A long time coming...

Half of our haul.

 So I have been trying to write this post with some difficulty for quite a while now. Firstly, we have not had internet at our apartment at all, so I am writing this on a text document with the hopes of copying it onto a blog post later today. Secondly, there has been very little time to do any kind of personal reflection. We arrived two weeks ago, and have since been involved with building a life and starting a school year here. And thirdly, the computer I was using kept turning my words into Chinese symbols! Ugh.

I think this post would be way to long if I had to fill you in on all of the goings on for the last two weeks, so I'll probably do it in segments. The first being our travel here and the weekend we first arrived. 

On the morning we left San Antonio, we got to the airport early enough, and checked our 11 bags. We also had 3 carry-ons and 3 personal items, so we were pretty loaded down. The check in process was fine, but slow and we managed to stay well below our travel budget, so it worked out for the best. We decided to go have breakfast at Magnolia Pancake Haus since we had so much time left before our flight. So we enjoyed a delicious breakfast with Ron and Angie, and the food was wonderful, but the impending departure had made everybody feel a little sad and anxious, so the mood was not as wonderful.

We headed back to the airport and said our goodbyes in the parking lot. We will see Ron and Angie in December, but it was still hard to say see you later. Paul was especially upset, and that's when we all got a little bit choked up. They've done so much for us and we miss them a lot! We waited for our flight to Chicago, and settled into the short flight to O'Hare.

Wearing his "ear muffs" watching Mickey

In Chicago, we had to switch terminals, re-check in and get back through security. This left us precious little time to eat, and before we knew it, we were boarded and on our way to Hong Kong! Paul was surprisingly good on the flight, up until about the 12th hour. Then he began to get a little rowdy. Luckily, he fell asleep for the last four hours of the flight and Donnie and I were able to eat and watch a few movies before we touched down in HK. The flight was about 16 hours long, and although we left Chicago at 3 pm on Thursday, we didn't arrive in HK until 9pm on Friday night. The time difference is 13 hours between San Antonio and here. 

When we finally de-planed, we were full of nervous energy, but extremely exhausted. We floated through passport control, and after a short wait for our bags to show, we weren't even stopped in customs! We wandered over to the meeting place where our driver was supposed to be, and luckily he found us. We packed our stuff into two vans (although they definitely could have fit into one), and started off for Shenzhen. 

On the way, we drove across a brilliant bridge, and you could see the skyscrapers of HK across the water, but that's all I've seen of HK since. After about an hour in the car, and passing through customs at the Chinese mainland border, we finally pulled up to our apartment. Our school's director was there, and the new teacher liaison, Jack, and they showed us up to our 7th floor apartment. It was hot, the A/C hadn't been turned on, and it was bigger than we had expected it to be. At that point, Paul lost it. He was so confused, and this was not what he was expecting to find. I think he thought we were going to Nana's house, or back to Honolulu. Not to mention being hungry and exhausted. When the director and Jack left, we tried to process our new place, but decided it would be best to try to sleep (even though it was midday back at home). So when Paul finally stopped crying, we all settled in to watch some Thomas the train and fall asleep. 

First morning in China, the street outside our apartment.

It was a restless night, and we were up wide awake at 4:00am. We looked through our new place with more detail, and made ourselves some breakfast with the welcome pack that was left for us, but Jack was back to pick us up at 9am to take care of some business. He took us to school to withdraw some money from our school account, and then took us to take visa pictures which they keep on file at the police station and for any kind of government paperwork, and then he walked us over to the cell phone shop to get reconnected. We had brought our windows Lumia 920's with us, so we bought sim cards, popped them in and we were connected again. But even with a data plan, you can't really do any kind of smart phone apps or internet surfing on the network, you have to be connected to a wireless network. But at least Jack could get a hold of us. :) From their we headed to lunch in Sea World (which is not a water park, but an area of Western shops and restaurants). After a delicious meal of Indian and Thai food, it was time to get bus cards and head back to our apartment. So Jack escorted us on the bus back over to the Wal-Mart which is located down the street from our apartment. We wandered around Wal-Mart in search of things like hangars and some other basic food. It may be called Wal-mart, and even has some of the same brands, but it is unlike any Wal-Mart I've ever seen!

Needless to say we were exhausted. I haven't mentioned that its dreadfully humid here. So along with the jet lag, all three of us were completely drained of energy and covered in sweat by the time we finally found our way home. We had intended to take a nap and head out to find some food for dinner, but we fell asleep at 4pm and didn't wake up again until 2am. Luckily, we fell back asleep until around 5, when we woke up and started to measure and develop a decorating plan for our apartment. 

We had survived our first day in China! It feels like so long ago now, but it was only two weeks ago!

Ok..more later...and we have internet now! So I will try to post more in the coming days. :)