Author: bchen5255

Its looking up

You know how some days, things just don’t go right… and the smallest things just really collapse your little world…

I really am trying to be positive. Seriously, we do not have it all that bad.  We need to look at the positives right?  We are all healthy, together, living in a stable, warm shelter.  We have clothing, and food.

Lets back up to our trip to China.

Jan 10th, 2019.  It was a cold, brisk day.  No snow in the forecast, it will be a straight ride to ORD (Chicago O’hare) for our flight to Beijing. I had previously communicated and received permission to get a company minibus to transport me and my family and ALL of our luggage to the airport.  Most of you (I really don’t know who is reading this… I hope one day, more then just the 2 of you out there) probably already saw the pictures on Instagram and FB.  Allow me to recap.  Words can’t really convey the chaos and mess those few days and hours really transpired.

Our party included: My dad, mom, husband, son (Matthew age 8) and me. Each of us are allowed 2 checked in luggage and 2 carry on.  WE maximized on that so we are talking 10 large suitcases, and 5 pull on small suite case, 4 backpacks and my mom’s purse.  We are a scene to behold.  We check in at O’hare without too much issue, it was just time consuming… but we were done.   The fun did not begin until we arrived in Beijing!  We had 3 hours before our domestic flight to HeFei (our final destination).  Dad was going to check in on his place in Beijing, and join us a couple of weeks later in HeFei.

The process is as follows: get luggage, clear customs, recheck luggage and clear security.  Usually, this is about an hour to 1.5 hr process depending on the lines.  We should be more than fine.  Dad’s luggage comes our first. Then nothing.  5, 10 minutes passed and  I’m slightly concerned.  15 mins passed, we go get someone, and he and I go to the lost luggage center.  My heart is heavy.  Luckily, they scan our luggage tags, and all are indicating to be in Beijing.  So we go back, and slowly, one bye one, we get all but one last suitcase.  Its one of my moms.  She is a super worrywart… so to have it be her suitcase, might as well have been a missing person.  I was surprisingly calm (I lost this calm completely 2 wks later on our move in day to the apartment – insert teaser here… come back and read about that one!) and told dad to go home, and for Matthew, George and my mom to recheck everything else, and start queuing in the security line.  I would stay behind to wait for the last piece (we found out upon visiting the lost luggage center a second time, that it some how got mixed with domestic arrival luggage and would take an hour to sort out) Its ok.  We still had time.

I was lucky, they found me no more than 15 minutes later, to tell me the piece has been found and will be coming out on the carousal any moment now.  This was going great! Happily, I rechecked the luggage and waited in line for the security check.  I sent both my mom and George a message to deliver the good news.

Strange, no reply.  I can’t see anything beyond the security frosted windows.  Finally, after about 10mins, I queued enough to see through the gaps of people and see my mom and Matthew.  No George.  Oh chee… what could possibly be happening.  Where did he go?  As I inch slowly (ever notice, when you are so desperately needing to get somewhere, its inching… and while you are avoiding to get somewhere, you travel at the speed of lighting. ) to the passport control I see George frantically pacing back and forth, he caught my eye, and puts up his fingers, yelling 3 or 4?  What is he doing?  He yells did we have 3 or 4 carry on luggage. (hmmm… 5 when we started in Ohare, Dad took one… that should get us to 4 right?) He throws up his hands, and yells, well, we only have 3 ! and runs away.  What. The. Heck. (I am trying to keep this blog clean… no promises)

I finally get through the line, and immediately ask my mom what is going on.  (Background: On Nov 2, mom while walking in our neighborhood tripped and fill. She suffered a broken right shoulder in 3 places.  With diligent physical therapy, she was finally able to make small movements, but can not lift anything) She told me they went through the security line with 4 but due to the chaos and too many items, one was left behind, and forgotten.  By the time George noticed and confirmed with me we actually did have 4, the security team has already isolated the luggage and escorted it to the investigation station on floor 1.  This meant George got out of the secured area, chased them down to the first floor from the 3rd floor – that is, if he was able to catch them. While most of those bags had books, snacks, small items of clothing for the what if we lose our luggage… the one that was left behind was the one holding all of our ipads, my few pieces of “worthy”jewelry and all of our medication. Of course.. had to be that one, that was lost.

It was also during this time, we realized my mom’s phone does not work in China (see previous blog on mom’s cellphone). George and I frantically text back and forth, and finally he got to the station, right as they were opening the bag and checking into Matthew’s virtual reality Oculus.  When George claimed the bag and upon them seeing the jewelry, they all broke out in laughter and pointed at George and spoke some Chinese.  Guess we will never know what they were saying.   So, that was some crazy 3 hours, I sent mom and Matthew to the gate, since they walked slower.  By the time George cleared security again we ran to the gate in time to board the last bus to our plane.  Finally… we have arrived.

Getting a mobile number in China… if you have a Chinese Resident Card

I want this blog to be about experiences.  Good or Bad. It’s about our lives.  I hope I do not offend anyone, as I am not only focusing on the negative, or will try not to!
I want to be positive and well, at least just neutral.  Certain days, certain things just really set me off though.
Lets just talk about cellphones.
We will discuss in this order, My mom, me, and George.
We each have a unique and different situation and will have dramatically different solutions.
Each one more complicated and seemingly impossible then the next.
 
my mom. She is a Chinese citizen, with a US green card.  Meaning she has a Chinese passport, a China resident card and a legal US resident.  She already have a Chinese phone number.  However, we notices, she can’t call or do anything outside of wifi.  Her account either does not have enough money, or is suspended… something.  Bless my mom.  She has no idea about her phone.  (maybe like some grandmas out there.) My dad was busy in meetings and could not readily be reached.  In my hast, (we need a working PHONE in china and not rack up charges for our US phones with all this roaming!!) we went into China Mobile. They look at her phone, ask where she got her number, she got it years ago in Beijing.  Sorry, they told us.  Only Beijing can deal with Beijing distributed numbers.  They can not help her.  However, they did tell her, the issue with her phone is an upgrade to 4G is needed.  (in Beijing China Mobile store. Not in any other city China mobile)  So, maybe at this time, I would like to introduce Bing’s WTF (World Travel Frustration) Scale. 1 is a small annoyance and 10 is bulging veins ready to pop along with the eyeballs.  So, now, I am like WTF 3, seems heavily regulated. Ok.  What is the solution.  They ultimately told us, they can give my mom another number, that is already 4G ready, so she can be good to go with 1G data plan a day, for about 50RBM (at the time of post, @6.79 xrate )$7.36. Not too bad.  Sort of done.  She now needs 2 phones or get her original number upgraded, or a phone that can accept 2 sim cards.  Ok.  WTF 3, still it was doable, and we only inhaled about 15 minutes of cigarette smoke as the young men set her up. Oh, fun fact, you have to have a Chinese resident card in order to get a china phone number.  So… stay tuned for what is going to happen for Bing and George. We both do not have a Chinese resident card. 

The Big thing

I’m 3 years out of College, alone in Sarasota Florida, my friendship with George has blossomed into a relationship. Then one day, a simple day, while pumping gas, I notice my left eye started to strobe light.  I was seeing flashes.  I ignored it. This went on for about 2, 3 days, and I finally said something to George.  Always so medically informed, he told me to take it very seriously and go to the eye doctors immediately.  Well, I never made it out of there.  My left eye had an retina detachment, the doctor performed outpatient surgery immediately and kept on saying how lucky I was to not lose vision after ignoring it for so long.  Most people had hours not days before they permanently lost vision. (This was also very rare for a young person without traumatic injury to the eye to experience.  At a later, much later time, when I was in a joking mood, the doc told me I won the unlucky lottery)  I had a tear at the 11’o clock position, so they inject an air bubble (after a Valium to calm me down) into the eye, and I was to keep my head tilted in such a way that the air bubble would press against the tear 17 hours a day and it will naturally heal in about a months time (WHAT?! Honestly, I was lucky this was before social media and our addiction to screen time really exploded).To better preserve both eyes health, it was suggested that I should not use my eyes too much. I was going crazy.  George bought me books on tape (we are talking circa 2000, so no itunes, podcasts etc… at least maybe not prevalent).The days went by slow, slow, oh so slowly.  As I got closer to my last visit to clear me to go back to work, I got excited and saw the light at the end of the tunnel.  The doctor’s visit quickly turned negative and disastrous.  I was not cleared to go back to work. Worse, I had to have the gas bubble injected again, as the retina did not reattach.I lost it, I did not want to be bed ridden, eyes closed doing nothing for another month anymore.  I uncontrollably cried and was further put in a panic, when one of the nurses came in to tell me, since this was the second outpatient surgery, my insurance was not covering it.  I had to pay the $2000 out of pocket.  I was frantic, and it took 2 Valiums to semi calm me down to do the injection into my eye ball.I stopped speaking, I stopped eating.  I wanted nothing, I did not want to do this anymore.  It was a dark moment in my young, immature life.  The company I was with, also denied additional benefits.  I felt like I was kicked once again, while down by the “MAN!”

I promise, it gets better.
People who know us, know me, and George know the story, know the unconditional love George have for me.  He is such a giving, caring person.  If I didn’t know it then, I knew it from that moment at the doctors office.
He knew I was out of it, distraught.  My mom had come to Florida to help out.  George was working first shift in the plating shop.  He managed to switch his shift so that he can alternate with my mom to make sure I ate, and maintained that 11’o clock position at least 17 hrs a day.
Long story short, George gave up a lot to help me. He took money out of his savings to pay for my surgery, rent, bills. He probably didn’t sleep between working, taking care of the boys (Joseph 5yrs old and Evan 3 at that time) and me.  This perhaps was the beginning of our adventures.
He saved more than just my vision, my sanity.  George essentially saved me.  The dedication and care he showed forged a love between us that would over come not just a detached retina, but many more things in this next 18 years.  So, in 2019, as we land and start a new life for the next 2 years in HeFei, China, we are ready and will tackle this adventure.  Come and join us!

When the Girl met the boy

I thought it might be nice to tell you who we are, what we are all about and really, how we became George, and Bing, Angeski and Chen… our family.

Well, picture this! 1998, yes it was a long time ago.  I just graduated from Penn State and accepted my first “real”job at Eaton Corporation.  I entered their management rotational program and my first rotation was in Sarasota Florida.  That’s how we met! George was the supervisor of the plating department, and I was this new kid on the block.  Trying my best. My one rotation was a Quality Engineer for the assembly lines.  This particular Eaton plant made airplane cockpit switches, and the big Caterpillar, John Deere rocker buttons among other products.   All these devices had a critical component- silver or gold plated contacts.  These darn contacts kept on coming in not completely plated, especially down in the small contact holes.  (Well, George would later tell me that its a physical impossibility to plate down a hole that is deeper than it is wide)… blah blah… well, I kept on rejecting the whole lot.  Which is 5000 of these, and someone in the plating department will have to sort these under a microscope.  So this happened twice.  The third time, we heard the door that separated the assembly line and the plating department slam open! With this angry roar, “Who is this B.Chen?! That keeps on rejecting the contacts!” Just about everyone pointed to me, and me, of course, looked up, stood up, and happily raised my hands to introduce myself.  He was here to confront me! Well, it turned out OK! He calmed down, and offered to give me a tour of the plating shop and teach me about plating.

That was my official introduction to Mr. George Angeski.   I would like to say the rest is history… but so many little and one BIG thing happened before we became a family.  First, we became friends.  I learned a lot about manufacturing and plating from him.  I learned about sacrifice, love and commitment from him.  I was fresh from college, thinking I knew what I wanted from life.  Thinking Sarasota was just a temporary stop in my rotational program.  I was dealing with what do I want to do when I grow up… but love does not follow any rotational programs.   It happens when 2 people finally touch hands and realize maybe that friendship really is blossoming into something else.