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.