commoners (except servants and soldiers) could go. It is literally an entire city within a city. It was unbelievable- and HUGE. The day was a little bit chilly, but overall, it wasn't too terrible. It was also at the Forbidden City that we realized that our kids were rock stars in China. They were getting touched, pet, patted, hugged, and everyone and their brother wanted to get their picture taken with them (and, for some reason, Scott and I too??). At first, it was kind of neat, and the girls complied, and allowed people to take their pictures every 15 steps. However, after awhile, it became really old and quite difficult - the girls couldn't walk more than 5 feet in front of us, or they would get mobbed. They were getting scared and freaked out, and Grace had to take over and start saying no to people and turning them away. Right before the Forbidden City, we went to Tienanmen Square. Lot of people and a lot of history. From Tienanmen Square, you could also see the Chinese "White House". After the Forbidden City, we went to the Beijing Zoo. The girls loved the Giant Pandas, and because Maya has been studying Australian Animals in school, she particularly loved that area of the zoo. We did have a chance to see a lot of animals that they normally wouldn't have in the zoo's in the U.S.- animals from this part of the world, which was really neat. They did have a regular Squirrel there as well, which we found quite funny!

That night, we went to the Legend of the Kung Fu show at the Red theater. We had no idea what this was, as Oliver and our travel agent from the states, both said it was the "Gung Fu Show" (to Susan's credit, she asked Oliver about it, and he just said the kids will really love it"!) So, we really had no idea what we were going to see...but, as we were sitting there waiting for the show to start, the TelePrompter started giving a little background about the show...and only then, did we realize we were going to see a show about Kung Fu!! As it turned out, it was fantastic- the girls did love it, and Scott and I liked it as well!

Friday, April 16th




Great Wall Photos

Friday was the day we were going to the Great Wall, the main reason we decided to go to China. The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall is about 1.5 hours drive from Beijing. Hanna, who was super tired from the day before (and I am sure, from being sick with an ear infection and high fever for the entire week before!), fell asleep on the ride, and woke up a big crab when we arrived. Crying, saying she was hungry, we went to the Subway, which was right at the bottom of the Great Wall, and got subs to take to the top and eat. Thank God for Subway, is all I can say! We were all really excited(except Hanna, who was still crying and whining) to see one of the 7 Wonders of the World! We took the cable car up to the Wall, as we didn't think the girls would make it to the top, and if they did, didn't think they'd have anything left in them to walk on the wall, and sat at the top and ate our Subway. It was a good way to start a great day- filling us all up, with the view of the wall all around us. Luckily, the Great Wall was more foreigners, and less Chinese...so the girls could walk around, mostly left alone and explore. The Great Wall is phenomenal really- it took them almost 2500 years to complete it (to keep out the Mongolians, who they considered Barbaric), and spans over 4000 miles. It is rocky and uneven in many spots, but quite unbelievable! The weather, which the day before had been cold, had turned unexpectedly warm- mid 60's and sunny- so by the end, we were walking the wall in t-shirts and sweating! According to the girls, their favorite part was the ending of the Great wall visit. There is a toboggan ride, down a steel tube, on sleds where you control the speed, that goes from the Wall, all the way down to the bottom. This was a lot of fun, and was a great way to end our visit!!

After the Great Wall, we stopped to take some photos of the Birdsnest and Watercube from the Olympics in 2008.


Scott and Maya in the Richshaw

After that, we went on a Richshaw tour of the Hotungs. The Hotungs are the original Chinese housing, which to me, looked like the slums of any city you would go to in the U.S. However, there is a lot of cultural significance to the way in which they were built. The Rickshaw was a really neat experience for the girls, and Scott and I got to enjoy what I would consider the largest bottle of beer I have ever seen...so everyone was happy!

http://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/hutong/

After enjoying dinner at a Chinese restaurant (of course, after feeding the girls hotdogs from Dairy Queen), we went to an Acrobat show, which was phenomenal. We sat in awe, as these people performed stunts of ridiculous flexibility and balance...Hanna fell asleep, but Maya could not take her eyes off these performers (she kept saying- balance AND flexibility...wow!). Day 2 was a success!

Saturday, April 17th
Saturday we were scheduled to go to the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. The Summer Palace was the place the Royal Family went in the summers as it was a cooler location than the Forbidden City. This part of our trip we could have skipped. Not that the Summer Palace wasn't interesting, but we couldn't go into anything, and by this point, the girls were so tired of people taking their picture, mobbing them and touching them, that they were starting to get testy. At one point, we made the mistake of letting Hanna walk on a curb about 10 feet away from us...and had to literally pull her out of a mob of people. It was completely overwhelming, so we made the visit as short as we could (people were even video taping them, which was very odd- cameras in their faces, etc. Not cool.) We also had a strange and crazy bathroom experience. Maya had to go to the bathroom, and Scott was going to take her over there and let her go in by herself. After a minute, we decided that probably wasn't the best idea, so I took her into the bathroom. This is the first time I have ever been anywhere that people didn't understand what a line for the bathroom was(granted, I am not a world traveler, so it could be common..I don't know). Maya and I stood in what we thought was a line, only to get pushed and shoved and pulled in multiple directions by all aged Chinese women fighting for the stalls- I am not even a little bit exaggerating here. I was standing there in complete bewilderment, when another English speaking woman came up to me and said- "have you ever seen this? I have never seen such rude people! You are never going to get into a stall if you just stand there- you need to start some pushing!". Flabbergasted- could you imagine if we would have sent Maya in there by herself? She would have came out traumatized. So, I found a spot outside of a stall and held my ground...it was really the most bizarre thing I have ever encountered....it made me realize what a developing nation this really is. Crazy.

We took a dragon boat (boat, shaped like a dragon) back across the lake and left that fun Summer Palace! :)


Temple of Heaven

Afterward, we went to the Temple of Heaven. This Temple was a temple that only the Royal family (back in the Chinese Dynasty's) could use, and a place where they prayed for good harvest, rain, or whatever else the Royal Family deemed needing a prayer. It was GORGEOUS, and though we could not go inside, we were really glad we visited. It was also located in a fun park that had a lot of singing, performers, exercises, dancers, and weird people dressed up in funny costumes, which of course, is always entertaining! We had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, and then continued back to the hotel, where we spend the remainder of the day/night swimming in the fantastic pool.

It was a wonderful trip, and we enjoyed it tremendously. Having said that, China is not a place that we feel we would ever live. The driving is CRAZY (and I mean crazy- they drive little shacks on wheels, and there is virtually no organization to the way they drive- lanes merge whenever, people turn whenever- it is really just a chicken match in many respects), the country is very much developing in most ways people from the West consider "developed", the medical situation is terrible (we are told that doctors just don't need to have the same education as they do in say, the U.S., and that the good doctors are very hard to see), the air quality is poor... it is just not a place I could imagine being for a very long time. After being in China, I am very thankful that Scott's company offered him this opportunity in Tokyo, and not China- it definitely made me appreciate our current location a lot more than I did prior to our visit!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Heaven

Monday, April 12, 2010

Ear infections and the Chiropractor...

In the past, Hanna has had severe, recurring ear infections. They started when she started to teethe, so 6 months or so- she just couldn't drain all the fluid, and it sat in her little Eustachian tubes, where it proceeded to infect her ears, causing her a lot of pain. She has so many ear infections (always had worse ones, that were harder to get rid of in her left ear), in fact, that the regular antibiotics that they give at the pediatrician's office stopped working- all penicillin based antibiotics she developed an allergy to (welt up all over her body), and the others just didn't get rid of the ear infections- they would mask it, and while she was on them, they would seem to get better, but as soon as she would stop them, it would come roaring back! It got to the point where every time she got an ear infection, she would have to go and have rocefrin shots (hospital grade antibiotics)- double shots in her thighs, three days in a row- that hurt like hell (I would have never known how bad they hurt her, until I caught a horrible case of strep/bronchitis and they gave me one..only then did I understand why she screamed every time she would get one). I had many discussions with friends and acquaintances, who recommended that I take her to a Chiropractor. Of course, at that time, neither Scott or I had ever seen one, so we thought it was hokey, and weren't up for doing it...instead, we put her through surgery (smart, right?), and had tubes put in her ears...which, didn't help much either. She still got regular ear infections, still spent a lot of time on antibiotics of all kinds, and was still miserable. So, breaking down, I took her to Dr. Andy Boesky, a family chiropractor in Kalamazoo (right off of Westnedge- by the Meijer), that did some specializing in kids chiropractic (I had several recommendations for him before going). I had little hope that it would make a difference (still thought hokey), but was at my wits end with seeing my little girl in so much pain, not sleeping and miserable. Hanna has not had ONE ear infection, since her first appointment with Dr. Boesky- not one. I thought of him as a hokey miracle worker :). Whatever he does, works wonders....that being said, Hanna hasn't had an adjustment (until this past Wednesday), since December, and guess what?? DOUBLE EAR INFECTION! Left ear is worse- middle and outer infection, draining like crazy, running a 102+ fever and making my baby miserable. She woke up on Tuesday night crying, saying her left ear hurt (she had a cold, and was snotty)- all I could think of was here we go again...so I took her to a chiropractor here, that seemed to do a pretty good job with her- though I do not believe he is as aggressive as Dr. Boesky. She seemed to get better by Wednesday night, so I sent her to school on Thursday...only to have her spike a 103 degree fever on Friday, which continued on Saturday. By Sunday night, she was back to bawling that her left ear hurt..by Monday, her fever was back, and by Tuesday, the ear was draining like crazy. I took her in Tuesday morning, to get some antibiotics in the hope that maybe, since she is older, they would finally work...we shall see.

We head to Beijing, China tomorrow afternoon- hoping that she starts to rebound once she gets a few doses in her! So my thought today- if you think a chiropractor might help, or someone suggests you try it, don't laugh them off (as we did)- I would give anything to have one close enough to take my family to!!

Just to let you know- a friend of mine just told me she saw one for Vertigo, and it worked!! So don't laugh it off!! :)

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Summer Plans

We have somewhat figured our our Summer plans, and wanted to get them out here in case anyone wants to see us when we come back!

June 27th: Entire Garrison Clan flying into Detroit and heading to Portage
June 27th through July 8: All 4 of us will be in Portage...believe we are staying at a hotel for part of it, and with our friends the Filary's for the other part
July 8: Scott flies back to Tokyo for a month
July 13th: Traveling around, visiting Leigh's family in the U.P. and Wisconsin
July 25th- August 25th: back in Portage. Staying in a condo in Portage for the month; visiting with Family and Friends!!
August 8th: Scott is back in Portage until the 25th
August 25th: Back to Tokyo as a family for the school year

We would love to see as many people as we can while we are home, so if you will be around and want to get together, please let me know!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Cherry Blossoms and Easter



I went for a nice bike ride to NakaMeguro, with my friend Mary, to see the Cherry Blossoms (Sakura). The blossoms (according to Mary) were at about 75%, and they were gorgeous. Full, white and beautiful. We went late morning, and by the time we actually got down the NakaMeguro, it was busy with people, walking, biking and taking a LOT of photos. I am told at night, the lanterns you see in the pictures are lit up, and there are food stands galore (I even saw a Churro food stand, which I haven't seen anywhere else except amusement parks!). Afterward, we met another friend, Valerie, at an Italian restaurant in Shimo-Kitazawa. The food was great and the company was even better! Sakura season only lasts about a week or so, and by
this past Tuesday, the petals were all falling- it was like snow and was very pretty.



We also had a few other things happen this week:

1. We discovered we have COCKROACHES!!! We had them when we first got here, and they gave us a spray, which seemed to work (they were tiny little baby cockroaches...small and disgusting!). They came back about a month ago, and they called the Bug man, who came and set up "traps". It seemed they were all gone, but lo and behold, this past weekend, I killed FIVE of them....the bug man came back yesterday and set some more traps..but I am about to lose it..they are small and gross, and in my kitchen- NOT OK with me. It seems that we are the only apartment that is having the issues, so that is even more concerning...hopefully, this time the traps will get rid of our issue for good...

2. We booked a trip to Beijing, China. It is on our list of "places to see" while we are living over here. We thought if we didn't get going, knocking off some of our "to see" list, we weren't going to be able to get it all in. So, we are using Frequent Flyer miles for our plane tickets, and are utilizing a travel agent out of Connecticut, that specializes in Asia, and has set up many vacations for expat families from Tokyo. We have an English speaking guide (named Oliver Ann, who we are told, speaks of himself in the 3rd person- Oliver Ann will be taking you here...Oliver Ann will be driving you there...!), that will bring us to all the places we want to see, including setting up meals, driving us around, airport transport, etc. We are told that gaijin (foreign) kids get a lot of attention in China, and that unlike Japan, where they are mostly hands off and do a lot of smiling and observing, the Chinese people are very touchy feely, and often times, it is bothersome...another reason we have our guide! So, we are heading there next Wednesday, the 16th, for 4 days, and will get to see: The Summer Olympic sites (Birdsnest, Watercube), the Great Wall (the #1 site we want to see!), the Forbidden City, Old Peking (Hotung area) by Rickshaw, the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, and Beijing Zoo to see the Giant Pandas. My dad was a bit worried, since China isn't necessarily friendly with the U.S., and made me promise not to say anything bad about the government while we are there....I for sure won't say anything about the $130/person special visa we had to get just to get into the country...U.S. Citizens pay $130, everyone else in the world pays $30!! So, it is costing us $600 just to enter China....but, what can you do, right?


My beautiful Girls in their Easter Dresses

3. Easter- we had a really great Easter this year- it felt so normal, and the girls didn't know any different. I had my mom ship me candy from the states- $35 worth of Easter stuff cost me $80 to ship!! I looked at buying candy here, but it was ridiculously expensive (think double digit $'s for a bag of Hershey kiss type expensive), so I thought if I am going to spend the $ either way, I mise well get the stuff the girls (and Scott and I) like.


Hanami parties pop up everywhere!


Family Photo at Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt

We had a neighborhood Easter Egg hunt at Kumaba park- organized by two ladies from our Uehara area. The park's Cherry Trees were in FULL bloom, and the setting was just gorgeous. That being said, there were a lot of people with their picnic mats out, just eating under the trees, so it was a pretty busy location. Sunday found us at Church, watching the Final Four (came on here at 8am- we taped it and watched it when we got home from church), having a Family Easter Egg hunt (Murphy Family tradition- my mom also packed a bunch of stuffed animal shaped eggs, and we hid them around the house. I think this is the part of the day that the girls loved the most- Thanks Mom!), and eating a fairly decent Turkey dinner. :) I say fairly, as my recipes had to be altered a bit as I couldn't find the exact groceries that I needed (and I admit- I didn't feel like running around Tokyo like a chicken with my head cut off). For instance, had to use smashed tator tots, full fat sour cream, and red cheddar cheese for the Cheesy Potatoes- I don't recommend it. They turned out OK, and Scott raved about how good they were...but Maya and Hanna wouldn't touch them with a 10ft pole! :( Again- what can you do, right? It overall, was a really good day, food alterations and all.

My washer and dryer are still not "decided" upon- and I was told today,(after the 9th measuring of my laundry room), that they are thinking about what to do still, and "hopefully" they will figure it out before we come home for the summer...soooooo slow. At least now, one of the options is giving me TWO washers and TWO dryers!! Yahoo....maybe I can make commission doing other peoples laundry...hmmm....