Another year, another big China adventure. But this one should prove to be the biggest one documented on Grant's Pad so far!
Avid readers and/or close friends may know that the topic of relocating to China has been a topic of my life for the last 3+ years. Due to various circumstances, it never happened... until now. The whole family, myself, Cherry, Fifi, and Lukas, have been in Shanghai for the last couple of weeks or so, and will continue to be here for the next 2+ years.
Our adventure started in earnest in early March. At least, that's when my coworkers put together several bon voyage activities, like going bowling and giving me a bunch of gag gifts for my "China Survival Kit" (which consisted of thoughtful items such as cans of fresh air and a travel pillow, which, incidentally, I use quite often due to the long commutes to work each day). Uncle Chris and Aunt Carrie also came by to visit us before we left, but I forgot to take a photo to commemorate the event!
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| No injuries were sustained on this particular bowling event. But remind me never to bowl against Steven again :P |
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| Matt, Melissa, and E had a Farewell Dinner with Lukas and me |
Cherry spent several days of hard labor preparing for the move. She re-mulched the garden and pressure washed the driveway and sidewalk to prime the house for renting. She also organized all of our stuff that was going into storage and also our stuff for our shipment to China (in our last several trips, we found out how expensive some stuff in China was, especially baby stuff like diapers and baby wash) so we made use of our 1500-lb air shipment allowance.
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| Inspecting the pressure washer |
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| Our shipment |
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| Our stuff gets loaded as we leave the house we built and lived in for the past 7 years... |
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| Kids like wide open spaces |
Before long, the house was emptied of all furniture, so we moved into a hotel. More accurately, Cherry and the kids lived in a hotel, because the day right after our stuff was packed away, I was on my way to business trip for the week. But not before Mom, Dad, and Melinda came by to see us one more time before we headed overseas!
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| Dancing in the hotel room |
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| Enjoying Florida's pristine beach |
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| Melbourne from the sky |
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| Iowa from the sky - what a climate change! |
After a week in what was a surprisingly temperate early spring in Iowa, I returned to Melbourne for a little under 20 hours as we turned around and immediately began our travel to China.
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| Uncle Ed and Aunt Sara came over to help us get to the airport |
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| We had a lot of checked luggage... |
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| And also a lot of carry on luggage... |
Our first layover was in Atlanta, where I had stopped on the way back to Melbourne not 20 hours earlier. I even ordered food from the same lady!
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| On the way! |
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| Bye bye Melbourne! |
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| Enjoying airplane food |
Our next layover was a overnighter in Seattle - I had opted for longer layovers because we had so much stuff to carry - in fact I got in a few spats with other passengers who got annoyed at how much carry on luggage I had. I took advantage of our long layover in Seattle to meet up with Cousin Tina, whom I hadn't seen since a trip to Europe in 2000! She's since graduated from the University of Michigan, got a job with Boeing, and gotten married!
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| SeaTac from our hotel room |
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| Aunt Tina and Uncle Nathan brought us some breakfast, which was great since the Doubletree inexplicably didn't include breakfast... |
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| On the train to the terminal - Fifi had just learned about trains and was super excited |
Finally, we were ready to make the long stretch over the ocean. Fortunately, we got to fly business class so it was quite comfortable. I have to admit I was a little concerned that the kids might not be able to handle it, but the plethora of entertainment options and the room in our pod-seats meant they had plenty to do!
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| Fifi watching Frozen. I think she watched like 5 movies on the 13 hour flight... |
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| Plenty of room for a nap |
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| Or a bottle |
Some fifteen hours later, we checked in to our temporary residence in Shanghai, China!
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| The view from our room. The under-construction Shanghai Tower, the Shanghai World Financial Center, and the iconic Oriental Pearl TV tower are clear view when the air quality permits. This shot was cherry-picked by me because of the clear night :P |
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| Our first meal in Shanghai. There's a kitchen but since we didn't have any groceries yet, we ordered room service. |
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| Video tour time! |
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| Typical hazy day in Shanghai |
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| Clean air version of the same view |
And there you have it! The beginning of our great adventure!
Stay tuned for episodes capturing our first days!
