Pigs are cute....

I miss having a kitchen and cooking.  Not that we don’t and I can’t, but right now we are still in the set up and building stage of our move and part of that is waiting for the end of the month when we get reimbursed for our moving expense and get our bonus for house set up.  We could do it now, but that means spending our money or putting it on a credit card.  We can wait a week and a half and NOT pay interest on that, thank you very much.

Besides that, it’s not like we’re starving of anything.  I’ve got two items… a wok style fry pan and a pot to boil pasta/rice/whathaveyou.  I’ve made sitrfry and noodles and simple things and one pot type stuff like that.  I just can’t really unlock my potential yet.  I can’t make complex meals.  I feel like I’m cooking and meal planning with one hand tied.

We’ve taken to eating out a bit more than usual as another solution.  Partly for variety, but also because (in some cases) it’s about as, if not more, cost effective than meal planning at home.  Kiddo and I, as an example, went out for lunch yesterday on our way to the grocery and we spent $2.  For 30 beef dumplings!  As a family we all ate at this same place the other night and knowing what we know now, we can get dumplings and an entree to share and eat for less than $5.  That’s incredible.  And it’s made fresh.

One of the things that Kiddo has tried, amongst all the new and Chinese versions of things, was a meat skewer.  It was mutton.  She ate 2 of the 6 that we got.  She was happily munching along and when the meal was over, I asked her about the meat.  “It was really good.”  Then I told it it was mutton.  THEN, I explained what mutton is.  The look on her face…..  I wish I could have gotten a pic.  Later that night, she was talking with J about it.  She told J that she felt bad eating mutton because sheep are SOOOO cute.  J told her that she eats chicken and pork and beef and that cows, chickens, and pigs are cute too.  “Yeah, piggies are cute…. But also SO delicious.”  Preach it, girl.  Preach it!

On top of that, people were right when they said we would be oddities here.  Especially with Kiddo.  Sitting in that restaurant eating dumplings the other day and the locals coming in were losing their minds.  We were getting many looks.  Even the guy at the register who takes orders was engaging in conversations with people coming in and looking at us.  He just kind of shrugged.  The fact that we killed the meal and that Kiddo munched about 1/3rd of it herself.  Girl ain’t scared of dumplings.  It was fun watching her eat, but also watching the locals with their GTFO looks.  I think one guy, he kept looking at us until I told him hello, snuck a pic of us.  I could half see his phone off and on and he went from watching YouTube or something to texting.  I’m sure it was YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS and his friends were like, Pic or didn’t happen. LOL

It’s been a week and a day.  We are adjusting.  We are figuring it out.  We are getting used to being the odd ones and the center of attention, even if people are trying to not act like we are the centers of attention.  Especially with Kiddo.  People just can’t wrap their heads around a little American girl going to town on Chinese food.  Much like the locals in Zihua kept double taking at us in the markets and little local places we’d go and explore.  We are willing to explore.  My thought is that if 100 million locals have eaten at the market/restaurant/place and not dropped dead, then we will be perfectly fine ourselves.  We lived like that in Bangkok with the market and getting and eating food there.  We can live and do the same here.  

Other than that, it’s a week and a half until school starts, so I am on Kiddo daily.  We get to explore the places.  Eat and see and learn and explore and find.  Once she’s back in school, I’ll get to do that alone and that will be another learning curve as I get to branch out a bit more, since she only has so much endurance to explore and try.  Also, I’ll be able to start buying and setting up and kitchen and house a bit more, so that will be an exploration all it’s own as I learn the space and how to maximize it and use it.  

A million puzzle pieces, but we get to decide how they all fit.  It’s an adventure — that’s for sure.  Mostly fun with bits of frustration thrown in.

Let’s go, Kiddo… another day to wander about and see what we see.  Get lost and then finding our way back.  Finding food.  Seeing the new place we live and enjoying it.  Trying new things and finding new places to eat, shop, have coffee, or just a playground to monkey about.  It’s a lot, we know, but you are handling it better than most and better than we expected.  Keep being you and trust in me and Mumma, talk it out with us, and know we got you.  We’ll keep the adventure going and there is still so much to do and see, but know that every day, we will be home and a family.  Always.