Our Temp "Home"

Ok, so here's a little cap of our "home".  It's just temp housing.  Temp housing kinda reminds me of college, but I guess it's just what you have to do here in China.  We live in an Oakwood property.  It's about 1100 square feet.  Everything in it breaks when you look at it.  The dishwasher, the dryer, locks on doors, lock box.... I'm sure I'll have more to add to that broken list before we leave.  But the nice thing about things breaking here is I just pick up the phone, call the front desk, and about 3 Chinese workers show up at my door to fix it.  Of course, it's a game of Charades to try to explain what the malfunction is, but it usually gets fixed.

Onward with the tour.  Welcome to our "home".... er.... temp housing.

sorry bout the view not being visible.  this is NOT due to smog, but rather my lack-of photography skills.

this is where i attempt to cook with Chinese food and utensils.

play room (aka = living room)

we have a train in our living room.  Brooke - she asks about you almost daily.  she loves you.  and your train you gave her.

this is the tv that gets 1 English channel.  it's CNN.  we are kinda a FOX News family.

necessities for any expat.  our Vonage phone is $35/month.  we can call anywhere and you can call us.  it's a peoria, illinois (309) number.  if you want my digits, let me know.  

hallway

 Bianca's room.  

once upon a time, a princess lived in a castle.  this ain't no castle, princess.

Bianca's bathroom, laundry room.  you can't see the washer/dryer from this angle.  unfortunately, the washer/dryer is so small you can barely see it at ANY angle.  

reading materials.  

we bought this for Bianca to wash her hands.  i honestly think it's hand soap.  i mean - i hope it's hand soap.  what do you think?

i think i'm supposed to say, "this is where the magic happens."  but if you look to the right of the pic you will see a crib.  and feet.  and a crying baby.  

slightly messy, but keeping it real peeps.

our bedroom hall and closet.  if you ever get a chance to have top-of-the-line closets with lights that turn on when you open the door and custom built everything - DO IT!

our bath.  this makes total sense to me.  a shower and then the tub in the "wet" area.  don't mind the small raft.

ahhhhh.... the bidet.  i remember babysitting in high school for people who had one in their home.  Americans just don't consider them a staple.  now a Cisel family staple. 

the towel/bath heater/cooler/dryer.  amazing.  makes getting out of the bath or shower just as good as getting in.

Now... I have a few "extras" that I want to share.  Not so much a tour of the apartment, but just tid bits in our apartment and daily lives that we might not necessarily have back "home".

my journal.  thank you, pammy.  i constantly take notes, practice my Chinese, and record thoughts here.  of course, i also think of you every time i see it.

don't drink the water.  gotta be filtered.  this baby costs $8 and lasts about +/-6 days.

everything here is metric.  screws with you, big time.

electricity converters, adapters, plugs.... drives me nuts.  some things you can just plug in because they are "dual-voltage".  others you have to convert the energy.  and you MUST convert because those babies will BLOW if you don't!  then there's adapters......

"army time" was easy for me because of working in the hospital, but D has some adjusting.  

kitchen utensils

do not walk into a home in China with your shoes on.  these are cheapy slippers you see everyone wearing in homes.  note the marble floors.  kinda scary when you have kids that fall.

we love our $2 DVDs.  and our $10 rosetta stone.  as you can see, the saran wrap is still on that item.  

cooking.  we are lucky there's an oven here - most Chinese places do not have them.  this picture makes me smile for a couple of reasons.  #1: the towel was sweetly given to me by my MIL who thought it "looked" like something i'd like so i packed it in our luggage as a lovely reminder and #2: hand prints on the stainless steel i should've wiped before taking a pic.  ha!

brought a little ATL with us.  i gave Derek these coasters for father's day today.  reminds us of friends back "home."

Well, that wraps up the tour.  Hopefully it answered some of your questions and will serve as a memory to me someday.  We move into our permanent home July 19th.  Counting the days...

Am I really doing this?

HUGE time gap from the last post to this post.  Guess it's a good thing I don't get paid to blog.

But we are here in Beijing, finally.  From the actual job offer in December to now, it's taken about six months to relocate.  The amount of paperwork, VISA issues, health screenings, blah, blah, blah I won't bore you anymore.... it's finally paid off.  We are here.

But I find myself just stopping thoughts here and there, asking, 'Am I really doing this?  Are we really in freaking China?'  Then the ching-chang talk next to me drowns out my own voice in my head and I realize, "Yep, I'm here."  Kinda feels like summer camp sometimes.  Really, really far away camp.

So a lot of people have asked why I have two blogs now.  I've decided to make this blog for me.  Yep, I'm going to be selfish and dedicate this blog to my thoughts, experiences, trials, ups/downs, emotions, and everything else that goes into being an expat wife in Beijing, China.  Derek and I had "cultural training" back in Atlanta before the move.  The company had two women - one from Beijing and one from Russia - come to our home to teach us about living in a different country.  The lead teacher suggested I start a blog to "vent" and "document" about experiences I have while living abroad.  This may come to a bore to most of you, but I think it's a good way for me to remember life here as we know it.

I'm going to try to be positive, but I'm going to be "real", too.  Most of you who know me are aware I don't really have a hard time voicing how I feel.  I hope this blog serves well as my voice and speaks the truth about our life here.

Stay tuned.  I've got a lot to talk about (imagine that).

Visa Application

We have officially applied for a VISA in China.  It's a lot of work.  Actually.... technically.... we have only submitted the health part of the VISA application.  Derek and I had to undergo EKG, chest xray, blood work, physical assessments, etc.  They take all this info from the hospitals and doctors here in the USA and have it translated by Chinese officials.  This was done yesterday and should be complete by Friday.  Then, on Friday we will officially submit everything else.  The medical checks go first to make sure you are cleared, then the rest can go.  It was A LOT of work to get all this done.  Tons of trips to doctors, hospitals, and FedEx.

Besides sending health information, there are tons of personal papers that must be sent, as well.  Like Derek's college diploma.  We simply scanned it and sent it via email, suspecting that was all that was required.  Wrong!  We actually had to send the actual diploma from the college.  I won't bore you and go into all the other paperwork, but you would be amazed.  China apparently does not let just anyone come over.

So as of now, we plan on being in Beijing either May 11 or May 18.  Those dates are dependent on the VISA.  When we do move, we will have to live in temporary housing until we find a home (Derek was unable to solidify anything when he was there).  Here are our two options:
Sandalwood Marriott-
http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/bjssw-the-sandalwood-beijing-marriott-executive-apartments/

Or Oakwood-
http://www.oakwood.com/Beijing-serviced-apartments

Oakwood has so far been our #1 choice, but supposably they have no units available.  If we move and we stay in the Marriott, we would have a lovely 3-bedroom, 2300 square foot serviced home.... which is probably going to be nicer than what our permanent home will be!  Derek thinks I won't want to leave the apartment.

I've been super busy buying toiletries and other items (the girls' birthday and Christmas gifts for the next two years).  I'll dedicate an entire post to the process of "gathering items" to move.  It's IN SANE.

moving

Moving to China is not easy.

I mean... there's A LOT of crap that goes into it.  You don't just pack up and go.  I'm not really sure where to start explaining things.

Since we got this offer in December, we've been sitting around, waiting.  Waiting for D's company to make a formal announcement.  Waiting on China to get their part done (when I refer to "China" here... I mean CAT China people).  Waiting, waiting, waiting.

Then the race started.

Now all we do is run.  Derek ran to China for 3 weeks.  He ran around looking for a house.  We got the girls passports.  We had a teleconference with the moving company, Paragon (the company CAT pays to get us over there).  Currently, we are running to get all of our documents together to send electronically to China.  Birth certificates, marriage license, Derek's college transcripts, passport photos.  They all get scanned and emailed.

Then comes the health assessment.  D and I have to undergo chest xrays.  If they are ok, we move on to the 9 vials of blood work.  Cardiac EKGs.  Physical.  Then the psychiatric consultation (that should be humorous).  Immunizations against things like Japanese Encephalitis.

Moving on to Cultural Training.  We have a lady who comes to our home for a full day orientation about Chinese culture.  We.... I ... need this desperately.  I have no idea how to act over there.  It's encouraged we begin taking language training as well.  Yeah, right.  That's gonna have to wait.

Tax training.  We have a professional host another teleconference with us about our taxes.  We have to learn how to document appropriately so that when tax season comes we get the right info to the tax people.  I have always done our taxes, so this really pertains to me.  No, I will not be doing taxes while we are there.  It is mandated that CAT hires an outside firm to do them.  I guess we have to keep track of the exact number of days we are in Beijing, as well as the number of days we are on vacation, D is traveling, etc.

I haven't even started about selling our house.  That's a trip.  People come to your house, assess, market, open house, etc etc.  After talking to Paragon, the main focus is to get us OUT of the USA.... selling the house can be done with us not even here.  Scary thought.  Most people think selling their house is a headache.  For us it's the easiest part.  Although open houses and trying to keep your home looking remotely organized while you have rubbermaid containers all over, 80 rolls of paper towels, 30 tubs of Clorox wipes, and clothing for 2 girls for 3 years is a joke.

Packing.  Ugh.  The WORST part.  I have 3 different packing circumstances.  1. small shipment going fast by air to China, 2. big shipment going slow by boat to China, 3. everything else left over going to Peoria for storage.  That's not to mention the 12 pieces of luggage we are allowed to check when flying over ourselves to Beijing.  And since we are moving to a slightly hardship area, things don't come easy.  Deodorant, tampons, brownie/cookie mix, chocolate ships, fitted sheets, toddler snacks, clorox wipes, paper towels, razors.... these are just a FEW of the things I need to gather enough of for 3 years.  I've made one trip to Costco and spent $1000.  Not even a drop in the bucket of things we need.   This is expensive and timely.  And definitely nerve racking.  I've been emailing and talking to women who currently live in the neighborhood we will be moving to.  They are SUCH a help.  They tell me what I should stock up on, what is (not) available, etc. One of my new friends said it best when she said, "These are things you think you can't live without.  Then, as time goes by, you realize you really don't need those things."  What a way to put it.  Living in this wonderful Western world is truly amazing.  We are about to embark on a journey in which is going to open our eyes in ways we never could have imagined.  Eastern culture, open my eyes.

This blog is not meant to complain, although that might sound like what I'm doing.  I'm venting!  It's a lot of work, but we are so blessed to have this opportunity.  We can't wait to go.  Yes, we are sad to go, but excited.  I'm writing so that I can remember the details.  Because this is all becoming a big blur already.  I'm writing because there might be someone out there like me who has NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK I'M DOING.

China, baby!  Here we come.