I'll miss you Altruda's!

Dinner last night with my "home girls" was fun and delicious! I would tell you what a few of them gave me as a "parting" gift but let's just say it's something you just can't find in China! ha I ordered my wonderful sausage eggplant dish....yet again....and loved every bite. It was good to spend a little time with this beautiful group of women before I leave.

I'm still going crazy trying to get everything packed!!! It's really unbelievable. Each time I move....it's just harder and harder (which is understandable as I am older each time). Each time I move I say it's the last time. Each time I move, it turns out to be NOT the last time! :) I'm predicting anywhere from 5-10 more moves before my story ends.

I have my visa now so it's official. I'm going to China! I have not been kidding when I've said that the 13 hour plane ride from Chicago to Beijing may be the first time this week that I can actually relax and get some good sleep. I wouldn't mind sleeping the entire flight. Oh, if only I had one of those business class seats that reclines almost to a bed!

I'll try to write one more time before getting on the plane but if there's no time then my next entry will be around September 5 or so and will be from Beijing! :) Keep me in your thoughts as I spend all day Sunday and well into the next morning on an airplane. I don't have a huge fear of flying....just a little tiny one! :) Don't forget to email me every now and then in China!!! I promise to respond. If you don't know my personal email address then leave a comment here and I'll get back to you.

This is How I Feel!

Funny....yet not! :)

Muddling along....

So I got a lot done this weekend.....but oh so much more to do!!!! It's so overwhelming that I'm actually looking forward to the 13 hour flight to Beijing from Chicago because then I can SLEEP! :) I did make great headway this weekend and rented my storage space for the year. I just hope it's enough space! I have so much to do while at the same time working all this week. It's far more than I counted on. I thought I'd quit work on the 31st and have at least a week or so to get things situated. But you know what they say. Just when you make plans......
So the rush is on and so far I'm meeting the challenge. Sadly, my son will be leaving this Friday to spend the weekend in Murfreesboro to attend the wedding of a fraternity brother. So this coming Friday morning will be the last time I see my son for a year! Hard to believe and something I'm sure I'm not prepared for (although I think he's quite fine with this fact!). I think my being away (uh, that's FAR away) for a year will be very good for N and it'll be interesting to see how often he emails me in China with monetary needs! Hopefully.....not so often, although I will leave prepared to help him when needed. Keep me in your thoughts as I struggle to pack up and get rid of many, many years of the detritus of my life. All the important stuff (papers and photographs, books, etc.) will be kept but do I really need 12 years of my son's school papers? These are the things I struggle with.

Up, Down, Up, Down ..... Exhaustion!

Was that a crazy wired post late last night or what? I'm so tired. But here's the facts. I'm overnighting my visa application today, I've purchased my ticket and I'm leaving next Sunday, September 2, at 5:44 a.m. for Chicago and then on to Beijing, arriving at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, September 3.
I need to have a packing party......
Wanna come?

OH MY GOSH!

So I just got off the phone with my DOS (Director of Studies), who will be my boss in China and who is female and American, and we have ironed out a lot of details. I also was able to talk with the CM (Center Manager) of my school who is Chinese but speaks with excellent English (I'm SO glad). So here's the deal. It's a very real possibility that I am going to be leaving for Beijing in just ONE WEEK! Yep! And there is a trip to Hong Kong in my future to obtain the proper working visa that I will need. The trip will be at the expense of my company so.....can you believe it? I'm going to get to see Hong Kong, even if just for an overnight stay to obtain my working visa! Trust me, I will use those 24 hours to see all that I can in Hong Kong and a friend of mine knows someone who lives there who might be willing to host me!!!!! Oh.....the things I need to do!!!!! I might be up all weekend packing and working out all the details. But I couldn't be more thrilled. I'll have time to sleep later, right? :) This is how China works, folks. I should have expected it. After so long of "I'm not sure, I'm not sure".....all the sudden I AM sure and now I must leave sooner than expected!!!!! Man. Unbelievable. More tomorrow (Friday) when I know more of the details. It's a good thing that I've been preparing. It's nearly midnight on Thursday night and I'm not sure WHEN I'm going to be able to sleep tonight. I very well may be overnighting my passport to Washington DC tomorrow!!!! Oh the EXCITEMENT!!!!!

T in China Update!

I'm blogging to you from home so no interesting photo with this blog! :( Things moved slowly at first but now they are definitely picking up! Although there are still some issues, it looks like I may be jet-bound for Beijing on September 5 which means I'll arrive the afternoon of September 6. Yes, folks, I could be blogging to you from the future (I'll be 12 hours ahead of all in the U.S.) in less than 2 weeks. I'm very excited but also overwhelmed with all I have left to do. Forgive me if there aren't many posts in the next few days but I will definitely update with results. I'll be setting up a new blog just for China and it will be with typepad.com because currently blogspot.com is blocked in China. I can post to this blog but I won't be able to see it so I'll do most of my blogging from my new website which I'll post on this website so no worries. I'll also continue to post to this website, which I can do from China, I just won't be able to see it. But you folks will be able to see it. So I may post to this blog only about once a week or so but quite frequently to my new blog. I'm thinking of calling it "tinchina." Get it? "T" in China? Okay......logging off for tonight and perhaps some more definite news tomorrow! Lucy Blue is definitely excited about the day to come! I could be eating delicious Chinese food in less than 2 weeks! Honestly? I just can't wait!!!!!

Apparently, I feed more than just stray kitties! Eeeewwwww! Nasty things, possums! This little guy was very arrogant and gave me the evil eye before he finally ambled off.

The TEFL is all done and I'm just waiting to receive the certificate. I had to pay for it to be internationally overnighted and I should receive it today. I've heard from my manager in Beijing and once I receive my invitation letter, I'll get the proper visa and be on my way. My last day at work is next Friday, August 31. I have many invitations for lunch, which is very nice. I'm down to a couch, a table and one of Nick's twin beds from his childhood bunkbeds to sleep on. I have to be careful making a big flip from my right side to my left side (something I do several times during the night), lest I flip myself right onto the floor! A friend treated me to Indian food last night at Sitar and it was absolutely delicious! I'll be finding out about the Indian restaurants in Beijing for sure! After dinner I went for a great swim at the pool. Fall semester starts tomorrow so there was a nice little party revving up on one of the outdoor patios beside the pool. The music was, at times, deafening! The kids were really enjoying themselves and that was good to see.

I've rounding up all the things I'll need to spend a year in Beijing and stocking up on things that are hard to find (dental floss, deoderant, etc.). I talked to my friend, Hua, who now lives in Boston with his wife and their baby girl, Amy. He has a cousin who owns a company in Beijing and lives with his wife and 5 year old daughter. Hua said they have invited me to live with them for free while I am living in Beijing! What an incredibly generous offer. That's the Chinese. I told Hua to thank him very, very much for his amazing offer but it would be better for me to live close to my school (he lives across town). I'm sure I'll get to know his family well and he is also going to pick me up in his car at the Beijing airport when I arrive. Also, Tracy has two former classmates who live in Beijing and who each have babies under one year old. I'll have plenty of young ones to play with, not to mention my own young students.

Yesterday, as Nick and I drove toward our respective homes on Clinch Avenue (he lives in an apartment building across from my house), we saw five big fire trucks stopped in front of our houses. They had apparently just screeched to a halt and were jumping off with their air tanks. I saw one fireman take two steps toward my house and said to Nick, "Is it my house? Is it my house?" It wasn't my house. It was the house directly behind Nick's apartment building and there was a small fire on the side deck of that house. Whew!

You Make Me Laugh.....

No new news. Still waitin' on the golden piece of paper!
In the meantime, however, let's have a few laughs at the expense of my son! It's a mother's right......right? So here's the deal. I like to write and I like to record things. I've been recording my own thoughts and views for many, many years. Anyway.....I tried to keep an ongoing record of things my little boy said that were funny. I only recorded a few when you consider all the hilarious stuff that comes out of young mouths. Here's a few of the few. Ready to laugh?

"When I was on the playground today, I asked God, please make this ear quit hurting. He didn't." - 4.5 years old

"My tummy hurts bad. It hurts like I'm having a baby." - 4.75 years old

"If you don't want to waste your money, you can always write a check!" - 5 years old (this statement was made in K-Mart when he really wanted a teenage mutant ninja turtle suitcase.

"I got five happy faces today. You're going to be proud at me!" ha ha 5 years old

"Momma, on the playground today someone kicked me in the ribbons." (pointing to his ribs). 5 years old

10/04/90 (5.5 years old) - We had just eaten supper and I told my son to go upstairs and put his pajamas on. I told him to put the ketchup in the refrigerator on the way up. He said, "Why do I always have to do everything for you? I'll just drive you to work in the morning!"

And at the ripe old age of 7 years old........
Nick was at his Nana's watching TV (the Golden Girls) and they kept saying, "shacking up for the weekend" on this episode. Nana peeked her head in and said, "Nick, what do they mean when they say 'shacking up for the weekend'"? He looked at her with a "you dummy" look and said, "Nana, it means having sex!"

Yeah.....that's my boy! :)

Finito! No Looking Back!

I finished my lessons! Yay for me! :) Now I just need to get them graded, receive my certificate, send it off to China, have them do their thing, send me the thing I need to do my thing (get my "z" visa), fly to Beijing and TEACH! I've worked very very hard these last seven days. Every minute after work and all weekend. The staff at Panera Bread know me very well now because that's the nice, quiet environment I chose to hunker down. Too many distractions/temptations in my house. I'm done! Now I can get down to the business of packing (the house, that is; packing for China will come later). I hope to leave the first week in September but that may be too optimistic. It all depends on how fast I get my certificate and how fast the Beijing government processes my immigration papers. Oh, the excitement of it all!

My friend Liyin gave me CDs of all her pics of our time in China and this is one of me feeling a little nervous about taking the "rollercoaster cars" down from the Great Wall at Badaling. But it turned out to be great fun! I am especially looking forward to exploring some of the unrestored sections of the Great Wall this winter. It's the best time to meander around without throngs of tourists. Hard to believe I'm going to be a Beijing resident, isn't it? Ahhhhh.....life is good.

How Busy Am I?

So busy that I bought my very own laptop this past "tax free" weekend.....and I still haven't cracked open the box. Now I'm pretty much an instant gratification type of person so the fact that this computer has sat in my foyer for four days is quite amazing. I hope to open it up and try it all out by this weekend. Until then, I'm still plugging away on my TEFL lessons and making good progress. It's too bad I wasn't in Beijing today. There were wonderful celebrations in Tiananmen Square as Beijingers marked the one year countdown to the 2008 Olympics. I would have been there. I would have taken lots of pictures. I would have put them on my blog for all you nice people to see.

Baby Steps.....

I received an email today from Andrew in Shanghai. The local government in Beijing must have a copy of my TEFL certificate before my papers can be processed. Therefore, I'll be double-timing it with the rest of my lessons, meaning there will be no time to blog this coming week. Once I get my TEFL certificate, scan it and send it to China, everything should be fine.
So.....I'm not announcing any "breaking news" yet.....however, it's looking better than it did yesterday. Moving to another country to work, especially one with a socialist government, is not a simple process. I must exercise patience.

The Chinese Way?

I had a great conversation this past Monday evening with Andrew, another Brit who works for the company I will be teaching for. He said everything is fine. They will start working on my immigration papers, etc. He said he'd email the next day and I would probably also receive a call from the DOS of my school (Director of Studies). Five days later and there's no call, no email, no nothing. My Chinese friends would probably just say "Oh, don't worry. This is just the Chinese way." But it's very frustrating for me because there's things that I absolutely have to do by next Monday (stop certain payments, etc.) so I need to know something concrete. I will not consider this whole life-changing trip a guarantee until I have signed a contract. I have received no emailed contract. Geez. No worries, though. I have a Plan B.