Dumpster Diving

We have been warning Denali since we came to China. not to wrap her retainers in a napkin. You see, she had her braces removed before we came to China and thus the retainers are a new thing. We have lost a retainer case on a bus, at the zoo and in the apartment, but so far so good, the retainers have survived! That is to say, the survived until Wednesday!!!

No to get ahead of myself, but my stay in China is progressing. We are getting into a routine and I am less nervous when I leave the house. I can actually get in a taxi now and tell the driver where I want to go and how to get there with them understanding me!!! I have also memorized 90% of the bus routes, so when all else fails, we just get on a bus. After all, how big can Qingdao be? Big enough to hold 7 million people!!!

Each Wednesday at noon there is lunch at various locations around Qingdao for expatriates. Me and the kids often go, because, not only do we get to talk in English, but we get a break from each other and meet some very nice people. Well that is where we were this Wednesday afternoon. I now travel with a backpack full of forks. Jackson refuses to eat unless there is a fork. He is all done with Chopsticks, so he tells me. I order sandwiches and of course thee is an egg on it - there is always an egg on everything, what was he expecting, CHEESE? I throw a bunch of forks at him - Fork You - and threaten him within an inch of his life. He happily eats the entire sandwich and ask for another. This whole fork thing will prove significant in a minute or two.

I brought a new friend Ruta from Lithuania to meet everyone. I introduce her to my knight in shining armour - Carla. I have a friend Jackie, who has a friend that lives in Shanghai (Tania), who has a friend that lives in Beijing, who has a friend that used to live in Qingdao (Rebecca), but now lives in Chicago. Rebecca's husband works for the same company as Carla's husband. Thru successive emails and facebook, I am electronically introduced to Carla. Carla has taken me around town so that now I know where to shop and she helped me buy my first map. (I now have 4.) I always call Carla when I am stuck, but not this Wednesday. As Carla, said, I pay it forward.

Me, Rita, Vicky and Carla

Now it is my turn to take Ruta around town and show her the places. So, lunch is finished and off we go. Ruta has a 3 and half year old little girl, Ada. This little girls speaks Lithuanian, but none the less is keen on holding Jack's hand as we walk around town. It was so cute.

Ada and Jack

We walk around for hours and find a Baskin & Robbins Ice-cream shop. We all stop to get a well deserved scoop of ice cream before I head off to Tae Kwon Do with the kids. Denali comes over and asks for a taste of my ice cream. I share, but ask her what she put her retainers to eat the ice cream. Ready, 1, 2, 3......Her face goes pale, she collapses to the ground and I think I am going to have to administer CPR. I know the answer, they are back in the restaurant that we left hours ago!!! I would like to say that most of her fear is resulting from the fact that Chris will have to pay for a new set, but it wasn't. She was afraid of me. McKinley immediates breaks down, "please don't kill her". I didn't yell - I was calm. this was so much more effective then yelling, why can't I use the approach more often.

We all go back to the restaurant and ask the waitress if she found the retainers. Guess what, they don't speak English. I can't even pretend to speak Chinese at this point. Gesturing, pulling on Denali's teeth, nothing gets thru. I have to use my lifeline. I call Sunny. Sunny is the first person I met in China and she is a very nice person. I frantically explain to Sunny what happened and hand the telephone over to the lady for Unny to explain the situation. The lady hangs up the phone and goes about her business. I call Sunny back, I go thru the whole story again and and hand the phone to the lady. The lady and Sunny go back and forth. It is obvious the lady does not want to go thru the garbage!. Sunny is quite the bargainer. She is persistent. The lady hands me phone, puts on gloves and heads out to the garbage.

Sunny & Hubby

I can't let her do that, so I take the gloves and go to the garbage. The whole time I am thinking to myself is this worth $500. It isn't even the money, it is getting new ones, and hoping that her teeth don't shift while we wait. So it is the money, but $5,000. I'll do. I start sifting, one handful at a time. I am trying very hard not to gag. Suddenly there in the garbage is pile of forks!!!!! Holy ------- I am in the right section!!!! I see a glimmer of hope and I feel something, yes, it is the top retainer. I scream in excitement - All the ladies come in and watch now. Now, my limited Chinese returns to me. I can tell them how much money the retainers are worth and they all put on gloves to help. That's it, the barrel is empty, and one retainer still misssing. I'm sweating, I pray to St. Anthony. One last reach into the soupy mix and I emerge victorious!!! I recovered the retainers and survived!!!

The retainers have been boiled and put back into use, so, here is to hoping Denali survives.