The transmutation has begun...

I'm slowly becoming more Americanised. For one thing, I have a Social Security card! (It was a bit of an anti-climax - the "card" is just a perforated piece of paper, and you're not allowed to laminate it!)
I also have a license to practice pharmacy, which is awesome - it means I can start work next week.
Our home is finally kitted out and pretty much complete. All we need now is Brad's fancy schmancy super computer. Oh, and a dining table to replace the camping table Jason and Malissa lent us.
We have checked out most of the "essentials" stores and decided where we'll be doing our shopping. We discovered SF Supermarket today - it's a Chinese supermarket that sells all the Chinese groceries as well as the regular fresh produce. I had to hold Brad's jaw up - he was thrashing about in paroxysms of delight, going "Oh, look! They have FRESH LOTUS ROOT! And so many rice varieties! And Pearl River Bridge GOLD LABEL soy sauce!" It was kind of cute watching him get so excited about food, and the fact that his kids can now grow up with a proper Asian diet.

Oh, and we cleaned our own house today! Imagine that... It only took us two hours. Is that really what we paid our domestic to do? Man, she was there for 9 hours a day, 5 days a week! Ok, I admit, she didn't have an electric dishwasher and clothes dryer. But still, 2 hours compared to 45?

We had Jason, Malissa and Christian over for dinner tonight. It was lovely and convivial, and the food was delicious (thanks Brad and SF Supermarkets!). They left at 8pm, and 20 minutes later the kitchen showed no evidence of a dinner party. Amazing.

Nikhil, Ariane and Christian are so cute together. Christian is learning to crawl, Ariane has just learnt to walk, and Nikhil... well, Nikhil is learning to read to them. Ariane and Christian talk to each other in baby language, and Nikhil reverts to baby language and crawling to fit in. Poor kid, we really need to find him some friends. When Ariane and Christian went to bed, Nikhil sat up working on the computer. We predicted that in 18 years' time, Ariane and Christian would be out clubbing and raising hell, and Nikhil would be sitting in his room hacking into the World Bank.

The kids are taking up all our time and energy right now. They demand constant attention when they're awake, they rarely nap during the day, fight bedtime at night, and even once they fall asleep, they wake up frequently for cuddling or bottles or no reason at all. It's quite exhausting - we have hardly any time to do important admin, never mind have a conversation.

Sigh. Emigrating without kids must be a completely different experience... We would have lived in a smaller, smarter apartment. We would have spent less time doing laundry and more time exploring the city. We would have spent less time packing nappy bags, snacks and extra clothes every time we left the house. We would have eaten seafood in San Francisco instead of packing a wholesome but homely lunch. We wouldn't have had to scope out every destination for toilets the second we arrived.

But in the end, we would have laughed less, loved less, and lived less. So I have no regrets - just an insatiable desire for more sleep...