First Week in China

We've been here for one week.  Wow!  What a week it has been!  We're still adjusting to our new life here.  Life here is vastly different than that at home.  Okay, some aspects are the same.  The girls are in school and Mark is going to work every week day.  However, my life has been turned upside down.  Going grocery shopping is now a major event.  

I can't wait to share all the details of daily life with you!

Here are a few snap shots from our very long journey to the other side of the planet!

The girls did so well on the flights- not joking! We had one two-hour puddle jumper from Moline to Detroit followed by a five-hour lay over in Detroit (Mark, thank you for getting us into the Sky Lounge or whatever it's called!).  Then a short THIRTEEN HOUR flight from Detroit to Beijing.  Yes, thirteen hours sitting on your tush.  Honestly, it was pretty easy going- tons of movies to watch, music to listen to and some catching up with sleeping.  The girls either slept or watched movies.  The inflight entertainment systems they have these days is incredible!  I remember flying to Austria when I was little- the flights had one, maybe two movies using a pull-down projection screen.  We've come a long way!  Times sure have changed!

We made it!  Waiting outside the Beijing airport terminal for the Hilton hotel shuttle bus….around 1 am.  Incredibly and nearly unbelievably, all thirteen pieces of luggage arrived.  Yes, thirteen.  Actually, twelve pieces of luggage plus Ava's booster seat.  Twelve over-size, over-weight pieces of luggage.  I nearly gagged on the luggage fees but it was so worth every penny of it!  (plus, we will get reimbursed for that expense.  Whew!) We came >this close< to nearly losing one duffle bag full of Annika's clothes (at the initial check-in) but Mark was clever to count all the pieces and determined quickly that one was missing.  Sure enough, one bag had an incorrect tag on it and was almost headed to Fort Lauderdale!  We would have NEVER seen Annika's clothes again.  I am so grateful that Mark caught that just in the nick of time!

Some how we managed to get all those pieces of luggage (plus ourselves) onto the hotel shuttle bus.  I am still amazed at the ocean of suitcases and duffle bags we traveled with.

We traveled to Tianjin later that day.  We had two cars come pick us up from the hotel- one we stuffed FULL with our luggage (and I mean FULL) and the other we crammed ourselves into.  

We had the amazing fortune of having our rental house ready for immediate occupation.  I know a couple other families had to live in a hotel for a couple of weeks before their rental was ready.  Admittidly the house could have been cleaned thoroughly before our arrival but I guess I can't be choosy or picky.  

The next day we went around Tianjin with a guide and trying to take care of a few business issues.  We had to set up a Chinese bank account (that took a long darn time.  Hooray for ipod touches and ipads to keep those of us not directly involved happy).  We got a mobile phone for me.  Yay for unlocked iphones!  We found a great bakery, checked out one grocery store and ate a fabulous meal of dumplings at a neat Chinese restaurant.  This is REAL Chinese food- not the stuff you get back home. Although there is some weird stuff on the menu I have to admit I prefer the food here.  The menus are fun to look at- there are photos of all the dishes and you just point to what you want.  

Annika is getting better at using chopsticks!  

Annika, Ava, me, our guide, and our driver…in the background there is a window into part of the kitchen where you can watch the cooks making dumplings.  It was lots of fun watching them.

Lots more photos to come!