A Year in China

By Alynn Bassett

A Year in China is the Journal of a mother with 2 toddlers that followed her husband across the world. Leaving their comfortable house in a small city in Michigan to a rural Chinese city with 2 million people this is an eye opening read on what life in Asia is really like. It is from the perspective of a stay at home mom who supported her husband's dream to teach English in a foreign land. 100% of the profits from this ebook will go towards helping improve education in Asia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alynn Bassett
• Release date: Nov 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301930197

Alynn Bassett

I travel the world and write what I feel.

Book preview

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RED A YEAR IN CHINA

By A Lynn Bassett

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 Geoff Basstt

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Thursday, January 6, 2011

A New Normal

Looking out our barred patio windows at the steaming smoke stack, I am reminded of how far away my old normal is. The unheated patio where I dry our laundry has chipped paint revealing the concrete walls. There are left over trunks of dusty pictures and miscellaneous decorations from the previous resident in this third story apartment. It is cold here. We are still a month away from the coldest time of year. I may hibernate with the kids for that month and only go out to get necessities. Not having a vehicle to come and go as we please is an adjustment. To get anywhere we must walk, take a very crowded bus, taxi, or train. Grocery shopping is not as simple as just getting to the store. There is not a store where I can get everything for the week. Oh how I miss Target and Walmart! Instead I buy bread and noodles from one store, fruit from another, and chicken from yet another. We can only buy what we can carry and if I forget something (as I usually do) it is another all day trip to get whatever I have forgotten. Add a language barrier and hungry tired kids and you have one wiped out mama! Today I was able to shop without the kids. Geoff, sick with a fever, stayed home with Elizabeth, who has been sick for 3 days, and David. I enjoyed the crisp fresh air, the sounds of children playing in the school yard that I pass on the way to the stores, and the uninterrupted thoughts swimming around in my head. Days like today, other than worrying about my sick family, make me feel like I can do this, and that I can adjust to living abroad in a new land full of strangely interesting ways of living. My instinct is to run back to Michigan and promise never to leave the better way of living, but that is not right. Different does not always mean wrong. It just means a new way of doing something that I have done the same way for 27 years. I still argue that western toilets with toilet paper and soap at the sinks out rank squatty potties. Please use your imagination. At the end of the day, I am glad for this adventure, I am meeting some amazing local people who I hope to becomes friends with, and we will get some really great stories out of this. Till next time, enjoy your day!

Friday, January 7, 2011

The Doctor's Appointment

Finally, after putting it off for 4.5 days and hoping Elizabeth's fever would break, I decided it was time to see a doctor. Having absolutely no clue