Ah - the Smells of China

Well- I am slowly (very slowly) getting the boxes from home unpacked. Even with Nick and Ian in school until 3pm, it is just difficult to get more than 1-2 boxes unpacked a day. Kyle is still a pretty needy guy. Anyway - as I am unpacking these boxes of clothes I am trying to decide if I should rewash all these clothes. My original packing process in Briarcliff  was packing all clothes in tubs or laundry baskets that would then be packed in moving boxes, however, as I closely approached the weight limit the decision was made to leave the tubs and baskets. So all of our clothes have just been shoved into boxes - a little packing paper on top and then taped shut. If this was a move in the US I would be washing it all, but here I have chosen not to. When I pull the clothes out of the boxes and smell them - they smell like home. When I was growing up I remember asking my mom once "What do we smell like?" You know when you go to someone's home and there is a smell? Usually a nice smell, but different from yours. My mom said, "Next time we go away for a few days - when we come back you can smell our smell." So I remember whenever we would go away for a weekend or week vacation when we got home I would smell and smell and smell until I couldn't smell anything. I always thought our smell was pretty nice. So by washing the clothes here - I am losing the smell of home. 

Here in China smells are strong. Detergents, cleaners, fabric softeners, food, smoke, etc. The water smells like the outdoors - or like a rain forest- maybe swampy is the right word? I am hoping to get to the flower market next week to get some plants. I figure if I put a bunch of plants in the bathroom maybe I can pretend I am in a rain forest while in the shower instead of here in China. So Mark calls yesterday to ask my opinion about the new van(we decided Mr. Zhong will go) and he says we have 2 to choose from - one is older with cigarette burns the other is newer, but smells. So I say "Smells like what? -Smoke? BO? Rotten Milk?" No he says - it smells like "China". Ah - Ok we will go with the older.