After a month in China, I already have a few dozen anecdotes and stories to tell as practically every day brings with it new experiences. Adapting to life in Wenzhou means getting used to being stared at, having my shopping cart examined and my purchases copied, getting used to their habits and adapting my own so that I don’t offend, learning a few words of Mandarin to get by, and changing our cooking and eating styles to incorporate the local foods.

We had a pretty good idea of what to expect from having traveled in China for nine weeks a couple of years ago. But setting up a household is very different from passing through so we’re having our share of misadventures and misunderstandings. Most are resolved easily enough but there are times when the frustrations of different languages, cultures, ways of thinking, and ways of doing things can get to you.

The only thing I can do is laugh and remind myself that we’re the guests here, this is their country – so we’re the ones who have to adapt. I keep telling myself that what they do and how they do it makes sense to them even if I can’t fathom it. It’s up to me to figure out why it does make sense so that I can better understand and adopt their ways.

There are days, however, when I think I must have grown a second head, or my skin has turned green, or both. And then I remember that I’m a foreigner in Wenzhou. That means I am constantly stared at – and it’s not just a quick look and a polite look away – it’s outright staring. Because this part of China doesn’t see many Westerners, we are a novelty to its residents. In international cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong people don’t give you a second look as they see foreigners every day.

When we were here for the fall holiday, Moon Festival, a couple of years back there were many country people visiting the city who had never seen a white face. We got used to being stared at and decided on a new motto: “If you don’t get stared at occasionally, you aren’t traveling right.”

On most days I just look back at the person and smile and sometimes they smile back. At other times I just ignore the stares and let them have a good look at me. Some people, especially youths who’ve studied English at school, will say ‘hello’. I always say hello back which sends them into fits of giggles. At two different times I’ve had young men say ‘Hello, welcome to China.’ And one asked me where I was from.

Most of the stares are out of curiosity but sometimes old people just scowl and I wonder what is going through their heads. Are they thinking: what are these white devils doing here; they’re ones who carved up China after the World War II as spoils of war; they fought us in Korea and Vietnam but let us be conquered by Japan; and who knows what else? They certainly have a long list of ills the Western World has imposed on them including war reparations that caused poverty and starvation, and eventually led to the rise of nationalism and, later, communism.

Generally, people have been very welcoming. Even though it’s a pain for them to deal with a person who doesn’t speak the language and must gesticulate madly to get her point across, they still smile when they see me approach. And when I say ni hao (hello) they smile even more broadly at hearing a foreigner mispronounce a little of their language.

The day I have nothing to write about our new lives in China is the day I will have completely assimilated into the Eastern ways: that should take about 150 years.

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It didn’t take long for us to feel the difference between travelling as we had for the last 3.5 months and settling in as expats this past week. When on the road, you rarely need to: register with the police; get a medical exam; buy a cell phone; go to the Canadian consulate to prove the legitimacy of your marriage certificate; change your temporary tourist visa into a one-year working visa; look for an apartment; go grocery shopping; buy kitchen wares; etc. etc. etc. All of which we have done in our first week or are about to do in our second week of living in Wenzhou, China.

The official and bureaucratic steps (police registration, visas & medical exams) we expected – but we hadn’t been told about the need to have our marriage certificate certified….so off to Shanghai we will be going tomorrow to visit the Canadian consulate and have them bless (?) the piece of paper we received almost 27 years ago in Vancouver, British Columbia.

With the help of English First, Jacob’s new employer, we’re looking for an apartment and in the meantime living with the lovely Helena, a teacher at the school. Once we have our own place we’ll need to furnish it with kitchen stuff and stock the fridge and cupboards. The school provides the furniture including a clothes washer, TV, air conditioner – all the things vagabond teachers wouldn’t want to have to buy as they may not stay long enough to make it worthwhile.

A little about our new home city: Wenzhou is on the east coast of China just a little north of the island of Taiwan. It is a city of about 7 million inhabitants but that includes a ‘greater’ Wenzhou that we aren’t likely to see much of. Our little neighborhood is very high density with almost all structures 7 stories high (it is mandatory that elevators be installed in any building with more than seven floors – so guess how many floors most buildings have?).

We are within walking distance of English First as are all of the foreign teachers and staff so we have a ready-made community of expats. Our new friends are from England, South Africa, USA, Russia and the Philippines. We’re also getting to know a few Chinese people who are already associated with the school or its staff.

There are many shops nearby, banks, restaurants, markets: pretty well everything we will need. The area is crisscrossed with rivers and canals and so the neighborhood feels somewhat small because of the boundaries created by the water. There are modern skyscrapers – showing off the wealth of this part of the country – as well as older buildings in all sorts of architectural styles: Roman, Soviet, glass & steel.

So far, I only know a dozen words in Mandarin Chinese: hello, thank you and counting from zero to ten. But I’m already feeling the need to know a lot more as you can only go so far with pointing and pantomiming when you’re our shopping. I’ve been invited to join the English First Chinese class offered to teachers and I can’t wait to get going.

The reason we came Wenzhou a week early was to experience Chinese New Year’s in our new home. Fireworks are still going off a week after the start of the New Year. People are firing them up in front of their businesses to scare away the bad spirits on this, the first day of business in the New Year. What fun!

Zài jiàn (goodbye) for now.

How does an ex-pat know it is time to move to a new country to get fresh experiences?

As I prepare to leave my third ex-pat country (USA—Mexico—Costa Rica), I’m beginning to see a pattern in the signs that present themselves to indicate that maybe, just maybe, it’s time to go:
1. You understand the city bus system run by five or more companies, their routes and their rates.
2. The on-the-street lottery ticket vendors treat you like a local: “lotteria, lotteria, lotteria”.
3. Your cheap coffee maker has broken down and you don’t want to buy another. more…

We’ve been extremely blessed in our three moves as expats in that we always knew someone in the city we were moving to. But that is all about to change.

The Los Angeles area overwhelms new arrivals with its 10 million people spread over an area bigger than some small countries. The emotional support provided by Aunt Ruth, Uncle Yale and Cousins Audrey and Rich was terrific. They introduced us to a whole bunch of things – to which they may or may not want to take credit – including the Trader Joe’s and the Whole Foods specialty grocery stores, the La Brea Tar Pits, Jewish delis in the Valley, the L.A. County Museum and, of course, Mrs. See’s candy. more…

Like all tropical climates, the one in San Jose, Costa Rica is warm and humid – perfect for bug breeding.

We have the tiniest ants possible and so we try to keep all food well packaged and no crumbs or anything on the counter. Fruit flies are everywhere in the kitchen because I always have fresh fruit ripening.

The smallest termites possible reside in our wood-construction house and every once in a while – like when a cat walks on the roof – we are showered with termite dust (poop, for all I know). more…