We are in China!

It has been a long time since my last post. Pat and I finished our trip to see Chris, Anna and Evie in San Diego. We visited deserts, the Grand Canyon, Santa Fe, Oklahoma City, and paralleled parts of Route 66. It was a great trip. Chris and Anna took us mountain climbing, to the ocean, Torrey Pines, food trucks and breweries. We saw the venue for their wedding in March. It is a beautiful city. The rest of the trip gave us a real appreciation for the diverse beauty of the United States. We also listened to “Hamilton”, great musical, and practiced Chinese.

Upon our return to Plano reality hit us, we were leaving for China in 2 weeks! Time to pack, take care of our phones, and sell the car! We could take 2 fifty pound bags with us on our flight. I wanted to bring books and supplies for the teachers. Pat wanted to bring his Sales Babble equipment. Fortunately I did not need to bring a lot of work clothes because I wear a “Best” t-shirt. In the end though I was throwing things in the suitcase and when the scale said 46 pounds I quit packing. So far everything is working out just fine.

We had a final bump in the road. We were making copies of our documents and realized that our marriage certificate was not authenticated. We need this for Pat to stay in China on my work visa. So Pat and Tim made a trip to Chicago to take care of it. Tim picked up the final documents and mailed them to us.

We still have the Honda. Since it is 10 years old with almost 180, 000 miles on it, no dealer wants it. We will figure that out as we go.

We flew nonstop from Chicago to Shanghai on August 2nd. The flight was delayed but it was a nice opportunity for all of us to get to know each other. I am working with a great group of people. We spent the night in Shanghai and flew to Zhengzhou in the morning. I was a little nervous going through customs but everything worked out just fine. There was a crazy rush to get in line but everything settled down.

Both airports are huge, modern and very clean. I thought it was easier to get around there than O’Hare. There were signs in English and Chinese. Once we got to Zhenghzhou we took a long bus ride to Kinglee High School were we are living until the rooms are ready at Best Bilingual Primary (BBP). Although I will be doing some traveling between both campuses.

The drive in was interesting. Zhenghzhou is currently considered a traditional Chinese city, not the same as Bejing or Shanghai. Zhenghzhou is slowly becoming a modern city by tearing down the street markets and old businesses and putting up tall apartment buildings and attracting new businesses. Zhenghzhou has been designated the transportation hub for China, so there is a lot of growth. We saw old China the closer we got to Kinglee. Street markets, small buildings full of all kinds of things, e-bikes, small carts, and vendors selling apples and watermelon. I am so glad we are here to experience this. This area is scheduled for demolition by the end of the year.

We have been very busy settling in and getting ready for school. We just finished a 8 day work week. I will start writing more regularly now that we are settling in.