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!

Chinese Chair Skating

So, I've been asked by several folks about the weather in Beijing. It apparently gets quite, quite cold in the winter. Mostly a very dry cold (very little snow) punctuated by wind that blows in from the Mongolian steppes.  Sometimes I can't believe I'm typing these sentences.  I've been told to bring serious coats and winter clothes for all of us. Lakes and rivers often freeze for long periods of time. Instead of strapping on bulky ice skates and attempting to glide along these frozen ponds, the Chinese sit on a wooden pallet chair and propel themselves along with ski poles.  Very clever and perfect for those of us who never truly learned to ice skate (um, most of my Texas brood).  Now when planning a trip, I've heard that September and October are the loveliest months to visit Beijing.  You can rest assured, however, that if you do end up here in the winter, we can find lots of stuff to entertain you.  If you don't mind the winds off the Mongolian steppes....

Ni hao!

Yep, those are the only words of Chinese I know.  This is important because our next posting is in.....

Beijing!!!

We are thrilled by our posting. Lots of options for schools, lots of orthodontist choices for the kids, good work prospects for me.  It is also supposed to be a busy and interesting work environment for Chris.  Plus, it is a part of the world that we probably would not have visited on our own dime.  It is pretty cool that we get to live there for a couple of years.  I never thought I would actually get to see the Great Wall of China or Tiananmen Square or the Forbidden Palace. We are definitely up for visitors so please come!  We should even have a guest bedroom for you so that you don't have to sleep on a sofa.  We are supposed to leave towards the end of January/beginning of February so we have some time to start to prepare for life there.  I think it is a good idea to try to learn some basic Chinese, and we have to start getting children enrolled in schools, yadda yadda.  All of the stuff you have to do even if you are running away to China.   

The List

Well, we've turned it in now so it is all over but the shouting around here.  The list, of course, refers to the places that our family might move to in 4-7 months.  And, my friends, I will tell you that when they say "worldwide available", they mean it.  Over half of our list was in Africa -- places like Burundi, Djibouti and Niger.  Rounding out the list were some fairly obscure places in Eastern Europe, like Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova.  A couple of danger posts topped off the fun -- Saudi Arabia and Tel Aviv.  While wild and truly adventurous, our list definitely had some gems on it.  Our top picks, in case you are interested, are Kiev, Ukraine; Beijing, China and Lusaka, Zambia.  There is no guarantee that we will get these places and the powers that be can certainly go further down our wish list, but those are the places that we feel would best suit our family's needs. For our family, the needs revolve mostly around the children and the fact they have to go to school.  Shocker, but Burundi and Djibouti do not have English-speaking schools, which knocked them pretty far down our bid list. Moldova doesn't have English schools either and I was sad to have to push it down on our list.  It actually sounds like one of the loveliest little places you've never heard of.

Now, the amazing thing about the foreign service is that families can and do live in places that aren't their top picks. Families will almost certainly encounter a posting or two along their path that they didn't find desirable.  I meet people on the playground every day headed off to Kazakhstan or Bangladesh.  Sometimes these places grow on people, sometimes people endure the places but find solace in a tight embassy community.  Most places have at least something that folks remember fondly when they move on to another locale. Given the news right now involving our diplomats abroad, I'm sure you can appreciate how difficult many of our posts can be.  U.S. diplomats serve in places that aren't terribly safe as well as places missing much of the infrastructure most Americans take for granted.  I can't tell you how brave and admirable I find many of Chris' colleagues as they prepare to head out to Egypt or Yemen or Pakistan or Iraq.  I'm equally in awe of all of the capable spouses I've met who've managed their families while their husband is on an unaccompanied tour or ones who feed and care for their families in places where they don't speak the language.  I mean, I'm fairly certain grocery shopping is its own unique experience in Cameroon or Suriname.

Anyways, in a week we will know where in the world we are headed.  Hopefully we end up somewhere in our top tier of picks, but I've been told by people experienced at this stuff that the important thing is knowing.  Knowing will enable us to start to plan and prepare and to visualize our lives in this new place.  For now, I'm passing the time shopping at Trader Joe's and Target. Stores that I will certainly miss when we head overseas. Oh, the kids picks if you are interested:  The boys both want to go to Beijing because the housing looks cool while Violet really wants Africa so we can see the animals.