Dongxi – East West Home Best!

Our dongxi (东西) have arrived! Our stuff, our things, our belongings, our books, clothes, pots and pans, and other goods from the U.S. have finally showed up here. Hurrah!

Late Thursday we got a call that our things would be arriving on Friday morning. Paul postponed his flight to Baxi (巴西, Brasil), so he could stay around for the fun, and all Friday morning a grand total of 161 items –five of which were bikes—were carried into the house or the storage shed outside. When the boys arrived back home from school, it was a big party. They were just delighted to see their play mobile, Lego and cars again. And I was delighted to see some more of their T-shirts and shorts again.

Also among the items was the cable to download photos from my camera – so here as a special treat a first glance at our house as the movers (including Paul) are carrying in the stuff.

Dongxi by the way—the title of today’s post—simply means “things” or “stuff”. I love this word. It’s composed of the two characters “dong” (东) meaning “East” and “xi” (西) meaning “West”. So “East West” together just means “things”. Going shopping then is Mai dongxi (买 东西), to buy stuff. :-) In Dutch you also have an expression, Oost West Thuis Best, which literally translates as East West Home Best. And I will say, with our East West Dong Xi around, our home finally starts to feel like home!