Move to China! Stimulate the Economy!

Although we'll be living in a foreign county and paying Chinese taxes and buying goods in China for two years, we are actually stimulating the US economy here and now before we go. We have done more shopping in the past few months than probably the past year combined. We are normally pretty frugal people, who now think nothing of spending a hundred here and there in preparation for the big move. Add to that some serious anxiety about finding the few "things we can't live without" in mainland China without traveling to Shanghai every shopping trip. So here are a couple of the more unusual items we have purchased for the big move.

1. Dish drain rack: Ever since stumbling upon this post by an American ex-pat in China, I have been obsessed with the possibility of living without a drain rack in China. Bad enough that we won't have a dishwasher, right? Tim keeps reminding me that we'll most likely have some housecleaning help of one sort or another, but lets face it, I will still be doing dishes most of the time! I have scrutinized photos of kitchens from Beijing to Hong Kong, and finally decided I need to bring a small, lightweight, drainboard, if only so I can sleep better between now and departure date.

2. Waffle Iron: Some of you may know of Milan's obsession with waffles. Even though he has been waning in his waffle consumption in the past couple months, I can't imagine not having this option to feed this choosy-eater. Of course, we can't take our waffle iron to China because of the different electricity voltage, so we bought a special waffle iron to take with us. I can cook a whole week's worth of vegan sweet potato waffles in one morning and freeze the rest to pop in the toaster later in the week. Pancakes are good, but not as easily freezable. If anything, I can start selling waffles on the street as a side business since they seem to be unavailable in China (we communicated with someone in our future home-town who was unable to find a waffle iron anywhere in the city). Now all I need is a year's worth of flax seed (a necessary ingredient for vegan waffles). I'm also bringing three cans of baking powder to fuel the waffle addiction.

That's all for now. Still trying to get the hang of this blogging thing, so bear with me, folks.