Top 5 Things That I Wish I Could Find in Suzhou

5.  An Online Distributor of Books

I didn't realize how on-the-ground everything in China was.  The majority of shopping I ever did was online.  Many books (mostly academic ones) that I am interested in or that I need to teach a class aren't available in China and are ridiculously expensive to ship from the states.  It makes you plan very far in  advance which I suppose is a good thing.  But, when you really need something you are either out of luck or have to be willing to pay. 

4.  Bourbon (specifically Makers Mark or Bulleit)

I knew there would be Scotch.  I knew I could find Jameson every once in a while.  Bourbon was my biggest question since for the last 2 years, it is all I've been drinking.  I've only been able to find Four Roses Bourbon in Suzhou.  I've found Maker's Mark from an online distributor in Shanghai but who knows if it is legit or not.  I think I am going to try out Four Roses to see if it is any good before I spend the money on Makers. Over here it goes for about $32/bottle.  I just haven't developed a taste for Scotch yet and there is something very comforting about sitting down with a glass of bourbon.  

3.  Gillette Gel Deodorant

So stick or gel deodorant just isn't a thing over here.  It is all spray. I've been using the same deodorant for probably 15 years or more. Luckily, we anticipated this and we bought a stupid amount of deodorant that will be arriving in our shipment.  But, who knows if all that will last me until the next time we are in the states or until the first person comes to visit us.  

2.  An Online Distributor of Electronics (like Sweetwater.com)

Sweetwater.com is where I've bought nearly every piece of electronic equipment I own.  Instead of a large general distributor here, there are many smaller distributors that only sell certain brands.  So instead of making a large purchase from Sweetwater I have to make many smaller purchases of all of the different brands from different distributors.  Major inconvenience and also much more expensive.

1.  Pilot G2 0.7 Black Ink Gel Pens

This seems like a stupid little thing. But, I wrote with those pens everyday of my doctorate.  They feel good.  The ink thickness is perfect.  I only have 1 left not really thinking about it before I left.  

Moral of the story:  Every time we come back to the US we are taking a checked bag that we can fill with stuff to bring back.  

Nearing the One Month Mark

We're into week four and it's been a weird couple of days. I won't go into details, but it turns out our funky Chinese apartment is not funky and Chinese, it's simply shoddy, cheap, and lazy. We held our tongues for the first few weeks because we didn't know any better, but a friend invited us up to see her place for comparison (different building in the complex, different landlord), and we are being charged a little more money for a little more space, buy WAY WAY WAY lower quality of everything. I was willing to put up with some of the quirks since I assumed it was just the Chinese cultural norm, but it turns out it's just lazy crap. We're a little upset.

So, cut to Wednesday of last week, when we wrote a point by point email to the School of Music assistant who has been busting her butt getting everyone settled (Poor girl). We toured a smaller place (2 bedrooms) in a different building of our same complex on Saturday and met the landlord. He's young, energetic, very accommodating, and the apartment will be fixed up for us as soon as his parents move out in September. It's a little smaller than we were hoping (well, it's a really great size, we were just really hoping that we'd find a perfect place with plenty of room to grow so we could stay longer than just a year) and a little more pricey than we really wanted to pay, but it's very nice, tidy, and we won't have to shell out for a crap ton of furniture.

I have no pictures. I didn't want to be rude. But, imagine a perfectly nice apartment with a good sofa and a great view. We'll move in September. Whooooopie!

Other disappointments: the realization that the quoted price from a pet relocation company doesn't include my critters' airfare, bumping the total up to around $4,000 USD. Ouch. The realization that a bigger percentage is being taken out of Rob's wages for tax than we were really expecting. Which makes saving for bringing the critters over a whole lot harder. The realization that the digital recorder that Rob needs to record source sound material for his electronic music compositions is way more expensive over here than in the states. I could go on, but it's depressing.

The big-time good stuff: most of the new faculty members are arriving and everyone is seriously great. We've hosted card game nights two Sunday evenings in a row, which has been incredibly entertaining. Several family-style meals to get to know everyone. Eating ourselves silly, but walking over 3 km pretty easily just getting from our place to the bus and from the bus to wherever we're eating, so we aren't packing on the pounds yet. Exploring some of the more famous parts of town. We have good days and some bad days, but I think most of that will pass once we get into a routine and get a few paychecks into our account, which will alleviate most of my cause for worry and bad days. It's all uphill from here! 

Exploring Pingjiang Road with Lucas (who we've really enjoyed getting to know and wander around the city with)

Binglin Library at Soochow University's Dushu Lake Campus. Until the School of Music building is completed next year, administration and some of the classes will be housed here. Pretty cool building, huh?

We've had so much good food, it's ridiculous. And most of it is really inexpensive.

Dangfanzhimen Fountain light and laser show. Holy Chinese Experience, Batman.

One of our many big group meals. I love it.

Apartment Assessment

Our apartment is filled with truly hideous and unbearably cheap furniture.

At the recommendation of a few colleagues, we'll be socking away money for the next few months to, first and foremost, get my critter kids over here, and, secondly, save enough to buy a bunch of IKEA furniture from the Wuxi store and have it delivered. And lemme tell you why:

Rock hard Chinese-style bed. I was expecting it, and I knew it would be only modestly countered by buying local cotton-batting mattress pads. We currently have two sets on the bed, which I had to saw to the proper width with a crazy sharp knife my brother gave to me. It's still lumpy in the middle and only kind of comfortable

Solution: Ikea 5+ cm mattress pad with foam.

Rock hard, narrow, red-fabric-with-dog-print fabric sofas. x2. Can't/won't do more than 30 minutes of sitting on them because my butt goes numb. And Rob can't lay on them- he sprawls off the length and teeters off the width. 

Solution: Buy a sofa. For the love of Pete, buy a squishy, module-based sofa that will be deep enough, soft enough, and long enough. Babies will be in the 1-2 year plan, so I'll need a cuddling spot. Perhaps a few side chairs, too.

Wardrobes that are only as tall as I am, cheap, crappy particleboard, and not even deep enough to hold the ragtag group of crappy hangers left for us. Oh, and a purple fabric wardrobe with plastic pole connectors, one of which split already, so it's lurching perilously forward.

Solution: Wardrobe and drawers. Duh. (PS- do you think we should go for this solution or this one? Need some opinions!)

No bookshelves, terrible TV stand, and an abundance of tiny, short desks. 

Solution: Nix the desks, which are so poorly constructed, I can't even stand it. Replace the TV stand with something better, perhaps with storage that might fit something, anything. And a few bookshelves to store the collection of music and art nerdery that is coming in the next few months by freight. 

Lots of faux wood floors and bright fluorescent lighting. Critters click-clacking around and way-too-bright evening lighting isn't going to be ideal for the long haul. 

Solution: I've picked out a few sensible low-pile rugs and we'll scatter some floor and table lamps around.

Complaining out of the way- at least it's a furnished place. It simply won't work if we'll be around for many years, but we aren't sitting on the floor or sleeping on nothing but 3 cm pads. And the price of rent is very good, so I'll make it all work until we can afford to make a swap.

Perks: TONS of green space around our apartment. A bus stop so convenient, it's scary (3 short stops from campus, 3-4 lines to take us to the bigger supermarkets, 2+ options to get us either to Old Town and other shopping and restaurant areas, or to the Metro line, which makes traveling into town a breeze), three plazas within a 4 minute walk with restaurant, veggie and fruit market and convenience store options. Very attentive landlord and very sweet repair guys so far. Aaaand, since the complex is very new and will be developed like crazy in a few short years, perhaps the promise of a lot more developed amenities and conveniences.

Oh, and I have several pipes running through my kitchen and around the perimeter of the living room. That's a neat feature, right?

First week in Suzhou

We’re here!

It’s our 11^th day in Suzhou and, all things considered, we are doing really well! We're mini-documenting each day through Instagram, check Rob and I out at @katebmcclure and @robertwmcclure!

The good:

• Two markets less than 500 meters from the side gate of our complex
• Received great help signing up for SIM cards and data plans, utilities, and buying household basics (like a few bowls, a wok, knife, heating kettle, bedding, hangers).
• Successful trial and error in figuring out two bus lines to get someplace specific (with all signage in Chinese).
• Point and order meals.
• Dirt cheap veggies at the little market nearby (which we discovered is accessible by walking through a second set of doors inside the pharmacy). No joke, I’ve purchased a huge bag full of baby bok choy for $1.20.
• Using only my wok and hot pot, along with salt, soy sauce, vinegar and garlic, I’ve prepared several really tasty meals.
• Discovering WeChat. Getting in touch with our colleagues here in Suzhou and our friends and family in the States has been made waaaay easy. Look for the app and give it a try. You'll love it, I promise. Especially the Live Chat- it's like a walkie talkie. 
• $5.00 Season 8 How I Met Your Mother to keep us entertained.
• Meeting new colleagues, all of whom are young, energetic, adventurous, with greatly diverse interests. It’s going to be a really good group of peeps, I think.
• Small successes each day, like a shared laugh over our horrible Chinese and a cab driver’s limited English, or effectively communicating with a sales associate about the features of a floor sweeper, or finding a supermarket with Pedigree dog food and kitty crystal litter for when the critters arrive, and locating Q-tips and nail polish remover.

The bad:

• Average of 104 degree days (feels like 110), which makes getting out to see our new city on the cheap before our first paycheck dang near impossible because it's so hot. Walking to explore is simply not an option.
• Trouble unlocking our phones for the first few days. No worries- VPN and an online service did the trick, but feeling really helpless for the first 36 hours while our home internet was not yet set up and having no way to call the University administrators was really emotionally taxing.
• Rock hard Chinese-style mattress. Genuinely awful first two nights’ sleep before we found a mattress pad.
• Tiny, narrow, awful furniture. And I’m not saying that because I have an interior design background, I’m saying that because it’s truly the worst. We’re game-planning our September budget to include a Shanghai Ikea run and delivery charge.
• Dusty dusty dirty floors and furniture upon arrival. It’s a new building, so some of it was street grime, some of it was sanded plaster walls.

The Chinese:

• Water heater mounted on the kitchen wall, along with pipes running around the whole apartment near the ceiling.
• Snot rockets and lougies. Everywhere.
• Barbie pink flower decals affixed in a lovely and whimsical wave on our main living room wall.
• Tiny desks. Which Rob physically couldn’t fit his legs under.
• Beaurocratic paperwork to register for everything.
• No door frames or moulding- and unfinished paint jobs leading up to openings
• Cheese Lobster flavored potato chips, Honeydew Cantaloupe cookies, Chicken flavored cheetos. 
• Just like America, I'm pretty sure 15-25 year old girls are running the economy- an easy 70% of the shopping is for girly clothes shopping.
• Hang drying our washed clothes on these long trusses with mounted hangers that crank up and down on our outside utility patio. BTW, we did our own rough translation of knobs on the washer and did a darn good job of guessing what each setting meant- "Off the Ice" actually meant Spin Setting, but that was the only one truly lost in translation.