Well we made it to China. We flew from SLC to LAX to Korea to Shanghai and then a 4 hour car ride to Nanjing. We had a great flight to China. For such a long trip it went pretty smooth. We flew Delta from SLC to LAX and then Korean Air from LAX to Korea. The flight attendants on Korean Air were wonderful. They helped the kids out tremendously. Most of the kids slept for most of the flight. It was really nice to have a video monitor on every seat. The kids loved that. Declan also did really good. He slept quite a bit of it. He fell asleep in Alauna's arms and slept for about 5-6 hours. That was great for Declan but tough for Alauna. He also slept on and off a couple other times. Declan and I also spent a couple hours walking up and down the aisles and hanging out in the back with the flight attendants. For such a long flight he really did awesome.
The entire trip was about 33 hours. We had a great trip for about 31 of the hours. At about hour 31 Declan lost it. He was so exhausted at that point. We were driving from Shanghai to Nanjing and he was just screaming. He was half asleep but so tired that he just couldn't settle down and go to sleep. I think our driver was about to give his resignation on our first trip with him. We made it through the last two hours and finally got to our house. It was an extremely long trip. We had three vans to get us from Shanghai to Nanjing. Two were completely full of luggage and one was completely full of people.
After we got settled in we went to our first Chinese meal together in China. I order and it was all pretty safe. The kids did ok with the food but I think they were all so exhausted that they didn't eat that much. They did try everything though and found some things they liked. We had another Chinese meal with some people from work. Luckily the person that ordered was very thoughtful about what she ordered because of the kids. The kids did try a few things like Thousand Year Old Eggs. I thought Brannon might like them because he loves eggs so much, but they were even a bit much for him. My kids had a great experience with what I call "be careful what you ask for." In the Chinese culture if you ask for something or express interest in something people will work very hard to get it for you. Towards the end of the meal they host asked the kids if they wanted another Sprite. Five of them raised their hands. I told the host that we only needed 2-3 cans and not five cans. The host then ordered five cans. The waiter came back and said that they only had 2 cans left in the restaurant. Immediately the host started taking money out of his pocket for the waiter to run across the street to the convenience store to buy more cans of Sprite. A few minutes later the kids had all the Sprite they could drink. I told them what happened and that they needed to drink the Sprite since the host went through all that effort. The kids were very thankful and didn't mean to cause so much effort. The next morning I saw a can of Sprite in the fridge. The kids had quickly taken one of the cans of Sprite off the table and put it in their bag because they could not drink another drop. I thought that was pretty funny.
I want the kids to be grateful for all the efforts of others on their behalf. We are very blessed with our situation here in China. We have a beautiful house in a very nice compound which is close to the school and shopping. We have an Ayi (housekeeper), Anna, that works five days a week and gives Alauna a ton of help. Alauna still has a ton to do, so it's nice for her to have a little help. We also have a driver, Yang Ning. He works Tuesday-Saturday for us. He also drives us to church on Sunday. It has been incredibly helpful to have these people help us. I don't know how we would get around without the driver. We can take the subway to many places, but with eight people taking a taxi would be very difficult. We would need multiple taxis and lately in Nanjing Taxis are pretty hard to find. Living in China is very difficult, so I'm glad we have a couple of things that make it a bit easier for Alauna and the kids.
I had a great Fathers day here in China. Alauna made Nachos for lunch and Lasagna for dinner. It tasted so good. Those both sound like pretty basic meals, but they are actually very difficult to make here in Nanjing. It took going to 2-3 stores to get everything, so I really appreciate all the effort Alauna put into making those two amazing meals on Fathers Day. Alauna wanted to get me a BBQ grill for Father's day. We went to a couple of stores to look. We found an amazing grill with a built in Smoker. I was pretty excited when I saw the smoker. It ended up being $2000.00 US so we didn't get the grill. We did find another grill that I think I will be able to grill as well as smoke with. I'm looking forward to experimenting with a pulled pork here in China. It was also very nice to talk to my dad and Alauna's dad. It's amazing what you can do with technology. It was awesome to see my mom and dad on Skype. I'm so grateful for my dad and all he does for us. Thank dad.
We have settled into our local church. Our branch (congregation) is very small and very transient. Alauna and I have both been asked to serve in leadership positions in the branch. We are both excited and willing to do this. Nanjing University has a couple of different exchange programs with BYU so there are usually quite a few BYU students here. There are also a lot of young people teaching English. It is great to have the church here and have that network existing when we move in. That is one of the many blessings of the church.
Work is going well but very busy. It should be extremely busy for the next 2-3 weeks and then hopefully will settle into more of a rhythm.
I hope everyone is doing well. Pictures to follow.
Boyd
No comments:
Post a Comment