Some, Of Many, China Times

A year ago, we moved to Hangzhou, China for my husband's job. He runs a plant out here that makes carbon fiber wheels. He is super busy and I have been a stay at home mom here with Ava. I am not used to the whole not working thing and sometimes I miss it. It has been nice spending the extra time with my little one but I think we get on each others nerves some days :)
A lot of people have asked me how it is living out here and if I could only use one word that I think best describes how it is is "Crazy". Everything is so different in every way. The language, the mannerisms, food, cooking, cleaning, money,the water, driving, bathrooms, apartments, internet, television, jobs...the list goes on. Just the way of life in general is totally different than what most of us are used to in America. Things that we use everyday like a dishwasher, a dryer, an oven, and tap water they don't use over here. I have had to plan ahead on what clothes I will be needing and how long they will take to air dry. I have learned a lot of new recipes since the wok is the main cooking device. And washing every dish by hand isn't so bad but it was just something different. Then there is the water. We have seperate water for drinking b/c you can not drink and even cook some things with the tap water.
The biggest difficulty out here has been going out in public. Ava and I (Ava more so) just get swamped with people wanting pictures and wanting to touch her cheeks, hair, and hands. We have people follow us and try and sneak pictures. I have had some lady just come over to Ava, pick her up, and start walking off with her to show her friends! It has gotten to the point where Ava and I have become homebodies while Joey is at work b/c it just gets too overwhelming if Joey isn't with us. Plus, they seem to leave us alone a little more when he is with us. I never would have thought we would attract so much attention. I honestly feel like a freak show when we go out.

There are some fun things here though like we have loved the night markets. It is a street that is filled up and down with vendors selling all sorts of things from jewelry to shoes to pirated DVDs, purses, decorations, electronics, watches, just a ton of stuff! Everything is pretty cheap if you are willing to barter.
We have also loved a lot of the food here. You haven't had true Chinese food until you have come here! Panda Express and P.F. Changs does not even come close to how Chinese food really is and how it tastes.

We have learned how to make homemade dumplings and I have learned a lot of new recipes. There are a ton of food carts that are out and have certain foods on them where you can just stop and pick out what you want and they will cook it for you and it is so cheap! my husband and I can eat for 3 bucks! They also have these eggs called tea eggs that are really good! They are like hard boiled eggs but they simmer them in a crock pot with tea leaves. I will miss those for sure.

The fruit here is amazing and is very cheap as well! They have fresh fruit stads/markets everywhere. During the winter and spring, the sugar cane is in season and you can get a whole stick of sugar cane for 75 cents! It is so good! And they have fruits here that I have never seen in my life!

The whole bathroom situation has been kind of alarming! No one warned me that the toilets were in the ground! It's like they took a toilet bowl and just put it into the ground. We call them the squatty potties. Most of the time there is no toilet paper in any bathrooms so I always have tissues in my purse. Going potty for the little kids though is a whole nother story! When they are getting potty trained, they wear split pants, that way, when they need to go, they just squat wherever they are and go! Grown men also just whip it out and pee wherever and whenever. So gross!
One thing that I have never thought about missing is just lawns and back yards. Everything here is huge buildings and no yards. The only grass you see is at parks. I don't love that we live on the 18th floor especially when I go out on our balcony to hang up our laundry! It is a long way down!

So, I know that driving can be super frustrating and can bring out the worst in people but you might never complain again if you drive once here in China! It is absolute chaos! People just doing whatever they want when they want! Stopping in the middle of the road to text, flipping "U" turns wherever, driving backwards if they missed a turn, running red lights, making their own lanes, and driving in the oncoming traffic lane. All of that and then stir in all of the hundreds of scooters and pedestrians doing their own thing is just madness!! Luckily we have only been in one accident since we have been out here.

We live by a tourist area called West Lake and it is really beautiful. We love going there and walking around. They also have a really cool zoo here with a Panda bear!

They also have seals that put on a show and sea lions that you can feed. Ava loves going there.

There are some pretty amazing places here that are beautiful! There are a lot of Pagodas that are just amazing! They really go all out on their architecture here.

And further out of the city, there are some beautiful natural springs and it's just green everywhere and peaceful. We loved going there and getting away from the busy and noisy city we live in.

Another thing that is so weird is that there are ALWAYS fireworks going off! It doesn't matter what day it is (or time), you will see or hear fireworks going off somewhere everyday. During the Chinese New Year is is pure craziness!! They were hitting our windows of our balcony! and going off all hours of the night. It is impossible to get a full nights sleep during that week. While is can be more than annoying, it can also be very beautiful at night going out on our balcony and seeing the entire night sky just filled with fireworks everywhere you look.

Some things that I had hoped I would not encounter are the bugs! Since it is so humid here during the summer months, the mosquitos here are insane! I would go out on the balcony to hang our clothes out to dry and come back in with 3 to 5 bites! We all had a very itchy summer!
A bug that I have never encountered until moving out here were Cicadas. They are all over in the trees and you wouldn't even know they were there if it wasn't for how LOUD they are! I have never heard anything like it. while walking outside, there are times when you would have to shout over their noise just to talk to the person next to you. And of course when they die, they fall out of the trees and onto the ground or, sometimes right on top of your head. It was a little creepy.
And of course there are the cockroaches, which, until moving out here, I never had come across one. This big guy was just chillin in my little girl's room.

We called the exterminator first thing in the morning!
One morning, I went over to out bedroom curtains and opened them up to let the sun in and there was this monster bug on the other side!

This bug had no wings just sticky feet. That means that it climed 18 stories to get into our bedroom. I was too scared to squish it or even get too close, so, I closed the balcony doors and waited for my husband to get home to get rid of it.
Because there are so many bugs, there are a lot of bats! If you go out at dusk, they are everywhere just flying over your head! I have screamed outloud a few times b/c I swear a few were coming right for my jugular ha ha! It really is a litte scary for me though to just have bats flying all around.
This post is getting pretty long! There is so much more I could talk about and I'm sure I will in future posts but that was some stuff that have been really quite different from the US. This whole experience has been so crazy, fun, hard, and memorable. I have been humbled in so many ways and feel so thankful for what I have. The homesickness has definitely kicked in these past couple months and we are ready to be home in AMERICA!! But I am glad to have had this whole experience and I will never forget it.

Together We Are Perfect

Some of you like lil love stories and some of you don't, so if you don't, just skip this post because it's about how my husband and I met and fell in love in a very condensed story.
Most people know that I have been married once before. I got pregnant and we were friends so we thought we would try and make things work. Well, they didn't. and 2 years later, we got divorced.
Normally people would just be upset and embarrassed that the marriage happened which, to an extent I was, but more than anything, I am grateful it did happened. Sounds weird, right? Well,to explain my point, I know that if I hadn't have gotten married the first time, I would have never met the love of my life.
While I was married, and after Ava was born, we were struggling with money. Both my ex and I were working full time and it still wasn't enough. I had to find another job that I could do only on weekends and at night so, that my ex would be home with Ava. So, the nightclub life was calling. I took a job at a nightclub called Atchaflaya's as a cocktail waitress Friday and Saturday nights 9pm to 3am. I had to wear Chaps and booty shorts for my "uniform", it was a totally differnt atmosphere from the professional dental office that I was used to working in, and it was kinda scary/crazy for me at first. I was barely 21, had never been to a club and knew nothing about all the different drinks and alcohol. There were hundreds of them! All with weird names like "purple hooters", "Lemon Drops, "sex on the beach". I had no clue what anyone was talking about!
Cocktailing was like putting on 6 hour show. You smiled, you laughed and pretended you were having the time of your life working. You were everyone's best friend and had to put up with all the drunk guys that had no class and would hit on you all night. It was tiring and hard work. By the end of the night each shift, I had had it. My feet hurt, my arms hurt from carrying a tray full of drinks all night,I was all sticky from people spilling drinks on me, and I smelled like alcohol and cigarettes. It was not fun. It was not a free party for me and it drained every ounce of me.
At the end of the night, and after all the customers left, all the employees hung around and waited to get paid. This is when I was first approached by Joey. He was the DJ at the club and stayed up in his booth all night mixing so, I never would see him til the end of the night. He could tell that I was in a grouchy mood so he tried to make me laugh by saying "I see London I see France." (he was referring to my booty shorts). I was not amused. The last thing I needed was one more guy hitting on me. So I snapped back at him "You've seen them all night!" I didn't mean to be a brat but I didn't know this guy and I just wanted to get paid and go home. He just looked at me, turned around and went back up the stairs to the DJ booth and I heard him mumble "Well, she hates me."
Every weekend, even though I was not very nice, Joey would come say "Hi" to me or make a joke, even try to make small talk. I was still married and didn't want to flirt or anything but little by little I would at least start engaging in his small talk.
A few months had gone by and just everything felt out of control. Things were getting bad with my husband and my health. One morning, the whole left side of my body had gone numb. I was scared. I went to the Dr. and he poked my leg and arm with a toothpick. I could only feel the pressure of the toothpick not the sharpness. That's when the Dr. asked me about my life. What I did evryday. I told him I was a wife and a mother, and worked 2 jobs. I didn't want to go into details about my personal struggles that I was dealing with but I think he knew there was more than I was telling him. He told me that I needed to cut back somewhere in my life b/c I was running myself too thin and it was endagering my health.
When a medical Dr. tells you that you need to "cut back" on something, it makes you sit down and think what can I actually cut out of my life? I can't cut out being a mother. I can't cut back on working. And that's when it hit me. The thing that I could cut out and that caused me the most stress in my life was my marrige. I wasn't happy and it was only getting worse. There was nothing about my marrige that was fun, happy, or that made me want to stick around to try and salvage it. The damage had been done and I wanted to move on but didn't know how.
I went to work that night at the club feeling hopeless and not knowing exactly what to do. I didn't want to be divorced. It was embarrassing. All the people who would be saying "I told you so" just did not sound like something I wanted to deal with. I didn't want Ava to have to go between parents the rest of her life, and I didn't want all of the drama that comes with divorce. I was torn.
At the end of my shift, I was sitting with everyone waiting to get paid and Joey said something that made me laugh out loud. It honestly startled me when it happened. I hadn't had a real laugh in so long that it felt almost foreign but I felt happy for that moment and I needed happiness in my life again. At that moment I knew what needed to be done. A few days later I told my husband I wanted a divorce.
The next few weeks were a lot better. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders and it felt good. I was actually looking forward to the weekends at work b/c I would see Joey. He was just my friend but he made me laugh and we got each other. He would even take me out on motorcycle rides after work was done and we would make Beto's and Del Taco runs for everyone at the club while they were waiting to get paid. That's how things stayed for awhile. Just as friends.
I was staying away from home a lot until the divorce was final and the ex moved out. So, one day I decided to go up to the Fashion Place mall that was 45 minutes away from where I was living. I had remembered that Joey lived somewhat close to that area, so, I called him and invited him to meet me there and he did! I had Ava with me and at the time she was only a 1 1/2. When Joey saw her, he was so sweet to with her. He just played with her and held her and I was kinda shocked. Usually guys aren't so willing to just take over with a kid.
After the mall we went to get a bite to eat. I had to use the restroom so Joey stayed at the table with Ava. When I got back, I was surprised to see them playing dolls together. He was even doing voices for all the different characters! I knew right then that he was a keeper and my "just friends" feelings for him had shifted.
The divorce was soon finalized and I didn't even date one other person. Joey and I had just hit it off so well. We lived together for a year. Then oJoey took me on a surprise trip to California. We got in our rental car and drove up the coast for a couple of hours. I had no clue where we were going. I looked out the window and saw a road sign that said "Madonna Road" and I said "Madonna Road? Like after the singer or what?" Then it hit me! We were going to the Madonna Inn!! If you've never heard of this place or seen it, get online and look it up! It is AMAZING! I first saw it on "The Girl's Next Door". They all stayed there and I made Joey promise me that he would take me there someday. Little did I know that he had already made the reservations to stay there!
We pulled up and it was beautiful! We got all checked into out room which was AMAZING! He made sure to get the room that Kendra Wilkinson stayed in from "The Girl's Next Door". We went to the bar that was there and I got a drink that I had seen the girls get on TV. It was all pink with whipped cream on top! Sooo good! Then we went to their winery and tried some different wines. We did a little shopping at some of the stores, and then we went to dinner. It was so romantic and I couldn't believe he had planned This dream vacation!
After dinner, we went for a walk. We wanted to see the pool. it was so pretty! There was a little walkway that went up to a gazibo so you could look out over the pool. We walked over there and looked out at the view. When I turned to leave so we could go get our swimming suits, I felt a nudge and next thing I knew, Joey was down on his knee asking me to marry him! Of course I said "YES!" and later that month, we went on a cruise with some family and friends and were married on beautiful Catalina Island. It was PERFECT! and everything else since then has been as close to perfect as it could get. I have never been happier.
So, going back to the beginning of this little love story where I said that I was "grateful that I had been previously married b/c I would have never met my husband." I was put into a situation during my first marraige that led me to have to take another job, and if it wasn't for that, who knows if I would have ever met the love of my life. So, yes, going through a divorce sucks. And no, I would not recommend it but it happens. I have just been able to look through the bad and realize all the good that has come out of it.I have my prince charming and together we are perfect :)

My First Attempt At Blogging :)

So, everyone has a blog these days and I have been all against it and putting it off because I have no clue what to write about or how to even do this blogging stuff! Plus, I don't want to bore anyone with my boring life :) But, finally I have given in and decided that I might as well just get one started. I can write about my lil family and maybe vent about...who knows what! Plus, I might just put some hair do how to's on here. I guess this blogging thing might turn out to be fun. Just don't judge me though. I have no clue how to do this. I can tell this will be quite the learning process!
How about I start with a little introduction; Hi! my name is Cassandra Nicole Lange and this is my blog! Welcome! Ha ha! (Cheesey enough for ya?)

Anyway, I have the Cutest lil 5 year old Named Ava who is a handful! But she keeps life interesting and frustrating all at the same time. She has taught me a whole lot of patience and is my lil pride and joy!

Joey/Jon (Jon is his legal name...it's a long story) is my husband. He is the love of my life! We got married March 30th, 2009 on a beach at Catalina Island. It was beautiful! Just like a fairytale!

Next on the list is our family dog GINGER!! She is a Golden Retriever and is our lil fighter! She survived parvo when she was 5 months old. She is a ball of energy and makes us laugh all the time! She has just brought a totally different element of happiness into out lifes. We just love her!

That's our little family. What would I do without them?! Everyday I feel so blessed to have them in my life and I wouldn't change a thing :)