Williamsburg - Then and Now

Last month we took the kids to Jamestown and Williamsburg to do a little sightseeing.  Great fun. The kids got to see what a 'time out' was like in the 18th century.  Before you call CPS, we told them to look sad for photo for the sake of realism - they posed willingly.

Then today I came across this picture from the last time Erin and I were in Williamsburg, back in 1991.  I was in the Navy, stationed in Virginia Beach for training and Erin came to visit. It probably didn't occur to us that we might return over 20 years later with 3 kids and about to go to China for a couple of years.

I have to say, I was pretty optimistic about this whole marriage thing, but it's working out even better than I imagined.    Best advice I could give for a happy marriage - marry the right person.

Must be getting close - shopping

Little things make me realize how close this big move is ---  I was putting gas in the car this weekend and realized that they are coming to pick it up in 2 weeks.  It should not have more than a quarter tank during transport, so I didn't fill it up.  Strange feeling.

Also - buying toilet paper and wondering if I should buy a smaller package.  Or maybe I should buy lots of bigger ones and put them with our household goods for shipping - you know in case we really don't like the paper there.  We're calling this panic buying.  Maybe we should buy two years worth of deodorant/shampoo/cosmetic products, etc.  It's probably not necessary; Beijing is a large, cosmopolitan city compared to a lot of other Foreign Service posts. And we are lucky enough to have a DPO address - I think we'll like Amazon prime. Many smaller posts in the Foreign Service don't have this convenience.

We did buy an artificial Christmas tree that's been sitting in the living room since December 27th, still in the box, waiting to travel to China (probably right back where it came from).

Interested in what the Foreign Service does?

Nicely done recruiting video for the Foreign Service --

Ready to Go (mentally)

That's me and kids back in March, when we went to DC for the oral assessment back.  At the time, Alex seemed very excited at the possibility of returning for an extended time.  When we first arrived in Northern Virginia, he wanted to go into DC every weekend.  About the second or third trip in, he started complaining about the "tourists" in the Metro.  Now he says he's seen it all. I can (sort of) relate. The training is good, but  I'm ready to get to post.

That's mentally ready - logistically there's still a ton to do  - arrange the packout, figure out all the documentation required to ship the car, etc.  On the plus side, our visas arrived. One thing off the list.

Warm up

Made a visit to Chinatown in Washington.  A couple more months until the real thing.

-posted from a mobile device

The Toilets...Ya'll...Eeeek!

Okay, so this entire blog post is extremely crude and not very polite or discreet.  But, it is hard to think about moving to China without confronting one of my hugest fears.  Yes, my friends, Chinese toilets.  This is a true story -- China apparently gets so much feedback about their poor toilet facilities from Western tourists that they have instituted a star rating system for the toilets inside of Beijing.  There are now some 3 or 4 star facilities located at major tourist hotspots.  What does it mean to use a 4-star toilet?  As far as I can tell, it means that they have an actual toilet that you sit on.  Sometimes there is even toilet paper there and a place to wash hands.  So, that might beg the question as to what the rest of the toilets in China look like?  Well, you squat over a sort of trench.  The pic shows a sort of best case scenario for this type of toilet, in that it looks very clean and there is some type of privacy divider.  This model doesn't actually look too bad once you master the squatting position.  While wrapped in layers of clothing since it is like 20 degrees in Beijing in the winter.  Oh, and this toilet is empty and not filled to the gills with people like an actual toilet will be since Beijing has like 19 million people.

An actual conversation with Chris when out and about on the Washington mall today went like this.

Me:  Um, let's stop at the castle so I can use the toilet before we get on the metro.  Chris:  Really?  Again?  Didn't you just go at the art museum?  Me:  Yes, but I drank a bunch of iced tea.  Chris:  Um, okay.  You know, it is probably good if you restrict your liquid intake while out and about in China. He then proceeded to make up this really great chant that went "I've Peed in London, I've Peed in France, but I'll pee in my pants before I pee here."  He wants to note that he attributes that to the Boy Scouts. It is not an original saying.

Well, that might be workable if I just don't drink anything at all.  Not sure how reasonable that is on a long-term basis. We have all kinds of grandiose dreams of taking the minivan out and about and seeing lots of China. Gotta get to Mongolia somehow. In other words, I will have to avail myself of Chinese toilet facilities.  A lot.  Well, since I am very capable of making a mountain out of a mole hill, I turned to my trusty, sweet calm friend who just returned from a tour in Beijing with her two young girls.  My friend A is always positive, always calm, always sweet and upbeat about everything Chinese.  She is calm about the poor air quality, calm about the lack of free access to the internet, calm about the crazy traffic, calm about the cold weather.  She will surely have something positive and uplifting to say about Chinese toilet facilities, right? She actually looked a bit horrified when I mentioned the toilets and finally said that they were unfortunate, but that if we had to go badly enough it won't matter so much. Then mentioned that sometimes her kids chose to just go outside the bathroom instead of using the ones provided in China. Hardly the reassurance I was looking for. 

Anyways, I'm now somewhat resigned to my fate. I mean, we are moving to Beijing -- yay!  The toilets are a minor blip on the radar.  That said, I am once again, quite envious of the male members of my family. I mean, how much easier is that???!

Neglectful

I haven't blogged in eons.  Sorry ya'll!  I'm just busy around here, you know, applying for schools in China, trying to figure out if my car can be shipped to China, trying to figure out where we want to live, how to do diplomatic passports and visas, yadda yadda!  We have also been lucky enough to have visits from my family and Chris' family.  The end of January sounded rather far away when we first found out our posting, but when you start to think about the dazzling amount of stuff that should be done before we leave the country it becomes clear that time is short.  My kids have to actually apply and be accepted to the school in Beijing.  This involves a slew of teacher recommendations and years of school paperwork and other types of documentation.  I'm also finding us a dentist, pediatrician and all of the other good stuff that we need.  I'd like to start our journey to China with clean teeth and good health.

We are continuing to explore the DC area as much as humanly possible.  We head downtown frequently to see the Smithsonian museums, the monuments, the National Gallery of Art.  Oh, and the Madame Tussaud's wax museum because we are classy like that. Falls Church abounds with lots of fabulous restaurants. Now we've all eaten dim sum, Ethiopian food, pizza, Lebanese food, Vietnamese food, sushi and other good stuff.  My kids all like Chinese food, which is definitely a step in the right direction since we will be eating plenty of it soon.  Outside of the area, we've gone to Mount Vernon, an apple orchard to pick apples and to the Gettysburg battlefield.  The beautiful fall weather and amazing foliage definitely adds to the experience.  We all feel lucky to live here for several months before heading out.

I think we all feel a mixture of terror and anxiety and excitement when contemplating our upcoming journey to China.  We checked out about 15 books on China so we can learn more about its culture and history.  The Great Wall is on all of our to-do lists.  The kids want to venture to Hong Kong and Shanghai. I really really want to take the Trans-Siberian railway from Beijing to Ulaanbataar.  If you remember, I have a bit of an obsession with visiting Mongolia.  It is a 30-hour journey, but honestly, who on earth can say they have done that?  I mean, it has sleeping cars.  The kids will sleep for at least 15 hours or so (ha).  And it has dining cars that change from Chinese to Mongolian.  They can spend time eating also.  And playing, um, card games and looking at the scenery....It will be great!

It definitely isn't all fun and games though. The logistics of getting there are daunting.  Moving the diplocats about involves tons of red tape and money, moving the car (which is apparently a smidgeon too big for the state department's current regulations) is also time-consuming and expensive.  We also have to get about a zillion passports and visas that involve 500 small photos and pages of paperwork.  Oh, and we need to deal with moving companies (yet again) to pack up our temporary stuff here and to decide which boxes of stuff in storage we want to take to China.  I'm confident all will work out, but believe me, 3 months doesn't seem nearly long enough most days:)  Tomorrow we are trying to get the diplomat passports. Wish us luck.  It should be quite a day!