Air pollution index raised from "Marlboro lights" to "Silk Cut"

We recently read a website (webzilla.com) that equated the pollution index to the brand of a pack of cigarettes smoked during a 10-minute walk in downtown Shanghai. In other words a ten minute walk in downtown Shanghai currently has the same effect as smoking a pack of "Silk Cut" cigarettes and is approaching the levels of "Benson & Hedges". You don't have to be a smoker to understand that no matter the brand, the smog here is bad.

Most mornings the smog hangs low over Shanghai as a result of the use of low grade coal as the primary fuel for cooking, heating, and running the factories. Close to 70% of China's electrical power is generated from coal, and most of it appears to be blowing right into the cities that they support. Much of the pollution consists of particulate matter, including concrete dust from the massive number of construction projects, ash, etc. For reference, particulate matter usually ranges from around 60 to 200 (Dec. 26th it was 175). For comparison, US cities usually range from 10-30. So Shanghai has around 10-15 times more particulates than a typical US city. In addition Sulfer Dioxide and Nitrogen Dioxide are also significantly worse, due primarily to the extensive use of coal fired power plants.

The most noticeable effect of the pollution is the thick brownish haze that coats the city. There are some clear days when the wind blows the smog out, but in the year that we have been here I can count the number of clear days on two hands. Additionally, we never see the deep blue sky that we are used to in the US. In fact, that was the first thing we noticed while on vacation in the US this summer was the blue sky.

Another effect that we notice often is that anything which sits outside overnight is coated with a fine layer of dust (like charcoal). You cannot walk in bare feet outside, because even a few steps will have the bottom of your foot blackened from the soot. As a result of this, we have become very regiment about removing our shoes before walking through the house. The car windows must be cleaned every morning as well to keep them clear.

It took some adjustment to get used to the levels of pollution. For Jeff, he no longer wears his contacts and wears only glasses now as the air is causing too much irritation in his eyes. Additionally, he discovered that the smog exaggerated his seasonal allergies and needed Claritin to fight back. For a while he suggested that he was allergic to China, but it really only turned out to be the smog.

The 20 million people who now live in Shanghai are also contributing. I recently learned that the number of people who use their own personal vehicle to commute to and from work is around 15%. This number is growing rapidly as the people are buying more vehicles at a incredible pace. GM sales were up an unbelievable 60% this year! This year will mark the first time in which China will sell more vehicles than the US, somewhere around 13 million vehicles.

All of these factors combine to contribute to the poor air quality. Hopefully, we will see improvements during our time here, but I would be very surprised due to the rate of growth. For now, we will take every vacation and holiday opportunity to get away from the city to get some fresh air.

Daily Life In Shanghai

Attached in our blog are some great photos from the typical Chinese Tourist hot spots as we have begun to explore inside and outside of Shanghai. After re-reading some of these it kind of gives me the impression that we are all on an extended vacation here. Some of the next blogs we will write will get into our typical daily experiences. Some are quite surprising.

Grocery Shopping: A couple of blocks from our house (walking distance) is a French shopping store called Carrefour. This all purpose store is a lot like a Super Kmart. It has clothes, appliances, food, and all other sorts of things. The first floor is like a mall with flower stores, shoe stores, a Pizza Hut, and Subway. Take an escalator to the second floor and you enter the grociery store. One of the things that is most evident when entering, besides everything written in Chinese, are the crowds, especially in the evenings. Lines can quite long.

A quick note on lines: In the US, people tend to be quite orderly in lines. Line up and take turns. In China, not sure if it is because of the sheer number of people or what, but if you wait in line, you may find yourself waiting forever. Pushing is not uncommon, and I seen my share of Grandmas who have moved in front of me in line because I didn't move fast enough. I am becoming more aware of these sneaky ones and I am no longer afraid to box out Grandma if she gets to assertive.

The scariest thing in the store is the meat department. The butcher area has pork, chicken, beef, snake, turtle, frogs, and other 4 legged creatures no doubt. Plucked chickens are stacked in coolers, and the beef are sliced up in front of you with raw meat unpackaged in the the coolers. People pick through the meat like produce. It's not clean, and it smells. We don't get our meat in this store as a result. Instead we buy imported meat, typically from New Zealand or Austrailia at specialty meat stores. The picture here shows live turtles and frogs which are considered a delicacy.

We do shop at Carrefour for most staples like, bread, juices, milk, eggs, etc. They also have a nice import goods section where we can get cereal (about $10 per box), Chips and salsa, & pickles. Availability of import food is not guaranteed, so foreigners tend to stock up when they see things that they like, because it may be a while before it comes around again. For instance, this week, we could not get tortilla chips (grrrrr!). The imported food is expensive, but trust me, it is worth every penny.

Another interesting note is that no one store has all the food we want. Not like the supermarkets in the US, where you get everything in one place. Here you begin to learn that there are 3 or 4 shops that you need shop at to get everything you need. Part of it is the fact that we are more particular about what we eat and the other part is availability.

One recent frustration that I had at Carrafour was that I went in with Kayla to purchase an electric scooter. As usual the place was packed and many people were buying scooters. I found the one I wanted and after about 1/2 hour of trying the clerk took pity on me and found someone who spoke english to tell me that the one I wanted was already sold to someone else. No big deal, I just picked another one. I knew that I needed to take the tag off the bike and pay for it then return for the bike, however, after I waited in line at the checkout for another 20 minutes, only to find out that I was in the wrong line, I finally gave up. Kayla cried the whole way home. The next day, Rebecca tried, and found out that you had to pay at the cosmetics counter. Not very intiutive.

Back Online - July 7, 2009

Ok, so it has been since April that the Blogspot website has been blocked within China. There appear to be other ways to access it though :).



The end of May Rebecca and I took a day off of work and flew with the kids to Beijing for a long weekend - The Dragon Boat festival holiday. We had great weather up there with the exception of the first day which was our day on the Great Wall. There was light rain, but virtually no crowds so the rain was bearable. We saw all of the typical sights in Beijing and will post photos or links to them soon. Both of the kids continue to attract a rediculous amount of attention when we are traveling together or just walking together downtown. It reminds me of the papparizzi at times.



The kids finished the school year about 2 weeks ago. They both did fantastic considering the circumstances. We were concerned with school placement especially Kayla, because the school operates on a British School system which would not typically allow her to be in Year 3 (2nd grade equivalent) even though she was 2nd grade in Michigan. It was tough on her for the first month. The school system here was about 1/2 year ahead of Michigan plus the new language. By the end of the year, she caught up to the class in Chinese Proficiency and will advance to the next class this fall.



For me work at PATAC (Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center) in Shanghai has been demanding and extremely challenging for me. My first semester in college shortly before I dropped German 101 was the only experience that has come remotely close. Unfortunately, this time, a foreign language is required. Anyway, between the new names, faces, organization, etc. I have easily consummed one years worth of information in the first 5 months. I told Rebecca that I literally cannot remember the first 3 months of being here and only now am I beginning to recognize the neighbors.



In other news, two weeks ago I severely sprained my ankle running down our outdoor steps (not advisable). No broken bones, but my foot and ankle are only now returning to normal size and colors. Then to top it off, I all of a sudden woke up with about a 30% loss of hearing in my right ear. It's all good now, but I was honestly about one broken chopstick away from limping my sorry hard of hearing self to the airport so I could board the next plane for home. The good news is that it's too far to walk to the airport and since I still cannot communicate with the taxis drivers, we're all still here.

Pictures of Hangzhou and Suzhou

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=tz2looq.9znzfddi&x=0&y=ns0pwh&localeid=en_US


Attached is a link to our album of pictures taken on our recent trips to nearby Hangzhou (about 3 hours from Shanghai by car) and Suzhou. We took the train to Suzhou; the train ride itself was only about 30 minutes and the kids loved it. Hangzhou was an easy trip for us and a great way to break in to traveling in China. We went with Jeff's coworkers, and they had planned the trip, made hotel reservations and selected the restaurants. All we had to do was show up! Suzhou, on the other hand, was completely our gig. Mr. Wong helped Rebecca buy the train tickets and made sure that we made it to our train in Shanghai, and they we were all on our own. Rebecca was able to test her Mandarin skills, and learned that she has a lot left to learn! We stayed in a beautiful hotel and the weather was wonderful. In the end, both trips were roaring successes.


There are captions with the album. Sorry if there are too many - we tried and tried, but just couldn't filter out any others. We took several hundred pics on these trips, so we were glad to get it to where we did! Enjoy!

Shanghai in the Spring

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=tz2looq.c9r05y3q&x=0&y=5jdh5z&localeid=en_US

The link above will take you to a photo album of some of the photos we have taken in Shanghai since our arrival in January. The bulk of the pictures were taken by Rebecca during a tour of "Old Town" - an area of the city that dates back to the 1920's and 30's. Life here is much different from what we are all used to - cooking outside over hot coals in a bucket, using public toilets and chamber pots, homemade bamboo and straw/grass brooms, shopping in the alley markets, etc. The tour was an amazing window into another lifestyle. At the end of the the album are a few shots of some of the skyscrapers in Pudong (the "new" side of town, on the east side of the river.)

For those of you in touch with Rebecca through FaceBook, many of these are already in FB and may be familiar to you.

60 Day Mark

As of today, we have been in China for 60 days. The honeymoon period is over, and now when people ask how long we have been here, we will describe it in months instead of days or weeks. Everyday life is getting easier and our routines are becoming familiar now. Here are few of the major milestones (family, personal and transition) we have passed:

• McKenna turned 4 years old on February 23rd! Hers was our first "China Birthday" and we celebrated by sending Rice Krispie Treats in to school and blowing out candles on a chocolate cake in the evening. McKenna elected to eat supper at a restaurant known for their dim sum and dumplings, so we had a wonderful meal! (Kayla may beg to differ on that opinion, though! She is still not sure about all this Chinese food.)



• Our sea crate from the US arrived on February 26th. It was such a relief to get the bulk of our personal belongings! The kids have enjoyed riding their bikes and scooters through the neighborhood. Rebecca is thrilled to have her kitchen tools and supplies on hand, and we all feel a bit more at home now that we have our pictures and books and other personal items around us. The crate also contained our vast assortment of food, medicines, toiletries, and cleaning products that we had sent over - both for ourselves and for other GM ISPs. Wheat Thins anyone...? Rebecca didn't understand exactly what was being said, but it became clear that the amount of boxes strictly containing food became a bit of a running joke with the guys that were bringing the boxes in. The picture here shows MAYBE a third of the boxes containing food items.


• On the same day, in the US, the sale of our home in Brighton closed. As of the end of February, the Lundys are pretty liquid - with no home or cars to our names, we are a regular bunch of vagabonds now. The sale went fairly smoothly, but we owe a HUGE thank you to the Loman family who spent a lot of time and effort getting the house ready for the sale. They took care of all the details we had run out of time for and then Teresa was kind enough to be at the house when the movers came to take the remainder of our stuff to storage. It was a good thing she was there too, as the movers inadvertently set our kitchen table on fire! Teresa alerted the movers when she saw the smoke - come to find out, they had set the table upside down on the flat-top stove to wrap the table top with cardboard. At some point, two of the burners get turned on; then everyone went on break. By the time the smoke was rolling out of the kitchen, the cardboard was flaming and the table had been singed badly in two spots. Luckily, there was no lasting damage to anything else in the house, and after a couple of good cleanings by a professional, there was no evidence left of what had happened. (Except the scorched table of course!)


• Rebecca had her first (unofficial) day of work on February 27th. Her manager was visiting from the US and invited her to a team meeting. it was a great introduction to the team and to the business. She has been to the office a couple of times since, but still unofficially until the paperwork for the work permit is ironed out. The picture here shows the view out her window at work - pretty awesome!! During the evening of the 27th, Jeff and Rebecca had supper with the work team and then experienced another first - KTV! The Chinese take their kareoke very seriously, and we went to a very nice club that was a maze of private rooms of varying sizes. Each room had their own bar and table and couches and their own kareoke equipment. We sang for a few hours and had a great time hanging out with new friends. Jeff dazzled everyone with his rendition of "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and the evening ended on a rather embarrassing note when the video for "Meet the Flintstones" was a bit more racy than any of the Americans remembered!


• Kayla lost her first tooth during the night on March 2nd. She had been worrying about it for a while - most of her friends were way ahead of her on this milestone, and she was beginning to think it was never going to happen. She first started noticing it during the week before, but wouldn't let either of her parents anywhere near it (especially Dad!) We learned that the tooth fairy does indeed visit China, and pays out in local currency!


• Rebecca started her Mandarin lessons on March 6th. The first 3 sessions were focused on the phonetics used in the Chinese language. There are 21 initial sounds (or consonant sounds) and 39 finals (vowel sounds). Many are straightforward, some are a bit difficult for a westerner with little experience in foreign languages to pick up. Rebecca graduated to whole words and phrases during her last lesson and can now say "Hi, my name is Rebecca. I am an American." - at least she thinks that's what she's saying!
  

Overall, we are settling in easier than we had expected. It is hard to be so far from family and friends, but we are continuing to enjoy the adventure.

School Days

After all our time off, everyone was ready for school to begin here in China. Kayla and McKenna started at Yew Chung International School (YCIS) on February 2nd, just as the other students were returning from the Chinese New Year break. Kayla was excited about getting back into the school routine, about being with other kids her age (as opposed to just her annoying little sister), and about the opportunity to learn to play the violin. Violin is a standard part of the music program at YCIS for student in the four-year-old preschool group through the equivalent of second grade. It was one of the many things we were really excited about at YCIS. McKenna was excited about making new friends and about getting to RIDE THE BUS!! This is a big deal to a little girl who has had to watch her sister get on the school bus without her for 2 1/2 years. The pre-school buildings are on a separate campus from the primary school, so the girls are not together at all during the day. They take the same bus from our neighborhood to Kayla's school, and then McKenna gets on a smaller bus to go to her school. The buses are very nice, have seat belts and bus monitors so the kids are all very safe. We also have school uniforms, which takes the fight out of the "what should I wear" stage of the morning routine!

During the first week at school, Mom and Dad drove the girls to school, making sure they got in okay and settled in their classrooms. The drop off and pick up process these first few days was slow - we stopped to talk to teachers, pick up information, and meet other parents - but it was very helpful. The girls have great teachers who are really going out of their way to make sure that we all adjust to life and school in Shanghai.

Kayla's teachers are Ms. Mac (Macwilliam) from Australia and Ms. Mei from China. Ms. Mei is also the beginner Chinese instructor, so she has been working with Kayla on her Mandarin. Kayla's class had just started a science segment on rainforests, and is tying that topic into many of their other subjects as well. Kayla selected Hermit Hummingbirds as a topic for research - using books and internet to find information in Science and Computer class, taking notes, writing drafts, and a final report about hummingbirds during English class, even putting together powerpoint presentation for an oral presentation to her class. In addition, her art class is focusing on decorating their room and hallway to resemble a rainforest, and draw and paint some of the selected wildlife. When they were studying symmetry in math, they identified animals and foliage in the rainforest that demonstrates symmetry and drew those.

McKenna's teachers are Ms. Esther and Ms. Rainbow. They are both wonderful ladies who have made us feel right at home from the very beginning. McKenna has had lessons about fruits and nutrition, the weather, and fish (in preparation for her first field trip to the aquarium!) She enjoys singing her new song "What's the weather" (to the tune of "Oh my Darlin' Clementine"). She was very excited about the field trip, and proudly returned home to tell mom that "I stayed with my adult ALL day!" Apparently they had made a big deal about safety on the trip and that was the lesson she had really learned on her first off-site adventure.

The two major adjustments that we are making for school (especially for Kayla) is the Mandarin lessons and the homework expectations. We knew that the Mandarin was going to take some work, but the homework has caught us a bit by surprise! In Michigan, we didn't see much homework, and when we did it was usually something interactive to be done with the parents and we had a few days to do it. Here at YCIS, we were told to expect 1 hour of homework every night. Because so much of this is new to us and we don't have a good homework routine down yet, we have been spending closer to 2 hours a night on it. We hope to streamline our process and reduce the time, but this is going to be a big change for us and has been a bit painful during our first two weeks. We have found a great tutor to help us learn Mandarin; Nina comes to our house two nights per week to help us practice our vocabulary and pronunciation.

Overall, both girls are really enjoying school here in Shanghai. While YCIS is a bit more dramatic a change from our schools at home than we would have had if we had selected one of the American-based international schools here, we are very happy with our choice. The girls are exposed to a significant level of Chinese language and culture here. Also, the student body is very diverse and we have many friends for whom English is a second or even third language. We are playing with children from Australia, England, Norway, Finland, Korea, Japan, France and Germany in addition to our Chinese and American friends. It is a wonderful way for our children to experience the differences and similarities of people from all over the world.

Playing Tourist

Once we were settled in at home and Jeff had a couple of days to find his way around work, the Chinese New Year holiday started. Sunday, January 25th was New Years Eve here and the fireworks were pretty cool. The Peat family invited us to their apartment on the 13th floor for a party with 4 families. We had a great time, it was so good to learn and laugh about our China experience with other expats - some have been here for years, and another family was brand new to China too. At midnight, we headed out onto their balconies to watch the fireworks - there were probably two dozen displays that we could see, everyway we looked. The sound was echoing off the buildings and was just constant - it seriously sounded like a war zone. The pictures and videos we took really don't do it justice - you'll have to take our word for it!! We didn't last long after midnight though - we were still dealing with jetlag, and the girls had long since crashed while watching TV.

We stayed close to home on Monday, then ventured out to the Science and Technology Museum on Tuesday. The museum is close by - less than a 10 minute drive - and was nice. Much of the literature and displays are printed in English, but any of the interactive computer displays were only in Chinese, so we couldn't get the full effect. We got a fair amount of attention at the museum - there weren't many other caucasians there that day. We are becoming a bit more accustomed to being odd-man-out when we are in a room! There is a market in the basement of the museum, so we walked around there a bit, but we didn't buy anything that day. When we came out onto the edge of Century Park, it was sunny and there were a lot of people out and about. We watched people flying kites and took a few shots of the skyline.

On Wenesday we headed toward the river and went to the Shanghai Ocean Aquarium. It was another bright, beautiful day and there were a ton of people out. The aquarium is right next to the Pearl Tower and in the shadow of both the Jinmao Tower and the World Financial building, so we had a kink in our necks just from looking around at all the tall buildings and cool architecture of the financial district. Jeff and I have gone to the top of the Jinmao Tower to look out over the city . The observation deck is at the 88th floor and if it is clear, the views are amazing. It is dwarfed however, by the World Financial Building, which was not open yet when Jeff and I had come for business in years past, so we still haven't gone in. Once in the aquarium, we had a great time. It was SUPER-crowded, but the girls were good about just squeezing to the front with the rest of the kids to get good looks in the tanks. The aquarium is organized in a way that establishes a pretty set route through the facility, so for the most part, everyone was moving in the same direction, which helped manage the crowds a bit. At the end of the route is a huge submerged tunnel with moving walkway, which was great - it moved everyone along and ensured that everyone had a great view. There were huge sharks, sea turtles, fish of all sorts, jellyfish, seals, eels - everything you would hope to see, and the tunnels allowed you to really see everything. Definitely a must see for visitors!

On Thursday, Mr. Wong went with us to the YuYuan Garden in Old Shanghai. This is a pretty common destination for visitors to the city - westerners and Chinese visitors alike. Of course, during the New Year celebration, there were a lot of visitors from other parts of the country in the city, so the area was packed, but with very few westerners. Again, we got a fair amount of attention, to the point that we began to understand why celebrities become frustrated with papparazi! There were two men that literally followed McKenna around snapping non-stop photos with these huge lenses - it was really a bit freaky. Jeff finally stopped, pulled out our camera and let McKenna take a picture of one of them while they were taking a picture of her! After that, he moved on and we were able to move around a bit more freely. We all really enjoyed the garden, despite the fact that the nice weather we had had the last few days had given out on us and we spent the day moving in and out of a pretty steady drizzle.

The architecure and landscaping are really breathtaking, and we are looking forward to going back in the spring when things start to bloom.

While at YuYuan, Mr. Wong helped us navigate lunch at a Chinese eatery. It was a casual place, where you would select what you want at the counters, then they would bring it out to you. We tried several dishes - none of which I can name now! The girls tried a few things. Kayla didn't like the first two things she attempted, and then decided she really wasn't hungry and refused to try anything else. After we told her the they had "hot dogs" inside them, McKenna decided that she loved the dumplings that Mr. Wong had selected and proceeded to eat about 8 of them. We navigated the meal with chopsticks and Chinese soup spoons without too much issue. Kayla is pretty talented with chopsticks, and McKenna finally gave up and used her fingers.

As we were heading to the car, Rebecca tried her negotiating skills with one of the local vendors to buy a table cloth for the dining room table. While she successfully halved the price originally offered by the vendor, we walked away pretty sure we had "left money on the table," because we came to an agreement a bit too easily!! There will be a learning curve before we have a feel for market price for different items. Of course, our light hair and lack of Mandarin skills will guarentee that we will never get the "best" price!

We found we were pretty worn out from three days of siteseeing, so the end of the week was a bit quieter. We spent some time getting ourselves ready for the first day of school in China and just enjoying family time. We have been very glad that we brought the Wii with us in our suitcase, as we have spent a LOT of time challenging each other to air hockey, the shooting gallery, racing cows and the tank game (Wii Play). Mom gets beat on a pretty regular basis as she has zippo hand-eye coordination. We also went out to supper a couple of times with other expats, which has been a great way to get to know people and explore the restaurant options here. It was a great week, but by the end of it, we were all getting antsy to get settled into a "normal" schedule. Jeff was anxious to dive into work, and Kayla especially was really looking forward to school. Rebecca was just ready for some peace and quiet!

Getting Settled

We arrived in Shanghai and eventually managed to drag ourselves and our ridiculous quantity of stuff through the airport to our awaiting cars. They took us to the Ramada and settled us in a short term apartment. Those first 24 hours after our arrival were a bit tough. Rebecca had stayed awake on the flight from Tokyo, so she was ready to sleep at midnight when we were finally unloaded at the hotel. Unfortunately, everyone else was awake. Jeff stayed up with the kids for a while, then he succombed to sleep too. It isn't clear how long the kids were running around the hotel room by themselves, but eventually, they flopped down in the king size bed with Mom and Dad. We ate some cereal bars first thing in the morning, but not too long afterward McKenna started throwing up over everything. The good thing was, no one was standing in the way, so the floor and the door frame were really the only things that had to be cleaned up. Once everyone's stomach had settled a bit, we decided to go out and walk around town a bit. We stopped for a drink and ordered a plate of plain white rice for the girls at about 10am. The waiter looked at us a little weirdly - apparently it is rare to walk into a restaurant in China and order just white rice- go figure. Both girls and Jeff fell asleep at 4pm, and despite dragging them down to the hotel restaurant for dinner, slept pretty much non-stop until midnight. At that point, the kids were awake and had the energy of circus clowns - and not the slow droopy sort. Non-stop singing, antics, fighting, reading, running - WHERE DO THEY GET THE ENERGY? When Rebecca and Jeff got up at 6:30 the next morning, we just braced ourselves for a day filled with whining, complaining, tears and fights -- there was just no way that the day would end well. The good news was that we had done a brief walk-through of our house on Sunday and things looked pretty good. Sure enough, after only two crazy nights at the hotel, we moved in to the house and were roaming our own halls in the middle of the night! Here are some shots of the house and the neighborhood.

It will be another month or so until the bulk of our stuff arrives on the "slow boat to China", but we have unloaded the 12 suitcases and are settled in. We have a driver here in China - David Wong. Mr. Wong is wonderful, and is likely the reason Rebecca has managed to hold on to her sanity. He has helped her navigate getting a cell phone, purchasing fruit and bread, and even joined her and the girls on trips to IKEA and Metro (kind of like Costco). He is wonderful with the girls and knows enough English that we can communicate pretty well. While at Ikea, McKenna decided to use a colander that Mr. Wong was buying as a hat - he just laughed and started taking pictures of her with his cell phone! She has him wrapped around her little finger already! Here is a pic of him from our visit to YuYuan garden.

Also, we finally got to go SWIMMING!! We tried to go to the pool at the hotel over the weekend, but when we arrived, we were told that we needed swim caps, which of course we did not have. Telling the girls that we couldn't go swimming as we stood in the lobby of the pool area with our suits was loads of fun, let me tell you! Now that we are settled in the house and have "applied" for membership at the clubhouse, we were able to swim here. The girls LOVE the pool and we have been enjoying it on a regular basis now.

GO!!!

January 16th dawned COLD in Brighton, MI. The temperature on our departure day was a ridiculous -7 degrees Fahrenheit while we were loading up the cars. The girls actually chose to go out and play in the snow for a few minutes before we left - their last chance for the foreseeable future.
Keith and Julie VanHouten volunteered to take us to the airport, and Keith had borrowed a van to haul our stuff - which was a good thing because we had LOTS of stuff! After packing enough clothes for 10-14 days for each of us, toys to keep us entertained for the first 6 weeks, toiletries, bedding, a few transformers, lots of books, two laptops and the Wii, we ended up with 10 checked bags, 2 carseats, 2 carry-on suitcases, 4 backpacks, a computer case and my purse/tote. We needed sherpas...

With the stuff loaded in the van, we said a final goodbye to our house (sniff, sniff), packed the girls into another car and headed for the airport. Our entrance at the airport was nearly comical. Jeff had a plan in place to wave a fair amount of money in the direction of the first porter and request assistance - it was a good plan. We never could have made it through the terminal on our own, but with the porter and a very large cart, it wasn't too difficult. It was too cold to dally outside with long goodbyes, so after a few tears and lots of hugs, we left the VanHoutens and followed the towering cart into the terminal. I had to brace McKenna, who was right on the edge of tipping over backward under the weight of her backpack. Amazingly, all of those bags were checked in without a single extra bag or overweight charge!!! We did have to do some repacking at the check-in counter to move 5 lbs from one bag to a lighter one, but that was the one and only hiccup.

Once the bags were checked through, it was a bit easier going. And then it got downright "cushy" once we were on the plane. Business class seats are a wonderful thing, and the girls were spoiled rotten by the flight attendants who don't often see kids in their section. The girls did fantastic on the flight - watching movies, reading, and SLEEPING (thank goodness!!!)

Our bodies thought it was about 4 am when we landed in Tokyo, so the girls were a bit out of it as we deplaned and went through a security check before reboarding for our connection to Shanghai. They immediately went right back to sleep and were all but unconscious through the 3 1/2 hour flight. When we woke them, both were complaining of upset stomachs, and in the end, Kayla had to carry an airsickness bag with her as we made our way through the airport. We made it through customs without incident, and then pulled all 10 bags and the carseats off the baggage claim carousel. Visitors can't come into the baggage claim area at the international terminal, so the four of us had to get all of that stuff out into the lobby on our own. We put our kids to work - McKenna had to carry her booster seat and we had to have Kayla push a luggage cart - we just couldn't pile all of that stuff on two. And so the four of us paraded out through 4 switchback lanes until we reached our awaiting drivers and guide. I can't begin to imagine what a sight we would have been - Kayla pushing her cart and holding her airsickness bag. McKenna all but tipping over backward under the weight of her backpack, and all of us rumpled and tired from our 18 hour trip. Nice...

Get Set, ...

The first two weeks of January were a whirlwind of preparations for our departure for Shanghai. After our infamous shopping trips to Costco, we had to inventory our house, basically categorizing everything we own into 5 options: Give it away, Throw it away, Store it, Ship it, or Carry it. In the end, we shipped the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's for a couple of days to allow us to do this in relative peace and quiet.

On January 7th and 8th, the movers came to box up and haul away everything that we had decided to ship to Shanghai. In the end, we chose to bring the girls' bedroom sets, most of our clothes, bikes, toys, dishes, and many of our deorative items (pictures, knick knacks, etc.). Everyone who had gone through this process before us said that you can't fill the truck, but let me tell you we gave it our best shot, and it looked pretty full to me!! We were told that the truck would take the container to the west coast, where it would be loaded onto a sea freighter. The boat is scheduled to leave port on January 30th and arrive in Shanghai on February 14th. Once in China, we have been told to expect about 1 week for the container to clear customs and get to us.

After the container left the house, some of the chaos subsided. We had to muddle through with a limited amount of clothes and household items, but it was part of the adventure, and we treated it a bit like camping in our house. We laughed at the things we had not thought to keep - Rebecca had to go buy a belt because all of hers left with the container, and we ended up borrowing a neighbor's toaster oven to allow us to have toast and toaster waffles during those last few days (Thanks Andrea!!!)

With the container gone, the focus moved to visiting with friends and family and starting the painful process of saying goodbye. Teresa Loman opened her house to our GM friends, we met at local restaurants and bars with family, book club, coworkers, and other friends. Thanks to everyone who drove through nasty weather to say goodbye and treat us to some good food! Rebecca helped Kayla show her classmates how to hold chopsticks and allowed them to test their skills by trying to pick up fortune cookies with their new utensils. The kids had a blast and it was a fun way to celebrate Kayla's upcoming adventure with her friends.

Finally, we started the process of listing our house in Brighton for sale. Despite the fact that we love our home and yard, we decided that having the freedom to come back to the States and settle wherever we want or need to would be wisest, and not having to worry about the house while we are halfway around the world would relieve some of the stress of living in China. So if you know of anyone that is in the housing market, boy do we have a house for you!...:)

Pictures from Costco

Here are a couple of shots of the car after our first trip to Costco. Second trip wasn't much lighter!

On your mark...

Preparations are underway for our departure on January 16th. We are in the midst of selling cars, deciding what to do with the house, and sorting all of our belongings into five piles: throw away, give away, store until we return, ship to China, and carry with us. It is a daunting task, but it is fun, too. Having to assess how many "things" you really want in your life and making decisions about what is really important has been liberating. In the end, the stuff is just stuff, and what we are really looking forward to in the next few months has nothing to do with what we will have when we are there, and everything to do with what we will get to see and do while we are in China.

We had fun in Costco last week. It took a couple of trips to get the cereal, mac and cheese, peanut butter, toiletries and medicines that everyone has been recommending we bring. We got some strange looks, and Jeff took to telling people that "we're going camping." The funniest response came from one little old lady who responded with "Really?" When Jeff said no, we're moving to China, we realized that she didn't believe us. Somehow a huge camping trip in the middle of the winter made more sense to her!!