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.