Happy Holidays!

Tomorrow we set off to the States for the holidays. We are excited about seeing everyone again...but we know that we will be very busy!! I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope to be able to see each and every one of you...so that we can tell you that in person!!
I apologize for the lack of pictures, but our camera sucks. We have asked for a new one, so if we get our one Christmas wish we will have plenty of pictures to post of our adventures when we come back to China!!
See you in the New Year!! :)

Eva

We are proud to welcome a new member to our family. Our little girl Eva became a member of the LaRouche family today, and has brought us so much joy already!!



As you may know, we planned to bring our dog Ralphie over to China with us, but in the end we decided that it may not be the best decision. Once we got here and got settled in, we began to desperately miss the companionship of our dogs. We briefly reconsidered bringing Ralphie over, but decided against uprooting him and bringing him to an entirely new atmosphere. I would hate to spend all that money and have him hate it!! So then, we decided that maybe we would adopt a dog here. However, since we are going back to the States and then possibly vacationing over Chinese New Year(end of January), we decided it best to wait until after Chinese New Year and see how we felt about it. Then, this past Thursday, we were at Byron & Bella's when she got a call from her friend. Her friend found a puppy that a man was about to abandon. We saw her picture and fell in love with her. However, we still thought it was terrible timing!! Then Byron & Bella agreed to keep her while we are gone, and the decision was made. She gets along famously with Potter (Byron & Bella's dog) and appears to be very smart!!
We love her already!! :)

Here she is sleeping in her new bed. She looks pretty comfortable, huh?



Here she is sleeping halfway in, and halfway out. She was really sleepy, but kept wanting to get out and play with us. :)



Here she is playing with her new cousin Potter. They have a lot of fun chasing each other!



One more...a video of her playing with her new toy. SO CUTE!! :)

December

Today is December 2nd and the high is 78 degrees. Andre and I were talking last night about how we don't even feel like it is approaching Christmas. I never realized how much the weather indicated the changes in season and the different months. When you have lived in a place like Indiana your whole life, a place with 4 distinct seasons, this not having cool weather during the holidays becomes a whole new concept for me!!
So the thing that cracks me up the most about this weather business is how much it effects the Chinese people. It has been in the 70's during the day, but drops to the 50/60's at night. To me that is the most perfect weather. You wear a T-Shirt and jeans during the day and then you throw on a sweatshirt at night if you will be outdoors. I have seen people (the majority actually) who bundle up in huge winter jackets and scarves when it is at least 65 degrees or higher outside. It makes me laugh, every time!! But these people are not used to the cold. They pretty much have three seasons, WARM, HOT, and HOTTER. So when it starts to cool off into the 70's and 60's it feels to them like 30's and 40's.
Pretty much everyday I wear short sleeves I have someone come up and touch my bare arm and do some kind of motion indicating "Are you cold?" Let's see...it's 70 degrees outside and the sun is beating down on me...heck no, I am not cold!! They always shake their heads and laugh or look at me like I must be crazy!
Last night we changed our doorbell ringer to We Wish You a Merry Christmas. I am sorry, but there is something that is just not right about hearing that song play while we sit in our short sleeves with our patio doors open. I wish for a white Christmas when we come home!! :)

Success!

Today I spoke Chinese to a taxi driver and he understood me! I had to direct him to a place that I did not know the name of, so I told him the Chinese name of some apartments nearby, and directed him from there. He got it on my first try, so my pronunciation must have been passable! Yay!! :)

Our Sunday was a FUN DAY!! (Kind of!)

On Sunday, we met some friends for dim sum around 9:45am. We thought the restaurant just below our place served dim sum in the morning, but it ended up that they don't do that anymore. So, we went to a place like 15 minutes away. We ended up waiting about 30 minutes for a table, which we took as a good sign...the food must be good!! :) We had a nice meal which was good....although I am still craving an omelet and hash browns.
Afterwards, we went for some milk pearl tea. I had never had this either...a day of firsts for me. It turns out this was a cold coffee drink. The "pearls" were little gelatinous balls that floated around in the tea. My companions really enjoyed it...I on the other hand, did NOT. I like my coffee or tea hot, first of all. Not to mention the fact that I have a huge texture issue. Little gelatinous balls do not help in that area. At least I tried it! See....I AM growing!! :)
After that, the boys decided they were going to go go-karting and the girls were going to spend the day at the park with the dogs.
So, off I set to the park with two other girls, Bella & Zar. It was a very nice park, with lots of shady areas for setting up blankets. We picked our spot and lounged on the blanket, reading books and chatting. After about 2 hours, the two other girls left to go to the bathroom and walk the dogs. I stayed and watched our stuff. As I sat on the front corner of the blanket, I got a weird feeling like someone was behind me. I turned around, and YES! There was a man, bent over our stuff, looking like he was about to take something! "HEY!" I screamed. He turned and walked away, and I watched him...not knowing if he actually managed to get something. The other girls came back shortly after, and I called for them frantically. After we did a quick inventory, we realized everything was still there...except my comfort. I was quite shaken by this event. This guy walked up to our blanket in broad daylight, with MANY other people around. SCARY!
After out adventure, we met back up with the boys and went for dinner at a Brazilian BBQ place. It was a good dinner, and a nice end to a good weekend (for the most part).

You know you are living in China when...

You prefer to eat baked spaghetti with chopsticks instead of a knife and fork. Yes....we did. Tonight. :)

Jenny

Well, Jenny is her English name. She is our housekeeper. Byron introduced us to her, and she has been cleaning our house since the day we moved in. She is a really sweet girl, and she makes me laugh. On her first day she told me..."I like English. You like Chinese?" I said sure!! I think that was her way of telling me that she wanted me to teach her English, and she would teach me Chinese.
For awhile, she would speak rapid Chinese to me, and I would look at her totally confused. She would laugh, and go back to work. I think she realized that method wasn't working, so now she comes up to me at random intervals and points to something. She says it in Chinese and I repeat. Then I tell her the English word for the object, and either write it down or find it in our Mandarin phrasebook. Yesterday, she taught me how to say glove (rubber), girlfriend, and good-bye!! At this rate, I will be speaking like a native in no time!! :)

The movies!!

A little piece of home!! Last week, we actually went to see a movie in a Chinese movie theater that is not far from our apartment. At this theater, they play one new English movie per month. We went with a large group to see James Bond, The Quantum of Solace...it released here before it did in the States. I was shocked!! The experience was certainly interesting. We started off in this HUGE theater that was VERY nice. However, the center channel wasn't working in this theater. We had three people from the speaker industry with us, so they immediately started making a fuss! :) All the Chinese people didn't really mind, because they were reading the subtitles anyway...but the rest of us couldn't hear the dialogue. After about 30 minutes, they came in and announced that they were going to move us to another theater. This one was much smaller, and every seat in the place was filled. At least we could actually follow the plot though! We got popcorn (which we ate little of because it tasted sweet like cotton candy or something) and a Pepsi. The people next to me and the people behind us answered their cell phones & talked throughout the movie but...the overall experience was good, and it was nice to see a movie.

Our 2nd Anniversary

Last week, Andre and I celebrated our 2nd anniversary. It was just an ordinary Tuesday so Andre went to work, and I met my girlfriends for our weekly lunch. After lunch, we decided to go get some coffee. As we are finishing up our coffee, I get a text from Andre asking where I am. At coffee!! Where else would I be?? He tells me that he took a half-day and is at home waiting for me. Ooops!!! :) I catch a cab and come home to my husband and a huge bouquet of flowers. He laughs and tells me that he KNOWS you should never tell a woman the price of a gift...but he is dying to tell me about these flowers. 35RMB. That is about $5 USD for a bouquet of flowers that would have cost anywhere between $50-100 in the US. Awesome...that makes these flowers that much better!!!
We spend the afternoon just enjoying our time together. We watch a movie, and take a long walk around the perimeter or our apartment complex. Afterwards we stop by Byron and Bella's (they live two floors down). We tell them about the restaurant we are thinking of going to, and Byron says he will call to make us a reservation, even though we probably won't need it on a Tuesday night. He is so helpful!!
The restaurant was very nice. We were told that this is the best place to get a steak, as they import their fillet from the US. We tell them we have a reservation and they usher us upstairs to a nice quiet table. Very nice environment.
Several drinks & appetizers later...Andre says "I hear George!!" George is the owner of a factory that Andre does a lot of business with. He has been really nice to us, and Andre likes him a lot. We peek over the rail...and alas, there is George and a couple of other guys from the factory with a client. Andre goes down to say hello, and they shout with delight when they see him. He says hello, and they wave an enthusiastic greeting to me, and then he comes back to the table.
We finish our meal (GREAT by the way) and George and his guys come up to our table. They came to tell us good-bye, and as they are leaving...the waitstaff brings a huge heart shaped cake to our table. Our first thought is that it is something George has cooked-up, but it's not from George...it's from Byron! He arranged this special treat for us when we called to make a reservation. How special AND thoughtful.
Here is a picture of it:



What a nice day!

The Bank

So today, we went to the bank. We have to go each month to deposit money in an account for our electricity. If we don't deposit money, they will shut off our electricity. So we go in today and immediately a woman approaches us and tells us she speaks English. We tell her what we are there to do, and she escorts us to a long line full of Chinese people and tells us to wait. Not more than a minute passes and she comes back for us. She tells us to follow her as we wind around to the back of the bank. In this area there are more tellers, but it is much nicer and there are no lines. We walk right up and deposit our money. As we leave the back, we walk back through the front and past all the people we were waiting with just moments ago. Andre says as we are leaving "I think we were just given the 'red carpet' treatment." Uhhh...you think?

Our New Apartment

So we settled on our new apartment and we have signed the contract. The apartment owner gave us everything we asked for with the exception of a microwave. That's okay...they are very cheap to buy and we have no problem with that.
We were told that we could pick-out our own furniture since the place was furnished but she hadn't picked-out furniture. In the end, she had picked it out...she just wanted our approval on the things. So we go to this huge warehouse where they have every piece of furniture you could ever want...and for cheap!! We run all over the store as she shows us her picks. We love everything she has picked out!! She picked out REALLY nice stuff, and she has great taste. We are all happy!!
The best news is that everything will be moved in and ready by Saturday with the exception of the couch. They are expecting that to be ready early next week. That's fine by us, we are just ready to move in! So Saturday we will move into our new place with the few belongings we have and wait for our air shipment to arrive. It will be like Christmas when we get all those boxes of stuff!
Our new place has 3 bedrooms, three bathrooms, a den, a living room/dining room, and a tiny kitchen. It is actually like 1600+ square feet...a little bigger than our old house. These are the pictures I have so far. I will post more once we get our stuff settled in and we decorate. Enjoy!
This is Andre standing in the middle of our living room/dining room.

This is a picture of our tiny kitchen. On the patio just outside the kitchen is where our washer/dryer will be.
This is the view from our main patio. It is quite big, and I would really like to get some furniture for it. I think we would sit outside a lot in the evenings.

This is the master bedroom.

This is the master bathroom aka MY bathroom. Andre will use one of the guest bathrooms to get ready in the morning...unless of course we have guests!! :)

Dining Debacles

Ok...so I have two stories to share with you about dining experiences we have had here at our hotel. They aren't about the food...just more about the embarrassing experiences we have had. Enjoy. :)
I am not the most adventurous eater...let me start out by saying that. HOWEVER, you can ask Andre...I have become MUCH more adventurous. You pretty much have to be here. I will pretty much try anything these days with the exception of sushi and most other fish. I am still not a fan, but hope to be one day. So anyway, there are only like 3 or 4 restaurants in this hotel. There is a Japanese place, a buffet, a "European" Cafe where you get dishes a la carte, and then there is a Chinese place. One day we are deciding where to eat, and I suggest that we could TRY the Chinese place. We walk across the lobby to the place, which is on the opposite end (away from all the other places). As soon as we pass through the threshold I see a sign that says "Seafood and Shark Fin Restaurant." I haven't seen these words associated with the Chinese restaurant in any other place in the hotel...so this is news to me. As we walk by the sign I say to Andre..."Uhhhh...are you sure they have other things to eat besides seafood here??" "OH YEAH!! Of course they do." He says. Ok. We proceed to a room filled with tables and I notice that across the hall there are like 50 fish tanks. Filled with fish. Sorry little fishes...someone is going to eat you later, but it won't be ME! So we enter the dining room and the whole place comes to a screeching halt. Silence descends on the room as everyone stares at us. We get as quickly as we can to the table and life resumes in the restaurant (for the most part). They do careful work to set up our place settings and then bring us our menus. I quickly page through the menu to find that it IS all seafood. I was right!! My heart drops as we have already ordered tea, and our place settings were so meticulously cared for. I frantically whisper to Andre that they not only have just seafood...it is WEIRD seafood. Nothing I had ever heard of. Ok...so we decide to leave. In any other country you would just get up and walk out...but not here. We call a waiter over and Andre tries to explain that we have to go because I don't eat seafood and we did not know that was the only thing they serve. Huh? He doesn't understand so he gets someone else, who gets someone else, who gets someone else and eventually we have like 10 waiters at our table and the whole restaurant has come to a standstill once again. Finally we find someone who appears to understand. She escorts us out of the restaurant and then walks us halfway across the lobby while explaining that the other restaurants are across the lobby. Ha. We know. We have been staying here for like 5 days. Oh boy. Dumb Americans.
Our other experience occurred in the European restaurant. Andre decided he really wanted a ham & cheese sandwich and that is one of the 3 American things they have on the menu. So he orders that and I order some rice. We make it through most of the meal when all of the sudden...I hear Andre crunching on something really hard. Ham & Cheese, fries.... what would make that crunching noise??? He makes a horrible face and tries to retrieve the object(s) from his mouth. He pulls out a little tiny piece of something and then keeps crunching. Finally, after making many attempts to get the substance out, he takes a large drink of water. He tells me that it felt like SAND in his mouth. Yuck...that is gross. Then he begins to study the little pieces he pulled out. Glass! He has glass in his food!! Did it come from the fries? Who knows? My guess is that is came from the ketchup...maybe a chipped bottle or something. He decides to tell the waiter...we don't want this to happen to someone else!! Again, like 10 waiters gather around our table as we try to explain that this glass was in either his ketchup or his fries. He confers with all the waitstaff, makes several phone calls (on his cell phone and the hotel phone) and comes back to offer us his apologies. He wants us to have some coffee or complimentary juice. We say no thanks...we are pretty turned off by this situation and just want the Mai don (bill). He leaves and does some more talking with staff and on the phone. Meanwhile all the waiters keep walking by our table and staring at us. The guy disappears. After waiting like 5-10 minutes we think maybe he didn't understand that we wanted the bill. So we ask another waitress for Mai don. She leaves and picks up the phone...I guess she is calling the guy who disappeared. "Just a moment," she says when she comes back. More waiting. Eventually the guy reappears with an enormous plate of fries and fresh ketchup. Oh my. We really do not want this...we were almost finished with our food anyway. Andre declines. He shakes his head and says..."You must accept it." Okay, we do. They all stand around and stare at us...waiting for Andre to eat the fries. He eats one...very tentatively and with no ketchup. :) I tell him to mess the rest of them up (so it looks like he ate more than one), and let's get out of there. We finally get the bill and leave. Every single waiter and waitress says "Thank you bye-bye." as we leave. We haven't been back since.

Andre's Blog

If you notice, on the side of my page there is a link to Andre's blog. His is on the Klipsch website. He updates his with similar updates but he is also doing a Chinese word of the day. Check it out when you get time!

Numbers

The Chinese people are VERY superstitious about numbers. They do NOT like the number 4, because when it is said in Chinese it sounds like the Chinese word for die. On the flip side, 8 is a very lucky number. If you look in the US, a lot of the Chinese places incorporate the number 8 into their restaurant name because they believe it brings good luck.
They are so superstitious about the number 4 that when you go into a hotel or apartment building they won't have a 4th, 14th, 24th... floor. Instead the floors will go 1, 2, 3, 3F, 5... and 11, 12, 13, 13F, 15... We were also told in a cultural class we took before we came to NEVER give anything to the Chinese people in groups of 4. Like if we were to give our neighbors cupcakes, you wouldn't want to give them 4....they probably wouldn't accept them!!
I find this very interesting, and I like to look for ways in which they have avoided the number 4. I suppose their is a certain superstition in the US for the number 13, but I really don't think we go to such great lengths to avoid it!

We found an apartment!!

We spent three long afternoons searching for places and we have finally found the apartment we will call home for the next three years. It is located in a complex called New World Garden. NWG is one of three complexes that is known to have the most ex-patriate people. Ex-patriates are non-Chinese people living in China. Many ex-pats are from America but there are also some from the UK, Australia, Germany, etc. Anyway, New World Garden is in the Dongcheng area, and there are many ex-patriate hang-outs in this area. There are several restaurants, clubs, and grocery stores where you can find Western foods. We liked this area just because we will be able to meet many English speaking people here and we will be very close to the places we will visit most often.
The apartment is on the 5th floor of a six story building. It is brand new, and has never been lived in, which I like. Because they just finished the apartment, there is no furniture in it yet even though it is sold as a furnished apartment. Because of this, the landlord said we can come with her to help pick-out furniture we like. We are excited about that!
We are in the process of getting the money and lease situation handled. We hope to sign our contract and go pick out furniture next week. When we sign the contract we will send for our stuff that is being held in the US. As soon as I get pictures, I will post them!!

Skype

Ok, if you don't have Skype and you want to talk to Andre or I, you must get it NOW. It has been a godsend for us so far, and not even half the people we know are on there.
What is Skype?
Skype is FREE software that allows you to make calls over the internet. If you are calling another Skype member computer-to-computer the service is TOTALLY free!!
How can I talk to you on Skype?
If you have a computer, you download Skype. At the very least, we can chat back and forth like any other instant message service. If you have a microphone, you can call us and we can actually chat voice-to-voice (it sounds just like you are on the telephone...only a slight lag). If you have a webcam, we can video chat!!
How can I get Skype?
All you have to do is go to www.skype.com. Follow the instructions to download and install the program on your computer. Trust me, it is all free!! Once you have downloaded the program, search for us so we can chat!! My user name is kelly.larouche and Andre's username is andre.larouche.
Why should I download Skype?
You should do it because you love us and because it is the best way to keep in touch with us. Seriously, I cannot imagine what my life in China would be like if I did not have this service to keep me in contact with my family and friends. Because it is free, I can talk as much and as often as I want. I think I would use this service even if I weren't in China because it has been an awesome way to keep in contact with family you don't get to see often.
If you have ANY questions about Skype or how to download it, e-mail me.
See you all on Skype SOON!! :)

Andre's 1st Day of Work

I feel like a proud parent, sending their child to school on the first day. Haha...I know Andre felt dumb when I took his picture but hey, we have worked hard for this and it is exciting to finally be here!!

Anyway, he had a good first day. I walked up to his office (about a 30 minute walk) and met him and a couple of the girls he works with for lunch. It was a great place. After that I walked back to the hotel, and as soon as I walked in he Skype'd me and said that we were going to look at apartments. Yay!! We have spent the last two afternoons looking at apartments. I will post more later...as some decisions are made and some pictures are taken!! :)

Jet Lag

We finally arrived in Dongguan City today after a little bit of confusion this morning. We were scheduled to take the ferry from the Kowloon ferry station this morning and then a car hired by Klipsch was going to pick us up from the FuYong ferry station on the mainland and bring us to our hotel. We arrived with plenty of time to the ferry terminal, but were shocked to discover that the ferries don't run on Sundays anymore. Apparently, Andre had an old schedule. After many calls to Emily, the girl from the Klipsch office who arranged this for us, we hightailed it back across town to the Hong Kong ferry terminal and found a ferry that was in service on Sunday. It took us to SheKou where the driver would be waiting. It was a minor wrench in the plans, but it all worked out. It was a little longer in the car, but it's not like we were in any hurry!
It seems that Andre and I are having the hardest time adjusting to the time here. I think it is just because we don't have any pressing plans. We fell asleep last night at 5pm (5am Indy time) and slept until about 5am this morning. Now twelve hours is pretty normal for me(ha)...but not for Andre!! We are trying to stay up later at night, so we aren't up at the crack of dawn...but we are just so tired. As I type this, Andre is dozing on the bed...it's 4pm here by the way. What a slacker!! :)
Andre is reporting to work in the morning, and I will be here at the hotel by myself. Hopefully I can find some things to keep myself occupied. We also hope to start looking at some apartments tomorrow or Tuesday. Yay!

We Are Here!

We arrived in Hong Kong last night around 5pm! That would have been 5am your time....we are exactly twelve hours ahead here.
Our flight went REALLY well. We purchased upgradeable tickets, and were fortunate that they had room in business class for us on the trip from Chicago to Hong Kong. Andre actually got upgraded to First Class on our first leg to Chicago. But they didn't have enough seats, so it was just him...I sat with all the other Joe Six-Packs in the back. :) Anyway, business class was amazing!! When we boarded the plane we got glasses of champagne. They also had a little goody bag filled with things to make us more comfortable on the flight. The food was good, there was little to no turbulence, and we were able to recline our seats and have quite a bit of room. When the seats were all upright and I pointed my toes straight out, I couldn't reach the seats in front of me. That changes a little bit when everyone is lying down, but it was still so nice compared to Economy. We slept and watched movies, and time actually passed quickly.
We took about a 30 minute taxi ride into the city from the airport. The cab driver we had knew a limited amount of English. He was quick to talk about the economy with us, and I thought it interesting that the economy is on everyone's mind. When you live in the USA, you tend to forget that we are having the same problems globally.
We arrived at that hotel which is very nice, but our room is tiny. We barely have enough room for our luggage. But that is okay, because our view is SPECTACULAR!! I will be sure to post some pictures later when we unearth our camera! :) We ordered pizza and showered and fell promptly asleep at 10pm (10am Indy time). We were exhausted from not sleeping much on the plane. The downside of this is that we were both wide awake this morning at 6am (6pm Indy time). Hopefully we will be able to make this time switch relatively easily.
We are making the trip to the mainland tomorrow morning. We want to be settled into the hotel near Andre's office and rested so that he can report to work on Monday morning. Hopefully we will start looking at apartments also, but I am not sure what they have planned for us. Stay tuned...now that we are actually here I hope to update quite a bit!

This is the view we had from the two windows in our room. We could see this when we were lying on the bed in our room. Awesome!!


This was the same view...just at night. This picture doesn't even begin to do justice to the Hong Kong skyline at night.

The Eagle Has Landed

We received our passports from the Chinese consulate in Chicago this weekend!! The first thing we did, after we jumped for joy, was crack our bottle of champagne and have mimosas! That was the best mimosa I have ever had!! :)
We have booked our flight, and we are leaving on Thursday, October 16, 2008. The movers are coming tomorrow morning to pack our air shipment. Tomorrow evening we will be moving out of our house and into a hotel. That way we can clean everything up and make sure it looks nice, as it is still on the market.
We will arrive in Hong Kong on Friday evening, and plan to stay there for the weekend. We will make our way to Dongguan City on Sunday afternoon so that we are rested and ready to begin the search for an apartment.
I will update as often as possible between now and then, although it is certain to be somewhat of a whirlwind. We love you all and thank you for your support over the last couple of months. We are grateful to have had the chance to see MOST of our friends and look forward to seeing everyone when we come home for Christmas!

Finally...the last step!!

Our paperwork has been received by the consulate in Chicago. Yay!! It will probably take about 5 days, but who knows these days. Andre and I have a bottle of champagne ready for when we finally hear that our passports are being couriered back!!

Are you ready for this? It's pretty shocking!!

We are back to having no departure date again!!! Ugghhhhhh.... We are so frustrated with this situation.
Our paperwork was finally ready to be sent back to the US and we were right on schedule. Then, the lawyers decided that we not only needed a contract with the Klipsch office here, but we also needed a contract with the Klipsch office in Dongguan. They put a hold on our paperwork while they worked to draw up a contract. It is finally done and our paperwork should be arriving in the US today. However, the consulate in Chicago (where we have to send our passports for our permanent resident visas) is closed for a Chinese holiday until Monday October 6th. Once our stuff arrives there it will take 5 working days to process. So HOPEFULLY we will have our paperwork back and we will be able to leave sometime during the week of October 13th.
Stay tuned!!

Ralphie's In China?

We are becoming accustomed to the phrase "nothing is as it seems." Everything changes on almost daily basis in our lives in regards to this move. The most recent change is that we have decided not to take our dog Ralphie.
Andre broached this subject one night while we were laying in bed talking. He casually dropped the bomb, "Do you think we are making the right decision taking Ralph???" I immediately responded "YES! OF COURSE!!!" He dropped it then, and fell right to sleep. I, on the other hand, lay awake for hours thinking about it. By the way, he always does this to me. You know, bringing up things of monumental proportions and then falls quickly to sleep. I ALWAYS lay awake thinking about his "topic of the night" and eventually fall into a troubled sleep. Not nice, huh?? Anyway, I thought about Ralphie a lot that night and the next night and began to see Andre's point (obviously). I began to picture him left in China for 3 weeks, while we come home for Christmas, being let out twice a day and spending the rest of the time in his cage crying. This pretty much broke my heart. Not to mention that we were ALREADY worried about him coping without the companionship of another dog. He came into a house with two dogs and he has never lived his life without another dog. I started thinking..."Are we doing what is best for Ralphie or what is best for Kelly and Andre?" We both thought it would be nice to have a little piece of home but I rarely thought about the reprecussions it would have on our little guy.
Needless to say, after much debate we have decided to leave him in the states. He will be moving in with Dave & Chrissy (Andre's Mom & Dad). I know he will be happy there, but that certainly doesn't make it any easier.

Map

Andre worked really hard to create this map. It is a map of Dongguan with a couple of special interest areas. It has his office, the apartment complexes we are looking at, and a couple of other things. After we get there and decide on an apartment, we will delete the other ones so you know for sure where we are! Anyway, check out the following link when you have some time.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=102471637132619899639.000454e56c2fcdf91defb

What?? No way!!!

WE HAVE A DATE!!! We can finally answered the most frequently asked question!! I am thrilled to finally announce that we are leaving on October 3, 2008.
As a result of this, Andre is not leaving tomorrow. He will wait it out here with me in the States and then we can go together. :)
We hope to see everyone at least one more time before we leave, but if we don't we will be home for Christmas. We debated whether or not to come home, but Klipsch offered us a trip home for the holidays and it was pretty much use it or lose it. We have booked this flight as well, since it is cheaper to buy round-trip. So we will be home for Christmas on December 13, 2008. Just in time to go to the Colts vs. Lions game in the new stadium with my Mom & Dad! :) We will fly back to China shortly after the New Year.
Yay!! So exciting!!

Update

So, as you read in one of my previous posts, we were thinking we weren't going to be out of here until October. Because of that, Andre has booked a ticket to go over early (September 4, 2008) and then he would fly home while our passports are in Chicago for 4 days, and then we would fly to Dongguan together (sometime in October).
Well...of course nothing goes according to plan so this has changed yet again. Although Andre still has his ticket for the 4th, our paperwork is moving quite quickly now. If it moves quickly enough, there is no reason for Andre to go over early, because we might just be able to go permanently in mid-September.
We are going to wait it out this week and re-evaluate next Tuesday. If it looks like the paperwork will be done soon, he will stay and we will go around mid-September. If the paperwork slows down again, he will go and we will leave around mid-October.
Thank God we have learned to be pretty patient people! Check back soon!!

Dongguan's Population

Dongguan has a permanent population of 6,947,200, among which there are 1,712,600 local residents and 5,234,600 permanent immigrants from inner China. As well, Dongguan is known for its over 700 thousand compatriots living in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, as well as over 200 thousand overseas.

WOW!

One more thing...

This is kind of random...but I really wanted to share it. When we were on our last trip to China, we took an excursion with one of the Klipsch suppliers. They had a three-day weekend, so to give their employees a break and show their appreciation, they organized a trip to a beautiful city about 3 hours away. The city was called Zhao Qing City and it was very mountainous & we enjoyed it.
Anyway, the reason I am sharing this is because this was where the highlight of my entire trip to China occurred. One of the days we were doing some hiking & there were tons of beautiful waterfalls, and I got to zipline over a gorge/waterfall!! This was a pretty scary experience, but it all happened so quickly, I didn't really have time to wuss out!! :) It was one of the best experiences of my life and I wanted to post some of the pictures.
This is one of the guys who was one the trip with us. He went with me.

Can you see me in this one?

This was the breathtaking view I had while I was going across!!

All done!! :)

Chinese Food

People ask us a lot about what the food is like in China. I am sure you wouldn't be surprised to learn that it is NOTHING like it is here. The main difference is that in America most "Chinese" dishes are mostly meat-based. However, in China, most dishes are vegetable based. They don't eat nearly as much meat as we do. Here are a few links that we found that describe the Chinese diet in more detail. Check them out if you have time!

http://www.webmd.com/content/pages/10/1671_51429

http://www.pathlights.com/nr_encyclopedia/Health%20Notes/healnote22.htm

http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html

This last link is hilarious. It is so true...I think that is what makes it funny. If you only look at one of these links...make it this one!! :)

http://fortes.com/2006/10/27/china-diet/

At an authentic Chinese meal, many dishes are brought to the middle of the table & put on a "lazy susan". It is rotated and people take small portions of everything. I don't think we ever went to a restaurant where we ordered our own meal. Here is a photo of a "typical" Chinese meal.

I wish!!

I wish we were gone! But alas...we are NOT! We are stuck in "Z" visa-limbo!! :) This is highly frustrating, but I will do my best to explain this.
Our paperwork was finally all compiled and sent to China at the end of last week. It will take 3-4 days for them to verify our medical reports. Once these are accepted (IF they are accepted), an application for alien employment will be filed. This will take 7-8 working days. Then an application for an invitation letter (our visas) will be filed. It will take 7 working days to file this. After all of these things have been filed and accepted, all the paperwork will be sent back to the US. THEN, we can apply for our "Z" visa (permanent resident visa) and this will be done at the Chinese consulate in Chicago, USA. **This is the reason we have not been able to book tickets and go. We cannot be in China when our passports are sent to the Chinese consulate in Chicago because it just wouldn't be wise to do so while we are residing in China.** It will take up to 4 working days to process our visas and then our passports (with "Z" visas) will then be couriered to us. If you are looking at a calendar with all this information, it puts us as leaving in early October.
Sorry, I know that is a lot to digest, but now you see the frustration. None of this can be expedited...it is simply up to the Chinese government. If we had been given these facts months ago...we would have been able to see that the desires of Klipsch to get us to China by the end of July were simply NOT feasible. However, there was a great breakdown in communication, and now we are still here in the US twiddling our thumbs and having already said good-bye to everyone!!
Now, in great likelihood Andre will be making a trip to China in the interim and then returning to finalize everything here (while our visas are being processed in Chicago) and leaving again with me in tow. More on that later!!

Driving in Dongguan

I found some pictures of traffic in Dongguan to support my claims. You be the judge! :)


The picture above is actually looking out of Andre's office window.

Cars

A lot of people have asked what we are doing with our cars AND, will we get a car when we are there? Well...we already sold Andre's car. We sold it to a friend and it worked out perfectly with the exception that we are now down to one car and have been since the end of June. After many forgetful incidences in which we both made plans, we are finally used to one vehicle. Although I will never be used to getting up so early to take Andre to work if I need the car!! :) My car on the other hand is being purchased by Andre's Mom & Dad. They wanted something they could tow behind the motorhome, and thought our car would be ideal for that. They will be taking the car whenever we finally get out of here!! Now, if we could just sell our house that easily!! ;)
Now, about driving in China...if we wanted to die we would probably undertake this feat. However, we aren't prepared to end our lives just yet. So in the mean time, we will have a car allowance from Klipsch. We will be tracking our transportation for the first 3-5 months of living there and then we will come up with an appropriate allowance. I would imagine that if we were to have company, or if we were traveling to another city (Shenzen for shopping anyone?) we would get a driver/car for the day. We might do that a couple of times a month, but other than that most of our transport will take place via taxi.
Traffic is very crazy in the city. You have to witness it firsthand to REALLY understand. Our traffic laws are just guidelines in China. You will frequently see people crossing over double yellow lines to pass a long row of traffic. As Andre says, if you don't make eye contact with the other driver, you do not have the right of way. You literally feel like you are going to be in an accident at least 2 times per trip...even more if you are going farther. I thought this would make me nervous, but it was actually kind of fun. Think...driving on an obstacle course...with about 1,000 other people. Any takers? :)

Where is Dongguan, China?

Many people were asking for the spelling of our new city. The spelling above is correct, and usually if you type it in Google Maps or Google Earth it will locate it. However, if it can't be located you may want to try Dongwan, China. It is the same place, apparently it is just not translated easily!! :)
The closest major city to us is Hong Kong. That is where we fly in. Then you take about an hour ferry ride to the mainland since Hong Kong is an island. Once on the mainland, it is about a 45-50 minutes taxi ride to the area of town in which we live. And what a crazy taxi ride it is...hold on!!

What about your house?

Ahhhh...this is the biggest reason our life has been so crazy lately. We have been working non-stop on our house and it looks GREAT!! It is officially on the market, and now we just need buyers. If you know of anyone looking for a starter home please pass them our way. The moving company has already come once and taken everything we are putting in storage that we don't need before we move. It really de-cluttered our house. They will come again to pack up everything we are shipping to China when we leave. And then they will come one final time to pack up everything staged in the house, after it sells.
Our apartment in China will be furnished so we aren't shipping any furniture. We are basically only taking clothes, pictures, and DVD/video games. Everything else is being stored or pitched!

Thank you!!

Thank you to everyone who has come to one (or both) of our going away parties. It means a lot to us to see all those people we care most about. We have had so much fun and we are lucky to have such GREAT friends. We hope to see everyone at least once more before we leave!! :)

What are you doing with your dogs?

We have (had) three dogs that made this decision that much harder. They were the one aspect of this move that we were unable to talk about for so long because we both got so emotional thinking about giving them up. If you have pets you understand this....they are our children!!
That being said, Klipsch agreed to pay for the relocation of ONE of our pets. That is costing them $5,000...so imagine their reluctance to re-locate THREE of them!! That wasn't going to happen! :)
Even though it seems like this would be a hard decision, fate stepped in and decided for us. A friend of mine at work, Chelsea, expressed interest in adopting a big dog, as she always had dogs growing up and missed it. Her husband Aaron and her just got married about a month ago and we ready to expand their family. So when I went to visit China, she kept Gracie for us to see if it would be a good fit. They all loved each other immediately and we knew we had found a new family for our little girl. Gracie made the move right after the 4th of July and has been very happy. Her brothers miss her terribly, as do Andre and I, but we know she is in good hands. I think Chelsea and Aaron are spoiling her...but she deserves it!! :)
That brings us to Reuben. Anyone who has met him knows he is skittish and rejects anything that is not in his routine. My Mom & Dad have had a spot for Reuben in their hearts for him since they do they met him, and volunteered immediately to take him. I feel very comfortable with this, and know that he will be a good little lake dog!! At this time he is still with us, and will be until we leave.
If you are keeping track you know that leaves us with Ralphie!! He is our baby...the only dog that Andre and I acquired together. So in a way, it makes the most sense. He is also the biggest pest/troublemaker. However, I think he will be a different dog when he doesn't have any other dogs to torment & pester. Ralphie will also be living with my Mom & Dad until we arrive in China and move into an apartment. Hopefully it will be about a month or less, and then Animals Away will transport him over to his new home in China!
It will be nice to have a piece of home over there. It will give me responsibility and a reason to get out & about everyday regardless of whether I want to or not. We are sad to part with & separate our "children" but we know they will be well taken care of and happy.

Questions?

Please, if you have questions about this process....either e-mail me or reply to his post and I can blog about it. I am going to try to hit some of the things we are asked about most often...but trust me, if YOU want to know...EVERYONE wants to know!! :)

WOW!

Hello loyal readers!! :) I am so sorry for the lag in my posting! Things have been CRAZY around here!! I still don't have an idea for what to do in China when this blog gets blocked, but I suppose I will figure that out when the time comes. I have heard that it still allows you to access certain websites occasionally...so you may just have to bear with me!! That's what you've been doing anyway right??
I have decided to abandon a detailed explanation of our trip, because it has been awhile since then anyway. Don't worry...I still have plenty of witty observations & stories for you!! :)
I wanted to update everyone on the most frequently asked question: When are you guys officially leaving??? We still have no "official" date! We know this is just as annoying and frustrating for you as it is for us!! At this time, our paperwork has been submitted, but we are waiting for approval on our medical paperwork. Once we get that, hopefully by the end of next week, we SHOULD be able to purchase our tickets and have a finialized date.
Part of the hold-up is that they originally wanted our medical exams to be done in Guangzhou, PRC...but Klipsch didn't really want to send us there just to get medical exams ($$$) so we had them done here and they are being translated. Hopefully they will accept these medical exams, because if not...we will have to have them done AGAIN in China!! Which will not be fun because trust me...there was a gauntlet of tests done on us...we were poked, prodded, and pricked for several days.
Another reason this is all taking so long is the Olympics. China is basically shutting things down for this worldwide event. Everything is 10x harder because they are cracking down so hard on visas & stuff.
As soon as we have a date set & tickets purchased you will be the first to know!! :)

Sorry!!

Hey everyone!! I have been hearing it from every angle that I have not updated since I have been home...I apologize!! The reason for this is that Andre informed me that this blog site has been "blocked" in China. Therefore, I haven't wanted to update in case I am going to switch to another blog website. Give me a few more days to figure out what to do with this...I promise to update this weekend!! :) Love you all!!

Sunday

We decided that today would be a day to sight see around Hong Kong before we depart for the mainland in the morning. We slept-in and then went to walk around Harbor City. Everyone here is really pumped up for the Olympics and there are decorations & flags/banners everywhere! Here is a picture of Andre standing in front of some of the blow-up mascots.

For lunch, we went to a restaurant called Quarterdeck (Western food) which is in Harbor City an looks out over the water to Hong Kong. It was quite a beautiful view.

During lunch, I had my first run-in with a standard Chinese toilet. It never even occured to me that the toilets, of all things, would be different but they were!! They are called "squatters" because they are nothing more than holes in the floor that you squat over. If you are lucky, the squatters flush, but many do not. Many are smelly....think port-o-potty. Here is a picture of one...in case you are curious!

The more I saw of Hong Kong, the more I realized it is pretty much just like New York City. It is very westernized. It is REALLY busy, and there is tons of shopping. I saw just about every designer possible...what girl wouldn't love that, right? It seems like the whole city is one big mall, that's pretty much how you get around...walking from mall to mall. There is also a regular subway and a pedestrian subway. Most walking is done underground here, you can't cross busy intersections.
After we went to lunch, we went to check out a local supermarket to see how it compared to the ones at home, and then when we go to mainland we can see what the difference is between that one and Hong Kong as well. They had mostly everything in the supermarket. I was quite surprised. After we went to the supermarket, we took a double-decker bus around Hong Kong island. You can sit on the 2nd floor at the front & you basically feel like you are the one driving! It was a good way to see the whole island. It is very scenic and beautiful, everything is built into the sides of mountains.

We also went to a place called Stanley Market. That was a typical market, and quite interesting to walk through. It is pretty much just a series of alleyways selling knock-off stuff, and other Chinese goods. It was really safe though, and packed with people.
After our busy day, we decide to order Pizza Hut and watch a movie. I was still extremely jet-lagged and we had to get up early on Monday to take a ferry to the mainland. For the record, the pizza tasted pretty much the same as it does in the states. That's reassuring! :)

Saturday

I arrived in Hong Kong after a 16 hour flight from Chicago. Andre did not travel with me, he had already been there for 2 weeks, so I just met him there. As a result, I was petrified he would not be at the airport to pick me up and I would be stranded in a place I had never been with no knowledge whatsoever of the Chinese language. I called him from the plane just to verify he would be waiting for me just outside customs, and he did NOT answer my phone call. I must have tried him 10 times as I sat there and my heart began to beat double-time as I worried even more about this situation. Finally, I called my Mom and began sobbing, convinced that I was going to end-up stranded. She reassured me that he would be there & that she would call him for me later when I was on my flight to be sure. I later found out that she called him & read him the riot-act for not answering my call and causing me to freak-out. Ha! :) Anyway, he WAS there to pick me up and all was well...even though I had a rocky start.
We took the subway from the airport to our hotel in Kowloon, which is very nice. I got settled in and then we went to dinner. After the crap airplane food, I told Andre I wasn't quite ready to start eating lots of crazy Chinese food. One of my biggest fears about moving to China was the food...I am a slightly picky eater by some peoples standards. He reassured me that we would have plenty of time for authentic Chinese and that while we were in Hong Kong we should eat Western food. We went to TGI Friday's. Doesn't get much more American than that, huh? I was struck by the fact that most of the people in Hong Kong spoke English. We didn't really have much trouble communicating at all.
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel. I was a little taken aback by all the people mobbing us on the street, wanting us to come in and check out there knock-off suits, watches, handbags & sunglasses. Many were SO pushy that I felt uncomfortable. They were especially pushy with us because we are American, and they think we have loads of money! :)
We went back to the hotel after dinner and went to bed. I was exhausted from my long 2 days of travel!

Hello!

I have never been one to diary. I always wished I was one of those people, but I have become okay with the fact that I am not. Quite frankly, I have never had much going on in my life to even warrant a space to write! :) However, our life has changed so much since January that I thought this would be a central location for me to post updates where friends, family, and anyone else can catch up on the goings-on of our crazy & ever-changing life!
So, I don't know how much you know & how much you don't know so I will quickly explain the situation my husband Andre & I have found ourselves in. As many of you know, Andre has been traveling back in forth to China about 4-5 times per year since last year. Due to some changes at work, it has been even more frequently since the beginning of the year. I think he has been in China more in 2008 than in the US. After much consideration & thought, we pretty much offered ourselves up to his company and said we would move there for a short time (2-3 years) in the hopes of alleviating some of the stresses caused by frequent travel. Also, we thought it would be a great time in our lives (no kids, my flexible job, a desire to sell our house, etc.) to have an experience abroad. Anyway, his company jumped at this chance and we spent the next month or two in negotiations. Now, for the last week & a half, I am in China living the life and seeing if it is something that would even be feasible. I have loved being here & have had many new experiences. In an effort to chronicle my trip, I decided to start a blog which I can continue to update as we uproot our lives in the US and move overseas. China here we come!! :)