T minus three(-ish) weeks and counting. By Thanksgiving we will be holed up in our luxury apartment wondering what the hell we were thinking.
Using up the liquids
We can neither send the liquids (and chemicals and drugs) to China in our moving shipment nor can we store them with our other belongings. Jimmy has discovered a huge, old, unused bottle of anti-bacterial hand soap. He's now showering with it.
Eating foods that will be hard to get or expensive in China
Every meal I eat is covered in Trappey's Red Devil hot sauce. Every meal I eat is followed with a large bowl of Breyer's Ice Cream. Usually Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
Preparing for high-rise living
We learned that the 9th floor apartment that we had picked out would not be available in November. Instead, we will be living on the 17th floor. Jimmy and Eleanor are practicing how to traverse a room while bodily glued to inside walls.
Sorting
Every time I walk through our house, I mentally assess all objects in view to determine category: pack in suitcases, ship to China, put in storage, give away. Every time.
All the big issues are covered
We have tickets. We have work visas and regular visas. We have been immunized against every thing there is a vaccine (in ready supply) for. We have submitted changes of address to every relevant entity. We have studied Chinese (for two freakin' years).
And that's the problem. Now that all the big stuff is done, we have three(-ish) weeks to freak out and obsess over the little stuff.
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Comments
Still. I learned a lot. The sun there never shines due to pollutants from the factories churning out stuff we Americans have to have a dollar cheaper. A clear day cloud-wise...and still no sun
Security guards (not the border kind) are kind of a running joke between my husband and me. Everywhere we went on our last visit to China we noticed security guards who looked like they were twelve and wore over-sized, ill-fitting clothes that were meant to look like uniforms. They looked like kids dressing up as "rent-a-cops" for Halloween. We couldn't help but laugh at the cultural difference: we pay old, fat guys to guard stuff and the Chinese pay skinny little teens. Neither seems capable of providing much security.
Having said all of that. China still holds breathless beauty and a culture well worth learning more about.
I envy you your adventure.
Enjoy!