China!

So I’m aware it has been forever since I’ve posted anything, but hopefully now that I’m looking to fill my time there will be plenty more, especially since I’ll have a whole new world (or country, at least) to write about!

So I’m officially in China – the journey itself was pretty uneventful if not extremely long… and I only say extremely long because very uncharacteristically I was unable to sleep on the 14.5 hour flight from Newark to Shanghai and had a particularly chatty older gentleman sitting next to me! Haha… So rewind a little bit...

I took a Leave of Absence from my job starting March 1st, and spent March getting things organized with the house (we have renters from Spain, a family of 4), moving out and coordinating with the packers/Curt’s company/relocation company, etc., seeing people and spending time with family, getting a plan together for Maverick (that one was particularly stressful, but thank goodness a miracle happened and he is with old neighbors in Fort Worth who adore having him), and just getting things in place in general. We also took a family ski trip vacation to Breckenridge which was a fantastic last getaway with the 4 of us full of bluebird skiing days, and lots of laughs!

After getting the house ready, packed, cleaned, and ready for the renters, I had one week at home (parent’s house) to pack and finish things up, and then yesterday it was time to make my way over! The day before was a great last day – finished packing in the morning, went rollerblading, spent time outside and with Kendyl watching her play softball with her company team (it was such a gorgeous day), then got home, went on a motorcycle ride with Kendyl and Dad at dusk to enjoy the last of the sunlight, spring, and trees, and then we had homemade waffles for dinner – SO yum!! When it was time to say goodbye to Kendyl she was a wreck, which caused me to fall apart after she left – thank GOODNESS I’ll be back in May or else it would have been a lot harder… and also so GREAT that Dad will be visiting here in China in a couple of weeks (he’ll be here on business) so I have a lot to look forward to!

So yesterday morning (or Monday morning, but as my day yesterday was very long, still kind of in my “yesterday” category even though I fast forwarded a day), my flight was at 6 a.m. so I woke up at 3:30 a.m., got ready, me and Mom got to the airport by 4:45 a.m., and because we were a little rushed, we were both tired since it was so early, there was no time for a blubbering goodbye… a blessing in disguise, but she stuck around and made sure I was good to go with my luggage and checking in, and then I ran outside to grab a $20 from her as I didn’t have any cash – LOL! She’s such a good mommy…

Got on the flight ok, and promptly went to sleep for pretty much the whole flight… yea for that! Got to Newark, and didn’t have a ton of time on my layover, so made my phone calls, chatted with everybody, and this is where I started to feel the weight that I was moving to China. I did a decent job (for me) of holding it together but I was staring out the windows into the rain and was feeling the same way inside… just going to miss everyone so much and of course the thought of going into the unknown is scary, etc. Got on the plane, got settled, and was *hoping* to have the whole row to myself as up until the night before I did, but turns out an older man had decided to sit in my row as well – fine, whatever, but he was SO CHATTY! Ugh… I just wanted to kind of be by myself to think about things, etc. and instead I had to make small talk for 14.5 hours. Haha – exaggerating, we obviously didn’t talk the whole time, but even when I was watching movies or listening to music he’d motion for me to take my headphones off to talk about the most random things! Sigh… so didn’t really sleep too much on this flight which made time inch by, but watched 4 movies, listened to music, wrote, did take one nap for an hour, read, and went to the bathroom a million times just to have an excuse to get up and walk around. Enjoyed the plane food, though, and was thankful to be on an airline that I loved with the route that I was on versus a million connections, so overall it was a great flight.

When I got to Shanghai I was so tired, but my bags all came quickly, made it through customs without event, and had a laugh (a tired, resigned laugh) maneuvering this weird cart with 4 huge suitcases plus my duffle with one hand (difficult because it has a brake of some sort that if you let up on the lever it just STOPS) and rolling my laptop thingy with the other hand around some serious curves and queues to make it through to where the waiting people were… and then when I got through the doors there were even more twists and turns, and a million people waiting, so I just started looking for Curt, who in the 3rd turn was waiting with a sign for me (like all the other people), haha. I have to say that after over 2 months of not seeing him it was really surreal to see him there – his hair is SO long (he will be seeing JJ when he comes back to the states in a week), but thank goodness he came to get me… was nice to see a familiar face and to just fall into my exhaustion and be led around.

I met our driver, Han (don’t be fooled by the name, he is Chinese), who seems to be very nice. He doesn’t know a lot of English but hopefully we can widen his vocabulary from “home,” “Baker,” and “coffee,” and likewise he can widen our Chinese vocabulary as well. He’s a young guy, maybe about my age, and he got us settled and got us on the road through Shanghai and on our way to Suzhou. Rush hour was beginning so it took us awhile to get through Shanghai, and I didn’t see much of the city itself, just the outskirts and freeways, but it did smell weird there (pollution and cigarette smoke) and there was like an inch of just dust or dirt everywhere it seemed – like a coat of grime? So dirty in that way, but not with a ton of trash… Curt says it rains some, but I guess not enough to just wash everything clean. It was also really hazy when I got in – could see a pale yellow orb that was the sun but it might as well have been overcast… will miss my sun, I think. It was also a little overwhelming as we were going along to see all of these billboards, and writing, and not being able to read a word… I got a little emotional (I think because I was just so tired, and not anything crazy, just weepy) and Curt laughed and said it would be ok, and suggested we turn on the radio – there’s a station that plays English speaking songs, so felt better when a Kelly Clarkson song came on that I could sing to! LOL!

I was trying so hard to stay awake but was doing the head-bob (laughed at myself when I did this, haha), so finally decided to take a small catnap on my VB duffle and woke up about 20 minutes later – Curt was busy working and emailing on his BB, and then we finally got to Suzhou with our first stop being Baker. I got to see the plant and meet a few employees that were still there (they leave at 4:30 p.m. each day on a bus, and it was about 5:15 p.m. by the time we got there so just a couple local people there) and see all of his hard work. You can tell a lot of work has been done, but of course there is still much to do, hence Curt’s very busy schedule. So he dropped off some paperwork, then we got on our way to the apartment. I could tell rolling into Suzhou that it was going to be nice – lots of trees, lots of greenery, NO birds anywhere which when you see that many trees is really strange – their absence is very noticeable! I practically shouted out when I finally did see a bird, so I can say I’ve seen one, haha.

We pulled up to the apartment/resort, and it was so good to know that home was close… or the place that I would call home. Everything looked very nice so I was just excited to get in and see everything! Curt gave me the tour of the place, got a little settled and took a shower (that shower after a really long day/flight is always SO nice), he ordered take out for dinner as he has like 3 things in the fridge/pantry, and then he had a chicken dish and I had a Cajun sea bass dinner with a few fries – it was good! Then we ventured out and he showed me where the market was within the resort, the gym, and just pointed out things in general that I might be interested in exploring today while he’s at work. The market has a lot of familiar brands – even Betty Crocker cake mix and icing! – so I think food wise we’ll be fine. It will just take some time to learn everything, of course, where to find good produce, meats, etc. The gym looks good, too – lots of classes, a million employees running around, good equipment, so that’s exciting. Then we got home and I crawled into bed. Slept mostly all night from 8:30 p.m. to 4:00 a.m., then followed my own jet lag rules and laid awake until I fell back asleep, which was soon, until around 7:30 a.m. when Curt was up and getting ready for work.

So he left for his day, and so far this morning I’ve chatted online with my whole family and a few friends. I chatted online with Ashley for quite awhile on IM and we had fun talking about IM and college, etc. which was fun – she also skyped me and I got to say goodnight to Cody, Cade, TJ, and her… she said that now Cody would want to say goodnight to me every night (my mornings) which I said was great by me as it totally made my morning, haha. I also got to skype with Kendyl, and Mom and Dad which was so nice – I can’t even say how comforting this technology is and will be to me here. Also got all unpacked, and have been making a list of things we’ll need around the house to maintain a normal life here (laundry basket, more trash cans, tissues, magnets, etc.) so am in full list mode. Also have a list going of things that I can do if I should run into a wall of how to fill my time!

Now am off to go exploring now that everyone in the states is asleep, and then to the gym to do my Crossfit workout! Yes! Funny note - Mom said she went to go see Taken today, and I haven't seen it but have heard about it and that it's a good movie, though now she's completely paranoid for me and probably wasn't the smartest movie for her to go see the DAY after I leave for a foreign country! :-)

Will keep everyone posted on how things go, and will take the camera out today to take a few pics of things... Take care...

Love,